Life in progress

Tag Archives: blogging


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#SoCS – Seems clear …

The fact that I’m a day late with this post …

The fact that I didn’t post at all in the last two weeks aside from the prompts …

Seems to signal that I haven’t changed my ways after all.

But it’s not for lack of trying.

It’s been a stressful couple of weeks here, worrying about Alex and getting busy with a new proofreading job. Plus, I have to drive to Ottawa on Tuesday, so that’s got me stressed out too.

I hate writing posts that sound like “woe is me,” because I’m not actually feeling sorry for myself, and neither should you. It’s just life. You take the ups and the downs.

I do plan to do better with my posting. Maybe not this week because I have a lot going on, and I’m going to have to catch up after Tuesday’s all-day trip.

But next week for sure.

Yeah.

*touches wood*

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This determined post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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#SoCS – Fail

Despite everything, despite all precautions, I have failed.

We have a cold.

Two of my kids came down with it first—the two who haven’t left the house in a month—and now I have it.

I blame it on chicken.

I ordered out for Valentine’s Day. Swiss Chalet. Do you have Swiss Chalet in the US? They specialize in roasted chicken dinners.

The two kids had chicken, I had ribs.

I figure someone sneezed on their chicken skin. It’s the only explanation.

I know the very moment I caught this cold. Standing in the hallway beside the bathroom door, Alex yelled at me (we were playing around) from only a few inches away. I felt his breath on my face and had a moment of absolute clarity.

I’m sick, I thought. This is where I got sick.

And sure enough …

I’m sick.

It’s totally the chicken’s fault.

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This blame-y post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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#SoCS – Modern Photography

There was a time long ago, back when I walked to school uphill both ways, when I was very careful about the photos I took. There were only so many available on the film, after all. I didn’t want to waste them! I had to buy the film, take it to the store when it was full of pictures, then pay to wait a week until it was developed.

Now that kids have it easier and presumably walk downhill both ways to school (like seriously, did the schools move?), I can take a thousand pictures of nothing and it doesn’t cost me a cent. AND I have them immediately—no waiting a week.

Why am I going on about this? I’m getting there, young whippersnapper.

Because we were so careful, we’d make sure not to get strangers in the backgrounds of our photos if we could help it. And yeah, I still try to be careful, but I can take ten of the same picture to make sure the majority of the strangers are facing the other way.

There’s always been the danger of getting sued by someone who ended up in your picture, especially if you post it publicly. But we take so many pictures these days without really thinking about it. Videos too. It’s a national pastime to photograph as many things as we can.

So that got me thinking—how many strangers have taken pictures of me? Not because they wanted to, but just because I was there at the time.

It’s kinda creepy to think about it.

Kinda.

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This kinda creepy post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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#SoCS – Ah ha!

I noticed last month that my blog stats were a little light on the views. And by a little light, I mean it was the second-worst January I’ve had in ten years of Just Jot it January. 2024 was tied with 2015.

And only just now, I realized why.

(I’m so behind the times, but that’s what you get when you pretty much drop off the face of the blog-earth for three years.)

What darkness came to light?

It’s because of the whole subscription thing. The fact that we don’t follow blogs anymore, we have to subscribe to them.

When I look at my email opens, I find they sometimes weigh heavier than my views on my blog.

Friends don’t need to visit anymore. They can just read in their emails.

Which is great! Don’t get me wrong. WordPress is still as clunky and unreasonable as ever, maybe more so.

(Definitely more so when you have to sign in fifteen times a day because you made the mistake of trying to comment on a blog you’ve never visited before. Grrr.)

I’m just glad to have figured out why my stats were so dismal, despite following the prompts every day. 🙂

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This enlightened (and bonus-point-ful) post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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#SoCS – Watch this

Watch this.

It’s me, writing a SoCS post on a Saturday morning. On one cup of coffee (it’s not enough).

I’ve spent the last half an hour looking for the last time I participated in my own prompt—barring Just Jot it January and the occasional post, I think it’s going on three years.

Here’s what I wrote in April 2021 in one of my last posts:

“I’ve been paralyzed every time I’ve thought about writing something. It’s not fear, exactly, but it kind of is. Anxiety, maybe? I dunno. Maybe I’m just totally out of practice.”

And as far as blogging goes, that hasn’t changed. Until now, when I’m still running on momentum from January.

So I’m going to try to be here more often.

I wrote six (6!) posts last year that weren’t One-Liner Wednesdays or Friday prompts.

I need to remedy that.

Just watch me.

