my books

Typing With Wet Paws: Bye Bye April Edition

annabowling 2 Comments

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Super good week this week. Aunt Anna is thinking about doing a bonus post this weekend, or maybe a video, to make up for missing Wednesday. That turned into an impromptu family day. No regrets. She is very much getting back into the groove of things, and that means I have to be at top of my mews game, to make sure we are doing the best that we can.

greatest hits picture of me, as we are still working on the pictures thing

First of all, my big box is still awesome, and this week, we got a new, smaller box that I m still figuring out. One of Aunt Anna’s writer friends sent her a fun package, and I have a couple of days to have fun with this new box before the humans break it down. One of the great things about humans settling into an apartment is that boxes and bags arrive and I get to inspect all packaging. It’s pretty sweet. I don’t like when the humans break the packing material with the really big bubbles, though. That stuff is scary. Humans need to take care of that outside.

Another big thing is that I love my cat bed again. Aunt Anna and Uncle Rheuben put the cat bed on top of the trunk at the foot of their bed, and yesterday, when we were all doing our own things, I hopped into it for a nap. They stopped what they were doing to point out that I was indeed in the bed. No pictures, though. Slackers. I will have to get them on that ASAP. I’m cute.

Photo by Cristian Rojas on Pexels.com

On the Aunt Anna front, I am happy to report a good writing week. Aunt Anna and Aunt Melva are on track to be done with this draft of Drama King on time. Aunt Anna’s heart is going pitty pat on that one, and Her Last First Kiss is back on the agenda. Historical romance writer friends, please be warned; she will be prone to unprompted blathering about the direction of the second half of the book. Tell her she’s pretty, give her tea, and back away slowly. If in doubt, add stationery.

Now that Aunt Anna is back in the historical romance saddle, that does mean she’s probably going to power right through the rest of the edits for A Heart Most Errant. There’s a bunch of other historicals banging on the door of her brain. Pirates, more mediecals, a whole lot of Georgians, and some English Civil War/Restoration people. Good thing I have scratchy thing near the kitchen table, which is where Aunt Anna does most of her glowy box stuff these days.

Speaking of scratchy thing, I love it. I did get a new one, and it came with catnip, and it is the good stuff. I do scratch it, and I like to loaf on it, because I exactly fit, and slow blink at Aunt Anna while she works. I can also keep an eye/ear on whoever is in the bathroom. I don’t know why the humans insist on going in there alone, when feline supervision is clearly a need.

Onto the Goodreads challenge. This week, Aunt Anna has hit the 50% mark. She has read 45 books out of her goal of 90, and 16 books ahead of schedule. I am encouraging her to do even more reading or listening to audiobooks, by throwing in a free kitty cuddle with every reading session. I even throw in motor purrs. I think that’s a good incentive.

Another part of that is her book of books, aka TBR notebook, which still needs a picture. If you’d like a word picture, hop on over to Buried Under Romance and read about that. Aunt Anna is a list maker from way back, so I am not surprised that keeping lists of this sort of thing takes a lot of the time she would normally spend thinking about what she’d like to read next out of the picture. I will remind her to take pictures and/or make a video about it, because it is super neat. It’s also very comfortable, because of course I have sat on it. I sit on a lot of stuff. Which reminds me, I better get to that.

Headbonks!

Calico got to go!

The Weekend That Wasn’t

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I had big plans for this weekend, to get current-cufrrent on the revisions to Drama King, make a dent in A Heart Most Errant edits remaining, and get my planniing done early, preferably Saturday. Here is what I did instead:

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

That’s pretty much it. Fell asleep Friday night, dragged myself out of bed Saturday long enough to write my Buried Under Romance post, dragged self back to bed. Woke in late afternoon when Housemate wafted food before me. Ate. Went back to sleep until the wee hours. Offended self with own stench, so late night ablutions, and then, you guessed it, back to sleep. There was a bagel at some point. Sunday was marginally better, and now I feel fine. What happened? Who knows?

Whatever, the week is now before me, I didn’t do what I wanted to do for the weekend, but apparently what my body needed (see feeling fine as stated above) so I guess that is still a win. Onward. I woke this morning at a normal hour, alert, one shower and some caffiene away from getting down to business. Self-flagellation is not very productive (or at all productive, for that matter) so my intention is to bypass it. Did a slapdash planning session this morning, and now on to the next item on the list, this blog.

