So it looks like Beyond Honor will need to be pushed back to March before it comes out. This is really a good thing/bad thing issue.
Bad Thing:
I was tired out after the week of Day Jobbe work, and that led to me developing a bug which slowed me down as it came on during Radcon. I really didn’t think I was sick until I was back home on Sunday, and even then I wondered if it wasn’t just allergies. Well, the next few days kinda told the story. I was flat on my back with a nasty chest/sinus cold but it’s fading. However, today I was still brain-fried and not able to get work done. I suspect the bug came from exposure to kids because I’ve not been sick for two years, and then bam! First exposure in a week of working in school settings, and it nails me. Not surprising, and I’m really glad I got the flu shot last fall as a result, because I think things could have been much worse. This also means that I’ve fallen behind in my online coursework, which needs to be done so I can renew my license, so…not a lot of action happening very quickly on writing as a result, especially since I need to do my final tax work for the tax preparer (AKA, dear hubby).
Good Thing:
A second short-term gig MAY be happening. If it does happen, that doubles the income from the first gig. Good news and this may allow me to finance covers and some other necessary self-promotion things. We shall see.
Meanwhile, being sick in the Enterprise house has its benefits. For one, for the first time in years I have a bedroom window that I can look out of. I retreated to the bed, opened the curtains, and watched the sky when I wasn’t reading or napping. It’s not the greatest view in the world, but given the choice between a mountain view in the living room and a mountain view in the bedroom? I’ll take the living room view any day. Watching the clouds also helped me gain a perspective on the cloud movement locally, which is something I’m still figuring out.
Meanwhile, Radcon was much fun and I came back with good ideas for short stories. I’m still tossing novel thoughts around, especially given what has happened given the difference in sales between Netwalk’s Children and Pledges of Honor. Pledges seems to have a consistent amount of sales while poor Children isn’t doing much. Now Frog Jones did give me a good keyword for the Netwalk Sequence–cyberpunk regency–so we’ll see how that works. Children also just plain needs a new cover. I plan to do something about it but it’s not a major priority at the moment.
But three days of being knocked off my feet sick plus a fourth of wandering around recovering doesn’t help anything. I have a lot of stuff to catch up on, plus…the horse needs work.
Seriously. Mocha is going through the winter with flying colors. She is fat–healthy fat, not obese. No ribs visible, even after a ride with the hair slicked down. She looks good. She only gets minimal grain when she’s caught up and ridden, and she’s very energetic. Today, I rode her back and forth along one side of the 40 acre pasture (roughly square) at a long trot for 3 1/2 lengths, in a wet, soggy pasture with no snow. She snuck a few strides of canter here and there into the trot, and was very eager to go. She is a relaxed and happy horse–but wants to run. I need to get my act together and haul her to an indoor so we can do some canter work once a week, because she’s mentally ready for it and she wants to go. Plus I am not entirely certain she is 100% sound. When I stretch her right foreleg, I hear snaps, crackles, and pops. She goes well enough on an uneven footing, but if I asked for more? I don’t know. At the least, she’s trail sound if not show sound. Mentally, she’s much happier than she’s been for several years. A winter spent doing mostly walk work in snow has given her a good foundation. She’s even more sure-footed than she was before, after a winter spent at pasture in snow. I watched her lope across the field to rejoin her best friend and she’d probably be fine loping under saddle in the pasture, but I’m not thoroughly confident about it yet.
So…onward. We’ll see how things shake out.
