Random ramblings

It's been a long, busy, stressful week.  The kids have noted the stress, and are reacting to it by fighting and misbehaving pretty badly.  I think what's going on is scaring them, and they don't know how to handle that. 

And I don't know how to help them understand that nothing bad will happen to them.  No, I've never lied to them, but they're too young to understand what's going on, much less understand that it doesn't affect them directly, only through one of their friends.  No matter how many times I explain it. 

My imp went to go spend a couple of nights with his grandparents yesterday.  He took a review sheet of capital and lower case letters I had him do the night before (A through F), and showed them off.  "You didn't know I could do that," he says.  Grandma allowed that no, she hadn't known that. 

Honestly, I'm impressed with how far he's come in a bit under a month.  I haven't been able to work with him every day, mostly because some days are busier than others, and some, I've been under the weather. 

The pixie cannot seem to settle for any length of time.  She flutters and floats around aimlessly, picking and poking at things she's not supposed to, until I'm ready to scream.  And one of the things she likes to pick at is her big brother--she's been starting fights, which gets them separated into their own rooms with the door shut for a couple of hours of play-time. 

What is it with cats wanting to hork up hairballs on stuff?  I had to toss Shadow into the back room yesterday afternoon because she was trying to make a mess on the imp's desk and learning materials.  And it made her quite irritated with me--she's still not completely forgiven me this morning. 

The dog has been a miserable dog, this week.  It has rained, at least a little bit, literally every day since Wednesday.  And we have more in the forecast. 

So far, Pendragon Resurgent has sold eleven copies.  And sales have dropped off precipitously, so I figure that everybody interested in reading it has already bought it. 

I've finished a draft of "Gremlins" and "Quetzl" this week.  I'm going to revise both, because "Quetzl" ended up skating in just right at 6,000 words, and might end up over the 8,000 word limit, if it comes to be that I decide certain scenes need fleshed out. 

Once I finish revising, it's on to writing Fire and Forge.  I've got all the chapters outlined, so it shouldn't take too long.  Unless it goes off on a tangent with what plot I have, like Pendragon Resurgent did, and completely FUBARs my outline.