Behold! The Beauty of Arts and Crafts!

I apologize, but before anything else, I have to squee about something. Sorry if you follow my tumblr or already saw this on my personal facebook page, but I have to squee EVERYWHERE about this.

EdenDaphne finished my commission of Willow! I got the email yesterday, and I've been bouncing all over the walls about it since.

Maki Natsuo from Love Lab
created by Ruri Miyahara

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc

*Ahem* Anyway, without further ado, EdenDaphne's drawing of Willow:

Comparatively, let's check out what I was able to come up with over the years....

So much Willow! I love it! I love it! I love it!

I was also a bit impatient when I got the line-art for Willow about a week or so ago, so, while I was bored at work, I decided to try my own hand at coloring her. Considering I was on my phone and using one of those pens with the stylus on the back, I don't think it's all that bad....

The shoes got a bit derpy because I hit the
bottom edge of the screen while re-doing
the line art.

Clearly Eden's coloring was better - her shoes actually look like sneakers while mine look like they belong in a bowling alley - but again, I don't think I did too shabby considering it's the first time I ever attempted to color on a cell phone.... Also, I'm impressed with the way I was able to make Willow's belt sparkle, and how I streaked her hair.

Anyway, if you couldn't tell, I'm beyond excited for this! Now to save up another $70, and wait for Eden to open commissions again, so I can have another one of My Girls drawn.... who next time though? Trish, Lia, Amara, or Jolene? Maybe Lia. Poor girl hasn't really had any love in the past two years. Amara's on the same boat, but I need to solidify where all of her scars are first so Eden knows if she has to have any showing....

Eden wasn't the only one crafting though, and coloring my line-art preview of Willow wasn't the only crafting *I* did.

ChibiSunnie hasn't had a very good year, loves penguins, and is always so kind as to draw me a birthday and a Christmas card each year. I wanted to do something for her in return. So I spent about a week or so crocheting. The beak and eyes look kind of wonky on this poor thing, but otherwise I'm happy with it.

The scarf is detachable, just wrapped
around and knotted in place like
a real scarf.

I had used transitional blue yarn - it went from the light blue of the face to the dark blue of the eyes - but the craft didn't use enough of the yarn for it to ever really transition. The flippers/wings are a slightly darker shade, but that's it....

I don't know if Chibi gave her penguin a gender, but she named it Chibird, after the inspirational artist we both follow on tumblr. Mostly because Chibird compiled her artwork into a book called Loading Penguin Hugs, which I also gifted Chibi for Christmas, and the penguin on the cover is blue.

You can get your own copy of
Loading Penguin Hugs on Amazon.

It really is an adorable book, and comes with stickers! It's less than $10, so why not give it a look and see if it's a nice pick-me-up/stocking stuffer for yourself or someone you know? Spread the love.

Anyway, you guys don't come here every week to see arts and crafts per se. You're here mostly to find out more about my writing, correct?

Well, guess what? I did that too! Quite a bit, actually.... 4616 words worth. Which is more than any week during this year's NaNo... Figures.

I kept getting flashes of the last chapter for "One and the Same." Basically, it's this closing to the “Peeping Tomcat” mess/epic that made me want to write this sequel in the first place. I instantly thought how perfect it would be if that final scene paralleled "You've Got Mail": they'd be in the park outside Marinette's home, Adrien would walk up, Marinette would see Plagg and tear up as she realizes Adrien and Chat Noir were the same person that whole time, Adrien would dab her tears away and tell her "Don't cry, Ladybug," and they'd live happily ever after.

Well, fret not, readers who are probably mad that I dropped a spoiler like that without warning, because.... well... the ending took a... shall we say DIFFERENT turn.

What I'm about to say may be a bit obvious, but technically there's spoilers ahead centering around what should be the climactic tension of OatS. So feel free to breeze by if you don't want even slight hints....
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Anyway, the "You've Got Mail" ending, while sweet and the whole inspiration for OatS, just made Marinette forgive Adrien/Chat Noir too easily. What's the point of climatic tension if it's resolved simply because Chat Noir was Adrien the whole time? How could Marinette be instantly okay with Chat Noir's spying in PT upon realizing "Oh, it was Adrien!"? It was too shallow. Too quick. It sent the wrong message. There were all sorts of red flags.

I kept thinking "Maybe if Marinette found out about Chat Noir's spying as the mid-point, it would give me the second half of the book to rebuild their trust." I mean, the whole point of YGM is that Kathleen hated Joe, but he managed to regain her trust and friendship before she ended up falling in love with him. It would work, and maybe one day I'll write another take, another reason why Marinette would be mad at Chat Noir, so it fits YGM like I wanted. But this story doesn't seem to want to take that direction.

What could be a higher tension point then Marinette finding out everything that happened in PT? I had originally written a plot skeleton where Marinette does indeed ask for Chat Noir's ring back since she can't trust him as an ally, and then Master Fu talked her into giving it back. It got too messy though. First and foremost, how was she going to take back his ring without finding out who he was? If she had him give back the ring, and therefore reveal himself as Adrien to her, how would she react? How would she be around Adrien from that point on?

It just.... the story took a dark turn. A fun turn. One I might explore in a different fanfic, but it just wasn't the direction I wanted OatS to go.

So I was back with the dilemma that Marinette was too forgiving of Chat Noir too soon. Plus, the girl is intelligent, so the fact that she didn't figure out who Chat Noir was before Plagg revealed himself felt wrong for me.

That's when I got those sparks for the final chapter. Basically, Marinette wondered why, if Chat Noir knew Ladybug was Marinette the whole time, did he keep pushing Marinette to confess her love to Adrien? It didn't add up for her. Until it did.

That was supposed to be the ending. She figured it out, and then her and Adrien would have talks about the whole thing. It really helped me with the whole "If they fought because she didn't want to know who Chat Noir was, why did Adrien show up to their date with Plagg in full view for her to know who Chat Noir was?" problem. He didn't randomly decide to tell her anyway, she figured it out and confronted him! Boom!

The problem was, the moment she figured it out was too good of a stopping point. I couldn't continue the chapter. My readers need a week to freak out at me, and I'm evilly waiting for that week with building anticipation.

So what I thought was my final chapter turned out to be the penultimate chapter. How do I keep doing that? The same thing happened to PT. I keep going into what I think is the last chapter, only for the characters to be like "Eeeeeh.... we actually have a LIIIIITTLE bit more story to tell."

And therein lies my current problem. Up until this chapter I've been fairly good at ping-ponging the story. It's in Marinette's first-person POV, the next chapter is in Adrien's, then back to Marinette, then back to Adrien, etc. However, the final chapter - when Marinette deals with the emotions of discovering her partner and the boy she's been pining for are the same guy - SHOULD be in her POV, shouldn't it? But the previous chapter - when she all but proved that Adrien is Chat Noir - HAS to be in her POV. Do I give up my formatting at the very end of the story and have two Marinette chapters in a row? Do I switch over to Adrien, giving them equal number of chapters to tell the story, and keeping the formatting? What about Marinette's insight though? Do I go real avant-garde and ping-pong first person POV within the chapter? Using line breaks and names to signal to the reader that the POV just switched? Do I conclude with the same scene being played twice: one chapter with Adrien's POV, and then the same scene retold in the next chapter via Marinette's POV?

I JUST DON'T KNOW!!!!!!
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OKAY, EVERYONE, THAT SHOULD BE THE END OF THE SPOILERS!
YOU CAN STOP SCROLLING BY NOW!

