I took the photo of the bee on the flower and the pretty bubble bokeh, but it was just brown, so I added a texture overlay to add color to them.
Okay, missed my blog this morning. I was running late, just trying to get the dogs fed, garbage out and then little one was here. I wanted to go to the grocery store and so we did that and it was so hot, I wanted to take her to the pool. Trying to rush her out the door because the lifeguards take a break and I was afraid we’d get in and then have to get out. But we were there for half an hour and then 10 minute break and then we were there for another hour. It was perfect. It’s just so hot, that’s the way to go. I’ve been trying to teach her to swim, but she’s reluctant to get her face in the water.
I made it to chapter 20 last night, but stayed up too late doing it. Anyway, I’m still trying to finish that chapter with all that’s going on. Have to take her to a dance class to see if she’ll do it or not in an hour and a half. We tried gymnastics, but she wanted Grandma there with her every step of the way. lol But that was 2 years ago, pre-COVID. She’s 2 years older now, so we’ll see.
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!
A rose surrounded by purple flowers is a rose in a happy place.
Purple flowers are happy flowers.
Can you tell that I love purple flowers? They add a bit of love to a garden of flowers.
We had a thunderstorm come in last night and it really cooled down the area! Yay! My house was 80 degrees so I opened the windows and had that nice cool breeze coming in. It’s been so hot and muggy first thing in the mornings that makes it feel like the middle of summer. So this morning, it’s cool and beautiful, and my granddaughter and I will walk, feed the turtles, and do a million other things. We’re going to do some workbooks, plant the rest of the daylilies, I managed to get the rest of the flower seeds planted, make lunch together–she loves helping in all things–and whatever else we can come up with. Maybe even weed. Though I need to check our storm situation out too. Hmm, chance of storms increase by ten, so we’ll have to go out first thing.
On the book front–I’ve been working on it all week, like every week, every day, moving scenes, editing, cutting, adding, cutting, adding. And I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes it feels there isn’t one, but I went over a couple of scenes last night and they’re great. I need to finish another scene, and then I need to figure out the ending. A nice conflictive, 360 degree turn from the beginning of the story to the end–and then it’s done! Then I can just read it for editing pleasure. I can’t wait!
I love it when it comes to that. Because I can’t wait to finish up some other stories I’ve started. Like about 5 of them! Though I have a lot more that I’ve started than that. But that’s the goal. Write the story, finish the story, share with the world.
Hope you all are having a wonderful day! Mine is just about to get started!
I did all my chores this morning, but then got distracted from my main quest, writing, editing! AppSumo had a sale on Depositphotos and I use them for covers and for video trailers. But then I was looking at videos of wolves and cougars, which meant wasting about an hour this morning! I could tell myself they’re good for research, to see their behavior and remind myself of it. I take a lot of still shots of wolves when I’m at a wolf reserve. I really need to take some videos myself to add to trailers!
In one, a male cougar who wants to mate a female was licking her fur, giving her a good washing and massage at the same time to put her in the mood. I’ve never seen that before and had never read that before, so guess what’s going in my next cougar book? Ah-ha! Not so much a waste of time then!
But I am getting late on working this morning, so I’m going to take a quick walk, plant some more flower seeds, and get to writing and editing! It is hot already!
Usually, I’m not big on yellow, but I have yellow lantana, coreopsis, two different varieties, don’t recall what these flowers are, and one other yellow flower in the bed. And then purple salvia. I’ll have zinnia in there that are coming up and sunflowers. It’s really pretty.
We had a lovely Mother’s Day, and I always enjoying hugging on the grandkids. Really lovely time. And of course I took pictures. Need to download them.
Everyone was tired. Them with the new baby, and me because I didn’t sleep well either. No baby as an excuse.
Then I returned home to work on the book again. I had worked on it all morning before I went over to have lunch with them.
Honeybee on a yellow flower.
I had moved one scene earlier in the book and that changed everything, and then too, I had been writing some scenes I thought should be in the story, and just tacked them on the end until I could find where they should be. So it’s been a month since I did that, and I get to the end on edits and I’m like why are these scenes out of order? lol
It’s wonderful when you can write a story from beginning to end, perfectly linear. But my mind doesn’t work that way sometimes. So this afternoon, I spent the rest of the day trying to sort out what I could use of the scenes at the end of the book and put them where they belonged and discard the rest. Obviously, I did not finish the book this weekend. But I’m getting closer.
Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Mine was too short!
It’s a glorious Mother’s Day today, nice and warm and I’m ready to plant more flower seeds and take a walk and work on the book and then have lunch with the kids! We’re ordering in.
One negative though, I’m so disappointed in those who won’t get vaccinated when so many people need it. Wake up U.S. But I’m glad those who wanted it are able to get it. Hundreds of thousands of vaccines are being turned away by states. It’s just unreal. Like an apocalypse scenario where people become deranged who normally wouldn’t. What is the deal?
Texas is way behind on getting vaccinated, several states in the East are taking advantage of getting the shots to protect themselves and others. And the great thing about that is that they’ll be freer to ditch their masks and socialize! SAFELY.
I just wish more people would wise up. Republican and Democratic leaders all got the vaccine to protect themselves and their families. Get a clue! This has been made a political issue, but the people in charge are vaccinated! Both parties!
Off my soapbox and back to being a mother and happy mothering day it!
Well, still no baby. I was rushing around to get the garbage out and feed the dogs and need to feed the birds. Little one will be here momentarily. I was cleaning house yesterday. I don’t know how things can get so messy when I’m just working on the computer all day. lol
But dust accumulates, the dogs drag in grass and pine needles, little one brings out a ton of books for me to read, her workbooks to do, and toys to play with, and oh, yes, all my new fur is sitting on the table, calling me to cut it up into little bears and I don’t want to put it away until I have done so.
And there you have it. Multiple messes and I haven’t hardly created any of it. Except for cooking meals, of course, but I keep after that.
It’s cold again this morning, but I bundled up more. Feels like 49 this morning. I was out trying to break up some of the hibiscus branches to put out with the trash. I don’t know if they’ll come back at the roots or not. I put them in last year, so they may be dead completely. My esperanza is coming back at the roots and it will be 10 feet tall during the growing season, but I’m not sure about the hibiscus.
I’d rather have plants that can handle our heat and ice storms if we get them because I don’t want to lose them if we’re going to start getting weirder weather all the time.
My neighbors all over our neighborhood had beautiful Japanese blueberry trees, someone called them and they’re all dead. And so are the oleanders. It’s too costly to keep replacing beautiful plants that have survived 8-10 years and then in one cold freeze–that we might continue to have intermittently–they’re wiped out. Not to mention it’s a pain to take them down.
I’m still not sure about that one pine tree. It looked like it had a bunch of new pine needles. And the boxwood I move is still hanging on. So I wait and see. And I haven’t torn out my hibiscus just yet, though my neighbor, after having his for years, pulled his up and said they didn’t have any live roots, so….
Little one should be here any second. I’ve got to get some more stuff done and work on some more edits on Billionaire. I’m nearly up to 70K. I need 80K minimum, but I was thinking about a car running my heroine off the road and so I need to write that scene next. Yay!
Okay, have a super, fun day and I’m off to have fun with mine!!
Here is the list of my books in the wolf series and connected books in the jaguar series. They are growing and growing just like my roses. Isn’t that neat!
Heart of the Wolf Series Terry Spear
1. Heart of the Wolf
*Night of the Wolf: A Heart of the Wolf novella*
2. Destiny of the Wolf
*Day of the Wolf: A Destiny of the Wolf novella*
3. To Tempt the Wolf
*SEAL Wolf Team to the Rescue: A To Tempt the Wolf novella*
4. Legend of the White Wolf
*White Wolf to the Rescue: A Legend of the White Wolf novella*
5. Seduced by the Wolf
*Hunting the Red Wolf–A Seduced by the Wolf novella*
6. Wolf Fever
*Wolf in Need: A Wolf Fever novella*
7. Heart of the Highland Wolf
8. Dreaming of the Wolf
*Tangling with the Wolf: A Dreaming of the Wolf novella*
9. The SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing
10. A Howl for a Highlander
11. A Highland Werewolf Wedding
12. A SEAL Wolf Christmas
13. Silence of the Wolf
*SEAL Wolf Pursuit: Silence of the Wolf novella
14. Hero of a Highland Wolf
15. A Highland Wolf Christmas
16. SEAL Wolf Hunting
17. A Silver Wolf Christmas
18. SEAL Wolf in Too Deep
19. Alpha Wolf Need Not Apply
20. Billionaire in Wolf’s Clothing
21. Between a Wolf and a Hard Place
A Very Jaguar Christmas – Prelude to “Seal Wolf Undercover”
22. Seal Wolf Undercover
23. Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas
24. Flight of the White Wolf
25. All’s Fair in Love and Wolf (Silver Town Wolf)
26. A Billionaire Wolf for Christmas You Had Me at Jaguar
27. Seal Wolf Surrender
28. Silver Town Wolf: Home for the Holidays
29. You Had Me at Wolf
30. Night of the Billionaire Wolf
31. Joy to the Wolves
32. The Wolf Wore Plaid
33. Jingle Bell Wolf
34. The Best of Both Wolves
I was out early this morning before it was barely light out trying to move a boxwood that isn’t happy where it’s at. It’s dying, and then sprouting new green leaves and dying, so I hope where I moved it to will be a great new start for it. It’s a section where everything grows well. But it might be too late for the poor little boxwood. It was so far behind plants, I could barely see it to notice the bad shape it was in. Initially, it was the biggest of the boxwoods back there!
