Well Hey There!

I know it's been a long while! 

So here we are on the precipice of a new year!  I am meh about the changing of the years. I will make no "resolutions". Usually I try to think about goals, but I don't seem to care about that right now, so...

What's been going on, you ask? 

Well, the normal insanity. We had a lovely and very full Christmas. So many good days surrounding the holiday. It was a lot of fun, but I am ready to be a hermit this weekend! Ha! We're not participating in any hoopla for New Year's and I'm glad. 

Our calendar is already full for the beginning of the year, February especially. Well, January, too. March is so far quieter. And we just booked our trip to the beach for the next month. We were priced out of our usual location, but we managed to find a super cute little house for just the two of us. Super excited for that. 

I did finish the book and I am hours away from finally sending it off for critique. Then I need to do a critique for a friend. Then I will decide what I'm working on next. I have a retreat in February, and I'd like to start something new either right before or while there, but we'll see. I feel like I've been in editing purgatory for a long time, and well, I guess I have. 

I'm going to try to get back here again on the regular, but you know how that goes!

Behave! 

Taking a Break...

I'm going to be taking a personal break from social media for a bit, so no worries if you don't see me around. 

I'll be at Ashcombe's for their Holiday Open House on November 11th from 10-4pm. I'll only be there Saturday, but if you can only go Sunday, you totally should. 

That's the last of my scheduled booksignings for this year. I'll be back at Ashcombe's in February for our annual event, which is right before I go on a long awaited writing retreat. 

If I don't get back here before the holidays, (I'm pretty sure I will be) I hope yours are happy and satisfying. 

Behave! 

Want To Hear Something Gross?

Of course you do! 

So, Friday night I took my water cup to bed like always. 

I get up during the night to use the restroom, return, and grab my cup for a drink. 

I feel something in my mouth. The first thing I thought of was a piece of plastic from the ice bag. I pull it out, mush my fingers on it, drop it, and crawl back into bed. 

Then...

I smell it. 

Stink Bug. 

I turn my flashlight on and look at the floor. 

Yes. A stink bug. 

In my mouth. 

So freaking gross. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the night in abject horror. And every time I think about it, I get grossed out. And I haven't taken my water cup to bed since. 

Gross!

Behave!

Time is Flying...

Yeah, I know I slipped off the face of the earth again... 

Turns out, there isn't much to say, even though we've been insanely busy. 

The car is still in the shop.

Editing is going slow. 

The day job is busy. 

I'm exhausted and overwhelmed with all kinds of "stuff". 

There's not much worthy of the blog.

Well, K3 has a birthday coming up super quick. It's almost Trick or Treat for our town. I do enjoy Trick or Treat night. I believe K1 and J are bringing the boys over to home base at our house, which should be a blast. 

The holidays are coming. The cool thing is that the day after Thanksgiving is now a paid holiday at the day job. That's wonderful! 

I don't know what Thanksgiving is going to look like yet. Technically, it's my turn to host the family, but I'm not sure I'm up for it. I've given myself two weeks to decide for sure. 

And that's all I have...

Behave!

Wait...What? October!

Yeah, I know it's been October for almost two weeks now... But still...

Really not much has been happening around the old homestead. Well, beyond the usual and a few not so usual. 

That Man and I got ourselves a good case of some kind of crud. It was yucky and inconvenient and we both felt like crap. We're still dealing with the last vestiges of it, but overall the mending happened fairly quickly. 

I finished Sector Two! Well, it needs edited, but the pages are all written (or should I say "rewritten" since I had to redo the entire last half of it). I'm very far behind on the goals I had to get everything on deck edited, but there's not much I can do about it at this point. Sector Two has been hanging over my head for far too long, so it became priority to finish it. I'll start editing it tonight, and hopefully have it to my critique partners very soon. I'm itching to write something new, but I have all of this editing to do... but we'll see what happens. 

