Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Today is the last day of March, and tomorrow is April. Mama Anna is excited to get down to a bunch of things that will be new in April, and I am here to help her with all of them. Especially the ones that come in boxes. Mmm, boxes.
I am excited today because EVERYBODY who lives with me is home today. I get to spend the biggest chunk of the day with Papa, while Mama Anna and Aunt Linda go hunting. They bring home some great stuff, but it doesn’t smell like me. Fortunately, I smell like me, and I can fix that right away.
If you look closely at the picture above, you will see a black notebook. I am sitting on it. By the time you read this, Mama Anna will have it filled and will be starting a brand new one tomorrow. If that one comes in plastic wrap, it won’t smell like me right off the bat, so I’ll have to take care of that. If the cover is leathery, then I cna do the pricky pricky on it with my claws and then there will be no doubt that it’s Mama Anna’s book. That approach worked very well for me when it came to her pink leather office chair. Also um, other things with extremely inviting textures.
This week, we got some packages in the mail. They did come in boxes, which I of course love and have to investigate. One of them was smelly stuff for Mama Anna. I don’t get humans and smelly stuff. I already scent her with my headbonks. . Anyway, it’s a really small smelly stuff that she can carry in her makeup bag, but it came in a box big enough for me to sit inside, packed with big sheets of crinkly paper. Hmm. Boxes and crinkly paper; why do I even care what is inside them for the humans?
Windows are not open here yet, even though I keep looking at Aunt Linda’s window with a look that tells her very clearly what I would like. She says it is “cold.” I say I have a built-in fur coat. I will be fine. She says the people don’t. Sigh. Anyway, I know spring is coming and I am helping Mama Anna get ready for it. This spring should bring a lot of writing. That means both the journal kind ant the fiction kind. All I know is that it’s going to involve notebooks and I can sit on those all day. More than that, I do. Keeps Mama Anna on her toes. Sometimes because I won’t give up her desk chair. A girl’s got to nap somewhere, am I right?
Welp, we are staring at April. I did not authorize that, but here we are still don’t know if am signing up formally for Camp NaNo, but now that Melva and I are waiting on word for Drama King at The Wild Rose Press, I get to turn my attention back to Her Last First Kiss. I am excited to get back to writing historical romance in general, and back to Bern and Ruby’s story specifically. I am starting out the month at 55k out of a projected 100k, and last week was gutting the second half of the book and totally rewriting the outline. It’s rough as heck and that’s exactly how it should be at this stage of the game.
My goal for April is to go in small bits, scene by scene, and figure out what method works best as I go. I know that one thing that works well for me is accountability, so I will be doing some form of tracking. Hence the new bujo pictured above. 120 gsm paper, coated, in a gorgeous ivory shade, all pristine and ready to move into. I’ll be sharing more about my stationery love here in blogs to come, because A) I can talk about stationery anytime, and at length, and B) posting here is a totally legitimate way of keeping track of things. It’s a process. I may also add reading posts here, or in a separate place. Still working that out at present, but right now, for me, vintage historical romance = life. All the adventure, all the history, all the swash and buckle; I am all about all of that stuff. I will now stop saying “all” as much as in that last sentence.
The best way I can describe things in general right now is pushing the lid off a sarcophagus. Oh, this is what I do. Okay, I can handle that. The spring-cleaning mode is strong in this house at the moment, and a bunch of that includes my writing life/area. I am hoping go bust my secretary desk out of stuff jail (aka storage) and move my beloved fall and winter stationery into a clearly labelled and easily accessible box so they can nap until August. Spring-and-summer falls most naturally for me into one category, so I am treating it that way.
As far as reading is concerned, I am three books behind on my Goodreads goal, but lucky me, I also have three books going a present. Two are vintage historical romance and one is fantasy romance by one of the OG historical romance authors. All are rereads. One is hardcover, one is paperback, and one is on audio. Nope, I lied. There’s also an e-book that is also vintage historical romance.
April is turning out to be a refresh in several areas, so it feels right to show signs of life here as well. Right now, it’s time to put away a mountain of laundry and then some planner/bujo setup. What’s going on in your world?
