Typing With Wet Paws: Marching Toward Spring Edition

March 12, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Right now, there is a sunbeam that lands exactly on the printer, and yet I am here talking to you, so take that with the honor it deserves.

Things have been all right around here. This is the first day in five days Mama Anna has had the apartment to herself (and me) which has her admittedly giddy. She is going through her to-do list for the day, which includes fun things like putting away laundry and getting trash ready for trash day (and getting me to leave said trash alone, which is not an easy task. They have really interesting trash in this family.) She is also blocking out stuff for her Camp NaNo story in a junky old notebook. She is having a fine time doing that. I have a fine time sitting on it if she leaves it unattended. The very picture of an attractive nuisance.

Speaking of me, Mama Anna insisted that I share this image:

Aunt Linda noticed that there was a special guest star in my crunchies bowl. She wondered how that got there. It is not that complicated, really. There are a few reasons. First, I might have put it there because it is a safe space for me to find it when I want to play with it later. Second I might have been playing and have cat-specific reasons you hoomans would not understand. Third, and maybe most likely, I probably got excited about the food and forgot I had one of the best toys ever (seriously. They are SUPER fun. You should try one.) in my mouth and started eating and it fell into the crunchies and then I did something else and that’s why the awesome ring of cardboard was still in my dish.

Also, I know absolutely nothing about the crack on the casing of Mama Anna’s laptop. It definitely doesn’t come from me walking across the keyboard or sitting on it. Or laying on it. Or any other activities that a cat not unlike myself might do when upon a keyboard. Like standing. She only noticed it today, and will point it out to Papa when he gets home. They have been talking about a gaming computer, so maybe this is even a step in that direction. Either that or Mama Anna will slap some pink Duck tape on it (yes, she has some) and call it a day.

What’s on your agenda? Is it a cat?

Blabbity Blab Blab

February 26, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

We are currently calling the lobster, “Thermidor,” though we are fairly certain that is only his surname and his first and middle names will be taken from an appropriate eighteenth-century military source. I needed a starting point for this very blabbery blog, and the lobster pillow was as good a place as any. For those who are interested in acquiring any of his siblings, they come from the Mart of Walls, in the seasonal section when we found each other, so they have likely skittered over to clearance if they are still in the stores.

Apologies for the radio silence, though I would be the first to tell someone else not to apologize, but eh. It is what it is. Storm and I both plan to be more active on here (unless there is a sunbeam, in which case, she will nap in it.) She does have her birthday (observed) to recount, among other things, and there has been no history in the entire interwebs, as far as I know, where cat pictures were a deterrent.

Regular readers know by now how this sort of entry goes: Anna blabbers for a random amount of time and checks “blog” off her list, then feels better. Fair enough. Things have been relatively snow-free here in NYS, which was not what I had requested, but apparently, I am not in charge of weather. Go figure. Still putting in a request for cool and rainy summer in advance, just in case. I watched the series premiere of The Ones Who Live, the newest entry in The Walking Dead franchise, and I am already wanting to classify it as a romance first. That’s an interesting lens, and one I am wholeheartedly behind, because, well, Rick and Michonne. ‘Nuff said. Also, I am here for the cities and the lore and the whole darned franchise. I love how the whole thing is framed around Rick and Michonne’s bond and determination to get back to each other. I will be watching this one for sure. Also the dream sequences are lovely, a quiet reflection of the chaos of their everyday world. I will have stuff to say about this show.

Reading is still a sludge at times, but that’s a me thing, not a book thing. One step (page) at a time, like anything else. I did start a tentative Goodreads goal of forty books for this year. So far, I am four books in, and will be updating my progress here. Besides a reread of Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell, I am also re-reading Rapture, by Rosamund Royal, who is also Valerie Sherwood, who is also Jeanne Hines, who, besides epic historical romances, wrote gothics in the 60s and 70s. I’m not sure if the reviews are going to post here as well as on Goodreads, but I do intend to talk more about the books I’m reading because that’s an extrovert thing, and a me thing. Talking about X is vital to my thinking process.

