Hi, all. Monday again, and, this week, I am determined to stick to my ideal blogging schedule of Monday, Wendesday and Friday. Hopefully more, but at least those three. It does get easier when one can outsource one day of blogging to one’s pet. Definitely worth the extra treats that added service will cost, at least that’s been my experience.
Since today is a lot of stuff in a little time on my to do list, I’m going to leave the bulk of today’s post as a video blog. If there’s something you’d like to see in video, drop me a line in the comments or at annacbowling@gmail.com.
Today, I’m focusing on starting as I mean to go on for the week, which means I need to put in some solid work on Her Last First Kiss (you’ll get a tidbit on that book’s hero in the video) and read over the latest chapter from my critique partner, who is making some awesome progress on her current ms.
I will probably give myself a break to go talk to some ducks in the park later, but work comes first.
Thanks to those who asked about From Fan Fiction to Fantastic Fiction recently. Things are in the works there, so stay tuned. I really appreciate the interest, and if you can write fan fiction, you can totally write original fiction, though it is more than merely filing off serial numbers. You know you’re up for it, though, right? I believe in you.
Okay, I am in full on babble mode now, so will turn you over to the video portion of our show.
Hello, all. Skye here, for another installment of Typing With Wet Claws. It is still very loud and noisy outside our house, because the city humans are putting in a new sidewalk. I am not sure what a sidewalk is, because I am an indoor kitty, but the humans tell me they need it so that they can walk. In that case, getting a new one is probably a good idea.
Anty has been busy this week. She had a new post on Heroes and Heartbreakers, about her favorite YA book boyfriends (these boyfriends only live in books; Uncle has nothing to worry about.) It is here and it looks like this:
I notice there are no boy cats on this list.
See, I have been learning things, too. Now I know where pictures go on the new laptop. Anty said I should mention that it got infected again, but she fixed it like a boss without even getting a little upset. I am very proud of her for that. Computer things make her nervous most of the time, but this time, she did not even have to ask Uncle for help. She did it all herself and went right back to writing.
Speaking of writing, Anty has some writing news. This week, she sold her first article to XOJane.com. Her article is not about romance fiction, but she had a good time writing it anyway, and is happy that other people will be able to read it. There will be pictures, too. She said I can tell people when it goes live. It is not there yet, so you will have to wait a little while to see it, but Anty hopes you will read it when it is time. She likes this website very much and hopes to write more things for them in the future. She did not say if any of those things would be about cats. More information will be on the Coming Soon page, which will be coming soon.
Anty has also added a special hashtag on Instagram, so that people can follow me. All of my pictures will now have the hashtag #SkyeOMalleyCat, so that is where you should look if you want to see me on your feed every day. Anty already feeds me every day, so I do not know what the internet has to do with it, but anything that involves feeding and me has to be good.
Now that it is August, the days are getting cooler and shorter and there are notebooks and pens on sale everywhere. This makes Anty very happy. For one thing, she can write in her office again. That does not make me as happy as it makes her, because I do not go inside her office. I am not sure about the carpet in there. Anty thinks if she leaves the door open, I might get brave and try coming inside. That is a good idea, because I am her mews and need to be close by, but she does not take into account that whole carpet thing. It is different from the carpet in her and Uncle’s bedroom. I sit outside the door, even when it is open, and look pitiful. That usually makes her come out and feed me, to make up for the trauma of separation.
Another thing that makes Anty very happy is learning things that make her work easier. Knowing how to fix the computer last week made her work a lot easier (and mine as well, because otherwise, I would have had to follow her while she paced the whole apartment until Uncle could fix the computer for her, and my paws would get tired.) Learning to use Scrivener has made her work easier, because she does not always write in order and can move scenes around so that everything makes sense. Having to get an old camera memory card out of the old printer was not very easy, but it did allow her to get the photographs she needed (of her father’s old house) for the article, so that is what she did.
Humans who do not write sometimes think that writing is easy. All the writer has to do is make up stories in their heads and there they go. That is not the truth. Well, it sort of is, but that is not the only thing the job entails. The stories have to be finished, and they have to make sense. Every writer works differently. Anty has a critique partner who needs to work on only one thing at a time. Anty needs to work on more than one thing at a time, or she will not get anything done. That is not good for anybody. Some writers like to track their progress by how many words they have written. That makes Anty freeze, so she does not do that. She works on scenes.
