Tag: writing

Year Begin: Heading into 2026

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Let’s start with the things I’d like to do in 2026:

— I would like to complete and release Theadia next year, most likely during third or fourth quarter of the year. I still need to finish it, and I also need to revise it and figure out a cover for it. I’ll spend maybe a couple of weeks flitting around on the photo sites to see if I can find something that works, but I’d also like to look into seeing if I can commission an artist for it. I spent a good number of years working on this project and I’m quite proud of it, so I’d rather not drop the ball and half-ass the end result. It’s an important story for me, and I’d love for you all to read it and enjoy it.

— Will I have time to work on the Remaster for The Persistence of Memories, as originally planned? That’s a good question. I think I will, considering this one needed the least amount of work. If I recall, most of the work it did need will be for clarity or tightening up. I also might give it a newer cover. While it looks good on the physical copy, it doesn’t quite translate as well digitally. I’ll have to do some more work on that. I think I pulled one or two pictures back in the day that I liked, but I’ll see if I can find something similar that’s much more intriguing.

— I’m not going to worry too much about coming up with any new projects, especially since I have the two above to focus on. However, my plan is to keep my options open via the 750Words site. Whether it’s outtakes, MU-related ideas or just something that crossed my mind that day, I’d like to see where that takes me. I think I’ve come to the point in my creative career where I don’t feel too worried about running out of ideas, because I’ve proven to myself that was never the case. It’s always been about outer frustrations intruding into my creative life, whether it was job related or personal, and I’ve learned how to keep them separate. It still takes time and practice to keep that in place, but I’m aware of it and that’s the most important thing.

— Again, I do plan to expand my creative outlets by returning to art and music. If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s in the approach. I tend to freeze up if I force myself to do anything creative because it either feels like an assignment or an impenetrable wall. And if I approach it from that angle, then I first have to cast my creative mind aside to work past it, thus defeating the purpose. So how am I going to work this out in the new year? By taking a much simpler route: just pick up the tool and see where it takes me. It doesn’t always have to come from inspiration, sometimes it will just come from interest or curiosity. I’m curious to see what I can come up with on my guitar if I used alternate tunings. I’d like to see if I can get better at comic art. The approach is all about wanting to do it, not forcing myself to do it.

— And on a personal level, how do I want to live my life? I’ve made so many changes over the years, positive ones that needed to be taken, and now I’m at a point where I can move forward with the least amount of resistance. Where do I want to go? What do I want to do? What have I wanted to do? It doesn’t feel nearly as daunting as it used to, and that’s by design. I acknowledge the work it took that got me to this point, and now I’m allowed to keep moving in the right direction.

**

Sure, I’ve had my down moments. Times when I fell, times when I broke. But in 2025, I picked myself back up enough times that it no longer feels painful. I still feel the frustration, but now I know I can accept it each time and keep moving despite those down times. I can face the fears now. I can face the uncertainty. And that makes looking forward so much easier and clearer.

Here’s to wishing everyone a special and uplifting 2026!

Year End: Moving Forward

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I’ll be honest, I’ve spent most of December half-assing it.

I mean, I’ve gotten a lot done with Theadia. I managed to not only figure out a snag that was bothering me for the last few months, but the solution was so simple that it feels like a huge weight was taken off my shoulders. This in turn is helping me get through the various WRITE THIS LATER scenes a lot quicker, much to my relief.

I’ve been pretty consistent with the blog entries here and at Walk in Silence. And I’ve also been doing a really good job of keeping up with my daily words at 750Words, with only the occasional “cheat day” (in which I paste an older entry from this blog and comment what’s changed since then) here and there. I’ve been doing that on purpose as a dry run to get myself in shape for consistency starting next year.

Thing is, I probably could be doing more. I could be further along with Theadia, and I definitely need to get my butt in gear with the remaster for The Persistence of Memories. I haven’t picked up my guitars in a bit, I’ve been forgetting to update the personal journal, and I definitely haven’t done any art in far too long.

