Angry with myself

I can't seem to motivate on anything. Didn't make an exam. Barely edited anything. Didn't write. Barely cleaned. Basically I got all the loot crate boxes out of here and pictures taken of the crap I don't want. SO MUCH. I seriously need to decide if I keep this subscription at all. I've skipped almost four straight months as is.

I feel too overwhelmed by this mess. I'm breaking it into doable chunks but it doesn't seem to help much. I did remove another chunk of books.

I'm barely able to look at my social media, a mix of depressing and fury-inducing (and god help you if you disagree with any of them about anything). I DID see one person say what I've been saying. WAY too many authors acting like we're back in high school. You want to have authors on your feed, we should help each other but damned if most days it doesn't seem like they're all arrested at age 15.

Almost all my friends and relatives did NOT evacuate Florida. Most of them are hopefully in areas where the hurricane's force will have died out some but not my 97 year old aunt. STILL no one knows where she is. My Dad's side of the family does a shit job of keeping in touch. Sigh.

Maybe I'd be less bitchy if I could sleep. Or if I could have gone out to hike today because it's so damn beautiful but I felt weak and I had so much to do. Most of which didn't get done.

And once again I've forgotten those dragon sites.

Writerly Ways

I had one planned but it's a touchy topic and frankly I am too worn out this week to deal with it. I'm trying to decompress a bit (not helped by the fact that my cousin's uber-right husband is on FB pretending to pray for the Floridians in spite of the fact they were 'told to get out.' Obviously he has no idea the realities of evacuation (and I'm glad some people on his FB are calling his ass out. For a nuclear engineer he can be very 'dumb' about things.)

Anyhow instead of that post (which I'll still make it) let me give us something fun. Check out Dreaming Robot's Young Explorer’s anthology! I love the idea of this. I think several of us might enjoy trying to write a middle grade short story. I'm thinking steampunk with another amputee MC (this time a young lady). I wanted to have two male characters but I'm being hesitant. Hear me out:

I can make things more diverse (and far less racist 1890s) by doing a bit of alt history where the Native Americans and European settlers have more of an uneasy if more equal relationship. There would still be some division but not drowning a MG book in racism. It would take place over Deadwood (mostly because I know the place and won't have time for extensive research). I figured the other MC would be a young Lakota boy, maybe orphaned in the Deadwood fire of 76. (as opposed to the ugly slaughter at Wounded Knee).I was thinking of a young Chinese boy as well as there were plenty of Chinese in Deadwood. But in a very subservient role that would be inappropriate for this anthology (I should think). So I might leave him out but more so because this is TRULY a short story only 3-6K.

Now to come up with a plot. I figure in the end, the boy joins the girl's airship (Her mom is the captain) But what that plot could be that's not too dark for younger readers (well Voldemort was fairly dark...) but more importantly short.

Then decide do I want my pen name to be D.M. and my surname or Dana.


I do have a few lings for you. From Chuck Wendig Self Promoting (including having to do it when the news is a total shit show like it is right now)

how to write when the world is burning Another timely one. Granted we ALL have to deal with this and in different ways, this one resonated a bit with me.

silencing your inner critic I need to buy mine a ball gag.

Your book’s engine


Narrative Structure: It’s okay to stray

Let's all write something!!