Left Behind

What good’s a life that leaves nothing behind, not a thought or a dream that might echo in time?
— Trans-Siberian Orchestra

We build our legacy piece by piece, and maybe the whole world will remember you or maybe just a couple of people, but you do what you can to make sure you're still around after you're gone.
— David Lowery

My legacy is that I stayed on course... from the beginning to the end, because I believed in something inside of me.
— Tina Turner

What will you leave behind when you’re gone?

The hubby and I had our wills finalized recently, and it’s a real process, I tell you what. Amongst a lot of crap we had to deal with was the creation of our bequest lists. These were the lists of items we want to go to specific people.

I have a lot of stuff, and I love my stuff. And I really hate the thought that no one else is going to care about my stuff like I do. That when I’m gone all this stuff I’ve lovingly collected over the years will just be disposed of without a thought to how much it meant to me.

But it’s also unreasonable to expect someone else to takeover everything. I remember when we had to go through my aunt’s house – she collected antiques, but I only saved things that had sentimental value for me. As much as I would have liked to save more, the things that meant a great deal to her, I just didn’t have the space.

So I spent a lot of time thinking about my various collections – dragons, teapots, books – and picked out a couple of items from each collection that meant the most to me. Then I thought about who might appreciate these things the most and bequeathed the items to them in my will. Now maybe this will make the beneficiaries happy, and maybe it won’t. But I’ll be dead and if they want to donate/sell their bequests that’s fine by me.

My books are still an ongoing process. I’d like the various collections to be kept together, but a lot of my books are out of date or have a limited audience. Like my reference books – I have several sets of reference books that I bought through Time/Life Books – Time Frame series (history), the Enchanted World, Mysteries of the Unknown, Planet Earth – and a couple of sets I bought at book sales. While I still find them useful – the Planet Earth series was especially helpful with my Elemental book series – most people prefer looking stuff up on the internet.

Which brings me to my writing files. My vast array of writing files, both paper and electronic. My great body of ideas and unfinished stories/novels. My unpublished works that, if printed out, could probably paper the earth. Or at least the moon. Not to brag, but a lot of this stuff shows promise and it would be a shame to let this promise go to waste. On the other hand, who’s going to finish all this if not me?

And there’s my motivation to get off my lazy butt and taking my writing seriously again. If I don’t do it, who will?

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

Yes, that’s right. I skipped my Monday post again. Quite frankly, I don’t do that much (besides grocery shop) outside of the house, and my life can be somewhat uneventful. I had a bunch of routine medical appointments and no one really wants to hear about that.

As for other writing . . . it appears I’m still in my slump. I’m getting my ten-minute words done, but that’s pretty much it. I keep hoping that will change, but really, nothing’s going to change unless I just suck it up and change it.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1104+841= 1,945

Total words: 1,945 words

Three minute words – 102+113+78+77+93+92+93=648

Goals For Next Week:
Finish the Christmas story.

EDITING:
I actually did take a fresh look at Magickal Mayhem. Or maybe that’s going to be Magic and Mayhem. I haven’t decided yet. But in any case, in an effort to pare down the wordage, I cut a whole bunch of description and now it looks like I need to put at least some of it back in. It’s times like these that makes me wonder if I know what I’m doing in the first place

Goal For Next Week:
Edit Magickal Mayhem.

MARKETING MONDAY:
There are a lot of markets for flash fiction out there. And a lot of contests. And the one thing they usually have in common is they have a specific theme they’re looking for. And while it’s all well and good to have my stories categorized by length, it would be more helpful to have them categorized by subject, i.e. horror, fantasy, mythology, etc. So that’s what I’m doing

The poem I sent in last week was returned with the request for a really minor edit, which I agreed to and as far as I know it will be included in this really cool local project that I shouldn’t really talk about until it’s a done deal. And then it might be worth a post all on its own. :-)

Goal For Next Week:
Submit two stories and one poem.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
So far I have not been doing well on Techno Tuesdays. This time I had a zoom meeting with my stitchery group in the morning, and then in the afternoon I was inspired to work on my stitchery.

Goal For Next Week:
Set up Paperwhite

CRAFTING:
I am waiting for some embroidery transfers I ordered to arrive, so I’ve put the granddaughter’s dress on hold until they get here. Hopefully this week. And hopefully they’ll have something in the package that I can use on it.

When I haven’t been hitting the dollar stories and craft stores for more crafting supplies, and then organizing them so my hoard doesn’t get away from me again, I’ve been working on embroidered squares for a baby quilt.

Goal For Next Week:
Finish baby quilt. Start the embroidery on granddaughter’s dress. Figure out how to finish embroidered tote bag (that I started many years ago).

WHAT I’M READING:
I’m still reading Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens and I’ll probably stick with it until I’m done. And I confess, I read Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts last week, but I made it last the whole week instead of a single day. So I guess that’s progress.

On the Kindle. I finished The Merman’s Kiss by Tamsin Ley and really liked it. These characters had a lot of issues to overcome, and you’re kept wondering if they’d be able to be together at all. Plus I really like the author’s take on merfolk. Now I’m working on Curse of Christmas: A Collection of Paranormal Holiday Stories, by assorted authors.

Goal For Next Week:
Finish “Crawdads” so I can pass it on, and otherwise keep taking it easy on the reading so it doesn’t take over my life.

GOAL REVIEW:
My goals always seem so reasonable, I don’t know why I have such trouble sticking to them. At least as far as the writing goals go. The crafting and reading goals seem to be doing okay, although I do spend more time on my crafting compared to anything else. But then again, I do most of my crafting (needlework mostly) in front of the TV at night. At least it keeps me away from the games.

Happy writing.

Depressing Thoughts

Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather.Try to understand the blackness, lethargy, hopelessness, and loneliness they’re going through. Be there for them when they come through the other side. It’s hard to be a friend to someone who’s depressed, but it is one of the kindest, noblest, and best things you will ever do.
― Stephen Fry

That's the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it's impossible to ever see the end.
― Elizabeth Wurtzel

I’ve often said I’m weather driven. The last couple of weeks haven’t always been rainy, but they have been grey and dismal. And too much grey and dismal weather tends to kick my depression into high gear, which makes it hard to get anything done, let alone anything creative.

A couple of days are okay, but more than three in a row and my mood starts to tank. Then my energy goes as the depression hits. Sometimes all you can do is just hunker down, acknowledge you’re not going to have a productive time, and hope that it passes quickly.

But this has been dragging on for a while now, and it’s like slogging through mud to get anything done. Basic things, like getting up in the morning, having a shower, doing something with my day other than sitting in my recliner playing games on the lap top.

This weekend is a little different because it’s the holiday weekend and I’m expecting family for dinner tonight. Not a huge number of guests, but a huge dinner. So I’ve had to suck it up to get things ready – do it whether I feel like it or not. And you know what? I still felt like crap, but the things that needed to get done got done. I just wish this would translate to creative endeavours.

Add to this it’s allergy season. A really bad season for allergies. So I’ve been taking allergy medicine which not only makes me tired, but I have a hard time focusing on the computer screen too. But it’s a catch 22, because if I don’t take the allergy medicine I get wicked headaches as my sinuses fill up.

Are you feeling sorry for me yet? LOL

Nevertheless, I may not have done any writing, but editing was another matter. I finished the read through (with minor edits) on Magickal Mayhem and it is now in the hands of my first reader/editor/word wizard.

I wrote no poetry this week – it seems to be feast or famine with me where poetry is concerned, doesn’t it? Then again, it’s not surprising seeing as the creative black hole I’m in seems to be getting deeper by the day.

I haven’t even been doing a lot of reading. I finished Blackbird House, by Alice Hoffman and it was a really cool concept for an anthology. I managed to track down a used copy of The Green Man, another anthology by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, but I’ve barely cracked it open.

The Week Ahead . . .

If I hadn’t started my spice series with Turmeric, I would have been right on track doing all of the ingredients for Pumpkin Spice before Thanksgiving. Cloves aren’t always used in it though, so I don’t feel too bad saving it for this week.

