Feb 28, 2014

What I'm Reading




You know, sometimes it's feast or famine with me and reading. I can read several books all at once, or nothing for weeks. While my reading hasn't been exactly blazing along lately, neither has it ground to a halt. So I guess that's something.

Electronic Books

Didn't make any more progress on The Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian, but that's my own fault for not firing up my Kindle.

So needless to say, I have not yet returned to Mr. Love by Sally Mason, either.

Nor have I found Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I've pretty much given up on finding it again. Some day, I'm sure, I'll stumble across it, but it'll probably be far into the future.

Tree Books

I kind of got bogged down in The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance - Twenty Stories of Timeless True Love. You know how with an anthology you always have stories you love and stories that you don't quite love as much? I'm at one of those stories where it doesn't quite engage me as much as the others, so it's slowed me right down. A smart person would just skip over it and go on to the next one, but no one's ever accused me of being overly smart. ;-)

I'm not sure what prompted me to do it, but I was in the guest room this week and I started looking through the books in the bookcase in there. I chanced upon Hunting the Corrigan's Blood by Holly Lisle, and the next thing you know I'm three chapters into it. I bought it used a few years ago and I have no idea why I haven't read it before. It's a science fiction/adventure, which is different from the other books I've read of Ms. Lisle's, and I'm quite enjoying it so far.

Re-Reads

I'm still plugging away at Sword and Sorceress III and have another couple of stories under my belt.


And don't forget . . . there's still time to enter the Goodreads Contest for a chance to win one of five copies of Alex Westhaven's Sprouted. The contest ends on March 7, so enter now!

How does your garden grow? Amelia has a secret for growing the prettiest flowers and the biggest veggies, but she's getting older. Will her secret be lost before she finds someone who can handle the intricate nature of her legacy?

Trust me, you'll never look at a Chia Pet the same way again!

Feb 26, 2014

Wildcard Wednesday
I Have An Idea!

When I gave the Hump Day Hunks the heave ho, I originally thought of making this Writerly Wednesday, where I'd share pearls of wisdom on the writing process or something writerly each week. But to be perfectly honest, I didn't want to get locked into another series - that's why I don't post on Tuesdays anymore.

Anyway, I couldn't come up with anything to rant whine complain about discuss this week, so I thought: why don't I rerun the series on the writing process I did a few years ago? After all, I put a lot of time and effort into it, I might as well get some mileage out of it. And you never know, someone might even find it helpful. :-)

So . . . why don't we start from the very beginning. And in the beginning, the question so often asked is: Where do you get your ideas?

I used to tell anyone who asked me that I got my ideas from doing a magic ritual in the back yard under the light of a full moon. To be honest, I couldn’t understand how someone could want to write and not have a head full of ideas already.

Then I started doing a series on different forms of poetry and when it came time to write examples, I would find myself sitting there on Wednesday nights trying to come up with an idea for a poem. I’d look around me, I’d surf the net, and I’d come up empty. Suddenly I found myself sympathizing with anyone who’s ever wanted to write but didn’t know what to write about.

So where do you get an idea? While ideas in general are all around you, they can also be triggered by many different things:

Magazine Photographs: Most people have a few magazines laying around. Flip one open and look at some of the pictures. Sometimes the most unique ideas can be triggered by a picture from a magazine. I have an extensive collection of pictures I’ve cut from magazines – people, places, gardens, dishes – anything that catches my eye.

Free write: Write for 10 minutes without stopping, without worrying about grammar, and without reading what you wrote. Once you're finished, you can read it. This technique will help you access those creative ideas hiding in your subconscious.

Look at a Book: Take a book you have nearby and write down the first 10 words you see. Choose words that you don't normally use. Then, free write a paragraph or two using the 10 words. This exercise can lead you in a creative direction.

Market Research: Read through a publisher’s market listings and guidelines, even if it’s an area you don’t normally write in. Often an editor’s request can set off the idea for a new story or article. Even requests for non-fiction articles can generate ideas for fiction.

Newspaper Articles: Read through the weekly papers, even the freebies. Real life is a great starting point for fiction. I once used an article from a newspaper as the basis for a poem, which led to a short story as well. Tabloids are especially good for generating ideas.

Science and Technology Magazines: These are full of the latest discoveries and technological advances. They are particularly helpful when plotting science fiction and futuristic stories.

