I’m officially on furlough through the end of May. I was lucky to only have to take 13 days over the next 13 months but I opted to lump them together to get them out of the way.
This means today… well last night I stayed up till 3 am editing which meant I slept until 10:30. I got two more of the Wayfarer books edited. I’m re-editing them and releasing them with new covers. I have four more to get through the edits. Then I have formatting and other things to work on before I can publish them.
I signed up for unemployment and put up a resume – because it’s required for unemployment. It wasn’t difficult. Go to the site, create an account, and follow their questionnaire.
Aside from that, I’ve been marketing my books and set up posts for my book tours. I have a long long long list of things I want to get done over the next two weeks. We’ll see how many of those I manage to get through.
My middle daughter and I are doing a virtual paint night tonight. I’m looking forward to that. They are always fun and I enjoy the time spent with her and painting.
No I’m not planning to document all my furlough days but I figured what the heck, let’s do this one.
We’re all stressed from the covid 19 stuff. I won’t say I’ve not been stressed because I’ve had my moments. However, I’m enjoying not commuting. I don’t believe I’ve been out of my house in two weeks. I could get used to this.
I’ve been working on re-editing my Wayfarer series. I’ve gone through each manuscript and edited them again. I’ve purchased new covers (wait till you see). My sister helped by entering the edits on the computer for me.
This means I’ve had 19 manuscripts on my desk waiting for me to find time to go into the electronic file and accept the changes. I finally found time. I’m up later because I don’t have to be up so early, so I get a lot of this done at night. I’ve accepted edits on Wayfarer Aegis, Wayfarer, Wayfarer Clans and Wayfarer Immemorial. I started Wayfarer Negotiator today.
The next step is to read through each new document, look for any errors that were introduced during editing, and make any final changes. Then I do a spell check and call it done – sort of….
At the end of each novel, I’m adding an updated list of all my books. I finally got that finished. I’ve also added a teaser and link for the next book. I had graphics made for the teaser and the new book list. I like them and hope the readers will too.
So to date, I’ve got Wayfarer Aegis ready for re-release. I’ve read through and done all edits on Wayfarer but I need to add the teaser (book list already added). The rest are in the queue. I hope to start the read through on Wayfarer Clans tonight or tomorrow night. These are getting done as I stagger each one.
I really like the new covers – sorry no previews. Jaycee from Sweet N Spicy did an amazing job on them. I took reader and beta reader suggestions when I had the new covers made.
My hope is to have them done by mid June …. I hope. With the extra time at home, I’ve used it wisely – sometimes. Other times, I’ve just stayed up way too late doing goofy stuff. When work clothes and bras are optional, you just never know what’s going to happen.
I’ve been so busy over the last few months, I’ve barely had time to breath let alone think about putting two coherent thoughts together. One thing I’ve been doing – crocheting.
This weekend I went to a huge sale at Herrschners. It was LOVELY. Yes I know it was shopping but I got to look at a lot of discounted yarn. Some of it was totally worth it and some was just meh.
More important, I got to spend time with my middle daughter and a friend. It’s a two hour drive. We had good conversation, fun craft shopping, and good food.
We were up at the butt crack of dawn which is not my favorite time of day at all. But it is a two hour drive one way. We were home by mid afternoon. Not only was it fun to shop / buy but it was fun to come home and sort it out, label it (yup my daughter claimed some of it) and organize it.
crochet cotton and scrubby yarn
I got a ton of crochet cotton. This is the yarn I use the most. I make a lot of dishcloths, coasters, pot holders, and so much more. I got cones that were a third off the regular price. Sorry – for those who don’t crochet – a cone is a large (cone shaped) spool of crochet cotton. It comes in skeins – about 3 oz typically – or cones which are several times larger than the skeins.
I found a number of skeins for only $1. A FREAKING dollar! Most skeins range in price from $2-3 up. Some of the skeins for a dollar were originally $5-8 a skein.
My daughter pushed the cart. We tried to stay together but she wandered away while I chatted with a YouTube crafter. When I saw her next, the cart was full – though yarn is squishy so it wasn’t really full.
Yarn, yarn, and more yarn! First table full
I went with the intention of getting yarn for three projects and some accessories. The yarn part I was successful on but I opted to get some of the accessories from Amazon and I’m still looking for the rest.
