Typing With Stuffed Paws: Bookish Updates Edition

June 14, 2019annabowling Leave a comment

Greetings, foolish mortals. Sebastian Thunderpaws Hart-Bowling, once again, coming at you with all the stuff from the week that was. Before I get into the stuff Writer Chick wants me to talk about, I have even bigger news. This week, I had a fan meetup. That’s right. Writer Chick had a surprise friend visit, and that friend wanted to see me. I was not in the room where they were, so Blonde Chick asked Writer Chick to go get me, and Writer Chick did, and that turned into my first ever photo op.

Anna’s note: “Blonde Chick” is Sue Ann Porter.
She writes stuff.

Writer Chick insists that the speech bubble was my addition to the photo, but please. That face says it all. That is proper excitement there, people. Blonde Chick and Writer Chick talked about life and books and writing and how they want to do a video blog about something called Poldark. I wasn’t paying attention until the part where Blonde Chick said she wanted me to be in the video and apparently, I may be getting a hat out of the deal. Sweet.

Okay, on to the compulsories. Writer Chick was doing a lot of Buried Under Romance stuff this week, talking to the other chicks who do stuff there, about how they are going to do things in the 2.0 version. She also wrote her weekly blog entry, which is here, about big stories that come from small presses. Keep a sticky note on that small presses thing, because it will come up later in this post.

Goodreads Challenge

No graphic this week for Writer Chick’s Goodreads Challenge, because we’re burning daylight and I don’t feel like making one, but Writer Chick has most assuredly come from behind and burst out ahead. Like five books ahead, but that is not entirely accurate, because she has yet to record a couple of recent reads. On record, Writer Chick is now forty-nine percent of her way to her goal of reading ninety-five books, with a total of forty-seven recorded books so far. The actual number is higher, so she is hovering right on the halfway point, and needs only read a book and a half a week to make her goal on schedule.

Chasing Prince Charming

Writer Chick and Other Writer Chick have signed off on the finalest final that ever there finaled galley of Chasing Prince Charming. Editor Chick said okay, and it is now out of their hands, and soon to be into yours. All Writer Chick and Other Writer Chick have to do now is to wait for the release letter. Also get cracking on swag and promo and getting that website up and running. Also writing the next book, because readers are going to want more, and also they are too far into this thing to back out now. It says right on the cover page or something that this is Book One in the Love by the Book series, so the Chicks better get a move on if they don’t want to look lame. Lamer? Lame. Moving on.

Submissions

Yeah, you read that right, and if you guessed that this is where that sticky note from above goes, you are right. One of the Buried Under Romance Chicks told Writer Chick that a certain indie author had started her own press, and Writer Chick had to check that out. So, Writer Chick did, and, while chatting with her friend, actually got into A Heart Most Errant, did the edits, wrote a cover letter, and sent it off. Keep an eye on this space for more news. If this place is not a match, then Writer Chick is sending it out again. If this works, she may have to conscript that friend into chatting with her while she writes other query letters. When something works, I say stick with it.

For me, what always works is a decent nap, preferably on fresh laundry, Writer Chick’s keyboard, or that newspaper Dude was thinking of reading. Clearly, I am going to have to get my beauty sleep to keep up with all the stuff going on around here. I do take my Cat Regent duties seriously.

Peace out,

The Eagle is Landing

June 12, 2019annabowling Leave a comment

This morning, the email came. The email. There are, actually, several the emails that happen in a writer’s life in publishing today, but this one very much gets a the status, because this is the last pass for any changes for Chasing Prince Charming. Once Melva and I give our okays at the author portal, we will have pulled the trigger, and put our first “baby” together on the metaphorical school bus, the better to tend to our current infant, Drama King, as well as our individual efforts, in genres as diverse as memoir, historical romance, and cozy romantic suspense. (The middle one is mine. I do have some YA ideas, but I am juggling enough chainsaws at present, but don’t quote me.)