To much outrage (not from me), they cancelled our town's Halloween Parade. Something about the streets being unsafe because of delayed construction. I do enjoy the parade and seeing the people who come to hang out, but I didn't miss the chaos. So it was fine for me, but man, some people in our town were having a full blown conniption over it. 

Other than that... grandkid wrangling, soccer games, house stuff, car stuff. Our one car has been at the shop for five weeks now. They were waiting for a part, but no one is quite sure what's wrong with it. It's frustrating and I'm wary of what the bill is going to be, but it is what it is right now. 

This has been both an exceptionally long and also very short work week. The days have been far busier than normal, or maybe this is just the new norm as I continue to find things that are now my job to handle. I don't mind. I like being busy, but I don't like knowing there are things I don't know about. If that made sense. Ha! 

That is all!

Behave! 

Weekend Wrap Up!

Oh Sunday! How I love and loathe you so! 

It's been a quiet weekend around here and continues to be so. Thank goodness. I absolutely love the fact that it's been pouring! This is exactly what we needed both for ourselves and for the plants! 

We had no plans, except for the "must do" normal things. And the rain prevented the outside things. The inside things are getting done and they're not much. We hit the store on our way home from work on Friday so we wouldn't have to venture out over the weekend, which turned out to be a great thing. 

So we've napped, watched movies, napped some more, made some soup, and generally have been taking it super easy. Which, see above, is exactly what we needed after the past few months of running around like crazy people. 

I finished the critique that took me far too long to do, and have been writing my own stuff. I'm just a few thousand words from the end. And then I need to edit. Again. I won't lie about being disappointed that my plan didn't work out, but it is what it is. This book...this book is a real *ss kicker. But I'm happy with how things are going with it, so that's something. I still have three books to edit after this one, so I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing next...

That's all for now. I've gotten a good start on words so far, and now I think it's nap time! 

Behave! 

Mid-September Already!

Sorry for the silence! It's been a super busy few weeks and I haven't gotten anything done writing-wise. 

Our niece got married last Saturday. It was a beautiful day and we had an awesome time. The niece was in my care since from newborn until elementary school. She's like one of our own and we still have a very close relationship. We were included in pretty much every aspect of the wedding planning, down to That Man performing the ceremony. The K's were all in the wedding, including the boys spouses, so that was pretty cool. 

We spent the week before the wedding at my sister's helping to get ready. Lordy, it was a lot of work! We hauled our RV to my sister's side yard and while we worked our butts off, we did have a blast. Though physically, we're still recovering. Ha! 

Between family and close friends, it was definitely a day full of smiles and laughs. Friends who moved across country over five years ago came in for the wedding and it was so awesome to see them. We caught up and laughed. It was like no time had passed.  

We got home on Monday after helping to disassemble the wedding stuff. Well, there was still a lot to do when we left, but it was more manageable. Back to the day job on Tuesday, which was insane and still is. 

Hopefully I can get back to writing now! 

That is all! 

Behave!

End of August

Can you believe that? I know! 

Things have been pretty insane around here--both at the day job and on the Homefront. Which should explain my absence. Well, that and the fact that my computer is being a grump. 

I have barely touched my edits recently. Or a critique I need to do for a friend. Okay, I've touched them repeatedly, but it feels like I'm going backwards. By the time I get to an hour where I can concentrate, I'm barely keeping my eyes open and feel pretty ineffective. Plus, see above regarding the computer. 

I don't want to have to buy a new one, but I might not have a choice soon. It ticks me off because I love my laptop, but she's so slow and doesn't want to keep up with what I need to do. 

On the author front, I don't have an event until near Christmas, which is fine due to how crazy things have been. But the writing retreat I go to with my friends every February is already booked, so that's pretty awesome. The winery signing is not happening next year. Well, it is, but not for me. It is what it is, and it was a pretty far drive for very little return. 

I'm really hoping to get this book edited and turned in very soon. And then I have to edit two loosely related books, and a Christmas themed book. God only knows how long that's going to take me! Ha! I had wanted to have all of that done by now, but I hadn't expected to have to rewrite the ending of Sector Two and I didn't count on things being this busy. 

