writing process

EDC, A&O and other stories

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Planner covers, string lights and other pretties meet my gaze when I look over the top of my laptop monitor. I feel very much at home here (good because it is in my home) Right now, I am ticking off the things on my to do list for the day, most of it writing related, and household chores relegated to any time left after the writing things are done. This has been the goal for a while now, and now it’s here. Check in the plus column.

Yesterday, while I video chatted online with a friend, I turned over my everyday carry (EDC) to all new for February. Brown leather traveler’s notebook (A6 size, with pocket sized inserts) and for the first time, the delightful excess of accessories that I have always wanted. Yes, I still need more. Though I don’t usually do themes in my planners/notebooks, February doesn’t hew to pastel winter (and let’s face it, most pastel winter things I can find are actually pastel Christmas, and I don’t want to see Santa in February or even January. It’s his naptime.) The February theme presented itself rather than me going looking for it.

The theme for February is My Bloody Valentine. Yes, partly after the Machine Gun Kelly song and partly because I have enough elegant spooky stickers left over from October to make it work. This is the only Machine Gun Kelly song I know, and don’t know anything about him personally (except he is engaged to Megan Fox, maybe?) but the thing presented itself, so I am taking it. Is should mention that even my mug is in line with my theme for the month.

I will share a tour through my EDC for another post, possibly in video form, because it’s a lot and I am pretty happy with it. After trying out a lot of planning and journaling supplies, I am moving into the period of knowing what I like. Some of that means I am moving in the direction of what works best for me. On that note, I am now waiting the approximately two weeks for my very first Archer and Olive order. It is this one, black dot grid pages with a silver spiderweb on the front. I fully expect to fall in love with it, and will likely watch their pssst section for other pages and sizes. I’m normally a cream/ivory page gal, and the standard A&O color is white, but don’t knock it until you try it, I say in my mother’s voice. Besides, I have a source for the ivory lined journal of my dreams. I’ll give a tour of the current lineup later.

All of this focus on planning and journaling did indeed help my writing goals for 2023 to fall into line, and of course into their own notebooks. Right now, the plan is to deal with what’s on my desk at present: A Heart Most Errant, Her Last First Kiss, and then the pirate trilogy. After that, we will see, and Melva and I plan to put our heads together again in late spring or early summer to commit more acts of collaboration.

These guys are on top of the crate that holds the covers posted above. Plush Plague Doctor, gargoyle pencil holder, and the Tudor Rose ornament that never made it to the tree because I want it where I can see it every day. I also meant to mention FaRoFeb in the initial letter salad in the title, but then it slipped my mind until then. I don’t know much about fantasy romance, though I am curious. At any rate, I plan to read at least one fantasy romance during the month of February, which is also African American history month, which means I will also read at least one African-American historical romance. Other than that, i am focusing on reading the kind of thing I love to write – epic historical romancc, and for pity’s sake, take notes aas I do, because that stuff is important to me.

Anyway, that’s where I’m at this Thursday afternoon. One last last last look at the Queen of Hearts manuscript before it goes off on its merry way, and then I am fully back in historica mode. How is your week going?

Typing With Wet Paws: Kitty on the Keys Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. I’m a little late on posting here, because, well, naps. Anyway, I’m back now, and ready to help Mama Anna conquer the new year.

This year, Mama Anna is scaling back her reading goal on Goodreads, in hopes that it will encourage her to read more. What she wrote in her reading journal (I will let her post pictures. I can’t work the scanner because I have paws and don’t feel like reading the instructions) is “Drop and Give me Fifty (Two)” referring to the weeks of the year. She can do a book a week. Actually, she did two last night, one audiobook historical romance and one contemporary YA romance. She has also found that reading before bed, with me providing cuddles, obviously, helps her sleep, so she is going to try making that part of her evening routine. I, of course, help by sitting in the drawer nest to her desk. Of late, I have begun walking across the desk, and sometimes the keyboard, to let her know when he has been on the computer Long Enough. Needless to say, Mama Anna is not always delighted when I do this kind of thing. Can you believe that Spotify has no results for the search, “iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii?” If you’re looking for a name for your musical act, maybe try that.

