Too Hot to Cook

 I don't know about all y'all, but it is too hot here in SWMO (southwest Missouri for the uninitiated).  So, to riff off my friend Silver's post this morning, I'm going to talk about not-cooking - or cooking with as little extra heat in the house as possible.

Last night, I used my Foreman grill to make pork chops.  That's one way to have a meal and not heat up the house too much.  Of course, they were boneless.  I'm not sure how well I'd be able to cook bone-in porkies on that thing.  Boneless took about 5 minutes.  Bone-in would probably take way longer.  And I cut my own boneless pork chops, but that's a story for another day.  With the pork chops, I microwaved leftover mashed potatoes.  Low heat all around.

I've also found that using the crockpot cuts the added heat.  Last week, I bought a small roasting chicken.  I took that bugger and shoved it in the crockpot with seasoning and butter, and let it cook for 4 hours.  Super yummy, without loads of heat leaking into my atmosphere.  Plus, afterward, I had loads of cold chicken to use on salads, sandwiches, etc.

Speaking of sandwiches, if you've never made a grilled cheese on a Foreman grill, you're missing out.  Super easy stuff there.  I like to cut roast chicken and put it on my grilled cheese.  Mmmm.

Tonight, I think I'm going to make the fixings for Big Salad night.  (Not much to make really.)  I'll lay out a spread of cut up ham, shredded cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, croutons... whatever we want on our salads, it'll be laid out on the counter for us.  I'd put out chicken, but I ate the last of that yesterday for lunch.

If you know me, you know I like to bake.  This is a problematic like in the summer time.  To address my baking urges without baking myself and Hubs, I try to keep my baking to the mornings.  Unfortunately, that means I have to muster the gumption before the gumption is even awake, but I do what I have to do.

I saw something on FB the other day where a woman made cookies using the INSIDE of her car on a particularly hot and sunny day.  I'm not quite going to that extreme.  There are ways around getting overheated and still having something yummy to eat, though.  

And now I'm hungry.  Time to go forage for something cold to eat.  ;o)

What about you?  Any tips or tricks for eating without baking?

The Olympics

I get why some of you are boycotting the Olympics.  Really, I do.  I'm not doing it, but I get it.  

For me, all the reasons to boycott the Olympics as an organization are stacked up against the individual athletes and their accomplishments.  Those kids have worked their asses off to get where they are and I'm going to support them, even if it's just me in my home cheering where they can't hear me.  I don't want to punish them over actions they had no part in and no control over.  

In a rational world, the athletes would en masse raise their voices against the stuff the organization is doing.  But as I've said before, we're in a far from rational world.  They're stuck working with the Olympics and I'm going to give them my support.  I mean, where else would most of these kids get to show their talents on a national stage?  It's not like ESPN is jumping over themselves to televise badminton.  They occasionally show swimming or running, but only the die-hard fans watch.  Right now, in this venue, it's their one shot to get the accolades they deserve for all their hard work.

So, yeah, I'm watching.  If you're boycotting to the point where you don't even want to read about it, stop reading here...

OMG, the girl - Chloe Dygert - who was in the cycling race and fell?  That spill was awful, but the fact that she got up, got back on her bike, and raced her heart out to win bronze was freakin' amazing.  She was feeling the pain when she walked up for an interview, and no wonder she was on the verge of tears after that fall, but go her.  I felt really bad for her, though.  If she hadn't fallen, she could've easily taken gold.  I wanted to give her a big, ol' hug.

I'm not sure what's up with our gymnastics girls.  Okay, so they're in first, but they're still making me sad. Poor Jade got knocked out of her best event - floor exercises - because she missed the landing on one of her passes and fell.  Now she can't compete in the finals for that event.  And none of the other girls even went up and hugged her after that.  Sad.  The men's side is worse.  But the bright spot is Paul Juda.  Go, Paul.

I'm also cheering on people of other nations.  Israel particularly, but any one of these individuals who represents my values is gonna get a big WOOHOO from me.   Screw the lousy organizations and the horrible policies of the countries they're competing for.  You go, guys.  

Sunday Update

Good morning all.  It's Sunday again... you know, in case you have a tough time figuring out what day it is, like me.  

In the writing realm, I didn't write every day like I was supposed to.  I missed two days because of reasons and due to because.  I still managed to add 4840 words, though, so it's all good.  This book is now at 24533.  Yay.  I've also been thinking about another book and wanting to work on that, which for me is a bad idea.  I need to finish this before I go back to that or I'll never finish this.  There are enough unfinished novels on my hard drive to attest to that.  Still, it's good to be thinking about books again, so I have that going for me.

I read two books last week and made it about 100 or so pages into another.  

I was busy in the kitchen this week.  I made oatmeal cookies which didn't turn out too well, but we're eating them anyway.  Then I made coffee cake which didn't turn out the way it was supposed to, but we're eating it anyway.  Then I made pizza which was pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

On the activity front, I only did something active four days out of seven, and some of that wasn't all that active.  Still, it was more than sitting on my butt in a chair, so I counted it.  Two of the days, I walked.  My mileage is up to just over 30 miles this year.  Weight: 169.2

I've been working on the genealogy again.  This week, I got a little farther up the tree on the ancestors who came from Europe.  If I read German, I could probably make more progress, but I'm muddling along.  I also discovered some cousins I once knew, but haven't seen in decades, who have passed away.  They're all on my dad's side, and those people stopped communicating with Mom after Dad passed, so while it is annoying that no one told us, it's not super surprising.  If we'd known, we probably would've at least sent flowers, if not actually gone and paid our respects.  They were all in their 80s, so nothing shocking there, but still sad.  I also found where my great-aunt's grandson was killed in a tractor accident in 1962.  Dead kids in my tree make me sad.

I'm still thinking about the day job. I can't seem to stop myself from wondering if this got done or that got done, and did they remember to do that other thing that I was in charge of but that no one seemed to take care of before I got there?  :shrug:  This, too, shall pass.  Also, I kinda miss my guys.  Not enough to want to go back to work, but still...

Well, I think that's about it for me.  Other things happened, but at the moment I can't think of them, so they must not have been important in the scheme of things.  This week will be more writing, more reading, etc.  I also really need to get on top of updating all my books' back matter and continuing to make sure all the paperbacks are correct.  (That last one should've already been done, but it's a slog because my internet is sooo slow that I'm less inclined to want to do it.)

