Hi everyone. Not sure if you noticed, but I never made an end of July post. Oops!

I went on vacation right on July 31 and I didn’t have time to write anything as I was trying to get everything organized, packed or cancelled before I left.

Then we landed at our first stop the evening of the 31st and all Hilton brand sites were having some major problem with their online registering program. They couldn’t register anyone! They had no way to see what rooms had already been assigned and were occupied. They couldn’t even create keys. So they couldn’t assign rooms and there was no manual work around in place.

They thought it wouldn’t be long, so we left our luggage in the office and went to dinner at the attached TGIFridays. Others did the same or just hung around the lobby. So we ate dinner and came back and problem was not yet fixed. We were at the Embassy Suites in Newark, Delaware and they have a reception every evening with free drinks (one per guest) and snacks like a veggie tray, nachos, dip, and so on. So they opened that early while everyone hung around.

The kicker was I had received an email the night before to check in online and get a room assigned. But I never do that, so I didn’t, but if I had, I would have had a room number. They wouldn’t have been able to create a key for me, but they could have let us in the room. Lesson learned. Next time, I’m checking in online if I can.

The end result was they had to have someone knock on every door to see if it was occupied, and if not they could give it to someone. We were one of the first ones to get a room from this process, because I made a little bit of a stink, a polite, quiet stink, but a stink nonetheless.

We were exhausted by then; we had left our home at 7:15 am and arrived at the hotel at 4:45 pm, which would have been fine, but we didn’t get into our room until 7:30pm. I’m not blaming the people at the Embassy Suites – they did the best they could in a messy situation. It was just one of those things that happen sometimes when you travel.

So that was the start to our vacation. But things got better from there, we had time with family and friends, went to Mystic Aquarium, a family cookout and got better acquainted with my new granddaughter (6 months old). Here’s a couple pictures from the Aquarium.

Unfortunately, I did not find time to write, so there are no writing updates. If anything, my writing feels like it went backwards as I didn’t even write my newsletters, never mind my end of July blog post.

No cats this month but here is a picture of my son’s dog, Taffy (with the toy), and my daughter’s puppy, Lola.

Anyway, I am a little behind. But I will get on with the writing again now that I’m in my chair in my office again. Here’s to a productive rest of August!

Okay, today is July 16th and I am struggling to find anything to talk about. I’ve done some work on Secrets in Slacksville using the Page One to Done method, mostly brainstorming and outlining, no drafting the story yet.

I think this method of writing the story might work for me. I know that as a mystery I do need to have at least a brief outline. This outline includes character information too, that will help when it’s time to actually write it. The work I did get done was exciting for me and I really did feel energized by making progress. Plus I downloaded a couple formulas/guidance on how to write a mystery. I also have a book on writing a mystery around here somewhere. I think it was by Hallie Ephron, but I couldn’t find it; I did find one by Sue Grafton. Plus a couple others, I guess I’ve bought a few – I’ve been planning Secrets in Slacksville for a looooong time! I’ll have to tear my writing book shelf apart to see what I can find.

But in the meantime, I think I will use these two downloaded guides to get started, mostly to make sure I’m not missing anything in the outline. One is Frank Gruber’s Fool-proof 11 Point Formula for Mystery Short Stories (mine is a full sized novel so I’m not sure how applicable it will be) and the other is the Anonymous Christie’s 12-Chapter Murder Mystery Formula that is based on Agatha Christie’s novels – but as it states it’s anonymous so there’s no way to know who created it. I found both on a website belonging to an Adron J Smitley, but it’s from 2020, so we’ll see whether it helps or not. First I will will have to re-type both guides as when I printed them down, they came out very faint, not due to a lack of ink but due to the color of the font he used. I had a hard time reading it on the screen, hence the printed version. Also, my eyes have been bothering me with new eye drops and all that nonsense, so part of the issue might be that.

Then it’s back to Generation Zee! I have decided to just move the characters along for now to the next chapter – I can go back in the future if necessary to fill in any missing information or action. But I have to do something to get the story moving. I really want to get it completed within the next month or so. I bet all of you are sick of hearing about this book by now.

As far as other things go, I’ve tried to set up a writing schedule. Well, more of a life schedule that includes exercise, meals, and writing time. Some of that is part of the whole process in the Page One to Done book, but I knew I needed to get some kind of schedule going if I’m going to seriously write these books. I already had a date book and of course appointments on my calendar app, but I realized I needed to pick specific writing times, so that’s what I’ve done. And then immediately, I got a migraine the first day of the new schedule. Of course I did! So this first week the schedule went out the window….

I did manage to make it Brews and Mews to see the kittens – which is pretty much all they have right now, it must be kitten season…again. And while they are adorable to watch, so funny and silly, I really prefer the older cats. If I were to get one, it wouldn’t be a kitten.

I’ve also been exploring some new hobbies, right now I have the house plants which have pretty much taken over the house, Gluten Free Baking, exploring witchcraft, and crystals – all the ones I have are now organized in alphabetical order in cases with an accompanying spread sheet showing purpose and details. Plus I already have the materials to start making things like trays or coasters out of acrylic, but I haven’t done anything with it because of the heat here in NC and my workshop is in the garage with no AC – man, it gets hot out there! But I’ve been looking into making pottery; there are a couple of places that offer lessons locally – it is very artsy around here – and I am thinking of signing up for one of them in the fall. Though in all honesty, I should do the acrylics first. Plus, after listing it all out, it looks like I have plenty of things to keep me occupied when I’m not writing. (And they can function as excuses to NOT write, which is not a good thing!)

I think that’s about all I have today. I hope to have more progress to report at the end of the month – though we will be going on vacation for two weeks soon and who knows how much writing I’ll be able to get done. When we travel, sometimes I’m very productive and other times I’m not.

