Category: Personal

Slowing down and enjoying life

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Okay, so I refuse to say that I’m slowing down because I’m getting old. I mean, I am, and my joints aren’t as flexible and springy as they used to be, but I refuse to use that as an excuse to be lazy.

On the other hand, I’ve been making a concerted effort, especially at the day job, where I’m trying to break a long-standing and terrible habit of trying to do everything at once as fast as I can. It’s fine every now and again, but trying to speed through a very long line of customers will only serve two things: a) I’ll exhaust myself faster, and b) I’m doing at least twice the work all my other coworkers are doing. Do I really need to go through my shift constantly stuck going 70 mph while everyone else is doing a much more sedate 45? Do I have to do it all myself when I can easily ask a coworker to help? I guess what I’m looking for is a bit of a Zen balance here. Do what needs doing when it needs doing, but realize what I don’t have to do everything else as well.

The same thing goes with my writing. I think I’ve finally grown out of the mindset that I must Write All The Things Before It’s Too Late. For the moment I’m adding a little bit at a time to my writing schedule and searching for a comfortable working level. After several weeks off due to moving, I’m back with the blogging, and I’ve been thinking about returning to the 750Words site again. I’ve even switched the notebook in my jacket pocket with a sketch pad, with the idea of just drawing purely for the fun of it when I have a moment. And interestingly enough, I haven’t done any longhand journaling for a couple of months, and I think that’s partly because I just don’t feel like I need to.

That’s one of the key things right there: do it only if you feel the need. Just like the day job, I don’t need to do any daily journaling, or get any specific word count. I just want to focus on the Trilogy Remaster, finish off Theadia, and possibly restart MU4 for the nth time. But I don’t feel an unhealthy need to do it right this second. It’s healthier this way, mentally and physically. Believe me, I know from burnout, and I’m aiming to avoid it from here on in.

And besides, we now live just a block away from one of the most famous city parks in the world, so there is zero reason why I shouldn’t be going outside and enjoying said park every now and again.

Catching up on reading

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For the most part we’ve finally gotten our book collection in one place. It took some time and a frightening amount of purging before the move, but our library is now much more under control, and nearly all within the office.

I’ve got a shortish bookshelf next to the bed that’s holding our romance library and several of my read-then-donate books. As much as it feels weird to get rid of so many books over the course of most of April and May (I counted at least six trips to Goodwill for donation and one to Green Apple for selling), it feels good to have space again.

I’m going to try to be better at the book turnaround, to be honest. I’m fine with thinning out every couple of months or so, but what I should also do is utilize our local library more often! Our neighborhood library is a short bus ride away, and we both use the Hoopla app frequently. So why not save a bit of money and space by going there instead?

Mind you, I’m not quitting buying books cold turkey. Some authors we simply must buy upon release — we just picked up Kate Elliott’s The Witch Roads from Green Apple after preordering it — and some books just aren’t available digitally. Just not going overboard always picking up new titles that I may or may not get around to reading for months on end!

New digs, no whiteboard

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It’s been a couple of weeks now since we’ve moved into the new digs, and things are returning to normal. You’ve probably noticed that the wall behind my monitors are completely bare right now, and I’m actually thinking of keeping it that way for a little while. I’m really embracing the fresh start here.

You’ll notice I don’t have the whiteboard schedule up at all. It’s currently sitting somewhere on the tall black bookshelf (now to the left of my desk, as seen in the picture) alongside the two dollar bulletin board I also haven’t used in a while. Part of the fresh start was to do without the whiteboard for a bit, and I think it’s fair to say I don’t really need it at this point. My blogging schedule hasn’t changed over multiple years and I’m just that type of slightly-overprepared person where it’s cemented in my mind now.

In retrospect, I think this was part of what I needed most out of this fresh start: a true tabula rasa. It wasn’t enough to just wipe the whiteboard clean, I had to take it down and put it away. I couldn’t really try out new processes when I had the ghosts of the old ones still kicking around and looming over me. And besides, I have other real life responsibilities to take care of, now that we’re new homeowners. Non-writing errands that need doing. Cleaning and arranging to do. Cats that need pettins. Things like that. Mind you, writing time is still extremely important and I try to carve out at least an hour or so every day.

A lot of this includes some brain rewiring for me, and while I’m open-minded enough for that, it’s still a strange experience. But I’m excited to see where this leads.