Ultimately, I would love to be able to take the entire summer and the month of December off from writing, and I guess I could, but time off doesn't do anything to move me forward at this point, so...

I woke up Sunday morning with a swollen nose right where my glasses sit. I didn't get injured or anything. It still hurts and this morning it was even more swollen. It's annoying. My research said that it's probably my sinuses, and I think I can agree with that. I was splitting wood on Saturday and most of it was starting to decompose pretty badly, so I guess it's likely to be some kind of allergy or irritant from that. It can go away anytime now though! 

And that's all of the crap I have for you today!

Behave!

Feel Good Friday!

Yay Friday!

It has been a super long week! The day job has been insane and intense. Thankfully today was quieter.

So let's hit the list:

1. Finding the blinds that fit our old house windows and for a reasonable price. For years, no one had our size unless we wanted to pay eighty bucks for one window. But they're back! We replaced four of them. So far. There are still six windows upstairs that need them, but it's a start. 

2. Scoring two chairs to go with my rehabbed outside table. Well, I don't have them yet, but they're coming and they look cool. 

3. Dinner with K5 this week. She's a hoot and we had a blast. Mexican for dinner, thrift store shopping, a little time with our dog, and then ice cream on the way home. 

4. Sitting on the boys so Mom could go to teacher orientation and a meeting. They both make me laugh. Mr. B got a hair cut from Pappy, and Little B and I played Playdough. 

5. Today being Friday! Though I have some errands to run tonight, but I'm not planning on cooking dinner, so there's that. 

6. Minimal progress on my edits this week, but I'm so close to being done. 

7. Sleeping in on the horizon. 

That's about it! 

Behave! 

Catching Up...

Yeah, I suck, but I had good reasons!

This was going to be a Moaning Monday post about my aching body, but since there was nothing leading up to it, we'll get to that in a minute. 

So here's what's going on...

1. Life After released! If you bought it, thank you so much! I appreciate it! If you're so inclined, a review on Amazon would be so helpful! And if you bought it on Kindle Unlimited, just know, I only get paid per pages read. (I only mention that because I've talked to several people recently who had no idea that's how it works.)

2. The fence is 99% up! Last week was brutal with fence work every single night, late dinners, and not much else done. Hence the hurting body, multiple bruises, blisters, and scratches. The only thing left is some trim work, and one more solar post light. (Because apparently we can't count) It is awesome and I love it. Our backyard feels like a little oasis. Especially since...

3. We managed to get a great deal weeded yesterday and rearranged a bunch of stuff. I don't ever remember weeds growing this fast before. 

4. I found a glass-topped table in the neighbor's trash. No cracked or broken glass, just some rust. Brought it into the yard, cleaned it up, painted it, and it's amazing. I love it. Granted, it won't last too long, but that's okay. It has another chance at life and my solar lights look amazing on it. 

5. That Man's family reunion was good. We had a smaller crowd, but it was still really good. Good food, lots of laughs, and good conversation. Our niece and nephew are a lot of fun to hang out with, and the littles are adorable. And it was a gorgeous day. 

6. When everyone left and we finally got cleaned up, it was just That Man and I overnight at our creek. It was lovely to sit by the fire and the creek just the two of us. We were in bed early and slept really well thanks to an epic thunderstorm. 

7. Home early. See #2. Weeding... all of the weeds...also hence the hurting body.

This week should be calmer. Let's hope. 

That is all! 

Behave! 

Feel Good Friday

Yay Friday! 

It has been a week around here! And not a good one. 

But here we are at the end of the week!

Here's the list:

1. My book being up for preorder on Amazon. It's $2.99. Into the Fire is also Free starting today (I think). 

2. Finally moving forward on fence replacement. There's still a huge worry that the lightning struck tree in the neighbor's yard will fall, but we cannot wait any longer. Our old fence is falling down and looks like absolute crap. We ordered and picked up the material, and are in the prepping stage now. I don't know if I'll be able to walk come Monday. Ha! 