If you skipped that whole chunk, the spoiler-free long-and-short is Things Got Messy In The First Draft Of The Final Chapter; Now I Have POV Issues.

I don't know whose story the final chapter is. Should I be in Adrien's head at the conclusion of the story, letting him tell the audience what happened? Should I be in Marinette's head and have her tell everyone how things went down? Do I go a bit experimental and ping-pong between them within the chapter itself?

What I THOUGHT was going to be the final chapter turned out to be a 2400-word penultimate chapter, which will be lengthened because it needs a proper opening. I sort of just jumped in mid-action without any context because *I* know the context, and I wanted to get the meat of the chapter out of my head first.

That chapter ended up adding one more loose end to tie up so I could conclude this thing.

Oh, and by the way, don't get too excited. I'm still jumping all over the place with this story. I have yet to write most of the middle.

Anyway, with this final chapter - or what should be the final chapter, unless the characters throw me off a second time - I don't know which direction to go. There's a lot there that I want to be in Adrien's head for, but I always pictured the final chapter needing to be told through Marinette's eyes. While there's a lot going on with Adrien, OatS was supposed to be Marinette's story for the most part. She's the one who has to be hit with a bunch of stuff: the repercussions from "Peeping Tomcat", feelings being torn between Adrien and Chat Noir, the struggle between wanting to know who CN is vs the need to keep identities secret, etc.

Not really sure where to go and not wanting to end my momentum, I decided to just break format and write the final chapter in third person. Hop into whomever's head I need. Then, once I'm done with the chapter, I'll go back and see who was the one really telling that chapter, and rewrite using that person's first person POV.

Problem is.... 2200 words in and I'm still torn. Adrien seems to be bogarting the chapter, but there are still crucial bits of info that only Marinette would know. Plus, I still want her reaction to everything....

I'm seriously leaning towards ping-ponging 1st person POV in the final chapter, and just make sure I transition well enough and have their voices distinct enough that it won't get confusing.

In the meantime, it's fun emotionally torturing these poor kids. I'm a horrible human being.

OH! Speaking of torturing these little beans, Jowy's Pixie has a new story up! She actually gifted it to me and three other friends of hers: TLOS21, ChibiRinni, and oh-calliope! How cool is that!? We have a STORY as a Christmas gift from her? Soooooo coooooool!

Maki Natsuo from Love Lab

created by Ruri Miyahara

What's really the most awesome thing about it is the fact that she's writing it based on the 12 Days of Christmas. So each day, for twelve days, she's posting a new chapter of her story. Let's say that again.

EACH DAY

A NEW CHAPTER

FOR TWELVE DAYS STRAIGHT

How amazing is that? Such a quick turn around! Bravo to her. If you're at all in the fandom, feel free to give this girl some love:

Twelve Days of Chatmas

Christmas is fast approaching, and Chat Noir is determined to get Ladybug the perfect gift. The problem is, they all keep going disastrously wrong. Will Chat Noir be able to find Ladybug the perfect gift in time?

I just adore this story. If you know anything about the Miraculous Ladybug chibi episodes on YouTube, know that Pixie writes TDoC the way the chibi episodes SHOULD be written. I'm just gobbling this story up and loving that daily email telling me the next chapter is live.

Oh, and speaking of Christmas, next Tuesday does fall on Christmas itself, so I'm not sure if I'll have my post up as per usual. It may be up Monday night, or written ahead of time and scheduled for my normal post time, or I may work on it Wednesday instead.

So, if you haven't yet, why not check out that right panel of my blog? There's a spot there for you to sign up for email alerts, or you can drop me in your RSS feed... assuming people still use those.

Alternatively, you can follow me on Twitter or on Tumblr. I'm @LycoRogue in both spots. I do tend to fall a bit behind with my promotions lately, unfortunately. Priority is to get the post up, and then get errands done. If I don't have time between those two my promotional posts tend to be late.

So those email alerts are probably your best bet. I have nothing to do with those, they're all computer generated, so you KNOW they'll be on-time.

Anyway, until... some time next week.

Crafts is a FORM of Writing, Right? No?

Another glorious week where I once again have little to no clue what to write here since I did no other writing this week. Instead, I did crafts.

After I was done with my blog post last week, Hubby and I did some errands, and I attempted to type up the "Speaker for the Dead" fanfic I was scribbling out at work. I didn't get very far before Spink came over to chat about her X-Future character. She watched the movie "X-Men: Apocalypse" and the bug bit her again. It's typically what happens to me too. Watch "Hey, Arnold!" or "X-Men" or "Game of Thrones" or some high fantasy thing like "Lord of the Rings" or Hubby playing "Skyrim". Next thing I know, I'm writing HA! fanfic, or I'm super active on X-Future, or I have a new concept set up for D&D. So, I get her renewed enthusiasm for the game. Issue is, she doesn't know X-Men at all, and is too hung up on that handicap. Instead of letting Donna speak through her, Spink feels she doesn't know enough about Donna's parents or world or powers to really get a feel for the character. So Hubby and I showed her Colossus clips from movies and TV series to help her get a better handle on the character, as well as talk her through her writer's block.

Problem was, this ate up all my free writing time before my writing group, so I quickly typed up what I had hand written, and called it a day. I went to the meeting, and was one of three people who actually brought something to read. Which felt weird, since in the past nearly everyone at least had the writing prompt done for the meeting, but life has been getting in everyone's way, I guess. I know that feel.

As per usual, there was a decent discussion about the works of the other two authors in the group that read, and then for me it was a brief "that's really good" and then moving on. I STILL don't know how to handle that. WHAT IS THAT!? Are they saying I'm much better than I think, and that they can't help me improve? Are they saying "you're doing fine, let's focus on people with ongoing projects they want printed"? Are they saying "that's nice dear, now let the adults talk"? Are they just unsure as to how to critique me since I write in such "odd ball" genres? Or because I write FanFiction? WHAT IS THE REASON FOR SUCH LITTLE DISCUSSION OF MY WORKS!?!?!?!

This is gonna bug me for a while, isn't it?

Once again, I was informed that my fanfic could hold its own as an original with a few tweaks, just as they stated when I was reading my X-Future stories. While short, they enjoyed what I wrote, and told me I didn't need to worry about all the background build-up I verbalized to them so they knew what was happening in the fanfic; something I didn't need to do when publishing online because anyone who read "Speaker for the Dead" would know exactly what was going on.

While I appreciate the praise, I also disagree with it. There are too many elements crucial to Novinha and her characterization. Too many elements that would either ruin the character if I had to change/eliminate them, but also too many elements that would be blatantly "Speaker for the Dead" if I just changed the names.

Things like Novinha's guilt over Pipo, her isolation due to her literal saintly parents, her strained relationship with Libo, her equally strained relationship with Marcão, her bizarre marriage arrangements, and the descolada virus; all of these things are essential, but also nearly impossible to change without altering Novinha's character or still basically being a Speaker rip-off.

So, I opted to not do a "name swap" version to post on DeviantArt as I claimed I would last week. As I said, anyone who read my story and THEN read "Speaker for the Dead" would quickly figure out the spoilers. Anyone who opted to never read Speaker wouldn't care about the spoilers. Anyone who has read Speaker already knows the spoilers. What's the point of changing out the names in a veiled attempt at being original instead of a fanfic?

