Feedback update!
I got a couple of new feedback emails over the weekend, both of which made me squee happily. Between moving house and everything else (including emailing for permission to post the emails), it took me until yesterday to get them up on the Testimonials page. But it’s all updated now! Go check it out!
One I was particularly pleased by was from Michael G. Stern, a writer for US television. It means a lot to receive feedback from a professional writer!
But I am touched by all the emails that readers take the time to send to me. Thanks to all of you. It helps to remind me why I’m doing this, makes me push on through the awkward times, and encourages me to make sure I get those posts up every day.
Lots more to come. Can’t wait to share it with you all.
New house!
Front of house
I’m all moved into my new house! It’s finally all furnished and filled with my crap stuff.
People have been asking me for pictures, so here they are! Before and after (the moving process) shots.
The thumbnails go through to big pictures, so be warned if you click through! Ignore the dates on them – Mum has yet to sort out the date feature on her camera and it decided it was February all on its own.
Office - before
Office - after
The first room is supposed to be the dining room, but I wanted/needed an office space for writing (and, okay, playing games on the PC).
It has my old desk in there at the moment, but there’s a new one turning up sometimes this week – I ordered it yesterday. Somehow, I managed to need more space than the old desk could provide!
On the plus side, I managed to get all my bookcases in there. They are now filled with varying levels of geekiness.
Lounge - before
Lounge - after
Lounge next – not much to say about that. Have couches and telly and lovely speakers. All hooked up for movies and music streaming.
Needs a rug, I think. I haven’t hung any pictures up yet, but will do soon. (That’s my mum in the first picture, in case you were wondering.)
Bedroom - before
Bedroom - after
The bedroom is a good size – I got lucky there. Managed to squeeze in a decent-sized bed and enough furniture to hide all my clothes.
There’s a huge built-in wardrobe, which helps. Now all I have to do is keep it tidy. Wonder how long that will last!
Kitchen
Bathroom
The kitchen is a comfy little place, with everything I need (including a coffee machine you can’t see in this pic.
And yes, okay, more geekery. Shush. They’re handy shelves and I had to put something there!
The bathroom is a bathroom. ‘Nuff said. Water’s hot, towels are fluffy, and it’s just a stumble from the bedroom. The loo is separate – oddly, attached to the back of the house, so I have to go out the kitchen door to get to it. A little weird, but the kind of weird I’m willing to put up with.
Back yard
There is a curious back yard to this place – lots of fronds and trees, with a gazebo and a washing line hidden in there. This pic is of the gazebo side. I have yet to furnish it; that’ll wait until the spring when it becomes interesting and useful (and warmer).
So there you go! A little tour around my new place. Still some work to do on it, but it’s comfortable enough to be going on with. I’m happy with it. 🙂
New guest post!
The Apocalypse Blog has its second guest post up! Huzzah! Everyone go read it right now.
I’m so pleased with how this one came out. I wasn’t planning on having guest posters write the group (just the parts in their own characters’ voices), but Rissa did it so well that I couldn’t object. She caught the cast characters perfectly, I think.
I’ve had a couple of other readers express interest in doing guest posts, too. Wonderful! Can’t wait to see them and wind them into the storyline. The more the merrier!
Thanks for doing such a great job, Rissa!
Glitch fixed!
I’m sure you’ll all be relieved to know that the Apocalypse Blog is all happy and fixed now. Normal service has resumed and Monday’s post has been fixed. I posted it an hour later than the original post, so hopefully all the RSS feeds have picked up the proper, non-borked version.
The problem was that yWriter (the handy piece of software that I use to write the fictional blog in) and WordPress (that powers the lovely site) don’t talk to each other very nicely. The last WP update changed the way I need to copy-and-paste from yWriter to WP. I’d love to say it fixed the issues with getting them to communicate, but instead it was just shifted around slightly.
It’s all good now. Carry on.
Glitch
Some of you may have noticed that last night’s Apocalypse Blog post was a bit weird. Not sure what caused that, but I’ve taken down the messed-up post for now. I’ll look at it tonight when I get online and fix it properly – for the meantime, please bear with me!
I usually check the output when I post, but I was in a rush last night between one thing and another. Sorry everyone! Hopefully normal service will resume soon.
Onwards and upwards
This weekend has been yet another busy one. I’m tired and sore, but the new house is looking great and I’m feeling good about everything. The cable install went smoothly and I now have internet there. All I have left to do is pack up all my stuff here at the folks’ place and spend a small fortune at the supermarket. That’s next weekend’s job.
Last night, I had a lovely dinner with a good friend of mine, who writes wonderful m/m romance. I plan to pick her brains about sorting out a proper website for my writing stuff (rather than just a writing blog), which I’m aiming to tackle once this move is over and done with.