There is also the website I’m wrangling for my co-written books, which is a different level of figuring thigs out from keeping a site that is mostly a blog. There are two author bios to put up there, two backlists, and I’m going to have to work on that whole regained rights issue, for two historical romances that are going to need a certain amount of work, because A) I wrote them a long, long time ago (even though it feels like only yesterday) and B) both I and the market have changed.

What those changes would be…ehhh, I don’t know. That would require looking at the manuscripts first, and that is not a task for me for today. Today is for booting Her Last First Kiss, and getting Bern and Ruby one step closer to The End of draft number two. Then it’s time to bundle them off on the bus, as well. While I like to think that I have learned a thing or two about the raising of historical heroes and heroines since the day I chair-danced and scared the cat (Olivia, our cat at the time, took it in stride, actually) when a publisher actually wanted to buy My Outcast Heart, I also hope that readers who eventually pick up Her Last First Kiss and all the historical romance novels I write and put out there after (of which I plan many) will find the same spark that they found in those earlier works.

The dry spell, as soon as we get the official release date for Chasing Prince Charming, will be officially over. I could say that it officially ended the day Melva and I got the first “the” email from The Wild Rose Press, or the day we had a second publisher also make an offer on the same work, and we had to make a decision. I could say it ended when Z Publishing sent me an email, the day after we moved out of our former apartment, a the email I answered from a motel bed, Skye, our cat at the time, beneath it, asking if I would be interested in submitting to two of their anthologies. I was still coming down from a massive anxiety attack, I’d exerted myself physically so much the day before, that my legs wouldn’t move, and bed was my only option. I can easily call that a low point, and then there was a the email. I said yes. This year, they asked again, and, this time, from a comfortable apartment (with Sebastian, Cat Regent) I said yes again.

That yes put me into new waters, s my binder for working on Plunder‘s outline, expanding “The Fox and the Lily” to not only a full historical romance novel, but my first intentional trilogy, rescuing the second book, which I had thought would be the first and only, from the metaphorical sandbar where it had been stranded for years I refuse to count. Plunder is first, with Cornelis and Lydia, then Abandon, with Alec and Tamsen, annnnd I have no idea what I am going to call the third one, but I want it to have a one word title that fits in with pirates and/or privateers, and either hero or heroine (I don’t know which one yet) will be the grandchild of Cornelis and Lydia, the child of Alec and Tamsen.

I’m not worried. All of that stuff will come. If I have learned one thing over the last few years, it is that creativity is a bottomless resource. There will always be more. There will be more stories, there will be more sales, there will (or can be) more genres. There will be more characters. There will be more stories. There will be more. I want to make a sign of that, perhaps hire someone to cross stitch. There will be more.

Summer Thoughts

June 11, 2019annabowling Leave a comment

Monday’s post on Tuesday again, and I am okay with that. Yesterday was spent writing on Drama King, then my weekly Skype session with Melva Michaelian. My weekly breakfast with N is on Thursday this week, so the morning was found time to knuckle down and write…until I got a message from Sue Ann Porter, telling me she was five minutes away, and did I want to hang out? Umm, yes. We hadn’t had a chance to be face to face since January, so, around my kitchen table, and seasonally appropriate beverages, we got current.

We talked writing, and books. I cracked open Goodreads to recommend Panic by Lauren Oliver, and my heart swelled when Sue Ann told me how much she loved My Outcast Heart, and would love to see it as a Hallmark-ish movie. That would be fun. Right now, I’m focusing on getting it a new home in book form, which still needs to take a number.

We were joined, after a short while, by Sebastian Thunderpaws Hart-Bowling, Cat Regent and discussed having Sebastian join us for a proposed vlog about our shared appreciation of Poldark. I need to get current, because life last summer was kind of hectic, but, this year, it looks smoother. We discussed how much we like the verisimilitude of the historical atmosphere of the story world, and how we both like our historical romances to have a strong historical influence along with the romance, what makes a good romance novel, and what it takes to get a reader to want to come along for the ride, in any genre of fiction.