I do have to say, though, that - surprise, surprise - I'm not a fan of the title I picked. I wasn't able to finish the story I wanted to tell. I'm not even half-way done, I don't think, but I haven't had time to go back and keep working on it. I debated waiting to publish until I was done, but I had promised you folks something new to read, so I uploaded late last night. I literally sat on the couch blankly staring at the screen for about ten minutes trying to think of a decent title. I thought through the entire story I wanted to tell in order to see if there was some theme I could grab and use as a title. I tried to think of a phrase that Novinha would attach herself to. I tried to think of a keystone quote to symbolize the feel of the whole chapter. Instead, I came up with this brain fart....

"True Husband"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

I'll get good at this naming thing eventually. I hope. I mean, I SHOULD get better, right?

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Anyway, throughout the rest of the week I sort of had a mental shut-down when it came to writing at work. I just couldn't get into the flow of continuing my story while writing on paper. I know that most writers break out of their writers block by whipping out good old pen and paper, but for me I need the flow of keys beneath my fingertips, not a pencil's weight in my hands. I like being able to shift things if I feel they fit better in a different order. I like hitting delete instead of scribbling or erasing. I like being able to move the cursor and insert something, instead of writing it in the margins and using an arrow to show where I want to insert a sentence. I like having spell-check. I like not having to write, only to waste time typing it up later so it can be posted. I like not wasting paper that I won't need to hold on to once I type everything up. I like not having piles and piles of loose leaf scattered about. I like knowing exactly where to find the story I was working on, instead of shuffling through a pile to find the paper I needed.

To me, if I'm creatively blocked, the WORST thing is for me to be abandoned with a pen/cil and a stack of paper. Yet, that's what happened. I didn't have the flow, the momentum I had when I started writing "True Husband." Trying to start it back up again was trying, and I still don't know how appropriate it would be for me to bring my netbook into work during the slow times. So, I'm stuck scribbling and desperately trying to find things to work on.

As for the crafts I mentioned at the top of the post? Well, one of my coworkers got super bored, there's a craft store down the street, and so she ran out, bought two skeins of yarn and two crochet needles, tossed one of each at me, and we sat and crocheted like little old ladies all week. She's working on a baby blanket for a friend, and I decided to get my butt in gear and crochet the bags for Spink and her fiance's wedding rings. It was fun trying to figure out how to crochet the ring bags, and then even more fun trying to figure out how to crochet ying-yang on them. It was tricky, but I think I'm okay with how they turned out. Still need to show them to Spink to see how she and her fiance feel about them. That way I have time to start over and practice more if need be.

In the meantime, though, that means I'm not using my work down-time for writing like I wanted. And when I'm home I'm socializing with Hubby or doing chores. Resulting in a not very productive writing week.

I've been reading like crazy, though. I have 152pages left of "Xenocide"; not too shabby considering how long it kept me to read all the other books I've taken on this year. A nearly 600pg book done in about two weeks; well, let's make it three weeks to be safe. I might even have time to plow through a small second book this month, or get an early start on next month's book, so that I can catch up and make up for me missing January's book.

Interesting factoid about "Xenocide" though. The chapter I'm on, the one that is about 150pages from the end of the book, that chapter is EIGHTY-SEVEN FRIGGEN PAGES LONG! Yup. About HALF of the remaining book is all ONE CHAPTER! Like, what? There are short stories shorter than this chapter! You'd think Orson Scott Card would chop it up a little, wouldn't you???? Especially since there are like three more chapters after this one is done. Sheesh!

Also, the book got REALLY philosophical about a hundred pages back. I went from edge-of-my-seat page-turner to "um.... my peanut brain can't understand...." So, I'm hoping for a big finish that doesn't focus so heavily on the complex paradoxical quandary of "what is life, what is the purpose of life, and is there such a thing as free will?" I read another sci-fi book entitled "Life, The Universe, And Everything" and it wasn't nearly this heavy! Sheesh again!

Anyway, I shouldn't really complain. I'm tearing through the story, and it's inspiring me to write my own stuff. That's the main reason writers should all read. So, perhaps I should get back to reading so I can actually have something written for next week. Something COMPLETELY written for next week.

I Think I Figured Out Life Beyond Editing...

I failed at keeping one of my New Years Resolutions this week. Pretty much had a full string of Zero Days. I finished editing Please, Let Me Explain, and then I just moved on from writing completely.

My work breaks are back to being spent solving Sudoku puzzles. When I'm home I'm spending hours on end battling the massive lag my computer gets while I'm on Facebook. So now a simple "I'll spend an hour checking in and playing games" turns in to "I just spent three hours going through my notifications!?" I have also been crocheting my niece's birthday gift. She's turning two in less than a month, so we'll see if I can go two-for-four on the whole "get it done BEFORE it's time to gift it" thing. I also have another major crochet project that I need to work on. On top of that, my sister-in-law is expecting her second child, and so I need to get cracking on another blanket once I know what the new baby theme will be.

So. Much. Crocheting....

Which I guess means it's understandable that I would be taking breaks from writing. Still, I don't like that I went a week without writing a word - outside of Writers’ Huddle; I kept my Resolution to check in once a week - or reading one, either.

I feel like I have a semi-valid excuse for my "laziness" in regards to writing, though.

My godson turned one yesterday.

Happy Belated Birthday, Buddy!
(This was his actual birthday theme)

This past Sunday was his birthday party in my hometown. Therefore, this week consisted of crocheting, packing, picking up work hours, scheduling confusion at work, driving to my hometown, late night birthday dinner for my sister, godson's party, dress shirt shopping for Hubby, driving home, and more work...

So it doesn't get buried in that list of everything I did last week, I want to take another quick time out to focus on the "birthday dinner for my sister" part. Because today is her actual birthday. Yup, Bestie gave birth to my godson the day before my younger sister hit the big 2-5.

She may be 26, but my sister is obsessed with Minnie Mouse
and snowflakes. Frankly, I'm SICK of snow by now
so... Minnie Mouse. :P

The crocheting - as I mentioned earlier - is my niece's upcoming birthday gift. The dress shirt shopping for Hubby - with my sister; a way for us to spend time together for her birthday - was because we just don't get dressed up all that often. With Ronoxym and Cyhyr getting married this Saturday, Hubby needed a new wardrobe. We got him a nice-sized one from Kohl's, too!

Work was the most interesting bit of this past week. It's the end of the business' fiscal year, and so - to try to cut end-of-the-year costs - payroll has been slashed. Which means I don't get nearly enough hours in my department; even though it's the most my manager can give me. Thankfully, there were a lot of call-ins for another department I was trained in, and so I went from "Wow! I have all the days off!" to "Working five days straight; go me!"

Problem though, was that no one informed my manager that I was being scooped up for this other department, and so even though Payroll knew to charge my time to this other department, as far as my manager was concerned I just added about 20hrs to him; hours he didn't have to give. There was also a massive break down in communication about whether or not I was working this past Saturday. Originally, I had asked for it off so I could spend the full day with my fam and maybe help Bestie out with last minute party details. Then I saw that I was scheduled for Saturday. No biggy, I'd just head down after my shift and take Monday with everyone instead. HOWEVER, my manager saw his oopsie after posting the schedule and - in a panic - shifted people around best he could in order to cover my Saturday shift. Thing is, no one told ME that the shift was covered, and so I was still under the assumption that I needed to be there. So now there are two people working the same exact shift... and it wasn't even all that busy a day. Add that to the panic about going way over payroll because no one realized the extra 20hrs would be pitched to the other department.

Yeah, Saturday was fun as the assistant manager freaked out and scrambled to try to cut hours. I got booted from the department - only for the other department to scoop me up yet again so I still worked my 7-1 that I was planning on that day.

After a pow-wow with my manager, we succeeded in ironing out the whole communication thing. So this chaos shouldn't be an issue again. However, that fiasco was pretty much all I talked about over the weekend. That plus birthday things took up most of my mini-vaca time.