3. Hanging with the grandboys twice this week. Little Man wore us out the second time. He's so cute though and says the funniest stuff. He was watering flowers and after spraying the hose, he'd say "that took some damage". Even though there was no damage.

4. Cooler days this week. That was much appreciated. And I appreciated being able to drive my Jeep with the top down most of the week. 

5. My kid and The Boy coming to hang out this weekend. I miss her. 

And that is all. 

Behave! 

Moaning Monday...Well, Not This Week

I know. I know. I was all set to bring Moaning Monday back, but instead...

I HAVE A RELEASE DATE! 

So, we'll get back to Moaning Monday next week. 

August 9th! 

It should be up for preorder by Wednesday. (I have no idea on pricing at this point, but it's an ebook and it's shorter, so?)

Also, if you haven't gotten an e copy of Into the Fire, it will be free starting Saturday in anticipation of Life After's release. 

And that is all...

Behave!

Feel Good Friday on Saturday

Man, has it been hot here! Holy crap! I hate it so much. 

Here's the list:

1. The "Not a Bridal Shower" was good. I was intensely uncomfortable with the poison and I swear if one more person told me "what I should do" I was going to run away screaming. It was good to see people I haven't seen in a while, though I didn't get to spent much time with the people I wanted to (even though I have seen them in a while. lol). I took anti-itch stuff and went to bed before most people even left because I couldn't people anymore. 

2. Getting the final edits done for Life After. I will have a release date very soon, and the good news is, Into the Fire is going to be free in anticipation of Life After's release. 

3. I still totally dig Life After's story. 

4. Editing being done all week. Sector Two. It's going well. I hope to be done with this story really soon. And then I can move onto editing the next one. lol

5. Our neighbor is probably selling her house. That's sad. She adopted a pre-teen and he's becoming ginormous, plus the end neighbors are total jerks to her, so I get it, but... it's super sad. 

6. Yeah. I think I'm going to bring back Moaning Monday... I mean...

7. Trying to sleep in the morning didn't work, but I am hopeful for tomorrow.

8. Grandboy's coming for dinner tomorrow! Excited about that even though it means I have to vacuum. lol

That is all! 

Behave!

And Here It Is...

Waiting on a release date, but here is the cover for Life After...(Isn't it pretty?)

When Mia realizes she's the only person left in the world, her first thought is that she's free. After years of abuse by her mother and an accident that makes her financially responsible for her comatose mother's care, Mia embraces her new life.

Though the solitude was intended to torture Mia, it is the best thing that ever happened to her. She spends the time healing while trying to figure out who she is and what she wants. Before long, she realizes she's not truly alone in her paradise. John claims to be her guardian but insists she needs to go back to her old life. How could that possibly be good?

Together they strive to figure out why Mia's life was manipulated and who is responsible. Their journey uncovers deceit and evil—and their love for each other.

I will let you know as soon as I have a release date. This one is only available digitally, but I hope you'll still check it out. 

Behave!

Feel Good Friday!

Well Hello Friday! Thank you for arriving!

It's been a long week! 

The poison on my legs and arms is still raging. I keep getting new spots, but some of the first ones are healing. It's irritating. I am so sick of being so itchy! 

Anyway! Here's the list! 

1. Friday! Yeah. It's been a long week, but I think I said that already. Ha! 

2. A little bit of sleeping in tomorrow. I hope. 

3. The "Not a bridal shower" for our niece this weekend. Should be fun and it'll be nice to see people we haven't seen for a while. 

4. Getting editing done. I'm making pretty good progress! 

5. Still waiting on the final cover for Life After, but it should be soon! 

6. Driving my Jeep. 

7. Air conditioning. 

I used to do this thing called "Moaning Monday" here. I might have to bring that back just so I can complain about the heat, poison ivy, and all manner of irritants! 

That is all! 

Behave! 

Tuesday Check In

It's still hot here. I'm over it. So over it. 