Have a great day, everyone!  And if you're in the mood, tell me about your weekend.

Saturday Reading Wrap-up 7/27/24

Mornin' Folks.  I hope you're all doing well and awesome reading weeks.

I picked up one new book this week and paid full price for it.  I got The Sword of Shannara.  It's for my collection.  Now I have all three of the initial trilogy.  Go me. 

Books Read:

15) The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie (7/24/24) - mystery - 5 stars. I hadn't read this one before, but it's Christie.  I picked this up for $1 at the thrift store.
Review: "This one starts off a little slow and a lot confusing, but it pulls together neatly and in the end is quite the satisfying mystery."

14) Cinder by Marissa Meyer (7/21/24) - SF dystopian - 4 stars.  New to me but not underappreciated. This one I got on a 2 for 25c sale at a thrift store.
Review: "I've been meaning to read this for a while now, and I was lucky enough to find this at a thrift store. (All apologies to Ms. Meyer. I know authors need sales, but if it hadn't been for the thrift store, I wouldn't have bought it at all and thus couldn't be leaving this review.)

I think this was a pretty good retelling of the Cinderella story. Dystopian science fiction well worth reading. It had a very gripping plot, told excitingly. I enjoyed the characters, the premise, and the plot. Okay, so the surprising plot twists weren't really all that hard to figure out ahead of time. (I won't ruin it for others by mentioning them here.) It had some sad parts that I didn't think were super necessary to the storyline, but that's the writer in me - always wanting to change things for the happier. The point is the telling of the story made me feel things and almost made me cry, so that's a win on any author's score sheet.

I have the second book in this series lined up for reading, but I think I'll let that lay for a little while."

DNFs:

7/26/24 - free - suspense - I read this to about halfway through and then gave up.  The premise was weird, the characters were annoying and didn't seem to have any idea about what they were doing, and the writing wasn't sound enough to carry any of it.  About halfway through, I realized I just didn't care anymore.  I think it could've been a good book, but it needed an editor to tell the author where to snip.  So much unnecessary stuff in there to be snipped away.

7/25/24 - free - urban fantasy - Meh.  

Currently Reading... nothing.  I DNF'd that suspense last night and haven't had a chance to start another book yet.

What's on your reading wrap-up for the week?

Gone Gadget & Quick JuLoWriMo Update

That gadget was a pain the ass, so I removed it.  Full disclosure, though, I've missed three days this month.  I'm up to 23513 words as of this moment.  That makes 18949 added so far this month.  It's not NaNo numbers, but I'm not kicking myself over any of it.  

With that, I'm calling it a night.  I'll be back in the morning to do my reading wrap-up.

Thursday This n That

 I just saw a hilarious meme on FB.  It was an old-timey, book cover like picture of a guy holding off a tiger with the butt of his rifle and the caption had the guy saying something like 'I don't want any frosted flakes!' and the tiger saying 'but they're great!'  Well, I laughed.  In comments there was a guy spouting off about how horrible frosted flakes are for you.  Dude needs to grow a funny bone.  He must be a riot at parties. ROFL

Ricky Gervais - who I sometimes agree with and sometimes I think he's a butt- said something along the lines of 'You found it offensive.  I found it funny. That's why I'm happier than you.'  Bingo.

People really need to chill out.  Yeah, there's a lot of stuff to be unchill about. That's why you need your sense of humor more than ever now.

I keep seeing this idea running around social media about how despite having differing ideas, we can all still be friends.   (I just this second saw another meme about it.)  Umm... not really.  Hey, I'm all for everyone having opinions of their own.  I'm also all for not having to give one more second of my time to opinions that wildly diverge from my own.  :shrug:  You do you.  Just do it in another room.  Or from behind my block list.  And yes, I realize this is not a popular attitude to have when you're someone who wants people to buy, read, and review your books.  But I gotta be me. 

An armadillo wandered through our yard a couple of days ago.  It's been a while since we saw one of those in the yard.  They're kinda destructive little buggers, but a guy's gotta make a living somehow.  The next day we saw where he'd been digging.  It's kinda trashed over there.  On the upside, he uncovered a large rock that I can dig out and move.  

We also saw a little fox.  Yay.

Last night, when I was supposed to be falling asleep, my brain decided it was time for a slideshow of everything I've ever done, followed by a discussion period, with the jukebox set to autoplay every song I'd ever heard.  Fun times.  I eventually fell asleep, but man, sometimes my brain is annoying.

Okay, it's about that time, so I'm off for my morning call to Mom.  Have a great day, folks.

The Brightspeed Saga

If you haven't been following along on Facebook, or don't actually use Facebook, I'm currently having issues with Brightspeed - the phone company in these here parts.  It's reaching 'epic saga' proportions at this point.  (Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but hey, I'm a writer. We exaggerate stuff.)  

Let's see... a week ago yesterday, we woke up to no dial tone.  Nothing.  But we still had internet - which travels along the same lines as the phone, so go figger.  I was not in the mood to call the phone company, and I assumed someone else would do it.  It's never just us when these things happen.  I called in the afternoon and learned NO ONE had called.  :shrug:  I was unsurprised.  They gave me an appointment time of Thursday between 8am and 5pm.  Woohoo.  

Wednesday afternoon, I picked up the phone to see if it miraculously healed itself and the phone read-out said 1 missed call.  Well, if we're missing calls, then we have phone.  Yep, dial tone.  But we couldn't figure out how we could've missed a call because we didn't hear it ring.  Shrugging, we figured we must've been out in the smoking room at the time and went merrily on with our day.  That night, we're watching TV and see the phone light up like it's getting a call, but it's not ringing.  Okay, well sometimes it does that when the satellite is reaching out for data.  Except the answering machine picks up and starts giving the standard greeting.  So it WAS a phone call.  It happened two more times that night.  Hubs and I used our cell phones to call the landline, and it's not ringing.  

