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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!

Beautiful Mess

annabowling 1 Comment

No picture of the new Stately Bowling Manor as of yet, as it’s all boxes and cat hair and furniture in the middles of rooms. Definitely not fit for public consumption, but I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way. Monday, the three of us spent hauling furniture and boxes our of our storage unit, and up two flights of stairs. We did agree that for some of the heavier pieces, like my beloved secretary desk, we should wait until we can find some strapping young people who can be paid in pizza, so we now have folding desks for both Real Life Romance Hero and myself, which double as nightstands, and our bedside lamps are Wal-Mart’s finest. We have the skeleton pillows a dear friend gave us a year ago, on the bed, along with burgundy plaid flannel sheets and a berry and white afghan Housemate knitted back in our first Albany apartment.

this blog post is Storm-approved

This is wildly different from where we were only a few short weeks ago, and there is a learning curve. I thought that the transition to apartment living would be pretty much plug and play, but it’s something else, and I am fine with that. I actually like the idea of a fresh start, and going through the stuff we put away for our next home is interesting when it’s the people we were who packed it but the people we are who are unpacking.

Right now, I am composing this blog entry because getting back on the metaphorical horse is paramount. RLRH came home early, and my first instinct was to ask him to make lunch, because I’m writing. That felt good. Having a desk I can sit at in the morning also feels good, and the fact that “writing plan” is in bold black ink on today’s space in my big planner doesn’t feel daunting, but exciting. I can go anywhere.

By my estimation, Melva and I are only a few scenes away from the first full draft of our second contemporary, Drama King, and something is afoot for an upcoming historical release. Still need to reconnect with Her Last First Kiss, which, for me, is going to mean talking it out with a writer friend who knows historical romance, the Georgian era, and my writing well enough to help me still the pinwheel in my brain. (Applications for the position are officially open.) I am not entirely convinced that a manuscript doesn’t have to be perfect in order to make a good book, but I am on the road there, one step at a time.

I thought about NaNo this year. It would make a lot of sense, and if I can comfortably produce one unit of writing (I count by “units” now, which for me is about 1 to 1.5 k words in a session) a day, then 16+k isn’t that much more, so not totally out of reach. Maybe when the first Camp NaNo rolls around in the spring. Right now, I am focused on taking the next steps and getting back to finding out what Current Anna can do.

What I know for sure is that she/I can tell stories. I love to tell stories. I don’t have to reach every reader, only my readers, and what my readers want is what I have to give, so trying to follow trends or be like anybody else, no matter how much I may admire their work, doesn’t make any sense. Making sure I connect with those readers, well, that is another thing, but not something I need to concern myself with at present, because books are the way to connect writer and reader, so making sure the books get written and out there is job one. That, I can do.

I’ll leave that here for today. I’ve missed blogging regularly, and now that I have one place to be, and a fairly regular schedule, my goal is to get back to the thrice a week posting, and am strongly looking at resuming the video blogs of yore, with perhaps a wider focus. We’ll see how that goes.. For now, time to help RLRH set up the clothing rack.I get adult points for that, right?

Anna

Now, Where Were We?

annabowling 2 Comments

Hi. I’m Anna. I write stuff. Theoretically historical and contemporary romance novels, and I blabber about them a lot. I also love stationery, and there is a rumor going around that I do a thing called “blogging.”

I’ve been remiss on that last one for the past year and change, because there were bedbugs and then homelessness, motel rooms, car camping (do not recommend) hospital stays (not mine, ) panic attacks (mine) and a whole lot of uncertainty from day to day.

Now, it’s a different story. We are in our new apartment, and coming up on our first monthiversary of same. No pictures as of yet, because they would all be of boxes and cat hair, and we aren’t moving real furniture in until around the weekend, which also contains two deadlines and my birthday. I am, obviously, a glutton for punishment. Common affliction for writers, I believe, and especially for those who, like me, are getting back to normal (for me) after a year that was anything but.

the scent of home

I don’t know how much I’m going to talk about that stuff here, because I want to focus on what’s ahead of me, and what’s right now, and right now is a lot of making sense of what was. Which, again, common among writers, especially those who write historical romance. Even my contemporary ventures have some tie to historical romance, so who can tell? These things have a way of sorting themselves out, and I plan to let them.

Right now, we are well, we are housed, we are fed, everybody is working, and there will be book related news in the very near future. Having our own internet connection at home helps a lot, though I am writing this while sitting on the floor, the desktop I hauled around in the back seat of a car for a year, on a coffee table, which is not the most comfortable arrangement, but real furniture is coming in only a matter of days, so very, very doable.

