Ramblings

Hey all. I've been meaning to do a post for a while, but haven't, obviously. I've had ideas about what to post about, even ideas for a more regular series of posts, but that's not what I'm doing right now. Right now I'm ignoring the Bulldog, who heard the neighbor dog barking and is now barking and whining himself. I'm ignoring my novel, which I've had a couple false starts on, and still isn't going too far. (Although I do have a new direction, thanks to some epiphanies provided by Lou Anders.)

No, right now I'm just rambling. We finally finished the new sunroom, and it's awesome. Very light and bright, but restful at the same time. I like to read in there. I'm trying to keep my laptop out of it. That is to be my relaxing space, not my working space.

Depression has been kicking my ass of late. Upped my meds, which has helped some. The room helps some. Frankly I'm really sick of being tired and down and mopey all the time.

I need to get back to the bird-by-bird approach, but I keep looking at the big picture and getting discouraged. There is a lot I should be doing; therefore, I will not do any of it.

I want to prioritize better. I need to get more sleep. I know I'm not good at getting to bed before 10pm. If I want 8 hours of sleep, that means I can't be getting up at 5am to write. And I haven't been.

That doesn't mean I can't find time to write; it just means that 5am is apparently not going to be that time.

I also need to start working out. Exercise is good for me. I'm out of shape, a little over-weight, and working out is good for treating depression. I bought a rowing machine. I've used it once. I need to figure out how to carve out time to exercise before I worry about carving out time to write.

Writing is a sickness. It will make me make time eventually. Exercise won't.

I briefly entertained the idea of learning to make WordPress themes so I could make a new website. I've decided that would be dumb. I still need to learn Audacity. I still want to do a podiobook of Scent and Shadow. But I can only do so much, you know? The website can wait.

Speaking of websites, mine is really pissing me off of late. For some reason, the forwarding for www.scentandshadow.com is not working. And two of the articles on one page keep showing up out of order, and I can't figure out why. I mean, Joomla is not that complex. Article 1 should show up first. But for some reason Article 2 is.

I hate technology. It hates me back.

I also want to do print editions of The Once and Future Poet and Demon's Asylum. Haven't made time for those, either.

I'm barely keeping up with the short story release schedule. The end of the month keeps sneaking up on me. The scary part is I only have stories written through January. I'm hoping to get some written over my winter vacation, but I tend not to get a lot done on vacation.

So yeah. That's the State of the Mercy. I will return another night with less grumpy, I promise.

Free Poetry!

The elections are over! Yay! No more robo calls or yard signs or awful commercials! (Well, at least no more of those awful commercials.)

Re-tune your brain away from politics with a free copy of The Once and Future Poet! But you have to download it today, because tomorrow it's back to normal pricing.

"I don't like poetry."

You hear that a lot, usually from people who used to write poetry. Most of those people destroyed their own poems long ago.

But poetry can be a time capsule. It can offer insight into the development of its writer both on a technical and on a thematic level, and it's a window into the writer's life.

Join Mercy Loomis, author of Scent and Shadow and Demon's Asylum, as she examines friendship, bullying, school, young love, loss, the true meaning of Christmas, and--of course--horses and vampires via essays on the poems she wrote growing up, covering twenty-five years between 1985 (age eight) and 2010 (age thirty-five).

Mercy's frank and unrepentant commentary on life, love, and the craft (or lack thereof) of writing is full of insight, dry humor, and occasional strong language, and may leave you wishing you still had some of your own poetry around to reflect on.

New Release: Care Packages

My newest short story releases today. Care Packages is a hot lesbian erotic short story and is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

Shayla hates being sent to this conference every year—especially because it means she won’t be available for her mistress, Tamika. But Tamika isn’t going to let a little distance stop her from keeping her submissive in line, courtesy of a very special care package. Contains explicit sex.