calicolovestorm

Typing With Wet Paws: End of October Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers. I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Big doings this week, so let’s get started.

all of these boxes are mine….

The week started off as a momentous one with the humans all going at the same time to the storage unit, so they could get some special things – furniture. Aunt Anna and Uncle Rheuben now have a real bed, which of course I sleep on, too. Well, except when I am on Cat Bed #2, which is Aunt Anna’s old lap desk that did not survive the vagabond months very well, but the cushion is great and me-sized, and it’s between her desk and her side of the bed, so it is perfect, or Cat Bed #1, which is an actual cat bed, and on the floor at the foot of the human bed. Basically, I want to be where the humans are, so if they want me to be in that bed more, then they should be on the floor more.

Uncle Rheuben has set up his bookcase and a free standing clothes rack. He even surprised Aunt Anna with a bunchy of velvet covered wood hangers that are all the same, and they look very classy, so she is happy. The clothing rack was actually out in the hall of the storage unit with a “free, take me sign on it, so they did. Aunt Anna brought in one bookcase, that her dad made for her when she was a baby. There is another bookcase that goes with it, and she will bring that next time, along with her favorite extra special favorite books (they are by Bertrice Small) to go in it. Mostly, these days, she is reading on her Kindle, or the Kindle app on her phone, and she has moved the boxes with the rest of her books to an easily accessible part of the storage unit. Those, she can get as needed, but she wants the extra special favorite ones on hand at all times. The first bookcase is currently holding notebooks and planner stuff. That may change, but things are no longer on the floor, and that makes a lot of difference.

Another thing that is different is that yesterday, Aunt Anna went to Aunt Linda’s co-worker’s house, to look at a table for Aunt Linda’s sewing machine (that will come in a couple of days, and yes, cat costumes may be a thing that could happen; I am open to it.) Along with the sewing machine table, Aunt Linda’s co-worker had cats. Some of them live with her all the time, but the ones the aunts met were fosters, a mama and her four babies. Before yu get excited, I will point out that they all have homes lined up already, so I am not getting a sibling just yet, but I was very interested in smelling Aunt Anna’s shirt and learning about the kittens. In a word, (or a few of them) the kids are all right. I am not jealous or concerned, because I am secure in my place in the pride.

Speaking of reading, Aunt Anna has now hit eighty percent of her reading goal at Goodreads. Shockingly, she is currently two books behind, but this is the weekend, and she ahs her reading mojo back, so this should be fixed by the start of the new week. It’s also the time of year for historical holiday novellas, which will take care of that requirement quite nicely.

Aunt Anna is also back to watching TV on Hulu and Netflix and probably Prime as well, which is going to require a tracker, because she wasn’t able to watch anything for a long time (because lack of metaphorical spoons) and now it seems like A Lot, but probably really isn’t. Also, keeping track will help her track patterns on kinds of things she likes to watch. She will post more about that later.

For now, it is time for her to atten to the making of fiction, so I am required at my station, sending good kitty vibes and providing moral support.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Let’s Get Moving Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This past week was better for Aunt Anna, anxiety-wise, but there has been a lot of adulting, a very warm hotel room that would be quite cozy in winter, but it’s not winter (don’t worry, the owner/manager is on the case, and it will be back to normal soon; he is only making sure the place will be warm in winter.) and the newest thing: we may be able to get into New Apartment *sooner* than we had expected. Not official yet, but a strong possibility.

Coming back from bad anxiety can take a while, and it’s more a bunch of baby steps in the right direction until, oh hey there, she’s writing again. A lot of it was playing Sims while listening to You Tube videos. For this past week, a lot of it was from the channel Heart Breathings, which is where author Sarra Cannon shares how she does what she does. One of the things Ms. Sarra said was that having beautiful stationery makes her want to look at the pages more, which is exactly how Aunt Anna feels.

so we’re doing this now…

I should mention that the pages you see here are not from Heart Breathings, but from Aunt Anna’s Writing Helps Pinterest board. She did print out a bunch of stuff from M. Sarra’s board, though, and will talk about that more later. Big life changes affect writing a lot more than a human might like, so trying new things may be a good way to get back into a routine that works best for the writer a person is, now.

