Oh, right—I was recovering from cancer surgery, my sister and BIL came to visit, then we lost Jessie, and then there was the whole run-up to the election distracting me. Never mind.
So what’s happening in Casa Fletcher right now? Well, I am currently searching for contract technical writing or instructional design work because we need a buttload of repairs done on this house, I’m doing my best to finish up another Nicola book (which will bring my total of published books to 19), and I’m trying to improve my mood. I’m very, very tired of being broke and worrying about bills all the time, and the Brit is desperately homesick and wants to see his family again, hence the search for contract work.
Apart from that, everything is pretty much all right. There’s no sign of cancer in my jaw, I’ve pretty much regained full use although parts of my jawline are still numb and may be that way permanently, I’ve lost more weight and am currently at 277, and I am developing a raging desire to do some Swedish Death Cleaning and get rid of a LOT of the stuff in this house. Only problem is, more than half of it is some form of electronics that belong to the Brit and he wants to hang onto them Just In Case. Which I cannot fault him for—his hobby is resurrecting antique computers and he does use some of the stuff he’s hoarded. But I would really like to get access to the craft room again, which is currently chocka with electronics and old computer bits. Maybe I can convince him to winnow through it this fall, who knows. I can certainly go through a lot of my stuff in the meantime and get rid of it, but where can I dispose of over 20 porcelain dolls? I don’t want to chuck them in the garbage, but do little girls even want them these days? Decisions, decisions…
The place is closed up like Fort Knox—all the blinds are down and drapes are drawn to keep the inside shady and as cool as possible naturally and ease the load on the AC units. The only other large appliance allowed to run during the day is the refrigerator—anything else has to wait until well after sundown and preferably when the temps drop back into the 80s. We’re doing our best to reduce the load as much as possible on Anita Gigawatt, dontchaknow.
I may not be a screenwriter (yet) but I am a writer and I fully support the WGA strike because TV and movie writers deserve better working conditions and a bigger cut of streaming income. If it comes to pass tomorrow at midnight, I also support the SAG-AFTRA strike, and the UPS strike that may happen at the end of the month.
At least I’m upright and in good enough condition to sweep the downstairs, wash soiled litter collection mats and the Bachelorette Pad tray, wipe down the kitchen counters, do a load of laundry, and prep an episode for release on Kindle Vella tomorrow.
Since the big hailstorm last week we’ve been getting door-to-door roofers knocking on the door daily to ask if our roof has been inspected (we checked, everything looks good and we don’t have leaks, and if any do pop up we’ll call the roofing company that installed the roof in 2012). It’s to the point where I don’t bother answering the doorbell anymore.
Seeing as I had a hell of a time getting to sleep last night I had a remarkably productive day (I did kinda think I was going to collapse into a coma around 5 but I powered through it). Got another Nicola book formatted and off to Smashwords and Google Play, worked on another episode for Kindle Vella, did my blog posts, updated the financial records for the month, got the bezel soldered for a pendant I’m making (I know I’m too tired to do any more work on it now—the setting will involve eensy pure silver balls and I need to be fully awake for that) and now I’m gonna go do my time on the treadmill, tra la!
It came to me yesterday when I had my eyes closed and was trying to outwait a headache. The framework is extremely cool and I’m trying to find the heart of the story—once I have that, I’m gonna get this sucker written. I also suspect it is going to massively piss off a certain segment of people who don’t like the concept of gender fluidity or being non-binary.
The nice thing about knowing that I have weather migraines is that what helps regular migraines—caffeine, sugar, and aspirin—also helps weather migraines.
In any case the clouds are most definitely building to the west and south so this migraine was spot on when it came to predicting bad weather. But it’s still sunny at the moment and the local rabbit families are making the best of things and scampering around on the front lawns playing tag (or maybe trying to make baby bunnies, who knows). While all of this is going on Jemma and Jasmine are absolutely fascinated and are watching from the front window. Those two are the hunters in the J Crew so it’s not surprising that they’re keeping an eye on “meat on the hoof” and making the occasional hunting chitter. I keep having to explain that there are even larger predators out there, including falcons that could carry Jasmine off, and they’re safer staying inside and eating canned food, but I don’t think they believe me.
There’s a short story I want to take a crack at writing this weekend (if I can find the time between working on the Nicola WIPs, doing promo, cleaning, making jewelry, and keeping the J Crew entertained). I have the shape of it in my head, and I think I have the chops to pull it off. We’ll see—if nothing else, my writer’s group will be happy that I’m finally submitting something for them to crit.
Melanie Fletcher 