Think I’m going to leave this entry at that, with a big THANK YOU to all who are reading this, whether new or still sticking around after the year of what the fluff. Thank you for those who contributed to our GoFundMe, who reached out privately, who prayed for us, thought of us, held us in the light, or did whatever it is you do. Thank you for text messages and DMs and Skype and Discord chats, for emails and pizzas and motel rooms, for meeting us in shady parking lots with gas cards and crudites, for buying books and leaving reviews, and all the rest that goes along with that.

Next evolution.

Anna

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!

Swimming Up From the Bottom of the Gelatin Sea

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ETA: Um, whoops, this was originally titled “Almost One Year Later.”
The new title, I like better, but makes no sense with the opening paragraph. I am still a little punchy.

No, this is not a reference to how long it has been between blog entries. Only slightly over a year ago, after a prolonged battle with the bedbugs that ate all of our soft furniture, linens, and a good chunk of Housemate’s epidermis (she still has scars) we left what we called the for-now apartment, fully expecting to walk into a new, better one in the span of a week, tops. That, as regular readers of the blog will remember, is not what happened. In fact, it was the opposite.

Right now, in my planners, I have the fifth of September listed as our “homelessversary,” marking a full year between permanent addresses. In between, we have had multiple ER visits, involuntary camping trips, amazing family and friends, one feline jailbreak (and reunion) the total loss of ability and/or desire to read my favorite genres (or anything else) and paying any sort of attention to video entertainment that has two digits before the colon in its duration. My favorite show has been YouTube, and even that has seen me groaning at videos with the interminable duration of four minutes and fifteen seconds. Both attention span and short term memory have taken nosedives, which is both perfectly normal and not something I like.

As of the start of this week, I have learned another thing. Apparently, my body’s response to the potential of strong relief is to go wet noodle for 24 hours, which basically is a sleep so deep I feel like I’m trying to kick my way to the surface in a pool full of well-set gelatin. The relief is due to a phone call that came early Monday, the latest round of phone tag with a prospective landlord we have been wanting to connect with for most of this time. We went to view an apartment, and we love it. The property manager loves us. Now we are filling out paperwork, getting ready to put down a deposit, and The possibility of spending at least part of our homelessversary getting ready to move into our new home is very real.

Sleeping at the bottom of the gelatin pool was yesterday. This morning was up early, and at the keyboard, with a sense of purpose. I’m not saing that normalcy is strictly needed to do any writing (what writers would call themselves normal, after all?) but I can say that this was a very encouraging development, and one where I will be sure to keep you all posted.

So, what does this mean for the writing? For one thing, I hve learned that living the vagabond life with a desktop computer is not easy, but it can be done. We are still looking at obtaining a new laptop, or repairing an older one, so that I can take my show on the road once we are settled, aka writing in coffee shops, or the park, and yes, that does sound a lot like what I have been striving to do while living the vagabond life, but it’s different when it’s by choice, not necessity.

As part of that, I did a quick brain dump in my general writing :salute: notebook, to list the historical romance projects that can most easily be revived. There are rather a lot of them. Ouch. Get to the end, Anna. One thing that hasn’t changed is that I still think in standalones, but I also like living indoors and eating food, and right now, linked books are what readers want, so can I find a way to fit what I do with what they want?

As it turns out, I think so. My historicals that I have brought to at least a first draft fall into a few distinct categories, namely medieval, Restoration, and Georgian. Please note that Restoration does have some English Civil War in it, because, well, they need something from which to be restored, am I right? Georgian for me refers only to the eighteenth century part of that period, since I have determined that I have been born without the Regency writing gene, and will leave that era to those who write it oh so well. My brain does not care on which side of the Atlantic my story people reside, so both Georgian England and the American colonies are fair game.

Not mentioned is the Tudor era, because although it was the first era I truly loved, (and love) I have not yet found my footing in that setting as of yet, but I have every faith that it will happen in time. Pun intended. also, if I add the Tudor era in there, I can conceivably wrangle a family saga, by linking my medieval people and calling those who come after their descendants. That way, I can go straight from the medieval age to the end of the American Revolution and things will all hold together…maybe? I don’t know, and I don’t have to know it today. For today it’s enough that I put my butt in the chair and my fingers on the keyboard and know that, in this, I am already home.

Back at It

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For the first time in over an entire year, the other two adults in my family are both at work at the same time, so that means that I am, too. It’s great and it’s strange. Right now, as I write this, I am also in an informal meeting with Lisa from Buried Under Romance, because I was around and she was around, and “yeah, let’s do this right now” hit, and that’s pretty much how I feel about writing in general at the moment.

