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.

Friday!

Just thought I would wrap the week up with a general post of good feelings.

Yesterday was quite surprisingly cool.  And not just the temperature outside.  After getting phlebotomized, I found I had about an hour to kill before picking up my son.  Not enough to go back to the office for any appreciable reason.  So, I did what comes naturally, and hit up Half Price Books.  After about a half-hour of wandering and debating on some purchases (do I really need a 2nd Ed. copy of Changeling: The Dreaming?  Even if it's only $8?), I had decided I probably wasn't going to buy anything.  So, as is my wont, I made my way to the door via the Men's Adventure section, just to see what they had.  I was a little surprised to see that all of the older issues of The Executioner were gone from the shelf.  Then I looked up.

On top of the shelf were three large book bundles of Executioners.  Now, in the past, this store would wrap 8-10 books in plastic and sell the bundle for $3.  I never bought one, but always thought about it.  (I later found out that these bundles, if they don't sell after a while, are simply thrown in the trash.  I almost cried.)  Anyways, the three bundles I was looking at included The Executioner #'s 1-29, 30-55, and 56-87 respectively.  And each was priced at $5.  I immediately texted my wife and made sure $15 was ok for me blow, and she said "Go for it!"  So, for just under $16, I walked out with the first 87 Executioners.  SCORE!

When I got home, I started thinking about these books, and remembered that I had recently got a copy of the very first Executioner I had ever read, #59, Crude Kill.  And I had an idea.  I checked macbolan.com, and found the author of Crude Kill was Chet Cunningham.  A quick Google search found his website, and through that I emailed him and asked what it would take to get an autograph on my copy of the book.  He responded this morning, saying all I had to do was mail the book to him (in San Diego), and he would gladly autograph it and send it back.  How cool is that?

So, yeah, I'm pretty happy Mack Bolan geek today.

Tonight is the continuation of our D&D game, and I am really looking forward to that.  Next week, the wife and I hit the road for our first Mommy & Daddy vacation.  We're driving down to Alabama to hang out with Scott Oden and his wife Shannon.  I'm really looking forward to meeting them, and seeing the area.  And I'm really looking forward to getting away on a long road trip with my wife.  Just me and her in a car.  No whiny children, no dealing with the stresses of having a family.

I love being a dad, and I know I will miss my kids.  But, sometimes, parents need a break too.

Anyways, have a good weekend, folks!

Vacation

Great Wolf Lodge.  Wisconsin Dells, WI.

We just took a short vacation, and I am exhausted!  A 3-day, 2-night stay in the Wisconsin Dells with the entire family can seem like enough to drive a man to drink.  And yet, it was fun and I enjoyed most of it.  For those not in Wisconsin, the Dells is known as the "Waterpark Capital of the World."  There are literally dozens of resorts and parks with a cumulative hundreds of water slides and rides.  We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge, and it was very nice. 

Anyways, between the 15-year old, the 8-year old and the 2-year old, there were some very stressful moments.  The teenager was definitely the best-behaved.  She has matured a lot in recent months, and we loved being able to include her in this.  She watched over the smaller ones when asked without complaint, and even volunteered to do so several times.  Don't get me wrong, it's not that the other two were "bad" per se.  They were just typical for their ages and personalities.  The 8-year old is very needy at times, and always pines for attention.  And if she's already at the center, she simply wants more.  Usually, this isn't a big deal.  But sometimes, it's a bit much.  She has a tendency to overstep boundaries, and not know when she should just be quiet.  Just like ALL 8-year olds.  The 2-year old is "THAT" kid.  You know, the one who screams and runs off anywhere in public?  He's also deathly afraid of water.  But I think he made some good strides in overcoming that this week.  He is a charming little turd, and very cute.  So, it makes it hard to come down on him at times.  But he pushes the limits, making us often thank God he will be the last.
Still, the trip wasn't a waste by any stretch.  We all enjoyed the water park, the food and just bonding as a family.  But next year...well, we're already re-thinking the initial plans for next year.

(And now to turn this into a Writing discussion...and Scott thinks he's the only one with that super power!)

I also took my flash drive with me, in the hopes of snatching some keyboard time on my wife's laptop.  Probably should have just left it at home.  I had one small span where I could have done some writing, but I was exhausted and ended up napping with the 2-year old instead.

However, in lieu of writing with my fingers, I wrote in my head.  Having finally finished the first draft of the Orc Space Pirates story, I started thinking about what comes next.  Right now, I have two main projects.  First is the book about Gorus the Gray.  And it was this one that I thought about the most.  In my brain, I was editing and revising the plot to make it more streamlined.  This morning, having some open time at work, I ended up stripping an entire scene from the first chapter (almost 1,800 words), because it just slogged the story.  That was hard to do.  I thought the scene was well-written, and I put down some good dialogue.  But it slowed things down too early in the story, and I need to get my protagonist on the road to adventure.  So, I "cut and pasted" it into a new document entitled "Cut Bits" and moved on.  I know I won't be using that bit in this story, as it detailed a turning point.  But, I kept it, just in case I find another use for it later.  I then proceeded to re-write the chapter from that point on.  I like this version  much better.

The other idea I thought about was the shared world my friends and I are working on.  The idea is for each of us to write three stories, each story being about our own cast of characters, giving us a total of nine stories, and three separate story arcs, to contribute to an anthology for the eBook markets.  One friend has finished his first story, is working on his second, and has already plotted out the third.  I'm not sure where the other friend is at this point (like me, he has a lot of irons in his writing fire), but I'm sure he's chugging along (he writes a lot faster than I do).  I, on the other hand, have one story done, have a seed for the second story, and a vague notion of where I want the entire arc to go.  And nothing more.  I should really put some more thought into that one.

So, how many other writers out there find it hard to write while on vacation?