Monthly Archives: August 2023
Kind of a Long Day
Had an extremely long appointment early this morning which meant that I got next to no sleep because my OCD brain kept waking me up, staggered home afterwards and tried to take a nap but knew that Ramón needed me to drive him to pick up his truck from the mechanic’s (turned out to be a broken wire attached to an important switch) so I couldn’t settle, Ramón finally came in and asked me to take him to pick up his truck, at which point he discovered that his GPS wouldn’t give him instructions on how to get to the South Side Ballroom so that he could see BABYMETAL (Japanese heavy metal band fronted by three female performers) tonight.
So we both headed home to see if we could print out a map (which was not helpful) or rig up a mount for his phone (didn’t really work), and I finally said I would drive him because I’m much more familiar with Downtown Dallas, he’s been looking forward to this concert for months, and I didn’t want him to get lost and frustrated, give up, and come home.
And yes, I know the Ballroom is right off the intersection of I-35E and I-30 so why did we go through downtown? Because this was at the height of rush hour and the North Dallas Toll Road was bad enough. I did not want to be screaming out the window at perfect strangers as I tried to merge onto I-30 whilst figuring out how the hell to get onto Lamar.
All of this is to say that I have had one hell of a day, I am exhausted, still need to go back downtown to pick up Ramón, and you will get Episode 9 of High Tide when I stop wanting to cry and punch things.
When It Rains, It Pours
High Tide Episode 8: A Little Sangria Won’t Hurt… is now available at Kindle Vella. Huzzah, huzzah.
Apparently Fate really, REALLY needed a good laugh this month, because we can now add Ramón’s truck to everything else that’s broken or cost us money since the beginning of August. It wouldn’t start last night, we tried jumping it this morning and that didn’t work, then I went out and got a new battery anyway (his was old and leaking and it did need replacing) and put that in. Still didn’t work.
That being said, he can get it to start by effectively hotwiring it so it’s not the starter motor, it’s not the battery, and the fact that he can start it suggests that it’s not the alternator. He’s currently trying to find a decent garage in the area where we can get it towed and have some pros take a look at it. The truck is 17 years old and this is the first time he’s ever had any real problems with it so on the one hand we can’t really blame the service it’s given us.
On the other hand, NOW? It decides to break down NOW? And none of our lottery tickets have come through. I need a drink.
But as of this morning I have all the bills paid, all the paperwork and receipts filed for the month, and I’m going to spend the afternoon working on ads and cranking out another couple of K on High Tide. That’s progress, right?
Bad Story Choices
So I caught the season finale of And Just Like That (the Sex and the City continuation) yesterday, and the first five minutes and last ten minutes made me want to throw things at the wall.
Now, I have actually been enjoying this season. In fact, I’ve enjoyed the entire show so far, which came as a bit of a surprise because I tried rewatching SatC a while ago and had to turn it off because I wanted to strangle most of the characters. But hey, there’s twenty-five years between original broadcast and now, and attitudes change. The nice thing about AJLT is that the characters are all my age and have similar problems so I can hook into their storylines far more easily.
Anyway, back to the Season Two finale. It opens with Carrie getting a call from [SPOILER] and leaving her apartment door open while she takes the call. Which wouldn’t be an issue except that she now has a kitten and had been in the middle of greeting the kitten when her phone rang. I literally sat there saying out loud, “Carrie, get the door. Get the door, Carrie. Get the door. Get the door. CARRIE, GET THE MOTHERFUCKING DOOR BEFORE YOU LOSE THAT KITTEN!”
Which kind of cut down on my enjoyment of the scene. And indeed Carrie finishes the call in time to see the kitten toddling into the hallway and scoops it up, at which point I could breathe again. Okay, maybe that scene only bothers cat owners.
But then we get the denouement with Aidan (more spoilers here so if you haven’t seen the episode yet don’t read this post). In the previous episode he finds out that his 14-year-old-son Wyatt got pissed off at his mom, decided to get drunk and drove Aidan’s truck back to their farm where he promptly crashed the car into a tree and broke his arm and leg. Okay, it has been established that the kid has issues. Fine.
But after Carrie’s last dinner in her treasured brownstone apartment Aidan shows up, sits her down, and explains that he was the resident parent while his ex-wife had to fly around on business, and that he needs to be there for Wyatt until Wyatt is out of his teens, which will be in five years. He then tells Carrie with his whole fucking chest that they can’t be together for that period of time and asks her to wait for him, telling her that it’ll go by in a snap.
And she says yes. And they go to bed before he heads back to his farm house and his kid in Virginia. And I was left there thinking, “…wait, what?”