Still, I’m not about to beat myself up about all that. Not anymore, anyway. I’ve retaught myself not to focus on the failures, and instead focus on picking myself up and continuing when it eventually does happen. Call it a bit of self-awareness, a bit of Zen balance, whatever it might be. I know, I’ve tried this approach in the past and it always ends in tears, but that’s the point: accept that failures occur, pick myself up and dust myself off, and keep going.

I do have plans for 2026, of course. But that will be in the final entry, coming next Monday! See you then!

Year End: Movies

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For the last several years, it’s been a holiday tradition for us to watch the wonderful adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather, one of our most favorite holiday films. It’s full of great acting, silly banter (“I think my name is Bilious…I’m…the oh god of hangovers”) and brilliant writing. And Sir Terry makes a cameo appearance too!

I hadn’t always been a fan of Pratchett, though I had read a few of his novels in the 90s. I was more of an absurdist in the Douglas Adams vein anyway. It wasn’t until we started watching this one that I finally got his style and been a fan ever since. We’ve watched this one so often that it rivals the number of times I’ve watched certain movies for film class back in college, to the point that I’ve started analyzing it as a writer. I can see how it was written and how it was made, and how each storyline weaves and intertwines with the others, and how each one plays an important role in the main plot.

There’s also the lighthearted Hallmark holiday romcoms that A likes to watch around this time as well. And to be fair, I’ve been wanting to watch my favorite wasn’t-released-for-Christmas-but-is-sort-of-a-holiday-film While You Were Sleeping for a while now. Those kinds of films might be silly fluff, but the good ones are always well-written, often quirky and have a heart of gold. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Over the last few years, I’ve kind of picked up on that. Remember, I got serious in my writing in the 90s and 00s, which means I was informed by over-the-top bombast of Armageddon and Independence Day, deep metaphysical weirdness like Dark City and The Matrix, along with all those random anime films and manga tankobons I devoured during the Belfry Years. This is precisely why my last several novel releases were much lighter one-offs: I had to learn how to dial it back. Lighthearted isn’t always a bad thing.

Which is why, at the end of the year, I like to take in some of that lighter fluff, just as a reminder that I’m allowed to write that kind of stuff too. Hell, I even have that romcom idea still simmering on the backburner somewhere!

Year End: Moving Stuff

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One thing I’ve been meaning to do for a while now is get out my personal file box and clean it out some. It’s been a few years and I’m sure there are quite a few hold-for-seven-years papers in there that can be shredded. I initially put it off because of the move, but it’s been a few months now, and it still needs doing, especially considering my filing cabinet here in the office is getting a bit overfull.

I’d also like to head down to the garage and get my writings in a better semblance of order than ‘a few plastic bins and several boxes on the bottom storage shelves’. I’ll admit I sort-of-hastily stuffed them in those things in the final weeks of moving house, with the knowledge that they were at least safely stored off the floor. I don’t need to bring them up to the office, but I should at least make the bins easy to navigate.

That’s not to say that I’m already falling into a bad habit of not keeping things clean in our new home. I’m usually pretty good at putting my things away and tossing/recycling/shredding when needed. Just that I could probably utilize the new spaces a little better. The black bookshelf next to my desk, for instance, is an odd array of CD box sets, office supplies, and other odds and ends, and the bottom shelf is underused as temporary storage of…stuff. And my little under-the-desk caddy has gotten a bit of a shakeup en route to the new digs so that too probably needs straightening.

I usually like doing this kind of cleaning at the end of the year anyway, that way I can start fresh and keep up the orderliness I already have.

Now, my Dropbox folders, on the other hand…those are definitely going to need a lot of time and patience. They’re not in chaos, thankfully, but I really should organize them a lot better than they are. Over the last year or so I got a little lazy and the File This Later pile has been expanding exponentially. I’ll take my time on that, however. No need to worry about the digital just yet!

