When I get home, I think I’m going to do nothing but sleep for the first week. I haven’t been this tired in a long long time. Even in month 9 of my ten month stretch I wasn’t this tired. But stress, I suppose, does that to you – and this has been a stressful contract all around.
I couldn’t go into details even if I knew them (which I don’t), but the entertainment department on this ship has somehow gotten itself under a microscope. No one is quite sure what happened or why it happened, but we’re definitely being kept under a close eye. It can be wearing, when you are only trying to do your job and you feel that you are constantly looking over your shoulder for someone checking to make sure that you’re doing it right. You develop a constant knot between your shoulder blades and at the base of your neck from the tension you don’t always realize your carrying, and for my part, I start worrying about my contract-end evaluation. Which is foolish, as I know I have nothing to worry about.
My little petri dish of a world is somewhat exploding at the moment, so I apologise if I’ve fallen somewhat silent.
In my own way of dealing with things, I just work, and keep working. I work to the point where my shore-side supervisor tells me to STOP working (and she knows I ignore her). I work on the project I’m helping put together for the upcoming voyages on the flagship (a project which will ultimately be released to the fleet once we get it processed), aaaand, when I remember, I work on the book.
Some of you may have noticed that the links to the sales page for Where the Waves have been disabled. This isn’t an accident. The book has been temporarily pulled off market while I await professional editing and copyright proofing in preparation for a full-scale public release. When you’re publishing non-fiction for more than just your friends there is a lot of fine print involved, and I’m entering territory where that fine print requires me to be careful. There are only 7 copies of the original release floating around, they’ve all gone to friends and family and you all know who you are. I humbly ask that you keep those copies (with all their lovely flaws) in your possession, don’t give them away, don’t lend them out. Consider them pre-sale copies, sold to a trusted audience for feedback purposes. They are not for general consumption. If you want to know why this is, feel free to ask, I’d be happy to explain, I’m just too sleepy to do it here.
And yes, I will let you all know when the book comes up for proper official approved sale again (which will be a very big deal, as it will be released to Amazon, Barnes & noble, and possibly brick & mortar stores as well as the fleet itself) when the time comes, but it will be some months yet. Possibly January at the earliest, I’m aiming to have it finished by the start of the World Cruise.
But all of that is on the horizon…and it feels a very very long way away just now.
All I want to do right now is curl up and sleep for a very very long time inde