Thursday's Thoughts: Two Years of Disrupted Writing - and an Update on Mack 'n' Me: The Wolves of Alpha 9
...which was when I went in to have a skin lesion checked - and then removed. It turned out to be precancerous, with me receiving that news on the same day my mum told me she'd been diagnosed with terminal cancer and wasn't expected to see Christmas. That was pretty devastating.
A week later, the doctor called and told me they hadn't removed the lesion properly and would have to reopen the nearly healed wound. Fantastic... especially when the second incision almost healed only to reopen a couple of hours after the stitches were taken out.
Not so great.
I followed that with a week of the flu and then gave myself a case of Tennis Elbow trying to catch up on the words I'd lost over June and July, while getting ahead so I could take time off in September to help out my parents who lived a fifteen-hour drive away. I was typing one-handed and fighting the overwhelming need to sleep so my body could heal.
Now, before all this happened, when I had a schedule I could keep and could set deadlines I knew I could meet, I'd submitted one short story (written in June) to an anthology, five short story proposals to five other anthologies run through two publishers, and a (then) nine-book proposal for a series to a third publisher. That proposal became the 8-book series you know as The Magic Below Paris.
I didn't think I'd get more than one yes and that maybe it would be for a short story submission. I certainly didn't think I would receive five short-story go-aheads, and I definitely didn't think I'd get through the first round of readers for the novel series.
And NEVER, in my wildest dreams, did I think everything would get the nod. EV-ER-Y-THIIING!
By the end of September, I'd spent four days traveling, two weeks away from my computer, and two weeks recovering, AND written four short stories. By the end of December, I'd pulled my child out of school due to chronic and on-going bullying, and started home-schooling, received a rejection for the short story written in June, and a rejection for another short story submitted, post-proposal, to another anthology.
To my surprise, I was also given the chance to submit a different story for that anthology (bless their hearts!), an acceptance for each of the other four short story proposals, and an acceptance for the series proposal (which was based off an outline and an intro that was a couple of thousand words long).
I was, by then, physically and emotionally fatigued and facing another long journey for what was possibly the last Christmas with my mum, which was to be followed by a trip to Adelaide for a two-day conference...also by car, and another twelve-hour journey both ways.
I wrote the story for the anthology that had requested an alternative and then wrote two of the short stories whose proposals had been accepted, thinking that was the end and the other two would be too late for submission, and I'd never be considered by that publisher for any more work ever again. I apologized for this and told them what had been going on - and was told I could have until January to complete the stories. (And bless their hearts, too!)
I got those done, but ill-health put me behind in the novels and I didn't come close to catching up until May, 2019, which was when I offered to help someone with a quick edit. This is nothing unusual. I do occasionally edit for people as a one-off thing... or I did. I currently don't have time to give that sort of help, now.
That help turned into paid work which is ongoing - and I am incredibly blessed to work with the people I do. My writing schedule did have to be re-worked at this point and my own, personal, publishing schedule was well-and-truly off the rails.
I started to get back on track in late September...and my mum was undergoing treatment that had slowed the cancer, and given us more time with her, even if it hadn't reversed the tumor's growth. At this point, Mum was okay enough that I was happy to attend an international conference in the States in November, where I met a tonne of wonderful people and missed meeting a tonne more.
I finished a few books in 2019, with 5 from The Magic Below Paris series being released, as well as some I ghosted, but I came back from my overseas trip to bushfires and a world so full of smoke I didn't go outside for two months...and only then to Adelaide for another conference and a day of family time.This time we flew.
I came back sick, both from the excessive smoke and from a bug we picked up on our journey - but only after our seven-hour trip home was extended to a thirteen-hour trip home when the aircraft for the last leg of the journey ingested a bird, and had to land on one engine.
The good news is that it did land - after a tense half hour of circling over Melbourne - and safely, too. We had a very good pilot and were well-looked after by the airline, much to my surprise.
Mind you, we got home at nine-o'clock at night, instead of the initially planned four o'clock arrival. Twenty hours later, the littlest started throwing up, my husband got sick, and I followed four days later. Somewhere, amidst all that and recovery, as the smoke continued to keep us inside, I finished another couple of books.
During that time, my mother broke her hip and my father had a minor bingle, but both were okay and didn't need us to come up. It was a worrying time, but turned out all right.
Honestly, though, if I did this to a character in one of my stories, my readers would riot over the unreality of it all!
Moving into 2020, Mum's recovery ran smoothly, and we had all managed to get over our travel flu by the end of January. Homeschooling had resumed and life had almost returned to normal, when Covid-19 decided to lock us all down, again...which was just before my, then new, computer ate its power supply and I almost lost a bunch of very important words and the ability to do any work for quite some time.
Fortunately, I found a local computer technician willing to do short-notice work and they got me back on track inside 24 hours - even though I had to sacrifice my warranty to make it happen. Costs saved were not worth the time lost for that path, especially when the sales point was no longer taking calls due to the pandemic and my email asking for advice on what to do went unanswered for another week and a half.
It's the end of May 2020 as I write this, and I have no idea what's going to happen next, but I guess we'll find out. Mum's hip has recovered, but the cancer has moved into her good leg, the chemo is no longer effective AND her body no longer tolerates it so she's had to move to something different. On top of that, we are now facing travel restrictions that prevent us from seeing them.
On the upside, my writing is slowly coming back into some semblance of order. I've seen the last of the Magic Below Paris series released - and am a little sad to say goodbye to those characters, even as I move to other projects and pick up Wolves of Alpha 9 from where I left it so long ago.
Today is the second day of focused writing on Wolves and I'm looking to finish it well before the mid-June deadline I set myself...at least, for now. The book is now moving steadily toward the end - and I think I may be only 5k off instead of the 15-25k I calculated. (I've kinda not been counting the last 10k or so words....oops). Anyway, this means it will be finished sooner and give me a little bit more time editing.
Before I finish up, rumour has it that you'd like a snippet from where it's at. Well, here you go, something from yesterday's writing session:
SNIPPET START:
A sharp yap echoed down the corridor and I had no more time for conversation. I suppose it had been going to happen eventually. I hadn’t been able to stand still, shifting from one foot to the other with increasing rapidity as I’d listened to Mack and Rohan, the noise carrying down the corridor.“Gotta go,” I told them.
“What?” Mack asked, just as Rohan said “Uh oh.”
I was already moving, hitting the floor and rolling as solids whistled through the space I’d been standing, and then blew chunks out of the decking as I rolled to one side. They followed me as my back hit the wall, and I raised my hands, keeping hold of the blade with my thumb and one finger.
No way was I going to let it drop with my face just below it.
The rounds chewed up the deck, but they stopped just short of my body.
“You wreck another set of armor and you’re gonna be fighting naked for a good long while until I can replace it,” Mack warned.
“Screw you, Mack,” I muttered as a set of boots cautiously approached and a large brown-furred lupar stooped to take the blade from my hands.
SNIPPET ENDS.
I'll be aiming to put up a snippet of my WiPs as I bring them into line...in addition to a little something else I'm working on, but not quite ready to talk about...and I hope things will continue to smooth out. In the meantime, the world turns and we are faring well. And I hope that you are, too.
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