11-8-2020
eBay Sales: alarm clock, action figure, earrings, computer disk
Craft Projects Completed: 0
#MilWordy Update: 87,169 words (3074 word/day to complete)
#Nano Update: 9042/50,000 (1781 words/day to complete on time)
I was taking my very relaxing Sunday bath, when I looked at the clock and thought, “Oh! It’s almost 745. I need to get out so that my father can go to bed.”
Thing is, it turns out that the clock in the bathroom with the good tub and not just a shower, has not been set back for Daylight Savings. So, bugger. I got out an hour earlier than I needed to. I feel cheated.
On the other hand, I’ve been able to decide that I don’t like the brand of bath bombs I’ve got right now and I need to go back to the other ones. This brand has too many essential oils in it and it leaves me feeling as though I have a slight film on my skin. Ah, well. I will work through the stash of them I have and then move on to the previous brand.
My rent is going up, in order to try to stymie my father’s insistence that we need to refinance the house again. Seriously, he’ll be dead. I’ll have no choice but to sell it, and the likelihood that that will end up with me being upside right on the property is low. So, seriously, he needs to let me take on something more of the bills. Okay, that’s just a general whine at this point, so we’ll see how things go when Mom and I put our minds to the task of actually getting a functional budget going. Enveloping is the way to go at this point, I think.
I’m trying to find all the little things I’ve already picked up for people’s Christmas presents and get them packed and ready to ship. “Grandmother Express” is not going to be a functional model this year. I’ll have to ship directly to the different families. Luckily, my cousins and I have never actually exchanged gifts, and the aunts & uncles have quietly agreed that 18 is the cut off date for giving gifts to the kids. And yes, I’m sorry for talking about Christmas before we’ve even hit Thanksgiving, but it’s important to get these things sorted before the shipping madness of the holiday hits the USPS.
Well, while I have an extra hour I wasn’t planning on this evening, I’d best go work on Nano.
TTFN – Ta Ta For Now!
Filed under Life in Random
11-4-2020
eBay Update: lot of mugs
Craft Projects completed: 0 Progress made on a mixed-media piece
#MilWordy Update: 83,699 words (3,044 words/day to complete)
#Nano update: 5800/50,000
There’s an elephant in the room and I don’t plan to address it.
So, let’s talk Nano and eBay and submerging myself in the practice and the love of writing. I’m getting to know a new character and it’s so much fun because she is so very different from me. And I am getting to know, if not the antagonist, the instigators of some things. I’m seeing where the character and the magic system are going to intersect in this book.
The magic in this universe is small and not public. It interacts differently with different people and they don’t compare notes, so no one is noticing that it exists anymore than someone today would believe you if you started talking about a book who unwrites itself or using a cantrip to fix a torn suitcoat.
People don’t talk about magic or miracles because they don’t want a handful of pills and a nice self-hugging jacket. Or if they do, it’s only with a small handful of people that they trust and they know will not commit them. So magic gets missed or ignored or assigned to coincidence.
It opens up the questions: What sort of wonders are you ignoring? What miracle happened that you didn’t notice?
Filed under Life in Random
11-1-2020
eBay Sales: None
Craft Projects Complete: 0 — but do I count integrating a piece of furniture here?
#MilWordy Update: 80,046 words (3036 words/day to complete on time)
#NanoWriMo Update: 2420 words on Changeling Sunrise
I have actually finished my Nano words for the day, but I’m still behind for my MilWordy words. I still need another good 600 words before I’m done for that goal.
If you’ve never heard of NanoWriMo it’s goal is this: write 50,000 words in one month on a new project. Some folks do novels. (Like me.) Some do short story collections. Some use it for screenplays. No matter. The goal is the same.
Are these the best words you’ll ever write? Maybe. Maybe not. But one thing is true, if you don’t set an outrageous goal, you’ll never know. And if you do work at the goal, even if you don’t achieve it, you’ll be further ahead than if you never started at all.
