It’s a lovely grey morning and the coffee tastes fine. I worked through the weekend and there’s a release tomorrow (The Bloody Throne), so I’m worn down to almost transparency. Maybe I won’t work through next weekend.
Yeah. Right.
There’s also a Tea With Lili today; I have a list of questions from previous teas to work through. The worldbuilding chats (Part I is here) were unexpectedly popular–of course, I am always surprised when anyone wants to hear me natter on about things. So today we’ll be answering a few leftover questions from those and then, if there’s time, talking about groups and emotional agendas, because several people have inquired about my remarks on writing/critique groups.
I spent the weekend getting a hush-hush sample together, and that went out early this morning. That was 5-6k of new text, but with revisions and deletions I probably wrote around 8-10k, so no wonder my hands are a little angry with me. There’s a lot of stretching in my future and quite possibly some icing too.
Last night, however, I was rather at loose ends since the sample and my chores were all done, so I bit the bullet and played some Elder Scrolls for the first time. I got a good deal through Steam and ended up running around Summerset Isles with no idea of what I was doing. I miss WoW a lot but Blizzard’s behavior as a company means I can’t play it (or Diablo) in good conscience, so I’ve been looking for an alternative. I could’ve been playing Guild Wars with the Prince all this time, but they’ve retired their Mac version, alas.
So I suppose I’ll learn this other MMORPG. I might even stream it a bit, since both my kids are positively dying to tell their friends “my mum streams games.” I don’t know what the attraction is, but they seem tickled by the idea. I wouldn’t mind streaming a bit of Civ V, actually, though watching me play that is no doubt incredibly boring. I’m honestly surprised anyone wants to watch me do anything at all, let alone chatter while moving a cursor around, but the internet is wide and varied, my friends, and apparently there is room for all sorts of things.
There’s much to do before I can game again, though. I need to get a chunk of work out of the way today, since I know tomorrow’s release will distract me too much. I’ll want to put my head in a bucket of ice water and scream, frankly, since that’s my usual response to “omg the book is out, yes, YES, the book is out.”
On the bright side, I made a huge batch of red sauce yesterday and I think I have my base recipe down now. The kids were very pleased, and tonight it’ll be used for a baked pasta–always one of their favorite things, probably due to the amount of cheese. I also use cottage cheese instead of ricotta, since I don’t like the graininess of the latter.
I suppose I’d best get started on the day. The dogs are not quite excited yet, but as soon as I move for the toaster they will be. Miss B was very pleased I spent this past weekend largely in one place, so she could supervise without much effort; Boxnoggin was not quite so pleased but he had the Prince’s rambling, not to mention watching the street out the front window, to keep him occupied.
…just as I typed that, Boxnoggin stretched, arose from his nap, and wandered over to lay his head upon my knee. That’s my signal that it’s brekkie-time, and he would like his morsel of toast and walkies, thank you very much, Mum, and don’t forget to skritch under my collar as well. So I suppose I’ve my orders, and had best get started carrying them out.
Happy Monday, my beloveds. It’s going to be a long one, but as usual, I’ve the baseball bat well within within reach. Let’s hope that menacing the day is enough to make it behave…