Absolutely no plan for today’s blog, even though I had, er, planned on one, but I am overtired, thus a tad loopy, and in my defense, was left unsupervised. Melva and I are happy to announce that our revise and resubmit of Drama King, the second book in our contemporary romance series, Love by the Book, is now under consideration at The Wild Rose Press. We will know in a few weeks. Seems only natural to be turning my planning and journaling stuff over for a new season in more ways than one.
Right now, I am sitting in a wash of sunlight, listening to Reddit threads read over an external speaker because somebody who lives in my apartment and has paws, has a thing where the line between earbud and snack blurs. I will remedy this soon. In the meantime there is the speaker (which also has cool lighting options I have not yet figured out) and a pair of wireless earbuds in a cute kitty shaped case, which do not go anywhere near the actual cat.
I am also surrounded by (yeah, passive tense, what of it?) all the elements of highly organized workspace. All they need is for me to put them in the right order. Or any order, as I look at them today. Over the winter, I have been trying a bunch of different things in the stationery-verse to see what actually works best for me, and the way I do things now, not the way I think they should be or how they have always (or usually) been. Most of it is still in flux, but a more streamlined flux, if that makes any sense.
I have what I call a “big furry mess” stage, where things are generally in the same space. I have, for instance, a tote that’s all set up for my morning stuff. Morning brain dump and sleep log, my catchall planner, which is almost entirely functional, a fact that surprises the heck out of me, but there you have it, and the writing planner that I am still splashing about in the shallows with but trust that it will right itself (not write itself) by the time we shift into summer mode. There is one set of pens in that tote, the specific sticker books and accessories where appropriate, that I will be using with those specific planners/notebooks. I didn’t intend for a color theme, but I lump my morning stuff into “pink grapefruit,” as it’s all pinks and oranges and I can work with that. I, for the record, have never cared for the taste of grapefruits of any hue, but I do love a good theme for my stationery, and halved grapefruits topped with halved cherries (I do appreciate a good cherry) were standard breakfast images in the media of my childhood. I do not know why this is. I don’t remember either of my parents having grapefruit for breakfast, and it was never offered to me.
Right now, I am very much attuned to the traveler’s notebook format. Discbound is probably my number two format at present, but I am sorting out what works in the various sizes of traveler’s notebooks I have going. Part of it is the covers. Leather or vegan leather, the strings that give me options of what inserts to include (a benefit also afforded by discbound systems, and the process of getting all tactile as well as functional. I don’t strictly need the decorative elements, but I like them.
Then there’s this baby. Have I introduce Nyx yet? My very first Archer and Olive, with black dot grid pages. Do I have a purpose for her that sets her apart from al the others? Nope. Do I love her intensely? Yes. Am I planning on just tossing anything onto her pages just because? Also yes. I’ll figure out some sort of order maybe halfway through, which is okay, because…wait for it…I can buy more. We clicked when I stalked the clearance sale, so we are going to make this work. Also, Tiny Anna always wanted to write in white in on black paper, and y’know what? I am going to make that kiddo’s wish come true. It’s me. I’m the kiddo.
I am also blabbering. I completely and cheerfully admit this. When I sat down at the keyboard this afternoon, I had two options. Option one: throw some words on the screen, even if they don’t make sense. Possibly a bold move, but worth the risk. Option two: post nothing and feel guilty for the next howeverlong. I don’t like option two. Option One it is, then. Same as Monday morning was the first time in a long time that Her Last First Kiss was the story on the front burner (and wowzers, have I missed that story)
Option One for completely ripping out the second half and redoing it to take advantage of a historical thing that would make the second half oh so much better, felt scary, but Option Two, putting it off and feeling guilty, yeah, I don’t like that one. It doesn’t work, and it doesn’t get books written. I’m not sure if I actually went with Option One or if this counts as Option Three: get the big furry discbound notebook currently holding pieces of things, ignore any files on the computer, and physically write out what Happens Now that we are doing the historical thing. I am not entirely done with that phase, as my weekly call with Melva to talk contemporary doings happened when I was about on page…. I want to say seven. Going past that will involve looking at maps and making some lists and bouncing ideas off fellow writers of historical romance fiction, but…yeah.
With a projected 100k wordcount, the part that is staying as is sits at 55k, which is over the halfway mark, so yay me. My What Happens Next pages are literally just that. X happens, okay, what happens after that? And after that? And after that? Lather rinse repeat until HEA. Once we get there, go back and expand as needed until done, and then off to first readers it shall go. I do know where I am going after that with my first all new historical ms in neveryoumind years. This also involves a friend with roots in the country from which said hero hails, and this is the very first time I am planning on books being linked from the start. I normally think in standalones, which I can still do, but this is also commercial fiction, sooooo…..
