ROW80: Checking in from on-the-road

What to take? What to leave behind? What is essential and what is really not?

These questions are why I really love going on the road. DH rattles the suitcase, and I say, "Yes!" 

We left yesterday from Spokane for an open-ended three month trip to someplace warmer. After about an hour on the road, the snow began. Just now we're holed up in a Super8 in Kennewick for an extra day. The snow has come down all day, travel advisories and closed roads mean we'll make our way south slowly.

But my computer travels beautifully.

Here's my update for ROW80:

• Writing = 1,000 words/week. By this afternoon, 959 words, but I'm hoping for another session later today.
• Other writing = None.
• Blogging = Posted Insecure Writer's Support Group ("Writing is Like Quilting is like . . .") on time. Posted to Travel blog, "On the Road Again 2017" (this will be an ongoing project), and now ROW80 (still once a week for now). Read posts by other bloggers x5.
• Marketing = Goals set but no progress.

One of the reasons I like to read what other writers are posting is simply I keep learning new strategies (and have renewed appreciation for what kinds of work writers do to reach their goals).

Shannon Lawrence, on her blog, "The Warrior Muse," not only talks about the question-of-the-month (writing rules) for Insecure Writer's Support Group, but she 'gives back' to her readers by listing possible markets (primarily science fiction) and by listing her own progress in submitting her work for publication. 

View outside our Super8

This is pretty inspirational to someone who is knee deep in revision, because I haven't even been thinking about or subbing flash/short fiction. Why not? 

Writing a little science fiction (Granny Vampire?) sounds like a welcome break from slogging through spring flooding near Winnipeg in the 1840s.

What do you think? Have you written outside your primary genre?

If you are not yet a part of ROW80 or Insecure Writers Support Group, why  not join in? Both are also Facebook-based. May your writing go well in 2017.

ROW80 Sunday check-in: Home at last!

After 7-1/2 hours on the plane, we're home and adjusting to two hours later (or is it earlier?).  My poor body can't tell. But the internet works really well. I just have to transfer all my files, update those pictures, and wallow in the joy of my own kitchen -- and sewing machine -- and computer. Sheer pleasures here. The week ahead looks good!

WRITING 
--Revise Section 02 on Rivers of Stone. Editing Chapter 3 (Sec 02) and revising Chap 4 (Sec 01) based on crits from NOVELS-L. Still working a minimum of 1 hour a day on revision.
--Read Elizabeth Lyon's Manuscript Makeover. Still mid-way through Chap 5 on story structure. Wanting more on character.

COMMUNITY 
--Blog 3x week. 3/3 this week so far.  Travel blog: Nearly the last day in Galveston on Bolivar Island (saw a roseate spoonbill).
--Read others' posts x6 weekly. Done.
--Participated in WIPpet Weds weekly. Done.
--Crit drafts by other writers 1x weekly. 1/1 done.
--Social media: Twitter x3. \
--Post reviews for other indie writers: Posted a review of John Donohue's Sensei, an interesting airplane read about martial arts with a serial killer mix.

MARKETING 
--Draft marketing plan w/action steps by month. Still in progress.
--Evaluate possible ads: Collected background on 3 out of 5. Pending. BookBub ripple sales continue for Standing Stones (after over a month).
--New goal: Read one book/article on marketing. Yes! Currently reading Norm Schriever's The Book Marketing Bible  (which I've had since 2014). I really like his open, easy style and very practical suggestions on rethinking marketing. Not a "you must do this" but more a "rethink your approach" and learn as you go.

Finch Arboretum (2014)

Now the best lesson I've learned from Norm Schriever is to write blog posts about ONE idea, one major point. Instead of being intimidated about creating that perfect post, write just one thing. Alas!  I wander. My fingers type too fast. The post is too long. But I shall persevere.

May you have a wonderful week, ROW80 writers.

Read what others have written HERE.

ROW80: Start Where You Are . . .

The last month I've been struggling with the writing. Fits and starts. Revamps. Edits. But with today's check-in for ROW80, I feel optimistic. I almost accept that life will not return to a harmonious and simple schedule. 

That new baby granddaughter will arrive maybe this week. Writing will come second. DH is finally recovered from his surgery. That means we can start to do activities together once again. New schedule! Writing will come second.

Even with 43,000 words on my next book, the ending doesn't ring true for my characters.

