Happy Christmas, Everyone!

Just wanted to tell you all I love you and I hope you're doing well.

{{hugs}} and HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!

Perfect for Halloween!

Blackbirds Second Flight 

Perfect for Halloween! 

Featuring thrilling stories and poetry from Stephen Bagley, Wendy Blanton,

Gail Henderson, Ken Lewis, 

Jean Schara, and Heath Stallcup!

Buy on Amazon!

Buy on Barnes & Noble! 

Buy on Books-A-Million!

A bit about the Blackbirds

The anthology Blackbirds First Flight featured stories from Stephen B. Bagley, Kent Bass, Wendy Blanton, Gail Henderson, Jean Schara, and Tamara Siler Jones.

To quote Pru Simmons: “Blackbirds First Flight is an anthology of stories and poetry with a dark, sensual twist. The stories run the gambit from thrilling Gothic adventure to modern urban fantasy to fantastic encounters with the macabre. The poetry is uniformly excellent and tells dark stories of its own, many related to mythology.”

Here's a bit about the authors:

Stephen B. Bagley wrote Tales from Bethlehem, Murder by Dewey Decimal, Murder by the Acre, Floozy & Other Stories, and EndlesS and co-authored Undying with Gail Henderson. His works have appeared in Writer's Digest, Creations 2014, Creations 2013, Creations 2012, ByLine Magazine, Free Star, Nautilus Magazine, OKMagazine, and other publications. He graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism. He is a member of Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. Visit https://stephenbbagley.blogspot.com for more info.

Kent Bass enjoys writing Gothic action/adventure stories. He graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business and from the University of Oklahoma, with a Master of Science in Accountancy. He and his family live in Dallas, Texas, where he works for the nation’s leading tax software company. Blackbirds First Flight was his first publication.

Wendy Blanton published three fantasy novels, The Dragon’s Lady, Rogue Pawn, and Sword and Scabbard under the pen name Elizabeth Joy with co-author Scott Carman. She has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Business Management from the University of Mount Olive and served in active duty for the United States Air Force for eight years. She is an apprentice bard and tells Celtic folk tales at Scottish Highland Games and other venues. Visit https://wendyblanton.wordpress.com for more info.

Gail Henderson co-authored Undying with Stephen B. Bagley. She collaborated with noted Oklahoma photographer Michael Duncan to produce Bare, a book of poetry and photography. Red Bird Woman, a collection of her poetry, was published in 2013. Her work has appeared in Creations 2014, Creations 2013, Creations 2012, and ByLine Magazine. She holds a Masters of Education in English and Social Studies from East Central University. Visit https://redbirdwoman.blogspot.com for more info.

Tamara Siler Jones is a wife, mom, writer, quilter, and cat-wrangler from rural Iowa. She has numerous novels in print/eBook, including Ghosts in the Snow, winner of the Compton Crook Award for best first novel of the year in the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror genre; Threads of Malice; Valley of the Soul; SPORE; and the newly released Morgan's Run. Visit http://www.tamara-jones.net for more info.

Jean Schara retired from a 28-year career in the United States Air Force in 2008 and took up residence in Texas. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland University College with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing and of the Troy State University with a Master of Science in Adult Education. She has had several book reviews published in the Air Power Journal and several articles published in Vision: A Resource for Writers. Visit http://pmtoo.jeanschara.com journal for more info.

Blackbirds First Flight is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Lulu, and other online retailers. Visit https://blackbirdsflights.blogspot.com for more info.

A bit of an update, eh?

I've been looking for authors who might be a good fit for a professional writing group that I lead. I thought I had found one, but fortunately before I asked her, I discovered that she didn't support other authors. She said she needed readers, not authors, and she wouldn't read other authors' posts nor buy their books because she was focusing on her own career.

I have no patience with that. Like I said, I hadn't yet mentioned the writing group to her, so no harm, no foul.

The minimum an author can do is cheer on fellow authors. People who do not...I do not respect them and will not waste my time helping them when they do not help other people.

That professional writing group is meant for authors helping other authors, authors supporting other authors, authors contributing to other authors, and authors sharing knowledge with other authors. She did not belong, and it is no loss to us...but it might be one for her.

***

I've not been pursuing my creative goals the way I would like to. Lately, I've been focusing on my health. I'm determined to regain my strength and endurance if that's possible, and I believe it is. Right now, simply walking a fair distance leaves me exhausted. It's slowly getting better, but oh so slowly. I have to keep reminding myself that it took years of neglect--and bad genetics--to get me in this shape. Fixing the problems isn't going to happen overnight. As for the genetics, there's research that shows exercise, proper diet, and healthy lifestyle can cause bad genes to stop expressing themselves and trigger good genes. So...it's possible. Just going to take some time. A friend likes to say, "You're not in a dash; you're in a marathon." True.

But with my energies focused on my health, I find my imagination mostly focuses on sleep. I've always struggled with getting enough sleep--my brain is a busy monster--so I imagine what it would feel like to get eight hours uninterrupted sleep and wake refreshed and ready to go. Like when I was 20 and didn't think about bouncing out of bed.

I've been wondering I need a new bed. I see a lot of commercials talking about various beds, so many so that I can't figure out what would best. It's something I'm going to research over the next few months. Input would be appreciated.

Anyway, this is me signing off. Hope you have a great night and week.

Happy July 4th!

Yes, we have problems as a nation -- and what nation since the dawn of time has not? -- but I'm proud to be an American, blessed to live in this diverse and amazing nation, humbled by the sacrifices of those who have given their lives to keep us free, and excited when looking forward to our future. The naysayers and political pundits like to highlight our shortcomings, conveniently ignoring our past and continuing accomplishments. We truly have changed the face of the world, and although we have made grievous mistakes, we have also been an unrelenting force for freedom and liberty. God has blessed us immensely, and may He continue to do so! Happy Fourth of July!

