Sunday Update - 2026 Week Meh

It's Sunday.  There was a week.  It had a number.  I'm too apathetic this morning to go see what # it was.  Despite my general malaise this morning, the week was actually pretty okay.

I did a pretty good job of writing this week.  6334 words and I wrote on 5 out of the 7 days, so woot.  I ended the week at 49879.  Yeah, I know... so close to 50K, but it didn't happen and I'm not kicking myself for it.  I'm still fighting with myself mentally about whether this book is crap.  Eh, if it's crap, it's crap.  I'm enjoying writing it, so there.  =op

Marketing went.  I moved 12 whole copies of UNEQUAL.  :toots tiny horn:  This week, we'll see if I can double that number with whatever book I choose between now and tomorrow morning.

I started reading a book this week.  Twice Shy by Dick Francis.  It's not really grabbing me yet, so we'll see. 

Due to the heat, I only baked once this week and that was a pizza.  Hell, even general cooking is at a low point.  Last night, we had fish (pan fried tilapia that took like 5 minutes) and salad.  Tonight will probably be pork and salad.  Because I am slightly deranged, I might make Irish Soda Bread this morning, while it's still cool enough.

In activity news, I was not very active.  It was all 'water plants', except for going grocery shopping and one little wander around the yard - which I had to truncate because it was too damn hot to be out there for too long.  (I'm VERY ready for summer to be over.)  Weight: 180.6 - one would think I'd be dripping the pounds right the hell off in this heat, but I'm not.  

Speaking of plants, the greenhouse is doing okay.  The peppers are going well.  The tomatoes are okay, I guess.  The two I repotted are struggling - especially the grape tomato - but the two beefsteaks are green, and one of those was a transplant off the other one.  I have hopes they'll fruit if it ever gets cooler.

Ugh, I just looked at the temps for today/this week.  It's supposed to get to 102F here today and still be up in the 100s through Wednesday.  This is NOT what I ordered for early September.  Meh.

And on that note, I have to go water the greenhouse while it's still in the 70s.  Not sure what else I'll do today.  Hide from the heat and try not to move around too much.  (Yes, we have central air.  It's set at 75 and I still get too hot.  Damn menopause.)

Have a great day wherever you are.  Stay cool.  Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 34

So, here we are again at the Sunday Update.  It wasn't a banner week for productivity, but life's that way sometimes.

I only wrote a couple thousand words.  I blame a combination of being too damn tired to stay up and write and a slight case of the 'this book is stupid and no one will want to buy it'.  The latter may also be part of the being tired thing.  I need to remind myself that I'm writing this book for myself and I enjoy it, and snap for anyone who doesn't like it.

Marketing was done and books ordered numbers were limp.  I moved 12 copies of RHI.  :sad trombone:  On a happier note, I did sell a book - AD.  Of course, that one is only 99c, so I made 35c.  Woot.  My total $$ for the month of August is sitting at $3.22.  

I'm still not reading much, but I stopped at the thrift store in town and bought another 8 books.  Some of those were NF and meant for our shelves - John Stuart Mill, TH Huxley, Living Free - but I also got a Louis L'Amour, a Dick Francis, and a couple of fantasies and a SF from authors I'd never heard of.  I'm calling it a win.  So far this year, I've spent $2.65 on books, which reflects how much money I'm making at writing.

I tried a different chocolate-chip cookie recipe.  This one has coconut.  The recipe said it made 48 cookies, but looking at the ingredient list made me think the batch was going to be huge - I mean, 2 CUPS of butter? Really? - so I halved it.  I still ended up with 48 cookies.  They're okay.  

On the activity front, I did stuff this week.  I watered the greenhouse 3 times, repotted some stuff, fell through the deck, did some cleaning, did groceries, ran errands.  It was a busy week.  Weight: 181.4 - so no, I was active, but not burning enough calories to offset the intake.  Blerg.

Speaking of greenhouse stuff, like I said, I repotted some stuff - two of the tomatoes and a couple of the trees.  The 'maters were looking peaky, so I figured it couldn't hurt.  If they die from the repotting, I'm not really losing anything, and they could come back and fruit this fall.  The trees had to be repotted, but after I crushed the pot they were in it was more crucial.  The beefsteak tomato is okay, but not producing flowers yet.  The bell peppers are all looking amazing, but no flowers yet either.  I have two potato little potato plants that appear to be thriving.  The carrots? I'm not holding out hope for those, but they aren't dead yet.

Oh, yeah, the 'fell through the deck' thing.  I bet you thought I wasn't going to talk about that.  It was embarrassing, after all.  Well, you see, the greenhouse was strategically placed over a couple of already roached deck boards.  I've been really good about not stepping on those boards when I'm in the greenhouse, but I was repotting tomatoes and when I carried the grape tomatoes in their new pot for placement in the greenhouse, I wasn't paying attention to where my feet were going.  I heard the board start to crack and managed to set the tomato pot down, but then my foot went through and I fell back.  I ended up on my ass with one leg dangling through the hole up to my knee.  I got myself out and upright, and finished my chores.  I'm bruised, but nothing's broken - at least not on me.  When I went down, I crushed the plastic pot holding my buckthorns and one little sycamore.  I also bent one of the struts on the greenhouse.  Derp.  Just call me Gracie.  

Okay, time to refill my coffee and get on with the day.  Have a great one, wherever you are.  :hugs:

My Trip to the Library

 I went to the local library on Wednesday.  The experience wasn't good.  I used to LOVE the library.  It provided me with my means of escape from the world.  What's not to love about that?  