Background: View from Steptoe Butte,
eastern Washington State (Camp 2014)

But I saw something online, can't even remember where, maybe Facebook, maybe Twitter. Can't find the source, just a simple statement:  "There will never be a perfect time. Just start where you are." 

Finally, that jolted me into realizing that I won't make forward progress, not even during NaNoWriMo, until I get organized and write something every day. So here are my ROW80 goals for the coming week:

Write 1,000 words on Rivers of Stone.
Blog x3 (combo of travel, writing, and ROW80 blogs).
Critique x1 for Novels-L or GoodReads.
Read 30 pages in Letitia Hargrave's Letters.
Send query to Australian Times for indie book article.
Prep for book club visit thisThursday for Years of Stone.
Finish reading Letters from Brackham Wood for book club.
Participate in WIPpet on Weds and keep plugging away as sponsor for ROW80.
Cherish each day and continue de-cluttering (Note: my inbox is now under 300, down from 3,000).

WIPpet Wednesday: Here's a snippet LATE (should have been on Wednesday) of 26 lines (for October 26) from Rivers of Stone. Cat, still disguised as a boy, is traveling with artist Paul Kane as an assistant, to Fort Vancouver. It's late summer 1842, and they're somewhere west of the plains.

-----

"Dinna let me have any more of this." Kane shoved a deerskin bag at Cat. "'Tis poisoning me."

Cat put her hand on Kane's forehead. It felt cold and clammy to her touch. "Look at me."

Kane opened his eyes and stared at Cat. His pupils were like pinpoints.

"What have you taken?"

"Don't wanna talk. Here.” He thrust the bottle at her. “Just go. Don't come back 'till morning." Kane’s head fell back on his bedroll, and he slept.

Cat sat on the ground, just outside the tent as dusk fell, unsure what to do or where to go. Ever since they had left the trading post, he had been angry one moment and laughing aloud the next, or nodding off while riding his pony until Cat was afraid he'd fall off.

She pulled the small bottle out of the bag, twisted the top off the vial, and dipped her finger in. Bitter, bitter taste. "What is this?"

Pierre loomed out of the darkness. "That’s laudanum. Ye take it for pain or to ease the dysenterry. Got a bitter taste. That's why we mix it with the rum, no? He don't want it no more? I'll take it off your hands fer a dollar."

-----

Paul Kane: Lake Huron 1848 (Wikipedia)

Cheer on other writers participating in WIPpet Wednesday HERE, with thanks to Kate Schwengel for encouraging us all.

Check in on other ROW80 writers HERE.

And may your writing go well!

Late night, late Weds check-in ROW80

Late? Yep. Tonight the Inland Northwest Writers Group met downtown for a review and lively discussion of social media, led by writer Tina Bratcher. I went. Took notes. The whole discussion reinforced my sense that social media presents real challenges for writers at any stage in their career. The options for getting involved will keep right on morphing. Lucky is the writer who has fun along the way.  Now for my check-in. Not much to report. I seem to be researching wolves and the Red River community in Manitoba this week.

Letitia Hargrave (Wikipedia)

Writing/Research: Starting off this week with a reasonably word count, 2 out of 3 days of real writing, but I'm still thinking I need to know much more basic history of the period as I move ahead on this story. Can't write what I know until I know it. One of my minor characters is a Metis woman who worked as a servant to the very prolific letter-writer, Letitia Hargrave, the proper English wife of the Chief Factor at York Factory, Upper Manitoba in the 1840s. I would so love to know what Margaret Dunnet thought of what she saw happening around her.  Letitia Hargrave's letters are a goldmine, for she comments quite openly on people and events -- including The Red River boarding school. What draws me to this time and very isolated place is the sharp class divides between people (gender and race). Yet, people had dreams and hopes and somehow survived.

Marketing/Community: Making contact with Australian and British potential reviewers. Prepping for the book reading next Tuesday night. Did attend tonight's writers' group.

WEDS SNIPPET: Wednesday is also that day when I post a 'snippet' from my work in progress, Rivers of Stone (dubbed a 'WIPpet' by K. L. Schwengel). Here's a scene when Cat, at the Red River community on her own, yet still disguised as a boy, works at the local store. How much of a snippet? September 17 = 17 sentences.

-----

Cat glanced at the three men huddled by the fireplace and nodded. "I'll go around to the kitchen." She pushed the front door open and stepped into the swirling snow. The cold bit her nose but the air smelled so good after the closeness of the store. She hurried along the side of the log cabin to the back and froze to a stop. 