Long week

It's been a long week, it feels, but things got done. I should perhaps say that in capitals: THINGS GOT DONE.

I caught up on the monthly newsletter, caught up on my filing, made significant progress on Floozy Comes Back, and finally finished my "Spring" cleaning.

However, the walking and cardiac program suffered. I'm hoping now that I'm caught up on so many things that I can use my time effectively and schedule in the necessary walking, exercise, and diet. The diet takes time because I have to prepare food instead of enjoying the convenience of restaurants. Everything in the world but enough time and money. :)

This week, of course, I'll be celebrating the 4th and working on the meeting for the writing group. I had a presentation prepared, but now I'm redoing it to be more streamlined and not so expansive. I was attempting to cover too much material in one meeting and thus couldn't focus on all the main points. The good news is I should have enough material for two more programs from the research on this one.

Otherwise, it's a week of writing, chores, this month's newsletter, funnies on Facebook, Floozy, etc. What's your week looking like?

Molasses

Wow, it's been slow around here. I'm glad it's not just me.

I feel like life has gotten more complicated lately. It's partly to do with the new job, although as far as jobs go, the day-to-day is low maintenance. It's partly a tech thing, and I feel ancient. Our e-mail is powered through g-mail, so now I have 2 accounts, and I'm forever getting them mixed up. Logging in here was a challenge because it thought I wanted the church account. And setting up the church Facebook page? Oy. Don't get me started.

I'm in that weird place where days seem super long, but all of a sudden a week has passed. I guess I'm getting things done, but progress seems painfully slow. This weekend has been better. Eric has a long weekend, perfectly timed for once, so we've gotten more done. The basement looks so much better, and we have a game plan for when our in-coming company has gone home to finish the rest. Well, the rest of Phase I. At some point we'd like to have finished living space down there, but that's going to take building permits and we aren't there yet. Patio first.

Speaking of which, I asked our landscaper (who is also a friend) if there was anything we could do to prep the back yard to help cut the cost a little. I thought he'd tell me to move some plants or get gutters put up on the garage and relocate the rain barrels. Maybe take out the grass. Nope! He said we can dig out the spruce roots. If they're not taken out, they'll decompose and compromise my patio over time. I get that. I had no idea how to start.

No biggie. I bought a pick axe and turned to YouTube. Did you know you can dig up the skinny runner roots of spruce trees and strip the back to make rope? It totally makes sense. I had no idea. Now I have to use that in a book. YouTube wasn't much help otherwise, but I wasn't about to call mea culpa so fast. I have a new pick axe, after all. This morning I went out to weed the garden and decided to put a little time into destroying my back yard. The pictures are on Facebook. It's going to take some work. We'll have sweat equity invested in our new patio, that's for sure. In other news, I'm really out of shape, and digging for roots with a pick axe is good cardio.

In the garden, I have tomato flowers. Oh, and I better go turn off the soaker hose.

That's what's going on here. What are y'all up to?

Looking up

Ah, CreateSlate. I don't mean to neglect you. It seems I only have so much energy to divide among so many projects, but I AM getting some creative things done as well as catching up on chores so...things are looking up.

Mind you, I might be jinxing myself, but maybe we finally have my meds right so that I can function. Maybe not at the level I functioned before, but at least I'm not draped across a couch in a stupor staring mindlessly at the TV.

What have I been working on? Last week, I published and mailed two newsletters, posted on two of my blogs, started a long overdue update of another one, updated a friend's blog, walked more than 5,000 steps most days, caught up on the household chores (for the most part), worked on Floozy Comes Back, kept a writing group page up-to-date, and so on. I used to do more--I blurred back then; ha!--but this is such an improvement to the previous weeks, I feel blessed.

This week, I will publish another newsletter and work on one to be published next week. And then I will be caught up on them! I will post on my blogs. I will work on Floozy Comes Back. I will--unfortunately--do household chores. Mostly I will do what I did this week. And if I do all that, and maybe a couple more things, I will be pleased.

What will you be doing this week that will please you? Hope you do many things that do.

Garden, day 1

I finally got the garden planted. It's been a cool, wet spring, and while there were days earlier that I could have gotten it in, it seemed like it was still a little cool at night.

At least, that's what I told myself. We don't want to chill the poor little darlings, after all.

This morning, I woke up at 2 a.m. wondering when I'd last watered my seedlings. It had been a while, as it turns out. I splashed some water on them and went back to bed. When I got up for real, they looked happier. Since the forecast was dry, at least until tonight, I went forth and planted. I only put out a dozen tomatoes and ten green peppers. I have a few more seedlings to put in pots. Last year we had overcrowding problems. This year I made sure to leave walk-ways so I can get to my harvest without having to pick my way through. I have landscaping rock sitting around doing nothing, and I'm thinking about actually moving some to my paths. I have some silly notion that it will help keep the weeds down.

Next year the plan is to make it bigger. I have a small tree next to my garden that really needed to come out this year, and we didn't get to it. Once that's out of the way, I can double the size. Maybe then I can grow something in addition to tomatoes and peppers.

Here's what we look like the afternoon of day 1:

It's Thursday. Woooooo.

I'm tired, but the sun is up, so there's no point trying to sleep. I was out of town two weeks in a row, and came back to a busy week of church prep. Our first preview service is this Sunday, and there have been a lot of details to attend. It's simultaneously exciting and exhausting.

