Title is a line (maybe not verbatim) from the musical Angry Housewives. The point being that sometimes going against the flow is counterproductive.
Case in point, a while back I began devoting an hour on Friday to clearing out my email, another hour to planning the next week. Worked great … except that instead of wrapping up my day that way, I’d start by clearing out my email. And somehow after doing such mundane tasks, it was hard to get my mind back in a writing groove.
This week it hit me: with a little reshuffling of my schedule I can put in slightly more time Monday through Thursday, use Friday for email, planning and blogging and not lose any writing time. That fits the way my mind wants to work and it might feel good. It certainly did today. Unhurried morning, email and planning done, next week’s blogging done. And as I donated blood at noon, I wouldn’t have been focused in the afternoon anyway.
This week it was my little Trixie who had the health problems. A trifecta, in fact: weird rash on her nose, dewclaws grown so long they dug into her pads and after we brought her back from the vet, she started puking. All good now: antibiotics for the nose, dewclaws trimmed, Cerenia to keep her stomach stable until whatever it was passes.
Yes, I did some writing too. I’m about 60 percent done with the final section of Southern Discomfort. Other than that, I spent my time working on Local Reporter stuff. One on this week’s Carrboro City Council meeting, another about a local charity working to alleviate period poverty in NC. I’m really pleased with that last one — it’s a serious issue and not talked about enough.
Over at Atomic Junk Shop I took a look at Marvel in 1968. Up until late ’67, Marvel relied on DC’s distributor to reach the newsstands and that limited it to around eight books a month. Now that era is over and Marvel has expanded fast, but not always successfully. On the plus side, Archie Goodwin’s sole issue of Incredible Hulk gives Betty Ross a chance to do something heroic instead of staying Wimpy Love Interest.
I followed that with a look at what the comics companies besides DC and Marvel were doing in ’68.
Oh, and MA Kropp gave a favorable review to Questionable Minds. Thanks!
And now the weekend. Enjoy!
#SFWApro. Art by Marie Severin, all rights to images remain with current holders.
They have now died but it was quite decorative for a while. Here’s her table of seedlings from before she planted them.
This was a good week. We’re still giving Plushie a lot of drops 
I submitted my proposal for Jekyll and Hyde Adaptations in Film and TV (I imagine the title will be something close to that) to McFarland. Now I wait and see if they like it. I think my sample chapters were excellent so fingers crossed.
I posted one article at Atomic Junk Shop on how 
Most of it was Plush Dog. The glaucoma the vet diagnosed last week requires a lot of eyedrops and they have to be put in with gaps between them. This expands dog care to take in an extra half-hour in the morning. And at lunch. And in the evening. Plus she was concerned he was hurting which led to us going to the eye vet yesterday, using up a chunk of time. Though it was the right call: the Plush One had a small scratch on his eye, nothing disastrous but it requires added drops so it doesn’t hurt him.
Both covers are by Neal Adams.
I got a couple of articles done for The Local Reporter. One on a local woman who 
Other than that, I got a little work done on Let No Man Put Asunder and Savage Adventures. I also rewatched the 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to give a detailed discussion in my Mcfarland book proposal.
When he’s too rowdy, we put him back in the cage on the floor, sometimes with me joining him. The thing is, his back will go out again if he jumps enough or climbs enough stairs so we’re determined to avoid that and postpone the next incident as long as possible. The cage stops him from jumping off the couch, or more likely on and off, on and off ..
#SFWApro. Art by Gene Colan, all rights remain with current holder.
Sleep helped a lot too. I had some really bad nights but it got to the point my body decided to sleep late — that’s rare — and I felt much better for it (who’d have guessed?). With TYG keeping the dogs occupied much of the week, it was also easier for me to find time to exercise.
Over at Atomic Junk Shop I discussed encountering old tropes 
Oh, and the Durham Writers MeetUp Group — my specfic writing group is under their umbrella — is in need of a new admin, so I volunteered. It doesn’t sound like too much work; I’m waiting for the current administrator to get back to me about what I need to do to take over. Wish me luck.
February, however, has started off pretty well. I was determined to get some creative work done this week so I focused on rereading my first draft of Let No Man Put Asunder. It’s pretty good for one of my first drafts, with character arcs and story arc moving along well. I got about 30,000 words in; if I’m write, it’s after this chapter that things run a lot less smoothly. Still, I’m satisfied I haven’t been wasting my time. I also reread the feedback from my writing group and noted where I agreed with their criticisms, which I usually do. Fortunately there’s nothing they said that isn’t fixable, like a sense in one chapter the stakes aren’t high enough.
Plushie’s still in his cage all of next week but I’m determined to get things done. Wish me luck, and have a great weekend.