When I lay out my weekly plan in my household planner, the truth of our now finally hit – with that swatch of pastel orange highlighter, and the new swatch of blue highlighter, both Housemate and Real Life Romance Hero will be at work at the same time, for a several hour stretch. I stared at the colors for a while and then it hit. When I see both those colors at once, that is my prime writing time. How to make sure I’m inspired when that time hits? I am inspired. I like money. I like living indoors. I like eating food, and maybe most importantly, I have a pen and paper habit that cannot be tamed, so I better darned well have a stream of income open.

our one-year-old

For me, that means writing books. Since Melva and I have already passed the first anniversary of Chasing Prince Charming, it is high time that we get up to date on Drama King. Since the general suckiness :salute: of real life has been a factor in knocking me off track with my share of the work, it stands to reason that things straightening out will provide me with new opportunities to make up for lost time. At least that’s the plan. There will probably be some setbacks and side quests, but, for today, I am here at the keyboard, I have a concrete goal to meet, and I know Melva will provide the feedback I run on, so things are looking good.

As for historical romance, watch this space, as there will be an update soon. Trying a couple of new things, and pretty excited about them. Also kind of daunted because this will mean putting some pressure on myself, but I think it’s going to be the good kind of pressure, and never try, never know. All I’m going to say for right now. but historical romance fans, I will have something for you in the not too distant future.

Vagueposting, I know, but it’s fun to slip one of those in there after more than a year of the world being on fire. Today means that I am up to and able to interweave writing and planning and I like that combination. Right now, I’m looking at my temporary command center, at the blush aesthetic I have going on here, and the dark red Pilot Precise V5 (clicky!) I picked up not too long ago means that my autumn aesthetic is going to start organically finding its way into my day to day. I’m looking forward to that.

For right now, the new header will be the ‘face” of this blog for the rest of summer (to be measured by however long it feels right) and I will autumn-ify it as needed. I like that comfortable evolution of things slipping into place, rather than me trying to shove a ten pound cat into a two pound bag, which I am wont to do more times than I would care to admit. There will be a few new graphics, and I may move around the way things look in general, but it’s not o much becoming different as it is becoming right. I don’t know of a better way to put that, and I don’t think any better way is needed. What I do know is that this feels right, doesn’t need pushing, and is headed in the right direction.

Anna

Things They Don’t Tell You About Writing While Homeless

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In a word: everything. I went into this knowing nothing about how being between permanent addresses would affect my writing. Since we are getting ever closer to getting to the next permanent address, hopefully in the near future, here are a few things I’ve learned from this experience.

  1. It’s hard. Writing rituals, routines, or schedules? Buh-bye. Gone. Not there anymore. It’s uncomfortable and disorienting, and feels like adding insult to injury, when the questions of the day include things like “where are we sleeping tonight?” and “are we eating?” Writing fiction doesn’t seem like an important thing when basic needs are on a case by case basis,k especialy in the not-wanting-people-to-know stage.
  2. Writing groups/dates and memberships in professional organizsations may lapse. Conferences may be off the table, especially in this time of social isolation, because getting food on the talbe and a table upon which on can place that food, is top priority. There will be days when a write can’t. This does not, by the way, indicate failure.

2) It’s necessary. I have stories inside me, and they want to get out. They need to get out. For a long time, when our vagabond days just started, the only writing I had brain for was journaling. Oh so much journaling. I depleted the stash of notebooks I had on hand and went back into storage for more. Brain dumps, no filter, whatever was in my brain went on the page. I still do that, but I did that before, and I don’t see it going away any time soon. It primes the pump and clears the brain space for actual writing-writing things. (Fiction counts as writing-writing, for me.) Some screaming into the void, bits and pieces of my much-beloved, much-neglected historical and contemporary romances, sometimes all of the above at the same time. It happens.

Besides fiction, my own blog, and my still-feels-new position as head gal in charge of Buried Under Romance all suffered greatly, adn I am not okay with that, but I would also be the first person to tell somebody else not to feel guilty, so something to think about there. That’s the worst of it, really, the wanting desperately to connect with the works in progress, and not…quite…reaching. Sometimes it was because getting to pen and paper was an issue, or because I didn’t have enough me left in me to do that kind of thinking. Some times, the closest I could come to productivity was to remember. Remember that scene? Remember when that character did that thing? Or what I intended to write when they would do that thing? sometimes that’s enough.