Year End: Moving On

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Sure, I could use the classic phrase I’m too old for this sh*t in regards to some of the more frustrating things that have happened over the past year. But really, I’m not nearly as cynical as that. Despite being firmly Gen-X, I never completely slid into full-on cynicism because I always felt it was an easy way out: writing something off by saying it was never good in the first place. It just didn’t ring true to me.

It’s true, I’ve had a few frustrating things happen here and there this year, and yes, I may have overreacted to some degree. But I’m not writing any of that off, far from it. I’m just choosing to acknowledge it and move on. Not every single event in my life needs to be a conflict that needs to be faced or resolved. Sometimes it just is what it is, and I have to adjust accordingly. I might have to make some changes, but they will be changes made my way and not out of frustration or necessity.

If anything comes with age for me, I think it’s that I’ve refined how I utilize my sense of patience. Back in my 20s I used to semi-joke I was cursed with a tremendous amount of it, primarily because it was the only reaction I could have most of the time, whether due to finances, emotional reaction, or just the situation I found myself in. Some years later I learned how to voice those frustrations, and at times I could be too vocal about it. It took me a while to find a level that wasn’t pathetic or reactionary.

It was all about balance, really. And that’s how I’ve been living since then.

Right now I know there are some things I can fix, and other things I can’t. But I know I am not chained to the places or situations I find myself in these days. It’s a matter of being able to think outside the box instead, and figuring out how to sidestep that particular obstacle and still move forward. It’s true, much of this I’ve inserted into the various characters in Theadia; many of them are just tired of doing it the old way and failing every time, and are looking for alternate ways to resolve their various conflicts. Thus their repeated mantra: if you could…would you do the right thing?

I think in 2026, this is how I’m going to try to think about my writing. While I still have a few things on the backburner waiting to be started, I’m feeling as though I’ve kept a lot of them there not out of a severe case of the Don’t Wannas, but more out of a rational sense that they may not be worth working on at this time. They might be good stories, just that I’m just not feeling the excitement about them. I’m pretty sure I’ll be finally trunking them for good pretty soon.

It’s time to move on.

Year End: Moving

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On any given day at work, I’ll walk at least two miles during my shift. Some days I’ll even walk closer to five if it’s busy. You’d think I don’t do much walking considering the hours I spend at the front end registers, but I do a lot more than just checking some days. I might be shopping for online customers. I might have to head to the receiving dock (in which I need to walk to the rear of the store, down a very long hallway, around a corner and past several shelves of backstock) for one thing or another. Or I may just be the lucky courtesy clerk that needs to head outside and round up the carts. Even on the days when I’m a bookkeeper, I certainly get my steps in. And I’ve been doing a LOT of walking at work.

If anything, I’m glad I’m nowhere near as sedentary as I was with the Former Day Job. Sitting on my duff for eight hours certainly gave me poor sitting posture and lazy-itis, that’s for sure. Here, I can expect to get at least some passive exercise in during an eight-hour shift. It makes up for the lack of time we used to have when we’d go for walks around the neighborhood after logging off for the day. Not that we don’t do that anymore, just that our walking tends to be on the weekends these days. Added to that, we let our YMCA membership lapse sometime ago.

I’ve been thinking, though, that I still need to get in better shape. I might be moving around, but I’m also a victim of lazy-itis on my days off. I’m not eating nearly as much junk food as I used to (though this triple whammy holiday season is certainly causing me to snack more!), but I’m not exactly burning enough calories, either. I’m getting older, so I’m not as flexible or as spry as I used to be, and certain parts are beginning to ache.

So what does this have to do with a writing blog? The obvious answer is that yes, I will definitely make it a point to move around more in 2026. Whether it’s a walk around the neighborhood or to our plot at the community garden, or making sure I do my daily stretches to keep me limber, I need to make time for it alongside my writing sessions. I don’t mind not exercising on a particularly busy work day where I’m going to be getting those steps in, but I should at least make stretching a daily priority, even if it is just for a few minutes a day.

