Tag: writing

The Friday Report

So, I woke up at 5:45, and my neck was swollen and sore again and I addressed the universe in a disrespectful manner. Then I took the Command Decision to FTS, got up, got dressed, made a cup and a thermos of tea, took that and a KIND breakfast bar back to Steve’s office, woke up his computer and got to work.

I broke for lunch around noon, having written about 800 words — lunch being a chef’s salad from the deli. I ate a little more than half with a serving of soup I’d had in the freezer. Tomorrow, I’ll put what’s left — some meat, cheese, tomato and onions — into scrambled eggs for breakfast, so that’s ONE meal figured out for tomorrow.

Returned to Steve’s office after lunch and wrote some more. Got tired eventually and quit for the day. Did my duty to the cats. Waiting for the mail to arrive so I can bring in the package that’s supposed to be included before the ink freezes, then take a shower and probably collapse.

I should report that I feel somewhat better than I did when I woke up. I did take the combined Motrin, and if the kind of pain I woke up with this morning is what it’s keeping at bay — all honor to it. Also used hot compresses on my neck.

The cats have been hanging in all day, which was! Cloudy and warm. Snow is melting, or at least compacting. I’m really glad I asked the Magnificent Plowguy to sand the driveway. HUGE improvement.

Finished watching The Apothecary Diaries last night. My *goodness*, that was some tight storytelling! Well done, writers.

I can now cancel Crunchyroll. I do, yes, realize, that there’s a ton of anime offered there, but the chances of my stumbling upon anything actually worth watching are, um, low. If anybody had a rec that’s worth keeping Crunchyroll around for — by all means speak. My taste, apparently, runs to stuff like AD. Back in the day I liked Fruit Baskets and … the one with the duck — ah. Princess Tutu. Writing Anime. If that’s not a subgenre, it ought to be.

And the mail’s in! And Rook is chasing Tali around my office because it’s all her fault. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know what “it” is.

Writing stats: New words written (I think not all of these today, but honestly, what do I know?): +/-2,190. Total words in WIP: +/-124,117.

And that’s the beans.

How’s everybody holding up?

Earlier today.  Firefly had ennui.

It’s plain to see we’re over

Wrote about 1,000 words so far. Taking a break to do PT homework, and to open the door so the FedEx guy could put the cat litter in the vestibule for me, and to come to terms with a couple of hard truths.

Hard truth number 1 — I’m not going to be able to give stained glass the attention it deserves. I want to do it, but — writing first, and cats, and PT, and having to sleep — and I don’t have time to embrace another art as it deserves. I hate this, but here we are. I still intend to finish my second piece, but I think I won’t be going forward.

Damn.

Second hard truth — I’m really glad I had two other people read the results of my MRIs and talk to me about what they mean, because I just got a note from my doctor saying that the results are “unremarkable.” Now, the results are not epically bad, and if I keep at the PT, I can probably get to a place where my back will be stronger and less likely to kick out (though it occurred to me last night that I still need some kind of drug intervention on hand for if/when it does), but the tone of this thing is “It’s all in your head,” which, when I was a kid and having a hard time figuring out what was this “real” people kept talking about, was devastating. I’d gotten it wrong again, and mixed up Story Stuff and Real Life Stuff.

My skill level on that front is much better 60-odd years down the road, and now? I’m mad. No, it is not in my head. Yes, it is remarkable because if I don’t do something now, it will get worse. Jeebus, do I gotta explain this stuff to a doctor?

Also, there’s a bill from the practice, which, yeah, I really feel like paying.

What else? Oh. I brought my boom box up from the studio and rigged it up with an extra set of Steve’s high-end Bose speakers, and now I can listen to CDs from our own collection in the living room in the evening when the cats and I retire to read, and I’m not dependent on Sirius or Maine Public playing exactly what I want to hear.

