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Clap for me! In under the wire before the end of the year, I have FINALLY completed the structural edits for Last Year's WIP, "The Long Rain"  ! That is, I've reduced the number of POVs from five to two, made there be more events in the middle of the story (there was previously a lot of Feelings and Hiking in the middle), and rearranged the timeline a little. Now I will make passes for description, worldbuilding, and voice, and then a polish for prose. All this should, hopefully, go a lot faster than the structural stuff. (It is *heckin difficult* to get rid of three POVs and still have things make sense.) |
| The last of the Christmas parties to attend was last night, the gifts are all wrapped, I will do the last baking today (provided the wind doesn't knock out the power), and the kids are on holiday break from school. So in theory this next week is just cuddling up in my house and enjoying Christmas Stuff. (In theory. In actuality, it's Christmas Stuff plus packing suitcases.) I always have to watch Meet Me In St Louis this time of year, remember my aunts that I used to watch it with as a little kid, and cry when Judy Garland sings Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas with her whole broken heart in her eyes. What little thing do you like to do this week? |
| I regret to inform you all that Claritin seems to be working. Which means there are Death Trees somewhere in my neighborhood, spewing their love-dust (pollen) onto the air. GET A ROOM, TREES. |
| Me: I am all better from my cold! I am going for a light walk in the bright sun, and if I feel like jogging, I will! Me: *gets lured into jogging by Duran Duran* My cold: AHA! TAKE THAT! AND ALSO THIS Me: (puddle of goo) (I do not understand how this works. I didn't have a runny nose *the entire time* during my cold, but one little walk with some Duran Duran and now I have a runny nose? Unless this is an entirely separate second cold that was lying in wait. I do not think it's allergies; I haven't had allergies to anything since moving to Texas, in a shocking twist, since I was allergic to many things in Idaho.) |
Raven  - I had a friend, years ago, move from Florida to Texas. And she thought she was sick her first winter there. She didn't think it was allergies, because some states, or at least in Florida, the most pollen is released in the springtime. So, anyway, she ended up being allergic to the juniper trees. |
Chilly Charles 🎄  - Well, the great thing about the allergy hypothesis is that I took a Claritin, so if I feel better then we know for sure. Dagnabit, Texas, first with the snakes and then with the ants and now with the Death Trees! |
| Christmas cookie count so far: 1. Molasses cookies 2. "Christmas Wreaths" (jam thumbprint cookies you roll in nuts so they look kinda like a wreath) 3. Peppermint brownies 4. Walnut fudge ...and I put the fruit into the rum to soak overnight before I make the Christstollen tomorrow. I really need my German speaker to be off work before I begin that, though, because my German isn't fine enough to parse some of the baking instructions. (I can tell mostly what the ingredients are in German, and I can read temperatures and amounts, but I get confused easily with stuff that in English would be like "fold in the eggs".) In fact, I'm making him help me translate for *all* the German cookies, cinnamon stars and lebkuchen and everything. |
Good grief, people, two more? You're going to make me devolve into a ball of bashfulness.  (Best newsfeed contributor--which, I will argue with you about that one, I can think of several people--and best portfolio. Which, I can also think of several people who make their portfolio more useful to visit than mine, and sometimes remember to rotate their highlighted stories. Time to trot over and make some nominations of my own.) |
| My kid: ugh! I'm so cold! Me: so I know you don't think of yourself as a Texan man yet Kid: yep Me: but I can't help but notice Kid: ? Me: you're wearing a t shirt and shorts and bare feet, a thing an Idaho man would not do in December Kid: ???? Me: especially when he owns sweatshirts, sweatpants, and wool socks Kid: so you're saying-- Me: go put on your Idaho pants! |
| Today is that day when you think you're all better from your cold until you go to try to do something, like mop the floor, and realize nope, you are not better. Except I outwitted the sickness today by cleverly choosing to wrap presents and put dinner in the crockpot, so by the time I realized I was out of steam, it was the mopping I avoided. Way better than if I mopped first. Anyway, here is a Christmas carol for the grammar-anxious among us--cannot get it to embed: https://youtube.com/shorts/Q5xEA4Ih0aM?si=bWLuuhncbTuzwi4_ |