I did manage to read one book, I think on Friday, so that’s partial credit for reading. Zero progress on my to be viewed list, which irks me, but small potatoes as far as regrets go. While I do like having background noise when I write, I don’t put on anything TV or movie related while i write, because I am going to want to look at the screen, so that is for later. Either ambient sounds (coffee shop, rain, etc) or critical analyses of books, preferably that I have not read nor intend to read. I am flirting with the idea of listening to audiobooks in languages I do not speak. Human voices, but a much reduced chance of getting distracted with the story or information. We’ll see.

Right now, it looks like Tuesdays or Thursdays are going to be good for AnnaLog videos. I have a couple more tags in mind, and a flip through my TBR notebook, which was honestly fun to make, and is indeed helping me keep my reading goals on track. Will this translate into a similar approach to a writing notebook? I’m willing to give it a try.

Time to wind this to a close and go for the low hanging fruit of the day, fleshing out some Drama King scenes. I’m looking forward to that. How does your week look?

Typing With Wet Paws: I Thought This Was Spring Edition

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Tails up ,Storm Troopers. I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We are in spring, right? The calendar says April. Maybe I don’t h ave a lot to compare this to, as the oldest I can possibly be is three, but snow in April? Is that a thing? Aunt Anna was in fleece yesterday, and we snuggled under a blanket while she read and wrote longhand, and Uncle Rheuben made some delicious smelling people food (that I can sniff but not eat, because people food is for people and I a a kitty.) I want to sit in ithe open window and chitter at birds. I hope that willl happen soon.

Now is still pretty cool, though. This week, Aunt Anna and Aunt Melva had their first interview on Zoomer Times, which was pretty exciting. I do not make an appearance in this one, but maybe next time as there will be a part two next month. What will they ask abou next time? Your guess is as good as mine, but the chance of it being fun is pretty high.

Aunt Anna also got a bunch of issues of the Zoomer Times magazine, and they are all copies of the issue in which Chasing Prince Charming gets a really good review. They are both super happy about that. Look for pictures on the MelvaandAnna website soon. Plus some other fun stuff.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Writing-wise, the clock is ticking on the final revisions for this draft of Drama King, and then off it goes to The Wild Rose Press, because they get first dibs. This book does have a cat in it, of which I highly approve. More feline-friendly romance novels, please. It’s what the world needs.

Speaking of ticking clocks, same goes for Aunt Anna checking the edits on A Heart Most Errant. Once that goes to its editor, the next steps include things like formatting and cover art. You know, real book stuff. This will be an ebook for now, since it is short, about the third of a regular novel, but Aunt Anna plans two companion stories, and then putting them in a box set. At least that’s the plan.

Me in my box (it’s big)
picture by Aunt Anna

Speaking of boxes, I have The Best news. I get to keep the footlocker box! As in forever, or until I destroy it. Either way, I’m happy. I can play in it, sit in it, sleep in it, chase phantom prey in it, scratch it, try to bust through the back and see if I can find Narnia, etc. All of that good stuff. As long as we are talking about cardboard, I am also getting a different cardboard thing, my scratchy thing, which is the crinkly part of cardboard especially made for me to claw to pieces. One guess what I did with the last one. Yeah. Pretty proud of that.

Moving on to Aunt Anna’s Goodreads Challenge, she is kicking b*tt and taking names this week, with 49 44 books read out of her goal of 90. That puts her at 49% of the way through, and a whopping 17 books ahead of schedule That’s seven. Teen. Go, Aunt Anna, go. Aunt Anna credits audiobooks, the library, Kindle Unlimited, and her new handy dandy TBR notebook which she will show on a future Anna Log vlog. It’s still a work in progress, but I have sat on it, and it’s very comfortable, so I expect it will help her as well.

picture by Uncle Rheuben

Speaking of help, this is me helping Aunt Anna and Uncle Rheuben put away laundry. I am 100% fine with Aunt Anna putting stuff un me. Probably only her, though. Nobody else has tried yet, but she is my favorite so I can assume. Also, it was very considerate of the humans to give me the chance to make sure everything smells right and has black, white, and orange hair on it. That’s one of the perks of being a three color kitty: you can shed on everything and be sure at least one of your colors will show.

That’s a pretty good piece of wisdom to end this entry, so I will head back to my box and let Aunt Anna have the computer for a while. How are you spending your weekend?

Headbonks!