I should also mention that, at this time last year, besides not knowing me yet (we call that the Dark Ages) Aunt Anna thought the Happy Planner line was silly and ew, plastic discs. Then she got two for her birthday, and now she loves it, especially the notebooks,. and has found a use for every size they offer, from big to micro. She likes metal discs better than plastic, which is fine by me, because I think the plastic ones will be perfect for playing with in the new apartment. We all know that’s going to happen.

Anyway, there is a questionnaire she printed about how to reconnect with a story after time away, and boy does she ever need that one. Some of those questions are hard, but also look like they can pinpoint what went wrong and how to fix it. For Aunt Anna, a lot of the time, the big stumbling block is “I don’t know.” We are working on that and while it’s kind of scary, nothing can be as scary as the year just past, so she’s up for the challenge. NaNoWriMo is not a go but it’s not off the table, especially in an unofficial capacity. Right now, she’s counting progress in “units” which she will explain later, and seems to work pretty well so far, and, most importantly, does not need to be perfect. She is also kind of salty that she thinks she might like to try a writing group again, but NY is still taking precautions, so maybe online groups might be a good idea.

As you can imagine, this is one of those drive-by posts but Aunt Anna wanted to show signs of life, and it is Feline Friday, after all. More details to come as she has them, including a review of how these new tools work for her and the way she writes now.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Second Week of September Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Usually, Aunt Anna helps m out with the snappy tittles, but she had a rough anxiety week, so I will cut her a little slack. Do not worry; Nurse Storm is on the case, with my patented paws-on brand of purr-apy. That kind of makes up for the anxiety I caused her by chewing through her CPU’s power cord last week. I did not get zapped, which is good, but I am no longer allowed behind the computer, which is bad (according to me.)

Moving along…and speaking of moving, that is what is taking up a lot of Aunt Anna’s brain at the moment. Things went well with the apartment th Aunts saw, and the property manager likes them, so things went to the next level. That level is applications and deposit, and the property manager said to call him for something called a walk through. I like the sound of that.

Aunt Anna’s Goodreads reading challenge has been holding steady at six books ahead of schedule, That big lead from earlier comes in very handy in times like these. She does have a list of books she wants to read, and TV/Movies she would like to watch, when things are a bit calmer. Since both reading and watching are sedentary activities, I am all for them. I will try and sneak in a purr-apy session or two. I’m clever like that.

Anyway, the stats look like this: Aunt Anna has read sixty-eight out of ninety books, which puts her at seventy-six percent of the way to her goal. Not too shabby, especially in the midst of all the chaos going on.

For those wondering about Buried Under Romance, Saturday discussion is back, baby, and keep an eye out for new reviews, bound to make many TBRs get all that longer.

Aunts Anna and Melva’s favorite one-year-old

Hard to believe it’s been a year since these two crazy kids were unleashed on the world. For those thirsty for the next Love by the Book story, Aunts Anna and Melva have been chugging ever closer to Jack and Kelly’s HEA. After that, time for Heather and Rob in book number three.

Aunt Anna’s figure-out-historical-romance-stuff notebook
(and extra paper because she will need extra paper)

As for historical progress, Aunt Anna found one interesting thing about her manuscripts that are complete and/or near enough to completion to count as such. Most of her stories fall into the following three time periods:

  • Medieval
  • Georgian (up to 1799)
  • English Civil War & Restoration

This doesn’t mean she isn’t interested in writing other eras, because she is (she will be all over the Tudor era someday) but for now, that’s a concentration that’s too strong to ignore. Apart from the medievals, and the pirate trilogy, the others aren’t directly connected, but — could they be? Is similar time period a strong enough connection for you as a reader?

zzzzzzzzzzzz…..