| This morning, not on WdC, I read an excerpt of a famous-at-the-moment book (you don't need to know which one, we're not here to be mean). And I thought, okay. Even a bad book can teach me something, right? This book has taught me that if I ever write one sentence that runs six lines long, I should probably stop writing for a bit and drink some orange juice before coming back to fix it. Because six lines, and nobody here is James Joyce. That's gotta be low blood sugar talking, and low blood sugar's an idiot. Alas, this author seems to have run out of orange juice a lot. |
| Ah, it's that time of year when every website you've ever shopped on, ever--and sometimes websites you haven't--email you about sales. Here is a trick that even I, with sore ears from a cold that sneaked into the house (of course it did), can do: "don't put it down, put it away", but for email. That is, don't delete that email from the expensive pajamas people, unsubscribe and THEN delete. Then inevitably, your inbox gets less and less horrible day by day. (Most of this doesn't apply to WdC inboxes. People really don't spam you here, which is nice. But I do also manage even my WdC email thusly: 1. Reviews are always viewable on the reviewed item itself. I only keep the reviews I really like looking at all the time in my inbox. (I know. But I'm vain and I *do* like looking at some of them.) 2. The newsletters are amazing but you can read the archives of those, too. So I read the newsletters when they come out, then delete them out of my inbox. 3. Really the only thing that is not easily re-findable are kind notes from people. Those are what stay in my email.) |
| I've started forwarding some of my most important WdC emails, such as those from two WdC friends whom I've not heard from in a very long time, to myself at an off-site account. I'm not sure what I'll do when that account gets full. |
Humbly Giving Poet PNG- 📓  - I've got internet friends that I've known for decades now, across multiple sites and platforms. I keep copies of their emails that are precious to me in several accounts and copied onto a thumb drive. If I'm really thinking, I keep them on the at-home thumb drive (the one that lives in the same box as the passports etc) and also on the keychain thumb drive. Belts and suspenders, etc. |
| I use an email masker when giving out my email, usually something like storenamedate@maskedemail.com. Then I do the unsubscribe-delete thing. But if that email gets used again, because it was attached to [storename], I know who sold me out. It is wild how much our data gets passed around. And breached. And all the yuck. (I also have an entirely separate email service for this kind of marketing/spam mail, so it doesn't sully my good inbox lol.) |
| In case you need something groovy to listen to while you putter tonight, here is a superior version of Jingle Bells: Also, a story! I found not this album but Fandango on vinyl at a little secondhand shop awhile back, the kind of shop that is basically just like an ongoing yard sale. The chatty lady was ringing up my purchases and stopped dead when she got to the album, stared at it, and then said, "Oh! Herb Alpert. Yeah, he was a stud." Somebody still loves you, Herb. (And those of you who are reading my WIP "Minerva Dreaming" and suddenly wondering, yes. The song is why Fandango is named that.) |
| Every year about this time I start thinking about Next Year, as one does. I don't make resolutions because I think those are kind of a trap, but I do Little Projects. What kind of little projects, you might say? Well, the lady where I got the idea from had a little project that was just reading about a lot of historical fancy hotels, because she liked that. One year I decided to indulge my love of Midcentury advice books, and almost accidentally my whole house got cleaner and my grocery bill was cut in half. One year I managed to do a 102lb power clean and jerk. One year I read a bunch of old Hollywood memoirs and learned that Joe Kennedy was even worse of a person than you think he was. See? Little Projects. So I'm thinking about 2026's Little Projects. One of them, I think, is going to be my ongoing (failed till now) quest to become the sort of person who remembers to send cards. Like real, paper cards in the mail. I'm gathering supplies, like stamps and a list of everybody's birthday. Last year I wanted to read all the Hercule Poirot books in order, but I moved to Texas instead and got sidetracked by that, so now that I've mostly unpacked all my books I'm going to make another run at it. I'm mulling other ideas. What are some Little Projects you might do in 2026? |
| Sounds great, and I wish you luck. Now, let me think... WRITING RELATED 1. Refine my review template to say everything I want it to and nothing that I don't. 2. AT LEAST once a week, post a finished scene from a WIP. 3. Find ways to make both Blog and Forum more attractive to readers. FUN STUFF 1. Swap rooms with wife and daughter. I'm in the very long family room, and they're in the smaller square living room. This won't really be fun, but swapping those rooms would benefit us all in terms of use of space. 2. See the end of Skyrim. 3. See the end of Fallout 4. 4. See the end of the original X-Com, only as the winner this time. 5. Become even closer with family (like that's possible!). J  |
