Plushie and Wisp. They don’t usually share the couch like this.
And the Plush One and Snowdrop staring as TYG enters the kitchen
Category Archives: The Dog Ate My Homework
Second September verse, more or less same as the first
Which is to say that much like last week there were constant calls on my time but I still got good work done. Not as much as last week —Thursday there was too much stuff going on, including the housecleaners coming in (having to watch over four pets in a small room to keep them out of the way does not lead to productive results). Even so.
First, the medical stuff. Plushie’s eye ulcer is gone; once again his robustness shines through and his problems cleared up. Trixie, by contrast, followed up last week’s gastro-intestinal bleed with a UTI. Fortunately the vet has handled both and she’s on the road to recovery. In hindsight I was right a couple of weeks back to think something was wrong — her body language and behavior were “off” — but it was such a vibes-based thing I wasn’t sure it was quantifiable enough for the vet. Looking at her now, when she’s back to her usual cheery self, I can see I should have acted sooner.
Oh, and I had my own medical issue. A couple of weeks back I made a Scandinavian flatbrod, which the book described as a cracker-like flatbread. Turns out while it’s hard like a cracker it isn’t brittle; I hurt my gums biting hard on it (this may have been my baking rather than something innate in the recipe). Got an appointment with the dentist this week; she recommended waiting three weeks to see if the pain subsides. If not, I need a crown. Fingers crossed the pain goes away.
Like I said, work got done despite that. More work on my Doc Savage history, Savage Adventures. Two days going over the second draft of Let No Man Put Asunder. It helped clarify some of what I vaguely sensed wasn’t working with this last draft; now I’ll try to override my pantsing instincts and plot the next draft out thoroughly. I’ll discuss what lies ahead in one of next week’s posts.
At The Local Reporter I wrote about problems with school bus service in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and how the Republican-dominated legislature is restricting local development rules. Over at Atomic Junk Shop I blogged about Steve Ditko’s Objectivism —
— and Bronze Age writers’ enthusiasm for bringing back C-list Silver Age villains.
I’m tired, sure. The timing of Trixie’s drug regimen means we usually wind up going to sleep later than usual and it’s taking its toll. But the work got done. I’m pleased.
Panels from Blue Beetle #5 drawn and written by Steve Ditko. All rights to image remain with current holders.
God said ha. I said “ha!” back
The old saying is that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. I planned to get a lot done this week; God said “ha!” meaning there were a ton of obstacles. Despite which, to my pleasant surprise, I did get a lot done.
First the obstacles. We were still dealing with Plushie’s ulcer (diagnosed last week) but as of his Thursday appointment, it’s cured. Once again our dog has beaten a health problem despite his nearly 16 years of age! That’s always nice. He’s still on an antibiotic for the ulcer but that’s more a precaution than a necessity. We’re taking it though.
Trixie didn’t do so well. Last week she was becoming weirdly picky about food and reluctant to eat her meds. She also felt … off, in a way I can sense but couldn’t define. Sunday she began not eating at all so we took her into the vet Monday, followed by the emergency vet (they could do a couple of tests Park Vet couldn’t). At first the news was horrifying: anemic, blood count up, white blood cells up, which could indicate an infection, or possibly internal bleeding. At the end of the day, by virtue of eliminating the alternatives, they settled on probably some bleeding in the GI tract (I will skip the technical details).
We came home with directions to switch some of her meds and to have her drink a protective slurry an hour before her meals. It’s working: we took her in for a recheck Wednesday and all her signs have improved, though not by a lot (but the vet said that’s expected). She’s livelier, though also sleepier — she’s on Gabapentin now and it knocks her out. But she’s clearly happier and more interested in eating so this is a definite win. A demanding one — the need to time the slurry and her food and some of her meds makes our schedules that much more complicated.
Oh, and I also had to take our car in for an oil change and checkup. That took up a couple of hours too.
Despite which, work went well. I got two articles in for The Local Reporter, both out next week. Might get a third one done but I think that’s where the dog drama will leave me too wiped. I also got three posts up at Atomic Junk Shop, one about iron-on shirt decals in the 1970s, one on a really weird 1971 cover (above, by Murphy Anderson) and one about the path to (IMHO) the definitive Phantom Stranger run by Jim Aparo and Len Wein which kicked off with the cover at left by Aparo.
