calicolovestorm

Typing With Wet Paws: Now It’s February Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

coming sooon….

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

Aunt Anna’s plans always include me

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

Thinking pink

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

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

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: End of January Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

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

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

Aunt tested, kitty approved

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

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

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

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

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

and

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

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

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

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

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

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Sleepy Week Edition

annabowling 2 Comments

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. As the still-holliday-themed picture will tell you, Aunt Anna still needs to work on a new header picture for me, but she’ll get to that. It’s been one of those weeks. Nothing much wrong, just not the greatest on the writing front Aunt Anna is salty about that. These kinds of things happen to everybody, so chalk it up to experience and keep on going.

Or take a nap. Naps are good.

In that vein, let’s look at some things that did go well this week. First up, Mr. Kurt, the property manager, came over early in the week, to take care of the clogged kitchen sink, and we now no longer have a clogged kitchen sink. Yay for Mr. Kurt. Needless to say, a day with all the humans home, plus an extra human, and plumbing issues, meant that Aunt Anna’s writing week did not start off the smoothest. Reading, though, t hat’s another matter.

Even though writing wasn’t t he best this week, reading went great. So far, Aunt Anna is two books ahead of schedule on her Goodreads Challenge goal of reading ninety books in this year, with five books so far. As of now, they are all YA, but that is about to change, because…drumroll…it’s…

Historical Romance Readathon!

Aunt Anna is SO HERE for this adventure, which starts TODAY. Run by Jess at PeaceLoveBooks, Lisa from Remarkably Lisa, and Lacey from LaceyBooklovers. There is a bingo card, which is technically a bing card, since there are only four rows in any direction. If you would like to see thing bign card, and maybe even play along, you can head on over to Lacey’s Instagram (Aunt Anna follows her; do you? It’s a fun account.) Click on HR Readathon, and Bob’s your uncle. Well, literally, if one of your parents has a sibling named Bob. Otherwise, only metaphorically.

Originally, Aunt Anna planned to do some intense research and plot out her TBR to a fare thee well, but see mention of the week getting away from her, and yeah, not so much. As of today her TBR is…no TBR. She is going to start with an anthology, which will give her the highest likelihood of hitting the most squares. After that, she will strategize. Also, having an anthology, she can break the reading into four different stories, which feels more handle-y. I don’t think that’s a word, but whatever. I’m a cat. Here’s the book:

How the Dukes Stole Christmas

Aunt Anna will admit to slacking on the Christmas books last year, but Christmas romances are good any time. This book hits several of the squares. The squares for Joanna Shupe, and blue on the cover are right next to each other, so Aunt Anna is halfway to bing already. It’s also a recent release, as it was new this past Christmas, and a used book, as it is a library book, but those are on different lines, but recent release may also give her bing with only one more book. The other three boxes in that line are: has a stepback; shirtless man on cover or stepback; and standalone. Aunt Ana LOVES standalones. A standalonepublisehd before 2000, which is probably wehre the majority of standalones fall, is highly likely to have a stepback and/or shirtless dude, so chances are good on that front. We will see how it goes.

Aunt Anna will also be posting on Buried Under Romance tomorrow with updates, so keep an eye out for that. If you are participating, or you have any recommendations to help her get to bing, drop your suggestions in the comments below.

Takes a lot of beauty sleep to get this beautiful

Now for the important news, aka the news about ME. Aunt Linda has a co-worker who bought her cats some fancy cat food. They didn’t like it. She gave it to Aunt Linda to give to me. I love it! This other human’s cats must have horrible taste, because this is not only the second batch of food I inherited, but they didn’t like a cat bed, and so gave it to me, via Aunt Linda. I crawled right into it and purred and purred and purred.

Here is where we have an issue in feline/human communication. When we first got the cat bed, we put it at the foot of Aunt Anna and Uncle Rheuben’s bed, which, at the time, was an air mattress right on the floor. Then they got the Real Bed. Which is not on the floor. I stopped using the cat bed that same day, even though I love to be on the actual bed with them. They have been moving the cat bed all over the place, hoping to find a lace where I wil like it again, but they aren’t getting it right. Does anybody who can speak cat and human help me let them know? It’s kind of stressing Aunt Anna out.

Headbonks!