I'm almost done with the fro yo shop. I'm training my successor to do paperwork tomorrow. My boss is supposed to be there so they can work out logistics of getting things done, and I'm interviewing more people for the summer. I have a college student coming back, and a high school student leaving. I'd like to say tomorrow will be my last day, but I don't know. I gave my boss until June 1, which shook out to 6 weeks' notice, so I can walk away guilt-free. It's been years, decades maybe, since I've walked away from a job without moving or the business closing.

I haven't worked on the book in weeks. I've done blog posts. That's it. I hope to get back into it today, but I don't know if I will. My brain is foggy despite taking the appropriate supplements and eating real food. Based solely on numbers, I've gotten enough sleep. I'll try taking a walk in a bit to see if that helps. Maybe I should curl up with a book. Or do some garden prep while it's not raining. There are some Hulu shows I'd like to catch up on, but I don't know that sitting in front of the TV all day is going to help. If I'm as over-stimulated as I think, that's not what I need to do.

I thinking living in an urban area isn't ideal for me. The first morning I woke up at Mom's, before I opened my eyes, I thought, "It's soooo quiet!" I miss quiet. Even when I'm home alone there's ambient city noise. It kind of sucks because we both have jobs here we really like and at least 15 years until retirement.

The good news in all of this is things are finally slowing down. I have almost everything ready to go for Sunday. After that I'll have one staff meeting a week, and no more than two weeks left in my fro yo shop commitment. I'm getting room to breathe again. Finally.

Isn't April over yet?

Crikey.

In March, I was on the mountain top, communing with Walter the Muse. In April, I'm in the valley, and Walter's gone to the beach. Seriously, it's like Ground Hog Day on April 1.

I'm transitioning out of the old day job. I'm still going in for a couple hours a week to do paperwork and banking, and scheduling and inventory if it's needed. I hope to be able to dump it all on my replacement mid-May and walk away with my tiny 401k.

The new day job has taken a few more hours a week. It's mostly set up right now--opening a bank account, putting together files, choosing software, and suchlike. It's fun, really, but it does take time. I'm working with grown-ups again, and that's a big improvement. We have our first preview service May 14.

On top of that, I have two trips lined up in the next two weeks. It's family stuff and should be fun, but the timing (as is almost always the case) could be better. I hope to be able to relax a little at the very least.

And then there's the news that a close family member is facing a long illness. They caught it super early and have to do more tests to figure out a treatment plan. On the other side of the family we are dealing with a recent suicide.

In the miscellaneous irritant category, I'm upgrading from my 23" iMac (Little Mac) to Eric's 27" iMac (Big Mac) so I can donate Little Mac to the church. That's meant a lot of moving data from one machine to the other, or into cloud storage. I think I'm in the home stretch, but it hasn't been smooth or fast. On the plus side we found a bunch of old pictures and it's been fun to look through them.

Writing? Yeah. I've got some words in, but not many. In the last week or so, it's been more a matter of sitting down and typing stuff that may or may not be cut later on the good days. On the not so good days, I stare at my documents before going back downstairs for coffee and Netflix.

To say this vacation is much needed is a bit of an understatement. I hope, during the first, to have an hour or so a day to get some words in, even if it's just free writing. The second week it's less likely to happen, but it is possible. When I get back I'll have a week before the preview service to get all the details associated with my job squared away. Until this morning I had it in my mind that I'd come back from the second week away and have the preview the next day. Realizing I have a week in between has lowered the stress level somewhat. It means I don't have to do my entire page-long to do list today.

So, yeah, come on, May!

Life in all its glory

You must imagine I'm saying that title of this post with a slightly skeptical tone. Perhaps even with the faint wisp of sarcasm. It's been one of those weeks for most of the month and maybe even two months.

This angst is triggered by my ongoing health battles with my heart, diabetes, and IBD. A nasty threesome guaranteed to take the wind out of anyone's sails and even maybe sink their ship so that only a debris whirlpool is left that the gulls circle in hopes of finding some morsel.... Okay, that was a bit much even for me.

The whine wind is strong today. Brace yourselves. You might need to rope together.

Anyway, in terms of creative projects, I'm struggling with Floozy Comes Back. It is difficult to be funny constantly at the best of times, but lately, it's quite a struggle. It may be my health, or it may be the spring doldrums. Some people experience doldrums in winter, some in summer, some in fall, but for me, it's spring. Spring makes me restless. Makes me want to do something physically and mentally exciting. Spring fever, I guess, to use an old cliche.

In other news, I've been investigating magazines that allow online submissions. It's a curious lot. No standards among them--this one wants PDFs, this one wants TXT, this one wants .DOC but not .DOCX and so on. The other thing of note is most of these online submissions don't seem to pay. They want your words--they need your words--but they don't pay. Of course, they're struggling and probably need our support.

Some do pay, and the competition for them is fierce. They almost all recommend you submit to the non-paying magazines first to build your portfolio and gain experience. And some of that urging might be prompted by remembering their early days when they, too, couldn't pay because of their newborn status in the publishing world.

I am also weighing the prospects of publishing a Blackbirds Fourth Flight. Reasons for and reasons against. Budgets, time, material available, etc. No urgency there, but its file is sitting on my desk for me to look through now and again.

Anyway, let's end this ramble. This week, I'm:
- continuing my exercise program.
- writing on Floozy, so help me muse!
- doing my chores.
- getting a presentation ready for the next writers group meeting.

How is your week looking?

Moving on

It's official, and I can talk about it. I'm leaving the fro yo shop to be the Ministry Coordinator at Boulevard Presbyterian Church. Our goal is to serve two neighboring but very different communities. One is a fairly affluent suburb with almost no bible believing churches, and the other is a part of Chicago that makes the news a lot. I'm excited about this new opportunity. Part time admin jobs are hard to come by around here.