There was also a surprise visit by a local candidate, friendly and charismatic, encouraging voters to get to the polls. All too soon, Sue Ann and I both had to go back to life as planed, but I told her this was exactly the kind of summer I want to have. Filled with writing, and reading, and hanging out with good friends, coming away from the visit, not stressed over work time that was missed, but energized to get back to it, refreshed and refueled. I could get used to that kind of thing.

Typing With Stuffed Paws: They Gave Me A Flea Bath Edition

June 7, 2019annabowling Leave a comment

Greetings, foolish mortals. Sebastian Thunderpaws Hart-Bowling, coming at you with all the stuff from the week that was. We are at the halfway mark of 2019 (well, almost) and there is stuff to share, but first, I want to address an extreme indignity that befell my person this week, and by that I mean the flea bath. The entire reason I was summoned to the office of the cat regent was because the humans are in a no-pet building, so I am not sure where the infestation originated, but much of this week has been spent battling six-legged, bloodthirsty hooligans.

This has necessitated urgent measures, such as the removal of bedding items, and the dousing of soft, porous surfaces with proper remedies. For those of you who are not aware, handsome orange stuffed boys count as porous surfaces. My dignity is bruised. Bruised, I tell you, but I am minty fresh and bug-free. Other Chick was away all last week, on family matters, so it was Writer Chick and Dude, battling the bugs. I think it is safe to say they are winning.

Other than that, it’s been a productive week. In addition to her weekly post at Buried Under Romance, Writer Chick has also ascended to the core four humans rebooting the site into its 2.0 incarnation. More on that later, from Writer Chick herself. This week, she draws some parallels between old school historical romance, its new school descendant, and one of her favorite songs, because that’s how she rolls.

The final-final-final-final-really-not-kidding-now-this-is-it changes to Chasing Prince Charming have been handed in to Editor Chick. That means that Writer Chick and Other Writer Chick have only to give the Really Official Okay to the galley with those changes, and then they will get the release date. They are hard at work on getting Drama King to The End, so they can send that in, and, hopefully, start the whole process over again. They are actually pretty excited about that. Now it’s time to beef up that website sand work on some swag. Also maybe take a nap.

Only three weeks remaining now until July’s Camp NaNoWriMo starts, and Writer Chick gets to deep-dive into Plunder. I suspect that, once there is a release date set for Chasing Prince Charming, Writer Chick will do some serious making up for lost time with the historicals, while working on Drama King.

She’s certainly been doing that with her reading, as of late, as we can see by visiting her Goodreads challenge page. As we are almost exactly at the half year mark, Writer Chick is almost exactly halfway to her goal of ninety-five books, with forty-four read out of that ninety-five, and the row of recently read titles that comes up on her challenge page contains four historical romance novels, with all three of her currently reading slots taken up by the same. Okay, two and a half, if we’re going to be making allowances for the time travel, but she’s doing well. Skye (the kitty, not the book) would approve. (But maybe the book, if Writer Chick is up for a reread.) Instead of being behind, Writer Chick is now four books ahead of schedule, and I was with her when she requested library materials online last night, so that number is going nowhere but up; trust me on that one.

Flea fighting, romance writing, and stationery wrangling (Big Pink needs some reconstructive surgery, and the white personal ring planner needs a complete overhaul) may not be signs of summer in every household, but around here, we call that “Friday.” What the weekend may bring, who can tell?

Peace out,

Proof of (Writing) Life

June 5, 2019annabowling Leave a comment

Today’s picture is my silverware organizer full of washi tape, because I put my tablet in the charger before I remembered to take a picture for this blog, and the super sticky note on the top of my monitor looks like this, to remind me that I have but two purposes in life this day:

Depending on screen resolution, and legibility of handwriting, this note has but two tasks on it: blog, and final galley. My computer desk is literally only inches away from the TV (that I still do not know how to turn on, but with So You Think You Can Dance being on, and Ink Master, my two favorite summer shows, coming on next week, I am going to have to learn) where Real Life Romance Hero is watching an episode of Bar Rescue for at least the second time. Our downstairs neighbor is sharing their music. Our tastes do not completely align, but are close enough that we do not need to object. The apartment smells strongly of flea bomb, and I have already helped RLRH wrestle the bug-corpse-littered underside of our futon into a trash bag.

