Excerpt from Search for Sorren

Hi everybody :)

I'm still alive and kicking. More than that, after two months of having my meds and one month of running, I feel pretty damn good. I've edited and re-posted Sex Rehearsal and Murder (quick erotica) and The Winds of Fire (Romantic Thriller with a military bent) on Smashwords here and here and on Amazon here and here. (there's even a customer review up from early on :) I edited The Ghost of Kristen's Past (TWF and TGKP are omniscient POV stuff I've been grousing about) and sent it off. I don't know if they take omniscient, so we'll find out won't we?

I've started editing (again!!) The Search for Sorren again. It's the full length novel for Splintered Lands that I should have had finished a YEAR ago...thankfully they're slow as molasses. For some reason (and really, I don't know why. In rereading it, I really like it!!) I'm having trouble finding my rhythm and have groused about it on more than one occasion. I worked hard to get over the 55k mark. I was stuck just under 54 and seemed like every word I wrote took an hour. :P Well, maybe this editing mode will help me to par this up into chapters (I was so into writing this, I forgot to do chapters right! in that 55k there's only 2 chapters!! LOLOL) So, that's going well :) I've already taken out a bunch of words, but I'm still up about a hundred words :) So wish me luck that some other emergency doesn't happen.

In celebration of my new found editing prowess, I want to share a piece of the first chapter. The main character has been fighting the council and refuses to give approval for the outlying areas to do an experimnet. The results of the experiment are as she feared--deadly. (Note: For the rules of this world, go to Splintered Lands and while there, check out Dangerous Journey, partly co-written by Anne-Mhairi Simpson and continued in a short story later :)

“Mistress Sherrone!” someone called her but she did not heed them. She stayed with Krong, not wanting him to die alone, if indeed he was going to die. “Sherrone!” this time the strident tones would not be ignored.

She looked around to see who was calling. It was Hielan. “What is it?” she asked resignedly.

“Ye need to move. We are going to attempt to roll the log off them, but need everyone to help move the—“ he stumbled. She saw him swallow hard, his adam’s apple jumping, high, then low, before he spoke again. “The bodies. We need to move them as quickly as possible so we can attempt to save the ones who are still alive.”

She nodded and squeezed Krong’s hand. “I have to go help,” she said, her voice strained with the tears she could not hold back . “Don’t leave this world while I’m gone,” she ordered. She stood up and turned to Hielan.

“Okay, show me where I can be of the most use,” she said, wiping her face with both of her hands, trying to regain her composure.

“Grab the ones still alive first, and move them as far as ye can away from the area. We don’t want any more accidents. After the live ones have been moved, we can put the ones who have already died there,” he pointed to a spot not too far. “It’s unlikely that the log will roll there, but if it does,” he trailed off.

If it does, the dead won’t feel it, she mentally finished for him. She did not want to say it aloud anymore than he did. “Good plan. I’ll see that the others who are unhurt help us with them.” She turned and moved to the nearest live person and began implementing the plan. She called out to the others to help, many of whom stood shocked, not moving or speaking. “We need to help those still alive get a fighting chance to live,” she ordered them. “Now come and aid us,” she ordered.

Many were shoved out of their shock by her terse words and began to do as she said. She lifted the torso of the first woman, grasped under her arms, clasping her hands together over the woman’s chest. She pushed her feet into the ground and stood up as much as she could and began to drag her over to the area Hielan had pointed out to her. The woman moaned and attempted to help, but her feet dangled uselessly and she could only look up at Sherrone.

The fear, pain, and sadness in the woman’s eyes almost broke Sherron’s composure, but she gritted her teeth and pulled. About half way to the designated area, Androna came and grabbed the woman’s legs under the knees and helped Sherrone move her.

Together they moved three people who were still alive and two who were not. By now, Sherrone’s emotions had steeled, and anger was making its way to the forefront. She kept moving, not letting her personal feelings get in the way, even when she saw that one of the dead people included the other woman who was on the council with her.

The area was finally clear. Sherrone stood to the side while the pushed the log off the men who had been caught under it. The men all screamed in pain as the weight was lifted off. She dropped down next to Krong as soon as Hielan gave the all clear sign. Never in her life had she seen so many dead and injured. Their community had grown to almost double in the last decade. But in one fell swoop, they had lost about a quarter of the adults.

