Monday Morning Reset (On a Tuesday) [08/29].

I had every intention in the world of getting a post up yesterday. I had the whole day off, so I figured there was no excuse to not get it finished, but, it would seem, my computer had different ideas. When I bought this laptop about a year ago, I bought it because it was cheap and cute. The biggest downfall was that it had a small internal memory, but I was thinking, hey, I just use it for writing and internet stuff, how much memory do I need?

Apparently, a whole lot more than I expected, even with the addition of an external harddrive where I put all my games and photos now. So yesterday, which was supposed to be productive, turned into a Cleaning out the Computer because it’s really lame to only be able to use Chrome for two seconds before I get memory error messages. So far, it’s been working pretty well since the clean-up (knock on wood), so here’s my chance to do my update today.

Reading: I’m so very, very close to finishing The Pointe Book; I’ve gotten into the Injuries chapter, so it read liked a goddamn horror novel. Foot injuries are gross, y’all. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is getting there, too, but I know I’ve been saying that forever. Still, the end is near, the end is close. Since those are both nonfiction books about to be finished, I wanted to have my next one be nonfiction as well, so I’ve started reading A Mended and Broken Heart: The Life and Love of Francis Assisi by Wendy Murray, because I need to read more biographies, and my Catholic upbringing has installed quite a fascination for the saints in me.

Writing: Two rejections came in last week, bringing me to a nice rounded 80 for the year so far. Only 20 more to go until 100! No new acceptances, which means if I don’t get one soon, I’ll be behind for my hope of having an average of one acceptance per month, but there’s at least two that I hope to hear back from soon, with fingers crossed that they’re acceptances. Only way to know is to just wait and see, I guess.

I’ve been getting the itch to work on Rosewood Manor again, an itch that only seems to grow stronger the closer we get to October, but, really, I’ve just been trying to get some new stories out. But I think I’m in a little bit of a creative drought at the moment. I’ve just got to keep plugging on, though, because even when I think I’m in a drought, as long as I keep trying, I always come up with surprising new stories I wasn’t expecting, like “Lilacs” or “Little Magpie by the Sea” or “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Misplace.” My problem is when I try too hard. It’s when I just let things flow and not try to steer them in a certain direction is when I get the best surprises in my writing.

‘Rithmatic: It’s official, by the way. I got the promotion at work, which means going back to full time, which hopefully means me focusing on my writing more efficiently. Classic Workaholic. I do my best work when I know I don’t have a lot of time to do it in. I’m going to have to adjust to a completely different schedule, but I’m really interested to see how this works out for me. I think I just really needed a change of pace to stir things up a bit. Really good feelings heading into this, and a significant pay raise doesn’t hurt, either!

That’s all for now! I’ve got a few other things to catch up on after yesterday’s struggles, so we’ll keep it short(ish) and sweet today.

Happy reading!