Check out this cute story based on an earlier prompt at Doggedly in Rome, by Murphy!

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I adore the November time change. I get an extra hour of sleep,
which leaves me far more able to face the day job for the first few days
after, and I’m also a night person, which means the earlier it gets
dark, the earlier I wake up. No, I’m not a vampire (though aside from
the whole blood drinking thing, it does hold a certain appeal…). But I
always operate better on standard time, even after the time change has
passed – and I never feel fully rested during DST. So this is my time of
year. Hooray!

I’ve mentioned (ad nauseam) that October was an incredibly
difficult and stressful month around here. I won’t belabor the details
more than I already have, but as of this weekend, we’re back to
“normal”, and I couldn’t be happier.  I’ve never done well with change
and a lack of routine, but I think it’s gotten worse the older I get.
Needless to say, I’d planned to spend most of the weekend writing, but
instead I spent the majority just getting the house back in order,
reorganizing things (like mail, cupboards and the budget) that had
gotten way out of hand, and making a plan to deal with the rest over the
next week. 

I have to say, it feels good. Really, really good. 

There’s still one more change to go through. My husband is starting
a new job Tuesday that will be slightly different hours, different
(less) holidays, less money and no more car-pooling – which is a bummer
since we’ve been driving to work together for at least as long as we’ve
been married (maybe a little longer). But it will also be far less
stress and far fewer hours for him, which will be a worthwhile trade
off, methinks. Or I hope it will, anyways. 

Overall though, we’re back to normal. Actually, we’re now in
“hyper-routine” mode as we try to (re?) housebreak the newest canine
member of our family. This means that pretty much everything in our
house happens on a strict schedule designed to help Mica to learn and
remember that the backyard, and not my dining room, is where he needs to
“go”. Crate training, careful supervision when he’s not in the crate
and set times for eating and going out all seem to be working, thank
goodness. But it’s a process, and one made vastly easier with a pretty
strict daily routine. 

Ironic that I adopted a 5 yr old dog specifically so I didn’t have
to do much in the way of basic training, eh? Ah, that Murphy. He’s got a
sense of humor to go with that sadism he’s famous for…

Writing is another thing that benefits from a set routine (for me,
anyways), though my writing routine has been haphazard at best lately.
The long vacation was a bad idea (well, there were extenuating
circumstances too) in terms of discipline, and now I’m struggling to get
back into my nightly writing “groove”. It doesn’t help that I decided
to participate in National Novel Writing Month,
but still have outstanding serial stories running that should have been
finished last month (you know, when I took that vacation). So at the
moment, I’m falling way behind on my NaNo word count in hopes of
finishing at least two serial stories as quickly as possible so I can
break the bottleneck I have going at the moment and give the new draft
my nearly complete attention for the rest of the month. December will be
a serious revision/editing month for me. I should have lots of new
stuff ready to publish next year though…

That reminds me – this Friday is the last day to submit stories for the December

So what’s on tap for this week? Let’s see:

– Serial chapter for The Handyman’s Harem Girl

– Finish two other serials

– Serial chapter for horror short

– Keep working on the NaNo draft, however slowly

– Mail out prize books for the Goodreads anthology contest

– Rework my “after work/dinner” routine (ie, stop being lazy)

– Finish uploading the latest horror short

– Update BSB site, start updating/reorganizing my author sites

– Send out invitations for the Wild Tree party I’m having in two weeks

– Set out minimal fall decor (wasn’t going to this year, but since I’m having people over…)

We’ll see how far I get, but it should be a pretty good week, I think.

Here’s to structure & the mundane – my two favorite things at the moment.

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