The Squirrels are Back in the Attic

I wish I had a crystal ball. I wish we could see what the future holds, and plan accordingly.

It has been a weird summer, after moving to Colorado Springs in March. Monday hubby started a new job, and it also happens to be Bible School week at church. I’m playing chauffeur all day every day. I reluctantly gave myself permission to drift through the first three days of the week in a sleep-deprived fog.

The weird thing about this is that I’m actually getting more writing in, though not the big blocks of time I prefer. I have a story in a notebook…one of those 10″ by 7″ (ish) ones that are a dime a dozen at back-to-school time and $2-$10 each the rest of the year. They’re perfect for The Cities of Luna because they easily hold just over five thousand words when I write on only one side of the paper. If my word count gets super high (like it did with Pastor P) then when I get to the end I turn it upside down and start writing on the back sides of the pages.

I prefer to type. I can go much faster that way. But having the notebook means I can write anywhere, like poolside at our apartment complex while the kids swim, or sitting in the parlor at church while the girls are in Vacation Bible School. My writing turns out disjointed when I write in short bursts like that, but at least the story gets out. Everything gets fixed in edits.

My writing goal of five days a week is close, but not quite. I think it was four, and some of those were only a few hundred words.

My goal of promo six days a week wasn’t quite there either. It should be easy to just share one link to something, anything related to my writing, each day, but I keep slacking. I don’t want to be spammy.

The goal related to Camp NaNoWriMo is the most difficult. I have not yet touched the story. It is still only one-third done, which it has been for many moons now. I’m not yet ready to throw in the towel, though… I only need about twenty thousand words, and that’s doable in a couple of weeks. It’s like regular NaNoWriMo.

Although I gave myself permission to let things slide while my schedule is whacked, there are a few important things I need to do on Wednesday:

• First is linking up with A Round of Words in 80 Days and visiting at least a few friends’ blogs. I’ll be a little slackish and not bother to add all the usual links into this post.
• I have a book club meeting at the local library tomorrow. I really enjoyed Maloka’i by Alan Brennert; that’s what we’re discussing tomorrow.
• I wrote a story for a contest and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. A friend is looking over it now and I’ll do a last round of edits before turning it in. It’s due Friday.
• Wednesday is also Pitch2Pub on twitter. I only remembered late this afternoon. Fortunately, the novel I’m pitching is the same as last year, so I just need to tweak the tweets I used then. I’m tired tonight, but after I finish this blog post I will write another one specific to From Earth to Kingdom Come, the duology I’m pitching tomorrow. I will be taking a risk, and instead of insisting that my story fits all the normal parameters publishers look for, I will confess the out-of-the-ordinary hopes I have for the series.

Hopefully this week is a turning point. Hopefully, after this, I can settle into a somewhat more normal routine and get on with all my ambitious plans.

Or at least make my ROW80 goals.