Since coming home yesterday, I once again picked up a shift - I'm heading in to work more-or-less after this post is published - worked yesterday, and crocheted a bit more. My next day off now is Ron and Cy's wedding. So, I'm probably not going to get much writing done this week either.

Super bummer.

I really need to work on finding at least little five-minute projects - or break out a book for this month's reading - so I can keep all of these Zero Days at bay....

My Giving Thanks "Tree"

So, today is Thanksgiving in the United States. Which means it's the last Thursday of November.

Yup. Last THURSDAY.

That means I missed yesterday's update and I once again didn't even notice it was Wednesday.

Honestly, if it weren't for the numerous "Happy Thanksgiving" posts in my Facebook feed or the "Happy Thanksgiving" texts that I've been getting, I wouldn't have even remembered today was a holiday.

Downside to working retail and having to work on Thanksgiving; as least a part of it.

Hubby is at work now and I'm running around the house to try to do some last-minute cleaning before heading to visit my mom and sister for the weekend. First Thanksgiving in three years that I've had off, but it still doesn't feel like a holiday. When we go to the feast with my mom's siblings on Saturday; THAT will feel like Thanksgiving to me.

Right now all I feel is tired. Thanksgiving is obviously a huge holiday for grocery stores and we've been crazy all week. I felt so bad for customers at the beginning of the week because I honestly lost track of what day it was and forgot that new week means new sales. When I was suggesting things that were on sale LAST week I had the biggest "you're an idiot" looks.

Sorry, customers, I'm burned out.

Although most of the time off will be spent traveling, I'm hoping that taking a vacation this week will help recharge me.

Lord, I have no clue what state I would be in if I had tried to stick with NaNo.

On the plus side, I was able to let my mind wander. After this month I've been able to figure out more of what I'd like to do with Lottie. I've also learned more about being patient and really plotting out everything. Really giving a story time to build and grow. I was always pretty good at having a generic road map, but I also allowed my characters to just run off with the story.

While I'll most likely stick with that strategy when it comes to my writing, it's insanely hard to do when I don't already know the characters. It was easier when I was just writing fanfiction. I knew the characters inside and out and just needed an inspirational spark to get going. I feel like I've really matured the last year as I learned to build Gyateara and the X-Future reboot, and now Lottie and the other vampires of the Cobleskill World of Darkness.

Yes, I don't have much writing to show for November. I have one chapter before giving up NaNo, and I barely touched the X-Future board. However, I was able to recharge my writing brain so I'm once again excited to work on these stories.

Plus, I used the month to crochet instead and I'm actually about 70% done with my niece's Christmas gift already! I might actually have one done BEFORE the gift-date! Whoot! I also have a few presents gathered up/completed for my November-baby friends. So I have a few pitstops while visiting my mom. Speaking of which, I've got a moderate chunk of my mom's gift out of the way too. And my sister's set. December may not be as stressful-gift-giving-wise as it was in years past.

I'm most likely going to still be crocheting like mad and barely writing next month, but I'll at least be relaxed enough to keep my mind wandering so I can jumpstart 2015 with massive writing ready to go down on paper. That's something, right?

Now to finish up with a tradition my mother started with us. Here is my list of things I'm grateful for; one for every day of November leading up to Thanksgiving.