Yeah. That’s where we are on this fine March afternoon. I am probably going to noodle an doodle in Nyx after I get done here, and/or stick my nose in a physical book, because I am back in reading mode with a vengeance, thanks to an influx of classic historical romances. I will no doubt be talking about those later on, because I have thoughts.
Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This is a big week, because I got to host a professional conference right here in our home. The hoomans call it a pest inspection (spoiler alert, there aren’t any) but Mama Anna was quick to mention that our family has a resident organic pest control specialist in-house. The hooman woman who came in first immediately knew Mama Anna mean “kitty,” and she called her partner, a male hooman, from downstairs to come see me. Not only did they praise my inherent good looks, but the woman person asked Mama Anna if I ever stared at any odd places along walls or cabinets. Mama Anna said no, and that if I did find any pests, I would kill them and bring them to her. She is right. I would, but there aren’t any so far. The man person told the woman person that was a really good question to ask, because we organic pest control specialists can pick up things that the hoomans miss.
Here you see me with Nyx, Mama Anna’s new Archer and Olive blackout journal. She loves it. I will let her show Nyx to you. Mama Anna sometimes names her things, and sometimes they have genders, but not always. I thin Nyx is a girl, but I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that when she is ready to take N yx out of the box for real and have her live in the bookshelf instead of the box, that box is mine. Mama Anna says she will use it to store stickers or cardstock but we will see about that. I am a cat. It is a box. Do the math. I am still lobbying for her to get one of the same company’s journals that has black, white, and kraft pages, because that will then be her calico journal.
I will let Mama Anna show the inside of the book when she wants to, but she has found that keeping regular journals is essential to her creative process. Right now, she likes the A5 Exceed journal, lined, with 100gsm paper. She is also thinking about getting a stencil to draw lines on pages that don’t have any, so that she can make any journal a lined journal. She’ll do it, too. Either that or figure out a way to deal without them. She’s smart like that.
Today is one of those days when having a built-in fur coat comes in really handy. Papa and Mama Anna are both home but they have to wear sweatshirts and big socks and that kind of thing, and all I need is me. I also like to sleep on the afghan Aunt Linda made them a while back. It is ivory colored, and has cables like an Irish fisherman sweater, and we all love it a lot. Mama Anna says that after lunch, she may snuggle under a blanket (maybe that one, maybe another one) with some journal stuff, a mug of tea, a vintage historical romance novel, and, of course, me. Papa might join us. He likes to look at his glowy box a lot, but he reads books sometimes, too. That would be super warm if it was all three of us.
That’s probably it for this week, apart from Mama Anna admitting she owes a blog from yesterday. She does have stuff in mind to talk about, so it’s really in her best interest to get to them. How is your week going?
Another Thursday, another blog. We are now past the midpoint of February, and I am not at all sure we are going to get smacked by winter this year. I am not sure how I feel about that. To be determined, I suppose. One way this reflects is in the way I handle my stationery, because stationery is life. Though I didn’t manage to get the pastel Christmas theme this year (but I did get a start on it for next year) I figured that pastel winter would do as well, but then it wasn’t clicking, so I am now in a themeless wilderness. I will probably keep the Bloody Valentine theme for the rest of the month and then we will see. March, for me, suggests RWA conferences, though we haven’t been for the last few years for various reasons. I’m sure that will pick up again in the very near future. In any case, full speed ahead.
In full stationery nerd mode, I am currently fiddling around with my everyday carry (EDC) aka what’s in my bag. With spring in the offing, I want to stretch myself into going out more. Ever since we got this apartment, after our year of vagabondage, I have bene more of a homebody than I would like to admit. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I am an extrovert, I work at home, and I live in a city. There are people out there. :gestures to window: Part of this means doing some of my journaling and possibly discovery drafting outside of the house.