Thursday morning, I reach out to the Brightspeed technician - cuz I was smart enough to take down his number from one of the many other times we've needed service.  I tell him that we have phone but that it's not ringing, so we still need a service call.  He comes out.  He works on it off and on Thursday.  He works on it off and on Friday.  Late Friday afternoon, he tells me that he can't finish fixing it that day, but they'll be out on Monday.  If time allows.  He also kinda hints that his supervisor is telling him he's already spent too much time on this issue, so it seems like anyone getting out here is iffy.

Monday... I get a notice that a technician will be here between 1:45 and 5:45.  A totally different tech than before shows up at 1:45 and he's out messing with the box on the outside of our house.  He's got his supervisor on the phone with him and they're bouncing ideas, I guess.  Then I get a call from the supervisor telling me that the tech's butt-set is ringing outside, so the problem has to be inside the house.  (Inside the house problems are the responsibility of the customer, and cost like $99.)  Whatever.  The tech comes in and starts messing around with our jacks and wiring inside the house.  Still, no ringy-dingy.  Then he decides that it has to be the other jack in the house that's causing a problem with the jack our phone is plugged into, so he's in the office now messing with that jack and wiring.  Still no ringy-dingy.  He leaves to go check the big box at the beginning of our neighborhood.  When he returns, he lets us know that the problem ISN'T just us after all.  Several other houses in our neighborhood have the same problem.  Which he can't fix that day.  His supervisor will be out personally on Tuesday to fix this.

Today... As I was typing this, I got an email and a text message that they are very sorry but a technician cannot come out today.  The appointment has been rescheduled for tomorrow.

We have some of the oldest equipment on the Brightspeed lines and they're having a tough time finding parts to fix it.  Seems to me the answer would be to replace the old equipment - which might be pricey at the start, but it wouldn't certainly cost less in the long run when compared with the amount they're paying in labor.  Short-sighted turds.

Anyway, if you've read this far, thanks for letting me vent.  There's really nothing we can do but ride it out and continue to demand the service we're paying for.  Unfortunately, crappy service seems to be the norm rather than the exception these days - across the board and not specific just to Brightspeed.  They're just a symptom of the larger disease.  =o\

ETA: Final Update... fingers crossed... I got a call and the phone rang.  It was the tech letting me know it was fixed.  When I sat down at my computer, I had an email that the tech was working on it and another one sent two minutes later that it was fixed.  I guess whatever it was, it was quick fix.  Thank you, Brightspeed techs for working the problem until you resolved it.  Now, if only you can fix the internet so it's not so damn slow.  

Jealous of Younger Women? Nah.

This morning, I saw a meme on FB that went something like 'for all the twenty-somethings who think older women are jealous of them, enjoy your next 240 periods.'  

Jealousy is an odd little monster.  So, yeah, I guess there could be younger women thinking older women are jealous of them.  It's a silly thought.  First off, who cares?  Second, it would be perfectly natural if we were.  For starters, they still have long lives ahead of them - and they're closer to the beginning than the end.  They probably don't have to put their glasses on to read labels at the grocery store.  Hell, they probably don't care what's on the labels at the grocery store because they don't need to watch their salt intake or their cholesterol. They can stay up late and go to work the next morning without looking like an extra in Jackson's Thriller video.  (And they might not even know what I'm talking about there.)  So, yeah, older women might, in fact, be jealous of them.

The whole 'enjoy your next 240 periods' thing does indicate a bit of jealousy.  They have what you want, so you wish them ill.  :shrug:

Personally, I'd love to be younger... Scratch that.  I don't actually want to BE younger.  Rather, I'd love to have my body still work as well as it did when I was younger.  I'd like to be able to eat whatever I want and not gain weight.  Or if I did gain weight, just start increasing my activity and have the weight melt off.  I'd like perky boobs again.  I'd like to not have to put my glasses on to read a label or write a check or see my freakin' computer screen.  I want my joints to not ache.  I want my intestinal track to work with efficiency again.  

The rest of being younger?  They can keep that.  I don't mind my gray hairs.  I earned those.  And I don't really have any wrinkles to speak of, but if I did, I would've earned those, too.  

Still, I don't think I'm actually jealous of younger women.  Like I said, there are things I miss about being younger.  But to me, that doesn't rise to the level of jealousy.  I don't begrudge them their youth.  Have at it.  Enjoy it as much as you can because it doesn't last forever.  

If you're older, what do you miss about being young?  What can you live without?  If you're young, is there anything you think you'll miss when you get this old?

Sunday Update 7/21/24

Welcome to the Sunday Update with B.E. Sanderson...  

Writing: I wrote six out of the last 7 days for 235 minutes and a total of 5595 new words. I added a new high of 1198 words last night.  Unfortunately, I'm paying for those words this morning with ouchie hands.  Eh, it's the price one pays.  Total word count for the book: 19693.

Reading: Finished reading two books, DNF'd two books.  All in all, a pretty good week.

No baking.  I had thought about making a sour cream coffee cake, but it needs two sticks of butter and that's all I have in the house at the moment, so nope.

Activity: Well...  I overdid it yesterday.  So, in addition to the ouchie hands from writing, I have ouchie other things from gardening - which I attacked with a vengeance right after walking for 3/4 of a mile.  In all, I was active 6 out of 7 days.  Loads of that was cleaning. My stamina is slowly creeping up, but not enough that yesterday wasn't a 'you're gonna pay for this' day.  I haven't weighed myself since last Sunday - 168.4.  I'm up to 28.65 miles walked this year.  Yay.

Gardening: On the upside, the retaining wall for the cedar bed looks amazing.  The bed itself looks like crap, but the wall is awesome.  I had plans to clean the bed today, but it's raining.  Yeah, yeah, that's the reason I'm taking today off.  Derp.  In other gardening news, my lilac bush took a shit for the most part.  I need to hack all the dead trunks off and hope what's still alive can struggle its way back.  To that end, I ordered a hand-held limb saw which should get between the dead stuff and the live stuff with ease.  We'll see.  Not today.

And that's about it.  I'm gonna go slather myself with Aspercreme.  Getting old blows, but the atrophy part of this I did to myself.  Suck it up, buttercup.  

How was your week?

I keep forgetting this...