A skinny wolf swayed in front of her. He lifted his head and stared at her. He sniffed at his right front paw caught in a small trap and looked at her again.

Cat backed up until she could feel the logs of the store behind her.

The wolf flopped on the ground, put his head down, and inched toward her, dragging the trap with him. 

He can't hunt with that thing on his foot, thought Cat. She took a tentative step towards him, putting her hand out slowly. "Hush, now."

The wolf nosed the ground and tilted his head away from her.

Cat crouched down and pried the trap apart. The wolf's foot slithered out. For a moment they looked at each other. The wolf leaped up and bolted into the woods.

-----
May you enjoy the rest of this week with good writing and/or reading. Check in with other ROW80 writers as Round 3 winds down (only one more week to make our goals).

Or drop by K. L. Schwengel's blog to read snippets from other writers willing to share . . . Thank you, Kate!

Weds ROW80 Check-in: Green lights and a WIPpet snippet . . .

A relatively good start to the week, not for overall productivity, for it's been too darn hot (we're facing 90+ for the next 7 days), but because I finally, finally made a breakthrough on the story line for Rivers of Stone. Oh, truly happy over here. I feel like a great green light is shining on me -- Go! Jump into the research and drafting! You have a map!

Writing: Goal 2,000 words for the week. 1,200 so far. Behind on writing blog posts. Spent a lot of time doodling and talking before the plot resolution.

Community/Marketing: Got caught up on NOVELS-L on the Internet Writing Workshop (finally!). The reward? 8 truly helpful critiques of Rivers of Stone, Chapter 1, not the least being laying out the premises for the conflict in Chapter 1 (easier to do now that I know the underlying conflict that shapes the book). 

Posted a giveaway for Book 2: Years of Stone on GoodReads and up to 105 entries! It's not too late to enter (ends August 4th). A lovely friend in Portland OR invited me down to visit her bookclub, the first for 2015 (had to plan around winter snows, really a chilling thought in hot July).

Weds WIPpet. Just a little excerpt built around the date, so July = 7 + 2 (from 2014) = 9 paragraphs from the WIP, Rivers of Stone. 

Blurb: Hired by the Hudson's Bay Company from the Orkneys in 1842, Cat, disguised as a boy, has traveled with Dougal to the York Factory in Upper Manitoba, to build a new life. 

“This one’s too scrawny to keep. Might as well sell him to the Indians. They’ll feed him dog and fatten him up.” 

Cat was grabbed from behind and twirled up onto a wooden crate.  “What am I gonna get for this hard working boy,” shouted a burly voyageur, his red hair caught up behind his head and decorated with feathers. A crowd gathered, and the men began to laugh.

“Jacques, that one just got off the boat. No fair,” cried another man with a bruised cheek and long straggly blonde hair, as he took a drink from a brown glass bottle. “Sacre bleu, he looks sweet enough to eat.”

Dougal turned around. “No rough housing with me brother.” He looked as if he were ready to fight. With his back to the wall of the store, he edged closer to Cat and lifted her off the crate. “I said to stay close, Cat.” He gave her another shake and turned away from the squabbling men, a roar of laughter following him.

Cat stomped beside him, her boots scrunching in a drift of snow on the north wall of the store.  "Don't you shake me, Dougal. I didn't do anything wrong."

“Hush. Are you all right, love?” asked Dougal. “Did he hurt you?”

“Don’t be worrying about that. I’ll learn how to get along.  Just don't be shoving me. It’s true I’m small.  But I can work, and I can fight.”

“That’s my girl.” Dougal winced. “I mean I'll miss you, Cat.” He hugged her for a moment, then pushed her away. “I don’t know how I'm going to remember you're me brother and not me wife. I'll try to get you into my barracks."

Cat stared at Dougal as if she could memorize his face now covered with a thick, curly beard, his hair pulled back; his eyes, the same she'd always known, looked at her with concern. She wanted to stay in the circle of his arms forever. She shivered. “That would be good, but we'll manage. Can we get something to eat?”

York Factory 1853 (Wikipedia)

And that's all, folks. May your writing week go well. May the turn from July to August bring you good words.

Why not check in with other ROW80 writers to offer words of encouragement? And here's that LINK to read those other writers sharing a snippet of their work in progress for WIPpet Wednesday, all facilitated by Kate Schwengel. Thank YOU.

Thurs is Weds for ROW80 check-in

At least my characters are still talking to me.