Besides, a day where I’m moving physically is always a good day, because it usually gets my mind moving as well.

Year End: Moving House

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All told, the hardest part of moving to a new place was getting Cali into one of the carriers.

Finding a new place we liked? Actually kind of enjoyable. Our agent was super helpful and easy to work with. Banking? A bit chaotic with a few frustrating delays and dead-ends, but it got done eventually. Paperwork? There was certainly a hell of a lot of it, but in time all the t’s were crossed and i’s were dotted, and I made it a point to save every homeowner copy and pdf sent our way for future reference. Waiting for moving day? We planned it out so there was a bit of an overlap, so we had access to our new place while still emptying out the old one, and moved several things ahead of time to make it easier. Packing? Thankfully we prepared at least a good few months ahead of time, slowly boxing everything up. I must have made seven visits to the local Goodwill to donate the stuff we no longer wanted, each trip with six or more boxes of stuff. Setting up a mover? Easy-peasy, and the team I hired did an excellent and extremely quick job. Updating all the mailing addresses? Easy, though of course we’d forgotten a few post-move as is normal. Even the unpacking was quicker than expected, considering how detailed we’d been in packing in the first place. Certain items went straight down to the garage storage, while others went into specific rooms. All told, everything went as smooth as we’d hoped it would with minimal issue.

As for the cats, Jules didn’t fight too much. She got a bit cranky but she kind of understood what was happening, considering various pieces of furniture were suddenly disappearing along with the curious mountains of boxes they’d been climbing all over the previous month or two. She might be the more vocal of the two any other time, but she’s also very quiet when things get tense or confusing.

Cali, on the other hand? She turned into a full-on chaos goblin. It took three of us to get a hold of her, wrap her in a towel, deposit her in the cat carrier while she flailed and clawed, then zip it up before she could jump out for the fourth time. Our friend C was laughing the entire time, it was so comical. And Cali was not happy and made sure I knew about her displeasure until I took them both over and set them loose in the office for a day or two until everything settled and we put more boxes away.

All told, it only took them maybe a day or two to get used to the new place, and they love it here. More windows, more things to explore, more birds outside to watch, and even a stairway to run up and down. And they love skittering and drifting across the floor instead of digging into carpet. Life is good for our two silly cats.

*

On a more personal note, it feels good to start fresh on that ‘clean slate’ level. I’m still feeling my way around figuring out what habits and processes I’d like to return to and which ones I’d like to change, but for the most part it’s been a lot easier than before, when I still had my creative past all around me. I hadn’t realized how much of an issue that had been, given our minimal storage space in the last two places we’d lived in. Back in my Belfry days, I could store a lot of my old stuff in filing cabinets or in the boiler room, but over the last several years I only had plastic bins and IKEA storage boxes that had to be shoved under the bed or in the deep recesses of what little closet space we had. In our new place, those bins and boxes are on the lower shelves of a unit I set up in the garage. Well out of the way but still easy to access if necessary. [I suppose I should eventually spend some time getting all of it in a better order, but there’s no rush right now. Maybe in the new year.]

This, in a roundabout way, has helped me focus more on the mental and emotional clarity I’d been working on over the last few years. There are still a few bumps in the road here and there, but I’m doing pretty well right now considering. I’m realizing that there are still a few self-built obstacles to work through, but those are much easier to face these days. Perhaps it comes with age that I’ve learned not to be so emotionally reactive to it all. I’ve learned what to work on and what to let go. I’ve learned when to keep fighting and when to move on.

It’s true, moving house did assist somewhat in all of that, partly because I’d chosen the ‘clean slate’ route. It inspired me to remain on top of it all and not get overly distracted. It offered more clarity going forward, making my path easier to navigate. Older thoughts and ideas cast aside, paving the way for new ones to form without all the clutter.