Nothing

Typing With Wet Paws: Happy Mew Year Edition

annabowling 2 Comments

Tails up, Storm Troopers, and Happy Mew Year! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We are all doing well here, and happy to have 2020 in the rearview mirror. I have as of yet made no moves toward the Christmas tree, though that may be because it is on the kitchen table, and I am not allowed on the kitchen table. Still salty about that, buy next year, maybe they’ll have the tree on a coffee table. Then, I’ll have news.

We had a really nice Christmas and New Year. Now we are getting back to the business of regular life. Well, with one exception. Since my humans love me very much, of course I got presents. The wrapping paper was super fun. I played with it all morning. I even got gushy food. There was one present, however. It came from Aunt Mary, Uncle Brian, and cousins Andrew, (Leah, who will get married to Andrew in a little while) and Aiden, who is a fur cousin. He is a dog, but I am okay with that. I really have no words for it, so here:

Does anybody notice the resemblance?

Please note the absence of nose arrow. That is how you can tell us apart, although our blacks and oranges are on opposite sides of our face. So that’s another way. Also, she doesn’t talk much. Like at all. Aunt Anna says that’s because Esme (her tag says she’s called Esmerelda, but we are calling her Esme, because she is smol) is stuffed. Hmpf. Honestly, I have never seen her eat a thing. I would also like to be stuffed. Which I have been, as Uncle Rheuben got some people tuna, specifically to share with me, and I think that speaks highly of him.

Anyway, Esme lives in Aunt Linda’s room, since I usually want to be around Aunt Anna. There were plans on the agenda to get a photo of “the twins” (which we are not) but calico said cali-NO. I don’t hate Esme, but she’s going to have to put into this relationship, know what I mean? Yeah. This was as close as Aunt Anna could get.

Hm, this does prove that I am now not the only one who can leave black, white, and orange fur sheds at the scene of an…um…incident. Like maybe with a hypothetical Christmas tree on a hypothetical coffee table next year. Okay, she may have her uses. She can stay.

In the getting back to day to day business, things are also going pretty well. Aunt Anna and Aunt Melva will be finishing Drama King oh so soon, and then begins the first round of edits.; And the second round of edits. Then submission, because their editor at The Wild Rose Press already said they could send it. Then if they want it, there will be more edits. Aunt Anna actually likes that part, Aunt Melva not so much, but it all gets the book to you, so it’s all good. If the publisher doesn’t feel the book will be a good fit, then they have other options, which would also be good, and they have a nice slate of stuff to see them happily writing through the new year.

They will also be reviving melvaandanna.com, because there is new stuff coming. Not only the very soon writing of THE END to Drama King, but their first video workshop of the year in February, and being the authors of the month in a book club in March. Then they will start on Queen of Hearts.

Aunt Anna is also, as I have said before, super excited about getting back to historical romance. She’s throwing around a lot of terms like “pirates” and “medieval” (but not medieval pirates. At least not at this point.) and picking out what projects would be fun to drag out from the mothballs (I don’t know what mothballs are, but I like balls. They’re fun.) There are notebooks and papers and ideas, and I am on point for assisting her every step of the way. By assisting, I usually mean sitting on whatever notebook or planner she has opened most recently.

One of those planners is her reading journal, which is what you see above. She’s still working on the setup, so it’s a work in progress. The printables are from Jesenia Printables (she got the Reading Set and loves it very much) and she plans to get them printed professionally rather than letting her printer and visual impairment duke it out over home printing.; Plus this will allow her to print extra book pages and record everything she wants to record. She also wants to make a different paint chip bookmark in colors that more closely agree with the pink/black/white color palette, and this time skip the stickers. Probably also round the corners, because she is fancy like that.

Along with recording how many books Aunt Anna reads this week, she is going to keep track of the genres/subgenres that she reads. She would like for historical romance to be the biggest category, but then also keep track of how many of what sort of historical romances she reads the most. Of course that is centered on what books she has access to, because one of the sucky things that happened in 2020 was being permanently parted from her classic romance collection, except for two boxes of favorite favorites.