Right now, she is trying something new and not counting chapters, either. She is telling the story and then will divide into chapters later. That is making her feel more confident and makes writing more fun. She is also thinking of new ideas for articles about things she has experienced, and about human grooming. Anty really likes things like clothes, makeup, hair, nails and jewelry and is learning how to write about those things as well. The more things Anty has to do, the more things she will get done. If she has only one thing, she will get bored. That does not apply to kitties. I am her only kitty right now, and she is not bored with me, as you can tell by the pictures she puts on Instagram. In case you need to remember, all my pictures will have #SkyeOMalleyCat on them, so you do not have to miss any.
That is about it for now. Anty says she needs the computer back so that she can work on Her Last First Kiss and her Buried Under Romance post for tomorrow. Until next week, I remain very truly yours,
Until next week…
Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling
(the kitty, not the book)
Hi, all. Super busy week this week, which means I’m only getting to Monday’s post on Thursday. Could be worse. Still learning the new electronics, we’ve had a full house, and the city is redoing the sidewalks in front of our house as I write this. I found out that they were doing major things (HIMYM fans may salute with me here) which meant no leaving the house when I’d planned to hop down the block to the coffee house. Instead, I hopped into my office, and recorded this:
Still pretty basic with the video blogs, as I’m only learning the whole process, but it’s fun to blather on from time to time. We’ll see how that goes. What do you think of video blogs, dear readers? Love them? Hate them? Never watch them? Real Life Romance Hero is the one who convinced me to give it a go, so if I’m totally belly flopping here, blame him.
This week, I sold my first article to XOJane.com, which has me excited. Not romance related (though adult situations are referenced, ahem) but still an interesting experience, and one I hope to repeat. The submission package required a new author photo, with specific background requirements and bio (have I mentioned how much I hate bios?) I think the photo turned out okay. I vacillate between describing it as “thoughtful writer on a good hair day” and “Appalachian folk singer reminisces over her whiskey-soaked youth.” This whole picture thing takes practice. Videos, too.
Now that summer, my least favorite season, is winding down, and we are about to enter my beloved autumn, when the leaves put on a Technicolor show every day, the air smells amazing, everything is pumpkin flavored, and the days get cooler and darker, I’m looking forward to these changes. When my regular coffee house order slips from iced tea to hot, I’ll know we’ve turned the corner.
Her Last First Kiss continues to show me new things, some of which require the ripping out of previous things, but I think it’s going to be worth it. Sometimes, we think progress should be a straight line, like the monorail at an amusement park, where it’s more like a giant roller coaster with loop de loops and ups and downs and maybe a tunnel or water slide or two. Does this mean the book is going to be perfect? Nope, but it will be worth the journey.
It’s easy for a writer to get down on themselves after a laughably low royalty check or bad review, or realizing exactly how long it’s been since the last (or first) release, but dwelling on those things doesn’t help. Acknowledge the fact, do something different and move forward. Yes, you will fall on your face. Probably more than once. The thing is to get back up and keep going. Even if that means banging out some babble for a blog post when you don’t have the slightest idea what to write.
Hey, showing readers random stuff near my desk is still content, and it’s more than I would have had if I never opened the file. One step at a time, liebchens, that’s what it’s all about.
Hello, all. Skye here, coming to you in the evening of this Feline Friday. It has been an interesting week here. Not only is the construction still going on (Anty says there is a Hellmouth outside our house. Uncle says it is only gravel, which is not scary, but will not allow Anty to walk in heels, which is kind of scary. She trips more in flats than heels, which I do not understand, but then again, I have never worn shoes of any kind.) and it was hot all week long (if you think dealing with heat is hard as a human, try going through it with a built in full length fur coat. Do not worry, though, Anty and Uncle make sure my water bowls -I have more than one- are always full of cool water. Sometimes, Anty puts an ice cube in my bowl.) but there are New Developments.
Anty, Uncle and Mama went to a glowy box store to learn more about glowy boxes, and they came home with a bunch of them. Anty says the robot invasion has begun. I do not know about that. She says the robots have been rising up for some time now, so maybe she meant continued. Whatever the robots are doing, there are now new phones for everybody, which means everybody wants to take more pictures of me. I do not blame them for that, but it does mean that I now know the sound that comes with the cameras hidden in those phones. Anty tells me when people on Instagram say I am a pretty girl. They do that a lot. It is good for the ego. Maybe Anty should put her book covers on Instagram. I think they are pretty, even if they are from a time before me (and do not have any cats on them. What’s with that?)
who could resist this face?