The thing is, Carrie is inherently selfish. She’s beautiful, kooky, funny, and has great taste in clothes. She’s also selfish. It’s why she clicked so well with Big—they were both self-obsessed New Yorkers who got off on the drama of their breakups and makeups. Aidan was never, ever right for her—he wasn’t back in the original series, and he’s still not now. So I find it hard to believe that that Carrie meekly agreed to wait for five fucking years until Wyatt grows out of his phase (assuming that happens at all, but that is a whole ‘nother issue that I won’t get into here). This woman is 56. She’s already lost one husband and had a hip replacement. She’s in the age range where bad medical shit starts to happen more and more often. She’s closer to the end of her life than she is to the beginning of it. She’s selfish. And she’s just going to drift around her beautiful new apartment with her cat Shoe and patiently wait for Aidan?
I call bullshit. This is not what Carrie Bradshaw would do (frankly, it’s not what any intelligent, wealthy, self-centered widow in her mid-fifties would do). She’d call Seema up and rage about being dumped for Wyatt, Charlotte would shame her about wanting Aidan to choose her over his son, she’d come to terms with it and write Aidan a beautiful breakup letter hoping that he finds ways to help Wyatt and wishing him all the best, and she’d move on. Not this modern take on Miss Havisham nonsense, even if she did wind up on a beach in Greece with Seema.
Sorry. I’m having flashbacks to the last season of Game of Thrones. The AJLT producers were so damn close to sticking the landing on this, but my writer brain cannot see it as anything but a massive fumble.
So, Yeah, It’s Monday
High Tide Episode 7: VivePharm is now available at Kindle Vella. You know the drill.
I had a panicked moment today. I thought I had my writer’s group meeting on Zoom tonight, which meant that I’d have to stop working at 7:00 PM and attend the meeting. Luckily we don’t have a story in the queue to be critiqued so I didn’t have to spend time on that but I am still editing the last few chapters of Crystal Blade before sending them off to Team Editorial Machete tonight and I didn’t have time to stop and attend a meeting…
…until I realized the meeting was tomorrow. Oops. And crisis averted.
Also, may I just say that having to plead with a medical insurance company to pre-approve an instance of non-elective surgery is bullshit? Luckily my doctor’s office is handling that and bless them for their tenacity, but it means I’m still waiting for them to receive my insurance company’s blessing before I can go ahead and have this gum issue fixed.
God, I want Medicaid For All.
On the plus side, the temps here are ever so slowly dropping and indeed it’s only two digits in my neighborhood at the moment, and that’s before 7:00 PM. I think that’s the first time this has happened since we had those three days of 90s temps. I just want to go back to non-hellish weather, is that so wrong?
Not Looking Forward To This Weekend
High Tide Episode 6: To Be Human … Or Not is now available at Kindle Vella. Go Forth and read.
So, Crystal Blade will be released on 8/29/23 at Amazon and you still have time to snap up a copy at 99¢ which is even cheaper than reading it on KU (yes, it will be on KU, never fear). The goal is to get the edited doc over to my editor and beta readers by Monday, get their edits input by Thursday, then give it a final polish and upload before the 7:00 PM CST deadline on Friday.
And the funny thing is, I thought this was the one that I’d have ready early. I had a whole month and a couple of days to get it ready for publication. I wouldn’t be rushing around like a headless chicken trying to get it polished, edited, formatted, and uploaded. I would have time.
Which must have amused Fate because that’s why I had my downstairs AC unit go out and a medical situation land on the same day. As a result the last two weeks or so have been filled with talking to AC techs, scrambling to get window units, getting various doctors’ appointments lined up and scheduling surgery (this is for the gum thing), all while it’s been hotter than Satan’s taint here. Frankly, the fact that I managed to get as much done with everything else that was going on astounds me.
But things are finally lined up and I’ll spend the weekend finishing up my round of edits before sending it out to Team Editorial Machete. Wish I could sleep next weekend but I’ll be prepping for release, tra la.
Back In the Saddle With Vella
High Tide Episode 5: Look Who’s Back is now available at Kindle Vella. The Olympic Cove gang are starting to approach the end game of Thetis and her mysterious companion, but Scott, Orrin, and Rian picked a very bad time to approach Poseidon (do not bother the God of the Seas when he’s trying to welcome a bunch of other deities, some of them not so friendly, to his home).