I already covered the most important me part with the stuff about the computer cord. I am not too pleased that I am no longer allowed to sit behind Aunt Anna’s computer, but they are getting me some new toys to make up for it, so I guess I still win. You can see how fitfully I sleep over this. Guess that’s about it for now, and there is a sunbeam calling my name, so say it with me…

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Hello, September Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. A lot has happened in the last year, s Uncle Rheuben and the Aunts are coming up on what they call their homelessversary, marking one year since they left their last apartment. they are planning on marking the occasion by putting in applications on a new apartment, and we are all pretty excited about that. Only a little more than a month after that, they celebrate an even more auspcious ocasion, the anniversary of the day they got ME. I am pushing for a photo retrospective for that one, because, well, look at me. I’m gorgeous.

Aunt Anna is looking forward to putting down some roots in a new apartment, and her work hours are pretty easy to figure out – the days when both Uncle Rheuben and Aunt Linda are off at their day jobs. This lines up pretty nicely with some fun new opportunities Aunt Anna found out about from Dragonblade Publishing, aka

The Write Stuff

Aunt Anna is pretty excited about Dragonblade looking for new writers, because A) she is a writer of historical romance, B ) Dragonblade is her dream boutique publisher, and C) Dragonblade looks like the place for innovative historical romance with an old school flair, suited for the modern reader, and Aunt Anna is all about all of that. She’s going to be up against a lot of talent, but she’s actually inspired by that. This may or may not also be giving her some of the same adrenaline rush she usually gets by proxy from watching So You Think You Can Dance. She hopes that show will be back next summer.

Drama King

Funny how this writing thing works with writers. Aunt Anna is firmly back in the saddle with this one, and quite happily back at work in earnest. It’s not too long to HEA for Kelly and Jack, and then it’s time for Aunt Anna and Aunt Melva to send it to their editor to see if she likes it. After that, they start on their next book, which they are calling Queen of Hearts.

Buried Under Romance

It’s been a rough year over there, because real life has been a trip, but Aunt Anna is still super excited to get back to making the blog the best it can be. What sort of content would you like to see on a blog focused on historical romance? Blog tours are great, but what else? Author visits? Excertps? Lists of staff emembers’ favorites?

Goodreads

Aunt Anna is back on track for reading as well, which surprises even her, but that’s how it works. One day, the desire is just back and there it is. As of now, she is still an impressive six books ahead of schedule, andmay even overtake herself in not too much time at all. Among her current reads are:

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Bookish and the Beast -Ashley Poston
Once Upon a Con, #3

and

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Angel’s Fall -Kimberly Cates
Culloden’s Fire #2

Aunt Anna has the next book in that series all queued up after she finishes this one, and then the next one after that, which is actually the first one (don’t ask me, I just work here) are all ready to go. She’s not back at watching TV/Movies yet, but she is making a list of stuff to watch when she does have the brain for it. I, of course, will be there to assist her by sitting on her and motor purring louder than the speakers. It’s what I do.

Discord

A quick reminder that Aunt Anna’s Lion and Thistle Discord server is up and running, for discussion of all things historical romance related, writing, reading, or anything else. If you’re interested, you can find her on Discord at Snowbound Mermaid #5234.

Now we come to the important part, the part about me. We are entering into uncharted territory, because I have never been with this family during a September before, so I do not have a baseline for the whole September experience. We will see how that goes. The notes Big Sister Skye left say that Aunt Anna gets her super powers back sometimes during September, and I can definitelys see traces of that. She’s got an extra spring in her step these days, though some of that could be from the possible apartment-age or looking down the barrel of a really funcompetition (Dragonblade) and actually having her writing mojo back. All in all, I guess that’s okay. As long as she is still there for cuddles and belly rubs. I absolutely require my belly rubs.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Jailbreak II: Hallway Boogaloo Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We’ll start with the mot important stuff. Aunt Anna says that means that she had a good writing week, but I have to disagree. Ther important stuff is about me, obviously.