Which comes to writing. Melva and I are going full steam ahead on finding the best path to bring Drama King and Queen of Hearts to readers in the coming year. The special talking people vet thinks Camp NaNo is a great idea, so I will be doing that. The question now is, shoot for a new novella and punt that out into the world before the Hypercritical Gremlins get a peek at it, or focus on something already in the works? The one thing I know for sure is that it will be historical romance. I have time before I need to know if I am prepping or pantsing the whole thing. Doesn’t have to be perfect; just has to be written. I may need to make a sign for that.

What’s going on in your world?

Random Valentine Blather

February 14, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

Hello, all. Happy Valentine’s Day, or it’s Wednesday, depending on any number of things. Feeling very rusty about blogging at the moment, but there is no time like the present to jump back into the swing of things, so hi.

Above, we have my current everyday carry of planning whatnot. I like being able to pick up one thing (or two) and go, especially since I am still using a backpack and knee brace. Technically, I could fit the contents of the leather cover inside the Delfonics pouch, but I like it this way, with my cover, and a small box of ephemera inside the pouch. There’s something special about pen and paper that have a quicker route to the place where my brain keeps fiction, specifically the kind I create myself.

Valentine’s Day is an interesting one for romance writers. It’s the big romantic love day. People who do not normally engage with the romance genre might be tempted to try one in honor of the holiday (yay, welcome, grab a book and stay a while) and hopefully find something they like. It’s also when other people sometimes detract from the romance genre without engaging with it. Okay I don’t have time for that right now. I love the romance genre and have ever since I stole The Kadin by Bertrice Small from my mother’s nightstand when I was eleven. Right then, I knew I had found what I wanted to read and write for the rest of my life. So far, so good.

Sometimes, there are pauses. This latest one seems big and it seems long and it seems oddly misplaced, as things are pretty stable. That’s…curious. Once again, okay. It is what it is. One foot in front of the other from where I actually am, and at some point, I’ll be back on track. Right now, I am fewer than one hundred pages away from the end of a vintage historical romance I have wanted to read for literally decades. Yes, it is worth the wait. Also, Roger de Mortimer was not a nice man. (Stuff like this is one reason I love medievals.) I am eyeing Camp NaNo in April (it is April, right? Anybody want to make a cabin?)

This is feeling babbly, so I will wrap, after a mention of how Valentine’s Day is always interesting around here, as Real Life Romance Hero is in the restaurant business, which means the big date holiday means he is working. We will celebrate later. I kind of like it that way. Storm, of course, will get her due amount of attention, a wee sniff of the nip, and, fingers (and paws) crossed, her own entry by the end of the week.

How are you doing?

2024 Roadmap, Maybe

January 30, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

2023 was the worst reading year of my adult life. I’m still puzzled about that, as it was worse than the year I was homeless and worse than the years before and after. Ah, trauma, you are a strange one. I have not yet set a Goodreads goal, but I probably will. I don’t know when. Probably when the time feels right. How will I know? I just will, most likely. That’s the working theory.

Today, my contemporary co-writer, Melva Michaelian, sent Drama King off on query to an agent, so time will tell on that one. My job on that book is to get on the indie side of things, as well as pursuing a similar venture for my two out of print historicals. Melva and I want to get the next two Love by the Book books out in 2024, and we are each pursuing solo projects as well. Last year wasn’t as great for publishing as we had hoped, so once again, the bar is low. That’s a good thing.

This all feels like I’ve been over it a thousand times before, which gives me the mental issue of treading water for eternity. That feels pretty accurate for the last year or so. Still figuring things out, and moving forward while I do. Poopy first drafts for the win.

I am a big believer in “story in, story out,” and I need to work on that for this year. My best and easiest writing has been when I am involved in a fandom. I am speaking of commercial fiction here, not fanworks read/created within said fandom. The two feed each other. Part of that comes from community. Talking about things I love fills my well as much as engaging with those things.

Social media, in general, was not a big priority for me in 2023. Not thrilled with that, so it’s a priority to pick up in the year ahead. The platform formerly known as Twitter, meh. Might let that one go. I like Instagram. I have pretty stationery, a cute cat, and live across the street from a park. I can take pictures. There is also blogging. Big thanks to those who have stuck with this blog during the dry season. I’m not sure what I want to talk about right now, so expect a bunch of babble, and we will both trust that it’s going somewhere. If all else fails, cat pics.

