Writing can be hard work. But sometimes just getting time to write is harder. Here we are at the end of July when ‘Lord of the North,’ the first sequel to ‘Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman’ was supposed to be released and we are nowhere near finished. There are lots of reasons, some of which resemble bad television.
First off Linda got a job. A real-world job with real pay. This is a great thing, and it isn’t. While the steady paycheck is doing wonders for our finances it means that half the team is absent nine-ten hours a day and comes home worn out. Not a recipe for productivity.
Worse has been an illness in our extended family. My friend ***** came home from Hawaii and we wrangled the back room into passable shape for him to stay awhile while he got his feet back under him. Unfortunately he brought something with him from Hawaii. This is where the bad TV part comes in. Intrepid Adventurer returns from the jungle (yes, there is honest to God jungle on The Big Island) with a curious malady that baffles the doctors. He’d been fighting pneumonia off and on since December and once he returned to Seattle things took a turn for the worse. If you’ve ever had a seriously ill family member or close friend you know it’s no picnic. We’ve been worried that he was dying in fact and surprise! He was. Things seem to be turning around though and many of the opportunistic illness that jumped on the ‘trash-*****-train’ are getting much better. The Doctors are still a bit baffled though and tomorrow is the latest in many tests to try and figure things out. Hopefully this is the definitive test that they say it is and we can at last get him on the road to a full recovery.
In the meantime it’s been massively stressful. Luckily owing to my own issues I have virtually no ability to deal constructively with stress lately. Big Fun. Of course more stress means, you guessed it, more migraines. None of which helps get the books written.
It’s not all grim and gruesome though… we’re slowly climbing out of our financial hole and the Veteran’s Administration is finally updating their website in a timely manner. We are now at a stage in my benefits claim where they are writing the paper that justifies their decision, which means they have made a decision. Which they will share with us after it has gone through two more levels of administrative approval, and of course they can send the claim back for more information at any time during the process. With any luck we’ll actually have a decision in the next month or two. Knock on wood, pray, invoke your heathen gods for us, but please no virgin sacrifices, OK?
The other good news is that the first of two novellas in the Dwarven Rifleman Series is nearing completion, and will be offered initially at the grand bargain price of… drumroll please… Free! Be sure to download your copy, because it’s bound to be worth at least that much.
Speaking of free if you are one of the six-hundred plus people that downloaded a free copy of DoDR and you have read and enjoyed it we could use a few more reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Because we’re ‘Muricans, and more is better. Anyway there’s a novella to finish and at least a novel or two crying themselves to sleep for lack of attention. Need to get to that…