Or “This week in not really accomplishing a whole lot.”

I’ve got plenty of inner turmoil going on right now in regards to writing (I almost put “write now” by complete accident, and the self-loathing I feel is incredible). Joshua’s Nightmares, book one, is still hanging out on my laptop. It’s just kind of sitting there presently, a nearly three hundred page blob of potential that’s got nowhere to go just yet, and it’s a little vexing. Maybe a lot vexing. A lottle vexing? If I ever use that word again, someone please call me out on it in the comments because that’s just awful.

My conundrum is now the mix of “I have no idea how publishing works and how do I reach out to publishers to try getting this published” versus “Is self-publishing really so bad in this case or is it really just lazy, quick self-gratification”. Both of those thoughts have effectively prevented me from actually accomplishing much (we’ll get to what I did accomplish this week, which is a whole lot of nothing, shortly). If nothing else, I’ve reached a point where I would just like to make this story available for other people to enjoy (or hate, to be fair, because even if someone hates it they still ended up having to read a bit of it, and that’s okay with me). However, I also know that self-publishing is still sort of looked down upon these days, and I’d rather not be burned as a heretic or whatever actual, legitimate authors do to self-published sorts.

So, Phil, what the hell did you do this week? Glad you asked, helpful device for moving forward. Also, before we get to that I just have to say that I can overlook writing in Internet Explorer for the sake of blogging on my Surface 2, but my tendency to somehow miss the space bar between words is a real pain in the ass.

Writing

My Screen Robot topic has changed once again, pending approval, but my Netflix/streamed video binging piece was turned away because it lacked direction (a fair assessment, actually, because it could use a bit more focus). I finished my first post for Magnific and submitted it for review last night, ahead of its deadline. I’m happy it was ahead of deadline because I dragged my feet a bit on that one. However, once I got started on the actual meat of the article, it happened pretty easily. Started on a short story that parodies Oedipus, but since I keep switching between my laptop and Surface, and it doesn’t seem to want to save properly to my cloud, I’m getting a bit annoyed with it. See also: Writing Funk of June 2014. I had a couple of ideas, such as a piece around the line “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die”. Still plotting what to send as submissions to a thing I’ll be posting about at another time, once the tees are crossed and eyes are dotted and so on.

Reading

I reread The Ocean at the End of the Lane in preparation for my signed deluxe copy arriving. No matter how many times I read this book, it will always leave me with a tremendous sense of wonder, filled with all sorts of sadness and joy. I always end up wanting more, though I know there’s just the right amount of story there (the ending does make me feel rather sad, though I still think it’s perfect in every way). Please note that if I ever did manage to get some response from Neil Gaiman, whether it be about my near fanatical love of The Ocean at the End of the Lane or anything else, I would likely be rendered a semi-sentient, mostly intolerable, puddle of goo. And suddenly I have a post idea (no spoilers, damn it).

Miscellany

My Aunt Leanne and grandmother made the trip to visit me in extremely exciting, always historical Hollidaysburg today, and we had a good time talking, joking around, giving both of the cats tremendous amounts of attention, and so on. I talked a bit about my writing, because it’s either that or I talk about work and sleeping, and there was some discussion with my Aunt Leanne about Warpt Factor. I’ve not forgotten about it, I promise. It does deserve some attention, so I should be getting back to that in the near future. Izzy Warpt needs to get back to her adventuring, I think.

I could very well go on writing, but I have other things to focus on before I meander off to bed. Wishing you, dear readers, all a pleasant start to the week. As it’s officially past midnight now: happy Monday.