Month: January 2020

Life, Thinking, Writing

Fiction or Genre Fiction?

1972italy

This morning I am trying the floor because the balancing act just wasn’t working.  I did get a lot done yesterday.  Dishes, cleaned the kitchen,  made treats, took back bottles and cans.  I read a lot further on one of my review books.  It’s actually turning out quite good.  Now I will just need to do it justice with my review.  I feel the need to go back over reviewing because I don’t like how I’m doing it now.  I need a more… not serious tone but I need to write like I know what I’m talking about, not just giving you my opinion.  Right now I feel that I sound like a friend recommending a book instead of a professional.  I need to find my professional tone again.

This hot coffee feels really good on my quickly turning raw throat.  I pretty much slept through the night.  And still need more.  The dreams were pretty awesome (I remember dragons in some… they were actually the main characters) but when I woke up I am sick enough I just wanted to fall right back to sleep.  I don’t seem to have anything at work today so I can use that time to finish read the review book and then see about cranking out the review.  I’ve got a few notes already jotted down.  With the twists and turns of the story I thinki I might be able to have fun with the review if I do it right.

I didn’t do much with the work in progress.  I am trying to think of a situation to put her in. And it’s tough because I’m still unsure as to whether or not I’m going to do straight or genre. It’s a rough call. I’m reviewing genre so if I do straight fiction is it going to be hard to get into the right headspace to write straight fiction? I don’t know.

And nuts! I have gone over in my time and need to fly! Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

Life

Keeping It Moving

1972italy

This morning I am precariously balanced on top of an old wooden fishing tackle box to type this.  Facing the sliding glass window.  Why? you may ask.  Well, when Chris put laundry into the dryer yesterday while I was at work he didn’t think about the possibility of it beeping and of Moose.  So when he went to sit at the living room table with his food the dryer beeped and Moose freaked out and did his best to shove himself under the table where Chris was trying to sit.  So everything went flying.  The table is broken but fixable.  Chris was kind enough to make sure that all my books were cleaned off and stacked in my office.  The table is now propped in front of the front door so I can look for some glue and screws to fix it.  No one is mad at Moose.  Poor guy.  Nothing was boken but the table.

I barely made it through work yesterday.  But I did.  I wasn’t even able to read due to the pain but there it is.  I am grateful it is gone today.  I am still sick though.  Before I can hunker down I still need to clean the kitchen, swap dishes out in the dishwasher and make puppy treats.  Chris offered to do the kitchen for me but since I am making treats I am going to have to do all that anyway.

I did pull out my copy of I Surf, Therefore I Am by Peter Kreeft and read some more last night. I may try to read in between batches of treats. It is very good and is giving me more insight into my character. I take notes on her as I go through the pages. I want to do my review book too today. I am just getting into the story. It is odd but compelling. It should be a decent read all in all.

Instead on listing all I need to do I had better get to it. Thank you for the well wishes! And as always thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!

Life

Sick

1972italy

It was too good to last.  I finally have Chris’s cold.  I am feeling miserable.  And Mother Nature has chimed in as well so I have been hit hard by cramps.  I only have one person coming to the lot today.  That will be a big blessing.  Moose doesn’t feel good either.  His tummy has been gurgling all morning.  I did get him to eat breakfast.  Please just get me through this day!

I hurt.  A lot.  So this will be a short one.  I spent last night curled up in a ball on my side.  I found a gardening event in May that Mom and I are going to try to go to and do a Girls’ Day.  I hope we can!  I miss working out in the gardens.  Sorry, I can’t focus except on the pain.  I suppose that is my cue to wrap this up.  Thanks for taking the time to read this.  I hope you have a great day!

Creativity, Dogs, Learning, Life, Writing

Writing Forward

1972italy

I don’t know if taking a day off from writing was a good idea or not. I ended up with only two hours of sleep Sunday night so I was more tired than anything else. Then finding that someone had been messing around on the lot over the weekend did not help.

I truthfully got no writing done other than a bit of journaling. I had the focus of a small gnat. I did read a little but of my surf poetry book that I got. Not too bad.

I have a meeting this morning and two sick pups. Neither Essie nor Moose would eat breakfast. Essie is lethargic and Moose is pack. He keeps watching me. He sits up, he lays down, he paces, he sits, he lays down. He seems to have settled on the couch next to Stella. He went outside but Essie did not. I have no idea what is wrong.

