One Year Old Today

Yup, today my blog becomes one. The main purpose with this blog when I first started out was to share my writing experiences with y'all and some history stuff, and whatever else that floated into my noggin' that I wanted to share. Lately I've been quiet, my writing has ceased which is mainly the reason for my silence since this is supposed to be a writer's blog. No writing, nothing to share. I've even ceased with the random song of the week since it didn't seem to be very popular. Eh, it had its run.

I've been in a funk lately, as is usually the case this time of year where my mind switches over to gardening mode and my writing sits on the back burner. Last year I was in neither gardening nor writing mode, but I did write more last summer than I had ever done before, and managed to finish the first draft by the turn of the new year. Still working on draft three slowly but surely of book one, very slowly, and haven't touched book two in a long while. Perhaps I have just fallen out of love with the story right now, and distance away from it will help spark that love of it again. I'm usually not in the mind to write during the summer, but come fall I'm back into it through winter and early spring until the warm days strike and I'm in gardening mode once again.

It could also be depression, too.

I should also update the look of my blog since it isn't winter anymore (finally), but that requires effort I'm not into right now.

So happy birthday blog, and despite the dropping of page views lately because of my lack of updates, here's to another year!

The Last Few Days Have Been Something

I'm sore, burnt, and have tons of work to do. Last Friday my mom, a friend and her son, and me, all went down to Ohio 200 miles away to my ex's house to dig as many plants from my flower beds as we could fit inside the little 4'x8' trailer and the backs of both of the SUV's. And we didn't get them all. So Saturday my mom, brother, and me, went back down there while we still had the trailer and hauled some more. Still did not get all that I wanted, but got the majority. I could have grabbed a few others that would have fit, but I was so tired from digging I just didn't care anymore. I have roughly about 400 plants that I brought up here.

I suppose it's a good thing that I didn't grab more, now that I have some of them spaced out around in the beds I made, I wouldn't have had room for more. I'm afraid I won't have room for all of my hostas. Some may have to go in pots and I may have to dig out more grass. In the meantime, they'll get planted pretty close together and will be crowded for a while just so I can get them in the ground.

Speaking of planting, the soil from which they came is a sticky, clumpy clay loam which was saturated when we went to dig up the plants. We kept soil around the roots to help keep them alive until I can get them planted, but it is so compacted around the roots that I have to blast the soil off with the hose. I cannot plant them as they are, the soil here is sandy and that compacted soil, when it dries out, will act as a barrier keeping water from getting to the roots and make it hard for the plants to establish themselves. Right now it's raining, so I'm hoping the rain will wash off some of that soil.

This is just the daylilies, the hostas and other perennials are packed around the shade of the deck, their bed can't be seen in this picture.

I have a long week or two ahead of me to get everything in the ground. I'm exhausted already. I've put in a lot of work prepping for my plants, and now it'll take a while to get them in the ground. At least this is getting me outside, exercising, and maybe lose some weight (already lost a few pounds). I doubt I'll get much done writing-wise, I haven't even looked at my manuscript in almost a week. I may just have to work on editing a little here and there, but after a full day of gardening, and now looking for a job, I think I'm just going to be too exhausted to care. My goal this year was to start querying by June--perhaps I need to stop making such goals when it comes to my writing. I never seem to reach them, always something gets in the way.

Long Time, No Posts

It has been nearly three weeks since my last post. Nothing of any merit has happened since then. I've been outside digging my mother's yard for the last couple of weeks in preparation for the plants I'll be bringing up here from Ohio next weekend, assuming the weather cooperates. Speaking of weather, this has been one cold, wet, nasty spring up here in Michigan. Welcome back home, my home state says, enjoy all the cold and rain and yuck. Rivers and lakes are flooding all around, some of the worst around the Grand Rapids area. Low lying areas around here are underwater, the ground is just so saturated that it can't hold anymore. Except for my mom's yard. It's a sandy loam soil, so it drains really well, which will be good for my plants and will be quite the opposite of which they are growing in now, poorly draining clay loam.

On the writing front, sadly, not much has been done. I've barely started my second pass of edits (I decided to make a third draft after all). I removed a male on male (M/M) sex scene not because I was afraid to have it in there, but because it didn't make sense for the characters to do the deed considering their circumstance. I suppose when I originally wrote it, I wanted the two characters to have this intimate moment with one another because I knew a couple of chapters away one would lose his life, and that they would not have the chance again. But I decided it best to keep them from having their moment because I came to the conclusion it would be a dumb, selfish move on their part, even though nothing happens and they could have totally done it. Cutting out that scene took out another 1200 words from the manuscript, so that helped a little in cutting down my word count, and got rid of a scene that would have made a reader shake their head and say, "What are you two idiots doing?"

Also, it was kind of a long scene.

Still haven't touched book number two. Writer's block, or laziness, or maybe both, I don't know. I have the info I need to continue, but it's just easier to nit pick the manuscript that's already finished. And I have a cat that constantly licks himself whenever he's awake, which is in the evening, which is when I like to work, and which drives me absolutely nuts, so I put on my ear buds to drown out the sound, but then the music distracts me and I putz around on the internet and nothing gets done.

See, nothing of merit. So I guess I'll end the post here, go toss my bedsheets from the washer into the dryer, and get to work on something, which will be when Jake wakes and decides he needs to give himself a sloppy bath.

It takes work to be this sexy.

Random Song Of The Week #42

Ludovico Einaudi -- Newton's Cradle
Album -- In A Time Lapse (2013)

Instrumental.

Yes, another Ludovico song. I love his music, and this is a dark and chilling piece from his newest album. The video I found on YouTube is a time lapse video, and it's awesome. Do watch! Of course, to get the full effect of the music, it's best to listen on a headset or ear buds, but if you don't have either, watch this anyway and turn up the volume.

I'm Still Alive

I've been rather quiet on my blog lately, with good reason. I've been working on the edits of my manuscript for the past few weeks now that I'm out of my funk from having broken up with my boyfriend of seven years and moving back home with my parents. I still get mopey from time to time, but I'm doing better.

Today I finished my first pass of edits on this draft. I don't plan to have other drafts other than the first and this one, I just don't see the point in keeping so many versions (but, who knows, I may change my mind). I'll just hack away at this one until it's as tight as I can make it. I didn't get anywhere near my goal of cutting the manuscript down from 189k to 150k, I managed to cut a measly 7000 words. I'll let the manuscript sit for a week or so and then I'll start on pass number two. Hopefully I can cut more then with a little distance from it. Afterward I'll be seeking betas and their advice or suggestions. I've never edited a piece like this before, so perhaps I just don't know what to look for to cut when editing.

So while book one is marinating, I'll go back to book two which I've sadly neglected for a long while now. Though I'm sure Vlad is in no hurry to go into a war.

On a side note, it looks like spring may finally start to arrive. One side of me wishes for it to get here, the other side hopes it stays away for a while longer. Once the weather warms I'll be busy digging new beds around my mom's house to make room for all of the plants I will be going back for in Ohio. No way am I leaving my babies there. If I have to dig up half her yard to house them until I can find my own, hopefully permanent, place, then so be it. She won't mind, though. She likes flowers as much as I do. And all of that time spent in the yard will be time taken away from my writing, of which I usually neglect during the warmer months. At least I don't have a job yet taking over the rest of my time, though I have been looking. Me needs some monies. So that's why I've been putting most of my energies toward getting this book done and neglecting the blog. I'm running out of winter!

Soon, my preciouses, soon. Momma will miss you.