Crazy train

Hey guys.

I know it's been months, and I'm sorry. Life is crazy insane lately. LittleMiss is a maelstrom of energy and she keeps me hopping until everyone else gets home in the evening. I can (slowly) scroll through facebook and share a quick post, but anything more coherent is tough to manage. Three year olds are a blast, but they're EXHAUSTING and keeping on constant vigilance isn't helping. Turn your back and something is dismantled/destroyed/scattered everywhere/sticky. This was a lot easier in my 20's, I tell ya!

Otherwise, stuff is mostly excellent. My weight is up, but my diet's been pretty good, so I'm blaming it on stress, hormones, and the weather finally warming up. I always bloat up when it starts to get hot, just like my mom. I've been walking the town almost every night - walked six of the last seven evenings - and my usual route is 1.54 km. I did a 2.2 km walk last weekend - I was feeling energetic since Bill had been home to help munchkin wrangle,  but maaaaan, my calves paid for it later! - and need to up the distance at least a little. Make some progress. I do 1k in 13 minutes 15 seconds, pretty consistently (within 3 seconds, either way), so maybe I should up the pace a little, too. I told Bill I want to do a 5k again this fall, so I'd better get on upping the workout.

SPORE's officially out in a couple of days and I'm trying not to stress. I usually get really upset and scared and angsty, at least I did with the Dubric books, but that's not happening, thank goodness! I am, however, fretting over how well it's selling, how well it's reviewing, did I do enough, that kind of thing. I am assuming that's a lot more normal reaction to a book launch than my previous suicidal contemplations, vomiting, and weeping. I asked my events coordinator - she's easier to get ahold of than the marketing department - about it's pre-release order numbers, but she hasn't been able to find any data yet. I certainly hope it's more than the six or eight people I know have ordered. We really could use the money. I have four public events scheduled for June and July so far - ComicCon Des Moines, a book signing at Barnes and Noble (it's the same day as ComicCon, I'm renting a car and Bill's taking a vacation day), a book fair in Fort Dodge (Munchkin is at her dad's and the truck's available for the short drive), and an artists' talk/event/launch party/thing in Cedar Rapids (Munchkin at her dad's again and the car's available for the long drive). I was invited to do HorrorHound in Indianapolis but declined because I just can't swing the logistics of babysitting, a vehicle to drive, etc. Someone - maybe everyone - has to take time off work to watch LittleMiss and I need a dependable vehicle. One day is one thing, several days is something else. And that's not even counting travel, hotel, and food costs. Ah well. The current block of real life and online events will help with sales, I hope.

Morgan is still out and about seeking a publisher, plus I'm (well my agent's) in the midst of negotiating a GhoulBane graphic novel script. I'm hopeful that Dubric can go graphic, if this works out well for everyone involved. Keeping my fingers crossed. Other than the GhoulBane stuff, I haven't written any fiction at all for about 6 weeks now, which is highly distressing.

I've also become extremely forgetful. I hope it's just stress and not my age, and that my memory and focus will come back. I miss them. They've always kept me on top of things even when life was crazy. Now I'm showing up at wrong times for appointments, losing track of how much money's in checking (I ALWAYS know how much we have in checking, usually to the penny but at least within change from a dollar) what's cooking and when it'll be done (I'm burning things. I never burn things. Or I forget to turn the oven or crockpot on). Stuff like that. I almost paid a bill late which I haven't done for almost 30 years. It's rather distressing.

It's stress and exhaustion, right? Gah, I hope so.

Maybe stuff isn't 'mostly excellent' after all. {{hugs}} and have a great week!