I HAVE HAD IT SWEAR TO GOD

(please note there is writing news & something to read — skip to the BACK TO THURSDAY part)

I was so looking forward to this four day weekend. I HAD PLANS.

And then I woke up on Thursday feeling not so great, but I thought, no, I’m really just very tired and cold from the lack of heating. Let’s bundle up near the space heater, watch some Stranger Things, and we’ll only lose a day. I wrote a little (more on that in a minute) and went to bed.

Friday, I woke up like death.

You guys, I got whatever is above a cold and below the flu. Some tortured head cold that kicked me flat, and all I could manage was a measly two hours a day on anything productive — which had to be the textbook notes for my chapter (the last one that needed to be created from scratch)

I was so useless I ended up taking a sick day today just to clear my system and finish up work because I had ZERO to teach the children–energy or materials.

I’m feeling sort of better now, but my GOD that was annoying. I really hate how my immune system is like let’s hold off on a cold until she has nothing to do. NOTHING TO DO WAS THE PLAN DAMN IT.

okay, anyway.

Obviously, going to be spending this week digging out of the whole being sick left me in, but we’re in the good part of the year — the first unit in all the classes is wrapping up, the worst part of the content creation is behind me, and everything left until holiday break is just plugging in holiday stuff to this year’s templates. My goal is to back on track with my NaNo project since I’ve written exactly 2ooo words.

Friday — we’ll get back on track with the schedule. Very sorry. This has been the school year from hell so far.

BACK TO THURSDAY

A year ago, I got out of writing slump by playing with a fantasy world in flash fic — I realized pretty quick that I hadn’t done nearly enough world building, so I took it down to rework. And for a year, I’ve really done nothing but world build and plan out the big picture, stealing an hour here and there when I was bored with a project.

Thursday, I was just so annoyed with everything, I was like — let me just see if I can write anything that isn’t butt awful.

And I wrote about 1500 words that I liked. On Saturday, I started to feel a little bit human and I wrote another 1400.

I’m not switching projects or anything — the NaNo goal is the serial killer edit, and I’m excited to get into Act 1 but I shared the new stuff with the Patreon Stalker tier last week, and as a peace offering, I wanted to share with you guys.

sooo … a little bit about the story, how I’m thinking about publication/writing time

Isereth’s Prophecy is a romantic fantasy saga that will be written like a limited series — a collection of episodes released every few months once I get going — I’m thinking 6-8 episodes. I’ve written about 25% of episode 1 in 2 sessions (or at least what I’m considering episode 1). And yes, Stranger Things absolutely has influenced me, lol.

The writing plan goes a little like this, barring catastrophes

• Nov & Dec – Out of the Woods novel / You’re Not Sorry  flash fic
• Jan & Feb – These Small Hours, Book 3  /  You’re Not Sorry  flash fic
• Mar & Apr – Isereth’s Prophecy 1: Wyrfall / flashfic
• May & June – FMT, Book 3 / flashfic
• Jul & Aug – Isereth 2, FMT Book 3 / flashfic

And now my peace offering: Isereth’s Prophecy 1 – Shadwell (“First 15 minutes”)

See you on Friday!

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Update: You’re Not Sorry – Part 47

I am soooo done with this year.

Just after my hand starts to heal (we’re in the new skin growing phase which is less disgusting then the active burn blister phase), and I can switch to a small bandage, I come home on Wednesday, and my heater won’t turn on. We have someone come out, and of course, my 32-year-old heater has decided to kick the bucket. (I am as angry as you are that 1993 was apparently 32 years ago, because WHAT). So new one can’t be installed until Nov 14. And now my electric bill is going to double so I can pay off the new unit in installments.

I’m fine, it’s fine. I’m bundled up in my Showgirl cardigan (which looks like a smart investment after all) with my space heater because why not.

ANYWAY.

Let’s focus on some good things.

It’s November! I survived the two month gauntlet of September-October with only one vacation day built in. This part of the year sucks every year, but the remodeling, then burn of my hand, and my cousin’s disappearing cat really made it a special hellfire (and prepping 3 classes, and new freshmen who think directions are for decorations if i hear 6,7 one more time im gonna crash out) —

Two four day weekends coming up, plus a professional day on Monday which means this next week, I only have TWO days I have to spend with the gremlins. And this is the first day off where my house isn’t under construction.

I’m starting my own NaNoWriMo, working on the edit/rewrite of my Flash Fiction series, Watch Me Burn. If you’re on Patreon, I’m posting those scenes as I wrote them for the Stalker tier.

I should be back tomorrow to update more.