Some of you may know that Anty really really really does not like phones. That is from a time, before me, when she had to keep the old ringy kind of phone with her all the time. Even in the litterbox. She may not want me saying that last part, so keep it between us if that is okay. Thank you. Anyway, that was a time when she had to talk to people vets about her papa, her own anty, and about Uncle. None of them had the same people vets because they were all sick in different ways, and so the phone rang. A lot. This was not only before me, when Olivia was Anty’s mews, but when I first came into the family, too, and I was really really scared of everything. If you knew where I came from, you would understand why, but I prefer not to talk about that. I was taking my cues from her, and if she got scared, I got scared, so when the phone rang, usually with an emergency, often one emergency interrupting another emergency, we both got scared. Sometimes, I got so scared that I would lick the fur off my tail. I do not do that anymore, because I am not scared anymore.
Anty was scared to be in a phone store (the glowy box store was really a phone store) because she does not like phones, but Mama and Uncle were there for her. She knew that she had to be there because she needs to be able to communicate with the rest of the family even when she is not at her laptop. That is a very big step. Apart from one time on Sunday (that she has asked me not to talk about) where she decided she had too many electronics (whoops, looks like I did. Sorry, Anty.) she has been pretty much okay. She likes to organize things, and organizing her electronics falls under that umbrella. That is a turn of phrase. She is not keeping her electronics under an umbrella. She mostly keeps them on a tray that is next to her comfy chair in the living room. It is not an ideal setup, but she is still researching the way that will work the best for her. For one thing, apart from her minicamp (what Mama calls the phone instead of calling it a phone; Anty likes that term, so she uses it, too) all of her electronics are pink. She did not plan it that way, but that is how it is. The minicamp is black, but it may get a pink case. She does not know about that yet.
I do not think that the new phones have anything to do with it, but Anty’s laptop got sick twice this week. Maybe more than that. I have lost count. Uncle fixed it some of the time, and then Anty fixed it herself and it has been fine since then. We did not have to go to the computer vet, which is a good thing. Anty has had to reinstall Scrivener three times already, but she did not mind, because it is something she has to do to get these books written. She still does most of her initial writing in longhand, in notebooks and on differently colored legal pads, but if she wants the books to be published (and she does; that is how she helps pay for my cat food) then she has to put them on the computer. She was so scared of Scrivener at first that she shut it down during the tutorial because it was too overwhelming. I can relate. The day I came home from the shelter, I did not know I was home and did not come out of the carrier for four hours. I came out of the carrier right away when we moved here, though, because I knew I was still with my family.
my sunbeam
That is how it is with writing as well. Anty can get scared sometimes, whether it is using a new kind of glowy box or trying something new with a story, but as long as she is where she needs to be, it is worth being a little scared, so it all works out. Sometimes, something that looks scary can be the best thing in the world after spending some time with it.
Speaking of time, Anty says I have had enough time on the glowy box, so that is going to have to be it for this week. Until next time, I remain very truly yours,
Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling
(the kitty, not the book)
We were trapped in the limbo between where we were and where we wanted to be.
–David Levithan
My brain is mush today. I don’t do well in high heat, and we are in one of those over ninety degrees for several days heat waves. There is a giant hole in the ground outside our house (city doing things to stuff under where the sidewalk used to be.) I have an ice pack at the base of my spine, to stay cool, and ingesting enough water to fill a small swimming pool. I would like to be in a swimming pool, actually, preferably an indoor one, but that would require leaving the house, so I refer to temperature and giant hole above.
There originally was a topic for this post, when I’d planned to post it, on Monday. That ship has sailed, and it is not coming back, so I am going to ramble. I have no idea whether the post I’d planned had anything to do with the quote above, which I love dearly, or if I have any chance of staying on topic, but I have a goal of blogging three times a week, dagnabit, and I am going to stick to that. I had a writing teacher once (she would correct me that she was a group facilitator, not a teacher, but I learned stuff, Julia, so it counts. I will probably have a heroine named Julia someday, and That Julia will never know, because she doesn’t read romance. Ah, but you did, Julia. You read -okay, listened to- my stuff in group, so that counts, too.) who said that the practice of writing would bring the product of writing. In short, put pen on paper when she said “go” and then keep it moving until she called time.