So far, she has read three books out of a projected ninety, putting her two books ahead of schedule, though we are in the earliest of days. These three are all YA, two of which have strong romances, and two are scary. There is some overlap. She is currently reading a historical, with more on the way, so things will balance out very soon, Also, she has made a couple hours in the evening set aside for reading, and I am definitely here to do my part and sit on her to ensure feline paralysis, which goes really, really well with reading.

I t hink that’s about it for this week, and my sunbeam is here, so catch you next week.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: December is a Lawless Wasteland Edition

annabowling 3 Comments

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. It’s also the end of December, right before Christmas, and the humans are okay, but draggy. It also doesn’t hurt that on Monday, everybody’s schedule got thrown out of whack when the front door froze.

too much soft focus?

Yep. You read that right. Uncle Rheuben went downstairs to head to work, and the doorknob wouldn’t turn. At all. So Aunt Linda tried it. Then Aunt Anna tried it. I would have tried it, but A) I don’t have thumbs, B ) I don’t know how to open doors by the doorknob, and C) I am not allowed downstairs (plus I don’t know how stairs work anyway.) That meant Uncle Rheuben had to make phone calls. He called Mr. Kurt, the property manager, and Mr. Quentin, the maintenance human. As it turned out, Mr. Kurt was on vacation, but Mr. Quentin was right outside, blowing snow and he called a locksmith, and then the humans were no longer trapped in the house. Uncle Rheuben’s boss gave him the day off, because trapped in the house because of a frozen door is a pretty good reason that doesn’t have a lot of arguments.

That was also the day Aunt Linda got her days on and days off mixed up, so I ended up having everybody at home, which was super cool. It was also when Aunt Anna completely gave up on getting anywhere near the keyboard that day, though it was going to be a big writing day. She knows when it’s time to just roll over and go to Plan B. Thankfully, Uncle Rheuben has mad cooking skills, so he made super melty grilled cheese and other human foods, and that went a long way in smoothing things over for everybody. I am allowed to sniff human food, but not eat it, because I am a kitty and kitties eat kitty food.

Anyway, we do have a Christmas tree, which, as of now, I am content to view from a safe distance. It hasn’t made a huge impact on me yet, but does that mean I am not hatching plans that would indicate otherwise? I can neither confirm nor deny that.

Portrait may consist of: This be night, plant an' indoor
better picture coming later

Update: I have no comment on the single Christmas tree light bulb that turned up in Aunt Anna’s and Uncle Rheuben’s bed. There are a million reasons a lightbulb could be in their bed. I mean, at least five. Why does everybody always suspect the kitty?

Anyway, we had a big, big snow. Probably a few cats deep. I wouldn’t know how many, because I am not allowed outside. I am okay with that. Outside is cold, and snow is white, and I am partly white. If I for some reason lay on the snow with my belly up, nobody would see me. Aunt Linda got a nice neighbor to help dig her car out of the snow. People around here are helpful like that. Aunt Anna went to Aunt Linda’s work pl,ace, where we used to amp in the summer, to put out some dry food for the ferals who live there, but she couldn’t get to the actual shelter, because there was a *lot* of snow, and she couldn’t see where she was goings, so she left some as close as she could get. They’ll find it.

Aunt Anna had meant to go to Goodreads and just move the fluffing goalposts already for her challenge for this year, but then she saw that she was farther head than she had thought, with eighty four out of ninety books read, and that’s only six more books, which is only one more than five more books, and five more books is a totally do-able thing, especially when she has a soft, purry calico reading buddy (aka me) to spur her along. This means that if she focuses on things she can read very quickly, like graphic novels/manga, novellas, or rereads, she can totally make her original goal, despite what 2020 has thrown in her direction. By now, it has become a point of honor.

New doings are also in the works with Buried Under Romance, in the new year, with more reviews, and editorial content, because that editorial content stuff is what Aunt Anna lives for when it comes to book blogging. She is even dusting off her classic interview questions from the very first book blogging gig she ever had, because those interviews were a whole lot of fun. We could all use more fun. For me, that means cat toys, both commercial and found, but humans, you do you.

With the reading goal set in place, the attention now goes to the writing aspect, and part of that falls into the lawless wasteland that is December, when we’re all tired and want to dive into our new planners and the new year and all that. That, Aunt Anna is looking forward to tiredly, but looking forward none the less. She and Aunt Melva will be done with Drama King by new year’s, and after that, they will be starting a fun side project, and Aunt Anna can have some brain space for historical romance, which she has sorely missed.

