Tag: day job

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what a week

Like most Americans, my attention has been firmly on our nation’s capitol this week, as law enforcement investigates the uprising at the capitol and congress worked to hold the president responsible for inciting that violence.

I’ll admit that it has not been great for my creativity or productivity!

That said, I did finish the zero draft of the second Blood Witch book over the weekend. Up next will be an editing pass to flesh out a few scenes and retrofit some story points that developed near the end.

For as long as I have been writing, my characters can still surprise me. Going into this book, I knew the plot points I wanted to hit, at least in the beginning and middle. The ending changed multiple times while I was writing, and a relationship developed between two characters along the way, which I now have to go back through and lay the breadcrumbs in.

There’s a certain satisfaction that comes with reaching the end of the book, even though I know there is still work to do. It was a victory I needed this week.

Now though, I need to finish my coffee and get on with the day job. I hope you are all safe and well, Readers and that you manage to find joy in these chaotic and dangerous times.

Cover Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

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when words flow like water

There is a particular spot when writing a book, at least for me, when I’ve found the path, and the plot is clear and my characters are feeling very chatty, and it just flows out of my fingers and into the keyboard.

I’ve recently hit that point with the second Blood Witch book.

The problem with that is, all I want to do is write, to get it all down and find the ending. It’s a glorious feeling, but it does tend to interfere with real life. I still have to work, and there’s other obligations to meet. I can’t actually sit my ass down at my computer and write all day, every day.

That said, I do have some vacation days coming, and I’m hoping that I can get my zero draft finished before the end of the year. I just have to get from here to December 24th, grabbing writing time where I can, then I have a whole week (plus a day or two) off to write.

I hope you are all well, and keeping yourself, and your families safe during this hell-fire of a year. Drink some water. Wash your hands. Wear your mask. Stay home as much as you can. I love you all, Readers!

Cover Photo by Roma Ryabchenko on Unsplash

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hit the ground running

Some days it can be hard to find the motivation to get started. Some days I hit the ground running. Today is the latter. I woke up an hour before the alarm due to a nightmare and was awake enough that going back to sleep didn’t make sense, so I got up and started the coffee.

My first order of business after the bathroom and getting the coffee started, is always to hit the email accounts. I have several accounts because I like to compartmentalize my life to a degree. I generally ignore the stuff in my “junk” mail address, the one that I use when I have to sign up for something online, shopping stuff, etc, and just mark that as read. The others I skim through the inbox, look at the ones that look important, answer what I can and then I move on.

Generally, while I have my morning coffee, I peruse Facebook and other social media, play a couple rounds of some silly game, or write. During the week, it is usually the first two. On the weekends it’s writing.

By the time my coffee was ready, I had already emailed several people back, answered some work emails and reviewed a few work tickets. I was out to the work computer by 7am, taking my breakfast and second-coffee with me.

It’s a good start to a Friday. I hope all of you are having a good week (as much as any of us can anyway), and that your weekend is filled with love and kindness, Readers.

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I am one with the coffee, and the coffee is with me…

There is a certain ritual to the mornings, even now in the middle of this pandemic that has altered the way we live our lives. For me, that ritual includes an alarm at 6am, though I’m often awake well before that, a quick check of email on my phone (so I can be prepared for any emerging issues…half my team is on the other side of the world), then the requisite bathroom trip before I find my way to the kitchen.

There we have several mini-rituals that include giving my kitties treats, and the prep for coffee…fill the kettle, put it on the stove, rinse out the french press, fill it with hot water…then I move to the personal computer to finish going through the email, both personal and professional, check facebook, maybe post, take the morning meds, and by then it’s time to go back to the kitchen to finish the coffee.

All of this is something I do daily, not just during the week (well, except the alarm part, that’s only weekdays). The coffee part of the day is one of my favorite things. The ritual of measuring out the beans, grinding them, dumping the prep water, putting the grounds in the press, adding water…it provides me a chance to center. I like to make it a mindful practice and not let my thoughts wander into to much of what the day has in store.

I am one with the coffee, and the coffee is with me.

But, once the coffee is made, it’s anyone’s guess where the day will go. Somedays I get some writing time. Some days I play mindless games to wake myself up. Somedays I dive right into work.

Today I have a line up of work projects to jump into, so I best get on that (as I pour myself a cup of Valhalla Java from Death Wish Coffee). I hope your Tuesday is amazing, Readers!

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gonna have a star war!!

This has not been the best week for me mentally. Between the bad air quality and the ongoing public health crisis and all of the election hoopla, and the fact that I should have been at Disneyland last weekend, I was feeling pretty down for the better part of the week.

The air is marginally better yesterday and today, and a series of workplace wins has helped me feel a little bit more myself. We’re almost up to September, which is my birthday month, and that’s usually a pick me up.

Add to that some Star Wars related news in that the only video game I play with any regularity, the SIMS 4, is releasing a “Journey to Batuu” game pack in time for my birthday, and we’re planning a Star Wars related photoshoot with my family sometime soon, and that’s got me feeling a little more like me.

I’m hoping that the weather stays nice and the smoke stays away enough to get my house cleaner than it has been this weekend. It’s been hard to do physical work when I can’t breathe for the heat and smoke.

But now I can see that my software update is finished so I should get myself back to work. Stay safe, Readers! And happy almost weekend.

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it’s all on fire

The state of California is on fire, and not just in the “usual” places. The thunderstorms last week were mostly dry, just thunder and lightning, and the lightning strikes hit the ground all around the Bay area, starting fires that are just burning through real estate.