It’s kind of like that with blogging. If I start blabbering on the paper, or screen, in this case, I’ll wind up talking about something, so there really are no wasted entries. It’s all going somewhere, even if that somewhere is priming the pump for other writing. I usually do need to prime. This morning, I’ve been filling the pages of a neon green legal pad with swoopy handwritten notes for one project, and, all things being equal, that’s where I’d like to stay. Commitment, though. If I don’t post today, then I’ll let it slide until tomorrow, which is my day away from the house (but not from computers, but more on that later) so that would run into Skye’s posting, and weekend posting would not be the most convenient thing, so it had to be today.
Today’s quote, taken from one of the stories in How They Met And Other Stories, fits the way I’m feeling. Real Life Romance Hero, greatly improved from his own challenges, suggested I take today to rest, but how can I when I am literally years behind where I wanted to be? Years. Oh, and I suppose I’m going to fix that all in one day? Um, no. That’s not realistic or even possible, butbutbutbutbutbutbut….yeah. That’s the thing, that limbo of being between where we are and where we want to be.
Where I am now is not where I would have thought I’d be years ago, before I got the phone call from my dad’s neighbor, before that first time Real Life Romance Hero and I waited on the front porch of where we used to live for the ambulance to arrive after that first asthma attack. A book a year, that was the plan, maybe two if I really got into my groove, but it’s been long enough since a release that I could count as a new author under certain criteria. That’s neither good nor bad, merely is, and I need to be okay with that. it’s a fact. Life happens. I can’t control that.
What I can control is what I do with it. I can write the best story I can, and put everything I have into it. That neon green legal pad and I were up past midnight and up again before six, because my hero and heroine needed me. Bless their poor broken hearts, and my poor scrambled brain. I can’t do everything. I can’t write x years worth of books in one day, but I can write this scene. I can get the first of three blog entries posted. Julia was right. The practice brings forth the product.
I wrote some crap in those sessions, but I also wrote the opening of My Outcast Heart, a good deal of Orphans in the Storm, and a good deal, if not all, of “Never Too Late” in those sessions, too. So there is some precedent. Here I am, a good deal (yes, I did just use that phrase in the line above, but it’s my blog and I’ll repeat if I want to) farther down the page than I’d intended, so that’s good. I’d thought about doing a video blog for today, but my one rule about video blogging (so far) is that I only make videos when my makeup does not melt off my face while I am applying it. Kind of important, that one. I’m sure there will be others, but for today, that’s enough.
So that’s it for today. It’s hot. I’m cranky. I don’t like summer, and I don’t like being denied my coffee house time or the accompanying iced tea. All the more reason to go back into story world until it’s time to meet Housemate for soft serve in the evening, DJ-ing the soundtrack for the drive on the new smartphone RLRH and Housemate (and the very persuasive Shawn D at the phone store) talked me into. We’re all a little disoriented on that one, but I am utterly delighted that there is an office program on the actual phone, so new writing toy. Rather makes that trip to where I want to be shorter, and with a better soundtrack.
Hello, all. Skye here for another Feline Friday. I am not under the bed this week, because Anty is there and she says she is not coming out. There are a few reasons for this.
First, she is cranky to have missed RWA Nationals for another year, but she still tried to get some of the experience as best she could. Please forgive the video blogs. She was going to make another one today, but there was a problem, which is the second thing. Well, really the third.
View out our living room window. Nothing to do with RWA. The machines are loud.
The second thing is that Uncle is waiting for something in the mail that should have been here yesterday and could come tomorrow or could come Monday. Yesterday really would have been best. Anty stresses about things like this, but Uncle assures her all will be fine. Anty thinks that is all very well and good, but she likes to have a Plan B and Plan C in case Plan A does not work out after all.
The third thing is why Anty has not made a video blog for today. Last night, she could not sleep, so she got up to listen to some special music on Spotify that helps her get to sleep. She did not get to sleep, because she did not hear her music. Instead, she got some malware. Malware is a very bad kind of program that gets into computers to do things that are not nice. Anty had to wait until Uncle got up so he could help her with tech support. Uncle is very calm about things like this, where Anty is not, so they balance here.