Aunt Anna also wants to thank the fabulous Kathleen Underwood, aka cover artist for the original publication of Orphans in the Storm, for the nudge to mention Aunt Anna’s Lion and Thistle Discord channel. She is Snowbound Mermaid over there, and apparently the numbers that go with that are 5324. Drop on by and help her natter about reading and/or writing historical romance.

Basically, the humans are kind of cruising until the holiday is over, and I totally respect that. I also will be keenly interested in the wrapping paper that will be mine, all mine, on Christmas morning, plus string and boxes. Stay tuned for a cat’s eye view of Aunt Anna’s favorite day of the year. I’ll be taking notes.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Mid-December Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This is also getting ever closer to Christmas, which is probably going to be pretty exciting for me, because it’s my first proper Christmas with these guys, and everybody’s first in this apartment. The aunts went to the storage unit earlier in the week, and had second thoughts about doing the archaeology needed to get to the existing Christmas tree, since it’s in a box near the back. In other words, behind heavy stuff. Instead, they plan to buy a new one probably this weekend. Maybe a tabletop version, even though Aunt Anna has a lot of lights at the ready.

What she did pick up at the unit, though, was the rest of her pen collection (well, the most used ones, anyway) and I helped her sort through them and get them put away.

one of the many jobs of a purr-sonal assistant

There is a high possibility that I will give Aunt Anna a pen for Christmas. Last year, I gave her a lightbulb, but that’s only because we were visiting Aunt Linda’s family, and we were shut in the guest bedroom and that was the best thing I could find. Aunt Anna loved it, though, so I guess I did good anyway. There is also a possibility that I know something about where her morning pags notebook and brand new kraft paper notebook are (she is pretty sure they are together) and could surprise her when Christmas comes.

Pile of Assorted Novel Books
thanks for the picture, Pexels

Aunt Anna had a great chat with Miss Lisa over at Buried Under Romance, and they are super excited about lots of fun stuff they have planned for 2021. For now, there is the most current Saturday Discussion, and Miss Lisa’s review of the newest Christmas romance from Jenna Jaxon. Click those links if you want to take a look.

As for the whole Goodreads challenge thing. Sorry, Aunt Anna, we have to go there. It’s time. As of right now, Aunt Anna has read 77 out of ninety books, putting her seven books behind schedule if she wants to make it to her goal by the end of the year. That means she has thirteen books to go, with twenty-one days to go. Doable. There may be some fussing, because the big reader energy is still not back yet, but she has a few ideas.

  1. Move the goal post. As in get in there and change the number to something more manageable, like 80 (or even 77, where she currently is) and be done with it. There are bigger fish to fry, after all. Mmm, fiiiiiiiish.
  2. Push through, everything else be, um, danged. Get to that arbitrary number no matter the cost because there is a reputation to uphold.
  3. Audiobooks. All the time. Even when writing and stuff like that.
  4. Novellas. All the novellas. Don’t care if she wants to read them or not, they’re short.
  5. Say the fluff with it and not even try. Losing isn’t the end of the world. It’s 2020. There are naps to take.

Yeah, she’s not going to do that last one. It’s going to be one of the others. Which one would you pick if this were you in this situation? Drop your answer in the comments. I will say that she is getting more reading time since she still has to share the computer with Uncle Rheuben and that means she doesn’t get a lot of or sometimes any Sim time, so reading is more accessible. We’ll see what happens. She’s not thrilled with being this far behind after being that far ahead as she once was, but hey, it’s 2020. These things happen.

Uncle Rheuben’s desk

Before you ask, that is not a flatlay. That is just how his desk usually looks. He’s a tidy dude. There is usually a laptop there, but since it isn’t working, it’s in its box for the time being. Hopefully a short time, because computer sharing makes Aunt Anna a little loopy, if you catch my drift.

That did not, however, keep her from having a great video chat with Aunt Melva. They have set a goal to be done with the first draft of Drama King by Christmas, which is super exciting. After that, there is going to be a poopload of editing but Aunt Anna likes that part, so it’s all good.

