Category Archives: real life

There and Back Again

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Starting to get a little better understanding of the “village vibe” we got when we moved here. We’d met exactly one of our neighbors at the time. In a day or two another neighbor came to talk to me for a bit. He already knew where we were from and that I was a published author. I have a strong feeling that the entire blocks knows. It reminds me of growing up in a small southern town where everyone knew everyone and if anything at all happened, in short order everyone else knew about it. There are good and bad sides to this. On the one hand, everyone’s all in your business. On the other, well, I remember as a kid my friends and I were free to go anywhere we wanted in town or around it, do anything we wanted, with the understanding that, if what we did was something stupid or dangerous (or both), we’d likely either be stopped or, if possible, saved from the worst consequences of said stupidity. Our lack of supervision was strictly an illusion, because everyone in town, directly or indirectly, was on the job.

I’m not completely sure that I’ve missed that. But I do recognize both the value and drawbacks in it.

After picking up Carol at the Albany airport, we got home around 2AM. Now it’s 10 degrees Fahrenheit outside. I don’t think I want to go outside, but there are things to do, unfortunately, that don’t involve sitting behind a computer. Some days, I wish there weren’t.

Flying South

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IMG_0377Up at 4AM to take Carol to the airport for an early flight. She’s attending a workshop down in Florida, so I’m on my own—save for Da Boyz—for the next few days. On the way back I could see several large V-formations of Canada Geese heading south as well. I won’t be. The first real snow of the season is on its way tonight. I have my studded snow tires, my snow shovels, my salt. I’m as ready, I guess, as I’m going to be.

I’m still astonished at the number of crows that call the Mohawk Valley home. On the return drive I passed a flock that I swear stretched out at least half a mile. I’ve never seen so many crows in one place before in my life.

One casualty of the dead hard drive and missing backup is that the completed manuscript for Power’s Shadow is gone. Poof. Fortunately I do have the ebook edition, but this will delay the print book for quite a while. I’m behind on The Emperor in Shadow for obvious reasons, so it has to take priority for the next few months. I still hope to see a print edition of PS, but don’t ask me when because I have no earthly idea.

On the plus side, I’ve shifted enough boxes to reach the other wall of my new office, so that’s something like progress. I have plans for wall to wall bookshelves. A man can dream.

 

Questions

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Taking a break from painting, but can’t afford to be away from it for too long. One thing I’ve discovered about living in a valley in a more northerly latitude during wintertime is that daylight is a fleeting commodity. By about 3:30pm the light is pretty much gone, and when you’re painting floor and window trim especially, you kind of need it.

My office may be one of the last rooms we get sorted out. Too many others have priority. Which is fine—I have a functional workspace, so I can do what I need to do. I’ll just be doing it surrounded by boxes. Most of which I’d really like to get into. Especially my references, since The Emperor in Shadow sticks as closely to the historical timeline of actual events as I can manage. Working within a well-documented historical period is rather like writing sonnets—you are working with strictures on what you can and cannot do, and the trick is to be creative within those constraints. Indeed, I find that they work with me more than against. Sort of like, “Well, if this thing happened then, what was going on behind the scenes? What do we not know about it?”

Asking the right question at the right time is a hell of a lot better than knowing all the answers to the wrong questions. If writing doesn’t teach a person that much right off, they’re just not paying attention.

Still Waiting

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View from Rte 167

View from Rte 167

To be fair, the movers said they’d be here Saturday and they were. The catch was that they’d brought our stuff in the biggest monster rig that they possessed. Our stuff is not a monster load, nor is this a monster street. It is a narrow, village-y kind of street. Law says they can’t block the street. Truck was blocking the street by default. They needed to move truck to neutral space, find smaller truck, reload and shuttle. Only they couldn’t, since it was Saturday and the shuttle truck needed official approval, and it was Saturday, so no officials available for said approval….

You get the idea. Load had to go back to Schenectady. They will attempt delivery this morning. We hope.

I have things to do, and yet my entire life has been on hold for several months, First it was getting the old house ready to sell, then getting the new house ready to move into (or at least things that needed doing before moving was possible), then going back to finish packing for the movers, making the trip, waiting on the movers who have things we need for the next steps….

Almost there. Not there. Almost.

Camping With Electricity

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IMG_0402That’s the way a friend of mine described it–that in between time when you’ve arrived at your new place but the movers haven’t caught up. So we have lights and heat, thank goodness, but almost no furniture. Still living out of suitcases, eating off paper plates, and sleeping on an air mattress.

I’m typing this on a Linux laptop. It’s not my regular workstation, but the thing is, just right before the move, as in literally days before, my regular workstation decided to die, and unless I can mount a successful rescue, it took all my files with it. Backup? Of course. Problem is, I have apparently managed to lose it. I don’t know if it’s in one of the boxes on its way here or is gone forever. I do not know how I managed to do something so completely asinine as to lose a very important backup. To be fair, I actually have two, and I do know where one of them is. It’s just going to be more of a pain to restore, but it exists, so eventually everything should be back in place. My new computer is ordered and in transit. Assuming everything else arrives some time this year, maybe I can get myself back together. That would be nice, since I have a hell of a lot to do.

I hope we love it here, since I don’t plan to move ever again.