I also got a nice review of Southern Discomfort from one of my fellow bloggers. Thanks, Greg!
I worked through another year of Doc Savage’s history for Savage Adventures, and polished the bibliography. And then, on Let No Man Put Asunder, I really got some good stuff done. First I went through the writing guide Writing the Breakout Novel, taking notes on stuff that might be useful to think about (give your villains goals. Your supporting characters too). Maybe not — while I’ve read the book a lot, I’m not sure I use it’s techniques not. But I think I’m using it early enough in the rewrite process that might be different.
Then I started rereading, taking notes along the way. Insights or phrases someone offers more than once (“making the beast with two backs” is not going to appear more than once). Thin characterization or motivation. Implausible plotting. Places where it needs more tension. I got a third of the way through the book; that’s pretty good.
I also received by McFarland second-half-of-the-year royalty check. Small, but my books are still selling, which is cool; if you bought one of them, thanks!
And I now have three stories in the “made the first cut” category. No guarantee any of them will sell — I’m quite used to “This was a really tough decision, but …” emails — but they’re all possibilities. More disappointingly, I won’t get an author table to sell my books at Retcon next year. It was quite lucrative this year because it’s set up so all the con-goers go past the sale area frequently, probably why table requests have quadrupled. I’m on the waiting list so fingers crossed.
Fingers crossed too for more weeks like this.
Below, a typical Len Wein opening to a Phantom Stranger story. Aparo art.
All rights to images remain with current holders.
Do I wither with time, or is this just a fluke?
Which is to say, this was another frustrating week. Looking at how often I type that, I wonder if I’m losing my ability to concentrate as I age? Or is it just that sometimes, shit happens.
This week was definitely partly “shit happens.” First off, Monday evening Plushie’s good eye had something wrong with it, making him squint so much it was barely open. TYG rushed him down to the nearby emergency vet who did not perform well. We may not go back which is a crying shame (it’s a lot further to the next closest E/R). However we were able to get a Tuesday morning appointment with his eye doctor (they’re also close): it’s an ulcer, which is manageable and it was back to normal by Thursday (though we’ll be doing added eyedrops for a week or so). Still that meant we got to bed sometime around midnight, which ain’t good.
Yesterday I went in to my own doctor, who confirmed I have sleep apnea. The most likely outcome is that I’ll end up wearing one of those freaky masks hooked up to a small air pump. I’ll be talking to a specialist about that. The other alternatives are a smaller mouthpiece that would widen my air intake or to take the GLP and see if my weight comes down. My doctor favors the CPAC pump and I’m inclined to agree. While I’m obese by BMI standards I’d need to lose 30 pounds to be non-obese; while I’m nobody’s idea of six-pack abs I do not believe I have 30 excess pounds to lose. In any case, that took a chunk out of my day.
Oh, and Trixie came down with a tummy this weekend and refused to eat. Since then she’s eating but she’s ultra-picky. Won’t take her meds on anything but the same canned chicken we give Plushie. Won’t eat kibble, only soft food. Refuses most hard treats — I’d think she had a tooth issue but there are some treats she does eat so … well, you’ve got me. If it keeps going I may ask the vet for insight.
All that said, part of the problem this week was me not being organized. I had three stories to work on for The Local Reporter and in-between sending out emails and waiting for replies my mind kind of wandered (the lack of sleep didn’t help). Plus I had some personal plane travel I might take before the end of the year and that always messes up my mind: do I want to spend the money? Do I want to get to the airport at 5 in the morning if it saves $100? I’ve spent much of my life living on a struggling writer salary so it’s impossible for me to be just “yeah, that’ll do for anything over a couple of hundred bucks. And if I plonk down the money now, who knows what’ll happen between now and then?However I did get most of the work done on the stories. Plus I got more work done on Savage Adventures, including adding footnotes. I’d been mostly attributing stuff in the text when appropriate but it’ll flow much smoother with footnotes.