In the process of talking about what I wanted, I realized I needed to get the patterns off my phone and into documents and folders so I could work on publishing. I started sending them to my email. I really need to do this process more often because I ended up sending 58 files to my email. Now I have the tedious process getting them into files on my flashdrive.
Back view of full table
Front view of full table
I’m working on three leaflet/books – maybe actual books rather than just single patterns. The three are going to be – Spa Day, Scarves, and Kitchen. I might do another blanket one as I’ve got one already done and three more in mind but this will likely be a leaflet rather than a book.
I’ve got two weeks of vacation coming up shortly. I cannot wait. My initial plan was to write the entire time. That isn’t going to happen. I let it be known I was taking vacation and now the universe has interfered. One of my daughters is coming home for a short visit. I’ve got an editing job. There’s a holiday during these two weeks so others will be home. So much for a writing retreat right at home.
It’s been a long time since I’ve indulged in yarn shopping like this. I’ve been working to use up my stash. This was fun and well worth it. Thank you Vicki for my two gifts – birthday and Christmas. Guess what’s on my list for this Christmas.
When was the last time anything passed with only 22% of a vote? I don’t know that any law or precedent has been set with only 22% of the people wanting it. Yet, 14 states are passing restrictive anti-abortion laws which make it so women are unable to get an abortion. In most cases, there are no exceptions for rape or incest or even the woman’s health. A small conservative noisy minority wants these laws in place. This means women in those states will go out of state or go to someone unqualified to get rid of unwanted pregnancies.
At the same time, restrictions on birth control are getting tighter and tighter. Women who need it for health issues as well as birth control are having a harder time getting it. Yet studies have shown the more easily available birth control is, the numbers for birth control go down. Just like studies show that if we have sex ed – not the stupid abstinence only crap – that teen pregnancies go down. People are having sex. If you don’t want women to have abortions give them free and easy access to birth control.
On the opposite side of this issue – viagra is federally funded. If you can’t stop a pregnancy because it is “God’s will” then a limp dick is “God’s will”.
In reality what needs to happen is the government needs to stay the hell out of women’s bodies. The government should not get to say when a woman gets pregnant or has sex or anything to do with the medical community. It’s difficult enough for a woman to get a doctor to actually listen to her and treat her with respect. Women shouldn’t have to fight for something that improves their lives.
We need to come out of the dark ages and allow women to make their own choices about their own medical issues – whether that is abortion or birth control or any other damn thing that has to do with our own bodies! Just because the Christian conservatives think we should all be barefoot and pregnant while we dutifully clean house and cook for the hard working male in our life doesn’t mean that is the reality of our society.
Women are not property – should not ever be considered property – and should have all options open to them. We don’t need some all knowing entity trying to tell us when it’s time to have children, sex, or anything. We are quite capable of thinking for ourselves.
Those states who have passed such restrictive laws – the residents should revolt against the idiocy that is their government. The minority of the United States should not be able to dictate to half the population on whether they have sex or children or anything health related especially when those dictates have such an impact on our basic rights.
I’ve always prided myself in being able to adapt and change as needed. With the new website there are certainly a lot of things I like better but in my head I’m lamenting some of the things I could do on the old blog or website.
Now in reality the new site is wonderful. There are definitely more good things than bad but at the same time, I’m missing some features. In my head I’m grumbling about it and then stop myself as I realize I sound like those people who grumble about making changes.
I’m flexible – I swear this is true. I like trying new things, exploring new options. But this change has been a little difficult. I’m pretty sure my blog I had for around eight to ten years but still when I was using it, I grumbled about things I couldn’t do – these things I can now do with my new blog / website.
I’m not sure if it’s the length of time I had the blog or how busy I’ve been or the fact that I’m getting older but part of me is being a bit grumpy. It might be because I’m also dealing with a new to me computer. I loved my old computer and the new one is taking a bit to get used to. Doesn’t matter really. All of this leads to me telling myself about the things I really love about the new web site – like that everything is in one place and it has become one stop shopping for me. If I have a new publication I come here where I can post it as being available and where as well as writing a blog post about it. It’s all in one spot.