Speaking of which, I am coming to capacity on the images in my current WordPress account, so there’s the decision to upgrade or move to the MelvaandAnna site, which has sat fallow for far too long, even though we do have an upgraded account there. Melva and I are planning some fun stuff over there in the months to come, including some giveaways.

It’s funny to look at the year ahead when the year behind was the way that it was. The hypercritical gremlins would say “well, that’s it, you failed. Shut it down and go dust something.” I am not going to listen to them this time. Right now, it’s acting as if, and the very loose, general plan :salute: (if you know, you know) is to become the mask somewhere along the way. I have stories, and they are worth telling.

How’s your year looking?

Typing With Wet Paws: Second Week of January Edition

January 13, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. You would not believe the stuff that is going on around here. Mama Anna is serious about this getting back to business stuff. The good part about that is that I get to snooze in my favorite bed; Mama Anna’s sock drawer. It is right next to her desk when she is working on the computer. I find he clickety clack of keys relaxing. Sometimes, she does the writing by hand stuff at the desk, but usually that is for the people bed. There are seriously a lot of pillows on the people bed. In any event, I am Not Allowed to have anything to do with the leather notebooks. I don’t see the need for a rule like that. I only scratched one cover. With the leather treatment, you can hardly tell. Anyway, let’s get on with the week that was.

There is a rumor, and I can neither confirm nor deny that a decision has been made, that Mama Anna may be switching out the fairy lights around her desk. The ones that are there right now have green wires, and the ones on the tree that they are really seriously putting away this week, they mean it, are white. That goes better with whatever it is that Mama Anna has planned for sprucing up (see what I did there?) her desk area. As long as I still get the sock drawer, I have no strong opinions on the matter. Whether or not she can actually put or get at any socks in that drawer does not matter. Also, I know nothing about how certain items from her traveler’s notebook charm-making stash ended up on the floor up to and including next to my bowls.

One way I can tell for sure that Mama Anna is into the whole writing thing is that today, while she was researching the inheritance rights of Russian women in the eighteenth century (answer: it matters which part) she actually ate part of a handful of my crunchies. She’d managed to function well enough to follow me from her desk to where the crunchies are (only hoomans can open it) but totally spaced on actually putting them in my dish. She assumed the stuff in her hand was dry roasted peanuts (a favorite writing snack) and stuffed some in her mouth. Then right back out of her mouth because dry cat food does not taste like dry roasted peanuts, and they have a very different texture. I won’t say how many bites it took for her to figure this out, but please understand this is the extent to which her brain is back in story land.

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. What’s going on over on your end?

Typing With Wet Paws: End of 2023 Edition

December 30, 2023annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Mama Anna says she is taking the rest of the year off (it’s a day and a half, but still….) and plans to crawl out from under her rock in the new year. We had a good Christmas here, except for the part where she and Aunt Linda abandoned me for the 27th and 28th. Mama Anna says “visiting Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian,” and I had Papa all to myself, but she came back smelling like dog. Also with lots of books, which I love to sniff and sit on, so okay, maybe not entirely a loss. Still, she’s not allowed to Go Away like that for quite a long time.

When the hoomans opened Christmas presents, they put all of the crinkly paper and bags in a bo so that it would become a present for me. I call that a win. Super satisfying. Of course, I had to scent everything that they unwrapped, because things aren’t really here unless they smell like kitty. Specifically, me. This is Storm’s world. They’re just living in it.

Mama Anna always comes back from Aunt Mary’s with lots of books. Apparently there is a place with books in lots of tiny buildings and then another place that has books but is in a different house. Mama Anna got a bunch of historical romances to read and a bunch of history books to read to help her write more historical romances. She is planning her writing year for 2024. It seems to be going pretty well.

the portrait is AI generated. Maybe a character?

