Alex absconded away and was absent avec aardvarks
So if you’ve been reading Children of the First lately–or rather, not reading, since I haven’t posted a new chapter in quite some time–you probably noticed I’ve been AWOL for a month and change. I suppose you might have noticed from twitter or something too, but that’s neither here nor there.
First, let me apologize. Disappearing for a month without explanation or anything is hardly polite or professional (not that I’m professional; professionals get paid), and I shall endeavor not to do it again.
Most of you probably already know about my move from New Orleans to Maryland. Well I made the trip in one piece. Barely. Towing a trailer behind a ‘97 Mercury Tracer station wagon along 1100 miles of arctic highway wasteland will wear on the best of us. So that was fun, but the move didn’t really suck more than a week of my life away, all told.
What has made getting things done so difficult is where I moved to. I moved into my parents house while they’re trying to sell it so they can buy the farm which was the bulk of my plan for Maryland. Move to MD->work on farm. We don’t own the farm yet, so I don’t have a job. (Well, I do chop firewood and I put in a new stone path in the front yard, but that doesn’t count.)
So why is this a problem, other than the fact that I’m poor as hell? Well, I’ll tell ya.
First, it helps to know that I have ADD, for which I take medication on a daily basis. Well, due to some health insurance problems (i.e. I don’t have any) I have been without that medication for a little over a month now (coincidence?), which would normally be a pain in the ass, but not enough to keep me from writing or doing anything productive online at all. Apart from the meds, the most effective way I control my ADD is to control my environment–work at night with my chair just right and my screen just right and a particular playlist on itunes and a couple of lamps (not too bright) in the right positions and a dozen other little things that help me focus while everyone leaves me alone for 9-12 hours. If I can do all that stuff, I can get a good bit of work done without the meds.
Buuuuutt, the house is up for sale, which means it has to stay pretty clean and we have to be ready to vacate the place within an hour notice of potential buyers coming to see the place. That also means that the vast majority of our stuff is in storage and living here feels like renting a house at the beach. But no beach and it’s not really vacation. Yeah.
So, if I had my meds, I would get some stuff done; if I could set up my workspace, I could get some stuff done; if all were in order, there would be new chapters and I would have some money in my pocket. But then again, none of this is really a very good excuse and I just suck at getting things done when I’m not constantly busy.
Okay, I feel that I may be reaching the point of rambling, so I’ll wrap this up with my plans for the future: The hiatus will continue for a bit, both because I don’t think I could produce anything worth a damn on any semblance of a schedule, and because this way I can keep writing at my slug’s pace and when we come back from hiatus, there might even be a buffer. Wouldn’t that be nice.
Thanks for bearing with me.
Rock on.
-Alex \m/
March 7th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Disclaimer: I’m tired so I’m just gonna ramble back as it comes to me. The first thing is: The content does not match the awesomeness of the title. It’s late, and the vowel-version of consonance, the exact name for which eludes me in my sleep-deprived state, plus random aardvarks had me hoping for awesomeness akin to ghandi doing pelvic thrusts, t-rexes throwing velociraptors into volcanoes, or at least an awesome alliteration. Now that that’s out of the way, it’s good to hear from you, and to know that you or your zombie Do intend to continue CotF.
March 7th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
The word you were looking for was assonance, but alliteration would be better since there are only two long ‘a’ sounds that do not begin words and assonance has to be on stressed close enough together for the second to sort of “echo” the first. I guess the ‘ar’-sound in “aardvarks” is assonant, though.
Now, about that awesomeness: Ghandi had a previous engagement, the Tyranosaurs ate too many aardvarks and couldn’t catch the Velociraptors, and the volcano viciously vomited viscous violence (maybe magma) on my awesome alliterations.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Ah, meds problem, understood. Good luck sorting it all out, and know that your story is good enough that I have cared enough to keep checking it every few days for over a month. =)
March 16th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
There are allegedly awesome anecdotes allowing appropriate expression of how great that was, but they seem somehow shallow after that. +500 style points for your vassconance (I have a feeling the pun I was smelling in there will come to me at 3 am.)
Anyways; If you are or were absent with the aardvarks, and the tyrannosaurs ate the aardvarks, and the velociraptors are on the loose, it’s no wonder you haven’t had time to write, when you’re fighting for survival. I will give a couple game tips though; polished freezers have a +5 bonus against velociraptors, and kneecapping the bishes works wonders.
I think I smell a joke in There too; “What do you call a velociraptor with one leg?”
Anyways, AWESOME reply, and I look forward to a new chapter in the indefinite near future.
PS: Sorry for the late reply; Spring Break had me… tied up. :3
March 22nd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Thanks for the explanation. Knowing about the move, poverty, etc., is far better than just wondering “Did the author get burned out and lose interest?” I like “Children of the First” so far and I’m interested to see where you take it.
I’ll be happy to hang in here (occasionally checking for updates) until you are in a space where you are able to write again. Best of luck with the farm, etc.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Things are rolling, guys. CotF will be returning in April… sometime in April. The time away has allowed the story to percolate some, which will be good for it, I think. Decisions and my head are both getting a little clearer with the time away. Thanks for sticking with me while I teeter between enlightenment and implosion.
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