Despite my distinct lack of creative mojo, I’m still determined to start writing every day – a one word prompt, a flash prompt,something. Or maybe, at long last, I can pick one of my unfinished projects and . . . finish it.

It’s even more important to get back into the writing habit now – next week I’m going to a writing retreat. It started out as the Spring Thaw when I paid for it at the beginning of 2020, but now it’s Writescape. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to it. If nothing else, maybe it will give my creativity a kick start.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

It’s All In Your Head

A headache, I get the kind of headache God would smote you with in the Old Testament.
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

“I don't want to die now!" he yelled. "I've still got a headache! I don't want to go to heaven with a headache, I'd be all cross and wouldn't enjoy it!”
― Douglas Adams

The word for the week is headache. It’s been so hot that we’ve had to have the air conditioner on upstairs at night and it’s loud enough that I’m not getting a good night’s sleep. I wake up super tired and headachy. Also, we’re coming into allergy season, and not only do I get sinus headaches, the pressure from my sinuses gives me earaches. *sigh*

Still . . . I feel like I’m moving closer to being able to use my old format here; you know, the one that included actual word counts and progress reports.

One of the reasons for this is that I moved my desk. Not a lot, but instead of it being angled with my back to a corner, I have it perpendicular to the window so my back is to the wall. Surprisingly, I have a lot more room with the desk this way. And the big thing is, it’s brighter. The way it was angled before, it didn’t matter how bright it was outside, the low hutch that contains the roll top threw a shadow on the desk top. I had to have a light on top of the bookcase beside me because the overhead light is kind of dim.

And one of the interesting things I discovered, originally I had the desk parallel to the window with my back to the wall so I was looking out the window. I couldn’t have had it that way for long because I don’t even remember that, but I have the pictures to prove it.

In any case, I like the desk perpendicular to the window. I can still access the bookcase right under the window, and the one against the opposite wall, as well as the filing cabinet the printer sits on. And I feel like I have more room – I don’t have to shimmy to get behind my desk. LOL

The other reason I got more writing done last week is because the Solitaire Garden website still isn’t working. *sigh* The other games just aren’t as much fun, not even the hidden object games. I am valiantly resisting the urge to look for new games.

After more endless back and forthing – filling my shopping cart, deleting my shopping cart – I finally settled on a Lenovo ThinkPad Gen 15. I’m trying not to dwell on why I didn’t just go for a different IdeaPad with its superior battery life. I’m sure I had my reasons – it was probably some bad reviews that scared me off. Anyway, the ThinkPad is on its way.

I finished my mandala poem. The amount of information I’d gathered about mandalas was so overwhelming I decided to put it to good use and do a black out poem. Friday being the first Friday of September, I figure I’ll post it then.

I finished The Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable – I really enjoyed the way it went back and forth between the past and present. It was really two stories in one, and I can’t decide which one I enjoyed more. But unfortunately after that I started sliding back into the Nora Roberts black reading hole again. Blame the hot, yet overcast weather for that. But at least I’m down to her early stuff, which is much shorter. :-)

The Week Ahead . . .

I almost started a brand new series on Wednesday, but it was so late Tuesday night when I started it, I didn’t get very far. But be on the look-out for The Spice of Life, starting this Wednesday. As you may surmise, it’s about spices and their uses. I’m not going to put them in alphabetical order (boring!) and it’ll run until I get tired of it. LOL

Work is proceeding on the edits for Blood Ties. The beginning is totally changing and there will be at least a couple of parts of the rest of it that’ll have to change too. But I’m confident it’ll be a better book for it.

I picked out the novel I’m taking to the retreat in October. And the winner is . . . The Perfect Match, formerly known as The Eros Portal (NaNo 2016). It’s a science fiction romance about a scientist who creates a machine that’s meant to find a person’s perfect romantic match, but things go a little awry when the wrong DNA is used. Not only do I really like this story, it’s really close to being done. I only have one scene (I think) to add to complete it.

I think I’d like start working with some prompts again, just something quick and easy to start my writing day. Maybe even start doing a weekly flash story to post on Fridays . . .

So . . . what’s your week looking like?

Stand Firm

Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.
― Franz Kafka

I’m up to level 500 and something in Solitaire Garden, I don’t know for sure because they’re experiencing technical difficulties and the game won’t open for me. At least I’m hoping it’s temporary. I’ve been finding solace on a hidden objects website, but ever since Microsoft stopped supporting flash, they’re not as much fun.

After a lot of back and forthing on the laptop issue, I finally decided to go for it. And after spending several days (it seemed) looking at various models, I finally decided on the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5. Only it’s temporarily unavailable. Rumour has it they’re not even making it any more. *sigh*

Maybe this is a sign from above that this whole lap top thing needs some more thinking. I made a short list of what I want in a lap top – finger print security, backlit keyboard, extra long battery life, lightweight – so maybe I should check out the option on the Lenovo site to build my own.

There was a link on Facebook last week from Writer’s Digest for a series by Robert Brewer giving plot twist prompts. It looked really interesting so I started following the back links to see how long the series was and it was pretty lengthy. Then I was delighted to find that the prompts were gathered into book form. I ordered three copies – one for me and two to give away to friends. Imagine my surprise when I received my receipt and it had a link for an electronic copy. There was no shipping charge, and I can only surmise that I paid three times for one download. I’ve emailed them to cancel the order of two of them, but I haven’t heard anything back yet. I have not accessed the download and I can only hope I won’t end up in a buyer beware situation.

I’m still plugging away at my mandala poem, but it’s slow going. I’m not sure if my idea for how to present it is going to fly or not, but I’m going to keep trying.

I have officially started the next round of edits on Blood Ties. I saved a second copy of it just as a backup in case I mess it up because I’ve changed the whole beginning. Originally I had a prologue dealing with Anakaron, the bad guy, and opened chapter one with Jessica’s friend Howard.

Now I’ve removed the Anakaron scene (saving it for possible later use) and made the Howard scene the prologue, opening chapter one with a Jessica scene, which is as it should be. There are a couple more scenes in the beginning that’ll need to be removed or reworked, but seeing as the book is running long I can afford to lose them.

Still managing to stay out of the Nora Roberts black hole reading-wise. I picked up a copy of the Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable and I’m about halfway through it. It’s very different, but in a good way.

The Week Ahead . . .

I made a little headway in the cleaning of my office last week. I reorganized the bookcase and got a bunch of stuff off the floor. I also got a pile of shredding done, which wasn’t as big a job as I thought it would be. It would be nice to finish the job this week.

Now that I’ve started, I don’t want to lose my momentum on the edits for Blood Ties. Maybe there’ll be a chance to have it out by Christmas after all.

The mandala poem has been dragging on for too long. It’s just a poem, for crying out loud. I wrote a completely different poem in one sitting on the back of one of the pages of research I’d printed out. I also need to get off the fence about picking out a book to take with me to the retreat.

So . . . what will you be up to this week?

Confession Is Good For the Soul

The act of writing can be a form of release – a confession performs the same action: putting your inner life on the page or into the hands of a trusted person releases tensions and sheds light on what often seems hidden until spoken – or written.
— Connie Nielsen

I have a confession to make. I’m back up to level 492 on Solitaire Garden. And the ploy of going to the craft store to replace some of my gaming time with crafting time did not work. *sigh*

And that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that between rounds they show advertisements, and the ads they’ve been showing the most are for Lenovo laptops, the laptop I was lusting after before I got this one.

There’s nothing wrong with the lap top I’m using now. Sure, it gets a little warm when I’m using it on my lap, and it’s heavy and the battery life sucks, but I really like the backlit keyboard with its adjustable colours and it’s smooth to type on . . . But Lenovo has a fingerprint lock, and it’s lighter, and some of them come with a built in fan.

I told the hubby about it, thinking he’d tell me there’s nothing wrong with my old laptop so what’s the point in getting a new one, but he let me down. He said I should go for it. I could use the old lap top for gaming and social media, and the new one strictly for writing. Say what?

So then I told him that if I got a new one I could wipe the old one so he could use it – his lap top was never great to begin with and it seems to be going downhill fast, but he doesn’t want to go to the trouble of switching all of his music programs over to a different computer.

