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!
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Saturday, February 11, 2017
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}}
I'm sewing though, and mostly offline. So that's something.
{{hugs}}
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
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}}
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!
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!
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.