Miracle Mornings

Have I mentioned that I don’t care for catchy titles that promise unlikely things? Well, I do dislike that, and so I had a negative reaction when a habit-forming support group suggested that we all try Miracle Mornings by Hal Elrod. I was like, Miracle Mornings? Really? But I read the overview and the items we’d be checking off of our lists every day, and it all sounded good.

One of the things on that list was keeping a journal about my progress and feelings. Here are my initial thoughts about S.A.V.E.R.S.:

Silence: I used to practice sitting (as in Zen meditational practice) waaaay back in college. I even went to a day-long retreat to advance my progress, where I learned walking meditation. Well. Today’s practice was hilarious. OMG, my chattering monkey! If I had even one moment of pure silence the monkey would instantly jump in with “you see? We’re not that much out of practice! That was great!” So I spent a lot of time feeling my way around in my head, remembering what I’d once had and gently shoving aside the monkey repeatedly. The method suggests at least one minute. I didn’t keep track. I hung out until I felt I’d made some progress. It was a lot more than a minute, though.

Affirmations: I didn’t have any affirmations yet, so I spent this morning’s affirmation time writing them down. They’re all over the place. I’ll streamline them over time. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years it’s that if you sit down to do something new and demand perfection of yourself from the first get-go, you’re probably going to be disappointed. It’s better to let go of perfection, especially if you don’t even know what perfection is supposed to look like, and come at a new task with an expectation that you’ll be learning. My weird-ass affirmations are actually a combo of affirmations and admonishments to do things that I know work.

• I will listen to my genius (not my brain, it’s sort of a disembodied muse that gives me the good stuff from my subconscious and the world around me. My conscious, immediate mind is far, far from being a ‘genius’ as far as IQ and all that.)
• I will remember that my writing will not be perfect in the draft, and so I’ll cast aside fears of bland writing and cliché to allow myself to tell the story.
• I will give myself time to think about the story themes, forces of antagonism and character goals before I start writing for the day, instead of relying on what should obviously come next.
• I will remember that relationships and character challenges and growth trump physical action in my work. Again, don’t be second-guessing and assume that because someone’s head isn’t being chopped off that the story is boring.
• WONDER
• I have fans (thank you!) and support (thanks!!)
• I have already found success
• I have resources and professional partners that assist me in writing, book production and marketing
• I’ve already come a long way. There’s no reason why I can’t continue to learn and grow as a writer and artist.

Visualization: There’s no way I’m going to sit every day and visualize writing well. I don’t think I would get much value out of that. Instead, I have fitness goals that I’m going to visualize. First, I picture my ideal body at 165 pounds or so. Since I was at that weight within this decade, I know what I look like at that weight. I’m not going for my college athlete body, much less a young supermodel’s body. That never was and never will be me, nor do I really want that. So I have that image in my mind. The next step is visualizing the actions that will help me achieve that goal. So I pictured putting away temptations like the big bag of Cadbury chocolates my DH brought home from his trip to Europe. I can still have some if I want. I’m just not going to keep it on the counter where I can do a sugary drive-by every time I go into the kitchen. I also visualized going to the gym today, enjoying my music while my DH and I taunt each other and whine and laugh and generally have a good time. Which we always do. I also visualized going for a walk with my DH, and working out to a fitness DVD to emotionally prepare myself for the harder work to come.

Exercise: I already do ten (plus) pushups minimum every day, and stretching multiple times a day between writing binges. I decided that my morning exercise would be counted separately from that. So this morning, after a brief stretch (standing fold, and some dynamic stretches I do for belly dance) I did some pushups, jumping jacks, and skaters. The plan suggests starting with one minute of exercising. That was just right for me to start my day without feeling like I’m going to throw my schedule off to the point where I don’t get any real work started until after noon. To be honest, that happens way too much anyway as I get sucked into ‘fake’ work by surfing on Facebook and looking over emails that point to me as opposed to away from me. An example of an email that points to me is the Safeway ad, which (annoying) I have to click on and then click the deals so that they’re applied the next time I shop. An email that points away from me is an email from a client or friend that I need to respond to in order to do business and enjoy friendships. Makes sense?