On Saturday, our daughter-in-law stopped in with the grandboys. The intent was a quick bathroom trip. Except they didn't leave for over three hours. Ha! The boys "washed" my car, soaked themselves in the hose, ate every snack we had, bugged Pappy, rearranged a bunch of stuff, and turned on the fire place in the living room. And while waiting for their clothes to dry, their mom helped me remake our bed with the sheets that had been in the dryer. During that time, Little B turned on the alarm clock I never use, and turned our air conditioner down. So we woke at midnight to a blaring alarm and wondering why it was so danged hot in our room. Ha! 

To back up before that, we did hit the weeds first off. My legs are now covered in very itchy poison. I showered as soon as I got out of the patch, but the bumps came anyway. I think it's a mix of poison and spider bites because it doesn't all look the same, even though it itches the same. Ha! At one time in my life, I was immune to poison. Obviously that has changed. 

I got to see the first draft of the cover for Life After. It is so gorgeous and I can't wait to share it with you when I can! I should get that and a release date soon!

Oh, so the shopping trip to the mega mega mall got changed to local stores. Turned out for the best considering the two hour drive and expensive tolls. We did well, with all but one bridesmaid finding her dress. My sister also found hers, and so did I even though I hadn't even planned on looking. We had a lot of fun though--complete obnoxiousness and laughter. Lunch was fun, too. We were home at a decent time and it was freaking hot outside. 

This weekend is more wedding stuff. It's coming up fast! 

That's all I have! 

Behave!

Feel Good Friday

Yay Friday! What a long week! Except it's freaking Hades hot outside! 

Even with our air conditioner on high and a huge fan blowing, sleeping was miserable last night. And my office is super hot too. I've had my fan blowing since a little before seven am, but it's just hot! 

Anyway. Let's get to the list...

1. Not cooking tonight. The thought of heating up the kitchen isn't setting well with either of us, so we're opting for whatever we find at the grocery store that doesn't require turning on the stove. The microwave is out, too, since we don't have one anymore. It turned into a fire breathing monster and had to go. As in, it started catching everything we put inside on fire. I like my open counter top too much to think about getting a new one right now, though eventually we will.  

2. Even though we'll be doing yard work in the early morning hours, a day without any obligations tomorrow. I do plan on sleeping in a bit, but we want to hit the large weeds before it gets too hot. And then we can spend the rest of the day being bums. 

3. The bridesmaids shopping trip to the mega-mega mall on Sunday. I'm equal parts excited and equal parts anxious. I got roped into driving, which I didn't want to do, but besides that, the place is huge. And there are many dresses that need to be procured. 

4. Getting book stuff done. I've worked on Sector Two almost every night this week. I'm making decent progress and I think I know where it needs to go. 

5. Hopefully having a cover and a release date for Life After within the next few days. 

6. Getting caught up at the day job. It took me until this morning. But that's okay. 

And that is all! 

Stay cool and...

Behave!

Time Marches...

 Sorry for the silence! I've been off doing fun things with fun people! 

We left on the 1st for our trip to the mid-West. That Man and I and my brother and sister-in-law. The trip there (the very long drive) was equal parts traffic/time frustrating and hysterical. 

We arrived and immediately went into caretaker mode. Our uncle is still in rehab for his hip and our aunt definitely has her hands full. I feel like we barely got to spend any time with our uncle, even though we did. But his physical therapy comes first. He's making great progress and that's what matters. We had good dinners, good conversation, dancing in the kitchen, lots of working, lots of running around (though we didn't get to do much of the stuff we wanted to), cute dogs, and lots of ticks. The week went fast. 

Oh yeah, the ticks. They were crazy. Luckily, they don't have a lot of Lyme there, so that wasn't a concern. But they were freaking everywhere. Gross. Also, That Man and I both got bit by a Brown Recluse spider. Also Gross. Well, not the same spider. Obviously. Ha! Mine happened while I was in bed. Who knows where he got his. Both of our bites are better. Though I was pretty worried about mine. I had a circle around it and everything. 

It was a good trip--fun, but not too relaxing. Which is whatever. We did what needed to be done. Being there was important and I don't regret anything. 