Storm

Being on Somone Else’s YouTube is Unreal

annabowling 1 Comment

Yesterday. Melva and I had our Zoomer Times interview, which is now live on their YouTube channel. I would like to state that I am indeed more than a giant head in extreme closeup, and blame my visual impairment for not noticing how giant-head-y I was, but let’s ignore that and focus on the content.

Not going to lie, I was nervous, but, at the same time, this is legit an item from my childhood bucket list, “be interviewed on TV” because YouTube counts, and it’s on a channel other than my own. Which will hopefully be giant-head-free. It’s a learning curve to be sure, and one I’m glad Melva and I took.

Host Anita Finley was an utter delight, and I could not have asked for a more enthusiastic or friendlier person. They say you always remember your first time, and I absolutely will. When we first tried this whole interview thing in March, I got to be the silent partner, because my Kindle Fire wasn’t playing nicely with Zoom in general, and my contributions were relegated to broad facial expressions and gestures. Guess that mime class I very reluctantly took in high school paid off after all, because they were willing to give us a do-over once we solved the equipment problem.

The whole experinence, once we got rolling, was as much fun as I’d hoped. What writer doesn’t want to jabber about their book baby to a captife audience? Especially a willing captive. Even after what seems like “all this time,” I still get a thrill when I see Meg and Dominic on the cover of Chasing Prince Charming. I am sure that will repeat on every subsequent book with each new couple, but this was the first one.

Not only my first contemporary, my first book with Melva, but the first book that sold after a very long time of…not. Melva and I thought that Drama King would come along a lot faster, but then life hit both of us hard, and now that we have our combined wind back (or close enough) we are putting those hopes on Queen of Hearts, Dominic’s sister, Heather’s story, instead. Nobody can gaurantee that life won’t throw any more curveballs, but with each book, together or independently, we learn a little more, adapt, grow, evolve. This time, for instance, every chapter gets a number, which will make sure we have fewere “where does this bit go?” moments. Hellbent for leather, as Aunt S would have said, through the discovery draft, and then we can make everything pretty later.

I’m not sure when physical book tours will be a thing again, or if being everywhere at once, from the comfort of our own homes is the new norm, and how things are going to be from now onward. Melva is an excellent motel roommate, and traveling companion, and we do get a lot of our ideas while she drove and I wrote stuff down. I’m still the one with notebook and pen at the ready, always. That feels right.

This is all a fancy way of saying “we did a thing” and talked about stuff, so have a look if you’re so inclined, leave a like or comment if you like, and have a magnificent day.

So, I Have a YouTube Channel

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Happy Wednesday, my liebchens. In keeping with the spirit of trying new things this year/spring, I finally made good on my threat to start a YouTube channel -different from my short-lived vlogging channel-AnnaLog is finally a thing.

AnnaLog

check out my channel trailer

Over the last year, I watched a lot of YouTube. I mean a LOT of YouTube, often BookTube, and out of that, I found a lot of creators I like and follow, but I didn’t see a lot of talk about the more vintage side of historical romance. Aha. Heeeere’s Anna.

Check out my answers to the historical romance book tag

I am very obviously learning here, from angle of the laptop screen to topics and tagging and such, so pleae pardon my dust, and get comfy, because this will be a place for me to blabber about all the things I love -and some that I don’t- about historical romance novels, as a writer and a reader.

The first thing I wanted to cover, apart from a chapter header, was the historical romance reader book tag, created by Jess from PeaceLoveBooks on You Tube. Basically, if you ever wanted to pick my mind about historical romance, this is your opportunity. Only the tip of the iceberg, naturally, but tons of fun to make, and, I hope, to watch as well. Like, subscribe, share, all that good stuff, and yes, I am available for hire on my Patreon, to make a video on the historical romance topic of your choice. This is already lots of fun, so strap in, it’s going to be quite the ride.

Camp NaNononoooo

My workload made the decision for me for this round of Camp Nano, starting tomorrow. Eep. As much as I was looking forward to writing something newnewnew for camp this year, my editor’s notes for A Heart Most Errant cleared its throat and tapped its foot, so my April will be, historical romance-wise, has to be that. Contemporary-wise, it’s edits on Drama King, so my plate is full.

I am okay with that. I like direction. I have some ground to cover before I am, productivity-wise, where I want to be. One day at a time, one page at a time, and the video channel to remind me why I love historical romance as much I as I do. Getting back to one’s roots is always a good thing when one is so inclined, and I am so inclined, indeed.