When we first moved here, I stopped by the library to get a library card.  I needed two forms of identification and one of them had to be a utility bill to prove I was an actual resident.  Since I don't generally carry around utility bills, they wouldn't let me have a card.  They wouldn't take my checks as proof or my voter registration card. The first form was already my driver's license, so that didn't help.  After that, every time I went to town, I'd forget the damn bill.  Eventually, I gave up trying to get a library card.  Years past.  Recently, I tried to sign up for a card online, so I could get Hoopla.  

Yay, that worked!  I had Hoopla and I could use it to watch things on Roku.  Yay.  Then it stopped working.  Why?  Because my local library system which covers all but one of the local libraries here, had stopped their Hoopla contract.  Hoopla had raised their rates and were now too expensive.  Or so the librarian said.  

Unfortunately, I have no other use for the library.  I can't check out books because I only get up to that town every 90 days - when Hubs' prescriptions need refilling - which would mean I'd either get slapped with a boatload of late fees or I would need to make a special trip.  Derp.  

Anyway, the two gals at the library acted like I was bothering them.  There was no one else at the place.  I guess that could be understandable.  I was talking about Hoopla and they didn't care about Hoopla.  They tried to convince me to try their other services.  I didn't care about their other services.  It was then that I tried to find common ground.  Books.  

I mentioned that I was a writer and that I actually had books in their library at one point.  I figured they'd try to look me up in their computers, but no.  They looked at me like I was stupid.  (More so the one than the other.  The other was acting like I wasn't there.)  I was tempted to walk back into the stacks to see if my books were still on the shelves, but the girls were giving off a whole 'get the hell out of here, so we can go back to gossiping' vibe.  Finally, I gave up, shrugged, and waved.  "Thanks! Have a great day."

Thinking about it all today, I remembered that for the past 13+ years, they've been trying to raise money for a new building.  There's something somewhere that shows how much money they've raised toward their goal, so I know they have money.  And even though that money is slated for a new building, it burns my butt that they can't keep the Hoopla because it's 'too expensive'.  Who the hell is using the actual physical library?  There's never anybody there when I drive by.  Wouldn't their usage rates go up with Hoopla?  People around here could borrow ebooks and movies, etc.  It boggles the mind.

I don't expect to ever see a new building on the piece of land they already own for the new library.  By the way, the new library will have a whole huge bank of computers for the locals to use.  (That was one of the things they really touted up during a fundraising drive several years ago.)  Computers to use, but not more space for books.  Books are passe.  :shrug:  

Apparently, so are writers of those books.  I mean, I didn't expect fanfare, but a 'hey, cool' and a 'what do you write?' would've been nice.  

Anyway, that's my local library.  I was unimpressed.  Of course, I've been unimpressed with them for years.  The librarian who was there when I donated books wasn't impressive, and she spelled my name wrong when she put my book in her 'new at the library' section of the paper.  Derp.

It's all pretty sad, when you think about it.  I'm a writer.  I'm a reader.  Libraries and I should be like peanut butter and jelly.  Instead, we're like peanut butter and sardines.  Then again, libraries seem to be less about books these days than about the computers and other junk.  I'm an antique, I guess.  And libraries as I knew them are fossils of a forgotten, happier age.  =o(

Sunday Update - 2026 Week... :shrug:

 I've been up for 2 hours and the coffee still hasn't kicked in.  This does not bode well for the rest of the day.  Anyhoo...

I wrote stuff early in the week and then I tweaked my wrist, which made writing ouchieful which got me out of the habit so after the wrist was better I still didn't write.  Still, I got out 2578 words out, which is better than nothing.  I'll try harder this week.

Marketing occurred.  Near the end of the week, FB started being less of a turd, so that was something.  I'm also trying to shift all of my marketing from my personal page to my business page.  The problem with this is that my personal page is shown as a top contributor to most of my marketing groups.  Starting over with my business page, without that 'top contributor' thing, means I'm climbing my way up from the bottom again.

Reading also occurred.  I'm making progress through Leadership by Rudy Guiliani.  Unfortunately, I've been reading this same book in tiny spurts for months now.  It's not the book.  It's totally me.

No baking.  It's too hot and I'm too lazy.

On the activity front... well, like I said, I'm lazy.  I did some gardening, some cleaning, and some shopping - but not nearly enough to make a difference in my health or weight.  I did weigh myself... Meh.  Weight: 180.0

If you were paying attention yesterday, the big news in my week was the broken picture window.  It hasn't fallen out yet, but Hubs has covered the front porch in plastic, so when it does fall, it'll be easier to clean up.  

In gardening news, I picked my first tomato.  It was a grape tomato, so nothing spectacular.  Not even enough for a small salad.  There's another tomato ripening out there that's bigger.  It might give us enough slices to adorn two hamburgers.  There are loads of tomato flowers, but no more fruits yet.  The taters are huge and bushy.  The carrots are growing right along.  I had to put two tiny oak trees out of their misery, but loads of other trees are still doing fine - including several of the ones that the critter munched.  Randy and Rudy Redbud are... wait for it... still alive!  Hubs was in the yard and noticed that while all their leaves were eaten, the stems were solid and now they're starting to grow new leaves!  Yay!  

