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Happy New Year!

02 Thursday Jan 2020

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It’s not only a New Year, but a New Decade.

I’m personally hoping that 2020 is a fantastic year. It’s only the second, but I’m being hopeful. There were a lot of things that kind of fell to the wayside in 2019 and I want to make sure that they don’t continue to be sidelined this year.

Namely, my writing and reading. Everything kind of stalled after that fall I took in May where my wrist ended up in a cast, well that and gaining more responsibility with my work about the same time. But I’m finding a balance with my work, which means that reading and writing balance is coming very soon.

If you’re wondering about the picture, my aunt gifted mom and I tickets to the Morton Arboretum’s Illumination show and that’s one of the shots I was able to take during it. It’s an evening walk along some paths and they light up all the trees in really cool and interesting ways.

Anyway, back to the important topic at hand, as is the habit with new years, I also have some resolutions, or goals if you will.

  1. Publish a minimum of 2 short stories this year. I have one that I was hoping to get done and out before the new year came to an end, and unfortunately, it just didn’t happen. But, I’m hoping to not only get that one out but a second one. The second one isn’t written but I have several that are stetch outlined out to pull from and write.
  2. Finalize and publish at least one full-length novel. I have several that are in various states of completion and my goal is to finish one and get it out into the world.
  3. Read 50 books in 2020. I didn’t hit this goal in 2019, I only read/listened to 32 books. But just like my writing things kind of derailed in May and I didn’t really touch a book either. But my goal is to see that not happen this year.
  4. Relaunch and run my jewelry shop. This kind of ended up on hiatus in 2018 due to too much on my plate with mom and I so we stepped back to focus on things that were a little more important. But both of us feel better and ready to get the shop back up and out there.
  5. I’m also making stickers for my planners, because I find that I don’t use a lot of the stickers that happen to be in the packs other people sell. And since I’m making them for myself, I thought why not offer them, for sale, to others. So my goal this year is to launch a sticker shop as well.

Those are my goals, or resolutions if you want to call them that. Do you have any of your own? Leave them in the comments below.

Almost the end

19 Thursday Dec 2019

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We’re more than halfway through December and because I was on a Conference trip for the beginning of the month, I’m not entirely sure where the month went.

From Dec. 6 through Dec. 13th I was in Las Vegas. The photo above is one of the sunrises from Vegas while I was on my trip. Vegas is a beautiful city, but it’s also hella expensive. You’re hard-pressed to find any lunch or dinner options that are under $20.

And if you’re wondering, did you gamble? Did you see a show? The answer is no. I don’t gamble. My dad was a big gambler and it got ugly sometimes so it kind of put me off gambling as a whole. And color me cheap, but I can’t justify a $200 ticket to a show, no matter how amazing it is. I just can’t. Especially not around the Holidays when I’m trying to spend on others instead of myself.

I did go to the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay though.

It was fun to see all the life there. And they have a couple ‘diver view’ tunnels with sharks swimming around above you that were pretty cool. Plus, the stingrays were adorable, they have several in a little touch pool that so long as you’re gentle you can pet them. And the jellyfish *points up at blacklight picture* were so pretty to watch. Having them under the blacklight made them look incredibly magical.

I didn’t get a lot of writing done because with working 9 hour days at the Conference, all I did was grab dinner on the way back to my hotel room and then crash by 8pm after I was finished eating.

Though, on the plane, I was able to listen to some audiobooks during the flight. Though I will say that I fell asleep in a couple places and had to go back and relisten to them while awake.

The view from the plane was pretty incredible as well.

Overall it was an incredible trip. And for some of the downtime, I did have fun. And for the work portion of it, I was told I made everything run incredibly smooth and they were very thankful for it.

If you’re interested in seeing more photos from my trip, I did post several on my Instagram. You can find me @meriscorner over there

As the year slowly crawls to an end, it’s made me realize that I’ve been seriously slacking the last half of the year on my reading goal. I marked that I wanted to read 50 books this year, and currently, I’m sitting at 31 books.

This means that I have 19 books to read in the last two weeks of the year! Can I do it? We’ll see. You’ll have to stay tuned!

Oh, Hello December

02 Monday Dec 2019

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Did you know that it’s December?