Psychology Books: Psychology and abnormal psychology textbooks are invaluable for providing information on character. They provide background, motivation, and deep insight into human behavior. Check out the Diagnostic Statistic Manual (DSM) for lists of various character traits, which can be used for profiles.

Contests: Most contests force you to write about a specific subject or theme by a certain deadline. This gets not only gets you started on an idea, it helps keep you motivated to finish your story. Even if you don’t win the contest, you’ll still have a finished story you can try selling elsewhere.

Senior Citizens: Everyone has a story to tell, and most seniors are only too happy to share. Talk to your grandmother, great-grandfather, parents, an uncle, a friend. The possibilities of creating powerful stories from their memories are endless. Their tales could set off an historical novel, a nonfiction book, even a murder mystery.

People Watch: Go to a busy mall or other public place and watch the people as they pass by. Pick out a person, imagine yourself in his shoes and start from there.

Some people find they work best from a prompt, so here are a few places to find them:
Random Word Generator
Writer’s Digest Prompt A Day
Writing Prompts That Don't Suck
The Periodic Table of Storytelling

Personally, I find the best way to find ideas is to play What If. Things are happening all around you. Even a mundane task in your daily life can turn into a story with what if. Perhaps you have to run to the store to pick up some bread – what if you arrive just in time to witness a robbery? What if that bone the dog dug up is from a corpse buried in the woods? What if that weird looking bug is the beginning of a plague of insects?

Above all, when looking for ideas never limit yourself. Then, when someone asks you where you get your story ideas, you'll be able to say "everywhere."

Feb 24, 2014

Mechanomorphic Monday

mechanomorphic ~ having the form of a machine

Last week . . . sigh . . . let's just say I'm not unhappy that last week is behind me now. It was not a good week.

While the week before was a mixture of productive and non-productive days, last week was pretty much non-productive. This happens with me from time to time, especially in the winter time. There's not much I can do about it except ride it out and hope it passes quickly. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. *shrugs* Que sera sera.

So . . . instead of dwelling on what I didn't get done, I think I'd rather focus on what I did get done.

I finished adding in the extra set of stripes on the kid's afghan, and have started the border. I have two rows done on the border so far and I'll probably keep going until I run out of yarn. The afghan itself is in shades of brown and the border is a variegated brown. Now that I'm doing a straight, half double stitch I'm finding working on it very soothing.

The chapter of Earth was late again, but it did get written, so that's a plus in my favour. I was actually tempted to give it a pass last week, but once I got going it went fairly quickly. This week should be a little easier 'cause Zephryn and Chloe really need to have a talk. :-)

Saturday I started reading over Lucky Dog, which is my NaNo novel from two years ago and also the sequel to Magical Misfire. From what I've read so far it's not in too bad of shape. I just need to sand off a few rough edges before I can start adding to it.

Also on Saturday, I created a new blog wherein I will be discussing my current writing projects. If you check the tabs at the top of the page, you'll find it listed as My Writing. The problem with the Current Projects page was that it was, well, a page. Updating came down to two choices: one, I could copy over what was already there to keep it current, thus losing prior information; or two, I could just keep adding updates at the top, which would make for an incredibly long page.

So instead I made a whole, separate blog which will be updated sporadically with news about what I'm working on (writing wise). And I'll warn you right now, I probably won't be updating it more than once a week. Unless of course the writing starts going really well, but don't hold your breath. ;-)

Yesterday I took the day off from the internet. I checked my email in the morning and got this post done late at night, and in between times I crocheted, replaced a zipper in a jacket for my son-in-law, and read a little.

This week I have a couple more sewing projects to complete, some mailing to do, Wednesday I have to take the kid to a job interview in Oakville (feel free to feel sorry for me - this involves driving through Toronto during rush hour), and oh, yeah, lots of writing and editing. :-)

Feb 21, 2014

What I'm Reading




Once again I had another of those weeks where I didn't get a lot of reading done, unless you count my own book which I re-read after I finished re-writing it. ;-)

Electronic Books

I managed to get another couple of chapters read on The Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian, and I'm finding it very interesting, the way all these different characters are dealing with the whole not being able to die thing.

Have not yet returned to Mr. Love by Sally Mason, but it's patiently waiting for me.

I still can't find Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. And I was in the mood for something completely different and opened up a couple of other books to check them out and now they've disappeared as well. I suspect what's happening is that when I go out of them they go to the end of the line, which is about 130 pages long. So mental note: if I'm going to start something new I need to move it into a folder before I start reading it.

