GD, yeowch. Those are some bad working conditions. That's a bad interpretation of an open office plan, but at least you have a desk, my aunt needs to carry all her papers everywhere and back and forth because no one has a set desk or office (not even her boss) and she's not actually allowed to have noise cancelling headphones. I get so stressed just hearing that.
I would not survive like that. In fact, each day is stressful for me in this place. I've got four interviews in the next week for something else. Three of the four are remote, at least 90% if not 100% of the time. Cross your fingers! One would involve moving to Maine, which would make Mr. Dragon very happy, as his family and his native cultural events are there. Also, his medicine is 100% legal there. Wish me luck!
I have plum ice cream base chilling in the fridge right now and I'll churn it either late tonight or tomorrow.
Mmmm plum ice cream! That reminds me it's been a long time since I've treated myself to my favorite Arizone iced tea - Plum Green Tea with ginseng and honey.
I'm pondering making some pepperoni rolls, also. While I've never been to West Virginia, I saw them on tv and just had to try them, so I made some a few years ago. They turned out pretty well. So the other day I found a bunch of pepperoni sticks on sale cheap and scarfed them up. I think I need to do some stress-baking as well. Either way, there will be good food rolling out of this kitchen.
I've lived in WV, and a good pepperoni roll is amazing. Cheese with the pepperoni, a good garlicy, soft bread, some marinara for dipping...
Second meeting of crit group happened last night and technology is annoying. Because of my dad's unaddressed paranoia/anxiety stuff I can't do video chat with anyone outside of my family. Honestly, I can't even tell him I'm in a crit group (or tell him how much I communicate with people online in general) because I'm pretty darned positive he'd have issues with the communication with "strangers" factor, especially since some of them are male. And he might even be worried about them stealing my work or something and oh we've got to go get it copyrighted to "protect" it and... yeah, not worth it.
My crit group was hoping we could "meet" this time by using a video chat format that would let them talk verbally while I talk via chat box, an idea I was 100% fine with. Unfortunately, dumb FB chat was being difficult on my computer, so I tried it on my phone and the freaking thing BROADCASTED THE OTHERS TALKING REALLY LOUDLY despite my earbuds being plugged in AND my phone's system sounds being turned off!!! GAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
Thank goodness no one said my name in the 10-ish seconds it took to figure out how to end the call because dad was sitting two feet away and could hear the whole freaking thing. I told him I'd accidentally opened a YouTube notification for a live stream show I watch every Tuesday (the latter of which is true) and he bought it. STUPID PHONE!!! I could go my whole life without experiencing that level of freakout again.
We ended up using Google docs to chat and add to any critique we had for each other's stories so it wouldn't disappear so fast like on FB text chat. It worked, and has the bonus of us being able to save all that feedback, but it was hard for some to adjust, and one of our new members couldn't even get in.
*crawls under a smibble pile*
EFB, that sounds so stressful
Our group uses googledocs and live zoom, but several people are on audio only, and some just go into the googledocs to make suggestions. The organizer than emails each of us with our comment document (transferred into Word) after a few days. It's been working since March! I think more people make comments on googledocs as it's less confrontational.
EFB, it's a little worrisome to me that you aren't allowed to talk to people outside of your family. In current circumstances, that's effectively cutting you off from all other people. Even if you're willing to tolerate that, can't you go into another room so he can't interfere?
I was thinking this as well. PLEASE, be safe, and recognize that he's emotionally manipulating you. There's only so much you can cater to his paranoia.
I got cancelled on tonight. Ghosted, really. Until they decided to get back to me and let me know they decided to do their own thing tonight instead of having dinner with me like we planned. I guess I know how important I am to them now.
I agree - very rude!!
I've been re-writing the first book in my series (Legacy of Hunger), in anticipation of me getting it back from my publisher in October. I've been playing with ideas for new book covers, as well, and gearing up to record the audiobook. I'm just about finished with the re-write, and two chapters (out of 20) in to the line-by-line-grammar edits. I'm doing the same for Better to Have Loved, my first novel. I've gotten through the re-writing and LBLG edits, and have created a new cover. Just waiting on one more beta reader to start recording. I hope to have that re-released sometimes in the next month or so.
I'm also embarking on a re-write of the blurbs for each published book, and working through Mark Dawson's Ads for Authors videos, to try to market properly.
My Taming of the Few is going through edits, but I'm not yet to the final stages. I need more of the above out of the way before I can consider starting a new project. I'm debating the second book of Time Tourist Outfitters, the second book of Past Storm and Fire, or the second book to Taming of the Few.
Perhaps if I can get these going, I won't NEED a day job! (Right).