Current status…getting there

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It’s been a week and change at the new place and we’ve settled in for the most part, adjusting and rearranging where necessary. The cats took the change in location pretty well, I think partly because we constantly change things up for them to keep things interesting for them. They particularly love the front stairway, because a) it echoes and b) they love going down and running back up! It’s going to be a while before it really sinks in that this is our new home now, but I’m enjoying it so far.

I’m back at the PC and working on the Trilogy Remaster project, and hope to find more time to work on Theadia when and where I can. As always, I’ll try to keep up with the blogging but I’m not going to worry too much if I don’t get around to an entry or two during the week. My longhand writing work is now hanging out in the garage, safely in one of the plastic storage tubs on the new shelves for easy access.

Still, it feels great to be back to work with the writing!

A fresh start

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It’s been a couple of days since we settled into our new place, with nearly everything unpacked and put away. We’re still organizing as we go of course, but for the most part it’s all where it needs to be or at least close by. And both cats have been monitoring and supervising every step of the way.

I made the decision early on to keep a lot of my stuff down in the garage storage until further notice so as to not crowd everything in our now-shared office. This means that most of my notebooks, early writings, journals, and so on are down there, still easy to access but locked away. It occurred to me that I don’t need them immediately. Not to worry, they’re in closed plastic bins and out of harm’s way. [And besides, my juvenilia has definitely seen worse storage times.] Whenever I finally get around to restarting the scanning project, they’ll be ready to go.

In the midst of all this, I realized that this gives me the opportunity for a completely fresh start here in the new office. When you’re living in the same place for over fifteen years, it’s kind of hard to go cold turkey on some of the habits and processes you’ve become so used to. So instead of trying to find where I left off with all of that journaling and longhand writing and so on, I’m just going to start a new moleskine notebook. Spend a little more time just enjoying listening to music instead of obsessively collecting and organizing it. Pick up those art supplies and have some fun during downtime. And most importantly, instead of finding a place to put up my whiteboard schedule (and not wanting to damage these pristine walls on day one), I’m just going to try my hand at working without one.

This doesn’t mean abandoning my two current projects, of course. I’ll need to pick up where I left off with the Trilogy Remaster, and I still need to finish off Theadia and start in on its revision and eventual publication. Those two have been at the front of my mind ever since we started this whole moving house chaos two months ago. Give me a day or so and I should be back on track!

Do I know where I’m going to go from here? Not entirely…but I’d like to think that’s a good thing. I’ve given myself a clean slate as it were, and I definitely need to allow myself to experience those more often.

Spare Oom 2009-2025

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It’s been a wild ride of just over fifteen years here in Spare Oom. All those hours working remotely for the Former Day Job. All that music streamed, downloaded, listened to, cataloged and shared. Cats coming in to visit, play and nap. Books read. Characters and maps drawn. Word seeks completed. Guitars played and playing styles honed and songs written. Views of the Golden Gate Bridge to gaze at when I needed a mental break from it all.

All those words churned out on the 750Words site. Numerous blog entries on two separate sites. Personal journal entries scribbled into notebooks. Trunked ideas gathering dust in my Dropbox. The moment I finally finished the Bridgetown Trilogy after a multi-year hiatus. The decision to self-publish my work. Learning how to properly edit my own work. Learning how to create e-book covers. Seven completed and self-published novels. And another one started and eventually making its way to publication.

Some days I felt like I was wasting time and getting nothing done, other days I felt like I was kicking ass.

It’s been an interesting time here, and now it’s time to shut down the PC and pack it up along with all the externals and other hardware, because it’s heading over to the new place tomorrow morning.

See you on the flip side.

Fly-by: where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing

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It’s been a busy couple of months here, and I suppose it’s finally time to reveal why I’ve been MIA here at the blogs. The short version? We’re moving!

The slightly longer version is that said moving has involved all sorts of paperwork, banking, thinning out of stuff we no longer want, packing stuff we want to keep, setting appointments to get utilities up and running, more paperwork, and shopping, all while working the Day Job, and that’s left me with not that much time to work on writing, let alone posting blog entries or even getting any daily stuff done on 750Words. [There’s also the fact that I just happened to pack away my journals as well, so those haven’t been updated for some time either.]

It’s going to take a bit longer before I’m back up and running again, alas. I’ve been sneaking in some editing of A Division of Souls when I can just so I don’t fall behind on my planned ‘remaster’ release schedule, but that’s about all I can muster at this point.

