What I'm doing all of February

Okay, I have scoured the internet for a potentially cool month-long challenge meme and I've decided to do my own take on WhitePeachBlog's 30 Day Photo Challenge.

Should be interesting, even though I've shortened it to 29 days, because, well, it's February. ;)

Here's the list!

Day 1: Self-portrait

Day 2: What you wore today

Day 3: Clouds

Day 4: Something green

Day 5: From a high angle

Day 6: From a low angle

Day 7: Fruit

Day 8: A bad habit

Day 9: Someone you love

Day 10: Childhood memory

Day 11: Something blue

Day 12: Sunset

Day 13: Yourself with 13 things

Day 14: Eyes

Day 15: Silhouette

Day 16: Technology

Day 17: Your shoes

Day 18: Something orange

Day 19: Bokeh

Day 20: Faceless self-portrait

Day 21: Hands

Day 22: Sunflare

Day 23: Animal

Day 24: Something pink

Day 25: Close-up

Day 26: From a distance

Day 27: Flowers

Day 28: Black and white

Day 29: Self-portrait

Day 16 was originally supposed to be 'Long Exposure', but my camera is just a cheapo Canon digital and if it can do custom exposures, I sure don't know how to do them - and I don't want to screw around with getting film developed and digitized from my 35mm SLR Nikon. So I deleted it. So there.

Anyway, that's my list and I'll stick to it all through February!

If anyone wants to join in, I'll start a linky box over to the right, just like I did with the January meme. :)

January Challenge - Day 30

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here. 


Heh. Late. Seriously late. But it's still today, and for the last post of the challenge, I am supposed to talk about what I learned this month.


I've learned that people I know and love really do follow my blog, even when I'm not posting prompts and such all over the internet.


I've learned that pretty much no one thinks my pictures are as blecky as I do.


I've learned that I can, indeed, stick to a schedule and post something every single day.


I've learned that quilt posts, and posts about my inner turmoils and foibles, get the most comments, but my post about Harley Quinn got the most hits, followed by my post on quilting.


I've learned that I've received about 1/5 of the page views for the ENTIRE LIFE OF THIS BLOG this past month. That's insane. but, apparently, daily postings make a difference. lol


I've learned that my biggest traffic source is http://www.justforlaughsgags.tv/. Which I've never even heard of before and it makes me wonder - Am I funny? I don't feel funny.


Mostly I've learned that I can do this. I can be a productive blogger. And I can share more things about myself, my life, and my perspective, and it's all okay.


Tomorrow, I'll post a new meme which I'll start on February 1st - still trying to decide exactly what meme I'll do - and I'll do my best to keep this trend going.


It's been a great month, and a great year, so far!  {{huggs}}

January Challenge - Day 29

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here. 


This time I'm supposed to post my favorite song. Frankly, it's a toss-up between two classics, both of which are below.  

And

The Eagles and Skynyrd. You betcha.

January Challenge - Day 28

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


One more picture of me, and how I've changed since last year.

Gak.
Just gak.

I took this picture on my 47th birthday last summer. I can't remember what we were doing that day - likely not much. And it was humid - see how curly the mop is? I usually have that brushed out or at least contained.


Since then I've lost 22 lbs. I've become a grandmother. I've shed much of the writing angsty shit that's paralyzed me for so long. I've mourned a beloved pet. I've worried endless sleepless nights over my husband and his new job. I've done my best to reclaim myself and not be what and how other people expect me to be.


It's been quite a year. lol

January Challenge - Day 27

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


It's been twenty seven days, and I haven't missed a one. Been a bit late a couple of times (frankly, I've been fighting a crappy-ass headache and cold and have been going to bed much earlier, which screws up my evening routine, so I've written a couple of posts in the morning instead of the night before, but I still think that's 'on time'. Right?) but have not missed a single day, or a single post.


Why, then, am I doing this, this crazy, self-absorbed 30 day challenge?


For a few rather specific reasons, most of which involve my introversion.


To start, I'm trying to decide how I will approach social media in the future. I've pretty much abandoned Facebook because it was getting too personal, too invasive, and, frankly, too nasty. Bad words and bad attitudes seem to breed there like lice on a gradeschooler's head. And I know about that, because we fostered three kids back in 2007 and I have HORROR stories about the nasty things.


