I almost skipped 10 posts ahead just now and wrote 444. Whoops!

Hey, so I have a new idea about something to do for a monthly challenge, y’all: a quick several paragraph story to go with each art piece of the day. As is totally obvious, I choose a piece of Sci Fi art each night to post with my daily blog entry. I love Sci Fi art obviously because I love Sci Fi, but the other thing I especially love is that each image holds such a story to me when I look at it. I mean, it makes sense; most of these pieces of art are either straight-up cover/promotional art for some specific story, or concept art for the same. They’re 100% absolutely supposed to invoke a story. So, yeah, why not go with that?

Not sure when that will happen. Not this month, but maybe February. I definitely have several projects right now all vying for attention, the first two of which are my written pilot and the novel. Both of those need to whipped into a shape where other people can read them and give some feedback.

As to what’s next after that? Two more pilot scripts are what’s next, and THEN my next novel project. I need those pilot scripts as quickly as possible, which isn’t fast enough. It’s definitely more of an uphill battle for me to write in script form as opposed to prose. But, that’s why I want to keep at it. It’s a skill that can come with nice paychecks, and these lights are’t keeping themselves on out of charity. I do think, however, that I’ve caught the book-writing bug, or re-caught it as the case may be, and I’m afraid that’s not a condition that I’ll ever get over. So, more novels there shall be, especially with such an easy-to-manage process as 3 pages a day.

The writing starts again tomorrow, methinks. January I want to have for my rewriting. Both of the pilot script (which comes first) and then the novel. The novel will almost certainly continue through into February, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Then, I want a period of outlining. Outlining for my next three projects, perhaps? The two pilot scripts, and the next novel. The next novel I write will not be the next Starstuff novel, I don’t think. No, I think I want to start as many as three different novel series before going back and finishing Starstuff. I think several series would be easier to sell to a potential publisher than one complete series. More options. Pick the series they think will sell best, and then work on that for a few years, hopefully meet enough people to get some of them buying your books and knowing your name, and then start releasing the other series. It’s a master plan. You’ll see.

But, yeah…I had a talk with my manager (and I need to talk more, actually, about everything I just outlined). The gist of it being that it’s time to put me out there on the TV side of things, be more proactive in trying to get me assistant-ed on a TV show. And, I heartily agree. It *is* time. Time to get that pilot script into other people’s hands to critique, and time to get out and meet people who might be able to get me my first job. My first look into the realities of how these shows are made.

Honestly…I don’t actually feel ready yet. But, that doesn’t matter. I just need to do it. I didn’t feel ready last year when I started writing my novel, but that shit got done. I figured it out as I went. That’s life, right? This is no different. I may not “feel ready,” but it’s time for me to be ready, so let’s fucking do this.

The Ho and I did office stuff together, and then drove a sweet older lady home from the grocery store. Liz had gone to get coffee from the Starbucks right near the office while I did our business there, and overheard a woman asking if someone would walk with her across the street because she gets scared. Well, Liz being apparently the only fucking person with a heart and two legs sprang into action and walked her across that street, and all the way to Gelson’s on the other side. Once I was done in the office, I grabbed the car from Starbuck’s and met them over there just as the sweet lady was getting out, so we offered to drive her home. She accepted, probably a little scared that we were psychopaths, but we weren’t, and we just dropped her off at her little apartment down the street. Apparently, she’s nearly been hit a couple times walking across the street, and she’s developed some fairly severe anxiety about doing it on her own. Anyway, it was just a very sweet way to start the day, and major kudos to the Ho for stepping in to help out. That’s why I married that crazy broad.

Then, we went to Ikea to pick up the shelving we’d decided would work. That was fairly straightforward, although we’d chosen the wrong size boxes for one set, and Liz was scrambling to find a suitable replacement since they were out of the right size whilst I was pulling up to load the car. But, we were off shortly afterwards, and came home for breakfast.

After that and some errands, I did the prudent “staycation” thing and I laid down for a solid hour-long nap. I was in bed for two hours, but awake for half that time. It was awesome. Then, I was up in time to walk the dogs for their nighttime walkies, and ate some dinner when I got home. I cracked open one of the my TNG blu-rays, and set up the shelving unit we purchased while Season 4 of The Next Generation serenaded both Liz and I. I decided to start with Season 4 since just about two years ago, a friend and I had pretty much watched all of Seasons 1-3 on DVD. The Blu’s, though, are next level. Seriously gorgeous stuff. The colors, the resolution, even the graphics are all amazing.

That’s all for tonight. It was a wonderful day today, and a great way to kick off my full week of enjoyment before getting back to the work grind. I wanted to plan my day out a bit more, but alas, that didn’t happen. Tomorrow, I want to. It just sets my mind more at ease, knowing what’s happening. I’m a little nuts like that, I guess. I’m not sure if I always was that way, or if this is some coping mechanism from being an adult that I’ve developed, but it is part of me nonetheless. No changing it now.

Tonight’s artwork is a piece from Peter Kniffton. I find that the artwork I love most has something to do with scale. Massive scale, usually, but just scale in general. Love that stuff. It’s the tiny lit-up windows on that tower-thing in the background that tell us how freaking massive it must be. Love that shit.