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 20
Starting word count: 18495
Ending word count: 19693
New Words: 1198

Saturday Reading Wrap- up 7/20/24

 Books Read:

13) Mystery of the Haunted Pool by Phyllis A. Whitney (7/19/24) - YA mystery - 5 stars. I'd never read this before, but I love the writer, so I wouldn't exactly call this new to me or underappreciated.  Found this at a thrift store on sale 2 for 25c.
Review: "What a fun story. Well-written, interesting, with sympathetic characters. Then again, I love Phyllis A. Whitney. I wish I'd known this existed when I was 12."

12) The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (7/15/24) - mystery* - 4 stars.  I hadn't read this before, but it's Christie, so not new to me or underappreciated.  Found this at a thrift store for $1.
Review: "Not your usual Agatha Christie novel.  It started out weird, but it was all resolved quite well by the end.  I still prefer Poirot, though."

DNFs:

7/17/24 - cozy mystery - free.  Oh, great Godfrey Daniels.  Not every single thing needs to be described ad nauseum.  If they open a door, I assume they closed it.  I don't care about the backstory of every character.  Or if it really is necessary, make it interesting.  Mary's cat died last year and they were all sad about it and wondering if she would ever get another cat because she must be so lonely, so she gets a cat.  :yawn:  Unless Mary's new cat killed the victim and is now using Mary's place as a hideout, I don't care.

7/15/24 - romance - free.  I swear to everlovin' pete, if one more writer describes their character as wearing Manolo Blahnik* shoes, I will explode.  It's like it's the only brand of shoe these people know.  And by the way, I don't give a hoot what brand shoe someone is wearing.  *proof of that: had to google the spelling of the dude's name. *further proof: didn't know it was a dude until just now

Currently Reading... Cinder by Marissa Meyer.  I'm on pg 136 (at the time I wrote this post) and it's really good so far.  Fingers crossed it stays that way.  And this book is totally not what I thought it would be.  Surprising and good.  Score.

What have you been reading lately?

Relief Valve

All in all, I'm a pretty happy person.  Okay, so I do like to bitch, but that's more of a relief valve than anything else.  Open up the valve, let the bitchiness out, and voila! everything is happier.  Holding stuff in is never good, if you ask me.

It's the same with writing.  I mean, it's a relief valve.  It's a relief valve in a couple of ways, though.

One, if I am feeling kinda GAH!! I can sit down here, type words, and the GAH!! slowly drains onto the paper.  I have this shirt that says 'WRITING because murder is wrong'.  It's not incorrect.  (No, if I wasn't writing, I wouldn't turn into a mass murderer or anything, but it helps.)  If someone pisses me off, I can just kill off a character or write a really tense scene.  Get it out and get on with my life.  And the plus is that some really good writing can come out of it.  

The other way it's a relief valve is that there are times when I need to get words out.  They're all jammed up in my head like mental constipation, and I need to put them onto paper (or a white area on my screen) or I just don't feel right.  This is what happened for the past two years.  I had so many things I needed to get onto paper, but I just couldn't.  This, of course, meant that after the bloke stopped, I have been laying down a lot of writing sessions.  Not long ones, because my hands still aren't up to that, but almost daily.  

My brain is also throwing all sorts of scenes at me from several different stories.  And I'm all like 'I can only write one book at a time here, dude'.  The dam has broken and things are flowing like they ought to.  Per Hubs when I told him, "Good.  This is what you're supposed to be doing with your life."

Do you use a relief valve from time to time?  What is it?  

Thursday This n That

 I woke up late today, and I'm not all that bright yet, so bear with me.

Also, both cats are currently desirous of my attentions.  Finn wants loads of pets and so does Sawyer.  Makes it hard to type. Okay, now Finn has gone to eat and Sawyer got distracted.  

It's been over a month since I resigned.  I'm still thinking about the day-job, but not as often and it's all got a fuzzy haze around it like a flashback in an old movie.  

Our phone went out again.  It was out when I tried to call my mom Monday morning.  They said they'd have at tech out to look at it today between 8 and 5.  Then yesterday, I picked up the phone to see if by some miracle we got it back early and it said 'missed call'.  Strange because we hadn't heard it ring.  Still, I was all like 'yay, we have phone again'.  Later, the phone starts lighting up like someone is calling, but it's not ringing.  Well, crap, who turned the ringer off?  Turns out nobody.  Whatever magical crap is carried on the line to make the phone ring ain't being carried.  It's also not triggering the caller ID onto my TV like it's supposed to.  Good thing I didn't cancel the appointment, eh?

Not working means a bit of belt tightening for the foreseeable future.  It's okay.  It's good for me to get back into being budget-minded.  It's still less stressful then working.  

Speaking of belt-tightening, I ordered a meat grinder.  Got it on Prime Day sale and there was a 20% off coupon attached, so a $39.99 meat grinder was only $20 something.  Yay.  I picked up something else, too, to get free shipping, so cha-ching.  Anyway, with ground beef being so damn expensive, I figure I can save money.  That grinder will pay for itself in no time.  By the way, it's a hand grinder.  No electricity needed - just good ol' muscle power.  

Speaking of free shipping, I keep getting a notice from Amazon that I spent $11 last year in shipping, so I should really consider getting Prime.  Umm, Prime is like $14.99 a month, isn't it?  I think I'll carry the $11 a year shipping burden, thank you very much,  Sure, I'd like to get my packages quicker and be able to get some of those deals they talk about, but not when it involves a monthly fee.  Budget here, people.

Okay, I've run out of time this morning.  Time to call the mama and then decide if today is grocery day or not.  I love not having to shop on the weekends, lemme tell ya.  

Have a great day, y'all.

Waxing Philosophic

Not sure what I want to write about this morning.  I have a couple of things I could wax philosophic about, I guess...  Here's one...

I've had a lot of writer friends over the past 20 years.  I've retained very few of them.  In fact, I could probably count my current writer friends all off with both hands.  I lost a lot of people in my friends list in 2016 when it was clear our philosophies of life didn't mesh well.  I lost more in 2020 for the same reason.  And here we are again in 2024, and the few of differing philosophies that I had still held onto for one reason or another, are making it known they should probably be shunted off where the others went.  :shrug:  I'd probably have more sales if I could stomach associating with all of these people, but I don't have that kind of intestinal fortitude.  

