I went on another art adventure this week, this time to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. It’s been ages since I’ve been, and I really need to go again later in the year. I want to revisit the Otto Dix War Portfolio before it leaves in August.
For some reason, this painting by Eugene-Louis Boudin caught my eye, so I went in for a closer look. It’s called Vacationers on the Beach at Trouville. It is also the first painting purchased by the MIA after it opened in 1915.
This Van Gogh. That’s all. This Van Gogh.
Also, apparently, the MIA thought I was in the market for a new writing desk because they kept offering up a variety of options:
In writing-related news (without a fancy new desk), I’ve been working on that second plotline for The Marigold Miracle. Some of the scenes are actually debriefing transcripts, so they’re dialogue-heavy with some sound effects. They’ve been challenging and fun to write.
Last week, Anno asked what I was working on and whether it was the series about Pansy (she of the sentient umbrella).
And yes, yes, it is. I’m writing the entire series. Or rather, I believe it’s the entire series, three books with a companion novella. I’m writing the whole series first before publishing any of it.
I’m doing this for a couple of reasons. First, I simply want the joy of writing it without any external expectations. If I publish the first book and it’s nothing but crickets and tumbleweeds, that can make the subsequent books more difficult to write.
If the first lands and finds its readership? Well, that could make the subsequent books even harder to write.
Right now, I’m in my writing bubble and having an immense amount of fun, and I don’t want to give that up.
Second, I think the series will be better for it. I’ve already refined the world-building by writing book two. I’m keeping notes of what I want to change in book one. Small things, a sentence here or there, backstory that needs a slight rephrasing. I could probably get away with not doing this, but I really enjoy doing this sort of work. To borrow a word I used a few blog posts ago, it feels like a luxury.
Last but not least, I believe that, in the long run, it will take less time to publish the entire series. There was a three-year gap between Coffee and Ghosts books three and four. Part of that was circumstances (oh, hi, pandemic). Part of it was I had to figure out how to bring back (spoiler) the entity. The entity is Katy’s foil. The series doesn’t work without the entity sticking its nose into things—not that the entity has an actual nose.
I will start publishing once book three is drafted and I feel secure about the content. Not all at once, but readers will know the series is complete.
So, during this first month of full-time writing, I reached ~91,000 words in book two (yes, these are long fantasy books). I’ve written close to 20,000 words this month. Considering I’m still recovering from burnout, I feel that’s significant. It feels like a win.
So, one week into this experiment, and so far, so good. It’s been both wonderful and surreal. Last week, I had a short bout of the Sunday Scaries. It was as if my body didn’t believe I wasn’t logging on Monday morning and opening up email, Microsoft Teams, and Jira. (Oh, Jira. Do I miss you and my many filters? No. No, I do not.)
I was a little worried Monday morning that I’d open the manuscript and be completely blank—both the page and my mind. But I wasn’t, and I haven’t had a writing week like this in a very long time.
Accidental library and bookstore book haul
I also finished the Trapped in a Gothic Novel course with some help from that accidental book haul. I found The Haunting of Hill House creepy but interesting and not as scary as I expected. A Haunting on the Hill was very creepy, not to mention scarier. I like gothic fiction, but I’m not really into horror (at all). A Haunting on the Hill is about as scary as I can tolerate. I already had the last book, Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan, on Kindle (and it appears to still be at $2.99 as I write this if you want to go grab it).
Now it’s on to the other two books in my accidental book haul. Because reading (for pleasure) is absolutely part of my job these days.
I love how often we get one of those bright blue days after a snowstorm. It’s one of my favorite things about winter. And when it corresponds with the longest night of the year, making everything just a little bit brighter? Even better.
I can pretend I’m in a ski lodge, drinking hot chocolate and eating sugar cookies. Mind you, I haven’t been skiing in ages. The last time I remember was when I was living in Germany, and a group of us took a trip to Salzburg over a long weekend. And even then, I didn’t ski. My eyes were all wonky, so I spent the time lounging outside (it was warm enough in the sun), drinking that hot chocolate, and eating the Austrian version of sugar cookies.
So today, I’m going to pretend I’m at that ski lodge, although I’ll stay indoors. I have hot chocolate. I have sugar cookies. I have a good book.
I hope your Sunday is filled with such things as well.
I finished the author business summit videos, and they were a nice distraction because I’ve also been down with what I’m optimistically calling the sniffles for this long Thanksgiving weekend.
And don’t ask me why I believe I can think my way out of being sick. It never works, but I’m always convinced that maybe this time, it’s mind over matter.
Spoiler: it’s not.
So yesterday, my daughter and I decided to go with it. We pulled the shades against the afternoon sun, got the fireplace going, and then started on a rewatch of The Lord of the Rings series, extended edition. We took a break to cook dinner but managed to get all the way through The Fellowship of the Ring. This is a lot of movie. Not that they were short to begin with. But I like the extended versions; I can simply sink into the story and let everything go for a few (or several) hours.