And I know what you're going to say. "Why don't you do a search for these books?" There's two reasons for this. One, I can't remember what the new ones are called, and two, I've got so many books on my Kindle that a search throws it into a spasm and it freezes right up. So, like I said. I'll just have to remember to move books I want to keep track of into a folder.

Tree Books

I read a few more stories in The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance - Twenty Stories of Timeless True Love. And I freely admit that I skipped ahead to read Last Thorsday Night by Holly Lisle, and I swear I've read it someplace before . . .

Re-Reads

I'm still plugging away at Sword and Sorceress III and have another couple of stories under my belt.

* * * * *


If you're looking for something a little different to read . . . there's still time to enter the Goodreads Contest for a chance to win one of five copies of Alex Westhaven's Sprouted.

How does your garden grow? Amelia has a secret for growing the prettiest flowers and the biggest veggies, but she's getting older. Will her secret be lost before she finds someone who can handle the intricate nature of her legacy?

Trust me, you'll never look at a Chia Pet the same way again!

Feb 19, 2014

Wildcard Wednesday -
Winter, Winter, Go Away!


So . . . as I was sitting here (yesterday) trying to come up with something to write about, I'm looking out the window right in front of me, watching yet another snow storm and thinking about what a long winter it's been.

Has this winter really been longer than usual? Or have we just become used to the relatively milder winters we've been experiencing over the last few years?

Oh, look! I found me a topic for today. :-)

Or maybe not. I started a Google search for "long winters" and the results were all about an indie rock band called The Long Winters. *sigh*

Round two was: record breaking long winters. The results were . . . pretty much the same.

Clearly I am lacking in Googling skills. Okay, one more time. Let's try: longest winter on record.

Okay, first we have to wait for the internet to come back up. I'm not sure why our connection's been so spotty lately, but it's really beginning to bug the crap out of me.

Anyway, this search ended up including "coldest" winters on record as well, but at this point I wasn't going to quibble. ;-)

According to the Toronto Star, in 1912 we have a record breaking winter during which Lake Ontario and Lake Superior froze solid. What makes this so note worthy is not so much the excessive cold, but the consistent cold.

The Chicago weather service claims that the winter of 1903 is actually the coldest on record, but they don't say how cold it was, but did say it was the snowiest as well. They claim 1912 was the second coldest winter on record.

The New York Times claims the coldest winter was in 1918, during which the temperature averaged ten degrees below normal.

And just to make me feel silly for even considering that this winter was a bad one, TIME wants us to believe than on average, January wasn't as cold as we thought it was. Really TIME?

Next I stumbled across a book entitled, Coldest Winter Ever, by Sister Souljah, and I pretty much gave up. I'm sure the information I seek is out there, it's just a matter of finding it.

The Long Winters
The Commander Thinks Aloud



Feb 17, 2014

Marivaudage Monday

marivaudage ~ preciosity in literary style or expression

Happy Family Day! Or President's Day! Or whatever holiday your government says it is!

You know, writing at home as I do I find long weekends a bit of a rip off. To others it's a time to relax and enjoy their time off, but to me it's just . . . Monday. I suppose I could just relax and enjoy myself too, but that just seems wrong somehow. And besides, I slack off enough during the week, just by being at home. LOL

Last week was kind of a mixed bag for me. It was a mixture of really productive days and really . . . not.

I got the kid's afghan done to where I thought all I had left was the border. And I actually started the border before I realized it was wider than it was long - and it's not the kind of pattern you can just turn the other way - so I'm adding another set of stripes.

The chapter for Earth was late, due to excessive tiredness and lack of knowing what happens next, but I did get it up there eventually. I'm really hoping to get an earlier start on this week's chapter. I've actually laid the ground work for a couple of incidents that are going to be taking place further on in the story, which should make it easier.

To my surprise, I actually managed to get my Valentine's story done and posted. It took a bit of an unexpected turn and was longer than I intended, but over all I'm happy with it. If you missed it, you can read it HERE.

Those of you who are my Facebook friends will have seen the Valentine's Day cookies I made my daughter. This is a tradition that started back when she was in kindergarten and has survived to this day. On the one hand, family traditions are a wonderful thing, but on the other hand, those cookies are a pain in the butt to make. They're raspberry filled oatmeal cookies - crisp oatmeal cookies with raspberry jam sealed up inside.