The lice, not the kids. The kids were pretty much awesome.


Anyway, Facebook was not a good fit for me (not only the negativity, but the time suck), and I don't think Twitter is either. I'm not clever enough for Twitter (nor do I have anywhere to tweet from other than my desktop puter which kind of defeats the purpose, I think) and I just don't get it. I've tried - and am, kinda, still trying - but... Damn. Most of the stuff in my feed I simply do. not. care. about. I don't. I try, but I don't. I pretty much consistently like Wil Wheaton's tweets, and TheBloggess as well as a few others, but I really don't give a flippity do about politics (the one reasonably-minded candidate I did like dropped out already so this fall's choices will once again be shitty and shittier. Yay for the USA! Again.) I don't follow sports. I don't care for the seemingly endless marketing and promotion from fellow writers (Good God, do NOT let me do that shit when M sells), and, well, I don't feel like I fit in. Re: I am not clever especially not in 140 characters or whatever.


So that leaves Google+ and - in theory - blogging.


G+ is all right, so far, but I'm really not all that involved. I read my friends' posts, usually, and it's certainly a lot more adult and mature than Facebook, but it doesn't have any urgency or zing, either. And most of my friends aren't there. So, shit, I dunno. Even the one game I played, Triple Town, has fizzled for me since they 'improved' it.


That leaves the blog. I was kinda getting into this blogging every day thing until my darling husband asked me night before last why I was bothering because 'isn't blogging dead?'.


Oh, gee, thanks, honey. I'm trying to get back into a habit of communicating with the outside world, so let's just kick it in the knee and watch it twitch.


For those of you who don't already know this, I am damn near a hermit. A stay at home wife/mom/writer/quilter who generally considers it an exciting day if I go to the grocery store and Target on the same day.


I'm not exaggerating much.


Anyway, I am shy, okay? Introverted. I don't like noise, don't like crowds, don't like unfamiliar places and events and hullabaloo. I can backspace when I type online, make little tweaks, not stick my foot in my proverbial mouth every 28 seconds. Sure, sure, once I know someone and feel comfortable around them, you can't shut me up - just ask people who actually know me - but, mostly, I'm quiet. Silent. Blogging is okay with that, most social media is not. The demand (real or perceived) by various social media outlets is to post frequently, comment often, and share, share, SHARE!! I'm not good at that, unless of course it's on my own terms.


And let me assure you all here and now that despite the open, genial, conversational tone of this blog and most of my online interactions, I don't share as much as folks might believe. 


I don't talk about my family other than in the most general of terms. I don't talk about Bill's job. I don't talk about my job. I don't talk about our house or where we live or what problems are making us lose sleep this week. I don't talk about health issues (other than my own safe ones - re: allergies and rosacea) and I don't talk about personality conflicts and troubles that erupt in my life. I do have them, btw, just like everyone else.


That shit's private. My goofy pets, a small fraction of my sewing projects, and some of the stupid messes I find myself in are acceptable blogging fodder, at least for me. They're also boring as hell, surely, which is another reason I accepted this challenge.


It's dragging me out of my comfort zone, at least a little.


As an introvert, the exquisite horror and shame of posting my own freaking picture, several times, was almost debilitating. Some times my hands shook as I hit 'publish' and I can say with absolute certainty that I never, ever would have uploaded any of them if they had not been demanded by the schedule. Shudder.


It wasn't just the pictures, but other things as well. This challenge nudged me into writing about things, even obliquely, that I tend to avoid. But I bit the bullet and only turned away from posts that might hurt people I care about. If it hurt me, eh, suck it up, Tam.


Another aspect of this challenge was the daily nature of it. A big part of me wants to keep a regular interaction with my online friends, far flung family (most of whom are on Facebook. Sigh. Miss you guys!!) and the fans. 


Yes, the fans. 


I love my fans - well, all but the crazy stalker ones who worry me - and I really do enjoy interacting with you all. I do my best to answer every fan email that comes in - including the 'you and your writing and characters and stories suck donkey balls dipped in dog shit!' letters.  I figure, if someone who's read the Dubric books takes the time to write to me, I shall make the time to respond. Heck, even the obvious crackpots who write their emails in crayon (and, yes, I've had several of those) get a thank you for taking the time to contact me note. 


