Tag Archives: new house

Waiting for Windows

by Jennette,

I haven’t been writing much. Actually, not at all for a while. I was stuck, but a lot of it was, I think, just stress of having too much to do on top of the mental load from current events–which haven’t even had much direct affect on me. I’ll be the first to admit, this stuff has weighed much less on me than on many others, so I really feel for those who have been directly affected.

I decided to step back from the blog too, mostly because I didn’t have anything to blog about, and I needed to remove one thing from my to-do list. My mom suggested just blogging when I do have something to say, and I figured I’d take her advice. Moms are smart like that. 🙂 The ROW80 folks were talking last month about moving away from blogs and just doing goal check-ins on Facebook, so that had something to do with it, too. But it looks like they are still blogging, so I might pop in here with a simple goals update even if I don’t have anything else.

House Update 

Pretty much all the work has been done on the house that can be, until the special-order windows  come in. These are the five trapezoid windows on the top row of  our back wall. We all thought we’d be able to leave the center window, but once they fixed the framing so that the spacing was even, another issue became obvious: the top windows were all 1″ narrower than those below. So all had to be reordered. This time, they measured not twice, but came out three times to be sure they got them right. We’ve now been looking at nicely-spaced windows in an unfinished wall for a month now, so they should come in soon. They have drywall to finish and painting to do in a couple of other areas as well, but will do all of that at once. It will be so nice to get it fixed.

Windows spaced evenly! Now we just need the top ones to finish it.

Writing Desk!

Given that we had to engage an attorney to get the builder to fix our house (which the builder is paying for, we’re thankful), we were instructed not to do any further work on the house ourselves until everything is finished and resolved. So my husband has found other things to do.

One of the issues with the house was water in the basement. That is finally fixed, and our yard put back together. My husband has been doing a lot of work in the yard. For his next project, my husband chose to build this picnic table. It probably would have been cheaper to buy one, but this one is really sturdy and will probably last as long as we live in this house.

We finally have a yard again! And a new picnic table.

My husband needed another project, so I found something I’ve been wanting for a while: a computer desk just for fiction writing. Since we moved, I’ve been using the built-in desk in my wonderful office for everything, including day job work. For many years, I’ve had a desktop computer that I use for anything personal–Internet, Facebook, games, personal business paperwork, and writing.

A few years ago, I read/heard Dean Wesley Smith talking about using a separate computer for fiction writing only. I had a little laptop that’s too slow to do much else with, but since my daughter went away to college, her desk in the critter room had been unused, so I set up there.

It was amazing how much easier it was to get to writing when at that different computer, on a different desk! It’s a total mindset thing, where I automatically know that if I’m on that computer, I’m writing. Smith recommends removing all other software and not connecting to the Internet as well, which I did at first (with another old, slower computer), but later, it didn’t matter if my laptop even had wifi on; I was there to write. That mindset is powerful.

The new house is actually a couple hundred square feet larger than the old house, but has one fewer room, so I only have one workspace here. While not writing these past few weeks, I’ve been going through some of Smith’s workshops, and in the one I recently finished, he again mentioned the writing computer. It doesn’t have to be in a different room (his isn’t), but I remembered from before our move how just having a separate computer makes so much difference.

So I found this free desk plan online and my husband went to work. It’s an Ana White Rustic X-desk, and I love the look. We set it up in my office behind my main desk, so all I have to do is turn around. And I’m back to writing!

The new writing desk, with sleeping dog accessory behind it

Blackberries!

The latest fun discovery on our land! No wonder we have so much wildlife around here–they’re eatin’ good in this neighborhood! I’ve spent a couple sessions out in a small field that was full of them, but mostly, we pick whatever we find along the trail when we walk the dogs each morning. Sometimes just a five minute stop will yield a half pound! We’re freezing them and saving them up to make blackberry wine. There’s plenty for some jam, too.

What’s interesting is there are two species of blackberries on our land. Mostly we have Allegheny, or Common Blackberries. Those are now done. But there’s a patch near the end of our main walking trail that are just now ripe for picking. I identified these as Himalayan (aka Armenian) Blackberries. These are a non-native, invasive species, but where the common blackberries are pretty tart, these are super sweet and delicious, and they’ve only taken over a small area on our land, so we’ll take them.

