Notebooks

Beginner’s Mind

annabowling Leave a comment

A few days ago, Housemate informed me that while she very much likes her mini size planner, the classic size, eh, not so much. Did I want all her classic size stuff? In a word, um, yes.

Housemate’s old planner, aka my new notebook

With only a few pages marked at all, this opened up a huge amount of possibilities. Ever since I’d accepted that the discbound system works really well for me, and that I want to keep one notebook to track my progress on various projects, could this mean that I had that very thing dropped literally in my lap? With a little ingenuity, I’d have a gorgeous notebook with twelve distinct section. The only setup I’d need to do would be to glue paper over the obsolete calendar page on the back of each divider (easy peasy; paper, I’ve got) and change the labels on the tabs from the names of the months to a more descriptive label of what would be in each section. I also have stickers, so this works out well.

“Beginner’s Mind,” in this context, is a synonym for “let’s see what happens.” That ties into the whole wanting to write like I did before I knew any better. Before I even knew that wordcount could apply to anything beyond school essays. Before I had a working grasp of the state of the historical romance market, and the shift from single books to series, almost all the time. Before, certainly, the romance writers’ organization I couldn’t wait to join turned into a tire fire. Before a lot of things.

If I had to pick one passion beyond writing and reading romance, it would be planning, and I have always done better with pen and paper than direct to keyboard, so plopping myself down at a motel room desk, with an old planner, a bunch of paper, and a couple of pens, really does seem like the most natural thing in the world. What could go wrong? Better question, what could go right?

Back in middle school (aka junior high) I had the ide that the only genres open to me were hard science fiction and mystery. Neither of which cranked my motor, though they of course do it for a whole lot of other people, and wonderfully so. If I’d taken that at face value, I’d still be listlessly going through the selection in that school library, wondering what the fluff I was doing this for, but knowing that hunger in my gut wouldn’t go away until I wrote my stories. What made the difference was thinking, what if that assumption isn’t true? Enter historical romance. Oh yes, motor most definitely cranked.

Now, this master notebook (mistress notebook?) has a section for viable future projects. There’s the Regency I tried to write, that I still love, but need to repot into an era that I also love. There’s the blacksmith’s daughter who becomes a duchess, by way of a stage career. There’s two historical romance that are mine once again, since their first publisher retired. There’s the postapocalyptic medieval that I absolutely love, and got really, really good rejections on, that editors/agents loved but couldn’t sell, so didn’t buy. Well, okay, what if…what if I did it myself?

I don’t have to please or appeal to or attract every reader. Nobody can do that. But get the attention of my readers? That, I can probably do. That’s why I’m launching my Patreon in 2020. It’s also why I am excited to undertake an Abundance Self-Assessment. This is not a sponsored post. I met Eryka Peskin at a local RWA chapter meeting, and we clicked instantly. Lucky me, she is an abundance coach (and writer, among other things) and her workshops are a big part of how I learned beginner’s mind means more possibilities.

How much do I know about starting a Patreon? Not a lot. About the same as I know about self publishing commercial fiction, more or less, but everybody has to start somewhere. Let’s find out together, shall we?

Plan as We Go January

annabowling Leave a comment

Hey. Hi. Hello there. Here we are in the second week of January, first full week, and for those of us who are into the whole planning thing, this is the big show. This is where the rubber meets the road, or rubber cement meets the paper. At the very least, where the pen meets the paper. While some aspects of planning tick all the tried and true boxes, this year, there is also some uncharted territory.

Last year, I waffled between ring binders and traveler’s notebooks (rings vs strings, the eternal struggle) and was admittedly snobby about discbound systems, including but not limited to Happy Planner. This year? I am actively designing my own discbound planner. Probably printables at first, because manufacturing these things is far outside my pay grade at the moment, but the fact that I am researching tools and costs and components, that’s a very new thing.

That kind of makes sense, because this year is full of a lot of new things, so doing new things the old way is probably not the wisest approach. I have one notebook for current projects that are active: my contemporary romances with Melva Michaelian, my historical romances on my own, and the uncharted (for me) wilds of starting a Patreon. How much time do I have, how can I best spend it, and what has the chance of being a decent return? Since my chosen field is that of commercial fiction, there is a real chance that the right answer is “ahaha, none of it,” but it could also be “never try, never know,” and that’s the view I naturally take.