I gave notice at the old job today. Sort of. Turns out, the district manager who was not mine quit suddenly, so my DM has to pick up the slack, at least in the short term. That gives her 3 pizzerias and 2 fro yo shops, and none of them are particularly close geographically. I'm going to continue to do paperwork and deliver it to the office until June 1 or she no longer needs me, whichever comes first. That will amount to about 3 hours a week, including the part of my commute I get paid for during paperwork delivery.

It feels like the last two weeks have been super busy, and I'm worn slam out. I'm only posting today because I don't want to break my streak. As long as I do something writing related, it counts, so here I am. I'm sure it goes without saying I have an early night in my future.

So that's where I am. Where are y'all?

March Wrap Up

Wow, that month went fast. It's been a 'head down and gitter done' kind of month. It wasn't without disappointment, though. I realized yesterday if I pushed a little bit more, I could double my word count for the year. I tried. I stared at the screen, turned on some music, and pestered Walter The Muse, but there were no words. I finally saved everything I'd already done and walked away, planning to hit it again after dinner. It didn't happen. I missed my goal by 895 words.

I'm actually not too broken up about it. It was a really good month despite the day job challenges. I continued my streak of writing every day, and put in nearly 57 hours. Total word count for the month was 27,443, bringing year to date to 55,781.

I also read quite a bit. Currently I'm reading "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield (I read it often and highly recommend it), and "The Story Equation" by Susan May Warren. I also read all of Susan May Warren's Heiress Trilogy ("Heiress," "Baroness," and "Duchess") again.

Based on my progress this month, I'm awfully glad I went to Deep Thinkers last month. It seems to be just what I needed to get things rolling. Here's to April!

Peeking around the corner

Not been here much. There only seem to be so many hours in the day, and I don't fit this in, although to be honest, a bit less TV and watching shows on the Roku would give me plenty of time.

Mostly what's been going on with me is working on a health plan that includes diet changes and exercise. I've been on it since March 8. Seems sooooooo much longer. It's been really hard to force myself to exercise every day. In fact, I've been dismayed by the mental prodding I have to use to get me sweating. I'm told this will get better; that after a month or two, I might even start looking forward to exercising. Right now, that feels just about as possible as me learning to fly by flapping my arms.

I tell myself that it doesn't matter how I feel. I have to do the work and have to sweat and not eat what I desire because that's what it takes. I spent years indulging myself; now I must spend time--I hope, not years--in restoring health to my body. I'd like to say I have already seen progress, and I have, but that progress seems small next to the effort I'm putting out.

Well, there's nothing for it except to do it.

I am attempting to write, too. I've been working on my next book (Floozy Comes Back) and the book after that (Murder by the Mile). I plan on publishing Floozy in the summer and MBTM in the fall. We'll see how that goes.

Otherwise, my life is spent in chores, medical appointments, errands, exercise, not drinking strawberry shakes...life. How's your life going?

Balance

As we walked into church today, I told Eric it seems like both my jobs don't play well together. When one goes well, the other doesn't. I'm not sure why the balance is so hard, but saying it out loud reduced my stress and helped turn my attitude around. It's like I called out the problem and suddenly it didn't seem so big. It'll probably still stink, but I might get lucky and have a little downtime while I'm on the clock that I can squeeze some words into. I'll take the iPad to work with me, just in case.

I got my garden started. I have 2 dozen baby tomato seedlings and a dozen green peppers. I tried to sprout seeds I saved from the small yellow sweet peppers we bought all the time at the farmers market last year, and they didn't come up. On the plus side, we went to the Garden and Flower show yesterday, and I found Allium bulbs that had been in cold storage all winter, so they're ready to plant. Usually you plant them in the fall, but I hope to have flowers this summer. Very exciting. I hope they look like this:

Isn't that fun? I love the size. They're supposed to get about 3' tall. Plus they're members of the onion family, so squirrels don't like them. Maybe I can keep them out of my bird feeder this year. Although they do make for good Cat TV. I guess I'll have to think through where to plant them. It will probably be Friday before I get to it.

So that's the excitement here. Hope y'all are doing all right.


(Photo credit: https://www.pinterest.com/cbreaud/flower-power-fundraising/)

Springing Forwar...Or Something Like That

Recliner life will be ending soon. Too bad. I like it. I've been reasonably productive, too. But many things that simply must be done cannot be done from the recliner, and my kneecap is healing, so it's time to spring into action. Well, maybe an activity more gradual than "springing," but I hope you get the idea.

I created an Easter Egg Hunt on my essential oils site. I hope people will enjoy the hunt. The site is getting regular visitors. I'm working into a posting schedule. If you're reading here and not accessing any of my other sites, head on over to Oil4TinMan to check it out.

I've completed my initial work on Wanna Bet to get the NaNoWriMo word padding removed. I did a few other things and tried to find areas where it needs work. I'm terribly ineffective at this, and this bothers me. The book is written using the romance novel approach of alternating chapters for each main character, except, the lead chapter is what's been written by a son about his journey to viewing his father as an unlikely hero. The alternating chapter is the father's reaction to what his son has written (which gives you "the rest of the story"). In those respects, it's a memoir, but the characters are all fictional. Yes, I know there is no fictional memoir genre.

I started on winter yard work a couple of weeks ago. Normally, I do this in January, so I'm three months behind. I did regular yard work this week. The weed whacker batteries are all recharged so I can finish the trimming this week.

Mr. L was supposed to take the lift to San Antonio this week to use it to help take down a tree. Unfortunately, he's having trouble with it. We bought new batteries three years ago, but he hasn't been keeping them charged. He thinks they were supposed to retain a charge. I suspect, since they were listed on the receipt as "golf cart batteries," they needed to be on a constant charge. Sigh. I suspect that purchase may have been a waste of money, but I hope he will take the lift to the service people and get (perhaps once again) a thorough training session about how the charging system is supposed to work and how he should best maintain the beast. He has plenty to do around here. He's having to pace himself a lot more than he's used to, so things don't get done quickly.

