ericdontigney
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Update: Things and billing going off for a month
🕑 Added 2025-07-03 07:49:41 +0000 UTCEric here. So, while i spent most of the last three days sprawled on my couch and avoiding light and sound, (what a wimp, right? Can't even shake off a 3-day, category 5 headache) I had a lot of thinking time between the bouts of stabbing pain in my head. And one of the things I realized was that there is a lot happening this month.
I've got a book coming out next week. I've got copy edits to review for Volume 8, which will likely be followed up shortly after by reviewing the proofread. I need to write blurbs for volumes 10 and 11. It sounds easy, but it's not. Ask most writers, and they'll tell you that they would rather write another entire novel than try to write a blurb. I've still got a bloopers chapter to write for Volume 11. I've got LitRPG con coming up, and that will be a week of travel, give or take. I've also got contracted/promised projects that should already be done or getting close to done that aren't there yet.
Also, now that my food issues are at least partially improved (enough so that I'm not restricted to the 8 or 9 meals i survived on for 9 months), I've been trying to get back into the habit of making healthy meals and getting regular exercise. Pro tip: not doing either of those things for 9 months makes getting back into them stupid hard and sort of painful. Not doing those thing for nine months almost certainly contributed to a drop off in my productivity, mental health, and overall stamina. Probably contributed to my crappy sleep schedule as well.
Finally, I realized that, despite taking a few blocks of "time off" over the last couple years, those things were never really time off. I almost always them spent working on something, or traveling to something, or anything but actually taking time off. Even my weekends now are hit and miss working days for one thing or another.
And, honestly, the workaholic part of me loves the busyness of it all. Which is all fine and good when I've been eating right, exercising, I'm in a good place mentally, and getting at least six of hours of consistent, good sleep a night. None of which has been the case for most of a year. I could probably keep pushing through and get everything I need to get done, done, but it would mean putting off things that contribute to my overall health and well-being. However, there is an accumulation of benefits that accrue when I pay attention to that health and well-being stuff. Like fewer migraines and more productivity.
So, here's what's coming this month. Over the next few days, I'm going to play catch up on unintended cultivator. However, since I've got a pile of stuff to do, and a week coming when I won't even be home which would have meant some kind of disruption anyway, I'm going to turn off billing for a month starting on July 7. That doesn't mean I'm going to to stop working on things. I'll probably even keep posting things here and there, if only to let you know what things I've finished. What it will primarily mean is that new unintended cultivator chapters will stop for a month, along with older chapters not moving to the lower tiers.
This will basically be time for me to focus on health stuff, build up a backlog of UC chapters, finish off some projects that have been hanging in limbo, and maybe even take a few days off completely guilt-free (not an easy task for someone with workaholic tendencies, but I'm gonna try to make it happen anyway). It's also an opportunity for me to meet some existing obligations without constantly shortchanging all of you on chapters.
Mostly, though, I'm hoping it will be the foundation for a boost to my mental health and energy levels. I like being gung ho about writing, feeling energetic, and being excited about things in my own stone-faced way. I haven't been that way for a while now. I don't particularly like this low-energy, low-enthusiasm version of myself that I've become. Fortunately, the things contributing to that are solvable problems (or are resolving themselves -- food issues), just not overnight solvable. Sadly, I have to do that least American of all things: patiently put in the effort. Granted, a month won't fix all of it. You can build habits in a month, but you generally can't see big results in a month. But i can make a start on it, and getting started is almost always the hardest part.
What does the months off mean in terms of billing. Basically, anyone who was billed in the first week will pick back up in august as though they paid the first week in august. Anyone who would have been billed in the next three weeks will get billed on those days in August. In other words, billing simply won't exist for 30 days or so. Anything I post on here during that month is pretty much a freebie.
Anyways, I hope this after-migraine, brain-fogged, vaguely-organized ramble of a post answered most of the questions about what is going to happen and why it's going to happen.
Comments
Akamai Kekoa
I've edited chapters 7 thru 10 so far.
Maria Klein
Do what you’ve gotta do. I’m exhausted just reading that list of tasks. My sister suffers from migraines, sometimes so bad they have landed her in the hospital. Take the time you need. Self care is so important
