Much better week for productivity! While I didn’t get any time to work on things last weekend, I did determine one key fact of current life that might help a lot moving forward: Goldbug’s AM nap is slightly deeper than PM nap, even if not quite as long. Why does this matter? Because it means I can put him down or slide away from him after he’s asleep and actually work! PM nap is long, but he’s much more flighty about staying asleep, tossing and turning if I try to get away.
But this is an important thing to realize, because before I was trying to have B-bug do his online homework during that first nap. But if I do that, since we share a computer, I can’t get any work done then. So this week, I reversed it: I kept my computer for first nap, and then set B-bug up on it for second nap. Much better! While it means I have to use my phone for second nap, I can usually manage to get a good chunk of work done during that first session. Once we get the POD back with the baby swing, who knows. Maybe I’ll be able to optimize that second nap better.
Because of the lifehack, however, I managed to get the fifth draft of “Candyland” finished, and even start on the word-cull pass, which feels great. I’m probably within a few days of being able to submit it, which I really, really need to do to get more out! I also need to review what stories have come back and whether or not it’s worth tweaking them at all (very quickly–a word cull, for example) to open them up to other markets. But at least some progress has been made.
Also! Great news! Now that contracts are signed, I can officially share that my snarky superhero story (“Any Day but Today…”) is going to be in the forthcoming issue (#79) of Andromeda Spaceways Magazine! It’s a ridiculous little story about KC Kinetic, a telekinetic amateur superhero, who would really rather be curled up on the couch with a hot water bottle than duking it out with the local (light-weight) super-villain on this most inauspicious day. It’s one of my first forays into humorous writing, and I gotta say, I love this one. It’s insane, but I love it.
Otherwise, this week has continued to throw curveballs on establishing residency, which is super annoying, but we’ll work it out eventually. And we’ve pretty much decided to do from-home schooling this upcoming year, which I’m not 100% excited about, but I’ll get there. At least we’ll know what to expect this year.
Finished two books this past week, though! I wrapped up A Feast of Sorrows by Angela Slatter (amazing short fiction collection that introduces a lot of characters in the Lodellan universe), and I finished How to Write Funny by Scott Dikkers (of The Onion), which prompted me to go right ahead to picking up his next in the series, How to Write Funnier. I may need to do a quick review of How to Write Funny, because it’s given me a lot to think about, not just in terms of how comedy works, but also how fiction in general works.
Oh! Also finished The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which I was reading to B-bug. He actually listened to it really well and even gasped in the right places, which means he was following the story enough to recognize when something intense was happening/some crucial fact was revealed. So it was a good reading week. Partly, that was because I’ve been having to get Goldbug to bed earlier (he’s shifting from his baby night-hours to a more reasonable 9pm-ish), which means he’s asleep before I am, and I can get a little book-light-aided reading done. I’m trying to be good and finish books on my currently-reading list before picking up any of the new books I’ve collected recently, and now that the POD’s arrived, I’ll have my box of unread books in there, too, which I should ALSO finish reading before getting anything else new. #readerproblems
I’m going to try to get a chunk of two hours for quiet writing in this weekend, if I can get help with the boys. I think if I could establish at least one precious chunk of writing time on the weekends that is whole and together (rather than piecemeal like it is on weekdays), I’d feel a whole lot better about the progress I’m making. So we’ll see about that! Otherwise, hope everybody’s healthy and staying safe!
(Goldbug’s contribution to today’s post: qagbnynyuitghtbfh5666666ythh)
Maggie Slater 