3) It’s essential, which is not the same as necessary. I say this for me. I am not saying that any writer going through any kind of big life change absolutely must write, because that is not the case. If putting a thing aside is what yo need to do to be okay, absolutely do that. For me, writing in general, and writing romance in particular, has been a lifeline. Not only does the romance genre remind me that every story in this genre has a happy ending, no matter how dark the black moment may be, and that love (platonic and family as well as romantic; pick the ones you like and leave the rest) it’s that immersing myself in a good story, whether I am the one reading it or the one writing it, allows me to not escape, but gain respite.

Reading or writing fiction is a place I can go when I don’t want to be where I am. Yes, I did just quote my own character, Dominic, in Chasing Prince Charming, and when I do have to put down book or tablet or pen and paper and deal with things in the everyday world, I’m stronger.

There’s more to it, of course. This isn’t a one and done sort of topic, and I don’t want to be a downer here, but, in the words of Sir Elton John, I’m still Standing, and those of Ms. Gloria Gaynor, I will survive. I shall close out with the wise words from Mr. Elvis Costello…every day, every day, every day, every day, I write the book.

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!

Signs of Life

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Hello, all. Anna here, breaking radio silence for a bit. Hopefully Storm and I will be back to a semi regular blogging schedule, along with writing-writing, but here’s where things stand at the moment.

It’s been a rough several months, ever since the bedbug incident, and the time that we thought would be only a couple of weeks between apartments is now at month number ten. It’s been a combination of motel living, friends, and the occasional impromptu camping for short periods of time. As one can imagine, not great for mental health, but yay church family and yay modern medicine. With the COVID outbreak, this did affect Real Life Romance Hero’s line of work, as he’s a front of the house restaurant dude, and there has been no front of house for a wile. He’s looking into options, especially as restaurants begin to reopen, so there will be good news on that front soon. We’re also working with some pros to help us navigate the system, which takes some time, but will get results.

Last week, Real Life Romance Hero was in the ER twice (he is okay now) and, at the same time, my tablet died, which made blogging and social media on the go a lot more challenging, but not insurmountable.

I have long been a paper and pen writer, and the stories still need to be told, so that’s a good thing. Transcription time is also editing time, and there will be a chunk of that when the dust settles. Right now, RLRH and I are sharing a laptop, and I have been using that for social media and Simming. (Also planning a return to vlogging in the near future. First on my list: old school romance reviews.) Playing Sims stretches those storytelling muscles, and, as I dive deeper into custom content and mods and editing screenshots, I like the energy it brings. My old school Kindle is still going strong, which makes me immensely grateful that I can carry an entire library with me anywhere I go.

Deciding what to put here can be a tricky thing at times. Is this a writing blog? Is this a romance genre blog? Is it a personal blog? The answer to that is that it’s all of those things, because it’s all part of the journey. Right now, the writing life is more chaotic than I would like, but it is still happening. Number one on the list is getting Drama King, my second contemporary romance with Melva Michaelian, and getting Her Last First Kiss to the end of its second draft, which may involve some reconstruction, but I have done that before, with Orphans in the Storm, which I also wrote during a challenging time and didn’t remember selling until I got the request for the final-final manuscript from the publisher. That book, along with my first historical, My Outcast Heart, is back in my hands. Still weighing the options when it comes to traditional versus indie publishing, but these titles will be back out there as soon as I can make it happen.

For those whose most pressing question is “where are the dang kitty pictures, woman? You know that’s what I’m here for,” here you go:

Storm is doing great, and she will be back to her regular blogging duties hopefully next week. We definitely have us a travel cat, and she has taken beautifully to coming along on certain errands, when we can pop her carrier into a shopping cart and push her around while we shop. She is definitely getting that kitty stroller when we are settled, and a kitty friendly backpack/kitty Bjorn sort of thing is also a possibility. This cat is definitely going places, and so are we.

I’ve also picked up a freelance editing gig that is super fun, and something I would be very happy to do more of in the future.

A couple of days ago, while checking out the social media links for a favorite Simmer, I semi-accidentally created a Discord account. Of course being me, my immediate thought was “I wonder if there are any historical romance themed Discord servers?” and my second thought, “if not, I bet I could start one.” Not taking on the second part of that right away, but if you kno of any romance reading or writing themed Discord servers, I definitely want in.

As I’ve noted in this blog before, I have long since known I do better in my original writing when I am actively involved in a fandom. In the past, that’s usually been TV shows, but I haven’t been in a TV mode much in the last few months. Right now, it’s Sims and my favorite brand of historical romance: rich and intricate and emotional. I fully intend on steering into that particular skid.

That’s about it for the current update. TLDR (too long, didn’t read) version: things are progressing and should stabilize soon. Writing is happening. Cats are good. I love romance novels, Sims, and all of you.