Tag: Accountability Check-in

Rhythm and Flow

This week, I experimented with increasing my manuscript time blocks. I increased the number by one, so instead of three, I was doing four time blocks.

By Thursday, though? Full-on brain and body revolt. I did a single time block, and then everything in my being noped out. I was done. This wasn’t garden-variety resistance. This was me, having outrun the story in my head.

So I closed the manuscript and switched to some admin tasks that needed to be done.

On Friday, I did three time blocks and—to quote Goldilocks—it felt just right.

I know, from past experience, that I’ll write more the closer I am to the end of the book, and revision has its own sort of rhythm.

This is also why I’ve noped out of listening to writing process advice. I’m never going to write 5,000 words an hour. More to the point, I actually don’t want to. That’s not how my stories happen.

My stories are slow-and-steady tortoise things. I can embrace that and be happy. Or, I can fight that and be miserable.

I’m choosing to be happy.

In admin/business focus tasks, this was the week to examine our social media accounts. (That sound you hear is me laughing.) The principle behind this is that readers often look to social media first to find an author rather than a website.

Interestingly enough, this week, Cal Newport had a take on what might happen to these social media platforms in an age where “everything” is becoming short-form video content. It’s an interesting blog post, as was the corresponding podcast.

I do have a notion of what I might do with my social media accounts. It is not, however, going to be a huge part of my business. In seasonal news, it’s cold. Those of us with any sense are hibernating.

When in Florence

So, my daughter is back in Italy, via Australia (!). She is completely jetlagged and found herself awake very early this morning. She decided to get up and go for a walk. And because she’s so jetlagged and has no idea what time it is anywhere in the world, she called me.

At 12:30 a.m.

By this point in her travels, I’m used to this, so my mom-panic was brief, especially since it was a video call and I could see Florence at sunrise behind her. Y’all, seriously:

Photo courtesy of my daughter

It’s all I can do not to spend the day on the floor, sobbing with jealousy.

Kidding. Sort of.

I am so glad she has this sort of opportunity. And it has me thinking that the next time (fingers crossed) I visit Italy/Europe, I’d like to go in the fall/winter. Way fewer tourists, and I loved Germany during the holiday season and winter.

I’ll grant you, I did not enjoy the REFORGER exercise in January or Hohenfels in November. But otherwise? It was lovely.

This gift of Florence at sunrise was fortuitous, or maybe it was serendipity. I spent part of this week writing a scene set at sunrise in Florence. (Italy, not Wisconsin. If you know, you know.)

I also worked on consolidating all my author bios. That was a great exercise. Not only are they all in one place now, but I also made lists of publications I can use, depending on what I want to highlight.

Between that and the branding task, I realized that I’m not one author or “brand” and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be. I have thoughts (many, many thoughts) about branding, which I hope to share in the next few weeks.

But now? I have a date with the living room floor. If anyone needs me, I’ll be there sobbing with jealousy.

It’s a winter wonderland out there

And the dogs are having none of it. NONE. They do not appreciate the fact that I have shoveled a path for them or have loaded them up with fleecy dog beds and blankets.

In writing related things, I backed Ines Johnson’s Page Turner Planning Kickstarter. The system is a quarterly breakdown of writing, marketing, branding, and business tips that’s delivered on a week-by-week basis. Or rather, it’s a book that you read one section at a time.

While I don’t need much help with the writing—I’ve been doing that—I could stand to pay a little more attention to business and marketing.

I decided to start the system on December 1st rather than January 1st just to get a head start on 2026.

The system is probably geared more to newer writers. One of the first assignments is to write your author bio. Well, I have one of those. Actually? I probably have a dozen.

What I’m going to do with that task is to locate them all, get them into one document, and refine as needed.

When you’re just starting out with a handful of short stories or a single novel, one bio works just fine. After a while, though? I’ve found I need different lengths, anything from 50 to 100 words, or a different slant, such as one for short speculative fiction, one for young adult, and so on.

The other business task is to start looking at branding. I’m giving that a bit of a side-eye, but it’s something I can and should do.

I’ll let you know how it all goes next week.

Belated check-in

So, I spent a big chunk of Sunday at the emergency vet with our sweet old kitty (well, she was kind of spicy at the vet). We got her some antibiotics and will follow up for another underlying health issue later. But all things considered? Things turned out so much better than I expected, considering she’s a cat of a certain age (17).

Today, we (all of us) are tired, resting, and relieved.

Garden wrap-up

I’ve been feeling a bit deflated about the garden this year. Between the long stretches of rain, heat domes, and the air quality, I wasn’t outside working as much as I wanted to be.

Even so? I did plant my cottage garden this year. And it was mostly successful! It’s a bit bedraggled now, thanks to a recent hailstorm, but look at this last lovely gift:

The pretty purple and yellow asters in the cottage garden.

The asters I planted came in strong. Also? They are apparently Vikings fans. (We almost always almost win.)

Another thing I’ve noticed this year is the increase in pollinators and beneficial bugs in the yard. Actual ladybugs! Butterflies, including Monarchs (which I haven’t seen for a couple of years), and, of course, many, many of our native bees.

It’s still so mild that yesterday, my daughter and I took a tour of the yard and—with the pollinators in mind—did some planning for next year. There are some excellent spots near the pond where invasive weeds are growing. We’re going to put down some cardboard and tarp now, so in the spring, we can plant a variety of native wildflowers—and add some milkweed to the mix for those Monarchs.