Reading: I was really resistant to the idea of reading in the morning. I already read a huge amount every day, and I listen to a lot of informative podcasts. We subscribe to magazines like Time, Bon Apetít, and Fortune and it seems like I never have enough time to get to all the articles I want to read over the course of the day anyway (yes, I read them in the bathroom, don’t judge me!) But I did enjoy the luxury of putting in about fifteen minutes on the book I decided to read during my morning reading time: The Complete Renaissance Swordsman– A guide to the Use of All Manner of Weapons,  Antonio Manciolino’s Opera Nova (1531), translated and with a new illustrated introduction by Tom Leoni. You. Guys. It’s so awesome. I took a stab at reading this book a couple of years ago when I first acquired it, but something stopped me and I didn’t get back to it. Now that it’s a project, I know I’ll be able to finish it.

Scribing: That’s what I’m doing now. I’m writing my thoughts about my progress. Of the tasks, daily journaling is definitely the one I never, ever do. Let’s see if Miracle Mornings can once and for all get me into the blogging habit. I don’t intend to blog every single day (that would be horrible for all of you!) once I’m done with my thirty days of habit-forming, but I will by then, hopefully, be more regular. I’m a writer. There’s no excuse for six months between blog entries. After the thirty days I’ll do my daily journal stuff in an actual hand-written journal. This is here, now, to keep me honest for the thirty days. If I miss a day, you’ll know that I blew it on my Miracle Morning plan. One thing I can promise: my future posts on this won’t be nearly so long. Thanks for bearing with me so far.

I expect that there will be days that I mess up. But I actually have a pretty good track record of forming good habits. Not 100%. Absolutely not. But I’ve found that once I’ve decided that a habit matters to me, like daily writing of 2K for Nanowrimo (the rest of the year I schedule writing around client design projects) or making progress in the garden every day that it’s not pouring down rain (it’s been pouring down rain lately and I’ve been itching to get out!) I do actually do the thing I’ve decided to do. It’s deciding that it matters, and deciding what would be achievable to do on a daily or weekly basis, and then finally scheduling that task, that is the hard part.

It’s like figuring out what I want is harder than finding a way to get what I want. I think that’s true for a lot of people. Like the method itself says (or really repeats, because people have known this since ancient times; they’re just lousy at following their own advice) you have to set an achievable goal and then come up with the steps you need to take in order to achieve that goal. Once you have those steps down, it’s actually fairly easy to decide that hey, I’m going to brush my teeth, shower, get dressed and make myself presentable before 9am every work day. People with an external locus of control are driven to do this because their job ‘makes’ them. People with an internal locus of control decide to do this so they can not only keep their job through regular attendance, but because they want that job, or they want the paycheck, and they recognize that they can choose to look for other work if they’re miserable, learn to earn a living another way through training or arts and online selling or starting their own business or whatever. And of course they know they can’t just drop the job and chase their dreams. Again, they set the goal, figure out the steps, and start taking those steps. And in the meantime they’re getting up at 9am with a purpose. It’s their choice. They’re not being dragged through life. They’re living life.

I think it’s fascinating that outwardly the activities look the same, but the internal difference, the philosophy of it, determine whether or not you feel miserable and stuck, or motivated and happy despite the problems and inconveniences of things like work. Is it really this simple? Or am I some kind of outlier?

That’s a question for real philosophers, social scientists, psychologists, and economists. I’m just glad that it seems to work for me most of the time. I’m ready to do this. Anyone want to join me?

And then it rained

So my DH and I have been getting all enthusiastic about doing some much-needed work on the house, right? You'd think this would make all good things better.

Well.

The last thing we had to do on the deck was to replace two joists. Simple, right? It began as a bit of a chore, because a lot of the screws that held the deck surface to the joists didn't want to come out, and some of them broke off. This is normal stuff for decks. When my mother rebuilt her deck, she came across the same thing.

But then when we pulled the first joist, we found that about three feet of the beam tied to the house that supported the joists was rotten. Not just a little rotten. I pulled out handfuls of sawdust and a couple of termites. On top of that, the wet damage extended down below the beam. I could push my fingers through the siding there. It ran along the family room window.

We have T-11 siding that's tied directly into the framing. There's no intervening plywood.

In short, we have a hole in the side of our house.