First and arguably the most important thing is that the humans are reasonably sure that I am not pregnant because I am now in heat. That mostly means me slinking around the room, doing my very seductive (to boy cats, at least I hope) trilling calls, and being super lovey. It also involves me wanting to go find boy cats.

Yesterday, as we moved into a new room after a night of camping (during which there were zero opportunities to make a break for it) I did not throw away my shot (Hamilton reference for the win. Hm. Lin-Manuel Miranda, here’s a suggestion. Hear me out: Catmilton. Like Hamilton, but with cats. Eliza should totally be a calico girl. Think about it.) and while the aunts were concerned with getting their things inside, I went zoom through the barely open door.

That was when Aunt Anna told me to get back there, and I did not listen, but the other humans very much did. Uncle Rheuben shut the hallway door (never do that unless it is an emergency, and a kitty on the loose is an emergency) and Aunt Linda hurried after Aunt Anna in case Aunt Anna needed backup. As for me, I trotted down the hallway, with my happy tail high, making my super seductive boy cat call, but there were no boy cats.

There were no other cats, period. Actually, there was nobody except the aunts following me, a lot of closed doors, and carpet, carpet everywhere. I did see a set of stairs, but I don’t really know how stairs work, because I’ve never used them before, so I ignored them and kept going. Aunt Anna kept up with me and told me I wasn’t going anywhere. I kept going.

That’s when she pointed Very Sternly in the opposite direction, toward our new room, and she told me I had to go that way. I knew Aunt Anna meant business, so I turned right around and went that way. Aunt Linda laughed, and Uncle Rheuben made sure I got back in the room, and then I got food. Now the humans put a suitcase in front of the door, so I am less likely to slip through. It’s tough to be a kitty.

Plague Doctor freebie sticker from Jen.erating

For those who like to see where Aunt Anna does her writing and blogging stuff, this is what it looks like for this current stay. As Aunt Anna said while lugging the CPU and monitor up the stairs, it is time to either get one of the old laptops brought up to scratch, or get a new one. She’ll put that on the list of stuff to do while we are settled. She is happy to do the lugging, though, because that helps her move forward with the whole writing thing, which, this week, has included:

  • looking into hiring an editor/formatter/cover artist for one of her unreleased titles
  • made a short list of places to query her two out of print titles
  • started setting the framework for the follow-up to the book at the top of this list
  • given some long overdue attention to an Aunt Melva scene from Drama King and started making notes on her own scene to follow
  • attended a cyber-meeting of her local RWA chapter, which had a great workshop on how to get unstuck, and putting some of those methods into practice

All in all, pretty good. It appears my mews services have been effective. I will continue in that vein. Aunt Anna is also back reading, and is very happy to be participating in the Historical Romance Readathon, Weekend Edition. Same idea as the regular flavor, but downsized for today’s fast paced lifestyle. Aunt Anna is starting off her TBR list with two titles:

She’s keeping the list small for now, but if she finishes both during the weekend, she’ll add another. I don’t remember how long it was since she read anything, but that’s the way it goes. Reading slumps/droughts hit, and then they end, as abruptly. Aunt Anna is okay with that. She is still looking for a YA contemporary to tickle her fancy, and there is a fantasy collection, The Grand Tour, by E. Catherine Tobler, that she expects she will devour.

That return to reading will be the topic of Aunt Anna’s next blog entry at Buried Under Romance, which she expects to get up by tomorrow morning. One of the things she is working on right now is a social media planner, so she can keep better track of what she means to post, and when. Part of that also includes making sure her Instagram has the proper number of pictures of me, so I fully support that effort. Apparently she’s going to shoot for one-third pictures of me. Eh, it’s a start.