Last night, we had a humdinger of a storm.  Actually, we had storms throughout the day, but last night's was larger.  And it came with two tornado warnings within minutes of each other - neither of which was actually close to the house.  Eh, it's better to be alerted about these things than get blindsided, so there ya are.  Between the day storms and the night storm we lost power probably 4 times.  I hate resetting clocks.  I hate flashing clocks more, though, so there ya are.

The does are all post-pregnant, I think.  I saw the first set of fawns yesterday.  Yay.  I still have no pics of fawns, though.  

And I think that's it for me.  Here's to a stress free week for us all.  Feel free to drop a comment and tell me how your week went.  

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 22

Here we are again at another Sunday.  It's the last day of May, which is my favorite month, but all good things must come to an end, eh?

Writing went well this week.  I wrote every day Monday-Friday and added 4758 words to my manuscript.  I think I'm finally in a place where I can tell you what I'm working on... :drumroll: The next book in the Shroudlands series.  It's up to 32240 words now, so yay.  I'm not laying out a whole shit-ton of words each day, but it's enough.  No clue when it'll be finished.  The point here is that I am writing again.  And once I get comfortable with being a writer again, I might finally get back to editing Duke Noble #3.  

Marketing occurred.  Not a lot of it, but it happened.  I moved 29 copies of Early Grave and someone bought a copy of Fertile Ground, so yay me.  May wasn't the best month this year, but it was better than nothing.

Reading... don't ask.  Despite my reading slump, I bought 8 new-to-me books last week, because I am a book-buying addict.  I picked up some NF books we didn't have and a Ken Follett I haven't read before.  Woot.

On the activity front, I wasn't too awfully active, but I did get some stuff done.  I vacuumed and dusted the whole house - 1700 sq ft worth - so go me.  I also did some gardening stuff.  And yesterday, we took a walk.  Weight: 178.6 - which isn't as low as I'd like, but better than I feared it would be when I stepped on the scale.

As for gardening, we planted two of my redbud trees in the ground - Randy and Rudy.  By the next morning, Randy was gone.  I haven't checked Rudy today but I am not holding out hope for his continued survival.  (Yes, I could surround him with wire, but if a critter REALLY wants to eat him, they'll get to him no matter what I do.)  Inside the greenhouse, everything seems to be thriving.  I need to repot some green peppers, now that I have two vacant bigger pots.  I still only have two tomatoes, but there's hope.  The potatoes have taken over.  

In exciting news, we've seen the first fawns of the year!  Brand new, still wet off the factory floor, baby deer.  New deer are so tiny!  (Of course.  They have a small door to go through when they first enter the world, so that have to be tiny.)  They grow fast, though, so we've already seen one that's less tiny.  Some of the deer were still pregnant as of last night, so there's more to come.  

I think that's it for me today.  Other things happened, but nothing of note.  Have a great day out there and a wonderful week.  :hugs:

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 20

Here we are again at another week.  Let's see what happened.

I wrote.  I still don't want to talk about it much.  Suffice it to say, I wrote 4 nights in a row and ended up with around 2800 new words, all on one WIP, so there ya go.  I'm not celebrating, in case this is an anomaly.  The hardest part about writing after so many months away is retraining my fingers to type as much as I want for as long as I want.  Derp.

I marketed.  A little.  Blink moved a whole 17 copies.  Woot.  Not sure what this week will bring.  I'm at the end of a 90 day KDP reup, so this week might be a little iffy.

Reading still isn't a thing, but I made a little progress with Rudy.

In baking news, yesterday, Hubs made me a cake from scratch - yellow cake, chocolate frosting with a layer of strawberry jam in the middle.  Yum.  It's not the prettiest thing, but it's been more than 20 years since he made a cake, so I'm not harshing him too much about it.  He was going to make the frosting, too, but after the cake wouldn't come out of the pan and ended up kinda roached, he left the frosting to me.  Hey, it tastes good and he tried, so that's all that matters.

On the activity front, I wasn't.  I did some garden stuff and I went shopping.  Meh.  Didn't bother weighing myself.  Weight: Fat.

The trail cam has been fun.  See yesterday's post.  The new mower is awesome.  So's the new greenhouse.  Shopping for the win.  Woot.

The garden is growing right along in the greenhouse.  I have one little grape tomato growing and one little Early Girl tomato.  The green peppers are trying to come back from getting munched, as are the black cherry and the persimmon.

Yesterday, I cut my hair.  Short.  It was bugging me, so off it went.  It looks pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  No, there aren't any pics.

Speaking of cake... Today is our anniversary.  22 years.  Go, us!  And tomorrow's my birthday.  56 years.  Go, me!  (Yes, people shouldn't leave important dates lying around the internet, but we make sure we never use those dates in any security questions or passwords, so there ya are.)  We aren't doing anything for either.  We don't give each other cards or gifts anymore.  I think that stuff stopped about 15 years ago.  We're happy with each other and celebrate each other every day, so no prezzies are necessary.

And that's it for me today.  What's been up with you lately?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 15

 Here we are again at the beginning of another week.  Time to look at last week.

Book marketing was done.  I moved 52 copies of Fertile Ground.  From previous marketing, I had page reads of Dying Embers and Song of Storm and Shroud.  Oh, and Wish Hits the Fan goes on freebie starting tomorrow.

Reading is still going slow, but I am reading, so I have that going for me.  I'm about a third of the way through Leadership by Rudy Giuliani.  It's really interesting.

No baking.  Which is good because my EWA doesn't need the calories.  