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Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 46

Apologies for not making last night’s schedule update. My sleep schedule is completely out of whack — I sat down to watch some TV around 5:30 and then woke up at 8. Not sure what happened there, lol.

We’re testing Mon – Wed this week in homerooms, and the seniors have been told they don’t need to come to school — which is who I have in homeroom. So unless someone is absent, I get some work time in my classroom which is a huge yay factor. The classes are also shorter and I’m planning to show some TV episodes in French so that’s already set up. Going to use that time to get ahead of myself. Sept/Oct is always the hardest, and we’re over the worst part of the hump.

I’d like to come back sometime this week for a bonus update before Friday, but obviously not promising that.

For my Patreon perks, I’m planning a 25 minute Broken Girl session later today after I wash my hair and do some laundry.

+14

Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 45

I cannot express how annoyed I am that I wasn’t able to update all last week. The last time I checked in was Sunday was when I reported that my burn was much worse than I thought — it ended up being second degree and the position of which was super awkward to keep covered, making it hard to bend my finger. Not being able to bend the finger meant not being able to type very fast — so obviously Flash was a no go.

I was hoping to switch to a smaller bandage today, but it’s not really an option if I want the burn to heal well, so we’re going to do what we can with the situation. I’m better at typing now than I was a few days ago, even with the bigger covering, so hopefully…? I just didn’t want to delay anymore!

With any luck, I will not injure myself before returning tomorrow for another update. But it’s 2025, so who the hell knows.

+15

ETA3: So the blister kept getting bigger which, uh, it’s not supposed to do. So I went to urgent care. It’s a second degree burn. I hate this year.

ETA2: The burn ended up being a little worse than I thought it would be — still not hospital visit worthy, but I have a blister in an awkward place on one of my fingers, and keeping it bandaged is pretty much the only treatment to prevent infection. My typing is slow and I have a ton of work to do since I couldn’t work last night. I’m not in pain anymore which is good. This really sucks — I was looking forward to getting back into an updating schedule, and I was getting everything done yesterday. I’ll try to update on Thursday since it’s a half day and I’ll be home around 1PM.

ETA: If you’re coming here for Saturday, October 18’s update — I burned the back of my hand cooking dinner. That’s what I get for not ordering pizza. It’s not serious enough for, like, an ER visit, but it’s painful and distracting. The next update is the Liason Thursday fun update you guys have been waiting for and I don’t think I’ll be able to concentrate enough to write it up to standards. Even typing this, I had to stop and reapply my ice pack a few times to renumb it. I’m getting some burn cream, and it should be good for tomorrow. I’m planning to update between 11 AM – 1PM.

I can’t catch a break, honestly.

Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 44

Here for our first Friday update 🙂 One of the struggles this week has been just getting out of work on time! I only live 2 minutes from work, so if I get home before 3:30, I can write at 4, and post at 5, which means the majority of my evening is free to make dinner and work. But I’ve had constant meetings and test makeups this week that have kept me at work until late, so by the time I get home, it’s closer to 4 and there’s not enough time to put the update together. But today, yay! I’m home early and it’s Friday, so I can stay up later to do extra work.

I appreciate the support on the last post 🙂 I love writing, and I’m constantly thinking about it, but it’s been impossible to get blocks of time these last few weeks which is so annoying.

I’ll be updating Flash again tomorrow but I’m not sure what time yet — I’ll play it by ear because I want to sleep in a little.

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TL;DR Hopelessly behind on work. Update schedule shifting to Fridays & Saturdays for Flash, Sundays for Patreon series. Anticipating getting back to normal starting Oct 27.

So….we need to talk.

Going into this year, I knew that I was going to struggle to prep three courses five days a week, and I tried so hard to organize myself before the school year started, but I wasn’t able to get nearly as much as I’d hoped done, and I feel super overwhelmed. Then you factor in the craziness of nearly four weeks of remodeling chaos, and I’m insanely behind. I need to get a hold of the situation before we’re in the “I have so much to do, we need to take a day off” situation, because we’re heading there. I’m always scrambling to get stuff done for tomorrow, and I have to find a way to get things ready a few weeks ahead of time.

French II has nothing prepped for next week, not even the textbook pages. French I and French III don’t have any of the slides or assignments created. I’m being observed on Monday for content that hasn’t been written. Honestly, sitting down to make the list of all the things that aren’t done might make me cry.

I am very cognizant of the fact I’ve promised Patreon perks that I haven’t been able to fully deliver, and I hate that. I promise you I write it on my schedule, and I take it seriously. But I just don’t know how to balance the real-life job right now, the part-time job, and still sleep and avoid burnout.

