Tag: writing

Sunday Wrap-up

All righty, then!

I have finished reading and marking up the WIP, and tomorrow I can start on entering All Of That. It will not be finished tomorrow, but I can make a good start. I feel much better about the whole project now, even though there are still Miles To Go. At least, I’m marching in the right direction.

My pens continue to behave themselves, even after I refilled them this afternoon. Yay and also? YAY!

Coon cats have had Happy Hour. I have a vague notion that I’ll watch the “new” Wallace and Gromit this evening. After reading all day, it’s kind of hard to get excited about reading before going to bed. Wallace and Gromit, however, are always in order.

Hopefully, there will are no Early Morning — or any — crises on the schedule for the next Very. Long. While.

And that? is All The News.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe.

Writing and the art of fountain pen maintenance

Discursions first:  There are some great titles out there in the word. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds are two of my favorites.  What are some of your favorite titles?

Onward.

I’ve got about 100 more pages of WIP to read, which I’ll do tomorrow, and then get with actually making the changes I’ve notated.

The last three days have been awesome; being able to concentrate on the story, and not have to interrupt my thought processes to cope with RL is priceless. It’s what Steve and I were able to give to each other — whoever was lead got as much relief from RL as it was possible for the other to give them. Living the Life of the Mind, Baby.

Next week is RL’s Revenge, but I still have tomorrow and Monday to work.

I can also report other accomplishments on the day. Three of my four TWSBI ECO demonstrator pens, that I love beyond all reason, have lately become very … drippy. I couldn’t write a page without blots, and it was getting worse. I really was at the point of thinking I was going to have to go back to roller pens, which are — OK, but they’re not fountain pens. So — long story short — I looked on the internet and found out that pens that are dropped a lot (those would be my pens), sometimes the nib gets loose, and the ink can’t flow properly, and blots happen. If my pens were blotting, maybe try pushing in the nibs.

Figuring that at this point, I had nothing to lose, I pushed the nib in on the first (leaking the most) pen.

SNAP! the nib reseated itself. My heart rose, and I did the same thing with the second and third pens — SNAPSNAP!

And the pen that hadn’t been giving me any trouble? No snap.

I’ve been writing with the former worst offender all afternoon, and nary a blot.

Y’know? When the internet works, it’s a good tool.

So, a satisfying and productive day here at the Confusion Factory. The cats have been Extremely Good and even now, with Happy Hour on the horizon, they’re only making the verymost quietest suggestions that Saturday Happy Hour could happen a little earlier?

Hope everybody had a good day, which is segueing into a good evening. Stay safe; I’ll see you tomorrow.

Supervisors on duty. Yes, I am a pawful.

 

 

Saturday business with coon cats and yam

Business First: Amazon allows me to know that the paper edition of Civilized Behavior “is scheduled for release on 11/13/2025. On this date, your book’s detail page will become visible to readers to purchase your book on Amazon everywhere you have territory rights at 12:00 a.m. UTC.” This release is concurrent with the ebook release.

So, that‘s a thing.

Saturday. Dim and damp. Up at 6:15, breakfast bar and tea at the desk.

I hit a rough patch in the WIP, where I wobbled a bit. I removed two scenes, which has gotten me back on-course. The irony is that one of those was a touchstone scene that I started the book knowing I had to include. Proving yet again that writing is a Science.

Ahem.

Taking a break now to get myself some lunch — I’m thinking the yam, an onion, garlic, maybe a can of white potatoes, too (so I can have leftovers tomorrow, for breakfast, maybe, with an egg), sauteed, and cottage cheese on the side.

After, I’ll do my duty to the cats and get back with the WIP.

I hereby give myself permission to not finish the read-through today. Yes, I know that was The Plan, but it’s no sense bringin’ killin’ into it.

The cats have been Very Much Approving of me spending more time in Steve’s office, so that’s another thing. I’m enjoying having a dedicated writing, and only writing, computer, and a space that’s not cluttered with Business I Have To Get To, so this was actually a Good Move.

Last night, I worked late to get the first 200 pages read, then collapsed into bed after my dinner, and put Black Cat Jazz on ‘way low. All of the cats joined me and we just sorta zoned out and purred..

So, that’s what’s happening around here. What’s happening with you?

The work in hand

Friday. Dim and chilly. Slept late, for recent values of late.

Today is an Official sweatpants-sweatshirt-snuggy-sox-Read!-The!-Manuscript!-Day.

. . . just as soon as I get breakfast, which will be! Oatmeal with apple jam. First cup of tea is brewing.

Kpop Demon Hunters was amusing, and I’m not sorry I had to wrassle Netflix best two out of three to get to watch it.

Y’all have a good Friday.

Sapphire Days, Peridot Knights

Weather first:  It snowed this afternoon.

Earlier That Same Day: Taking a break to bring the windchimes in for the winter.