I was pretty active this week.  I did a hard target walk, vacuumed, worked on the deck garden, and planted trees in the woods.  I haven't weighed myself, though, so whether any of that is starting to shrink my ass?  Dunno.  

Speaking of gardening, Pedro Potato is getting tall.  I have another pot with tiny potato plants coming up, too.  One tomato and two of the peppers have flowers.  The carrots are growing right along and need thinning again.  Then there are the trees.  They all seem to be doing well.  The one unknown tree has been identified as a persimmon, so yay.  Thank you to whatever squirrel or bird planted that seed in my garden last year.  

Speaking of trees, Cecil and Clyde went into the woods.  They're my oldest two cedars and it was time.  When I turned Cecil out of his pot, it was obvious he needed more space.  He was getting rootbound in there.  Clyde probably could've spent another year on the deck, but like I said, it was time.  I can still see Cecil from the house, so yay.  Fingers crossed that nature doesn't harsh my babies.

Pregnancy abounds in the deer herd, so yay.  Lumpy is still rolling along, but does not appear pregnant, which is a mercy.  We also have phoebes nesting under the deck and chickadees using our birdhouse.  I love Spring.

Other than that, life is pretty boring here.  What's up with you?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 12

Hello.  I'm up obscenely early for a Sunday, but that's on the cats.  They didn't like last night's food, so they're being turds.

I thought about writing and editing this week.  That may be a sign that I'm jones'n for it.  Shhh, don't frighten the gumption away.  Marketing went crickets on me.  I only moved 15 copies of UNEQUAL.  :shrug:  Tomorrow starts a 'series bonanza' - something different I'm trying - wherein all the books in the A Model Curse series will be free for 5 days.  I've already set up tomorrow's post on that.  

I started reading a book.  Woot.  I'm about a quarter of the way through Leadership by Rudy Giuliani.  

No baking.  I did make a really tasty sweet & sour chicken dish, even if the breading on the chicken did go pear-shaped* on me.

On the activity front, I was a little active this week.  It was mostly garden work - removing detritus from the outside beds and working on the potted plants on the deck.  We did walk once, though.  Go us.  I haven't weighed myself.  Weight: Fat

The potted plants seem to be doing okay.  I'm not sure if I mentioned that 3 out of my 4 pots worth of tiny carrot plants died, but the 4th pot is doing good.  I will be thinning that this week and replanting the other pots with new carrot seeds.  I have 1 tiny potato plant coming up, which thrills me no end.  The repotted green peppers are all doing well.  All six of my redbud trees have leaves.  The redbud I thought was dead is trying, so yay.  Both of my remaining dogwood trees have tiny leaves.  The three mystery trees are all doing really well.  I'm no longer sure that one is a black cherry, but I'm getting more sure that one is a buckthorn.  We'll see.

I did try to do some carving this week.  I was really getting into it when the gouge slipped and I perforated my thumb knuckle.  That'll teach me.  Of course, I wasn't wearing the safety gloves.  I hate gloves when I have to actually do anything with my hands.  Of course, I'll be wearing them the next time I carve, because while I am sometimes foolhardy, I'm not stupid.  Live and learn.  Thankfully, it wasn't a large perforation and I'm a good clotter.  I'm just waiting to be 100% sure it won't open back up before I go back to strenuous hand activities.  

Other than that?  :shrug:  I hope you had a good week last week and that this coming week is amazing for you.

*a British phrase that I appreciate, so I'm gonna use.  What's English if not an opportunistic language that rummages through the pockets of other languages looking for spare phrases and shiny euphemisms?

Thursday This n That

The saga of Brightspeed still lives.   In case you don't remember, we kicked Brightspeed to the curb last July and have since continued to receive information from them.  I've called and called, to no avail.  I finally gave up on them in October.  I figured if they wanted to continue to waste money on me, more power to them.  Well, I gave up on the giving up.  You see, a few days ago, we started getting calls from Brightspeed, giving us updates on the service repair in our area.  After the third time of one of us running across the house to make sure it wasn't family only to see it was Brightspeed, I went to their website, found a complaint email addy, and wrote them a stern missive.  Lo and behold, yesterday afternoon, we got another call about the service repair and I was pissed.  Minutes after that, the phone rang again and it was Brightspeed again.  I picked up with every intention of shouting at the recorded message.  Needless to say, I was shocked to find an actual person on the line.  She was calling about the email I sent.  I explained everything to her, reiterating what was in my email and adding additional info.  She was nice - and American, I might add - and she vowed to get this cleared up.  Fingers crossed it actually happens this time.  No offense to her, but I've heard it before.  :shrug:

I don't know about you, but I get tired of dealing with the same shit every day.  And no, I don't want different shit.  I want a cessation of shit.  Is that too much to ask?

Speaking of dealing with shit, Facebook is intermittently preventing me from reacting to posts.  There's no rhyme or reason to it.  I just can't do it and get a snotty message when I try.  Blerg.

From the tiny acorn grows the mighty oak.  Well, yeah, but have you ever seen a sycamore seed?  Those things aren't much bigger than dandelion seeds and from those suckers grows an even mightier sycamore.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of oaks, but sycamores are huge.  (Says the woman who just watched her husband chainsaw a 50 ft sycamore that had fallen on our land.)  For that matter, have you ever seen an elm seed?  They look like tiny frisbees - smaller than a dime - with a lump in the center.  From those grow the majestic elm.  All I'm saying is trees are amazing.