2019 was, in many ways, a dumpster fire. That’s in the past. 2020 is only six days in, and the better I plan, and carry out those plans, the better I feel. It’s not so much finding a system that works for me so much as creating it as I go. That means paying attention wo what comes naturally versus giving myself headaches trying to shove myself into some sort of box that I think I’m supposed to do. Beginner’s mind is essential in endeavors like this.

What seems to be working best for me when I start a new notebook or planner, is to carry the thing around, empty, for a few days, and then take note of what I wish it had inside it. Using a system that I have never used before, aka discbound, fits well with that mindset, at least for me. I love that the pages aren’t stuck in place, and if I want to move something to a different section, or a different book, I can do that, no problem.

Yesterday, Housemate came to the conclusion that she is a mini size Happy Planner person, and gave me her classic size planner from last year, mostly unused, and the classic size Happy Notes (same system, notebook paper instead of planner paper.) I sat there, looking at them for a minute, with a little bit of a Christmas Morning feeling (what planner geek doesn’t want this sort of thing dropped in their lap?) before I started to think about possibilities.

What was I going to do with a notebook that has twelve sections? Well, take the old planner pages out, obviously (and set them aside because there is this cool tutorial by Sarra Canon) and then stare at the empty tabs and think about what I want to have in there. At the moment, I’m thinking it could be a catchall for future projects that are still in the idea stage, where I can put notes, pictures, etc, as they come to me, and then they’ll be there when it’s time to actually start the writing.

That’s the thing that’s newest about how I want to approach writing this year. It’s time to Get Stuff Done, push past the Hypercritical Gremlins as best I can and remember what it felt like to throw the movies in my head onto the page, without paying attention to what could go wrong. That’s still kind of scary, but it’s scarier to think of never getting the stories and characters who are as real to me as people I can see and hear and touch, and introducing them to readers.

Since I do well with this kind of structure, my plan (hah) is to focus on one slot per month to give a closer look into what I’m doing, planning/notebook-wise. Some of that may end up on Patreon, and we’ll figure out what works, together. One area I’m keeping in focus for this early stage is to record the ideas that I’ve been carrying around for a while, that I would like to see all the way through. Something tells me I may surprise myself along the way.

How about you? What systems do you use for reading or writing? Pull up a chair in the comments, and share.

Let’s Call It Market Research

annabowling Leave a comment

Only me today, but Storm insisted on being in the picture. Such is life with a beautiful calico girl. She has a thing for the Happy Planner paper. If it’s open, she must sit on it. Must. Even, and perhaps especially when I am opening the planner or notebooks to do Important Writer Things.

Very important Writer Things in this case, mean taking a look into the future, and making a road map to get me from where I am, to where I want to be. Real Life Romance Hero is on the new apartment case. As much as I love the perks of motel life (and there are some, housekeeping most of all) we are all more than ready to put down roots and settle into a real home once more. That will bring regular writing with it (yes, yes, I know, that can happen any time, any place, but it’s a heck of a lot easier when some of the basic things are more reliably covered) and I would like to have an idea of how that will look.

Which is what brought me to the open notebook that Storm claimed for her own. Okay, any paper is hers, but this paper is a clear favorite, above all. The notebooks I had open today were two dedicated solely to writing life stuff. One, not pictured, is for mapping out the current historical and contemporary projects, and a place to record potential future stuff, because the day will come, probably sooner than I think, when I’m going to have to start a new document and begin writing a new book.

In today’s market, that is more likely new books, plural. Series sell. They’re not how I naturally think for my solo work, but I’ve hit a vein of “yeah, but what if I tried it anyway?” and riff on some stuff that might be interesting to try at some unspecified time in the future. There’s a freedom in that kind of thing. No commitments as of yet, current work is still on track, and these particular pages are a place to ask myself what might be fun, how I might like to stretch, or if, maybe, it’s time to let ideas that have been in my head for years or even decades (yikes!) out for a meander.

This dovetails rather nicely with my determination to come from behind on my Goodreads challenge, targeting historical romance novellas (bonus if they are Christmas related) via Kindle Unlimited (because economical measures are win) means that I get to see stories I might not have found if I didn’t have this particular goal. Time travels for instance. Not a lot on the brick and mortar shelves (at least where romance fiction is concerned, but checking on the e-book front? Alive and well, from what I can see. Not saying if this means there is life in my own personal time travel (firmly on the back burner, until I figure out how many ten pound cats I was trying to fit into that particular two pound bag.) but definitely food for thought.