She pushed that thought to the side as Krong smiled weakly at her. “I waited for you. But I’m afraid I cannot wait much longer before moving on to the next stop on the Great Path of Life.”

“Krong,” she wanted to deny his claim, but knew he was right. “I did na know ye believed as those in the temple high up the river do,” she said instead.

“Don’t tell the others on the council, but it is where the Haring people are from. We came to seek a different life but never lost our beliefs in a higher power. I must go now, down the next path in store for me,” he said, his voice barely a breath on the last word. He took in one deep breath, let it out. Then, no more.

She cried out against the fates and the council members who had approved of the experiment. She heard others crying as well as the townspeople realized the dead and dying were one of their own family members or their good friends. She did not know how they would find enough wood to do a proper burning burial without it becoming obvious that a large settlement lived there, but that would be a problem for tomorrow. For now, she stood up, her eyes boring into the gazes of the other members of the council, who looked away.

At tonight’s traditional follow up council meeting, she would have her say. And this time, they would listen. She took one last look at Krong and the others who had died and marched over to the other lead council member. The one who always opposed her and sided with a man no matter how wrong he was, Pflimer. Orion Pflimer.

“Orion! I would have words with ye,” she called out.

“Now, woman?” he asked in exasperation.

“My name is Mistress Sherrone. Or Council Woman Sherrone, if ye prefer,” she said through her teeth. “And aye, now.”

“What do ye want,” he said demandingly. “I’m a little busy ‘ere.”

“We’re all a little busy ‘ere,” she said pointedly. “Dealing with injuries and deaths that should na ha' occurred if the council had done its job.”

He looked around and she knew he was searching to see who else was listening before responding. “If ye were na such a shrew, then maybe more of the council would heed your words.”

Sherrone stared at him aghast. “If ye were less bigoted and listened to people regardless of whether they are man or woman, I would na have to demand to be heard. Ye are vile. I’m going to see to it that your seat on the council be revoked.” She turned and walked away before she said or did more in the heat of her rage.

It was nightfall before the injured had been taken home and the bodies placed near the burial site. They would start digging the graves and chopping the wood tomorrow. Ironically, they would be using the logs they had felled for the experiment. There were not enough trees to let the wood go to waste for sentimental reasons.

Tired, dirty, and hungry, she made her way with others to the council hall. More people than usual followed them. This would not be a typical follow up on an experiment. People’s emotions were riding high, and they wanted someone to pay. She did not blame them for she felt the same way.

She sat in her rough hewn chair. It was not as fancy as the others, for she had made it herself. All of them had chairs of sorts and one long table that separated them from the rest who attended the meeting. It was thick and heavy and made from some of the oldest trees they had seen in their area. Some had even speculated that they may have been some of the very few trees to have survived the splintering.

She ran her hand over the table and winced. Even her customary comfort in the idea of something that had outlasted human folly and nature’s wrath was to be denied her tonight. Her hands were blistered and cut from the clean up. It would be worse tomorrow.

:) anyways, I really like it. The dialogue is my own rendition of American south and Scottish accent :P LOLOL Well, off to copy and past to WP and then back to work :)

Editing is for May :)

So, I had to get a WP ID in order to make the stats function on my website work. Instead of just getting an ID I got a blog so I could follow some of the WP peeps I've been wanting to follow and can't through google feed anymore. Well, I was unable to. But, I have the blog, it's the same addy as this one, but instead of blogspot.com it's wordpress.com and I'll be doing duplicate blogs on both. I really dislike WordPress, but since Blogger changed, I really dislike it as well. So might as well join up, eh?

I'm very excited about all that's happening in my writer life. I'm feeling so much better after rereading a couple of books. One thing, I'm waiting for editor friend of mine to post her head hopping versus omniscient POV post then I'm going to link the shit crap out of it.

I get frustrated when I see head hopping comments because sometimes, I KNOW it's an omniscient POV book. That makes it hard as a writer. It's like the passive voice thing. Yeah, we want to avoid 'was' but 'was' is not passive verb in a lot of cases. It's context you have to look at for passive voice. Same with omniscient and head hopping. just cuz you can see more than one person's thoughts, doesn't mean they're head hopping. They're telling a full story!