I’ve gone to the Lenovo site a couple of times to check them out – so many choices! – and I’ve narrowed it down to a couple, but I’m still having a hard time justifying it in my mind. Maybe I should just table the whole idea of a separate laptop for writing until I’m actually, you know, writing consistently.

I did get my regular blog post done and my Fiction Friday post done last week, I didn’t start the new non-fiction series yet because I’m waffling between two different series.

Poetry played a big part in my writing last week. I did quite a lot of research for this month’s “poemwork” for my poetry group, which was to “write a mandala poem.” At first I wasn’t too keen on the idea, I mean as prompts go that’s pretty vague, but then I got a few ideas and started doing some research, and then I figured out a really unique way to present it. Then I was sitting out on the deck working on my mandala poem and a whole different poem kinda swooped into my head, so I wrote it down on the back of one of my pages of notes.

I also, be still my heart, generated some interest in the two books I have sitting here waiting to be edited. Elemental Spirit was featured on Fiction Friday, and when I was going over it to find an excerpt I had a brilliant idea of how to re-do the beginning. And I’ve also come to the conclusion I’m going to have to bite the bullet and do journal entries for the beginning of each chapter like I did in Fire and Water.

I’ve been trying to edit Blood Ties on the computer, and I really wasn’t getting anywhere, so I finally printed it out – all 328 pages of it – to work on a few pages at a time. And I also came up with a new idea to begin this one, but I’m going to think about it for a bit before I tackle it.

With Elemental Spirit, it’s in such terrible shape it won’t matter if I take a section from later on and move it to the beginning, But with Blood Ties, it’s pretty much done except for the final polish, and to change the beginning at this point would take a bit a work. Twenty or thirty pages worth of work. I’ll probably do it, it’ll make for a better story, but it won’t make me happy doing it. LOL

I managed to pull myself out of the Nora Roberts black hole with my reading, switching my attention to fairy tales, including some non-fiction books about them. But I didn’t get back to Bird By Bird last week, which means no exercises in the writing journal. I didn’t get around to the three minutes with three words writing prompts either.

The Week Ahead . . .

It’s going to be a busy week this week. I get to do some actual babysitting of the grandbaby, I’ve got to clean up the old couch set for the charity group that’s coming to pick it up, the new set is going to be delivered, and there’s a business meeting with my poetry group. Plus my office is still a mess and I’d really like to fix that. Maybe move some books around.

I want to dive head first into the edits on Blood Ties, even if it means rewriting the first 30 pages or so, and ideally I’d like to start with the rewrites of Elemental Spirit.

And finally, I need to pick a new novel to take with me to the writing retreat I’m going to in the fall. You know, the one I was supposed to go to in the spring of 2020. :-D I was originally going to take Knightsong (the novel I started for NaNo 2010) but it’s nowhere near finished and I’d like something a little closer to being done.

So . . . what will you be writing this week?

Bucket List

Do you have a bucket list?

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Personally, I’ve never taken the time to make one, but I’ve thought about it from time to time, especially as I get older. So naturally I thought it would be interesting to do a little research about it and here’s what I found out:

Bucket lists have not been around as long as I thought. The name comes from an amalgamation of “kicking the bucket” (dying) and list, and sources pretty much agree the term was first coined in the 2007 movie of the same name. Basically, it’s a list of things you want to do before you die.

That being said, here are a few sites with suggestions to help you get started on your own bucket list:

You can find 100 ideas for your list at Life Listed

For 150 bucket list ideas that are neatly organized into categories, try Bestow

For 500+ ideas try Develop Good Habits

For 1000+ Adventure Bucket List ideas, try Bucket List Journey

And we have 10,000+ ideas from Daring to Live Fully

I wish this had been around when I was younger because I would totally have made a list and then tried to knock one item off per year.

My own take on the bucket list is first of all, don’t wait too long to start because you never know what’s around the corner. And make the list obtainable. If you’re 60 years old, it’s probably a little unrealistic to put “become an astronaut” on your list.

My final piece of advice is, have fun with it. That’s what it’s all about after all.

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Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever – 392
Blog Posts – 969+0+0+1312=2,281
Total = 2,673

Unless I do better on the new words on Driving Into Forever, I might have to go back to the Wednesday posts, just to get my wordage up

Editing:

I managed to get a whopping 11 ½ hours of editing time under my belt last week.

What I’m Reading:

Still on my Nora Roberts kick with the tree books. This time it was Carnal Innocence and Blue Smoke, both romantic suspense.

I kind of did extra e-reading last week, and finished Lance and Judge from the Barely After Dark series by Elle Thorne. Then I dove head first into the Pack Wars series by Vella Day - Training Their Mate, Claiming Their Mate, and Rescuing Their Virgin Mate. I’m pretty sure I’ve read the first one before, but the second and third one were definitely new to me.

Goals

Well, it had to happen sooner or later, I finished the first round of edits on Blood Ties. Feel free to throw confetti. :-D

I didn’t get it down to 100,000 words like I hoped, but it is what it is. And now I’m going to let it sit for a week or two while I focus on other things, and then I’ll read it through before starting round two. Unless, of course, I don’t find anything major to fix, in which case I’ll print it out for the final going over.

I might have made better progress on the story version of Driving Into Forever if I hadn’t been so focused on finishing the edits on Blood Ties. Hopefully I’ll do better this week.

I kind of missed doing the Wednesday blog post, especially as I skipped the Monday one on my other blog. Maybe I’ll re-think giving non-fiction a rest. Or maybe I’ll come up with a different idea for Wednesdays.

So obviously the “easing back on the reading” thing didn’t work last week. Especially on the e-reader. Those boxed sets get me every time.

This Week’s Goals

1. Finish the bare bones story version of Driving Into Forever.
2. Figure out what I’m going to do on Wednesdays and then … do it.
3. Try to ease back on the reading a bit, maybe try a little more crocheting.

Here’s to a new week ahead.

Writing Advice

In my never ending quest for inspirational writing quotes I came across these, one after another:

The secret to writing is just to write. Write every day. Never stop writing. Write on every surface you see; write on people on the street. When the cops come to arrest you, write on the cops. Write on the police car. Write on the judge. I'm in jail forever now, and the prison cell walls are completely covered with my writing, and I keep writing on the writing I wrote. That's my method.
— Neil Gaiman

I never have written every day. When I'm writing a book, I write Monday through Friday. I always try to take Saturday and pretend to have some sanity.
— Maya Angelou

Two well-known writers. Two very different pieces of advice. Here’s some more, and if you’d like to read the full article I lifted these next quotes from, just click on the author’s name and it’ll take you there.

Spending five hours on a Saturday writing isn't nearly as valuable as spending 30 minutes a day every day of the week. Especially when you're just getting started. The idea is repetition — developing a discipline of showing up, making this a priority, and working through The Resistance.
If you want to get this writing thing down, you need to start writing every day. No questions asked, no exceptions made. After all, this isn't a hobby we're talking about; it's a discipline.
— Jeff Goins

Write every day.
If you’ve ever considered professional writing, you’ve heard this advice…
If you’re not a full time writer (like King and Lamott), this is terrible advice. This strategy will, in fact, reduce the probability that you finish your writing project.
— Cal Newport

So who’s right? Neil and Jeff, or Maya and Cal?

Truthfully, they’re all right.

Some writers have a regular schedule, treating writing like the job it is. They write at a specific time of day and have a set time or word limit. Some will write every day but have no set schedule. They write whenever they can find a free minute here or there. I know a writer who wrote an entire novel during her 15 minute breaks at work.

Some writers write whenever the mood hits them. It might be a few words, it might be a burst of a few thousand. They write when they feel like it and stop when they have nothing left to say.

I find, for myself, that it depends on what I’m writing. If I’m writing flash fiction or a short story, I do best by writing spontaneously, and in the case of flash all in one session. But with longer fiction I do better if I can work to some kind of schedule. This isn’t always possible, but I give it a try on a regular basis.

There is no one true way to write. All that matters is that the words get written.

