heatwave

Hey guys, welcome back! Hope everyone has been hanging in there with the heat, wherever you are. Here in the Northeast, we are gearing up for a long stretch of brutally high temps and I’m already counting down the days to my first pumpkin spice latte.

If you know me at all, or have been following along, you may know that I am not a summer person. Ok, so that is putting it lightly. I hate this time of the year. Having said that however, the last few years, I’ve been learning to embrace it a bit more. I think I even remember enjoying the last few summers! (Go figure.)

This year though, I’m just trying to get through it. Not being someone for hot weather, it is already gearing up for a long season. I’ve been escaping into books as usual and have a line of holiday themed ones ready for Chrismas in July escapism. I’ve already seen back to school ads on tv and I will be looking for the first fall catalogs to come in the mail after the 4th of July, which always gets me through.

Now I know a lot of you out there are rolling your eyes and that’s fine. I do the same when I hear the complaints about cold weather and the holiday ads coming way too soon. So I get it. What many don’t understand though isn’t just that I’m not a fan of the summertime, it’s a difficult season when you live with chronic illnesses.

When I was younger, I had a lot of fun in the summer. Vacations or cookouts with friends, it was all good. When I got sick just under 10 years ago, the hot weather started to wreak havoc with the pain that I deal with on a 24/7 basis. You see, I have what some call ‘invisible disabilities.’ Meaning, you wouldn’t know to look at me that I have a whole lot going on.

Between pain and breathing issues, it has taken a toll on me. If you’ve been following along here, you know that I started my latest setback last August. I missed out on my favorite time of the year because of it. (September-New Year) So here we are in summer once again and I was JUST starting to pull out of this setback. I’ve been a little more active. I’ve been able to help out more, doing such trivial tasks as taking the garbage to the other side of our complex and grocery shopping. Yes, I’ve even had fun at the grocery store. I mean come on, they play good music there now!

With the heat though, comes a little backslide. The pain increases, sleep is hit and miss. I’m either completely passed out or up for a day or two. Add humidity to the mix and my breathing is shot to hell. And to add insult to injury? My bedroom AC died and I’m dealing with a room that got up to 97 during the last time the temps rose. This time I’m trying a few different things to get the room cooler, just call me MacGuyver!

I’ll get off of this subject in a second, just wanted to say, if you know someone who deals with illness of any kind, be sure to check up on them. Make sure they are ok. Be sympathetic if they are having a tough time or keep canceling plans on you. There just might be a reason they do that and that reason could be that the heat is giving them a harder time than they usually have. Enough of the soapbox, let’s get back to the regular stuff…

During one of my sleepless nights, or in my case, days, I suddenly had an idea about how to cut a shitton of words in my manuscript! It would help cut my word count by a whole lot and bring about a deeper part of the storyline that has been lacking. Now I just have to write it.

With ADHD comes a lot of doing everything but doing what I’m supposed to do. So after I had this remarkable revelation on how to fix my book, I did what any other writer would do. I read a book, did some laundry, cleaned the bathroom, binge watched 9-1-1, edited previously edited chapters. Now it has been two days since I figured out how to fix this story bridge and I have yet to rewrite the section.

The one great thing about this, is that I know I’m not alone. I’ve befriended a lot of writers on the internet and we all do the same thing. We do anything but what we are supposed to be doing, ADD or not. It’s in the author’s DNA to postpone the work. Thankfully, I’m not on a deadline. Actually, if I was, I’d do it last minute like I always did in school. (At least stuff got done.) Having no deadline means I can take my time to make this right. Or binge more Chicago Fire when my brain decides to take a vacation.

The point here is, I’ve figured it out. The execution of it? Hopefully I’ll have better news on that front in a future post.

In the meantime, for those celebrating, Happy 4th of July. For those beating the heat? KEEP HYDRATED. And for those sticking with me throughout all of this? I thank you greatly!

Until next time folks…cheers!!

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If you’ve gotten this far, I thank you and will see you soon!

Hey guys, welcome back! I hope you all got to see the bonus post I did filled with Summer Reading ideas. If not, it can be found in the ‘new posts’ tab, I’l also link it below this post. I am planning to put it up as part of the On the Bookshelf page as well as I’ve been really neglecting the rest of the site this year as far as updated pages. Also, please note that my links show up on this site in a darker color. They are (unfortunately?) not as defined as other sites.

Anywhoo, let’s get the post at hand, shall we?

Just going to say it, I haven’t been sleeping. Part of it is because it’s hotter than the sun here in the Northeast these days (and other places as well) and my AC is struggling to keep things cool. I mean, 90 degrees inside isn’t exactly cooling things off. I did treat myself to some Gatorade so hey, living the dream!

The lack of sleep has had me writing a whole lot. I have the house to myself this week and with my odd sleep schedule of staying up and night and sleeping during the day, I decided the other day to see how long I could go just writing.

I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve developed a pretty regular routine. To give you an idea (read:recap) of how screwed up my schedule is: I always start by reading the previous night’s work and editing as I go. This usually begins around 4am. At 5am I’m most likely done and then I write the new stuff until about 7:30-8am or until I finish a chapter. I type very quickly, so a chapter can sometimes only take me two hours or a little more. For a little perspective though, some of my chapters are short at only 11 pages or so. I take a lot of meds because of medical issues and I need stuff to help me sleep. Sometimes I will take something about an hour into writing so that I can fall asleep by 9-10am. (Boring you yet? Sorry)

The problem with this a lot of times, is that I’m just getting into the story or getting more ideas for where the story can go just as the sleep stuff kicks in. Then I’m stuck replaying it all in my head making it hard to get any actual sleep. Again, I have the place to myself and had nowhere to go the other day. So I decided to try something and not to take anything. To see how long I could keep going with the story. To just keep writing.

When I finished what is a very pivotal chapter, I went to do a page count and I had typed out 31 pages! I started at around 5am and went until 1pm. I just kept writing.

Will I keep a lot of it? Will the chapter be broken up into two? Is any of it good? Well, that’s what editing is for! But to know that I could keep going like that proved to me that I’d like to try doing this more often. That stifling the creativity just as it gets rolling may not be the way to go. And yes, I have tried starting earlier than 4am. It didn’t stick.

This story has really consumed me. Suddenly, scenes I hadn’t really planned on putting in, are taking over and I’ve been surprised at how they fit into the story as a whole. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that this new book is being written in the first person. The main character has invaded my thoughts and when I put everything away at ‘bedtime’, the story continues in my head like a movie. I will lay there trying to clear my head, only to sit back up and write stuff in the notebook I keep near my bed so I don’t forget anything later on. Yet still, the storyline keeps playing in my head like this week’s Netflix trailers.

There’s also a few things I keep going over, especially now that I’m 36 chapters in. Do I change things up? Do I throw in a major surprise? Is it time to start thinking of this as a series rather than a standalone book? I’ve created some characters and a location that has become so real to me now and that has become a great escape for me that frankly, I don’t want to leave it. But that’s me. What will readers think?

These are the things that are now starting to keep me up at night. That and a whole lot of heat.

And that is where I will leave you for today. I’m sorry if this one wasn’t too exciting but as I’ve said before, sometimes I just need to get out the thoughts so I can move on with my life. 😂

I very much appreciate your hanging out with me for a little bit. I hope you are staying cool and hydrated and that if you like it here, you’ll share this site with your friends.

Thanks again and until next time…

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It’s Summer Reading Time! <—Summer reading inspiration by yours truly.

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Thank you for getting this far and see you next time!! 🥰