How Is It March Already?

March 5, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

Seriously. I did not sign off on that. Anyway, hi. Storm should be back blogging at the end of this week. She has been occupied with some premium sunbeams, and an array of boxes. Important cat stuff. Also, she thinks it’s good for me to take a post every now and again.

Stock photo for today, as I am clipping along on my list of tasks and refuse to cede any momentum. That means stream of consciousness, so let’s go. :cracks knuckles: I am currently out of cough drops, and trust me, this is everybody’s problem. I only live a few blocks from a CVS, so will venture out tomorrow. Today has been my day to attack my environment (aka the aftereffects of two full house days in a row) with an eye to making it more conducive to creativity/writing. Which does mean reducing clutter.

Part of that is refining/curating my art stuff. That means keep the favorites, share the love on the rest. Things look slightly less chaotic, and I absolutely do need to upgrade from the TV tray type desk I have been using. If I could get my secretary desk out of storage, that would be ideal. If not, well, that might be more Ikea (ish.) Sleep was not awesome for the last couple of nights, but on the bright side, I did listen to two audiobooks. Apparently, I have a thing for dual timelines. That’s something to keep in mind as I meander my way to whatever form my Camp NaNo participation takes. Not going for 50k, more like baby steps, and by that I mean enthusiastic lurches into the unknown, likely resulting in falling upon my own posterior and the like. Fun fact: I studied early childhood development/education in college. The most important thing I learned was that I was not meant for that field.

That’s an important thing to learn. I like writing much better. I am looking forward to Camp, though I haven’t registered yet. I should. Okay. There is an assignment. Register for Camp. Camp means cabins, means other people diving in the same way I am. Or close to it. Definitely a rebel. Always a rebel. Unless I get to the point where the most rebellious thing I can do with this sort of thing is to go by the standard. Stranger things have happened.

Right now, I am one-fifth of the way through an epic standalone historical romance (in the reading department) and have another YA thriller audiobook waiting for the evening’s entertainment. It’s this one:

yep, double timeline, and an abandoned apartment. Must read.

TV/streaming is promising at the moment. The Ones Who Live (which I abbreviate to “TOWL” in my journal, pronounced, “towel” and the new So You Think You Can Dance are both waiting for me. Zombies, dancing, but not dancing zombies. One hopes. I am also eyeing some nonfiction history books which may or may not have influence on my Camp project. I may even go buck wild and grab a composition book and a ballpoint and noodle therein while ostensibly watching TV. It’s bene known to work before, and writing like a fifteen-year-old actually does sound like fun.

That’s enough for right now, and it’s time for me to run trash and do some recon on some happy mail that should be showing up here any time now, so talk amongst yourselves. I’ll be back soon.

Blabbity Blab Blab

February 26, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

What’s going on in your world?

Random Valentine Blather

February 14, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

How are you doing?

2024 Roadmap, Maybe

January 30, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How’s your year looking?

Typing With Wet Paws: No Closed Doors Edition

January 27, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We have a very important topic this week, and that is that Mama Anna cannot close doors when I am on the wrong side of them.

In case you are wondering, the wrong side means that I would not be on the same side of the door as Mama Anna. I am her girl. She is my mama. That means I need to be with her. Preferably on her, but near is still good. That did not happen this week, on Wednesday.

I will say up front that I am semi-okay with Mama Anna having to take her calls with Aunt Melva on the landing if the other hoomans are home and there is really no other place to have a private conversation. I don’t like it like it, but I can deal, and they usually keep it to about an hour. That was not the case this Wednesday.

Wednesdays are the days Mama Anna talks with Aunt Mary. I should say Mama Anna and I talk to Aunt Mary. They do that on Mama Anna’s tablet, usually, and Mama Anna turns the tablet so Aunt Mary can see me. When the camera is on me, Aunt Mary talks directly to me, and Mama Anna translates for me into hooman talk to Aunt Mary. It is a system that works. It does not work, however, when Mama Anna is on the other side of the door and I cannot be there. I can hear Aunt Mary but I am not near Mama Anna or the camera, and I made my opinions on that known.

By that, I mean crying. I mean scratching at the door. I mean swiping a long white cat arm under the door crack and shoving my face in the door when Mama Anna opened it a tiny smidge so that I could see she was okay. By my estimation, about thirty percent of that call was Mama Anna trying to calm me. All the other hoomans were home and so the landing was the only place Mama Anna could go in order to have a semiprivate conversation. Next time, she will remember that semi part, because it includes me.

Current plan is that the next time this happens, (this is Aunt Linda’s idea) Mama Anna should close the air lock (stairway door) and let me come on the landing with her. Mama Anna is concerned about me learning what stairs are (I have never been on stairs before) but Aunt Linda says that I will probably be too concerned with staying with Mama Anna to care about stairs. Especially if Mama Anna brings my fleecy cave out there with us. There may also be a baby gate involved, even though I can 100% jump higher than baby gates are. Maybe she should bring treats or toys. What do you think?

Typing With Wet Paws: Second Week of January Edition

January 13, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

Typing With Wet Paws: Welcome, 2024 Edition

January 5, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is the very first Typing With Wet Paws of 2024. So far, so good. Well, there was the time Mama Anna faceplanted on the hardwood and did the same thing to her left foot that she did when she tripped over my food dish frame. She’s okay, but she says this does not count for starting as one means to go on, whatever that means. Anyway, here we are.

