Some of you know this already if you're around my daily life but there has been some progress made in regards to the day job. I wouldn't say the limbo status that's been driving me nuts is over but at least my division of the company has been advised what our statuses are regarding going forward. Personally, I have a job and the plan is for me to continue to have a job in the foreseeable future. The actual comment went something along the lines of no one could figure out how to split up my department effectively so we are being kept together as our own 'new' department in the 'new' company with only a handful of cuts. Those cuts and attrition the past few weeks have taken my specific team from 7 to 3. Not entirely sure where that will all lead but it's a bit of breathing room.

In most ways it is good I still have a job. I can pay my bills. But the severance would have been nice too. While temporary it would have paid the bills while giving me a lot of free time to find my next steps. Lots of time to write, edit and get myself down the publishing road. Not that it isn't a possibility looming over us still but not for another year at least as the overall company finally decides how to 'integrate' us. Still, it was a wake up call... and one I will fight not to lose. While I like my day job the thought of losing it didn't send me into a panic. I'm good at what I do but I'm not passionate about it. So I think it is time to move on. Move forward. Stop hiding where it's safe.

Thus editing of By The Pen has continued. The first scene will be going before my critique group soon. Yeah yeah... I chickened out last session. It's a scene I like but one that I was raised to think myself nuts for even considering. All around nerve wracking. Mom & Asrion, be gentle when it finally shows up? Please? Anyhow, once it's gone through there and I'm sure of it I do believe that scene will find its way here. I'll tell you now it's a shock value scene that does not have any of the heroes of the story in play. It's all about the villain... well, one of them anyway... and from his perspective.

Q has been silent. I don't know if he's leaving me be while I sort out the rest of my world or if he's disappeared into the cosmos.

Then there's NaNoWriMo. 8 weeks from today the entertainment begins. Some I've talked to are excited, wishing the time would go faster so they could start writing. Others are feeling nauseous because they have no idea what they're going to write about. Me? I might work on a sequel to By The Pen. I might work on something else entirely. Not a clue and I likely won't know until I open up that shiny new empty document and start typing. I've never been much of a planner and that won't change. I like my process which involves a lot of brain dump before things coalesce. Thus I type with a notebook/pen at hand to make notes on what gems flow and what I need to remember as I go forward. That notebook is the closest I get to making a plan. But that's my process. Everyone is different... as it should be.

Anyone else have thoughts on this year's NaNoWriMo or writing processes? Or just thoughts in general... we do have 8 weeks to kill yet. ;-)

SK

Hey there kiddos. A three month hiatus isn't too much is it? *grin* I hope not.

Excuses I have aplenty... mostly involving karma trying to kick my ass. Three major emotional upsets for the year is enough, no? I know I mentioned the first here... the loss of Moof. Well since then I have also lost Dozer to pneumonia and found out the company I work for is being dissolved. 'Retired' is the word our parent company used. Same diff. As of today I don't know if I will be moved somewhere else under the parent company or be given notice. That decision could take anywhere from two weeks to twelve months on top of what we've already spent in limbo since the announcement. Honestly, I don't know which decision I want to hear. So I've been getting my ducks in a row either way and we'll see where the pieces fall.

A lot of people say stress like this is inspiration to write. I've often been one of those people but 2010 has just been too much. I'm either crying, hiding from myself, or if I can write it's only in my journal. No one else sees that... sorry folks but it would either scare or hurt most of you.

The other day when I was at work with nothing to work on I started sketching out idea of a possible new story. It's more of a 'high fantasy' with a little romance spin. At this point I would call it light fluffiness. We'll see where that one goes. Could become a story or it could get added to the pile of ideas that are moldering in a computer file. That is not the idea that might bring me out of hiatus.

Q might bring me out of hiatus. I don't know much about him yet. Freaky scary dreams last night finally resolved into a very vivid set of scenes. Q never showed his face... or his voice for that matter... but he was the mastermind behind what was in my head. So today I am exploring this person. I know he's male. That alone is unusual for me... I usually start with the female lead. I know he was raised by someone not his parents. In fact, his birth mother is afraid of him. His birth father is aloof and proud, possibly using Q. Dunno yet. But somehow Q found his mysteriously disappearing mother and his half sister. How? Why? What made Mom run in the first place? All questions I'm trying to figure out. He's not the most talkative sort so it's been an interesting day of it. But it is writing and it has gotten my head out of the 'real world' for a while.

What more could I ask for at this point?

SK