Life in progress


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Writing Random Writing

I’ve been writing. Actually, I’ve decided that it’s about time I turned this writing career of mine into an official profession, and to do that I need to be paid for what I do. To this end I’ve begun to look for writing jobs that are paid. On Friday I submitted a story for an anthology based on fairy tales, or specifically the continuation of fairy tales after the point at which the story ended as originally told. I decided to tackle Alice in Wonderland. We’ll see where that goes.

My current project is to write ten 100-word stories under the category of speculative literature. I thought that with my recent foray into writing 50-word stories, twice that length would be a breeze. I’ve written one so far, nine more to go by the end of the month. Whatever doesn’t fit into the genre (or whatever I can’t get to stretch all the way to 100 words) will likely be posted on my fiction blog.

On the novel front, I’ve decided to have it professionally edited, so the first third of it is off having that done to it. (It’s like a week at the spa!) In the meantime I’m hoping the lovely person who I’ve asked to design the cover (one who might be reading this) is well on his/her way through the reading of my novel. On my end I’m working on the eighth edit of said novel; part 3 of 3 left to go, and then I’ll work on finishing the first draft of the sequel.

With all this writing and editing, by the time A-Z April rolls around I think I’ll need to spend a week getting edited. (If this makes no sense, you weren’t reading closely enough. Go back.)

And that’s my recent news. What are you working on?


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#SoCS – Fingers and Puppy Update

Fingers. How could we live without them? I’ve spent more time wagging mine at the puppy in the last couple of months since we got him than I think I have in the last ten years at my kids. Then there’s Alex. He’s Deaf, so there’s not much communicating going on if he doesn’t have his fingers for sign language.  Back when he was at the hospital half the time I had to ask them to put his IVs in his feet, so he could still communicate. They couldn’t leave his hands unwrapped (with bandages) or he picked them off. What’s kind of amusing is that I can swear as much as I want to (or feel I need to) in front of Alex without guilt, but I don’t dare give anyone the finger.

Fingers hold rings, but I still haven’t found mine. I probably lost it in the parking lot of the grocery store. Fat chance anyone would turn it in, but I’ve asked a couple of times anyway. There’s a Dollar Store there too. Maybe I should ask in there. One can always hope.

Funny thing about fingers – I’ve been touch-typing since I was a little girl. I learned on an old Underwood with keys you could get your fingers stuck between and letters that got stuck together if you typed too fast. But I’ve never been able to play the piano. It must be a different part of the brain.  …then again, you have no idea how many typos I make in the process of typing a single sentence. It’s silly… glad I can watch the screen as I type.

The puppy finally got his cone off his head today. It’s been twelve days since his surgery. He’s looking very handsome without it. Pictures to come. Later. For now, with the cone.

 

Winston - Feb. 4/16

Winston – Feb. 4/16

This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here to join in today!

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Don’t Want Windows 10? Read This

You know that annoying blue box that keeps popping up at the bottom of your screen, asking if you’re ready to switch to Windows 10 yet? Apparently that isn’t getting enough notice for Microsoft’s liking, so the company is going one step further. It turns out that Windows 10 will be a “recommended update,” which means if you haven’t turned them off in your control panel, it will download automatically when you turn your computer off. If you don’t want the Windows 10 upgrade, turn them off now.

Click this link for a full explanation and to learn how to select or turn off your automatic updates. This is particularly important if you pay extra to your internet service provider for more download space.

Please feel free to reblog this, and spread the word.


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Just Jot It January 16th – What #SoCS

What should I write about? Should it be about the puppy, who is now ripping my front door mat to shreds? (Not conducive to writing a SoCS post at all.) Or should I write about the fact that by the time this post is published I’ll be firmly ensconced in a hotel room, dreaming the night away? Yes, it’s my first night of sleep since November 29th. I’m looking forward to it.

Should I write about… how nice it is not to have to listen to the TV when I’m sitting in the living room with my Deaf son while he’s watching whatever he likes? I’m surprised when the sound is on – that’s how often it happens. He’s really the only one who watches it.

Ah, there are endless possibilities when the prompt is so open. It’s almost overwhelming, isn’t it? I sincerely hope that doesn’t sound conceited. I know I’m the one who came up with the prompt, but honestly I never have much of an idea what I’m going to write until I sit down to do it. Any more than you do. Hey, there’s a question – do you like the completely open-ended prompts like “what”? or do you prefer when it’s a more concrete one? Personally I enjoy the balance between the two.

Anyway, my ex is on his way to watch the kids for the weekend. Unless his mom told him about the puppy (hi Lucie!) he has no idea he’s looking after an extra soul this weekend. Surprise!! Hehe. Word.

The “what” prompt is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here to join in, and leave your link for everyone to see!

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JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here. Join in today! It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 16th post here at this post.

Note: If you combine SoCS and JusJoJan in one post, make sure you ping back to both this post and the Friday Reminder post.