Not going to lie, nifty stationery goes a long way toward that end. Right now, I am sorting things out when it comes to my EDC. Pictured above is a leather traveler’s notebook from Chic Sparrow, in the size A6. This size is new to me, so I didn’t have any inserts that size, wasn’t sure where to find them, but I found a bound sketchbook that looked like it might fit. I popped it in, and oh my mercy, it’s great. The shiny things in the first picture are plastic dashboards, also from Chic Sparrow, which I can fill with whatever strikes my fancy. I moved the pocket sized inserts I had been using into a pocket-sized cover from another maker. Do I want to carry A6 with me, or pocket, and what about my B6? The good news is that as a writer, I absolutely am going to write in all of these books, so I’m not worried.
Here you see my very first Archer and Olive journal. That’s a silver spiderweb on the front cover, black linen with dark blue sparkles, and black dot gridded pages. I am challenging myself to make one spread per day. No theme, no plan, but throwing stuff on the page as I will, which I will probably show later. Right now, we are getting to know each other, and I am definitely planning on getting more, but definitely will wait until they go on sale. Go figure I finally discover this brand when they phase out the lined books. Eh, it’s fine. What I do know is that I am all about the GSM these days. I always suspected, but now I know.
For the rest of today, I get to transcribe that scene, send it off to Melva, and then tidy my desk area. I am excited to get back to historicals and seeing what I can do with that genre now, both with stories that have been on pause for far too long and new stories yet to come. I am eyeing Camp NaNo in April, which will no doubt get a notebook of its own.
That’s about it for that for the time being, so I will move on along to the transcription and then it’s desk tidying time. When we renew our lease in May, I want to get my secretary desk out of storage, because I want all the nooks and crannies. what notebooks are you using this season?
Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We are staying nice and snug here in NY state, even though the temperatures are in the single digits today. Don’t worry about us, though. we are keeping warm. Mama Anna has fleecy clothes on, and I have a built-in fur coat, so we are good. Also, she drinks a lot of tea. I mean a lot. As long as it keeps her warm and happy, I guess it’s okay.
Anyway, it’s Friday again, and that means I get to take over the blog for the day. We will start with my most recent pictures.
Ahem. That is NOT me. That is part of Mama Anna’s everyday carry (EDC) traveler’s notebook (TN.) I guess I may as well talk about that for a minute. Mama Anna would be lost without this thing even though it’s not a planner. Seriously. Her planner is a different notebook. This is one notebook she writes in every day and then two others she hasn’t written in yet, but is holding onto because she will at some point. I don’t get humans. She actually has a lot of TNs, in different sizes (and wants more; whatever, I can sit on them and make them my own with claws and such) and only today figured out that the rando sketchbook she picked up at an art store is actually the size of book that is supposed to go in this cover, which is A6, not the pocket sized things she has had in there all this time. She does have a pocket sized book on hand so she tried moving the pocket size stuff into that one and then putting the A6 book into that cover, and then….well, she doesn’t have any other A6 inserts, so she did some checking around, also looked into making her own, and then :deep breath: figured out that if she put that A6 book in the A6 cover, she can’t carry as many pens at one time in the pen loop and back pocket, so it’s back to the original arrangement.
Now, this is me. Yes, I look a little rough here, but that’s only because I just that minute got up from a nap and Mama Anna put a camera in my face. She’s getting back into the whole picture taking thing and I seem to be her number one favorite model. She has good taste. I do question her thought process when she says I can’t walk across her keyboard while she is using it. I am trying to help here. Okay, I may or may not have deleted part of a PDF she was working with, and I did butt-dial a friend on Discord, but really, are those things so horrible? Counted against the sheer amount of cuteness I provide, these things can be swept under the rug with all of the missing earbuds and hair ties.
Speaking of earbuds, Mama Anna is trying out a new thing this weekend: wireless earbuds. She suspects that they will soon be reclassified as “cat toys,” which I think is very progressive of her. Everything is a cat toy when you’re a kitty. Anyway, things are going pretty good over here. Mama Anna and Aunt Melva expect to be sending Queen of Hearts off to their editor very very soon, and Mama Anna will be back in historical mode. I like historical mode. There are lots of cats in historicals, or there should be. Thinkn of it, all those birds and mice and other vermin. Who you going to call, hoomans? That’s right. Cats. You’re welcome.
Also, I have a new sign off picture. How is your week going?
Planner covers, string lights and other pretties meet my gaze when I look over the top of my laptop monitor. I feel very much at home here (good because it is in my home) Right now, I am ticking off the things on my to do list for the day, most of it writing related, and household chores relegated to any time left after the writing things are done. This has been the goal for a while now, and now it’s here. Check in the plus column.
