WCR

Updates!

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

After a mixed weekend last week, I had a tough week, which means that I didn’t get nearly as much writing done as I had wanted. Nor did I get much revisions done. And yesterday more edits arrived in my inbox, so I’ll be doing them this weekend. Hopefully they won’t be bad and I’ll be able to knock them out fairly easily, and then I can pick one of the three stories that needs revisions and DO IT.

Oh, and keep up with the eight anime shows I’m watching this season. And knitting the baby blanket. And going to the barn, 4-H, seeing friends, feeding myself, reading writers’ group stuff, exercising, and probably something else I’m forgetting.

That said, I am making little bits of progress on the current story (AOF#2) by spending a half an hour some weekday mornings on writing. Sometimes that goes better than others. But I have to say it’s so much easier to have my tablet hooked to the keyboard. Waking that up takes less time than even waking up an asleep laptop. And that might seem silly, but removing obstacles helps me write. (Also, I don’t have twitter on my tablet, so I don’t even have to block myself from it. And I find browsing in general harder, so I don’t do it as much!) So many perks.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Being Busy and Playing Real Life Pokemon

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

The second-ish week of the month is always hard, as in addition to riding twice and getting together with friends on Friday, I have a 4-H meeting (horse club, go figure), and writers’ group. So it’s super busy, and my scheduled “I need to work on revisions” this week fell through hard. Ah well, there’s always next week, right (you know, the one with two barn trips, writers’ group, and two social nights…)?

I currently have my fantasy novella shipped off to another batch of beta readers (for another set of eyes), so now I’ve (hypothetically) begun edits on my trans cowboy story. Deep breath.

My current WIP is the same story I’ve been writing for the past forever (it feels like). I like the story, but it’s fighting me tooth and nail, and since I’m sticking to “write one story at a time” rule, I’m eagerly looking forward to finishing it. Both characters are sort of angst-muffins, and I love them dearly, but they are a heck of trouble to write!

In other news, all of my friends are playing Pokemon Go, so I started sharing pictures of all the real life pokemon I caught.

Ponyta (aka, my gray pony who rolls after I bathe him)
Meowth (aka black barn cat who is a love muffin)
Pidgey (aka, chicken at the barn)
Real-life Pokemon Go is fun 😛 I encourage everyone to participate.

Not a Countdown

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

I am NOT counting down to my book release. Not actively. There’s not eight days left or anything.

Not at all.
BUT OH MY GOODNESS if there were it’d be so exciting!
Thankfully I have lots of other things to keep me distracted. Like editing BAW, giving WCR a read-through to send it off to a beta (which is where it is now), and trying to figure out where to send BAW for possible publication. Plus a few other things.
AND, related to my sorta kinky Sharing a Pond that may or may not be coming out in eight days, I was at a convention for work this weekend. It’s the Geeky Kink Event, and while it was exhausting and a lot of work (and stress), mostly because of prep and car’s crumpling, I had a great time. Talking to like-minded people is always fun, meeting new people, forging new bonds, getting your back set on fire. Good times.
Oh, did the back-set-on-fire thing catch your interest? Well it’s called fireplay and it was amazing. Using rubbing alcohol, firesticks, and her hands, fire was on my back. The alcohol creates a barrier between the fire and the skin so it doesn’t burn, just feels warm, and it’s a fantastic sensation (although requires training and skill, so don’t just run off and do it on your own).
I was really stressed on Saturday night after a 12-hour workday, so a nice fire massage (which is pretty much what it felt like) was much appreciated. The stress just fell away and I was so relaxed I was a little loopy. 
Obviously there are no pictures, and I was given an introductory session (so not as intense as it can/could be).[I wanted to upload a picture from the internet but blogger hated me and wouldn’t let me do it right now] The stick/ball is generally material (cotton? I can’t recall) doused in the alcohol, rung out, then drawn over the skin, with the other hand following shortly after to put out the fire. 

The Summer Goes So Fast

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

The past month has been hectic, as I flew from helping move the Riptide warehouse, dog-sat for my brother’s family, went on vacation, and now I’m cat-sitting. And in two weeks I’ll likely be dog/horse/house sitting.

Cat sitting is easy. Especially with this sweet girl. Of course I also have to tend to the swimming pool and the gardens, but I’m used to it. On the other hand, it still throws my routine completely out of whack. I don’t have an ideal place to work (my mom has an office, but I feel like everyone tries to make their offices as uncomfortable as possible or something. Or maybe it’s just people who don’t actually USE their office.)

Despite being insanely busy, I’ve been hitting my 5K monthly word counts. Last month was a bit of a cheat because it wasn’t actually original words, per se. Part of the word count was writing up a summary, which I’m totally counting just because those things are time consuming. Or at least they are for me. And this one was wordy!

Hopefully for August I’ll be finishing my YA trans* piece (WCR). Right now it’s a novella, but I’m hoping that a re-read will enlighten spots to develop things more. Or I’ll risk taking it to my writers’ group. Undecided at the moment.

I’m also working on a story idea I’ve had written down for ages. It’s a play off a Grimms-like fairy tale, except the majority of the story takes place AFTER. My original plan was for it to be a romance, and it still would be, but I’m trying to brainstorm more plotty things rather than always having the feelings be the conflict.

Of course, as soon as I sit down to do that, I think of nothing. But who doesn’t want to see a river guardian and a sacrifice child live happily ever after (Um, with time skips, of course O.O).

All right, time to put the nose to the grindstone. Or fingers to the keyboard, whichever will be more productive….