Well It's Thursday ...sigh

You ever notice when you are NOT having fun, time flies by? Yeah I know, it's usually the other way around. There have been so many details going on around my house that before I know it...it's one o'clock in the morning. The work doesn't stop on my house. Once the contractors are gone there is the pick up, the priming, and the color choices to make. Yes, I could let them all do the work, but then it wouldn't be my house.

I did a paint technique in my old office which from about mid line down looks like blue jeans. I put a border of old world maps above that and then placed burgundy screen molding to encase it. The upper wall is a cream color. It looks marvelous if I do say so myself. I sewed some navy blue curtains made of recycled blue jeans, so I think I'm set now. If the cable guy, no not Jim Carey, would come in and run the internet line to my new office I'll be finished and able to move in. It will sure beat sitting on the couch with my laptop trying to write.

What spurred all this renovation to my home? Well a tree bough fell on it...not one of those tiny ones either. I've been putting off things for years being busy with life, work and writing. Injuries, family illnesses, and surgeries also didn't help. I had no choice but put everything aside and focus on the house. I knew it would have to be done someday. I guess if the bough hadn't broken...it would still be a someday item so it's not entirely bad.

Now if I can just get all my son in laws together over here to help move the pool table into my old 15x20 office. Oh yeah, I forgot. The part that the bough fell on...was my office. It took out a wall and a good section of the roof. Ya gotta love old southern live oak trees. This one is probably 60 years old. A beautiful towering creature who has lived here longer than my home. Great shade in the summer. Great leaves in the fall for the garden.  Well the limb will make good fire wood next year.

So the hammering, sawing and other construction work continues. Along with it a total creativity drain. Although if you look at the meter to the right you will see progress, it feels like I'm at a standstill. These manuscripts should be through the first draft part of writing. Maybe I'm just being too hard on myself. It's just life getting in the way.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Meandering Monday

me·an·der

verb (used without object)
1. to proceed by or take a winding or indirect course: The stream meandered through the valley.
2. to wander aimlessly; ramble: The talk meandered on.

I started out well this morning with writing before the contractors showed up. Then my motivation and focus took on the meandering path. Of course when you awaken at six AM with the world quiet as it can be, work seems to flow easily.

Now normally I believe in the fastest path between two points is... you got it...a straight line.

But there is something to be said for meandering through what you are writing. Exploring avenue which pop up. Sometimes they are wild goose chases, but other times they are golden and open up a whole new dimension to what you are writing.

Since normally I do my homework with all my novels and nonfiction, this is a major deviation. I write from point A to point B. Today with the interruptions in thought processes which I've experienced for two weeks now, I found myself looking at a character in a different light. I played the what-if game. You know the one I'm talking about...what if she didn't have someone chasing her through the town with a machete? What if the zombies were organized into a true feeding undead force? What if she didn't have enough ammunition? Woah, wait a minute! The storyline for the third Zombie Apocalypse novel came into my mind. I allowed myself to play this game for several hours instead of actually putting pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard. I waited until the lunch break before I actually started jotting things down.

The air hammers tend to mess up my typing rhythm and jumble my thoughts. Tonight I sit here writing my blog and wonder what will inspire me tomorrow?

In the news is the near-earth-object (NEO) passing between the moon and the Earth. It's the size of an aircraft carrier. (4 football fields)Visible in the early evening sky with a six-inch telescope. If the scientists are wrong and it actually hits us, the estimated crater would be 1,500 square feet across. Now that would be something to write about.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

I Quit!

Today is Sunday. Yippeee, Yahooo, fizzlefrazzle! On the agenda today is one church service, reading five chapters for other authors and editing,  After that I quit!
Before you all start worrying...it's only for today.

Monday, I will be back at work on the children's book which should have been out last week. But wait I said that last Monday....lol.

The final three chapters on my zombie sequel in rough draft, and the final three chapters of the book I'm co-authoring. I think the carpenters will hold it down to a dull roar with mudding the drywall. At least it's better than the air hammers and saws. Maybe then I can get the thoughts straight in my mind. At least that's the plan. Here's crossing my fingers that the power doesn't go off again because of an accident or transformer blowing.

Well keep writing and loving the Lord.