I did not get as much reading done at my doctor's appointment as I'd hoped to. The wait time was pretty short, relatively speaking. But I made up for it on the weekend when I had to take the kid to the walk-in clinic for a misdiagnosis. The over-worked doctor said it was a rare muscle disease - I say it was gall bladder. Only time will tell who was right.

As you know, normally my weeks start on a high note and go down hill from there, but this time my week ended on a high note. I finally finished the rewrites on An Elemental Water. I'm not quite sure how it happened but Saturday I found myself really enjoying the story again and before I knew what was happening, I'd made the last mark on the hard copy.

Sunday I spent the morning making the last of the changes to the electronic version and then I did a stupid thing. I have a separate document for Nereida's journal. There's an entry at the beginning of each chapter, but I also have the entries in chronological order in its own document. It seemed like a good idea at the time, to keep track of them or something, but yesterday I read them over to see if I could make a stand alone story out them to go with Water, and while I was reading them I made a few changes to improve them but - and here's the stupid thing part - I did not keep track of which journal entries were changed. So now I'll have to do the copy/paste thing for the whole document.

Maybe it was my subconscious at work, showing me that I'm not quite ready to let this one go yet. :-)

This month's blog chain from Absolute Write looked like too much fun to pass up, and judging by the speed people are putting their posts up, my turn will likely come up this week. Our assignment is to have one of our characters write about us. Sounds like a good time to me!

Feb 14, 2014

What I'm Reading




I did a little better with the reading last week, but still not as much as I'd like.

Electronic Books

I took George (my Kindle - you might as well get used to me calling it that , 'cause that's his name) to a doctor's appointment this week. I was kind of disappointed the wait was so short because I started reading The Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian, again and I was quite enjoying it.

Have not yet returned to Mr. Love by Sally Mason, but it's patiently waiting for me.

I still can't find Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. George seems to have eaten it. But I did create a new folder for books I'm currently reading, so once I find it again I'll move it to that folder with The Cobweb Bride and Mr. Love.

Tree Books

I finally started reading The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance - Twenty Stories of Timeless True Love. I have to limit my reading time for this book because it's tempting me to just sit down and read it without stopping. Thank heavens it's an anthology so there are natural breaks in it!

Re-Reads

I'm still plugging away at Sword and Sorceress III and have another couple of stories under my belt.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *


Now . . . I have a couple of announcements to make.

First of all, this being reading day, I have a couple of recommendations for you. I won't always be posting these, so take advantage of them while you can. ;-)

Edward Medina has just released a new story, The Corpse of Madeline Hill. Perhaps it's not the most romantic tale for Valentine's Day, but it's sure to please.

And I know you will enjoy The Holiday Pact by Jamie DeBree and her alter egos:
Mr. Mysterious, by Jamie DeBree
The Naughty List, by Trinity Marlow
Canvas, by Alex Westhaven

Join Laura, Jodi, and Melody as they make a pact to meet up at a different place on each of the major holidays with the objective of finding a date for the evening. Will they find Mr. Right? Or will they end up settling for Mr. Right Now? You'll have to read for yourself to find out. ;-)

And while you're at it, don't forget to enter the Goodreads Giveaway where you can win one of five copies of Alex Westhaven's Sprouted, from her Death By Veggies Series. I guarantee you'll never look at your rose garden quite the same again. ;-)


And to celebrate Valentine's Day, I have a new story for you. But . . . it ran a little long, so I posted it on my "extra" blog. You can find it HERE

Feb 12, 2014

Wildcard Wednesday
Killing Time



Every once in awhile I'll start to wonder about a phrase or old saying, and being the curious person I am, I end up spending copious amounts of time trying to trace its origins. Such is the case with the common phrase "killing time."

So, first stop was the on-line McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs, which defined killing time as:

to do something which is not very useful or interesting while you are waiting for time to pass. We usually play guessing games to kill time at airports.

By that definition, I'm the queen of killing time. I spend hours doing things that are not very useful. :-)

But why do we call it 'killing' time?

So I did a little more digging and stumbled across a period of Scottish history, from 1680 to 1688, that was called the Killing Time. While interesting, it had to do with conflicts between King Charles II and King James VII regarding the Church of Scotland, it didn't really have anything to do with the phrase.

Digging a little further brought me to the blog of William Thomas who posted an interesting article entitled: "Killing Time” in the Civil War. But while he cites some very interesting examples of the phrase, the origins of the phrase are unclear.