The most recent one I lost was a gal I once considered a good friend - not Silver, Deb, Jenn, and Janet good friend level, but good nonetheless.  I loved her writing and I thought she was basically a good person with some mildly wrongheaded ideas.  I was wrong.  I mean, she's probably still basically a good person, but her mildly wrongheaded ideas have grown like a cancer and the result isn't pretty.  :sadface:

Everyone is entitled to their opinions.  I am entitled to not have to allow those opinions into my life and those people into my inner circle.  I've heard them all before and I am so over entertaining differing opinions searching for their merit.  :shrug:  If that makes me closed-minded, then I'm okay with that.  At a certain point in life, I figured out my opinions were no longer open for business.  They are what they are.  I also figured out that most other people are the same way, so why bother debating things?  I'm not going to change my opinion and neither are they, which makes debate just a whole lot of wasted time, effort, and breath.  

So, with a mournful farewell, I unfriended another writer today.  She'll never know.  Hell, she probably unfollowed me years ago because that was the last time she liked my posts or commented.  No loss for her.  No loss for me.  The mourning comes from my remembrances of our friendship which died years ago.  =o(

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo stats
Starting word count: 15018
Ending word count: 15717
New words: 699

What a World

 What a world we're living in today, eh?  And while it is new it's certainly not brave.  Brave isn't cowering on a rooftop, taking potshots and people you don't agree with wounding some and killing others.  That just might be the poster-child for cowardice.  

Maybe some would consider it cowardice to sit idly by and watch shit happen around you without lifting a finger to stop it.  Some days I feel like a coward because I cannot take up arms against this ever-increasing sea of troubles and end them.  Other days, I just feel powerless.  I would rise up and fight, but what difference would the actions of one little old gimpy white woman actually have any effect on?  

I could stop paying taxes in protest.  Well, the income I made at the day-job was taxed before it got to me.  And, let's face it, the untaxed income from my book sales wouldn't even be a molecule in a drop in the puddle.  "Whoa, look out, B.E. Sanderson didn't claim her $47 dollars this year!  The government can no longer function."  Umm, yah.

I guess I could rile up the populace.  If we all stopped paying our taxes together, we might get noticed.  Unfortunately, if the people within my sphere of influence all stopped paying their taxes, it would be like a fleabite on a T-Rex.  It's there, but not really noticeable.  I could work at getting more noticed, but I fear that any attempt to gather together people like me would only get me noticed by the government and their lackeys :cough: FB:cough: and put on some list where I'm blocked, banned, or jailed.

I do wish I could harken back to the old days.  Take up arms, fight against this tyranny like the men who built what was once a great nation.  Throw some tea in the harbor and actually make a difference.  

I'm all for voting.  The last presidential election pretty much showed where that gets us.  I'll still vote, but I have no illusions that it will make any damn difference.  I'm also for voting with your dollars.  I'm sure the companies I no longer spend at are feeling the burn.  Not.  I don't have enough dollars to make a difference there either.  Oh, some of the places have felt the collective burn from many of us voting with our dollars.  Some have reversed their stupid policies to please their customer base.  It's something, but not enough of anything.

I'm not sure what the answer is.  Keep plodding along and living our lives the best way we're allowed to until the feds show up and tell us we can't live that way anymore, I guess.  Unless a whole lot of us all over the country stand up at once together and say "we're not going to take it anymore:, it'll be what it is.  

Sorry for the downer post.  It's not really as bad in my little world as elsewhere.  I'm supremely grateful I don't live in a city at all and that I live in a state that's still pretty free as states go.  I can't wrap my brain around why anyone would still want to live in California, for instance.  One good thing I did was to get the hell out of Colorado.  At least my tax dollars are no longer funding anything in that leftist sinkhole.  :shrug:

Anyway, have the best day you can out there.  Fight the good fight where you can fight it.  And hold tight to each (and to your principles) and maybe we can make it through this.  

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo stats
Starting Word Count: 14098
Ending Word Count: 15018
New Words: 920

Sunday Update 7/14/24

 Welp, it's Sunday again.  If you don't know what happened in the news yesterday, some asshole tried to assassinate Trump.  He'll be fine and at least two other people fared much worse.  If you want to know more, there are a million articles about it out there now.

Onward to my world...

I wrote every day but one this week.  I took Tuesday off.  Still, I ended the week with 5058 new words added, and the book is at 14098 total.  I'm trying to remember to make a little note about Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo at the end of every blog post here, but I'm also adding it the widget over there on the right.  In addition to actually putting words on the page, I have notes of things that may or may not happen farther done the storyline, which is always a good thing to have.  It's kind of money in my writing bank.

The PROJECT HERMES freebie thing ended with me moving a total of 82 books.  No sales or page reads off this yet.  (And if it hasn't happened by now, it most likely won't.)  Derp.  

In reading news, I finished two books this week and I'm currently working on an Agatha Christie I've never read before.  Yay.

I didn't do too much in the activity column.  Two days walking, one day cleaning and rearranging my closet.  (I cleaned and rearranged my closet because Hubs found a brown recluse spider in our bed, so I made it a less welcome environment.)  I also cleaned other areas of the house that day.  Also, I went grocery shopping, which sorta counts as an activity because it involves a lot of walking and pushing the cart, etc.  

On the baking front, I didn't.  It's too hot to bake.  I did make a batch of no-bake cookies, though.  Also, yay.

The fawns are getting bigger and we're seeing them more frequently.

I really need to clean the house today.  Regular cleaning as opposed to 'OMG there's a nasty spider in our bed better clean where I don't usually clean' cleaning.  I also need to figure out my next move in the book marketing scheme of things.  I'll probably go with the genie books.  We'll see.  Right now, though, I should probably get dressed and go for a walk before it gets ungodly hot again.  

What happened in your world last week?  

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 13
Starting Word Count: 13285
Ending Word Count: 14098
New Words: 813

Saturday Reading Wrap-up 7/13/24

Hello again.  It's Saturday and that means time for the reading wrap-up.  Yay!

No new books this week, but that's okay.  I've got plenty to keep me busy for a while.

Books Read:

11) Sweet Smell of Revenge by Pam Clifford (7/10/24) - mystery* - 4 stars.  New to me but not underappreciated.  Picked this up for free from a post on the Crime Fiction Addicts page.
No Review.

