random blog post

I’m surviving the shutdown so far.

A bit distressed about the direction the country seems to be heading and all the random and not-so-random hate being thrown around, but also encouraged by all the good and helpful and caring people doing wonderful things. Like the neighbor who brought us eggs from her hens the first week, when we were in just-in-case isolation and the store was stripped of nearly everything. (Thanks Theresa!)

I’m even getting some writing done, though not a lot. And no art. I feel like I want to draw or paint, but when I pick up a colored pencil, it’s too much effort to use it. Getting out acrylics would take all the energy in the world right now.

How is everybody else doing?

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food porn

Last night’s supper was a resounding success–salmon with braised greens and citrus vinaigrette, with steamed rice (mixed blend, predominantly japonica).

It was also amazingly simple. The hardest part was browning the cut-up bacon before braising the greens. And did I mention healthy?

Salmon with braised greens and citrus vinaigrette

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MGR: mid-year checkin

One of the January goals I’m doing the worst on is keeping up with my blog posts :p But I haven’t been great with many of the others. Not terrible, either, for the most part.

I’ve kept up with the physical stuff and will be going on a week-long canoe trip in Canada soon, so that’s good. But I haven’t been very good about keeping to a healthy eating plan and my weight is only down slightly. And as for getting to bed at a regular time and getting enough sleep–well, we knew that wasn’t going to happen, right?

Family stuff is good. New grandbaby and all that good stuff. He’s coming to visit in August and bringing his family with him. Looks like everybody will be here for one weekend so that will be great fun. I seriously underestimated the amount of time and emotional energy I’d be giving to that.

I’ve had spurts of productivity despite that. Eleven new short stories in May for Story A Day, another 50K words on Darien’s story in April for the first session of Camp NaNoWriMo. But no luck on secondary goals. It appears that at this point in my life, though I’m as distractable as ever, I can only focus on one thing at a time.

With that in mind, and with my schedule showing large chunks of time dedicated to family and other activities over the next few months (long cruise! kids!) I decided not to try to work at times when I’m not going to get any work done anyway. I just make myself feel bad.

So the rest of the year looks like this:

July: Camp NaNoWriMo to work on the second draft of the first Sal and Troy novel.

August: family and fun

September: writing and/or editing binge. Ideally I’d like to get Sal and Troy out to market.

October: cruise!

November: NaNoWriMo, project TBD

December: family, mostly

Today’s post was inspired by the prompt in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour, an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out what’s on their nightstand, check out the rest of the tour!.

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I’m a grandma

Middlest and his wife gave birth to a baby boy last night at 6:28p California time. 8 lbs 9 oz, named Jonah Dashiel (Dashiell? Didn’t think to ask about spelling.). Mother, baby, and dad are all doing fine.

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Merry-Go-Round Blog: new year, new me?

Better late than never? Here’s my Merry-Go-Round blog post for January 🙂

I’ve been struggling all month to write this post, not because the post itself is so difficult but because the goals I wanted to write about refused to stay put. I knew I was going to need to be flexible what with the first grandbaby arriving in February and the usual family obligations and impromptu weekends in the mountains, but the lists I came up with were more than flexible. It didn’t seem to matter what order I put things in, or whether I changed one project for another. They were all equally arbitrary and equally impossible to believe in.

The truth is, writing isn’t my only priority right now. I’m still recovering from losing my father and now worrying about my mother, I’m about to be a grandmother for the first time, I’m making progress in my painting, and it’s all contributing to huge changes inside, changes I’m only beginning to recognize. It’s like sitting on a volcano waiting for it to erupt.

I don’t know what’s going to happen when it does. Maybe nothing. Maybe just renewed energy to the things I’ve always loved. Or maybe I’m getting ready to head in an exciting new direction. But until I figure it out, I need to just keep on keeping on, while being aware that I might need to change directions.

So for the first part of the year, I’ll be working on background research for the steampunk series I started last November, mostly studying US history, especially the history of slavery. I’ll also be finishing the genie novella and possibly working on the next pass of Crows. Target date for the genie story is before grandbaby. I don’t expect to get anything done while we’re visiting; when we come back, I’ll pick up Crows.

