cranky pixels

Taking a break from the novel, seeing as I’m premenstrual and liable to begin using the delete key in a decidedly unhelpful manner. A long time ago I figured out that my creativity is cyclical, and trying to force it along is always, always a huge mistake.

Besides, I’ve got work projects galore, and happily THAT sort of creativity is pretty much always on tap. My logo project is coming along nicely, and the new ecommerce client promises to be more fun than kittens. And kittens? Are a lot of fun.

I’ve got a great idea for the redesign of the Cranky Pals site, too. Because CLEARLY it needs another facelift. Pretty much since I stopped rearranging the house at regular intervals or dyeing my hair a different color every six weeks, I’ve been pouring my energy into website redesigns. It’s a sickness. But hey, it gives me something to do, right?

Speaking of, I turned neumanbeck.com into a Tumblr page (redirect isn’t live yet, but it’s here) and gave it a lovely custom skin. This is how I spend my free time, people. This, and gossip blogs. (Hey, it’s research.)

You know, I don’t like Oreos much, but these Back to Nature Classic Creme cookies? Dude, they are the bomb. Not So says they taste insufficiently Oreo-like, but I love them with the heat of a thousand suns.

I am eating some right now. In case you were wondering where that came from.

In other news, I am writing again (yay!) but decided to chuck 20,000 words of my 40,000 word manuscript (…boo). But I’ve written 5000 words in the last week, and that’s something, right? You know what’s funny, I read Neil Gaiman’s blog, like, constantly, and I was getting all set to sit down and write about my writing process (as he does, on occasion), but then I realized two things: 1) I am not Neil Gaiman and 2) nobody cares. So I decided to have some cookies, instead. Good times.

I am full of tired. We just got back from a baby shower for one of Not So’s coworkers, which was a surprising amount of fun (I say ‘surprising’ because I usually shrink in fear from social occasions which involve people I don’t know). Happy Fun Baby ran around with the other kids and had a grand time, and I got to hang out with people, and I even ate a little. Good times.

Now, of course, we’re home, and I’m facing the reality of being 4000 words behind on NaNoWriMo. Worse, Not So is even more behind, which leaves me torn – do I slog on despite that, or do I hold off until he’s had a chance to catch up with me so he doesn’t feel all discouraged? Because, see, I’ve written books before. Writing one in a month is a challenge, but it’s not the same challenge as writing one at all. I love that he’s doing this, and I want to be supportive…but I also want to finish my book. What to do, what to do.

I bit my tongue earlier today and now it’s all swollen and hurty. It rubs against my teeth when I talk. Waah.