BitterSuites

eBay Sales: None

#MilWordy Update: 121,259 words (5,458 words/day to complete)

One of the things I have always loved to do is write letters. Back in ye olden times before email was a glimmer in the programmers eye, people communicated across the world via the written word.

Back when I was a youngling, I had friends and family who lived in different states, or even countries. I had penpals with friends that I’d kept from when I shared a school with them. Friends who’s parents got posted to different countries. I moved a lot as a kid.

One thing I always did was write to those friends I’d decided to keep tight.

I have been too scatterbrained to properly keep up with that for a year or so. I will say that they don’t always write to me. But I do owe at least one letter to one of my friends and I am embarrassed that it’s taken so long for me to respond. I have actually added writing letters into my to do lists. And I’m going to try to schedule them regularly, so that I don’t have to really think about it. It’s just on my list to do and I’ll set aside time for it.

I have gotten to the point in my life that if I lose my external brains (AKA my planner and my phone) I will be a sad wreck. And then I will write down everything I can remember onto note pads.

Part of my new planner routine this year has been designating certain days for certain activities. While I don’t think that I could blast through all of my letter writing in one day. I could perhaps designate a day of the week and then a week of the month for each penpal. That could work.

Okay, I’m off to do that. I’ll follow up on whether or not this has worked in a few months. Well, I say that now, but I may or may not remember to do that unless I put it into my planner. LOL. So, we’ll start there. Then, I’ll update my calendar to include writing letters throughout the year. I mean, I’ve added writing out Christmas and Halloween cards already. This is just more of the same.

I feel like such a nerd sometimes.

• Goal: Finish 2 books & 12 short stories — 3 short story complete. 1 in edits. Started a new one. I just can’t help myself.
• Goal: Keep a journal, even if it’s only one line per day — Nope. I did not fix this last night. Will today be different?
• Goal: Take a photo every day and make myself a book at the end of the year.
• Goal: Complete MilWordy. — *maybe????*
• Goal: Blog every day. — Back at it. Two days in a row! Woot!
• Goal: Modified eBay goal: List $200-$300 per day

eBay Sales: Vintage Waltons figures, Baby Dino figure, 3 books

#MilWordy Update: 119,583 words (5,435 words/day to complete)

To follow up on my half-finished thought about weekends. I have, historically, not really taken weekends. In essence, my weekends have always been filled with something else. Working at a side job, fixing things, writing, building businesses. All of that. My weekends have always been *productive* time for me.

We’re often told “Time is Money.” And “Pursue Your Passions”. And this has left me with a very odd dilemma and a sub-conscious belief that if I am just doing something because I enjoy it, not because it has some sort of financial gain, I am wasting my time and losing money.

Think about that for a moment. This niggling little invisible script – to steal a phrase – has been playing in the back of my mind. It tells me that I can pursue my painting and collage work, as long as I put it out for sale. I can work on my writing, as long as it’s something I can publish. I can work on my photography as long as I put it up on Redbubble or Etsy or a stock photo site. I can go thrifting as long as I resell it.

That is pernicious and turns every activity into a job. Rather than finding the fun in the job and making it bearable, I have instead, taken the fun and made it a job.

I have come to the conclusion that I have to trick my hind-brain back into having fun. And relaxing. There are things I strictly do not do anymore.

I do not write book reviews anymore because that ruins books for me. Book challenges are fine. Making a list of the books I own or the books I’ve read is fine. Searching out rare books or first editions, is fine. Those are mine. (And I can afford to spend a little extra dosh on fixing up my latest find of 3 1897 books because it’s not about selling them, it’s about having a pretty book for my shelf with some pages that I have been searching for for a very long time.) Hmmm… they are out of copyright… no! Bad business brain. Back into your corner.

I don’t knit for other people unless it’s a gift. I’m a slow knitter anyway, but the scarves I make either go to charity, as gifts, or for my own use. I will never craft with needles and yarn for money. (My wrists thank me.)

I do not work on Sundays. Sundays are for goofing off. Spend time walking outside. Take a bubble bath. Read a book. Craft something I want to work on – like a diamond painting. Watch a movie. Or stream something. Even if I do go back to running additional businesses at the same time as my day job, I cannot go back to working on every Sunday. And if I am going to work a Sunday, I cannot work on a Saturday. And we all know that this is probably doomed to failure, but I’m trying it anyway.