RLRH is also making me lunch (perks of having a former pro around the house) and he expressed proper admiration over the final-final=final title page of Chasing Prince Charming. It’s been a while since I’ve been at this stage, of looking at a final-final-final galley proof. The work is both divided in half and doubled, writing with a partner, because we both have to/get to go over every single word, then compare notes before we can give a collective, united thumbs up. Better safe than sorry, though, so I am not going to complain.

After we clear this hurdle, once we get our release date, we level up and start the next phase. Promo. We get to pick out swag, obtain the same, (I am strongly in favor of pens, for obvious reasons, namely that my blood type is “ink”) and poke around the interwebs to see where we can find creative new ways to say “hi, we wrote a book. Maybe you want to buy it.”

Once we pull the trigger on this one, our emphasis shifts also to getting Drama King to its HEA point, and laying the foundations for Queen of Hearts. I liken it to putting the kindergartener on the school bus, so attention now shifts to the baby. Babies really, as I also have Her Last First Kiss, but I am only co-parenting one of them, because I’m flying solo for historicals.

Someone asked me recently if writing contemporaries is easier than writing historicals, and my answer was that it’s different. Yes, they are different subgenres, but the main thing for me is that I am co-writing the contemporaries, and writing the historicals on my own, so I don’t know that I could truly make a comparison unless I tried to write a solo contemporary (not feeling that at the moment, but never say never) and Melva has not expressed any interest to write historical (again, never say never, I can’t speak for her, and co-writing historicals with a different partner would be a completely different experience, to which I would not say a categorical no.)

Where was I going with that again? I have no idea, but I will keep going, because, when I have this entry posted, I am halfway done with my work for the day. From the kitchen, I hear rattles of dishes, which may portend lunch from my own personal chef, so I am going to leave this here, have a quick lunch date at home, and then back to the final-final-final proof. Not a bad plan for the day.

June Planner Post

June 4, 2019annabowling Leave a comment

Monday’s post on Tuesday once again, so that says a lot about how the weekend went. The start of a new month means setting up new planner sections, and, this month, I am trying something different. The last month, even last week, have put a few more things on my plate, so I am going down to one weekly planner instead of two. I wasn’t feeling the setup in my white Webster’s Pages ring bound personal planner, though I still love the binder, so I will probably be repurposing said binder as a different sort of notebook.

I am surprised that I have not named my Heidi Swapp ring bound planner, but maybe that will come as we get to know each other better over the summer. While I had originally planned for this to be only my writing planner, juggling two ring bound planners was getting to be too much, so I am streamlining. We will see how long that lasts, but, for now, everything is going in here.

During several of the slumberless parties my brain has thrown over the past month or so (aka insomnia) I have watched a lot of planner videos on You Tube, and discovered that I strongly prefer a vertical weekly layout over horizontal. Guess what every planner I own has for weekly layouts. Horizontal. Do-not-want-al. Good thing, then, that this particular planner can kind of fake it, with the horizontal boxes broken into two parts, blank and grid.

The grid part is clicking immediately. The blank part, eh, not so much, but it’s a good place to put stickers and possibly work on some sketching/visual art stuff. Maybe. I am looking at some printable horizontal layouts for next year, because I can’t bring myself to entirely throw out a whole half year’s worth of pages, but I allow that I may crack.

Right now, my days are pretty full, and I like it that way. Melva and I are going over the last-last-last-last galley copy, with the knowledge that this is it, no changing anything once we go to print, it is there forever, and pause here for us both to run around our respective homes, screaming, arms flailing, before we sit our butts down in our chairs and look over it One Last Time. We have been discussing series names (eep) and What Comes Next, such as the choosing and obtaining of swag, getting our joint site up and running, planning publicity and get Drama King to The End, so we can turn that in and start on Queen of Hearts.