Speaking of which — this morning I heard something interesting on Sirius XM (thank you, Tommy London). Once Upon a Time, there was a band called Damn Yankees, which was a pretty good band — Ted Nugent, Tommy Shaw, Jack Blades, and Michael Cartellone — that put out two pretty good albums. And, as they were on their way, literally, to the studio to get album number three in the can, they were contacted by their agent. Their label was offering them a million bucks not to make the album.

They took the money, and the band . . . disbanded.

Now, I have no idea what discussions ensued before they made their decision, but, my ghod, what a decision to have to make. And I can see that one consideration would be that, if the label wanted to get rid of them to the tune of a cool mil, if they didn‘t take the money, it was likely the third album would never be promoted and the band would still have to disband — and be broke, too.

Well.

Time for PT homework. I may send out for Chinese for lunch. Or not. I have leftover curry. Speaking of decisions…
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I’m always pleased when Steve joins me for my walk. Today I was offered the insight that the thing which has blocked my finishing of my second piece of stained glass isn’t a lack of time — when I was cutting pieces out, I’d go to the studio for an hour in between writing this or that and cut glass — but lack of a tool, which also comes down to a lack of time. I don’t have a grinder, and I therefore need to rent a studio and drive out for what amounts to a day to grind my pieces.

If I had a grinder in-house, I could just keep on with my hour of Art While I Think.

So, now what I need to ask is: Am I committed enough to this new art to purchase a grinder?

Whole different question.

And? Collaboration in action.
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So that’s a total of 1,841 words on the day, bringing the WIP to 121,060ish. The scene I wrote today may be too long, but I liked the character. And of course the minute I got up, I thought of two other things that need to happen in that scene, so! I printed it out to read tomorrow morning while I’m in the comfy chair with the sunlamp.

I’m thinking this weekend is divesting myself of Christmas. The wreath is kinda bleeding needles, and the cats are not fans.

I had leftover curry for lunch, and by virtue of adding leftover peas and rice, and throwing in some onions and some green pepper, there’s still curry left over, though I’ll probably give it a break tomorrow.

And that? Is all I’ve got.

Everybody stay safe and have a good evening.

I’ll look in tomorrow.

Today’s blog post title brought to you by Deep Blue Something, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”

Oh, no, wait! That’s not all I’ve got. Here, have a picture of Rookie.

Thursday. . .

The Long Back Yard

So. Thursday. Grey and on-and-off snow showers. Yes, that means I now have a icy driveway with a coating of snow.

I went to bed more or less at my regular time, and got up more or less at my regular time. Tali came to keep me company while I sat with the Happy Lite, and after breakfast, all three of the cats hustled me back to Steve’s office, with three very high tails: Oh, Good! Mom’s gonna work!

Breakfast was — all together now! — oatmeal with peanut butter and chocolate chips (Note to self: get more peanut/almond butter). Lunch was chicken in butter masala over rice with grapes on the side (Note to self: get more chicken breasts). Before anybody gets too excited the sauce came out of a jar, but I quick defrosted the chicken and browned it, so, yay! Cooking.

I had to name a ship and a Scout Archivist team, so I only wrote about 700 new words, though part of that was:

“Is that humor?”

Jen Sin thought for a moment. “Do you know? I’m not certain.”

Next up is putting away dishes, washing pots ‘n pans and writing some notes for the next section of Agent of Change. I’ll post a link when it’s up.

How’s everybody doing today?

Wrappin’ up

What Went Before: Tuesday

Total WIP +/-118,724. The cats were a great help.

I? Had forgotten there’s a Zoom business meeting this afternoon at 2, so I’d better get my chores done and my lunch et.

The driveway, as predicted is a sheet of ice. I’ve figured out that all I actually have to do is get inside the garage, so I can get in the car. I can stop on my way out (in the car) to needlework, to collect the mail, which is small snowy tramp. It’ll work. Ghod, I hate ice.

I did not try to take the trash or the recycling to the curb this morning, ref “ice” above. Maybe next week.