I have no idea what kind of writing I will get done today. I do know that I will get some done. My character in progress is difficult because I am consciously trying to make her different than myself. Part of my problem has been I haven’t been seeing things through any characters eyes but my own. I am hoping that by making a conscious effort to create a character different from myself and getting to know her I will knock a bigger hole in the creativity wall and be able to write again.

I have run out of time if I am to get tot the meeting on time. Thanks for reading! I hope you have a great day!

Life

A Rest Day

1972italy

Well yesterday I did no writing.  It was a day off.  So I will let you know how that helped (if it did) tomorrow.  The dogs got a good two hour or more play time once Chris got up yesterday .  Even Moose was playing with both of us (he usually just plays with me).  You’d think that would tire them out.  Nope.  If it looked like someone was going to play then by jove everyone was ready to go.  Just in case.  But the kids were happy.

I spent most of the afternoon reading one of my Christmas presents “Imaginary Friend” by Stephen Chbosky. Over 700 pages of small print.  I am roughly halfway through the book.  I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I am.  I’m not a fan of kids in books.  There are a few exceptions and this will be one of them.

I am not sure what work will hold for me.  Nothing is scheduled to go out (there are only two vehicles in the lot anyway) so I may just be cooling my heels.  And I am fine with that.  I have a meeting tomorrow morning at 10am instead of 7pm so that will get me up and going.  I also promised that I would submit the article asap tomorrow instead of waiting until Wednesday morning.  The paper has gone with a new printer so submission times have changed.

The clock tells me I need to get it together so I can get out the door for work.  Thanks for reading!  I hope you have a great day!

Dogs, Emotions, Life, Thinking

The Blahs

1972italy

It is a dark morning.  Outside is a slate grey sky.  Looks like snow might be falling.  I’m just not feeling it today.  What I am feeling is hot/cold/hot/cold to an annoying degree (pardon the pun).  A lot of the snow we got melted but there is still enough here to be irritating.

The kids are all sleeping while keeping an eye on me to see when I stop on here so they can swarm to get lovins like little piranha, lol.  I did get my research books yesterday and they were all that I had hoped.  I even read to the kids in bed last night.  I did a bit more on my review books and on my project.  I even made a roast for dinner.  It turned out pretty good all in all.  I tried something different with it and it worked but didn’t.  It’s hard to explain.

Essie is standing over my left shoulder giving me the eye when I’m not looking.  When I am looking she is staring out the window.

I just lost a whole paragraph because the web site did not save when it said it had. That makes me very angry. So I will wrap this up on my phone. I hope you all have a great day! Thanks for reading!

Books, Dogs, Life, Thinking, Writing

Writing and More Writing (Woohoo!)

1972italy

My poor boy is sick.  Breakfast came back up in three rounds poor guy.  He is currently beside me on the floor trying to sleep.  He seems very restless.  it took him forever and a lot of scratching to finally get him to settle where he is.  And if I stop petting he wakes up and looks pathetic.  Guess I am typing one handed.

I am having one of my favorite flavored coffees this morning.  I treated myself to a box of 12 Kcups yesterday.  (Oh geez.  He tried to get behind my on to the loveseat but Stella would not move over.  He is trying to sleep on the couch.)   My two highly anticipated research books arrive today in the mail.  I am sooooo excited!  The books are a major part of who my character is and I am going great guns on her.  A story is slowly developing.  Honestly I’m not sure what genre I will be writing in.  This may be a straight fiction piece. (Gods that coffee tastes wonderful!)  I am going to wait and see.  With some of the subject matter I am using it feels like a straight fiction piece.  But something could develop along the way to change that.  I am really excited about this project.  Everyone is bugging me to find out more but I can’t give too much or I will lose it all. I don’t plan to lose this piece.

I am very grateful to have no plans for today. I am going to alternate between reviewing and the Project. (I like that with the capital p.) I have been researching stuff about my main character. I have where she lives, what she drives (and why), what she does (and why). It is very satisfying to watch her come together into a fully formed character. The two books I am getting today are a big chunk of her background and who she is.

Before I start waxing prosaic I’d better sign off and put some of those words to use elsewhere while they are flowing. Thanks for reading! Cheers!