That’s probably about it for right now. Aunt Anna wants to get to the big business at hand for her Capitol Region RWA chapter, because it’s member appreciation time, and she gets the super fun job of shaking virtual pompoms in everybody’s direction, reading off all the great things they’ve done in this sucktastick year. She normally does that in person and gets to hand out treats and presents. That’s going to be a little different when done virtually, but I bet it will still be fun, especially with a very high chance of a calico photobomb.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Black, White, and Orange Friday Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! It’s Black, White, and Orange Friday. I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws, Since it is Black, White, and Orange Friday (commonly abbreviated to Black Friday, but really it’s a day to celebrate Calicos in all of our glory) when prices are dropped in many places, that it will be easier to shower the Calicos in your life with gifts. I like gushy food, in case anyone needs a suggestion, and catnip is super fun. I also like blankets a whole lot, which works out well for me, because Aunt Linda makes blankets. How cool is that?

What is also cool is Aunt Anna rebooting her Patreon. She has learned a couple of things about Patreon, some of those being:

  1. Actually making content.
  2. Telling people about that content.

Umm, that’s pretty much it, except for the whole finding one’s niche and playing to that. So, I will do some of it for her. Here is her Patreon, and here are a couple of posts that are available for everyone, no tiers requires:

How Not To Start a Patreon

Historical Romance Setting Wishlist

If you like Aunt Anna’s posts here, want to see what books she recommends, make her find books for you (yep, she does that) or participate in polls that will help shape romance stories yet to come, drop on by and consider lending your support. Will said support get you exclusive picture of me? Chance are high, that is all I am saying.

post-Thanksgiving dinner nap

In case you are wondering how our Thanksgiving went, it was pretty fun. Aunt Anna played Sims a lot, Aunt Linda knitted, and Uncle Rheuben made the best grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch. Dinner was frozen lasagna, for reasons I am not allowed to go into, but the humans said it’s the company that counts, and they still count this as a successful Thanksgiving. They will have turkey and some pies later.

This Sim got struck by lightning. His eyes were like that for a long time.

The decorating has begun around here, but the first bit is not technically a holiday decoration, because Aunt Anna plans to leave the lights on her planner cart forever. They make her happy, so they stay. I have not been chewing on them, but I am a prime suspect in why Uncle Rheuben’s less than a year old laptop that never goes anywhere suddenly doesn’t even turn on anymore. We will be looking into that. I maintain my innocence, but I do have a track record. Eh, I’m cute.

This will be my second Christmas with these guys, but my first proper Christmas, since last year was a tricky year. I am pretty excited about it. I think I probably had a tree and stuff when I was with my first mom, but I don’t remember. I wasn’t allowed in the room where the tree was when we visited Aunt Linda’s brother, but we will be home this year, and I am definitely up to the whole experience. Aunt Anna says that today is the first day she allows herself to play her Spotify Christmas playlist. It’s umm…eclectic, that’s all I am going to say, and it does start with a Thanksgiving song, so maybe she can bump that date back a day for next year. She does want to listen to more music these days, so this should be a big help. Do you have any favorite songs think she might like?

It’s also Time To Start Reading Christmas Romances. I will let her tell you about that later. I think that’s about it for right now. so I will let Aunt Anna have her computer back.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: That’s the Stuff Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We are closing in on my first proper Thanksgiving with these guys, and, after a rough start to the week (depression sux) Aunt Anna can attest that the autumnal super powers have indeed kicke4d back in for her. Yesterday was a super good writing day – she managed three whole units. One blog entry and two scenes for Drama King. That was in no small part, I am sure, due to the emotional support I gave from my old-lap-desk bed next to her glowy box. I am somewhat impressed that the writing was good even with the day’s domestic adventure.

At least there was no vacuum involved.

A few days ago, the humans noticed that the kitchen sink was not draining. At. All. Uncle Rheuben, who is a superhero, but not a plumber, took a look at it. I cannot vouch for what exactly happened after that, because the humans put me in the master bedroom with Aunt Anna, while Aunt Linda helped Uncle Rheuben take care of All Of The Water. Then they called Mr. Kurt to come and help.