It might have been interesting to do some research in the local library, however a water pipe burst in it over the holidays and it's been closed for repairs every since. I guess in this case my curiosity will remain unsatisfied. So I will leave you with a few literary examples of the phrase in use:

But there was no help for it, so up stairs I went to my little room in the third floor, undressed myself as slowly as possible so as to kill time, and with a bitter sigh got between the sheets.
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

He had been known once or twice to yawn, and he had somewhat the appearance of a man engaged in an earnest but at times not altogether successful attempt to kill time.
The Illustrious Prince, by E. Phillips Oppenheim

In short, the generality of persons whom you see here may more properly be said to kill time in this place than in any other; and generally retire from hence more tired than from the longest sermon.
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, by Henry Fielding

Men talk of killing time, quietly kills them
playwright Dion Boucicault, 1841

Ay, I know there are a set of malicious, prating, prudent gossips, both male and female, who murder characters to kill time ....
The School for Scandal, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

And now I think I've killed enough time with this post. ;-)

Feb 10, 2014

Myriacanthous Monday

myriacanthous ~ having many prickles

Time for another change on the old blog. :-D

I've put the list of what happens on the blog during the week over on the side bar. It just seemed kind of silly to show the schedule each week when nothing really changes.

Last week I had the pleasure of hearing award-winning author Terry Fallis speak at a gathering that was held in the library of our local high school (because our library is temporarily closed due to flooding). He was a great speaker, which was enough of a draw, but what also interested me is that he began as a self-published author. When his first book The Best Laid Plans was turned down by 165 publishers (I believe that was the number he mentioned, I could be wrong) he self-published it. The following year it won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and shortly after was picked up by McClelland and Stewart and was just recently turned into a mini-series that aired on CBC. Talk about inspiring!

His first three books are available for free on iTunes in the form of podcasts, and he has permission from his publisher to make his newest one available in that format as well. These books are: The Best Laid Plans, The High Road, and Up and Down. He read from his novel Up and Down and it's a real hoot. :-)

It was a good start to the week, and while I can't say I was run ragged, at least I was more productive than I have been lately.

If you'd like to see how productive I was writing-wise, check out the Current Projects tab. I finally remembered to update it.

I got a few more rows done on the catghan and my goal for this week is to at least finish the main part of it so I can start on the border. As much as the sheer size of it made for tedious work, at least I don't have to sew a bazillion little squares together. :-)

I made a bit of time for reading last week, and I'm hoping to keep up the good work this week. At the very least I have a doctor's appointment and that should be good for an hour or so with my Kindle.

Started to gain a little speed on the edits for Water last week and I hope to keep gaining momentum this week. I'm still finding the journal entries a pain in the butt, but I only have about eight of them left to do. What's going to be holding me back this week, I think, is the research I want to do on caves.

For those who think they know the story, think again. I've made a LOT of changes to it and it's very different from the one that appeared on this blog. And I'm going to use that as my excuse for why the edits are taking so long. ;-)

When I came up with the foolish idea of a story for Valentine's Day, I had in my mind a longer story that could be released in e-format for down loading. But there were a few problems with that, not the least of which was the time constraint - Valentine's Day was creeping up on me a little too quickly. My original idea had a conflict that could not be resolved in the manner in which I intended, so I had to abandon the idea for further study. Idea number two was promising, but what was supposed to be a light hearted ghost romance turned into something a lot more complicated, and way too long to be finished in a week. Which brings us to idea number three, which I'm trying to keep to a flash length but it's not easy because I keep wanting to make it more complicated that it needs to be.

You may now commence taking bets on whether I'll get the story finished in time for Friday. :-D

Feb 7, 2014

What I'm Reading






Well. How do you like them apples? I got so little reading done last week I almost forgot about this post! LOL

To tell the truth, a lot of the reading I did do was news items, blog posts, and various articles that came to me via Facebook or email. Yes, I do read something other than fiction. Oh, and I read a short story a friend wrote for the Toronto Star Short Story Contest. ;-)

Electronic Books

I didn't make any more progress on The Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian, but honestly, I haven't lost interest in it.

The book I couldn't remember last week is Mr. Love by Sally Mason. It's a wonderful romantic comedy and I can't wait to see how the main characters go from being joined together by lies to being in love.