I have been taking - for me at least - huge steps to get back into writing for publication again. I've talked and emailed back and forth with my agent more this past year than during the whole 'Dubric Books Publication Saga'. I want to work again and, perhaps more importantly, my brain wants to work again. It's all healed up and raring to go out there and tell stories.


This blog challenge is part of that, my regular interaction with the story telling part of my brain, and the people who read it. I will finish two novels this year, maybe three next year. It's all about habits, and this blog is a habit, too. Blog something, even just a short note, every day for a month. Read something. Write something.


They say it takes a month to set a habit into place. For me, that was the main purpose of this challenge and I think I've managed it fairly well.


It's almost over though, but I intend to keep it going through February. I will admit that the topics and focus will surely be different and will not include photographs of me. Enough of them have been inflicted upon the interwebs already. ;)


Does anyone have any comments - good or bad - about this blog challenge and how it's played out here on TamboWrites?

January Challenge - Day 26

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


What do I think about my friends?


I love them, every one. 


Some, like LeAnne, I've known for damn near forever - we met in college when we were too young to know any better. Kat BM and Michele I've known almost as long. My life-long friends and I might go months without talking, but we always pick up right where we left off as if we'd seen each other every single day. Some, like Kat F, I've known only a short while but we just kinda click. Most (Sam, Josh, Jean, Monica, Stuart, Catie, Joely, Virginia, Sara, Tanya, Gretchen, and on an on - I wish I could list you all!) I've known somewhere between. I'd do anything for any of them. 


My friends help me with my books, and they help me with my life and all the crazy wackiness that seems to land randomly on my head. Most are online, but I've met quite a lot of them. Heck, I'm having lunch with Jean in a couple of weeks as she drives through Iowa, and she's from Texas. This will be our third get together. I've met friends from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, and Australia in person. Also New Hampshire, Kansas, Texas, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Arizona, and lots of other places in the states. 


My friends rock!


{{huggs}}

January Challenge - Day 25

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


We're in the pink today as I tell you what you'd find in my bag.


I thought - briefly - about being clever (bag of tricks, a quilt project bag, bag of potatoes, bag of groceries, laptop bag, etc) but decided to just take the simple, straightforward approach instead. 


So, here's my purse.

I tell everyone I bought it at
Mrs. T's Mercantile,
one of the coolest quilt shops in Northern Iowa

It's pink, as promised, and while it's a smidge bigger than I tend to prefer, it's working out really well for me, probably because I don't carry much in it and it holds my sunglasses so I don't have to carry them separately. Most of the pockets - including both on the sides - are totally empty.

From the top. ;)

Actually, I keep only 2 things in pockets. My debit card, and notecards. Everything else is in the main compartment.

Ooooh. Two Avon lipstick samples! Forgot I had those!

Other than an occasional receipt, this is what I port around every day. I made the blue wallet, Michele gave me the worry-doll change purse, I keep the sunglasses with me (won them on the radio back in 2005? 2006?)  because my eyes are super light-sensitive after being lasered a couple of years ago, and I always have a little lotion, lip balm, ibuprofen, and cold pills. Add the checkbook, postynotes, some pens, my bank card, hair pick (circa 1986 lol), truck keys (car keys are in my coat pocket) and a scrunchie, and I'm good to go.


Does any item surprise you? Anything you expected to see, but isn't there?

January challenge - Day 24

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


If you're following along the list, you know that today's post is supposed to be a letter to my parents.


Okay, then.


Um.


**cue chirping crickets**


Ahem.


Since I love my mother and it's best not to annoy the dead, I am going to respectfully decline to participate in today's meme.


Tomorrow, though, I shall empty my purse (it's PINK!!) for y'all and take pics. :)

January Challenge - Day 23

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


Today I'm supposed to write about something I crave a lot. It's another easy answer.

I gave it up, cold turkey, months ago and I miss it terribly. There are lots of days, especially if I'm feeling stressed or blue, that I want one. Really, really bad.


Sigh. 


I love the stuff, but it's bad for me, my depression, my skin, and my overall health. No pop at all for me anymore - diet or regular. It's just unsweetened iced tea or flavored water.