You want to write every day? There’s an app for that. Write Every Day

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Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever – unknown
Blog Posts – 765+806+0+1,637=2,982
Total = 2,982

It wasn’t a great week, word wise, but better than the last week was. It’s unfortunate I didn’t keep track of what few words I managed.

Editing:

I got 9 hours of editing in, but not a lot of progress.

What I’m Reading:

Still on my Nora Roberts kick with the tree books, but I think I’ve slowed down a bit, just two — Divine Evil, and the Witness.

I started a new boxed set on the Kindle, the Barely After Dark series from the Shifters Forever Worlds by Elle Thorne. I’ve already finished the first one, Cross, and started the second one, Lance.

Goals

Well, I didn’t finish the edits on Blood Ties, but I did make some headway. I’d gotten bogged down in a three or four chapter section, but managed to straighten it out again. The next bit is heavy on the action, which means it’s going to be heavy on the editing.

I gave up on the index cards for Driving Into Forever. It was incredibly time consuming, and I never did seem to quite get the hang of it. So instead I decided to simply write out the story – just as though I was telling it to someone (which, in a sense, I am). It doesn’t have to be in order, I can add things as I think of them, and when I’m done I’m hoping to use it as my outline.

I did not come up with a new non-fiction series for Wednesdays, and in fact I think I might give that particular post a rest for a while. I only get like four people reading it anyway, and it’s really time consuming.

Okay, I confess I read more than just “on breaks” and we started watching The Stand on Amazon Prime so I got about another foot done on my afghan. Although the good news with spending so much time on reading and crocheting, I’ve spend a whole lot less time on the mindless game. I’ll take the little victories where I can find them.

This Week’s Goals

1. Forge ahead with the edits on Blood Ties.
2. Keep going on the bare bones story version of Driving Into Forever.
3. Try to ease back on the reading a bit.


Here’s to a new week ahead.

The Lies We Tell

We’re a society of liars. Don’t believe me? We tell lies on a daily basis. Your preschooler shows the picture he drew at school and you tell him it’s beautiful, even though you’re not sure what it is. Your friend shows off her new hair style and you tell her it looks great, even though it doesn’t.

They’re polite lies, perhaps, but lies nonetheless. But they’re not the only lies we tell. Ready for some more?

A bald-faced, or barefaced lie is a shameless lie that is undisguised. It can be so audacious that a person might actually believe it to be true.

A big lie is one that tries to trick the victim into believing something, well, big. If common sense is used this lie doesn’t usually hold water, but if it’s of sufficient magnitude it may succeed.

A black lie is callous and selfish. The worst are harmful to others and the sole purpose is gain something we want at someone else’s expense.

A gray lie is reciprocal lie. It’s told partly to help others and partly to help ourselves. The idea is for you to lie for a friend to help them out of a tight spot, and they’ll do the same for you.

An honest lie isn’t meant to misinform, the person telling it doesn’t realize their information is false. Technically, it’s not really a lie because there’s no intent to deceive.

A jocose lie is intended to be taken as a joke. It’s considered to be humorous, as in storytelling where the narrator insists the story is the absolute truth.

Lying by omission is when important information is left out of an explanation. The person tells most of the truth, but leaves out a few pertinent facts.

A noble lie is told to maintain law, order, and safety. While it might cause friction if discovered, it’s meant to be beneficial to all.

A pathological liar tells compulsive lies without a clear motive. It’s often a symptom of an underlying mental health condition. The person may be aware they’re lying, but more often believe they’re telling the truth, unaware they’re relating fantasies.

A red lie is driven by the motive to harm others even if it means harming yourself. It’s about spite and revenge. When we are angry at others, when we feel a sense of betrayal, we may tell a red lie to seek what we perceive as justice.

Which brings us back to polite lies:
“Oh, I love that band!” – when you don’t.
“I don’t mind.” – when you do.
“I can’t help it…” – when you can.
“It’s okay!” — when it’s not.

A polite lie, or white lie, is very common in our society and is often praised as an essential tool in communication. Of all the lies we tell, it’s the most harmless and often told in order to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. Sometimes people can be upset by the truth, especially when it’s something they don’t want to hear.

So … how many different kinds of lies have you told today?

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever – 0 words
Blog Posts – 995+0+580+1180= 2,755
Total = 2,755

It was not a good week, writing wise. I had some personal stuff going on that kind of over-rode everything else. It’s not going to go away, but I’m dealing.

Editing:

No editing, for much the same reason as above.

What I’m Reading:

After finishing Shelter in Place, I seemed to have slid back into a Nora Roberts mood reading the Obsession, the Liar, and Under Currents one right after the other.

I tried to pace myself with White Wolf Mate, by Anastasia Wilde, but I kinda zipped through it and I’ve started Tiger Mate, which is the third of the Silverlake Shifters boxed set.

Goals

Obviously meeting my goals was kind of a bust last week; hopefully I’ll do better this week.

This Week’s Goals

1. Finish the edits on Blood Ties.
2. Finish the index cards for DIF or find a new way to outline.
3. Come up with a new non-fiction series for Wednesday.
4. Crochet or read as needed for breaks.

Let’s hope this week is better than the last.

Socially Inept

Anyone remember ICQ? I miss ICQ. I miss logging on with a made-up name and talking with people from all over the world who are also using made-up names. It was fun and harmless. It was the first social media I ever experienced and I remember it fondly.

I have to admit, I find a lot of the social media for this day and age a little intimidating. Okay, make that a lot intimidating.

Chat rooms don’t seem to be much of a thing anymore, but I found them a little scary. It’s like going to a party where you don’t know anyone and by the time you work up the nerve to join the conversation everyone has moved on to a different topic.

Twitter is worse. It’s like a chat room the whole world is using all at once. Sure the messages are short, only 140 characters, but the speed with which those messages stream by is insane. By the time you type a reply to one message, another 100 have appeared.

I do spend a fair amount of time on Facebook, it’s more my speed. Admittedly most of what I do is scroll down my newsfeed, occasionally post, and sometimes comment on something a friend has posted. It’s a great way to kill an afternoon or evening.

I have not yet signed up for Instagram, but I know a lot of people who have. From what I understand it’s owned by Facebook and used mostly for sharing photos and videos. So why wouldn’t you just post them on Facebook?

I have yet to be sucked into the Pinterest universe either. Many have tried, but I have remained steadfast in my resistance. I actually know very little about it, other than you can “pin” interesting ideas or images or whatever to “boards” and then put them in categories to keep them organized. Sounds like an amazing time suck, and I already waste enough time on the internet.

I don’t know much about TikTok either, other than it’s Chinese in origin and seems to be geared more to the younger crowd.

I admit to being a little envious of those people on TV who use their tablets like video phones – I’d love to be able to do that. The camera in my lap top doesn’t work (something about the drivers that I can’t seem to resolve) so I have not Facetimed or video chatted and to be honest Zoom seems too much like a chatroom, only worse because you can see who you're talking to and they can see you.

Jeez, I don’t even think I was this socially inept in high school!

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever – 0 words
Blog Posts – 1056+581+526+1290=3,453
Total = 3,453

Still working on the index cards for Driving Into Forever. I think this might take forever.

While I managed to do Monday’s post last week, I probably won’t this week. Once again there’s been nothing interesting going on and we’re not expecting the final delivery from the cabinet people until Tuesday, so there won’t be any kitchen progress to report until after that.

Editing:

I slacked off last week, according to TraxTime – only 8 ½ hours of editing. In my defense, we had several grey and dismal days in a row and I spent more time crocheting.

What I’m Reading:

I finished Window on the Bay, by Debbie Macomber, and then there was a gap in the reading until Friday when I started Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts, finishing it Saturday.

I was sad to have finished Captured & Seduced, book three of Alien Shenanigans by Shelley Munro because I really enjoyed it. Actually, I loved the whole Shenanigans series. It didn’t take long, however, to find another series on my Kindle, this one the boxed set of the Silverlake Shifters by Anastasia Wilde. I started Fugitive Mate on Friday and, um, couldn’t resist finishing it Saturday. I started White Wolf Mate this morning and I can’t promise to make it last. ;-)

Goals

I met most of my goals from last week, which isn’t too shabby (in my opinion).