I don’t think Mr. Kurt is exactly a plumber, but he is in charge of apartment fixing, and he said Uncle Rheuben had the sink almost fixed. It was kind of tricky, so Mr. Kurt had to go back to wherever he comes from and get a thing called a plunger, which he left (don’t worry, it now smells right, aka like me) and there were Sounds, but the sink is now fixed. That’s good, because that is where the humans get my water, and I love my water.

New candidate for author photo

So, anyway, back to the writing. Aunt Anna followed her usual thing of writing longhand first and then spiffing it while she transcribes. She sent her scenes to Aunt Melva, and gave feedback on Aunt Melva’s scene, and they will talk more about the book later today. Then they will have more scenes to write, and the end of the book gets ever closer. This gives Aunt Anna some wobbly stomach feels, because she has issues with that kind of thing, but it also means that she can turn her attention to other books, like historical romance and things like that. Plus the next book with Aunt Melva.

Aunt Anna does not have any shortage of stuff to come next. This morning, she got a nifty kind of idea. A couple of days ago, she finished her last notebook that she used for her morning pages. That meant it was time to find another one, and since she was on a no spend week, she had to pick from notebooks she had on hand. She tried one that had awesome paper, but only dot grid instead of lines, and she really needs lines as early in the morning as morning pages will be. Which is when she got an idea.

We will talk about the tiny book later.

The notebook with the road on the cover is the planner Aunt Anna used last year. She loved the cover too much to not use it for something, even though some of the plastic discs did not hold up so well during our vagabonding. Hence the metal discs, which came in a pack of eleven, while the notebook cover only has seven. That’s where the tiny book came in handy. Aunty Anna is making that one from scratch, based on a purchased book, and she will talk about that later.

Okay, morning pages: show me what you’ve go.

What she did now is to put the new discs in the cover, and snapped in some special filler paper, and it felt right. No dividers, since it will all be the same thing, her morning blabber. Going by instinct like this usually works out well for Aunt Anna, and helps her not get in her own way, which she can often do when she overthinks a thing. She will be talking more in the future about the whole planning by instinct thing. So far, it seems to be working.

She also has a couple of paper books in the house, but still needs to set up things on the bed with extra pillows and a bedside lamp, so that bedtime reading can be A Thing once again. She already has the most important part, the extremely beautiful cuddle buddy, aka me. Isn’t that all she really needs?

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Friday the Thirteenth Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. A lot of humans have been dreading this day, because apparently Friday the Thirteenth is not a great thing, but it’s been okay for me so far. Aunt Anna and Uncle Rheuben are both home, which is my favorite, because I love them. They are both doing computer things and sometimes talking to each other. On days like this, I like to nap on the bed, or on the cat bed that is between the bed and Aunt Anna’s desk. It is actually Aunt Anna’s old lap desk, which she loved, but it did not weather the vagabond days very well, so she put it on the floor, upside down, so the cushion is up, and I took it. It’s perfectly me-sized, and I can shed both my white and orange hairs on its blackness, so pretty good deal all around.

The blanket was Aunt Anna’s idea. Aunt Linda made it.

I also like the clickety sounds, which mean Aunt Anna is Writing Things. Uncle Rheuben is quieter, as he does a lot of reading and watching and studying. Sometimes, he takes a break to tell me how pretty I am and make sure my water bowl is full, which I like. I am really good at drinking water. I do not, however, like the new cat food Aunt Linda picked out (sorry.) I lick all the gravy off the meat and then leave it and complain about being hungry. Aunt Anna said we will get a different kind, that I have liked before. Aunt Anna is smart.

Not so smart, though, that it took her longer than she would like to admit to figure out this spot was original equipment, not her fault from me bopping her India ink pen.
Also, look at my claw.

Another way she is smart is to figure out new ways that put her in the writing mood. Scheduling writing in terms of “units” rather than words works for her, because the number is smaller, and not intimidating. That may change at some point, but that’s what is getting her making new pages now, so she is going to stick with it. It goes along with another thing she has found, and that is to have something going on a different burner of her brain, so to speak, and then she will switch between the two of them until she kicks into full writing gear.

This can happen either with longhand or on the computer, but longhand is best for composition, which is first draft kind of stuff, often in present tense and with a lot of cross-outs. I like that because I can bop her pen with my paws (she doesn’t like it as much, because I can still do that while she is actually writing and make marks she didn’t intend.) Either way, she likes to have some sound going, either podcasts or Netflix/Hulu, or YouTube. Sometimes, on the YouTube, she picks by the tone of the person’s voice who is talking, and doesn’t care at all about the content/what they are saying.

