On the one hand, just had the biggest and best convention sales weekend of my career.

On the other hand, my biggest Patreon supporter, one person who made up more than half my monthly take there, finally tapped out after four years of unwarranted generosity (for which, Kyle, I am intensely grateful).

So... I better find some writing motivation somewhere, hadn't I?

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In about half an hour (5 PM Central, 8-27-22) I will do some live-writing on Haycartes' Pluperfect Method. (I FINALLY found time and energy for a livewriting stream!)

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Forcing myself to make time amid all my projects for writing tonight- and it's going to be an attempt to resume Haycartes' Pluperfect Method. I think I've finally got my writer block fixed on that, so let's see what happens.

7 PM Central, 8-10-2021:

https://twitch.tv/redneckgaijin

Tomorrow (Wednesday) night, F1 2021, same time, same Twitch.

Those Patreon supporters who have the link to my livewriting Google doc might already know I've been working on a new project. As of tonight's session, I'm now 8,000 words into it, or about a chapter and a quarter- the introduction.

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No livewriting tonight, because I have to be up very early tomorrow for a round trip to Dallas for the first part of setup for A-Kon. (That's right; I'm going to Dallas, setting up shelves and stuff, and then going back home for a second load. I'm doing it because some restock won't arrive until tomorrow, because I didn't book a hotel for Wednesday night, and because the cost of gas for the round trip is about the same as a hotel night, so if I have the time, why not?) I then drive back to

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Just now got home from Atlanta.

I tried to do some writing every day, but it didn't happen. Wednesday, of course, was driving and work from 5 AM to 9 PM, at which point I had no energy. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I tried to write between customers, but between noise and frequently being very busy I don't think I got as far as 1,000 words for the three days combined. Sunday was teardown, and today was driving home.

And tomorrow is work on Changeling Space Program.

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I finally thought of something I'd been looking for on Haycartes for weeks- a way to jump the rails of the established plot.

Unfortunately, just as I do that, a combination of convention prep and glitches with my computer (my desktop machine keeps losing my ISP's DNS server) conspire to eat my time and energy.

Urgh. On the other hand, this is a small convention this weekend, so it's likely I'll have writing time to spare.

(Dammit.)

Hotel internet is unreliable almost to the point of uselessness.

Internet at the convention facility is free and good, but I don't have an electric outlet, so I have to conserve battery power on the laptop and can't write there.

I've only got about 500 words done on this trip so far.

Most irritating.

Just sat down and wrote 3,400 words in three hours. Words flowed freely (mostly).

Unfortunately, I'm at least a thousand more words from end of chapter, so no post tonight. Definitely post tomorrow, though.

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... turns out I did have an excuse.

Namely, the onset of food poisoning (self-inflicted).

Last night was... not great.

Today is only better by comparison (i. e. not kneeling over the toilet and writhing in pain from the gas bubbles in my intestines).

And I'm steeling myself to go into town to get things like canned, sterile sodas and non-contaminated food.

Fun, fun, fuddy fun fun.

Today I have no excuse except to say that words don't want to come.

Yesterday, in addition to having to cook and store six pounds of meat and ten pounds of things-that-go-with-meat, rush to town for a new mouse, do laundry, and catch up on bookwork, there was the Internet comedy music show.

Tuesday was more Internet problems, bank deposit, and other errands, followed by not quite a thousand words of Changeling Space Program.

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Yesterday: "Whew! It took me a week, but I finally got the next chapter of Haycartes written and posted! Maybe now I can get back to daily updates!"

Today, sinus headache, bowel complaints, booth to run, and loud music from the booth next door: "The gods have spoken, and lo, they saith, Thou Art Not Writing Jackest Shit Today."

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I was busy as hell all weekend- eleven to twelve hour days setting up / tearing down / running the booth, and then a four hour round trip so I could sleep in my own bed. Nothing at all got written.

Tomorrow I'll make my errand run, check a certain book back out of the library, and...

... well, not resume yet, since Tuesdays are Changeling Space Program writing days.

But Wednesday, yes. And while on the road, since Louisianime is a lot less busy than CyPhaCon.

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One example: that, as energy is running out, lines like this one slip past you:

"A male voice I’d been longing to see for far too long."

If you don't understand what's wrong with that, take a minute to think about it. I'll wait.

(But don't look for it in the story, because I'm getting rid of that stinker.)

The books being used for Haycartes' Pluperfect Method are (so far):

Beat to Quarters by C. S. Forster (complete)
Death Masks by Jim Butcher (in progress)
Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

After that, we'll see. That list will carry me well into summer, I'm sure.

But for now, I hit the road Thursday for South Carolina... see you at Nashicon!

My hotel room was supposedly non-smoking.

The previous occupant apparently didn't believe in signs. Nor did the hotel do a very good job of clearing out the residue. And I am allergic to cig smoke.

As a result, I've spent the last couple days with what amounts to a recurrence of the crud, with an Internet outage at the hotel Saturday night to make updating even less attractive.

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Just wrote 1,250 words, the first since Sunday. Feeling considerably better now.

Unfortunately, can't finish the current chapter, because I need to get to bed; have to be up way too early tomorrow to drive to San Antonio for GamExpo.

But I suspect the next chapter will go up tomorrow night, with daily updates to resume after that.

Last September, as I was getting towards the end of The Maretian, I came down with a serious case of the crud while working a table at Anime Weekend Atlanta. Despite that, I worked through it, because I had to and because the end was close.

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Such as it is.

This one is proving a lot tougher to write than Maretian was.