Grrr. I keep running into that as I'm writing cuz of my own omniscient one I'm editing right now. I started trying to fix the back and forth when I realized I'd sent it to an editor and head hopping was not an issue, ie it is omniscient. So, at least until I finish this, I'm going to be angry about all the head hopping comments/blogs etc that I read that made it hard for me to remember the difference between that and omniscient.  A lot of well off, bestseller writers, write omniscient. (Kay Hooper for example)

Also, did I mention that my "secret" project was accepted J It's a short, partially inspired by my friend Branli on twitter and a drunken night w/ him and his friend Jon, via twitter! I love my twitter friends!! They really do inspire me more than many people can understand.

On the mother front, had a wonderful time watching my son at baseball practice last night, even if it was across a soccer field. He's improved so much! That was only his fourth practice and he's hitting it really far!! Like to the fences J Now if I could get him to work on his school work as hard…

Edward had a blast walking all over with his dad while they went camping J So I think both boys had a good time the last couple of days. Makes it harder to get them moving on to school though. That's what's happening right now. They've done home ec (a lesson on making tomato soup out of paste and how to whip butter) and had grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch. But now comes the boring work…

Isaac is on a terror this AM. He's getting into EVERYTHING so I think he and I will have to do a round of Old McDonald's Farm and work on his animal recognition. Wish me luck as this is a new song I introduced to him during baseball practice last night.

I have felt icky when waking up these last few mornings, but I still ran on Monday with the boys (they did 1.1, I did 2.0)  and today. I'm so glad I went today. I did a personal best of 2.5 miles!! I'm so excited. When I started the couch to 5k (approx 3 miles) I didn't even think I could run a mile, but I did 1.2 miles the first day! Now, I'm consistently 2 or over, so I don't think that going for 5 miles by end of summer is out of the question. I've lost weight, although I have no idea how much, and inches. I know it's inches cuz I can't wear some clothes without them falling off. It was rather distracting this morning, trying to hold my britches up. :P

Yesterday, I had a very productive day on the writing front, editing the short story that's out on Smashwords, then getting it out on kindle with the grammar issues fixed. I also edited 70 pages on another story I'm getting ready for submission. I'm trying to get all these loose ends done so I can concentrate on my novel for Splintered Lands. May do the NaNoWriMo camp in June. That'll help me focus on words again. Anyways, with all I've learned editing The Ulfric's Mate, and Barely There, I've been on a major editing kick. Works great if you have things to edit like I do, but makes it hard for word count as my internal editor is a lot harder to turn off.

I have lots to edit, so I'm kind of making May my edit month here. I'll rerelease Cerisa's Quest (Fantasy) and The Winds of Fire (militaristic romance thriller) by end of June, I think. Hoping to have Cerisa's Quest in next two weeks. It needs the least amount of work. I'm going to go through The Winds of Fire. I'd intended on it being omniscient limited and someone said I was head hopping, so I changed things. Now have to do a little more research into the limited aspect and reread a really good blog, then edit it how I'd intended it to be. Have to find that blog first :P LOL So off to work I go! Hi ho, hi ho…

Just, stuff, as I'm too tired to write more

I know I mentioned a secret project I'd sent in. Well, thank you everyone who crossed they're fingers for me!! I was offered a contract on it, a modern erotica (not a HEA, but a HRN kind of book :) If you're following my FB author page, then you've seen this news, but STILL, there it is. I'll provide the details after I've signed :) SQUEEEEE I think I questioned once, if it ever gets old. Well, three offers of contracts, and another small pub who has some of my fantasy stuff later, the answer is NO! It doesn't LOL I had big squeee! The major change is I no longer have to read it three times to make sure I didn't read it wrong LOL Now I read it three times out of pure excitement!! LOL

Anyways, I'm feeling really really good. Cuz, guess what? I got that news at the end of a long, fun day, spent in the company of my birth family and learning about where my family is from, etc. My adoption is complicated. The state made some mistakes. So my birth family never really wanted to give me up, so I'm kind of the long lost daughter :) Anyways, I got to go w/o my kids, so I got to just worry about me. And boy, let me tell you, we had a freaking blast. Jokes ran wild, involving words like, "poof" and "preparation H" and you kinda had to be there, but OMG I think I hurt a lung laughing so  hard.

