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NaNo ’19 – Day Fourteen

14 Thursday Nov 2019

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So yesterday, the 13th, was interesting. We had a gen contractor over at the house to fix a few things, and of course, the few things took a lot longer than expected. What was supposed to be a small fix became taking the old pipes of our shower out and putting new pipes, new fixture, and new tile in and took until about 10pm last night.

Which also meant that I spent a lot of time after getting home from work listening to banging, cutting, and overall contractor work being done in our only bathroom.

Which meant I didn’t really get anything done. Well, unless you count getting two episodes of Riverdale and an episode of Nancy Drew watched something. I’m still working out which of the many panels I want to go to this weekend, everything starts tomorrow! I’ve still got a lot of work on my words to do, but I haven’t actually given up hope either. I’m still hoping I can get caught up on things.

Queen of Nothing releases on Tuesday, so I’m also hoping to finish Wicked King this weekend. If you haven’t read The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King by Holly Black yet, definitely should give it a try. I recommend them. They’re sold as YA, but do be aware that there are some dark themes in them, as an FYI. I’m bouncing and waiting and chomping at the bit for the Owl Crate edition of the new book because they’ve been doing exclusive covers for the books that are a stark difference between the mass market covers and I love them and can’t wait to see how everything looks and what they do for this new release.

I’m going to try to update my blog while I’m at the con, maybe after everything settles from the day before bed. But that’s completely dependant on how the internet works at the hotel. More and more hotels are being super stupid with charging for internet these days, and I refuse to pay for it. If I remember correctly from last year though, this hotel gives complimentary internet just for staying at their hotel. We shall see.

NaNo count, still the same as it was when I first got a little written. Here’s hoping by Monday that number goes up though.

NaNo ’19 – Day Eleven

11 Monday Nov 2019

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Day Eleven started out with snow. Yesterday it was like 50 degrees, not terrible to go outside in a really thick sweater and enjoy the sunshine. Today, snow everywhere. I’m hoping there’s not too much accumulation before I get out of work, because if there is, well cleaning off the car to go home is going to suck.

This week is only a four day week for me at work though. Friday I’ve taken off because I’m headed to a Sci Fi Convention in my area. I’m still trying to narrow down what I want to attend panel/workshop wise. There are a lot of good choices both in the Science Fiction/Space Opera topic and the writer topics in general. All the expanding my horizons though.

This weekend, overall was pretty lazy. Mom and I did some shopping, I finally set my Cricut Explore Air 2 up. It’s all lavender and pretty and I love it. The Design Software could use a little work, it seems super slow on the computer when I go to design things. I’m not sure if part of that is because it’s mostly online. The phone app seems to work fairly well and smooth with few glitches. I’m not sure what’s causing the computer version to be so glitchy. Hoping to find a happy medium between the two so that it’s easy for me to both design and print/cut.

I also picked up a new printer, mostly because the last printer we used in the house is at least five to six years old, and hasn’t been used in that time frame. So figured new was definitely better. Also, I settled that in my study so it’s up and running as well.

The two are so happy next to each other.

But playing with that and fiddling with things took up a good portion of my time over the weekend energy-wise, so I didn’t get much else done.

Writing wise, this NaNo hasn’t been fairing pretty well. We’re a third into it, but I still have some time to catch up and keep working. While I plan to attend panels at the con, I also do plan to write. They have a writer’s room where some of the writer panels are taking place. And any time it’s between panels, it’s just open for people to come and sit and write so hoping to get some catch up done this weekend.

And Hoping to get home tonight in enough of an early hour that I can snuggle in and get some work done tonight. I’m finally starting to feel better in regards to my cold. Mornings and evenings are the worst, mostly when laying down. But between times are generally okay right now. Here’s hoping that it stays that way.

Hope your November is going well!

NaNo ’19 – Day Seven

07 Thursday Nov 2019

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I was able to get my internet back up and running, thankfully. So we have internet in the house once again. I actually stayed home from work on the 5th to be able to be home for the tech to come and fix it. And once he had fixed it I took some cold meds and basically slept for the rest of the day.

Yesterday was back up and to work, and cold meds had me sick to my stomach on the car ride to work and then woozy all day at work. So made the decision to not take those again while at work/before work because that’s just not good for getting anything done.

Mom and I got home yesterday and cooked a Hello Fresh meal for dinner and then I crashed super early again.

