What?

I’m sure no Humans are worried that I missed a post last Monday.  Hell, I didn’t even realize I had forgotten for about 36 hours.  I have found the literal, figurative, metaphorical, and actual limit to my creativity.

Inktober and making-a-new-cosplay-for-my-daughter do not play well with others.  I was able to edit for the first two weeks, along with helping some friends with other projects, but it all went sideways week three.

Honestly, I’ll be surprised if I get a post up next Monday, unless it’s just a stream of obscenities.  I may post Nov 1st to prove I survived, or I will sleep all day.  Thank goodness I didn’t commit to NaNoWriMo because of my strong commitment to editing my WIP.  Good luck to those who are doing it!

Catch y’all on the flip side!

From the Depths of Insanity!!!!!

What the heck was I thinking?  Committing to Inktober2017 was horribly naïve.  I am so far out of my depth that the deep-sea fishes–the kind with running lights and glow lures–think I am stupid for risking this crush-depth.  I mean, it’s fun, creative, and nerve-racking, and I’m getting to do things I haven’t done for DECADES, and I’m learning lots about myself…

Well, I guess I answered my own question.  And I wouldn’t be the first artistic/creative person who switched mediums, or just found some days were better for different mediums.  The stories are still there, on a low simmer, but so much creative effort is going into each piece of art that I don’t have any to spare.  I am getting some editing done in the early am, so I still have a hand in.  Struggling to get the beta reading done, and the helpful posts haven’t happened.  Sorry.

So, I hope all of you have productive and creative weeks.  I’ll get a handle on my schedule, one way or another. I hope the spin I gave the Franz Kafka quote (above) gives you a chuckle.  My apologies to Terry Pratchett for his use of the “Five Exclamations of Madness,” and for stealing the newspaper idea.

The List

Things I have accomplished today:

1. Morning chores while overcoming shock.
2. Editing.
3. Decent try at working the day job.
4. Afternoon errands.
5. Evening meal and chores while watching the death toll rise.
6. Inktober drawing while listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
7. Shower beer.  (This is an actual first.)
8. Typing this…

Things that are absent from the list?  Beta reading.  The Low-Budget Writing posts.  Crying, because I’m still numb with shock, and wondering how bad it’s going to get before it gets better, or if this is the new normal.

I have a new short story burbling.  (Some of you might know this, if you’re on Facebook.)  I know that every story is different, and I have already described them as soups or thunderstorms, but THIS one is different.  This one is sapient.  It’s a little troll or Gollum sitting on my shoulder, muttering to its self.

What is it doing?  Grabbing at passing information, tossing some, tucking others away in its ragged clothes.  What is it keeping?  Anything having to do with Saturn’s moons, Titan and Enceladus.  Some psychology, a little biology.  It’s eyeballing my copy of
The Lucifer Effect” by Phillip Zimbardo, which I haven’t read yet.  What are two things I’m positive it has?  My memories of the movie “2010,” and my copy of Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.”

I think it’s safe to say it’s going to be horror.  I thought it would be a short story, but with the amount of information being hoarded, it may be a novella.  To date, I have only received a short snippet of dialogue.

“Who the fuck harvests their dead teenaged daughter’s eggs, takes them along on an exploratory mission, then mixes one with random biologic samples from some frozen moon?  That’s just…  UGH!”

Cade shrugs.  “Brilliant isn’t the same as stable.”

So, I guess I wait for the rest of the story to see where this goes, and I’m completely sure I’m in over my head.

Happy Writing, y’all!