Posting pictures is easier in a lot of ways. Not only do I have a easy access for posting them but I have a place where all the pictures I’ve used are stored. This means if I’ve already used in – I don’t have to go looking for it again, I can simply look in the catalog of already used pictures.
These and a whole lot more features are the reason I changed over to the new website. I am going to keep reminding myself that for the next month or so things may be annoying with me having to figure out how to do stuff but really there’s more good than annoying. I guess even I can be a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to change. However, the curmudgeon in me is going to get a smack because I like the new site and I like the convenience more than I dislike features I can no longer do. Basically the good far far outweighs the bad.
It’s always nice to have an extra day in my weekend. This weekend I went to the City Market at the Whitewater Public Library. I had my books and crochet items and my niece took her jewelry she’s been making.
Winter before our tree came down
The day did not start out great with about 6″ of snow falling overnight. But we took her SUV rather than my car. Her vehicle is higher off the ground than mine so it made sense since our road wasn’t plowed yet.
I figured this sale would be a wash. The weather sucked and people were still digging out. But I was wrong. There wasn’t great traffic but we had about a hundred people come through. Many of them said they walked rather than drove which completely makes sense. Thank you to them for braving the snow and weather!
Most of my day was spent on going to the City Market and then spending time with my niece after. She dug through some of the rocks we have here. We also talked a lot about how to improve our set up.
By the time she left, I was wiped but one of my customers asked for a custom crochet item so I went to buy the yarn for that. We ran a couple of errands before we came home for the night. My hope was I would spend the rest of the weekend at home getting work done.
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Nope. I ended up going out yesterday morning to Michaels for yarn shopping. They are having a buy 2 get 1 free sale on their yarn. Now this is a time when I’d like to have a stash of money. I bought yarn for two blankets and a couple of other projects but it’s a great deal especially when you’re looking at the Bernat Blanket. Between coupons and the sale, I paid only about $6.66 a skein. This is a great deal.
After I purchased the yarn for the custom project, the person contacted me and wanted something different so I had to go buy different colors of the Lion Brand Hometown yarn which I used to make a hat. This yarn is soft, warn and bulky. Bulky means it works up quick. I was able to finish the project in about an hour, maybe a bit less.
After that I worked on a scarf made with Loopity Loop yarn. I do not recommend this yarn. It’s by Big Twist and some of their yarn is wonderful but I’m a lot disappointed with this. So the premise of this yarn is that you don’t need to know how to knit or crochet but can just weave through the loops to create different things.
First this is a new technique to the person but there are no directions to go with it. Other brands have done this by putting instructions on the inside of the label. I had to go to their website to find directions. Not hard but time consuming.
Second this is time consuming. With my crochet hook, I can take the same size yarn and create a scarf or blanket in half the time this weaving takes.
Third we initially bought one skein thinking that would be enough to make a scarf. From the ounces, I would have thought so but know. We ended up back there on Sunday and buying two more.
This leads to my fourth grumble about this year. Regular price is $11.99 on these. So if you want to make a long infinity scarf from this you need approximately three skeins making your scarf cost almost $36. That is ridiculous. I can buy a skein of Bernat Blanket for $10.99 at the highest and make a scarf out of that in an hour or so. Making it much more cost effective to buy the Bernat yarn.
It always makes me sad when have high hopes for a yarn. The quality of the yarn is good, sturdy, soft, warm. But the other features are just absolutely disappointing.
I finished my day yesterday with some paid editing and then editing of my own by rereading / editing one of my own books. I do this by pulling it up on Kindle and highlighting the text I want to change.
Mom and Aimee (I think)
Today has all been computer work, catching up on emails, posting things, checking social media, and a few other things. Before the day is done, I’ll probably spend an hour working on my mother’s photo albums. There are so many of them and it would be nice to get a few cleared out. I’ve got four or five ready to let the family know and a few others that are in maybe piles but I’d like to get through first sort of all of them. This will allow me to pull the ones I already have electronically.
Once I get that round of sorting done, it will be a matter of picking an album and going through to see what needs scanning. I’ve already got a HUGE box of those albums. It’s going to be a time consuming project for the next year or so. I haven’t even looked at the slides – hundreds, possibly thousands of them. Those may have to be dealt with separately / differently.
This week has flown by. With classes not started yet at work, I was hoping for quiet but I was busy.