Mama Anna has been doing pretty well on the writing front so far in January. If all goes well, she and Aunt Melva will be submitting Queen of Hearts to The Wild Rose Press. After that, they are going to use this quarter to focus on their individual projects. For Mama Anna, that means historical romance. She is looking ahead to Camp NaNo in April and thinking about, if she were going to start a new historical romance, what would that be? What would be fun? She has enough to keep her busy until then and probably beyond, but Facebook thought she might like to remember when she began working on Her Last First Kiss, and no, she did not want to know the number of years that was. It was before I was born. Yeah. She has co-written three books in that time and also had a lot of life happen, plus getting me, obviously the best part.

Christmas was pretty good. I got a robot litter box. The humans have not yet put it together, ahem, but that will happen soon. I don’t know how it works, but as long as it does, that is all I care about. I also did get that promised red dot, aka my death ray. I LOVE it. It lives in Mama Anna’s nightstand. I have to see her take it out and put it away. It’s her toy and I get to play with it. Sometimes Papa helps me play with it, so maybe it is really their toy. Eh, as long as I get to play with it, does anything else really matter? I don’t think so.

That’s it for this week, or at least until naptime. Believe it or not, a roll of toilet paper (Aunt Linda had it on her bed to clean up one of my hairballs. I fell asleep on it before she oculd put it away, so now it’s my nap pillow. That’s how it goes. I don’t make the rules. Oh wait, I do. I’m a cat.)

Headbonks!

Storm

Planning Planning Planny Plans (reading and writing related)

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Well hello there, 2023. The planner and pens pictured above are from 2020, the Year That Shall Not Be Named (but I’ve named it, haven’t I?) My first experiences with Paper Mate Ink Joy gel pens, and disc bound planning. I still have the pens (many times over) and have filled several disc bound planners and notebooks since then. As for the page finder, if anybody sees this particular page finder in the wild (woman image. leaning against the margin) please tell her Mummy misses her very much, and she can come home any time, no questions asked.

In reality, she is probably in storage. When I say that planning and journaling have been a godsend, I am not exaggerating. Blogging is, for me, the digital version of that. I’d like to be doing more of it in the coming year, as well as that whole making up stories thing. Right now, I am dealing with the Martian Death Cold that smacked us over the holiday season. Combined with the fact that my contemporary co-author, Melva, and I have finished first edits on our second and third novels together. Next, we submit and then we get to turn our main focus for the first quarter of the year to our individual efforts.

For me, that is historical romance. While writing contemporary with Melva is super fun, I have missed the historical realm, and so that’s where I’m headed back now. Plan A is to redo the second half of Her Last First Kiss, because it is big enough to ride the bus by itself now. Then I need to make some decisions about A Heart Most Errant. As for Plan B? That’s more in the realm of “what do I want to try next?”

I have no dearth of projects that have been on hold. My brazen widow who finds the love of her life with the nameless pawn of wretched nobleman. The blacksmith’s daughter who becomes a duchess by way of the London stage. Three generations of pirates, my first planned historical series. The once and future lovers who each thought the other was dead (whoops) and a family member that loves one of them too much and not in the right way, but I tried to shoehorn into the wrong time period. (It happens.)

Then there’s new stuff, because that’s what we writer types do. Since a dear friend’s birthday overlaps nicely with my beloved tucked away week between Christmas and New Year, that meant a visit to a sprawling used bookstore. That, of course, led to me coming home with a bunch of both beloved and new to me classic historical romances and historical fiction. There are vague ideas spinning around in that place where infant ideas go. I would love to write a family saga within historical romance. Would the type of historical romance I love the best fit better in today’s market if there were a paranormal/fantasy aspect? Whata are some fantasy books that read like classic historical romance that I might like to try?

No secret that the year just past was horrible for reading. Still figuring out what all contributed to that, but I do want to read more this year, and figure out what needs to happen for that to happen. Is vision part of it? Undoubtedly. Magnifying glasses, pages, bookmarks, etc, can help with that. I definitely need a place in our apartment that is for reading and is not our bed or my desk or the kitchen table. We are working on that one.