The human on tech support was not very helpful and wanted a lot of money before they would fix Anty’s computer. Uncle told them that was not going to happen. It took him some time and a lot of passwords, but Uncle was able to take Anty’s computer back in time so that it would work again. This did mean that Anty will have to reinstall things like Scrivener and Spotify, but she is okay with that, as long as she can have her computer back and write on it. It is very interesting that the Scrivener files stayed even though Scrivener did not. I am impressed. Puzzled, but impressed.
Since Anty is not coming out from under the bed, I will tell her news for her. She had two posts at Heroes and Heartbreakers this week. On Monday, she talked about the new book by Meredith Duran, Luck Be a Lady, which she liked very much. You can read that post here. I do not know where pictures go on this computer now that it can time travel, so I cannot show you a picture of that post right now. Instead, you get another picture of me.
you cannot tell, but I am thinking about that book.
Anty’s other Heroes and Heartbreakers post is about Robin Hood and Maid Marian, a timeless romance. You can read about it here. I still do not know where the pictures go, so you get me again.
I wonder if there were any cats in Sherwood Forest. I think there were.
Wait, I think I can find a picture that is kind of appropriate.
Anty talks about the book in the middle in her Robin and Marian post.
My Mama is coming home tomorrow, because Grandma is doing really really well. I do not know if Anty will have to take her computer to the computer vet after all, because Uncle did a good job. He is also making Anty dinner, and he should be able to go out and hunt again this week ahead. I do not know if Anty will know what to do with a quiet house. She will probably write, once she gets Scrivener installed again, but that will probably be tomorrow. She will come out when she is hungry, or when she wants to check her email.
I think that is about it for now, so, until next time, I remain very truly yours,
Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling
(the kitty, not the book)
Oh the things we find in our drafts folders. About a year ago, I was tagged by the lovely Bonnie J. James, Bonnie gave some interesting questions, and I was delighted to answer them, but then domestic tornado chains ripped through and the draft got buried. Since I am not currently at RWA Nationals, where I can blabber about the writing process with any random person within my line of sight, I can do the next best thing and post my answers here.
1) What am I working on/writing right now?
Totally different answers on this question, one year later, which is as it should be. Currently, I am working on three projects.
For Her Last First Kiss, K.A. Mitchell suggested the tag line, “My Best Friend’s Mistress,” which really does fit. When a neglected and misunderstood second son of the aristocracy with a talent for pleasing older women finds his soulmate in a practical minded mistress who is more than she seems, he must choose between the love of a lifetime and the respect of his only true friend. This Georgian historical is taking me on quite the wild ride, and I think I like it.
I am co-writing a novella with longtime critique partner and perpetual conference roommate, Melva Michaelian, which I can best describe as historical romance adjacent. It’s been a long time since I’ve collaborated with another writer, but it’s a whole lot of fun. Details coming soon.
Third project is something I’ve been debating for quite some time: an ebook version of my From Fan Fiction to Fantastic Fiction and On Beyond Fanfic workshops. Early days on that one, but I love presenting the workshop, both online and in person, so this feels like a natural extension
2) What have I learned about my writing process over the years?
Oh so very much, and it keeps on going. Most importantly, that it’s going to change from time to time, and that’s okay. I’ve learned that there are some constants, though, and that’s okay, too. I compose best in longhand. Sitting alone in an empty room is not for me. I’m a talker, so if I’m stuck, blabbering about the stuckness to some obliging soul, writer or not, will usually loosen the clog. Focusing on hitting a word count is sure to give me a muscle cramp, but if I focus on telling the story, hey, look at all those pages with squiggly lines on them. I’m learning to trust my own voice, and that writing from the heart works a lot better for me than writing from the head. I’m more of a puzzler than plotter or pantser, though I do like to puzzle my way to a detailed outline that turns into a first draft. I go scene by scene, and if one doesn’t flow into the next one, time to go back and figure out where somebody made a wrong turn. Finding and correcting that wrong turn can be the difference between a finished novel and a partial one.
I love having sensory input when I write, so I usually have music playing, or sometimes white noise, and I like to make Pinterest boards for various projects so I can refer to visuals. I’ve found that it works best when I keep the board private, so that’s a new thing I’ve learned as well. Mixing images and videos that all relate to the story at hand gives me a boost and keeps things fresh.