Planning is nearly complete for Grand Tour 2017. It should be an epic trip. I have the "throwaway" phone for the trip. I'm not particularly fond of the Android operating system, but it's functional. Apparently, I need to load $40 a month to keep the phone active and Verizon will rollover data. That $40 gets me 2G of data. By the time we go on the trip, I'll have 6G of data (because I have it locked out right now and am using WiFi only). I've loaded the money onto the account that it will need to take me through the end of May. Then I'll let it lapse. I think I have the apps I need. I added a weather app last week. How did I forget that?

Between now and then, I'll be doing yard work, chipping away at the overwhelming list of things that need to be done in an ongoing attempt to "get this house in order." I've returned to the Fly Lady concept of a shiny sink. I always got the dishes out of the sink, but I hadn't always been shining it. I'm embracing the shiny sink concept, and it really does make me feel better. I shine it in the morning and evening, then I look around for one more little thing to do to straighten things up.

Yard work, house work, cats, figuring out how to make a publishable product. It never ends.

It's only been a week?

Heaven help me.

A week ago we were facing Springtime Lake Effect Snowmageddon. Today it's in the high 40s and flirting with 50.

I made my writing goals, but barely. I'm rethinking them a little because the day job is not cooperating. At all.

I may have found another opener, which is great, but he'll have to be trained if I hire him. I'm still a little on the fence. I was acquainted with him before he applied for the job. I'll say he's sheltered and leave it at that. I'm pretty sure he's not Mr. Right, but he might be Mr. Right Now. And truthfully, the kid needs a break. But the last time I gave someone a break, I got burned. The last guy made it two weeks before I fired him.

I think this week will be doable with last week's goals, probably. I'm working 2 days this week, plus the paperwork run tomorrow, which isn't a big deal. The following two weeks might be a different story. One of my remaining openers is going on vacation. She'll be gone 2 1/2 weeks. That's going to give me 4 shifts a week.

I keep telling myself it's only 20 hours. I've been working about 6 hours a week all winter. Not only that, but I haven't worked full time since 1998. Twenty hours feels like a lot, especially since I'll have 1 1/2 - 2 hours per day commuting. By the time I come home, I don't want to do anything, especially writing.

I have alternatives. I can write before I go to work. Even if I don't get all my words in, it's something. Or, if it's slow, I can write at work. I just have to take my iPad, keyboard and mouse. If it's not slow at work, well, I'm sort of out of luck.

Just thinking about it all is making my heart palpitate. Or maybe I've had too much coffee. That could be it.

Here's another little twist. Every room in my house needs cleaning. *sigh* Going minimalist sounds so appealing, but where would I start?

Game on

It's been an interesting few days. Interesting in the Chinese curse sense.

We're under a winter weather warning starting at 1 a.m. tonight. They're saying 3-6" of snow. I'd take 2' at this point. I stopped at the shop after church (they're 2 miles apart), and asked the closer to put up the sign that we're closed due to weather before she leaves. I also got contact info for our interviewees. If it does snow, we're covered, but I figure that should be enough to keep snow away. I hope it doesn't stay away. I didn't think I'd be saying that here in March.

I think I might have to reassess my writing goals. I came home from Deep Thinkers with a writing and marketing plan for the first three Balphrahn books. I sat down and looked at what I have written and decided it was feasible to have the series done this year, and that I needed to aim for 780 words a day. Every day. I did build in a month of time off for illness and/or travel. Also, that's 780 book words. That doesn't include blogs.

Still, it's doable, if everyone cooperates.

They haven't.

Last week, one of my openers sent out a group text that she needed to take care of her grandmother and couldn't open any more starting the next day. She had four open shifts a week. Of my other openers, one has another job, one can only work weekends, and one is in school. That leaves me.

Long story short, the other girls have stepped up and I only have to cover 2 of the extra shifts. If it works out, I'll go back to only doing paperwork on Monday, and have two mid-week shifts. It's not as bad as it could be, or as bad as it has been. I was, however, feeling very put out. I told my boss yesterday I felt like the universe looked over my shoulder at my lofty plans and said, "OK, kid, let's see how bad you want this." And if that's how it wants to play, game on.

As soon as I said it, my whole attitude changed. I shifted from victim to warrior.

It's going to get done. I'm going to move hell and high water to finish it this year. I might have to make adjustments, but even if I miss the mark, I'll still have more done this year than I did last year.

How bad do I want it? Game on.

February wrap up

I'm home from Destin, and I'm tired, but I wanted to check in with the numbers from last month.

February:

Words: 16,802
Hours: 35
I was in the office every day except 1. I'm counting every day I was gone as a work day since I was at a writers retreat and not goofing off. OK, there was a little goofing off.

YTD:
Words: 28,338
Hours: 54

Small improvements

There isn't much to report here that y'all don't already know. The weather has been almost scary warm. It's great, I love it, but it's February. It's not supposed to be 70*. (It was yesterday. Today is in the 60s.) It looks like it dips closer to normal next weekend. I hope we get another really good, decently long cold snap or we're going to be overrun with bugs this summer. For right now, though, we have windows open and kitties basking. It sounds like there's a street festival outside.

We bought a new pantry cabinet yesterday and installed it in the mudroom. I have a lot of the food we had scattered in other places in it now. I have a little more to bring up from downstairs. I'll get to that later today. It's starting to look like a grown-up house. Now if I could keep the clutter under control. Isn't that the issue with everyone?