1. My husband. He is my rock, my best friend, my grounding, my mind when I've lost it, my snuggle buddy, my big kid/Mommy-trainer, my smile and happiness, and my human space heater in the chilled months. I love you, baby!
2. While we are still struggling, we are able to survive on the paychecks Hubby and I bring home. We can pay our bills, we are never hungry, we can keep a roof over our heads, we can stay warm, and we can still scrounge up enough money to entertain and destress ourselves on occasion.
3. While on the subject, I'm thankful that there is still a one-screen movie theater in town. It's tiny. It's quaint. It's cheap; only $5 per ticket. It has big movies relatively soon to release dates. It's because of this theater that Hubby and I could watch the movies we were really looking forward to on just the change we've gathered over the month.
4. My unofficial roomie Quarthix. It's been fun - distracting; hence the messy house, but still fun - having him come over nearly daily. A lot of the people we socialize with up here still feel a lot like Hubby's friends who grew to became mine as well. We all have a good time when together, but it still seems like it's awkward for them to be alone with me, and so they almost never come over except if Hubby's around. Quarthix - while mostly only visits Hubby - has no problem hanging out with just me, and it's been fantastic to finally find someone other than celestialTyrant that is truly a friend of BOTH mine and Hubby's.
5. While talking about Quarthix I have to talk about his fiance too. It's great for Hubby and I to have a "couple friend" and we found them in these two. They love hanging out as a foursome, and her family has even invited us over to family events on at least three occasions the past year. We have fun just hanging out at each others' apartments and having game nights.
6. Yeah, we're including this separately. I LOVE game nights. We just play four-player video games, or board games, or card games, etc. Quarthix's fiance even offered for us to do some sort of Dungeon Master study sessions so that we can team up and start our own D&D game instead of waiting for other people.
7. Spink and her fiance need to be on this list too. While we don't really hang out with them as much as Quarthix and his fiance, this is another great couple that I enjoy hanging with. Yes, Spink still feels like "my" friend and her fiance "Hubby's" friend, but the four of us have a good time; if the duo can find free time in their tight schedules. Spink also works with me, and it's nice to have an ally at work; I have so few. She's also my exercise buddy and she pushes me to Zumba with her. We also Zelda together, so win all around!
8. Keeping with my thankfulness of friends, I'm increasingly thankful for ChibiSunnie. She has become an ever-increasing presence in my life, and she always has the best timing. She seems to know exactly the right thing to say and the exact right time to tell me them. She manages to pick me up when I'm the most down, and cheer me on when I need the most push. She's one of my biggest fans and loudest cheerleaders.
9. I'm also grateful that after 20-some years my bestie from elementary school is still in my life. I'm glad I get to visit her this weekend, as well as spend time with her son who just so happens to be my godson. We may not be as close as we once were, but the fact that our friendship endures and we can still stay up until 2am catching up is fantastic.
10. Speaking of being close, I'm thankful that my sister and I are really clicking. It kept about 25years, but we're finally the sisters I wanted us to be. We miss each other dearly when away. We talk a lot more frequently. We joke with each other. We have fun as we hang out. We enjoy the time we have together. We support each other. She has really matured and stepped up, and I love that we're finally friends. Now, don't get me wrong, we've always been close - at least, I always tried to be close - but we would butt heads more often than not. For my Hey Arnold friends, I'd be Olga to her Helga.
11. I've always had a passing enjoyment for American football. It was mostly watching New York Giants games whenever I could catch them, really pay attention during the playoffs, and regardless of how well the Giants did over the season I'd watch the Super Bowl. If nothing else but to watch the commercials. This year I grew a huge appreciation for the sport. In part it was because Hubby has been teaching me more and more about it. In part because I unofficially started hosting football parties for Quarthix, his fiance, and any other friends of ours that wished to visit. It was also in part because I was talking to my sister more during the games and bonding over them. It really helped me connect with Quarthix and my sister. So, THANK YOU, FOOTBALL!
12. Even though it seemed that EVERYTHING went on my car at the same time, it is up and running within budget and set for my drive down to visit family for Thanksgiving. There's still a few things that need fixing, but it's in good enough condition to legally be on the road, and so I shouldn't have to worry about breaking down or traffic tickets.
13. It was incredibly cold this month. Winter decided to come early up here. However, the weekend that I didn't have my car because it was in the shop the weather was unseasonably warm. The second-to-last weekend in November and I was walking home from work in 70-degree weather. The few times it was close to freezing it wasn't windy, and so it didn't seem so cold while in my winter coat. So, with all the walking I did this weekend I wasn't cold once. I'm SUPER grateful for that since I don't do well in cold.
14. This one is going to seem super silly, but I'm grateful for this one street in my town. It's mildly out of the way when it comes to driving due to having to stop and turn instead of going straight. However, it does cut off a few minutes if you take this street while walking between my home and work. So I was able to really experience this road for the first time this weekend. I love it because it's pretty much the only place in the whole town that is a solid row of Cape Cod style kit homes. Between the style of home, the size of the property, and the types of trees in the front yard, it was like walking through my hometown. It was a nice strip of my old home nestled in my new. I even half-expected to see my hometown's public park as I turned the corner. It was a nice reminder of where I came from, and it was comforting.
15. Space heaters, and the family members that buy me them. As I mentioned two up, I don't do well in cold. So having the space heaters available to keep me warm without kicking on the heat is fantastic! It's cheaper if we don't need to warm the whole place, and it's a way for me to stay toasty without roasting Hubby. He used to be a Polar Bear Swimmer, and so he more-or-less thrives in about 50-60 degree temperatures. Meanwhile, I'm frozen in anything less than 70 degrees.
16. YouTube and free GooglePlay downloads. I get such a wide variety of music for free that I can custom-make my own radio playlist. I have something for every mood I'm in and it helps me through the day. Should I expand this to me being thankful for music in general?
17. Netflix and friends willing to lend out season DVDs. Hubby and I can't afford too many TV channels, and so we miss a lot of awesome shows. As long as we don't mind being a season or two - or ten - behind, we can use Netflix - and a few friends - to watch these awesome stories and competitions. We're currently addicted to Food Network's Cutthroat Kitchen, and a buddy lent us the first season of Game of Thrones. While it's not as gorey as I thought - it's still super bloody - it has a LOT more nudity than I was expecting....
18. Emoticons/Emojis/Facebook Stickers. Whatever you call them, they are fantastic! It's sad, but a large majority of my recreational human interaction is online. Being a writer I can still express myself fairly well, but the addition of emoticons really helps me get the full feeling across. Now I know the person I'm talking to gets exactly how I feel or what I mean. They can see the non-verbal that is so crucial to communication. Just ask Phfylburt. We're constantly joking that I'm reverting back in to speaking in hieroglyphics and that I can basically hold an entire conversation consisting of only Facebook stickers.
19. Here's a really weird one, but I'm thankful that my niece seems to finally be warming up to me. She's still young - not yet two - and so she's in that stage in which she's weary of those she doesn't see all that often. Although I have seen her at least once a month all year, that's still pathetically little in the eyes of a toddler. I get that she knows she recognizes me, but is still unsure as to how we're connected. She's clingy to her mother or my mother-in-law whenever we're together, but yesterday I was able to get her to laugh, smile, and I was actually able to capture a smile or two on camera!
20.  Facebook games. They are addicting. Facebook as a whole is an addition I keep getting suckered back in to. However, it's free entertainment - well, aside from the monthly internet bill - and it helps Hubby and I unwind without spending our limited funds.
21. To try to promote all employees really taking the new "service message of the day" to heart, our store co-manager went around and asked us about the message of the day. Anyone who he felt answered appropriately received RedBox free movie rental coupons. Hubby and I had two to share, and so we got to finally watch a couple movies that were sitting on our "to watch" list for a while. Wow, we got a lot of free/discounted stuff this month/year...
22. Digestive Advantage's Lactose Defense Formula by Schiff. I never realized how much I LOVED dairy until I became lactose intolerant. I was in so much pain, or I was depressed that I couldn't eat my favorite foods, or I was debating between the other two options or spending the massive amount of money of tearing through a full box of Lactaid just about every week. Then I tried Lactose Defense. What a godsend. Just one pill a day - so only about $9 a month - and I can have as much dairy as I want for the full day. A cheap solution that allows me to eat what I love without being doubled in pain later.
23. Crocheting; more specifically, that my one friend in college taught me how to crochet and read patterns. My stuff still comes out looking silly and far from professional/sellable. However, yarn is cheap and people seem to enjoy the crafts I make them. It's a way for me to still show someone how much I care without breaking the bank. Hmmm, maybe I should extend this to "I'm thankful people at least pretend they appreciate the gifts I make them..."
24. While I'm still thankful for the actual NaNo program, I'm grateful that Hubby convinced me to give up this year. Writing is once again fun and an escape as opposed to a stressful chore.
25. The growth I've made with my writing over the year. From day to day it didn't seem like much, similar to watching a child grow, I'd wager. However, when I think back to everything I've learned since January, I really have changed to a more mature thought process and perspective. I've struggled, but grew with each struggle. I now have a better idea of what I want to do during the upcoming year.
26. I can't finish this list without including you guys, my readers. I have no clue why you stick by me when I barely put out anything besides excuses and I routinely miss my weekly update time. Yet not only did you stay, but you've grown in number. It humbles me that you all enjoy what I'm doing that much. I'm amazed with every positive bit of feedback and plea for me to keep going with my stories. You are the forgotten heroes of my life. If I didn't have an audience I don't know if I'd be as determined to keep up with this blog, or writing in general. It would just be something else to add to the fail-pile and the "What if" list. Thank you so much for keeping me on a path I've wanted for two decades.
27. Finally, I'm grateful that I had today and yesterday off. I had so many last-minute things I needed to do to get ready for my Thanksgiving Weekend trip. I barely had any time to relax yesterday; I can only imagine how behind or crazed I'd be if I had to work. Plus, I can have things set for when Hubby gets home instead of either us completely ignoring the holiday or him being forced to cook after his shift.

Mom, if you're reading this, know that even though you didn't make the list I am eternally grateful for everything you've done for and given me. There's just too much to ever fit on here...

With that I shall bid you all a happy and safe holiday. If you happen to not be American, then I'll just wish you a fantastic last weekend in November. Enjoy this last bit of calm before the craziness of the holiday season kicks in to full-swing.

Writing Vacation Rekindles the Muse

Wow. It's been so long since I've used my netbook, I nearly forgot where I had left it. Worlds of difference from before it broke and I practically lived on this thing. Always on it while watching TV, or brought it with me to use on work breaks, or stashed it to work on writing while visiting a friend's place - in case said friend and Hubby decided they'd rather Magic - or even hide in my own bedroom with it in order to get writing done.

I guess the change is in part that I have more things that I need to work on now than I did over a year ago. Mostly, though, I think it's just because the laptop isn't fully fixed yet. I'm still stuck with my power cord needing to be plugged in at all times and the netbook itself lags way more than it ever did before. So I can't do as much with it as I used to.

Still. Going a week without touching it, or even realizing that I haven't touched it until I go to use it this morning... woah.

I've been spending my much more relaxing November week away from writing. Hubby and I used a free DVD rental to finally watch X-Men: Days of Future Past. For me, it's the same as the first X-Men movie that came out back in 2000. It was marvelously inaccurate to the actual comic book canon, but still very entertaining.