10) The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brook (7/8/24) - Fantasy - 5 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated, although I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would give this one star.  Heathens.  I picked this up used off Amazon for $5.84.
Review: "I finally got a new paperback copy of this. Still just as awesome."

No DNFs this week.

Currently reading... an Agatha Christie paperback - The Pale Horse.  It's not her usual fare and it's a tad weird, but I'm muddling through.

What was on your reading plate this week?

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo stats 7/12/24:
Starting word count: 12791
Ending word count: 13285
New words: 494

Digging Things Up

 I've been working on my family trees on and off for probably about 15 years.  I mostly use Ancestry.com for the research and the main tree.  Ancestry got me hooked with one of their free month things.  Unfortunately, you can only use that once, but hey, they're a business and they deserve to get paid.  

I also use My Heritage.  My Heritage has a good downloadable program for my desktop, so I can use that when I can't be online.  And they also have an online search thing that I use on occasion.  

From time to time, I use my search engine.  Type in some information and you can sometimes find out things that Ancestry doesn't have or have yet.  For instance, Mom know that her cousin Shar had passed away earlier this year, but Ancestry didn't have that information yet, so I googled it.  (Duckduck'd it?)  Found her obituary and filled in the appropriate info.  

Obits are great stores of information.  You can find out the names of children, spouses, etc. and fill out your tree that way.  This is especially helpful because places like Ancestry won't show you the names of people who are still alive.  So, from reading Cousin Shar's obit, I could fill in her kids and grandkids names.  (Mom only remembered one son's name,)

Speaking of Mom... she has been super helpful doing all of this.  Thankfully, she also remembers things about Dad's family.  I wish Ancestry had been around back when he was alive.  (Actually, it may have been but I didn't know about it then.)  Dad would've loved this.  Lucky for me, I still have Mom and I utilize her as often as she is willing to put up with me.  I think she likes it, too.  This morning, I used Ancestry to look up some gals she went to school with and give her information on what ever happened to them.  Plus, I think it helps keep her memory sharp.  She's going on 84, so that's an important thing these days.  

I'd like to think this will be important to the younger generations at some point down the road.  It's here if they ever need it.  I did see that my cousin's oldest daughter now has her own tree because I stumbled across it yesterday.  I've never actually met the kid - 30 and she's still a kid... derp - but it'll be nice to reach out to her and see if I can give her info she might not otherwise have.  Unfortunately, she lost her grandmother last year, so she doesn't have access to the stories like I do.  Maybe I'll tell her to call Mom and talk about the old days with her.  

Anyway, if you can afford it, Ancestry is cool.  It's like storing the memories of generations past.  I find it all very interesting.  But I'm a nerd.  

And no, I don't ever plan to submit my DNA.  I know the basics of my genetic makeup just from all the research I've done.  If it ain't in there, I don't really need it.  

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 12
Starting Word Count: 11797
Ending Word Count: 12791
New Words: 994

Thursday This n That

Since we got the boys, I can no longer keep pens laying around.  They LOVE pens and would very much like to nom on them.  The pen caddie that used to sit on my desk is now on the top of a bookshelf and the one pen I use is in my desk drawer.  But hey, they're a writer's cats, so the fact that they love pens should come as no surprise.

I'm trying not to think about the fact that this book I'm writing has no clear direction and I have no clue where I'm going.  (And I'm pretty sure that it's awful.)  Thank goodness for edits, eh?

I woke up late again today.  Of course, late for me is 6am.  Derp.  I can't remember the last time I slept until 8.  I slept until 7 once last year.  It was a weekend, so yay.  When I was a teen, I could sleep until 10 in the summer and that was awesome.  Oh, well.  Getting older sure does have its quirks, eh?

I saw a fox in the neighbor's yard on Monday.  

Gah, the heat.  I mean, it's been a lot cooler these last couple of days because of the storms, but it's jacking back up again.  :shrug:  It is July, after all, and this is generally a hotter region than either Michigan or Colorado, so I guess it's not unexpected.  Still, we do like to gripe about the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter.  It's a national pastime.  ;o)

Why does pastime only have one S?  Since it's used to pass the time, shouldn't it have two Ss?  

Don't get me started on the upcoming election or we'll be here all day.  Okay, just one thing... if a person is not mentally sharp enough to be held responsible for their actions, then how can they possibly be sharp enough to hold the fate of a nation in their hands?  Jus' sayin'.

Sawyer is an attention whore.  And he generally prefers negative attention.  I try to give loads of attention when he's being good, but he enjoys getting into trouble.  He actually purrs harder when he gets caught being naughty.  Silly boy.  Finn on the other hand is such a lover muffin.  Yesterday morning, all he wanted was pets.  And when I stopped, he'd head-bonk me until I started up again.  And when I tried to go do something else, he followed me - head-bonking and rubbing against my legs all the way.  Also, Silly boy.

Today's post has been a kitty sandwich, I guess.  Start with cats, end with cats, with layers of other stuff in the middle.  Hope you enjoyed it.  

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 10:
Starting word count: 11063
Ending word count: 11797
New words: 734

Digging in the Tree Again

 Ancestry.com got me again.  They made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so I'm back to digging in the tree again.  Well, trees actually, because I do my family and Hubs' family and Owl's family from her paternal side.  I also did a tree for my sister's ex-husband's family so she could have it for her kids/grandkids.  Hell, I'd do anyone's trees if they asked me and were willing to pay me for my time.  They'd only need to provide me with information that I can use to research.  It's fun.

In case you didn't know it, I'm a writer and writers love research.  At least this writer loves research.  

Anyway, I've got a three-month membership this time, so no hurry for me like there was in the past with one-month memberships.  I'm not sure how much more I can discover, but it's an interesting pursuit.  I've been spending some time this time trying to learn about my great-uncle Ray.  He was in WWII in the Pacific.  He was also married 5 times and I don't have much information about his wives, so there's that.  My mom didn't even know the names of two of them, so I did give her that info.  

So, I do have these little projects.  For instance, we don't know what happened to Hubs' great-grandfather after his divorce from great-grandma S in the early 1900s.  He just sort of disappeared.   I'm trying to figure out where he went.  I'm also trying to figure out when the Sandersons came to America but I haven't made it back farther than the 1800s because it just sorta stops there.  It's a mystery.  And I do love me a mystery.

