To give you an idea of what it’s like to write after the release week. For reasons of COVID and other factors, we have to finish Ryder as fast as possible, so I am not getting the few days off I needed. Here is how bad things are.
Nick worried me. Years ago, before Nick became Knight-Protector, he was a Crusader and his last assignment before his promotion was to infiltrate Roland’s organization. Grandfather had done something to him, something awful neither of them ever talked about. Nick Feldman had been volatile to begin with,
Wait a minute, wasn’t Kate’s guardian named Feldman? Did I confuse the names again? Why does this keep happening? This is so annoying…
… trying to remember’s the “right” last name for 15 seconds…
Nick is Greg’s kid. They have the same last name. Oh my God.
And this concludes the fried brain segment of your entertainment today. 😀
Okay, it is really weird seeing the process from author’s end. Coz in my head, all of the characters from Kate Daniels’ world are my immediate neighbors (so you tend to remember the big highlights of their lives) and innkeeper characters are family (i think of dina et al as cousins). And yeah, stuck & ingrained in gossip-like fashion. So, jarring to see them plotted out. Funny. But jarring, these are real people you know 😛
this hit a lil bit too close to home for me lmao
You know!!!!
+1
This also hit a little close to home for me- good articulation about it being jarring to see the plotted out process but good to read!
Ha! This hit very close to home for me, too. Their writing is just that good.
+1
+1
Yes! And this is why, I think, the BDH is always clamoring for more. Because waiting months or a year to find out if your friends’ and cousins’ Big Issues are working out, if they figured it out with their newfound powers or true love….it’s excruciating. The curse of being a compelling writer is that it compels your fans to be ever more demanding.
So…thank you, House Andrews, and think of our demands as love ????.
Ditto!
+1
+10,000
plus 1
I hope you guys have a beautiful and restful day today even though you’re feeling a lot of pressure. Hang in there!
+1
I just watched the Author talk on Youtube by Carey Memorial Library. First – thank you Ilona and Gordon participating in the talk! Second – does anyone remember the book site Ilona mentioned that she had been reading lately? Not sure if it was short stories but it sounded interesting.
Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.
Yeah, I would like to find mine too.
My motto!
When I was in college it was the night before a term paper was due so like normal I began typing it up. As I was typing it I had to use a two letter word in the sentence. But I forgot how to spell that two letter word. I can’t remember if it was “is, if, of, so, etc.” but every time I typed it, it looked wrong. I felt like a complete idiot and I did not want to go to the next dorm room over and ask someone how do you spell what ever the two letter word was. I stared at my computer for like 15 minutes. So I know all to well how your brain can get fried.
I feel your pain, similar situation but for the life of me I couldn’t remember how to spell “a”.
I laughed so hard at this. (I have done this, too.)
Midway through my thesis write-up, realised that I’d written the wrong organisation acronym in. I was writing about two orgs whose acronyms were one letter different (ie ABCDE vs ACBE) & as I’d previously worked for one, I kept writing it in. So much pain to rectify….
For me it was “the”. I was in the third or fourth grade. It was very embarrassing.
It was “of” for me, same circumstances. I KNEW it wasn’t “ov” but just couldn’t get to “of”, because that said “off”, right? Nope.
Pack it in, go to bed.
second grade – spelling test – any? eny? iny? I just couldn’t remember – but I still remember the feeling of panic at not knowing almost 60 years later.
I read that wrong. Post release Brian. I was, “Who is this Brian? Maybe he has recipes or knitting projects. Maybe he has a new hobby like pottery or under demolition.” Then I read it again —I think maybe naps are called for..
I think it is the picture that thows you. You see a knight, and now his name is Brian. Post release Brian. He comes to visit, eats all your cake, hogs the hot water leaves a bloddy mess in the back yard.. but, on the plus side he does get rid of the chubby black and white squirrels. 😉
Hahaha This is awesome! His name is totally Brian now!
LOL. Perfect.