I found myself wanting to make note of this book and that, scribble down names of authors who look like they might have something I’d like. I’m seeing a lot of variety there, medieval, Vikings, pirates, Highlanders, ancient world, etc, along with nineteenth century stories, looser interpretations of the series concept, including shared worlds, and…I like it. This bears some study, and some recording of the study, so expect to see some of that here in the coming weeks and months.

This exploration excites me. It’s what I’ve always loved, and it’s something new. There’s an energy there. What if, instead of thinking about perfectly polished prose and getting everything “right,” I looked at what would be fun? What would I like to do a whole lot of, and train myself to write (to completion) faster? I look forward to finding out.

See you next time!

Typing With Wet Paws: Creativity and Cat Toys Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

Happy Friday, Storm Troopers! It’s a beautiful grey, wet day (well, to Aunt Anna, anyway) here in NY’s capitol region, which is very good writing weather for Aunt Anna, so let’s get this blog moving, so she can have the computer to herself.

As usual, she was at Buried Under Romance on Saturday, talking about strategies to not only get through her reading challenge but maybe even come out ahead, Check over there tomorrow, because she’s found a couple of other ways since then. Keeping a notebook helps her with things like that, and, this week, we have a new notebook in the family. I find it especially important, because it is also partly a present for me.

Miss N, and her husband, Mr. N, picked this up for Aunt Anna, at a local art supply store, that they all love. This gift does some multitasking, because it covers Aunt Anna’s birthday, getting me, and just because. I do note the lack of calicos on the cover, but who could compete with all this, anyway? Aunt Anna will use this as her morning pages book. It is a B6 size, and has ivory lined pages, that are smooth and fountain pen-friendly.

Speaking of that reading challenge, Aunt Anna is making some progress. As of this post, she is only six books behind schedule, seventy-eight books read our of a projected ninety-five. That’s eighty-two percent of the way home, and only taking three books per week to cross the finish line for the win. Go, Aunt Anna, go.

This week was okay, writing-wise. Aunt Anna expects that next week will be better, because she is doing some research and taking a good look at what she likes to do most, what time she has, and how she can use it most efficiently. Work has begun on the big mess writing notebook. She will farm things out to individual notebooks as it makes sense, but for now, there are some recycled planner dividers that will keep the sections kind of in order until she figures things out. She will share pictures in a future post.

I think that is it for updates so far, so I can get to the most important part of today’s post, and that is the cat toys. While I do have Mousie (my forever number one best buddy toy, for always) I am also discovering many new toys. Aunt Anna, Uncle, and Aunt Linda do not always appreciate my choices. Can you guess out of the following list which ones the humans are okay with me having?

  • Uncle’s rosary
  • Uncle’s scapular (devotional kind)
  • Uncle’s collar pin (of awesomeness at his job)
  • Aunt Anna’s pens/pen caps
  • room key cards
  • takeout forks
  • Aunt Linda’s planner cover (for scratching)
  • Aunt Linda’s purse (for scratching)
  • Craft store coupon flyer (for scratching)
  • random sweatshirt string that does not come from anybody’s sweatshirt here
  • empty toilet paper roll
  • actual cat toys (jingle balls)

Aunt Anna says I am getting a real scratching pad this weekend, and there will be a carpeted cat condo when we find our new apartment, where I can scratch any part of it that I want. That sounds pretty fun. Honestly, we cats are pretty good at picking out our own toys, but humans seem to like finding manufactured things from time to time. My mom told the aunts that I do like catnip, but I haven’t had any yet while I’ve been here. I think they are saving it for the holidays.

I also get to sit on Aunt Anna’s notebooks a lot (except when she uses the book stand, which I am still forming an opinion about) especially the disc bound ones. Those babies have some comfortable paper. I can see why she likes them. I can also play with the crumpled sticky notes she discards, but I am only really interested in them the first time. After that, they’re dead to me, and I would rather get some fresh prey. Somehow, I get the feeling that, this week, there will be a lot of that.

Okay, I think that is about it for this week, so I will see you next week.