Getting close to the four pounds we need to make wine

What I’ve Been Reading

Several nonfiction books, plus Nora Roberts’ Key trilogy. These are contemporary fantasy romances, and I’m really enjoying them!

ROW80Logo175

What I’ve Been Writing

I set up the writing desk and computer without a specific goal last week. My only plan was to get re-started–and I did! I got about 1,000 word in three days, not bad for not having a word-count goal. I would have written more, but we had guests for two days. This week should be quiet, so I’m shooting for writing five days.

How has your summer been so far? Staying safe and healthy, I hope! If you’re a writer, have the current events thrown you off? And what do you think about Smith’s idea of having a separate writing computer? If you’re not a writer, do you need a specific place to do a certain task or hobby? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

It Always Looks Worse Before it Gets Better

by Jennette,

Things aren’t always perfect in new-house-land. As they might say on an HGTV show, “this house has issues.” I’ve mentioned before that we’ve had waterproofing problems. The waterproofers have been back to rework that again, and this time, it seems to be effective, as we’ve had some torrential downpours and so far no seepage through the basement walls. But we’re waiting to make sure, so there is still sort of a moat around the house until they decide it’s good and re-grade.

Check out the spacing between the windows. It’s one of those things you don’t notice, until you do. Then you can’t un-see it. Definitely not what we paid for!

But the issues go beyond that. It’s taken a lot of back-and-forth with the builder (including getting an attorney involved), but he’s apparently decided he cares about his reputation and really, really doesn’t want to go to court (because he’ll lose), so he and his crews have been here this past week to start fixing our house. They are working on reframing the back wall, so the windows are evenly spaced. Given our budget constraints, the builder had used a cut-rate framing crew who didn’t even give him what we paid for. I guess he won’t be using them again. The fixes are being done by the builder’s employees, who do good work (they did the carpentry and the beams we love).

Dogs make everything better

So for the next week or so, we are living in a construction zone.

Not what we’d planned. And yes, inconvenient, but not as much as it would be to move out for a week. All of the work needed is in the great room; the bedrooms, bathrooms, and my office are fine. We love them and the outdoor space, and will love the rest of the house once it’s fixed. For now, we just have to remember that with any home project, it always looks worse before it gets better–but it will get better.

We saw this fantastic rainbow the other day when we decided to go check out the local dragstrip

What I’ve Been Reading

I started a novel and a nonfiction book, but haven’t finished either yet.

What I’ve Been Writing

ROW80Logo175

I did write five days this week, but don’t know that I put the whole half-hour in. I’m still going to consider this one a win, because I got through another scene, plus reviewed three others that needed minor cycling back through. I did not get through all of my learning, and only did about half of the week’s videos for the online workshop.

This week, our daughter and her partner are coming to visit, so not much writing will get done, and that’s OK. For the workshop, I want to view the last couple videos, and do the assignment. And for writing, I’d like to do some tonight and on Saturday, after our guests take off.

What about you–had any plans not quite work out lately? How did you work around them? How’s the weather in your area–have you seen any great rainbows? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I love to hear from you! 

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Discoveries

by Jennette,

There are plenty of them to make in the spring, especially when it’s my first on our rural land. In the suburbs, where we lived before, there is much less diversity among the trees and plants, and few wildflowers in cultivated lawns. On our land here, I discover something new each week. We walk our dogs each morning. I note the leaf shapes and growth pattern on trees, or the color and shape of wildflowers, then look them up in some handy, online field guides when we get back from our walk. This week, I identified some small trees with big, boat-shaped leaves as Shellbark Hickory, and some little, lavender wildflowers that just started blooming as Lyre-leaf Sage.

Lyre-leaf sage is a pretty, native wildflower with medicinal uses.

My husband has also continued work on the house, and finished up the porch posts yesterday.

Now, DH can sit a drink on the little shelf rim while he’s grilling!

What I’ve Been Reading

I am really enjoying the novel I’m currently reading, but I didn’t finish it yet, so I’ll share it next week.

What I’ve Been Writing

ROW80Logo175

My discovery there was that one of my characters revealed that he’s been previously married. So, as is typical of a romance hero, he’s not looking for another relationship. And as is also typical of a romance hero, he’ll of course find that life has other ideas. 😀

I met my writing goals this week, and spent at least 1/2 hour five days working back through my WIP and making fixes and changes. I added about 1300 words in the process. This has been working well, so I’ll stick with the same goal this week.

