The birdseed tray is pretty old, so I used the mixer paint tool brush in Photoshop to smooth it out a bit. Jai, who created the background texture, said she paints her platform feeders in bright colors. Now what a novel idea! So my granddaughter is staying overnight and then all day Friday and overnight again and we’re going to sell GS cookies. But we’re also going to pick up some bright paint hopefully, and paint the bird feeder tray.
I have a busy day ahead of me before I pick her up from school, so I’m off to try and get some more words written on Bite of the Vampire.
I was trying to get the dogs to all sit together for a photo. Here are my attempts, lol.
Okay, so my dogs will sit still on their cot since I used it for training since they were puppies and I finally resorted to that but I couldn’t get the corgis to sit on either side of them for anything. I had the treats and the corgis wanted to get closer to me. My dogs knew to sit on the cot until I released them.
At least I got them all to look at me, though Luna’s ear is in front of Max’s face. *sigh*. I will try again later!
I’m having Dog Days of Christmas and having a blast. Finished While the Wolf’s Away proofing, turned it in and I’m working on The Emerald Isle of Mist next!
I took this picture in a bird blind at the writer’s retreat I went to a few years back.
I’m off to get my day started. I ended up writing lots yesterday and turned in my edited Jingle Bell Wolf. I wrote 8848 words yesterday.
I had to fight a witch on the main quest and that meant writing 4,000 words. I thought I would really be somewhere on the game story, but then I had to fight another critter for 1200 words. I was getting really tired of writing by then. But then it opened up another area, and I wrote another 2,000 words to get into another area. You get maps and it opens up new quests and battles. So yay! By the time I was done with writing and began working on editing, I had written 8848 words. So I’m up to 67K on White Wolf, and 27K on Saving the White Cougar.
Have to shop for setting up little one’s birthday party–family only, and drive-thru baby shower with my daughter, so trying to get a little writing in before we go. And then afterwards, really getting into the writing again. I have to do 2400 words to get into another map area, so shooting for that–or at least part of it before we take off.
So I was working on this yesterday in between writing, and taking care of my granddaughter. I had to take a different cardinal photo I had captured of a male cardinal and add the tail to this one since some of it was hidden by the shepherd’s pole. He has a seed in his mouth, if you wonder what that is.
Okay, so I couldn’t get myself up this morning, but had to. Usually I’m up by 5 am, so a super slow start to my day and it means blogging late, and getting a start on my writing late. Dogs and little one are fed, and it’s time to get something else done. I did embroider the Armstrong bear last night, need to make its sash and bonnet next.
So it’s back to babysitting and we were doing the letter S and counting in 10s and reading books. I managed to get 500 words done before she got here. Hoping to get more done when she naps and after she goes home.
We’re going to talk about the weather, days of the week, months. And I’ll have her help me create a Photoshop picture from Oscraps.
I managed 2,000 on the new White Wolf book and finished the scenes for A Date with a Wolf yesterday–for a total of 5700 words. Today is my off day for word count on the deadline book but I always try to get 500-1,000 done on my days off. I was working on edits and a new scene today on Primal Desire. 🙂
In Baldur’s Gate, I finally took out the Harpys–but one of my characters died and then I was supposed to bring him back, but when I tried, all my characters died of poison. So I quit the game and went back to work on the stories!
So I went to blog yesterday, and they changed everything up again. Please, leave things alone. *sigh*
Red rosebud getting ready to bloom. I love red flowers in the garden. I love purple, but red is really showy. And the butterflies and hummingbirds agree. The bees love any color. They’ll “flock” to my holly’s white flowers in spring even. But I have yellow, lavender, hot pink flowers, and still, the hummingbirds and butterflies prefer the red flowers above all else.
And, did I mention it’s showy? When I see a row of red roses or red-flowering crape myrtles or azaleas, they catch my eye more than white or any other color. I love the combination of red and purple. And some yellow makes for a pretty scene. But green evergreens help to bring it all together. In my humble opinion.
So for the last two days, I was trying to work on Vampire Redemption, Highland Wolf edits, and shipped off books to readers. I also dropped off my tax paperwork, and picked up plants and dirt, the fun part of the day!
I picked up red pentas, a hummingbird and butterfly magnet, and a pink hibiscus, they didn’t have red, so I got pink for my granddaughter because that is her favorite color, and a couple of citronella plants. Now, they said they stave off mosquitoes. NOT true. They have to have their leaves crushed to do that. False advertising!
Okay, so I’m working of vampire redemption edits this morning, have 1 more scene to write. I need to start proofing Highland Wolf and then send it off. And I need to ship another 30 books or so today. Oh, and plant!!!
I planted 20 of the pentas last night, a bunch of flower seeds, have more, and I need to plant the hibiscus and some salvia seeds.
Have a fun day! Mine is happily busy. No little one. Spring Break. Yay, for Grandma! Which means I really have to get stuff done with the unexpected extra time on my hands. Yay!
