Goofin' off

Well, not really. I haven't been working on my actual paying work lately--I did two articles last week, that's it--but I've been working on my other projects. I've almost got my new pattern finished and ready to post, I've been working on my book. I have to do more work on it next week, actually. We're not going to wait until we're done to start shopping it, we're going to start querying in the next couple of weeks. Exciting! I know, I know, the odds of being bought right out of the gate are slim, to say the least, but we're really doing this. We both avowed that we have to make this writing gig work because neither of us wants to go back to the cube farms, and this time I believe we both mean it, and we're really taking the project seriously. Again: Exciting!

The book, I have to say, is way more interesting to work on than the pay work articles. Which is why I am having trouble sitting to my pay work. Yes, that's a reason not an excuse. No, I don't really care.

I'm going to have to get working on the pay stuff this week upcoming, though. And get back onto my schedule. This week was so unsettled (I was sick yet again at the beginning of the week, so I had to cancel almost all my events for Sunday through Tuesday, then my Wednesday events got moved to Friday and Wednesday was empty when it shouldn't have been, Thursday got wiped clean and changed around, and I completely forgot my Friday night plans because I'd consoled myself on Thursday, ass over teakettle in a dentist's chair, that I had nothing to do on Friday at all and it got stuck in my head that way, besides which my Friday felt like my Wednesday....) and it just got me so frustrated. If I'm going to make a proper go of this writing thing, I must be more disciplined! I must be able to be productive despite the chaos, or this will never fly. I might even have to so lower myself as to get a *gasp!* personal organizer.

Who says that working for yourself is the easy option? Or that writing isn't hard work? I'd like to slap them around a bit.

Interesting side note: Despite the fact that no one is paying me to do this, I actually work more, now, on this project, than I did when I was actually pulling down a salary. And I want to work. That's weird enough, right there.

Meanwhile, a preview:

Look what I found! Looks a bit like Stonehenge, doesn't it? A purpose-built ruin made of architectural scraps. I had such fun finding this one. And I'm not even finished researching her yet! Fabulous!

Last week, my co-author and I spent a very, very over-warm morning discovering that yes, our town was, indeed, formerly a swamp. Still is, under the right conditions. And this is butted up against the swamp:
Old growth forest, right in the middle of our city. Well, ok, out on the side of it, smack in the middle of the 'burbs. Still. Unexpected!

And in completely unrelated news, we've had some very unsettled weather lately, thunderstorms and the like. It's been giving me migraines. I love thunderstorms, though, the howling wind and water flinging itself against the house and trees and flailing them around like an angry toddler with pots and pans. It's a nice energy. And there are some compensations:
Beautiful skies!