Sunday Summary & #ROW80

1. The Writing: Blah. I think it’s time to try some of the tips from Jennifer M. Eaton’s ROW80 post — Just Say No to Writer’s Block.
2. A post by Elena Aitken lead me to Overcoming Writer Inertia Part One and Part Two by Trish Loye Elliot over on the Wordbitches blog. Wow, inertia is such a better word for what I’ve been battling. Well, that and four kids on summer break.
3. Jami Gold had another fabulous post on How to Make the Most of a Scene. She also linked to the Rule of Three, No the Other One from the amazing Janice Hardy.
4. The Reading: I’m beta reading Joely Sue Burkhart’s Her Grace’s Stable and ‘alpha’ reading Angela Brown’s Neverlove. Need to sit down and put my notes together for both these awesome ladies.
5. The Blogging: No additions to the queue, so I’m holding at about 2 weeks cushion thanks to last week’s post writing and scheduling. Commenting :sigh: I have no idea. I think I did pretty well with the sharing.
6. The Social Media: I didn’t track it this week so I’m not sure where I stand. I did have a conversation with @KristaDB1 (aka Krista D. Ball) yesterday.
7. The Health: Walking = zilch. Caffeine and sugar reduction = on track. Water = nailed it this week :tosses confetti:
8. Amy Shojai had a fabulous post on Hot Dogs and Summer Safety this week. Did you know dogs can sunburn? I didn’t until I got Beastie Girl who is so fair her skin becomes bright pink when she’s overheated.
9. I think I’ve come to the conclusion I need to take Round 3 off. Two of the wee beasties need some tutoring so they’ll be up to par for the new school year. That Man has scheduled some vacation time. I have a nephew arriving for a few weeks. Mice babies to find homes for. But mostly, I need to refocus on the basics.
10. To support the awesomeness that is ROW80 you can go HERE

Sunday Summary & #ROW80

1. The Writing: My Margie Lawson Writer’s Academy class ended this week. I still have a few assignments to do that I haven’t been able to get my head around or just ran out of time. I have all the lessons and got some great feedback on some WIP related assignments which will definitely help with revisions/edits of one story. I think I better bake up some brownies and crack open that bottle of chocolate wine for the muse… Hope she’ll share
2. Have your characters ever surprised you? Check out Joely Sue Burkhart’s guest post about some of the surprises her characters hit her with during the writing of Yours to Take. Psst…there’s a giveaway.
3. SynTAROTis posed an interesting question this week: Can a skeptic use Tarot cards for introspection? Of course, the site’s tagline is ‘the skeptic’s tarot’ so obviously she does. What I liked about the post was I could see applying the process to writing.
4. The Reading: I just finished The Last Good Man by Kathleen Eagle. Fabulous. Savannah was completely relatable in her struggle to heal from depression to hope and finding her HEA. This story touched a cord with me. I’ve lost a grandmother and an aunt to breast cancer but, thankfully, I also have three aunts and a cousin who’ve beaten the beast.
5. Roni Loren had a fascinating post about the hard truths readers are facing in today’s new world of books. As writers, there are more options for getting our work out there to readers. Kait Nolan mentioned last year, eBooks are the new pulp fiction (not the movie, LOL) in which authors are — or should be — learning on the job. Then Maria Zannini posted about the free book paradox. As readers, that means our job of selecting books is tougher. How do you select what you read?
6. The Blogging: Ha! Built the queue back up this week. Whew! What a relief. That counts as writing, right? I think I hit my comment goal but the three-day weekend and more mice babies born Friday threw my tracking for a loop. Can’t imagine why :snicker:
7. The Social Media: I ‘think’ I did pretty well here. I had a Twitter conversation with @neostateofmind (aka Angela Brown) and some fun with Jenny Hansen on Facebook. And I even updated Goodreads, LOL.
8. The Health: Dog walking pretty much sucked this week. I need to get new shoes that’s all there is to it. I can’t deal with the blisters on top of the blisters on top of the blisters. Sugar and caffeine reduction is on track and I’m feeling really good about my progress. The water intake went well 5 of the last 7 days though I failed to reach my 8 glasses per day goal. As we’re in the triple digits, and not likely to dip below that for the next 3 to 4 months, I really need to get a handle on this.
9. Once again the fabulous August McLaughlin covered healthy eating with her 5 Steps Toward Healthy Sweets Success post. She even shared a delicious flourless cake recipe!
10. Maria Zannini also had an excellent post on pet first aid. I have a pretty well stocked general first aid cabinet in my house due to the wee beasties, which carries over nicely to the fur babies, thanks to my mum being a nurse and teaching its importance at an early age. Are you ready for an emergency?
11. To support the awesomeness that is ROW80 you can go HERE

Sunday Summary & #ROW80

Happy Mother’s Day

1. The Writing: The muse is back but she’s sulking in the corner. Apparently, she didn’t appreciate Gene Lempp’s muse coming after her with a flaming sword. I’m not sure I have much sympathy which is probably not helping her out of the corner. :ducks: Great, now she’s throwing things at me. Ideas, please! Words and sentences. :ducks: Not… What is this? A spit ball?! :sigh:
2. Earlier this week, Jami Gold posed an interesting question, Does every scene need a goal? It’s a fabulous post I’ve found myself returning to (and following the links) this week.
3. The Reading: Natalie Hartford pointed me to an amazing new blog serial Tell Me a Story by Amber West.
4. In honor of Mother’s Day, Elena Aitken and Steena Holmes are offering some e-Book specials.
5. The Blogging: Check with the initial goal. Check with the updated goal. Almost at four weeks scheduled not counting these posts. I’m cheating a bit with having two guest posts coming up this month but I’ll take it.
6. Speaking of guest posts, coming up on Tuesday the 22nd, IPPY award winner, Terry Persun will be here posing an interesting question about robots…and souls. Be sure to check back and weigh in on the conversation.
7. The Social Media: I do believe I can say “check” here. I had non-post related updates on both Twitter and Facebook. Sharing has gone well. And I even had a conversation…gasp.
8. I’ve been struggling with what to do about Facebook. Currently, I have an “author” profile and “fan” page, plus a personal profile. Earlier this week I followed a link on Facebook to Jane Friedman’s 5 Principles for Using Facebook post. Great info! I plan to sit down, read through her posts on the subject, and perhaps revamp my presence on Facebook.
9. The Health: Water…5 glasses per day average. Sugar reduction…down to less than a tablespoon on average per day (from all sources). I’m pretty comfortable with that when I look at where I was when I started this process. Caffeine reduction…I managed to cross off 2 drinks all but 2 days this week. Dog walking hit a bit of a road block. Well, damaged knee block. Last weekend, much emotional drama was endured, which I’ve been asked not to go into here. Needless to say, our menagerie grew with the addition of…
   

   Sonic

   and…

   

   Neptune and Poseidon

   I have no idea what the God of the Sea has to do with mice but #3 was adamant about the names. (I’m also not sure how he can tell them apart!) It was the digging out of the old gerbil cage from the bowels of the garage :cough: storage area that I banged, wrenched, or otherwise mucked up the ol’ knee.

   Plus side, oldest wee beastie has started taking the dog out for runs most evenings.

10. To support the awesomeness that is ROW80 you can go HERE