Dammit.

January Challenge - Day 22

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


What makes me different from everyone else?


Gak, that's an awful question and I don't know if it's really answerable.


I'm tall. 5'9", ish, but lots of people are tall. Left-dominant ambidextrous, delightfully married, mother of one, ditzy, natural blonde, curly hair, blueish eyes, need to drop a pile of pounds... again, lots of people are those things. Lots of people are artists and writers and love to cook. Lots of people like animals, have lived their whole lives in Iowa, straddle the middle fence politically speaking, believe in God but not organized religion, and have a thing for old houses.


I, like about a third of Americans, can drive a manual transmission. I like Big Bang Theory. I hate things that are dirty but I tend to be cluttery. Used to suffer from nightmares and insomnia, but lately not so much. And, oh, I have sinus allergies - likely because of my cats, but tough shit, I'm not giving them up, pass the Sudafed. Nothing unusual there. 


Hmm.


I've been a foster parent - loved the kids, hated dealing with the state and all the wretched rules and mazes. I write to-do lists and drink unsweetened iced tea almost daily. I sing when I cook. Sometimes. Before I got old and creaky, I could put my feet behind my head and I can still put my palms flat on the floor behind my feet. Well, almost behind them. I was in a car accident (a couple of them, actually) and I still have trouble with whiplash. I'm an owner, not a renter, my ears are pierced but I almost never wear earrings, and only own three pairs of shoes - tennies, flats, and sandals.


Um. Shit. That's all boring, normal stuff.


I guess I'm normal and boring. Maybe admitting that makes me different? Your guess is as good as mine.

January Challenge - Day 21

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


Today's challenge is to post a picture of something that makes me happy. There are so, so many things to choose from, but I thought I'd share something that's a really important part of my creative life.


Quilting.

My shelved batik fat quarters.
I have more in yardage and fat quarters stored with various projects.
Lots more.

I am a fabric junkie, especially batiks. The photo above is almost entirely batik fat quarters (made from cutting a half-yard piece in half again crosswise) it's my primary batik working stash, and it's about one half of one shelf in my fabric closet. There are close to 300 fat quarters in that picture - there are 27 whites, for example, stacked on the right - plus I have lots of other fat quarter batiks in bags with various projects, and I have stacks and stacks of batik yardage on another shelf. But I look at my batik shelf, and it always makes me smile.


I don't just sew with batiks - they are my favorite, though! - but with all kinds of cotton prints. I generally don't do solids and I honestly don't think I even have any anymore - a tone on tone works better for me.


Most of my quilts have black backgrounds and Hoffman 1898 Ink Batik is by far my favorite fabric (it's a black-black with a blue undertone) and I usually buy it at Quilter's Cupboard because they stock it and, if it's sold out, they happily order it for me and ship it (so far) for free. Heck, any place that I can call from a hundred some miles away and say, 'Hey, it's Tammy and I'm out of black again' and they know EXACTLY who I am and what I'm talking about is a damn great quilt shop.

When I first started sewing, I bought almost all of my fabric at a BenFranklin store not far from where we lived (because it was really inexpensive and we were broke), but now I shop almost entirely in quilt shops and I pay a lot more attention to the fabric and its color than how much it costs.

There are about 40 different blacks in this quilt's background
and I lost count how many other fabrics (80 some, I think). All batik.
Photo by Roni Rork from our 2010 quilt show.
Quilt in the collection of Stuart MacBride, Aberdeen Scotland

Here's another picture of the same quilt, with my super quilting helper (damn, I still miss her!) that shows some of the background fabrics better.

Malaysia always helped me put on binding.
Can you see some of the different black fabrics?
She's laying on the lower left corner of the whole quilt shown above.

I am a scrappy quilter in that I tend to use a LOT of different fabrics in any given quilt instead of choosing a few coordinating fabrics, but there is usually a method to the apparent madness. First, I almost never use 'scraps', the leftover bits and pieces from other projects, although I do dip into my scrap stash if I need just a smidge of something I'm otherwise out of. No, I go to my stash in the closet, ponder awhile, and start pulling fabric which I then custom cut as the quilt demands. 40-80 fabrics in a quilt are not uncommon for me, and I think the most I'd used in one quilt was over 400.