Some good news — we’re coming to the end of the first marking period. November has two four-day weekends, and I have a professional day built in, and most of what I’m doing with my kids in Nov and Dec is media-related which is way less time-consuming to put together, especially since most of them have templates put together, and it’s just plugging in the next episode/song/movie information.

So — I want to take this weekend and next to get myself set up for the next few months by making sure that I have those templates put together, that things are set up for plug and play, and that I’m not frantically working late or going to work an hour early to get more work done, and then we can finally be on an actual schedule on Oct 27.

I’ll update Flash on Fridays & Saturdays, and the Patreon series on Sunday for the next two weeks, but nothing should be expected from me on Mon-Thurs. I’ll know by next Friday whether I can come back to updating Flash during the week. I’m working on editing the flash fiction series for a January release, and I can toss 25 minutes of prep work towards it more easily than I can 60 minutes of sustained writing if that makes sense.

+17

Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 43

I was so close to having my house back, lol.

They painted the porch today which was the last step — but of course, it’s a rainy, wet day here in NJ and it didn’t dry. So they couldn’t clear their stuff from my living room. I am so sick of living in a construction zone, lol. But with any luck, tomorrow it’ll be gone. It’s just frustrating because it messes up my after work schedule, and I’m trying to get back into the routine.

I’m planning to do two more Flash updates this week, probably writing around 7 and posting at 8 — Tues/Thurs. See you (hopefully) tomorrow.

+10

Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 42

Well, another baseball season has ended in early October. I appreciate the readers who dropped a reply about the heartbreaking loss last night.

I have to tell you — after Monday, I had that feeling we were likely going to end up here, but you always hold out hope (in Philly, we also call it delusion), and Wednesday gave me a real boost. But it ended as Philly losses usually do — in heartbreak. In 2011, it was the NLDS to the eventual Cardinals World Series and Ryan Howard’s career-changing injury in the last at-bat. And last night, it was a 24-year-old kid’s split-second mistake that ended the season — throwing home instead of first. Devastating.

But while I absolutely want a trophy, I’m never going to be one of those people who think the entire season fails if we don’t win it all. That seems like such a miserable way to watch a sport where there are 162 regular season games. There are 29 other teams, too, and it’s hard as hell to get through the gamut of baseball postseason. So many things have to go right, and we just had everything go wrong. We had an amazing season, and I can’t wait for pitchers and catchers to report. I’m insane.

Which is probably why I’m a Liason fan. It’s holding out hope for something that might never happen because of how damn good it feels when you have it. And knowing how incredible the journey is, and all the people you meet along the way 😛

With baseball over, we’ll get into a regular writing schedule. I’m going to rest and relax this weekend and I’ll have more info on Monday (it’s a day off, so I’ll be updating!)

+16

Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 42

The Phillies play their elimination game tonight at 9PM. If they win, they play again tomorrow. If they lose, well, I’ll see them in March for spring training. I forgot how much I hate postseason baseball, lol.

If they win and they play tomorrow, that game is scheduled for 6 and I have to do a grocery run tomorrow, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to update after all. I was going to do a run today, but I woke up with a migraine and had to call out. It’s better now, but it’s really thrown me off schedule wise. Also, my mother invited me out for dinner Friday night, so an update then will be late.

Will keep you in the loop. It’s okay if you hope the Phillies lose so I can get back to normal writing. The anxiety is not great, lol.

+9

Update Link: You’re Not Sorry – Part 40

Well, my magical Swillies weekend did not go exactly to plan.

Don’t get me wrong, my girl Taylor held up her end of the bargain. Showgirl is perfect and I’ve been playing it nonstop — it’s going to be so much fun to plan some happy stories for a change.

The Phillies — uh. Well, let’s just say my writing schedule might be freed up after this week. We’re facing elimination in LA tomorrow night with a 9:08 start. It’s so wild. They feel like such a different team right now, not like the one I’ve been watching for six months. I mean, we could still win. Other teams have come back from 0-2 in the series and won. But, uh, I’m not tying my hopes and dreams to them.

Anyway 😛

Bathroom is completely done and they’ve moved on to redoing the entire porch. I was hoping that wouldn’t disrupt my schedule much, but they leave around 5, 5:30 so I just have to organize my schedule around that.  I don’t have to lock up the cats or travel to shower, so other than just not being able to sort of relax and change into comfy clothes when I get home, things are pretty much okay.

The plan right now is to update every day until Friday to make up for the lack of updates for the last few weeks. The only day I might not make is Thursday because the Phillies are scheduled to play early, but, uh, we have to win tomorrow.

I’m used to disappointment, lol, so whatever happens happens at this point.

+11