Today's been a harder day, but still a good one :) I ran this AM even though I felt like crap on a cracker stuck in the microwave to explode. Benadryl, inhaler, and away I went! I have longer legs now, or a shorter behind, whichever way you want to look at it LOL I know I've lost more inches/weight even though I can't find a measuring tape because I fit into pants I couldn't fit into for the last 2 years :)

Anyways, I'll be posting the Ravaged cover again shortly and probably put it on my permanent site to see :) Going to have to figure out how to do a collage!

I had lots more to say, but I'm exhausted!! Going to try to sleep after some light reading. Hope you all had a good one!

It's a Wonderful Life

How many remember that movie? The original one? I will never forget that movie. For those completely uneducated, poor souls who have not seen the movie, the gist is this:

One man, grows up, marries his childhood sweatheart, becomes the town's bank manager, has a bunch of kids and lives in an old house that's in constant need of repair. Cue music. Enter THE BAD GUY. He's a money person who has stolen the days money when your family/employee who's a little short on bricks, drops it. There's a run on his bank and everything's falling apart.

His Friends are all moving up in the world, off to fight in wars, be heros, or getting rich in the big city. He begins to feel worthless and like it would have been better if he'd never lived at all. He's sincerely contemplating suicide during an unprecedented drunk, when an angel gives him his wish.

Not only does the angel tell him he has never lived, he shows our hero how different the town would have been without him. What happens? His brother dies in a ice skating accident where previously, the hero had saved him. Another person dies because he wasn't there to stop the chemist from making an accident when the chemist was having a very bad day. No one was there to stop the bad guy and the small town with just a hint of city turns into mobville.

There are no more affordable housing loans, no more mom and pop stores. It's Reno on bad Steroids with the head mobster as the leading man. His wife is a spinster. It goes on. This one man, who felt as if his life didn't matter, had slowly, just by being him, by being nice, caring, changed the outlook of an entire town. The ripple effect.

In the end, he cries for his life back, and even the knob that falls off the staircase railing is precious to him. The whole town pitches in to cover the loss of money stolen by Potter (the bad guy) and saves his Christmas.

Kindness matters. You matter. The little things you did to say, you can do this to someone, or RT a fellow author, or critiqued a work for someone, all those things matter. You'd be surprised at how many people are able to pay it forward.

This post is dedicated to Anne-Mhairi Simpson. She and I have had our differences. Both been mad, scathing, even about something, but like true family, found our way back to each other. She's my CP. But most of all, she allowed me to run with her. She's scads and scads of miles away from me, since she lives in England and I live in Western US, but she still helps me to get moving and we run at the same time.

It's inspired my son to walk/run with me. He's already lost weight and is well on his way to stregthening his lungs so asthma shouldn't be able to him back at all. And last night, my husband says, he may have to quit smoking since the rest of his family is getting healthier...

However long it lasts, each smoke he doesn't have because of the ripple effect, matters. So thank you. Thank you for being there. For mattering.

My repertoire of online presence :)

Time to update all the ways you can stalk follow me :) I have a website where I post some free writing (I know! I'm behind. Haven't posted free stuff in a while and not enough posts!) and updates. It's more formal than my blog as I go on and on adnaseum on my blog :D LOL but then it is about the road to publishing (and after!) as a wife and mother :D so, ANYWAYS.

Here is my FB author page to follow me as an author and I have a bookmark giveaway. Have spent last few days with SOMEBODY, including me, sick. Hopefully will get the bookmarks made :D Or could give them the ones I already have made...