Headbonks!

Writing Notebook: Discovery Draft

annabowling Leave a comment

In college, I studied early childhood education. The most important thing I learned in four years was that early childhood education and I were a horrible, horrible match. Hence several years in retail and family caregiving. All the while, I knew what I wanted to do with my life: write.

I had known that I wanted to write historical romance since I was eleven years old. More accurately, that was when I found out what it was called. I am pretty sure I was hardwired for this right out of the gate. I would not at all be surprised were I to find out my biological mother loved historical romance. Maybe we’d even have some of the same favorite books. I wrote my first historical romance, very much a pastiche of the author who first captured my attention in this genre, but that’s how we learn, right? By copying the masters when we first start?

When I was twenty=three, I submitted that first book, and got my first rejection. I was also dealing with some raging, undiagnosed depression and anxiety, so I didn’t notice the important bit about that rejection- the editor asked me if I had anything else. At the time, I did not, so that was the end of that, right? Wrong. Depression got much, much worse, real life sucked, and there were time that I thought I would never be able to write the stories I loved with all of my writerly heart. That’s when I discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation.

With absolutely no idea of what I was doing, I started writing first humor, then fan fiction, for a newsletter and fanzine. I wrote. A lot. I made friends, talented writers all, with whom I am still friends, and still a fan of, today. Even then, I described my fanfics as “historical romance with blinkies,” blinkies being a term for any futuristic equipment that had blinking lights.

I wrote and sold four historical romances after that, and even my first co-written contemporary, Chasing Prince Charming, is set in the world of historical romance, so do we see a trend here? What’s stayed the same all that time? Yeah.

When Melva and I meet, via Skype or Messenger, each week, we set out plans for what the next week should hold. Who’s writing what, if there’s anything we need to set up for the other, etc. We know we are heading to the end of draft one for Drama King, and getting the idea soup stock started for Queen of Hearts. We want to write a summer novella, and a trio of Christmas stories, and that’s probably a good 2020 for the two of us.

I want to get a similar plan in place for my historicals. I have been admiring prolific authors of late, many of whom are self-published/indie, and putting out the kinds of books they love the very, very best. That’s where I want to be. I don’t know, yet, if I want to self publish. Part of me thinks it would be an interesting experience, and part of me does not want to crunch any numbers in the outlay department, but there’s plenty of time to deal with that. What’s most important is that I get historical romance novels written and finished, before I can sell or publish them anywhere.

The how of that? Well, that’s where the whole discovery draft of a writing notebook comes into play. What do I need to get from where I am, to where I want to be? Flying into the mist with that one, and I look forward to sharing that process here. The first step? This is it, putting it out there. Next step? Setting up the actual notebook. Throw ink on paper and see what happens when I do.

See you next time

Planners and Plans for 2020

annabowling Leave a comment

If anybody had asked me, even a few months ago, if I would ever want to use a disc bound system for planning and organization, I would have said a flat out no. They had disks. Which were plastic. A leading brand even had “Happy” right there in the name, and that is a lot of pressure for someone who uses planning to help deal with depression and anxiety as well as writing and the duties of a domestic warrior queen in transit. Fast forward to now, and we have the heavy lifters for the coming year:

That’s classic Happy Planner in the back, with a mini Happy Planner in front of it. Yellow paper is Happy Planner filler paper in an off-brand notebook, and gorgeous galaxy notebook is Happy Notes. The pages are pink, I’ll give it the happy for that. What happened? I got the planners as birthday presents and figured I would give them a shot.

This doesn’t mean that I am abandoning my travelers’ notebooks or ring bound planners or the hordes of hardcover, softcover, and spiral bound notebooks. It’s another tool in my kit, and I very, very much like being able to move the pages around at will, without snapping and unsnapping rings, or leaving paper debris all over whatever surface serves as my desk at the time. Our family is still vagabonding, so having something that I can tote around, dump everything in one place, and then farm out to the proper specific places/notebooks later makes a lot of sense.