Finally, Aunt Anna would like to unveil my brand new signoff picture, which she might try making into a sticker. That, I want to see. Guess that’s about it for right now, so until then,

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Already August Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Can you believe it’s already August? My humans can’t, but here we are, and all of Aunt Anna’s planners agree, so I guess we are at another month after all. That’s a good thing. Here are a few reasons:

  • August is when summer gets ready for fall and fall is Aunt Anna’s faaaaavorite season (also the season when she met me, so, you know…obviously)
  • August means Uncle Rheuben’s birthday, right in the middle of the month, too, which is very convenient. Since this is the first time he’s had a birthday with me around, I have to make this year special. Think I should make his present myself?
  • August also means it is back to school season, which makes Aunt Anna very very very happy, because she loves papers and pens and all those kinds of things, and they are everywhere. Sometimes she and Aunt Linda pop me and my adventure cave in a shopping cart and they take me, too.
  • August means days are getting shorter, and nights are getting cooler, which means kitty cuddles are all that more welcome. Lucky for my humans, I love cuddling.

August is also when, according to the copious notes Big Sister Skye left, when Aunt Anna’s super powers come back, and that once we are in a permanent apartment, they will probably come back in grand style, so I have to be on top of my mews game. I think we’re going to do great.

Aunt Anna, Uncle Rheuben, and Aunt Linda would like to thank everybody who has been helping with our work to get into a permanent place. If you’d like to help, you can do so here .Things are moving along and the humans are talking with a potential landlord. Watch this space for updates.

Speaking of updates, Aunt Anna is back at Buried Under Romance, with a new update here, about the benefits of reading romance when real life gets tough. Hop on over there, and see what she has to say, maybe even put in a word or two of your own. Any ideas what you’d like to discuss over there? Drop it in the comments and she’ll see what she can do.

In other updates, aka me, there is still about a week to watch me for physical changes (aka signs of incoming kittens) but so far I am not showing any signs of an encounter with any boycats. The cats who live near Aunt Linda’s work are all TNR spayed/neutered, so none of them are making kittens with anybody. Aunt Anna is also pretty sure that they didn’t pick any fights with me, because I don’t have any scratches on my face (winner marks) or bottom (“and keep going!” marks) and I only smell like healthy cat, so she’s reasonably satisfied I didn’t make any skunk enemies. Not saying a word about the possums.

This doesn’t mean that the aunts didn’t come out of this with no extra kitty friends. Thanks to Cat Lady Sue, who did a lot of listening and asking of good questions when I first went missing, Aunt Anna and Aunt Linda are now helping Cat Lady Sue feed the feral kitties that live near Aunt Linda’s work. I’ll call them Tux and Tabby for now. You can guess what they look like from there. Cat Lady Sue was very very happy to hear I was safe with my people again, and also very happy to have help with feeding the colony. Anybody who helps cats get food is okay by me.

As for the writing, Aunt Anna is getting back into her groove. She has a new tablet arriving later this week that should be a big help filling her well, as that has proven to be a favorite venue for reading as of late. There has also been a lot of sharing of electronics going on because a bunch of things all died at the same time, so another device in the mix will make things a lot easier. When she gets her MacBook laptop up and running again, she says she will take her Sims 2 game off Uncle Rheuben’s laptop and then put it on the MacBook instead. Uncle Rheuben isn’t so sure about that.

greatest hits picture of me, just because

Okay, I think that covers most of the big stuff. Still here, still doing things, will be blogging more again soon. On that note time for the aunts to head out and pick up a few necessities, like cat food, so I’ll test out part of my new signoff: Calico got to go!

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Too Much Adventure Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Aunt Anna says thank you for your patience while we deal with some interesting life situations that we hope to soon have under control, many thanks to all who have shown up to help in practical and encouraging ways. If you click that link, you will see a picture of Aunt Anna, Uncle Rheuben, and Aunt Linda. You will not find a picture of me, because I was on an adventure of my own. 0/10, do not recommend. Here’s what happened:

This past Saturday, we were camping in the car, and while the aunts thought all the windows were closed, they were not. I squiggled through a space that was just big enough for a curious kitty, and in a single sproing, I was outside, by myself, for the first time ever. Basically what happened was that I went from “woo, I’m outside,” to “crap, I’m outside” in no time flat. Turns out that outside is really, really big. Like super big. Too big for me. I wanted to go back to my people, but how could I get there?