How’s everybody doing at midday on Tuesday?
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So, that was exciting. I was getting ready to leave for needlework and!

The garage door was frozen shut. By luck, I had been heating water for tea, and went out and poured the kettle along the inside the door and it opened. Sadly, I did not think of this before I had called my excellent plowguy to see if he had any ideas, and disturbed his evening, but I think I did catch him before he got on his way to my place with rock salt.

I went to needlework, and came back. The car is in the garage, but I don’t dare close the door because I have a PT appointment at 7:45 tomorrow morning.

This is why I hate ice. In addition to the whole sliding situation.

The coon cats have had happy hour and I have poured a glass of wine.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe.

I’ll check in tomorrow.
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Wednesday, sunny and cold.

Back from my early PT appointment, from which I have gained a lot more homework, which I’m supposed to do many times a day. I’m going to have to put a lot of thought into how I’m going to accomplish all this and, yanno, write, read, play, with the cats and all those other extraneous things I do. I obviously don’t want to be crippled with back pain, but I’m thinking there’s a middle ground here, and I need to find it.

After PT, I treated myself to breakfast at Governor’s where, I kid you not, one waitress was handling the whole room, and busing too, until somebody else came on shift. It wasn’t over-crowded, but it was busy enough, and this is where it pays to be a long-term employee in a business that thrives on regulars. She knew just about everybody, we all knew her, nobody was in a hurry or on their way to a Big Freakin’ Meetin’ or anything — and between us, we made it work.

I stopped by the Post Office, collected the mail, stopped by the crosstown Hannaford, which I’m going to have to visit more often, as they seem to have more of what I’m wanting than the one round the corner, and came home to get one of the bags of Emergency Ice Melt Steve had stashed in the back of the garage onto the sled. I opened it with my trusty shovel, then we all half-skated out to scatter melt-crystals over the driveway.

. . . I’m getting down to the bottom of things that Steve stashed away against need, which is a somewhat melancholy realization, along with the other melancholy realization that I’m going to have to be advertent regarding these things.

Ice melt disposed, I came inside, made myself a cup of hot chocolate and checked on the cats — who are all in Steve’s office, because That’s What We Do in the morning.

Excellent cats.

Today, is making 2026 files, which I didn’t have the oomph to do earlier, and setting up next year’s accounting. I have leftovers for lunch, and a good book to read when I’m done my chores.

How’s Wednesday at your place?

Wednesday morning cat census:

Rain, rain go away; come again in May

The Long Back Yard

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It’s being a rather difficult day. Went to bed late and unhappy; woke up about 4:30, still unhappy, whereupon the Coon Cats leapt into action — or at least, onto the bed. In less time than it takes to tell it, I had a cat on top of me, a cat to the right of me, and yes! a cat to the left of me. These guys know their job; I went right back to sleep, and didn’t wake until after 8.

It was very nice to sleep and wake up rested, but it has kinda thrown the whole day sideways.

I’ve done a little bit of writing, and will maybe do some more, later, if I don’t just decide to make a blanket fort and read. I did manage to call Dead River to find out when my next oil delivery is, because we’re coming up on another multi-day interruption in the Usual, and my oil tank is down to less than a quarter. It’s a big tank, but I don’t want to test exactly how big. The good news is that my next delivery is!

Tomorrow.

It’s looking some miserable out there in the Real World. There’s water pooled on my driveway, which will this evening become an ice rink, and it would just be better all around, if, once Winter was Declared, we just stuck to snow as our default precipitation.

Well.

I’ve done some writing, one round of PT homework, more or less decided what lunch will be, though I still need to turn on the oven. Still need to do my duty to the cats, which I guess I’ll do while the oven’s warming.

And then? We’ll see. Though honestly, that blanket fort is looking dern good.

How’s everybody doing today?

The cats agree with the blanket fort idea:

Apologies

Press of business yesterday meant that I forgot to update y’all on the ever-fascinating details of my life.  I now make amends.  Thank you for your patience.