There are also two historical romances whose rights are once again my own, plus a post-apocalyptic medieval novella, who all need homes, and as soon as Her Last First Kiss gets to the end of draft two, that’s another story that needs to go find its way in the world. There is a pirate trilogy hot on its heels, with other ideas, old and new, waiting in the wings.

In the midst of all of that, and the domestic tornadoes of everyday life, I am excited to be a part of rebooting Buried Under Romance to its 2.0 version. This makes it even more important to get my ah, stuff together, and I am hoping that I will fumble my way towards efficiency. I expect a lot of trial and error. My traveler’s notebooks are back in use, the purpose constantly evolving, so check back in July to see what’s up with those.

That’s going to be about it for this post, because my fingers are itching (literally; we are buying a flea bomb later today, even though we live in a no-pet building. Pest control will be here tomorrow; they are used to the writer lady who meets them at the door so she can get back to the keyboard ASAP.) to get back to my imaginary friends, and that galley has a deadline.

Typing With Stuffed Paws: Doorway Into Summer Edition

May 31, 2019annabowling Leave a comment

Greetings, Foolish Mortals. Sebastian Thunderpaws Hart-Bowling, once again, coming at you with all the stuff from the week that was. I had thought about taking the day off, because sunbeam, but A) Writer Chick said something about reliable blogging, and how schedules are….actually, I don’t remember the rest, because I tuned her out. Also B) Other Chick had a family emergency and the whole household has been domestic tornado-y. Actually, I’m not sure how that ties into why I am blogging today, but whatever. I’m here, you’re here, let’s do this.

Tell me what you want, what you really really want (to read)

Okay. Thing one here is usually Buried Under Romance stuff, and there is a lot of that going on at the moment. Long story short, big changes are afoot. Writer Chick says they are good ones, more details later, blah blah, that kind of thing. She said something about change being proof that a thing is living and growing and there will be more to say on that soon, as soon as she gets to talk to some other humans . One thing that hasn’t changed is that she’s still blabbering about romance novel reading once a week. Last week, she talked about To Be Read lists. Hit the link here or in the caption above if you’d like to see what she’s got on hers, or share what’s on yours.

Next, we have Writer Chick’s Goodreads challenge update. I am impressed. Thanks to audiobooks (and insomnia, keeping it real here) Writer Chick has now brought her challenge stats into acceptable range. Only one book behind schedule now, she has read thirty-eight out of ninety-five books, which puts her at forty percent of the way to her goal. Not too shabby at the half-year mark. She still needs to update her “I Wrote It” section, but she’s been busy, okay?

Writer Chick and Other Writer Chick have cleared one of the last hurdles in the prep for Chasing Prince Charming‘s debut, continue work on Drama King, and kind of sort of accidentally planned out three holiday stories, that would fit pretty well into a single collection, but one never knows with those two. I mean, seriously, they got a whole book out of waiting for breakfast.

With June about to pounce, that means July is on the horizon, which means that Camp NaNo is also looming (unless Writer Chick is looking at the wrong calendar, which, let’s be honest, happens a lot.) Writer Chick already has a binder set up for what she has in mind, which is turning “The Fox and the Lily” into Plunder. This will involve Dutch pirates, emotional trauma, and possibly the English Civil War. Which is to say, exactly the way Writer Chick likes this kind of thing.

That’s about what I’ve been authorized to share for the week, so check back next time to see what stuff Writer Chick and company have been up to, including but not limited to some intense summer reading planning.

Peace out,

Cusp

May 29, 2019annabowling Leave a comment

Around our apartment, there are various deposits of crumpled black socks. These are mine. I will not take pictures of them (nobody wants to see that) but I do have a habit of toeing my socks off, forgetting that there were socks in the first place, and going about the rest of my day, often with the aid of the herds of flip flops that also seem to roam at will throughout Stately Bowling Manor. I do not know how this first came to be, but I do know that, by this age, that is probably going to be how things are from here on out. Future apologies to whomever gets the pleasure of dealing with me in my golden years.

