Created the photo art with a wolf from Creative Fabrica, Mask from Oscraps, and the Waco creek is a photo of my own, then used Topaz Labs to create a painting of it. On the wolf, he was more of a hand drawn work and I used Topaz Labs to create more of a painting out of him to match the creek a little more.
Well, I managed to get 3,000 words written on You Had Me at Cougar yesterday, yay! I’m hoping to get the same amount today if I can. It depends on if the story is unfolding for me or not. I’m at 39K! 31K to go. Though it always ends up being longer. But at least I’m well on my way! I always feel this is the downhill slide, made it over the hump, and I need to start wrapping things up.
As to the weight business, my friend keeps telling me that I need to weigh in just once a week, but I can’t do that. It’s like everything in life. We need to do it the way it works for us. For me, I like to know what I did right or wrong when I’ve eaten particular foods. If I wait a week to learn what I’ve gained or lost, I don’t know what I did right or wrong. So tomorrow I’m supposed to weigh in, but so far I’ve lost 2.8 lbs for the week and that’s headed in the right direction.
I’ve got to feed the dogs, and get to writing if I’m going to manage what I had planned for today! Have a great day!!
I created this with Lynne Azeltic’s designs from Oscraps. They’re fun to use if I want to just create a scene and not take a ton of time to do it. I still created shadows under the ducks, and had to mask off some of the turtle to make him look like he’s partly under the water, and added the reflections of the geese in the water but they’re really easy to do. Still I really want to create my own.
Also, I have a waterlily photo I took in San Diego and used Topaz Labs to create an oil painting look.
Yesterday was a great day. We had fun and my daughter gave me books on composting, since we both have composters but I don’t use mine enough, and how to gather seeds to plant, and that’s something I’ve been doing since last year, so that will give me some new cool ideas. The stuff in my composter is already composted, but I need to add more to keep it going! I thought you couldn’t put weeds in the composter, but actually you can as long as they don’t have seeds on them. So that was one thing I learned already.
It’s cool this morning, yay! So I was out pulling weeds and grass. We didn’t get the rain yesterday after all. And it looks like we won’t get any rain until maybe Tuesday. So we’ll dry out a bit.
I had my ice cream sundae, expecting to gain, but you have a birthday once a year, so I figured that would be my extra 28 points and hopefully it would cover it. I lost 0.2 lbs. Watching what I was eating the rest of the day really worked, to my surprise! Of course I couldn’t eat a sundae daily, but I figure if I can watch what I eat and then have a treat every once in a while, I’m good.
I didn’t get much written, but reread the last two chapters I had been working on and revised them. I hope to really write today and tomorrow before I’m back to having little one here and picking her up at daycare every afternoon. I spent a lot of yesterday working on the Memorial Day pictures I took of the family. I need to get back into the writing saddle and start getting word count again! I’ve already got a 1,000 words on You Had Me at Cougar this morning, so up to 37K!
Hope everyone is having a great day! I’ve fed the dogs and I’m ready to write.
This was a prehistoric fish picture I took at the Jurassic Park drive-thru during the Pandemic at Christmastime in Houston. Then I used a water background, water overlays, bubbles, added some small colorful fish, and voila, we’re back in prehistoric times and you really don’t want to go in the water. Speaking of prehistoric stuff, they just fished a ten-foot alligator out of a drainage ditch in Houston. First they had a ten-foot alligator on a highway! It’s all the flooding that’s going on. It’s bringing the wildlife to us. And they finally captured the 9-month old tiger someone had as a pet in Houston that was on the loose. They have it at a big cat reserve where it can be fed the right diet and taken care of so it doesn’t eat something we don’t want it too–kids, dogs, adults.
It’s Memorial Day weekend and I do want to take a moment to remember our fallen soldiers who gave their lives in the service of their country.
As to writing, I’m excited about getting my proofing done on Silence of the wolf and the SEAL Wolf novella that’s included with the new release. And I turned it in.
I was also trying to come up with other ideas for the Christmas novella for the Christmas anthology. It could be just a winter theme, or it could be about a different United Shifter Force character, since that’s the title I have. A United Shifter Force Christmas. Well, not just a winter theme. If I made it that, I’d have to change the title.