I just started reading Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani.  The first chapter is all about 9/11.  It's a hard thing to read about, but I guess I'm finally ready to revisit that horrible day.  I never realized how close we were to losing Rudy in all that.  I wish he'd run for President in 2008 and beat what we ended up with.  He would've been an amazing President.  I wanted him to run with Connie Rice as his VP.  They would've made an awesome duo for the leadership of this country.  

Okay, well, I think that's enough out of me today.  What's up with you?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 9

 Argh.  Time change... I'm later posting this than I thought I was.  Derp.  

I didn't get much sleep last night.  I went to bed at 9 like a good girl, but I couldn't sleep and then Sawyer was being a turd, so I just got up.  I finally went back to bed at midnight.  Unfortunately, I still laid there.  And I had no sooner fallen asleep when I had to pee.  

Anyway...  Per my current outlook on life, no writing or editing.  I did some marketing for AD, but didn't really move many books.  Tomorrow WIOH goes on the freebie block.  (You might notice that for this 90-day run, so far, the books have been in the order in which they were published.  I'm not sure how long I'll continue this, but there it is.)

I'm still reading duMaurier.  I'm about halfway through.

Earlier this week, I made raisin walnut quick bread.  Yums.

On the activity front, it's been less about burning calories than accomplishing stuff.  I did some gardening and some carving, groceries, etc.  I haven't weighed myself since last week.  I don't expect the number to have changed.

As for carving, all my supplies are here and I'm in the process of teaching myself how to use the tools.  I have a big chunk of cedar on the sunporch for that purpose.  While I was messing with it, a thin piece came off in my hand, so now I'm carving on that.  It's probably 8 inches by 4 inches and maybe a third of an inch thick.  It's shape reminded me of feathers, so I'm trying to make that happen.  I also might cut the end of the chunk off to make myself a cube of wood and turn that into a sphere.  Additionally, my salesman brain got the idea to carve baby bunnies wearing diapers... and now I know that there are places where you can buy diapers to put on rabbits.  Anyway, I'm still excited about the hobby, so yay.

On the gardening front, I planted the carrot seeds and the potato chunks.  Now we wait.  Still no sign from most of the trees that they are, in fact, still alive.  :shrug:  It's early yet.  If they don't make it, I'll use their pots for veggies and other volunteer trees and try again next year.  This isn't a short game I'm playin' here.  Oh, and I need to move my pepper plants outside.  Heh, one of my peppers has a carrot growing in with it.  A baby carrot I bought to eat was starting to grow in the fridge.  I cut the top off and stuck it into a pot with one of the peppers.  It's kinda cute, so I'll keep it.

Anyway, I think that's it for me this morning.  Not exactly what you might have stopped here looking for, but I hope my humdrum existence was a little interesting for you.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 8

Well, we're bombing the hell out of Iran.  Yay.  The Ayatollah is dead.  Also yay.  We're hitting military targets, those fuckers are hitting civilian targets.  Not so yay and also proof that what we're doing needs to be done to completion and not half-assed like the Gulf War.  The good people of Persia are happy we're doing what we're doing.  Anyone not happy can go pound sand.  But they better do it fast before we turn it into glass.  Glass up your ass.  :gigglesnort:

Anyway, my life...

No writing or editing.  I'm not sure when I'll do that again, but I'm not calling it quits, so the blog title stays.  I did some marketing, which for some reason took off like a rocket and garnered me some sales.  I finished February with 17.16 books sold for $29.76.  Not big money, but better than a sharp stick, so I'm happy.  And I've already got page reads this morning so my March dashboard doesn't look like a ghost town.  I'm not sure which book I'll pimp tomorrow, so stay tuned.

I read two books on wood carving this week.  One on whittling and the other a more comprehensive volume.  I'm also slowly making my way through The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne duMaurier.  

No baking.

Activity... It was a busy week for me.  I did something active 5 out of 7 days.  Early in the week, when it was still cool, I worked in the woods.  Other days, I did cleaning projects.  One day I did gardening.  I surprised myself by actually discovering visible biceps.  Woot, I have muscles again!  Unfortunately, I also ate like a horse this week, so... Weight: 177.2  =op

My wood carving hobby is getting exciting.  Like I said, I read two books about it, and since my tools arrived on Friday, I can now get started learning by doing - which is my preferred way to learn anyway.  

As for gardening, I moved all my baby trees outside.  I also filled pots with dirt and I'm ready to plant carrot seeds.  I'll be ready to plant potatoes once I cut my starter spuds into quarters, dry those cut edges, and buy more dirt.  All things in their own time, I guess.  I'll also be planting tomatoes once the local store starts carrying seedlings.  Oh, and I have three green pepper plants that made it through the winter in my spare room, so those'll be going into pots and outside once the weather is guaranteed to not turn to freezing.  

All in all, life is pretty good here.  I'm busy-busy, even if it's not writing related, and I'm okay with that.  (Not super-okay, otherwise, I wouldn't feel the need to go on and on about it, but okay enough for now.)

How are things in your world?

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.

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?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 4

Hey there, friends and fans!  Welcome to February!  (Okay, I'm not really that perky this morning, but you know what they say... fake it 'til you make it.)

This week, no writing. Editing was sporadic, but I am up to 28% of the book has edit notes now.  Marketing happened and because of marketing I ended January with nearly $16 in sales and moved like 13 copies of paid-for books.  Woot.  Hey, ya gotta get your excitement where you can.  I did only move 26 free copies of NC :sad trombone:, though. This coming week, Blink of an I will be free.