If you want to join in, most of the events will be virtual this year. NanoWriMo.org is the happening website and you’ll be able to find folks in your general environment to work with, cheer on, and generally find a community with. The writer friends I’ve made with Nano are now some of my best friends.
I’ll talk more about Nano on and off through the month, but I do encourage you to give it a try. Maybe you’ll find out something about yourself you never knew.
A crazy goal. A crazy month. And lots of fun.
Off to sprint and finish off my goals for today.
TTFN!
Filed under Life in Random
Books Read in October 2020
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Short Stories
- Ten Tales Calculated to Give You Shudders – ed. Ross R Olney
Comics
Long-Form Journalism
Filed under Uncategorized
Books to Read October 2020
Death at Wenwater Court – Carola Dunn
Death Comes to Pemberley – P D James
Book Yourself Solid – Michael Port
Looking for Jake – China Mieville
Dust and Shadow – Lyndsay Faye
The Coming Plague – Laurie Garrett
On Combat – Dave Grossman
American Vampire Vol. 1 – Scott Snyder
Bad Pharma – Ben Goldacre
Consider the Fork – Bee Wilson
Filed under Books
10-30-20
eBay Sales: piece of Fandom stuff
Craft Projects Completed: None and No progress on any of the open projects
#MilWordy Update: 77,243 (3,016 words/day to complete)
The entire day was slow and attenuated.
I tried Death Wish Cold Coffee. My heart can’t take that level of caffeine. It was good, mind, but I think I need to save it for, say, The Night of Writing Dangerously or something. Any time I really, really need to be awake at three a.m. or something.
Lit incense for the first time in a long while and I’m trying to remember why I haven’t done it more often. The fan is moving the smoke around the room as though it’s wrapping the room in scent. It’s lovely and soft like a hug.
I’ve gotten myself some new writing software. It’s for timelines and world-building and keeping track of characters. I’m planning to use it more for universes rather than stories. I’ve got several series in the works and I need something to hold onto all the details of the worlds.
One of the teams at work dressed up as MIBs. It was amusing. It was costume day at work. I was planning to wear the Evil Queen dress I’d picked up for Halloween, but the sleeves were just so painfully itchy that I couldn’t even handle wearing it long enough to get out of the house. I ended up in one of my Halloween dresses instead. It was nice to see the site getting into the actual spirit of spirit week. However, I did not participate in the photographs. There are just some things that I avoid when I can. Group photos is one of them. No one in my immediate family circle really enjoys those. However, I have been forcing selfies on my parents when we’re on vacation. Family fun will be enforced, damn it!
Well, I’m going to sign off with the exhortation to VOTE. VOTE. VOTE. Time to make your voice heard. You want change? You want things to stay the same? Now is when you decide. Here. At the polls. VOTE.
Filed under Life in Random
10-29-2020
eBay sales: 4 decorative plates
Craft Projects completed: 0
#MilWordy Update: 77,090 words (3006 words/day to complete on time)
Another sort of bland day.
I miss Shabu Shabu. The restaurant near me is still closed for obvious reasons. And obviously, there’s no way of doing delivery of that experience. Ah well. That’s life, I suppose. We adapt. And maybe, maybe, I get the nerve to try making it on my own at home.
I am contemplating running a partial “estate” auction in the next month or so. I just need to collect everything. Catalog and get it ready for the site and get the lots set up. And decide if I want to actually try that in November. What with Nano and all. *wrinkles nose* I don’t know if that’s actually wise or not.
Ah well, there’s time to make that decision.
Talk to you all tomorrow. Night!
Filed under Life in Random
10-28-20
eBay sales: doll, figurine, and deck of cards
Craft Projects Completed: 0. No progress at all.
#MilWordy Update: 74,944 words (3,013 words/day to complete)
It’s been a day of just meetings. Lots and lots of meetings and hauling my butt all around the compound today. It’s been long and pretty boring, to be honest.
Though I did have a wonderful lunch of homemade chicken curry.
That’s about it. Night y’all.
Filed under Life in Random