One foot in front of the other

Once again, the best laid plans and all that. The last few weeks have been a blur of doctors appointments, PT appointments, dealing with maintenance issues and rain. Too much rain. But there has been writing and editing and planning ahead. There have also been some decisions made after some reflecting on my writing, where it is and where I want it to go.

Let’s get the “real life” issues handled first. Most of it is stuff that every homeowner deals with from time to time. Walking into the kitchen and finding out one of the ovens no longer works. (I’m guessing it is one of the panels in the control unit which will be easier and cheaper to fix than buying a new unit). The ongoing plumbing issues are being dealt with, slowly but surely. Mom’s had several doctor’s appointments, a surgery, and ongoing PT. I am NOT complaining. For 93, she is doing much better than most. But it is difficult to see age catching up with her. Worse, she knows it as well as it frustrates and scares her. So I’ve been doing everything I can to make her feel good about herself. Family comes first and always will.

Then there came the rain last week. I’ve posted before about how Mom’s bedroom and bath sometimes flood if we get a really bad rain. I’ve worked on the problem—and had others work on it as well. I thought we had it dealt with. Until last week when it happened all over again. That surprised me because while we had a lot of rain, it wasn’t to the degree it used to take to cause the flooding.

So picture me out in the pouring down rain, shovel in hand, trenching along the side of the house in an attempt to divert the water coming not only off of our roof but our neighbor’s as well (they are uphill from us). That when I discovered that our yard guys (and that is another headache because they still haven’t done the fall/early spring cleanup they were supposed to do) have been blowing leaves into the flowerbed against the house. That prevented the rain from running off like it should. So trenching changed to cleaning out the bed in the downpour.

I am currently looking for someone new to take over the mowing, etc., because I’m getting too damned old for this—this being pulling up carpet, wet vaccing the room, setting up fans, and replacing dry wall when necessary.

And that brings me to the writing. Yes, the editing and rewrites on Witchstorm Rising continue. I’ve done a major rewrite of the first quarter to third of the book. That slowed everything down and brought the posting of snippets to a grinding halt. Sorry. I should have explained but I simply didn’t think about it. Too many things going on, but that does seem to be calming down a little.

So here’s the plan. I’m finishing up the edits on Witchstorm and plan to bring it out later this month or early next month. Shortly after that—I’m thinking two to four weeks—I will bring out the first “boxed set” of the Honor & Duty series. It will include the first three books in the series with some new edits and anywhere between 20k-40k (estimated right now) new words because the series went places as it went on I hadn’t expected. There will be two more “sets” in the series. All that is leading up to the next book in the universe. That will be out the end of the year.

I am also, as time allows, going to box set the Nocturnal Lives books. There’s a new book in that series drafted (very rough) as well right now. The goal is to have something new (or boxed) coming out every month for the rest of the year. I probably won’t make it, but I’m going to do my best.

And, yes, with each boxed set, I will be adding new material of some sort. I need to make sure I’m fully up-to-date on the rules about how to do it with Amazon—as in, I can’t call it a “boxed set” for the e-book edition because there is no “box”. I can add wordage to the titles included as long as I update the individual books as well. They also have to be consecutive titles, iirc. I’m sure there are more rules, and I will be doing my best not only to find them online but getting someone from Amazon to actually respond to me via email (I loves me a papertrail) as well.

This week is going to be a bitch on the real life side. I have a long overdue doctor’s appointment. There are vet appointments for the four legged members of the family. I’m transitioning from satellite TV to streaming, changing providers, etc. So who knows how my connectivity will be for the next week or so as that all falls into place.

And don’t get me started on the increasing price of groceries.

Anyway, all this is a way of saying work is happening. But real life has and will interrupt from time to time. But I have a plan now and I think it is a workable one.

As for this site? Well, I’m going to try for a short post every day. It may be the state of the writer. It may be current events. It may be cat pictures. Or it may be a WTF were they thinking because I made the mistake of wandering over to FB or X before coffee.

And that is the current state of the writer. Other than to say I need coffee. Where’s my second mug of coffee?

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