I will say, I am starting, slowly, to feel better. I’ve taken to sucking on peppermint and wintergreen because the mint helps to clear out the congestion in my sinuses and help me to breath without the need for too much in the way of meds while at work and it’s helped me get through the first hour or so of work today so far. And I’m about ready to make myself some tea even though I’m warm because the steam helps to clear out my congestion as well and I have noticed I’m a little dehydrated so more liquids will be good.

I’m hoping to kick this by Saturday so I can really push hard and get better back on track this weekend to settle into where I should be.

Hope everyone else is doing well for November! Stay hydrated! Stay warm! and stay Healthy!

NaNo ’19 – Day 1

01 Friday Nov 2019

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Happy November, Everyone!

I hope that your November is starting out a little better than mine. You might be asking yourself, well why say that, and thinking that you’re sure my November has started off fine too. Weeeeelllllll, I’m not so sure about that.

For starters, I’m in the Midwest portion of the country that received snow. LOTS of SNOW.

Enough that I had to clear off my car before I could drive home last night. Enough that we really didn’t get any trick or treaters last night.

The snow actually started on Wednesday. I woke up and looked out my window at my neighbor’s roof and even half asleep was whispering, “no, No, NO!” to myself. In prepping to go to work, I cleared a BRANCH out of the street and pulled something in my back. On walking back to the house to email work I would be tending to my back I heard a super loud SNAP and looked to my backyard where a thick branch had broken off the tree. It took down whatever cable was attached from my house to the pole in the alley (not my landline – still have wifi, and not my electric, so we still don’t know what it is. We’re calling the phone company tomorrow to see if they can come out and at least determine if it’s theirs or not). It also took out my neighbor’s landline to the pole, which took out their wifi too.

Thursday night, on the eve of NaNo, my throat got a tickle.

I’m now coughing and queasy, but I’m at work because bills to pay and all that.

Despite being under the weather, I’m looking to do some NaNo Work after I get home from actual work. I might try to con my mother – we car pool to work because we work across the street from each other if I haven’t mentioned before – into leaving a little early today. I got the sick from her, I can state this confidently because she stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday sick with it. I’m hoping having it hit today, I can spend the weekend tending to it, drowning it in tea and honey, and writing, and just get over this before Monday or it settles too much in my body.

Maybe I’ll use a hot shower as my word count reward today, hit word count, take hot shower to let the steam help break up the sick in my throat. It’s definitely a good motivator. Though I’m also super ready to nap right now – which may be the meds I took so I’m not dying at work.

Wish me luck killing the sick before it becomes a monster.
I’m determined to not let it disrupt my NaNo and my November goals.

Also, since I’m not too into the vlogs and on camera, but more the writer behind the blog, I’m hoping to do a blog a day for NaNo. Even if it’s just a quick snippet of how my word count went the day before. High goals for me, but here’s hoping that by the end of November I’ve updated this blog thirty days in a row. =)

Happy writing, for those that are participating in NaNo!
Happy November for those that are not!

Stay warm, readers. And stay healthy!

NaNo Just Around the Corner

28 Monday Oct 2019

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Design by Georgia Lange, Poster in the NaNoWriMo shop.

So, NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. Literally 4 days away. I’ve been so busy getting ready for it that everything else has kind of fallen by the wayside. It’s not a great quality in me, but at the same time, I admit that that’s how I am and while I try to change there’s no sense in getting mad at myself about it either.

I didn’t get nearly as much writing done as I’d hoped with the prepping and getting everything as ready as I can make it be successful for November. I did try to do that GrimsList prompting that I mentioned in my last post, and while I did get about two thousand words overall, none of the shorts that I started are finished. So for now, it will sit and wait and I’ll try to work on them in December. Maybe I can have enough to do a small anthology of horror for next Halloween.

My biggest shift is I’ve decided to rewrite a novel from four years ago for my NaNo Project, officially. The current WIP stands at forty-seven thousand words with two to three chapters missing to close up the story. It’s basically in a zero draft stage where everything can change and nothing is safe. I’ve been editing what I have this month, being really hard on it, so that starting Friday my goal is to rewrite a chapter a day to catch up, leaving me a few days to finish the missing chapters and hit 50k. If for some reason it shortens in the rewrite and I don’t hit 50k for it, I have a sequel novella prepped and outlined and ready for me to start writing on to get me past that NaNo finish line.

November is always interesting because we have Thanksgiving near the end and as such we aren’t allowed to be writer hermits because our families demand our attention and to put down our pen, phone, or keyboard at least long enough to smile, chit chat, and pretend that while we’re eating our turkey we’re not also trying to continue writing in our heads so once we get back to our writing implement of choice we’ll be able to hastily continue our words.