On the writing front, I’ve been so busy working on my new website. Yes the old one is going away soon. I’ve been learning a lot about the new features I have available and some I won’t have. Mostly I like more of the new than not. I do wish I could have slide shows. However, I know this site will combine my blog and my website so it’s all in one place. This will hopefully make me more efficient.
I’ve got book tours I host almost daily. These are authors who have books they are promoting but they are also doing a giveaway so please go look and maybe comment on them so you can get free stuff like Amazon gift cards and so on.
I’ve also got author and editor interviews. I invite authors and editors to answer ten questions so we can get to know them better. I’ve met some interesting authors and editors. I’ve added to my to read pile (which is threatening to topple over and crush me).
What I’m working on now is a lot of behind the scenes stuff. I’m going to update my short story covers as I hate the original ones. I’m also editing Wild Magic 2 and looking for a name. I’m pretty sure I can’t name it just Wild Magic 2. I’ve got a short story I’m editing in spits and spurts. I’ve also been writing a tiny bit here and there. The sad thing is I have two stories in my head which keep pushing at me but I don’t have time right now to work on them.
I’ll be at the Whitewater Public Library on January 19! I’ll have my books, some crocheting and my niece has made some jewelry and she will be with me. As normal, I’m a little nervous about the public appearance thing. I’d still love to see anyone who wants to stop and chat.
This weekend I’m working on mom’s photos I hope. I’ve got two more behind the scenes writing things to do and then I’ll try to tackle the million pictures my mom took. I’ve got a new scanner so first I’ll have to figure out my new tech. Oh and my nephew came out to help me set up a new to me computer. New tech there I’m working on learning. I do have to say it’s faster than my old computer which I think was about fifteen years old. It worked really well until recently and then I got the blue screen of death. I’m still getting used to the new computer so there may be cursing and grumbling going on. This doesn’t mean I don’t like the computer but it means I’m not used to it yet. Wish me luck – hopefully I can figure out both without my head exploding.
Today I went with one of my nieces craft shopping. I used gift cards and holiday cash to make all of my purchases! The other great thing is everything I bought was on sale – everything. So not only did I get great deals and the materials I wanted but I didn’t spend a penny out of my own account. Thank you to my faculty at my job, one family member, and a friend. They made this relaxing day completely possible!
Joanns has a great sale on and I stocked up on crochet cotton. I can’t lie – the $1 a skein made me nearly clean out their display of the colors they had. Then I hit the aisles to look for yarn for two blankets, one scarf and other crochet cotton (also on sale) which had different colors. The per ounce price (yes I figured out for each of the brands on sale) for the $1 per skein was FABULOUS. I got most of what I wanted – though I never get enough yarn.
My niece and I had a lovely day together, spending time and chatting. We went to Burnie’s rock shop as well. It was crowded and busy and yet we both managed to find items to purchase.
I have an afghan nearly done for her and I was hoping to surprise her with it today but at 12:30 last night I gave it up and said nope… too much left to do. I’ll keep working on it and hope to get it done in the next week or two.
Aside from her blanket, I’m going to be at the Whitewater library on January 19, so I plan to make a few small things which can hopefully fill up my table and make some sales. At this point, I’m thinking coasters and dishcloths but I want to consult my list to see if I can come up with other things. While at Joann’s today, I picked up pins to use for blocking several pairs of earrings, bracelets and a bookmark. Once they’ve dried, I’ll have to find buttons for the bracelets and those can come with me to the sale as well.
I feel like I’m getting caught up. Tomorrow I plan to work on crochet patterns – publishing and posting. I’ve got a long list of them to work on so I’m hoping to get a large chunk of them done. I have new patterns which include two leaflets (meaning multiple patterns) to publish. I have three groups of patterns I’ve not posted on Ravelry and need to get those up there. This is the task which takes the longest. I’m hoping to get through all of them before I go back to work so the next two day I think will be taken up with those.
I’m winding down on my days off. I feel good about the progress I’ve made with projects. Before this time off, I always felt like I was falling further and further behind. Now I feel caught up and ready to move forward.
If I manage to get through the crochet patterns, I think I’m going to work on the short story I had professionally edited – it was so mangled from all the different version, I needed to help with it.