Somehow I missed doing my End of June Update! I’m not sure how that happened. I had nothing going on that stopped me, but I just missed getting it done.

I have been busy with my writing world and business. While I’ve made no progress with Generation Zee, except planning and thinking, I have done other things. I’ve been reading Jessica Brody’s Page One to Done book, trying to decide if the method of fast drafting will work for me. It entails just writing straight through, no editing until the book is written, then going back and revising. I’m not sure how I will do that. To leave a typo on the page really goes against the grain for me.

But I am going to give the process a try with both Narazard (my romantasy) and Secrets in Slacksville. I’ve gotten the app so that I can track my word count, but I put down that my start date is mid July to give me a chance to brainstorm and decide plot points before then. I haven’t gotten a chance to get going with the brainstorming or deciding yet, I’m still reading the book to try to get the system down in my head. So I might have to delay my start date even more. Like the end of the summer maybe.

Because I really need to get Generation Zee finished, edited, and published. Then I can enter it into the Writing Digest Self Published Book Awards for 2027. Because – Why not?

So finishing this one has to come before anything else. Yeah, yeah, I know I’m the one that’s been delaying it. I’m thinking I might take a leaf out of the Page One to Done method and jump over this section that seems to be a stumbling block, move onto the next chapter or scene and see where it goes from there.

In the meantime I have also made it to Brews and Mews two times per week, most weeks, I think I have a picture or two. Plus pictures of some Turkeys that were gobbling up grubs in our lawn (go turkeys!), but missed getting a picture of the deer trying to gobble up our lawn (bad deer!) – did you know that they actually tear the grass out of the dirt to eat it instead of just nibbling on it?

Well, that’s it for now. Next update will be July 15th, more or less.

So here we are past the end of May by three days and I’m just now getting around to my end of month update. I can’t blame being busy either. I was basically lazy and took the weekend off from writing, housework, all the things. I sat on the deck, went out to eat, and just took it easy.

As a result, of course, that made me extra busy for the first few days of June. The same thing happens when you go on vacation. You go away for a week, have a great time, then come home to more chores: extra laundry, the lawn is a mess, the house is dusty, and so on. Sometimes it seems like it isn’t worth it to take time off. Of course, I’m retired, so what am I taking time off from? LOL

Anyway, I had said that I would have made progress with Generation Zee by the time I wrote this post, but I haven’t done any actual writing yet. I did pull the document up and started reading the current chapter to get re-acclimated to the world and what I had written so I can jump in and continue their journey. But no actual writing.

I have been keeping up on my newsletters though. And this blog, of course. Though I do find that I still get tired if I type too much; it must be the way I hold my neck. And I signed up for a writing workshop with Jessica Brody – I think I mentioned that before. That is this Saturday and I have to finish reading the accompanying book before then. So I guess we know what I’ll be doing for the next few days.

But I have found time to go to Brews and Mews to see the cats (surprising, right?) So here are some pictures.

Also, my front garden started blooming. Aren’t they pretty? Also, I take no credit for these flowers, the hubs has done and does all the related work. I just picked them out of the catalog.

That’s about all I have today. More next time around June 15.

Well, it’s Mid-May and I’m still not writing Generation Zee. Though I have done a little research for the next scene in the current chapter and will be writing within the next day or so (I am the president of our neighborhood association -How did that happen!?- and we have some things going on, so my writing has gotten delayed by a couple days). But by my next update at the end of the month, progress will have been made!

In the meantime, I’ve been released by the surgeon. X-rays were good and I’m making great progress. The surgeon gave me some PT exercises to do that I am trying to do on a regular basis. (I’m not good at that kind of follow up, but he assigned the job of reminding me to do them to the hubs and he enjoys doing that. LOL).

My pain is greatly reduced and getting better all the time. So that typing on the computer isn’t painful for me, as long as I don’t get carried away and do it for too long. Just like any household work, I can pretty much do whatever I want, but if I don’t want to suffer afterward, I need to spread it out over a couple days (laundry in three days instead of one like I’ve always done it).

Yesterday, we had a loveseat/chaise for the deck delivered. Of course we had to put it together, because pay to have it assembled at the store? Absolutely not! So the hubs and I did it together (didn’t kill each other either). He did the majority of the work, my job was to hand him screws and pieces, maybe hold pieces as he screwed them together. So I didn’t do much, but I could definitely feel it when we were done two hours later. My shoulders and neck were very tired and achy. But! I have a sofa on the covered deck!

I’m also trying to keep my steps up, so we went to the walking park. The pretty one in town with the pond, geese, fish and turtles. I enjoyed that a lot and took some pictures. Baby geese! And turtles!

We’ve also been anxiously waiting for our Carpet Lilies to bloom. The buds have been around for quite a while, but no flowers. Well, we finally have a few flowers. But we are still waiting for the rest of the flowers to bloom. Look all those Lily buds (and that’s only some of them)!

   

As you can see, I’ve been very busy with other things instead of concentrating on my writing. But that will be changing soon. Generation Zee will be on the move again within a few days. But I am also excited about a couple of my other projects going on. I am working with a marketing person for my short stories. Then I think I will be doing a complete anthology of all my stories. And I am also always thinking about the next two novels in the back of my head (the Mystery and the Romantasy).

For the Romantasy that I’ve been thinking of, as it isn’t really written at all and is just barely past the research stage, I am planning on trying a new method of outlining or organizing that is supposed to get a draft done very quickly. I’ve bought the book: Page One to Done, but it doesn’t come out until Tuesday, I think, so I can’t really start anything until then. I like the author, Jessica Brody, who also wrote Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, which I found super helpful and I used it to plan Generation Zee. I am excited about getting started on this new story.

So we’ll see how I do juggling all these different projects. Wish me luck!