After a while, the people woke, and they had loud voices and sounded super upset (okay, yes, because they could not find me) and especially Aunt Anna, because we are working on getting me a special letter that says I help her when she is having a tough time. This was a very tough time. Sorry about that. Long story short, I looked for someplace safe to hunker down until my aunts could come find me.

Portrait may consist of: This be feline
my hidey hole, under a parking garage

That place turned out to be really secure, as it took the aunts five whole days to finally nab me. There were two other cats who live near the parking lot all the time, and a nice human comes by to feed them every couple of days. My aunts want to help this human, because they were very nice and helpful and promised to keep an eye out for me. They also said that the longer I was outside, because i am not yet spayed, that the chance of me coming back not alone inside my skin, shall we say, is higher. We don’t know quite yet, but Aunt Anna knows what to look for, and I should be heading to a vet very soon. You would think she’d be satisfied that a whole morning of rubbing me with a damp washcloth and sequestering me in a while bathroom proving I did not come home with fleas would be enough, but humans, am I right?

Portrait may consist of: This be feline
back where I belong

The aunts had already decided that Wednesday would be The Day, as in the day they nabbed me, no matter what. Aunt Linda would be at work all day, and Aunt Anna was prepared to hang out under the garage, pretending to ignore me, until I came out on my own, then scoop me into my adventure cave and make tracks. What actually happened was that Aunt Linda helped Aunt Anna into the place where she would wait, and then I came strolling out of the greenery like it was No Big Deal.

This made the aunts really really happy, and while I was headbonking Aunt Anna’s ankles, Aunt Linda grabbed me and scooped me into the adventure cave, and before I knew it, we were back in the room. Well, bathroom for me and Aunt Anna, who was determined to make sure I was okay and get my white fur back to its usual whiteness. I got a lot of food, which was awesome, and tons of cuddles from everybody. Uncle Rheuben was super duper happy to see me again, and now he is not allowed to go to the bathroom without me. I even let Aunt Linda cuddle me now, which she says is an improvement.

In short, I’m back, a lot of people are helping real life be less stinky, and if anybody gets a message from Aunt Anna that looks like a bunch of random letters and symbols strung together, that is me saying “hi.” Also “thank you.” Now that I am back to pick up the slack and provide emotional support, expect Aunt anna to resume activity in the very near future. There is the whole tablet saga, which is ongoing, and news also on writing and such. There will be videos coming, and I am even working on a new sign-off for my blogs, because my gotcha day is coming up in October (the humans don’t know when my birthday is, and I don’t remember, which is kind of like the whole did I meet a boycat thing. It all kind of blends.) and we need to mark that somehow.

Okay, that should bring you up to date on the whole me going rogue brouhaha. Not planning on doing that again anytime soon so back to regular mews duty go I.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Under the Influence Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We’re going to be changing it up some this week, because Aunt Anna has been doing exactly that, and my job is to report on what she’s doing. Yesterday, she didn’t even turn on the computer to work, if you can believe that. Instead, she spent the day doing a deep dive into reconnecting with historical romance, which she has been kind of unconsciously avoiding for a little while.

Part of that is because real life has been chaotic, and getting her head into another place and time took too much energy. That happens. People change genres. That is not what is happening here. She and Aunt Melva are closing in on the first draft of Drama King, setting the stage (pun intended) for Queen of Hearts, and making plans for more contemporaries to come. That’s all good.

What hasn’t felt so good, and here is where I have done some active mews duty (thinking is much easier when rubbing a lonnnnng kitty belleh, specifically mine) is that looking at her Goodreads challenge (still super duper ahead, so she has wiggle room) showed that her reading has leaned, at times heavily, to YA over historical romance, and that she is not okay with that.

