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Post by Admin on Sept 17, 2019 12:38:00 GMT
The old thread was getting kind of long so starting a new one. I didn't get much done last week. I did get the digital painting of Ted dancing with his granddaughter in the mail. I like it a lot. I will slap a new mailing label on it and mail it to Sharon for her birthday. I need to make a new line drawing and work on it. I'm having trouble this week and I know its because I want to work and I can't get enough time to do it.
The third Cosmic book was in my head yesterday. I was thinking that making the scene cards doesn't take very long. and I know most of what is in the book. I figured out a way to use Mark's magical gift. He ended book two with the idea that he had no gift. Where Mark is, magic isn't. But he has magic. Some rather surprising ones. His ability is to nullify the magic field around him which makes him pretty unpopular. In book three Hemlock escapes back to the magic realm. She is wearing her stolen body so she doesn't look like herself.
Cosmos and all the others have to follow her back to the magic realm. By taking the story back there, the readers can see and explore what Earth will become. Right now, Earth is in transition and it will take years for the molecular change to spread worldwide but in the magic realms, its already complete. I think it will be fun to see how different the two worlds are.
Hemlock is intent on escaping capture. In the chase, Dragen and Ian, show up in the story. I want their story line to be complete. And I want the reader to see the different ways retribution can take. Hemlock is the real evil. Dragen did a lot of bad stuff but he repented. Did he really? I want to explore the nature of intent. And are there differences in the levels of evil?
Grandma has to be judged but Mark's place in the book is going to create a lot of fun moments, as well as a way to explore all the angles of the underlying theme of the book. I love this series but I will be glad to stop at three unless, by some fluke, they take off.
I need twenty-to-thirty scene cards to write the book. Twenty will give me a 40,000 words story. Thirty will give me a 60,000. I will probably aim for about a 50,000 word story. I have enough meat for it. I just need time to write it.
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Post by bill on Sept 17, 2019 23:24:01 GMT
One step at a time. Work on the scene cards. Get what you have in your head down and organized. I can't wait for you to finish this book. I play to reread the first two then finish with this one. And I think you'll gain an amazing amount of energy from completing the series.
I didn't get much done this week. We moved Sydney to Kansas City on Sunday, had her party on Saturday. She flies tomorrow to Newark for her first assignment. I'm excited for her. She's really become an adult.
I don't have plans this weekend so I hope to complete (or come real close) to completing my revision of my mystery. If I can get the notes from my beta readers this weekend I can take the next couple of weeks to tweek the paranormal. Then it's off with the query letters.
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Post by Admin on Sept 28, 2019 3:42:45 GMT
Hank finished up his radiation treatments. He had the gamma knife treatment on the brain tumor. He looks good and is acting more like himself so I'm wondering if the tumor was causing more trouble than we expected and now that its obliterated and gone some of the pressure is off. I got very little done this week except get Hank to his appointments and handle life. No new artwork up although I am mailing Sharon her print of Ted dancing with his granddaughter so it's uploaded to fineartamerica. I'm getting a nice selection of artwork available over there but the same problem exists with art that it does with writing. Visibility. I wish we could figure out how to conquer that hurdle.
I bought notecards so I can write out the scene cards for Cosmic Chase (or Cosmic Justice). I haven't decided on the title yet. Titles always come last for me. I'm still getting song lyrics. I just wish they were all to the same song but I keep getting ideas. All I can do is jot down the phrases as they come to me so I don't lose them.
I got insurance put in place for Cottonwood Falls. I got hit with really upsetting news on that front. The contractor is doing an excellent job. The basement is going in on time. The HVAC people are lined up to put in the plumbing for the basement and the sewer line will get run but when I asked Wardcraft if we could get in by xmas, he emailed me back and said it would be after the first of the year. I'm so upset over this that I can barely bring myself to think about it. The one thing I didn't want was to move in the middle of winter. I'm trying to remind myself that God's time is the right time but I'm so afraid that Hank and I won't get our time together. I had dreams and thought, maybe, just this once, life would let me have a little happy. I'm so upset over this and the fact that I'm taking it so badly tells me that I am on very shaky emotional ground. Somehow, I need to find a little more strength.
