Monthly Archives: January 2022

January 31, 2022 · 8:15 PM

End of the Month

Well, the only goal I managed to attain this month was writing 100 words a day.

I think the problem is that I tried to start too many new habits at one time. (That’s a really bad habit of mine and one that I need to break.) So I think that for February I’m going to just focus on the writing and whatever else happens, happens. I’ll be happy if more gets done but not disappointed if it doesn’t.

It would help if my evil day job would settle into some sort of routine. I never know what I’m doing from one week to the next – and sometimes not from one day to the next. (Come to think of it, my job is kind of like the weather here in Pennsylvania recently.)

I’m going to cut this really short tonight and apologize for the more-disjointed-than-normal rambling. I’ve been feeling really chilled the last few days, with yesterday and today being the worst so far. I simply cannot get warm.

So, I think I’ll leave you with a quote from Pashevel from today’s 100 words:

“Once you’ve drawn your sword you’ve already lost.”

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January 30, 2022 · 12:01 AM

Sunday Snippet, January 30, 2022

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Picking up from last week’s post from a fantasy WiP tentatively titled Wild Worker. Ciana’s father is making a delivery and she is tending the jewelry shop.

The old woman opened the leather pouch and reached inside to pull out a raw emerald, roughly the length of her finger. Shuffling through Ciana’s sketches again she found one of leaf-shaped brooch and laid the emerald along its center line, nodding to herself.  “Can you cut and facet this to fit your design?”

Ciana nodded, her mind already seeing the finished product. “Do you want the leaf in gold?” She pulled out a sheet of paper and began taking notes, even as part of her mind wondered where the shabbily dressed old woman had come to own such a gem.

“Yes, gold.”

Ciana studied the emerald for a moment and frowned. “This might work better as a cloak pin,” she said. “I think it will be a little too heavy to be a brooch.”

“I think you may be right.” She pulled a pair of raw rubies from her pouch and matched them with another sketch, this one of interlocking rings. “Yes. A pair of rings, one gold, one silver.”

She poured the rest of the gems out of her pouch and matched up each one with one of the sketches, nodding in satisfaction as the number of gems matched the number of sketches, and laid the empty pouch on the counter. 

 

 

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at the Sunday Snippet group.

 

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January 29, 2022 · 12:01 AM

Rainbow Snippet for 1-29-2022

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Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).  Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

This snippet picks up from last week’s, from my still unnamed FF vampire novel. It’s also extremely raw (as in, I just finished writing it a little bit ago) so don’t look too closely.

Livi was mildly surprised to see that the driver of the roadside assistance truck was a woman, and more than a little amused when her heightened senses registered the rapid heartbeat and scent of arousal. The woman was shorter than she was, with curly sandy blonde hair and curves that the coveralls didn’t quite conceal; tonight just might be fun after all.

“Olivia Elder?”  

“Livi,” she said, smiling. She held out her hand and when the driver took it she felt a flash of something she couldn’t quite identify.

“I’m Sam – Samuelle.” Taking a deep breath she wondered why she’d bothered giving her full name; she usually didn’t, especially not to a customer.

Turning to the car to steady herself she noticed that the spare tire was propped against the rear bumper, ready and waiting. Apparently the woman was more than a pretty face and gorgeous body.

 

 

 

 

 

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January 28, 2022 · 6:32 PM

Changes

It’s been a long, cold, snowy week and I’m glad it’s over.

I’m starting a new assignment on Tuesday, which gives me a three-day weekend. (My regular assignment that I was supposed to go back to isn’t happening for at least another couple weeks. There simply aren’t enough van/bus drivers anywhere.)

I’m not sure how time is going to work out with this new assignment. I probably won’t be home as early as I have been, and I don’t want to take my laptop along and leave it in my car in the cold, but I’ll keep getting my hundred words in somehow…

And maybe the wait time between the bus trips will let me get caught up on some crocheting goals, as long as it’s not too cold to sit in my car. (And it has been too cold! I normally don’t mind winter but I am so ready for this one to be over, and it’s not even February yet.) Maybe I’ll be able to find a place to hang out inside for a couple hours between bus trips.

And if I ever find Onyx Sun so I can get the changes entered into Word, I can go to Staples and get a new copy printed for the next round of editing. (Eventually it gets so messy that I have to work with what I have, print it, and start a new round.)

What I really want is to find a work from home job, but those tend to be few and far between for nurses.

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January 26, 2022 · 12:01 AM

Wednesday Words #370 (1/26/2022)

Welcome to Wednesday Words!  Every Wednesday I will post some sort of prompt for a flash fiction piece.  The prompt will go live just after midnight Eastern time.

The prompt might be a picture, or it might be a list of things to include in a story, or maybe a phrase or a question or something from a “news of the weird” type thing, or a… who knows?

After that, it’s up to you.  But if you do use the prompt to write a bit of flash fiction (say, 500 words or so) I’d love to see what you came up with, so comment below with a link to where it is on your blog (or on WattPad or wherever).

(And a pingback to the post here where you found the prompt would be appreciated but isn’t necessary.)

Oh, and this isn’t a contest or anything.  It’s just a (hopefully) fun thing for all concerned.

And, hey, if it inspires more than 500 or so words, run with it!

This week’s prompt:

a top hat
a bag
ribbons

And, as always, I’d love to see what you come up with!

