a delicate balance

Writing takes a lot of time. I love writing, and enjoy doing it, but doing it involves taking a lot of time out from other activities. This is always a delicate balance.

I want to have enough time to actively assist my family and friends, and there are definitely demands on my efforts.

But I also want to have time to write and be creative.

Lately, things have definitely been balancing/tipping toward the family and friends arena, but it won't stay that way for the long term. The balance will come back. In the meantime, my head is still full of ideas and thoughts, I'm just tucking them away for use a little later.

taking Friday off

I hope to be back next week with a free ficlet, but I may be going to an every-other week submission for it. The ficlets have been great to challenge me, but they do take up time and effort that I might be spending on a longer story that I'm working on. I am generally contemplating if I'm focusing on the right sort of thing, or if I should be concentrating more on my longer works. (When I say longer works, I mean that someday I hope to write longer than a short story -- an actual novella or novel would be so cool.)

Many thanks to the readers sticking with me, I hope the ficlets have been entertaining. :) I will be keeping them up, just not as often. I think I'd like to take a few more weeks off here and there, especially since high summer is finally cooling down and it looks like fall is going to be fantastic.

Nuts, Bolts, and Chihuahuas - Final Days

I wanted to take a moment to let readers know that my story with Torquere: Nuts, Bolts, and Chihuahuas, is going to be available for about a month and a half longer, and then it will be gone.

Here's the link to the story for purchase:
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=79_93&products_id=4254

And, I had written two short extras that went along with the story. They make more sense if read after the main, original story, but they are still fun.

http://trayellis.blogspot.com/2014/08/nuts-bolts-and-chihuahuas-extra.html
http://trayellis.dreamwidth.org/52073.html

It was interesting to write about shifters, and particularly to write about dog-shifters. I love dogs, so I enjoyed thinking about how they would see the world and their mannerisms.

Free Fiction: Dream Big

"What do you think?" Aaron nudged Garrett with his foot. They were sitting side by side on the sofa with their feet up on the coffee table. Aaron had their son, Jute, on his lap. Jute was all of four years old and equal parts feisty and sweet. At the moment, since he was asleep, he was exhibiting sweet. An hour ago, he'd been running in circles around their home, screaming at the top of his lungs that he loved trucks.

"Think what?" Garrett asked. He bumped Aaron's foot back.

"For Jute. Swimming, right? The butterfly. Maybe an IM. Freestyle sprinter." Aaron brushed Jute's bangs out of his eyes. They'd been watching the Olympics and seeing so many athletes dream big and achieve bigger made him starry-eyed. It was easy to dream about all the things the future might hold. "He loves the water. And you see how he runs around here. He's going to be fast."

Garrett leaned back farther into his seat, snuggling more deeply next to his husband. "Are we going to play this game again?"

"I don't know what you mean." Aaron sniffed slightly, lifting his chin.

"Where you suggest every sport in the entire Olympic playbook, and I tell you he's going to be too busy getting his PhD. He's too smart to fall into that kind of braggadocio."

"Water polo, then," Aaron said.

"He's already reading. He knows all his colors. He can count to thirty." Garrett poked Aaron in the side with a finger. "Maybe a double doctorate. An MD and a PhD. He'll do research, but he'll also have patients." Garrett looked unfocused as he gazed into the future only he could see. "Accolades. Honorifics. Probably a tv show."

"If he doesn't want to be in the water, maybe he'll be a track star. He practically ran a marathon tonight after dinner," Aaron said. "What's sexier? Pole vault or long jump? I don't think I want him to be a thrower. They look angry all the time. Hurdles would be good. Hurdlers look intense, but they don't look like they want to smash your face in."

"Throwers look angry because the only time you ever see them is when they're throwing, or directly before. I bet if you went home with them, they're like soft, baby kittens with their families." Garrett made a tsking noise with his tongue. "There's no money in track and field unless you're a super star sprinter. If Jute is going to get scholarships to universities where he can get his degrees, we need to teach him more popular sports. Basketball. Baseball. Foot-"

"No football," Aaron said sternly. "Don't even say that word. You know how I feel about that sport. People get really hurt. Concussions that never really go away, and the more they look into it, the worse it is."

"Yeah, I know. But think of the glory." Garrett returned to his unfocused dreaming.

Aaron shuddered and rubbed Jute's back in the small space between his shoulder blades. Jute's adorable face was slack with sleep and he looked small and fragile. Aaron did not approve of football. He'd played it, and he'd seen what damage it did. He loved the game. There was nothing like it. Well, maybe not nothing. "Rugby?" he offered. "What do you think? It's rough and tumble. Maybe a little less awful."

"Same poison, different drink," Garrett said. "But, it does look like a lot of fun. Not a lot of scholarship money in it, though. Maybe we should think about teaching him a musical instrument. Something rare so everyone will want him. But nothing embarrassing. He should play the trombone or the French horn. Not the tuba."

"What if there's money in playing the tuba?" Aaron asked. "It's got a bad rap, so nobody plays it, which means everyone is desperate for tuba players.

"He'll get compressed discs. It's too heavy."

Aaron ran his hand through Jute's hair again. "Maybe we should just start being really frugal and save as much as we can. That way he can go anywhere he wants and doesn't owe anyone anything."

Garrett leaned over and kissed Aaron on the cheek. "You make the best plans."

getting exhausted, backseat competing

Off to bed early this evening so I have to say goodnight to the Olympics early. If there's any way willpower and urging from my living room can make it to Rio, I've been sending all sorts of energy to Rio.

The cameras keep turning on the crowds, especially the parents of the athletes, and I think we're all feeling a little bit like them. I see the families twitching, leaning, tight shouldered, inching sideways, backways and forward, balancing, and breathing for the athletes. It is impossible to not cheer everyone on to their best.

all the sports

Ficlet coming up this Friday. I've been glued to my tv, and checking out the news, since now I am well and truly absorbed into all the Olympic drama and gusto.

So, of course, I let my imagination wander a little bit afield to see how I could incorporate sports into a ficlet. The amazing thing is how much hard work is put into being an athlete by all the participants. And we're only seeing a fraction of people who've gotten lucky and been good enough to make it. There are so many other people who are dreaming and striving out there.

I just think of all the lonely times that these athletes must be getting up at dark-o-thirty to get to the gym one extra time before work, because I can only ever hope to have a sliver of that sort of dedication to anything. It's not just that the athletes are physically amazing, but that they have been amazing day in and day out to train, to make themselves that way.

Olympics

I almost forgot the Olympics started yesterday! I love watching the competitions -- although it is hard to watch because I always want everyone to win. I just like it when everyone does their best. But the Olympics are all about rewarding those who are at the top of their sport. Still, I like the stories.

I did take a break from writing to watch some of the beach volleyball, sculling, and swimming heats. It is so intense.

And I had a very good day of writing. Almost 3k words. Yay me!