Prepping

While the New Year has come and gone, it still feels like a vacation/holiday to me until the monsters go back to school.  Tomorrow.  Thank the Lord!  Today is Princess Monster’s 10th birthday, so I took this day off, probably my last vacation day for quite a while.  Basketball starts up this week, and with all three playing, our weekends are shot for the next 8 weeks.

Meanwhile, I’ve been reading (4 books since I finished Return) and watching movies (Hellboy, Princess Mononoke, Seven Samurai).  I’ve also been clearing the slate, so to speak.  Getting Gregar, Mykal, and Dharman out of my head has proven more difficult than I expected, but slowly I’ve been switching gears to the Mayan fantasy. 

Unfortunately, I’ve misplaced my orange folder that has some of my notes in it (e.g. the monsters probably cut it up to make artwork).  I have my index cards and spreadsheets, but now my mind is mourning that folder (even though I can’t remember what’s in there).  I’ve read the nearly 120 pages I’ve polished, but I’m mentally stuck.  I can’t remember how this scene was going to end (note to self:  never leave a work in the middle of a scene without notes.  But what if I made notes and now just can’t find them??)  So I might have to skip ahead or something.

I plan on using this week to slowly work myself back to a Dark & Early schedule, stretching those writer muscles and freeing up those brain cells, building momentum day by day until I’m back to full speed.

I really want to finish Revision Xibalba this month, but after seeing how many scenes I still have to go (some of which haven’t been drafted yet), I may need another month.  We’ll see.  I have the query written and the list of agents I want to target.  I have a bad synopsis that I’ll need to throw out and rewrite, but the proposal package is just about ready.  I don’t have high hopes with the market in turmoil.  Plus, this idea isn’t as fresh as it was when I first came up with it.  I’ve minimized some of the “common” elements and highlighted what I think makes this story unique.  We’ll see if I get any nibbles.

I’m also going to use this slower time to get back into a regular exercise routine.  Nothing too strenuous to start, but after killing myself through NaNoWriMo, my back and knees need to get back to work!  The bright side of two hours of basketball practice every week (two of the monsters have practice at the same time) is more time to walk on the track.  It gets really boring since the track is so small, but it’s better than sitting on that uncomfortable bench.

How’s your new year going?