This isn't a DIY situation. Luckily, I have a neighbor who's a contractor. When the rain lets up, I'm going to ask him to come over and frown at the damage with me.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention. After a long dry spell, it's now raining. And we have a hole in the side of our house. After listening to it rain all morning from about 7:30am, and after the panicked realization that we have a hole in the side of our house and maybe I should like, you know, cover it?, I decided to check the weather report. Intermittent rain after 1pm, it says. Well it's pouring right now. I'm a little afraid to find out what it's going to do in the afternoon.

There's a tarp on the deck now. The section in front of the sliding door isn't safe to walk on, because it's missing a joist and the surface is too soft to trust our weight to it. But at least it's staying dry at the spot where there's a hole in the house.

Weeeee!

I don't know what we're going to do, but I expect that whatever we do will probably be expensive.

Wish us luck!

There's Never Anything to Do Around Here

So we have all these projects, and while we're asleep the projects get together, make crazy love and produce baby projects that grow up fast and become full-blown projects in no time.

Have I mentioned that I want a pony? Oh yes. Like a spoiled child, I want a pony, and my DH is humoring me. But first, we want to rearrange the dogs. Chase is doing great inside, but she really needs a safe place to run for extended periods of time. She can't be with the big dogs because she beats up on poor Brian, so that means the big dogs need somewhere separate to run.

Genius idea: the big dogs can roam the backyard and veggie garden and keep the deer out. So, step one, create a new goat pasture because the goats are running out of blackberries to eat (yay!) and step two, run a long fence along the road, then step 3 connect the long fence to the new pasture. Voila! The big dogs will have at least a half an acre of run, and no deer eating my roses or tomato plants anymore. Also, the raccoons won't have anywhere close to the chickens where they can take shelter. This is full of all good things.

When the big dogs are contained, I can start work on a new goat shelter, as the buck should really be separated from the does and besides, there might be a time when I want to separate the pony from the goats, and so they'll need separate shelters. Since we'll be building anyway, might as well throw on a new coop on one side and a potting shed on the back.

Then, I suspect I'll have to set up a bit more fence so that the pony has access to the ornamental parts of the garden but not the veggie garden, because I suspect the pony will find zucchini delicious. I also have to go over a list of plants potentially toxic to ponies and make sure that the pony doesn't have access to areas of the ornamental garden where I have toxic plants that I can't relocate.

I would have finished the fence along the road by now, but I had to reinforce the deck first for safety reasons, and I've got writing and design work to do.

Nothing to do around here but eat bon bons all day and daydream about ponies ....

Enter for a Chance to Win a Kindle Oasis

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. In the sidebar there's a way to sign up for a newsletter that will tip you off to free and reduced-price Kindle books. For signing up, you're entered to win a chance to get a Kindle Oasis!

It's not my newsletter, btw, but I do use them to advertise new releases and special deals on my books. I also download a lot of great free fantasy books as a result of that newsletter. You're welcome, of course, to unsubscribe right afterward. You'll still be entered to win. But I think you'll find the folks at Free Kindle Books and Tips really handy when you're ready to add to your reading list.

You only have until May 22nd to enter. Don't worry if you read this late. There will probably be another giveaway through FKBT soon.

Enjoy!

Bird Feeding Tips: Beyond what most folks tell you

I like to feed wild birds. It's like having a giant aquarium, with aerial battles and better sound effects than an aquarium pump and bubbler. I haven't fed wild birds in a long time. Setting up my feeders reminded me of a bunch of stuff:

When you start out, don't expect a lot of birds, even if you see them all over the place. They not only need to find the feeder, but learn to trust it. If you think about it, a bird feeder is a very weird, unnatural thing. Give them time to figure it out and learn that it's not evil or some sort of bizarre trap.

When you first put out the bird feeder, don't fill it all the way, and prepare yourself for the possibility that the seed may go bad before enough birds come in to finish it. Always clean out the feeder if seeds have gotten moldy inside, and dry it out with a hairdryer before putting in more seed, or the mold will just come back and spoil seed that might have lasted much longer if you'd cleaned out the feeder well in the first place. Not only will birds avoid spoiled seed, but if they're desperate enough to eat it, they can get sick, possibly die, and it can cause problems that prevent them from raising chicks, or kill chicks that they're trying to keep fed. Anyway, unless you have someone else close by who is also feeding birds, the local birds may visit it only sporadically while they figure out if this is going to be okay and safe. Braver, bully birds may be your main customers early on. Plan for that, and increase the amounts you place in the feeder only when there are enough birds to finish it before it goes bad.