So yes, I’m still here! Hopefully within a few more weeks things will be back to normal. Thanks for your patience!

It continues

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As always, you never know how much you’ve accumulated until it’s time for you to move. Then it becomes clear that you have a lot more than you remember having. Books that have somehow fallen somewhere into the temporary alternate universe only to surface years later. All kinds of I’ll deal with it later objects that never get dealt with. Gifts, tchotchkes and collectibles that pile up on bookshelves. Things you’ve forgotten you bought and had been looking for. Clothing and other items you’ve used once or twice then forgotten about as they sink further into the back reaches of the closet. And being a writer, there are always, always, hundreds of blank or near-blank notebooks and notepads and unused pens that you’ve been meaning to use for ages.

And when you’ve got a set (or a planned and hopefully set in stone) moving date, it occurs to you that packing isn’t going to be a day long thing as you’d hoped, but a weeks long event that needs order and planning, hundreds of boxes, and loads of tape, Sharpies and packing paper. You start playing 5D chess: you want to move this so you can uncover that which is on top of those things that you know you don’t want and need to sort into recycling, donation or trash. And because you’ve (hopefully) learned your lesson in the past, there will be a method to your madness, and the things you’ve moved temporarily will be placed in a specific place elsewhere in a pile that will then be packed and vaguely labeled as ‘desk stuff’. The recycling and trash are easy, of course — you can just bring them to the bins downstairs. The donation boxes are a bit more tricky, as you’ll need to somehow find a temporary spot to put them until you have a moment to get them down to the car in as few trips as possible and hopefully find a close parking spot at the local Goodwill.

All of this, of course, during your off hours when you’re not working the Day Job. And are most likely working on a half-tank of energy.

*

This has been us the past couple of weeks. Alas, I have fallen slightly behind in the writing work, but I’m allowing it only because this is a life event and not simply slacking. Once the move has taken place and we’ve settled somewhat, I’ll be able to pick up where I left off once the PC and its attendant externals are up and running and the internets are turned on. I can take my time with the unpacking, as long as I keep that consistent and don’t fall into the trap of hiding it in the garage where it will inevitably fall into the I’ll deal with it later dimension once more. I’ve seen too many local garages that are basically I’ve Got Too Much Sh*t storage containers, and I refuse to let that happen to us. After all, I put ‘having a garage’ on my wish list precisely because I want somewhere to park our car when it’s not being used.

Still, if we time this out right (and I think we will), all should fall into place with minimal distraction or distress. Fingers crossed.

Fly-by: A new chapter…?

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Sorry for yet another fly-by, but I’ve been busy with IRL stuff (positive stuff, I promise!) these last couple of weeks, and it’s finally reached a point where things are solidifying into really cool future plans! I’m still being a bit vague about it for the time being until we make it official, but warning you now that my blog schedule might be a bit inconsistent for the next few months because of it.

In the meantime, I’m looking for a new writing nook name. I’ve had the Belfry, Arkham West and Spare Oom. Any suggestions?

Editing and tidying up

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I’m just shy of the halfway point in the Great Trilogy Remaster for A Division of Souls, which is a very good thing. That should leave me quite a lot of time on the back end to give it one more ‘bedtime reread’ (where my mistakes seem to make themselves the most visible) before releasing it out into the world come September.

It’s been ages since I’ve allowed myself to get this close to the Mendaihu Universe to the point where all the right things resonate. I’m using this to my advantage, because this means I know exactly what I was trying to do with the book. This also means that I know exactly where I didn’t quite pull that off. Anytime I find a moment that feels a bit rushed or confusing, too repetitive, or a potential continuity problem, I’m fixing it right there and then.

It’s also a different process than I’ve been used to since I first completed and released the third book in 2017. Whether it’s due to the writing styles or the shorter lengths, my later standalones went through a somewhat different process. I didn’t feel I had to immerse myself that deeply. Not that that was a bad thing, but over the years I began to miss that. Over the next few years I proved to myself that I could write econo, and enjoyed it just as much…but I missed the intensity of the deep dive. The full immersion.

I know, I know…I’ve brought this up a few times here already, but it constantly weighs on my mind while I work on this remaster. Writing the trilogy was such a powerful and life-changing event for me in that my writing chops escalated considerably within the span of just a few years, and it only got better once I started the original revision and self-publication process. Coming back to it again at this time feels like picking up where I left off, and hopefully I’ll be moving ever forward.