I’m at the end of my day and feel really good. It was good to get one on one with my niece and to shop for things I love. Now I get to play with all of it, making things for others who will hopefully really appreciate the goodies.
I can’t believe my time off is almost half over. Where did the time go? I know where it went – lots of holiday things but I’ve still managed to be productive.
All the crocheting I needed to get done, I finished on Sunday! I was very pleased to finish the slippers Sunday instead of Monday – pushing the deadline of needing them done by Christmas. Last night I watched a new show while I crocheted. Wynonna Earp – I thought it was going to be an old time western from the female perspective. Nope. It’s a modern paranormal show based on the descendant of Wyatt Earp. It was enthralling. There are definitely lots of twists and turns. I’m binging the first season so tonight when I work on the afghan I’ve got going, I’ll be watching it.
Writing – I’ve been working on updating a bunch of stuff. It’s been a very productive time which I’m seeing the end of the tunnel for this project.
Today I’m alone in my house. I can’t remember the last time I was alone in my house for a full day. I’m enjoying it. I’ve gotten through the massive number of emails, worked on my website (ongoing) and hope to finish the project today.
In addition, I’ve made phone calls for my daughter and corresponded with our insurance and a variety of other people.
I’ve got a sale going on Smashwords! Free books include Wayfarer, Defenders of the People, and a short story collection Grandma’s Doilies. The rest of the Wayfarer and Defenders series are 25% off along with Murder Next Door, Dragon Lord’s Mate, Draconian Peace and Quick & Easy Throws. Jute & Cotton Baskets, Rise of the Ancients, Moon Affirmations, Secret Past, and the three Moments in poetry books are all 50% off.
Ava Taylor also has items on sale on Smashwords! She has Sibling Rivalry & Three Races for free. Exploring Desires, Prospecting, Prisoner 849, Snowbound, Her Captain and Courtesan are all 25% off.
I’ve been trying to stay off social media because again – needed a break but with this sale, I need to be posting at least once a day about it. Even during the holidays, I don’t stop working because it’s important I keep engaging people.
I went to my family Christmas. While there, I delivered items to people. I also got orders for more stuff. The good thing about this – I’m going to Joann’s over the weekend. I’m really looking forward to shopping with my niece. It will be a nice outing for the two of us. I hope I can find the colors of the items I want. Joann’s has a sale going on for which I’ve gotten a flyer which I’ll be taking with me. The fabulous thing – I have two gift cards for $125 so none of what I buy I’ll be paying for! I get to feed my obsession without paying for my obsession.
Our immediate family is doing Christmas on Saturday! We normally do ours early and I’m not sure I like the late thing but the girls are all going to be together. I think it will be good. We’ll video chat. There are several things I want to see the girls open and hope they like.
Until then, I have a long to do list… too long to list here.
Last night we went car shopping with our middle daughter. Now we’re waiting to hear from the dealership. In the meanwhile, grocery shopping, breakfast, and other errands have been done by Ken and Vicki. While I worked on the computer. I got blog tours posted, checkbook caught up and email dealt with.
There’s a dozen other things which need to get done today so it’s going to be busy day. We’ll be going to a variety of stores and finish up the errands.
I have four projects I need to take pictures of so I can work on publishing. I also need to look over the other crochet items I’ve been waiting to distribute until I got a yeah or nay from the publisher. We’re passed the issue they were made for so it’s time to publish and distribute.
By the end of tomorrow I hope to have all the crochet stuff photographed and measured. I still need to make one crochet item before Tuesday. I’ll be working on that over the next couple days.
Other than that I have a ton of writing things I want to get done. I finished the first round of edits on Wild Magic 2 but it needs at least one more big edit before I can work on fine tuning it. I feel like I need to add in a few scenes which will help the relationships develop and the story to flow better.
I’ve got a third of a short story edited. This is the mangled one – poor little story – and I need to get the rest of it edited. I had a friend edit it professionally because it was so mangled and I’d looked at it too much. Now I’d like to finish it off. Everyone keeps telling me it needs to be a book – I’m resistant but did add several paragraphs to the first third of the book so I’ll see how that goes.
Aside from that, I’ve got crochet patterns to publish. I have a long list of writing projects I am in the middle of so want to work on those. I never know until I sit down to work which one will get my attention.
