Sunday Sundries--What Would You Do with 3 Hours?

God willing and if the creek don't rise, my husband will be off his medically-imposed, three month driving restriction on March 21st. There will be much rejoicing.

While he's gotten a ride home with a couple of co-workers at night (a blessing), I have had to do all the driving for us. That included driving to and from Virginia for a visit to my brother and a trip to and from Bowling Green, KY, last month. While I've done long hauls before and drove quite a bit for a previous job, it's been a trial. And for every day he's worked, I had to drive him in, then drive back home. Takes about twenty minutes to a half hour for the round trip, but some days there were accidents or other issues making it much longer.

So, hopefully, I'll be able to gain about three hours of my life back every week. I started thinking about it, especially "losing" the hour with Daylight Savings Time and the whole "spring forward" thing.

Three hours or so is a chunk of time. It's a gift. While usually I've enjoyed the time talking with my honey and I truly do try to live to serve, if he could drive himself to and from work and run errands on his own, I'm thinking it might really help. After all:

Let me explain--usually when I get home from taking Chris to work at 2:15pm, I have around forty-five minutes before I have to leave for work. I can't get started on a new project and often don't have time to get back into what I was doing before we left if it involves any concentration at all. I usually take the time to brush my teeth, fix my lunch and piddle around. If I didn't have the interruption, I could continue editing, finish writing that scene I'd started or get another ten pages of notes into order.

On the other hand:

There have been many times when social media has taken control of my life. I have:
Facebook accounts: 2 ("real" name and author name, not counting the "author page")

Pinterest accounts: 2 ("real" name and author name)

email accounts: 3 I check regularly (2 "real" name and 1 author name)

AND I was stupid and installed Jewel Quest III on my laptop. Duh.

When I was doing a lot of counted cross-stitch, I found some friends on the AOL XS board that did something called "the rotation system." It was where you work on each UFO (UnFinished Object) for a limited period of time. It might be you have a project for every day of the week or work on each pattern for one week at a time or a certain number of hours. This helps finish items that you're sick of, that's a gift or that you're in the middle of a boring section, because when you finish something, you get the option of starting that new project that is exciting. I did a massive amount of cross-stitch in the early 2000s with this method. I have about twenty projects yet unfinished, though. Here are just two:

This is called Skyler Wayne--the designer named her patterns after her grandsons--and it's exactly half finished. I haven't touched it in years. Here's another one that hasn't seen the light of day in way too long:

This is titled Harmony. There is part of another leaf I am half-way through in the bottom middle that's been added since this picture was taken. It was going to be a gift for my mother for surviving breast cancer in the late 1990s. She died in 2004.

So, not only should I use my "found" time for something creative and productive (like stitching, beading or trying out the knitting looms and yarn I bought), but I should apply the rotation principle to my writing too. Little snippets of time--an hour here and a half hour there--would help me finish that scene, organize that folder of notes, transcribe that notebook.

What would you do with an extra three hours in your week?

Sunday Sundries--Let's Try Again, Shall We?

Wow, where did January go, huh? I will promise to be a little more disciplined on posting here. Thanks to all, I'm getting close to 16,000 page views! I've allowed myself to get distracted, though and please accept my humble apologies.

On a Facebook group page (5 a.m. Writers), I posted about having ADHD for writing.

Yes, it should have an apostrophe in there.

I obsessed over a post-Civil War story, novella-length, for about a week and didn't do anything more on my two works in progress that I've almost finished. While I needed to get the notes down, one of the originators of the board, Pam Mason, was absolutely correct. I need to get more disciplined and finish.

Thus, Friday, I focused on combining two short scenes from my hero's point of view. I also added a bridge scene that sets up some action the next morning. It solves a problem (how did something get there?) that would bother some readers, as it bothered me. I'm not finished, but I'm pleased, because it should provide amusement and gives insight into a character while moving action forward.

My husband agreed I need to focus and get this one book done. He often jokes I'm the Stanley Kubrick of romance novels, in that I've been writing and editing for over six years. He makes me laugh. He's offered to do my covers for me, which is a thrill. He works at a TV station and designs graphics for use on air when he directs the newscasts. The first book will have this sign on the cover:

Probably a different angle. It's important, because my heroine will have to move and make a life for herself with her new husband there. I'll take a couple more pictures of it when we go out there at the beginning of April for our 25th wedding anniversary (and for him to play in a poker tournament!). He was worried that the Photoshop program was very expensive. Actually, it's about the cost of what it would be to have two covers made by one service, so there you go. I've discussed the cover of my second book, which would have a spring nosegay on it with a rose color background, with a friend who will help me with the flowers. I'm excited. Here's one I love:

 Thanks to Pinterest for being one of my greatest time sucks. I do want to do boards for my main characters and for each title, though. I'll post links here when I get to it.

I was speaking of heroes and Friday was my dear father-in-law's eightieth birthday. My husband is over visiting with him and some of his brothers and sisters right now. Dad T. is a veteran, a businessman and a fine father. While we often don't agree politically, I'm grateful for him and Mom T. and love them very much. Here's a picture of them at a birthday party a few years ago:

A true love story inspiration.

It is also Super Bowl Sunday, but I have to head off to work here in a bit. It's either going to be incredibly slow or crazy busy (I work in a call center doing tech support). I am going back to spending my lunch hours transcribing notebooks. I will spend down time on my netbook labeling and sorting pictures. Or playing solitaire...

My husband will be watching because it is, well, football. Some friends will be over to watch the commercials.

I was excited to see the movie "Lincoln" last night. It tied into my obsession with my one story, giving me a great sense of place and time.

