Giving thanks.

The kids are out of school, this week. In the US, we have a holiday where we give thanks for the blessings we’ve had throughout the previous year, and it’s this Thursday. And, since things have been rough for me for a while, I’m going to spend this post focusing on the positive.

The kids are both healthy as goats (I know the saying is “as healthy as a horse,” but horses can drop dead of colic with no warning, and all the goats I’ve been around have been robustly healthy). They’re now 13 (my son) and will be 11 in two weeks (my daughter), and are growing fast. My son’s taller than me–which, I admit, is a low bar: I’m under 5′ tall. My daughter’s hands and feet indicate she’s going to shoot past me when she kicks into her next growth spurt.

We have a very solid house, which had a new roof put on last April. We have enough to eat, a private well (no water bill or sewer bill to the city), and we have heat. We have enough for necessities (like the new tires I need), and a few non-necessities (like a Christmas budget that stretches to a little more than the kids).

I’m thankful I’d seen the writing on the wall where the current shortages and inflation levels are concerned, and that we sprang for the desktop last year. I’m doubly thankful about that, given the sudden reduction in reliability of my laptop (I really hate that there’s no way to just…leave a flash card in it for backup as I’m working, but the geniuses who designed it did so in such a way that the card sticks out for half its length…).

God was very good to me when we tried one last time to figure out a way to get the laptop to let us get my documents. I prayed all day (alternating pleas for help getting what I needed from it, with pleas for help finding my equilibrium if we couldn’t get my documents off), handed it off to Andrew, and he powered it up…and the lock screen came up for the first time in two full days.

Part of the reason I’d prayed for acceptance is because I’d finished Liquid Diet Chronicles: Having a Pint (to the tune of nearly 60K words–the next most-finished draft had just under 58K), and finished the first draft of The Schrodinger Paradox (over 100K words, there, with the closest version on backup coming in at barely over 60K words). And that doesn’t count the nearly 20K words’ worth of short stories I had finished drafts of (and am still working on editing…and writing on another 10K words’ worth).

So, yes, I’m very thankful that we were able to get my documents off my laptop.

And I’m thankful that I can sit at the desk and write. I’m thankful that the keyboard cord is long enough (since the wireless keyboard is…iffy…about working right) that I can put it in my lap, and thankful that the wireless mouse works fine. Otherwise, I’d have to figure out some type of bracers for typing, since I seem to be allergic to the desk (parawood–if you’re allergic to latex, you’ll be allergic to parawood, since parawood is made from retired rubber trees). So, yeah: long keyboard cable and wireless mouse working are blessings to be thankful for.

I’m thankful to be living in the middle of the nation, and in an area where potential rioters are (rightfully) afraid they’d get shot, and that the idiots protesting are smart enough to realize that doing so in the road will get them hurt by the locals.

There’s so much more that I have to be thankful for. And I’m thankful that I’m aware of that–it means I’m a lot happier than a lot of other people who focus on their grievances, real or (mostly) imagined.

Been a while…

I haven’t been terribly productive, recently. I did get Having a Pint finished, and heard back from most of my beta readers. I’ve got it edited, but right now, it’s sitting. I’ll go through it one last time before I start going through the Amazon process.

I have spent the past four months helping Daniel get adjusted to middle school. With his ADHD, we had to spend most of the first quarter figuring out where his meds dose needed to be, and figuring out what kind of organizational scaffolding/support he needed to function on a day-to-day basis. That took through most of October to get set. I’ve backed off, and am just monitoring, now. But it was taking up most of my brain’s problem-solving and processing power while we were getting everything set up.

Doesn’t help that my laptop–my main work machine for the past year–had started acting…wonky. And last week, it decided that its system was borked. As in: it started up, then restarted, then decided there was something wrong that it had to repair, and…stuck. Wouldn’t repair it. Could not move past the screen announcing that it was 0% done…don’t touchy the laptop. Frozen on a blue screen.

And all of my finished documents and drafts were on it. And almost all of my in-progress projects.

It finally un-borked itself two days later, but I don’t trust the laptop for writing, anymore. I pulled all of my stuff onto a massive flash drive and a good-sized thumb drive, and moved it over to the desktop. And I’ve been working at/on the desktop since then. Downside is that a lot of brain processing froze, and I’ve spent most of it trying to set up for work. That includes getting Office ’07 put on the desktop, and trying to get my preferred music player loaded (failed at that–waiting for other half to get home and see if he can’t get it done for me).

The upside is that I’m more productive at an actual desk with a keyboard in my lap.

So. Current projects. I’ll be working on revising and editing The Schrodinger Paradox toward a final early draft. I have the first draft finished (came in at just over 100K words), and have done initial revisions on the first of three parts. The second part has been through the revision process once, and the third part is…really rough.

Right now, though, I’ve had a long-term back-burner project jump the queue. Again. The character, apparently, was only waiting for me to be stressed and overwhelmed enough before she was willing to jump in. It’s Molly–the assassin character from an idea I’d had floating around for years without being able to do much with. She’s even gifted me with what’s likely to go on the back cover. Assuming she doesn’t change things on me in the process of writing.

Hell, I don’t even know quite how long this will be, just yet. I’ve got a vague idea of what’s going to be going on, but she’s not cooperating with even a basic outline.

Anyway, here’s the gist:

Molly McGuire is an assassin, and damn good at it. Still has the dubious honor of scoring the highest on the certification exam put forth by the government when it was legalized. It really helped that she’d started out as a paralegal, and knew how to do effective legal research—not many of her colleagues did.

She didn’t want to be an assassin. But it was the best way to pay off a mountain of debt in the shortest possible time so that she could get on with her life.

But now that the debt’s almost paid off, she’s left facing the conundrum of what to do next: does she keep her current job until she just can’t do it anymore, or does she look for something else?

Her handler—her uncle Jack—has ideas. And plans.

Before Molly decides anything, however, she’s got to finish paying off that debt, and try to rebuild what she can of her life outside of work.