This led to a long time in what Aunt Anna calls the soft office, with notebook and pen, and me cuddling close, writing down how she feels about that and how it came to be, as well as a way back to what feels like a better balance for her. Some of this comes as she prepares material for future video blogs, and some of it comes from Buried Under Romance doings. Where Aunt Anna has landed on this is that it’s okay to go through times of not having a lot of energy (cats totally understand this) but it is not okay to use not engaging in something a human loves because of that.

Yesterday, Aunt Anna wrote down a lot of things, including a list of some of her favorite classic historical romance authors. It included but was not limited to:

If these names are familiar to you, you might notice that they have a few things in common. If they are not, consider clicking these links, and keeping an eye on this blog for more about them inthe future. These are big stories. Sometimes it feels scary to want to write big stories, especially when a lot of things in life are very very big. That is, though, maybe exactly when and why big stories are needed the very very most.

Aunt Anna is excited not only to revisit some of her favorite historical romances, by these authors and others, but to look into how they have and continue to influence her current reading and writing.

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s time for the important stuff, aka me. I have talked in the past about my adventures with the butt warmer, but I have not shared yet about my special trick (because I just learned it) and that is that I can turn off Uncle Rheuben’s trackpad. I won’t give my secrets but when Uncle Rheuben couldn’t find his cursor and the trackpad wasn’t doing anything, he asked Aunt Anna for help (she has a lot more experience with cats and computers) and she did some Google-fu.

What she found was that the number one cause of this particular problem is cats on keyboards. There was a post that told her what buttons to push to undo my trick, and she did, and boom, back in business. This does not mean that I will stop doing it, because sometimes humans need feline intervention to know when it is time to stop with the clickety clack and make with the belly rubs. Speaking of which,

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Summer’s On Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Even though the calendar says summer does not officially start until later in the month (I am only two, so I don’t know a lot about calendars) for Aunt Anna and the other humans in my family, this counts as summer. It is Aunt Anna’s least favorite season, but our basecamp, as Aunt Anna calls it, has air conditioning, so the summer really doesn’t bother her or Uncle Rheuben at all. They have also found that they share a desk really, really well. If I am feeling especially sproingy, we can all three share the same workspace. That’s what I call efficient use of space.

Even though summer is usually Aunt Anna’s worst time when it comes to productivity, she had a super good writing day yesterday. It all started with hauling herself over to the computer with the promise that if she could write some notes on the stinkybad movie in Drama King, and then send it to Aunt Melva, then she could play Sims. Aunt Anna is super easy to bribe with Sims, especially since she had to reinstall stuff when the latest patch broke pretty much everything (whoops) and she had to start fresh. Surprisingly, she did not mind that at all.

Aunt Anna says making this stuff helps her think

Starting from scratch was actually kind of fun, and she got to use one of the premade families to test out some new gameplay features, fiddle with custom content, and maybe a mod or two. If you think that sounds kind of like writing fan fiction, you are not wrong. Aunt Anna sees that, too. As a matter of fact, Aunt Anna had Sims stuff open in the background while she read a lot of Wikipedia articles about movies (stinkybad or otherwise) to know what kind of information goes into such a thing, laughed a lot while using name generators to get over herself already, slap down a placeholder and move forward, and refresh herself on the recipe for a romantic comedy movie, plus all the ways one could go wrong.

In the middle of doing all that, she also had Scapple open. It is kind of like a whiteboard on the computer. If you don’t know what Scapple is, click here to read about it on Ginny Frost‘s Apps For Writers blog. (Miss Ginny also writes contemporary romance for The Wild Rose Press, so check out her books while you’re over there.) While Aunt Anna had the seeds of a scene on her mind, she might as well get a few things down where she would be able to easily access them.