I also met my learning goal of finishing one more week in my online workshop. So this week, the goal is to finish Week 5. I also want to spend a little time reading and learning something about copyright.

What about you–have you discovered anything interesting recently? What kinds of trees and flowers do you notice near where you live? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing-related or otherwise? Please share in the comments – I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Another Quiet Week

by Jennette,

When you can’t go anywhere besides to pick up food, they can’t be much else, huh? Luckily, we have plenty of room to get out on our land. Our daffodil patch started blooming back in February, but never got very many daffodils. I found out why a couple weeks ago: most of them are white daffodils, and they’re blooming now.

The daffodil patch, with a few wild daisies mixed in

This pandemic has really made me appreciate how lucky we are to have this land to enjoy. My husband has kept busy too, adding stone veneer bases to our porch posts. 

My husband made good use of the stone left over from the construction

The columns aren’t quite finished yet; he still needs to add some trim to the top of the stone, and paint it.

I had a good week too, better than I expected. More on that below.

What I’ve Been Reading

I finally finished a novel, The Dragon King by Patty Jansen. I’m not sure why this book took me so long to read, because I really enjoyed it, and I typically read faster when I especially like something. It was a fitting end to the trilogy, while still leaving the opportunity for more books to the series.

What I’ve Been Writing

ROW80Logo175

This week, my goals was to spend at least a half hour, for at least five days, cycling back and fixing my WIP based on the notes I made earlier this month. I actually worked on the WIP all seven days, most of which was on one scene. It’s not quite done, but I got most of it fixed, and to my surprise, I added nearly 2,000 words. So the WIP is moving right along, finally. I also made my learning goal of completing another week’s worth of lessons and the assignment for my online workshop.

This week, I’m going to stick with the same goals, since they worked well for me: 1/2 hour, for at least five days on the WIP (no wordcount goal because I sometimes wind up deleting a lot), and work through another week of material on my online workshop.

How has your week been? Do you ever surprise yourself by accomplishing more than you thought? How are you doing, with the limitations imposed by the pandemic (or extra work, as may be the case)? Stay healthy and safe–and let me know in the comments; I love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Easter Update

by Jennette,
Time for a Garden!

Moving along this week, slowly but surely! My husband put in our first garden bed, which is probably all we’ll do this year (keeping it small to start). We have four tomato plants, a cucumber, a zucchini, and a couple of peppers, with room for a couple more. We put in a hillside version of a raised bed, or I guess one could call it “semi-raised.” We have very little flat land here on our mountain, so this is a good way to work with the land, rather than against it. 

The picture from before we added the fence and the plant better shows how it’s built into the hillside.

This Easter is going to be… different. I guess that’s the best way to put it. Before we moved, we always had family over for Easter dinner. Now we are in Tennessee, and they are all in Ohio, and no one is getting together. We weren’t planning on doing so even before the Stay Home orders came down, but still it will be strange, the first holiday spent here in Tennessee with just my husband. We’re still doing the traditional dinner, though simplified a bit.

What I’ve Been Reading

I still haven’t finished a book! Maybe this one’s longer than the last few, or maybe I’m spending less time reading, though it doesn’t feel that way. I definitely make time for a little reading every day. Several of my commenters last week remarked that they were having trouble focusing on reading–maybe I am too?

What I’ve Been Writing

ROW80Logo175

My goal this week was to spend 1/2 hour on my writing six days, collecting my notes, doing some outlining, and getting back to the WIP. I only hit it five days, but otherwise, did everything planned, so I’ll consider it “failing to success.” I also made my learning goal of doing one more week of the “How to Study” WMG Workshop online.

Since I am now going back to already-written parts of my WIP and making changes, it’s hard to quantify with something like word count (which may actually go down some days). So this week, I’ll stick to time-based, but commit to only five days, since I have a lot to do this week. I also want to do another week’s worth of videos and the assignment for my online workshop.

How about you–how is your Easter, if you celebrate? Or if not, how has your week been? Have you been finding it harder to focus on reading or writing, with all that’s going on? How are you doing on whatever goals you have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I love hearing from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Unpacking Copyright

by Jennette,

This week around the house, I finally got around to unpacking some lingering boxes. Three of these were in the master closet, along with a garbage bag full of my husband’s clothes (that he obviously hasn’t really missed, but oh well…). DH installed the final closet organizer and shelves, so I did the unpacking.