I also bought a Fitbit Blaze. I started using it yesterday. I like that it vibrates if I don't have enough steps in an hour. I hope it will keep me more active. The only drawbacks I've noticed are it's not waterproof, and it has the time but not the date. I mostly need that feature at work, so I'll wear my old Fitbit one and watch there. For no more than I'm working lately, it's a good fix.

The church plant is moving forward. We think we're going to name in Grace And Peace Church. We're leaving Presbyterian off because our market research showed that it translates as "white church" in the non-white neighborhoods, and "conservative church" in the liberal white neighborhoods. This area is strange. And it's so peopley. I dream of the day when we can move to the outside edge of the wifi. By the time we're able to do that, they'll have something better than wifi. The whole world will be under a wifi blanket or something crazy like that.

Creatively, I've been plugging along. I've written every day this month except one. Some days I've only gotten a couple hundred words, but those count. I missed one blog, but 3 out of 4 is better than I was doing. I leave Thursday for the writers' retreat in Destin. Not that I'm going to escape cold weather while I'm there, but I do want to be more intentional about walking on the beach. It's a mental marathon, and I haven't been in tip-top shape in that department lately.

I did figure out this week why Chloe bugs me so much when I'm trying to work. She's been hungry. Ryan and Tess gobble up the dry food, and she wasn't getting enough to eat. I put a small bowl of food in the office. I feed her in the morning and refill it if I need to when I'm working, but she only gets a tiny handful at a time because it took Ryan about 10 minutes to find it. I'm keeping a closer eye on the feeder downstairs, and considering going back to towers like Jean uses. I changed to the one that dispenses set amounts of food at certain times (like Jean's outdoor feeders) because the vet suggested it. I have one tiny, skinny cat, and one big fatso with one in between, and I was trying to figure out how to keep Ryan's weight down while keeping Chloe's up. I don't see that the feeder has made any difference, and towers won't take batteries, so I don't have to worry about it dying when we're away. Not that it has, but it could. We can't have that.

So that's about it here. I think it's time to refill my coffee and go finish the pantry. Or maybe I'll sit here for a few minutes and watch Chloe play with the blueberry I dropped the other day. Y'all have a good week!

Second Weekend in February

I want to say things are going better, but that'd be a fib. Munchkin has strep, I'm still fighting sinus crud, still blue, still not writing, still not sleeping well.

I'm sewing though, and mostly offline. So that's something.

{{hugs}}

Tam's January (and such)

Holidays always screw me up, mentally and emotionally, but I survived okay. I made a friend in our local writing group and we've been meeting up every week or so for breakfast or something, which is nice. She's working on her novel's query package and our conversations mostly center around that.

The blues have been bad though. Crippling. A lot is isolation and talking with Susan about her book helps, but...

Honestly, I've been depressed since July. I haven't written any new fiction at all, in part because of the writers group. They meet Saturday (short pieces and full novels) and Wednesday (short pieces only) and I had a few chapters of a women's fiction thing (it's not even violent or gory!) up for critique at the last Wed meeting I attended. Only two - out of ten - people read them: the group organizer and a guy who always wants to pick my brain about getting published (and he had nothing to say except he didn't read that kind of fiction but it seemed pretty good).

This wasn't the first time my stuff's been blown off. Most of the Wed group write life stories or memories of when they were newlyweds or other 'creative non-fiction', so maybe they just don't like fiction, I dunno. I'd always consistently critiqued them. Between life, Bill and Laura's work schedules, the munchkin, and my own depression, writing (let alone attending Wednesday meetings) is often difficult to do, and if no one except Meredith is gonna even read it, what's the point of going?

The Saturday group is better, so that's the only one I go to now, the one time I month that I can, but I'm not writing, therefore I'm not submitting. Everyone else is, but not me.

My agent refused to represent the Lars graphic novel because of its ultra-violent content and Ghoulie's perpetually on hold due to the artist backing out. Between those two walls, I feel like the graphic novel path's been closed to me. I've contacted comic artist groups, a buddy hooked me up with a comic artist who knows lots of other comic artists, and my hairdresser has tried to get her BFF's college-aged, artistic son to contact me about it. I'm even offering to pay cash for story spreads to submit to major comic publishers (most writers want free art for no-money-up-front royalty splits after the sale) with the intent to sell us as a team, in addition to their full royalty split. I just want to see samples of their work and if it'll fit, work out a price for three spreads. No one's expressed interest yet, which is confusing since I'm offering to PAY. I've had several of my Dubric readers read it and they've all loved it. I don't know what else to do to get it out there since comic publishers won't look at scripts without an artist on board.

Sigh. So until I find an artist willing to make sample pages and take my money, everything graphic novel related is stuck.

MORGAN'S RUN has been at its last possible publisher stop since mid May. I really wish they'd make a decision so I can move forward. Somehow. My agent nudges them and they tell her soon, but it's still sitting there, possibly unread.

SPORE has reverted back to me and, with its year and a half as a Samhain title, it sold a whopping 306 copies. I purchased 85 of those for bookfairs and SFF conventions.  One of my Iowa writer buddies wants to release it for me in print, digital, and audio. He and my agent have been dickering out the details. Hopefully something there will be decided soon. There's another SPORE thing in the works I'm not allowed to talk about publicly, but I can talk about it privately. Trying not to get my hopes up.

I was planning on asking for the rights back for the Dubric books so I can get audio going and maybe write a graphic novel (not that I could find an artist, ha ha) and put them out myself or through my local friend, but Bantam decided out of the blue to do a BookBub special on Ghosts. It sold more in 10 days than my entire annual threshold amount. I have to wait two more years for the sales average to drop low enough for me to ask for the rights back. Whee. So THAT'S all on hold.