What went before

SATURDAY
Wakened early by Tali cursing the universe and the gods who had fashioned it.

Got up to find Rookie in the hall with a mouthful of orange fur, and Tali sitting on the edge of the dining room table (yes, yes, where No Cat is allowed, and it’s possibly worth noting that Rook did not follow her up there, so at least somebody pays attention to the treaty). Firefly was squinched under the standup desk in my office.

So! I don’t know exactly what the disagreement was about. Possibly Tali told Rook he had a stinky butt — and if so, she was not wrong. So, we did some cat clean up, and then I took a shower to finish waking up and here we are.

Kettle’s on, and Happy Lite also.

And how’s your morning going?
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It says here that I’ve been playing Finch for 500 days.

. . .not sure how I feel about that, actually. . .
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Wrote about 800 words, WIP currently weighing in the vicinity of 115,790. Stopping to do PT homework, one’s duty the cats, and um. I should eat something. I guess. Maybe a piece of leftover ham onna leftover biscuit. That’s lunch, ain’t it?
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Do I look healthy to you?

Time to talk to the virtual-visit nurse.


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SUNDAY

The Long Back Yard


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Well. 2:30, hey?

I got Involved. Wrote +/-1,335 words, did some tinking of former words. The WIP entire now weighing in at +/-117,180. I think I have eight more scenes to write.

My Plan is to write those eight scenes, and then put out a call for Beta Readers. NOTE: This is not that call. I’ll tell you when.

In between new words, I bought myself some on-sale alpaca socks form a local alpaca farm, and did a couple loads of laundry. I really thought I’d done laundry last week, but — maybe not. Whatever.

The cats were with me all day — that would be from 8:15 am until just a couple minutes ago. In fact, they’re still in Steve’s office, because once you get a good sleeping place primed, you just don’t walk away from it.

Though it be late, I have dinner/lunch/whatever on the stove — leftover chicken in gravy, peas, and mashed potatoes. I may actually have a glass of wine with that, because I am done writing for the day. (Breakfast, for those keeping score was oatmeal with almond butter and chocolate chips mixed in. Yes, again. I’m as baffled as you are.)

What else? Oh. I’m doing an Author Event at the Waterville Library on February 21, so I may start giving some thought as to what I’ll be wanting to talk about. I will be reading from Diviner’s Bow, and taking questions, along with the talking.

So! How’s everybody doing this afternoon?

In which Adulting is Overrated

Sarah has taken her vacuum and gone off into the frigid sunny day. It is now mine to put the house back together and to get with my list of Adulting Tasks.

While Sarah was here, I tinkered with what I wrote yesterday, found it mostly good, and pasted those sections into the WIP, which now stands at!

A whopping 114,775 words.

I’d like to say that I’m in the home stretch now, but i may be deluding myself. I need to sit down and count scenes. But not right now.
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I have done All of The Adulting. I have typed “Sharon Lee and Steve Miller” so many times I feel like a high school girl decorating her notebooks with the name of That Boy She Likes.

I daresay there is still more adulting that will catch up with me next week. For instance, I’m not really quite sure how I’m to pay off this “loan” for the new doors. However! It’s interest-free until September, so I have Some Time to figure it out.

Funny story there. My contact at Andersen Windows wrote in answer to one of my questions, and added a PS: “It took me a minute, but I remember reading your books at my library when I was a kid. Thank you for being part of my childhood.”

And on that note, I am done for the day. I may — I plan! — to take refuge in the WIP tomorrow (except for 2:30 when I’m supposed to have a Zoom call with a visiting nurse? I wonder why. And also — is it a visit if it’s a Zoom call? Well. I’ll either find out or I won’t.)

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Oh. I am remiss in my reporting to Tali’s Fan Base.

Tali is still working on finding her Best Role in the house, but today, I think we had a breakthrough. Despite her dislike of having people type through her ears, she sat on my lap on two different occasions while I was doing the most stressful bits of Adulting.