After I blog, I’m taking a walk. It’s a beautiful 68 right now and that’s heavenly compared to 75 and hugely muggy in the morning. We were supposed to have rain all day, but it looks like it’s going to hold off until later this afternoon. It poured yesterday when I had to run an errand. I feel like we’re having spring late this year, but I know it’s going to be really hot all summer.
I’m still playing my game 4theWords while keeping up with edits. But I’ll be glad to get back to writing a story. Today, I’ll work on You Had Me at Cougar and MAYBE, if I can figure out a story line, the Christmas anthology.
Tomorrow and Monday I have all day to work on them. We’re doing a birthday celebration for my birthday and my son-in-law’s, so that will take up some writing hours. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make sure I don’t eat over WW points while we’re celebrating. I’ve lost 2 1/2 lbs. I need to lose 11 more, so this is helping. And if I have a setback, I just need not to get discouraged and keep following the plan.
It’s like writing and trying to get published and getting rejected dozens of times. But I wasn’t giving up!
Have a wonderful day! I’m thrilled I can get back to writing!
These are 3 foot high daylilies and like the others, they have really spread into a beautiful array of flowers. I really needed to take a picture of the original flower as I plant it and when it’s barely emerging, to fully grown after a couple of years.
Well, I’m getting closer to the end of proofing the re-release of Silence of the Wolf. I finished proofing Silence, but am now working on the second chapter of the new novella SEAL Wolf Pursuit that will come out with the updated book. I really liked the way I had included a couple of other people’s POV scenes in Silence of the Wolf. In later books, sometimes, the editors have taken it all out. Sometimes they want me to and I’ve said no because it’s way too integral to the story.
I’ve skipped doing that in more recent books, not wanting to waste my time on scenes that are going to be thrown out. However, I really like the way I did that. It gives more depth to the story. So I think I’m going to start doing that more with my indie books and not just show the hero and heroine’s POV unless it works fine that way.
With all the rain and heat we’re having, it’s mosquito repellent time. I was trying to take pictures of a dragonfly last night and getting eat up. And the fire ants are trying to take over!
Hope you all have a beautiful day. I’m off to feed the dogs and get back to proofing. Hope to have this done today!
The Wolf Pack–I created this with Clip Art from Creative Fabrica, Daily Texture, and Oscraps.
After little one went home last night, I finally managed to proof another 10 chapters, so I have 8 chapters to go on Silence of the Wolf, and 10 chapters on the novella. I should get that done by Friday.
We went to the mall. It’s so hot that I thought it would be fun to walk the mall and maybe I could find some clothes for me. Skip that, but I did find an outfit for both baby and little one for Memorial Day and I’ll take some pictures. At the mall, everyone for the most part was wearing masks. So I was glad to see it. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and they had everything spaced so that people weren’t on top of others. I haven’t been to the mall in about a year and a half, maybe longer. I haven’t been to a restaurant in about the same amount of time because I just don’t eat out very much.
A friend of mine is in Weight Watchers and so she and I are doing the Blue Plan together! It’s fun and in 2 days, I’ve lost 3 lbs. I’m hoping I will continue to lose weight and get down to what I was before I quit working at the library. My problem is that to write, you have to keep your butt in the chair. To maintain weight, you have to get up and move. lol
I don’t eat that much–so I could never figure out what was wrong. I don’t eat bread very often, or pasta either.
Chocolate is my downfall, but even after skipping chocolate for a couple of weeks, I was still being a yo-yo on my weight. When I was younger, I used to count calories. I hated that. So now I’m trying to follow the WW plan and free foods are most vegetables and fruits, fish, chicken breasts, turkey breast…Anyway, so here’s the scenario. Instead of eating what I normally would–a half of a Chicken Marsala dish at the Cheesecake Factory, which for the whole dish is 50 points!, I had Tuscan Chicken on the Skinnylicious menu. It was 11 points for the whole thing. I didn’t know it at the time, so I was being careful of how much I ate, but I couldn’t eat all in one setting anyway. There were three pieces of chicken breasts and vegetables.
