No Excuses

I really don't have any excuse for not blogging other than I simply wasn't in the mood.

Well, okay, there might be more to this story than that. There are a couple of reasons that I didn't blog.

Number one reason--

Reading. I started reading the Enchanted, Inc. series by Shanna Swendson. These books are what I would call a light paranormal romantic comedy. They are simply too much fun! I'm really enjoying these stories.

I'm currently reading this last one in the series. So I should be back in the swing of things soon.  

#2-- Yardwork. Though I haven't been the one to do the actual planting, I have been whacking back some of my crazy plants and pulling those seedlings that seem to find their way into the mulch. We've had to replace several perennials, one tree, transplant roses and mini mondo grass that had started creeping into the beds, and this doesn't include the numerous flats of annuals that were planted in the beds and the numerous pots on the deck. There's a lot of work in keeping the Oasis de Golla functioning!

#3-- Crocheting  I have been crocheting, but I took a break last week to try my hand at crochet thread and a size seven needle. It took hours for my hands to recover from this. I used the same pattern as the afghan I'm currently crocheting, for the simple reason that I finally have it memorized! This would be a 'doily' that many people have hidden away in their linen closets. Let me just say that if you have one of these, or anything crocheted with thread, TREASURE IT!

#4 --Mother's Day weekend. All I did was laze around in the pool and watch my hubby work in the yard. It was SWEET!

#5 -- Goldie. Yesterday, the one goldfish that we have in the pond had a traumatic experience. I'm surmising what happened because I didn't see it. Our house is close to a wetlands area, which means Great Blue Heron tend to do fly-bys. And yes, I have scared them from our yard before. 

 After I took my daughter to school, I came home and went outside to replace a tube on the Kreeepy Krawly (automatic pool cleaner). It wasn't until I went to get the knife from the buckets we leave out there that I noticed the goldfish out of the pond. 

 Five feet away from the pond, which means he didn't jump out. This is a big goldfish, which explains why the heron didn't just gobble him down. He's about 16 inches long, and has lived in our pond for many, many years. 

 There's a story behind this story on the goldfish. He was one of three that we rescued over ten years ago! One of my hubby's co-workers had a Great Dane who enjoyed flipping the fish out of her pond, so she decided to give the fish away. The other two simply died from old age, which give you an idea why this fish is so large and so tough.

 Anyway, when I picked up the fish--it gasped. So I slid it into the pond since I had no idea how long it had been out. It lay there. The koi went up to him and bumped him with their noses, but he just lay there. After about 15 minutes--I was working on the pool cleaner, remember?--I figured he was dead and decided to take him out and put him in a Ziploc bag in the freezer until trash day next Monday. When I picked him up out of the water--his mouth kept moving. Oh, crap! He was still alive! I slide him back into the pond. 

 Goldie is still swimming around this morning. He's not as wonky as he was yesterday, but he is alive. 

 He's missing part of his tail, some scales on either side of his body, and he has a dark mark at the base of his skull where I think the heron jabbed him to paralyze him before grabbing him and taking him out of the pond to eat. 

 Goldfish are tough, tough critters! 

#6 Writing --after I posted the short story on my blog, I wrote a rough draft of another short, which ended up about 1500 words. I need to layer it a bit more and I'd like to see if I can sell this one to a magazine. And then yesterday, I started writing on DRAGON. I managed almost 800 words before I had to pick my daughter up from school. I'm in the writing mode again. 

Next week is finals week for my daughter, so things will be a little crazy with changed school hours, plus other stuff going on. 

This summer will also be difficult to blog since the kiddo will be swimming two-a-days, which means she swims from 6 AM until 8:30 AM and then 3:45 in the afternoon. The morning swim will be across town, so I'll be doing my morning walk at that park, which means I might not be blogging regularly. 

That't it for today. I have to get dressed to take the kiddo to school and then I have to take Mom to the hairdresser. . . and then the grocery story, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, it's errand day!

Later, Peeps! 

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo means National Novel Writing Month.

It started many, many years ago when a small group of people challenged each other to write a novel in a month. If you want the dets, go here.

The 50,000-word challenge has expanded globally that also includes young writers. Young writers don't have to write a 50,000 word novel, but instead a 5,000 word story.