About millet: Although a lot of birds love millet, a ton of it ends up on the ground, which gives it a bad reputation among bird lovers. If you watch the birds feeding, you'll find there's usually a good explanation. In my experience the main reason millet ends up all over the ground is because they're part of a mix and jays are sweeping through the tray with their beaks to get to the sunflower seeds. Juncos and other birds that like feeding from the ground can do an all right job of picking up these sweepings off the ground, but the jays can be so messy that they simply can't keep up. My solution? I rarely buy mixed seed. In my experience, if you feed mixed seed then the birds will always keep dumping stuff to get to the stuff they see just out of reach through the feeding port. My chickens are the same way. I feed them a uniform layer pellet in their feeder, and mixed seed (the scratch) is distributed only on clean ground or in small enough amounts in a heavy pan that it'll be all gone in a few minutes. To attract different birds, I put thistle in one feeder, sunflower in another, and peanuts in the shell in a feeder that's a bit tough to get them out of to keep my jays busy and entertained. Seed is relatively cheap, but why waste money by feeding stuff that mostly ends up on the ground?

Speaking of stuff on the ground: it will happen. There are parts of the seed, usually hulls but also bits of seed that escape the birds when they sit and crack them before swallowing, that will end up all over under the feeder. Birds also poop while they eat. Even the mixes that have been shelled will not have pristine ground underneath. If you're fastidious, you don't want a deck feeder, nor do you want a feeder stuck to a window with a suction cup with your favorite lawn chair sitting underneath. I recommend siting your feeder in a sweet spot where you can both see the feeder, but where the debris will serve a valuable service: namely, fertilizer and mulch. I have feeders on and among a grove of deciduous trees beside my house. The trees were struggling along until we came along and pruned off dead and crossing branches, and set up a feeding area under them. To us, those small birds don't seem to produce significant amounts of fertilizer, but that little bit made a huge difference to our trees. The hulls and broken bits of seed provide valuable mulch, contain organics that help loosen and condition soil, and the whole mix of debris attracts earthworms and other organisms that enrich the soil. Alas, it's not worth it to plant pretty flowers around the base of a feeder unless it's a big enough one that they're somewhat protected from all the falling stuff. But, if you have a moveable feeder, you might consider changing the placement by a few feet each year and plant annuals where the feeder was before. Turn what a lot of people consider a disadvantage into an advantage!

A special note about hummingbirds: sugar water can spoil rapidly in warm weather, which will harm the little jeweled jerks. My answer is to feed in fall and spring, when flowers are scarce, and wean them off when the garden begins to flourish through the summer. I have a lot of plants that are great for keeping our hummingbirds well-supplied with nectar, and natural nectar is better for them anyway. Yes, it's nice to have them humming around your window where you can enjoy them, but you can also plant something like a honeysuckle, train it over an arch set over a bench, and voila! Perfect place to read in summer. Not as convenient, yes, but these days we need all the excuses we can get to go outside.

Another note about hummingbirds: they are fast but unfortunately cats can catch hummingbirds. When planting for hummingbirds or when feeding them, consider height. You can't control all the predation that goes on. Cats will get the adorable little hummingbirds and it's sad, but not technically your fault. To keep yourself as guilt-free as possible, place hummingbird feeders very high and prune up plants that produce attractive flowers, or put plants meant for hummingbirds in hanging baskets or in tall containers. The death zone for hummers can be quite high for a skilled cat that has decided that hummingbirds are favorite prey, but it seems to me the worst area for them is at ground level up to about three feet. At that height range even a cat that's not that into birds may be tempted to give it a go. To be safe, try to get feeders and plants up above five feet whenever possible. Lastly, although male hummingbirds will sometimes make attractive nests quite high up, often the females, after choosing that male to be their beloved, will nest much lower and that's where they'll raise their chicks. In fact, many birds nest much lower than you'd expect. So be careful when you're gardening!