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What we make of things

They say some things in life only have as much significance as we give to them. I suppose you could say that about everything and everyone – the things and people we find dear to us are those that have a place in our hearts. A person can have significance to us because we relate to them, or because they’re family. An item can be meaningful for its monetary value (if money in general matters to us) or for the memories it conjures.

Then there are the things we make up meanings for; a recurring dream, the sighting of a black cat, or a ring around the moon for instance. For me, for the past twenty years or so, it’s a number sequence that keeps coming up. I think of it as maybe something that pops in once in a while to say, hey, I’m still here watching over you. The number sequence is 911. It doesn’t always have to be precisely in that order – sometimes it’s a whole jumble of 1s and 9s that gets my attention. Sometimes I even have to add up the numbers in a sequence to come up with it. Like this little gem I encountered the other day:

1111119999The 1s are obvious. But then 4+7=11 and for the 9s, 18 halved is two more. So out of this I got 1111119999. I think that’s pretty cool.

By now I predict you’re either you’re intrigued or your finger is hovering above the let’s-move-on button. But before you go, let me ask you; what have you invented a significance for? Is there anything? Or do you just stick to people, objects, or even places? Or hey, feel free to let me know if you think I’m just weird.


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Missing – #SoCS

I’m cold. I miss the warmer weather. Funny, I remember missing the colder weather when it was hot outside. Those of us who enjoy spring and fall spend most of the year in a state of discontentedness.  (Why is that not a word, spellcheck?) Discontent. That’s better.

When I came up with this prompt I was thinking about how Paul Curran went missing online. It’s very easy to just up and disappear from the internet. Much easier than it is, say, to go missing from home. When you go missing from home you’ve got to find somewhere else to go. I know – I try to go missing often. Not that I want to worry anyone, but it seems the only way I can get any writing done. So I go out, to restaurants and coffee shops. But then I have to buy something. Going missing can be very expensive. And fattening too. Potentially.

It’s hard to dismiss thoughts of one who has gone missing. You might wonder where they are, how they’re doing, whether or not they’re thinking of you. And waiting – oh waiting for someone to come home is the worst, isn’t it? Even if you know where they are and that they’re on their way. I suppose it’s much easier to know such things in this age, with cell phones. Way way back when I was a girl ( 😛 ) and there were no such things as portable phones, waiting was insufferable. If someone wasn’t at home there was no way to reach them. Back then you didn’t know if they’d gone missing or not until they showed up.

My grammar sucks sometimes when I write stream of consciousness… it’s positively gone missing.

This likely misstake of a post is part of SoCS. Find it here and join in today!

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I made it!

Just a quickie to say I got home safely. I woke up this morning at six – thirty one and a half hours ago – and now I’m ready for bed. As you can well imagine. I’ll go through the pictures tomorrow if I can actually stay cognizant long enough.

Nightie-night all!


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Random Stuff – #SoCS

It seems the concert I came all the way to Japan to see was the stuff of inspiration. I started writing a new novel today. Only 1,333 words into it – not quite up to NaNoWriMo standards, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish my first draft by Christmas. Thanks, as always, go to this guy for his inspirational lyrics:

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Sakurai Atsushi

And the rest of the band for the awesome music:

The Mortal

The Mortal

Some of which you can listen to here:

(I’ll leave the video here for a limited time, so if you’re interested, listen to it soon.)

And so that’s most of my interesting stuff, at least the stuff I’ll disclose before I get back home to Canada. I have loads of fantastic sights to share and stories to tell. It’s been a trip for the books… so to speak.

This random update post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here: https://lindaghill.com/2015/11/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-2815/ and join in!

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NanoPoblano Day 11 – A Bucket of Sludge

If exhaustion was a bucket, mine would be filled with the sludge from the bottom of Loch Ness, where the monster has been pooping for centuries.

If exhaustion was Lego, mine would be a minefield on the floor between me and the bed and not a shoe in sight.

If exhaustion was light, mine would have the intensity of the sun. The sun four feet away from my living room window and me without my sunglasses.

If exhaustion was a beverage, mine would be lemon juice. A pure, squeezed, warm bottomless cup.

If exhaustion was a calculator, mine would be the internet. Google, in particular.

If exhaustion was a blog post, maybe this would actually make sense.

Did I mention I’m tired? I’ll catch up on all the one-liners and comments tomorrow. G’night, WordPress friends. 🙂

nanopoblano2015dark

This less-than-energetic post is brought to you by the good folks at NanoPoblano. Click and enjoy!


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Under the Category of…

…things one thinks about at one in the morning after a couple of glasses of wine…

Something the people who have met me in person know that most of you cannot is that I have a slight English accent. I acquired it from my parents, even though I was born and raised in Canada. I used to say I was born with an accent – I was teased relentlessly as a child for it. Most of it has disappeared but…

I was talking to myself at one this morning after a couple of glasses of wine (did I mention that?) and I said to myself, I wonder if I think in Canadian or English? And then I got to thinking.

What accent do we think in? Do we think how we speak? Or is there a language of thought?

In the immortal word of Bill and Ted on their excellent adventure, Whoa!!

bill_ted_whoa