I want to work. I want JOshua to work. I want Hank to get time to enjoy having his own space. I want to be surrounded by family, and laughter. Right now, I just feel burdened by sorrow. and I know I have a lot to be thankful for. i just want it all done and be in our new house. I don't know how much longer I can handle things without help.
I hope you are having better luck. That Sydney loves her job. That Blake is doing good in school. That you like your work and that you're writing is progressing the way you need it to.
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Post by Admin on Sept 29, 2019 22:17:20 GMT
Its not art but it is a form of writing. I signed up for a professional song writing course on Udemy. I'm about a quarter of the way through it. I ordered a book on songwriting. Creating song lyrics feels very much like poetry to me. I only write poetry when my soul is in anguish. and the songwriting seems to be an extension of that. Its where my muse is at the moment so I've giving it what it wants. In the back of my mind I feel a connection to mom because I'm sitting at the piano fingering out what I hear rather than playing what I see. It's a different part of my brain and I'm hoping it will trigger the playing by ear that seems to be a genetic inheritance in our family. Mom had it. We have a couple of cousins who have it and I know that Grandpa Bill played the fiddle and Great Grandpa Gilliam played by ear. Its a different part of my brain that is firing right now. Maybe it will carry over into all the other creative things I do. Who knows. All I know is music comforts me right now and I don't want to just play the piano. I want to create something that didn't exist. A piece of me that I need to deal with and music seems to be the buffer I need to deal with it. Hope things are good on your end.
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Post by bill on Oct 6, 2019 21:36:57 GMT
Congratulations on the offer on the house, how exciting!
If you still need a place to stay in transition, you are welcome at my house. I have three bedrooms, a decent sized living room, and a large kitchen and bathroom. It's a bit strange layout as you have to go through one of the two bedrooms or the back room to get to the bathroom. There is one step up to the front porch, but I bet someone could build a ramp up.
With Sydney gone and Blake so busy I rarely see him, it's much more room than I need.
If we think it's too crowded, there are a couple of air bnb rooms and a couple of studio apts I could stay in for a few weeks if that would help.
Let me know if you have any questions. Oh, I am about an hour from Cottonwood Falls.
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Post by Admin on Oct 7, 2019 2:11:46 GMT
If I can't find something in Emporia, or Cottonwood Falls, I may take you up on that. I will pay rent and I cook. I've even been known to clean house. There isn't anything signed yet. We're still negotiating but I don't want to lose a sale because of timing. And I really would be better off in Kansas than I am here. There are going to be a lot of details that need taken care of and it would be easier if I was there. and it would be a heck of a lot easier to move into the new house if we're already in Kansas.
I'm going to talk to the movers tomorrow and find out what kind of storage options exist. I'm thinking about pods but I don't know what they cost or how they get moved or if the moving company even deals with them. I'm also going to get another dumpster the middle of this month and do one more purge of stuff. I want the basement cleaned out as much as I can. And I want to go through the garage and eliminate duplicates of tools. We don't need them all.
Hank had a keytruda treatment on Thursday. He's doing pretty good but the treatment does make him very tired. He's eating better and sleeping better since he started using oxygen at night. If I could just get on the other side of the move, I think I could let some of the stress go.
I'm not worried about crowding. I grew up crowded. It would feel like home. You might not like the invasion though. I'll keep looking but if I can't find a place to land you may find us on your doorstep.
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Post by bill on Oct 7, 2019 2:45:19 GMT
I know you'd rather be closer to Cottonwood Falls, but if you need, the offer is open.
I've sent out a bunch of queries for both my mystery and ghost story. I want to build that into each week and keep 5-10 queries outstanding at at time.
Sevitan - I made it about halfway through reading, organizing, and evaluating what needs to be done. Hopefully I can finish the rest of the manuscript this week so I know what needs done to finish.
I have an arts and crafts festival here in Halstead next Saturday.
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Post by Admin on Oct 7, 2019 18:16:05 GMT
I have put your offer on the list. You're my back up and you don't know how much I appreciate it. We're putting in a counter offer today. If they accept it then I'm going to be moving heaven and earth to get all my ducks in a row. If I could be in Kansas before Xmas I would count that as the best gift ever.
I like the idea of you keeping queries going out. My original business plan had me wanting 20 article ideas floating around to different magazines. I may go back to that idea once I get settled in to the new house. Articles are fast to write and the pay isn't very much but it could be steadier work.