Right now, I am finishing this post and ticking it off my to do list, so I can take some cold meds and head back under my weighted blanket. I have vague plans to turn that into Netflix, fever and chills but there’s also falling asleep to Reddit threads on You Tube. Either way, I get time wtih my purr-sonal assistant, and that can’t be anything but good.

How’s your new year looking?

Annual NaNo Rambles

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Hullo, all. Another week, another blog entry. Could this be the start of a streak? We will have to see. No real pan for this post, but to have it, lest I need to share with Storm tomorrow. She does like her spotlights. And sunbeams. And her new fuzzy tent.

Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

But anyway….

Typing fast, as I have Storm bapping me with her paws. That is the official signal to wrap things up on the glowy box and get to bed because it is bedtime. Wherein I read an e-book (hopefully) or fall asleep listening to a You Tube video (likely) Storm did well with her cat sitter, but she is thrilled to see us, especially me, home.

The wedding itself was gorgeous, and it was my first time in a Greek Orthodox church. Lovely ceremony, happy couple, gorgeous foliage, but we got super lost, events transpired, and we did not end up making the reception. There was a panic attack involved, but not mine this time.

Anyway, we are back home now, (mostly) unpacked, and I am giving my calendar a side-eye because who gave it permission to be the second half of October? I’d planned to give some version of Prep Tober a go, and while I probably still could (it would give me a reason to use a new planner) part of me says there isn’t enough time to wrangle something like that.

Once again, I’m looking at the whole NaNo thing, and not sure how I want to handle it. Maybe I’ll be a rebel, and maybe I’ll do my own thing. We will see. One thing for sure, I will be writing. Melva and I are closing in on The End for our third book together. After that, we get to edit books two and three, and see what’s what on that front.

When I think about NaNo, though, my brain goes straight to historicals. It’s been a while. Two years now in our wonderful apartment, three years with one very sproingy calico cat, and I’m getting an itch to get back to my first writing love, which is historical romance. Big, sweeping, epic, angsty historical romance. Ideas are not the problem. Hoo boy, do I have ideas. Hoo boy, do I have partial manuscripts. That’s the thing. I want to get past the partial thing. A Heart Most Errant is looking at me, but there are things, and there is a part of me that wants to throw caution to the wind and open a new document into which to go wild. Throw a bunch of things in there and see what sticks. That’s got to be either genius or insanity. Maybe both.

I have noticed that the more I delve into my love of pen and paper, the more I end up noticing that it’s all about finding out what works for me. That can be a messy process, but if what comes out of it is a functional routine, then that’s a good thing. I haven’t had much to do with historical romance at all lately, and I am feeling the lack.

I love the idea of a clean slate I love the idea of clear horizons. I love the idea of having that new book feeling once again, of diving into another place and time, and tell a love story worthy of historical record. I also like the 50k goal (wait, did I say that?) because it’s not that huge, really. If I’m looking at a big thick doorstopper, we’re talking somewhere about halfway. If something shorter, then more than that. If a novella, it’s the whole thing. My considering NaNo this year isn’t about productivity, though. It’s about fun. It’s about grabbing for that brass ring and rediscovering the love of the game.

Not that I don’t love writing the contemporaries with Melva, because I do, but Melva-and-Anna is a different writer than Only Anna, and Only Anna is feeling a bit … itchy? Is itchy the right word? Or waking up from oversleeping and wanting to get back to the normal routine. Maybe ‘routine’ isn’t the right word, but yeah. I did manage to read some vintage historical romance on the ride back from the wedding, and I hit a spot of “oh, I remember this. I love this. I want to do this.”

Soooo….I’m doing it. I don’t know yet if I will do official NaNo. I don’t consider this in any way pushing aside Her Last First Kiss, because I’m not. I need to stretch before a run, that’s the best way I can think of to put it right now. Goal for November: write historical romance. That’s it for now. Nobody ever has to see it. It’s okay if it’s not perfect. Maybe it will be a stinker, and that’s okay. Because maybe I’ll have fun. Maybe I’ll want to do more of that Maybe I will rediscover old passions and find new ways to make it to The End.

