An Overdue Check-In

Rolling with the punches, baby!

It’s been a rough few weeks since the last time I updated you guys. My recovery from anaemia took a hit from a migraine, and recovery from the migraine took a hit from news that the contract I’ve been working on will only be extended until April. This was immediately followed by the working situation for this contract turning real toxic real fast. It’s not all bad news, but I needed to divert my energy and attention to survival so I could function through the worst of the storm.

I actually hit a major milestone in the middle of all that chaos. Last Friday, I finished the continuity read of Son of Fire, Queen of Night. I’m super proud of this achievement because, with everything that happened since starting this process, I felt like I would never see the end.

I’m going to rest the manuscript until the end of the month. That way, I can come back in March with hopefully fresh eyes and tackle the hopefully final round of content edits.

I’m planning to spend the rest of February updating the paperback layout for Book 1 in the series, The Vanished Knight. I’ve already started with it, and I hope that doing something a bit more visual will make for an excellent palate cleanser before I get back to content edits.

As for the toxic nonsense I’ve been dealing with but didn’t really write about? I’m still processing. Calling back to my article on life lessons from plane crashes… Something is wrong there, so warning lights are going off everywhere all the time, and I have to deal with them first. I’m trying for that pause right after the warning sounds, responding thoughtfully and with intention rather than merely reacting. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m saving the plane this time. If I’m lucky, I’ll manage to limp it down onto the ground in two months’ time. Hard to tell when your crew seems intent on doing that nose first. We’ll see.

Yeah, I know I’m being vague. I’m sorry. Other than legal aspects to going into detail, there has been so much chaos over the past few weeks that I don’t want to put down my thoughts about it in an unfiltered format. I want to wait for the dust to settle. For one thing, it’s a little difficult to frame my experiences the past few weeks. There’s just too much from so many people. So right now, it’s survival mode and rolling with the punches. After I settle a bit more, the act of meaning-making can begin, and that’s where I’ll bring you guys along once more.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to make something… useful… out of my recent experiences.

What about you? How’s life treating you so far this year?