I have my artwork here. It's how I make a little money to try and support my family, especially with all of our medical bills. It's also a great compliment to my writing as I've mentioned a few times... :P

And soon, very very soon, I'll be on this website :D It's my publisher and they have some awesome talent there! Writers, editors, artists, it's amazing. They're wonderful people who really care about their authors. They have m/m and f/f and interracial romances as well. And more than a token selection. Go support them. And trust me, when my book comes, you'll see it :D
Also, on twitter @L_Bushman you'll find me bitching, witching, and stitching. :D I go on about EVERYTHING on there LOL

Whew. I think that about covers it...oh wait. I'm on Goodreads, LinkedIn and Tumbler too. Idk where or how to get to those though :P LOL I finally caved and did them cuz too many of my peeps were on there, but it's just too much trying to keep up with all the sites.

Ta ta for now ;D

So, started running just over two weeks ago. My first run was for 1.2 miles in 32 minutes. I was quite pleased :) I didn't think I could go a mile! It's actually run/walk couch potato to 5k in 8 weeks program. My CP Partner, and now my running partner :D, and I are doing it in 16 weeks. I caught her at the tail end of week one so mine will be 15 weeks. But this gives me time to strengthen my lungs, which is working!

Yesterday, I did 2.4 miles in 30.34 minutes :)) I thought I'd plateaued at 2.2 which I'd done by 3rd run (I've done 7 runs, 3 of them 2.2 miles) Quite pleased. I also dragged my 11yo along. He did about 1.3 miles :) I run about 1/2 mile from house and back, then run the rest on the block next to my house. Drives the dogs crazy :)

I've been supplementing my running with walks, sometimes at places like costco, sometimes at a park with the kids, whatever it takes, to get a little walking in. I'm also doing pretty hard core yard work. I have to move and condition my soil before planting. So, on top of the planting, I have to shovel dirt, carry heavy bags, rototill, etc. After planting, there's the upkeep of weeding, watering, fertilizing, and squeeing over the seedlings popping through :D

I'm digging a fire pit (one of the places I'm getting dirt from for the low areas) and taking ashes off of old fire area which has built up to a hill, which I'm using to help condition the soil as well. In some places in my yard, not even weeds are growing. Sawdust and ash and potting soil :) Wish I could afford peat moss. Sigh. But it's a start and it's what I've been doing and the area that has gotten treatment both years, was rich this year :D I'm getting somewhere YAY!!

My 8yo is my garden partner, although lately, he's more interested in playing games, but he helped plant the garlic :) and he's helped in other areas. It's so much fun seeing all the plants in our yard :) It's the most I've seen in this yard in years. There were some major flooding of the canal near us about 7 years ago? I'm not sure of the exact time, but it destroyed the grass. Ever since, the yard has slowly deterioated. But now, NOW, I've taken it back! LOL with the help of my kids. My husband, with my help and some from Patrick when I'm busy, (and even a little from Josh when it was first started ') is putting up our fence! He did like 50 ft yesterday  :) The hardest part is digging holes (which the neighbor helped do one yesterday LOL) which I've been helping with the most. We're over halway done. It's hard cuz we can only do it on Nate's days off. But it looks incredible!!

I just had an epiphany. One of my sick boys called me (yes, this will round it out to all three, the 3yo having passed it along and sharing so nice ;P) as I left the room, one of my almost finished paintings caught my eye. As I was writing the post, I'd intended on mentioning how I'm editing since my writing creativity has been hard to find lately. I don't let that stop me, hence the editing. It's actually a good time to edit for grammar.

However, as I stared at that unfinished painting my brain went, "Doh!" See, I've not been paying attention to the painter in me SCREAMING for release. I've only a few canvases and I'm afraid of being out completely. An artist friend, awesome painter Russ Potak, told me that is the wrong way! Paint, paint, paint. Use paper, etc. I'd listened and thought I would soon as I could. Instead, I need to just do it. It's what's holding up my writing side. I've already discovered that the one suffers if I don't do the other. Today would be good day to paint as I'm not feeling great and the boys aren't feeling great. No hardwork allowed today. We'll see if I can get things set up.

Maybe I'll just draw. Oil paints doesn't lend itself well to paper. At. All. Whatever. I need to do something for that part of me so I can replenish and refuel. I know better. Grrr. Wonder how many thousands of words have been balled up because I didn't release my screaming painter? LOL

How many of you do that? Know you need to do something for best results (ie rest, sleep, etc) but don't cuz you have too much to do? We all need to remember to rest our brains the way they need it or our creativity suffers for it :)

I did it again.