Jack of Diamonds  - I need to make a list somewhere of all my little projects, broken out by section. For instance, continuing my Dumbphone experiments. Getting better at running. (I will never be GOOD at running, but I can get a bit better.) Going on more dates with my husband, learning more about the history of my new home town, etc. etc. |
| I love this idea. Every year I have little goals for myself like stopping biting my fingernails and exercising 5 days a week, but I've never thought about them being projects. That's a really good way of thinking about it. I plan to do this for next year too. Four or five little projects for the year. |
| My oldest took her SAT for the first time this morning, and I passed MY test of "be chill about your baby being old enough to take the SAT". In passing, everybody who walked into that building with her to take the test looked about 9 years old. This is how I know I am old. (I remember being that age and earnestly believing I could pass for 30.) |
Humbly Giving Poet PNG- 📓 - I was just thinking about Horizontal and Vertical this morning... I keep them straight by Z is horizontal and V is vertical  |
Amethyst Snow Angel  - Most folk are very confused. The sun isn't going down. The horizon is moving up. (I've always loved that bit from the record How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All?) |
| Amethyst Snow Angel - For me, horizontal is easy. It's my attitude after an evening with Clan MacGregor, Arthur Guinness, John Jameson, or one of a few other folk. Vertical, on the other hand, can be a bit of a challenge at times.  |
| I know I'm telling you all recipes all the time, but listen, I made this great soup in my crockpot yesterday. So: You take two bags of frozen corn kernels and dump them in there--but then scoop out like half a cup and put them aside in a bowl for later. Then the recipe calls for half an onion, chopped, and three or four potatoes, chopped, but you COULD do what I did and just dump in a bag of frozen diced potatoes. (The "southern style" hashbrowns.) Then a couple of cartons of chicken stock, or if you're forehanded and have made your own from a chicken carcass, I'd guess it was something like six cups. The recipe called for salt and pepper and garlic, but I happened to have a shaker full of chicken fajita seasoning so I used that instead. Cook all that on low for like four hours. Then, about twenty minutes before you want to eat, stir in a cup of heavy cream or half and half and some handfuls of shredded cheese, then use a stick blender to whir up the soup until it's as thick as you like. Leave some chunks. THEN take about four strips of crumbled bacon, that corn you saved earlier, half a red onion (chopped), a bunch of green onions (chopped), and some lime juice and toss it all in a little bowl. This is the topping for your soup. Dish up once the cheese has melted, top with the topping, and watch your sad, chilly family become a happy, contented family. |
Doooooo you need a hot buttered rum batter recipe? Then you should probably ask Chilly Charles 🎄  who knows wherof he speaks, but just in case, here's the one I use. Put it in an old cool whip container or something because you have to keep it in the freezer. Behold: 1 stick butter, softened 1 cup vanilla ice cream, soft enough to scoop easy 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup powdered sugar (I know, it's ok, you're using this stuff a spoonful at a time) A bunch of cinnamon, probably like a tablespoon? A bunch of nutmeg, probably ditto Put all this in your stand mixer until it is smooth (or stir really well) then put it in your old cool whip container and freeze. To use, put a tablespoon per mug of hot water, and add rum to taste. (Brought to you by a drizzly Texas day and the Husband's incipient sore throat. I make one batch per winter.) |
| Humbly Giving Poet PNG- 📓 - I'd think scotch would have a really distinct taste that you maybor may not like, and there's a school of thought that says you shouldn't mix scotch with anything but water. But you're the boss of your bar. (I wouldn't use an expensive peaty scotch for this though.) I usually use Irish or Tennessee whiskey because that's usually what I'm likely to have in the cupboard. |
| Raven - Bren & I are looking forward to trying the recipe. (Our budget wouldn't use an expensive Scotch either. It's a bit stingy. ) |
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Hey, at least you figured it out before you were at the doctor for being sick for a month straight. Hope the Claritin can finally give you some relief!
When/if I sell the thing I'm positive it won't have the title The Long Rain, alas, since 1) it's the name of a famous Ray Bradbury short story that I didn't remember--his is about Venus and 2) as the story grew into a novel, the rain became a repeating motif but not necessarily central enough to make it the title. I'm playing around with other titles.