The Carving Spectacle?

I've said this before and I'll probably say it again at some point in my life, but I'm not sure right now why I still call this blog 'The Writing Spectacle'.  Lord knows I haven't been writing or even editing much lately.  I'm not saying I will never write again, but it's not looking good right now.  

Right now?  Well, I'm getting all jazzed about wood carving.  As I might've mentioned a couple hundred times, I live in the woods.  We have about two and a half acres of mixed growth woods - hard and soft woods, deciduous and evergeen.  All that wood is begging me to do something with it.  

Sure, lots of it is for burning.  But it doesn't all have to be burned.  This is especially true of the special woods.  I'm talking dogwood and redbud and persimmon, and one case, lilac.  Why burn it when I can make it into something pretty?

Of course, I have no clue about carving anything right now.  To that end, I bought a book on whittling (the easiest of the wood carving methods).  I received that yesterday and it's pretty short.  I read it and learned a little bit, but it's not quite what I'm aiming for.  To that end, I ordered a better book on wood carving and... :drumroll:... a set of wood carving tools.  They'll be here Monday.  

Now, because I'm kinda weird, I've already been collecting interesting wood.  I have several pieces of beaver-chewed wood, and some wood that I thought would make excellent staves.  I also have a couple of root balls - cedar and dogwood - that looked like they might be interesting to carve something.  Now that I'm actually going to do the carving stuff, I added some dogwood that the fallen sycamore killed.  I can't wait to dig into that stuff.

Being a total novice, though, I'm going to start by carving cedar.  We have TONS of cedar.  It's not really great for burning in a woodstove, so it's in various piles around the property.  I can use that to practice on.  (I think.  I'm still learning which woods carve best.  If nothing else, it'll be a learning experience.)

The main thing right now, I guess, is teaching myself to carve without losing a finger or winding up with stitches and a bunch of really interesting scars.  Fingers crossed while I still have them.  ;o)

The writing?  It's still there.  I'm still working on editing Duke Noble #3, here and there when the mood strikes me.  The problem is that the mood is striking me less and less.  Maybe it'll get better this summer.  One can hope, right?

Marketing Monday - Dying Embers

Here we are again at Monday, which means marketing.  I even got up early to get after it, but then I got distracted :cough:facebook:cough:, so here we are at 6 o'clock and I'm just getting started.  Derp.

Anyway...

Revenge is better hot. Starting today, get DYING EMBERS absolutely free. Pick up your copy of this gripping and gritty suspense today! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TEQK7OU

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 7

Sorry I spaced out last week and didn't do a Sunday Update.  There really wasn't much to talk about that week anyway, but still, it was rude of me.  This week... Well, there's not much to talk about either, but here I am.

No writing, but I did do some editing.  I really need to get off my ass and get this book finished.  In order to do that, though, I need to stop wondering whether anyone actually cares.  (Beyond a couple of people, that is.  They know who they are and they know how much I love them.)  I marketed, but it was pretty much crickets.  Tomorrow, Dying Embers goes on freebie, so we'll see if anything comes of that.

In reading news, I started a SF, read about a third of it, and DNF'd it.  It wasn't bad.  It was just not giving me any reason to finish reading it.  I sometimes wonder if that's what other people feel about my books.  (Then I remind myself I have plenty of people reading my books all the way through in KU.)  I started reading Flight of the Falcon by Daphne duMaurier on Friday, though, so I've got that going for me.

In baking news, I made a chocolate oil cake with strawberry jelly and vanilla frosting.  Yummers.

On the activity front, Hubs and I are over the crud finally, so we're making an effort on turning back into humans, as opposed to the slugs we were.  While it was still unseasonably warm, we took walks Mon, Tues, Wed for about 2.15 miles.  Then it got cool and we worked in the woods Fri and Sat for around 3 hours.  I also did some cleaning and shopping.  Weight: 176.2 (the poundage I lost to the flu jumped right back on me... derp)

Due to the woods working, I'm pretty sore today.  Throwing logs will do that to a body.  We're mostly through cleaning up the top branches of that sycamore that fell over 2 years ago, so yay.  Funny thing about that sycamore.  It turned brittle.  I went to saw the limbs and they snapped off in my hands like bread sticks (the crunchy kind, not the Olive Garden kind).  Good thing we weren't planning on trying to burn that.  

Speaking of the downed sycamore, that bastard tree took out two perfectly good dogwoods when it crashed.  I've got a large chunk of the bigger dogwood that I may try to carve into someone once I get some carving experience.  I'm thinking I need to carve a dog out of the dogwood, or would that be too obvious? :smirk:

Oh, and I got our taxes done yesterday.  Woot.  If you're using TurboTax, you have until 2/28 to do them at a discount.  Which was enough of a poke in the ass to get me to do mine.

I think that's it.  I'll try not to forget to post on Sundays from now on.  Have a great day and an awesome week.  :hugs:

Updated:  After Silver pointed out that the title of today's blog said 2025, I changed it.

This n That Friday

Okay, so I woke up this morning and was all like 'wait, yesterday was Thursday???' cuz I totally forgot to post.  I'd blame the flu, but we're pretty much over it. (Except for the cough which boomerangs back on ya like bad Kung Pao chicken.)  Part of it is the flu, though, because it got me all off track - well, worse off-track than I'd already been.  Anyway, I'm here and so let's do some this-n-that, k?