I kept writing the posts in my head. Honest. But then, by the time I got around to computer time, I'd forget to blog :S lol Well, this week, what have we to tell you?

I did a blurb up, rough draft, for my book coming out July 6th (It's so close!!) called The Ulfric's Mate. (You're either new, or not been reading if you don't know the title and release date, but I still like to say it :) Have to fine tune it. It's a lot like your query. In fact, I used my  query as the starting page.

My book is off to the line item editor, so close to being finished. Little squeaks keep leaving my mouth whenever I think about how close it it to time! I  have a few people who are going to do blogs/giveaway arcs for me :) It's all getting geared up for the big launch!!

I have managed to get in a lot of yardworkd despite having sick children, camping, etc. to do. I've also gotten most of that pesky room redone. Just a few bits on the floor left to sort. Brought in the other boy's dresser and am on 3 of 5 in sorting out his clothes. :) Plus, doing laundry.

One big change I did, was take all the clothes out of 8yo dresser and put them in an open squared cubby hole thing that has 8 cubbies and I can't believe how well it's worked. The 3yo hasn't even messed with it like usual. My 8yo would pull out ALL OF HIS CLOTHES in every drawer when looking for clothes. Drove me batty, made a huge mess and half the time, half-all of the clothes would end up back in the wash! But this new way, he can see everything and make a choice :) He loves it. Thank goodness! It was either going to be a huge hurrah or a freaking bomb. With high functioning autims likely (just need to get through paperwork stuff to see for sure) but similar behaviors already marked, you never know with change.

I've done some editing for CP (have lots more to do!) and did some editing on on old book as my mind is having trouble making my body work. The end of the day, I'm so exhausted from the physical work that I can't get my writing done. At least with the edits, I can do a few pages at a time and feel like I'm getting somewhere. I have written some new words, have lots to map out on this other book. I also need to revamp my book on smashwords with my new editing skills and formatting skills. LOTS OF WORK to do inside and out, but will be loads of fun :)

Planted more beans and roma tomatoes and finally a few flowers :) I got marigolds to keep the animals out of my garden (I've had some problem with getting the leaves chewed off :(( and one of my squach's dug up) the added benefit to that, of course, is they're wonderful in soap :) Hurrah!

I have a column planter my husband made with petunia's in the center at the corner of my tomatoe garden so people don't trip on the boards or smash my plants :) It looks purty. I put the leftover ones at the outside border of the new area I planted w/ roma tomatoes and beans (I'm looking at having a bumper crop of beans!) Will have frozen beans coming out my arse, I think! And tomatoes...oh the tomatoes. Once those start coming... I'm hoping to have over two hundred pounds of them :) think 40 ish plants will work? that's not counting the romas, cherry, or pear toms...I canned over 200 lbs of them the year I was able to really can :)

lettuce is going well :) have some pepper plants, not sure if one's going to make it or not :( Oh well. I have more seeds to plant...this is going to be an interesting year, that's for sure!

How's your garden growing??

It's Sunday, did ya know?

LOL the title is really just that. A title. Well, did  ya know it was Sunday today? Ane yes, I'm going to blog. I know it's not a big blogging day, but, been lax on the blogging last week, so why not?
I discovered something about craigslist this week. There's a place for gigs. Now that might not seem like much, but I can already see how it's going to be helpful to me. I already have an addy of someone looking for a kids book illustrator. Will have to do it under a "pen name" because of people's idiocies re erotic writers. (For some idea of what I mean by that, look at how many school teachers are coming under attack for writing about sex. I've posted about it before, so shall refrain from getting on that soap box--for the moment, anyhow.)

But still, anything to help with money, but also to get to do my art :) yeah, that would be awesome! I'm down to very few/little bits of canvases and I've quite painting. However, I've been told by my artist friend that that is wrong! I need to paint like there's an abundance, not shut it off. Also, to do more painting on paper. I'm not so good at that, but maybe I'll do more charcoals/colored pencil types.