Going to leave it at that for today, as adulting awaits, and after that, dun, dun, dun, the formation of a writing plan for April that will get me where I want to be. Yes, this involves planners and color coding and all of that good stuff, and yes, I will be sharing that here. Until then, behave yourselves, but I will not say how, so use your own discretion.

Lap (Desk) Dancing

annabowling 2 Comments

At some point in this week, I am going to ask myself why I thought having two books, in two different subgenres, in the editing/revising stage at the same time. A Heart Most Errant is my first stab at medieval romance, (and post-apocalyptic medieval romance, at that) and my first foray into the world of indie publishing. Drama King is my and Melva Michaelian’s second collaborative contemporary romance, this time where the Polyanna of Publishing falls for a grumpy British actor. This is also the week where Melva and I are swapping character profiles, because it’s time to lay the foundation for Queen of Hearts, book number three in our Love By The Book series.

But Anna, I hear some of you asking – what about the title of this post? Ah, that one. Taking another step back into re-Anna-fication, I now have a lap desk once again. My prior one did not survive our vagabond year, and I can’t get rid of it, because Storm has upcycled it to a cat bed. This means that, along with my Alphasmart and carefully curated notebooks, I am now mobile again. With the current weather, that means within our apartment. Comfy chairs are not yet installed, but I can use the office chair in Housemate’s room when Housemate is at work, unless Storm gets to it first. Storm loves that chair. Bed is good, too, or a blanket pile on the floor, with my back against the wall. I got a taste for that a while back, and it still works.

This is a vertical weekly discbound planner. The discs are lavender metal, and the only semi decorative stickers say "write," "edit" or "revise."
Catchall planner for this week

Normally, my Sundays have a special time set aside for setting up my planner spreads for the week ahead. This time, oh boy did I need it. Normally, I do a degree of decorative planning, but this week, it’s mostly functional, with what I’m writing, editing, or revising that day. Blank spaces are where I needed to check with family members about their schedules before I could assign my own time, but they will fill soon.

I’m actually excited about this. Getting to this point in two books at once, about to dive into another, coming back to a beloved genre (and a new to me time frame) and a new avenue of publishing is a place where I wanted to be for a very long time, and now that I’m here, it feels like I should sew a new patch onto my sash. If I were still in Girl Scouts, that is. Maybe there are Romance Writer Scouts? Does RWA count for that? Maybe take myself to the Panera that is basically down the street from us (with or without lap desk) and celebrate with a hot drink and freshly toasted bagel.

Anxiety levels are surprisingly low regarding all of this. Call it the Bird By Bird effect. The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, and while “fix all the books”: is scary, but “edit/revise X pages per day” and the like makes it a lot more manageable. There will, in time, probably be a more dedicated writing planner or tracker that naturally emerges from all of this, but for right now, I know what I am doing on each given day, and when that is done, time to do something that is fun and fills the creative well, aka read, play Sims, etc.

Some of this seems like very normal stuff that goes without saying, but getting to actually put this into practice is an absolute delight. Remind me of that when I am banging my head on the monitor because one of the fixes I need to take care of is trickier than I expected. There’s no planning for those. They are all part of the process.

It feels good to be at this stage, and the ability to flit among different methods and locations — computer, Aplhasmart, notebook, desk, bed, floor, etc– goes a long way toward taking individual elephant bites one at a time. In short, cover me; I’m going in.

Typing With Wet Paws: Double The Edits, Double the Fun (?) Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This week, Aunt Anna has a lot of work in front of her, because she has two books that need a second look at the same time. You read that right. This coming week, she is in double edit mode, and she kind of doesn’t hate it.

photo: Rheuben Bowling

Aunt Anna is pretty darned happy to have not only unearthed her Alphasmart, but charged her and has her ready to go. I may or may not have had something to do with the “test” document that was about a million lines of “33333333333333” over and over and over again. Nobody can prove anything. It’s all conjecture. Not my fault if the Alphasmart is super super super interesting. Aunt Anna thinks that too. She can stare at that thing for ages, and do the clickety clack thing with her fingers on the keyboard at a respectable pace. Can you blame me for wanting to give it a try?

Anyway, that’s going to come in super useful because Aunt Anna does her best writing writing in longhand, meaning it will need to be transcribed, and if she can do that from the comfort of the soft office, with hot beverage, weighted blanket and super cute calico companion, that much the better. Also, she can’t be distracted by The Sims of chats with online friends. That is a real peril for the extroverted writer, and Aunt Anna certainly is that. That’s where a mews like me has to rein her back into line.