And that was about it. Part of the problem is that I kept trying to do more than one project in a day and that’s usually a mess unless I plan it very carefully. I’m going to try to avoid that in September.
Oh, here are two pieces over at Atomic Junkshop: one about realizing what certain songs really mean, one on DC’s Homo magi and my head-canon version of their history.
Doc Savage cover by James Bama, comic book panel by Jack Sparling. All rights to images remain with current holder.
Filed under Doc Savage, Nonfiction, Personal, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing
At last, a productive week, though I didn’t produce the things I most wanted to
That is to say, I spent another week without getting any fiction written. I don’t like that, but at least I didn’t just flap and flounder around without accomplishing anything.
I’d intended to spend Wednesday working on short stories. Instead I wound up spending two or three hours checking on which stories had been rejected (in the “if you don’t hear from us, we didn’t take it” mode), then checking out potential markets and resubmitting them. “Mage’s Masquerade” went to Abyss and Apex; “Oh the Places You’ll Go” went to More Distant Shores. I also read a couple of stories from Tuesday’s writing group that I hadn’t been able to listen to (schedule conflicts).
(We went to Costco last weekend. They’re ready for Halloween).
Thursday I’d planned to work on Let No Man Put Asunder. However Trixie got up early again and the lack of any personal space in the early morning does seem to affect my focus. Creativity dissipated and I settled for working The Savage Adventures. I put in two days on that book this week and got my analysis of two years of Doc Savage magazine proofed. If I can work a year a day, I can have the text of the book done this year. Still have to find a cover artist, though my cover concept is simple enough I may try using software to do it myself. If not, I’ll look.
(More Costco Halloween fun. This one actually moves).
I got two articles in at The Local Reporter, one on the ongoing drought here in the Triangle (improved, but not gone), the other on a land-development dispute in Chapel Hill. That one took longer than it should; for some reason I couldn’t seem to shape it in my head. But it’s done, and pay will be forthcoming.
Over at Atomic Junk Shop, I reposted an old post from this blog about Childhood’s End, the book and the miniseries, and some horrendous acts by the US government in the last century. The cover above I believe is by Richard Powers.
Plus I took Plushie in for his regular eye checkup. Everything looks good, which is pleasantly surprising; dogs with glaucoma usually lose the eye within a year and he’s still in good shape after two-plus years. Robust, as our vet says.
Next week, though, I really have to get some fiction done!
Speaking of fiction, if you’re interested in a discount on the sequel to the Ceaseless Way anthology, Become the Sky, the QR code below should take you to a discount offer. No obligation to buy.
The “abrupt embrace of ethics” line is from my short story “Obolos,” a brand new one alongside a reprint of “Backstage With the Hypothetical Dead.” And lots of good stories from other contributors. The cover is by fellow contributor Sonya Lano.
Bring back my focus to me!
Another week where I had a hard time concentrating on anything. And without even the excuse of contractors working or multiple appointments. I keep trying to find my focus but somehow I just keep wandering through a maze of distraction (hence my choice of this Jack Kirby cover for an illustration. Steve Ditko inked).
Part of it is undoubtedly that TYG’s slammed schedule has kept me doing lots of extra dog care. That’s not a criticism — she’s the big breadwinner so if she needs me to watch the dogs so she can concentrate, that’s fair — but it does erode my sense of personal space over time and I know from experience that affects my concentration. Plus the cats have been downstairs a lot during the day this week. Even if they’re not asking for anything, I’m conscious of them and that adds to the distraction.
Is it anything beyond that? Maybe, but I don’t know what. Not exhaustion — the dogs woke me up a couple of times this week but I slept great the rest of the time.
The end result? No fiction this week, or this month. I hate that! I did get work done but it proceeded at a snail’s pace compared to what I’d have managed were I in the zone.
The biggest thing was that I answered all those questions McFarland sent me about my Watching Jekyll and Hyde manuscript. Now I just have to wait for them to send me the galleys for the final proofing.
I also edited my friend Kat Traylor’s story for Become the Sky, the follow-up anthology to The Ceaseless Way. “Surviving Dr. Bloodflask” is a really fun story about a supervillain’s son getting dragged back into his family’s schemes. Kat’s improved it considerably since we critiqued the first draft so all I had to do was copy editing.