That’s when something clicked open, and a whole bunch of stuff came out of her head and onto the screen. It’s kind of messy, mixing tenses and Aunt Melva (who has a PhD in English) may have a headache from switching from script form (many of Aunt Anna’s first-first drafts of dialogue are in script form when they fall out of her head) to dialogue and narration but then again she knows how Aunt Anna works and still wants to write books with her anyway, so there’s that.

That stuff is now in Aunt Melva’s hands, so Aunt Anna is now turning her hand to writing a faux Wikipedia article for a different fictional movie, and getting ready to do the same thing with Her Last First Kiss, but there won’t be any movie stuff in there, because there were no movies in 1784. Probably no YouTube mouse videos, either. It was the dark ages.

Speaking of mice, Aunt Anna and Aunt Linda got me some! Uncle Rheuben stayed behind to give me pets while the other humans went for groceries, and they found themselves in the cat toy section. Ever since my red dot died, I have taken to going to the corner near the door and giving big kitty eyes, to indicate that I really need a new red dot. Well, the store didn’t have any (the nerve!) but they did have a package of three catnip mice. Aunt Anna figured they’d see how I liked them, so she threw me one as soon as she got back, and I LOVE IT. I call them all “Prey.” When I bring Prey to a human, the human is to throw Prey, which I will then chase and CATCH, and then I have no idea what comes next, but a nap comes after that, and the whole thing starts over again.

Before I fur-get (hah, see what I did there?) Aunt Anna was at Buried Under Romance this past Saturday, with a topic that comes to a lot of readers’ minds this time of year (or so I have heard. Again, I’m two.) and that’s weddings. Are they really needed in cotemporary romance? If that is a topic that interests you, read about it here, and pull up a chair in the comments to chime in with your opinion. Aunt Anna already talks to herself enough. Trust me on this one. Part two will be about historical romance, and probably will go up Saturday but might be Sunday because she just got done being sick and is running a little behind.

Okay, I think that’s it for now. No Goodreads update, because mostly Aunt Anna read a little bit of stuff and fell asleep and then her loans expired, so she is starting new books now. Maybe I will start telling you when she starts reading a book and then what happened to it. First, though, this Prey isn’t going to chase itself.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Almost June Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This was a quiet week for blogging, because we had a small family emergency last week (all sorted now, everyone is fine) and then Aunt Anna picked up a gross bug ( the people sick kinds, not the fun six legged hunting kind) which means I am on nursing duty, which means I yell at her when she is up for too long. I have also been diligent in making the very best use of Uncle Rheuben’s butt warmer (he calls it a laptop. It is a butt warmer. Good thing he’s cute.)

Things Aunt Anna has been super good at while sick:

1) naps (I coach her)
2) staying hydrated (once again, I lead by example)
3) watching You Tube videos mostly about Sims and Degrassi.
4) feeling really really guilty as she looks at her unmoving reading tally (and usually falls asleep next to a good book.)

On the one paw, there is nothing to feel bad about because this is how healing happens. On the other paw, the library does want their e-books back after a certain amount of time. On the other other paw, Kindle Unlimited is a thing, and she has a ton of books in her Kindle already. On the other other other paw, there are all those great stories waiting for her, and reading makes her want to write more, and writing more helps her feel better, so those things all feed each other and she really does tend to overthink things like this too much.

That’s okay, though. Taking a catnap with an actual cat is beneficial for everybody involved, and text to speech means that there is always a dependable robot voice ready to read a tired human a story. Not to mention the small notebook Aunt Anna keeps at hand, to write down stuff for when she’s able to keep a thought in her head already (her words, not mine.)

One thing that helps her a lot in both reading and writing is accountability. On the reading front, she is way way way ahead of the game, and on the reading front, she is reading The Pirate Prince by Gaelen Foley, along with Aunt Linda. It looks like this:

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Aunt Anna doesn’t know much about this book, except that there are pirates in it, and it’s got a pretty good reputation, so she is optimistic. If she can stay awake for anything, she can stay awake for pirate. Also belly rubs. I do require my belly rubs. More regular posting coming next week, toebeans crossed.

Headbonks!