Sure, this might be another one of my patented year-end Best Laid Plans rambles, but I’d like to think that despite that happening, I have a much better chance of seeing it through than in the past. And I’d like to think that’s something worth looking forward to.

Year End: Moving Office

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I suppose I could start this entry with an exasperated how the hells is it December already??, but really, I’m not that surprised at all. It’s been a busy year all around.

One of the biggest changes of 2025 was our moving to our new home, and one we own rather than rent at that. To be honest, I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. There’s a sense of permanence going on that I am very much not used to. Aside from my family’s house, every other place I’ve lived in has always been a rented apartment, so it’s taking time for me to accept that we’re allowed to make changes (or not!) if we so choose. I am also greatly amused at how many quarters I can amass over time now that we own our own washer/dryer unit, and how much room our shared office has now that most of my old writings and whatnot are down in our garage storage.

Speaking of a shared office, I’m glad I chose to take the ‘clean slate’ option when we moved everything in, because Spare Oom was getting a mite bit crowded with our mutual book collection and all my writing-related stuff. I was also feeling a bit boxed in by the strict schedule I’d placed upon myself. While the whiteboard calendar had long been a source of inspiration to keep me going, it had also turned into a bit of a chain around my ankle. It all had started feeling like an assignment rather than a a craft that I enjoyed.

So when I got everything plugged in and turned on at the New Digs, I gave myself a fresh start. I didn’t do any blogging, journaling or daily words for a couple of months, instead focusing on the most important projects, Theadia and the Trilogy Remaster. I took my time deciding what decorations to put up, as I didn’t want another collage of stickers and silly things poking holes in the pristine white walls. I didn’t even update my notebook calendar with any notes like I normally would. I merely wanted to reset my priorities and find a bit of clarity.

And now here we are months later. The remastered A Division of Souls is out in the wild, Theadia is back up and running, and I’m even back to blogging and daily words. I only journal occasionally these days, as I don’t feel the need to make it a daily thing at the moment. I feel less disconnected from the world as well, considering the office’s windows overlook the street we live on, and I’m not as far away from A as I used to be. And of course we have both cat trees in here, so Juli and Cali are frequent visitors and distractors!

More to come…

Chilling

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Image from Laid Back Camp

That is, feeling a bit cold lately. This is around the time of year when the temperature starts to dip in the Bay Area. Not quite the freezing cold of the Northeast that I grew up with, of course, but just enough where I need the extra layers and the knitted fingerless gloves. Just enough that we have to turn the heater on for a while.

This always reminds me of those days during the Belfry Years when I’d head down to the basement in the dead of winter to work on the Bridgetown Trilogy. I’d put on extra socks and aim the space heater directly towards the underside of the desk to keep my feet warm. I’d have a heavy shirt and a sweatshirt on. I was pretty stubborn about it because the only other place in the house to work was upstairs in the computer nook which was kind of uncomfortable as it was a raised area with only a stool to sit on.

Come to think of it, this is going to be our first winter at the New Digs, so I’m curious as to how cold it’ll get. Thankfully ours is a newly renovated place with central heating and no leaky windows, so at least it won’t be drafty, but I can already tell that it’s going to be just a wee bit chilly nonetheless. We’ve already had a few rainy days come through, and although it can get windy (our street is east-west and is a natural wind tunnel for coastal breezes coming off the Pacific Ocean), it remains warmish inside.

I suppose as long as I stay wrapped up and perhaps nursing a hot tea, I should be okay here in the new writing area!

Still here, just feeling loopy

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I’ve been doing 5:30am opens all week while the head bookkeeper is out, and I’m so not used to it. Thankfully I’ve been very particular about balancing my energy levels and sleep patterns, so I’m not so much exhausted as just using my brain just a bit too much. Who knew that Q4 retail could use up so many mental spoons? Heh.

Still, I’m managing to slowly slog through the parts of Theadia that I’m working on. It’s taking forever, but I’m bound and determined to get this dang thing out one way or another!