Some of the plastic disks are actually pretty, and not all disks are plastic. I can get metal disks if I want (and I probably will, because I know me) and some of the plastic colors are actually pretty. There are a wide variety of covers available commercially, and some creative stuff on Etsy, plus the option to buy a DIY sleeve to fill with my own choice of images. (Yeah, every much going for that one, ASAP.) After a couple of weeks, and a lot of YouTube tutorials, I got the hang of the system, and picked up my first Happy Notes, the notebook version, no planner, just paper, and rescued an off-brand cousin from a clearance rack, which has become a catchall sort of book, with pages I can readily swap out if they belong somewhere else.

Organization helps me to thrive, and pretty organization is even better. I found a few designs of planners/notebooks/papers/accessories that are more on the sophisticated side than in-your-face bright and want-to-punch-their-face cheerful. I like to have a good idea of what I am going to be doing before I am actually doing it, which very much does affect my writing, especially going into a whole new year.

2019 saw the publication of Chasing Prince Charming, another thing that surprised me. I haven’t stopped writing historical romance just because I have a contemporary out there. One of my goals is to have a historical sale and/or release in 2020. At least one, as well as my contemporary collaborations. I also want to leave room in case something else that sounds fun presents itself, because one never knows.

In the past, my writing notebooks followed a very specific pattern:

  1. pick out color scheme
  2. choose binder, always letter size
  3. create four sections: hero, heroine, villain/antagonist, and history/research
  4. never touch it again
  5. feel guilty forever

in the one sense, it kind of worked, because a) I kept doing it, and b) usually worked out a few things while doing so, but on the other, it didn’t, because, say it with me now, I never touched them again, and felt guilty forever. This doesn’t mean that keeping notebooks doesn’t work for me (um, have you met me?) but that I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do, and what probably worked very well for somebody else, but not for me. For 2020, I plan to take a more organic approach, which is to say ease the heck up on myself and let things happen as they happen in regards to setting up my writing notebooks, and shut off the annoying troll in my head that says everything has to be perfect right out of the pen. Because it doesn’t.

What I have right now is a bunch of different colored filler paper, and a plan to swoop in on any clearance 2019 disc bound planners at the end of the year. Each project will get its own…thing. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to make the divisions. Maybe as broad as historical and contemporary at first, or for 2020 and after that. That’s one of the things I want to figure out as I go along; the right way will make itself known if I keep showing up and doing the work.

Lately, I’ve been admiring the heck out of authors like Kathryn LeVeque and Sandra Sookoo, both extremely prolific authors. I haven’t read much of either author, so far, but I can still fangirl over their business savvy, and owning their voices and diving in one hundred percent. Yes. That. The question is, how do I get from where I am, to where that sort of writer is? One day at a time, it would seem, and laying out a map so that I know, generally, where I am going, and approximately how I plan to get there.

Planners are a big hep in that. I am not big on word counts, which is how many successful and prolific authors measure output. I can see why. It’s handy. For me, pages are a better bet, so I am going to try setting a page goal first. Whether or not I translate that to words remains to be seen, but a page goal, and an aesthetically pleasing way to record it seems like a good place to start. The most important part is to get the stuff in my head down on the page, all the way to the end. After that, the possibilities are endless.

I really do need a new signoff image, but this is fun.

Typing With Wet Paws: Midnight Yowl Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

Hi, Storm Troopers! It’s Feline Friday once more, so I am taking over Aunt Anna’s blog. I planned for that when I took over her planner. My version of helping her plan, or write, is often to lie on the paper, steal the pen, or bat it with my paw, while she is trying to write with said pen. It’s lots of fun, and I am sure has a profound effect on her productivity.

She is in hardcore planning mode right now, because this was a different kind of week. Uncle did not feel so great for a big chunk of it. He is better now, so now Aunt Anna is looking to see where she can put in some extra effort and get things back on track. I commend her for this. She is several belly rubs behind, and that cannot stand. More on that later.

First, however, I have to talk about Aunt Anna’s writing, so let’s get to that. This week, she did not get to meet with Aunt Melva, but she did get to go over a bit of a scene Aunt Melva sent her for a new thing they are playing with, outside of the Love By the Book series. Still contemporary romance, and you know Aunt Anna is going to work something historically adjacent in there somewhere. She has also been doing some longhand work on Drama King, and feeling really, really guilty about Her Last First Kiss, which means it’s getting some for-sure time this coming week. I will let her talk about that later.

