I’ve written constantly this weekend, getting familiar with my 22^rd century world, and banging out some great dialog for episode two.  I completed the first revision of Chilling Fields, and am happy with the result—though it’s far from complete.  (my writing journal is being updated again, in case you’re curious).

Going back to work today after missing what feels like a week.  A part of me looks forward to my usual 9 to 6 shift, but another part of me wants to run away and write all the time.  The only thing about that is, once I stop working outside the house…the urge to write will disappear.  Sad but true.

I’m officially sick of the campaign coverage.  I’d like it to go away now.

I found this article interesting , and to be honest, I’ve never had wild grand expectations about eBook sales.  I’m in a tiny genre, and so my sales reflect that, and while they aren’t what they used to be two years ago, they’re still steady and respond as they’re supposed to (want to increase stale sales of an eBook that sold great out the gate?  Release another title—it really does work.)  Print sales are still steady for Loud Snow, and I’m looking forward to releasing ‘Games’ in print and sees those sales pick up.  So if there’s a bubble, it won’t affect me. ^_-

Colbert’s interview with Maurice Sendak was brilliant!

French toast for dinner tonight! So bad for me but so delicious. Speaking of badness, my branch has been on this downer for the month of January. It’s such a dead time for us, and getting my ref #’s is like pulling teeth. :/ Every day is an exercise in patients in tolerating those I need not tolerate. It’s a good lesson for me, learning to take orders again and being part of a team. Humbling, but good for the gray matter.

Speak of idiocy and intolerance—being told that promoting my gender in an unequal world is immature and stupid…yeah, I nearly got bothered, until I realized I was dealing with a young man who hasn’t been alive near half as long as I have. He’s my son’s age. I can’t take that seriously, sorry.

On a professional banking note: if I hear the expression WOW-FACTOR, one more time…I’m going to smack someone. =_=;
My daughter’s bedroom is near complete, and Jazzy is happy to have Maggie back to herself. Lee is not happy because it’s Jazzy’s room and she can’t be in there, and so she’s showing her ass out here, being a brat. Cats are so much more complicated, than kids.

I was disgusted, mainly because in order to isolate this gene, research was required. Research that was likely conducted by a physician, who passed testing costs onto the patient. –hell, even if the testing was free (which, once the patient dies of said disease, it pretty much is) how the hell does the hospital and doctor, justify turning around and charging for their test methods and discoveries, without including all those involved in allowing them their findings, to earn something as well? It reeks, and I don’t like it. I have nothing against capitalism, I think if Pfizer wants to tell older men that the natural side effect of getting old is this “new condition” called Low-T, and make a medicine that caters to that crap…then go for it. No dude ever died, or was born with something debilitating, because he couldn’t afford a hard-on pill. Testing for destructive genes shouldn’t be so expensive that insurance companies refuse to cover it because it’s not immediately life threatening. :/

Today, my sense of smell is in overdrive.

I’ve never liked the smell of dandruff shampoo, period. I’ve always been able to tolerate it, but today I woke up and smelled it on my spouse. The I washed my daughter’s hair this morning (yes, I was Maggie’s hair daily, because I don’t get to see her for more than three hours a day between my job and her school—and washing her hair in the morning, is how I connect) and when I got in the car, I was sickened by the smell of hair cleaned with dandruff shampoo. I hate this smell, but I simply can’t replace my spouse and daughter’s dandruff shampoo. I know my nose is in overdrive; every customer that comes in, their breath is killing me.

I had to eat lunch out, because one of my co-workers ate salmon for lunch. I like salmon, but the smell today is just… too much.

I wonder if doctors know of anything that will help with an oversensitive nose.

I factored cost versus profit for a two volume title with a year between volumes, – and quite frankly, I’ll lose a substantial amount of money on it, if I go through with relying on this two-volume plan, in order to accommodate the speed of the artist.  =_=; As it stands, I’ll need to secure a tone artist, because the original illustrator has carpal tunnel, and with two volumes needed before the publisher pays out (or before I can even release in the states without spoiling their potential sales)– that will stick me with a $500-$600 tone artist bill (and that’s if I find someone CHEAP) combined with no reasonable release or promotional plan, due to the delayed release between volumes… it’s not an healthy picture.  Gynocrat Ink just took a bit of a hit recently over late artwork and toning issues affecting a release date (Games with Me), and nothing in my history with Roulette’s artist, indicates that things will go as planned. 

I love her, but nothing ever seems to go as planned…  

Everything in my gut is telling me to pull the plug on Roulette.  I don’t want two volumes, I want one– I want the story originally written as it was in 2007, and I’d like the artist to finish what was sent to her without padding a first volume of work that was done five years ago.  I know why we’re being asked to do it– because the artist wants to be paid somehow for that art, but it’s just not plausible.  >_>  I’m sorry our original publisher Dramaqueen, ran out on us and never paid the artist for the pages she’s done–and I’ve done everything I can to compensate her, for their bullshit; yet I look at Teke Eket and I see another small publisher that doesn’t pay a production wage based on the script she’s read and the art she’s seen, which means I have to fork out cash on tones and prepress, so she’ll pay on what she can print.  >_<  At the time the artist works, I’d be forking out near $600 and wouldn’t see a return on anything, for another four years.

This is why I left small genre publishing.

*sigh*

I’m extremely conflicted right now, and I need to think about all of this.