Our city offers a comprehensive Planting for Pollinators program, which allows you to purchase native seeds by growing area (e.g., dry/wet, partial shade/full sun). And who knows, we might tackle the buckthorn while we’re at it.

So while not everything turned out (my wall of morning glories for the hummingbirds never materialized), all in all, it was a good year for gardening.

Yoga and throwing Photoshop pots

A bit cloudy during the thinking walk

This week, I did the Photoshop equivalent of “throwing lots of pots,” to borrow a pottery phrase. I followed along with the instructor in my Photoshop tutorials and made I don’t know how many covers. After I completed one, I zipped off to create another.

By Friday, I felt I’d done enough inputting that I decided to play around with a concept for The Pansy Paradox. And … I think I have one. Maybe. It’s not at the sharing stage yet, but I’m pleased that I have something that someday may resemble a cover.

In any case, I’m looking forward to what else may pop up in the coming week.

In other news, I’ve started up yoga again. I fell off for a bit, for a variety of reasons (balance issues, injury, Italy). But it was one of the things that helped me survive the day job. So, I wondered whether it would help me thrive in my new full-time writing gig.

So far? I think yes. It’s been about two weeks, and I already feel better physically. And, people! Breath work! I’d forgotten how important breath work is.

So today, I’m going to breathe a little bit more and have Sunday brunch with my kids. Hope your Sunday is just as enjoyable.

Garden this and that

I spent the early hours of the day in the garden, before the heat became unbearable. I ended up soaked in sweat anyway, but it’s the first time I’ve had a chance to do some gardening.

Sadly, my cauliflower and broccoli are no more, thanks to one of the most destructive creatures on earth: tiny baby bunnies. They ate all the leaves and that was that. (And yes, I have the vegetable garden fenced, but baby bunnies are insidious.)

The cucumbers, though, are just fine.

The wall of morning glories I planted for the hummingbirds did not materialize. However, there are plenty of other flowers. Between those and the feeder, the hummingbirds don’t seem to mind the lack of morning glories.

My phlox is blooming despite the fact that deer came through and chomped the tops off a few weeks ago.

My hydrangeas are blooming—I just leave them alone. So far, so good.

It’s pollinator central in the yard—all kinds of bees and other pollinators, and more butterflies this year than I’ve seen in a long time. Despite everything being kind of a mess, I feel like I must be doing something right.

So, my less-than-pristine garden continues to grow. I think there’s a (somewhat obvious) metaphor for writing in all this. It’s messy, unpredictable, doesn’t always turn out the way you expect it to, but it’s always worth it.  

The aptly-named bee balm, with mandatory bumble bee

Cottage Garden aspirations

Photo essay incoming.

So last year, I wanted to do something about this:

How it started

Once upon a time, this space was filled with hostas and day lilies. It wasn’t inspiring landscaping, but it worked. Over the years, it became a catch-all for a wide range of things. You can see the indent from the free-standing basketball hoop. But this space is where things got tossed—roofing debris, decking, and so on.

Then, of course, weeds and saplings began to take over. Although the hostas are fighting the good fight.

Clearing all that out was as far as I got last year. Mainly because I wasn’t sure what to do with the space.

This year, I had the inspiration of starting a pollinator/cottage garden. Because the weeds and saplings were so aggressive, I opted for the cardboard mulch method:

Cardboard Mulch phase
Planning the plant arrangement
Cottage garden planted (June)
Cottage Garden July

The hostas seem to be making a comeback. That’s bee balm between the two patches of hostas. We have a nice mix of pollinator-friendly flowers: daisies, asters, poppies, delphinium, echinacea, and lavender. They seemed to have survived the downpours and the heat dome fairly well.

The trick with the cardboard mulch method (or so I’ve read) is that you need to continue to add compost during the growing season. This is what I did yesterday, and honestly, I think the plants are happier already.

And now, since it’s been a week, it isn’t raining, it isn’t too hot outside, I’m heading back into the garden to touch some grass (and other growing things).

About last night (and early this morning)

10:00 p.m. Annual city fireworks

Pets: freaking out
Me: resigned

10:20 p.m. Fireworks end with the first drops of light rain

Pets: squabbling over who sleeps where
Me: resigned, hoping everyone at the display makes it to their cars before the storm

10:45 p.m. Nonstop thunder, lightning

Pets: freaking out
Me: resigned

12:40 a.m. Tornado sirens, iPhone zombie claxon, daughter and friends spilling through the front door in time to make the dash to the basement

Everyone: freaking out

1:00 a.m. Line of storms moves through, daughter’s friends go home, still thunder, lightning

Pets: freaking out
Me: resigned

2:00 a.m. Everyone sleeps, power goes out, then comes back on again; no one notices

6:10 a.m. The slant of morning sun wakes me (as it always does)

Pets, daughter: sound asleep
Me: resigned

I’m using my hotspot to post this. Then, I plan to head outside and take stock of any damage—it’s mostly branches, and one of my birdbaths tipped over. But the sun is shining. We have power, and that’s no small thing. I’m grateful for both.

In actual writing-related updates, writing at my new and improved desk layout is working wonders. I’ve been both drafting and editing, and I think this was exactly what I needed to do. Also? Far less shoulder pain as well. Yeah. Proper ergonomics. Who knew?