I've spent a few days getting back in to replaying Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The real drive there, I think, is both the fact that I've had sea shanties from Assassin's Creed: Black Flag stuck in my head - so, why not go with a LoZ "pirate" game - and also the fact that Hubby lent Spink his copy of The Wind Waker. Watching her play it made me want to start up the digital copy we got with our Legend of Zelda themed WiiU. I have to say, the biggest kick I've been getting out of it is that they updated the game so Link can take selfies with his pictobox now. I also like that I can move the gamepad around to scan above me when using the bow and arrows, rope, pictobox, or telescope. It's neat to look around Link by looking around my living room. Plus, it's so much fun that I can still play on the WiiU while Hubby is watching TV or playing on the XBox. LOOOOOVE being able to just play on the gamepad!

I've also gotten pretty far in my long list of crochet projects. I'm nearly done with a belated birthday gift I needed done before the end of the month. I have the Christmas gift for my niece about 75% of the way done already. Which, is insanely amazing considering her blanket was completed AT HER HOUSE on Christmas last year, and the matching pillow was finished two days after her first birthday. I'm also just starting up another family Christmas gift. I may actually get these all done on time!

That doesn't mean I HAVEN'T been working on my stories, however.

I'm still mentally developing Lottie. Although, I'm now wondering if I should do with her what I'm doing with the X-Future reboot. Sure, the whole thing will still be a White Wolf "Vampire: The Masquerade" fanfiction - I can't change it too much - but I'm debating keeping the main characters as the players of our LARP. I'm leaning more towards just taking certain aspects of the characters and rework them in to originals for the story. For instance, instead of taking Dan exactly as Ronoxym created him, I can use the element of Dan being a Brujah Seneschal - essentially a Vampiric Vice President - that Lottie wants to manipulate in to Prince - Vampiric President of a city.

For Victor I can just make a generic tough-guy punk; perhaps a former rock star from the late 80s/early 90s. Quarthix hasn't put much depth in to Victor yet - or at least, hasn't displayed much depth - and so he's easy enough to customize in to my own story version. The group from Albany were all NPCs, and so The Bard didn't exactly create well-rounded characters, which leaves me with another spot where I can sink my teeth in to new characterization. As much as I love Hubby's two characters, aside from maybe using both as ways to manipulate the Cobleskill group, I don't foresee a need for either of them. In fact, aside from maybe including Katelyn as someone that is just as suspicious of Lottie as Lottie is of her, I don't see a need for any of the actual LARP characters besides Dan and Victor.

So, I've been trying to rethink my cast of characters. I know that I want to include the following:

• Lottie
• Dan and Victor - in some shape or form
• Flashbacks including Lottie's husband Cooper and her sire Minnie
• The Tzimisce that killed Minnie; who is still nameless - and technically genderless - at this point
• The Prince of Cobleskill; who is Prince Stone if I go by the LARP
• Possibly Katelyn and The Gangrel
• At least brief appearances by Molly, Hank, and Joe from the Albany group
• Possibly Hubby's characters Aiden and Billy

Obviously the big "bad guy" would be the murderous Tzimisce, but I need conflicts other than that. I need antagonists to push the story forward. I still need a plot. I'll have to see where my brainstorms take me.

Lottie's tale isn't the only thing I've been thinking about lately, though. The other day I randomly realized that I still haven't watched Joss Whedon's take of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing". I then wondered - no matter how much I love Joss Whedon's work and the cast he picked - could it possibly dethrone the near perfection of Kenneth Branagh's version. Further contemplation about my favorite Shakespearean play resparked my urge to turn it in to a Hey Arnold fanfiction. So, for the past couple of days I've been mentally plotting out how to go back to my original fandom and write a story loosely based on Much Ado About Nothing; since I still can't find a good way to do a straight retelling.

Thinking about Hey Arnold again also rekindled my desire to get back to my long-forgotten What Is Truly Meant To Be. I actually had a comment about the story over on DeviantArt the other day. Funny how I was re-inspired to start working on it the day before someone commented on the tale. Please note, no one has read/commented on WITMTB more-or-less since I last wrote a chapter for it; about a year or two ago.

Fair warning though, guys:
Due to the amount of cleaning and crafting I have to do before the end of the year, the amount of WRITING I'll be doing before January will most likely be minimal. But I'll keep harvesting these plot bunnies and placing them in cages until I have the time and room to let them develop and mature.

World Building and Inspiration Striking (for others)

Wow. This has felt like such a loooooong week. I legit had to read back through last week's post to even remember what I last talked about. Weird to think how slow this month has been going. Bombarding poor Phfylburt as well as Mother's Day both feel like weeks away instead of just a few days.

Actually, I haven't talked to Phfyl at all this week aside from sending him more brainstorming on Thursday. I'll get to that in a bit.

Honestly, aside from bouncing more ideas off of Hubby and having the gears grinding, I haven't done terribly too much with writing this past week. I was finishing up this little fella:

Sorry for the blurry pictures. My camera broke a few years back and I haven't had the money to fix/replace it. Anyway, that little guy up there is supposed to look like a toy version of this dude:

That would be George, my best friend's pet rabbit. The crocheted version of him is a toy I made for Bestie's first-born son. Picking out what I would make for him was part of her baby-shower gift, much like what I did with my sister-in-law and the blanket I made for my niece. It's been so long since I last saw my bestie - and it kept me so long to get down to business and make the silly toy - that the bunny also became the kid's baptism gift.

So my week was spent frantically trying to finish up the toy while working my now-normal insane hours and getting ready to trek home for the kid's baptism. Oh yeah, and be surprised by Bestie that I'm one of the kid's godmothers! YEAH! I have a niece and now I have a godson! About a month ago Hubby and I even got a hand-me-down frame for our mattress and we've been sleeping off the floor. Look at who's growing up and junk!

Alright, back to writing.

So, my time was obviously spent on slightly-higher priority stuff this past week: work, finishing the kid's toy, becoming a godmother, visiting my mom and sis, etc. Oh, and, Mom, if you're reading this I put those in order of what I did for the week. I'm not saying visiting you was on the bottom of the list....

*Ahem*

During my work breaks, however, I was able to FINALLY finish editing the collab Ronoxym and I started back in February. There were a lot more edits - mostly typos - than I initially realized, and Ron has the collab word doc set up so that only he can edit and I can only make comments on it. So, I think I'm going to have to redo it as a new word doc, set it up so that both of us can edit, and send him that as a replacement. Hopefully if he re-reads the whole thing like I did it will respark his inspiration and he can finally advance the story.

Yes, I'm trying to guilt trip you in to writing, Ron!

So, that project is done and the project of actually typing up the second draft shouldn't be too daunting, I hope. The only other thing I really worked on this week - as I mentioned - was using my husband as a sounding board.

Which brings us back to my statement at the start of this blog: the brainstorm with Phfyl this past Thursday.

Technically I wasn't really brainstorming with Phfyl as much as I was relaying over an awesome concept that Hubby came up with. See, last Wednesday Hubby and I went to go watch the second Amazing Spider-Man movie. While we were waiting for the movie to start I relayed over Phfyl's thought of a cyberpunk fantasy setting for our X-Future original reboot. After some discussion, Hubby came up with the following:

In the near-future groups of hacktivists - such as Anonymous or The Rising Tide from Agents of SHIELD - succeed in taking down the corrupt governments of the world. Not sure if it's more of a domino effect or a simultaneous attack. Either way, this results in a massive power void. The hacktivist groups decide to take control since they feel they understand what works best for the people.

After a bit of a power struggle between the groups and the previous government officials and supporters the hacktavists manage to become the new government. They aren't numerous enough for a different person to be in charge of each country in the world, and so they break down the modern borders and restructure the world in to kingdoms. This will give us the "fantasy"/medieval setting.