What’s surprising is the amount of empty shelf space, along with half of a clothing rail. The rail will be filled when we bring up our extra coats from the basement, but the shelves? I guess I did a better job of decluttering before the move than I thought!

The other thing DH did was to tidy up and hang pictures in this little nook off of the great room. On the right is the door into our bedroom. I finally unpacked the several boxes of books there, and filled the bookshelf, and DH hung his family memorial items. I’m happy with how it turned out! There are still plenty of projects, but getting these done is a good feeling.

Learning about Copyright

This year, I set a goal to learn something about copyright once a month. Copyright is so important to writers, as it’s what gives our work value and enables us to make money from it, by preventing others from doing so without our permission (legally, at least). But there is so much nuance to it, and so many details.

A couple years ago for Christmas, I received The Copyright Handbook, by Stephen Fishman. I already knew the basics, like the fact that we have a copyright in our work as soon as it’s committed to paper, hard drive, or whatever other fixed form, and that holding a copyright does not require registration. I re-read Chapter One, which is a good reinforcement of the basics. On one level, I knew that it’s not required to put a copyright notice on the material for it to be copyrighted, but what I wasn’t clear on was that this isn’t even required by a publisher. The notice is more to reinforce the fact that it’s copyrighted to anyone who might be thinking of infringing, and deter those who might otherwise not realize the material is copyrighted. I also learned that the disclaimers that are inserted by publishers are mostly a tradition (and reinforcement to those who might unwittingly use the material otherwise), but not a requirement, though they were historically. The words “all rights reserved” were never a requirement except in Brazil and Honduras.

If infringement does occur, the author is likely to get a better settlement if the material bears a copyright notice. Without the notice, the infringer might owe a lesser settlement due to the possibility that they could have thought the material was in the public domain (i.e., not copyrighted).

What I’ve Been Reading

I’m still reading the final book in that fantasy box set, which is actually six short novels. That box set has been quite the deal, at $ .99, and has given me many hours of entertainment! I’m really enjoying the current book.

In nonfiction, I read Playing with Fire by Scott Rieckens. One thing I love about reading personal finance blogs is reading about the author’s journey out of debt and/or to being financially independent. Playing with Fire is such a story, about when the author realized he and his wife wouldn’t be able to retire until they were over 70, due to their paycheck-to-paycheck, luxurious lifestyle, and goes over the changes they made to get out of that cycle and work toward the life the really wanted. Recommended!

What I’ve Been Writing

ROW80Logo175

I met my writing goal this week of 450 words/day for five days, and a total of 2250 words. Actually, I exceeded it a little, and got over 2400 words, so that tells me I’m good to bump up my goal again! So this week, I’m going to shoot for 500 words/day, for five days, and a total of 2500 words.

I met my learning goals this time too, by learning something about copyright as noted above, and I also completed Week 4’s videos and assignment for the WMG Publishing “Teams in Fiction” workshop. This week, I want to complete the videos and assignment for Week 5.

What about you–have you unpacked anything interesting lately? What have you read recently? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing-related or otherwise? I’d love to hear from you–please share in the comments!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Not Quite this Time

by Jennette,

This week, we finally got our wet basement issues fixed (we hope, but so far so good). We’ve had moisture on the basement walls with a big rain since before we moved in. At first, the builder passed it off as from not having final grading done. But even after that was complete, the front wall of the basement still got wet whenever we got a good rain.

We also had leaky gutters, and when the gutter guy no-showed for a fix, my husband took care of it with some extra caulk. We thought that might fix the basement issues, but no.

Given the builder’s disappearing act, we went right to the waterproofing company. They responded quickly, came out and took a look, dug down a little… and found a big ledge of concrete along the front porch wall about a foot below ground level–right where the moisture was appearing inside. They eventually determined that when the front porch was poured, the concrete crew just did their cleanup right there, dumping the remnants of the concrete right next to the house instead of taking it away, like they should have. Or at least dumping it a little distance away! There were also punctures in the waterproofing layer, caused by using too-large gravel beside the house.