The editing on Blood Ties is progressing nicely – I only have about 60 pages or so to go before the first round is done. I solved the guilt feelings about the deletions I was making by starting a new document to copy/paste the deletions into. That way they’re gone but not forgotten.

The index cards for Driving Into Forever are going slowly. It’s a process, I tell you what. I don’t know if it’s because I’m working with a story that’s already been written, or if I’m missing something, but I’ve really been struggling with this. I still think it’s a good idea, but if I haven’t made any headway with it by the end of this week I’m going to abandon it.

Okay, I might be doing a little too well on the crocheting now. I got my yarn delivery early last week, and I’m on ball four already. I think I said I was only going to work on it while I was watching Netflix or Prime, but that’s not the way it’s happening. And I paid for and downloaded a new afghan pattern last week - maybe it’ll be my Netflix/Prime afghan.

This Week’s Goals

1. Continue, maybe even finish the edits on Blood Ties.
2. Finish the index cards for DIF or find a new way to outline.
3. Continue with my balanced reading time.
4. Ease back on the crocheting a little.

So. What have you been up to.

Electronic Slaves

This post was supposed to be my whiny little story about how my aging Kindle stopped uploading new books and how I had to go into my Amazon account and upload them manually, one at a time. And to punish me, it spontaneously rebooted itself. Twice. But somewhere along the way it morphed into something else.

I got to thinking about electronic devices, and how dependent we’ve become on them – i-Pads, tablets, e-readers, laptops, and the most insidious of all, the cell phone. Almost everyone I know has a cell phone, I’ve even seen little kids with them.

What I really find hard to understand is how attached people are to them. I even had a friend boast to me once that her whole life was on her phone. Really? I use my phone for taking pictures, texting (somewhat reluctantly), and (gasp!) as an actual phone. That’s it. No banking, no aps, no social media, no games.

Occasionally I might check my email, but I’ll fire up the laptop if I want to answer any of it. GPS might be handy, except I have nowhere to go these days. Facebook? Forget it! Those keyboards are teeny tiny and really annoying to use. I find it hard to comprehend how anyone can type actual words using just their thumbs.

People get the Kindle app for their phones so they can read books on those tiny screens. Some watch videos on their phones. I can barely read text messages, I can’t imagine trying to watch a video.

It bothers me that we’ve become so dependent on all these electronic devices. I’m the first one to admit I’d find it hard to live without my laptop. Not impossible, when push comes to shove there’s always pen and paper for writing, but difficult. My Kindle? I’d mourn the loss of all those books, but I have plenty of unread books on my bookshelves.

As for my phone, well, I have a kick-ass camera and a land line. I’m good.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever (rewrite) – 4,176
Blog Posts – 935+456+596 +806=2,793
Total = 6,969

The wordage is creeping up, and it isn’t the blog words this week but the Driving Into Forever words.

Editing:

The TraxTime program tells me I spent 5 hours and 28 minutes editing Blood Ties last week. A little less time than the week before, but it was much more productive time.

What I’m Reading:

I still have not cracked open The Jackal, by J.R. Ward. Maybe I’ll use it as my reward book for when I finish editing Blood Ties.

Believe it or not, I only read one tree book last week, Irish Rose, by Nora Roberts. Maybe that’s why I was more productive with the writing and editing.

However, my poor, ailing Kindle got a work-out. I finished the last two books of Shifter Shenanigans - Blue Moon Dragon and Fiona’s Mates - by Shelley Munro and have started Alien Shenanigans, which is also a three-in-one deal.

Goals

Looks like I rocked all my goals last week.

I did a respectable amount of editing on Blood Ties, and I feel like I made actual progress. I powered through that pesky scene that was holding me up, adding a few hundred words in the process. The next chapter (lucky number 13) needs to be pared down, which is always more fun than adding to.

OMG! Where did all these versions of Driving Into Forever come from? There must be eleventy billion of them. And therein lies the reason this novel floundered for so long. I kept changing my mind about whether certain scenes should be included, and what order they should be in.

The section I was working on this week had three different beginnings and five different middles. And none of them transitioned logically from the first two chapters I’d already rewritten. I had to read all these scenes, decide what was important, and then work from there. Yikes!

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work editing
2. Keep working on Driving Into Forever
3. Limit my reading time.

I did it last week, let’s see if I can manage a repeat.

Danger Ahead

There is a danger to posting excerpts from former (and still unfinished) NaNo novels.

With the first one, Driving Into Forever, I got the irresistible urge to go back and rewrite the darn thing. I say rewrite because it’s such a mess I think it would be easier to start from scratch than try to fix it. The next one, Forever and For Always, had me wondering why I’ve let it sit so long. And this last one, the Faery Heart, made me nostalgic for this epic Science Fiction Romance universe I’d created.

I need to get Blood Ties finished first.

Then I need to get An Elemental Spirit done.

Then I can go on to other things with a clear conscience. But man, oh, man, is it ever tempting to work on all of them at once! And what’s worse with the Faery Heart is that I couldn’t resist reading the whole thing and I remember what else needs to be included and I’m wondering where the notes are for it. I distinctly remember the way a couple of scenes were worded that come after where I left off, but they weren’t included in the document file. So where are they? Should I rewrite them as best I can recollect just to make sure I don’t forget them? Should I spend some time hunting around on USB keys and various hard copy files to see if I can find them?

You see the danger I’m in.

And I fear it’s only going to get worse. This week’s excerpt will be from Quest of the Valkyrie, which replaced Knightsong in my 2010 NaNo, and which starts the whole epic science fiction universe series. It’s the first of a projected trilogy, as the Faery Heart is, and did I mention that the whole Elemental series takes place in that universe?

Must edit faster.

Must write faster.

And that’s the good news. I have a renewed desire to buckle down to work.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever (rewrite) – 1,644
Blog Posts – 880 +484+605+1557=3526
Total = 5,170

Even if you take away the excerpt from Friday’s post, I did better word-wise than I have in ages.

Editing:

According to my trusty little TraxTime program, I spent 8 hours and 22 minutes editing Blood Ties last week, plus about an hour last night after I’d already written and scheduled this post. Finally! I’m making progress.

Publishing:

None. And my mermaid story was rejected *insert sad face here*. Seeing as I haven’t really been making any effort at publishing, I might just set this one aside for now.

What I’m Reading:

I received The Jackal, by J.R. Ward, in the mail this week, but I haven’t cracked it open yet. I made it through about three quarters of Troll’s-Eye View, the anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, before I started jonesing for an actual novel. So then I did a stupid thing. I picked up a Nora Roberts book, but not just any book, no. I picked up the first in her Chronicles of The One series, Year One

And of course I couldn’t just leave it there, I also read Of Blood and Bone, and The Rise of Magicks as well. I love me some end of the world as we know it scenario, and this one was well done. And it also struck a little close to home seeing as it started with a swift spreading pandemic. You know, sort of like Stephen King’s The Stand, and sort of like what’s going on in the world around us.

I find it kind of interesting that both authors show how a world-wide crisis brings out both the best and the worst in people, just like it’s doing in reality. But unlike reality, both fictional stories are ultimately the fight of good against evil. And though there are certainly similarities, both stories are very different.

It just goes to show you that authors can have the same idea and totally different approaches to it.

Goals

While I’m not unhappy with the progress I made last week, I could have done better. Part of it wasn’t my fault though. The hubby was laying new flooring in the hallway outside my office, so although I spent some time in there, it was a little distracting when I was.

I had my best week so far editing Blood Ties, but I don’t feel like I’m making a lot of progress. There’s this one scene I’m stuck on – writing and rewriting – and it’s starting to annoy me. If I was writing, I’d just skip it and move on, but I’m editing and this is one of the things I have to fix.

I gave up on the note taking for Driving Into Forever and I dove right into rewriting it. Rewriting makes better sense than just editing because I have about 5 or 6 different beginnings to it and I think that’s why I never got anywhere with fixing it. I need to settle on one and stick with it.