Anna

Typing With Wet Paws: Almost October Edition

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Tails Up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws.

Me, on Mama Anna’s lap

Sorry about no blg last week. There were technical difficulties. By that, I mean there was a really good sunbeam and I did not feel like getting out of it.

Me on Aunt Linda’s bed

October is a really big month around here. We already had our second anniversary of moving into this apartment (still awesome) but October brings more celebrations:

  • Two years in this apartment means my third adoptiversary of coming to live with these guys. My first human, Mama D, can still see me here on the blog and Instagram, so I want to say hi to her. Seh gave me an awesome kittenhood and made me the cat I am today.
  • In the middle of the month, my human cousin is getting married. I wil be getting something called a “cat sitter” while the humans go watch that. I have never had a cat sitter before. Should be interesting.
  • Exactly one week before the end of the month, it is Mama Anna’s birthday, which is extremely important. She really likes birthdays, and hers is right up there near the top of the list.
  • A week after that is Halloween. There has been talk of getting me a costume. I don’t know exactly what a costume is, but I am okay with Mama Anna putting things on my head where a hat would go, so I’m probably cool with that. She will probably try with a washcloth or something. If I’m not into that, then I don’t have to wear anything. If I’m good with it, though, there will be pictures.

So, anyway, Mama Anna and Aunt Melva are almost at the end of their current manuscript, which is pretty awesome. After that, they get to edit that book and the one before it, and then see if their publisher would like them. The books, I mean. After that, they already know what they will do together next, and they also have individual projects to work on as well.

Speaking of which, Mama Anna has been thinking about what would happen if she did NaNoWriMo this year. At least Preptober. She will try Preptober first, and then if she doesn’t want to NaNo, she doesn’t have to, but if she wants to, she can. She really really really wants to work on a historical, so it will probably be that.

After all of that, then the holiday season is upon us. Mama Anna LOVES Christmas. There will be a tree. With lights and shiny things. We are talking with found family to see if there will be other people involved int the holiday observations. I love it when there are more humans in the house, so that would be fine with me. First, though, the adoptiversary. It’s traditional for me to share tuna with Papa, and I am getting a red dot as my present I love red dot. That’s going gtobe fun.

What’s on deck for your October?

Headbonks!

Storm

Typing With Wet Claws: Grumbling at Printers Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. The heat wave seems to have broken this week, but Aunt Linda is still recovering from it, so I am on nurse duty. Papa and Mama Anna seem to be doing better. Well, except for Mama Anna and the printer. I know I said printers in the title, but she’s only mad at the one. Writers do tend to need their printers to work, for the most part, and for the most part, hers hasn’t been, lately. She was going to have Aunt Linda help her, because Aunt Linda is usually good at fixing things, but Aunt Linda isn’t feeling all that great so Mama Anna gave it a whack herself yesterday.

Photo by Anete Lusina on Pexels.com

Obviously, that is not Mama Anna’s real printer, but it’s close enough. The only difference is that a printed document is coming out of that printer. Mama Anna had got it working yesterday, but then she tried to use it again today, and it has no idea what she is talking about. The screen on the printer has an exclamation point on it, which means it needs her to do something, but it won’t tell her what. She is grumbling a lot. She needs to print stuff. I’d help, but, well, I’m a cat.

With the heat wave over, Mama Anna is doing a lot better and is spending a lot of time with her journal to figure out how she can best get back on track. So far, she is doing pretty well. Except for the printer. Oh, and she tried to play a new scenario in Sims 4 last night, and failed at it, because the Sim she had to keep alive froze to death while dumpster diving. So that’s a thing. She did think about printing out some screenshots for her Sims journal, but again, the printer thing. She has been muttering about taking a jump drive to the library. That may be a wise option. Also, how cute am I in Sims?

A screenshot from the Sims 4 video game. A calico cat woalks on the counter, and eyes a platter of grilled cheese sandwiches.
A screenshot from The Sims 4 video game: a calico cat eyes a platter of grilled cheese.

Stinking cute, am I right? The splootches (that’s what we call patches of colors on pets’ coats) are off, but I say it’s the purr-sonality that counts. Here, have another one.