 

 

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January 24, 2022 · 9:46 PM

Searching and Writing and Driving

I still haven’t found the latest version of Onyx Sun, but then, I haven’t been looking too hard, although I did do a bit of a clean out up in my room. I should make it a point to spend at least five (preferably fifteen) minutes every night before I go to bed working on organizing stuff up there. Of course, that would give the dogs time to get comfortable on my bed, so I’d have to argue with them about who sleeps where when I finished. (The Diva isn’t a problem; she’ll vacate the bed when asked. Demon Dog, on the other hand, will grudgingly get up and move to the other end of the bed and still not leave me quite enough room.)

Anyhow, I’m not even entirely sure that I didn’t bring the printout downstairs although it hasn’t shown up in this area yet.

All I know is that it’s in the house somewhere. And I’m pretty sure that it’s not tucked into a tote bag. (At least, I don’t remember putting it in a tote bag, but on the other hand, it’s not where I remember seeing it last, either.)

Meanwhile, I’m managing to keep up on my hundred words a day, even on days when I don’t feel like writing. I’ve discovered that I actually like writing in hundred-word bursts. It makes for slow progress, yes, but it’s easy and stress-free, and it lets me have time to think about where I’m going next with a scene or conversation. And it gives me a daily feeling of accomplishment.

In other news, the evil day job is not really evil, but the roads sure were, especially on the way home. I enjoy working in the school nursing office, but I really miss my three-minute commute to meet the bus and being able to leave the driving to someone else. (I should have been back on that assignment today, but the bus company didn’t have a driver for the route, and they don’t have one for tomorrow, either, so it’s back to the nursing office.)

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January 23, 2022 · 12:01 AM

Sunday Snippet, January 23, 2022

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Picking up from last week’s post from a fantasy WiP tentatively titled Wild Worker. Ciana’s father is making a delivery and she is tending the jewelry shop.

The old woman’s circuit of the shop brought her to where Ciana waited behind the counter and her sharp eyes fell on the sketches. “Now these… Yes. These are the kinds of things I’m looking for.” Gnarled fingers moved the pages around as she nodded approvingly. She looked up and met Ciana’s gaze for the first time. “Your grandfather taught you to make jewelry?”

She nodded. “Yes, but my father was never happy about it, and since he died I’ve not been permitted to work on designs.”

“So you make sketches when he’s not around?”

Ciana nodded and the old woman pulled a leather pouch out from the folds in her skirt. “You grandfather taught you lapidary skills as well?”

“Yes, and how to work with metals, even some small forge work.”

 

 

 

Find more great reading
at the Sunday Snippet group.

 

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January 22, 2022 · 12:01 AM

Rainbow Snippet for 1-22-2022

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Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).  Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

This snippet picks up from last week’s, from my still unnamed FF vampire novel.

A pair of impossibly long legs clad in high heeled thigh-high boots appeared, followed by a skirt that would have been indecent had it been an inch shorter. The rest of the body was just as luscious and Sam busied herself writing down the time of her stop and the mileage, just to try to regain control of her senses and not stare at the black bustier and red half-jacket. The outfit left just enough to the imagination to make it hard to think.

Finally unable to put it off any longer she took a deep breath, reminded herself that she was here to change a tire, and stepped out of the truck.

 

 

 

 

 

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January 21, 2022 · 8:54 PM

Missing in (In)Action

Where, oh where, has my manuscript gone?
Where, oh where, can it be?

Did you ever know exactly right where something is, only to find that that’s exactly right where it isn’t? (Please tell me it’s not just me.) I decided I’d better get busy working on Onyx Sun if I wanted to get the current round of revisions done before the end of the month, and I was sure I knew where it was (next to the computer hutch in my bedroom) – but it wasn’t.

So I thought, “Ah-ha! It’s in my editing bag downstairs in the front room.” But it wasn’t.

So now a search of my room is in order, but it’s cold up there. We’re hitting single digits and negative numbers overnight, and this is an old house so the “heat” in my room is whatever wanders up from downstairs. Needless to say, I try not to spend any time up there that doesn’t involve my bed, my furry space heater (Demon Dog), and blankets.

Still, it needs to be found, so when it gets up to the 20s(F) tomorrow I’ll launch a search mission.

If you don’t hear from me, send hot chocolate.

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January 19, 2022 · 12:01 AM

Wednesday Words #369 (1/19/2022)

Welcome to Wednesday Words!  Every Wednesday I will post some sort of prompt for a flash fiction piece.  The prompt will go live just after midnight Eastern time.

The prompt might be a picture, or it might be a list of things to include in a story, or maybe a phrase or a question or something from a “news of the weird” type thing, or a… who knows?

After that, it’s up to you.  But if you do use the prompt to write a bit of flash fiction (say, 500 words or so) I’d love to see what you came up with, so comment below with a link to where it is on your blog (or on WattPad or wherever).

(And a pingback to the post here where you found the prompt would be appreciated but isn’t necessary.)

Oh, and this isn’t a contest or anything.  It’s just a (hopefully) fun thing for all concerned.

And, hey, if it inspires more than 500 or so words, run with it!

This week’s prompt:

scissors
a house on a hill
a waterfall

And, as always, I’d love to see what you come up with!

 

 

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