On top of that, I’ll be at a Science Fiction convention for three days, though I’m not looking for that to stop me or slow me down. I have goals and they will be successful and I’ll get that NaNo Win!

If you’re participating in NaNo and are looking for a writing buddy, be sure to add me. My user name on NaNo is MerisCorner

Too cluttered – then derailed

18 Monday Mar 2019

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So, I was prepared to come on and say that while my writing hasn’t been that successful the last week. I think I’ve written a total of like 600 words, and I’m already considering scrapping them for something different, but at least I’ve written.

But I just received an email about a co-worker passing this weekend. So I’m not as up as I was when I started to write this post. It’s the fourth death in my circle in the last couple weeks. It’s been a hard March so far. Two were family members of people I work with, and two – including this most recent – were people I worked with on a semi-regular basis.

So instead of rambling or discussing word count or goals, I’m just going to leave you with these origami sculptures that were at the Arboretum near me a few years ago. There was an incredible sense of peace and reflection as I wandered the grounds to find them all. And I feel like for today, I need that peace and reflection again.

Each piece was folded out of a giant piece of paper, that was then used to create a mold for the metal to be poured into so that each fold was shown in the sculpture itself.

All credit for these beautiful pieces of art goes to the artist, Kevin Box. The exhibit’s official name was Botanical Peace. Morton Arboretum’s name for it was Origami in the Garden.

March – Thanks for the -3 this morning

04 Monday Mar 2019

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So Feb wasn’t a good month. I had too much going on at work and it kind of killed my brain a lot. That and with the weather shift, my mood has kind of tanked. And with my mood tanking, my will to write, read, or really do anything productive goes with it. weekends have been some cleaning, some crocheting but not much else.

We had cold in Feb, like in the negatives cold, and we had warm in Feb, like 50’s and all the snow and ice are melted and flooding any rivers and houses near the rivers (mine). I had flooding in the basement again due to the spike in temperature to deal with.

It’s been a month.

I think my mood is also toeing the depression line, so I’m trying to keep myself at least moving forward to not fall to that completely. (No one particular thing in my life, no real rhythm or reason, just that way) And there’s not anything particular I’ve found that helps in the grand scheme, just time and keeping myself moving forward. But it means that most of my focus and forced motivation goes to the job that is currently paying the bills and there’s limited left over for the creativity and authorly of me. It means my authorly stuff is falling behind my hopes and plans right now, but I’m trying not to let that weigh too hard on me, or I’ll fall over with it. Right now, I’m taking it day by day and not punishing myself for the things that have to be left on the cart, as it were.

March’s goals are pretty much what Feb’s goals were: there’s a short that needs editing, there’s a short that needs finishing, and there’s a cover reveal that I signed up to be a part of for another author. All good things, all good goals. And all currently in my hopeful list. Here’s hoping March is kind to me.

Also, the one time I felt up to writing, I had to wrangle a cat (picture above). He decided I needed more rest, less work apparently. Because that’s my laptop he decided to sit on.

Oh Hai

11 Monday Feb 2019

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I didn’t disappear for a freezing cold month, you did!

No seriously, I hope everyone in the path of that polar vortex stayed warm and inside. The weather has gotten to me the last few weeks and coupled with some super stress at work I haven’t been doing too much besides my 9-5 job. Things at work are slowly calming down, just too many things hit the fan at the same time and it left me feeling like I was sinking a little. So  I’m super grateful that that’s coming to an end.

It also means writing hasn’t gone very far this last month, and neither has reading. Most of my reading in January has been in audiobook form, which still counts but even those have been a little slower. I’m hoping to work through all this and get back into writing. I have a couple stories that are close to completion I want to finish, and one story I need to finish editing so I can release it end of this month, early next month. I have goals! I swear!

I’m also going to a Science Fiction Convention this weekend. Currently taking a gander at the programming schedule so I can get an idea of what I want to go to, where I’ll wander, and when I’ll just curl up in a chair somewhere and see about writing either in my room or out in the open. Apparently, there’s a big enough writing community that attends that they have a ‘Writer’s Room’ which hosts writing sprints in the morning both Friday and Saturday.  So I might head that way if there aren’t any other panels I want to attend and both meet new people and get some writing in.

