No Rest for the Wicked, or Lettuce Give Thanks

Saturday was a busy day.  It started out at 6:30 am with preparing two rather nice boys for human sacrifice on the altar of the Bull God. This was followed by a prophetic dream. At about 12:30 I  chatted with a rather witless Minotaur, until 2:30 p.m. when I had to put away my toys, shower, and  get myself properly dressed for dinner out with my old school mates.

I love writing fantasy.

I’ve been working on the ritual sacrifice scene for two days, and gradually it’s evolving into what I want it to be. The prophetic dream scene has also been on the work table for two days, and it too is evolving.  The end is nigh on this manuscript, and I am beginning to chafe at the bit, just wanting it to be finished so I can get going on two other tales that I have sitting on the back burner.

But it won’t be that easy.

No, there’s no rest for the wicked. I suppose attempting to  sacrifice perfectly nice characters on the altar of a dark God qualifies me as being wicked.

At least I hope so.

Irene Roth Luvaul and I have one more trip through Huw the Bard, and then he will be going to the Beta Readers. While he is being read, I will work on my two other projects for a bit, before I plunge back into prepping Huw for publication, and doing a rewrite of Mountains of the Moon.

In the meantime I’ve been writing as fast as I can, and trying to get the first draft of MOTM done, with an actual ending and everything.

Saturday night my old classmates and I dined at a nice local restaurant. It was my first big dinner event since becoming vegan and the meal I was offered was excellent and satisfying.  I had a nice green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, sautéed mixed vegetables, a baked potato with salsa and guacamole, followed by a strawberry sorbet.  It was a delicious meal, and I felt like I’d had a real dinner out.

The interesting thing about dining out, now that I’ve made the change to a vegan diet, is that there is a way that I can eat well without making a big ordeal out of it.  I have to be proactive and take responsibility for my meals by simply calling ahead and speaking to the chef about what items on their menu might be appropriate for a person who eats no dairy or meat.

This is really a life lesson for the indie author too–we must be proactive if we want something positive to happen with our career.  We must set aside time blog, and tweet, and make sure that when our author name is googled we are all over the first page that comes up. We must do this in as professional a manner as we are able, as the drunk-driving rap is probably not going to sell our books. We must establish regular habits of writing our books, writing blog posts, doing the social networking  that we despise, AND we have to learn how to be our own best advertisement. Why, yes, I do just happen to have a copy of my book in my trunk.  Yes, I do accept cash, checks, credit cards and jewelry. Who should I autograph this book to? Yes, I love shopping here at Safeway.

No rest for the wicked.

We can’t sit back and just hope for the best, or we might be stuck with a plate of french fries and a bowl of lettuce.