This is the cover page for the 2024 section of Mama Anna’s media journal. She has found that she super-duper likes making AI images to use in her journals. she has been going kind of medieval with that. I mean that literally and figuratively, because some of the images she makes are reated to A Heart Most Errant and possible sequels. I told yo, she has plans.

Right now, those plans are to finish listening to an audio book so she can meet this year’s (amended) Goodreads reading goal. She is disappointed that her original goal of 52 books didn’t happen, but 40 is still pretty good. She is trying a new thing this year with her reading journal, with a bunch of mini goals that kind of feel like a game that could be fun. Some of those are:

Reread one book by twelve favorite authors
Four trilogies + twelve months = one book per month
Try one new author per month
“about dang time” TBR of books she’s been meaning to read

Plus other stuff. That could mean history books, art books, YA, maybe books about cats, that kind of thing. She’s not sure yet how she is going to track the whole media consumption thing in general, but I can promise the pages of the media tracker are going to be fun. Also crinkly. Trust me, I have sat on it. Very crinkly.

That’s about it for now. Mama Anna needs my help to change the sheets on the bed. Feline assistance is essential to that process, and a gal does have to supervise. After that, I will do my best to convince her to test out those sheets with a long winter’s nap. She owes me for leaving me with only Papa for about thirty-six hours. Stay safe for the rest of the year, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. (There’s really not much of that, actually.)

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Welcome, December Edition

December 1, 2023annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Mama Anna says it is also proof of life. That means that we are here and we are okay. Kind of like purring. I am very good at purring.

Apart from the fact that I did not get any people food (unless we count the times I stuck my ace into servings of baked potato soup or macaroni and cheese; Mama Anna tells me to get my face right out of those. They are not for kitties.) Thanksgiving was pretty good. Papa made a pork tenderloin, and Mama Anna stayed up to hit some super doorbusters on Black, White and Orange Friday. Surprising nobody, those super doorbusters were mostly about stationery.

This was not one of them, but I am including it because A) it is now time to turn over the autumn planner/journal decorations to Christmas and winter, and B) you are looking at her new blogging notebook. Notebooks, actually, because there is one for her blogs and one for my blogs, and then there is another for her media consumption journal. I should remind her to make a spread for her Spotify Wrapped this year. She did not listen to a lot of music overall which was one of her “hmm, smells like depression” flags. I am happy to say that she is over that no music thing now and discovering lots of new stuff. Apparently, her top genre of the year was something called “Neo Mellow.” Neither one of us knew that was a thing, but apparently so.

If you think another one of the super doorbusters she attacked was Sims 4 related, you are right. She is super into Sims. Reading and TV are still getting there, but music and gaming are good, and yes, there is some writing. Mama Anna is giving serious consideration to how she might get My Outcast Heart and Orphans in the Storm back out there in 2024, as well as what she and Aunt Melva have planned for the second two books of the Love by the Book series. If you loved Meg and Dominic from Chasing Prince Charming, and wondering what their friends and family are up to, 2024 should be your year.

She has also dusted off A Heart Most Errant (if you like both medieval romance and postapocalyptic romance, this one is for you.) and is looking at expanding it so that it can be longer than novella length and ready to go back out on submission rounds when it is bigger and better. Maybe then she will be able to figure out what that guy named Guy should be doing if he gets to be the hero in a second book.

Also important is that I have discovered how to use a heating pad. I don’t only know how to sit on it when it is already on. I figured out that there is a way I can smack the controls with my paw to make it go from off to warm. I say it’s perfect time for that now that we are in this particular season. We have had dustings of snow. Nothing has stuck so far, but that is not far off. Mama Anna has set up her reading nook with soft pillows, fuzzy blankets, space for a hot drink and easy access to journal stuff. As long as I have access to her lap, she will be warm whether the heating pad is on or not.

How is December treating you so far?

Typing With Wet Paws: Now It’s November Edition

November 9, 2023annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. It is November now, which means superpowers are in full swing. I made sure to wake my parents early this morning to announce that the weather was especially November-y. Mama Anna appreciated it. Papa did not. Whatever, it was playtime.

