Low On Writing Gas

I promise, the worlds “experimental” and “internet” will not show up anywhere but here, in relationship to “gas.”

So, I got a new desk.And, this is a good thing, because my very old desk (nearly…god, almost twenty years old at this point) was a disaster on so many levels. Built for the days when you were lucky if you had a 24″ CRT monitor, it’s two main advantages these days was that it let me put everything on a single cart and move it around. But, no real space for me to work, the keyboard and the mouse were at weird angles, and I was getting eye-strain from where the monitor was, even when I shoved a monitor tray and a phone book or two under the monitor.

Dealing with Wayfair wasn’t fun-took nearly a month for this desk to get here, and they sent a second one today because they had lost the first order. Now, I have to figure out with Wayfair if I have to send the second desk back or I can give it to someone. I hope I can give it to someone, it’s a pretty nice desk.

So, I got a new desk. In theory this would have helped increase my writing output. I’m not shoved into a place where I can’t not see the TV in the family room, and be stuck watching CNN or daytime TV or any number of the things people distract themselves with. Unfortunately, I have a new distraction as well-finding a job. My personal opinion on writing is simple-I’d love to make money at it, but until I do I need to eat and have health insurance and the various medications that keep me from dry-humping Honda Civics. This means I need a job, with health care. Hopefully Kaiser, as Kasier has been decent, as long as you’re proactive.

But, I’m also competing with everybody else that is in much more dire straights than I am, have longer resumes and/or have just gotten out of college in 2020 and 2021, and I’m trying to avoid the Amazon warehouse/heavy duty lifting job thing. So, lots of resumes going out there, lots. I’ve got some time-my unemployment will probably last until the end of September, I have savings, and I know a few places I can purge to reduce my costs even more. They won’t be fun places to purge, but I’ve been trimming stuff down from my life on a steady basis. I’m just lucky that I don’t have any really bad habits like an OnlyFans addiction or such.

This means that my energy levels have gone weird on me. Today, for example, I was good up until 1 PM, then just everything started to drop. There’s things to be done, I know this-but I just couldn’t think of anything to do except take a nap. I need more energy, but the usual ways to get it are not working as they should and I can’t risk burning myself out. And, that’s my excuse for not drinking “forget the water” espresso and being so wired that I can’t think straight.

So, I got a new desk. (Yes, I repeated myself three times.) Next goal is to get a newer and larger monitor. This way, I have more forward “space” to work with. And, I need to stop dealing with Twitter, or at least ration myself more. I don’t have to be on it all the time, but I seem to just find reasons to be there. Being a writer means that you have shitty human contact at times, it’s a very solitary job. And, I’ve spent sixteen months being rather solitary and I am missing human interactions. I used to be able to get most of what I wanted at cons, but no cons for at least another year.

On the writing front…

• The Winter Solist is coming along. Not as fast as I’d like, but if I was to write as fast as I wanted, John Ringo would be going, “slow down, my friend.” My goal is to be done and published by the end of the year, which will let me work on writing A Solist In Rome and Book 4.
• Other writing projects have been going in fits and starts. Hopefully will be able to get back to them soon.

But…I still remain optimistic. Because being depressed wouldn’t help me at all.