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I had a strange dream recently that involved an airport, a plane crash, and a terrible Disney movie, but in this dream I also had a vivid image of #drawing an #abstract #landscape. So, having had the concept stuck in my head for days now, I decided to put pen and colored pencils to paper and see what I got.

The results aren’t exactly like the dream, but they’re not too bad. I think I might make several more of these in the coming days. Weeks. However long until I get on my next creative venture lol

Enjoy!

The lighting is terrible because I drew these quite early in the morning and the sun hadn’t quite risen yet (especially with the darker photo) and I keep forgetting to ask my tech wizard of a husband to figure out why our scanner won’t connect to the WiFi to email me any scans. Lol

After going through some #critiques from one of the members of the Facebook critique group I’m in (gods, I love that group–they’re all getting mentioned in the acknowledgements), I’ve pushed past the 50,000 word mark!

It’s still very short, but it’s getting there, and it’s getting better. 🙂 I’m super excited.

Well, off to the day job I go. Cheers!

Thanks to the wonders of Facebook (and my own boredom) I learned that yesterday was the one year anniversary of the day I started this version of my #manuscript. I had a couple of false starts that didn’t pan out, but a year ago yesterday I wrote the first couple of paragraphs of what is now the prologue to my work in progress.

I can’t believe how much I’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time. I gave myself a year to get the first five chapters written (being fully aware that a novel takes a lot of time and effort, especially for a first timer), which I did manage last year, and I told myself that by the end of this year I’d have the first draft finished.

Well, I blew that goal out of the water and now am on draft number three or four (or five or…ok, so I revise as I go and don’t exactly know what draft I’m on). I still have trouble believing that I’m this far, yet I know I have much farther to go before I’m published.

My hope is to be traditionally published, but if that doesn’t pan out I am fully prepared to self publish and bust my butt to market and get my book out there. It’s that important to me. 

White, yellow, orange, blue
I sort them out by ones and twos
Blue, orange, yellow, white
I take them morning, noon, and night

The first one keeps me awake all day
That bunch holds the pain at bay
This one keeps my head in place
Those two put smiles on my face

Two more I take to go to sleep
Though tossing, turning moves I keep
And awake am I before the dawn
Throughout the day can’t help but yawn

White, yellow, orange, blue
I sort them out by ones and twos
Blue, orange, yellow, white
I’ll take them ’til the day I die

Maybe I’m just getting paranoid now that I’m getting even closer to the point where I seek out an agent. Maybe I’m just being overly cautious. But today, in addition to already having my manuscript on hard drive and on Dropbox, I also copied all my files–including the older ones that I have since revised–onto a flash drive.

I usually don’t take quite that many precautions, but with Windows 10 coming out (and my laptop being quite old), I didn’t want to risk losing anything important. I just had this horrific vision of Windows 10 somehow wiping my files at the same time that Dropbox wiped my files in some freak cosmic “Fuck you” from the universe.

Well fuck you, universe. I’m going to get this book finished and published. It probably won’t be this year. Maybe not even next year. It may have to be self published. But it will be done. That’s a promise.

Well, I did it. I conquered my fear of sewing machines today.

Our laundry bags that came with the hamper bit the dust, so I decided to make some new ones. I figured it couldn’t be too hard to make my own, but seeing as how we need to do laundry this weekend I kinda had to make them fast. In other words, I couldn’t just hand-sew them. I had to borrow Mom’s sewing machine and *gasp* use it.

For my first time using a sewing machine in over 20 years, it wasn’t too bad. The first bag’s done (took me hours, and killed my back) and there’s wibbly-wobbly lines everywhere, but it feels like it’ll hold up. Now I just need to do it two more times and boom! Project done. Since I’ve gotten the first one out of the way, the next two should be easier.

I may have a long weekend off from my day job, but I have a few project that need to be done.

Our laundry hamper bins/bags, which have handy handles that make it easier to haul the loads back & forth from our apartment to my parents’ house for our weekly laundry day, are starting to come apart. Not just the seams, which would have been easy enough to fix, but the fabric itself. This will pose a problem, so I need to get some sturdy fabric and #sew up some new ones this weekend (since I have the extra time) so we don’t lose our clothing in transport one of these days. I’m usually very anti-sewing machine, seeing as how I’ve completely forgotten how to use one since junior high, but I think I might ask my mom to let me use hers tomorrow to make more bags so we’ve got them again.

I also have to keep ready for possible assignments from @talknerdywithus, because I’m still loving that side job 🙂

Then there’s the charity writing and my own personal writing. Still need to keep up with that. Plus, I’m supposed to get signed up today for a home study site for my day job where I can earn continuing education credits for my certification renewal (which isn’t due for another 2 years, but better to get them done & over with–besides, bonus free learning!)

So lots to do this weekend. I’m hoping the laundry bags won’t be too difficult to cut & sew. Since I have the original bags to use as a “pattern” of sorts, I’m fairly confident I can do it. It’s just a matter of getting over my sewingmachineophobia.

Oh, and I need to get the car checked out for some maintenance that may or may not be major. The guy at the oil change place made it sound not-major, but from what he described it made me nervous that it might be major. And I’ve been procrastinating on that. So yeah. Busy weekend.

And I was so hoping to be lazy.

Well, my #novel is off to two beta readers, and the first has already finished reading it. I was asleep when he asked for my email address last night (and given the time of day I woke up today, he most likely is asleep now) so it will be a bit before I get my #critique back, but I’m pleased that I was able to find someone that not only was able to read it in less than the month I was asking for but in just one short day! He did tell me in the message he sent that it was an enjoyable read, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have changes that need to be made. It will be interesting to see what a complete and total stranger will have to say after reading the whole thing in one sitting.

The other beta reader still has that month, and I’m not too worried about it. This reader I’m more familiar with, and I know he will be a brutal critic if needed.

I’m excited to move on to the next round of revisions before I send it off for the next edit. Getting closer and closer to being sent into the scary land of publishers!

I don’t know why, but I’m stuck on these abstract forms lately. Here’s the latest one

It started as an abandoned sketch that I thought I couldn’t salvage, but today I looked at it again and decided to give it another go. I like how it turned out. In fact, I really want to get more colors. These are the only gel ink colors I have right now (besides black) & I kinda want to see what I can do with some other color combinations.

Maybe next paycheck.

I swear I have the attention span of a gnat on speed.

I fully intended to spend the majority of the day (the part of it not spent picking up prescriptions, filling the gas tank of the car, or doing a phone interview for www.talknerdywithus.com ) just sitting and reading. I really did. Just relaxing. Chilling.

So why is it that I #amwriting again?

Yep, I’m back at my novel, trying to get one more revision in before I seek out beta readers. I just can’t stop myself.

I also want to start another craft project after having a strange dream involving said project, even though it would interfere with my revisions. I have issues.

There’s something else that I feel like I’m forgetting, but since I can’t remember what it is I can’t very well list it here, but it must be of some importance so I’m going to make a place for it here.

Oh, and I need to give my hair a trim. At some point.