it's like a train wreck, only fluffier

I actually managed to get out about 1600 words last night (All Hail the SAD Lamp), so there's that. Unfortunately I had too much etsy work to do to keep the roll going this morning, but maybe I'll get it back. I'm not happy with my snippet; I can't seem to pace it right. I know I'm supposed to fix it later, but it's one of those things that bothers me.

( Looooooong snippet )

Not too bad on the word-count yesterday at 2648, although I skipped across three different novels. I do what I want, Thor. Actually worked on the planned one! Today I'm going to do 2 hours on etsy, then settle down to write.

( Snippet from planned novel )

I've been awful about posting, but bleh. I'm sick, I can barely swallow, everything aches, I have a cough and the cough sets off my nerve malfunction, so yay for that. Also my etsy shop is busy (back to school rush still) so that's a thing I need to be doing while sick. It'll be dead by the time I'm better, because that's how these things roll.

I've made decent progress so far today though. And the Rington's van has been, so we're stocked up on tea and biscuits - I'm not sure if you have these kinds of vans elsewhere? Basically they turn up on an agreed schedule and you tell them what nice things you want, and they go get them off their van and you pay for them and now you have stuff. With Rington's it's tea and biccies, and maybe some hot chocolate, coffee, jam, and cake if you're that way inclined. We used to have loads when I was a kid, because the villages couldn't sustain certain shops on their own, so there'd be a shop in a van that drove around. When we were in Roos the Rington's van came on Monday mornings, the fish and chips van turned up on Tuesday evenings, and the tuck van (the mobile sweet shop) came on a Friday just as school was kicking out. I know there are a couple of banks that still have mobile units too; sometimes a branch of NatWest putters past when you're out on the moors.

Haven't been doing much crafting because that time has been taken up by notebooks. The writing is sort of, IDK. I can't write short, so I'm not exactly happy with the stuff for the 1000 words bingo. I'm also a bit confused, because I'm sure it says in the bumf that if you took a 3 x 3 grid you needed to do black-out, but lots of people seem to be posting single line? Hrrm.

Also I've gotten weirdly hooked on watching narrowboat vids on YouTube, initially thanks to my decision that a synthetic water-deity might subconsciously be drawn to man-made waterways, but my fascination has gone beyond that. So that's a thing now.



This one is pretty cool because Jasmine's filmed it in 360 degrees, so you can move the camera view around.

Me: I must not buy any books or stationery this month.

Also me: ...oops.

Bookses:

I've finished Magpie Murders.  It was pretty good, although I had a very angry moment in the middle where one murder mystery just stopped with two chapters missing, and I had to read another one before getting to the two chapters.  I guess that'll teach me to not read write-ups properly.  I've moved on to The Shining Girls , which is shaping up as a thriller so far.  Also The Owl Man is still being read in the background as my non-fiction choice, and I picked up The Death of Truth for when that's done.  I also picked up a weird little journal in the publisher's outlet called Joy Every Day, which is mostly a mood tracker.  It's twee as all get out, but the actual bones of it seem like a system that could work for me, and it was only £4 so I'm going to try it out.

Writing:

Not sure I'm going to hit bingo.  My Cinderella and Puss in Boots squares are stalled, and the Little Mermaid has turned into a multi-chapter beast which will definitely not be finished, so I'd only be posting the first three chapters.  Supernatural Crime Thriller is still trundling along in the background, and people are responding well to the snippets I've posted (and it's keeping me really on track with the story-telling to be also moving the story along with tiny glimpses, rather than just relying on filling everything out).  I'm liking the way the new characters are shaping up, and interacting with the preexisting ones.

Health:

On Saturday I finally decided to try some CBD.  I've been dragging my heels because it does interact with one of my meds - increased drowsiness - and also the expense (I know it's cheaper for a lot of people, but I'm on an NHS Pre-Payment certificate, which means I pay £10 a month for all ten of my meds; CBD is between £15 and £60 a bottle.  My current coping method is distraction, and that's a lot of 'hobby money' to pull out and invest in something that'll make me sleepier, and thus more difficult to distract.  If it works it's worth it, but if it doesn't work I've also crippled a strategy that helps, if you know what I mean).  I'm not sure what to expect, really, but I figured it was worth a try.  I'm coming up on twelve years of constant and unending pain, only interrupted by spells of feeling like a rat is trying to chew through my hip, and also that rat is made of barbed wire and actually on fire.  Some days it's hard to keep my spirits up, you know?

 I planned to get a load of work done today, but then my leather order didn't turn up and I'm just like "...?"  So, there's that.  It's probably as well, to be honest, as I've been spacey af.  I ended up spending a few hours zoning (put on nature sounds, close my eyes, don't sleep but just... drift) because I couldn't manage much else.

I finished the Midnight Eye series.  I picked them up because of the author's Carnacki pastiche, and they're fairly solid Urban Noir.  Not OMG AMAZING, but I enjoyed them.  I started on The Magpie Murders yesterday, I think?  Or the day before, I'm all blurry at the edges.  I enjoyed the first part, but it's gotten a bit weird now so IDK where we're going with this.  I swear if it doesn't tell you who the killer is then I'm gonna be mad.

I've completed one bingo fill and started working on another, but both match multiple squares, so I'm just going to work out the deets laters.  Haven't done much on DS Thewlis novel this week, but I have research to do for that one, so it's natural for it to slow a bit while I wait for the books to arrive.

 Things are... progressing on the supernatural crime thriller.  Unexpectedly quickly, tbh.  Now I just have that issue with plotting - I'm somewhere between being a plotter and a pantser, in that plotting out the full novel just drains away my enthusiasm, but I do need a frame.  It's more complicated when I'm writing mysteries/crime, though, as I need to do more plotting upfront, so there's a delicate balance.  The working title is: DS Karen Thewlis's No Good Very Bad Case, so I'm percolating over catchier titles too.  It's also kind of a sequel to my 2008 NaNo project, so I might dust off that and clean it up when I'm done (current project stands alone, but still).

The main trouble is I'm also coming  up with multiple sequels as I go - more cases for DS Thewlis, more cases for pre-existing supernatural cops Never and Elfrida, what happens to the surviving victims and how they might interact with characters from previous stories, etc.  I'm keeping copious notes; I just wish I could keep this WRITE ALL THE THINGS momentum going.

 I'm gonna try again.  Because that's how I roll.

I've been massively caught up in following politics at the moment, so that's taking up way more time than I'd normally allot to the news.  But JFC.  I mean really.  

I kinda lost it at there being two actual competing doomsday prophesies involved.  This is our lives now.



Also, pain levels have been less than optimal and the docs just threw more meds at me.

In other news, I haven't been doing that much crafting due to the shop, however when my laptop died and I was transferring files I found an old WTNV fic I never posted (the fandom imploded into wank I was not prepared to deal with before I finished it) and I think I might be able to cannibalise parts of it into an original novel?  So there's that.  The problem being that I'm way behind on Night Vale, and the fandom fic, so I'm not sure if the bits I want to cannibalise might be too close to someone else's?  (It's weird eldritch stuff that mostly came from me anyway, but it's a fandom where weird eldritch stuff was a thing).

Also I may or may not have been coaxed into helping my cousin with his insanely long fan novel series.  So I don't even know any more.  Like, no guys, that's fine, let's combine mind altering drugs, Hulk/Loki, and an Eldritch Crime Thriller involving a secret cult trying to create a controllable genius locii no matter how many teens they have to kill to do it.  WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Anyway.  Imma take some more painkillers and watch the news, because it feels like the comfiest way to travel to hell in a handbasket.