Today, I found myself with an afternoon to relax. So I updated the Apocalypse Blog’s Chronology page with the new info, as I have just started a new ‘chapter’ there. I need to do the Cast page too, but that might stay on my list for a while.
I also added a feedback page. I got another lovely reader email yesterday and wanted to share it with you all, and so I decided to put up all the comments I’ve had recently. If I’ve missed any feedback that you think should go on there, let me know!
Now I think I should go write today’s blogfic post. Time to throw another spanner in the Seeker works. Hope you’re all well out there in the world!
A leader is me!
I have been itching to put this post up for a couple of weeks, but I haven’t been able to. I will prefix this with: *boing*.
Out of the blue, I got called into my manager’s office to talk about the extra duties I do for the team (I’m the QAR for the documentation team, as well as a writer). I was a bit nervous – I had no idea if there was something wrong, if I had screwed something up, or what. When I went in, there was my manager and my team leader, waiting for me.
The first thing they told me is that my team leader is pregnant (this is why I haven’t been able to say anything about this before now – it hadn’t been announced to the team). I was still incredibly puzzled, and they moved on to why they had called me in to the meeting.
I’ve been working my way up towards the next grade of writer, and had been hoping to get bumped up to the next level (senior) at the next performance review. They told me that I was definitely being given the promotion (the reviews are due at the end of July).
But on top of that, they want me to take on the team leader role too. When the current one goes off for maternity leave in mid-November, I’ll take over her position and be in charge of a team of eight writers.
Holy shit. I’ve never had two promotions in one meeting before. And they said, “Go away and think about it, and let us know if you want it.” It was all I could do not to say, “OKAY YES PLS K THX BBAI,” right there. I went away and came back to my manager the next day to say, “Yes, I would love to take on the team leader position, thank you.”
So there you go. I’m excited and intimidated, and have a lot to learn. Can’t wait to get my teeth into it. Also looking forward to a very tasty pay-bump too, thankyouverymuch. Of course, I’ll be taking over the role officially in the middle of NaNoWriMo, but hopefully that won’t be too traumatic.
As I said earlier: *BOING* 😀
Moving Stage 1: Complete
It’s been a hell of a week, and now it’s Monday and the start of a shiny new one. Wow. So, what have I done so far?
Last Monday, I picked up the keys to my new house. Measured up and ordered essential furniture, made sure the roof and walls were all still attached. On Tuesday, I went back to the house after work and went through the entry checklist, so that I won’t be blamed for all the broken/damaged stuff that was already there, when I leave.
Wednesday, collapse. Thursday, late night shopping, went down to the electronics store to order appliances. Sorted out TV (omg pretty), washing machine (omg grown up), microwave, coffee machine… all the essentials. Spent way more money than I was planning to (the sales guy made a joke about the TV being worth more than my car, and I looked him in the eye and said, “Actually, it is,” and then we all laughed), but I’m still skating within my budget. Just.
Friday, I worked from home so that I could get a head start on digging out my stuff from storage. Cleared off one desk in my room and got my furniture-type bits loaded onto my friend’s dad’s ute (nothing more valuable than knowing someone who has a ute). Loaded up all the boxes I hadn’t unpacked after emigrating from the UK – I managed to fill three cars and the rest of the ute’s bed, and that’s just the stuff I’m not actively using right now. Drove over to the house, vomited stuff from vehicles into the house, said thankyouthankyou to everyone, went home, collapsed.
Saturday, was back over at the new house to receive my furniture delivery. At 6:30am. Joy. On the plus side, they delivered my whole order, instead of just the parts they had in stock when I placed the order (I was expecting to wait another week or two for the rest). Spent the whole day assembling furniture, unpacking boxes, and shifting things towards where they should be living. My lovely helper friend cleaned the kitchen out for me, so that is nice and sparkly. Late in the afternoon, I decided to finally unwrap the sofas and discovered they needed to have their feet screwed on. Note: when you’re tired from a day full of wrangling heavy things, don’t try to screw sofa feet on. Gave up, went home, collapsed.
Sunday, took my folks over to the new house to fix all the crap that turned out to be broken the previous day. Dad fixed the feet on the couch (yes, I know now), attached the mirror to the new dresser (I really wasn’t going to touch that after the sofa incident), and removed the half-screw that was sticking out of one of the bed’s feet (which has put a bloody great scratch in the floor). Mum fixed the curtains that she had given me that turned out to be about a foot different in length, though she swears they came from the same packet. Figured out how to make the water come out of the rainwater tank. Went home, slept like log.
Today, bought my kitten a scratching post. Somehow have to figure out how I’m going to wrestle that all the way home. But I can’t forget the little fuzzy, now can I? She can has new things too.