There are approximately eighty background fabrics alone.
I made it for us, and it's the only bed size quilt I kept.

I don't just 'scrap' the main pieces, I use a variety of background fabrics, too. In the quilt above, I intended to make a red and tan quilt, but there are a lot of fabrics that aren't red, or tan, but the quilt reads as red and tan because of careful attention to color and value. The backgrounds in this quilt range from bright white to coffee and all of the potential varieties between. There is one solid tan triangle, just one, everything else in the quilt is a print or a batik.


Sometimes my preference to 'go scrappy' drives other people a bit crazy. I made the quilt below during a class taught by the pattern's designer and she was pretty insistent that scrappy would not work for the pattern and I needed to choose 3 or 5 fabrics. I think it turned out great.

About 40 fabrics, all batik.

I don't always go scrappy, or batik. This next quilt is neither. Despite having 100 fabrics, it's actually made from one charm pack, 100 5 inch squares from the Fossil Fern fabric line, and they are prints, every one of them. I liked it so much I kept it, and it hangs over my sewing desk. :)

Charm Dance Color Wash,
and, yes, this is where I sew. :)

I'd like to take a moment to mention that most of the quilts I make are smallish - wall hangings, table runners, bags, book covers, and baby quilts. I sew one bed sized quilt a year, on average, but dozens of the smaller things. Also, I give almost everything I sew away. I have - in my possession - one bed quilt, two table runners and four wall hangings that I've made (two of which are in this post). Everything else, 15-25 projects a year, I give away. Yep, you read that right, I give them away. I don't do commissions, I don't make them to sell, I make them for specific people or reasons. I donate some for fund raisers or charities, but almost all go to people. Always. So don't try to talk me into making one for money, it isn't going to happen. I have my reasons and they're not open for negotiation.


Sometimes I see a fabric that just screams a particular person. Sometimes there's a compelling reason to make one (like a baby on the way). Sometimes I see a pattern and think Oooh! I know who would love that!! Then and only then do I sew.


The last quilt I want to show is the most recent baby quilt I made, for my friend LeAnne's daughter, Katie, and her newborn daughter, Kitsune.

Kit's quilt, from a Moda Bakeshop pattern.
One charm pack, one background fabric.

Those little triangles are folded fabric and it's soooo CUTE!!!


So there you go, a quick survey of my quilting. I quilt because it makes me happy.

January Challenge - Day 20

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


This one is a toughie. (not) Who do I see myself marrying/having a relationship with in the future?


Bill.

He messed up his hair and squinted like a Grumpy Old Man
all for this post. Isn't he awesome?

It's been a fantastic 23 years and we have at least another 40 ahead of us, if not more.  Love you babe!

January Challenge - Day 19

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


I'm supposed to talk about my nickname and why I have it in this blog post, but it seems rather silly since I already explained it. 


So, please refer to Challenge Post #2 for the full story, but  I'm Tambo because of a song that Bill sang when we were dating. 


Fwiw, looks like tomorrow will be a really short post, too. ;)

January Challenge - Day 18

I hope you're following along with Tina, Jean, Krista, and Kat. If anyone else wants to play, just let me know and I'll stick you on the 30 Day Challenge blog roll. :) My list (with links to each post so far) is here.


The list says I'm supposed to talk about my plans, dreams and goals. 


Frankly, that seems kind of vague. I plan on heading to bed soon - but surely that doesn't count, nor does my intention to crock-pot pork and potatoes tomorrow, fold two loads of laundry (currently in the washer and dryer) also tomorrow, or finishing my current quilt top this week. Surely those aren't worthy. So... Something bigger?


Hmm.


How about I break them up into short term (within the next month or so), medium (this year), and long term goals (five years) and make them bigger, brighter, and - mostly - writing related?


Short term, let's start with finishing this crazy blog challenge - I think I've done astoundingly well so far and haven't missed a day. In a way that's not quite true - I actually write these things the evening before (it's currently 9:45 pm on Tuesday Jan 17th) and a couple of posts I knew would be hard to squeeze into my wackydoodle schedule, so I wrote them a couple of days earlier, but, still. I've blogged every day and I shall continue to do so for the remainder of the month and, possibly, February (I'm considering another posting challenge, but I haven't committed yet).