I think I mentioned, but I've started running with my CP partner. Now those of you following along at home may be going back through old posts thinking they remember the location of my CP wrong. Nope. She's in England. It's been a week. We run at the exact same time which means in the evening for  her and midmorning for me. We've both ran in the rain, admittedly, mine was a nice drizzle whereas at least one of hers were iced over needle points, I've ran tired, injured, chest hurting, etc. She's running 5-6 times a week. I ran once week before, 3x last week, and I'll do 4x next week.

We've already proven the buddy system works. I think both of us are way better off for being accountable to each other. I know I am. I don't sleep past the time, or get distracted. Believe me, with all that keeps trying to happen at the time I'm supposed to run, that's saying something!!

I may have to walk for part of one of the run times, but I don't care. I'm going  to get back in shape before it kills me. I've wanted to for long time. But it takes emotional fortitude to starte a major change and my emotions were being all used up in life. Have let some emotional baggage go these past weeks and the changes inside of me have been incredible.

Gardening, writing, and even running, have been freed up. When my body gets used to all the extra labor, I'm sure my writing will explode! The ideas are exploding in my head, I'm just too tired to focus on them. But it's a good tired. Not the sick tired of being out of meds. At least I can go outside and see all the work I've accomplished. It's more amazing when you know where I started from and my health conditions to begin with, but even without that, I have three square plots of garden, and now a strip along the fence. Gardening is so amazing and so good for you. At it gives you something back. I'm having to condition the soil and then plant seeds/plants. For me, I feel as if I'm doing something good for the earth and the sky.

I'm not a big super stellar strict person about those things, but we try to recycle most of our cans, reuse boxes/bags, burn the boxes (which some people don't like) but that's to help burn the noxious weeds I pull. Can't even put these in the dump because the seeds spread like wildfire. And these particular weeds choke out all good plants and I'm terribly allergic to them. All good reasons to burn! LOL But also, I use the ashes in conditioning my soil. So, I feel as if I'm reducing garbage, reducing bad, noxious, sick-making weeds, and getting ashes to  help grow new, healthy, life giving plants and trees.

Reduse, Reuse, recycle. I think if we all did this, even on a moderate scale, jobs would be saved along with the planet. ;) My biggest is I reuse and reuse whatever I can :) I have a cut down poptart box that holds my character cards, did you know? LOL made out of rubber bands and a broken wire hanger. How's that for reuse/repurpose? LOL

What things do you do that make you feel good? Or that contribute to the environment? You have any tricks you've found to reuse your old items? Or to keep them out of landfills and turn them to good use like planting?

Ooooh Guess what?

Now, I know I said I wouldn't make all my posts about writing...that would be boring IMO but, since writing and painting (or taking pics for later painting) is what I do outside of being a wife and mother, well, it comes up a lot...

But GUESS WHAT??  *pauses to change pants as the excitement gets to her*

The new cover for the Ravaged Anthology is in my hot little hands (and that of a my fellow anthologyians <--don't know if that's a word, but it is now! lol) and I am sharing with you now!

Drum roll please as I post another hot cover by a talented artist from Breathless Press.

See my name just...there... ;) and all my fellow author peeps!! I'm so excited. They did a magnificant job. Not sure who the artist is, but Breathless Press sure got their hands on some good ones!

I'm moving slow on writing. Changed a major plot point. If you're a follower of my author FB page then you know my muse hit the other night as I was nodding off to sleep. What did it do? Oh nothing much. Just decided a major plot point had to change. Warning: Possible spoiler for The Ulfric's Mate--No easy kill off for old Joseph for his very bad misdeeds.

Noooo.

My muse has decided he gets to live--in exile, where of course, he can still be trouble... Sigh. It means I have to rework the whole story though. It's okay. I don't actually WRITE down outlines, I just know where I want to go and how I want to get there. But when my muse does this to me? Well, it's not the first time. I'll get over it!

*squeee* sorry. They slip out once in a while. Now I have TWO book covers to squee over. I may have to get a sock to put in it... LOL

So, back to the drawing board...perhaps literally, as I work out the new plot points in my mind. Also, may be a good time to do some of those edits I need to do...all week and none are finished? oops. Especially since I got second edits back on Barely There that's in the afore mentioned Ravaged.