Believe it or not, this is a writing tool

When she is on the computer, the back burner thing she likes to do most is Sims, either playing, or more recently, designing. She likes a lot of custom content and exercising her inner control freak to micromanage her Sims and their surroundings. This kind of gets her ready to do that with words, too. Playing the actual game, that’s for another time. She says next time she makes our Simselves, she will make a SimStorm. I think that will be the best Sim ever. Woo.

As you can probably tell, Aunt Anna told me we can get back on the link thing next week. She is getting ready for tomorrow’s Capitol Region RWA meeting, which will be online (which means high chance of calico photobomb.) Last year, she wasn’t able to help with the member appreciation celebration because family emergency, but she is looking forward to getting back in that saddle for this holiday season, especially because it’s in a new format they have never done before. Let her get on the other side of that and she will be back in gear with Buried Under Romance and Goodreads and all that stuff.

Oh. One more thing. She is still figuring out the new printer. She can kind of get it to work, but it tells her it isn’t happy when she tells it to print something, so she unplugs it and plugs it back in and then it prints. Eh. Whatever works. I , however, am fine with any mistakes she makes, because I can sit on the papers she doesn’t want to keep. Win-win, I say.

Aunt Anna wants the computer back so she can write more, so Calico Got To Go for now. See you next week!

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Results are on the Way Edition

annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Here in the United State, the humans are all waiting for the results of the elections. I am watching to see which of the boxes that the humans keep bringing into the house are staying and which are only visiting.l It is very exciting.

Another of my Gotcha Day presents, which was really a Christmas present from my Cousin Kristen (Aunt Linda’s brother’s daughter) but we did not have an apartment then has now been installed, and it is a second litterbox. It’s domed, with a lid to give me privacy and has a vent for fragrance relief, as my humans put it. I am not sure what to make of the too many bowls that are on my food mat at the moment, but a bunch of bowls came out of storage, so the humans have to figure out where to put them. Pictures to follow when they sort that all out. In the meantime, I am doing a lot of this:

No place like home

As you can tell, I am very much in favor of the flannel sheets and the new bed, and my current favorite other bed is the upside down lap desk that is between Aunt Anna’s side of the bed and her temporary computer desk. That way, I can be near her no matter what she is doing. Lately, that involves a lot of writing longhand and being on the computer stuff. That is all pretty good.

Today, Aunt Anna is kind of sleepy because of some medication (don’t worry, she is fine) so this will be sort of a fly by blog. I am needed to cuddle with her and purr as she reads in bed. We will probably both get some sleep. Uncle Rheuben went to school for politics stuff, so he is watching the election things closely> Aunt Anna went to the same school, but she studied how to teach people kittens, decided that wasn’t for her, so now she writes stuff. Which is looking pretty good these days.

On Wednesday, she and Aunt Melva had a Messenger call. Since everybody else was home, Aunt Anna took the call into the bathroom. She forgot that she is not allowed in the bathroom without me, so I yelled and scratched at the door until she let me in to join her. You’d think she would have learned by now. She’s pretty smart in other things, like picking out my gushy food. The call went really well, and they hashed out an actual wedding scene. Big surprise, romance writers love coming up with wedding stuff.

Also, I was in heat (I am getting my big girl operation soon, though) but I’m over that now. Boys are dumb. I like mousie toys.

We are also coming up on the time when Aunt Anna has to start making plans for the holiday season, as we aren’t that far from Thanksgiving. Uncle Rheuben wants to go out, but the aunts aren’t sure what all will be open on a holiday, and may try to convinvce him to go to Our Bodega (it is across the street from where they lived when Skye was kitty here, so I have never been there; I assume it has a real name) and get what they call bodega burgers, but still make the side dishes at home and finish with pumpkin pie. Christmas will probably be Chinese food if at all possible. I would like the tuna, please. This will be my first proper holiday season with these guys, and only my probably third overall (math is not my strong suit, but I’m young) so who can tell what can happen between now and then? Looking good, though. Just like me.

Headbonks!