Moving forward

Tomorrow we will be signing the lease on our new apartment. We were supposed to do it yesterday, but there was a breakdown in communications between the people working at the new complex. We have not actually gotten to see the apartment we will be moving into (just a similar unit with a reversed floor plan). And the complex has a policy that new tenants can't sign a lease until they have physically viewed the actual unit. So, we set up an appointment to go see it tomorrow, and then sign the lease. We will be moving in on the 31st.

For the next two and a half weeks we will be furiously sorting, packing, and trashing our current domicile. The goal is to minimize clutter in the new place by throwing out what we don't need (which will NOT include any of my books), put some things into our storage unit (which will probably include some more of my books than is already out there), and only moving what is necessary at this time. I am dreading the actual move itself, but I am excited about being moved. We’ve lived in this apartment for three and a half years, and it has been steadily shrinking. It’ll be nice to stretch out.

In the mean time, life moves forward. Still working on school. My current class is a huge disappointment. It’s History and Popular Culture. That sounds like it would be fun, right? Talking about pop culture today, and maybe comparing it to what qualified as pop culture in past eras (and even other cultures). But no, the focus is exploring “Popular Culture” through the lens of a modern city. So far we have talked about Streets (actual, physical streets), Hospitals, and Hotels…zZZz…

Trying to keep myself mentally active is tough these days. With all of the stress of the impending move, the failed attempt to buy a house, my daughter’s graduation and subsequent relocation to our house, and the normal day-to-day stuff, I have been somewhat creatively dry. This week I had plenty of time to write. My boss is out, and I found that I had a ton of free time on my hands. But, that blank Word Doc just keeps mocking me.

I have done a bit of game-related writing, including a good spat of writing that ended with a low-level adventure. We’re also playing some D&D Next. But I’ll leave that to my other blog, and spare my non-gamer friends.

Last night I did have a sudden inspiration, though. I have been rolling around some ideas for my orc stories, continuing the adventures of Gortek, Pekra, and the Reavers. Right now I have a short story in process focusing on Pekra and Bofdek (the dwarf from The Orc Way). But, I am determined to move past short stories, and start writing longer works. And last night I got an idea for a novel (or maybe a novella, we’ll see) about these characters. It involves invaders and a war.

I’m hammering out some interesting ideas for this. One of them is a character who is a dwarf/human hybrid. This has been done before in fantasy fiction, and it’s interesting to see the various points of view on this idea (mainly from D&D gamers, who are very familiar with interspecies breeding in fantasy settings). I’ll just have to come up with some kind of unique twist on the idea.