• Challenge,  On Writing

    Got to Have Help

    Especially with Streaks… It is flat impossible to not have help with long streaks, either writing, exercising, or blogging as I talked about last night. For example, I help Kris with her streak of steps by asking at times, especially on days when she is tired or distracted, if she has her steps. Not nagging, just being a support. Tonight, because she knows I am still off-the-charts exhausted, she reminded me three different times about doing this blog. Not nagging, just helping out. And it means a great deal to me. I know a couple writers who had weekly story streaks going that had family asking if the story was…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    Day 2,911

    Blog Streak is Approaching Eight Years… On August 1st, unless I miss between now and then, I will have done a daily blog or more every day for 2,920 days. That is through major moves, power outages, internet down, computer crashes, and nasty storms. Some blogs are like this one… filler because I am too tired to write anything of value. Some have been just me talking about my day. Some have been workshop news and such. A few have been book announcements, but very few considering that over those eight years I published well over two hundred books with my name on the front covers, including a ton of…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    A Day of Naps… And Magic, Monsters, and Myths Storybundle

    I Even Managed a Few Emails… Not Many… Mostly just kept sprawling out on the bed and passing out every hour or so. Watched some television, napped, did a few emails, napped, got some steps, napped. Tomorrow I should be back to half-human. But I got something I need to remind you all about tonight, before I pass out yet again. Since this will be done late today, I need to tell you that I have a book in the Storybundle Magic, Monsters, and Myths that Kris curated. The books in this bundle are amazing. Maybe one of the better bundles I have seen in a while, to be honest.…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    Craziness is Over…

    Except for Recovery… And catching up on emails and workshop assignments and such. The guys arrived this morning, right on schedule, with the huge UHaul truck. Kris and I had parked all three of our cars out on the street last night to hold the parking spots in front of the new office. So as the truck pulled up, we shuttled our cars into the parking garage and let the truck take the spots so it was only twenty feet from the door to the office. I had bought a lot of Staples banker boxes, so every box in the truck was the exact same size making packing a ton…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    Back Home and Exhausted

    Truck Arrives Early In The Morning… So no time tonight to respond to email, but by Thursday I should be sort of recovered to do assignments as I promised. I got exactly four hours of sleep in Boise last night. Worth every penny of the hotel room costs. Got here around 7 pm, fell down on the bed for a short time, then watched a little television and am doing this now because, you know… a streak of blogs. So up early again tomorrow, then once all the boxes and shelves and such are in the new office and the movers are headed back north, I can rest. I can…

  • Challenge

    Back in Boise… Surprise!

    Got to the Warehouse at 7 AM… Worked for three hours getting ready for the movers, they got there right on time at 10 am and managed, somehow, pure miracle, to fit everything in the truck. Packed solid. They got done at 3:30 and said they were taking off and would see me in Vegas TUESDAY morning. I had been planning for Wednesday morning. Oh, oh… So I went to my hotel room, took a thirty minute nap, took a shower, and checked out and hit the road by 5pm. Four stops and 9 hours later I checked into the hotel here in Boise. Got a breakfast in four hours…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    Loading the Truck Tomorrow Morning

    Spent Another 16 Hour Day Today… Exhausted doesn’t begin to describe it. And I have no idea how the largest UHaul will hold all the stuff it needs to hold. I could not have gotten this close to being ready without the fantastic help of Chris and Steve York and Cameron in the evenings. Chris made sure I was fed and she and I packed up the kitchen and she has been rounding up a ton of stuff while Steve has taken on the task of taking off the walls about a thousand shelving units, over thirty of which need to go to Vegas with me for the new office.…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Rejections From The Past

    Makes Me Realize Why I Am Here… Today, towards the end of the 16 hour day of packing and moving, I was sorting through boxes of old filing and stuff that needs to come to Vegas and I came across a banker’s box completely full. It had five of those massive photo albums in it, all bursting with too much stuff. Each album contained an entire year of rejection slips. I used to put all my rejections in these big photo albums before I learned that the rejection slips need to be filed with a copy of the story and so on. So I opened up one of the big…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Here and Working

    Arrived at the Coast… Around 6:30 Pacific Time, checked into my hotel, and went to work up at the warehouse, ending around 10:30. Had some help tonight from Chris and Steve, which was great. Thanks!! Oregon was a lot better than central Nevada on the masks and my safety today. Even Eastern Oregon. No real issues and only one guy I had to step back to avoid. And Boise was great. No issue at all. So two legs of this trip down. Now comes three days of packing and work before I get to go back out on the road again and risk my life because idiots are too selfish…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Leg One Down

    Ten Hour Drive from Las Vegas to Boise… Made it fine. Too much fast food, as I knew I would do. And since it was deepest, stupidest, red Northern Nevada, very few face masks in sight. I stayed over 20 feet from anyone without a mask and moved quickly. Families traveling through all had masks on their kids and seemed just as bothered as I was about the idiots. Boise has a harsh mandatory face mask rule, so fine here. I am sure Eastern Oregon will be a problem area again tomorrow. Otherwise no issue at all. Kris and I have a fairly new Cadillac SUV and it is scary…