I also have a plan in motion to read at least one book a week for the remainder of January (this actually started on January 4th) and I intend to finish at least 6. I've read two - one was a real slog, the second went quickly and I'm almost done with the third). These books and the reading of them was suggested by my agent. Not the specific books, but their audience, since (as you'll see in a subsequent goal) I'm trying to reach that audience. I'd better learn what they want to read, don't you think?


My current medium term goals start with talking with my agent about what I've gleaned from these books, how I can add these grains of insight and understanding to my novels and, once I've decided exactly what these things are - so far, the books I've read have not been very, um, complementary to one another - come up with some story concepts and short pitches. My agent will mull over them and let me know if any are worth pursuing, of if I need to read another pile of dissimilar books (so far, it's been an edgy, best-selling thriller -meh-, a sweetly romantic post world war two fictional memoir -loved it despite thinking it would suck balls-, and a family tragedy crammed full of snotty rich women and partying teenagers -meh, with candy sprinkles. Seriously. I see little connection between them.) I have two more books waiting, and another to pick up at the bookstore, so, with a little luck and diligent poking with my authorial tweezers, I should be able to find the common thread that makes women go gaga for these books. Yep, each and every one, despite being insanely different in genre, scope, length, style, and cover art, is selling briskly to women. And, dammit, I'm trying to break into women's fiction but having a helluva time cracking that particular nut.


Anyway, my notes and pitches are due in February. 


Also, once I've finished all this reading, I intend to get back into the swing of things on Stain. I am just about positive that when it's finished and polished and show-room ready, it will be self published and available through gobs of online retailers. Haven't decided yet how I'll handle print editions. Have to get it written and soon, at least the first draft, so Sammie can yank all the floppy bits into line and I have time to finish up any remaining tweaks. 


Also, M will sell. Dammit. It's a heckuva good book. I believe in it, my agent believes in it, and just about everyone who's read it has believed in it. It will sell in 2012. 


I have a quilt retreat to go to, and lots of sewing to do.


Finish paying off the two credit cards. (Will be done this spring! Yay!)


Get back into the habit of exercising.


Continue the blogging habit.


Find a comfort level with self promotion and social networking. So far, it's been tough. But I shall find a happy middle ground.


The last mid-term goal is to write a full length novel with a women's audience in mind. At this point, I have zippo idea what it'll be about because my research material has been all over the map. But I shall write one, and it'll totally rock!


Anyway, that'll make two finished novels this year, and that's right on track for where I want to be. :)


Long term is rather hazy and nebulous. I've always said that I wanted to be respected enough as a writer to sing backup with Steve King and Dave Barry and that is still my primary writing goal. Yup, I dream of becoming a do-wop girl. I've been practicing, singing the harmony and backup lyrics on all kinds of songs. I have a good ear and great rhythm (one bonus of being a musician's child) and I'll be ready when the call comes. 


I intend to routinely write at least two (possibly three) novels a year in dissimilar genres.


Those novels will increase their audience share (unlike Dubric's steady decline - boo!) so that my first long-term goal could actually happen in this universe and paradigm. Because I would make a totally kick ass do-wop girl.


I will write a quilting book and break into non fiction. This form may be my third book per year.


We will move out of this small town and buy an acreage near to wherever it is that the posty office sends Bill to work, or near to whatever job he has. Because in-town is making him feel constricted, and he drives too damn far every day. Being a hermit, I can happily live almost anywhere as long as I have Puufy, my laptop and my sewing machine. 


I shall remain delightfully married, with an awesome daughter and equally awesome grandkids.


If we stay here, I shall run for city council again because I believe that decision making should be local, not national, and involvement is said decisions is a good thing. 


I shall get my good-but-creeping-toward-the-borderline bloodwork numbers down and well away from the line by eating better and exercising more, so much so that it's routine and I don't even have to think about it anymore. Pass the spinach, please! :)


One of my novels will hit a bestseller list. Somewhere. And I will allow myself to celebrate. 


Hold me to that last one, willya? I need to learn how to celebrate. 


{{huggs}}