This is a slow reclamation of my energy and time. There are things that happen on weekends that are business related. But in general, they are things I enjoy doing.

I have seen a huge upswing in my productivity and my mood since I’ve started doing this. It has helped me refocus and become better at what I do choose to do. And hey, I’ve actually started reading books again. Though, I didn’t finish many this month, I did read and that’s a step forward.

Americans are predisposed to not taking their vacation time, even when they have it. I have never believed in that. I have always used every scrap of my leave time and will continue to do so. But I forgot that weekends were also supposed to be leave time.

People died for me to have weekends. Striking workers were shot so that I could have a weekend.

Then, I worked retail as my fist jobs. What are weekends? Weekends are days that you can get called into work and you have the highests chance of actually making commission or hitting your sales goals. And “part-time” retail can be anything but when you’re working at three different retail jobs. (College was not fun.)

That screwed up my brain. It’s been a long few months trying to pry back away from that. And I am trying to set reasonable goals for myself.

I will need a lot of concentration to keep from backsliding on this.

• Goal: Finish 2 books & 12 short stories — 3 short story complete. 1 in edits. So, I broke and counted just the stories I have open — that’s 53 including novels and short stories. Maybe I can actually get one of them finished tonight.
• Goal: Keep a journal, even if it’s only one line per day — Nope. Let’s see if I can fix that tonight too.
• Goal: Take a photo every day and make myself a book at the end of the year. — a few days behind, but I’m catching up. This has been going very well in general. I think the end of year book will be really interesting.
• Goal: Complete MilWordy. — *gulps*
• Goal: Blog every day. — Back at it.
• Goal: 15 eBay listings a day while I’m not working elsewhere — I have been doing pretty well at managing the $200 per day in listings, but some of that is really reliant on some of the more obscure and more expensive items that I need to get listed. I don’t have too many of those, but it’s possible to get to the price without much more than listing books. Today I was listing trading cards. The other day I managed it with nothing more than books, so it is doable. And if I start to see the actual sell off of items, that will mean I’ve done something right.

eBay Sales: A pair of vintage baby shoes, 9 books, 1 doll dress, 2 pen sets, 1 McDonald’s Toy, 5 Figurines, 2 Patterns, 5 packs of postcard protectors, 1 vintage AVON package, 180 Mid-century Modern Prints, 1 pin, 1 vintage plush, 1 screenplay, 1 craft tool, 1 purse, 1 Mid-century Modern lighter, 1 corningware handle, 1 painting on wood, and 1 hobnail vase

#MilWordy Update: 117,108 words (5,351 words/day to complete)

Well, it’s been awhile now hasn’t it? Let’s see.

The auction went well. We only had a couple of pieces which didn’t sell, and only four no shows. We’re already set up for the next one which will launch shortly. I am also starting to figure out the legalities of taking consignments. Because, hey, why not. I’ve even started working on a web-site and such for the business I launched to officially run these things. And I’ve got a schedule all the way out to September already. (And yes, a few of the items will be purchased for resale along the way. But for right now? Almost all of it is coming out of our personal collections and downsizing.)

Had a lovely score of a first edition today. It will turn me a nice profit as soon as I get it listed. Also found some lovely glassware at a local auction house and picked that up for listing on ebay as well. I’ve been trying to do the calculations to figure out how much I need to bring in to run on the day to day. My savings will only last so long and I’ve been on leave w/o pay for two months now. It’s not sustainable.

I’m also starting to explore the idea of writing fellowships and grants. I’ll need to start applying for some of those. If I can cobble together a creative career, I’d prefer that to going back into retail work. (Though, believe you me, the kind of retail where you only see customers when they come to pick up their stuff is far superior to having to work a store-front.)

Does anyone know of an antiques mall in the DMV that has booths available? (Caveat — please not Maryland. I don’t want to have to do the Maryland tax reporting. *shudders*) I’ve not found anything yet, but I’ve only started looking. It would be nice to be able to snap up some of the deals I’ve been finding, but storage is an issue. As is only getting a payout about once a month. And I don’t think doing more than one auction a month is sustainable for me.

I’ve been starting to poke a few other creative projects as well as looking for some freelance opportunities. One of the things I’m starting to do is reviews of casual phone games. It’s… sort of fun? I get an excuse to play games and I get to write something.

