CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

And the report for the week just gone. It was the second, and final, week of exams, so I had one assessment item to hand it – and then some feedback forms to complete, and that was it. University done and dusted for this year. Just next year to go, and this degree’s done. What’s next? Well, I’m gearing up to try and fill next year’s publishing schedule, and get onto a better planned schedule for 2018. By mid-next year, I should have an idea of how that’s going to go. In the meantime, this is how the last week with study obligations went. Next week it's on to the summer 'break'. Summer? you ask. I’m down here in the O.Zee., remember? Overview New words produced: 28,046 Old words revised: 0 Outlines and Notes: 524 Works completed: 1 Works revised: 0 Covers created: 0 Works published: 0 Works submitted: 0 Competitions Entered: 0 Bloggery: 0 University Prep and Assignments: 2,106 NaNoWriMo Update Added 14,363 words to Shades of Memory ...

Progress for the week before last, which was the first week of exams. Not a lot got done, but two final assessment pieces were turned in, and I squished in a bit of writing for my NaNoWriMo novel. Overview New words produced: 5,234 Old words revised: 0 Outlines and Notes: 0 Works completed: 0 Works revised: 0 Covers created: 0 Works published: 0 Works submitted: 0 Competitions Entered: 0 Bloggery: 2,560 University Prep and Assignments: 3,211 NaNoWriMo Update 5,200 words completed on the NaNoWriMo Novel: Shades of Memorial . Stepping Up Challenge Update Languages: Slow progress Non-Fiction Reading: Only exam essay related. Ingress Updates No new challenges for me. Publishing Tasks Created 2 blog posts for this blog; New Arrivals   Nil

Right, getting into the swing of things. Gardening is supposed to be part of my writing fitness regime—it also gets me out from in front of the computer, keeps the landlord happy, and makes getting ready for the annual rental inspection much easier, thus reducing stress. It’s mid-Spring in the Land DownUnder, and season and garden waits for no man. Imagine my surprise when I went out after a long, wet winter and a fairly sploshy spring, to find my rose bushes already in full leaf, in need of a prune and covered in black spot… and then I looked at the peach tree. I learned two things that day: black spot treatment and prevention, and leaf curl treatment and prevention. Here’s what I started with: It took me a good hour to hand-pick all the black-spot-infected leaves off the rose bushes. I’m still working on the peach tree. This is what one of my poor rose bushes looked like before I picked off all the black-spot-infected leaves:    And here it ...

So, another change of routine as exams approached and both my writing and my walking routines were gone. This was not helped by memories of having to choose between my job and completing my degree, and all the workplace nastiness that went with it. I’d thought I was over it, but it really knocked me for a six, and I just couldn’t write through it, so a bunch of housework was done, instead, and I watched a couple of series of New Tricks   while I was doing it. I lost four days to classes, study and what I think is part of the grieving process—or recovery process from the bullying. Anyway, it wasn’t until Friday that I was able to settle into redrafting an exam essay, which took priority over my writing. By Saturday afternoon, I had completed the first draft and had only formatting, and another 11 references to find, which is why there was no Ingress or Pokemon report yesterday. So, not much on the writing front as you can see, not much on the Ingress front, and a little bit on the...