This coming week, she has the first fifty pages of Drama King to edit (well, look at Aunt Melva’s edits, say yes or no or yes and/yes or/etc and bat it back Aunt Melva’s way) and she has the whole first pass of edits on A Heart Most Errant, and then send it back to the editor for the second pass and formatting and all of that fun stuff. If she does 25 pages of that a day, she can get the first pass dealt with in one work week, unless she hits a snag, which she can’t promise she won’t. Either way, this is a stage that she likes a whole bunch, because it’s like doing surgery on the story at hand. Most of the time, this ill also give her fuel to put new writing stuff to start its own process on the back burner, and she’ll alway6s want something ready to catch those ideas to hold them safe until it’s there turn.

Photo by Sam Lion on Pexels.com

All of that work is going to require some well filling, and that’s where her Goodreads Reading Challenge comes into play. Aunt Anna is doing pretty well this week, at eighteen books read out of ninety, which puts her at twenty percent of the way to her goal, and six books ahead of schedule. She is salty that the library does not have the third book in Eloisa James’ Desperate Duchesses series but she did suggest that the library fix that, so we will see how that goes. It’s not like she doesn’t have other books, or can’t get it elsewhere. Audiobooks make great journaling buddies, which she expects to keep on doing in the coming week.

On the Buried Under Romance front, Aunt Anna posits some questions for new romance readers (and others) in honor of last week’s Valentine’s Day. I think they are interesting questions for any time of the year. If you feel like answering any of them, or have any of your own, consider dropping your answers/questions in the comment sections on that site or this one. Aunt Anna is nosy.

So am I. Big surprise, I know. Comes with the whole being a cat territory thing. What are you reading this weekend? Have you ever used an Alphasmart? Would you like Aunt Anna to show you what an Alphasmart does? What do you think of my new signoff photo?

Headbonks!

A calico cat sis with front legs folded on the keyboard of an Alphasmart. She looks like she is reading her work.
Calico got to go!
—Storm

Typing With Wet Paws: Now It’s February Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We are now into the second month of 2021. Right now, Aunt Anna is getting ready for the workshop she and Aunt Melva will be giving for Charter Oak Readers and Writers in a Zoom chat tomorrow. That’s going to be a thing. They will be talking about writing through real life plot twists, which pretty much sums up 2020. That’s all in the rearview mirror now, and the month of love has begun.

Photo by Sam Lion on Pexels.com
aka Not Aunt Anna

We’ll start with the reading update. So far, Aunt Anna is seven books ahead of schedule in her Goodreads Reading Challenge, with fifteen books read out of her goal of ninety. That means she is thirteen percent of the way to her goal already. Most of that is YA at present, but never fear, there’s historical romance in there, too, and a lot more ahead. A lot of this reading is actually listening to audiobooks, which is a really good way to get through nights when her brain throws slumberless parties. I don’t mind them at all, because that is prime time for her to play with me and my favorite toy, OG Mousie. Mouse on a string, basically, and super fun to chase and pounce on and play with allll night long.

Photo by Ono Kosuki on Pexels.com
aka Not Aunt Anna

For this week’s writing focus, I picked a notebook picture, because that’s where Aunt Anna is going to be doing most of her work. As she and Aunt Melva get ready to start writing Queen of Hearts, they have some groundwork to lay first. Part of that is making sure they are both working from the same information. So far, the way they work is that one of them writes all the hero scenes, and one of them writes all the heroine scenes, and they work out the plot together.

This time, Aunt Anna will be writing the heroine, and Aunt Melva, the hero. That is different from what they did the last two times, so it is kind of new territory. Not that they mind, because that kind of thing is actually fun, but there is a point where they are both stepping into the unknown. Not entirely unknown, because the heroine, Heather was in Chasing Prince Charming, and her hero, Rob, was there, as well. Only a phone call for him, but it still counts. This time, they are taking center stage, so the Aunts have to know more information about them now than they did when they were supporting players. There will be much writing and crossing out and Pinterest-ing and then they can start fumbling their way into an outline. This will involve many video chats, which I will probably join. I am nosy that way.

coming sooon….

For historical romance related stuff, this baby is coming back Aunt Anna’s way pretty darned soon, after editing and formatting and cover design, which means it’s that much closer to being an actual book that is ready to go out into the wide, wild world, and make room for her to start making plans for the next one. Well, the next medieval, because she is still doing the Her Last First Kiss thing, though it needs some structural work. More on that later. She’s trying to keep her focus on one thing at a time, at least in each genre. The key word is trying.