Time for me to get back to work... And you can thank Persephone Jones for getting this on my blog this early today LOL Sigh.

Stalkers

So, you've all heard of stalkers. Most stalkers are creepy, and have nefarious reasons for stalking. I have two that I know are regulars and one part-timer who stalks me on occassion.

Some stalk you cuz they want to cause trouble, others really just are obsessed. What I want to know is, why, if you hate someone so much, would you stalk them? Seems ridiculous regardless of what pissant excuse you make up. Bottom line is, if you can't be honest and follow someone (ESPECIALLY if it's cuz you have blocked or you are blocked by the person) why even keep any sort of contact going? Of course, on my end, it sure helps my blogging numbers.

So FYI, all you stalkers, my traffic sources lets me know who and from where (if not a name, than a location, which, if I really wanted to, I could get a name from) so if I'm feeling threatened in anyway, I will put my uber scary cyber geek on it and he'll find you, I gaurantee it. He's that good.

Now, on to more pleasant items ;)

I've been gardening like a fiend!! And running! I just realized I forgot to do the last couple days of photo a day. Even had it all planned out. Oh well. I started running on Saturday, I'm doing the couch to 5k program. first day ran 1.2 miles, second day (Monday) ran 1.7 miles...without trying!! I was sore from working so hard in friends yard and had some muscle pain in my calves, but I kept going! I can't believe how far I went ;)

My running partner, who is in England, (and yes, it's already proven it works! She went cuz she promised me and I went cuz I promised her when we'd both had rather not. Me rough night w/ kids, her cuz it was raining cold needles.) has raked me over the coals telling me not to push my self so hard. Seriously, no one is as surprised as I am at how far I went!

I used to be so athletic and between emotion crap, asthma, cancer, having babies, jobs, etc, I'd fallen out of shape! And with my thyroid giving me so much trouble, I'm finding it hard to get into shape or lose weight. Well, I've got a 3 month supply (well couple bits short now as I've been taking them) and summer on its way in so I'm getting it done!!

The yard work has really helped me prep. Seriously, I don't think I could have gone a mile if I hadn't been working so hard first on the house, then outside.  Nearly done with all the prepwork I can do until we get some real money in. Except for the fence. That'll take some time :(

Nate's sick and Isaac's nose is starting up allergy crap. I hope when we get everything done, all of us will have less allergy stuff going on. Can't help the colds though. They are what they are and hey, all that cold/bacteria fighting saved us from martians, right? LOL Thank you, Orson Welles.

My other boys are starting to do school again today after much angst and procrastination with breakfast and Isaac. LOL ah, to be young again--NEVER for me ;)

Anyways, we have this awesome possum idea for the boys. Not sure if I mentioned that I was coming to like the idea of them having nothing in the rooms they sleep in, except movies? Well, we're going to do that. Their dressers and a large king size bed in one room, their games and toys and a twin in the other (the twin will be for guests or sick bed) in another and still have a game room for electronics.

I'm excited to have this plan :) I'm trying to get things set up in a way we won't have to change them once we're finished. I got stalled when ran out of meds, then the garden and most of the work I did has been undone ;) Ah well, that's okay, cuz we'd be doing all over again anyway ;)

I have my paperwork ready for Edward now and just need to take it in when picking up meds for Nate since it's at the same clinic. Things are so much better here ;) Patrick was able to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's for few days and that helped boys get a break from each other. Then last weekend, we went midnight bowling with tow of Patrick's friends and got him signed up for baseball and that seems to have really helped! I fear the boys were getting bored with each other's company. I also think it's helped that we've been outside more. I do believe we were all getting cabin fever!! The large amounts of rain during March/April didn't help! ;) But the boys have been fantastic, even when we went to a friends house. Course, we've known these peeps for long time, so that probably helped.

As for me, I have planted GOBS of food, that I'll need to baby along as the ground isn't the greatest, but from which I'm hoping to have enough food to can/freeze to get us through the winter with some left over for sharing!! My sons are all helping to various degrees, but it's all going to come together.

I love going outside and seeing the work I've done. If you knew what it looked like before, you're even more amazed when you look upon it.

Anyways, LOL back to my writing since I've words to make up!