In other news, it is deeply annoying that books have to 1) have titles and 2) have titles that have not already been the titles of other books. I have been--between scrubbing out cupboards and trying to give away old couches-- brainstorming titles for days that are not the working title ("Rain Novel") that I gave this book and they all somehow sound worse in my head than "Rain Novel". |
Max Griffin 🏳️🌈 ![]() |
Ben Langhinrichs ![]() |
March came in like a lion and is leaving like...a slightly smaller lion, in that it's raining instead of snowing. But we took one load of Stuff to the dump, and I am thiiiiiis close to having the house ready for the movers. It is indubitably easier when The Company moves you-- they hire professionals and their army of boxes/packers/loaders to walk through your house, look distainfully at all your stuff, and then heft it all into a semi to be transported state to state. But the professionals won't move a lot of things, mostly flammable things. So, for example, I have to get rid of cleaning products, candles, batteries, nail polish, hairspray. They'll move some food (oatmeal) but not other food (canned beans). They won't move houseplants for obvious reasons, but every time they ask me if we're moving the garden shed. (We are never moving the garden shed.) They DID pack up a trash can with trash in it last move, though, so you can see why I get confused. However, every move I knock myself out trying to remove all this stuff before the movers get here. Why? Because I 1) own a piano and 2) last move there were 42 cartons of books. I know we have acquired MORE books since last move. I am betting we are over 50 cartons of books this time, and the movers made sad dolphin noises every time they opened a cupboard and found... MORE BOOKS. So I try to make it easy on them, and get rid of my nail polishes in advance. And believe it or not, I *have* culled the books! This isn't as many book as it could have been! things could always be worse! |
Even with professional movers, you've still got to UNpack. My experience is that they just dump stuff in random boxes. It took us weeks to unpack after our last move. In fact, Gene's still got a bunch of boxes in the garage he never unpacked from our move eight years ago. |
I've been hoping that March would depart like a chicken --- leaving a few eggs behind. Those little oval objects have been so expensive I had started trying to learn to lay 'em myself! |
Max Griffin 🏳️🌈 ![]() |
Home (to the old house) for a while, anyway, to start getting things into boxes and the place set up for showings. Times/dates for when we head to the new house TBD, we should know soon. Meantime my dog is very offended with me for cleaning him. Will I write until we are safely ensconced in the new place? I have no idea, but I can tell you one thing, friends: I read some books on my plane/rental car/uber odyssey these last few days, and ya'll are at LEAST as good as *those* writers. (One--published, bestselling--book I read had a character saying "when I looked at him, my gaze was hard". As if the POV character could step outside herself for a minute, or perhaps catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and notice how her gaze appears to others. [No, there is no mirror, she is a peasant in a shack at that point.] MY writing pals would never let ME get away with these kinds of shenanigans and goings-on, is all I'm saying.) Hopefully I can do some reviews tomorrow, if I get enough floor-waxing done... |
Today the Husband is meeting his new work site people and I am scoping out our (possible) new town. First order of business: find the library and the bookstores. Then I will know which house to buy... |
My Dad was career Air Force and we moved around a lot when I was younger. I moved five times in my first eight years of school, spending the third grade in Mississippi, Maine and Michigan. But I always spent the first couple days in a new town riding up and down every street on my bike to learn my way around. We always moved to small towns of fewer than 5000. What fun! |
Big doings at my house--we found out last night my husband will be changing jobs and we'll will be relocating. Exciting times--and I hope much better work life balance for him--but a buttload of work for me, so if you don't see me as frequently for a bit, never fear. I will return! Just have a lot of packing to do... :) |
Edited a chapter of Old Thing. Maybe can get to writing more of New Thing if kid appointments today don't take forever; maybe will take a paper copy of Other Old Thing with me to the orthodontist waiting room and sit there with a red pencil, looking official? (True fact: Staples will print out and coil-bind your novel manuscript for you, and then you can read it on paper and scribble all over it with colored pencils like God intended. For some reason this makes it easier to catch things than staring at it on a series of screens. I also like this better than my previous method of "print out a chapter at a time and lose the pages".) |
For days now I have been resisting writing yet another chunk of FEELINGS because I was looking sternly at this WIP like "now you listen here, young man, you can have your feelings when you finish all your vegetables plot!" But this morning I was so tired and bebothered at the prospect of a day full of Appointments that I said "fine, FINE, have some feelings, WIP. As a treat. Fine! If it will make you shut up about it!" And now I know what will happen in the next three chapters, including a lot of plot, and I'm so annoyed. (Have not *written* it yet. Well, I've apparently written two half-chapters. But I *know*, which is half the battle.) |
On the downside, I was super busy today and didn't get much writing done. On the upside, I got a cool review from Phantom Reviewer ![]() ![]() I was feeling a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't write today until I remembered that daylight savings time always messes me up for a few days, and my writing also gets messed up. Be gentle with yourselves if you can, and get to bed early. (People in other, saner countries, or Arizona, count your blessings. |
Edited some old chapters last night. This morning, got about 1000 words on a new chapter of the WIP. Feeling a little like this chapter is too full of thinky-thoughts; pretty sure I'm going to have to have something bad happen to the characters by the end of it. For one thing, the villain is still way too far in the background. But! I have foolishly done a bunch of typing, a bunch of cleaning, AND a bunch of piano-playing this week, and my wrist is getting borked. (Stop and do your ergonomic stretches, kids! Do your warmups!) Guess I'll have to do some reading for the next little while, oh no... |
This morning I wrote about 1500 words, which may or may not actually ever make it to prime time, but at least I'm winkling some secrets out of my characters. (They're such liars.) In the meantime, I was trying to tidy up my portfolio and test a theory about view counts, and I ran across an old, old story, one that I had forgotten about.
I still like this story--featuring a family of witches, the 1960s music revolution, and...buttons. |
Annoyed to realize I may have to actually stop and figure out the plot for this part of the WIP novel, very rude of it to not just proceed based on vibes. (Note: we are at 50k words. This happens every time I get here. Yet every time I am annoyed.) |
Update: a big injustice has been done. Dogs are reportedly not getting jambalaya, because it is "not good for dogs". According to dogs: this is very bad. |
It's Mardis Gras, so in defiance of the gray blah of the weather I'm cooking Cajun white beans, shrimp jambalaya, and cornbread tonight. And listening to Lofty's Roach Souffle, one of the underappreciated jazz albums of the world. (Maybe I swap to zydeco later tonight if I need help keeping myself in gear...) |
Raven ![]() |
Now I have to get up and fix me something to eat. Ya'll done made me hungry!! ![]() |