Came back to insanely high grass, no dead plants, a dog with a hot spot (her first one ever, but it's getting better) and to be shunned by her even though she was very well taken care of and had a good time, a super insane day job that has not calmed down yet, and still no word on Life After's cover or release date. But I am back to editing, so that's good. 

And now we go back to our regularly scheduled insanity. 

That is all. 

Behave!

Feel Good Friday

Whoa! Friday already! It's been a crazy week! 

I don't think I'm going to do a list this week...

That Man went on his annual fishing trip last weekend. He definitely needed the break and had a great time. It was the first time I've been all alone for that long and it was weird, but good. I had three nights at home, and then I headed up to my sister's to keep an eye on their pup for the weekend while she and my niece went to a music festival. It rained pretty much the whole time.

I was going great guns on my edits. And then I wasn't. I got to the part I wrote during the beginning of the pandemic and was like...wtf? I ended up cutting almost half of the book. Some of what I cut can be added back in where it actually belongs, but for now, I am writing over. It was a big kick in the gut and while I did get many new words written, my weekend did not turn out as I'd hoped writing-wise. But it'll get there. 

One of the funny things was sleeping. Okay, me and two dogs in a queen bed. Already tight considering my dog is pretty large. My sister's dog is medium-sized. They're both bed, covers, and pillow hogs. I ended up sleeping in my sister's bed due to my niece telling me I was a fool if I didn't experience the "purple" mattress. It was super comfy and my hip didn't hurt when I woke up, which it always does when I sleep in the guest room. So there's that. Anyway. They have an automatic light in their room. I knew there was a way to turn it off, but I couldn't figure it out. So, Friday night, every time one of the dogs moved, or I moved significantly, the ceiling light blared on. It was ridiculous. Thankfully she called me Saturday morning to tell me how to shut it off. Saturday night was better, but I still didn't sleep all that great (see above. Two dogs.)

It was still good. I ate ice cream for dinner one night and binged cooking shows on the TV when I wasn't pulling my hair out about the book or going crazy because the dogs would bark at every tiny noise. 

K5 turned 13 yesterday. We picked her up to take her to dinner and give her presents on Wednesday and had a blast. She helped me pick out shorts, and got herself a dress with some of her birthday money. We went to dinner at her favorite pizza shop, hit the playground for a few minutes, and then stopped for Italian ice before taking her home. She cracks me up!

Lot's of stuff coming up, so forgive me if I'm absent. We were going through our calendar to try to find a weekend to do our fence replacement and we ended up just laughing, because there is literally something every single weekend. Oy! 

No news on Life After's release yet. And no cover to share yet. Hopefully soon! 

That is all...

Behave! 

Mid-Week Check In...

Well, Howdy!

Today is the first day of summer! Yeah...whatever. Ha!

Backing up the weekend...

The grandboys were a hoot on Friday. Little B told his mom that he was never leaving Nana and Pappy's house. Mr. B wanted to stay, too. We had to promise a weekend soon! It helped that we had absolutely no food in the house that they would eat. Ha!  

We did get to see K3 and A on Saturday. We had a nice dinner and hung out for a bit. That Man and I were exhausted after a day spent working on his truck and taking care of house stuff. They left early and we went to bed. 

Sunday we got up early and drive about an hour away to take a ride on the oldest ferry around. I had no idea what we were doing. That Man said we were going on a trail ride. He'd throw little hints out, but I was not picking up what he was throwing down. We he drove onto this rickety boat on the river, I thought we were going to die. It was awesomely cool though. We stopped for breakfast and then went home to work on the truck some more. It was a nice weekend! 

The uncle is doing okay. He's at a rehab facility (or so I think?) to help him get his mobility back. We're hoping our upcoming visit motivates him to do what he needs to do. He told me he doesn't want to be the "flat tire" while we're there, so fingers crossed. 

Still no info on a release date for "Life After". I will let you know as soon as I do! 

And that is all...

Behave!