As usual, Aunt Anna was at Buried Under Romance this past week. This time, she noticed a curious trend in her market research. If the picture above isn’t enough of a clue, maybe this will help. That’s right, this time, Aunt Anna is talking about Australian romance, both stories set in Australia (or New Zealand) and by Australian or NZ authors. Do you have a favorite in either category? Drop on by nd leave a comment.

How many of these can Aunt Anna get through in one weekend?

On the reading challenge front, there is actually something to report, as Aunt Anna formulates a cunning plan (she will talk about that in tomorrow’s post over at Buried Under Romance, so keep an eye open) to get up to date, and maybe even ahead, because now it is personal. As of this post, she is only seven books behind, at seventy-five books read out of ninety-five. This feels doable. It may require cutting back on Sims 4 play, but it will be worth it. Story in, story out, and all that stuff.

Happy Planner mini, horizontal layout

Speaking of plans, Aunt Anna is rather happy with the way her mini planner spread looks for next week, mostly before the pen. I helped with this one (can you tell?) and there was a minute there where we almost had an incident with stickers and my paw fur, but Aunt Anna is super fast. The spread was done without incident. We will see how that goes, when she fills it in with all of her writing stuff for the week to come.

my buddy, Mousie!

Now for the important part of this post, which is why there is a midnight yowl in the title. In case you were wondering, I was the one yowling, loud nd long. Aunt Anna was the only one (I think) who woke up, and got out of bed. She found me in the dark and asked me what was wrong. I won’t say the whole thing of what happened, but the problem was that (I am okay, don'[t worry) I wanted to play Mousie, and there were no humans up to help me with that. Intolerable! Yes, Aunt Anna did play Mousie with me, so I know that trick works, but she was not happy about it. Eh, I’m still cute. It’s all good.

Mousie is my bestest bud (besides the humans) and he was a present from my mom, so I have a little bit of her, which is nice. You can tell how much I love Mousie because I chewed off most of his face, his tail is long gone, and his string is tied around his tummy because I am a fierce hunter and catch him a lot. I mean a lot. You don’t even know how much. I do have a few balls my aunts and uncle gave me, but nobody beats Mousie.

Headbonks!

#calicolovestorm on IG

This is a Planning Post About Planning Posts

annabowling Leave a comment

Can you believe it’s almost November? Not only are we coming up on a new month, but the end of the current year and start of the next, which means the start of a new writing year, which means time to take stock of my planners, see what I have, how I want to use what, and what needs to find a different home. I am mostly talking about planners/planning, but it does apply to writing projects as well. Only so much time in the day, and finished is better than perfect.

i sm not keeping track of word count in Drama King (that’s Melva’s job) but I do know what scenes need writing in order to get to that point, and it’s pretty much the same with Her Last First Kiss. My best educated guess on how I am going to track writing on these projects is by scene, which works perfectly fine for me.

My original first draft of this post, handwritten in a mini composition book, because most of my first drafts are handwritten, was largely about how the midst of a months-long move is both not an advisable time to curate one’s planner repetoire, and turning out surprisingly well. Basicslly, where I hsbe landed on that one is that starting out minimally and then noting whst i wish I had, then filling that need, works decently in both writing and planning.

The planners in today’s deskscape are sll in current use. The Hsppy Plsnners are birthday gifts from Housemate, who has pulled me over to the Happy Plannerverse. She says thst mesns nothing, becsuse I am her planner dam, and thus anything she does in the planner world traces directly back to me. Fair enough. I had been snobbish about HP in the past, largely due to the disk binding, but I like the layouts and the artwork, and whst better way to find out if I do like the system or not than to use it.

I could say the same thing about trying contemporary romance, or submitting to e-pubs, both of which have turned out oksy, so i hsve high hopes for the new plsnners. Things will sort themselves out in time, usually when I’m not looking, rather going along, telling stories, playing with pens and paper , etc. There definitely can be more reading, especially as I craft what I am cslling my mission statement for Buried Under Romance, which may end up with a planner of its own.

All of thst is part of planning future blog posts. I do want to talk more about how I use planners as a writer, and still keep the focus on writing. We will see how this goes. Fiction writing comes first, and planning should, in theory, make that go more smoothly. In practice, well, we will see about that.