There are lots and lots of reasons why you want to do your main pruning, plant moving, etc. in late winter or mid-to-late fall, but one of them is that you may inadvertently destroy a nest full of chicks, or expose them to the weather and predators. Also, beware of disposing of debris piles that have sat around a long time. A random summer day may not be the best time to light that baby up. Quite a few birds like nesting in what they see as a nice, undisturbed debris pile where large predators will have a hard time finding them, if they even bother to look in such a place. The birds don't know it's slated for burning at your next convenience. Thank you for checking or simply waiting until after the nesting season before you dispose of that loose pile of branches from the wind storm a while back. Conversely, if you want to create an odd but often attractive nesting site for birds that like to nest close to ground level, you can build a debris pile for them, and make it quite attractive with complementary plantings and found art. They may or may not use it, and eventually decay will make it flat, but a debris pile can be attractive for quite some time and if you do get some nesting birds there, it's super fun to watch them dash back and forth while they're raising their babies.

Thank you for reading!

Transitioning into Full Time Writing, Pt 2

I've now been a full time writer for a little over three weeks, if you ignore my son's wedding and then going to Canada for a week.

Weird incidentals:
The indoor dog, Chase, is flipping out. She's now realizing that I'm going to be home all day (for the most part, except shopping excursions), every day, and it's turning her into a hyperactive maniac who now races back and forth wherever we go. Going to the garden? She runs the ever-shortening distance a dozen times to my one, ears laid back for extra streamlining, mouth open for more air, tongue inside mouth to reduce drag. Going back in the house? It's up and down the stairs and then back and forth across the deck and then she leaps and bangs her feet against the sliding door because it needs to be opened! Oh, and she scratches at the door not only to be let out, but to let me know that one or both of the cats need to be let in.
Because apparently that's why I'm staying home. To play with her and the cats and to let everyone in and out. It's Chase's job to make sure I stay on top of that.

I'm organizing stuff at home to make things more efficient so I can maximize my writing time. It's true! Weird example: now that I'm home I scoop the litter boxes at least once, if not twice a day. It makes the house more pleasant and makes the litter last longer. (I have decided this is true. Don't burst my bubble!) I realized it would be so much less tedious if I had one of those flip-top garbage cans, just a wee one, right next to the litter box. Then when it's full, I can take the used litter out. Found one with a little bucket inside, handle and all. Mine! Litter stays clean, and I can scoop right after I feed the chickens (and steal their eggs) without having to hunt for a garbage bag. Now I know why some housewives are so organized. It's not necessarily because they're OCD or obsessed with cleanliness. It's because having things unorganized is super, super annoying when you have a lot of things to do.

When our kids were little and I was a stay-at-home mom, I didn't have a lot of things to do except keep up on laundry and make sure that there was food, a lack of medical emergencies, and minimal squalor (was not super good about that last part.) Now that I no longer have a day job and I have no kids, my expectation is that I'll have all kinds of time to write, right? Well, except that clutter is distracting, and dealing inefficiently with the clutter is annoying, and laundry and dishes still need to happen, as does shopping and cooking, and I have to feed the farm animals and get the garden ready for spring and all at once I became aware that TIME IS LIMITED, even when, in theory and barring accidents or illness, you have lots of it. And when it comes to chores, I want to minimize them to maximize this work time thing, and you know, we all know, that if I let things pile up deeper and deeper I won't write, I'll dabble at writing and fret and putter. Which is awful and inefficient. Besides, if I ignore chores too long, suddenly I'm looking at six weeks of solid cleaning and zero writing time to get my environment to the point where I stop looking over my shoulder to see if the laundry is sneaking up on me, preparing to leap and then smother me. This versus an hour or two each day for a couple of chores, which I rotate through, and maybe I can squeeze in a little extra once a week so that you make overall headway (it can be done! I'm proving it to myself!)

When I started this journey I thought I'd be writing all day and writing all night with the occasional foray into book and cover design. Then I ran out of underwear. Which might not have mattered except that all my most comfortable jeans were also dirty. And I ran out of bowls. And suddenly taking a break to have a meal turned into a travesty, and showering in the morning and getting into real clothes turned into a chore, and so I wore pajamas until I had to feed the farm animals and I did that in sweats with a sweater over my sleeping shirt and I thought this is not what I envisioned my dream job to be, where I have to take over an hour for lunch because I have to clear the counters and wash a bowl first. People posted that image of a writing nook with the huge windows looking out at a winter scene, with the comfy chair and the floor lamp aimed just right, and a tidy bookshelf and I thought there is no reason why I have to put up with drifts of dog hair on the floor and stacks of papers that need to be filed all around my computer that I have to shove aside (guiltily, worrying that I might forget to pay that bill there) so I can take some quick notes which I'll immediately lose. No more! No more. I will take time to tidy. I will have my desk set up so I can find things. I will.