Since Sunday's check-in, I've been preoccupied with doctor visits for hubby, assimilating what the Publishers Weekly review really means, and doing a little quilting and some reading. Somehow I feel not quite unpacked from the trip back east, though it was only 10 days away from home.

Perhaps it's the weather change, now fully into spring, green leaves everywhere, rhododendron and lilacs in full bloom, the cherry blossoms now gone with those hard little green bits promising fruit. Perhaps it's that review from PW that continues to resonate, despite warm support from writing friends and family.

Natalie Goldberg's quote from Writing Down the Bones stays with me just now, challenging me to persevere:  “Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”  I shall try.

ROW80 Sunday update and goals for the week ahead:

--Write 300 words every day. Doesn't matter on what. Goal 4 out of 7 days. So far this week 2 days (1200 words).
--Draft book supplements for Years of Stone (afterword, list of characters, map, glossary). Draft blurb for cover. No progress.  
--Post on writing blog 2x, travel blog 1x, ROW80 2x and read minimum 5. OK progress. Posted 1x on writing blog, 1x on travel blog, 2x on ROW80 blog and read 9 for ROW80 so far. 
--Write Reflection piece for A to Z challenge. Not yet. Maybe never.
--Revised and submitted "Color Me Green" (short story). Done.
--Read at least one of two pending beta reads. No progress. 
Currently reading My Name is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, nice thick books that promise another world.
--Begin reading for Rivers of Stone, Book 3. Read Willliam Frush, Overland Journals (1850).
--Marketing: Contact local book club this week.  Work on MailChimp. Added more names to mailling list. Participated on Twitter 3x.

Longwood Gardens (Camp 2014)

Last check in for May? How have we come to this day so quickly? 

See what other ROW80 writers are doing HERE.

Wisteria, Longwood Gardens (Camp 2014)

ROW80 Sunday: NaNo and Polar Bears . . .

Week 2 of NaNoWriMo and I'm chunking right along -- at least until today.  My commitment is to write 500 words a day. Surprise! One day I topped 1,000, really amazing for me. Most days I doubled  my ordinary output of 250 words. For 6 days of NaNo this week, over 3,000 words (not counting today).

But yesterday we attended Disney on Ice, a three-hour flamboyant retelling of classic fairy tales with several thousand folks shepherding little girls in Ariel, Snow White, and Cinderella costumes. By the time we got home, we were exhausted. This morning, I was not able to write at all.

For NaNoWriMo, I'm working on a draft for Rivers of Stone. Book One is set in the 1840s at York Factory in Manitoba, Canada. In today's chapter, Catriona, our intrepid heroine in disguise as a young boy, goes snow goose hunting on James Bay and befriends two Cree brothers.

Somehow polar bears crept into the story. They are stealth hunters, I learned, along with several other fascinating facts. The polar bear is a ferocious hunter, preferring (thank goodness) seal to human. They are quite hungry in October when the ice first begins to form in Hudson's Bay and splay out on the ice, looking for the airholes of seals.

I found several several videos of polar bears playing with dogs and hunting. Looking at Youtube was a very helpful research tool because these videos give me a clear sense of SETTING, scale, colors, moods. Even discovering that Churchill -- and York Factory -- are both above the treeline is quite helpful, even if it's not quite what I imagined when I began this story. Forests will have to wait until Cat heads west. Can you tell that active procrastination has taken over? Here's one of the polar bear videos from youtube.


What I've learned from NaNo so far. 

• Simply writing to a specific (and larger) word goal surprises me. Am I more accountable? 
• The largest output on a single day was spent on plotting (something I did not do before NaNo), but I now have a clearer sense of the story, its main characters, and, most particularly, their relationships.
• Not every day is easy.
• The more I know about my characters, the more complicated their interactions are. And they surprise me! 
• Dialogue and setting help me unbundle what my characters are like because I begin to understand what they face and how they react.
• I hate conflict. But making my characters get angry was fun!

My other challenge this week: Trying to decide on a good cover. Final revisions are on schedule, and I've been working on covers for Standing Stones this week. Here are two more for a little feedback, if you are so inclined. I'd love to put something a little more dramatic on the cover, but so far my technical skills and budget have not led me to find that "knock-me-out" image.

Which of these two do you prefer? Why? Which one would you be most likely to pick up?

This draft cover features a picture I took of a fisherman's croft
in Kirbuster, the Orkneys, Scotland
so no worries about copyright.