Up today: The Two Towers. I don’t know if we’ll make it all the way through or not. But it will be a nice way to cap off the long, if somewhat sniffly, weekend.
So, when I was grocery shopping earlier this week, a woman came up to me in the coffee/tea/baking aisle. She asked if I knew where the crispy fried onions were, the kind you sprinkle on top of a green bean casserole. Before I could respond, she said:
I ask because you look like someone who would make a green bean casserole.
And before I could respond to that, she added:
Oh, never mind. They’re bad for you anyway.
And then wandered off.
I was going to suggest the condiments aisle. I did see her later, crispy fried onions in hand. So I’m assuming: One, she did locate someone who actually has made a green bean casserole, and two, decided the health risks were worth it.
Also, this week, I attended an author business summit. Actually, I’m still attending it because it was recorded, and I couldn’t attend in real time due to work. It’s one of the things I’m looking forward to doing during the long Thanksgiving weekend. There’s at least three hours’ worth of video left, along with some homework.
I’m pretty sure crispy fried onions won’t be involved.
So, I just took a peek at my series timeline, which is now five pages long. On it, I have dates that go all the way back to 1986.
Yes. The dark ages.
For this particular story, I need to know when people were born, when they (may have) died, when they … traveled through dimensions.
Yes. Complicated.
But I always recommend using a calendar of some sort when writing a longer story. Even jotting down the passing days in a notebook can be helpful. That way, you don’t end up with children going to school ten days in a row or making January six weeks long.
Weeding these things out can be difficult. Darcy and I actually ended up with the extra-long January in The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading. We knew something was off; our editor knew something was off. No one could say what, not until Darcy did the painstaking work of mapping out the timeline. Then we had to pull all those story threads and weave them back together again, minus those two weeks.
Yes. Painful.
So, this is my recommendation for the week, probably because I’ve spent some extra time in my series timeline, testing things out, revisiting what came before. And then heading outside to put the garden* to bed and ponder some more.
*This is actually why I garden; it gives me time to think.
Hummingbird at my camera feeder, enjoying an evening snack.
So after the big software release at work, I’m getting back to the writing and everything else that goes along with the writing—and some things that don’t, like bringing in my hummingbird feeders for the season.
This weekend I restarted MTBs (Manuscript Time Blocks). These work better for me than word count goals. I’m reacquainting myself with the manuscript, checking in with all my characters, and starting to make some progress.
Also, this week, I began taking a self-paced marketing-for-introverts class, which I’m enjoying so far.
This coming week, I plan to claw back my morning writing time. I was logging on an hour earlier because of the release. No. More. Also, I’m looking forward to an actual lunch break.
Hope everyone made a little progress on something for themselves this week as well.
So, I’m sitting here, eating the Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Bake I just made. Let’s be honest. It’s really an apple crisp with fancied-up yogurt. (Crème fraiche! Lemon zest!) But a crisp by any other name would taste as good.
Here’s where I’m at. So far, I’ve completed the first book in the new series (at a whopping 140,000 words—not a typo). I have a companion novella at ~25,000 words. And I’m 55,000 words into the second in the series.
I suspect this will be a three-book series, and I’m going to try to draft the entire thing before publishing the first. I hope this is a good idea. I’m having lots of fun writing it, although I’ve slowed down a bit. There are reasons for that:
One, I’m working on the middle book, and the middle of anything can be slow going.
Two, I would say my day job is still a bear. But in a contest between meeting a bear vs. my day job in the woods, I’m going to pick the bear.
But we’ll be through this software release soon enough, and I hope to get back to writing every morning.
In my quest to clean out the basement and garage, I have filled one of the 10-yard Red-E-Bins. Today, I’m tackling the stacks of paperwork that should have been shredded eons ago. This, too, is slow-going; I suspect I’m in the part where it’s worse before it gets better.
Thanks for stopping by. Let me know how it’s going for you.
There’s something about September. I love this month, and I always have. Even when I know we’re losing daylight. Soon, the sun will set at 5:00 p.m., and I’ll wonder why it feels like I should be in bed before I’ve even had dinner.
September is a good time to start things. I’ve (re)started the basement and garage cleanout. I’ve (re)started being more diligent with yoga. (And honestly, I don’t know why I stop; it always makes me feel better.)
So, I was thinking maybe it’s time to start blogging again. Yeah, I know. All the cool kids have a Substack. I don’t want a Substack. I have a perfectly good blog, and maybe no one else is blogging like it’s the early aughts, but that doesn’t mean I can’t.
I’m also thinking of (re)starting an accountability check-in. There are lots of reasons I stopped, the major one being grief. I’d like it to be a community thing to, if others would like to join in and use my blog as a weekly check-in. And it doesn’t have to be for writing or a creative project—it can be for anything you want.
I’d love to have you join in. I will be back tomorrow, fingers crossed, to post that entry.
Writing Wrongs 