Yeah, it’s New Year’s Eve here still, but it’s time for an update, I think. Please excuse my tone; I’m feeling really down at the moment. 2024 was painful, in more ways than one. I had surgery in March to remove all the reproductive plumbing (growing fibroids had filled the unused spaces and were clinging on the outside.) Then I loom knitted two really nice afghans within four months. One was a commission from my mother-in-law and the other was…
In about twelve hours it will be official: Hubby and I will be well on our way to becoming empty-nesters. The Girl and Son #2 have been occupying the other two bedrooms since our move here in 2000. (Son #1 moved out for university and never looked back. He now returns for short visits.) They are both adults, well past the age that Hubby and I were when we married. A few months ago, the Girl rescued a mama cat…
Uh, yeah, it’s been more than five months since I last updated. *winces in embarrassment* It’s not that I haven’t come around lately; I’ve been keeping an eye on traffic and updating behind the scenes stuff as needed. If you pop in every so often, you’ll see I’ve been changing out the homepage’s background seasonally. I really haven’t had much to say, I guess. NaNoWriMo kicked my butt. Did the ML (Municipal Liaison or regional volunteer) gig again–this after my…
I try to keep this blog tilted toward writing and not personal things, even though it started out as personal way back when. But… things have been hard for about a month and a half now and I just have to share it somewhere. First off, my mom lost her battle with Alzheimer’s and end-stage renal failure on September 16th. She died at my sister’s house, attended by hospice nurses, and with my dad, her husband of just 60 years,…
Well, I’m a hair over 45K in word count now. The story? I have no idea where it’s going. I have another murder, I killed another secondary character (brings the body count to three). Sherlock Holmes is a bad guy, so is Watson (unless he’s totally clueless in the Nigel Bruce fashion), Moriarty is at least Chaotic Neutral, and Henry Jekyll has yet to meet his Mr. Hyde. My main character’s boyfriend is having blood-tinged visions and the Door has…
Uh … yeah. I’ve done some more fiddling with the plot, removing the entire inn sequence—though the inn itself may return in a later chapter. Some of the characters have had their functions and family relationships reworked and I’ve rewritten what is sort of a prologue, even though I understand that many agents don’t like prologues at all. I just feel it’s really important to the plot for this information to come out at the beginning, especially as it’s so…
Yes, I made it to 50K (total of 50,257 actually) on my NaNoNovel, Wight Knights. No, as usual I didn’t actually finish the thing. I will admit to doing some cut and paste from my 2010 novel, Tales of the Spruce Moose, so yes, I cheated a little. Much of what I cut and pasted needed editing anyway to fit my current storyline, which has morphed somewhat from last year’s series of short stories. Some of what I counted (about…
And a happy Father’s day for all the dads I know… including my own, my FIL, and my beloved Hubby! As the title states, the Girl took the second of her College Board tests – the ACT – yesterday. She said it wasn’t quite as hard as the SAT and she was glad she didn’t have to write an essay. Hubby had Friday and Saturday off as his regular days off, and spent much of yesterday digging post holes for…
Well, the Hubby is getting better, if you don’t count his cold. Two of the cats, Tika and Cotton, have been to see the vet (finally!) and now have been dewormed and given shots for their itchy skin (and flea treatment, as well). Boy #2 has been busy. He won his second basketball game 16-10 and was very happy. He also got a special t-shirt for scoring Advanced on the state achievement test last spring (one of five in his school to…
We’ve hardly had any trick or treaters come to our door tonight and we bought lots and lots of candy to give out. I’m afraid that the kids will be taking chocolate in their lunches for the next two weeks! For the first time, we let the boys go out trick or treating. Boy #1 went out dressed like a mailman (surprise, surprise!) and Boy #2 went as a cowboy, wearing the hat and guns he got in New Mexico. …