This is not a post about my footwear. This is a post that I am writing before I get the laundry into the basket, and hauled down to the laundry room. Hence the collection of sock piles, and my eternal gratitude to the day I made the executive decision that my socks would only be black, even in summer. This ensures that they all match. This may be balanced out by Real Life Romance Hero’s predeliction for novelty socks, but he wears them well. This post is actually about writing.

This week, I accidentally acquired a new project, with a great team of smart, creative, like-minded women. This project will be work, yes, and it will also be fun, the fun part being the part that got me to yes. More on that in future posts. This is also the week that Housemate is out of state for over a full week, RLRH is doing some cool stuff, including making awesome quesadillas, and my planning system is getting one heck of a workout. Not that I mind, exactly, because I would much rather have too much to do than too little, and the act of organizing stuff makes me want to do more stuff, so I am calling it all good.

Yesterday was one for the books. Pun intended. A two hour (maybe more?) chat via messenger for new venture dovetailed with a domestic tornado chain, now past, which involved a stress bomb (now diffused) and an anxiety attack for me (fine now) and the whole thing reminds me of when I was but a wee princess, and my mother would bundle me in seasonally appropriate garments on the first day of blue sky, and go out to see what things looked like after the storm. This post is kind of like that.

Several times this week and I am probably not done yet, I have used the phrase, “I am an author, first,” and I am probably not done saying it yet. I can do other things, but writing my own fiction does, and has to, come first. When asked what two words I would say to my younger self, my answer is always the same. Keep writing. Whether the younger self in question is six, twelve, twenty-three, forty-five, or whatever, my answer is always the same. Keep writing. To elaborate, tell the story until it’s told. If I can tell her a couple more things, a recent addition is to do one thing at a time, give it full attention, and then move on to the next. Scheduling is great for this, and it comes with lots of pretty planning toys.

Follow the love, that’s another good one. For me, romance fiction is a big, big love, so aiming my time and talents in that general direction is going to work for the common good. This means writing it, reading it, spreading the love of it. I am totally up for all of that, and managing my time and energy so that the best of me goes to the best of that. Keeping my blogging schedule and focus is a big part of that. Which is why you’re getting this before I head off to play with my imaginary friends. Good stuff is coming, and clean socks, I hope, will be part of that.

Memorial Day Post

May 27, 2019annabowling Leave a comment

Right now, it is two pm on a Monday. Memorial Day. Not a holiday that gets a “happy” in front of it, because it honors those who gave their lives in service to their country, and yet it is also the start, for many, of the summer season. The start of beach vacations and barbecues, open pools and long afternoons that stretch into star-spangled nights. Naps in hammocks, iced tea in mason jars, watermelon cubes, served in their former shell, carved in the shape of alligator teeth.

Maybe some of that is just me. My thoughts, my memories, filtered through the screen-door-like mesh of my daily planner page grid. I have iced tea at hand, in a wine goblet instead of a mason jar, and my stomach is full of the delicious lunch my real life romance hero, a former professional cook, made for our at-home lunch date. The box fan whirrs next to me, and I am writing this blog post because it is the thing next on my to-do list, an easy (hah) thing I can tick off before I bury my nose, once again, hopefully for the last time, in the final-final-final galley proof of Chasing Prince Charming, double check with Melva that she and I are on the same page (pun intended,) and then give our editor a combined thumbs up.

After that, it’s out of our hands. That’s both scary and exciting. It also means that now is my time to double down and power through the backlogged work on Drama King, so we can be back on track and get into the home stretch on our second book written together. Then it’s on to book three, and the couple of novella ideas we’ve tossed back and forth; a new batch of beach balls, if you will. There’s also our website to wrangle into place, which is a learning curve unto itself, but I can take that curve.

