The Banks of Chaos in My Mind

By my rough estimate, at least one of the residents of the Beach Ghost Manse has been sick with one illness or another over the past six weeks. That's a month and a half of sneezing, green discharge (from both noses and eyes), coughing, fever, and assorted aches. I don't believe that I've felt physically well for two days in a row over the past two weeks.

The past five days have been all about a sore throat that is only now beginning to abate. And while I had considered myself fortunate to escape from the Pink Eye Fairy with only one eye affected, I was practically despondant when I detected telltale secretions in both my eyes two nights ago before bed. I was taking absolutely no chances and began putting prescription drops in my eyes (again) immediately thereafter. I'll be plopping a few drops into the blinkers every four hours on the regular for the remainder of this week, thank you very much.

Despite this and all the other ephemera associated with having an infant, I managed to finish the first draft of the Bride of the Beast last week. I'm in the midst of the final edit before I send it off to the publisher--almost three months to the day from when I started. It may not work for everyone, but the two 'lines' (out- and dead-) are an almost surefire guarantee of me getting projects done on time.

This is a bit more impressive (from a personal standpoint) when I consider that I went about 25% above what I had stated would be the high end of the word count. Editing will remove some of that chunk, but it will still be longer than I thought it would. Whether it's good or not will have to be determined by the "fans," who I'm sure will shred it for some misappropriation of the Cthulu mythos.

Between the Bride of the Beast and my recent illnesses, I'm ready to take a short mental break. Going off on my own and writing for three or four hours at a clip was simple when it was just MLW and I, but me taking time out to create worlds apart from the one in which I live now requires that she work at keeping the kid out of harms' way and somewhat entertained. I also feel like I've been somewhat disconnected from the world at large--I think taking a few weeks off so I can resurface in the social current is a very good idea right about now.

Plus, I think MLW would enjoy discussing something other than this f'in project.

Of course, I already know what I'm doing next.