We’re not in November anymore. I repeat, I’ve lost the end of November. I don’t know where it went, or what happened to it, or how it passed by me without even a wave and a few words sprinkled in it.

None the less, we are in December. Technically we’re two days in now. We have 30 days until we say goodbye to 2019 and hello to a new year that will hopefully slow down and treat us kinder than 2019 did. Though, there’s never any promises for that from the years, is there.

I leave for a work trip in four days (on Friday) and am spending a week two timezones behind my normal one in the desert. Las Vegas specifically. I’ve had one of my co-workers all, you’re going to get to do all the things and see all the shows while you’re there, and all I’m thinking is ‘when!?’ because I’m manning the Residency Interview booth for my company and interviews start at 7:30am, which means I need to be there around 7am to make sure the booth is all set up for the day. And interviews run until 5pm, which means I’m sitting at this booth smiling and making idle and awkward chit chat for like 9 – 10 hours a day most of the days I’m in Vegas. What time do I have to explore and have fun? Because I’m not seeing it.

I am considering bucking up the courage to try my hand at some blackjack. I do okay virtually, who knows if I’d do well live. And if I lose $20 at least I can say I tried.

I am looking to capture some photos while I’m there and update Instagram as I can, so if you aren’t following me on Instagram, be sure to follow me there @meriscorner

I’m also looking to try and get some writing done, but I’m not sure I’m going to bring my laptop. I think I’m going to try and do some back to basics, pen and notebook writing while I’m in Vegas. Less distraction because I’m not sliding to instagram or twitter or facebook, but also, it’s not going to look like I’m ignoring interviewees when they come up to the table if I’m just writing in a notebook. I’ve also been having an issue staring at a blank word document just making me stressed that I haven’t written so I’m hoping this will help me in getting words down again. It’s been forever since I’ve really written and I’d like to get back into the habit, the groove, the writerly swing of things.

This week specifically I’ve been prepping my friend’s presents so they’re ready to mail. And getting everything ready to head to the conference. Not just with packing clothes and planning wardrobe for a professional conference, but making sure like, everything on my desk at work is okay because someone will be sitting at it the entire week I’m gone. O.O I hate the idea of someone using my space while I’m gone, but because I work at a front desk it has to be.

Any fun plans for your first week of December? Let me know in the comments below!

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 4 – It got worse

04 Monday Nov 2019

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So, I missed Day three for this blog, but it’s not entirely my fault. I currently have no internet in the house.

Remember that storm I talked about that happened last Wednesday? Well, it had pulled a wire down from the corner of the house and Mom and I hadn’t thought it connected to anything because we didn’t have any problems when it came down. Turns out, that’s because it hadn’t been broken, the not causing issues.

It was our phone line.

You know, the one that grants us connection to the outside world via the internet?

We found this out because Mom, in a cold medicine haze, made the decision to snip it since it clearly wasn’t doing anything in our house…

So she left us with no internet…

Now I’m trying to get our provider to come out and fix it so we can have internet again. While barely being able to talk because my throat is super bad, my coughing is bad, and my head feels like it’s underwater with the sinus pressure and sick.

Needless to say too, I’ve gotten nothing done on NaNo too. I haven’t been able to think clearly enough to actually write anything.

How is your November going so far?

NaNo ’19 Day 2 – The Sick Has Me

02 Saturday Nov 2019

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It’s about 3:30pm on Day Two of NaNo. I’m already a day behind because, as the title of this post states, the sick has caught me.

I have narrowed down that the nausea is caused by the medication that’s helping with the breathing and the coughing. Of course, I didn’t make that connection until about 1pm this afternoon so I’m still trying to feel better stomach wise.

On top of which, I’m struggling to stay awake because even just chewing lunch took so much effort, though that might have been because I was battling the nausea. I’ve managed to get about half of chapter one done this morning despite cats deciding my notes and laptop were THE space to be, and feeling like if I close my eyes I might just fall asleep.

I am thinking if I take a small nap, I’ll be awake later because the rest of the meds will be – hopefully – out of my system and I can finish getting through chapter one and slide through chapter two as well.

Of course the risk is also that it’s not how it’ll go down and I’ll just sleep right through to day three. Choices and risks.

Current word count: 1,291

How is your day two going?

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