I did the same thing. Saw Brian, only I just got back from lunch which includes a nap, so there is no excuse, except my brian (er brain) is just now waking up.
Yes, but your fried brain got it right!
🙂
But fried Brian is so tasty!
Braaaaaaaaaaa-ins (said in my best zombie voice)
Take a deep breath and a nap ????,
Sometimes, the hurrier you go, the behinder you gets. Take a day, go swim if there are no black and white squirrels, and get some sleep. Pushing too hard doesn’t work. Now I’m going to go obsess over why Jim has let Atlanta go to hell, what Ascanio thinks he can do to fix it, and did Mahon ever learn to make decent honey muffins. There, I have done your worrying for you. Go relax.
???? that’s really funny.
Relax brain, breath in, breath out
Brain good to go ????
When I’m really fried, I have trouble to spell “the” don’t know why this world in particular.
I get this too. With. It’s always with. Sounds wrong, looks wrong. Surely it’s not spelled that way?
Then I just sit there saying with, over and over, like a moron having a brain aneurysm.
Hang in there Ilona & Gordon! You’ve done such amazing work with Emerald Blaze, we all couldn’t be happier. I’m also so thankful for your virtual tour and the joy of reading your blog posts everyday. It gives me a moment away from all the awful things happening and it feels wonderful.
I wish you could have some time to relax though. Our hype and fandom is putting pressure on your deadlines, your schedule must be bursting with activity!
What she said!
Take care of yourselves!
Plus 1000000
We call that “COVID Brain” at our house. I just have to veg out when I get it and try to take a walk,
Thank you both for writing Julie’s story. The story and your blog have been a great help against COVID Brain. Sending good thoughts your way.
I’d forgotten Nick was Greg’s son… I picture them so differently. In my head, Nick is Ian McKellen-ish. Tall, slim but muscular, a younger Gandalf. Greg is more Nathan Lane-ish in American Crime Story. Not in character, but in looks…
A small confession: I read really fast. Lot’s of authors put a lot of effort into naming their characters Mohalikana’swanson’anon. When I’m reading my brain calls them “The MO guy.” Then there are 4 other characters whose names start with “Mo.” So I might add the 3rd letter. So all the work they put into ethnically diverse names comes down to “Moh, Mom and Mon” in my brain. I love that urban fantasy writers usually use names like “Jane” and “Kate” and “Nick” because those names don’t get truncated in my head.
Back before ebooks, I whined that I really wanted an electronic copy of The Simarillion so I could go thru and replace all of Tolkien’s lovely names with George and Lily and .. well, Aragorn wasn’t hard, but boy, some of them…
I’m glad I’m not the only one! I about had a brain aneurysm when I read that, like… “Nick is Greg’s son? What? When? How?” and then… “Oh. Yeah. Nvm.” Covid man, I tell ya. xD
Wait, but Uncle Stupidhead is back! Yay!
Also, coffee is good.
Sometimes you just can’t even brain. You have more than earned a break, but pressure and timelines be what they be so take your little tiny rests where you can – microbreaks! Close your eyes, picture yourself on a beach, take a deep breath and power through. We all believe in you! 🙂
I’m sorry, were you saying something?? I was trying to remember why I came into the den…
I actually love that you forget details, too.
I’m rereading the entire series in prep for more Ryder, and smacking myself for the stuff I’ve forgotten.
I remember my brother coming downstairs after pounding on his term paper for English Lit. He sat down at the kitchen table and just stared at his empty mug for five minutes.
“Hey Jer, what you need?”
“I can’t remember how to spell a word, and I can’t finish my paper without it.”
More staring. I took his mug and made him his favorite hot chocolate. He took one sip and blinked twice.
“Okay. Can you tell me the word you need spelled?”
He gave me this puppy eyed, despair filled face. “The word I need–is WHEN.”
It took everything I had not to bray like a donkey.
I grabbed a post it note from the kitchen, wrote out the word for him, and he ran back upstairs.
Words that lock up my brain: Florescent, gamble, piquant, and morose.