Now that I am moving files over to a new computer, I’m pretty much one hundred percent converted from Word to Scrivener, which I once thought I would never understand.
Ask me again next week, and there may be a different answer. Change is a constant.
3) What is my writing schedule like?
I like to write uninterrupted by domestic tornadoes, so I like to get out of the house for at least two hours a day for concentrated writing time, usually in early afternoon, at a local coffee house or park. I’m a morning person, so getting up before the rest of the household works very well, but if I’m the last one up, I can squeeze in some time there, too. I’m a writing nomad; in a given day, I may work in my office, at the kitchen counter, in the living room, park, coffee house, whatever feels right for the day.
4) What is my favorite book about writing?
The Care and Feeding of the Girls in the Basementby Barbara Samuel. I cannot say enough good things about this book. Warm, wise and challenging, the prolific Barbara Samuel asks us to examine the facets of our individual voices and make sure the girls in the basement have what they need to keep sending up the great story stuff. This book is equally good for a pick-me-up or swift kick in the pants. I love, love, love her idea of Sunday Books, secret projects for our own pleasure, and found that extremely helpful.
For those keeping up with my Not at Nationals whines, here’s day number three:
In case you missed day two, it’s here:
Putting books I already own on my own chair doesn’t quite have the same effect as finding a new book on my seat at conference meals, but on the other hand, it might be time for a reread….
It’s that time of year again. RWA Nationals, this year in New York, which made me insanely happy when I first heard of the choice of venue. I’d promised myself as soon as my critique partner told me where this year’s Nationals would be, that I would be in New York for that one. I am, after a fashion. I live in New York, but not in New York City. I’m about two hours away, and I love where I live, but the fact remains that I am not attending Nationals, and I am grouchy about that.
Not that I’m not thankful to have what I have, and be where I am, because I am. I have a new laptop that works beautifully, I’m working on multiple projects that feel right for me, and get a few extra days at home with Real Life Romance Hero thanks to the recommendations of a people vet, to use Skye’s term. Plus I get to hang out with a gorgeous Maine Coon all day. These are not bad things.
Still, for the extroverted romance writer, RWA Nationals is like extroverted romance writer Christmas. A whole hotel, crammed full of people who do what I do and love what I love? Free books and swag everywhere? A chance to see old friends and meet new ones, and literally be surrounded by the romance industry? What’s not to love? I know big conferences can be hard for more introverted types, with all those people and so little quiet space and time, but for me, it’s like putting a duck in water. Paddlepaddlepaddle, I got this. What do you write? And you? And you? And you? What are you reading? Who’s watching Poldark? Here, have a business card. :tries to find business card port on laptop, gives up:
I love getting dressed up; for me, that’s what feels natural and comfortable, so I’m not missing out on that one at all. I’m wearing a long navy eyelet dress today, matching sandals, beachy hair, makeup done, because I am going out somewhere, even if it’s only down the block to my favorite coffee house (it’s hot out, and I do not do heat, humidity, or sun well.) There comes a point in every day when the need to be around people who do not share my address and/or last name becomes as important as food and air. The definition of extroversion I use is that an extrovert gains energy from being around other people and spends it alone. Go be with people to fill my tank, then jump into story world to spend all that energy by myself, writing. That seems to work pretty well for me. Your mileage may vary.
I’ve been attending the New England RWA conference for several years, and love that. My favorite part is Saturday breakfast, because that is extroverted morning person Christmas. Hotel full of people who love to talk about romance writing (and reading) and there’s breakfast food? Only problem there is that 7AM feels late for me (uber-morning person here; I trace this back to a particular late fall morning when I was a preschooler, and my morning person mother showed me why predawn is the best time for those like us to get up. Mist wrapping around the bare-limbed trees as the night faded into dawn burned itself into my memory, and I still remember that switch flipping on as we looked out the kitchen window together. There may have been pancakes.) Add copious amounts of tea to the mix, and I become supercaffieneated extroverted morning person. Scary at times, but also, for me, super super super fun.
Then there’s workshops, which I drink in like a thirsty camel slurps water. Last year, I took a stab at moderating a couple of workshops, which I loved and will probably do again in the future. Volunteering at a conference brings on a whole other level of experience. I’ve helped with breakfast setup (morning people think this is fun, not work, so best to take full advantage when possible) once, which had the added benefit of being able to pick my seat in advance of the meal, by criteria of what book would be on my seat. I have not yet been able to train Real Life Romance Hero to put a newly released historical romance on my seat at every meal, but maybe if I give him a stack, he could try, just for this week? It’s not asking that much.