I submitted an updated story on the Triangle area’s ongoing drought. Rain this month has eased the stress but not eliminated it. The story will be out next week.
Over at Atomic Junk Shop I looked at how Doctor Doom in 1971 starts showing hints of decency. Also how horror began spilling into romance, war books and superhero comics.
And that’s about it. I have no major commitments next week, though, so let’s hope I can return to productivity.
Ceaseless Way cover by GetCovers, based on design idea by Arden Brooks. Doom by Gene Colan. All rights to images remain with current holders.
So where did I misplace my mojo this week?
I’m honestly not sure, but whenever I sat down to work, my creative juices were not flowing.
Stuff which didn’t require creativity went fine. I finished the draft of Savage Adventures, which is not a small thing. One more draft should do it, a combined line edit with fact-checking (did I get the names of all the characters right, for instance). However I wanted to make progress on fiction as well and my mind just balked.
Short stories? No idea how to progress.
Rewrite of Let No Man Put Asunder? Ditto.
I did take the beginnings of two new untitled stories I worked on last week and share them with the writing group. The feedback satisfied me they’re worth working on and some of the suggestions were interesting (could they be part of the same novel? Probably not but if I could think of a way …). That was it, though.
I also didn’t do as well as usual with our dogs’ home PT care, or my own exercise regimen for that matter.
I did find that if I concentrate my various non-writing tasks — errands, bills, submissions to our pet insurance, Trupanion — in the first hour of work this gets them taken care of and lets me concentrate better the rest of the day. That helped with Savage Adventures at least.
Part of it may be that I’m still sleep-deprived — a couple of bad nights, no nights quite good enough to catch up. Plush Dudley being extremely restless is a big part of it. Sometimes I think he just likes to sleep on my side of the bed and he knows if he makes enough trouble, I’ll have to move and try to sleep in the spare bedroom. Wicked boy.
He’s so stinking cute, though.
Part of the problem may be that I haven’t had much break from our various pets the past month and a half, except when I’m out running errands. Over time it erodes my personal space and that does get draining.
I did get to attend my Genre Book Club, as I discussed over at Atomic Junk Shop. That was fun. And I had lunch with one of my writing friends, the first time I’ve managed that in a while.
Tune in next week for (hopefully) a better result! Cover by James Bama, all rights to image remain with current holder.
Cats, borders, knees, writing, blood! My week in review
First the blood: Saturday I made my regular donation to the Red Cross. They’ve remodeled their facility and I was the first “power red” (double dose of red blood cells) donor there. I wrapped up just a little too soon for someone from the regional HQ to photograph me, darn it. That would have been kind of cool.
Tuesday, it was cat day: time to take Snowdrop in for his wellness exam and shots. He’s way harder to cage for the trip than Wisp; she’ll let us pick her up which gives us a chance to shove her in. Snow’s less trusting. However I got a dose of gabapentin — painkiller that also makes ’em sleepy — into him with a small morning meal. That left him just groggy enough to load into a cat carrier. He’s mostly in good shape, however he does have a heart murmur. Those can be bad in cats so we’re waiting to see what the labwork says.
Minor bonus, they applied his topical heartworm/flea med so we don’t have to do that again for two months.
Borders: as I type this, the theme I use for this blog has suddenly dropped the illustration on the vertical borders so there’s nothing but the image at the top. Maybe it’s a temporary thing and it’s gone by now. Maybe I’ll have to change themes because the brown border looks dreadful. I haven’t had a chance to do anything about it yet.
Knees: Tuesday, after TYG brought Snowdrop home, I went to physical therapy. Nothing major but my left knee gives me twinges in certain positions. I’d like it to stop. The therapist gave me a set of exercises which I’ve been working on. Too soon for any miracle cures, though. I also got a sleep apnea kit in the mail — my doctor thought that might relate to my recurrent insomnia — and I spent three nights with a testing kit on, making me feel like a cyborg. My grimace below is because I also felt like Hannibal Lector in his muzzle in Silence of the Lambs.