This cover features a picture of Dunskey Castle,
Scotland from The Commons at WikiMedia,
again no worries about copyright.

ROW80 Goals for the coming week: Hope to keep this simple as my babysitting schedule is tight.

WRITING. 500 words a day x 7 days on Rivers of Stone. 4 Chapters a day on Standing Stones. I'm behind on beta reads x2 and hope to finish these by Thanksgiving. Make final preparations for presentation on Egypt, which includes at least 2 blog posts this week. I did, for the first time, sketch out a schedule for posting on my three blogs at least once each week.

RESEARCH. Only when I'm stuck with any writing goal. Reading 3 books just now.

COMMUNITY/OTHER. Read at least 15 posts for ROW80 and Poets on the Page. Attend one NaNoWriMo f2f this Monday night. Quilt on Thursday with my quilting group. For sanity's sake, clean up my office and get the laundry done.

May your week go well!

If you are a writer, why not jump in on ROW80, A Round of Words in 80 Days?

ROW80 Sunday afternoon, NaNo and Covers!

NaNoWriMo has started! I'm not sure how many other ROW80 folks have jumped in as NaNo rebels, but I have -- and at the last minute.

Normally I write somewhere between 250-300 words a day and move on to other projects. For this NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I'm committing to write 500 words a day, a real stretch for me (so far, doing great!). Participating in NaNo is how my rough drafts have begun for my previous books, so I'm eager to jump in, even though I'm going right ahead with plans to publish Standing Stones before my birthday on December 6.

Already my ROW80 Goals for Round 4 have started to drift, but for the coming week, writing is the top priority: 

WRITING. Write 3,500 words this week (500 words a day x 7 days) for Rivers of Stone (ROS) draft. Attend local meet-up for NaNoWriMo right here in Spokane.  Research x 2 articles for ROS. Blog 4x on travel blog re Egypt and 3x on writing blog re Nano. I'm wondering if short daily updates on NaNo on the writing blog are too much. Complete the final edits for Standing Stones (that's 4 chapters a day or 28 chapters by the end of this week). Haven't begun to input any pages for Reaching.

COMMUNITY. Participate in ROW80 with twice weekly updates and reading 2-3 others each day. Continue active participation in Book Review Depot, GoodReads, Facebook, and Twitter.

CRAFT. Read Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones daily. Read 2 writing craft magazines.

MARKETING. Follow suggestions from DuoLit's Weekend Marketing Makeover and Eric Michael's Pimp My Kindle Book.  Write reviews for each and report on my own marketing progress. What am I learning and what I am doing.

PERSONAL. Cherish each day with family and friends. Quilt. Exercise 3 times this week. Work on Egypt for November 18. Catch up on filing and revise timeline for public relations for WSQ this week.

A question for writers/editors who might stop by. A colleague has released a Kindle e-book. The preview reveals many, many grammatical errors and a few missing transitions. Do I simply lurk and say nothing? Do I jump in with a private note? Perhaps the wrong version was uploaded? What is a writing buddy supposed to do?

About covers. Earlier in the week, I posted a possible cover for Standing Stones. The result (illuminating for me) was that readers thought the cover was a little bland.

I did review the top historical fiction covers on Amazon and fell in love with Edward Ruthurfurd's nostalgic covers, BUT he is an established name. So, as a novice, I need to 'grab the attention' of readers, and I'm not sure how to go about this.

Here are two potential covers for Mothers Don't Die, definitely not historical fiction, but still slated for release in 2014.

Which do you like and maybe why?

For those of you who've accepted the NaNoWriMo challenge, how are you doing?

For ROW80 folks, may the week go well.

Weds check-in: Free for you because . . .

Another crazy few days. Another late check-in. But let's get the WEDS ROW80 check-in out of the way so I can get back to something just for you: It's free! Available instantly because all you have to do is read on! (and I'm not talking about my books). Read on!

WEDS ROW80 CHECK-IN ONLY IT'S THURSDAY MORNING:

I'm doing the happy dance! Finished the edits (Sections 1-3) on Years of Stone yesterday morning!!!! This is maybe the 6th or 7th or 8th round of editing, so I'm really done. Started work on the cover and a new web site that's more author-like. My ultimate goal: To publish Years of Stone and Standing Stones before year-end AND

Not sure what's next. Got a big presentation Tuesday next week, so it's immersion time. Went to a fabric sale last night (yes, I'm a quilter) that started at 10 pm just to get that 40% discount. Skipped exercise this morning to get caught up and . . . Tomorrow I take my visiting mother-in-law (who wears a size 2) to 6th floor Macy's clearance center (70% off), and I promise to set my goals on Sunday more specifically.