Speed Bump in Writing

This past three weeks life has been throwing me speed bumps. You know those things the the road which make you slow down or tear out the undercarriage of you car? The more I want to get on my computer and write; the more life throws at me.

I'm sitting here with work piling up and deadlines looming with nary a cohesive, creative jolt in my brain. Just too much other stuff going on. You'd think with as much morphine that my husband is on he'd be sleeping...nope.  It's this or that thing which needs doing like updating our medical insurance, life insurance, property taxes, construction workers (Did I mention I was having work done on my home?), and running hither and yon.

I haven't even read the books I downloaded onto my kindle. I'm trying to think of the last time I did an editing session in a hot bubble bath and for the life of me I can't remember...that's how chaotic my life has been. It's more quicky showers when I get a couple minutes when the power doesn't go out (twice in the past week), I'm not helping a grown daughter with her homework,complications in another daughter's pregnancy, and even my daily blog has gone kaput. I am barely sleeping which isn't helping. My twitter acct has been left by the wayside while I put out fires on all fronts.

This is one of the major reasons I hate being self employed and working at home. When you work for someone else you go to work, do your job, and then leave it at work. When you are self-employed there is always something to throw a monkey wrench into the best laid plans.

On the good side, I got my royalty check from Amazon Kindle. It was some well needed revenue and a milestone in my self publishing adventure. YIPEEE!I really wasn't expecting anything for the first year so this is progress.

Well there is always tomorrow. If you are waiting on edits and rewrites, they are coming.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Halloween Hag-Lag

Well, it's official Halloween is over for another year. I had forty-two children come to my door last night which is a far cry from previous years. It was less than expected for us. Oh well, more M&M's for me!

Parents are busy and parents are afraid to let their children go out into neighborhoods. I watched as parents drove by and stopped at each house with a light on.

I can remember with joy the hours spent in my own childhood traipsing through the neighborhood with my sack of candy. I also remember the kid who found a razor blade in his apple the hard way. It says a lot about society and the changes I've seen over the decades. Now, if you want horror all you have to do is watch the local news station instead of going to the theaters or reading a book. It's sad when you think about it.

Today is November 1st. The air is a bit crisper with a definite coolness to it at 64 degrees. I know my cousins up in the northwest are grabbing their coats with much colder weather, but for us it's a nice change from the 100+ degrees of summer. The leaves are falling and I'm finally out of my boot. Yes, after fourteen weeks my toes and foot are healed at least on the outside. The doctor tells me to expect a couple more months before it is totally healed. Good thing too, because now I can pull a sock on my foot. Can I get an "AMEN!"

I can recall a time when broken bones weren't such a long ordeal for me...like ten years ago, but with age everything slows down. I've had two weeks off from writing again. Part of this was due to illness of my hubby and the past week was just me recovering. But today I start again. I know it is also the start of that HUGE writing competition where you write 50,000 words in a month. I can never remember the alphabet letters associated with it. NANNIE-NANNIE-POO-POO, or whatever. I know a lot of authors are participating.  I have never participated in it. I write fast enough to not consider it a challenge. Believe me, when I get started not much stops me on average.

My blog got a nod from another blogger, Late Bloomers. Thanks Samantha for the nod. The pic of the award is on my other computer and will add it later. I participated in a new monster character study on her blog last month. It was a pretty interesting experience. I met Samantha at SheWrites.com.

Angel Haze's  month long blog hop is over for this year. Six lucky winners will receive either a e-version or a sign copy of "Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption." I still haven't received the list of winners yet, but will post it as soon as I do.

I checked into the Indie Author Collective's Blog-tour-de-force. But since I get a list of soldiers wanting e-books already through Operation E-Book Drop, it seemed kind of redundant to me. Of course the added benefit of joining would be more hits on my blog. But I'm not doing that bad so far this past year...0 to almost 3000 with very little effort on my part.I think I'll pass on it this time.

So I find myself coasting towards the end of the year. This is blog #40 of the SHINEonline challenge of 100 blogs in the last 100 days of the year. I'm off about three so I'll fall short of 100 unless I post a couple of blogs on the same day, but I'm not really worried greatly about it.


So as we fall into fall, and a time change...what have you got left to accomplish this year?

As always keep writing and loving the Lord.