We haven’t had any snow yet. There may be some on Sunday. Mama Anna has not had the apartment to herself (ahem, ourselves) since before Christmas. Today is the first day it’s just us during the day, and I have to say its kind of nice. Mama Anna is working on her own blog for next week. She is also getting her planners in order and everybody is in organization mode. As you might imagine, this is both frustrating (nobody said the hoomans could change things) and exciting (so many smells! So much exploration!) As long as I can still park myself in Mama Anna’s sock drawer while she is working, I am good with whatever they do.

The holidays were pretty good around here. I got more gushy food than usual. No people food, but that’s okay. , The only people food I am allowed to have is people tuna. Mama D, my first hoomom, said I could also have people chicken, but so far, I haven’t wanted anything to do with that particular delicacy since I came to this family. Either Mama D was playing these guys, or people chicken is a me and Mama D thing. Either way, I’m not telling. But yeah, gushy food, and enough presents that Papa and Mama Anna decided it’s best to spread them out for a while. I am good with that. Especially because I got two, yes, two scratchy things. In case you are new, scratchy things are cardboard things that go on the floor and I can scratch. I also like sitting on them. Do not hang them from the doorknob, even though that is an option, because I am not inot all that. Floor or nothing, baby.

Mama Anna is still thinking about her reading goal for this year. I don’t have much news to report on that front though she mostly wants to focus on vintage historical romance, and modern historicals with similar vibes. The big plus for me, though is that Mama Anna has rediscovered how comfy it is to read when cozied up on a big pile of pillows, which means that is prime time for me to climb on top of her and make with the purrs. I call that a win-win situation.

Also, there is the backpack. I will have to ask a hooman to take a picture of it. Mama Anna thinks it is for her to carry stuff around while she needs to use the walker (not the Walking Dead kind, thankfully) but there is a problem. The problem is that it is mine. I love it. It is one of my many beds. She does not understand this. How much plainer can it be? It is me sized and me shaped, an if somebody were to leave the big part’s zipper unzipped while it is on the bed instead of hanging it up promptly upon returning home, I could probably get inside the big part. You know what happens if I do, right? I call it death in the shadows. POUNCE! On what, you might ask? On everything, obviously. I am a predator, after all. A cuddly, cuddly predator.

How’s your 2024 so far?

Typing With Wet Paws: End of 2023 Edition

December 30, 2023annabowling Leave a comment

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

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

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

the portrait is AI generated. Maybe a character?

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

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

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

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

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

Headbonks!

Dressing Gown Days

December 21, 2023annabowling Leave a comment

Yes, I am American, and I call them dressing gowns. Real Life Romance Hero calls them “enchanted robes of comfort.” His is a lovely smokey grey. Mine is burgundy or oxblood, depending on my whim. They are both fuzzy and warm and perfect for today. We are both having rest days, which for me means I finally get to sneak a blog in for this week. I’ve missed blogging and plan to be more regular in the coming year. Our tree is green this year, with white lights and minimal ornaments, because the rose gold tree is inaccessible at the moment, and I Had To Have A Tree. Worked out pretty well.

My most-played Christmas song this year is “Fairy Tale of New York,” in several different versions, including one all in Gaelic. Yeah, there is some kind of story brewing. I am more than okay with that. .;ppppppppppppppppp (that last bit is from Storm, even though she will get her own blog post tomorrow. She has to be in on everything. Only fair, as it *is* her home.) b She is in the mood today to remind me that this is a dressing gown day, and that means I have things on my list like “read,” and “watch TV” and “do journal things.” I am trying to tell her that blogging is like journaling, but I don’t think she’s accepting my argument. Ah well.

Housemate purchased this year’s tree at her place of employment, and far overbought both lights and ornaments, which are both tiny and glass, but this is fine for a couple of reasons:

there are no such things as too many ornaments; if we aren’t using them now, we will be using them later, perhaps when we have a house and multiple trees.
Storm can’t get to the tree anyway. If she could, she would have by now.
It goes really well with the fun family stories we already have, like the time I blindly picked out a far too tall for our apartment tree because it was dark and raining and it ended up being Christmas trees, plural, as Real Life Romance Hero sawed it in half and gave the other half to our neighbor.

For those keeping track from last year, that brings our tree count to five. We have the green tree above, the rose gold tree in storage, my pink bottle brush tree, and my pink ceramic tree. Tree number five, I am calling our foster tree, as we are holding onto it for a friend in transit.

I love last year’s A5 rings so much, I am keeping the same setup, only changing the pages for this year’s

The current planner lineup for 2024 is approaching its final form and looks quite different than what I had expected. That seems to be a theme around here these days. I am even going out of town for what is shaping up to be an annual trip to the two coolest places in CT, namely The Book Barn and my friends, Mary and Brian’s house. Obviously, The Book Barn is the number two coolest place. Yes, it has a seemingly endless array of books to buy, but my friends are there only some of the time but they are in their home every day, so that makes it the #1 coolest place. Plus there is a dog.

This year’s Book Barn jaunt is going to be different, because I will be using either crutches or walker (looks like a torn meniscus but healing well) and that will be an adventure. I acquired a backpack to make toting stuff easier, but Storm seems to think I brought home a(nother) cat bed. She is in love with it, to the point of abandoning Real Life Romance Hero feeding her to settle on it. She has priorities. Everything is a cat bed if the cat is comfy enough.

No real point to this post other than the above, which is exactly what one needs on a dressing gown day. How is your day going?

Typing With Wet Paws: Welcome, December Edition

December 1, 2023annabowling Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

How is December treating you so far?

Typing With Wet Nails

for the love of romance

personal