Now for the FREE article for YOU!

I ran across this neat article by Gregory Ciotti, a copywriter, "The Five Most Persuasive Words in the English Language" because I was looking for a video of that funny and annoying little 6-second TV commercial from the 1960s.

A black bird appears on the TV screen and screams out, "I've got six seconds to sing: Buy Kraft cottage cheese, you'll love it, love it. Buy Kraft cottage cheese!"

I've been feeling like that bird this week: I've got six seconds! Yack!

But at the bottom of the article, I found a link to Ciotti's article on those five most persuasive words. So I jumped over instantly to take a look because today, we writers must market as well as write. Maybe I'll learn something new!

Here are those 5 most persuasive words in order of their importance: 

you, free, because, instantly, new

Really, Ciotti's explanations of each word are quite useful. I'm plugging them right into my marketing plan -- keeping in mind that my genre (historical fiction) trumps marketing. And what works for cottage cheese may not work for me.

How do we market without being too intrusive? Without sounding like a crazy bird? With only six seconds? How have you integrated marketing into your daily/weekly writing?

And here's the link: http://www.copyblogger.com/persuasive-copywriting-words/

Beth's Raffle Quilt Square (July 2012)

May 19: Sunday morning wake-up and check-in . . .

This morning starts slowly. Yet since I began with ROW80, when I visited Ruth Nestvold's site, there was a treat. Her reference to Draft2Digital led me to a faster way to e-pub that builds on Word documents. So maybe I'll add Allen's novels (and Mothers Don't Die) to the list. D2D distributes to  4 biggies (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple iBookstore), taking a reasonable 10% percent cut of sales. A new goal!

So here are the goals for May 19-May 25. Anticipate an update on Weds.

1. WRITING: Keep working on PLUGGING PLOT HOLES. Plot holes await on Deidre’s thread. Only 6 weeks left in this round, and I want plot holes plugged by June 21. Revision: Look at intensity of chapter openings/closings (Section 1) and search for “it”. Watch out for POV shifts.


2. BLOG: Write minimum of 2 blog posts (writing and travel) and ROW80 update Weds. Fulfill ROW80 sponsor commitment by reading minimum of 15 this week. May post re Mike Well’s comment re readers. NOVELS-L: Do 3 crits this week (Last week I subbed Chapter 9 and received 9 very useful crits back). Not sure if I should sub another chapter this week. 


3. RESEARCH/CRAFT: Read Frost. Keep Bell and Cox as top priority IF I finish Frost. Read at least one craft magazine. 


4. MARKETING/PUBLISHING: Research ISBN issue. Work on Marketing Plan (longer goal = article/post/Writer Unboxed). Update Shelfari/Barnes & Noble. Move promo PowerPoint (Scribd) to Mermaid publication page. Sunday Update: Posted a PowerPoint on my writing blog via Scribd. This was fun, though it took hours! I shared images that inspired The Mermaid Quilt. In reality, this seems static, but I hope to get some feedback on whether readers like the PowerPoint format. Most likely Animoto or Youtube would be better. Failed miserably in integrating music into the PowerPoint, but I found a perfect composer, Oskar Schuster who uses Creative Commons (he uses typewriter sounds with piano). 
5. WSQ: Continue work on pending projects and publicity timeline. Update online events and Facebook. Order books for WSQ library. Work on “Contemporary Quilt” article. Update Job description. Prep background for board meeting on $500 limit on ads.
6. Family/Quilting/exercise: Cherish each day. Prep presentation on Africa. Begin hand sewing on Arizona bird wall hanging. Sew on cowboy quilt for fun. Exercise 4x a week. Know that if Allen doesn't want to exercise, I still can. Keep office clutter free!

Now all this looks like a clear plan. But I know myself. Maybe half will actually get done. Right now I want to be writing, but I'm thinking about Chicken Morocco and don't even know what that is.

May your writing week go well. If you could look at my PowerPoint and let me know what you think, that would be grand.

A lot of sirens at my apartment complex this morning. No fire. Don't ask for whom the siren sounds: she calls for thee. Write on!

Ross Fountain, Edinburgh (Camp 2011)