At this past year’s NECRWA conference, I skipped a workshop to huddle in a corner of the lobby and write an entire scene on my tablet. Considering that I had not yet mastered the touchscreen and was doing this without a stylus (we shall call this time the dark ages) this is an accomplishment. I also had not discovered how to toggle between letters and numbers and thus believed that the office program had no quotation marks (I know, I know, please consider that endearing) but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the atmosphere, all the inspiration in the air, and that it had reached critical mass. That a friendly face could take one look at what was going on, say something akin to “oh, you’re writing. Catch you later,” and that would still count as contact.
I haven’t been to Nationals yet, and it’s not going to be this year. I’m disappointed in that, but I do know that I will be, at the right time, with a new book to shill…er, promote. I meant promote. In the meantime, if you haven’t had enough of my blabber, here’s my first shot at video blogging with the new laptop:
Hello, all. Skye here, for another Feline Friday. It has been a week of changes here, and the humans are still figuring out what some of them mean. If they are not sure, you can only imagine how it is for a kitty, but here is what I know so far.
Uncle is going to be home all the time for a little while, while he gets better. This is good because I get to be with him all the time (I like that a lot) and he does not smell as sick as he used to smell. Kitties pick up on these things. Uncle’s regular people vet helped him figure out some of the things that made him feel really really bad, and he is doing a lot better already. It will take a little more time, but not very much, as he is learning how to take care of himself and Anty is making sure that he does.
This also means that Uncle is home during Anty’s writing time. She says she can feel it when people are breathing her air. She loves Uncle and she loves the stories she is writing, and sometimes, it is a lot to juggle, so she is figuring out how to do that, especially when she is getting used to new technology.
new computer in action
Merely because her tablet and new laptop are both pink does not mean they automatically share everything, and some files are still on the old laptop, like her Sims. It is complicated, but she is learning. The fact that the tablet and new computer are very portable is a big help. The fact that she cannot pick up Wi-Fi in the park is not that helpful, but there are ducks.
Grandma’s people vets say that Grandma can go home this week, so my Mama is going back to where we used to live so that she can help Grandma get settled. Anty says she is turning Mama’s room into an art studio. That is fine by me, as long as my food bowl stays in the same place. (Sorry, Mama..) Anty could really use a room for her art, but I think she will miss Mama while she is gone.
There are a lot of outside noises, and they are scary. Uncle says the city is making the street nicer, but all I can tell, because I am an indoor kitty, is that there is a lot of noise all day. Lots of loud machines and the ground shakes sometimes, and they took out all the trees on our street. Uncle says the city will put in new trees, and the birds will come back (I really like to watch birds in the morning) but that changes the light that comes in the living room window when I hang out with Anty and Mama at breakfast time.
Here is a picture of Anty’s latest library haul, except for the bottom book.
one of these things is not like the others
That one is on the bottom because the cover curled back on itself during the really humid days last week, and she wants it to be flat. You will note that all of the books, apart from the bottom one, are YA, not historical. Anty would really like to be reading historical, but she says her brain will not go there right now, and that bothers her. She likes these books, but misses historicals. She has had a sneak peek at an upcoming historical by Kate Rothwell, whose books she really likes, so that is one thing. Anty thinks there should be more historical romances set in New York. Maybe she should write some. Well, some more. She already wrote one, My Outcast Heart. It was her first book, and there are kitties in it. I was not born yet, so none of them area based on me. The cover is not on Goodreads, which Anty will need to fix, but it does have one.
Anty has discovered a new site for writers, called The Fearless Writer. They have also discovered Anty, and include some of these blog entries (not mine, so far, but maybe they are waiting for The Fearless Writer’s Cat to start, but then again, I am not exactly fearless) in their newsletter so that more people can find this blog. There are other things in it, too, but none of those people feed me, so I do not have to mention them. Put some treats in my bowl, and we’ll talk.