A screenshot from The Sims 4 video game. A calico cat stares out the window.
A screenshot from the video game, The Sims 4. A calico cat stares out a window.

This is a very good approixmation of what I do every time Mama Anna leaves the house. She says she is planning to take trash out tonight. Trust me, I will be watching while she does.

Screenshot from the video game The Sims 4. A calico cat stands atop a metal framed bed, covered in blue flowered bedding.
Screenshot from the video game The Sims 4. A calico cat stands atop a metal framed bed, covered in blue flowered bedding.

Yeah, this one is extremely accurate. I love getting on the bed. It’s actually about my favorite place. Especially when Papa or Mama Anna are on it. Best of all, when they are both on it, and I am between them, and they are both rubbing me. That’s the good stuff. I like snuggling with Mama Anna while she reads or writes longhand. Sometimes that’s in her journal, but a lot of the time, it is fiction. Exactly as she expected, starting a new reading journal and tracking her reading helps her read a lot more.

I should probably mention that, despite all her talking about not doing One Book July for her planning, she has decided that she has been too overwhelmed with multiple planners lately, and only did one planner this week, and may continue that through August. She also got a lot of stickers for days and dates, so my best guess is that she will be redating any stuff she doesn’t end up using, which I think is a pretty smart move. I have shown my approval by sitting on the sticker book. I like to be helpful that way.

Hm what else? Mama Anna has been talking about adding a TBV section (To Be Viewed) for streaming shows and movies she wants to watch. Not sure where that kind of tracker will go, but I do know that if she’s going to be watching stuff, that is prime cuddle time, so I foresee many belly rubs. Doubly so if she is going to be writing about the stuff she watches, which she probably will. I better start training.


Headbonks!

A calico cat sleeps in the middle of a grey cat bed

T-Rex Arms and Dinosaur Noises

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Two Artist's Loft series two notebooks are side by side on an Irish fisherman knit afghan. One notebook is a wine-colored faux leather cover, and the other is sage green cloth, with "ideas" stamped in all caital gold letters.
oh so many color options

So, I’m back in an A5 dot grid notebook for use as a reading tracker. I do love Goodreads, but I also know me, and I need to touch paper. while Melva and I are moving right along on the contemporary front(this fall, we hope to have two contemporaries to shop around) I am keenly feeling the lack of historical romance. Which is a problem.

I am woefully behind on reading and writing historical romance. By my GR challenge above, i can tell that I am, by my schedule, a whopping fourteen books behind on my 2022 reading goal, which is not okay. This has never happened before, and it is not going any farther. As I told my friend, M, during our weekly chat, when it comes to historical romance, both writing and reading right now, I feel like I am flailing with T-Rex arms and making dinosaur noises. Which very much describes my attempts at reading journal-ing lately. I have a Kindle full of historical romance, shelves full of delicious-looking books, and yet I….haven’t. Which definitely takes a toll on the writing.

I know one way to handle is it “maybe historical romance is over (for me.)” Which I know that it’s not. It’s calling me, both writing and reading wise, so I need to do some stuff about that. Especially about my own favorite flavor of historical romance; big, sweeping sagas with adventure and swash and buckle and stories that play out over years before a triumphant HEA. :happy sigh:

cover page for the month of August. A framed label reading "August 2022" sits atop a botanical printed shee tof scrapbook paper.
cover page, August 2022

Considering that i am highly stationery motivated, and/or visually oriented, going back to a reading tracker is the obvious step. I’m not sure if writing tracker will be in this same book or another. I am letting the whole planner and notebook situation work itself out organically, which is probably how the historical writing thing is going to work, including blabbering about it here. That may sound for a while like dinosaur noises that don’t make a lot of sense, but by looking at the books I’m reading and figuring out what sticks out about them for me, both positive and otherwise, ideas are bound to conceive..

two page spread with reading tracker on one side and bookshelf image on the other
that’s a bookcase on the top of the second page.