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work editing
2. Keep working on Driving Into Forever
3. Limit my reading time.

This is where you cross your fingers for me.

Excuses, Excuses

There’s another good reason (okay, maybe not a good reason, but still a reason) besides my binge reading as to why I haven’t been very productive the last few weeks.

If you read my regular blog that I post to on Mondays, you’ll know that in the fall we started a kitchen renovation. This meant, among other things, that we had to empty everything out of the kitchen so we could rip out cupboards and plumbing, etc. Most of this stuff went into plastic bins which then needed to go . . . somewhere.

The stuff I deemed unimportant (ie, that I don’t use on a daily basis) got stacked in my old office (now the hubby’s office). The stuff I used most often was stacked in and around the dining room, and the in-between stuff went into my office, including a pink wing chair from the living room.

This overcrowding of my office is not conducive to a creative atmosphere. I like things organized and that’s a little hard to do with all that extra stuff. I’d also like to rearrange my office a bit but to move anything in my office first I have to get rid of that pink chair. And to get rid of the chair I have to get rid of all the bins out of the hubby’s office so the chair can take their place.

See, the big window in my office has a southern exposure and the way things are now there’s a big chunk of the day where the sun is right in my face. This is really hard on the eyes and it makes it hard to see what I’m doing on the computer. And if I want to write anything long hand, I have to have a light on behind me.

The good news is, the counters were finally installed in the kitchen last week which means I can start reloading/organizing the cupboards. I’m hoping that with the end of the kitchen renovation in sight, there will also be an end to my lack of productivity.

Hope springs eternal.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:
Blog Posts – 898+546+421+1110=2975
Total = 2975

I did about 1,000 words better on the blog posts, but the words for the Friday post feel kind of like a cheat because most of it is an excerpt from something I’ve already written. Once I run out of NaNo novels this will probably change, but for now it feels like Friday shouldn’t be included.

Editing:
Whoopsie! I forgot to set the counter. You’ll just have to take my word for it that I did get some editing done on Blood Ties. Not every day, and not as much as I would have liked, but some at least.

Publishing:
None. And I still haven’t heard back about the last story I sent out.

What I’m Reading:
Once again, this is where most of my time went. But at least there were no late nights where I stayed up reading until my eyes burned.

I finished Blood Truth. by J.R. Ward and went on to read Where Winter Finds You, The Sinner, and A Warm Heart in Winter. The Jackal will be delivered some time this month, and then I’m done with the Black Dagger Brotherhood universe until Lover Unveiled is available in paperback. I have been so consumed with reading these books that I’m actually grateful I still have bins of kitchen stuff blocking my bookcases so I can’t reach the other books in the series because at this point I don’t think I could keep myself from starting with the first book and going through the entire series, including the ones I’ve just read.

To help pull myself out of the BDB universe, I zipped through Christmas Letters, No Competition, and All Things Considered, by Debbie Macomber – nice, fairly uncomplicated romances that had all the feels without the intense drama.

Next up I’ll be reading the anthology Troll’s-Eye View, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

Goals

Last week’s goals were once again pretty much a bust. No words on anything except blog posts, no outlining, no organizing. I did get some editing done on Blood Ties at least, and I started making notes on Driving Into Forever so I can start moving forward with that, so at least that’s something.

My big goal for this week is to seriously stop messing around and get myself back on track. I’m out of BDB books and I’m going to keep those bins blocking the bookcases until I lose the urge to start the series from the beginning again. Hopefully making the switch to anthologies (I have three more after I’m done with the Trolls) will help me curb my reading addiction.

1. Spend more time in my office and less on the couch.
2. Keep up the edits on Blood Ties.
3. Limit my reading time.

It always looks so good on paper, doesn’t?

A Brainy Idea

Sometimes I hate my brain. Like . . . when I’m trying to fall asleep and it just won’t shut down. And then I’m finally on the cusp of sleep and this SNI (shiny new idea) pops into my head and it won’t leave me alone until I grab the notebook and pen that I wisely keep at my bedside and write it down.

Like one night last week. Just as I’m about to fall asleep, this line pops into my head. A woman’s voice asks, “So, are you a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster too?” And just like that an idea for a story followed. Just what I need, another idea. At least it’s for a short story.

I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me. I’d say it’s maybe because once you star winding down it sets your subconscious loose, but according to studies, you subconscious mind is most active when you first wake up. You’ve probably heard that if you don’t remember your dreams within the first minute or two of waking you won’t remember them at all, this is why.

Maybe I’m just an exception to the rule. All I know is, I’ve learned the value of keeping a notebook handy when I go to bed. Trust me, no matter how brilliant the idea you have while you’re drifting off, the best you can hope for if you don’t write it down is a vague recollection in the morning.

And remember how a couple of weeks ago I posted the beginning of my first (as yet unfinished) NaNo novel? Well now I keep getting ideas for it, too. And I mean good ideas. I have to keep fighting the urge to pull it out of mothballs and have at it again.

I have six or eight different versions of it on the go, but I keep thinking I could take what I’ve learned over the past 12 or 14 years and start it from scratch, making it into the novel it was meant to be.

But no, I’m supposed to be working on Knightsong. Never mind that I only have a vague notion of where it’s going, it’s the one I’m going to take with me to the writing retreat. I need to focus on getting this one finished first.

Shouldn’t I?

On the other hand, if Driving Into Forever is what my mind is set on, maybe I should just roll with it before my mind says, “Fine, if you’re not going to listen to me, let’s just stick to reading.” Knightsong is uncharted territory for me. Driving Into Forever is better thought out. AND I have a sequel to it waiting for the first book to be done, plus ideas for two more.

*sigh*

Sometimes I really hate the way my brain works.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:
Blog Posts – 672+369+362+486=1,889
Total = 1889

I’m down about 1,400 words from last week’s total which is especially disappointing because the only words I wrote were on blog posts – no fictional words at all. I may have added a few words to Blood Ties whilst editing, but not enough to take note of and they were probably balanced by the number I deleted.

Editing:
6 hours on Blood Ties. Looks like I’m picking up speed. About time, isn’t it?

Publishing:
None. And I still haven’t heard back about the last story I sent out.

What I’m Reading:
Once again, this is where most of my time went. And I fully admit that it involved a couple of late nights where I read until my eyes burned.

I finished the Chosen. by J.R. Ward and went on to read Blood Fury, the Thief, Prisoner of Night and the Savior. Now I’m currently reading Blood Truth. I really have to slow down (and you can see how that went last week) because I only have three books to go before I have to wait for the one still on order to be delivered, then there’s only one left until I’m done. The next one comes out in April, but sorry/not sorry I’m not buying it in hardback, I’ll wait until it’s available in paperback, thankyouverymuch. And if I can’t extract myself from the BDB universe while I wait, I might just have to go back and start the series from book one again.

Goals

Last week’s goals were again pretty much a bust. No words on anything except blog posts, no outlining, no organizing. I did get some editing done on Blood Ties at least, so there’s that.

My goal for this week is to stop messing around and get myself back on track. Sooner or later I’m going to be out of books to read and then where will I be? So. On that note, I want to:
1. Spend more time in my office and less on the couch.
2. Keep up the edits on Blood Ties.
3. Limit my reading time.

Baby steps perhaps, but hopefully steps in the right direction

Binging is Not Just For Netflix

There comes a time when you have to face the truth, and my truth is that I can no longer blame the weather and/or the pandemic for my lack of progress. Now I can blame J.R. Ward. LOL

Okay, not really. If I hadn’t fallen behind in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series to begin with, I wouldn’t be feeling the urge to binge read to catch up now. It’s kind of reminiscent of my binge reading last year, isn’t it?

As you may recall, last year I started out on the Argeneau Vampire series by Lynsay Sands, and when I ran out of them I went on a Nora Roberts binge. Wow she’s written a lot of books, and thanks to shopping on Indigo online, I now own most of them. In trade sized paperback no less.

