Rest assured that I am beginning to consider what, precisely, I plan to do with this blog. I don’t yet know if I’m going to go back to monthly updates, more frequent updates or just updates whenever I feel like it. It is the Year of the Dragon, and I’d love to have some fun with Way of the Dragon to celebrate. At the same time, I have some projects that I want to focus on that aren’t part of this blog. For one, I’d like to start planning for the finale of the Terminus Trilogy, the NaNoWriMo series I’ve been working on for years. I’d prefer not to be caught with my pants down the way I was this year! (For the curious, I am hoping to have the PDF available by the end of the month. I’ll let you know when it is ready.)

So, in short, I don’t yet know what my plans are. But I’m working on getting them in order, and once I know for sure what my schedule looks like this year, I’ll be the first to let you know about IR. My current leaning is to go back to monthlies and pare back everything else, though monthlies will be at my discretion and not voted on. I also want to turn this into a writing-focused personal blog as well – more Rants that focus on the things I think about and problems I face instead of just my dislike of Chick Tracts. (It was never supposed to be just that; I ran out of time to keep it going with broader topics. I am sorry for that.)

Hang in there, folks. I’ll let you know as soon as I can what to expect. Until then, I wish you all the best in whatever you’re up to! Let me know if you’re reading, writing or doing something great.

As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t updated IR for October. I made a post to Facebook late in the month noting that I’d come down with an awful cold, and that I’d be late, but I never intended to be this late. I’ve also continued to miss Poetic Magnetism updates. This cold, I note, has been the result of several little surprises in my life that I didn’t see coming, and the stress I’ve been facing over them. If I’m ever going to be a real writer, I have to learn to deal with this stuff better, but I’m still learning. Putting it all out of my head is still difficult, particularly in such personal and familial contexts.

Now it is the 10th of October, I have this month’s AND last month’s chapters to write, plus the extra backlog of chapters I will need for the months when I don’t post here. And NaNoWriMo 2011 is right around the corner. And I still have some editing left to do on my Clarion Write-A-Thon script from August. I hope it doesn’t sound whiny, but I’m tired, guys. I’ve been to hell and back over the last few months, and I’m just starting to breathe again.

This, combined with the continued realization that Ink Raindrops just isn’t getting the readership it needs to function at its best, has made me think seriously about what I’m doing here. I spend a lot of time on IR stuff, and I had hoped by now that word of mouth and Internet traffic might have brought a few more people my way. It hasn’t happened. And I just don’t have the interest to spend time, money and effort trying to market it – this has been my practice place, not something that I wanted to make my life. In the past I have had writing sites that were fortunate enough to get noticed, but it hasn’t happened yet, this time. Still, it is good for me, and I’ve grown a lot as a writer by having this here. I don’t want to give up.

So here’s what’s going to happen. Ink Raindrops will stay open, but with a few alterations:

For the time being, I’m going to remove the poll feature and add chapters at my own discretion. It was a cool idea and I still think it has merit, but it really does require more than two or three voters per month to make sense. I thank those of you that did vote from the bottom of my heart, and you’ll still get to read what I’m writing this way. Bug me via Facebook or Twitter or email if you have strong feelings about what you want to see next!

The other big change is that I’d like to, for right now, end the commitment to monthly chapters. This one hurts, honestly, because I believe I benefit from having that deadline – it’s taught me a lot about how to work on a real schedule, and I’d like to re-establish that someday, if I can. But right now, going into the period of my life where I’m not going to be here anyway, I have to face reality.

I’ve gotten delayed in doing some things that I need and want to get done, and I’m about to lose even more time to NaNoWriMo. Right now it is a choice between Ink Raindrops monthlies, and NaNo. I love the work I’ve been doing here, but NaNo means a whole lot to me – I get more accomplished, even though it’s harder work, and it’s a community of writers that I only get to take part in once a year. For once, I’d like to have the time to enjoy that. I’ve already done Clarion this year, which was another huge challenge, and it’s things like this that force me into working on the things I really need to improve. IR is for fun and practice; Clarion and NaNo are craft-builders. I need the latter right now more than ever.

So, I’ll still work on these stories when I have time. I don’t know how often to tell you to expect updates; I will let you know via Facebook and Twitter when they happen, so you don’t need to check often. Because I still owe you a chapter of The End, I’ll make that first priority, but after that, I’ll start doing author’s choice, as mentioned. I’m not going to shut anything down or stop writing them, I promise. I want to see where they go as much as you do!

This will remain my portfolio, of sorts, as time passes. If you want to share my work with others, please don’t hesitate to do so. It just won’t be as social an experience as I hoped to make it. After the new year, when I have more time to devote to things, maybe we can talk about re-establishing the monthly deadline or trying something new, but for now, something has to give, and I’m picking IR.

Thanks to those of you that are still with me, and those that have been with me since the beginning. I promise I won’t let you down, and I’m certainly not giving up on anything. I’ve just finally been forced to admit that I’m spreading myself too thin, and it’s time to learn how to prioritize tasks. I’ll let you know what happens next, and when new things arrive. The rest – we’ll have to see. In time.

Well, I’m slightly disappointed, but I’ve decided that I just do not have the time to spare for anything new right now. My schedule between now and the end of this year is going to be complicated at best, and I have obligations that just cannot wait. Here’s a few:

1. This month (September) is reserved for making final edits to my Clarion Write-a-Thon script so that I can hand it off to my husband. That starts next Tuesday, after Labor Day. It may not take the whole month, but what I don’t spend writing, I hope to spend cleaning, in preparation for Christmas plans. Yes, I’m well aware it’s very early for most people, but there are a few reasons why I’m not going to have what looks like four months. Read on.