It took a few weeks to get the fix done due to the rain, but they finally came out and dug up the yard along the front porch. Fortunately, we had not done any landscaping, because we knew this was an issue and it could come to something like this. They removed the concrete, reapplied the waterproofing, and later came back to replace the dirt. Now we need to let it sit and compact for a few weeks before we replace the stone slab steps. At least it’s done! And yes, the builder will be paying for it–the waterproofer does a lot of work for him, so they’ve been in contact.

Coming back from walking the dogs required using the side door that day!

What I’ve Been Reading

Finally finished the fantasy box set! And I really enjoyed that last story. I will probably buy the next in series from several of these authors, and when I do, I’ll include those here.

What I’ve Been Writing

ROW80Logo175

Not as much as I’d hoped–my goal this week was to write for five days, 500 words/day. I did write five days, but only hit that wordcount twice. I just couldn’t get myself to keep on writing. Luckily, I figured out why last night: I’d taken a wrong turn with the scene I was writing. As in, it wasn’t needed at all. I was bored writing it, which was why I struggled to get to 500 words. And if I was bored writing it, readers will be bored reading it, so it has to go. No big deal, I will just work the necessary information in elsewhere and start in on the next scene, which I am looking forward to writing.

The good news is that while I didn’t meet my goal this past week, I still met–and exceeded–my January goal of 8,000 words. I’ll take it!

This week, I want to shoot for 500 words/day again, for five days.

I did meet my learning goal, and completed the week 5 videos and assignments for my online workshop. This week, I want to complete week 6’s materials, which will complete the workshop.

What about you–any unexpected setbacks lately, whether with your writing or something else? How about your goals? And have you read any good books recently? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

by Jennette,

Today is the first day in a week that we’ve had dry weather. It has rained since Monday, only stopping on Thursday and Friday to switch to snow. Our driveway’s a mess, and I’ve had migraines all week, thanks to the weather. And yes, we’re still getting water in the basement, now in different places than before. DH has already been in contact with the waterproofing company, and the owner says they’ll be back out to work on it once it stops raining on a workday (it’s supposed to start back up tomorrow).

I can’t complain too much–our basement water is just some seepage through the walls. But our area got over 5″ of rain in two days, and some people have had their homes flooded. DH is out on the tractor fixing the driveway now, I don’t have a headache now, and we have a lot to be grateful for.

The freeze we had a couple weeks ago didn’t hurt our wild daffodils

What I’ve Been Reading

Fellowship, by Lynette M. Burrows. This is a prequel to her debut novel, My Soul to Keep, set in the same alternate-history, dystopian world, about four newly-orphaned kids on the run in Appalachia. I loved the first book, and loved this one too–the characters are engaging, and the theocratic U.S. in an alternate 1960’s fascinates me. Highly recommended! I’m looking forward to the next book in the series!

What I’ve Been Writing

ROW80Logo175

Once again, I did not make my goal (sigh). The headaches are part of it–I just haven’t felt like doing much. I did manage to write four days this week, and got about 1800 words in–so not a total bust. But I am also again at a stuck point. This time, it’s a need for research. I have characters in three different time periods, and two different places, neither of which is Dayton, Ohio. So it’s time to do some research and figure out what could happen next in these time periods and other places. So this week’s goal is to research at least 15 minutes a day or until I figure things out, and to get 1000 new words, whether that’s 200 words five days, 500 words two days, or something in between.

I did meet my learning goal, and finished the WMG Publishing workshop on Teams in Fiction. Definitely helpful, and a topic I’d never given much thought to before. I am going to take a week off of workshops while I focus on my research, then will probably jump into another one next week.

What about you–how’s the weather where you are? Has it impacted what you do? Have you read any good books lately? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Not a Creature was Stirring…

by Jennette,

…not even a mouse.

Oh wait, yes they are. And definitely at night.

We used to get mice at our old house in the Ohio suburbs, too, especially at this time of year when they want in from the cold. So it was no surprise that we’d get them at the new house, which is in a rural area.

But it turns out that country mice are smarter than suburban mice. At the old house, I’d use tip-traps to catch them, and they worked fabulously. We did not have our pantry food in airtight containers or anything, they’d go for the peanut butter in those traps every time.

But here, they’ll go right on past the traps conveniently on the floor and climb up the pantry shelves for the good stuff. We even tried a different type of live trap. No mice, at least not in the traps. They were continuing to enjoy our pantry, however. We bought airtight pantry containers and put everything we could in them. The mice still managed to find the few items that wouldn’t fit, moving on to my protein shake mix when nothing else was left out of a sealed container.