I guess that's about it. Nothing here's moving except my five year old granddaughter, who moves quite a lot. Laura's home much of tomorrow and I hope I get to sew.

{{hugs}}

January's journeys

In January, I went to medical appointments. Looking back over my calendar, you would think I had my own parking space at the doctors. Well, maybe not. But it was a rough month. Had several medical problems that all surfaced at the same time, ending with a spine trouble that is still going on. Sigh. However, making progress on that front, prognosis is good, so let's move on.

As for writing, I've been working on Floozy Comes Back, which will be my first book this year. My plan is to publish around the first of June. So far, that seems a doable deadline. It's not as easy as the first Floozy because it's new material, expanded old material, new cartoons, etc. Here's the current cover. Of course, it will probably change.

I also posted each week in my personal blog, 51313 Harbor Street, and my book blog, Stephen B. Bagley's Books (which needs a new name). I continued to help Kelley Benson with his Kelley Benson's Books (which also needs a new name.) And I helped my friend Kathy Akins start her blog, Paws and Reflect (which is a clever name for her collection of devotionals and essays). I also did a three videos about marketing and creativity in general for a new writing group.

I also started looking at Murder by the Mile and working on redoing the outline so that the story flows better as well presenting a good mystery. I'm not sure there will be fourth book in this series so I want to leave the characters in a good place just in case. Still...I thought of a new way to kill a person the other day. It won't fit in this book....

Well, that's my January. I'm hoping to do more writing in February if my body will let me...and I've believing it will. Hope you have a great, productive month!

Jean's January

January had it's ups and downs, but overall, I feel upbeat about it.  Here's a progress update:

True Health is coming along well. I took weight, measurements, and before pictures for both DDP Yoga and Young Living. I'm participating in Young Living's Slique in 60 Challenge. I lost 6.7 pounds in January using the methods I outlined at the beginning of the month. I'm also taking Young Living's CitraSlim supplement -- it helps me "skip afternoon snacks and feel victorious!" It came out with the new products introduced at convention last June, and I tried it, didn't lose and weight, and thought ho-hum. BUT. I did notice that I didn't feel my afternoon hunger pangs when I took it. I hadn't stopped snacking because that was a habit. Once I realized I wasn't feeling hungry in the afternoon, I re-evaluated the product and committed to using it in conjunction with mentally reminding myself (I skip afternoon snacks and feel victorious!), and I've been pleased with the results I'm achieving. I'm finding it helpful. We were in Walmart last week in a mid-afternoon, I noticed my favorite potato chips (hard to find -- crosscut black pepper and cheddar) on the shelf,  and I wasn't hungry for them. Wasn't even interested in them (usually I stock up on six to ten bags when I find them somewhere). I was pleasantly astonished.

DDP Yoga participation came to a grinding halt when I cracked my kneecap mid-month. Being in an immobilizer brace is not conducive to yoga. Essentially, I spend ten weeks in the brace before I can resume normal activities.

Travel. I paid for my Alaskan cruise. Mr. L and I completed the trip to Mississippi to buy antique auto parts and helped my brother celebrate his 49th birthday -- first time in 15 years he's had any family nearby to celebrate with him. His girlfriend's family cooked burgers and dogs and made the most amazing homemade french fries for dinner. This month, I buy the Auto Train tickets for October.

Writing. I wrote a couple of paragraphs for Granite Hill and revised a scene for Geeks. Better than nothing, but not by much.

Cats. Daisy has her second set of kitten shots and her rabies shot. She's due for her third set of kitten shots on February 20th, and I'll schedule her for spaying the first week of April. She forgave me a little quicker after this vet visit than after the last one. Daisy now weighs 3.12 pounds. She's really quite a sweetheart, and I'm hoping because we've been able to interact with her at a younger age that she'll be better socialized than Nick (who isn't too bad). Poor Zelda. She wants to be a social kitty, but she doesn't quite know how.

I opened the door to the dining room yesterday, and Sneaky disappeared. Later in the day, Mr. L found her on sleeping on my bed, and that's where she spent the night last night. Ajax found her this morning, and they had an altercation. Sneaky remains upstairs for now, and I'm happy to see her out, but I think she's hiding under my bed now, so we'll see how this goes.

Sapphire sometimes sleeps by my feet. I'm amused that I can rub her through the blankets with my foot, but I can't pet her. Oh, well, this is a step in the right direction for her.

Tarzan seems to be recovering well from a bladder infection -- he's more snuggly than usual. He and Lady go in for their annual exams and vaccinations later this month -- probably when I take Daisy in for her shots.

As for Harmony, I was complaining to myself how things are most harmonious when we're doing what Mr. L wants to do. Then I realized my idea of a good time is staying home, so I do get to do what I want to do most of the time. The mental adjustment put me in a pretty good place, and I'm ready for February!

January wrap-up

January isn't a productive month for me, but this one was better than most. When I packed for the rendezvous, I was intentional about setting things up to be able to work at least part of the time. I made sure to take a table and chairs for inside my tent, packed the wireless keyboard for my iPad and took extra batteries. I downloaded Scrivener and made sure my WIP and my Excel tracking sheet were available before I left. I even asked Eric to send me back to the tent after breakfast, even if I insisted on washing breakfast dishes. (The view from our "kitchen" is very peaceful.)

In short, I used up all my efficiency for the month before January 10.

It did work, sort of. I wrote 5 days out of 14. Not much on the face of it, but usually I spend an hour or two the whole time with a journal and my lap desk, so I'm calling it a win.