Over the generations - Hubby was thinking our story would take place in like 2250 or something - the Cyber Lords become more and more corrupt and power hungry. Eventually they become just like the governments the original hacktivists overthrew. During those same generations, citizens have become more and more dependent and trusting of their devices, and so most are easily manipulated by the Cyber Lords' "approved" information. The Cyber Lords are the best hackers in the world and can manipulate any information that goes online.

Soon, people begin to age out of the knowledge of how the world was before the rise of the Cyber Lords. They only know of the existence of the Kingdoms.

Meanwhile, due to food additives, genetic manipulation, "unclean" power sources, and pollution, mutation has switched from a strange phenomenon to an almost every-day occurrence. And the mutations become more and more extreme; such as fur, wings, high healing factor, etc.

The mutations also become more and more genetic, so if your dad had wings you have 1/2 chance of having some as well.

Because of the Cyber Lords the worlds' dialects have become more internet/gamer oriented: text/tweet shorthand and leet-speak. Due to the new modern dialect, the mutants were typically described as something similarly found in games. For instance, mutants with wings would be angels, demons, or fairies depending on how the wings looked. Mutants with super-human strength and/or fast healing would be berserkers. So on and so forth.

Along with the information distortion that all but erased the pre-cyber-world, the idea of mutants gave way to just "new races".

Technology became more and more impressive, but the average citizen became less and less knowledgeable of how it worked. They just took for granted that it did. Only the Cyber Lords and the other nobility knew how technology truly functioned any more.

Because of this, citizens began believing in magic again. This gave way to elemental-kinetics, psychics, and other "physics" manipulators to be thought of as "mages" instead of "mutants".

Thus is the setting of our Brave New World of cyberpunk fantasy while still holding on to the original concept of mutants.

Now, I embellished a bit on his initial idea; adding in things like how the mutations kick-started and why technology was considered "magic" in the future. However, the core of the above was from the mind of my husband. Man, I miss having him as a Dungeon Master...

Anyway, the concept is amazing, but there's one downside. It's TOO good. X-Future works so well and is able to be converted in to an original tale so easily because the background universe it takes place in barely affects anything at all. We can put these characters in to virtually any setting, and as long as they're able to still have the normal teenage-high-school-drama and powers/magic the story works.

The above setting is too intriguing for X-Future. You don't want to watch an ensemble cast play around in this universe without really acknowledging it. You want to explore this new world. You want to explore how it came to be and determine if it will stay as is. You want to maybe watch a Cyber Lord as he ruled. Or you want to watch a citizen become disillusioned and try to start a coup. Maybe you just want to watch a woman struggle as she's declared an outlaw simply because she wants to become an archaeologist; discovering how the world once was and how it came to be. There could even be a really cool tale if the citizens of this new world decided to rename Earth - or never refer to their planet by name - and so the reader thinks it's a tale on an alien planet. Then someone discovers the history of the world and BAM! The reader is shocked to discover that they're still on Earth!

That's what happened in one of the mangas I used to read. I won't say what manga so that I don't give away spoilers, but the basic concept is that teenagers were magically teleported in to this barren, hostile, desert-like planet with ruins that vaguely resembled modern buildings. Then, one of the teens discovered his uncle's house perfectly preserved. That's when they realized they weren't being sent to a different world, they were being sent to the future! Dun Dun Duuuuuun!!!!!

My point is that the setting Hubby came up with is almost a character in and of itself. However, the focus of X-Future is definitely on the interesting characters we all came up with. It would be way too complicated if we tried to run a story where the reader is torn between wanting to know more about a cast of at least seven people or learn more about the setting.

I am planning on slotting that idea away for some future project, though. I just need to figure out who will be the character that gets to play in that playground. ONE interesting character running around an intriguing world is a much better fit.

So.... still trying to figure out the world behind the X-Future reboot. Wonder if Phfyl has thought of anything over the past week.

In the meantime, I'll brainstorm some more with Hubby. I may even take up world building Gyateara more. Silly Hubby actually told me on Sunday "If you ever need help with naming things, I'm pretty good at it."

First of all... I KNOW he's really good at it! I love all the names he comes up with for his characters and settings. I tell him that a lot, actually! Heck, there was a month or two where he had me convinced that we should name our son - if we were to ever have one - after one of his D&D characters. Would have been a really cool name too....

Secondly: DOES HE NOT KNOW ME BY NOW!? Of COURSE I need help naming things! I frequently lament how horrible I am at naming things! Where has he been!?

That being said, he's now going to help me with coming up with names for my world building.

Before I jet for the week I do want to do a couple shout-outs!

Seems a trio of my online writing buddies are finally back in to the groove of things, plus Omnibladestrike has been chugging along with his own world-building for about two weeks now.

Friday I had a message posted on my Facebook wall:
"All right, I'm doing the '5 minute writing' that you talked about in a blog. Let's break my hiatus."

AngelBlood666 later commented that his "five minute writing" turned in to a half-hour; easily. He has since written for "five minutes" every day and is ready to do his first update in a long time. Should be up sometime today! Mad props, AB666!

Same day I also received a message from AB666's beta and the mutual friend that got us to meet: DarkAngel1326.
"You better be writing! I'm writing tonight too. Rose (my princess/undercover knight) has some stuff to say."

So glad she's getting back in to Of Blood and Honor! So YAY for her too!

The real shocker was when I received this message yesterday morning just before running off to work:
"I want to write a story, but I need someone to be my sounding board. Up for it?"

Heck yeah, I'm up for it! Especially since that message was from someone I haven't mentioned here in AGES. Good old Delaroux! I honestly have no clue how much writing she's been doing over the past year or so since I stopped frequenting the Facebook group she started up for her original characters. It was a fun time and I loved both her and the other girls I met in that group, but they would be up at about 2am role-playing. I'd spend HOURS just going back through and reading everything they've posted while I was sleeping, like the old broad that I am.

I kept telling Delaroux that she needed to create a forum - much like X-Future - for her and the girls to role play on. I'd be able to read more at my leisure that way. Instead of scrolling on endlessly in the group set-up Facebook switched to a few years back. I still can't stand that. The old groups where everything was organized in threads was so much easier to navigate; especially when you aren't on the group 24/7.

Anyway, I'm off topic.

My point is that I'm so proud of all four of you!

Omni! I'm excited to hear what progress you've made with your world building. Perhaps we'll make a day to draw maps together.

AB666, I'm so proud that you've tried out the 5-minute writing challenge, that you've stuck with it, and that you have something to show for it. Doing better than me, haha! I can't wait to read the end result.

DA1326, I'm just amazingly excited that school let out - or is soon? - for you and that you finally have writing time again! I want to know everything Rose told you Friday night.

Delaroux, I still need to go back and read everything you sent me - probably my next task after posting this - but I'm elated that you're writing again! Your characters are always so intriguing to me. I can't wait to see what you have in store this time.

Still Alive Over Here

Yup, still alive. Sorry about the unexpected mini-hiatus. It's been really crazy lately. As predicted - and to my one smart aleck cousin: it takes 3seconds to predict and 1hour to write so... there... - I didn't have any time to work on my blog either this past Sunday or the one previous.

Once upon a time Sundays used to be the perfect day to update my blog. My husband does a once-a-week overnight shift from late Saturday in to Sunday morning, and I would typically have insomnia while he was at work. Something about him not being in the house when I tried to go to sleep.... So I'd stay up almost the full eight hours he was working. Awake in a quiet house, not wanting to leave my bed in case I could lull myself to sleep, and nothing to do but to stare blankly at the walls usually resulted in me working on something via my laptop.

