Category Archives: Writing

Hearthcraft Book Update

Total word count, hearthcraft book: 23,001
New words today: 1,168

Close to the original magic number of 1,200, although far from the 1,600 I’m now using as my daily goal, and even further from the 2K I was secretly hoping to hit today to really get me going again. I’m very fortunate that the boy’s caregiver can take him an extra day every two weeks, giving me three days in a row to work twice a month.

Still: over 23K. That’s good, that’s good. There’s a world of difference between being one-third done at 20K, and half-done at 30K.

It’s been ages since I’ve had to teach anyone about wards. Gah. All my words on the subject are mysteriously AWOL and I’m left kind of waving my hand in the air at the monitor, saying, “You know, it’s like, well, that.” The fibro-fog I’ve been working in doesn’t help. An article I was reading on fibro today politely called it ‘impaired concentration/comprehension’, which is a very nice way of saying ‘I’m out of it and can’t keep track of a thought for more than a moment or two’. I’m told it takes about a week to get used to the medication that I begin taking tonight. I’m really, really hoping my brain sharpens up after that period of adjustment and I’m back to where I need to be.

The Day So Far

I have been geeking out over a scan of a hand-marked Vaughan-Williams score used by Stokowski, scribbled upon with red-pencilled notes after discussion with the composer. And I thought I marked my music up!

I think I may be one of the only people I know who isn’t sick of winter yet. Not that I want it to hang around; it just seems that others have reached the fed-up point much sooner than I have. Although looking at past history, I’m due for that ‘c’est assez!’ moment any day now.

I picked up my first month of medication this morning and laughed very hard at the $7.99 price tag. And to think we were worried! Since I got home I have been working on rituals and such (and rhapsodising over the Vaughan-Williams score, of course). I’m going to get up and stretch, then move into the hearthcraft book and pray that I connect with whatever it is I end up writing about today.

I am still very much enjoying buying gifts for people. I can’t do it for everyone, of course, otherwise I’d very quickly be in the ‘zounds where will we get the money to eat’ position again. But there are couple of people who have had positive impact on my state of mind and spirit this past year, and perfect things for them have been popping up in my path. I’ve also ordered some books on fibro for myself. I might as well learn as much as I can about it, as we may be living together for quite some time.

I’ve even eaten lunch already. Two meals before ten-thirty! And when this loaf of bread has finished baking, I will have yet another meal of fresh bread and roast beef and cheese!

This is what a pretty darn good day looks like. Except…

How am I supposed to work under such conditions?

Hearthcraft Book Update

Less than a thousand words today. I wish I could settle into this. I haven’t found my stride yet and I spend too much time trying to figure out what and how to do something.

But: Mailbox joy in the form of payment for my test evaluation for that ongoing freelance gig, much sooner than expected. Hurrah! I’ll watch the exchange rates this week and see if I can make an extra dollar or two on it. It’s the principle of the thing.

Finished!

I have just returned the copy-edits/rewrites for the Pagan Pregnancy book. Go me! Finished in under a day, with a minimum of trauma and angst! Okay, that may have been because I let the suggestions and questions and deletions brew in my subconscious for a week… but whatever and however, it is done and I am awesome.

For the first time in a while I feel like I actually did some work, as if I accomplished something. I’m having so much trouble settling into the hearthcraft book — it doesn’t feel coherent or cohesive yet, and every time I sit down to work at it feels like a struggle — so this was a relief. I never thought I’d see the day where I thought handling copy-edits for a book I’d written were a relief.

The next time I see this should be when the Fed Ex delivery person hands me the box of page proofs.

Grawr

I’ve had three virtual baskets of second-hand and new research books waiting for me at on-line retailers since early December. I couldn’t order them because we didn’t have the money at the time.

Today I skipped about paying bills with merry abandon, and then I went to confirm and place the book orders.

All but one of the second-hand ones had sold. And they sold within the last two weeks, too, because I checked at the beginning of January when I went back to writing the hearthcraft book, to make sure they were still there.

This makes me cranky. I’ve used an hour and a half of time trying to track down affordable replacement copies. I’ve given up in three cases; I’m waiting to hear shipping quotes from two sellers on eBay for another.

Life would be so much simpler if I wrote about things about which libraries carried books, so I could just borrow my research material instead of trying to find it in odd corners of the world.

On the other hand, now I also get to place orders for gifts, which were also put on hold for a while. So there is much pleasure in that.