The goal is to write a new 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

Trust me, it can be done, but if you must work outside of writing, then plan on putting your social life on hold for the month of November.

Simply breaking down the required words for the month you in the range of 1650 words per day.

In other words *snork*, about 5-8 pages depending on font. My typical page in TNR is about 333 words, give or take, since narrative paragraphs tend to have more words than dialogue banter. But that's my normal page.

Now, I'm not officially doing NaNo this year, but I would like to write 50K on DRAGON which will put me in the 68K range for this middle grade novel.

I would also finish it at 68K. I want to do this for my daughter, since she wanted to know what happened after TROLL ends.

The reason I can't officially claim the NaNo challenge is because this story is already started. I'm 18K into it, which is about 60 pages, and I've edited 40 page to get back into the story. I also have a complete synopsis, which is a great guideline for where I need to go with this particular story.

So in my roundabout method I'm trying to tell you that I will keep blogging, but don't expect the blogs my typical well thought out blogs . . . *HA!*

Okay, I couldn't keep a straight face on that one!

If I'm really into the story, or life gets in the way, and you are tired of popping over to my blog to see if there's something new on it, then sign up on my blog page for you to get a new blog notice in your email box.

I don't have a list of who signs up, so I can't take your email info to spam you . . . I don't think blogger can either.

Oh, well, whatever.

I need to get back to cleaning the house, so I can write this week.

Later, Peeps!

Five Years of Blogging

Wow! I have been at this blogging thing for almost 5 FIVE years! Hard to believe, isn't it?

When I started blogging in 2008, I talked about writing stuff. Then I realized that there are far more, better equipped, people who have taken on this topic. So the writing blogs are whenever I feel like it, or I hit a point in my story I want to chat about, or various other writing topics that get my goat . . . not my literal goat, well, maybe a 'literal' goat, because I'm going to be writing a chapter that involves 'goatee's' or kids if you will. I like baby goats, but as every writer knows you have to kill your babies . . .

Sorry, I digressed. Personally, I think I was funnier in my older blogs, but I'm just a crotchety old woman now.

I tried to blog three days a week, but I would hit a wall about what to blog about. Then I came up with the topical blogs--Weighty Wednesday and Foodie Friday. I still have enough blather for the WW blogs, mainly because of the constant challenge that is the focus in my life. But the FF has fallen by the wayside simply because my daughter swims four days a week, during what would be considered dinner time. Periodically, I'll post a recipe, but most of the recipes I do make are the ones that I've already posted.

So when 2013 started, I decided not to worry about blogs and just write what I feel when I wake up in the morning.

--and so far, it seems to work. I think I only pre-wrote one blog since Jan. 1, and that one had pictures that I needed to incorporate. And I believe I have blogged at least five days a week, as I still try not to blog on the weekends.

And I managed to blog about bloggetry, not Daylight Saving Time--which has totally messed me up this year! Couldn't sleep at all last night. The only benefit to it being lighter later in the evening is the fact that I can now walk while the kidlet is swimming and not crochet. Besides my knuckle needs to un-bruise where I managed to pummel it with my crochet hook on the last afghan.

And I managed not to talk about blatant self promotion--I made the mistake of joining a group--which I'll soon leave--called Coffee Time BookLovers--It should be called Coffee Time Book Pimpers. I totally understand the need to promote your self-published books, but you are pimping to other pimps. These types of groups aren't reaching to readers. It's full of other writers who don't care about your '50 shades of grey' mixed with a Desperate Housewife book, just trying to get other people to buy their story. The problem with self-promotion is the audience. Finding readers to promote to is tough, and finding readers who actually want to listen to your self promo are basically non-existent. I've stopped reading numerous blogs because that is all they do--book promotions. BORING!

And I managed not to talk about Fishy--yes, he needs a name. Fishy is a black and blue fish--cichlid, I think--that hubs brought home from work. The only time this fish comes out of his hidey-hole is when I feed him. This morning, I turned on the light and Fishy was out and about. Of course, he eventually hid, but I hope he'll start coming out more. It's been 3 months that he's lived on my kitchen counter, you would think he would have adjusted already.

Well, I killed enough time this morning blogging. It's time to feed the dog, feed the kid, and drive the kidlet to school before I go on my walkies.

Later, Peeps!