Love the cardinals and on a wet, rainy day I managed to get some halfway decent shots of the female.
Today is a free day so I’m hoping to get a little more caught up on Highland Wolf. I turned in Wolf in Need–beta reader didn’t like the title so changed it to Wolf in Mind and sent in the Letter to Reader. That’s for the 10th Anniversary Edition of Wolf Fever coming in November. It’s done! Yay!
I am 7,000 behind on Highland Wolf so hope to get 2-3,000 today. But I also need to start working on the dreaded taxes. ugh.
They usually come in pairs. Someone said that her mate may be guarding a nest. I can buy that. A male cardinal was on my bird feeder yesterday. Alone.
I’m still trying to come up with an idea for the novella for the 10th Anniversary of Wolf Fever. I was looking at story prompt ideas and snatched a few for for something else, maybe, or changed quite a bit for my own need. Still not coming up with the one I want for this.
With novellas, they are much shorter–mine around 25-30K rather than 90+ on a novel. So the story can’t have a lot of subplots and it has to be quick hitting, action right away, conflict right away, meeting between hero and heroine right away.
So my dishwasher’s not working. I just figured I’d forgotten to start it. But nope. Yesterday, I was washing all the dishes by hand, but last night I had toddler dishes and mine from the day I needed to get to. Well, I was busy with trying to finish the letter to the reader, my editor wanted it longer, and I hear the sound of the dishwasher rumbling. It’s working! All on its own. Not with me starting it or anything. I dashed into the kitchen, threw all the stuff in that needed to be washed. closed the door. Nothing. Started the dishwasher, nothing.
I hoped it would just miraculously decide to start up in the middle of the night. Nope.
One word for it: Fae
So this morning I’m trying to do my blog and I get an error message. No fixing it. I transferred block by block my whole blog, telling myself I should write shorter. I’m a writer! What can you expect?
The fae? Probably. They haven’t heard me talking about a book for them yet for this year and they’re giving me a hard time over it.
All right, off to edit Highland Wolf and get started on my word count.
In the wild, the hummingbird is asserting its territorial right to all the zinnia flowers in the garden while the monarch butterfly is trying to ignore the bird. Yesterday, a giant yellow swallowtail was harassed by another hummingbird. Two hummingbirds chase each other off all the time too. And a red-bellied woodpecker is not happy that the cardinal is on HIS feeder, chowing down.
My two-year old granddaughter is the same way. “Mine,” I hear all day. Even when she knows it’s not, if she claims it, she feels she has a right to it, unless Grandma says, “No, that’s Grandma’s.” And even then, if it’s something she really wants, she will insist, “Mine.”
Depending on what it is, Grandma will let her play with it, but it’s still Grandma’s.
During my research, I’ve been reading about people who take metal detectors on “abandoned” property, looking for treasure. The property is owned by someone, maybe an absentee owner who still pays the taxes. So when the trespasser obtains the “treasure,” is it really…his? When someone finds something that’s of a huge value, after he’s bought the property, can he keep it? It seems that yes, sometimes, sometimes, no.
So I changed my story to the owner finding the treasures in her shop as part of her inheritance, rather than buying the property from someone who had inherited the property and sold it off. End of gray area. And it makes it more personal for the character also.
A point in fact: A master’s painting had been stolen from a museum. It had to be returned to the museum. A beautiful antique chest had a secret drawer and the new owner, while refurbishing the furniture, found it full of jewelry and cash. He could have kept it. But he didn’t. He contacted the owner and gave them their treasured possessions. He wanted the beautiful chest. That was the treasure to him.
In another case, a man was digging on his new property, to plant a garden, and discovered a cache of jewelry and other valuable items. It turned out his neighbor had been robbed by the previous owner and the items were buried in the backyard! If he’d tried to sell it, the police might have been alerted that the property had been stolen. And that would certainly be a new twist to a story, wouldn’t it.
So it’s something to think about when you find buried treasure. Hopefully…you won’t find buried bones.
Okay, I’m off to write. I wrote 2,000 words on my day “off.” Isn’t it awful to have a day off from writing, only to spend it babysitting? lol Though we have fun. I hope to take her to Galveston Island to the glass pyramids one day to see the aquarium and tropical pyramid.
Have a super day!!! I’m off to get busy. The days is all MINE.
We ended up having a downpour yesterday when the weatherman kept saying it wouldn’t be until later, later, later, and that was supposed to be around 11 pm. This was around 1 pm. They were off by a 1.
We may be getting some more rain tomorrow and the next day from a tropical storm.
In the meantime, just remember if you’re a shifter, don’t do it when I’m out taking pictures.
Have a fun day! I wrote 6,000 words yesterday, hope to get to 45,000 today! Baby will be here tomorrow and that’s the end of writing as we all know it.
