Wednesday, September 26, 2012

I am one month older since my last post.

What does that mean?  Probably doesn't mean anything.  Or maybe it means I've been gone with the Doctor for a month, flying around the universe in his Tardis, and he meant to drop me off at the exact same moment I left but, as so often happens, there was a mix up so I was a month late.

Yeah, I'm a nerd.  And you can't beat me so you might as well join me.  My roommate and I are now finally caught up completely on Doctor Who, as in we watched the episode that just aired a few days ago.  It's weird that we've spent so long being behind and now we're caught up to syndication.  It felt like it was our own little thing when we were just watching it on Netflix but now that we're with the rest of the world and waiting (impatiently) for the next episode, well, it's not just ours anymore.  Not a bad thing, just a weird feeling.

Anyway, enough Who talk.  (Is there such a thing as enough when it comes to the Doctor?)  I just wanted to type a quick post and give you guys a recap of my last few weeks.  Here are some things I've been up to:

As I've already made clear, there was a lot of this going on

 

And some of this

 

But mostly I've been working a lot.  That is to say at my regular job, not my writing job, sadly.  I got to take somewhat of a vacation (6 days) to go see my sisters and my best friend, who all live in the same city.  I got to spend 2 days with each of them; it wasn't long enough.

When I got home from that trip, I immediately had to plan for the birthday party for my betrothed.  It was a big event.  Star Trek themed (he and all his pals played that simulator game "Artemis") but no one dressed up or anything.  However, I did make four--count them, FOUR--different punches, each their own color, their own themed name I made up for them, their own flavors and spirits.  Lots and lots of spirits.

Since I know you want to hear the names I gave each punch, here you go:

          1. Yellow - The Enterprise Cocktail
          2. Blue - Romulan Ale
          3. Red - Klingon Wedding Punch
          4. Green - Copper Ichorous AKA Essence of Vulcan
            (Which was my personal favorite, title-wise anyway.)

Moving on...Here are some other things I did or didn't do in the past month:

Did
 
Start my studies on the Victorian era for the next series I'm working on.  Just to get me ready and in the right head space when I get back to writing it.  I have this huge pile of books I've been amassing of research material, which are wholly focused on the Victorian era.  This time period happens to be my favorite so you can imagine my excitement.  Major literary/historical boner going on over here.  Metaphorically speaking of course.

Did
 
Make some important and mysterious phone calls.
Okay, maybe not so mysterious, but definitely important.  About the long, arduous, and painstaking process of getting my books in print.  Seems like it ought to be easy, right?  Well, sure it is, if you just want to let it print however and you don't care how your covers come out looking.  But I do care.  So I've had a tough time getting proofs I'm pleased with and am now locked in an ever-lengthening back-and-forth with the publishers and tech support.  Blah.  And blech.  Let's just move on now.

Oh, I also made some other phone calls.  Example:

 
I'm working on the contract for the artist for my children's storybook (among other projects...), which some of you may recall from way back a million years ago when I talked about this, is a link between the Lone March world and that of the next series I'm working on.  So super excitemundo about that!

Didn't
 
Do much writing on Book 6 hardly at all (hence the blank page).  In the whole month I've only written one chapter.  How pathetic is that?  I was busy, yes, so I couldn't really help it, but still it sucks.  I hate the feeling of...not writing.  There's not a word for that feeling yet.  I should invent one.  Anyway, it's okay because in the mean time, I have been able to work on another book.  You know, that one that's coming out in November.

Moon-Swell

Did a final pass on it, just to be safe.  So I can officially say it's done now.  Update on the cover: My graphics genius has the materials and will begin work on it next week.  Can't wait to see it.  It's going to be very different from the first three so get ready!!

Did
 
Make some shadow puppets whenever the opportunity presented itself.  (Don't ask me what that's supposed to be because I honestly don't remember what I thought that was.)

Did
 
Have a nice evening out with my beau, where dinner and a movie happened.

Didn't
 
Climb Mount Everest.  Nope.  Still not accomplished.  Gotta get on that...

Did
 
Do some recording with the help of guitar god, Ducan Isenhower, who I think I can call a friend now, even if it is presumptuous to place myself in association with someone whose skill with the strings is so ridiculously beyond mine but anyway.  He has a home studio set up and he very kindly offered to record some of my stuff.  He said he will be done working on the tracks this weekend and I will be able to hear them--yay!!

 
That's what I looked like during our session, only not because this pic is actually from a totally different time and place, but we didn't take any pix while we were recording so I had to use this placeholder instead.  Next time, by thunder, I'm taking pictures for documentation's sake.

Didn't
 
Go skydiving.  (And never ever will either just by the way.)

Didn't
 
Win a marathon.  (Or even run one, for that matter.)

But I Did
 
Start doing Yoga with my fiance and friends.  It is quite awesome.


I guess that's it for now.  I don't have much in the way of news on the 4th book but I just felt like I really needed to reconnect with you guys, since it's been so long since I've done a real post.  I will say this though: everything is going according to plan and on schedule so Moon-Swell will def be out early November.  I will keep you updated on how things are moving along as information comes to me.


The End


xxErin

















PS. You didn't really think that was all I was going to say about Book 4, did you?  Here's a tiny bulletin: Sometime very soon, as in the next few days, I'm going to post a snippet from the book.  So stay tuned:D

PPS. I should just delete the word 'quick' from my vocabulary because every time I use it in conjunction with blogging I never do so correctly as my posts are rarely--if ever--quick but are, in fact, quite long and cumbersome.  Oh well.

PPPS. Still not taking the word out of the 3rd paragraph though.  Dunno why.  Just leavin' it.