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A Month in a Writer’s Life – February & March 2018

The last two months blitzed by so quickly, my memories seem to be mostly a blur. Life happened, affecting my usual routine, and forcing me to combine my monthly post into a two-month summary.

The news of moving

As you might have seen on social media and from a brief mention here, we moved from Arizona to Virginia. The move wasn’t entirely unexpected: we were anticipating it from late December. The problem was, we didn’t know when it was going to happen.

Early in February, we got the first indication it might happen “soon”, the dates suggesting “some time” in March. We made initial preparations such as researching possible apartments in Virginia and prices of rental trailers, but except for that everything was on hold. Weeks passed and we still knew nothing.

The moving rush

In the beginning of March, I celebrated my birthday week. At the same time, we finally got the time frame for the move… With things being out of our control, we ended up with two weeks to not only pack and secure our future dwelling, but also to actually move across the United States.

In a week and a half we had the old apartment packed and cleaned, and we were ready to go. With only three days to make the move actually happen, we needed to make 700 miles a day, and if we could – even more, assuming there would be delays on the way.

We traveled mostly at nights, to benefit from emptier roads, so I didn’t take many pictures, and we didn’t exactly have time for sight-seeing, but you can view the photos on Instagram under the playful hashtag, #MelfkasGreatAmericanRoadTrip.

I hoped that as soon as we unpacked, I’d be ready to jump back into my routines… I was wrong. The three days on the road, with little sleep and roughly one “proper” meal a day (you can survive on soda and gummy bears!), followed by the rush of unpacking, left me strained. For a week or so I struggled with my health and energy, falling even more behind with everything. All the move-related paperwork on top of that also consumed a lot of my time.

Writing

After taking some “time off” in January and writing just for fun, I wanted to focus on a specific project again. Despite the initial indecisiveness, I settled for Myth-touched, book 2 of Humanborn, my contemporary fantasy set in Ireland. It might be counter-intuitive to write a sequel to a book that doesn’t have a publisher, but I couldn’t resist. It’s been a lot of fun and it feels like book 2 is going to be even better than Humanborn.

With Myth-touched as my main focus, I finished February with nearly 30,000 words written. I met both my monthly word count goal and daily writing goal.

Sadly, come March and news of the move, I couldn’t keep going at that pace. I still wrote every day, but in the week of the move I fell behind word count-wise. Having one week of March left to catch up, I gave it my best short, but in the end I had to admit defeat. Yet, all things considering, nearly 26,000 words written is still an amazing achievement.

Art

In February, I added 2 more pieces of art two my Society6 and Redbubble stores. The first one was something I wanted to make for St. Patrick’s Day.

The other was born from a conversation with a writer friend, and I decided to make something with the design and color scheme being somewhat out of my comfort zone. I guess it’s up to you to judge whether I succeeded.

 

I hoped to work on some more art pieces in March, but since it wasn’t a priority, I only did some sketches for the ideas I had. The actual designs will have to wait for when I catch up with other projects.

Writer’s Life

The last two months were defined by the move. I fell behind with everything, including my working out. With a lot of carrying heavy boxes, I injured my wrists. They’re getting better now, but I still wear my wrist brace.


My birthday orchid. Surprisingly, it survived the journey quite well.

On the bright side, around my birthday, I got to sign a contract for a short story. It’s still in the works, so I’m not going to say anything yet, but I’m hoping to share some good news early in the summer.

I haven’t been much on social media, and fell even more behind with blogs I read, but I’m hoping to finally catch up. Other than that, I’m making tentative plans for the rest of the year. My ambition wants to take me places, but with the recent shifts in my life, I’m cautious about increasing my load.

How about you? How your February and March were? Any good news?

Joanna Maciejewska

Joanna Maciejewska is a fantasy and science fiction author who enjoys all things SFF: books, movies, and video games. Her short stories appeared in magazines and anthologies in Polish and in English. Her epic fantasy adventure series, starting with By the Pact, is available in ebook and paperback at all major retailers.

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. J.R.Bee

    Sounds like you’ve had a heck of a couple of months, and it looks like you’re managing to keep your head above water! Much kudos 🙂

  2. sjhigbee

    I’m frankly awed at just how much you managed to achieve, given the magnitude of your move and how gruelling it was… Huge respect, Joanne! I’ve a birthday orchid like that, too… It’s survived very well indeed, as it was given to me 5 years ago and still flowers twice a year:)

    1. Melfka

      Thank you, Sarah! The orchid, sadly, didn’t take well to the drastic climate and environment change, and I think the move itself contributed to its demise too. I’m glad to hear yours is doing great, though! 🙂

  3. saraletourneau

    I have to agree with Sarah – you managed to get a lot done despite the stress and time constraints of the move! I hope you take some time in April to balance the writing with some rest and exploration of your new town. How are your wrists doing, btw?

    Oh, and congratulations on your short story news! I look forward to hearing more about it soon. 🙂

    1. Melfka

      Thank you Sara. April proved quite challenging (as you might have seen), but we’re slowly getting back to normal, so maybe there will be some exploring soon.
      My wrists are a bit better, thank you, though very slow to heal.
      As for the story – it seems that there might be some delays, but I hope I can share the news sooner than later.

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