Dogs, Emotions, Life

Dryer Debacles

1972italy

I officially HATE our dryer.  We have been going along fine until the past two days.  Over the past two days I have had to comfort a freaked out Moose because of the random dinging noise it makes.  Four hours it took before he started to calm down and part of that was because I gave him some anxiety medicine.

There is no reason it should be making any noises.  There is also no way to reset anything to make it stop.  Turning it on and off doesn’t help.  Nor does unplugging it.  And it will sometimes start as soon as the dryer does.  Other times it might get half way thru the dry or maybe 15 minutes thru.  Or maybe nothing at all.  It hasn’t made the noises for a few months now it can’t seem to stop.

Because Moose gets so bad I am going to make sure everything is washed here and then I will take things to the laundry mat at the end of the road and dry the stuff there.  He can’t be stressed that hard for that long.  That is NOT healthy for him.  And Essie is beginning to react becasue Moose is affected so badly.

So there we are.  I did get a few reviews worked on yesterday but not much with everytything that got done.  Aaaaannnnd I gotta get to work!  Yikes!  Thanks for reading!  Cheers!

Creativity, Dogs, Life, Writing

The Best Laid Plans…

1972italy

This is late.  Have you ever woken up in the morning and your mind has gotten enough sleep and is ready to go but your body is exhausted and just can’t seem to wake up?  That was me this morning.  I don’t feel much better now.  I still need to take my propane tank in to get it filled yet.

The day has dawned snowy.  It looks like someone has taken their salt shaker and is shaking it for all it’s worth out there.  It’s the very fine snow but there is a lot of it.  The birds are still digging to find all the seed I put out there a few days ago.  You can hear the occasional blue bird squawk as they land an rummage through the snow.

Moose keeps watching me.  Everytime I stop he gets down off the couch and comes and sits by me.  I give him some love then tell him I’m not done yet.  So he gives me the look and goes back to the couch to lay down and watch me some more.  Poor guy had big trauma last night.  Since Chris is feeling better I washed the bedding.  I put the first load in the dryer and it started to do the random beeping.  Hasn’t beeped for months.  No reason for it.  Filter has been cleaned etc.  It continues to randomly beep for the next 30 minutes.  Which means I am on the floor with a shaking and panting Moose.  I have no idea why he is so scared of that noise but he is.  And I had three loads of laundry to put through… some more than once.  But my brave boy, each time I went into the utility room he was right there with me to make sure I would be ok with that nasty dryer.

Yesterday at work did not go as planned either. Instead of two cars going out I ended up with six going out. Not much down time. And what down time I did have I was busy warming back up before the next transporter arrived. Sooooo I think once the kids and I get back from filling the propane tank I will just hunker in and do my thing. I have review books, reviews and my project to work on. I was bad Monday and got two research books for my new project. They will get here Saturday. I am honestly excited because this is something I have always longed to get involved in… surfing. My main character is a surfer. I’m not fining to give away more than that. She is a special surfer though. Hence more research.

Oh fudge. I just remembered I need to clean the mouse cage too. That was on my to do list for yesterday but things did not go as planned. Nuts. I hate doing the mouse cage. Well I guess I’d better end this and get to it. I’ll do that then go get the propane. Sigh. I’d rather just stay home. Oh well.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a great day!

Books, Creativity, Dogs, Life, Writing

Figuring Out What to Do Next

1972italy

Well yesterday was a bust for actual writing.  I did take some notes on a review books and sat and thought about the characters in the new project.  Part of it was I let myself get distracted by the kids (we holed up in my office for a good portion of the morning and they were soooooo cute… I have too many photos to prove it!).  The other part was Chris is getting over being sick and I was trying to keep him taken care of.

I had a last minute (for me) meeting last night.  I wrote the article this morning (before I did this as a mater of fact).  I have two vehicles going out today.  Hopefully the lot got plowed yesterday like it was supposed to.  Otherwise neither vehicle is going anywhere.  I need to either focus on another review book or write the review for the one I just finished and get it submitted.  Preferably both.  But I will probably spend time mind doodling on my current project.  Not that it is a bad thing but that isn’t paying bills right now.

I suppose I ought to get myself together for work.  Sorry this is so short.  I hope you have a great day!  Thanks for reading!