I'm about 75% done with The Night Manager.  I had hoped to finish it before the end of January, but that didn't happen.  Oh, well.  

In baking news, I made a loaf of Raisin Pecan Quick Bread and a pizza.  Then yesterday, I got a wild hair and made a loaf of Oatmeal Bread (a yeasted bread) - plain, no raisins or cinnamon or swirling.  It turned out really yummy and we had slices of it with our pot pies for dinner.  The baking has really helped keep the house warm, too.  

On the activity front, it's been COLD, so not a lot of activity going on here.  Hubs and I shoveled the driveway.  I did grocery shopping.  Other than that, nada.  We did go across the street to help when she got her SUV stuck, but the guy who lives there got it out before we made it up the hill, so that really was only a short uphill walk for me.  I did step on the scale - clothed because it was COLD.  Then I stripped anyway because I'm all about the data, and learned my clothes weighed 3.2lbs.  My weight: 177.6

Because of the cold, I spent a lot of the week huddled inside in front of the tube.  We watched some really good movies (and vetoed some duds).  Unfortunately, since I'm not doing a weekly movie post, I didn't write their names down and I'm at a loss to remember most of them.  We caught a good one yesterday called Evidence of Blood (from 1998) that starred that guy who played Tom Cruise's brother in The Firm (David Strathairn).  Really good stuff there.  We also watched The Courier (2020) yesterday.  That was Benedict Cumberbatch as an everyday guy back in 1962 who gets recruited to carry documents from the USSR to the UK.  It was based on a true story, and the story is pretty amazing.  We've also started watching a goofy British crime-comedy called Vexed.  What a hoot.

Yeah, my life is pretty boring.  But that's life in the woods, eh?  How have things been where you are?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 3

Who had Civil War II on their 2026 bingo card?  It's not north vs south this time.  It's law-abiding citizens vs law breakers.  Anyway...

I didn't do any writing this week and I did very little editing.  I think I got one page of notes which amounted to only 1% of the book.  Then my hand started to cramp and I set it aside for a while, which ended up being a longer while than I had intended. (Sno-pacalypse prep didn't help there.)

Marketing was done.  I moved 100 copies of EG and someone read the book in KU, so I have that going for me.

I'm about halfway through The Night Manager.  Maybe setting my goal at 35 books read for the year was wishful thinking.  

In baking news, I made a quick bread.  I started out to make that raisin-pecan bread and was about halfway through when I realized that the milk in the fridge had gone bad.  Since I wasn't inclined to hop in the car and drive to the DG at that time, I searched for a substitute.  I ended up settling on vanilla yogurt and water.  The loaf baked up nice and looked lovely.  It also tastes pretty good.  Cutting it was the problem.  I tried cutting it hot and it fell apart.  :shrug:  It cut fine after spending the night in the fridge, yay, so I sliced the whole loaf.  Now it only falls apart if we microwave it to warm it up.  And that's okay.  I may make it again with the yogurt and tweak it so it holds up better.  

On the activity front, I did an hour in the woods, throwing logs before the snow flew.  Yesterday, we shoveled snow.  I also did a double-load of grocery shopping, which was definitely exercise.  I haven't weighed myself - it's too cold to be naked in the bathroom right now.  My last weigh-in wasn't good, though.  Blerg.

Speaking of throwing logs, the newest pile I created ended up with a big empty spot at the bottom, next to a downed cedar.  I got the idea to make it a critter hidey-hole, so the last time I was in the woods, I reinforced that idea.  It has two openings and a windbreak, plus as many leaves as I could pack around it.  I hope the critters use it. I'd use it if I was a critter.  For his woods-work, Hubs moved the remainder of the wood he'd already cut, so it wouldn't be sitting there when the snow hit.

Speaking of snow, we shoveled about 2-3 inches off the driveway yesterday.  It was light, dry snow, so not that big a deal itself.  It was really COLD though, so that was a kicker to the proverbial nuts.  We weren't out there too long, but we accomplished what we set out to accomplish.  We'll see what daylight brings and how much more we'll have to do today.  The plan is to clear our driveway and, if necessary, get the driveway across the road.  Those folks are both in their 80s and he's not in the greatest of health, so we do what we have to.  That goodness I bought that new snow shovel last month.

This week, we also spent a lot of time getting ready for the winter storm, but I already talked about that.  I guess that means I'm done with the update.  Have a great week, wherever you are.  Stay warm.  Stay safe.  Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 2

Well, here we are again at Sunday morning.  I wanted to sleep in today, but my bladder had other ideas.  Derp.

No writing this week - it's editing time.  Unfortunately, not a lot of that was done either.  I think I'm at 13% on my edit notes, which works out to like 2.5 pages worth of notes.  Better than nothing, but I need to get my act together if I want to reach the goal of being done with this by the end of the... oh crap, it's the 18th.?!  Really? Well, crap.  It would take a miracle to get this book finished in 12 days.  So, let's say this book's deadline is February.  Sometime in February.  Before March?  

I did marketing.  UWC was free and it moved 38 copies.  I also moved 2 copies of WIOH at regular price, so there's that.  I also moved one copy each of DE and of FG, which I assume is from previous marketing.  Yay.  And someone's been reading PH in KU.  woot.  I'm up to like $9 for the month, which isn't gravy, but it's better than a sharp stick in the eye.

I'm still reading The Night Manager.  It's slow going because I'm also trying to read my book for edit notes.