Sawyer does this new thing where he feels like he has to be in my lap in the mornings when I'm at my computer.  This makes typing fun.  Sixteen pound cat between me and the keyboard.  On the other hand, Finn is seriously focused on something underneath the dishwasher this morning.  I'd like to think it's a cricket, but I fear it's a mouse.  I just hope he doesn't try to dig for it and end up breaking the plastic sheet that hides everything underneath the dishwasher.  These cats have broken more things, I tell ya.  Back in 1988, when I graduated HS, I worked at a restaurant with these two really old ladies.  (Bear with me.  This ties in.)  One of them gave me a set of antique, metal frames with pretty patches of what looks like either wrapping paper or wallpaper in them.  She wasn't rich, so it was all she could give, and I assume they'd been hers.  Anyway, she was a wonderful old lady and I've cherished them all these years.  They're hanging on the wall here in the office.  Well, a couple days ago, Sawyer must've jumped up the wall off the side table I have there and knocked one of the frames off the wall and broke it. The actual frame, not the glass.  Turd.  Not sure how I'm going to fix that.  Anyway...

It's been warm here.  Like 70s warm.  And windier than all get out.  Today and throughout the weekend, it's supposed to be cooler, so we can finally get back into the woods.  We have things to do before summer and we'd like to get them done.  Sheesh, Mother Nature, get a grip on your seasons, will ya?

I ordered a book on whittling.  Yep, I am going full-on redneck.  Anyway, we've got all this wood and I'd like to do something with it other than burn it.  The start of that is a how-to book on the simplest mode of wood carving - whittling.  Once I get that under my belt, I'll look into actual carving tools and more involved instructions.  Eventually, I'd like to make walking sticks and maybe staves.  Things I might sell.  We'll see how it goes.

Okay, I think that's enough out of me today.  I should get cracking on other stuff before the day gets away from me.  Have a good one, and a great weekend.  =o)

Marketing Monday - RUMOR HAS IT

Okay, so I'm finally not sick.  (Mostly.)  So, we get a Marketing Monday today.  Yay!  :muppetflail:  Here's hoping it'll draw lots of downloads and lead to sales of TTW*.

Starting today, RUMOR HAS IT is free. (Always free with KU.) Get your copy of this noir crime novel today! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZNXQKPC

*yes, I'm still working on the third book for Duke Noble.  Maybe now that I'm not plague-ridden, I can actually make progress on getting the editing done.

Thursday This n That

Rumors of my death are probably circulating.  Don't believe them.  I'm not dead, even if I would've wished for it after a week of this creepy crud.  Just when you think you're done with it, it circles back and kicks you in the nards.  Today, I almost feel human, so fingers crossed.  Yesterday, I felt almost human and zipped to the DG for a few things, which laid me out for the rest of the day.  Tomorrow, I definitely have to go grocery shopping whether I'm up to it or not.  

I've been watching the Olympics... well, watching little bites of the Olympics anyway.  Most of the Olympics are behind a pay wall, so I'm only watching short videos that are free.  It's not as exciting as usual, because I could already know what happens, but it'll do.  I refuse to pay NBC for anything.  (Like I already refuse to pay PBS or BBC.)  If it ain't free, I guess I'll go without.  

Okay, so maybe I'd be willing to pay a subscription if I could find a service that wasn't run by leftist assholes.  I was really into getting a BritBox subscription, but then I found out they're owned by BBC, which is run by such loathsome people I can't see sending them even a penny of my money.  This, of course, makes me sad, because I was really looking forward to a long stretch of watching Inspector Morse from start to finish, followed by Lewis.  Not sad enough to send money to the BBC, of course, but still sad.

Thank goodness for coffee.

Sawyer is being a pain the ass this morning.  I guess I should be happy that he's doing this in the morning rather than at night while I'm trying to sleep.  I know what his problem is... it's the same problem every morning...  He wants to eat.  And he doesn't want to eat kibbles.  He wants wet food.  NOW.  Not after 9am which used to be after 10am which used to be noon.  I've drawn the line at 9 and no earlier.  Meanwhile, Finn is sleeping.  

It's been so warm lately, I'm getting the urge to garden.  Except I know as soon as I garden, the weather will turn and it'll freeze, killing all my hard work.  So I wait.

And that's it for me today.  I'm going to wander back to my recliner and veg.  Take it easy today, wherever you are.  :hugs:

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 5

Hi.  There really isn't too much to talk about this week.  Sunday afternoon, I came down with the creeping crud (see Friday's plague post to get the link to the virus of the month).  Not much else has happened other than dealing with that.  I'm 90% over it.  Hubs is stuck at like 60%.  Neither of us have slept well in a week, so you can imagine what life is like here.

Thusly, I didn't write. Or edit. There was minimal marketing, which somehow moved 56 copies of Blink anyway.  Woot... I guess.  I sold a book and someone read a whole other book and most of a third book, so I'm already at almost $5 for the month.

Me, I finally finished reading The Night Manager by John LeCarre.  Good book.  It didn't end nearly as well as the movie, but it also didn't end nearly as badly as it could've.  Ultimately, there was a HEA for the MC, so yay.  Not a lot of justice for the bad guys, but sadly, LeCarre had a poor sense of life, so I'm not surprised.  

Also not surprising... no baking this week.  

Activity?  I spent the first four days of the week dragging myself from room to room.  Thursday and Friday, I cleaned and did laundry.  I lost some weight, of course.  I stepped on the scale on Thursday and I was at 176.4, so down a pound.  The fat is hanging on to me for its dear life.  Hubs probably lost 10 pounds because he's a dude and fat runs from him.  :shrug:

I really need to get over this and get back to life.  This damn book won't edit itself.  

Okay, time for some more coffee.  Or maybe I'll just go back to bed.  Have a great day wherever you are and try not to catch this crap, eh?