March in Review

 

Writing

Frost is at 76,000 words. That's up from 17,500 at the end of this month. No, writing Frost was not on the goal list for last month. I checked. In my case, writing 58,500 words is what I do to avoid editing for a few weeks. It would've been nice if I could've written them on any one of the sequels I was planning to write next but HEY. Writing happens.

Because I'm writing Frost to indulge myself, it's been pretty easy to write. I'm just doing the parts that are interesting to me. When I hit a point where I'd normally go "I need to do research or think of clever things to use for this part", I mostly NOPE out of it instead. This is a ROMANCE, let's get back to the chewy relationship stuff and there can be just enough surrounding material to hold it together. Just barely enough. Whatever. Like there are two main characters and I hardly even let anyone else show up. I actually thought really hard about making it a poly romance because I love two of the few supporting cast characters, but I feel like this story is held together mainly by the way the protagonists are obsessed with each other. So.

The Business of Writing

Despite procrastinating SO HARD on editing, I did manage to finish the penultimate editing pass for Demon's Lure. last month. \o/ In the last week, because I put it off for that long. "Penultimate" means that the book is now in Alinsa's capable paws for layout. When she's done with layout, I will read it a final time to check for errors, and then it goes into the wild. Because it took me so long to get it to Alinsa, I'm expecting the release to be sometime in May. At least it's not a doorstopper like Silver Scales, so it shouldn't be as hard to layout.

I also commissioned my artist for the cover for Demon's Sigil. The cover he did for Lure is amazing, by the way. SO BEAUTIFUL. I need to do a post just for it. Usually I like to wait for release but I am impatient this time.

Art/Other
I did a little more work on my Flight Rising adopt, because I got three more customers. (!) So that was fun. I also started to draw a couple's adopt (where two dragons are posed together). I don't know if I'm going to do enough on it to make it available for purchase, but we'll see. Adopts are fun to do in general, but they're more fun when I know someone is going to appreciate the art. <3

Socializing
I am planning a trip in April! To visit Terrycloth! For the first time in a year! I AM VERY EXCITED. If you live in the Seattle area and would like to see me briefly, I'll be there Sat-Sun, 4/28-29. Barring medical crises forcing me to cancel. But yes, Lut is presently doing well enough that he thinks he can fend for himself for a long weekend without me. \o/ 

Happiness
I was depressed for much of March. A lot of days where I felt wrung out and hopeless. And unproductive, in defiance of all reason. Like, yes, I was procrastinating on editing but still. I did a Nano in like 3 weeks. Give yourself a break, girl.

Anyway, I'm doing better now. We'll see if this lasts!

Goals for coming month

I am tempted to put Frost on the goal list, but NOPE. Odds are I'm going to write it anyway. It doesn't need to be a goal.

I did succeed, technically, at all my goals for last month! Lut is alive, Demon's Lure is to Alinsa for editing, and I did "some editing" on Demon's Sigil. Where "some editing" means "very little but technically editing for 3-4 days DOES COUNT as some". I have crossed 11 items off the list. The list is up to 32 items. So there's 21 left. I don't know how many items it's going to grow to. Anyway, here's my goals:

• Get Lut to doctor's appointments and otherwise make sure he is all right
• Do taxes before April 15
• Figure out how to get Lut's disbility stipend off his debit card and to somewhere that it can actually pay for his expenses. Maybe an ATM. And then actually do this.
• Get the remainder of Lut's disability checks cashed.
• Get together enough paperwork for at least one medical bill so that I can keep the Lut's co-pay grant open
• Finish preliminary edits on Demon's Sigil and get it to beta readers.

The "co-pay grant" is a grant that will pay or reimburse us for the portion of Lut's medical expenses that aren't paid by insurance. It will reimburse for any expenses incurred after 11/8/2017. But it has pretty stringent paperwork requirements: I have to provide a copy of the bill, prove that it was authorized by a medical professional, show that the service was performed during the covered period, find where my insurance paid for its portion of the particular service, and provide proof that I paid it, if I'm asking for reimbursement. I also have to send in at least one receipt every 90 days in order to keep the grant active. So I have until May 8th to do this.

The biggest problem with this is that almost all of Lut's medical expenses are from September 2017 or prior. By October, he had met the out-of-pocket cap and stopped incurring new bills in 2017. In 2018, it looks like the combination of MO HealthNet (the state Medicaid program) and UMR (private insurance through my employer) has either covered everything, or confused healthcare providers so thoroughly that they haven't gotten around to billing us yet. (Honestly, it is anyone's guess which one. GOOD LUCK HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS.)

In another great twist of what-the-heck, the bills I have paid myself, that were from Sept 2017 or earlier, have started to send us refund checks. What. Why. Did you change your mind after four months and decide you didn't want money after all? So I have to try depositing the checks back in my account, I guess.

Anyway, I am putting all this stuff on my Goals list because it's not been getting done and my monthly goals are about the only way to give myself a shot at doing them. I am not good at paperwork. Also, having it on my goals list will remind me that it is, in fact, work. And I should give myself credit for doing it and not go "why am I not accomplishing anything ;__;" all the time.

Sun Porch of

When my house was originally built, it had a basement but no interior staircase, only an exterior door. At some point before I bought the house 15 years ago, amateurs added an extension, pretty much for the sole purpose of enclosing a stairwell to the basement. It has electric lights but no outlets and no heat. The shingles from the original exterior are still in place on the inner wall of the extension. There's some space in addition to the stairs, but it's pretty much an overgrown hall. On the main floor, in the space behind the stairwell that was billed as a "sun porch", we put the cat's litter boxes and a bunch of miscellaneous junk we don't have any other place for and never use.

Several days ago, I came home to find an enormous pool of liquid in the middle of the floor in the cat's area, surrounded by litter boxes. It looked like water and had no odor I could detect. It looked like more liquid than one cat could reasonably contain. The ceiling and all walls were dry. The puddle did not extend to the walls.

???

I cleaned it up. Maybe Lut or I had sleep-walked, spilled a glass of water there, put the glass away, and left the puddle. I got nothin'.

The puddle has not returned since.

Today, I went to clean the litter boxes. A dying wasp was on the floor among the litter boxes. I stepped on it to finish off the dying process.

Then I noticed another dying wasp.

And a wasp corpse. And another wasp corpse. And

WHY DID A SMALL NEST OF WASPS COME INTO MY HOUSE TO DIE

Poll #19745 WHAT THE HECK

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

View Respondents

WHY

View Answers

There is a natural spring in the middle of the floor with an invisible trapdoor. The wasps built a nest down there. The cold snap drove them to the main floor but not fast enough to save them.
0 (0.0%)

The wasps brought the water in tiny buckets and then took a really really long time drowning. Also, they hid while you cleaned it up.
5 (35.7%)

Like Lut, the house has cancer. Wasps and puddles are its tumors.
1 (7.1%)

Remember the Basement of Doom? It's spreading.
4 (28.6%)

Ghosts
2 (14.3%)

Demons
0 (0.0%)

House actually build atop the Hellmouth
2 (14.3%)

WHAT

View Answers

Have you considered cleaning the litter box more often?
0 (0.0%)

Or just, you know, cleaning in general. Maybe the wasps are nesting in all that stuff you don't use.
1 (7.7%)

Maybe the house needs chemo.
0 (0.0%)

Do nothing and the ghosts will let you be. And kill the wasps for you. You don't want HEALTHY wasps next time, do you???
4 (30.8%)

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
8 (61.5%)