This week, I am happy to report that Mama Anna is working on the writing that she means to be working on, and that includes a rough draft of her own blog, about how 2023 has been the worst reading year of her entire life. Don’t worry, it’s not a sad blog. I have sat on the notebook she wrote the first draft in, and it’s really comfy, so it should be a good blog.

Mama Anna is indeed working on the reading thing. Right now, she is listening to an audiobook while she is helping me write this post. She has a paper book going as well, and I think she got an eBook from the library, but hasn’t started reading it yet. Give her time. It is November, after all, and the perfect time of year to cuddle on her mountain of spooky pillows, under a fuzzy blanket, with an even fuzzier purr-sonal assistant at the ready.

This week, we are watching Fear The Walking Dead, and Frasier, and Mama Anna is planning out a good way to binge both seasons of Yellowjackets. Purr-sonally, I prefer things like “Koi in their Winter Pond,” or birdfeeder footage, but this stuff is good, too. Cats hunting, people hunting, does it really matter? As long as I get my belly rubs, the answer is no.

Now that it is nice and cool outside, and the heater is on, I am much more cuddly than I am in the summer. Since Aunt Linda generally goes to bed first, I like to very smoothly slip into her bed when she gets all settled and demand belly rubs. Sometimes she can still watch her tiny glowy box, and during some of those times, I can watch her screen, too. I have no idea what the hoomans in her glowy box are saying because she uses headphones. \]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

(I typed that last part myself, with my own paws.)

”””””””””””””””’

(also that line)

In short, I walk on the keyboard a lot. If we had a parrot in this house (We don’t. It’s a bird. I am a cat. Which is a predator to birds. Bad combination, most likely.) they would have learned “get off the keyboard” super duper fast. Mama Anna says it a lot. I still think she needs a bigger desk so I can have my own seat. For now, I hunker down in her open sock drawer until it is time to walk across the keyboard to demand cuddles and hugs and pets and playtime. The parrot would also have earned “cats don’t drink tea.” I don’t know that I believe that one. From the way Mama Anna drinks it, it must taste super good. It smells good, and it’s warm. What’s not to love?

That’s about it for this week. Mama Anna wants to play Sims, and that is one of my favorite glowy box shows. I think she should make our family in the game, complete with a Sim version of me. She has done that before, but doesn’t have a version right now. About time to fix that, right? I better get on that.

Therapy Homework and Other Stories

October 12, 2023annabowling Leave a comment

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

The weather is cool and cloudy today. I have a tall tumbler, filled with vanilla chai tea, too hot yet to drink, which gives me time to start this blog. My blogging goal for this week is to blog twice. Once, to help Storm with her blog, and one that is entirely Anna. The tumbler is a plain silvery finish right now. I will probably find some vinyl stickers for personalization. I plan on taking it out in the wild with me. I want to get some foliage shots while the leaves are with us. I miss taking pictures and posting them. The only way to do that is to do it. Baby steps count.

That is some of my therapy homework for this week and the next. I also need to finish reading Lisbon, by Valerie Sherwood. I’m over three hundred and fifty pages into the five hundred and fifty page plus book, so I think I should be able to do this. I have only read this book once, when it first came out, the same year Real Life Romance Hero and I were first married. It’s like reading it for the first time again, but with enough familiarity to know this is the right sort of story to keep my attention. I also get to make notes as to why that is. what does make this book work for me?

Right now, Storm has parked herself between me and my keyboard. She would prefer to be on it, but I have work to do. After I publish this post, I will make popcorn and check out the Frasier revival. Possibly some Yellowjackets, either diving into season two, or going back to season one and binge. I am listening to creepypastas as I write this and will probably do some journal stuff while watching abovementioned shows. TV and journaling seem to go well together around here.

Journal prep will be extra special this time, as I am getting ready for my own loosey-goosey version of Preptober/NaNo-ish doings. Updates to come as I progress. From my chat with Melva this week, I have to read through what I have on Her Last First Kiss so far and report on my own books. Not only read it, but spot what’s working, what I like. On my own book. This should be interesting. I have an audiobook to finish listening to as I take care of some household chores, and then another one lined up to take its place when I am done with the first. If it’s been difficult to stick with an audiobook the way I normally listen, how about I try listening to them the way I do the creepypastas I have been inhaling like nobody’s business? More sessions of shorter duration and remember there will be no quiz on the material at any point. I don’t know why I have felt like there would be, but there isn’t. There is no wrong way to read for pleasure.