Yesterday, while I video chatted online with a friend, I turned over my everyday carry (EDC) to all new for February. Brown leather traveler’s notebook (A6 size, with pocket sized inserts) and for the first time, the delightful excess of accessories that I have always wanted. Yes, I still need more. Though I don’t usually do themes in my planners/notebooks, February doesn’t hew to pastel winter (and let’s face it, most pastel winter things I can find are actually pastel Christmas, and I don’t want to see Santa in February or even January. It’s his naptime.) The February theme presented itself rather than me going looking for it.
The theme for February is My Bloody Valentine. Yes, partly after the Machine Gun Kelly song and partly because I have enough elegant spooky stickers left over from October to make it work. This is the only Machine Gun Kelly song I know, and don’t know anything about him personally (except he is engaged to Megan Fox, maybe?) but the thing presented itself, so I am taking it. Is should mention that even my mug is in line with my theme for the month.
I will share a tour through my EDC for another post, possibly in video form, because it’s a lot and I am pretty happy with it. After trying out a lot of planning and journaling supplies, I am moving into the period of knowing what I like. Some of that means I am moving in the direction of what works best for me. On that note, I am now waiting the approximately two weeks for my very first Archer and Olive order. It is this one, black dot grid pages with a silver spiderweb on the front. I fully expect to fall in love with it, and will likely watch their pssst section for other pages and sizes. I’m normally a cream/ivory page gal, and the standard A&O color is white, but don’t knock it until you try it, I say in my mother’s voice. Besides, I have a source for the ivory lined journal of my dreams. I’ll give a tour of the current lineup later.
All of this focus on planning and journaling did indeed help my writing goals for 2023 to fall into line, and of course into their own notebooks. Right now, the plan is to deal with what’s on my desk at present: A Heart Most Errant, Her Last First Kiss, and then the pirate trilogy. After that, we will see, and Melva and I plan to put our heads together again in late spring or early summer to commit more acts of collaboration.
These guys are on top of the crate that holds the covers posted above. Plush Plague Doctor, gargoyle pencil holder, and the Tudor Rose ornament that never made it to the tree because I want it where I can see it every day. I also meant to mention FaRoFeb in the initial letter salad in the title, but then it slipped my mind until then. I don’t know much about fantasy romance, though I am curious. At any rate, I plan to read at least one fantasy romance during the month of February, which is also African American history month, which means I will also read at least one African-American historical romance. Other than that, i am focusing on reading the kind of thing I love to write – epic historical romancc, and for pity’s sake, take notes aas I do, because that stuff is important to me.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at this Thursday afternoon. One last last last look at the Queen of Hearts manuscript before it goes off on its merry way, and then I am fully back in historica mode. How is your week going?
Right now, we are getting snow here in NY’s Capitol Region. I have a hot cup of gingerbread tea in my pink gingham mug. If I could summon any snack in the world to appear it would be swirly butter cookies with a kiss of raspberry jelly in the middle. I had a toasted English muffin with butter and grape spread. Kind of close but not the same. Maybe time to find a lower sugar recipe I can make on my own? Anyway, I have new fairy lights along the bookcase over my desk. These are multicolored, and steady, and I like the feel they give me. I will probably grab more from end of season sales, because the lights are very me.
I am very much into the whole hygge thing. Last time Housemate and I made our weekly craft store run, I got a box of candle wicks so that I can melt down the remains of past jar candles into new candles. I love that whole idea, and the thought of the process and might even try making my own labels for the “new” candles. Part and parcel of January, it would seem. Last night, I finished listening to Bronson Pinchot read Jennifer Roberson’s Shapechangers. I will probably read or listen to the others in time. I am more of a Tiger and Del gal when it comes to Roberson, but it’s all good.
January this year is turning out to be a lot like November was, in that I want to experience it for itself, not as December’s hangover. We haven’t had much snow this month so far, and I am usually okay with the rain, but the promise of snow, that’s something special. My contemporary co-author, Melva Michaelian and I, have finished edits on our two most recent contemporary manuscripts. One will go to The Wild Rose Press for consideration, as they have right of first refusal, and the other may be ina revise and resubmit situation, or it will begin on a journey to find its home elsewhere. We’d like all of the Love By The Book books to be together, so that’s our hope.
