Picross is scarily addictive. I’ve been playing it for the last couple of hours because my body kinda shut down on me for a bit, and it’s nice to just play a game that plays itself towards the end and requires little thought. Been a good day all told, got to watch England win the Euros at dads which was nice, and have been focusing on rest otherwise. Still writing late but I’ll fix that.

40K. That this is the last book in the series and it’s almost half over is a little weird. I’m not sure when I’ll finish it but it looks like I’ll easily get it done by 4Y1K. Pretty happy about that all told. I just hope I’ll be able to get everything in order in editing.

I pushed myself quite far yesterday with a lot of walking and rushing about London, but you know, I managed to chill out today and while yes I’m hurting from it, I think experiences are worth having recovery days. It’s not such a good idea to do that all the time, but at the start of a stretch of time off I think is the perfect moment to seize. I also really want to do it again, maybe see if I can catch a show while I’m at it. Bank balance permitting, I may do just that. Yesterday was a blast, and to be honest today was great too. Got to introduce one of my oldest friends to my xirlfriend at last, and they clicked right away.

As far as writing goes, I am feeling pretty ok to be honest. TEL is closing in on the halfway point, with maybe 2 chapters to go, and I have a solid idea of how I want the novel to play out from here. I’ve also got more ideas for conflict and how to spice it up in general. And, as I cryptically laid out yesterday, I have another really cool story lined up to work on soon. It’s not part of the STO but, well you’ll notice if you ever read my other stories that really, all rails lead back to Ore. I’m hoping to actually visit Ore again soon, as I have a potential photographer lined up for making my book covers. We’re thinking dramatic photos from each station as the first step, and paying for some actors to portray characters in the foreground. Long term goal, and that won’t be cheap, but if I’m gonna share these I may as well do it right.

I am going to be knackered this weekend. I ended up making the most of being in London after I shepherded the young people to camp, the one I was going to go to for 10 days. And you know, I think I may have made it all worth it in one stroke of inspiration.

New Project: “Past the Gap”

Oh and I took this picture and it has no godly right to look as good as it does:

Well, that’s me on holiday for the next 10 days. I can already feel my body shutting down and preparing to get ill. I mean, I’m already ill, but I mean more so. But what can you do, and at least writing is still going ok. I am a little worried this first draft is going to lack a lot of spicy conflict in places, but I will find a way to inject that in. Right now I am too beat to do that, though I caught a glaring continuity error in a whole other book as I wrote today’s 1K, so that was a good edit at least.

Sorry some of these posts are a bit thin. Once I’ve had a few long sleeps after tomorrow’s busy day, I’ll be ok and back to rambling about inane stuff and cryptic Project4 posts in no time.

MILESTO-no we don’t do that here. Maybe if I’d gotten a Project4 update, but alas no dice there. Still waiting in suspense. Let me tell you, that is not pleasent. That’s all I will be telling you however, sorry imaginary readers. At this point it’s entirely pointless to keep it from you but like, it’s also kind of funny. Maybe I just, won’t ever say. Can you imagine like twenty years later, I hit the big day 10,000 and I’m just like “ah reminds me of Project4. Lel still not telling you.”

Oh now I’m tempted…

TEL is back on track, and I even found a cool continuity edit to make to add to the story even more. This is one of the reasons I’ve not taken polishing up one part to put out there super seriously, as having the freedom to retcon stuff before I release isn’t even a real retcon. I’m hoping it means when I do put them all out there, I won’t have any such regrets. But, maybe I should worry about them being good first…

Found a bit more of my groove in TEL again. Only like a hundred extra words or so but it’s still significant, because what I came up with helps me feel I can make the fun & games engaging, and gave me some ideas how to fix an earlier story too. I won’t say which or it will make it a bit too obvious and spoilery. It’s funny; likely, no one will ever read this, but I do still want to be careful just in case I have a bunch of readers one day and they want to binge read my asinine thoughts. Least I can do to not ruin my asinine novels at the same time.

I’ve started rereading 14 by Peter Clines. I love his work a lot, and he’s easily my favourite modern writer. I need to read his works more. I also need to stay more in the loop because he has a new book out and I somehow missed it for almost 5 months. Man I have been distracted this year. Not long now…

I am so tired. I tried to write sooner than this but I didn’t sleep so well, and I went to bed at like 9:30pm. Does not make me optimistic about tonight I can tell you that. I am at least still getting through TEL, but I’m only chipping off the minimum each day and that feels rough. It’s fine to only write a thousand words, that’s enough, but I think it’s also reflective of me still not feeling I have this part down. I will need to edit it a lot later I am sure.

These are the bits I just assume I will rewrite from scratch when the time comes. Often I don’t find I need to, but you’d be surprised how much text is placeholder in a first draft. I just hope I find a bit more enthusiasm tomorrow.

I have spotted I have a ‘fun & games’ problem. The second-quarter of my books always seem to have this issue where I don’t know how to execute the promise of the premise in a way that’s super engaging. It’s the big thing most of my first drafts I have banked need me to work on, and that’s ok because soon they’ll be getting a heck of a lot more focus, but in the meantime they are without a doubt in need of a Lot of TLC in those respective sections. It’s not like the rest is perfect, it’s just a lot of my premises don’t have a ton of action in them. Actually no that’s a lie, they all do, I just for some reason seem to forget what that is half the time. I may be stupid.

Eh that’s tomorrow me’s problem. Good news for tomorrow me though: I wrote (relatively) early, so I get to have a good night’s sleep! I hope. If the heat doesn’t squash that…

Managed to screw up my sleep again. I think I just crashed on Friday and my pain levels messed with my ability to focus until it was, like 5am? That was a bit grim, and it’s annoying I didn’t just pass out naturally, but I made a bit of a success of today nonetheless. I can’t say I’m feeling 100%, but maybe 60%? Light headed and woozy, and not looking forward to quite a busy midday tomorrow, but for all that, still going so I can’t complain. I do also only have a 4 day week ahead, and then I will absolutely be catching up on some sleep. It’s been a heck of an intense year, but that is hopefully nearing its end.

Gotta take things slowly. Heck if I need to then I will cancel all the plans I have for tomorrow. But I am finding my feet and learning my limits a little better now. Hopefully that’s a trend that continues.

Well I made it in, even got over 8 hours, and while yes I’m still collapsing at the moment, I’m proud of my recovery this week. TEL suffered by having a lot of low-WC days but, 1K is 1K so it’s not that low. And my mood isn’t super low either but then, how could it be, not after…

THIS. HOW DID I MISS THE ANNOUNCEMENT. You can bet I bought all 3. Unexpected, and Extremely welcome suprise.

…I don’t even own a PS4/5 or any Xbone.