This week, I made beef stew, which turned out awesome, and biscuits to go with that (also awesome).  Then I made a pineapple upside-down cake.  Yummers.

On the activity front, I did a couple days out in the woods throwing logs.  Those kicked my ass, which led to not doing anything for a day or two (or five) after each session.  I'm not as young as I used to be and I keep forgetting that.  So, doing nearly 2 hours in the woods hits me like a 200-pound boxer hits a weakling with a glass jaw.  Derp.  Let's not talk weight, eh?  It was 177.8 last Sunday and I don't expect it's gone down any since.  Did I mention the pineapple upside-down cake?  Yeah.

Speaking of throwing logs, Hubs is most of the way through moving the piles of firewood he's already made with the chainsaw.  And I'm making good progress creating other piles of not-firewood - better known as taking all the crap lying around and moving it to centralized locations.  (Can also be known as creating wildlife habitats, but that's tertiary.)  The hope for me is to create a glade down there in the woods, with wildflowers and pretty trees.  Maybe a gazebo... you know, if I win the lottery or something.

We're trying a new high-protein food for Lumpy.  I think she's looking better, but that could just be wishful thinking on my part.  This cold snap could be the deciding factor on whether she lives through this winter.  It's 10 degrees out there.  :shudder:  

Speaking of 10 degrees... Umm, yeah, I won't be going in the woods until the air can't hurt my face.

I went to the thrift store this week.  No books, but I didn't find a really nifty posthole digger for $7.  Woot.  Yes, I am a redneck who gets excited about cheap tools.  We'll be using the posthole digger to make holes... naturally... which will be used to plant trees.  Or at least to get the ground here broken up enough to maybe plant trees.  We have a plan.

And on that exciting farm implement news, I think that's it for me.  What's been up with you?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 1

Well, we wrapped up the first week of the new year and lemme tell ya, I didn't have this stuff on my bingo card for the year (i.e. the Venezuela stuff, the Iran stuff, the Minnesota stuff).  Wow.

Anyway... Writing didn't happen, because I just finished a book and I took the week off.  Editing was supposed to start yesterday but, while I did email the book to my Kindle, I didn't do any.  I did write a short blurb.  And I think I have a title - JUSTICE: PAST DUE.  (Sucks, doesn't it.  Titles suck.)  I do hope to have this book done by the end of the month, so I'd better get cracking.

Marketing happened.  I moved 30 copies of PH.  I also sold a copy of DE and someone read pages of both TTW and PH, so yay.

I finished that book I was reading, so I have a new Books Read post for 2026, and I'm currently reading The Night Manager by John LeCarre.  It's pretty gripping.

In baking news, I made Raisin Pecan Quick Bread.  It's super yummy.  Yesterday, I did a vat of pulled pork.  Also yum.

On the activity front, I did three days of woods work and one day cleaning.  Woot.  Hang on, I have to go weigh myself...  Ack... never mind, you don't want to know.  I know I didn't want to know.  Weight: 177.8

Speaking of woods work, I moved the summer clean-up pile to the permanent pile.  (Summer clean-up pile is for any crap that falls in the yard during the hot months when we don't go into the woods due to ticks and snakes.)  Hubs went through all our old firewood and threw out anything that was roached, then reorganized the pallets for more efficient wood use, which gave us a couple of empty pallets for the newly sawn wood.  That black cherry tree is probably going to be a couple cords alone.  (Don't ask me.  I never did figure out how many chucks a woodchuck could chuck or how many logs are actually in a cord.)

The Boyz are currently fighting in what I've begun to call The Box Maze.  Some days.  Ugh.

Other than that, not much going on.  It's pretty same-same here.  How are things in your world?

Oh.  It just occurred to me after I hit Publish that this is the 11th, so I had to come back to add this.  It's my accident anniversary.  32 years today.  :shrug:  Ya know, this used to be a bigger deal, but now I'm kinda over it.

2026 - Books Read

Well, it's time again to create another Books Read post.  This will be my 18th year of doing this on this blog, so I expect my regular followers to know the drill.  For everyone else, here's how it goes:

The books are listed from oldest read at the bottom to newest read at the top.  There'll be Title by Author (Date) - Genre.  Title only, no series info because I'm lazy.  The title will mostly be linked to the book's Goodreads page.  If there's then an asterisk, it's an ebook.  If it's new to me and underappreciated (less than 50 ratings/reviews), I'll put a hashtag.  

I set my reading goal at 35, because I was such a toad of a reader last year.

Okay, so here goes:

4) How to Carve Wood by Richard Butz (2/28/26) - NF

3) The Complete Starter Guide to Whittling by Wood Carving Illustrated (2/26/26) - NF

2) The Night Manager by John LeCarre (2/8/26) - Thriller

1) The Dead Will Beckon by Jason Chapman (1/4/26) - Suspense*#

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 52

Time to wrap up the last week of the year.  All in all it was a good week, so here goes...

Writing:  Last night, I finished the first draft of DN3.  Yay!  It's just under 49K words right now, but I expect to add a bunch in editing.  And I hate the end, so I'm guessing it'll have a rewrite.  I also came up with a title last night when I was supposed to be falling asleep.  How does Duke Noble, P.I.: The Deepest Cut strike you?  :half-shrug:  I loved it last night.  Now I'm not so sure. (Updated 8:20pm - The phrase 'the first cut is the deepest' wasn't coined until way past when this book is set, so NOPE.  Back to the drawing board.)