So sorry about the brain lag. I have it all the time! Lol. Thank you for your wonderful efforts!
it definitely happens, I once went blank, like completely blank on my cousins name!!- I was sitting opposite her in my uncles place (diff uncle, really big extended family) and went completely blank, is only known her since I was born for about (at that time) 15 yrs.
So i figure is not so bad when I forgot non family names when that’s my bar????
Always remember my mom calling me in a panic, saying “ what the hell is OF !!OF can’t be a word. What does it mean.”She was a 25 year executive law secretary. She knew everything. She remembered everything .
Everyone came to her for help.
She knew the complete history of the law firm, all the partners, cases and outcomes.
But 12 memos of law in one day was too much.
It was just so human.
Whenever we were stressed, we would call each other say OF, and laugh. It broke the stress.
So, you need small , tiny, breaks, have tea. Pet a dog. Text your kid. Or Jeanine.
Thank you for Emerald blaze and cool aunt.
And all the interviews, they were awesome .
This is me – OF, THE, AT, – simple words that look foreign when your brain takes a vacation without telling you.
I totally do that, too. I’ve looked at my own name and had the overwhelming feeling that I spelled it wrong or put the wrong name down. Exhaustion does weird things to your brain.
That was going to be my story. I completely blanked out once on “of” and stared for a minute to see if I had spelled it correctly. I think I changed it to “ov” at one point before changing it back.
One thing that happened to me just this weekend. I was arranging sheet music into two different binders. The sets were the same except one had English lyrics and the other had Tagalog (Filipino). I was totally confused at one point because I was looking at a Tagalog sheet and my brain said, “I understand these words! This is in English, file over here.”
Then, after reviewing the arrangement, my brain would turn on me and say, “Dummy, these don’t match. File over there!”
I always have that moment when I spell a word and it just looks so wrong lol. Happens to the best of us.
Hope uncle stupidhead is hanging in there though 🙂
Its really too bad you can’t take a break though 🙁
I think this happens a lot more than we, the readers, know about. During a q/a Jim Butcher related a time he had written out a third of a novel, an unnamed Dresden, with the main antagonist being a character he had killed off a couple books ago. Worse still his alphas missed it, so it was his betas that told he had to stop writing and go tweak his plotting.
I just realized this may not be as comforting as I intended. Still, you’re amazing, Jim’s amazing, and I’m going to get back to my second read through of EB. Any luck I did more good than harm.
Please hang in there. Ryder is going to be awesome. Emerald Blaze was incredible. to slow myself down (I tend to treat your books like a bag of chocolates – too fast, too fast) I re-read sapphire flames. Thank you for all the knots tied and mysteries waiting for the next book. You guys are awesome.
I tend to read the physical book, then listen to the entire series again, so I have all the books and voices in my head. It’s like having friends and family drop by for a lovely visit, and the brought cake and ice cream.
Irony: I was just thinking the other day during a reread – most series have about 6 strong side characters that appear intermittently in their work. House Andrews has like 60 in the KD series alone. (Decided I wanted to do a count but haven’t gotten there yet.)
How do they keep all of them straight in their head? Do they have cheat sheets, charts, etc… As a reader, I have to go back and double check sections of previous books just to remember “Who’s this person? What group are they with? What’s their magic power and fighting style? Issues with the mc’s or with one of the mc’s friends? Etc…”
Really hit home in EB with Xavier’s reappearance. (Had to scramble around to find out the when, where, how and who he was connected with when he appeared before.)
As a reader, I decided I need cheat sheets for all your characters (for all the on-going series) as you never know when they’re going to pop-up again. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you guys to keep it all straight. (And let’s not get started on all the subplots, intrigues, relationships, etc… you always have in your books.)
So “fried brain” – no surprise.
If you didn’t make all of it so complex and interesting it would be easier for you but for me it would be losing so much of the richness and awesomeness (yes, it’s really a word) you bring to your stories.
A little surprised if it didn’t happen more often.