Today’s post was inspired by the topic “New Beginnings” in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour–an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on crossing genre lines, check out the group site at the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour there. Read and enjoy!

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2014 in review

2014 was kind of an up and down year, but all in all significantly better than the last couple of years. I was fighting depression off and on–still am, for that matter–and because depression lies, I had trouble remembering all the good parts even though I enjoyed them as they happened. I’m thinking maybe it would help if I did a review like this more often, just to remind myself how blessed and lucky I am.

Some of the highlights:

Neil treated me to a blowout 60th birthday, with tickets to the Celtics and the Bruins on the same day 😀

Middle kid and his fiancee got married at Disney World in September. Lovely time was had by all. They’re expecting our first grandchild now. That will be a distraction for sure.

Lots of travel — big trips to Wisconsin/Michigan to visit youngest, Florida to help middlest get married, Montana to visit my family, as well as shorter trips like a weekend on Block Island for bicycling, a three-day canoe trip on the Connecticut River, and three days at Tanglewood for hiking and music.

Golf league, concerts, art classes, learning to canoe, getting back on a bike for the first time in many years.

Writing: edited Overamped one more time, cutting 20K words, and sent it to the Amazon contest, where it did not do well. Wrote the second draft of Crows, preliminary draft of Lace, and the start of a steampunk work that is at least a trilogy and possibly a series, plus a few short stories and poems.

Looking forward to an even better 2015.

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wellness returning

Hallelujah! I have played golf, and my arm didn’t break when I hit the ball 🙂 I’m tired and my arm feels like it weighs a ton, but I didn’t feel any pain and I played reasonably well considering it was the first time I’ve been out since last year. I even finished all nine holes, though the last couple were a struggle.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get out two or three more times this week and next, and play in my regular league next week.

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Progress progresses

This afternoon I had my physical therapy evaluation. It went well. I have a set of stretching exercises to do several times a day for the next couple of weeks, to try to keep the shoulder from getting stiff while the bone heals. Then I’ll start strengthening work as well.

It was tiring. And painful. But not bad painful. It hurts but it also feels healthier, if that makes any sense.

I got some work done this morning — market research mostly, trying to find a home for Graveyard Shift. Also some more on the Sal&Troy stories, and a bit on Fluffy.

So I guess I’m on the mend. Woohoo!

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gravity is your friend

X-rays show the bone shaft has dropped into alignment with the head. It’s not perfect — will still be some impairment in my overhead reach — but is at the point where the complications from surgery, including scarring, are likely to outweigh the benefits of a perfectly straight bone.

So I’m starting physical therapy soon to restore as much range of motion as possible. Some paperwork hoops to jump through with referrals and finding a therapist, but that should keep me busy for a few weeks.

I was able to get in a couple of hours of work on Troy and Sal’s novel this week. The pain is way down and hopefully as I need less medication, I’ll be able to focus more.

Thanks to everybody for all their warm thoughts and support!

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ouch ouch oh damn

So just as the blizzard was starting to let down significant snow, spouse and I went out for a walk before hunkering down. And I wasn’t paying attention at a spot where I know the road is always icy, and I slipped and landed hard on my left shoulder. I knew right away it wasn’t good. Neil got me back to the house.

We called the doctor, but by then the storm was bad enough that if we went down to the emergency room, we weren’t getting back for at least a day. Was it “life-threatening”? No, it was not. Painful, and annoying, but not life-threatening. So I dosed on ibuprofen and first thing Sunday morning called urgent care at the clinic I go to. They got me in right away, took x-rays, and told me there’s a break at the top of the humerus. Sent the x-rays to the orthopedist at the emergency room. He looked at them and agreed about the break.

What to do about it isn’t clear yet. It’s out of position right now, but shoulder breaks are unstable and it looks like it might be dropping into place, in which case it will just be a few weeks of pain while it heals. Or they might need to go in with a plate, which would mean surgery but would also stabilize the joint and allow me to resume activity much sooner.

I have an appointment tomorrow for more x-rays and a discussion of teh options, so we’ll see.

Right now I’m just hoping this doesn’t mean cancelling the cruise…

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