So I had only one “portion” and saved the other two for two more meals. Yesterday, I ended up having 2 portions, one for lunch and one for dinner. I had more tomatoes and broccoli as a side dish and for breakfast I had a poached egg (eggs are also zero points) and a sprinkle of cheese on it. The day before I was getting close to my limit of points because I had a chicken thigh and it’s 3 points, so I skipped the butter on the broccoli. But I could splurge yesterday and had butter. I measured it, when I normally don’t measure things.
Now, yesterday, we arrived too early for the mall to open, at least I thought. Shops weren’t open until 11. Though I finally found an entrance where people were entering to walk. It was way too hot to sit in the car. Panera was open and they have all that stuff you shouldn’t eat–that I shouldn’t eat. Cinnamon buns. 29 points! All my points would be shot in one sweet 620 calorie roll. They do have half sandwiches which are about 11 points, so that’s not too bad.
So see? I might not eat that much, but if I had done what I would have in the past, I would have had the cinnamon bun for breakfast, the Chicken Marsala for lunch, and the other half for dinner. And that would have totaled 50 for the chicken Marsala for the day, and 29 for the cinnamon bun, and if I’d had some dark chocolate to finish it off–104 points for the day. Now I could see why I wasn’t losing weight! I don’t eat much, no snacks all day, no chips, nothing, but what I was eating was higher in calories and in points.
I don’t want to change my diet completely, as in eating foods I don’t like just to lower my points, because I won’t last on it, but I can definitely watch what I eat of the stuff I do like. And the Tuscan Chicken was really good. What makes it easy is I can look up the foods I normally eat, or even restaurant food and decide how many points I’m willing to have.
I’ve been balking at doing this because I don’t “eat much,” but it wasn’t getting me anywhere. A lot of the reason was that my friend eats a lot of things I don’t like and so I just couldn’t see myself eating whole new menus of food that I can’t stand. So I’m working on varying my own eating habits now but still eating what I like–except for some of those really high point items. So I’m working on it now! And I’m feeling better and I hope to feel lots better soon!
Have a super wonderful day. I’ve got to get ready for little one! And need to feed the dogs and birds!
This is a photo of my friend’s Bearded Dragon and I played around with digitally watercoloring it. Yes, I know watercoloring is not a word. I think it should be. lol
I’m on ch 13 of 30 chapters of Silence of the Wolf proofing and then have another 10 for the novella, so getting there!
We’re supposed to only have a slight chance of rain this morning, so we’re going to get our chores done early. Maybe walk, and then be home this afternoon if the storms hit. They might come around 2 and we’ll just stay in then.
We had another 3″ of rain yesterday. Chances of rain are high Saturday again, but it looks like we’re going to have a drying out spell for the next couple of days. The ground is saturated, the ponds way up, so we could use a little drying out.
I’m hoping to get some more proofing done today and also work with my granddaughter on workbooks too. I didn’t tell her a schedule for today, because I didn’t know how the weather would be. And if I told her one, she would be bugging me to do it, even if I changed my mind.
It’s really foggy this morning and it’s already warm. Tomorrow it will be in the 90’s and the next day also. The heat is on.
Well, I’m off! Have to feed the dogs, the birds, and my granddaughter when she gets here. She always wants to eat at my house–different foods.
Woohoo! I finished the book–Billionaire Wolf and the Bodyguard! I want to just read over one more page and need to make corrections to one scene this morning, but I’m such a pantser, seat of the pants writer. Sometimes, I just have to have a light bulb come on and that’s what happened yesterday. All of a sudden, I figured out how to end the book. And the other scene I had to finish? Last night, I was working on it and it wasn’t coming because I needed to do it another way. And when I allowed my muse to take over, that was it! I revised the scene on paper last night, made more changes, and need to add those and then the book is done. Yay!!!
A couple of more digital watercolor pet photos that I completed yesterday and this morning. Have 2 more to do.
Now, I have some documents I need to read over and I have to do edits on another book that came in yesterday–Silence of the Wolf reissue, so that will be what I need to concentrate on next. Once I turn that in, it’s back to cougar, and maybe I can get some ideas for the Christmas anthology.
I also need to get gas and groceries. *sigh* I want to just write and edit. But I need to do it this morning. Oh, and I really need to walk. We have another afternoon of storms coming. Yesterday was a mess driving in it, barely any visibility. And they’re coming in about the time I have to pick up my granddaughter.