This brings me to a place where I haven’t been for a while. My main focus for this quarter is solo historical romance. Pause for a short moment of running in circles, screaming, when Facebook wanted to know if I would like to remember that I had started Her Last First Kiss seven years ago. Seven. Years. I hate stops and starts like this, but I still love the story, and big changes to the second half do make that part of the book pretty much like a new work. I don’t know how this is going to shake out right now, and that’s okay. What I do know is that it’s time. I. Am. Doing. This. I’m not going to tell myself it’s too late, I’m too old, the market is too different, etc, etc, etc. None of that. I’m not doing that anymore.
What I am doing is, well, writing. Doesn’t matter what at present, just as long as ink is coming out of the pen and onto the page. Journals, letters (remember letters? I love those.) and getting back into reading the stuff I love the very very best. Those seven years between the start of Her Last First Kiss and now have been big ones. I am proud of getting through them. I have co-written three contemporary romances. One of them is out in the world now, and then the other two are on their way to joining it at the right time. Tehre’s a balance somewhere between things I have always wanted to write and things that might be fun to try now. Getting back to regular blogging is a part of that.
One of the fun things about being in this kind of phase is discovering new things and steering into the natural rhythm. I am thinking of trying Archer and Olive journals, though my preference is for lined over dotted pages and ivory over white. There are kraft and blackout options, so I might try one of those. I like most notebook sizes, mainly A5, B6, and pocket. I love the idea of the heavyweight paper and would love to fit one into a leather cover, either folio or traveler’s notebook. Recommendations glagly accepted.
Tails Up, storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re Awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This is coming to you in the prevening rather than morning because it’s a recovery day around here. Aunt N (upgraded from Neighbor N) has been around a lot, which is super cool. The more the merrier, I always say, which definitely applies to Christmas trees around here. Well, it kind of does. Let me explain.
Okay, so, irst of all, we have some math:
Number of Christmas trees we actually own: Four. Number of Christmas trees the humans can locate: Three. Number of Christmas trees technically in place: Two Number of Christmas trees that Mama Anna has not yet located: One. Number of Christmas trees the humans still need to put up and decorate: One. Number of Christmas trees they actually intended to put up this year: One. Number of Christmas trees I have knocked over so far this year: Zero.
To be fair, the number of Christmas trees I have ever knocked over is probably also zero. I was with Mama D for my first Christmas, because I did not know Mama Anna yet. I was really young then, though, so I don’t remember what went on with Mama D’s Christmas tree, though I want to say we did have one. I don’t remember if it was a big tree or a smaller one, but of the Christmas trees I can remember, They have all been tabletop or smaller. Mama Anna says that we will get a big tree when we are in a bigger apartment. I am okay with that.
Out of the trees we have, Mama Anna knows exactly where three of them are. It’s the tiny pink brush tree that she’s only sure of where it generally is, but she will probably track it down tomorrow, and then it can go on the windowsill where it belongs. Out of the trees technically in place, there is the miniature ceramic Christmas tree that has its own lights. That one is on top of Mama Anna’s desk hutch. It’s about half the size of the green ceramic one that her mama had when Mama Anna was a people kitten. It’s also pink. The newest one came tomorrow, because we are helping Aunt N move. This one is another tabletop tree. It’s cone shaped and made out of green tinsel. It doesn’t have any lights on it, but Mama Anna might put some on, later.
The Christmas tree that isn’t up yet is the rose gold tinsel one that was going to be the only tree, until the other trees happen. Now, Mama Anna is well on her way to the Christmas tree forest of her dreams. When Mama Anna was a people kitten, she spent some awesome Christmases with her Aunt S and Uncle G, who had three trees: one big one in the living room a small one in a different room, and then another one outside. The living room one was the one with the presents. Aunt S and Uncle G had cats, but Mama Anna doesn’t remember any of them climbing the tree. Eh, I can look it up on You Tube. “How to Climb Christmas Trees for Beginners” should be a good search term, right? I want to be ready when we get one of these bad boys:
One thing Mama Anna has already decorated is her everyday carry traveler’s notebook (EDC):
Mama Anna is really, really, really into the whole traveler’s notebook thing, and decorating her notebooks and planners for the holidays. She plans to be done with the journal she keeps in this book by Christmas (pocket size or A6 hardcover; lined paper, ivory preferred.) She doesn’t really know what she’s doing with the blank insert she has in here, but it does take watercolor well, and her usual thing is to carry around an insert blank for a while and then she’ll know what to do with it when the time is right. I have learned to stay out of the way for this kind of thing, apart from sitting on open packs of paper. That never gets old.