I truly recommend it. Another thing I want to do is watch more movies with my honey. He's reading a biography of Teddy Roosevelt now and I'm learning a lot of history talking to him.

So, here's promising a little more discipline, a little more productivity, a little less Jewel Quest. Here's hoping I'll keep better on track. Love to all--see you next week, promise.

New Year's Sundries

I really don't have a clue how 2012 went by so fast. I do know this last week was spent in a haze of cough syrup and asthma steroids. There are two trash cans full of used tissues and a ton of undone projects, but you know, that's okay.

Yes, we're fabulous. And we're going to continue it into the new year. It is not lowered expectations, it is simply accepting that I will never be able to get everything I want to do done in the usually unreasonable time frame I tend to set. That's okay. I will do my best.

This is a picture out our front door the day after Christmas. It still hasn't all melted, which has caused some more delays in getting things done. No excuses, just a realization that we may have to adjust expectations. And that's okay.

I did do some Christmas decorating.

This was a wreath I made with some friends (including one who passed in 2004) that hadn't seen the light of day in many a year. I was pleased I got it up on the inside of the front door, so at least I would be able to smile and enjoy it. That's another thing I want to do this year--enjoy the lovely things I have. I have dishes that haven't been used, art and needlework that's never been displayed and clothes that still have tags on them. What I don't want or need will be sold or donated. I already have a big box of needlework patterns I will never do ready to go to a place that sells for you on eBay. My friends and I have agreed to work on getting an Etsy store up and going and I'll pass the links on to you as soon as we do. This will help fund my covers and promotional expenses.

 BTW, I'm totally in love with Grumpy Cat. I feel like her sometimes and I'm very proud of her owners for making her into the latest thing. Would that I would have the foresight and ambition to capitalize on talent or product.


One of the things I will continue to do in 2013 is transcribe my notebooks. I still have over twenty five blank books that hold scenes, notes from magazines/documentaries/books/etc. and quotes. I've been transcribing them during my lunch hour at work, sending them in emails. The notes are spread over about a dozen flash drives.

At Wal-mart, Big Lots and Best Buy, you can get a 16 GB flash drive for around $10. This is an amazing deal. Just last year, a 32 GB flash was over $300. You can find one for less than $40 now. I ask everyone to BACK UP YOUR WORK! I know of several people who lost whole chunks of work or whole documents when a hard drive crashed or a computer was stolen. Of course, now you can back your work up "in the Cloud." I'm not there yet, but I'm sure I will be soon. Not only will I continue to transcribe my notes, I am determined to figure out the best way to organize them. I've made a start to getting things into OneNote, but I still have a long way to go.

Another step I've made to get organized is this:

A Gateway "netbook" that is my Christmas present. It is a third smaller than my current laptop and a lot lighter. More importantly, it's easier to carry, travel with and bring into work. Before I can use it though, I have to find the information about the security software we purchased before Christmas. So, I have to get organized to get organized. Stop me if you've heard this before....

I think of how many people have never accomplished half of what I have. I have to get my act together and finish the first two of my books.

Another thing I promise to do that's not a New Year's resolution per se, but a necessity, is to eat better and continue to be aware of my food allergies. Eating what I shouldn't ought to has contributed to my recent asthma flare-up (why I didn't have a post on Sunday). This little froggie reminds me of myself a couple days this past week:

I will accept life gifts--like taking it as a sign that the "House Hunters" episode is set in New York City, where one of my characters lives. Here's the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center:

I've been working on a scene in the second series of books of my characters' first Christmas together. Also, one of the people I spoke with at work is a police officer and said, "Copy that" when I asked him to do something. Another character is a state trooper, so I'll work a couple of those into my dialog. Every day, I am given little gifts, coincidences and thoughts, to put into my fiction, enriching it. I just have to remember to listen.

So, please allow me to send to all of you:

Please join me on Pinterest, where I found this vintage card--I've tried to put the link in my layout, but Blogger isn't accepting it. I will try to post more regularly, but my concentration this year has to be on writing. Love to all and please have a happy and safe 2013!

Sunday Sundries--Sicky Edition

Okay, next to Fall, Spring is the worst for me. I have a dark purple car, but it has a distinctly green cast to it now, from all the beautiful flowering trees in our area. On top of it all, I got another nasty round of strep, so I've been taking antibiotics AND steroids. Since my "real world" job involves me talking on the phone, it's been a challenge. The cats are frantic and my plans for getting a lot done at home this weekend went out the window. Oh well.

The good news is the gunk is "clearing up" and draining. The bad news is that if I try to lay down, I get choked and start a massive coughing spell. So, I'm up at 4:15 am and figured I might as well visit with you all, before I nap again on the loveseat in the living room.

By the way, I just signed up for Pinterest and will be uploading some pictures of my inspirations for my pages over the next few weeks.

Isn't that the truth. And cookies. Lots and lots of soft, chocolate chip with nuts cookies.

Not that we ever post embarrassing pictures of our kittehs on the Interwebs.

Sorry to say, this is sometimes true.

Silly fun. We're so easily amused some days.

This happens all the time. Just another way our lives have changed.

Remain calm. All is well.

While we should allow ourselves to make mistakes, perhaps this wasn't the best choice. White really isn't your color.

Helps the blood flow to the brain for the decision making process. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Finally, isn't this a great idea? I made sure my husband saw it and I think we may have two doors that we can do this to, the closet in the hallway and the door to the basement. We'd have to leave the backing out of the bottom shelf and not put anything on it, because the kitty litter is downstairs, but I think we could rock this.

So, everybody have a super week! I promise to take care of myself and check back with you all often. Take care!