Aunt Anna’s plans always include me

Plannerwise, she still has a few things to finalize, which is pretty much par for the course for February, or so I am told. This is only my second February with these guys, and the first one where things have been predictable enough to do any real planning, especially on the scale Aunt Anna would like. It’s looking good, though, because she has a coherent color theme going, and it’s one that shows off my best attributes (aka that I am gorgeous)

Thinking pink

There is a gold cover, too, but Aunt Anna was using that notebook while I was writing this, so it’s not in the picture, but still agrees with the whole aesthetic. She’s still working out what goes in the stripey pink cover, and the black paper notebook (the one on the end) but that will work itself out. Those things usually do. The blush pink cover in the middle is for her reading tracker, and she is waiting for some special filler paper to arrive before she puts it together for reals. Of course, I will need to give my Storm stamp of approval on any paper that comes my way, usually by sitting on it, and most often exactly when Aunt Anna needs it.

Speaking of which, that open notebook isn’t going to sit on itself.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: End of January Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. It’s zero degrees here in New York, and zero is exactly the number of us who want to go outside today. Aunt Linda and Uncle Rheuben both have to go outside to go to their jobs, but Aunt Anna and I get to work from home, so that is pretty cool, that we can stay warm. See what I did there? I got a million of them.

Speaking of warm, I have become very interested in Aunt Anna’s weighted blanket. Of course I love sleeping on it (Aunt Anna prefers under it, but eh, you do you, Auntie) but also I am super super super interested in what’s inside the blanket. Aunt Anna says that it’s glass beads and I should not be digging at it, even though it is fun fun fun (and a little frustrating.) The humans have been talking about getting a cover for the blanket, so I can’t make a hole in it and let the glass beads out. Aunt Anna says they would get everywhere. I will probably like the cover, too, and it may even distract me from the blanket itself, but I must lodge my protest anyway. The blanket does help Aunt Anna sleep, and that gives me a lot more cuddle time, so that’s good.

Aunt tested, kitty approved

For those who wanted to know what blanket she got, it is the Tranquility blanket from Wal-Mart, the twelve pound version. She thinks it is the twin size, even though her and Uncle Rheuben’s bed is either double or queen (they aren’t sure.) Uncle Rheuben doesn’t need the weighted blanket, so it goes on Aunt Anna’s (and my) side only.

Photo by Lina Kivaka on Pexels.com
aka not Aunt Anna

Now we come to the reading part of our blog Aunt Anna has reluctantly noped out of even a deferred version of last week’s historical romance readathon, because it was one of those weeks. She is pumped to get some more historical romance standalones under her belt, either rereads or finally reads, and has a bunch of historical romance audiobooks lined up, along with some contemporary YA, tending toward the darker ones. As usual, the “hm, how would this work in a historical romance?” thing happens a lot. She likes audiobooks right before bed, which coincides with kitty cuddle time, so I am all for that.

As far as the Goodreads challenge is concerned, Aunt Anna is currently one book ahead of sche3dule, with eight books read out of ninety. That puts her at nine percent of the way to her goal, which is not bad at all. She did manage to read two historical romances:

No Rest For the Wicked, by Lauren Smith (Pirates of Brittania connected world)

and

Duke of Desire, by Elizabeth Hoyt (Maiden Lane #12)

On the writing front, things are moving right along, or should I say, write along? Heh. She and Aunt Melva are fifty pages into the first edits of Drama King’s first draft. It’s going pretty well, although we had something that may be called the Empanada Incident, because a whole scene scarpered off from the working copy of the full manuscript, and Aunt Anna only found it because it was the only scene in the book that contained the word, “empanada.” Phew. They also did some plotting on Queen of Hearts, which was super fun.

Next weekend, they will be teaching their workshop on how to write through the tough times, for Charter Oak Readers and Writers. While Aunt Anna and I are in New York, and Aunt Melva is in Massachusetts, there is still no travel involved, even though CORW is in Connecticut. As with many things these days, they will be conducting the workshop virtually. They will be sure to give all the highlights on their own website, MelvaAndAnna.com, which is newly updated, with more stuff to come.