The really hard things are looking for information BEFORE ancestors came to the US.  My grandfather was a tot when he came here, so information about his parents prior to their arrival, and any information about their parents, etc. is hard to find and even harder to read because it's all in German.  My maternal great-grandmother came here as a baby, and she wasn't really talkative about things when she was alive, so finding ANYTHING about her family and their life before is damn near impossible.  I keep trying, though.  Someday maybe I'll find it.

So, in addition to writing this month, I'll also be doing genealogy.  Woohoo.  Nothing like a challenge.

Speaking of writing, here are my stats from yesterday:

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 8:
Starting word count: 10026
Ending word count: 11063
New words: 1057

The Mine-Laden Landscape of Publication... BOOM

People make mistakes.  I make a lot of them because reasons.  Unfortunately, the landscape of publishing gives one a boatload of opportunity to make mistakes... little land mines to step on and blow off an appendage.  Okay, nothing so tragic as that, but it does make one feel like a moron from time to time.

For instance...

Project Hermes is a freebie through the end of today. Friday, as I was trying to see where I was on the rankings and failing - which led me to try and figure out why this book had no rank (deep and unsatisfying rabbit hole there) - I noticed that the paperback version of this is not showing as available on the ebook page.  So, I go into the Bookshelf and then into the paperback details and things, and wouldn't you freakin' know it, the damn paperback that had been imported from CreateSpace many moons ago was somehow marked as a 'low content book' (basically like a notebook or sketchpad).   The only way to fix that is to delete the whole damn paperback and start over from scratch.  What a huge pain in the ass.  But after almost 3 hours (super slow internet and large files), I got it uploaded to Amazon.  NOW I have to go check every other freakin' paperback to see if that little box that marks it as a low-content book is checked.  Fark.  

I also noticed that when my books were imported from CreateSpace, the cover files didn't make it over, so Amazon just used the image they had from the ebook.  Basically, all my paperbacks just have a front cover.  Derp.  So, I'm doing that, too.  

Shame on me for assuming the conversion process was smooth and trusting to Amazon that it was done right.  I don't know if it made an ass of U, but it sure feels like it made an ass of ME.  Thankfully, no one has bought any of these wonky-cover paperbacks.  Maybe that's the reason they aren't selling. I have no clue.  

Anyway, this issue is getting fixed.  Along with any others.  If I find 'em, I'll fix 'em.  Until then... 

BOOM

JuLoWriMo - Day 7:
Starting Word Count - 9040
Ending Word Count - 10026
New Words: 986

Sunday Update 7/7/24

Sorry I'm late, but I had marketing stuffs to do.

In writing news, I'm plugging along on Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo - writing every day whether I feel like it or not.  Like last night and the night before... totally did not feel like writing.  Did it anyway.  More about that on Monday.  Since 7/1, though, I've added 3772 words to Duke #2.  So basically, this is working.  It doesn't add up to a lot of time spent writing, but that's good for me for now.  My hands need to get used to the activity or I'll write a whole bunch and then spend the next day in pain - which will make me not want to write, which will keep my hands atrophied...  It's a vicious circle.  

In other writerly news, I've been doing a shitload of marketing.  Project Hermes - Kindle version -  is free. I've been posting to various FB groups about it.  Thus far, I've moved 60 copies and I still have two days to go.  Last time I looked, PH was #4 in one of the ranking lists - either medical thriller or conspiracy theory.  I'm really hoping this will equate into KU page reads.  

In other other writerly news, I discovered some issues with the paperbacks I imported from CreateSpace eons ago.  More about that tomorrow.  Suffice it to say, it's taken up hours of my time these past couple days and I ain't done yet.  Derp.

On the reading front, I finished a couple books last week and I'm most of the way through a large book.  I've also picked up some new ebooks, so yay.

I wasn't the most active person this past week.  I walked once and did some gardening one morning.  Weight: 170.4

Last Sunday, I made an apple crisp.  Woohoo.  Then on Monday, I made an awesome pork roast in the crockpot.  Best one yet.  Yummers.

Basically, I'm a boring person.  But if you've been here long enough, you either know that or you think otherwise.  Thanks for staying with me either way. LOL

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 6
Starting word count: 8210
Ending word count: 9040
New words: 830

Saturday Reading Wrap-up 7/6/24

Well, here we are again.  Between the holiday and the stay-at-home life, I have little idea what day it is anymore.  Independence Day didn't help.  But yay, I remembered today was Saturday.  Not that I have a lot to talk about, but at least I remembered.

I picked up 4 new ebooks this week - 2 mysteries, an urban fantasy, and a romance.  Woohoo.  No more new hardcopies for a while after last weekend's book binge.

Books Read:

9) Midnight Clear by Silver James (7/1/24) - SF Holiday Romance* - 5 stars.  Not new to me but definitely underappreciated. Paid full price at the time - $1.99
Review: "A totally different premise from Silver James, but in keeping with all of her books, this was awesome. I bought it and downloaded it when it came out, but I just now finally got Amazon to put the darn thing on my Kindle. As soon as it was actually on there, I inhaled this story. It rocked. I loved it - loved the characters, the premise, and the romance."

8) Hercule Poirot's Casebook by Agatha Christie (6/30/24) - mystery - 5 stars.  Neither new to me, nor underappreciated.  Picked this up for $2 at the thrift store.
Review: "This is a total binge on Hercule Poirot and I loved every minute of it."

No DNFs this week.

Currently Reading... The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks.  One of my favorite books of all time.  I just shelled out for a paperback copy so, of course, I'm reading it again.  Yay.  When this is done, I'll pick out one of the ebooks to read.

What was on your reading list this week?  

ETA: I forgot the update on Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 5.  Oops.

Starting word count: 7685
Ending word count: 8210
New words: 525

Freebie Friday

Oopsie... I splashed this all over Facebook yesterday and then totally forgot to say anything about it here.  Project Hermes is FREE as of yesterday and through the end of Monday.  Worldwide.  