No baby yet! I thought with the storms we were supposed to have last night, it might have come then, but we might not have had any storms. It looks like we’re going to get them about the time I have to pick up my granddaughter from daycare instead today.
I was working on more edits yesterday, and I finally found the buffalo plaid ribbon for my grandson’s bear. I also found the chicken wire fences from Hobby Lobby that I had gotten a couple of years back. I love them because they’re easy to move around and they stay put. They keep plants standing upright, or the dogs from peeing on them. That’s why having female dogs is a boon. lol I want to keep them from reaching my chives that are in the ground. The rest are in planters.
I ordered a raised bed planter, though I’ll probably use pavers to raise it up a bit more, to hopefully use for all my herb plants. Maybe even a tomato plant or two. I just hope it’s easy enough to build! It’s long and narrow so I can put it against the fence and hopefully that will be a deterrent for the dogs getting close to the fence and other dogs, but also a neat way to have a garden that’s easier to maintain. Hopefully.
Well, it’s time for me to get to work on writing. Or editing. I still need to finish one more bear. I’ll try to get it done tonight. I ordered some more fun bear fabrics to play with too.
Have a lovely day!! I’m excited about getting mine started!
Blanket flower, sunny coreopsis, red gerbera daisy, lavender azalea, red rose
Lots of flowers in the garden. We didn’t get to do half of what we wanted to do. Life got in the way. Little one was running a fever first thing, so we ended up just staying home and she spent the morning watching cartoons, relaxing. I actually managed to get some writing done on the book and added 1600 words for the day while editing. Yay! We finally did play in the sprinklers late in the day. She didn’t take a nap. So we plan to do the things we didn’t do yesterday, but I’ll have to see how she’s feeling first and hope I don’t catch what she’s got!
Okay, she’s good today, so when it gets hotter, it decided to get cold last night, and poured rain–which is great!–we’ll play in the sprinklers again.
Tomorrow is my 2nd COVID vaccination shot so I don’t want to get sick and miss it!
Azalea in snowPeople pushing a car free after spinning out in the snow in Waco, Texas, yesterday.Jerry Larson/Waco Tribune-Herald, via Associated Press
I used to work in Waco. But it’s a mess here too near Houston.
Texas is under snow and ice! And a lot of other places in the south that normally aren’t either. Electric outages all over. Rolling blackouts. Water isn’t being pumped to some homes.
I’m afraid my sprinkler system probably broke, despite trying to weatherproof it. And my kitchen sink pipes froze last night. So I’m hair drying it, trying to unfreeze it, hoping I don’t have a flood of water like I did in Oklahoma one time. And the worst? It was Christmas Day. I had to have a friend turn off the water for me because it was frozen and I couldn’t budge it, and when the plumbers came the next day, they found termite towers in the wall behind the plumbing they had to repair. Talk about costly!!!
Anyway, still frozen, still writing tons and rewriting tons and moving stuff around in White Wolf. It will be a mess for a while, but it’s getting better. I’m up to chapter 7-8 and those are mostly like I want them. 15 chapters to revise, rewrite, move around. 🙂 But it’s getting there!
Now if I can only unfreeze my kitchen pipe and hope I don’t have a crack in it!
Frozen rose. Flowers blooming before the deep freeze hit.
Stay safe and if you’re in the middle of this Polar Vortex–we haven’t had this kind of cold since 1985–stay warm the best you can!
