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So sorry for the long delay, but life gets in the way sometimes.
But Chapter 60 of Victory Tour has been submitted for posting.
There wasn't just one thing that kept me away, but several little things added up.
I think I've mentioned that the owners of the little weekly newspaper I help out at decided to sell. That finally got done in mid-November, then the transition took some time. That included moving to a new location, but I was out of town when that happened.
On Dec. 18, my family and I flew to visit my sister for the holidays. She lives in Western Australia, so it was a long flight. We left on a Wednesday night and landed at Sydney on Friday morning before continuing to Perth. I don't know what happened to Thursday.
The trip could have gone better. My ears wouldn't pop after we got to Perth, I got hit by a sinus infection about three days in and my mother was a right bitch the whole time. It was my fault for ruining the whole trip by standing up to her.
It started off with her throwing my tobacco in the trash going through security on the way out because "Australia doesn't allow you to bring that stuff into the country." Which is pure bullshit. You're allowed 25 grams, which I admit isn't much. But I was denied the chance to use it on the flight down. It took until the first Saturday morning to find a cigar shop and purchase enough to get me back home.
My argument was that it wasn't her decision to make. If Aussie immigration took it away when we landed, that was their business. She refused to see it that way. The point remains that SHE SHOULDN'T THROW ANOTHER PERSON'S PROPERTY IN THE TRASH JUST BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T APPROVE!
And it took me almost the whole two weeks we were down there to get over jetlag. I was constantly harangued and harassed about making everybody else late for whatever excursion was planned each day.
Then it took me another week to get over jetlag after we returned on Jan. 5. I still have nights where I'll sleep for a few hours then wake up for a few. I have yet to get back on my normal schedule completely.
Add in shit like Trump getting elected and the stunts he's pulled since taking office, wild fluctuations in the weather (the temperature has gone from high 70s to mid-teens to upper 80s in the last month, but global warming is a myth, right?) and my vehicle spending a week in the shop. It's more than enough to make a guy depressed.
Anyway, I seem to be coming around. Slowly. I got more written the last seven days than I did the previous seven weeks. I look forward to maintaining that trend.
For those who want/need more of the story, I have through Monday, Nov. 5 posted on my Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/c/Alured_de_Valer.
Thanks for hanging in there with me.
AdV
Chapter 59 of Victory Tour has been submitted for posting. It took me nearly three weeks to get the latest part done on Patreon thanks to everything I've had to do in real life (football and volleyball teams qualifying for playoffs, election coverage, etc.).
Hopefully, things will slow down a little now that the election's over. But with the holidays coming up, I somehow doubt it.
AdV
Chapter 58 of Victory Tour has been submitted for posting. This covers Tuesday, Oct. 9.
I was able to get Saturday, Nov. 3 written this week mainly because I had extensively mapped it out months ago and this week in real life was the lightest of the fall as far as covering high school sports goes. The locals had their open date in football and a district bye on Saturday in volleyball.
The drawback is next week already has two weeks' worth of work piled up. Volleyball is doing a Pinkout Night for Breast Cancer Awareness on Tuesday and next Friday is the homecoming football game, which just happens to also be the district opener. Then Saturday is the county's 150th anniversary since being chartered by the state. I better get some sleep this weekend while I have the chance.
I'll continue to post a chapter here when I get the chapter I'm working on finished. The stuff between Oct. 9 and Nov. 3 is posted on my Patreon page, but each day is divided into parts. Some chapters have several parts.
Anyway, thanks for your patience and understanding.
AdV
Chapter 57 of Victory Tour has been submitted for posting.
My plan is to post a new chapter each time I get the one I'm working on completed. That means no set schedule (it took about three weeks to get Friday, Nov. 2 written and edited), but I want to maintain the 25-chapter cushion I have.
Anyone who wants more is welcome to visit my Patreon page.
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As much as I hate to do this, I'm going to have to take a break from posting for the foreseeable future. I've been arguing this decision with myself for a few weeks now.
When I started posting Victory Tour last summer, I had 50 days written and felt I could maintain that cushion, but life had other plans. The last post covered Oct. 7. I am just now Writing Nov. 2, so my lead is down to 25 days. I need to build that back up and also have time for closer editing.
But the time I have to devote to the story has been lessened thanks to changes at the little weekly newspaper I help with. A lady who wrote some small articles (church news, 4-H club reports, etc.) decided she wasn't going to hang around for the new owners to take over and found another job. Guess who had the honor of picking up most of the slack?
Then, the sale fell apart for some reason. The current owners are going to hold on for a little longer. One thing they decided on was moving print deadline up to early afternoon on deadline day. Last week, I turned in my last article around 10:30 p.m. This week, it was more like 3:30, but I worked until 1:30 a.m. that morning to make it possible. I'll have to start spending weekends on newspaper stuff instead of the story.
That's because we started with fall sports last week. Volleyball is playing actual matches and football has scrimmaged twice. It's not going to get any better until probably after Thanksgiving.
I'll do what I can, but please be patient.
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