Excuses, Excuses

There’s another good reason (okay, maybe not a good reason, but still a reason) besides my binge reading as to why I haven’t been very productive the last few weeks.

If you read my regular blog that I post to on Mondays, you’ll know that in the fall we started a kitchen renovation. This meant, among other things, that we had to empty everything out of the kitchen so we could rip out cupboards and plumbing, etc. Most of this stuff went into plastic bins which then needed to go . . . somewhere.

The stuff I deemed unimportant (ie, that I don’t use on a daily basis) got stacked in my old office (now the hubby’s office). The stuff I used most often was stacked in and around the dining room, and the in-between stuff went into my office, including a pink wing chair from the living room.

This overcrowding of my office is not conducive to a creative atmosphere. I like things organized and that’s a little hard to do with all that extra stuff. I’d also like to rearrange my office a bit but to move anything in my office first I have to get rid of that pink chair. And to get rid of the chair I have to get rid of all the bins out of the hubby’s office so the chair can take their place.

See, the big window in my office has a southern exposure and the way things are now there’s a big chunk of the day where the sun is right in my face. This is really hard on the eyes and it makes it hard to see what I’m doing on the computer. And if I want to write anything long hand, I have to have a light on behind me.

The good news is, the counters were finally installed in the kitchen last week which means I can start reloading/organizing the cupboards. I’m hoping that with the end of the kitchen renovation in sight, there will also be an end to my lack of productivity.

Hope springs eternal.

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Wordage Report

New Words:
Blog Posts – 898+546+421+1110=2975
Total = 2975

I did about 1,000 words better on the blog posts, but the words for the Friday post feel kind of like a cheat because most of it is an excerpt from something I’ve already written. Once I run out of NaNo novels this will probably change, but for now it feels like Friday shouldn’t be included.

Editing:
Whoopsie! I forgot to set the counter. You’ll just have to take my word for it that I did get some editing done on Blood Ties. Not every day, and not as much as I would have liked, but some at least.

Publishing:
None. And I still haven’t heard back about the last story I sent out.

What I’m Reading:
Once again, this is where most of my time went. But at least there were no late nights where I stayed up reading until my eyes burned.

I finished Blood Truth. by J.R. Ward and went on to read Where Winter Finds You, The Sinner, and A Warm Heart in Winter. The Jackal will be delivered some time this month, and then I’m done with the Black Dagger Brotherhood universe until Lover Unveiled is available in paperback. I have been so consumed with reading these books that I’m actually grateful I still have bins of kitchen stuff blocking my bookcases so I can’t reach the other books in the series because at this point I don’t think I could keep myself from starting with the first book and going through the entire series, including the ones I’ve just read.

To help pull myself out of the BDB universe, I zipped through Christmas Letters, No Competition, and All Things Considered, by Debbie Macomber – nice, fairly uncomplicated romances that had all the feels without the intense drama.

Next up I’ll be reading the anthology Troll’s-Eye View, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

Goals

Last week’s goals were once again pretty much a bust. No words on anything except blog posts, no outlining, no organizing. I did get some editing done on Blood Ties at least, and I started making notes on Driving Into Forever so I can start moving forward with that, so at least that’s something.

My big goal for this week is to seriously stop messing around and get myself back on track. I’m out of BDB books and I’m going to keep those bins blocking the bookcases until I lose the urge to start the series from the beginning again. Hopefully making the switch to anthologies (I have three more after I’m done with the Trolls) will help me curb my reading addiction.

1. Spend more time in my office and less on the couch.
2. Keep up the edits on Blood Ties.
3. Limit my reading time.

It always looks so good on paper, doesn’t?