Hope you all have a delightful day! I’m finished with Billionaire, woohoo!
Tanner is such a nut. Here he is as a puppy. You can see his chew toy in the background while he’s got my shoe in his mouth. I used Topaz Labs simplify to create the oil painting look. Thankfully, he only hoarded shoes and socks, never chewed on them. He quit hauling off shoes when he was a puppy, but he still grabs socks if he finds any lying around. I had to train my granddaughter–who always takes her socks and shoes off at my house–to put her socks up on the coffee table or on the couch so he doesn’t grab them and take them to his bed. Every once in a while, I’ll see him with one in his mouth. The whole thing in his mouth. She has little socks, but still….
Woke to wild thunderstorms this morning. It shows like 11% chance of rain. About the time I have to run out, we’re supposed to have heavy thunderstorms. Maybe it will clear out by then or come later. The weather has been so unpredictable. Heavy chance, then no rain. No chance, and heavy rain.
I reached the end which is still not the end of Billionaire, but at least I made all the paper edits and now need to make the changes on the mss. Then I need to finish the book! It all depends if I can figure out the ending! I really hope to have it done this weekend.
I spent the day working on Billionaire yesterday and I’ll be doing the same today. I’m about halfway through edits. Hoping something will give me an idea an I can finish the story when I get to the end.
We’re supposed to have rain this morning, well, on and off all day, but when it’s light enough out, I plan to walk if it’s not raining. I spent all morning yesterday working on photos for my daughter or for others and then all afternoon and night on Billionaire. I’m hoping to finish it up today. But if I don’t, I have to run errands tomorrow, so not sure how much work I’ll get done on the book. Then Tuesday, I’ll have most of the day to work on it, if it’s not done by then.
I had to start printing out pages to edit because it just makes it easier to see mistakes at this point. I had moved some scenes around and when I did that, some comments were out of order, references to things that hadn’t happened yet, so was fixing those and other minor tweaks. It really helped to put the book aside for about a week so that I could look at it with fresh eyes.
In this one, I have the original photo my friend sent to me, and then I added the texture background, then did a Topaz Labs Impressionist painting on it. Above, I have one that I did the watercolor on. Smudge is a character in Tambra’s books and her own dog, so that was fun to do.
I used Topaz Labs Impressionist to create the Impressionist picture.
My daylilies are finally really becoming showcase flowers from a tiny beginning. I need to take some pictures of the new ones. I should have taken a picture of how sun deprived they look when I first plant them. But these are really turning out pretty.
It’s time to get back to work! I was at the doctor with my daughter and baby and then got home in time to grab a lunch and pick up little one and then ended up hugging on baby again, then went home and returned for dinner and taking kid pictures. So it was a wild day yesterday. Still, I managed to get to 36K somehow on You Had Me at Cougar.
I think I’ll switch gears and reread Billionaire and try to finish it up since I’m at the end of it. And then back to You Had Me at Cougar.
I’ve tried to think of several different openings for United Shifter Force Christmas and none of them are working, so I might just try something else for the Christmas anthology and maybe I can get going with it. Sometimes, I just need to think of a different story, new characters, and run with it.
We haven’t taken a family vacation since Thanksgiving two years ago. And we decided to do one at S. Padre Island this summer. Some of my fae stories have been set down there, and I even have a romantic suspense where I wrote that the characters were down there for a bit. It will be the first time little one has been on sandy beach or seen the “ocean.” So it has a bedroom with two beds in it that little one and I will stay in. We talked to her about sleeping in her own bed, right near Grandmom’s. Her response, “I want to stay with Grandma.” So I suspect, she’ll be in bed with me. lol I don’t think my son-in-law has been there either. I’ve been once with my mother and kids and then again with my son who was in college by then. My daughter was off on a conference trip, also in college at the time. So my son and I had a ball too.
Anyway, we had planned a trip to Seattle and Canada (my dad was from Seattle, my mother from Canada) and we were so looking forward to it–then Covid-19 happened. So we didn’t go anywhere last year at all.
Except for the little ones, we’ll all be vaccinated and as long as we don’t end up having a hurricane or tropical storm come in about that time, it should be a blast.
Hope you all have a lovely day! I’m excited about concentrating on writing all weekend! And if I can finish up Billionaire, all the better!
