SitRep Saturday: Best Laid Plans...

I have done something to anger the gods or the universe, The Powers That Be. It has been an exceptionally trying week or so. At first, I was just getting sick; being sick while caring for a toddler and working from home is difficult, but doable. Then some personally devastating news came my way (it's nothing too bad and no one is dead or injured, but for me, it was quite crushing) and there was some personal drama, and by the end of the week I just wanted to curl into a ball and cry myself to sleep for a year.

Needless to say, I didn't get much done. Oh, I still wrote my 750 words every day, and I gave the short story collection a title, but as far as drafting an editing go, well, that was a big old failure.

I did get some reading done. I finished Rogue Warrior and started on a romance novel. Next up, I'll finish Starheart. And then, I don't know. But reading is definitely back to being a major priority.

Today, I'm hoping to draft one of the short stories and plot next week's blog posts. We'll see how that goes...

Monday Miscellany: Books!

I've been reading again. I never should have stopped, but one of the side effects of writing and editing is not being able to enjoy reading; your inner editor is hard to turn off. Taking a break from "real" writing allowed me to shut off that inner editor and enjoy reading again.

Greta van der Rol's Starheart is, embarrassingly, sitting unread on my Kindle. My inner editor, that bitch, wouldn't even let me enjoy that--so I stopped. Because Ms. van der Rol is one of my favorite new authors and I can't bear not enjoying her work.

What I'm reading right now is an old book, one I've read many times before: Dick Marcinko's autobiography, Rogue Warrior. It has been fairly easy to shut that inner editor up for this book, mostly because I think she's afraid he'd hurt her if he found out she had any criticism. Even though he's over seventy. And probably half a world away. Probably. (Never underestimate the power of fear as a tool against your inner voices.) I also powered through a Delilah Devlin short, Two Hot For Teacher, which I enjoyed but did find a few faults with (something I hate, because I love Delilah Devlin; I know for a fact that when I pick up one of her books, I'm going to get exactly what I want).

Going through last week's blog posts led me to a new book I want to read, Lustily Ever After. I have a soft spot for fairy tales and when they're re-imagined for grown ups, I'm like that macro of Fry from Futurama: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. I can't even tell you how many times I've pored lovingly over the Snow White, Blood Red books. But I'm not letting myself download Lustily Ever After. Not yet. I have a to-do list first.

• Review the books I've already read. (This includes the Morgan Selwood books from Greta van der Rol and the Branded books from Stella Deleuze.)
• Finish reading the unread books on my Kindle (Starheart, a book on WWII home life, a few freebies). Review them as necessary.
• Finish my own short story collection.

 ...I really need to get to work.