It took me until about August before my interest in Nora’s books began to wane (she does write a nice variety so they’re not all the same). In fact, I still have a few unread ones in my stack. Then I went on a Charles de Lint kick, re-reading most of my collection of his books, with several Alice Hoffman books thrown in at random. FYI Magic Lessons is so much better than Practical Magic, which I probably would have enjoyed more if I hadn’t seen the movie first.

I’ve got eight more books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series to go, and after that it’s anyone’s guess what I’ll be binging on. Maybe Katie MacAlister – I have most of both her vampire series and her dragon series.

Most people prefer to binge watching television or videos, but with me it’s books. That’s not to say I haven’t done my fair share of binge watching Stranger Things, or Game of Thrones, or disaster movies, but nothing makes me happier than a stack of books and uninterrupted time to read them.

What about you? Binge watching or binge reading?

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:
Blood Ties – 620
Blog Posts – 616+408+693+988=2,695
Total = 3315

When you see the numbers for the blog posts, you might be fooled into thinking I made most of my “write 500 words a day” goal from last week. But although in the one sense it’s nice to see some actual numbers, I actually meant new fictional words, so only the words on Blood Ties count.

And alas I did no freewriting last week because I was too busy reading.

Editing:
2 hours and 35 minutes on Blood Ties

Publishing:
None

What I’m Reading:
Once again, this was my strong suit for the week. I didn’t get much further on the Kindle, but I really went to town on the tree books.

I finished the Shadows. by J.R. Ward (so sad!) and went on to read Blood Kiss, the Beast, and Blood Vow. Now I’m currently reading the Chosen and trying to go a little more slowly so I don’t spend the majority of my writing time reading instead.

Goals

Last week’s goals were kind of a bust. The daily words, editing, and reading should be a given if I’m seriously trying to get into a routine, so the only real goal was the submitting a story or poem for publishing, which I didn’t even really give a thought to.

Maybe I need to start smaller. Instead of four goals, I have just one, doable goal. Get an outline of some kind drawn up for Knightsong so I can start making some progress on it. This was the book beginning I was originally going to take to the Spring Thaw writer’s retreat in spring of 2020. The current date it’s been rescheduled for is October 2021 – it would be really nice to have the first draft finished by then, don’t you think?

Let’s get writing.

Pandemic Complaints

Well . . . so much for routines and progress and getting things done. Ontario, where I live, is on lockdown again. And not just any old lockdown, this time it’s super duper double lockdown with a state of emergency tacked on just for fun.

This pandemic is getting kind of annoying. And the people who haven’t been follow the rules, like all those out-of-towners from the hot zones that snuck into our town to do their Christmas shopping are really annoying.

I ‘d better stop there before this turns into a rant. You’re welcome. LOL

On top of the lockdown, the weather has been unrelentingly grey and dismal. My solar batteries are completely depleted and according to the long-range forecast, I can’t expect a recharge any time soon. So I’ve got a double whammy I’m having to deal with.

But at least I’m not living in the U.S. where they have the Trumpocalypse to deal with too. So I guess there’s that little bright spot.

All of this is a rather long-winded way of saying I didn’t get a whole lot done last week. It’s a small comfort to know I’m not alone in this. Several of the writing blogs I follow haven’t been updated in a while, and many of the ones that have are variations on a theme – inspiration is at a low ebb these days.

But I’m not without hope. At least I’ve been getting my blog posts done (eventually), and seeing as shockwave is no longer supported, half the mindless games I used to play are gone. There may be hope for me yet. LOL

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Wordage Report

New Words:
None, unless you count the ones I added to Blood Ties during editing, but I didn’t keep track of what I’ve added/deleted.

I did do a couple of the 3-minute freewrites but kept forgetting about it.

Editing:
I did do some editing done on Blood Ties last week, but a little less than 2 hours.

Publishing:
I picked out a story to spiff up, and I’ve even figured out where to send it, but that’s as far as I got.

What I’m Reading:
This is the one thing I did well on. I finished book one of Shifter Shenanigans by Shelley Munro on my Kindle, and I’ve started book two. By rights I should have finished that one as well, but like I’ve said I usually read the ebooks on while on the exercise bike and well, you can figure that one out for yourself.

I received about 5 more of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books by J. R. Ward that I ordered from Indigo (before they gave me a 20% off coupon code), so I think I need to start reading a little faster – these are big books. I finished the King and I’m about halfway through the next one, the Shadows.

Goals

Yeah, I know I said last week I wasn’t going to do the goals thing, but I’m thinking maybe it might help me stay focused – I’d really have to report a complete failure at the end of the week. So, here are my goals for next week:

1. 500 words a day.
2. Editing for 1 hour a day.
3. Prepare and submit 1 story or poem.
4. Read for 1 hour a day.

I think that’s a pretty good start, and I can adjust it weekly.

And Away We Go . . .

I’m still messing around with a routine, trying to find something that works. I’m sure it would help if I spent more time in my office and less time on the couch playing online solitaire or Text Twist, but it is what it is. I’ll get there eventually.

You’re going to notice a bit of difference to the format of my weekly update. Seeing as the goals I’ve set myself for the year are pretty much ongoing, I thought I’d use them as the headers for my report – sort of.

Instead of “write more” I’ll keep “new words” from my old wordage report. This is where I’ll discuss the progress I’m making on my various projects, like Knightsong (which had no progress at all this week, other than an idea I jotted down in the dead of night).

Seeing as editing is going to play a big part of my goals for the year, it’s getting its own heading. This is where I’ll report on my progress (or lack thereof). Having to be accountable for my actions might be the incentive I need to be . . . active in this area.

I’ll also have a heading for publishing, and by publishing I mostly mean what I’m submitting and whether it’s accepted or rejected. Maybe I'll even get to brag at bit. But I also hope at some point to be able to announce Blood Ties is available.

And finally, I’m going to share what I’m reading. Once upon a time, on a different blog, I talked about what I was reading, and gave little reports on the books. This lead to people offering me free books, most of which I wasn’t interested in. Let me make this clear. I am NOT going to be reviewing books. I’ll tell you the name of the book, who wrote it, and just a general “I like it enough to read it to the end” or “it’s not my cup of tea so I switched to something else.”

We’ll try this new format for the month at least and see how it goes. And if it doesn’t feel right, or becomes too tedious, then I guess I’ll have to revisit it again.

Oh, and like I said at the beginning, the goals are kind of an ongoing thing, so I’m not going to bother setting any weekly ones. It seems a little redundant.

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Wordage Report

New Words:
The first part of the week I wrote a 4500 word letter to my sister and updated my journals. Not exactly a great start to fulfilling my goals, but words are words, right? Then I found a market I wanted to try and I took an exercise from the Speculative Fiction course I took a couple of years ago and tried to turn it into a light and fluffy flash story.

It turned out okay, but it didn’t have a lot of substance. But in doing some research for it I came up with a much darker idea and ran with it. I really liked the way the new story turned out, all 850 words of it.

Despite all of my good intentions, I only did the three-minute freewritng twice last week. In the grand scheme of things, three minutes isn’t that long and I actually had fun doing them, so hopefully I’ll do more of them this week.

Editing:
Be still my heart I actually got some editing done on Blood Ties last week. According the TraxTime, the nifty little program I downloaded to keep track of how much time I spend on various projects, I spent 2 hours and 17 minutes. Not as much as I’d like, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

Publishing:
The story I submitted before Christmas was rejected, which didn’t surprise me at all. The story was good, but the timing was at fault. It was about the side effects of the cure for a pandemic virus – not something anyone’s going to want to read currently.

Not to be discouraged, I submitted the flash piece I just finished to an online magazine that had a limited window for submission. I should hear back from them by the end of the month.

What I’m Reading:
After an extended hiatus, I’m back on the bike which means my poor neglected Kindle is seeing some action again. This week it’s Shifter Shenanigans by Shelley Munro. It’s a three book set and so far I’ve only finished the first one, which was about a panther shifter, and I’m really enjoying it.

As for tree books, I’ve ventured back into the realm of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, a series by J.R. Ward. I read the first 11 books before moving on to other things, but kept buying them as they were published so I was able to pick up where I left off. Right now I’m halfway through the King and while I’m liking what I’m reading, I’m also struggling to remember events from the previous books to keep things in perspective.