I’m rereading the whole cannon now to bring myself up to date again. It’s like my 4th time or so, but there are always parts missed. Interesting nuggets from Derek and Erra and others that may or may not be relevant now with Ryder.
I’ve hesitated to put in notes got refer back to, however. Have to draw a line somewhere to put myself in the character’s place. They don’t have transcribed convos, after all.
Ilona, you’re OK. Your brain is no more fried than anyone else’s. It’s just that your thoughts are on display for all to see. Had you used the wrong name there, your husband would have caught it. Or your proof-readers or test readers or whatever you call them would have caught it. Deep breath. Take a nap. Take a walk. Watch a cat sleep. You’ll be fine.
Have you considered setting up (or having a friend set up) your own, not shared, wiki with characters and places and whatever else you need (weapons? spells? tribes?) so you can check your world’s consistency? It would take weeks or months away from your writing (and please don’t stop writing Ryder!) but in the long run should save you time.
This sounds like me during years of teaching, trying to proofread students’ papers before they “published” them for their parents. After seeing the same words misspelled over and over, I would have trouble remembering the correct way to spell them and would have to look them up.
I hope you are not so rushed after BLOOD HEIR.
Thank you for writing Ryder! I hope you all get an extended vacation as soon as the book is done.
Awww…bless your heart.
And that’s meant to be read in the southern, sweet and “sincere” way….NOT the southern, sassy and sarcastic way. ????
Oh I thought since Ryder is self published you could push back the release and not need to rush it
Maybe it’s been picked up?
I think they said that it has to do with the printers. Like, there’s only a few and if you miss your spot you have to wait a long time to get back in line. I could be mistaken, but that’s what I think they said. ????♀️????
I don’t like the Feldmans.
The father kept having these get-togethers with the unsavory Russian types. Now the son has this huge rabid dog/wolf thing which keeps coming around and making weird noises.
I miss the Lennarts. Nice quiet neighbors, nothing much happened when they were living in the cul-de-sac.
That comment about the rabid dog/wolf thing almost caused a spit-take! ???????????? Thanks for the laugh.
????
I ROFLOL. You forgot to tie in the glow in dark monster. I don’t see Desandra only using that once even though Derek busted her for.
Hmmm…
Glow in the dark, rabid dog/wolf thing. It’s kind of a stretch, don’t you think? ????
Well now I’m thinking of Nick and Desandra and glow-in-the-dark paint and my brain just down a totally different off-ramp.
Loved your remarks. Rabid dog/wolf thing. She’ll get you for that. You might see a great glow in the dark rabid dog/wolf thing. Nice quiet neighbors the Lennarts. And Deimos on his off days.HA!
It’s not just you. At work, we had a rough week too, and it wasn’t just us, people in we came in contact with said they thought it was the week of a full moon. It was a rough one.
Emerald Blaze was awesome. I loved that we were able to see Nevada and Conner, Catalina and Alessandro have grown so much and that Linus and Victoria are getting this wonderful family that they gave up on having. Although Victoria isn’t getting it as well as Linus because she’s being the evil step grandmother. Thank you.
Love you ! Lol
Hah! I have the same thing happening (I do a lot of technical writing). 2020, horrible horrible horrible. This awful very bad no good year is clogging my brain. Obsessing on the death toll and all the awful ways Coronavirus can mess a person up does not help. Compound that with a book release and skunkings? The only thing that helps me is chocolate. Lots of chocolate.
Yes, chocolate is good for stress. Even Jack knows that 🙂
Ilona-andrews, you guys are such a good part of my life. You make me feel good. You help me get through the bad times. Thank you so much. I truly love your work. I have all your published books. You even made me care for Hugh. I wish for you and your family love and many blessings.
Hi, while I appreciate the desire to finish Ryder I am confused about the need to rush. I thought that it was to be published in January 2021 and was not a book that was being produced for a contract but something you did for your personal creative inclinations like the Innkeeper series. I love the book so far but would not want it to stress you out during this time. Loved the book tour, I saw most of your talks and loved them.