That’s about it for right now. There is reading and there is writing and at some point it will resume making sense. Specific assignments and accountability work well for me, so I will be going with that. Odds are high that I will be making some sort of trackers for my personal and writing journals. I know myself.

What’s going on with you guys?

Typing With Wet Paws: Adoptiversary Edition

October 6, 2023annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This is a special edition, because it is my adoptiversary. Well, actually, it was yesterday, October fifth, but yesterday was also Mama Anna’s talking people vet session, and the first pictures of me with these guys were taken the day after, because everybody wanted to give me some time to get used to my new family

Possibly first crunchies with forever family

I have had three mamas, and that is the final number. My cat mom was my biological mom. I don’t remember a lot about her, but she was gorgeous (I assume she looks like me) and ran one heck of a milk bar. When I was big enough to set out on my first adventure, I went to my first human mom, Mama D, who took the best, best, best care of me until it was time for me to come to my forever family. I still love my first two mamas and I think about them a lot, always fondly.

As you might be able to see from the picture above, I wasn’t done growing yet when I met these guys, because I am bigger and longer and grownup now. These guys never got to see me as a tiny jelly bean or a li’l potato, as I came to them in my long teen stage. Now I am a big long, which is my final form.

Please note that Mama Anna was kind enough to match the cover of one of her journals to the color of half of my nose. Yes, she has another one like it in black, to match the other half of my nose. I will accept this tribute. My bond with Mama Anna and her writing has been there from the very start. One of the very first times I came out of my adventure cave, she had a journal out on the bed, and was working with an India ink pen. I wanted to play with the pen. She said I should not, because the ink might stain my white paws. Well. She had not noticed the black spot I have on one of my front paw toes before then and thought that she had stained my fur. She felt awful until she realized it was original equipment.

Ever since then, we have only grown closer. I have made new human friends/aunts and uncles both online and in purr-son. If Mama Anna wants to have a video chat with anybody, I must be part of it. That is not negotiable. I don’t make the rules. Oh wait, I am a cat. I totally do.

Mama Anna wanted to remind me that one of my main reasons I get to blog once a week is that I am to be her PR kitty. That means I have to talk about her writing. She’ll admit it hasn’t been great as of late, which is one of the reasons she is seeing the talking vet. The talking vet helped her give herself a couple of assignments. First, she needs to finish reading the novel she is currently reading, which is Lisbon, by Valerie Sherwood. She loves that book and has read it only once, so it is like a new book, but one she knows she will like.

Another goal is for Mama Anna to write one of her own blogs once a week for the rest of October. It doesn’t matter the topic, so be prepared for some babbling. Some of you like that, so you’ll be in for a treat. The rest of you, maybe ask her some questions so she can maybe use those to help figure out a topic. My Aunt Mary already asked Mama Anna to blog about Lisbon, so she will probably do that at some point.

The other other goal is related to NaNoWriMo and even Preptober. Mama Anna would like to participate in those, but she’s not sure exactly how, so the idea they came up with was this:

Pick a notebook
Fill it by the end of November
That’s it.

What she fills the notebook with doesn’t matter as much as just filling it. Probably extra points for making it be about historical romance. Mama Anna plans on getting together with Aunt Melva for an in person worldbuilding session soon, about the small town they are creating for their new contemporary series. This new notebook, which she will probably introduce you to later, will be saved for stuff about historical romance and maybe fantasy romance that reads like historical.

Will I try to steal her pens that she writes with in that? Yes. Will I sit on the open pages and the closed cover? Yes. Is she fully aware that if the notebook has a leather or faux leather cover, that I will do the pricky-pricky-pricky things with my murder mittens to the cover? Yes. Might she try to foil me by putting a cover over that cover? Almost certainly. Will that stop either one of us? Probably not, but there is only one way to find out.

How was your week?

Typing With Wet Nails

for the love of romance

writing