After I got the episode uploaded I decided to wash the bedding (at least we’ll be sweating into clean sheets), then go out and enjoy the last day of relative cool before Hell returns to the Clavicle of Texas. I picked up some stuff for a quilting project and stopped at the butchers for some proper bangers (mild pork sausages). Being an Englishman, Ramón is more than passing fond of bangers and mash with onion gravy, and since it’s stupidly simply to make (slice an onion very thin, brown it in butter, add it to a pan of brown gravy and let it simmer while you fry the bangers in the original frying pan, make up some mashed potatoes, and you’re done) I figured I’d do it tonight.
Frankly, I could use some comfort food myself at this point. I don’t like going to the doctor at the best of times, and tomorrow is for an actual treatment so, yeah, a little nervous. But better to get it done than ignore it and let things get worse, right?
Business Time
I don’t know if it’s the oncoming weather change that’s bringing back The Heat of Satan’s Taint or allergies or what, but all my joints feel like they’re full of ground glass and I was utterly exhausted by 8 PM.
As a result the head was not in a good place for storytelling so I fell back on book work. I updated my AMS ads, tweaked a couple of blurbs and came up with some new ad graphics for Crystal Shard.
I freely admit I don’t know why this style is so popular right now on social media but I’m seeing it everywhere. And since one needs to keep up with the trends I’ll be working on ads for all of the books in this style, including something similar for the Crystal Blade pre-order.
Now that I think about it, it’s an easy way for a reader to pick out their favorite romance tropes so that might be why it’s so popular. Also it’s fun to look at.
In other news I seem to have “Go All The Way” by the Raspberries on repeat in my head, I have an appointment for my initial gum treatment this Thursday morning (whee), and I have developed this craving for sushi and other Asian dishes. Ramón thinks it means I need more protein. He may have a point. In any case I obtained some California rolls for dinner tonight and I may have to make a stop at my favorite pho place sometime this week (yeah, I know, in this heat? But pho is worth it).
Writing Away
Today has been surprisingly productive—dunno how much of that is due to the significantly lower temps, the portable AC unit, or what, but I shan’t complain.
In fact, I should have a new ep of High Tide available on Vella by Wednesday, I’m hoping to have all of Crystal Blade edited and off to the Typo Team and my editor by the weekend, and I think I have a rough outline for To Love a Wild Swan, which is definitely going to be an enemies to lovers story (think Sam Reid in his most arrogant Lestat mode and Anna Taylor-Joy in Emma. format with added bloodthirstiness and you have my couple). The last book of the year will be Hurricane Warning which will wrap up my Olympic Cove series and bring my number of published novels (as opposed to novellas, novelettes, and short stories) up to a nice round twenty.
Granted, I am hesitant to mention any of this out loud because it seems that when I do that Something Happens™ that derails all of my plans. Guess I just have to keep my fingers crossed.
Oh, Thank God
The portable AC unit arrived today. It’s rated at 14,000 BTUs, which with the 8,000 BTU window unit in the breakfast nook is generating enough cool air to make downstairs bearable. And we’re getting three days of double digit temps this week which should make things even cooler.
And yeah, I know I’m rattling on about my AC unit instead of writing but this is an object lesson that not all romance authors are rolling in dough (I wish). As it is, Ramón has regretfully asked me to go find some contract work once my gum treatment is completed so that we can afford to replace the downstairs system and get some long-needed repairs done around here. Which I agreed to because it’s necessary and I’m a grown-up who will do what is necessary.
That being said, if I can start making enough money with my writing to match what I’d been bringing in as an instructional designer, I won’t need to look for contract work. So if you want to see more work from me on a faster schedule, would you please talk me up to your friends and get them to buy books or read my Vella eps? And I’ll work on getting my Patreon and Storenvy site up in a couple of weeks, which will be another way to keep me writing fiction instead of spending my day coming up with use cases. *twinkle* We thank you for your support.
Still Hot
We just got word that the portable AC unit that was supposed to arrive today will be delayed until tomorrow. As it is about 108°F out there at the moment and the downstairs is muggy as hell I have decided to take the day off, retire to the bedroom, and catch up on Good Omens 2 and a couple of movies that have been in my watch queue.
Yes, I could go into the office and do some work. But frankly, this has been a bitch of a week what with various things going spla and I need a freaking day off. Ramón has headed off to game at a friend’s house and the J Crew are currently splooting on the cool tile floor in the master bath so my time is my own and I want to watch David Tennant and Michael Sheen try to save the world while being completely oblivious to the romantic tension between their characters.
Also, for people who have only really seen Michael Sheen in recent years or maybe the Twilight movies, go check him out as Lucian in Underworld. You can thank me later.
Nicola Cameron Writes 