As for the historical romance side of things, that’s progressing as well. Aunt Anna is now eyeing the calendar for when her A Heart Most Errant manuscript comes home to roost, and then she can take the next step in the indie process. To get in the medieval mood, she’s planning to dive not some old favorite medievals, and some from the brave new wave of modern medieval writers. Do you have a favorite medieval? Let her know in the comments.

Okay, that’s all I have on the agenda (well, the part i haven’t shredded yet) so I am going to go take another crack at that weighted blanket. Maybe it’s filled with kibble!

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: I Feel a Draft Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. The draft I am talking about here is not coming through any doors or windows (our building is very well insulated, which is very much appreciated) but drafts coming from Aunt Anna. By this I mean of the booik variety, of course.

Photo by Andrew Neel on Pexels.com
(not Aunt Anna)

Drama King

As you may have read in Aunt Anna’s blog, Drama King is now officially a draft. Aunt Anna is a little dazed over that because, well, 2020 was horrible. Now it’s time for the editing phase, which Aunt Anna actually likes. Strange, I know. It also means time for a new notebook setup for laying the groundwork for Queen of Hearts. Oh what hardship. (I am being sarcastic here.) There will probably be new pens and highlighters, too, or, more likely, appropriating some that Aunt Anna already has. One of the really fun things Aunt Anna is looking forward to is getting together things that remind her of the character she will be writing for Queen of Hearts, which, this time, will be the heroine. She really loves the heroes Aunt Melva writes, so this is going to be fun.

It also serves as a nice balance to the much more technical work of the editing process, filing in holes, smoothing out transitions, making sure that the best character (a cat!) has enough scenes and all that kind of stuff.

A Heart Most Errant is now in the hands of an actual editor, and in about two weeks, it will be back in Aunt Aunna’s hands. That means she will have some more tinkering to do, but there will also be formatting and cover art, which sounds an awful lot like…a real book. The kind that can be sold directly to readers, if you’re into that sort of thing.

This means that she needs to start thinking, now, about connected books, which is not normally a thing she does, but the market is what the market is. Trying new stuff is fun, and the idea of writing more books in that setting means that A) she has a really good excuse to read more medieval romances, and B) get back on track with The Walking Dead, because the whole concept of this story world is “post-apocalyptic medieval.” It takes place after the Bubonic Plague whomped out basically half of Europe. This is either incredibly good timing for this sort of story or incredibly bad timing. Aunt Anna figures it will all work out in the end, and she’s happy to be writing historical romance, period, so on with the show.

Reading

First, the good stuff. (well, Aunt Anna says all reading is the good stuff) Aunt Anna is currently one book ahead of her Goodreads Reading Challenge, with six books read out of her goal of ninety. That puts her at seven percent of the way home.

The thing that gives her pause (as opposed to paws; I provide the paws around here) is that all six of those books are YA (or NA) – two romances and four scary books. With all of them, she has, at one point or another, or multiple points throughout, wondered how that sort of thing would work in a historical romance. Maybe this counts as some sort of research? This can be mildly concerning when one remembers this was also the week of…

Historical Romance Readathon

Yeeeeaaaah. Aunt Anna did not do great here. Not going to hold it against her, though, because A) this has been a rough week with raging insomnia, and B) that kind of led into feeling pressure-y about hewing to her readathon plan, so she is going to call this a deferred readathon and still do it this week, although albeit unofficially. That’s how she rolls.

All is not lost, though, because Aunt Anna acquired a super neat thing this week: a weighted blanket. That means that it’s a blanket, filled with lots and lots and lots of tiny glass beads. The weight is often very good for people who have anxiety (which Aunt Anna does) and make it easier for them to sleep. This one, I am happy to report, works. I even tried it myself.

Hooman tested, kitty approved

Also, Aunt Anna has another anthology ready for weekend reading, Regency in Color (vol 1!) which has a story from Jessica Cale, who is one of Aunt Anna’s favorite historical romance authors. This bodes extremely well. She can confirm that reading historical romance under a weighted blanket, with a hot cup of cinnamon tea, and a beautiful, purring calico girl makes for a super duper cozy time. Aunt Anna is very much into this sort of thing. Possibly with extra pillows and a scented candle set well away from any place aforementioned calico girl can get to it. I am never ever ever left unsupervised around candles.

Regency in Color, vol 1

Okay, I think that’s about it. That weighted blanket is super snuggly, and I have a lot of napping to do, if I am going to be any sort of purr-sonal assitant. What’s on tap for your weekend?

Headbonks!