It’s also time to kick myself it the derriere when it comes to historical romance, because A) I still crazy stupid love them, and B) if I am already looking four or so books down the line, that means I need to get this draft done and dusted, before I can spread some stuff out and see what lands where. Planning, yes, what I love, and then the execution of those plans. That sometimes does not involve pretty paper and fancy pens, more the hundred percent humidity and bored kids at home part of summer, but that comes with the territory, so it seems.

Where is this going? Darned if I know. What I do know is that this post is done, I am satisfied with it, and now it’s time to make sure that I feel the same way about the next items on the list. It doesn’t happen all at one time. It’s one foot in front of the other, one keystroke at a time, some freaky-deaky dreams about summer camp and moving out of dorms (or maybe that’s just me, again) and then, as they say, all at once, summer turns into fall. fall is my favorite, so that does seem to be the right direction.

Tabled

May 20, 2019annabowling 4 Comments

Yesterday, Real Life Romance Hero came home from his morning walk with a table. A big, round, heavy, black wooden dining room table. He did this while I was in the shower. He did not intend to obtain furniture, but, when I shut off the shower, there was the key in the lock sound, followed by the something big is coming through the door sound, and, by the time I had my robe on, and head out the door, there was the love of my life and a huge black dot.

imagine seeing this first thing in the morning

RLRH identified the dot as our new dining room table. I pointed to our existing dining room table, and asked where this new piece of furniture came into his possession. In our building, there is an area where people who no longer need large items, can put them up for adoption. Such was RLRH’s encounter of said table. He knew we didn’t need it right now, but we will want a bigger table when we move (in a few months; we are not planning to move right now-now) so he brought it home.

The first question that came to mind was, “where are we going to put this?” In our future apartment is the obvious answer, but we are in our current apartment, which already has a table, which we already love, and the only place we can possibly put it is what I will call our great room, because it is dining room, living room, my office, my studio, Housemate’s workspace, and Housemate’s bedroom. It is a very small space. We also all had places to be, so we tabled the issue (pun intended) and headed off to take on the day. Then we came home, and were faced with the reality of the big black thing that would not allow both Housemate and er parcels through the door at the same time.

Cue much rearranging of furniture. The old dining room table is now my work table, on the opposite side of the great room, directly under our window, with Tudor Rose Hart-Bowling, our as yet unnamed pepper plant (currently, I am liking “Queen Boudica,” and she is quite liking the sunlight. Lancaster has been relocated to the bedroom, where he can get his own sunlight, without his brother, and presumably, new sister, trying to choke him to death.} This also allows me to have my planners and related paraphernalia in one, permanent place, where I can see them all, all the time, as well as have plenty of room to spread out and not bump over salt shakers, bump into anybody else’s work, etc. My kneeling chair scoots from computer to work table, to dining table with ease, and it all very much does contribute to the “room of one’s own” feeling. I have not had that since we left the old apartment. Before, that, really, so this feels all that much lovelier, to have my own corner of the world.

Still early days yet, so i will still have to see what effect this has for my productivity, but I am optimistic. At the very least, it has worked well for today, and I think that’s a pretty good start. With the weather we’ve had here in NY for the last couple of days, it feels as though summer has plopped itself down , which makes the whole new season thing feel very, very natural.

Next up on my list is website wrangling, as in actual whole website, with hosting and all that other good stuff, for Melva’s and my work, both separately and together. There will be posts on that later, because that’s a whole new adventure. Typing With Wet Nails (and/or Stuffed Paws) will remain the same, and Melva and I are working on some fun stuff to bring our readers, and hopefully convince her readers and my readers to become our readers, the whole Melva and Anna experience. Chasing Prince Charming creeps ever closer to release, as the final galley template is in the works, and we should learn more in about two weeks.

The best way to fill the time between now and then, is by writing. Melva and I are both looking forward to a productive season, with new and current projects, and, if the place I do that from has a view of lush greenery and a cool breeze, then so much the better.