June 2025 – Writing Wrongs

About last night (and early this morning)

10:00 p.m. Annual city fireworks

Pets: freaking out
Me: resigned

10:20 p.m. Fireworks end with the first drops of light rain

Pets: squabbling over who sleeps where
Me: resigned, hoping everyone at the display makes it to their cars before the storm

10:45 p.m. Nonstop thunder, lightning

Pets: freaking out
Me: resigned

12:40 a.m. Tornado sirens, iPhone zombie claxon, daughter and friends spilling through the front door in time to make the dash to the basement

Everyone: freaking out

1:00 a.m. Line of storms moves through, daughter’s friends go home, still thunder, lightning

Pets: freaking out
Me: resigned

2:00 a.m. Everyone sleeps, power goes out, then comes back on again; no one notices

6:10 a.m. The slant of morning sun wakes me (as it always does)

Pets, daughter: sound asleep
Me: resigned

I’m using my hotspot to post this. Then, I plan to head outside and take stock of any damage—it’s mostly branches, and one of my birdbaths tipped over. But the sun is shining. We have power, and that’s no small thing. I’m grateful for both.

In actual writing-related updates, writing at my new and improved desk layout is working wonders. I’ve been both drafting and editing, and I think this was exactly what I needed to do. Also? Far less shoulder pain as well. Yeah. Proper ergonomics. Who knew?

A clean sweep

So this feels bigger than quitting my job. This week, I took the plunge and bought a brand-new desktop system.

Y’all, it took me forever to decide to do this. (Okay, more like five and a half months—but it felt like forever.) I’ve needed a new system for a while now. My all-in-one PC is fine for admin and hobbies, but not for Photoshop.

Even after researching new PCs and having my son help with some of the specs, I was still undecided. It took a while (again, forever), but I finally realized why.

What I actually needed was a Mac.

Cue additional thinking here.

While I use Vellum (Mac only) to create ebook and print files, I could get along fine with a PC setup. I could always rent a Mac in Cloud and do it that way. But it isn’t exactly a streamlined process. And since I’m going all in, I might as well go all in.

So this week, I bought a Mac Studio. Y’all, it’s a beast. 64 GB of RAM. I also have a 27-inch monitor. It didn’t like talking to my Logitech keyboard at first, but it all worked out after some time and (much) swearing.

Since the heat dome means that I can’t garden this weekend (except to water), I’ve been setting up my new system and also clearing out and reorganizing my desk.

Because here’s the other thing: part of it is psychological as well. My desk still looks like the setup I had for when I was working remotely. I couldn’t write there—at all. I do my drafting at the kitchen table, and really, that’s not an ergonomic solution.

So, here’s hoping! I’m going to finish up clearing out my desk today. I have a stack of Photoshop tutorials just waiting for me. I’m excited to get started.

Wish me luck.

Briefly

Brief update today, as I’ve seemed to have picked up a slight summer cold.

Admin day worked well this past week. I ended up scoring another Chirp deal, and I’m pleased about that.
I (nearly) finished the revision of the bonus novella (which has a name: The Capstone Conundrum). I have one or two notions that I want to add, but then I’m moving on to The Pansy Paradox.
Because … I’m thinking I can publish both The Pansy Paradox and The Capstone Conundrum this October. Fingers crossed.

And, of course, a duckling check-in. Look how they’ve grown!

Make way for admin days and ducklings

This week, I tried something a little bit different. I decided to take an admin day during the week, one where I didn’t write, but used that morning focus time for writing and publishing-related tasks instead.

Usually, I’d tackle one or two of those after my writing session. But you know what? After my writing session (about 3 – 4 hours of deep work), my brain is done. I don’t want to sit at the computer and do more stuff. It’s enough to clear out my email, comment on a blog post or two, and then head outside.

So, I thought, why not try an admin day during the week, use that focus time to knock out several publishing and personal admin tasks. Not only will I get things done (that need doing), but I can bring fresh energy to the tasks.

Additionally, if I schedule the day mid-week, I can also let my subconscious do some story simmering as well.

I think this might work. At any rate, I’m going to experiment with one admin day per week this month and evaluate the results once July arrives.

In other news? Well, ducklings!