I didn’t want to make the first month too ambitious, but I did have to make a chart to track how many pages I read per day. Going by tens this time. On the facing page, that will be a bookshelf image, where I will color in each individual book as I read it. I will probably go month by month on that, and then later move everything to a bookshelf for the whole year. At some point, I intend ot be making sense. Until then, ten pages a day is a lot better than zero

How’s your reading/writing going?

Anna

Camp NaNo, One Book July, and Other Stories

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Still room for one more sticker in that lower corner

:clears throat:

:blinks:

Wow.

July.

:fidgets:

Well.

Let’s jump into a Q and A, shall we?

Q: Hey, Anna. Where’ve you been?

A: Uh, yeah, about that. Home, mostly. I did go to CT for a weekend, for a family celebration and a papercraft expo. That was cool. A bunch of craft stores. The garbage/recycling area about a billion times. Anxiety, depression, insomnia. For the last two weeks, shingles (not fun, but better now.) Before that, Real Life Romance Hero was in the hospital for a couple of days. He’s home now, doing fine.

Q: I meant writing. Which includes blogging.

A: That wasn’t a question.

Q: Still answer it, please.

A: Well, you did say please. Writing. I am doing that. Melva and I are clipping right along with Queen of Hearts. Over 40k right now, probably more. We are laying groundwork for what comes next, and we will be off and running when she gets back from her family vacation next week. Blog hiatus was not intentional. It just kind of happened and it’s just kind of over. Probably.

Q: Mmhmm.

A: Still not a question.

Q: Historical?

A: That’s a word. Okay, though. Guilt. So, so much guilt. I love writing historical romance oh so very much. This month, I’m going to try something new; instead of whipping myself for being a slacker, I am going to try…wait for it…actually writing historical romance. I will be drafting friends for accountability partners/readers/permission to kick me in the bumbum if I sleep on it any more than I already have. (Volunteers can drop me contact info in the comments.) My awesome friend, Mary, from CT, sent me home with two huge bags of historical romance classics, which is turning out to be highly motivational, especially when we can gab about them.

Q: Are you doing Camp NaNo this year? Camp NaNo is great for that kind of thing.

A: Ehhhh, no. Yes? Kind of? I didn’t sign up for the official thingamaboo, but I am writing in July. I’m counting that. Also every day journaling is a huge, huge help.

Q: How about One Book July, then, for the planner/journal side of things?

A: Ahahahaha, no. I thought about it, and was even looking forward to it, but then, boom, when I got sick, I watched a ton of stationery videos on You Tube, and now I want to Use All The Things, even things I thought I wouldn’t be interested in before. I’ve been browsing Archer and Olive a lot. I don’t normally go for white paper or dot grid, but 160 gsm and those covers…That’s probably a whole post in itself, so I’ll put it on the list and work on that.

Q: Sounds like you’re right on track for All The Books August.

A: In oh so many ways.

Q: Anything else you’d like to add?

A: I finished a journaling insert in my traveler’s notebook in one month. Turns out I really like watercolors. I thikn they like me, too.

Anna

Typing With Wet Paws: Introducing Christine Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Now that we are at the official unofficial start of the summer season, we hope to see more action from Mama Anna on this page. A good friend of hers once said that when she’s not okay, she goes all quiet. Fair enough, but she is doing okay right now, though she is working on finding the way blogging works best for her now. Mama Anna and summer are not best friends, but she’s got air flow, multiple fans, and lots of liquids. She also has me, and that’s the most important part.

this is Christine. The notebook, I mean. The kitty is me.

As you might expect, there is a lot of journaling involved in working things out, and part of that is trying out new ways of writing for herself, and even new formats of books in which she writes. Originally, Mama Anna had planned to use this Chic Sparrow traveler’s notebook to hold her mini Happy Planner, but the back cover of the planner and the back pocket of the cover do not agree on anything, so now it’s going to be what she calls a fidget book. She hasn’t put much of anything in it as of yet, though there are two lined and two dot grid inserts in there, to give her an idea of what she might like. She has started making her own coloring pages with stencils she already owns. She will probably write about books in the lined pages, and may make or buy some sort of calendar so that one of the inserts can be mostly functional.