Today is the 45th celebration of the day Steve Miller and I married. Against both of our better judgments, and yet, it was the only way to make certain we would each have someone to speak for us, if we couldn’t speak for ourselves.

I am once again thankful that we were often in the situation of having to put off Official Celebrations until whatever project happened to be on-deck was caught up. This means that working on the WIP is nothing out of the ordinary for an anniversary.

In honor of the day, I am wearing one sapphire earring and one peridot earring — my birthstone and Steve’s adopted birthstone (he didn’t like rubies). The air cleaners are on in the living room and the bedroom, and all of the cats joined me in Steve’s office to work.

I have a pizza, which I may or may not partake of this evening — pizza was the Official Standby Celebration Food — and now the sun has come out.

Back to work I go.

I hope everyone’s having a good morning.
#
So! I rearranged the WIP, sorted what happens on which day, which was really needed. I pulled some scenes, and adjusted others. The whole manuscript in its new configuration is now printing out so I can do a read-through tomorrow.

For the moment, I’m finishing up my tea and cookies (note to self: find recipe for soft-baked lemon-sugar cookies; those things are yummy). After, I’ll go downstairs and do the cat box change out that I missed doing, what with the back and then the rush to catch up my stained glass. Then a shower, and then?

Maybe tonight is Kpop Demon Hunters. Why not?

I have decided that I will be making my own Thanksgiving dinner this year. There are certain things that I want to eat, and it’s not that hard to bake a couple of turkey fillets, pop a tube of biscuits, mix up a bowl of mashed, and another of dressing, if I wanna be Really Crazy, and throw some asparagus in a pan. Pie is readily available in Hannaford and Shaw’s and whipped cream is an easy buy.

So, this year, I’ll have what I want, as much or as little, while feeling neither forlorn nor bereft, and! I’ll have leftovers. And nor I won’t have to drive to Lisa’s or put up with Front and Main or The Senator. (All of these are very nice restaurants; I just don’t want to have to cope with any of them on Thanksgiving.)

That’s a Decision, then, and it even feels reasonable, which trying to convince myself to go to the buffet at Lisa’s just … wasn’t.

What else?

. . . not much actually. Days get weird when you prioritize writing.

I can report that it has stopped snowing — some hours ago, actually. Just a squall. Or a threat. Whatever.

So! Signing off for the night.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe out there.

Good day

So, that was a good writing day, where the word count will tell you that I goofed off all day. This is why word count is a blunt instrument. Hope to have another such day tomorrow.

I hear from my PCP that he will be scheduling an appointment with a neurosurgeon for me — not! he says quickly, for surgery, but because it looks like one of the nerves in my back is being pinched. OHkay… I guess I’ll wait to hear from the neurosurgeon.

Coon Cat Happy Hour has been served up. I thought I was going to watch Kpop Demon Hunters tonight, but maybe I’ll peruse a few catalogs and go to bed early, instead. I’m kinda bushed, what with having crowds of people traipsing through my head all day.

I see that Maine did the Right Thing and voted DOWN the make-it-as-hard-as-possible-for-people-to-vote item, and voted UP the take-the-guns-away-from-the-folks-who-are-obviously-having-a-break-before-they-hurt-somebody item.

All in all, not so bad a day, really. With luck and a tailwind, I may have a Completed DRAFT by the end of these few halcyon days of freedom.

Fingers crossed.

I hope everyone had a satisfying day, and will have a good evening.

Stay safe.

Oh, I found the mother load:

Psst! Gotta plan, here

So, here’s The Plan, insofar as &c.

I have nothing on my calendar (saving the 45th anniversary of Doing the Legal) until next Tuesday afternoon.

This? Is a Gift. And what I intend to do with the gift is to make some serious inroads into the remaining quarter of the WIP. This means that check-ins will be … sporadic, and possibly will not happen at all.

Default setting should be that nothing bad has happened; I’m working.

I thank all of your for your care and support, and —

cracks knuckles

Let’s do this thing.

Everybody stay safe.

Let’s do the time warp, again

Sunday. Sunny and chilly.

How is it not even noon yet?

Well.

Breakfast was cottage cheese, grapes, toast. Lunch will be soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Because I Can.

Wrote +/- 780 words first thing, which brings the total WIP to 105,500. Ish.

Wandered around the house making sure the programmable thermostats remembered their programming from last year. Updated my books read list. Dealt with email. Tried to figure out how much I’m going to be dinged for excise tax tomorrow when I go to buy my sticker at City Hall. Ordered in Scottish, Irish, and strong Irish tea. For Science!*

Still need to pay bills and do PR. And work on my glass project.

The cats were strongly in favor of gathering all together in Steve’s office first thing after breakfast, and that’s where they still are.

How’s everybody doing on this first day of the time change?