It seems like there should be a seventh entry, because there are seven days in a week, and I blog once a week, unless Anty needs my help more often, which she might, because of above reasons. Anty is hoping to get to watch Poldark this weekend, because it is set in the same era as Her Last First Kiss and she would like to soak in some atmosphere. If any of you know of other movie set in the 1780s, please leave them in the comments and I will tell Anty to watch them. That might help her not be so cranky about having to give season two of Game of Thrones back to the library before she has seen all the episodes.
That is about it for this week, so until next time, I remain very truly yours,
Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling
(the kitty, not the book)
I didn’t set out to have pink electronics. Strictly speaking, the notebook, made of paper, is not electronic, but it does live the same tray with pink laptop, pink tablet, pink camera case (camera itself is silver, but case, not pictured, is pink. Okay, the jump drive stuck into the new laptop is orange (conference freebie, much appreciated) and the mini-mouse that’s out of frame is metallic red. Pink and orange fit under the red umbrella (yep, artist’s kids learn color theory early on; thanks, Dad.) This post isn’t about pink, though.
New laptop has joined the family, an HP stream. She’s light, she’s portable, she swims in the big blue sleeve that I always had to fit the old laptop into, and her new sleeve, when I find it, may very well be pink, though a skull or two couldn’t hurt. We’re still getting acquainted, she and I, and it’s a different experience from having to juggle a bigger laptop with an external keyboard. She starts and shuts down without a complaint, has a battery that isn’t dead, is, so far, bug-free, and despite the fact that we’ve been working together for less than a week (she came home on Wednesday) I think we’re getting along fairly well.
Not that there aren’t adjustments. She doesn’t have a CD drive, for one thing, which had me blinking in surprise for a moment. Time does move on, and so does technology. That’s fine. I can still Sim on the old laptop (though I did accidentally delete a huge chunk of custom content and then empty the recycle bin before I’d noticed what I’d done) and I have the DVD player for watching movies. I’m good there. What gave me a slight case of the heebie-jeebies was the lack of Word. Eep.
I’ve written in Word forever, ever since WordPerfect stopped being a thing. The mere thought of writing without it brought some uncertainty, but now, less than a week later, I can safely say I have almost entirely switched to Scrivener, the same program that had me turn off the tutorial after two minutes because it was too scary and complicated. Go figure.
What I like about Scrivener is that I can work on each scene in its own document, and still have them be part of the whole. Discovering, through my own poking around, the document note and sratch pad features, was something akin to magic. Finally, a screen divided the way I blabber in my head, where I can look at what I blorched out and make notes about what works and what doesn’t. I didn’t know I needed that until I got it, and now the thought of working without it makes me nervous. I love that I can label and color code text so that I can see at a glance what’s a draft (and what number,) what’s notes, where the character notes are, etc. So far, I have not used any pink backgrounds for full screen mode, but that all depends on the individual story, so it may yet happen.
I’d been feeling weary at the thought of migrating all of my Word files over to new laptop, and to Scrivener, which was a sign. I didn’t. Only active projects made it over, which brings a sense of relief. I don’t have to haul the corpses of dead novels around while I’m tending the new babies. It’s easier to focus, especially for my maximalist magpie brain (and the backgrounds in full screen are paradise for those of us who need something besides a blank page to look at.) The others are still there, waiting for their turns, and it’s okay if some of them don’t get turns after all. Not every story start makes it all the way, and some were started by people I no longer am. That happens.
Learning a new computer, and new writing software, goes a long way towards relearning how to write. With learning how I write now. We learn a lot about ourselves when we pack to move, be it physically or virtually . That’s certainly true here. Spotify had to go on this computer; that was one of the first things, as my playlists are part of the process. Pinterest, too, for the inspiration boards. Sims are probably not coming to this laptop, as it’s for work, but a new/used gaming computer can come later. Photoshop Elements, too, is staying on the old computer (again, no CD drive, so that took the decision out of my hands.)
This one is for writing. This is where I will rip the guts out of what I have on Her Last First Kiss and rebuild it because now I have the technology and know the story better. This machine, not puddle jumping from semifunctioning laptop to semifunctioning desktop via flash drive, is where the novella will be written and two voices smoothed into one. She’s a lean, mean, romance writing machine, and that feels right. Writing is my happy place. I want to concentrate on that and do it my way. Much easier on body and brain than switching around and making do. Getting to know a new computer helps me to better know my own process. What do I naturally do with a fresh start? Sometimes I surprise myself, and that’s a good thing
Typing With Wet Nails 