2. October is when I start worrying about writing advance chapters for automatic publication during the two months that I do not update here. Getting the chapter FOR October done isn’t a challenge, but the one for November will be. Immediately after that, I have my wedding anniversary, followed by NaNoWriMo with the rest of the month. You can see why October is a much wiser choice. The rest of the time I don’t use writing will, again, go to housework and other chores.

3. Did I mention my anniversary, and NaNoWriMo? I thought so. November is a complete wash as far as I am concerned. So far I have not needed to pull any late-nighters or work myself to the bone, but I like to keep my schedule clear so that if I ever do need to, I can. It’s really important to me to finish and succeed, so whatever has to happen will happen. Any leftover time I have will be apartment cleaning, maintenance, etc.

4. Last we come to December. My goal is to have all my critical things (writing, cleaning, etc.) out of the way by this point, so that I can put my energy toward preparing for family, holiday decorating and the fun stuff that comes with the season. Every year I get stressed out and nervous and upset leading up to Christmas, and I just don’t want to do that anymore. I’m going to be freaking out enough as it is, given that I’m hosting my first Christmas here. It’s just my mom and my stepdad, not a whole herd, but still. I want it to be a wonderful experience, since it may be one of the only opportunities we’ll have to do this for awhile. (The double wedding in my husband’s family this year has resulted in our having two concurrent holidays with my family, in order for everyone’s alternating holidays to line up. We never get to stay home, and my family could use the vacation, so the expense and considerations are just the same to bring them up here for a year.)

So in short, I apologize, but I’m not going to try to take on anything new right now. Chapters will continue as promised, and I will get back to being more diligent about Poetic Magnetism (yes, I do realize I’ve missed a couple again.) If you happen to like food and/or cooking, I have a pet project in the works involving a small food blog, though thankfully that does not qualify as fiction! We’ll see what happens in the future. The new year will be far less choked for time – the end of the year is always the busiest for me.

What was listed as “something new” should have actually been the entry for Pixel and Graphite, if I’d done things right. I have adjusted the poll to reflect this. Sorry for the confusion. I’ve checked my other polls and determined that this is the only one that didn’t get changed correctly when I updated them for 2011. All’s well again in blogland.

My progress is excellent. I was able to complete my first draft of the script before I left yesterday. I skipped Sunday and Monday due to packing and travel exhaustion. Tonight, I will begin editing in earnest. I’m hoping that an hour or two each night before I go to bed will be sufficient, but we’ll see what happens. August 6th isn’t too far away, now…

As for Poetic Magnetism, I missed last week’s, and I missed today’s. I’m going to beg your forgiveness and leave it at that. Next Tuesday I will also still be in Arizona, and it will be my last full day here, so I would like to consider that one spoken for, too. Once I get back from Arizona, Clarion will be over and I will have no more distractions in my way. I promise I’ll put my full attention back to PM after that. It will be MUCH easier to manage!

I can’t believe it’s almost over. I am split between elation and terror.

Just thought I’d let you all know that August’s WotD chapter is loaded and ready to be auto-published on the first. No longer must you consider the possibility that it will be late. I don’t even have to remember to put it up, which is a good thing, given how early I will be awake and on a plane that day. I hope it’s a good start to your August.

Vote your butts off for September. That one will also need to be dealt with as soon as possible, because of the second of two weddings falling in the middle of my writing period. The sooner I know which chapter to write, the happier I will be.

I just had a scary thought. Next month will be August. September comes after that. And then October. Before you ring up Rebecca Black with a new song idea, hear me out – October is the last chapter that I have to write on schedule. After that, I’ll have pre-posted stuff since November is for NaNoWriMo and December is Christmas, which I will be having at my house this year instead of traveling. The year just got a lot shorter, somehow. I can’t believe it’s already almost August! Wasn’t it April, not that long ago?

And if it’s almost August… I’ve got a lot of Clarion work to do. Which means I’d better shut up and go do it. See you folks on the first!

I won’t spend a lot of time talking about it here. If you want to know more, I invite you to click on the new addition and check out the page I mentioned. It will explain everything. If you aren’t interested, then all you had to read was this little blurb. Nice of me, I know.

Stay tuned for the big surprise. It should be up today, or tomorrow at the latest. I’m waiting on something to be confirmed before I say anything official.

For what it is worth, I still would like very much to learn to work on things, one small piece at a time. I was unable to practice it on this trip, but it is high on my list of things to do. I have real trouble working on my writing in public and/or while I am distracted, and I am aware that I would get a lot more done if this were not true! The NaNoWriMo method of repeating a certain daily pattern is enough to help me during that time, so I know the distractions can be overcome. It is just difficult to enforce such a pattern while on vacation, since doing so impacts others, as well as myself. At home, during the days, I have no one but myself to bother with my need for space and silence.

My job is important to me, and I don’t want people to think I’m not serious – and yet, I don’t want to miss other important opportunities in my life to spend time with people I do not get to see often. Maybe if I weren’t so wiped out by the three-hour time change, and the urgency of making sure we do everything that we want to while we’re away, I’d find the time with less difficulty. It’s not an excuse; merely an observation. I think it can be done, I really do. I just haven’t managed to do it, yet. We must all have something to learn, right?

So. Dragon, in the next couple of days. I’m going to go work on it, right now. Voting will continue as planned for July, so get those votes in! You have a week. And I do have a little surprise for you that I’m planning to announce, once Dragon is out the door. It will request your participation in something that means a lot to me, and until I fulfill my current promises to you, I don’t feel right asking for your promises in return. I do apologize for being late, again. I’ll do my best to make it up to you, and to not run over in July!