I'm getting there. Happily, more writing is getting done. And happily, my house is cleaner. Except I have no bowls again, but that's okay. I'll take care of it tomorrow before I start to write. Easy peasy.

Transitioning into Full Time Writing, Pt. 1 (sort of)

I'm waiting for the ferry at Tsawwassen, on my way to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, BC. I'm feeling the Vancouver going on. Coming from east of Vancouver, WA, not going to Vancouver, BC but to Vancouver Island. It's weirdly like I'm not actually going anywhere, even though I'm no longer in the same country as I was when I started my journey this morning.

Abandoning a perfectly good day job and writing full time feels like that too. I'm not on anyone's payroll anymore, yet I'm doing most of the things I've always done. It's been six days and I still have the same to-do list as before. I have a series to finish, an outline to finish, emails to go through, etc.

Just a couple of things got added on, and those derailed any sense of actually having nine more hours a day to work.

First off, my son got married. (Yay!) That translated to quite a few hours on facebook coordinating with everyone. Also, that made January 6 and today, January 7, completely disappear from the writing schedule. I might sneak in a few paragraphs tonight after we've settled into our new environment, but making serious progress is not going to happen. So of the (almost, the day is not done yet) six days I've had since my last day of work on January 1, I've had four actual work days. One of those was spent cleaning. One I spent catching up with email and communicating with writers, convention organizers, as well as doing some business stuff.

What kind of business stuff? Writers contemplating full time writing for-reals might want to know!

I had to finalize health insurance stuff. We actually started the process in December, with a landing date of January 1 for our insurance to begin. Well, that worked out, but after they approve you in Washington they want proof, including former tax returns. So about the time we thought we were all set, we had more to do.

•  I had to start a new, fresh action list and prioritize it.

•  I had to clean up a backlog of paperwork and file a large to-be-filed pile that I'd allow to build up for too long because I felt like I never had time to work on it. Found bills. Paid bills.

•  I had to update my freshly-written action list and reprioritize it as I discovered notes buried in the to-be filed pile.

•  I had to go through my business email file to make sure I hadn't promised anyone any stories 'as soon as I retired'.

•  And I had to update my freshly-written action list *again* and reprioritize it as I added stuff I found from my emails.

That ate, as you can imagine, a huge amount of time. I'm still sifting through emails, though most of them are older now.

An immediate pitfall I found with being home all day was that now that I *could* be on Facebook and check my email all day long, I did. In lieu of writing. "I would never do that," you might think. "I'd have my designated time during which I'd be online, and the rest of the time I'd be putting sell-able words on the page." I thought so too. The temptation isn't to socialize, but to hunt down business and networking opportunities. Danger! Danger! When I get back from vacation I'll have designated online hours for real. There's no other way to manage it. With Facebook sending little notifications all the time, it's almost impossible not to check in for 'just a minute.' I have to be able to tolerate those missed opportunities, the ones I'd been missing all along because I was at a day job, and get the real job of writing done. Which is writing.

So this is day six. I'll keep reporting on this process as I sink deeper into writerly despair. Joy. Whichever comes first. Both at the same time, I'm sure.

Back to Work

After the holidays, it's time to get back to work.

This is the first year in a long, long time when I didn't work through the holidays. I did a few business-related things, but for the most part I played, and watched the snow fall. I think I needed the mental break. I feel more focused now. I'll need focus! I have a lot of projects ahead of me, mostly creative projects, but there's always something to do around the farm.

We're sort-of expecting baby goats in February. How many, I couldn't tell you. Twins again? Is more than one doe pregnant? I asked, but they're not talking. They just demand more hay. Anyway, they need the barn divided, so that the new babies don't have to contend with big goats that are not their mothers, and so the big goats don't have to be banished into what will no doubt be a huge storm the day they're born. Because, as we all know, goats pick the day they deliver and it will be a nasty, nasty day. Ginger, the first doe to deliver our very first kids, was nice to me. The weather was fine and good, relatively warm and mostly sunny.