I, of course, have been on the job, making sure Christine (the name came embossed on the front cover, so Mama Anna said that must be the notebook’s name; it was very thoughtful of her to tell her name righ tout of the gate) smells right, and has cat hair on it. Can you believe it came with no cat hair at all? I gues that’s because the previous owner did not have cats. Well, I fixed that. It has cat hair now. You’re welcome. Aunt Linda says I am not allowed to make pricky marks on it with my claws, but Mama Anna says that is part of having a cat (she’s right) but will not give me a lot of opportunities to make that happen.

Christine is going to need planner charms, dashboards, a pen loop, some pretty paper clips and probably some other stuff. Mama Anna isn’t sure yet exactly what. She’s going to figure that out as she goes, which is basically what she does with creating the framework of a story, so this is pretty much normal for her. There may be a reading journal in there, but it has to be Mama Anna’s way, because trying it other people’s way doesn’t work that great. Usually what works best is to just blabber, which she can also apply to her blogging here. At least that’s the direction I’m planning to nudge her in; I can do that with headbonks. I am super great at headbonks.

Okay, I forgot one thing. If anyone is wondering, Christine is a B6 size. You can get an idea for that on this page B6 is the green one. Mama Anna will be giving updates on how Christine progresses, so if you are into traveler’s notebooks or stationery in general, drop some recommendations in the comments about what kinds of inserts you like to use. Maybe large capacity pen cases, too. Especially when they have elastic loops to hold the pens in place. Oh, and pen loops that stick on to the notebook. She likes those.

Headbonks!

Storm

Typing With Wet Paws: Pre-Mama’s Day Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Thins area especially exciting around here because we are coming up on Mama’s Day. While I have a present for Mama Anna (Aunt Linda helped me, because they don’t let cats in stores. Dumb law, amirite?) I still remember Mama D, who was my first people mama. I am sending her motor purrs. Mama Anna said they will 100% get there. So, we’ve got all that sorted.

photo by Mama Anna

Which is not to say everything is in perfect shape. Right here, on Papa’s desk, for instance, the window is only partially open. I’m talking like a crack. Sure, I can smell some things, but where is my ledge for sunbeam-sitting? I need that. I need a few of them, actually. I have been asking the humans, but they all say, “not yet.” Humph. Maybe they are still salty about that one night I tried moving my food bowl in the general direction of Aunt Linda’s room. Hey. Mama and Papa were asleep, and my food is in a container in a closet in Aunt Linda’s room. Sometimes a girl has to feed herself. Sure, I don’t have thumbs, but maybe I can order some online? Anyway, Mama woke up enough to catch on to what I was doing and put my bowl back where it belongs. Also, I have convinced the humans that I am okay with my water bowl being on the placemat they gave me, but not my food bowl. That needs to be on the bare floor.

photo also by Mama Anna

In case some of you were wondering what I can see when I sit in Mama Anna’s desk chair (or what she sees, for that matter,) here it is. Yes, she does use all of those notebooks. She says the stuff in the tote is all wrong, and she needs to redo the whole thing. She probably will do that this weekend while watching shows on streaming. The Wilds is back, and she really really really likes that show. Kind of like Lost but with teenagers, and some Lord of the Flies mixed into the roux. she will probably have things to say about it when she watches the whole season this weekend. She is also up to “Katoby” in her This is Us watch, and I have been told to be on hand for emergency belly rub therapy.

I would talk about Mana Anna’s reading here, but she just growled when I asked her, so we’ll save that for later. I will say that she has added reading a paper book to her pre-bed routine and that does seem to be helping.

As for writing, that’s coming around, too. She had a good talk –well, two of the, one with Aunt Mary earlier this week and then one with Aunt Melva last night– about being afraid to write and how the only way to get through that is to write anyway. Since the video chats help her a lot, she is looking at having more video chats in the week. Naturally, this does mean more opportunities to videobomb said chats. Who doesn’t love Surprise Calico visits? Mama Anna is purr-fectly willing to move the laptop to give a better view when needed.

Okay, I think that’s about it for this post. Mama Anna has been working in her writing planner today, which means I have to go sit on it. No spread is ever done unless there are white, black, and orange hairs on it. Fortunately, I have all three.

Headbonks!

Storm