So there we go. The first stage of the move is done. This week, I have the phone line being connected on Wednesday (which means I won’t get any internet service until next week), late night shopping for essentials on Thursday, and then back to the new house on Saturday to finish the bulk of the unpacking, organising, and cleaning. Also need to sort out a gardener at some point to tame the forest I have for a garden (preferably with a chainsaw, or possibly a herd of hungry, obedient goats). It’s possible I might get some sleep in there too.
Official moving-in looks like it’ll be on the first weekend in July. I’m hoping to have a housewarming the weekend after that, which will be nicely timed with the week I have booked off work. I can see a lot of sleeping and relaxing going on that week, and not a hell of a lot else.
I am looking forward to getting in there and getting on with things. Can’t wait until this shifting phase is over.
The good news is that I am keeping up with my writing, even with all of this going on. I managed to get enough Apocalypse Blog posts written last week to cover the weekend, which meant I didn’t have to worry about it (except for putting the posts up, which I almost forgot last night! Whoops). If I can keep doing that, my moving shenanigans (I just like that word) shouldn’t interfere with my daily posting record. I even managed to get the opening of my novel reworked recently, so that’s looking good.
Progress achieved. Colour me tired but happy.
The day-maker
Last weekend was hectic and frazzling. There was all the house stuff to sort out, and other things I was trying to get into order, and writing I never got to. At the end of it, I didn’t get done quite a bit of what I had hoped to.
Then an email popped into my inbox. It was out of the blue, from someone I had never met or spoken to before. And it completely made my day. I have asked permission to share it with you all, and my lovely reader was kind enough to agree. So here it is:
Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoy reading the Apocalypse Blog–I’m a newcomer to web fiction, tried reading a few, but this one’s the only one that was well-written and interesting enough to hold my attention. I’m a writer myself, so I can appreciate how hard it must be to update it daily–kudos to you for that! I always pay most attention to characters and I love yours; they’re so complex, and their interactions are always interesting. You bring Faith to life so well, it seems like she’s a real person blogging from a parallel universe or something where this is actually happening. Your writing is great, it’s really easy to just get into and absorbed in, which is a real feat considering this is the thrill-a-minute internet. 😉
I also love how you bring your setting to life. It’s all very dark and desolate, but there’s these glimmers of humanity and hope sometimes, and you bring all of that across so well. You ought to look into getting stuff published, if you haven’t yet!
I’ve never liked zombies–can’t stand them, in fact–but I really like this story and I hope you stick to it.
It’s the kind of email that I think every writer loves to get. I don’t get a lot of feedback from my readers – though I know you’re out there! – so receiving something like this means the world to me.
And my reader was kind enough to let me know that at least some of the stuff I was aiming to do was working. Like the real-time aspect, giving the impression that you’re all reading this as it’s happening, and the lighter parts that make the darkness worth the fight. It’s so hard to know if I’m hitting my marks unless someone says!
Without my readers, it would just be me whistling into the dark. I love knowing that you’re out there. And I apologise for not making it easier to reach me – I do regret not putting comments onto the Apocalypse Blog. Silly me.
Thank you. To all of you who have given me comments and encouragement in the past – thank you so much. I don’t make a big deal out of every one of them, mostly because you’re all so nice and I’m not good at blowing my own trumpet. You make a big difference to me and what I do.
The Apocalypse Blog is almost six months old. Almost halfway to the finish line. I hope you all come with me.
Moving confirmed!
My house has been confirmed – I have an appointment tomorrow to sign the lease. Soon, I will be a real grown-up with a (rented) house all of my own! Whoo!
Moving itself is going to be a piecemeal affair. I won’t be able to do any real moving of stuff until Friday, and I have yet to order furniture (mostly because I need to get in and take measurements first – another job for tomorrow). So it’s not going to be a sudden heave-ho over to the new place, but more of a gradual sliding in that general direction.
I’ll move properly once all the essentials are in place – bed, sofa, telly, internet connection. The usual things. Luckily, I’m not in a particular rush to be over there and have time to sort these things out.
With luck, it won’t interrupt my usual writing activities too much. The new house is much closer to the city – 20 minutes on the train rather than an hour – which will be much better for my health and use of time. It will, however, bite deeply into my daily writing time – I don’t know how much I’ll be able to write on the train, if at all.
So, once I move, there will be an adjustment period. I want to build up a buffer of Apocalypse Blog posts before that happens, so that I there is no interruption of service, but my available time to do that is severely limited. We shall see! Fingers crossed, huh?
I promise my faithful readers that I will do what I can to keep the story rolling while my life shifts around in the background. Still lots more to come there.
Speaking of readers, I have a post to do about that soon. Watch this space!