I did marketing.  Thicker Than Water (DN2) was on the block.  I moved 129 free copies, one full price copy after the freebie, and someone read it in KU.  Here's hoping that those freebies turn into sales of Rumor Has It (DN1) 

I did reading.  I finished my first book of the year.  (And I totally forgot to add it in Goodreads, or make a 2026 goal for the year, so don't go looking over there.)  It wasn't bad.  Actually, it was pretty good.  Different.  And not what it was billed as... hard boiled crime? Not.  Anyway, it was good, so that's a win.

In baking news, I made stuffed pork chops yesterday.  Those were yummy, so yay.

On the activity front, I did 3 days of woods work - hauling deadfall and cutting it up and raking it up - for about 2.75 hours.  I haven't weighed myself to start the year yet.  I'm a little leery because I've been noshing quite a lot lately. (ETA: I did it.  Weight: 177.4 - well, at least there's a starting point to go down from.)

Speaking of woods work, the big fallen black cherry tree is mostly cut up now and all the top branches/twigs have been moved to a pile that's out of the way.  So yay.  We have several stacks of firewood laying out there that have to be moved, but they'll be fine out there for the time being.  We're both feeling pretty good considering what we've done and our respective ages, so we've got that going for us.

My Christmas tree is still up.  I have to take that down and get back to normal.  

I located my 2026 day-planner.  I bought it in early December and put it somewhere I wouldn't lose it (and the cats wouldn't eat it), then promptly forgot where that was.  I looked in all the obvious places, but nope.  Then I noted a spiral binding peeking out from the top row of books on one of my bookshelves.  Huzzah!  

Since I was a total spazz last month, I didn't get my spreadsheets prepared for the coming year, so I did a lot of those last week.  I still have a couple of personal ones to do, but those can keep.  

Other than that... Welcome to 2026!  May it be a banner year for us all.

How was your final week of 2025?

2025 Books Read

Here we are with my 2025 Books Read post.  I started it a little later than usual this year because it took me a while to finish that first book.  

If you haven't been following along all these years, here's how this post goes.  The books I read are in reverse order - newest first.  * means ebook.  # means 'new to me and underappreciated'.  If there's a number at the end, it's where the book's at in a series.  The links go to Goodreads where I may or may not have written a review.  (Check back on Saturdays for my weekly Reading Wrap-up to see reviews.)

I set my goal for this year's reading at 70.  We'll see how that goes.  (Updated: On 11/27/25, I changed my goal to 40 books.  I'm not sure if I'll eve hit that, but it's a goal.)

Okay, with that out of the way, let's begin...

35) Stellar Ranger by Steve Perry (12/27/25) - SF/Western/Noir

34) The Martian by Andy Weir (11/25/25) - SF

33) Dream of Orchids by Phyllis A. Whitney (10/9/25) - romantic suspense

32) Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie (9/18/25) - mystery

31) Tales from the 'White Hart' by Arthur C. Clarke (9/11/25) - SF

30) Primordial Threat by MA Rothman (8/28/25) - SF*

29) Five Complete Hercule Poirot Novels (8/18/25) - mystery

28) The Devil's Angel by Margaret Bernard (7/26/25) - UF*#

27) Space Academy Dropouts by Phipps & Suttkus (7/6/25) - SF humor*#

26) Sweet Harmony by Noel Bailey (6/25/25) - magical romance*#

25) The Danger by Dick Francis (6/15/25) - thriller

0) Novella by Name Withheld (6/9/25) - SF*

24) The Face in the Water by Kathleen Pennell (6/8/25) - mystery*#

23) Blade Runner (or Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep) by Philip K Dick (6/5/25) - dystopian

22) You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming (5/29/25) - action/hard-boiled crime

21) On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming (5/24/25) - action/hard-boiled crime

20) The Singing Stones by Phyllis A. Whitney (5/17/25) - romantic suspense

19) Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (5/15/25) - mystery

18) Bill and the Last Cup of Coffee by Lance Lassen (5/8/25) - dystopian action/humor* (I read the ebook, but this is the link to the paperback. In the time between now and when I downloaded the book, the ebook page has been removed and the paperback was set to 'out of print'. :sadface:)

17) Goldfinger by Ian Fleming (5/5/25) - action/hard boiled crime

16) In Plain Sight by Dan Willis (4/27/25) - magical hard-boiled crime*

15) Dr. No by Ian Fleming (4/26/25) - action/hard boiled crime

14) Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (4/20/25) - dystopian

13) Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming (4/16/25) - action/hard boiled crime

12) Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke (4/11/25) -  science fiction

11) Murder by the Script by Lisa Pevey (4/8/25) - cozy mystery*

10) Festive Fonts and Fowl Murder by Lisa Pevey (4/7/25) - cozy mystery*

9) The Modigliani Scandal by Ken Follett (4/6/25) - suspense

8) A Murder in Cursive by Lisa Pevey (4/3/25) - cozy mystery*

7) The Ebony Swan by Phyllis Whitney (4/1/25) - romantic suspense

6) The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip (3/29/25) - fantasy

5) Murder by the Letter by Lisa Pevey (3/27/25) - cozy mystery*

4) Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout (3/26/25) - noir crime

3) Moonstruck: Retribution by Silver James (3/20/25) - paranormal romantic suspense*

2) President Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer (3/14/25) - noir crime

1) Child Star by Shirley Temple Black (1/8/25) - autobiography

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy this reading journey with me.