Settling Into Ohio...sorta

First off, sorry I missed my last two scheduled posts. Alas, moving has proven a much more complicated process than anticipated. Between fighting with the moving company to get my stuff in the first place—they missed TWO scheduled deliveries, claiming their “truck was broken” (they only have one??) without giving me any notice; I had to call multiple times to find out WHY my stuff wasn’t there yet—and then, once they finally brought my stuff, they dropped my upright piano on its back, causing both internal and external damage. I was able to get the internal issues taken care of after tracking down a local piano technician, but I’m probably going to have to repair the cabinet damage on my own.

So now I get to enjoy the fun process of consulting with lawyers and filing claims against the moving company for the damages.

I hate moving.

Hopefully this is the last time we have to do it for a while, now that both my husband and I are civilians and have finished our respective doctoral degrees. Granted, my doctorate is of the useless variety; my husband is now a licensed veterinarian. I’ve just got a PhD that I’m presently using to write romantasy novels and front a metal band. That counts for something, right?

Anyway, life has been a wild ride of packing, driving back and forth across states, unpacking, harassing the moving company, and more unpacking. We still have a ton to do, but I am slowly chipping away at the boxes and furniture. A few more cross-state drives loom in my near future, however, one of which will include a U-Haul.

Pray for me to whatever gods you keep.

In the meantime, querying is going...poorly. I received several more rejections after sitting in agents’ maybe piles for a month, and then received a rejection on a full request after only two days of sending it to the agent, so that’s a little demoralizing. And by “a little,” I mean I am completely and utterly devastated. I’ve still got one full manuscript floating out there with an agent. If she doesn’t bite, I’ve decided I’m going to hold off on sending any more queries out for The Night Chemist and instead focus on drafting the rest of the series. I am one of those weirdos who can’t mentally move onto a new project until I’ve closed out the previous one. I’ve tried throwing myself into an unrelated novel—several, actually—but it just hasn’t worked; I can’t get beyond initial brainstorming phase for any of them. I can see my worlds and my characters and some general plot points, but I can’t see the actual roadmap, if you will. The way forward is closed to me.

Thus, at my husband’s suggestion, I’m just going to finish writing Aylin’s story how I want to, and then—once I’ve got at least a first draft for the fourth and final book in her series—I’ll be able to mentally and emotionally move on. And who knows? Once I get my rehearsal + recording space set up in our new house, maybe I’ll be motivated to pick up my guitar again an work on some new songs. All for now. I’ll be back in a few days with the next installment of my Slavic Warrior Women series, in which I’ll discuss the Sarmatian queen Amage.