Beyond the danger of the fires themselves, there’s the added danger of all the smoke in the air. It makes breathing difficult. It makes allergies worse. It makes the air stink.

I had to go out into it yesterday for a doctor’s appointment. I woke up this morning with my sinuses all congested and my head pounding. Going to make today fun.

But, it’s Friday and the last day of the day job for the week. I have a small edit job to do this weekend, and hopefully I’ll get some writing time, just need to keep the house closed up to keep the smoke out.

At least it’s a bit cooler than it was earlier in the week. We hit 106 degrees at one point this week. Today it’s only supposed to go up to 93. My air conditioner and fans are getting a work out!

My coffee cup is empty now and I need to log onto a video conference in a few minutes, so I should get going. Y’all be safe out there! And Happy Friday!

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baking and breaking

Here we are at Friday again. I have a lot of work to get to today, and I’ve already been up and working for a few hours. My plans for the weekend aren’t concrete, it will depend on whether work comes in on either Job #2 or one of two freelance editing jobs that I am expecting to come in. But, could include the exciting tasks of laundry, cleaning and building a bookshelf.

If no work comes in I may even get time to write and/or research possible literary agents to query.

I will admit that I am really loving working from home. I love the freedom of it. Wake up at 3am and can’t go back to sleep? I can get up and work without having to go anywhere. Can’t be bothered to get dressed? No worries. Need to do laundry in the middle of the week? Go for it. Want to take a break and bake some bread or start some stew in the crock pot? Sure. I made bread this week, and there will be some beef stew later today.

I have days where I work from four in the morning until nine at night barely taking time to go to the bathroom or eat. I have days where I work a few hours, then do things around the house, then come back and work some more.

I have days where I listen to music on Spotify on my TV so it can come through my surround sound system. I have days where I play vinyl on my record player. I have days where I have documentaries on the TV while I work.

Of course, my taste in documentaries is so all over the map that I think I’ve broken the algorithms on Amazon. Their recommendations are getting a bit bizarre.

I should probably get to the next task on my list. I hope y’all have a great weekend, Readers!

Cover Photo by Nadya Spetnitskaya on Unsplash.

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a flower for your friday

This week has been an odd one. Yesterday did not feel like Thursday, in fact at one point I thought it was only Tuesday. On the other hand, I’ve gotten a lot done, and this morning I was half convinced it was Saturday when my alarm went off.

Here in California we are locked back down due to the surge of covid-19. For the most part it doesn’t bother me. I had hoped the virus would be controlled enough to go to Austin at the beginning of August and Disneyland at the end of August, but both of those things are not happening.

And boy-howdy do I need some attention to my hair! I had an appointment next week with my amazing hair person, but salons are among the places shut down again.

Work has been busy, and will continue to be for the next little while. But, I’m learning Markdown as I work along, which is a cool thing. You know how much I love learning new things!

Speaking of work, I should get on that. (Title and image have nothing to do with this post). My coffee’s getting cold. Happy Friday, Readers!

Cover Photo by Jordan Newsom on Unsplash

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safe, loved and informed

The days blur, one into another, just as much now that I have a lot of work to do as they did when I had none. They all begin the same, up at five am…ish, coffee and a brief read through of social media, then laptop booted up. That is where I stay for between ten and fourteen hours of my day, well, I do switch between laptops, depending on which work I have to work on, but pretty much it’s all the same.

I have to say, I am so tired y’all. It isn’t the work. I’m grateful to have something to do. I’m just tired. World-weary is a good phrase for it. This world right now is exhausting, and no amount of sleep is going to fix it.

Maybe we’ve been sleeping too long and it’s time to wake up.

I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries about American history this week while I work. I’ve been very focused on the American Revolution and the Civil War. I’ve learned about a lot of people and battles I had never heard of before. Our history has been so whitewashed here in the US.

Add in some documentaries about black and brown folks, produced by black and brown folks, and I’m just so tired of this world. I can’t imagine how much worse it is for those not born to the privilege of this white skin that encases me.

We need to do better, people. We need to be better.

And as we barrel forward into the uncertainty of this virus infested world, with cases spiking, and deaths to certainly follow, we need to be kind. We need to be informed. We need to vow to care not only for ourselves, but for our fellow human beings. We need to demand the government do the same.

Hoping that you are safe, loved and informed, Readers. Safe, loved and informed.

Cover Photo by Abbie Bernet on Unsplash

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slow Sunday mornings

Is there anything better than a slow Sunday morning with coffee and cuddly kitties? I even managed a little bit of a sleep in. I mean, I was awake at 5:30am, but managed to hush my mouthy cat and go back to sleep for almost two hours. It was lovely.

So much of life right now isn’t lovely, so it feels like these little things matter all the more, you know?

It seems like everyday the news gets worse and worse, and there’s so little we can do about it. Here in the US we never completely broke the back of the first wave of this corona virus, and now we’re getting slammed by the second, or maybe just the revenge of the first.

The more we discover about how this virus attacks the human body, the scarier it seems.

I know I’ll breathe easier once I get paid on the 1st. I’ve been without money for so long, and it just presses in on all the rest of the anxiety. It’s significantly less money than I was making before, but I will never have a daily commute, so that’s a plus. I imagine that once the current economic environment improves, so will my pay.

So many people have it harder that I feel bad for feeling bad for myself, which I know is ridiculous. This isn’t a competition, and none of us need apologize for how we are feeling.

How are you doing, Readers?

Cover Photo by Mike Kenneally on Unsplash