I slept better than I expected with that thing on. However it was choppy, which contributed to my tiredness for some of the week. Plus the pets were needier than usual. Still I got some good stuff done. Articles for The Local Reporter on Carrboro’s 2027 budget and the drought’s impact on Carrboro (not up yet). That took up Monday and Tuesday.
Wednesday I tackled the next chapter of Let No Man Put Asunder. Didn’t go well. The changes I’m making are good but they’re the kind that require further changes — if the sinister Community of All simply puts everyone in Bluestone in a stoned trance, Mandy doesn’t have the conflict of fighting innocent mind-controlled people. It still works better and fits the Community’s strange goals; however I have no idea what comes next. And Wednesday I was most tired.
Thursday I worked on “Die and Let Live.” It’s steadily improving but ends up way too talky as Colin and Deadbeat explain what’s been happening and everyone debates ethics. Either I shift some of that material earlier in the story, I come up with a more dramatic ending or both (ideally both).
I also got the first scene of a new story. My mind generated several new details: one character, Claire, comes from the town of Riddle Grove where her family lives at Enigma Towers. And their last name, Maistery, sounds a lot like “Mystery” if you say it aloud. Her estranged best friend notes the pattern and decides they’ll make a joke about it later. I have no idea what it means but it isn’t anything funny. So my mind’s clearly engaged — not enough to figure out what comes next yet.
Today was, as usual, devoted to next week’s blog posts, planning what to write, and emptying my in-box. Plus we took Trixie and Plushie in for some shots and, as Plushie’s been walking wobbly recently, asked the vet about it. She says he might have some back pain and recommended upping his gabapentin dose for now. Makes sense as we lowered it a couple of months back. We’ll see if it helps.
What made the visit memorable is that Plushie expressed his displeasure by pooping on the exam room floor. And then several alarmingly runny poops after that. Hopefully it’s just a momentary lapse and not the return of his dread diarrhea. We’ll see.
And now for something completely cool, author’s copies of Southern Discomfort arrived this week.
Cover by Samantha Collins. All rights are mine.
Sleeping pets
They put us through the wringer some weeks, and eventually it catches up with them.
Filed under The Dog Ate My Homework
Not a stellar week but I didn’t collapse into a black hole either
A combination of things slowed me down this week: invoices to submit to our insurer, Trixie having a recheck exam, having the cleaners in. That means spending two to three hours shut in with the cats and Trixie to ensure the cats don’t react to strangers in the house by bolting out. It’s a possibility, particularly with Snowdrop, as he’s still skittish after 18 months as an indoor cat.
I’m also having some odd twinges in one knee. Nothing serious but I set up a PT appointment for next week. Oh, and one problem that eats away at my time — a few minutes here, a few minutes there — is that Plushie is refusing to eat his meds on the food or treats we normally give him. We have a limited range of options as eating anything with fat would trigger his pancreatitis and related diarrheal problems. It took twice as long as last week to get the drugs into him. TYG and I are both quoting that line from A Christmas Story, “Every family has a child who won’t eat.”
I got some advance work done on my two Local Reporter articles for next week. Beyond that, I only wrote 6,500 words on the redraft of Let No Man Put Asunder. That’s primarily because I hit a tough point: the chapters I worked on this week were way too talky and slow in the previous draft. I knew that; I knew what would happen once the action kicks in; I did not know what should replace the slow, talky bits. That led to a couple of hours of dithering and not writing and only sort-of thinking about writing.
Eventually I reminded myself that I had to write something so I might as well bite the bullet; if it didn’t work, I’d rewrite. I accelerated the Community of All’s attack on the city of Bluestone, cutting out a lot of the talk. I used a teleportation spell to throw Paul and Mandy into the middle of the trouble without any “what should we do?” discussion. Coupled with some other changes, I think it works much better.
That was pretty much it. I can’t tell you how good it feels to write fiction and know I’ve made at least one small step toward finishing this draft. Hopefully more steps on more fiction next week.
Oh, and New Myths is holding my story “Honey on the Grave” as a contender for one of next year’s issues. Not an acceptance but the first non-rejection I’ve had in a while.
On that note, have a great weekend.