As for MilWordy, I am sooooooooooo far behind right now. And I flaked out on all of the write-ins that were available to me this week. I think either the time shift or the weather has been playing havoc with my brain. (Aside — I kept typing “Havok” and wondering why the spellcheck told me that was wrong. For those of you who don’t know Havok is Cyclops’ brother in the X-Men series. That is all. Ask me about the word “method” and the Highlander franchise someday to watch my face wrinkle into a grimace.) However, I did start a new short story last night because of a creature I couldn’t get out of my head during the night. I’ve figured out what it looks like and its habitat. I have a protagonist. Now I just need the rest of the plot. I still love my opening lines.

So Ko-fi is a thing that exists. And I have one. It’s sort of like Patreon, but the money goes directly into the PayPal account of the creator. Right now, I’ve got a goal to fund an audio editor to help turn my books into audio books. I’m going to be doing the reading. Unless it turns out horrible. In which case, I shall abandon ship on the idea until I have a little more dosh free.

• Goal: Finish 2 books & 12 short stories — 3 short story complete. 1 in edits. So many in draft form that I refuse to count them.
• Goal: Keep a journal, even if it’s only one line per day — *nervous laughter*
• Goal: Take a photo every day and make myself a book at the end of the year. — a few days behind, but I’m catching up. This has been going very well in general. I think the end of year book will be really interesting.
• Goal: Complete MilWordy. — *gulps*
• Goal: Blog every day. — Now this was a failure. But I’m back at it today. If nothing else it makes me put something down and eases me closer to my MilWordy goals.
• Goal: 15 eBay listings a day while I’m not working elsewhere — I am taking weekends off (future blog discussion on this concept, I think). And I’ve moved to a dollar amount goal instead. There’s a lot of math that goes into everything, but for right now, my goal is $200/day 5 days/week.

eBay Sales: none

#MilWordy Update: 115,006 words (4,733 words/day to complete)

Dragged my father on a roam around the manmade lake in the center of our housing complex. It was a nice enough walk, but the path is seriously damaged by roots and frost heaving. It needs repair pretty badly, but I doubt that’s going to happen this year. I haven’t heard anything about it from the HOA. (As if the HOA sends out actual newsletters or something. I don’t remember the last time I even saw a sign for a meeting. I mean, Zoom is a thing that they could use….)

Met a sweetheart of a puppy today. Tiny thing that was smaller than the last cat we had, but a sweetie that was very friendly and its humans who were nice. I vaguely recognize them, but not enough to actually strike up a conversation beyond, “cute puppy.”

I took several pictures around the lake and I think that brings me closer to my goal of a picture for every day of the year. It’s the principle of taking more pictures, rather than the number of pictures that I’m pushing myself about. Some of them are “art shots.” At least one of them I think will end up being the cover of a book. Not sure which book, but it seems appropriate to use my own photos for that. Even if I throw them through a few filters and modify them that way.

The auction that I’ve been working on is finally over. Now we need to organize everything by person and by time that they’re coming. Only a handful of items didn’t sell and I’ve got plans for them. A couple will go in the box lot for next time and a couple will end up on eBay because I think I can grab a few dollars that way.

In a random eBay whine — since they’ve gone to managed payments, the fees seem to be steeper. One simply cannot make money on $0.99 items at all anymore. There’s a $0.30 fee per transaction + a percentage of the sale that includes *shipping*. And so, when I charge accurate shipping and don’t pocket a few dollars there, I lose money. Seriously, eBay, way to live up to the Fee-Bay title you used to have. I haven’t hung out on the Trust and Security group for awhile, but I might have to wander my way back into the bulletin boards.

I think that’s about it. I’m a little over-caffeinated and eager to see invoices pop up as paid on the auction site so that I can get things ready for Sunday’s pick-ups.

• Goal: Finish 2 books & 12 short stories — 3 short story complete. 1 in edits.
• Goal: Keep a journal, even if it’s only one line per day — I need to catch up with this
• Goal: Take a photo every day and make myself a book at the end of the year. — a few days behind, but I’m catching up.
• Goal: Complete MilWordy. — Progress, but the goal seems just out of reach for every day.
• Goal: Blog every day. — Third in a row, can we make it 4?
• Goal: 15 eBay listings a day while I’m not working elsewhere — got 12 done today by 1500. That’s pretty darn close. I’m pleased with it.