Also, I had missed picking up a stuffed bunny this morning. In the course of her rounds, Sarah found it, and put it on the edge of the bed. I had occasion to sit down on the bed.  Tali jumped up to be with me, looked at the rabbit, judged it was infringing on her space, but, instead of knocking it brutally to the floor, she picked it up by the ear, carried it over to the other side of the bed and then came back to snuggle against my knee.

Yes, it was almost unbearably cute. And also much appreciated.

G’night.

Adulting

The Long Back Yard.

I got up early, convinced I’d be shoveling, because we didn’t have so much snow yesterday. But when I got up, the drive had been plowed and the steps cleared.
Best plowguy ever.

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Oh, let’s see — Friday?

I guess we’d better go with Friday. Sunny and colder’n . . . yeah. -4F-feels-like-minus-11F. That’ll do.

Breakfast was the left over half of the yam from yesterday’s lunch, fried, with a side of cottage cheese. Right now, I’m eating a chocolate chip cookie with my second cup of tea, because I Am An Adult. Lunch will be (some of) the now-defrosted chicken breasts and, oh, maybe stuffing. Because I Am An Adult.

Sarah is due in about half an hour.

Speaking of viewpoints — yes, yes, but bear with me. It’s a craft thing that really interests me. I live for the scenes in our own work where someone meets Miri or Val Con, or both of them, and gives the reader their conclusions drawn on what they think they’re seeing. It never gets old. (Oh. Or Shan. I Love It when people tell us about Shan.)

That said, on Wednesday, the New Yorker calendar served me up a cartoon of Santa speaking to a herd of reindeer, or possibly to the one in the foreground, with the big nose. And Santa is saying: “Remember! No matter how different you are, if you prove yourself useful, you can still earn the privilege of being forced to work with your bullies.”

I didn’t get it at first, because brain/morning/cats, but yanno? That retelling is genius. Genius.

And it also reminds me of something I heard on the internet not too long ago — paraphrasing here, “I have never wanted to trade lives with anyone who bullied me.”

So! Today is about doing Real Life Chores, which is a bore, but I need to cope. Because I Am An Adult.

Who else is Adulting today?

It’s been so long, eating and drinking and making merry

The Long Back Yard this morning.  Perhaps not obvious from the picture: It was snowing at the time.

OK. Thursday. Snowed about an inch this morning, just enough to freshen yesterday’s snow. Intermittently sunny — or cloudy, if you prefer it that way — at the moment.

Breakfast was eggs scrambled with spinach and onions and cheese, with a biscuit and strawberry jam on the side. Lunch…I may go back to my original plan of ham and yam, because I’m not sure those chicken breasts are thawed, actually.

Wrote about 930 words this morning, concluding a scene that I really like — Yes, this is going to be a book totally comprised of Scenes I Like. Rookie and Tali kept me company in the office, while Firefly is keeping a Very Close Eye on the bedroom.

I’m getting ready to start a loaf of bread to rise, after which it’s PT homework, one’s duty the cats, and lunch, one way or the other.

Hope everybody’s having a good day.
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Yanno? “Wonderful Christmastime?” Paul McCartney, celebrating all the lovely, lovely things that “Only happen at this time of Year” And I am Up To Here with that.

First of all — it’s a real dud on the lyrics, but so are most Christmas songs, so I guess I can’t take points off for that. But honestly? Aren’t we all supposed to be together and sharing joy and magic all the time?

Why, why does it only “happen at this time of year?” Why is it not a lifestyle choice? What is it about cruelty that is so attractive that it gets 363ish days while Joy, Magic, and Fellow Feeling only get 2ish, and only if we’ve spent enough money?

Yes, I do feel better now. And the bread’s in to rise.
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OK…The bread is really good. I had wanted a dense, seedy loaf and this one delivers. I cut it in half — one piece for the freezer and the other to eat now. Ahem. Over the course of the next couple days.