I also started Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Yes, that's right. I've never read it before. Don't judge. I've only made it to chapter 4 so far and now I seem to have lost it on my Kindle. When you have close to 1500 books, it's easy to lose one. Yes, I know Kindle has a search feature. I tried it once and bad things happened. I did create a folder for books I'm currently reading on my Kindle, but apparently I failed to move P & P over to it. :-)

Tree Books

The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance - Twenty Stories of Timeless True Love is still sitting beside my chair. This time I didn't exactly forget about it, I just didn't get around to picking it up.

Re-Reads

I'm about halfway through the second story in Sword and Sorceress III, so not much to report here either.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *


I can remember a time when I used to read, watch TV, and carry on a conversation all at the same time and make sense of them all too. Unfortunately, those day are behind me. Now it takes a really, really riveting book for me to read while the TV is on, as it usually is in the evenings. And going to bed early to read isn't really an option either. The headboard of our bed is one of those open, wrought iron affairs that make it impossible to sit up in bed and read.

So although ideally, reading before bed is the best option for most people, it really isn't for me, as much as I'd like to. And too often when I try reading during the day I get so involved in the book that I get very little else done. There has to be a happy medium.

Where and when do you get your best reading in?

Feb 5, 2014

Wildcard Wednesday
Pandora

So . . . it's getting late on Tuesday night and I still haven't come up with anything for my wildcard post, and then I thought, why not do a picture post of my kitty minions. Everybody likes kitties, right? And besides, the internet is made of cats:



But as I began checking my various USB sticks for pictures of my kitty minions, it occurred to me that I've already posted about them before. However, I still didn't have a better idea so I decided to devote today's post to the mother of my cat dynasty, Pandora. AKA Panda. AKA Pandaloons.



Panda had enough personality for ten cats. When we brought her home as a kitten, we weren't sure how our current cat, Taz, would feel about her, but we needn't have worried, it was love at first sight. On his part at least. Panda just made sure he toed the line:



Like her namesake (the mythological Pandora) she was curious about everything:





In her spare time she liked to read:



even if it was over someone's shoulder:



and write:





Other interests included sewing:



gardening



and napping



Unfortunately, she contracted kidney disease when she was only five. With medication and twice weekly visits to the vet for injections of water, we were able to buy her another year. But in the end she let us know it was time to let her cross the rainbow bridge.

Her legacy lives on, though, in her sons Dante, Romi, and Julius:



Rest in peace, Panda



Feb 3, 2014

Macrography Monday

macrography ~ viewing an object with the naked eye

Did you notice?? Last week I got all my posts up on time for a change. LOL

I watched Flowers in the Attic on the weekend, which is based on a V.C. Andrews book. I have a niece who's an Andrews fan, and when I stumbled across a whole collection of V.C. Andrews books on the free cart at our local library, I snagged them for her. The movie was really interesting, in a creepy kind of way, and now I'm sorry I passed the books on without reading them first. :-)

My motivation and ambition are apparently still on their road trip, and I believe they've been joined by my energy. I was sadly lacking in all three last week.

Unfortunately, what I was not lacking in were headaches. I had a couple of real doozies last week that kept me from doing a lot of things I'd planned on. So I have to say last week was pretty unproductive.

The headaches may, in part, have been due to weather, which was up and down like a yoyo. We started out with sub-zero temperatures and lots of wind, then it warmed up enough on Friday to make things slushy, then again on Saturday. Sunday, of course, the temperature dropped again and it's supposed to stay really cold all week.

On the weekend I had a list of ten things I wanted to accomplish, and only ticked off two of them. *sigh* Need I remind you what the road to Hell is paved with? That's right. All together now . . . Good intentions.

Blog Stuff
Wednesday: It's a surprise . . . for both you and me! ;-)
Thursday: Chapter nine of my new draft serial, Earth - book IV of the Ardraci Elementals. I wonder how many chapters I have to write before it's no longer new?
Friday: What I'm reading.

Other Stuff
I was invited to join a crochet group on Facebook, so one of the things I'll be doing this week is learning how to do the "moss stitch" so I can participate in their challenge to crochet a basket this month. I'm going to start with the little one to put the loose stuff on my dresser into, and if it works out well I'd like to try one cat sized to make a cat bed.

I was able to get a few rows done on the catghan last week. It's getting closer. I might, just might, mind you, get the main part of the afghan finished this week and all I'll have left is the border. It will depend on how much good TV viewing there is. ;-)

And once again I'll be continuing with the edits/rewrites of Water. And there's every chance my super secret Valentine's project will be done on time. If not, I guess I'll just have to use it next year, and focus on getting my Saint Patrick's Day project done instead. :-)