I’m excited to get a break from work and head somewhere fun. Also always curious what fun treasures I’ll find in the dealer’s room for sale. So I’ll definitely make sure to report on that next week after I’ve returned home.

Hope you’re staying warm!

Hello 2019

08 Tuesday Jan 2019

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Can you believe it’s 2019. Not just 2019, but we’re already eight days in! Is the new year treating you well? Are you well on your way to exactly how you want to work, what you want to work on, and what all you’re doing?

I hope so.

I have a few things on my personal list to accomplish for this year, but also a good bit of wants for my blog, writing, & reading portions of my life.

For My Blog

Updates: 2018 saw me increase my posting much more than in the past. I want to stick with that momentum and continue doing better until this blog is getting a post a minimum of once a week – on Mondays for updates. (You’ll note that today is Tuesday…)

Reviews: I did some reviews in 2018, but I’ll be honest – especially for the amount I read last year – not enough. I want to be sure this year that if I liked a book, that I’m writing a review for it – and then leaving it on Goodreads and Amazon where I can too. Far too many of my Goodreads stuff right now has a star rating but no actual review – which while better than nothing is still not where I want to leave it for the future. For my blog, reviews are posted on Wednesdays – not in lue of an update post.

For My Writing

In general, I wrote more and published more last year (and mostly in the last six months of 2018) than I did in the past. In this I don’t just want to stick with the momentum, but increase it. I want to write more often, plot when I’m not writing, and get more of a catalog up on Amazon.

I also want to see my first draft edited so I can decide if I want to shop it around to publishers or really give it the push it needs marketing wise to indie publish it. It’s my baby, and I want to do right by it.

For My Reading

Last year I read 50 books. Which considering in 2016 & 2017 I read less than that combined, is a great accomplishment for me. My original goal for 2018 was 24 books, and I was pushing to read five to six books a month overall.

This year, however, because I want to focus a little more on writing. I’ve left the my Reading Challenge at 50 books. I’ve also decided to stop focusing so much on having a long TBR pile. I may decide at the beginning of the month to definitely read one or two titles, but the rest for the month will be titles that just hit my fancy and call to me to read.

I’m not really doing resolutions this year, but more goals to keep myself to month to month, to gradually improve myself and my life. I think goals will do me better this year. We shall see if I’m right.

Are you doing resolutions this year? If so, what are they?

Goodbye 2018

31 Monday Dec 2018

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Can you believe we say goodbye to 2018 tonight? I’m not always sure where the year has gone, how it’s already going to be January again, a new start, a fresh year with millions of possibilities.

I think part of my problem right now is that it doesn’t FEEL like it’s the end of the year outside. I live in the Midwest, where we normally have snow from December to March. But this winter has been so weird, very off because we’ve had a lot of rain and almost no snow. I keep waiting for it to feel like it should be winter, like it’s ready to be a new year or the Holidays, but it just hasn’t happened.

Overall, I still feel like I’m not ready for the year to be over. There are a few things I’d wanted to have finished before 2018 ended and a new year had taken its place, but sometimes life just happens that way, right?

This year has seen my health and Mom’s health get a little better. I’ve been part of a writer’s group for a little over a year and I’m loving the connection it’s given me. I published three shorts this year as well, and have finished writing two others that need to be edited. I’ve also made some headway on editing a finished manuscript, and editing one that still needs the last couple chapters added to it to be considered finished.

I’m hoping I can keep the momentum up for 2019, keep the writing up, and keep up the editing. I’d love to be finished editing the manuscript by the end of next year.

I also read 50 books this year. My original goal for 2018 was 24 books. So 2019’s goal will be 75, I think. It takes into account how much I have read, and pushes me to read a little more. I didn’t always keep to my reading TBRs that were set for the month, and there were some months I didn’t read at all which is why I’m looking to add to my goal for 2019 as well. Because I know where I can improve already.  I do think I’ll keep my monthly TBR lists to three books a month, and that way I leave some space for some non-list books that fall my way as well.

I did better this year with my blog as well, posting more than I did in 2017, but again there’s still some room for improvement. I mean, I can just look at this month to see that. I missed the Mondays between the first and last of the month. I don’t spend a lot of time on the computer when I’m not at work, but because I’m pushing to work more on my writing that’s changing and it’s a good thing overall. Leads me to be more productive when I’m at home, or on vacation from work.

So yes, lots of hopeful plans this year. If you’re interested in the shorts I published, please check out the My Books section here.

I hope you have a Safe New Year’s Eve, and that 2019 brings great things for all of us!