Your Update Link: A Shot in the Dark, – Part 9

ICYMI: Site & Story Status Update – November 2020

I hope everyone had a good Halloween! Sorry about not posting Flash Fiction last night. In my defense, had things gone as planned, I would have been home relaxing from trick or treating by 5 so I could write by 7. We had a good time — our family pod was all masked up, and the neighborhood set up tables and kept distances with their masks. It was fun — until my cousin tripped and sprained her ankle. She was worried she’d broken it, so I took her to urgent care (as the family member without children of her own and the patience for such things) but the urgent care didn’t have X-ray techs on duty, so we spent four hours in the ER. I got home at 9:30.

ANYWAY. I’ll try to make Signs of Life this week when I’m off, but I’m not making any promises. It’s the first week of NaNoWriMo and I want to get off to a strong start with my five straight days off and two days of more low-key remote teaching. I want to write a chapter a day so I can be at Chapter 14 on November 8 and be halfway through the story. This month, the Flash Fiction schedule might get wonky on the days when I work. We’ll switch to 20-30 minute sprints or skip altogether. The alpha draft being done on November 30 takes priority.

I’ll be back tomorrow!

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Your Update Link: A King’s Command – Part 8

I made through another week! Next week, I have two remote teaching days (I report to school, the students stay at home), and then three days off. Well, one of those days is an inservice day where I’ll have stuff to do, but still — so excited to be close to November. I’ve got a Status video going up on Sunday, and I’m going to have more NaNoWriMo kick off information soon so stay tuned this weekend!

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Your Update Link: Not Knowing When – Part 8

I’m happy to say that today almost went perfectly — except when I heated up the mushroom penne I was avoiding last week and it turns out I still really hate creamy pasta, LOL. So I had to ditch that and heat up leftover pizza instead. I got a bit of a late start on Flash Fiction, but it all worked out. And this was the first weekend since I went back to work that I completed my entire week on schedule, so yay!

I’m looking forward to this week since it’s just refining content that already exists, so I feel so much more relaxed and in control. Next week will be a bit more dodgy — we’re spending two days on remote, then five off, and I still have to finish my Africa material. But making great strides forward and I’m really enjoying my students this cycle.

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Your Update Link: A Shot in the Dark – Part 8

Oof, I managed to get just about everything done today, but I am so tired, LOL. This is the worst part of adulting — everything gets shoved to the weekend when you’re supposed to be able to relax, and next weekend is Halloween, so probably not relaxing then. Anyway — wrote a chapter of Fool Me Twice today but didn’t manage one yesterday for reasons that even I don’t understand, LOL. Feeling a bit less stressed going into this week so that’s good. We’ll see how that works out once I’m in work.

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Your Update Link: Signs of Life – Part 5

Trying something different today with updating flash fiction first, then grabbing dinner, and writing FMT afterwards. I’ll let you know tomorrow how it works. I know I have to update the Recent Updates page. It’s on the list 🙂

The ending might be a bit wonky. My dad LITERALLY called me as I was writing the final kiss and broke my concentration, then I was out of time and can’t fix anything, so I didn’t reread it yet, LOL.

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Your Update Link: A King’s Command – Part 8

I warned you guys, LOL, that this was going to be the most insane week.

I basically start my entire class over once a month, and my first time coincided with getting the flu shot, not sleeping, and SGOs being due (administrative bullshit). Oh, and also, there’s this election happening, and one of my students was exposed and put into quarantine but I didn’t find out until Thursday, so you know, that’s how it’s going. BUT, the last time I saw this student was three weeks ago and I’m fine and she hasn’t tested positive yet, so I’m just not going to think about it. I wear a mask and rarely leave the house unless I have to.

Also, I got the lump sum of unemployment funds from my state this morning (which I did not know was happening) and I’m so relieved. I paid my property taxes on time and I can fix my car a month earlier than I thought I could. The check engine line has been on and I have a decent commute to work, so I’ve been nervous. It’s getting fixed tomorrow, so that’s a huge weight off my mind.

All of that anxiety explains that Tuesday’s Flash Fiction was the only writing I did all week. I’m mostly okay with that. I made a lot of progress last weekend, and I knew this last week was going to be insane so I just let go of the idea I was going to work on FMT at all. I do think next week will be better because I’ve already written most of the content I’m teaching, and now I’m just refining the delivery to the students. That’s so much easier than what I’ve been doing this last month. Thanks so much for your patience and understanding. I love my new job, but it’s a huge task to walk into a course that doesn’t even have a textbook or a program set in place for resources. I’ve had to create it completely from scratch (which I say all the time, I know, LOL).

Hopefully next week I’ll be able to write an hour or so each night, particularly Tues-Thursday. I’ll keep you guys in the loop!

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Your Update Link: Not Knowing When – Part 7

Hey! Sorry about the postponing yesterday. Things got away from me a bit and this is kind of a crazy week. I think I mentioned that I teach in 15 day cycles, and this is the first time I’m turning over and getting a brand new class. This means I have to create new Google Classrooms, invite all the students, and wrap up the old class. Plus, I misread my calendar and thought I had another week so I wasn’t quite ready with everything I’d need for tomorrow.  I also had to get a TB test for my employment and ended up being talked into a flu shot — it was just an ugh of a day. I could have managed 20 minutes, but I honestly wanted to spend more time on it than that.

I am excited to start over my 15 day cycle because I have a much better handle on what I’m teaching — I’m doing a 15 day crash course of French speaking countries around the world — so the kids are learning about the history and people in Canada, Haiti, Algeria, Madagascar, Tahiti, Cambodia — just like everywhere I could find that has French speakers. It’s kind of crazy, lol, because I’ve been creating an interactive digital textbook at the same time, and I have grades 6-8.  I’m about halfway through the amount of content I need to create to really say the course is “done” but after this week, I’ll be so much more relaxed.

This is your last update until Friday, so I’ll see you guys then!

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Your Update Link: A Shot in the Dark – Part 7

Hey! This will be shorter than usual because my schedule got crunched today and I honestly don’t want to miss another week for this story. There are definitely going to be days when I can manage 20 minute sprints, so I’ll do the hour as often as possible, but I think I’d rather just update whenever I can. So 20 minutes it is!

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Your Update Link: Signs of Life – Part 4

I got most of my babble out in yesterday’s update, so we’ll just get right to the update and news. I crossed the 20k mark in Fool Me Twice and wrote Chapter 4 today. Make sure to check out my Twitter feed with the hashtag #CGFoolMeTwice. I try to update every time I write and lately I’ve been sharing lines from new scenes. I’ll be back tomorrow with Shot in the Dark on its new day.

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