______
*Science! The scale is: Brisk-Body-Aroma
Brisk: Does your mouth pucker?
Body: Does the tea fill your mouth?
Aroma: Does the tea have a robust scent?

Irish Breakfast Tea:        2-4-3
Hiberian (hi-test Irish): 4-4-2
Scottish Breakfast Tea:  4-5-1

In which the lost are found

Yesterday, I baked bread, did embroidery, carried books down to the basement and got them safely stowed, finished Phase One of the Sekrit Project, which leaves two Phases left to complete by November 14, which is totally doable.

I also found Steve’s cardinal, which was hiding behind books on the bottom-most shelf of the bookcase from which it fled.

And a bonus find…

About a million years ago, I bought Steve a sundial for his birthday. Approximately two hundred years ago, the gnomon went missing. The sundial then became a piece of glass art that sat on a bookshelt in Steve’s office.

Today, as I was looking for the cardinal, I found the gnomon for the sundial. It had been stuck to a book.

So the sundial is back together, which is pleasing, even though it I probably have no place to set it up, since — windows, cats.

Still, I’m pleased that it’s at least potentially functional again.

#

Where are we? Thursday?

Thursday. Sunny, white-and-gray clouds traveling across a blue sky.

Breakfast was two slices of yesterday’s bread, toasted, cottage cheese, and grapes. Yesterday, I ate three slices of bread with butter as soon as the loaf was cool enough to slice, two slices this morning, and I foresee another slice or two with lunch. I am not usually like this, but I’m gonna finish this loaf by Saturday. Guess I needed Vitamin Bread.

Wrote 1,459 new words this morning. Did the addition, to get some idea of where I am contract-wise, and found the total WIP at 102,870, which In Theory means I can type THE END.

Yeah, yeah. We laugh at Theory.

I did sleep in, and my desk one! more! time! looks like a bomb hit it. How does this keep happening? Gremlins, I guess.

Tonight is glassworking, which means a late lunch, because class goes so late. Happily, I can sleep in tomorrow.

That? Is all the news from this side of the world.

How’s everything going for you?

Oh.  I got the sundial set:

Thursday afternoon cat census:

Gothic Monday

What went before ONE:  So that’s +/-1,320 words on the morning. I’m not reporting the impact of these words on the WIP total because I don’t know exactly where they go.

The cats were all waiting for me when I got to Steve’s Office, and they stuck with me until I said, “That’s a wrap,” whereupon Rook and Tali got up, stretched, and followed me to the front of the house.

It’s now time to have lunch, then go downstairs to perform one’s duty to the cats, and monkey around with my glass for a bit.

The cloudy morning has become a sunny afternoon, though still cool.

And so it goes.
#
What went before TWO:  Aaaand that’s enough fun for one day! I have finished cutting what glass I can. As Was Predicted, I did break the starfish — twice, but the second time much better than the first (Do not laugh. The bar we’re using here, as Miri Robertson once famously said, is the one that’s buried in that snowpile over there). So, rather than run out of glass, I shall take what I have with me to class, prepared to Learn Better.

There’s a horrifying amount of glass pieces in my scrap box. Honestly, I should go into the kaleidoscope business.

Also, the project got its tithe of blood today, so I was glad I had wimped in and taken my silly little first aid kit down to The Studio.

But! All that said — I’m for a cup of tea and a bun, and then I do believe I’ll read.

Everybody have a good evening. I’ll check in tomorrow.
#
What went before THREE: New entry in Steve and Sharon’s Excellent Adventure, for those who are reading along: Eager Street
#
Um. Monday? Cool and damp; rain in the forecast.

Updated my books read list — I have read my 50th book, which is something of a relief; I really didn’t think I was going to see that many.

Read the first eight chapters of the book club book last night. I really can’t tell if the … predictability is a feature or a bug. As in, yes, this; yes, this, too; no that’s pretty flimsy, but it gets us where we’re going; ok, yeah, they lied, what a surprise — is just the entrance ramp into the Real Story* (feature) or if, having begun, this is how we mean to go on. Well. I’ll find out.

In other news, I was inclined to feel Poorly Used when I got the news that my health insurance will be going up $30 a month in 2026, but that was before I read the newspaper and found out that this same insurance provider is dropping membership for half the state. Yes, the half that needs it the most, why do you ask?

Sigh. It’s possible that Mondays aren’t good for me.

P’rhaps I’ll go find a cup of tea and something for breakfast.

How’s everybody doing this morning?
________
*I almost had a fistfight on a panel regarding the beginning of The Goblin Emperor, in which,** and my fellow panelist was insisting that it was Bad Storytelling because Basic Security mandates that you Don’t Do That, and my equally empassioned argument that this was just to “explain” how we got to the Unlikely Situation which was the Actual Story the writer wanted to tell. Wow, that was an exhausting panel.
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
_________
**The Emperor and all of his sons are on the same airship when it blows up.