Which is to say this was a week of solid but unspectacular progress. Sufficient but no “I can coast now!” But “sufficient” is good.
It was an oddly disorganized week, though I can’t pin down why. Sunday afternoon it started with a zoom call for the new Ceaseless Way anthology. We’re not making the original deadline for getting all our stories in but we’re only slightly behind, much closer than we managed on the first book. We’re also beginning the critiquing, starting with my friend Ada Milenkovic Brown’s stories (I’ll get to them next week). Then come mine.
I got three Local Reporter stories in, though none of them are on the website yet. I also got back into the swing of Atomic Junk Shop blogging after several weeks away: one on the Sub-Mariner’s 1970 engagement, one on changing creative teams of the same era and one with cool comics images and the stories behind them.
Then there’s Jekyll and Hyde. I got a couple more chapters finished, completed watching Dark Shadows (er, that is, the portion relevant to my book), and watched the two Incredible Hulk TV pilot movies. Next week, more focus on writing, less on TV.
We’ve submitted the Plush One’s appeal for his CCR damage to the insurer but I’m still waiting on my eye doctor to deal with the insurance preapproval or to give me the information to handle it. Their office says it’s a billing-office problem, billing-office says not; given this was the doctor’s recommendation and they’re getting paid for it — it’s not like I’m challenging a bill — I’m baffled why this is such a slog.
Plushie is holding up well — if anything, he’s quite lively as he adjusts to his new situation. Still very needy so I sit with him in the cage a fair amount. As the vet said, he would probably end up okay if we didn’t give him the surgery but we think the outcomes are better this way. It’s next week, followed by a long stretch of recuperation. And then hopefully. as normal as our addled doggie ever gets.
I do feel a little dispirited realizing the year is ending and finishing Jekyll and Hyde will be the only goal I accomplish. I will have it done, and that’s something, but at my age the sense of running out of time constantly gnaws at me. But if I can focus as effectively on my writing next year … we’ll see.
Ceaseless Way cover by GetCovers based on concepts by Arden Brooks. Comics images by Jack Kirby (top) and Sal Buscema. All rights to images remain with current holders.