Typing With Wet Paws: Mid-October Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

Hi! How is everybody? I’m Storm, and I’m good. I am learning my job as Aunt Anna’s new mews. So far, a lot of that has been sitting behind her and complaining that I don’t have a good enough view. Aunt Anna says I am her Velcro kitty, because I always want to be near her. She says she is probably going to have to make a space for me to sit next to her computer when we are settled in our new home. Right now, I have a folded towel and/or t-shirt. Sometimes I sit there.

The big development here is that the apartment the humans thought would be a good match, really was not, so they are on the search once more. Aunt Anna says that they are only looking at cat-positive places, which is good because I am a very positive cat. Actually, I will probably get two seats, on two desks, because Aunt Anna likes to have her computer desk and her handwriting desk be two different desks. While we are in the motel, she has her computer set up on the only desk, and then she writes longhand on the bed, with me. Her pens make great toys.

Okay, on to the usual information. There is the usual Buried Under Romance update, and a bonus one as well.

Purr-sonally, I think the answer is pretty obvious, but you can read Aunt Anna’s take on the issue on her latest Saturday Discussion post.

Since I did mention a bonus, here is what that is. This week, Buried Under Romance has had excerpts from more than ten (that’s as high as I can count right now, but I am learning) Regency Christmas novellas in the Winter Wishes anthology. The authors have some interesting things to say, and they will be giving away books to two lucky commenters, so get your comments in on the first link above, to get your chance.

this book falls under “high time”

On the reading front, Aunt Anna is not very happy about being six books behind in her Goodreads challenge, but she is determined to get current and maybe even exceed her goal. There are still more than two months left in the year, and she has me to supervise her reading, so I think odds are good. Her current reads include Blue Heaven, Black Night, by Heather Graham, originally published under her Shannon Drake name. It is a big, medieval historical romance, that Aunt Anna started reading many many years ago, but wandered off. She figures it is now high time to move that to the “read” list.

On the writing front, it has been pretty real-life-y this week, but Aunt Anna did send a chapter to Aunt Melva, and they were both interviewed by a journalist in advance of their author event on the 26th. So far, Aunt Anna is feeling pretty good about that, but still thinking she may need to go buy red shoes (if you have read Chasing Prince Charming, you will probably know why) because the ones she wanted to wear are still packed. I am glad I only have to deal with paws.

I think that’s probably the important stuff for this week. Aunt Anna says she will have a good sized planner post to make up for the last couple of months, especially since the holidays and new year are around the corner. I, of course, will be on hand (or paw) to assist as I deem necessary. She has some idea of creating a writing planner. That should be interesting, or at the very least, a good cat bed.

Headbonks!

Of Human Vagabondage

annabowling Leave a comment

Week two of Vagabond 2019 is going well, all things considered. Still enjoying motel living -not sarcastically; this place is nice, and it’s actually a relief to have a breather while we search for the next location of Stately Bowling Manor. Real Life Romance Hero and Housemate are off to their jobs, and I am back at mine.

I haven’t been getting a lot of reading or viewing done, though that should be picking up in the next few days. I am three or four episodes into season nine of The Walking Dead, and will likely binge So You Think You Can Dance when I am through. One show at a time seems to be what makes the most sense viewing-wise, right now. When I am through with that, I will probably be on the hunt for a great historical drama, so if you have recommendations, leave them in the comments. I have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.

I also have Kindle Unlimited, which makes the fact that I am only partway through two KU books in the last two months, and I am not okay with that. I am starting an experiment where I schedule reading time, and, hopefully, that will get me back on track on that front. Planning has been a big help with all of the things that have to be done on our route to the next apartment. I have also drawn Housemate over to the planner side, and I am a proud planner mum, watching her find her own system and style, while refining my own.

Which brings us to writing. When we were packing and hauling stuff to storage, my original plan was to put my writing notebooks in storage, and write everything in one composition book, then transcribe when we land. That lasted as long as the ride to the storage unit. I couldn’t do it. They stay with me, because longhand first is how I work best, and I am, as I go, finding what each individual binder needs, and what gets me to where I want to be – The End of each individual draft. I do have my desktop set up in our room, and I like that bit of home, that space that is all mine. I also like that the hours when the rest of my family is out of the room are my one shot at getting any work done without interruption, short of parking myself in the lobby and getting in some longhand time.

Yesterday was laundry and errands, but today is blocked off as a writing day. I find that exciting.

Talk to you soon!