I should probably say something here about Mama Anna’s writing. She and Aunt Melva are on track with their editing goals for Drama King and Queen of Hearts. When they are done with those, they will swap edits, probably say “looks good to me” on both counts, and then to the editor things go. That will put them both where they need to be for next year, where the first quarter is set aside for their solo writing. Aunt Melva will work on a humorous memoir, and Mama Anna will return to the world of historical romance with Her Last First Kiss. She is trying a new thing this year with a special writing planner/tracker, which I think is pretty cool. I’ve sat on it. It’s comfortable.
Anyway, about time for me to go stare at Mama Anna and wait for her to do the right thing and set up that last Christmas tree. It’s going on a table, which has chairs I can totally get onto, and once I am on the chair, that tree will be mine. Bwahahaha.\
Hullo. It has been a hot minute since I last sat down to blog like this. I’ve missed it. why the hiatus? Mm, life. Low gradde depression, because not doing things that bring joy is one of the things that happens with that. Not that this has been a big depressive episode, but more like one of the quiet ones. we are, as far as I know, doing fine. Housemate got a new car less than a month ago, which is awesome, though it happened at exactly the same time a dear friend had a surprise life adjustment.Melva and I are currently in the process of editing not one but two of our collaborative contemporaries (alliteration for Melva’s sake; she would want that in there) and then after we have swapped edits and sent things where they need to go, we get to turn to the start of the new year with a focus on our individual projects, before plotting out book number four (four!) together.
I have dearly, dearly missed writing and reading historical romance as part of this quiet spell has been reading habits that best translated to “meh.” I did complete my Goodreads Challenge though, which I like. The fact that it’s half of what I had hoped the final target would be, eh, I’m not thrilled but I’m not mad. It is what it is. I am not yet sure what my goal for 2023 will be. Right now, I am looking at my winter reading plans which mostly will involve reading soem favortie classic historical romance authors. Always go back to the well, right? That’s what I’m thinking.
NaNo did not happen, and I am fine with that. We writers do things as we do, anyway, all year round. Melva and I finished one book, we re editing that one and the previous one, and I am now re-plotting the second half of Her Last First Kiss, because sometimes how they did things back in the olden days actually works out better for us modern people writing the story than what we had assumed they would do, Do your research, old timey writer people. It helps.
The lovey journal above, I had meant to be a reading bullet journal, only when I got down to it, my brain said not so much. I am going to use the darned thing (the book, not the brain, but that too. The problem there was in attempting to emulate a favorite You Tuber’s work, when, while though gorgeous, is not how I do things. which is fine. I’ll find my own way. Not, however, by staring at a blank wall and not socializing because please. Have you met me? I need to blabber and play and make messes and then I will sort it all out when the thing is ready for sorting.
Surprising no-one, I have no agenda for this post, but to make it, because that’s the hardest post to write, the first one after a long time of nothing. The same with reading (Pick one book. Read it. Yay.) and socializing (Hi, Friend. Me. Alive. You?) and a lot of other small but not unimportant regular things. Right now, it is five-eleven PM. It’s totally dark out. I love this time of year. NO tin the holiday spirit yet, but I will be. Right now, I am in love with the black velvet night and the glow of the streetlights and the feeling of being tucked inside for the night, warm and safe, with loved ones nearby. Later tonight, I will probably be playing in a journal while I watch You Tube or maybe see what’s streaming, drama-wise I have a Sim about to delivery his alien baby in my current saved game. I am loking at making my own save file in the year to come. Eyeing 1899 on Netflix, the only thing I know about it being that it was made by the same people who made Dark, and I love Dark.
I kind of want to rewatch Dark, come to think of it, and also Into the Night. I have so far watched zero holiday themed programming, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t. Leave your suggestions in the comments and maybe I’ll take a peek. Maybe something more European/British Isles based? Holiday themed episodes of TV shows are awesome as well. Might even help me start mmm, baking or something. Cookies would probably be a good thing.
Typing With Wet Nails 