Here's what I posted yesterday:

Starting today, PROJECT HERMES - a political / medical thriller - is FREE.  (Always free with your Kindle Unlimited subscription.)  It's a big book with big ideas, but readers say it's also a fast read. 

It's the little things that kill

The highest levels of the government believe Project Hermes is the best way to control America’s immigration problem. A simple microchip carrying a citizen’s information will allow officials to sort out who belongs—and who doesn’t. Harmless.

Unless the chip carries more than just information. 

I kinda suck at this marketing thing.  Otherwise, you'd also know that Accidental Death is now only 99c.  Not a deal, it's just priced that way now.  Loss leader and all that.  I'll be having a sale on Natural Causes soon.  

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 3:

Starting word count: 6854
Ending word count: 7685
New words: 525

Suckage

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo... Day Three.  Or as I like to call it 'The Day of the Suckage'.  I wrote 298 words worth of total crap last night... then I deleted 208 of them and started over.  I had a net gain of 452.  And even those aren't my best.  

But that's all okay.  It's all about giving myself permission to suck.  As I've said before - still true even though it's been a while since I've said it - you can fix suck.  What you can't fix is a blank page.  You gotta put the words down before you can fix anything.  

I guess last night I just wasn't feeling it.  Like I said, that's okay.  I started off down a wrong trail and it felt wrong, so I deleted it.  I set off down another trail.  Not sure if this one is right either, but it's less wrong than the other one.  I should be able to find my way tomorrow.  We'll see.  If this one is wrong, too, I'll fix that.  

Let the suckage flow.  The good stuff will come out eventually.

Oh, and Happy Independence Day.  This day will be spent like any other, but it is a holiday.  I'd be more inclined to celebrate if I were happier about where this country is right now.  Maybe I'll just celebrate it as my own independence and leave it at that.  

You Do You

I really should get into the habit of writing posts at night instead of in the morning.  I'm better at writing at night.  My brain is more set for writing.  And my hands don't hurt.  (Plus, the cats aren't as interested in attracting my attention.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Everyone has their own way of writing. We're different people... Individuals.  And I like it that way.  Each of us our own little island, building bridges (and burning them) or using little boats to connect with other islands, but still wholly on our own. So it's no wonder that there are a billions of ways to get things done.

I write at night.  Some people write in the morning.  Others write throughout the day.  

I start at the beginning of a story and write straight through until I reach the end.  Other people write bits here and there, then sew the bits together like a glorious quilt.  I heard once that JK Rowling wrote the end of Deathly Hallows before she finished Philosopher's Stone (UK version of Sorcerer's Stone), so she knew exactly where she was headed with the whole series.

I never know where I'm headed.  Sometimes I think back over what I just wrote and wonder where the hell I'm going next.  (Sometimes I think back over it and wonder what the hell I just wrote.)  I have this thing where, if I plan out too much of the story ahead of time, I can't write it.  I need to not know where it's going.  It's almost like I'm telling the story to myself and if I already know where it's headed, I get bored with it.  

Some people would be horrified at my methods.  I'm sometimes horrified at theirs  :shrug:  I do me.  You do you.  As long as we all get where we're going, what does it matter how we get there?

Speaking of getting there, here are my stats for Day 2:

Starting Word Count - 5438
Ending Word Count - 6402
New Words = 964
Time: 45 minutes

Looking Forward to the Olympics

I'm not sure if you pay attention to these things, but the Olympics are coming up.  Over the weekend, Hubs and I were watching the Olympic Trials in Men's Gymnastics, Women's Gymnastics, and a bit of the Track and Field.  They picked the teams for the gymnastics and those are fine.  Not great, mind you, but fine.  We'll see how they stack up against the competition later this month.  

I'm not sure how they go about picking the actual individuals that get sent for the teams.  I get the whole highest overall score thing, but even that seems a little odd to me.  I know there were several individuals who rocked harder in their specific event more than others who didn't make the team.  Sad that, really.  I'm all about the individual, so... :shrug:

I was really pulling for this one girl - Tiana.  I thought she was pretty much flawless in her execution, but I guess her difficulty wasn't high enough to get the points.  Personally, I'd rather see someone nail their routine with a lower difficulty then flub the thing with a higher difficulty, but that's me.  Flawless execution is a thing of beauty on its own without all the extra tricks that may or may not come off.  Jus' sayin'.

There was another girl - Joscelyn - that reminded me of Mary Lou Retton.  She made the team as an alternate. I expect she'll kick ass at the trials in 4 years.  

The new blood to watch on this year's team will be Hezly.  She's a little spitfire.  

I don't remember much about the guys, to be frank.  In that case, I was rooting for Shane Wiskus.  He only made it as an alternate and he looked kinda crushed.  Frederic did well and he's probably our best shot for a medal.  I wish him the best.  

Previously, we'd watched the swimming trials.  Katie is kicking ass as usual.  I love to watch her.  She makes it look like she's just out for a swim and she's so far away from the other swimmers it's like she's swimming alone.  

All in all, I'm looking forward to the Olympics.  How about you?

And for my own 'Olympics', here are my stats from Day One of Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo

Starting Word Count - 4564
Ending Word Count - 5438
New Words = 874
Time: 35 minutes

I also put a widget up there on the right to keep track.  

Have a great day!

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Begins

Welcome to Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo... and no, I don't know what it stands for other than 'we're doing a writing thing this month'.  Join in if you want to.  If you don't want to, feel free to stop by and watch the progress here and at Silver's blog.  

Right now, the plan for me is to work on the next Duke Noble book - which, right now, is called Thicker than Water.  If I catch my stride, I may be able to get pretty far along in a first draft.  I'm not promising anything at this point, though.  

This month is all about no pressure, no expectations - for me.  You do you.  The only thing we're pushing each other toward is 'write or edit every day', and even then I don't think we're going to be too hard on each other if we stumble.  Might shake a stern finger over the internet.  :shrug:

Okay, so starting out... Thicker Than Water is at 4564 words and page 14.  Since I generally write in the evenings between dinner and bed time, I'll post my progress the following mornings - probably at the end of whatever else I'm posting for the day.  Then we'll see what I have accomplished on August 1st.  Woohoo.

I'm finding it hard to be all excited, but it's early and I need more coffee.  :half-heartedly waves pompoms:  Good luck!