In between It All, I seem to have written 2,320 words today, which is … a lot, as we count words around here. On the other hand, as Jen Sin today observed to Miri, Traders talk A Lot. The WIP entire is somewhere around 113,480 total words.

I will mention that I wrote that many words and STILL had time to fall down the rabbit hole of Mongolian Techno. Some years back now there had been a Mongolian metal rock band — HU? HUU? — and they were doing some interesting things, but Mongolian Techno? Who knew.

Tomorrow, I have Real Life Business I have to take care of first (Well. “First,” after clearing snow, so Sarah can get in and also picking up so she can do her thing) having successfully put it off for more than a week (procrastination; it’s not for sissies).

I did read some few pages of Agent of Change, and will probably read some more after the cats stop shouting at me to deliver them their Happy Hour. What’s really interesting, is that I can remember which bits Steve wrote, and which bits I wrote, and which bits Steve wrote and I changed. I don’t think — but will be testing the proposition — that I can do that with later books. But you never forget your first, amirite?

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. Watch out for windblown snow and ice on the roads.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

Today’s blog post title brought to you by The Hu, from their 2019 Billboard hit, “Yuve Yuve Yu“

And the good girls are home with broken hearts

So here I am in the comfy chair:  Listening to music, checking email, and basking in the Happy Lite.

Several kind people sent me tea over the last few days, and I now rejoice in two infusers, where I previously had none. This morning, in celebration of the weather, I am enjoying Russian Caravan tea.

Ah…”and all the bad boys are standing in the shadows/and all the good girls are home with broken hearts.”

The Long Back Yard

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Taking a break to do PT homework, start washing the curtains and take out some chicken breasts to hopefully defrost in time to be cooked for tomorrow’s lunch and! follow up baked chicken sandwiches. The Forbidden Food List includes all lunch meats and … that’s an ongoing hardship. But, there’s no prohibition against sliced chicken off a home-cooked breast.

It’s still snowing a bit, and I’m measuring just 5 inches on the deck.

UPS is still insisting it’s making a delivery today, and I found a place to tell the driver to PUT THE BOX IN THE GARAGE, and I opened the garage door. Fingers crossed.

I got an automated call saying that the local Senior Center, which serves lunch to a good many people, is closed today on account of Weather. Reopening on Friday. I hope everybody who depends on that lunch is OK.

I’ve explored the new door configuration again and what I think is that I need to go to Home Despot next week and Stare at Stuff.

The cats are Visibly Relieved to have their Safe Room back. The last couple days were tense for all of us. But! It’s behind us now. Just gotta settle the bill. (eek! and yes, I can settle the bill, and I don’t depend on the Senior Center for lunch. Which makes me a very fortunate woman.)

How’s everybody doing today?
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Well done UPS!

The Ring went off, which meant that somebody had approached the front door, and I said to Rookie and Tali as I got up from my keyboard. “That’s UPS, and they didn’t put in the garage.”

There was a car in the driveway when I got to the door, and the box was on the front step, and I was opening the door, when the driver of the car got out, and came rushing back to me, “I’m so sorry; I only just saw that you wanted it in the garage. I’m really sorry.”

And I said, “Thank you for coming back. Since you got it this far, can you just put it inside the door?”

“Oh, yes. I can certainly do that! I’m sorry.”

And he put the box in the house; we exchanged Happy Holidays and he drove off.

So, praise where earned. Well-done, UPS!

And, indeed, this is what was in the box: #
Wrote +/-1160 words today, and reviewed several scenes that I considered “problematical,”which are, in fact, perfectly fine and actually do belong in this book. The WIP entire is more or less 112,200 words.

Coon Cat Happy Hour has occurred. I have discovered that I bought some frozen dumplings, and that will be my evening meal. Tomorrow, my intention is to write and to bake a loaf of bread, perhaps not even in that order.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I’ll be around tomorrow.

Oh!  Today’s blog post title from Mr. Thomas Petty, “Free fallin’“