My husband got tired of dealing with it and bought some guillotine-style traps. These at least kill them quickly, unlike the old-fashioned kind, or <shudder> glue traps. They’re now his problem.

What I’ve Been Reading

Mice haven’t stopped me from enjoying some fiction! With all the extra to-dos that the holidays bring (though I’m not getting stressed out about it), I was in the mood for a nice light, contemporary romance. Always Remember by Sheila Seabrook fit the bill perfectly! What I really loved about this story was how the heroine was living the life someone else (her mother) wanted for her, and came to realize that what she wanted for herself wasn’t as out of reach as she thought. Recommended!

What I’ve Been Writing

<sigh> Once again, not much, even less than last week. I did get a couple of nights in, but that’s all. Just over 500 words. This WIP will never be finished at this rate. But I remind myself that it’s the holidays, will all the extra to-dos (that are worth it, for friends and family), and that we’ll soon be back to normal. So this week, getting any writing in at all will be a plus. I’d like to get two days in before our daughter and her partner arrive on Tuesday. 

ROW80Logo175

This past week was also the end of the quarter for ROW80. I was still buried with the move when the round started, so I didn’t set any goals. I wrote less than 5,000 words this whole quarter. I used to write that much in a week without a problem! Of course, I also hadn’t moved house since I began writing, so maybe I’ll cut myself some slack. 😀 I’ve seen plenty of folks already stating their 2020 goals, but I’ll figure mine out next week.

What about you–have you had mice in your home? How did you handle it? Have you read anything good lately? And how are you doing on your goals, whether writing or otherwise? I love to hear from you–please share in the comments–and have a wonderful holiday!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

My Brain is Full

by Jennette,

My supervisor at work says this after a long training session, and I think it’s particularly appropriate this week for a lot of people. So many extra things to do and things to think about with the holidays approaching is enough in itself, but add to that the other various things in life people are dealing with, it’s sometimes hard to be creative.

In some cases, it’s a lack of time, but for me, it’s mental bandwidth. We got some major news on the business that owns the property across the street, which necessitated a neighborhood meeting, a lot of back-and-forth, and took up some mental space. Ultimately, it’s good news, probably among the best we could have hoped for: the business managers have finally come to the realization that this location isn’t suitable for something on the scale they’re planning, which has changed and grown throughout the year. We’re still skeptical, and suspect it’s as much because they haven’t been able to attain the investment they need, but we don’t really care how they spin it as it’s a positive outcome. They tell us the land will still be developed, but in accordance with the existing zoning, so we’re fine with that. It will be interesting to see what form that takes.

What I’ve Been Reading

I finally started back into some fiction this week, after finishing another non-fiction book: The Chaos Cure, by Marla Cilley, aka FlyLady. I Flylady’s plan for getting rid of clutter and keeping my house clean back in the early 2000s when I was laid off, and it helped. While a few of the habits stuck (mostly, making my bed and cleaning out the sink every day), most didn’t, though I did go through a big declutter in 2016 after we decided we were really going to move. I do still think her plan is helpful, and have slowly gotten back into it, in a modified fashion–after all, she encourages us to make her system our own. So I was interested to see what her latest book was all about.

It’s not about her plan–that’s covered in her first book, Sink Reflections. The Chaos Cure is more of a series of tips and “hacks,” many of which I was already doing. It was a quick, easy read, and written in her casual, fun style so it was worth a look. I don’t have the brain to think of them right now, but I picked up a few new things to try as well.

What I’ve Been Writing

ROW80Logo175

This has been another week where I keep telling myself “any progress is good.” While I didn’t quite make my goal of writing five days and a total of 1,250 words, I did manage to get in three days for almost 1,000 words. The story is getting more and more convoluted, so that’s not helping either. But that’s part of the deal when you write time travel.

This week, I’m going to keep trying for that 250 words, five days. Luckily, I’m mostly ready for the holidays, with only stocking stuffers left to shop for and everything else due to come in this week (I do as much as possible online). It also helps that we kept the holidays simple this year, but who knows what else will come up!

How about you–do you know that “brain is full” feeling? Are you ready for the holidays, if you celebrate? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.