Category: pets

Adventures in pet-sitting (and grocery shopping)

During this long weekend, I am pet-sitting for these two adorable siblings:

Daisy, a golden retriever mix.
Taco, a black cat with a white chin

That’s Daisy and Taco, my furry grandchildren.

I also managed a trip to Half-Price Books to fill up my Little Free Library. And I did some grocery shopping. I asked my daughter what I could pick up for her, and she gave me a list. Good enough. Except for when I came to this item:

Potatoes.

So, I asked via text.

Me: What kind of potatoes?

Her: Normal.

Me: …

Yeah, your guess is as good as mine.

Me: What is normal? Gold? Potatoes for baking?

A bit of an existential question, that: what is normal? Also, what is normal when it comes to potatoes?

Her: Ya just potatoes

Her: Like raw

Her: That I can cut up and put in soup

Ah. Gold it is, then.

I’ll leave you with that. Hopefully next week (this week?) we’ll return to regularly scheduled blogging.

Shenanigans and hibernation

We’ve been in hibernation mode this week. Kitty, of course, secured the coziest pet bed.

But it’s not like the dogs are suffering. We have more pet beds than pets and lots and lots of fleece blankets.

See? Plenty of blankets.

But it was definitely a week for hibernation.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been consistently writing every morning, and the story is in my head a lot more these days, but I had a book three brainstorming session this week as well. The sort that really does feel like a storm, where you’re typing notes as fast as you can because the ideas just keep coming.

Up until now, book three has been essentially a blank canvas. I know the (many) story threads I need to tie together, but the what and how and when could be summed up with one word:

Shenanigans

True, book three is all about shenanigans. But now I have an idea of what those shenanigans might be. This is a good thing since I’m getting close to the end of book two. I’m not only relieved, although I am that. But I’m excited as well. I’ve been trusting my intuition and subconscious to work things out while I’m busy elsewhere, and I’m pleased that’s happening.

This coming week is bringing us some warmer weather. However, I predict Kitty will still claim the best bed in the house.

Weekly writing check-in: meet our new family member

Introducing … Milo!

Yes, we’ve added another four-legged member to our family (this makes three dogs and one cat if anyone is counting).

Milo is an American Bulldog, and he’s the sweetest dog you’d ever want to meet. American Bulldogs are often called a large-breed lapdog. Um. Yeah. He’s totally that. And everyone is (more or less) getting along as well.

In writing news, I not only completed the “book map” for my trip through expanding The Trouble with Doppelgangers into a novel, but I started work on it as well.

I also played around with some cover concepts for the first book and the series.

In audio news, I approved the audio for the first season of Coffee and Ghosts. Now the fine people at Findaway Voices will do all their technical checks and get it into the distribution system.

Weekly writing check-in: an outline in the bag!

I have an outline for the first story in the fairy tale series in the bag (along with a cat). Not only that, but I have an inkling of what might happen in the other books, and how I’ll go about accomplishing that.

Well. More or less.

I might start writing the draft this week. I want to do a little more brainstorming of the entire series, get something more concrete than “bad stuff happens here” and things like that.

That’s about it for this week. I think I got a rejection (checks submission tracker … yep, I did), which I’ll look to sending out in the next few days or so. Otherwise, I’ve been focusing on the new series and getting everything ready for the Coffee and Ghosts BookBub in May.

Weekly writing check-in: the one with dog days of August

OscarAs everyone knows, the best place to hide from thunderstorms and firecrackers is in the faux fur blanket, as Oscar is demonstrating.

This is what our dogs do during the dog days of August.

In other news, I started the draft for the third episode of season three of Coffee & Ghosts and came up with 6,000 words, which isn’t a bad way to start off. I have layers to pull back and story threads to tie together. If nothing else, I’ve learned that writing a series is rewarding, fun, and challenging.

I also started formatting my e-books with Vellum. Oh, how I love this program. True, I haven’t clicked on Purchase. Not yet. But I plan to. In the meantime, I can get a feel for the program and learn all its options–a true try-before-you-buy opportunity. I’m pretty much sold already.

Additionally, Chicago Review Press contacted me and offered up an ARC of Women Heroes of World War II—the Pacific Theater: 15 Stories of Resistance, Rescue, Sabotage, and Survival, which I can’t wait to read. I loved the other two in the series (and reviewed them on my blog as well).

So, writing, formatting, books to read. It’s been a good week.

Writing Work:

  • Writing: Coffee & Ghosts ~ 6,000 words
  • Photoshop and Vellum

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

None, but get ready for the August issue of Deep Magic on August 16th! Or you can simply pre-order now.

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the Fourth

porchThe dogs have decided a good place to spend the summer is on the screened-in porch, watching the kids.

This is also an excellent place to read (for me, not the dogs).

Some writing this week, some formatting work, and so on. Lots of reading.

It’s summer, after all.

One rejection, and I have a few stories I should send back out again, which I hope to do this week or next, along with some more writing.

Writing Work:

  • Writing: Coffee & Ghosts ~4,600 words
  • Photoshop tutorials
  • Formatting and prepping to go wide

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • The Saint of Bright Red Things

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the animals

Tortoise

For the second weekend in a row, we’ve done something fun with my daughter’s Girl Scout troop. This time, instead of volunteering at a walk, we raised money and completed the walk. Her troop raised ~1,500 dollars for the Animal Humane Society and we had a blast at the walk.

We also met this gal. She’s a youngster, only twenty years old.

The only thing left to do is bridge the girls to senior scouts (!) and eat some cake. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s going to involve cake.

In the writing world this week, I’m doing something to shake things up a bit. I’m following along with A Story a Day in May. This week, I ended up with six short stories. I took one day off to work on edits for a story that’s in a forthcoming anthology, but otherwise, I got it done.

Now, granted, one story was a drabble (exactly 100 words), but those can take more time than you might imagine. I ended up with two stories that involve dragons, one that features a succubus, a vignette, one told entirely in text messages, and one that can only be described as crazy.

It was a good week.

Writing Work:

  • Writing: ~ 5,000 words in six short stories
  • Craft work (reading, video lectures, etc.)

Submissions:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Rejections:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the new pup

Oscar4It was one of those weeks where I didn’t get a whole lot done. Between all-day training at work, Girl Scout cookie activities, and gearing up for dance competition season (for my daughter, not me), my regular routine was knocked off kilter a bit.

Add in a new dog? Well, we spent the week building up a new routine that includes our new family member.

Meet Oscar (there on the left, that’s Mattie in the background–note the matching bow ties).

He’s one of a thousand rescue Chihuahuas that have arrived in Minnesota from California. He’s actually a Chihuahua/terrier mix and is fitting in very well. He’s still a little skittish, but warming up and has the funniest, sweetest personality.

In actual writing work, I did make it all the way through the listening proof of The Wedding Ghost. So, there’s that.

Writing Work:

  • Coffee & Ghosts, Season Two: proofing The Wedding Ghost

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • None

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None