If I couldn't get my blog done before Hubby came home - for whatever reason - I then had Sunday afternoon to write. The house was still quiet while Hubby finally crashed after his long day. Before I started working I would use Sundays to either write, clean, and/or play video games. This is how Sundays became my official "update day."

Over the past year situations have changed. With my laptop now dead I only had two options for Sunday Insomnia nights. Option one: stay up on the desktop; which wasn't ideal since it kept me from my bed and further prevented any sleep I might have gotten Plus I was killing my shoulders, back, and eyes straining to sit and type at a desktop while sleep slowly set in. Option two: Swipe Hubby's laptop; which is an older model so it's big, bulky, not as comfortable to type on while laying down, and has to be plugged in at all times since it is too old to hold power in its battery anymore. Neither option is the most ideal.

My insomnia is waning as well. I don't know if it's my body finally getting used to the routine or if I'm just so exhausted from the rest of the week, but I've been passing out only an hour, two, maybe three after Hubby goes in to work. Granted, that's still enough time to work on a blog post, but for me that's only BARELY enough time. Plus, if I can manage to fall asleep even FASTER so I can get a full night's rest in, I'd rather take that then push to get a blog post up.

Finally, with Hubby's work days getting later and later my window for not only posting before noon on Sundays, but posting at all before I go in to work myself is getting smaller. Most Sundays I just don't have time if I actually sleep. My routine has become: Take Hubby in to work, stay awake for another three hours tops, pass out until I get the "I'm done, come pick me up" call, fetch Hubby, have something to eat and snuggle for a little until he passes out, do some light cleaning, go to work, come home and crash.

WEDNESDAYS. Wednesdays on the other hand seem to be the new "perfect" day for blog updates. I'm sure things will change as soon as I put this out there - because that's how my life works - but for nearly a year now I've had Wednesdays off about 80% of the time, and when I do work Wednesdays it tends to be a closing shift.

Meanwhile, Hubby has his opening shifts on Wednesdays. I'm up and have him to work at 6am, and then I have four or five hours of a quiet house before I have to go pick him back up. Having roughly from 10:30am on to do whatever I need done that day, I am more than willing to use those four hours of alone time to work on my blog. It seems to have been good for my writing momentum in the past.

Maybe I've found my key "writing time": first thing in the morning for a few hours. That way I can justify that I have "the rest of the day" to do whatever else I need - cleaning, exercising, socializing, crafting project, hanging with the Hubby, etc - and I won't feel guilty about taking a few hours to write.

In the past, if I take a "time out" to write in the middle of the day I feel a touch guilty about it. Sure, I accomplished something that might push me further towards my goal of a professional writer, but at what cost? Is the house still a mess since I spent four hours writing instead of laundry, dishes, or dusting? Did I miss the small window of socializing with Hubby between his shift and mine? Could I have completed that crocheting project that I need done for a gift? No matter what, I always sort of feel like my time writing should have been spent doing something more productive. However, I don't have this guilt when I get the writing done first thing in the morning.

I'm also pretty creative later in the day, but I rarely get around to utilizing that time now that I'm figuratively shackled to my desktop. I either "run out of time" doing all the things I'd feel guilty "neglecting" while writing mid-day, or I get caught up in a movie/game and completely lose track of time until I'm about ready to pass out, or I'm suckered in to watching my normal prime-time shows instead of writing. It's rare that I have the discipline to stop whatever I'm doing at about 8pm, ignore the TV, and use the evenings to write.

So, yeah, I think first thing in the morning - if I'm not a slacker and can actually get out of bed prior to 8am on days I'm not opening - might be my "writing sweet spot". Add in Wednesdays Off and I think I have my new update days!

Alright, I'm going to make it official now:

THE ROGUE'S SCRIBE WILL NOW BE UPDATED ON WEDNESDAYS AT NOON!

Moving along....

So, what is up with the hiatus?

Well, as mentioned, Sundays have flipped from "perfect day" to write a blog post to "no way in hell am I getting this done".... So, that explains why I wasn't able to update on March 30th or April 6th. What about this past Wednesday? Well, I missed out on utilizing last week's Wednesday Off because I spent it on two other slightly more crucial things.

April 5th is now a jam-packed Birthday Extravaganza day! Not only is it my one aunt's birthday, but it is also celestialTyrant's birthday - who might as well be the brother I never had - and more importantly, it happens to be the day my niece was born!

So this past Saturday Hubby and I got to celebrate our niece's first birthday!

Once we were done with the early-day celebrations, we then had CT crash for the night in order to celebrate HIS birthday too - kind of a big deal since B'day celebrating isn't high on his family's to-do list. They wish happy birthday and have a special dinner and whatnot, but they never really have a blow-out. So that's what Hubby and I are for!

Terrific, but that was all on SATURDAY. How does this explain the lack of updating on WEDNESDAY?

Well, we had some major prepping to do for Saturday. For those who have been a reader since at least Christmas might recall my crazy-long crocheting project. I made a baby blanket for my niece. Owls are her nursery theme and so I made a tree with owls sitting on a branch.

Sadly, I didn't plot everything out quite right, and so I didn't have enough space for two "adult" owls and one "baby" owl. I unoffically decreed that the baby owl was my niece and the larger owl was my sister-in-law. I felt bad about not having Hubby's brother-in-law represented in owl form since he dotes on his little girl. Therefore, before I even finished the blanket I decided I needed to make a companion pillow that has just "baby" and "Daddy" owl together.

I wanted it done for my niece's first birthday, but I once again miscalculated how long it would take me to make the thing. Especially when I have to hand-stitch the backing to it, hem it, and then stitch the hem as a boarder.

Even after forsaking my blog update on Wednesday I still only managed to finish two out of the four sides by Saturday.... So I brought the pillow back home to complete. If only I had those extra two days that it kept me to finish - or if only I thought far enough ahead to start two days sooner...

Now to get started on the stuffed bunny I'm making for my bestie's newborn boy...

Anyway, last Wednesday wasn't completely used to work on a pillow. This place was a disaster due to my neglecting to do chores in favor of working on the gift. I had laundry and dishes piled up. I couldn't see my diningroom table. The living room was a maze of snack tables and other displaced items. It was a mess. So Hubby and I rolled up our sleeves and cleaned house. There went the rest of my writing opportunity last week.

I was debating working on the blog leading up to my Wednesday Off and even leading up to this past Sunday. That way I just needed to do some quick proofreading/editing before posting. I was even going to do so this past Monday and Tuesday to get the update ready for today. Work, cleaning, celebrating CT's birthday, and finishing that darn pillow took up pretty much every free minute.

Thus, the unexpected hiatus.

This also explains why ChibiSunnie is back to waiting around for me to beta-read the rest of her stories, why I haven't been able to really give Omnibladestrike more input on his story, why I haven't really focused on the local writing group, and why I've finally hit a string of Zero Days.

Hopefully today starts a new string of Non-Zero Days. Perhaps I should put up a sign somewhere - a small one - that has the ongoing count of Non-Zero Days in a row. Kind of like what companies do for "Days without an accident." That way I can see how long my streak has been going, and in the corner I can write down my previous "longest run"; a goal for me to attempt to beat.

I kind of like that idea... I just might have to do that....

Anyway, I haven't been COMPLETELY slacking off since my last update. As I stated two weeks ago, I was working on the Creation Story of Gyateara. This post is getting insanely long as is, so I'll save the details on my writings over the past two weeks for another post that I'm actually working on right now.

So, I hope this Double Post Day is the start of my new Wednesday Noon Updates schedule. A schedule I can keep... in theory.

Until next week!