COVID shut down a lot of the printers and publishers, they need to finish ASAP to get a place in a companies printing/publishing queue if readers expect to see the book in Jan 2021.
Apparently the two large printing companies in the US are in dire straights, one of them has gone into receivership.
You’re not alone in the brain fog world. I get that too, especially when I stare at federal program reports too long. I’ll also get it if I read a document for more than 3 hours without a break.
Walk away from the writing for a little while. It’s amazing that the brain will reset. ????
I somehow missed or totally forgot Nick was Greg’s son. I can’t even blame COVID on that miss.
I once failed a french test in my teens, because after a night of no sleep, I couldn’t remember how to spell bicycle in english. Then I tried using the dictionary, and couldn’t figure out how to find it. I despaired over that bit of the test until the bell rang, and my test sat there unfinished. Boy, did I feel stupid.
Please find some time to just rest some and relax. Ryder is great, and EB was amazing. I have read it twice and will read it a third time as soon as Mom finishes reading it. All of your writing is amazing and we thank you for it.
Thank you, Ilona Andrews for the post. I was so stressed when I went for my Masters degree Orals I could not even remember my name much less my Masters thesis project. Fortunately my professors knew that I knew just had stressed out so they called my husband to come get me and rescheduled for next day. They were afraid to let me drive myself home. So my husband took me out for a good dinner and put me To sleep with a back massage. The next day I aced oral exam. No explanation Why other than I was so stressed / anxious my brain just turned off. So take a 5 minute Me break for a cup of tea outside in the shade avoiding black and white squirrels then return to whatever inside.
Hello, if you need a little pause, here is a 6 seconds video (article in french, sorry) with an original way to bring a bull home after he escaped.
Note: the farmer explains that the bull was abandoned by his mother and bottle-fed, and that he’s domesticated. Hope you enjoy!
https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/occitanie/gard/nimes/insolite-camargue-taureau-banquette-arriere-cabriolet-fait-buzz-internet-1850846.html
That was awesome, thanks!!
????????????
I didnt publish a book, but i did just release a 4K work 20 page essay into tje wild so I can relate on the fried brain front!
word* the** lol and it shows
???? (Hugs)
“COVID Brain” is the worst. I think there was even a study on what it’s doing to memory! On ScienceNews.org the version was titled “How Coronavirus Stress may Scramble Our Brains.” ….I know for myself, I hit the “wall” much sooner than before all this. My brain just comes to a hard stop. Blank screen of doom. All I can do is watch something soothing and go to bed. Nature shows. Shows on black holes. As long as there isn’t predation, that’s right out.
“OH NOO!! THE BABY TURTLES! WHY DO THEY SHOW THIS?!!!” hahaha… you know how it goes.
All the best to you. I hope you can rest soon, and rely on the good things like tea in beautiful cups.
Ah yes. Can you imagine how great and strong we will all be on the other side of this mess? At grocery store needed to enter 4 digit code which I’ve done BAJILLION times. Groceries ready to go. Totally blanked out. Absolutely no idea. Started to cry. Just turned walked away never went back to store. You got this. We got you.
If that was your debit card PIN (in case this happens again or maybe somebody else needs it), you can choose credit and sign your name instead. It will still come out of your checking account just like you used your PIN and won’t be like a credit card where you get a bill. The only difference between using your debit card with the PIN or signing is how you authorize it. That being said, if you can, it’s better to use the PIN, but it’s ok if you have to sign instead. ????
While I love Ryder I would rather have healthy authors who can write more at a later date, please take a rest!
I once forgot the alphabet! I was doing voluntary work for a charity putting paper direct debits in alphabetical order of the donors name, and I was only doing it for a few hours not working writing day in day out as you do.
Might I suggest getting a fan to do a genaolgy type chart for the Kate Daniels world for you that you could keep updated … Just an idea. I am terrible with names in real life. Can’t imagine trying to keep track of different book series too!