Moved!

Well, the move is done. We are officially out of the old and into the new. This apartment has a bigger floor plan, a better layout, and generally just feels more comfortable. The only downside is that, unlike the previous place, this one doesn't have a large storage room for us to use. Subsequently, our living room is jammed full of boxes and bins that we have been able to forget about for a couple of years now. However, we are turning that into a positive, and plan to purge our collection of old, useless junk over the next couple of weeks.

As part of that, I have set aside my three main "Geek Boxes" for review. Inside two plastic bins and one printer paper box are several items of Geek Lore. There is a large amount of D&D books from 1st and 2nd edition, as well as books and supplements for a host of other RPG's, much of which will probably end up on EBay. There is a large stack of Savage Sword of Conan issues (which will not be purged). There are numerous old computer games that will be reviewed for possible uploading (I already have a request by Isaac to upload WarCraft III when the computer is up and running). And really, Lord knows what else is in there. This should be fun!

In other, more exciting news, I received an email from Keith West this morning. Keith has had a blog up for a long time where he reviews fiction of all sorts, and he has reviewed many of my short stories there. Recently, he started reviewing for Amazing Stories (totally awesome gig, IMHO), and this morning he let me know that he had reviewed my recent collection, With a Silken Fist, over there. Some very kind words, and high praise. Once more I am indebted to him. But, more than that, it's cool to know that my efforts were successful. I'm always trying to make my writing better, so it was nice to hear that not only were my stories entertaining, but the embellishments and additions I had added to two of the stories improved their quality.

So, I am back to work getting caught up after taking three days off last week. In between that I am getting caught up on my blogs and blog-reading, some Facebooking on my iPhone, and generally other life stuff. I was fortunate not to have any homework last week in my class, but I know I will this week. And finally, I will be trying to get some writing done as I can.

And finally, on Saturday, my daughter turned 18! Very proud of her. She has grown into a pretty responsible young woman, and with just a little more guidance, she is going to be off to a great start. And we have a party planned for this coming weekend, including a bounce house. Cuz, that's how my family rolls.

All in all a very busy and productive weekend. But man, am I tired!

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.

Back and tired

My daughter and me, giving the "daddy eyebrows" that
we are both known for doing when we are irritated.

In case anyone couldn’t guess, driving from Wisconsin to Las Vegas and back is tiring. When it’s done in a mid-size sedan with four occupants on the way there, and five on the way back, it’s downright exhausting. And when one of those occupants is a 10-year old girl…well, you might be able to imagine how glad we all were to get home.

So, after several days of driving, hotels, bad nights of sleep, and a constant level of tension, followed by four days of absolutely lethargic recovery, I am back at work. And I am welcoming the break.

The whole purpose of the trip was to see my daughter graduate high school, and then to bring her and a good portion of her belongings back home with us. This mission was a success, and really, having her home with us makes it all worthwhile. I was pleasantly surprised that her mother didn’t make any trouble, and was even quite civil. More on that in August, when I am not legally forbidden from speaking ill of certain parties openly.

This trip kicked off a rather busy summer for us. As I may have mentioned, we are buying a house. My wife and I have been married for six years. When we first got married, we lived in a condo. When the economy tanked a couple of years later, and I lost my job, we ended up filing a BK, and losing the condo. We are finally getting back up and dusting ourselves off.

The only saving grace is that the condo was in her name alone (she bought it before we even met), so the foreclosure is not on my credit. So, with a VA loan, we are going to be able to buy a nice, old house with a lot of modern upgrades. Our closing date is July 12th. Which means the next few weeks will involve a lot of packing and planning.

Fortunately for me, my wife is very organized and a bit of a control freak (but not so much as to be heinous about it), which means that the majority of my contribution to the packing and moving will involve heavy lifting and not much else. I can handle that. We also have the advantage of starting earlier than we did last time, so it should go relatively smoothly.

As you can imagine, this past week has not been very productive. I managed the minimum of work for my latest class, and that was about it. No writing, no reading to speak of (though I did manage almost an entire John Carter novel on audio during the drive). I’m hoping to make some progress on a few things this week. But, until we get moved, and settled in, it probably won’t be a whole lot. The good thing is, I will have a little “personal space” where I can retreat from the family, and write unhindered and uninterrupted.

Until then, I will do what I always do; open a file, and chip away during my down-time at work mainly, with an occasional bout at home, if I can.