Wednesday, August 29, 2018
What was I thinking...??
So I read a book called "5 Secrets of Story Structure" as it was free and, honestly, I don't even know why.
And then I fell down the rabbit hole of copying the list of ten items. And then I watched a movie to see if I could pinpoint them as an educational exercise. And then I decided to figure out the structure points of the book I'm working on.
The book I'm trying to get done and to an editor by September 15th. The book I want to have published by the time I leave for my conference mid-October.
It took me an hour and half or so to get my little worksheet filled out.
Then it took me two hours--two hours--to hash out the first four (of ten) with a writer friend until we both felt everything made more sense. Oh. My. Goodness.
The good news is...the book will be all the better for doing it.
The bad news is...chances are I can't get the book done by September 15th.
So plan b is to print the cover, put it in a clear plastic frame/stand thingy and have it available for pre-order.
And then work like a lazy fiend to get it done in time to publish no later than Thanksgiving.
Monday, August 27, 2018
Road Construction...
So we live along a stretch of East Loop 820 in Fort Worth. The highway narrows down to two lanes a bit north of us and at rush hour, as you can imagine, it gets clogged up for several hours.
A few weeks ago, lanes were shifted, barriers put up along various sections, and work begun.
But on what??
Well. It turns out the DoT is adding a lane in each direction.
Yippy skippy! About dang time...
Only...
It's going to take about four years.
I get that these things take time, but this is a stretch of approximately half a mile. WHUT??
Unfortunately, there are a few challenges--the highway crosses over a small lake on one end and merges into another highway on the other. Along the southbound side of the highway is water overflow drainage, so they have to do whatever it is they need to do to allow that overflow to remain available, which I think, means building a ledge/bridge for that new lane.
Luckily I rarely have to utilize the highway. Only to get to the gym, but that's at the butt crack of dawn and I can take back roads if I have to. :0)
So, yeah, four years of road construction.
Friday, August 24, 2018
My hockey wall...
My office is an ode to my various interests and obsessions as well as to my odd sense of interior design.
I have a little section of wall between the window and the corner that has been designated the hockey wall--the back of the door and the wall space next to it is also hockey wall, now that I'm thinking about it...
(The back of the door is really a shrine to Tyler Seguin... Yup, I'm that kind of dork.)
But this particular space only had a Tyler Seguin pennant along with a couple of "posters" -- a.k.a. expired calendar images of Tyler and his teammate Jamie Benn.
Remember those little baby samplers I shared a couple of weeks ago? Well, one got framed and is now on the hockey wall. :0) Of course, Jamie Benn had to come down. He's not a favorite of mine so I passed him along to a friend.
And now the hockey wall looks like this:
And the sampler itself...
The wall still needs a little work, but I have a few plans.
Stay tuned...
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Getting into a routine...
I have successfully set a new routine in place...
I prefer to get my trip to the gym done in the mornings. I also write best first thing in the morning, but for the longest time, my trips to the gym were chewing up two hours. That was also back when I was in weight loss mode and I needed to burn enough calories in a day.
Now, though... I'm in maintenance mode and fat-utilization mode, so I don't need to work out as long or as hard. I've cut the length of a trip to the gym almost in half, leaving the rest of that early morning quiet available for writing.
It's been working out (heh) really well. I get my workout in, get my energy for the day, and I get my brain online enough to write. So I'm getting writing time in every day as well. And now that I'm in writing/editing mode, that's a wonderful thing. No matter what happens during the day, I've spent time with the words already.
Remember when I said it was crunch time almost two weeks ago? Well, now it's really crunch time. At that point, I hadn't fully grasped how much work was needed to get this book done. Now I do. I told my editor I'd have it to her by September 15th. That gives me three and a half weeks to get the book sorted and cohesive and finished.
I think it's going to take more than just the hour I have each morning. Granted, on Saturdays, I can work for three or four hours, so that's good, but I
Have a great day. See you Friday. :0)
Monday, August 20, 2018
My Sunday Project
So I have larger hockey-themed cross stitch sampler I've been itching to start. Unfortunately, I have a couple of smaller projects that are gifts that I'm trying to get done.
Instead of denying myself completely until I'm done with these gifts, I decided to work on this larger project on Sundays.
The gifts fit in a quart-sized zipper bag and I tote one back forth to work each day or the current one sits on the dining room table for quick access when I have a few minutes, like in the mornings when I'm waiting for DH to be ready to leave or when I'm waiting for the kettle to boil.
On Sundays though, I'm going to lay out my new project on the dining room table and work on it.
Sunday before yesterday, I cut it to size and bound the edges.
Yesterday, under the watchful eye of my sweet grand kitty, Karma, I made hash marks along the edges for easier stitching.
And then I got ONE letter done... On my way! :0)
Hope you had a great weekend.
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