I doubt that MaryAnne will do the same for us, assuming that she freshened. This will be her first time, so we'll keep a close watch over her.

I have two big fencing projects, a fix-the-coop project, gardening stuff, and normal animal maintenance chores on top of that. I'm already sensing that there aren't enough hours in the day, and that's with the knowledge that I'll soon no longer have 40 hours of each week dedicated to a normal day job.

I'm glad I got a holiday before everything ramped up. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday too, and that you're safe, well-fed, and warm. Best wishes, K

New Computer, New Life

It's amazing how much a new computer gets in the way of things. A big one for this blog was that I was auto-magically signed in all the time, so I'd forgotten not only my password, but which email I'd used to set up the account. Important, because I'd somehow cross-connected my Google+ with my DH's account, and apparently there's no power in the Universe that can untangle them.

This morning I finally decided to take a chance. Finally, I've properly returned to this blog.

Just in time to start posting about retirement from my day job to become a full-time writer.

Although I spent a number of years writing full time, there were a lot of differences between then and now. For one thing, I had small children, and less writing experience. Another huge difference was the publishing process. Short fiction was a vehicle for promoting myself so that I could potentially attract the attention of a book publisher. When I did submit book-length projects for publication, it usually took months, sometimes well over a year, to hear back. I had some personalized rejections which bolstered my confidence in the process, but in a five year period I believe I sent in my manuscript a grand total of three times.

Short stories were a whole 'nother beastie. I submitted quite a few stories, and managed to kill a couple of magazines. (We writers are a weird bunch, in case you've forgotten. When a magazine accepts a story and then folds shortly afterward, we accept blame for that.) I took classes, read quite a bit, became active in a writer's group ....

And then went back to work.

Now, being a full-time writer is a completely different thing. Not only do I have more experience, more connections, and not only have my kids moved out and onward with their lives in separate households, but self-publishing is now a viable option. With self-publishing comes a whole new set of responsibilities and costs. I won't get into that. Lots of others have written about the self-publishing process as well as hybrid publishing.

What becoming (in four more working days after today's shift) a full time writer means now is that I'll have time to finish the series of books that I've not only written, but published. It means I'll have time to work on short stories and submitting them to paying markets again. It means I'll be putting a lot of hours into a semi-secret project for a publisher, to be revealed later.

It means my life is about to change in huge ways that I can't predict. I'm scared, and excited, and I'm hitting the ground running. My office is cleaned up, and my DH and I are going to set up a schedule that includes weekly business meetings. He's been freelancing full time for a while now. He'll not only support me, but guide me. I'll need a lot of guidance.  I must be successful at this. No choice. It'll be a steep learning curve, but those that have gone ahead will show me the way.

I've a got new life to go with my new computer. Happy holidays, and good luck to us all in the New Year.

I am, um, Sparta?

I know. I dropped off the face of the Earth. But I'm back, now, with stories to tell!
I've been working on books, books and more books. I've been gardening. I've been reading. I've been cooking. And, I've begun training.
We're talking some seriously wussy training, here. What am I training for? The Washougal Spartan Race. We just had one, and my friend J. has talked me and my DH into going for it next year.
So what's a Spartan Race? It's a medium (3-6 mile, depending on the course) length run sprinkled liberally with obstacles like a transverse wall, a rope to climb where you have to ring the bell at the top, moats, crawls under barbed wire over a steep, muddy hill, and so on. The idea is to crush the spirit challenge the participants to the limit, and the main goal is to finish the race, although there are folks who are super serious about this and race to win. Those people are in crazy-awesome shape. They are the cross fittest of the fit.
That would not be me. Hence, my training in a pitiful way, though I intend to increase the difficulty of my training days as the year wears on.
My training-thing for today was walking a few miles (I really don't know how many. Let's call it some miles) up a hill to scope out potential trails upon which to train. There's water, steep climb/crawls, bridges, and all kinds of other things where I can attempt to prepare myself for a race that can take up to two hours (or more) to complete. Best time on a recent course in Washougal: 35 minutes.
I've also trotted a few hundred yards through knee-deep water, and I'm taking my attempted chin-ups more seriously.
363 days to go.
I'm so doomed. But it'll be fun!