The external batteries turned out to be a partial fail. We had a small one and a big one. If I'd been the only one using them, it might have been all right, but Eric was charging with them, too. I think we got one charge for each of our phones and iPads before we used up all the juice. The next morning I took it up to the charging station at the front gate and left it for a couple of hours. I went back to check on it, and it was 8%. The lesson learned there is to take multiple small batteries because they charge faster.

Scrivener was a mixed bag. It was great to have all my info with me and not have to copy/paste stuff when I got home. The transition between home and away was seamless, thanks to Dropbox. There were a couple downsides. Because I didn't take a mouse, I couldn't highlight text to count words. I got around it by noting total word count in Excel before I started writing, and subtracting it from the new total when I was done. Also, because I saved to dropbox and not to a hard drive, I had to be online for at least the start (to retrieve everything) and the end (to save new work). That meant using battery time for the iPad and my phone since I used my personal hotspot to access the internet. 

Maybe next year, if I do the batteries right, I'll write more. I might not. We do a lot of visiting since we camp with Dad and Linda, and we have friends we only see there. This year I did a lot of sewing, and there was the one day out with Dad to go to the flea market. 

Even apart from the rendezvous, though, it was a fairly productive month. I think word count was about 20% higher than the last 4 Januarys. I didn't start tracking the amount of time I spend at the desk until the middle of last year, so I have no figures for that.

January 2017 numbers:

Words: 11,536

Days in office: 16

Hours in office: 19.25*

CPE: "Take Off Your Pants" by Libbie Hawker

Finished projects: The story titled "Looking For Help" until I find the real title

Blog posts: 4

Newsletters: 0

Not great on paper, but it's probably the best starting point than I've had. How'd January go for you guys?

Happy February! 

*This is only writing time and doesn't reflect time spent reading craft books or listening to podcasts. I should probably record that time, too, but honestly some days I'm doing well just to remember to clock in when I sit down. 

A plan for the year

It's been a strange past two weeks. Well, maybe not strange. Just different enough to keep me busy and unable to focus on my plan for the year.

Today I celebrated my last 2016 Christmas with my roomie and his family. It was a great, busy day. My house still needs to be put back into shape--and I don't want to think about my kitchen--but I wanted to take a moment or two to discuss my plans for 2017 before the first week ends in a few minutes.

Here are my goals:

Health
-- Get new glasses.
-- Get my diabetes under control.
-- Exercise daily.
-- Take my meds regularly.
-- Control my meals.
-- See a dentist regularly.

Life
-- Read at least two books a month.
-- Continue learning about art.
-- Finish one of the Great Courses.
-- Keep my budget under control.

Writing
-- Post on the Stephen B. Bagley's Books blog at least once a week for the entire year.
-- Post on the 51313 Harbor Street blog at least once a week for the entire year.
-- Publish "Floozy Comes Back."
-- Publish "Murder by the Mile."
-- Query three magazines for articles or essays.
-- Publish on Kindle six short stories.
-- Submit six short stories to traditional markets.
-- Start a new book.
-- Writing group meeting once a month (weather permitting).

It's going to be a busy year! But a wonderful, productive year. I  hope yours is, too!

Welcome to 2017

My overarching goal is Harmony. Harmony with myself, others, and Mr. L. I find myself feeling too unsettled in my interactions with others. Can you believe people have the audacity to disagree with me sometimes? Go figure! I want to relax, laugh, enjoy, and meditate more. I want to achieve inner peace and be a better, more attentive listener. I'd really like to recognize fun when I see it and be able to participate in it. That may be asking too much.

I have four sub-goals that tie in with Harmony. The first is True Health. This encompasses physical as well as emotional health. I'm proactively planning in LoseIt! this year. As we all know, if I enter what I plan to have for dinner, I can more effectively choose what I eat earlier in the day to stay on target. I have adopted three mantras which as helping me feel better about this whole process.

• I eat before 8 pm. This has been enormously satisfying. I felt challenged for the first couple weeks when I implemented it earlier in the year, but now, it's a no-brainer. My body and my subconscious have wholeheartedly accepted this as fact and rarely if ever question it anymore.
• I move in the morning. This applies to yard work, walking, riding the recumbent bike, or DDPYoga or P90. Whatever it is I'm going to do, I get started in the morning, so I feel good about getting my moving taken care of early. 
• I skip afternoon snacks and feel victorious! This is my latest implementation. It's rapidly becoming incorporated into my daily routine. My two big problem areas used to be snacking after 8 pm and feeling voracious hunger mid-afternoon. I have conquered both of these, and believe it will pay huge dividends in 2017.

 Next, we have Travel. Mr. L and I want to complete traveling on all major Amtrak routes by 2025. This is more likely to happen by 2018. We have a lot of travel planned for 2017, beginning with Grand Tour 2017 in May and continues with taking the AutoTrain to Florida after the Hershey trip in October. I'll also be visiting Mom and Dad again this year. And we're excited that they are renting an RV in April and heading south to see my brother, west to see us, and north to see my other brother and his family. They're bringing my mom's sister with them, so it should be a fun visit with them.

No plan would be complete without Writing. I have revision and new writing planned. I have struggled in the past with this, and I need to devise a positive affirmation for writing and revising time to ensure I Get 'Er Done. Still working on that.

Lastly, I have decided decluttering is not a useful term and have revised it to Prioritization. I am prioritizing the things in my life and making decisions accordingly. We want to clear the ranch of our possessions and sell it before the year is over. We need to travel to Mississippi to purchase some auto parts solely for resale at the Giddings Swap Meet. We plan to have a yard sale again this year. I need to maintain the house, and I need to decide what household contents need to stay and which ones can go and in what manner.

I have not mentioned the cats. I guess they fit in Harmony and Prioritization? The cats are a priority in my life, and they will be staying. I continue to work with all of them to ensure they are healthy and happy.