In With the New

As I mentioned last week, I did not start out last year with a set of goals. Now I’m not saying this is what caused the pandemic or anything, but I’m pretty sure it was at least in part the reason why it took me so long to get into the writing swing of things.

So this time, as 2020 started running down, I started thinking more and more about what I wanted from the year ahead. I made lists, and came up with five main goals, and sub-lists of ways to achieve these goals. This is what I came up with:

1. Write More

Kind of self-explanatory. I did a lot of weekly prompt stories last year, but it was a struggle and it didn’t leave anything left for other writing, which is why it took so long to finish Blood Ties. But when I did finally get going on Blood Ties, I really enjoyed myself. So much so that I went ahead with NaNo.

Once upon a different blog, I had links to two very cool writing exercise prompts. The first was One Word, which would generate a single word and give you one minute to write something based on that word. The second was Write Every Day, which would give you a sentence and five minutes to write. Alas, these wonderful writing aids are gone now, but I did a search and found a random word generator that generates as many words as you like. I’m going to set it for three, and give myself three minutes to free-write on a daily basis.

I will also (hopefully) work on Knightsong to get the first draft finished by the end of the year.

2. Edit More

Believe it or not, I actually enjoy editing. Just not my own stuff. LOL

First up is Blood Ties. I’ve already started this and it’s going well. I want to keep up the momentum and finish ASAP.

Next will be An Elemental Spirit. The draft was done for last year’s NaNoWriMo and I haven’t touched it since. It needs a lot of re-writing and I’d like to see that finished by year’s end.

In between novels is my ever-increasing collection of flash fiction that needs to be polished up.

3. Publish More

It should go without saying that I’d like to see Blood Ties released into the wild before the year is over.

I’m also planning on submitting a story or poem for publication on a weekly basis. There’s no point in writing all this stuff and not doing anything with it.

4. Learn More

I’ve collected a lot of information on writing techniques over the years, but mostly I’ve just put it all in folders on my lap top to look at “later.” Well, later never seems to come so I’m going to start going through this pile of information and maybe even take notes.

I also want to take a couple of classes. I really enjoyed the Speculative Fiction classes I took a few years ago – they were both fun and informative. Of course with the pandemic and all these classes will have to be online, but that’s fine by me.

5. Find A Balance

Woman cannot live by writing (and editing) alone, she also needs to read. And I don’t mean the reading binge I was on for the first half of last year, more like an hour or two a day.

I also need to carve out time for my crafts – it’s either that or get rid of my copious amount of craft supplies and I’m not ready for that. I’m also still a member of the Northumberland Stitchery Guild, and when we start meeting up again I don’t want to show up with an empty work bag.

And spending so much time at all these things that are done sitting down, I need to get off my butt once in a while and get some exercise. It might help if I snacked less too.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

So those are my goals for 2021 and how I’m hoping to achieve them. There are some things I’d like to do every day – the three word prompt, editing, reading, and exercising. The rest will take some juggling until I find a workable system.

But I think as goals go this is doable. Only time will tell how doable they are.

Out With the Old

This is the post where normally I recap the goals I set myself at the beginning of the year and confess how well I did/didn’t do keeping them. It’s kind of a nice way to round out the year.

The problem is, I didn’t set any goals at the beginning of last year. Maybe I was in a bad head space, or maybe I had a premonition of the way the year was going to turn on us, but even in my writing journal I set no goals for the year ahead.

There was a lot of awful stuff that happened in 2020. First and foremost, of course, was the COVID-19 pandemic. What started out much the same as the Spanish Flu, or SARS, quickly morphed into something much more dangerous and widespread. If you haven’t Stephen King’s The Stand, you might want to.

The pandemic led to panic shopping and stock piling and widespread lock downs. Even those of us who don’t like venturing out overmuch felt the effects of self-isolation. Businesses that weren’t able to adapt to an on-line presence floundered. The stock market dipped. Schools were closed and people were advised to work from home whenever possible. It became a whole new world.

People came up with a variety of ways to cope with the new order – some thrived while others wilted. Myself, I started out the year by diving into books. I started out re-reading the entire Argeneau Vampire series by Lynsay Sands (30 volumes), and then got into Nora Roberts, followed by Charles de Lint and Alice Hoffman (among others).

According to Indigo I bought over 90 books throughout the year – and that was just online, never mind in-store. No wonder my bookcases are overflowing. And I have no idea how many books I downloaded from Amazon, but my Kindle is having problems updating.

The ironic part about having no goals for 2020 is that it turned out to be a pretty good year for me writing-wise. I got my fiction stories organized. I finish writing Blood Ties (formerly Wandering Wizards). I polished and sent off a story (which I haven’t heard back about, but no news is good news, right?). I completed another NaNo challenge. Sure, the book’s a hot mess, but I got my 50,000 words in. I created an anthology of flash fiction and figured out how to bind it myself.

So yeah. If I had a set of scales that I could weigh the good against the bad for this past year, I’d have to say it wasn’t that bad a year.

It gives me hope for the year ahead.

Floundering

With NaNo well behind me and the book flood anthology done, I find I’m floundering around trying to get my feet under me again. And while I did manage to get all my blog posts done, I got none of my other weekly goals done.

Furthermore, I probably won’t get any done this week either. In case you haven’t noticed, Christmas is upon us. I spent two days shopping, one day wrapping, and found a good dozen typos in my book flood anthology. You know, the books I sent out to my family on Monday. *sigh*

So today I’m taking the easy way out and posting a few of my favourite Christmas songs instead of an actual post. Merry Christmas everyone!

12 Pains of Christmas


I Am Santa Claus


Imperial March/Carol of the Bells


TSO – Christmas Eve in Sarajevo

Après NaNo

This is the current state of my office. Some of the clutter is Christmas presents, but most of it is detritus from the kitchen/dining room because of the renovation and there’s just no place else for it. But perhaps you can see how uninspiring it is to work in there right now.

As usually happens when NaNo is done, my writing mojo has taken a nose dive. I finished NaNo with a thousand words to spare and since then I have marked up a story, twice, and wrote my weekly blog posts.

What have I been doing instead? Playing a lot of solitaire on the computer, sometimes a game or two of Text Twist, or hidden objects thrown in for variety. In other words, I was pretty much a couch potato last week.

Which is fine once in awhile, but for the long term it’s pretty unproductive. Of course it didn’t help that the weather was pretty grey and dismal, which is depressing at the best of times. So this week the focus will be getting back on track. I even have a nice long list of things to do when the writing isn’t going well.

If you can see my progress bars on the right hand side of the page, you’ll notice that I have a new goal for Firestorm. I figure it’s going to be at least 100,000 words before it’s done, and it’s going to require a fair bit of planning.

I think I mentioned at the beginning of November that Firestorm is the prequel to a couple of swords and sorcery stories I attempted many moons ago. Well, the problem was, I didn’t have a clear idea of the path the book should take. I knew my character, and I had a nice little synopsis of his life, but I was real sketchy on the details.

Then we come to the two stories. They’re actually very similar to each other and I was hoping to incorporate events from one, or the other, or both into Firestorm, but the Brand in Firestorm is very different from the Brand in the two stories. Which has led me a whole lot of floundering as I try to get him to where he needs to be to continue the novel.

Meanwhile, I bought myself a coil binder so I can do my own binding for my book flood anthologies from now on. Even if I only use it once a year, in five years it’ll have paid for itself. Now all I have to do is get the stories organized.

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Wordage Report

Yeah. No real words to report for last week. Shame on me. But I really don’t want to lose my momentum on Firestorm, so I’m going to set myself a daily goal.

Goals From Last Week

1. Finish NaNo – I definitely did, and I have the certificate to prove it.
2. Organize book flood stories – that would be a big fail.
3. Blog posts – done, and on time.
4. Editing story for submission – edited it twice but I’m still not happy with it.

Goals For This Week

1. 500 words a day on Firestorm.
2. Finish editing story and submit.
3. Finalize stories for book flood anthology.
4. Learn to use coil binder.