I am currently sitting in front of a roaring fire, glad that I have absolutely no reason to leave the house all week. The previous weeks have been filled with holidays and doctor’s appointments and such. I am so glad that was all taken care of.

Right now it’s not too bad, by which I mean that the wind chill is still above zero. It’s snowing, so I’ll have to take care of that before The Mrs leaves work (so the driveway is clear by the time she gets home), but that’s future me’s problem. Current me is nice and warm.

The only real downside to the day is that, as you all know, Wednesday is chemical alteration day. Now that the hot tub is fixed, I have to keep the water balanced. I waited until the wind died down a bit before starting the hot tub balancing act. With any luck I will be done with that part soon.

I am pleased to announce that my little problem child mead, the Níðhöggr (lingonberry), has been bottled. This was the one I stalled by not taking into account the sugars in the jelly that the berries were packed in. I had to dilute it and restart the yeast, but after months it is finally done. The Mrs actually likes it (she thinks mead is too sweet sometimes), so I’m counting this as a win. Bonus, since I had to dilute it, I ended up with twice as much — nearly two full gallons. I’ve got 8 wine bottles in the bottle bunker in the basement (try saying that three times fast), and a small bottle in the fridge that we have been sipping from.

Next up will be the two cysers I started back in September.

Listening To: The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw. I just started this one, so I’ll tell you more later.

Currently Reading: I finished up King Sorrow (amazing!) and have been spending more time with The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own. The great thing about this collection is that even though I have read some of the short stories already, they are enticing enough to make a reread enjoyable.

Current Obsession: Con prep. I’ve been trying to devote a little time each day to taking notes for the panels that I will be on later this month. I don’t want to be cramming right before go time. We also binged the third season of Dark Winds. I’ve read most of Tony Hillerman’s books and have been enjoying the show. We're also watching Fallout and The Pitt week by week like it’s the freakin’ ‘80s or something.

No new con news since last week. Check last week’s post or click here for information on my upcoming events.

Speaking of upcoming events, tune in to Otherworldly Culture tomorrow (22 Jan) for Dead On Movie Reviews. I’ll be talking about Dream Eater.

I’ve been trying to be real good about writing this year. Last year my output was rather pathetic and primarily made up of non-fiction pieces. While I will still be doing this, I am trying to make a determined effort to actually concentrate on fiction. As I hinted at last week, getting back in the swing of things has been a slow process.

It’s not for a lack of ideas, mind you. In fact, I spent the latter part of last month plotting out a couple different things of differing length. This was really not helpful as now I had to decide which one to start on. In the end I chose the short story idea that I had, not for any complex reason like marketability, but simply because that was the one that I had taken the most notes on.

Once I start writing, things go fairly well. I posted last week on the socials that I had to take a break from the actual writing so I could take notes on what would come later (which had just popped into my head).

The problem that I have had lately has been just sitting down to get started. I’m in a crappy headspace where every time I sit down to do one thing, I think of five others that need to get done. Sometimes these things can be solved by multi-tasking, but more often than not I drop something in the middle of working on it so I can start on something else that seems pressing.

I know that it is simply a matter of getting some priorities set down. You know, make a list, organize it, and start in on making sure everything gets done.

Which, of course, is one more thing to do.

The up side it, once if I put “Make a To Do” list as item number one, I can make sure that I can cross off at least one thing. Way to get the momentum going!