Have fun at the arts and crafts festival. I'm interested in the craft side. Art too but fine art doesn't sell very well. I'm thinking functional art would do better. I have so many ideas. I just want to be settled and have a solid work time built into my day.
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Post by bill on Oct 14, 2019 3:01:32 GMT
Marketing - I sold 7 books at the arts and crafts fair yesterday. I'm tickled because I made more than I spent for the booth. And since it was a block from my house and I didn't have any other costs.
Sevitan - I've been through the manuscript and have quite a list of items I need to fix/figure out/write. I've gotten to a good stopping point so I'm shelving this until after Nano.
Nano - I have two projects I plan to work on in November and will spend the rest of October planning/plotting these out. I have them both started and need to figure out what I need to do to finish them. With any luck I might be able to get a complete rough draft of both done in November.
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Post by Admin on Oct 14, 2019 14:00:11 GMT
Busy schedule. On our end we signed the contract yesterday to sell this house. Next step there are inspections. The closing is on Dec. 13th. I'm going to order a dumpster this week and work on the basement and garage. Once that final purge is done, I'll start boxing up anything we don't immediately need. I'll have the movers come out and give us an estimate on storage.
I might want to hire a UHaul and take a load of stuff I don't want in storage to Kansas and store them there. I have certain keepsake items that I don't want to risk having stolen or damaged. My treasures that aren't really worth much monetarily but would break my heart to lose.
I figured out how to write the notations for my song. And I'm slowly working my way toward putting it on staff. I've advanced from simple one line melody to putting some random chords in. It's still really simple, beginner type notations but its getting what I hear in my head down on paper where I can see it. I'm more visual than audio although I'm hoping, with practice, to strength the audio.
Hank is looking good and starting to do a little more so I'm hopeful the treatment is working. Joshua is excited to moving back to Kansas. I just want it all done and be able to not have so much work piled on me. I'm tired.
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Post by bill on Oct 21, 2019 16:38:41 GMT
Sevitan - I got to a good stopping point. I'll get back to a major revision of this once Nano is complete Queries - I sent more queries out yesterday. Sunday seems to be a good day for me to do those. My goal is to keep 5-10 out at a time. I received several rejections last week so had to replenish. The Most Important Thing - I started reading through what I had and wrote a scene. If I have time in the next couple of weeks I'd like to get some writing done on this. Then I'll finish it during Nano. Marketing - I got an acceptance e-mail from Rebekah this week that my flash fiction will be part of the Halloween podcast episode. Hopefully that will turn into a little exposure!
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Post by Admin on Oct 22, 2019 0:03:06 GMT
thats wonderful. Every thing helps. You're going to hate me but I finally heard from the lawyers office. I have the statements pulled. Just need to get them sent to you. I'll send her letter to. I'll be so glad when I'm close enough to just print it out and hand it to you.
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Post by bill on Oct 22, 2019 23:08:02 GMT
I saw the e-mails. I'll take a look at them and get to work. Will probably be this weekend.
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Post by bill on Oct 28, 2019 2:15:08 GMT
I didn't get much done this week. I had to finish the biggest story I've written (and will probably write) as a newspaper reporter. Spent six hours today on it, in fact. Plus, my dad arrived on Friday for Blake's cross country regional meet. They won and get to go to compete at the State meet next Saturday. Such an exciting weekend. But also means my dad will be here so will probably not get much done. I think once I get past production day on Tuesday I'll have time to look at the bank statements. I'm taking Friday off to go to the State meet. Should be an excited weekend next weekend!
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Post by Admin on Oct 28, 2019 4:20:56 GMT
That's okay. I'll see what I can get from them. It looks like it doesn't have to be itemized but just how much went where. I got through the inspection but haven't heard whether its going to break the contract, or not. I have the dumpster for one more week. I've just about decided to do what I can and then hire someone to come in and clean out the basement. I just can't face all the up and down. My body simply can't take that kind of lifting anymore.
We have gotten through most of the garage. I wish we could have thrown more away than we did but so much of it we use, and will continue to use. It was exciting to see the house is in production. That is a big weight off of me. I know we'll get to Kansas. Just still not sure when. If the contract holds, it will be the around the 15th of December.
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