December Birthday Vacation

I’ve spent the better part of three whole days goofing around, playing, and having a grand ol’ time. My birthdays have been a growing joy over the years, keeping it simple with a small group of friends, a movie outing, and hanging out with a good meal. I recently added in escape games to my routine and it’s been great! I’m so glad that everyone has fun and really gets into the experience. The last two Covid years really dampened the celebration but not in a bad way. I just had to adjust to things being a little different and to being creative within the limitations. While Covid technically isn’t over, it’s a little easier to get out and do things because everyone is caught up on shots, people are more careful, and generally more understanding of everyone’s personal limitations.

This year I’m taking a whole week off in addition to the birthday shenanigans to work on the final polish to Entropy. I’ve got some pretty good momentum on VoH and ITMotB so as much as I itch to work on those, this week will be devoted to really grinding through the last bits and pieces of Entropy. Otherwise I’ll be instituting a 600 word minimum per day to get my discipline up once I go back to work next week.

I’m pretty impressed that I’ve come this far. I’m THREE BOOKS into this five book series. I have two books left and I’ve completed the first saga of my writing life. Here’s hoping I can actually get them done with keeping up with my routine. It’s been a hard road but a rewarding one, and I am far from needing any destination other than the books I write along the way.

The hardest part has honestly been getting myself to understand that most people around me aren’t going to understand the CRAZE that is my writing life, that yes, my life is not living unless I’m writing and everything has to cater to that life. It sounds cheesy and over dramatic and that’s why its been hard to really explain to anyone that writing, storytelling is not just a hobby, not just a thing I like to do, its literally a core part of my existence. I think trying to explain and getting the response from people that clearly doesn’t understand has had me second guessing and even gaslighting myself into believing that I’m wrong.

Now that I know for a fact that I am not wrong I have nothing in my way stopping me from rebuilding my life to put that at its core again. And the primary part of the rest of the week off for my birthday is to really set in the start again who I am and what I want to do. Just because people don’t understand doesn’t mean I’m wrong, it means I’m doing something important to myself.

They’ll understand someday when I have a dozen books under my belt but not until then. People like to see evidence of claims, but me claiming that I’m this or that isn’t enough. And honestly, some people wont even believe it until I’m traditionally published and have awards next to my name, even though that’s not the important part to me.

The important thing is telling the stories that my heart wants to tell. To the people that do understand, and those that try, or at least listen when I crabble about my writing, you are so important and so precious to me. I dedicate this writing week to you!