K.E. Skedgell

S o I have myself a few beta readers now and they're actually reading my story! Uh, yeah, I mean that's what I want, no doubt about it, but see, I'm used to handing off the first chapter or two for friends to read to get their opinion (and granted this was back when my writing sucked insert expletive ) and the usual caveat was no reply back. Ever. Even though my writing is somewhat decent nowadays, I expected that to happen again after finding me a few betas. Well, the first one that I hitched up with hasn't responded to me in two weeks, and I gave them the first six chapters three weeks ago. Gave them some time, thinking, okay, people have lives and they probably can't get to it right away. No biggie. Got an email saying they were still working on their notes and would send them to me in a few days. Sweet. So I waited, and waited, and still no email. That figures, I thought. Well, perhaps my story really does suck insert expletive . I tell peeps, if it isn...

F or the past couple of months I've made it a point to go for a walk every evening, or most evenings after supper to burn off the calories I had ingested. I was growing tired of my midsection expanding further and further and needed to do something to put an end to that nonsense, so I started taking long walks. So far I've lost ten pounds since winter, not a lot, but the weight didn't come on suddenly either. It was a gradual gain and will be a gradual loss. This post isn't about my weight loss, it's about what I discovered a month or more ago on my walks that has reminded me of my failure in life, my failure to have a good job or career, to have money in the bank or even for recreation, let alone for retirement and what have you. It stands on the corner of Washington and Middle streets in my home town, in all of its Victorian, tan brick, and purple shingled glory. Yup, a house. But not just any house, it's the house that since I was a young girl had dreame...

A nd the search begins for beta readers. I have a few willing readers already, that's if they can make it through all 180k words. Yeah, I failed to cut it to my goal of 150k words, but doing so would have taken out large chunks of the story that I would have had to rewrite and possibly change the story to where I didn't want it to be. Maybe I'm just too attached to the thing and maybe a beta or two may find something that can be cut or reduced (hopefully not expanded on, it's a doorstop as it is). My next task at hand is to search for another couple more betas, see if any of them will be a good fit for me and my work, and begin working on book two and a query letter. I may hold off on the query letter for a while yet until I get some more feedback from my betas in case any major restructuring will have to happen, which I doubt but you never know. Ideally I would like at least one beta that knows their stuff about 15th century Romania and Hungary and can help me mak...

I have a fascination with cemeteries because of the history of the dead laid to rest in them and their peaceful atmosphere. A friend and I went to this little hidden gem of a cemetery yesterday in eastern Barry County Michigan, only a few miles south of where we live, located in Maple Grove TWP on a dirt back road. It's easy to miss it if you don't know where to look for the drive, partially hidden behind wild shrubbery and grasses, looking every bit like a private drive. The drive is a two-track that goes up a steep hill, full of ruts from the heavy rain we've had lately here washing out parts of the drive, and on either side wild growth trimmed just enough to not scratch up your car too badly. However, not all the tree and shrub branches are cut back far enough to avoid scratches, so taking a car you wouldn't want scratched would be a good idea, or leave the car parked at the bottom of the hill off to the side of the road and walk. Entry of the cemetery. No ...

Y up, 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...

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 ...

I t 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...