 

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This determined post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in!


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JusJoJan24 & #SoCS the 27th – The hardest thing

This post is part of Just Jot it January and my weekly prompt, Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt and see how you can join in HERE.

When I post my SoCS prompts every week, I really take the idea of writing off the top of my head to heart when I sit down to write my own SoCS post. Sometimes.

Case in point: today, all day, I tried to figure out how I could put “make the call” into a post. What could I write about? I make so many calls every day, some literal, most not—I make a heck of a lot of decisions in a day.

But today, I just couldn’t decide what to write about.

So I made the call to just sit down and write my post.

And here I am.

Writing a post and having no idea what to write about … except not knowing what to write about.

Very meta.

This nonsensical post is part of Just Jot it January and SoCS! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

 


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JusJoJan24 & #SoCS the 13th – Nothing lasts forever

This post is part of Just Jot it January and my weekly prompt, Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt and see how you can join in HERE.

Nothing lasts forever, and sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes it’s a bad thing.

It’s a good thing when you’ve got a cold, for instance.

Or a broken something that will mend.

(Not a vase. Unless you have glue.)

But every year around this time I start to think about the fact that one day I’ll have to close up shop on my prompts.

Not that I’m considering doing that yet. I think I still have at least a few years left in me.

But still. Nothing lasts forever.

And sometimes that makes me sad.

This ultimately sad post is part of Just Jot it January and SoCS! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

 


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#JusJoJan the 22nd/23 – It’s writin’ season

The prompt word for January 22nd is “seasonal.” Thanks go to Kaye for the wonderful prompt!

I’m starting to realize, rather belatedly, that my writing is largely seasonal.

I try to do NaNoWriMo every fall, so that’s when I write the bulk of my novels. Also during the spring and summer NaNo camps, though I’ve never attempted 50,000 words during one of those.

Blogging daily has become a January thing.

I used to do it every day, but then a career or two happened, and I seem to run out of either time or steam by the time I get around to doing much else.

Seems whatever I do, though, I can usually do it in my pajamas.

Hibernation season is all year round.

P.S. My neck is a bit better today. 🙂

 ***

This writerly post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Kaye! Please be sure to check out Kaye’s blog here!

For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/22/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-22nd-2023/ It’s fun!


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#SoCS – A fortune

Okay, this is the last time you’re going to hear about this from me–unless I win! Please, if you haven’t already, go and vote for my books in the contest for the Paranormal Romance Guild Reviewers Choice Award. The Magician’s Soul has been nominated in the category ROMANCE/FANTASY/PARANORMAL/SUSPENSE/TIME TRAVEL/HISTORICAL/MAGICAL/WESTERN/NATIVE AMERICAN/GOTHIC

and the series, The Great Dagmaru, is in the category just below it.

Here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvn1eQbB2t-8PftIfh8ej9CXppQfDq5t0kIhvdLT82B7VAxA/viewform Thank you!!

***

I have a fortune.

Not in money, but in the love of my family.

I know I’m fortunate that despite their ages, all three of my sons still live in my house. Yes, two of them need 24/7 support, but I can’t see myself being near as content as I am if they were living elsewhere. And my eldest who supports me when I need it … I know he’s going to move away eventually, but for now I’m grateful.

Would I be better off with money instead of what I have?

No.

I don’t have many things. My furniture needs to be replaced, and my house needs redecorating.

But who needs stuff when you’ve got love?

 

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This grateful post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2022/02/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-12-2022/


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#SoCS – Turning the page

I think what I miss most when I’m reading an ebook is the act of physically turning the paper page. There’s a certain anticipation that comes with the extra second it takes, compared to swiping a screen to get to the next screen’s-worth of text.

Is it just me?

And then there’s the fact that a paper page isn’t backlit. Much more restful for the eyes. My eyes have been bugging me all day.

I told my son this morning that getting too much sleep sucks for me now that I’m not used to it. It’s like drinking too much–both sleeping and drinking are lovely at the time, but I inadvertently wake up with a headache. Mine has been kind of in the background all day (because I slept 8 hours, not because I was drinking), and it’s bugging my eyes.

Wouldn’t it be nice if when we typed, the words could show up on a paper page instead? Yeah, I know. That’s been invented and it’s called a typewriter, but what if those words on the page could go out instantaneously to the world like it does on the screen?

What if I could type a page of text and hit the return button and you could read it?

Without waiting for it to arrive in the mail.

Hmm.

Somebody invent that, would you?

 

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This daft post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2022/02/04/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-5-2022/