Smiling

Kitten litter, what we’re trying to avoid (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What?  Did WIPpet Wednesday already pass?  Oh…  oh well.

No problem, Since I posted my ROW80 check-in on Tuesday, this delay was somewhat intentional.  Granted, a lot of that delay was due to the mega power-outage we experienced on Monday evening.  Reading books by dynamo flashlights is…fun (it kind of reminded me of camping).

Now there only thing tweaking my schedule is a soon-must-be-made trip to the vet so our kitten girl can get spayed.  She’s NOT happy about it.  I suspect someone will not be sitting on my lap for a few days.

So, as I need to hurry out the door, here’s a quickie WIPpet and ROW80 check-in…

WIPpet

Simple math from a random section of the Swan Song series; three sentences for the two and one in 21.  Alanii is our MC here.

Alanii stood there, the commander of his fivesquad at his side, a grey-haired man with one eye and a courtly manner that left the Laninii smiling like a lassie… once the greetings had been made. Alanii had wondered at the wisdom of the Guard Katsdan for assigning him this Maerick for his attache. The man had proven the crudest, roughest man he’d ever met, prone to cursing everything and everyone under the sky as if even the sun’s shining was intended as a personal insult.

Check out all the WIPpeteers over at our linky.  Stop in, read some fun snippets and chat some.  We love constructive criticism!  And as always, thanks to KLSchwengel for maintaining the bloghop.

ROW80 Check-in

It’s been barely two days since my last post, so there is little to nothing new to report.  I’ve added a bit more walking in the last two days, but I missed my free-weights yesterday.  I was really tired when I got home and only wanted to space out (which I did with some Minecraft…  found a gorgeous area in a newly created world: flower forest with extreme hills and lots of horses next door).  I even went to bed early.

Though anyone who knows me can honestly say, hair is not something I have a lot of… 😦

I’m almost caught up with my sponsor duties.  As always, visiting other ROWers is fun, Fun, FUN!  After visiting Deniz Belvins at the Girdle of Melian, I learned I am a “Werewolf” because Deniz linked to Tara Tyler’s Beastly Survey, part of Tara’s promotion for the first book of her Beast World Series, Broken Branch Falls.  I found some links to delightful short fiction, via the Little Rambling Angel.  I even found LS Engler’s call for submissions to her 2014 World Unknown Review.  Looks like a great opportunity for short fiction writers!

The writing’s been a bit better.  I’m slowly getting a deeper sense of what’s needed to tie the different books of the Swan Song series together despite there being books that focus characters (and even nations) that seem to have little to no connection to each other at the beginning of the series.

I still haven’t hit the typing.  I’m wondering if my resistance (so to speak) is due to having pushed myself for so many WriMo challenges lately…  or is it because that pile of notebooks just looks too daunting with so many other paperwork things hovering over me.  Not sure…  but tonight I’m going to start small with one page.  If I can do a page a day even….

Well, that’s it for me.  See you Sunday (or Monday or…).

A Day Late…

I wish I’d had a better camera than the iPhone with me. The skies were incredible

…and many dollars short.

Sunday when I’d been planning to post my ROW80 check-in, I went instead to the Altamont Fair with the hubby and the Boodle.  No regrets, of course.  The story fodder alone made the trip worth it, but I also got inspired to explore tow of my other interests (photography and drawing) in further depth.

Next year I intend to enter some pieces to the Fair.

The Boodle rode this things six times in a row

A day at the Fair is not the nicest thing to the wallet.  One meal there, eaten standing on the Midway while a rollercoaster clattered on its tracks yards from me, cost more than a steak dinner a most casual restaurants (and I brought my drink).  But such events don’t happen daily (unless one works as a carny), and it was one of the better lamb gyros I’ve had.

What does this mean for my ROW80 progress?  No much save for distracting me from posting on time.  The good thing is that I’m starting to get caught up on all my goals (though I did have to go back to my original post of this round to make sure of what they were).  Vacations!  Ah… distraction.  Heavenly distraction…

In overview, here are my Round 3 ROW80 goals:

• write my five sentences a day;
• read something for pleasure;
• get fresh air and exercise some daily;
• spend quality time with friends and family;
• type in/edit my JuNoWriMo notebooks

It’s nice to say I can put a check into every one of those, except the JuNoWriMo notebook typing.  I only did a day of that.  But, YES!  Progress, at last.  And what’s more, it happened so smoothly that I wasn’t even sure I’d been getting enough done until I checked.  There’s something magical about making progress effortlessly (or at least seeming to).

I’m toying with the idea of adding in some more goals for the Round, but not too seriously.  I do still have catch up visits to make to for my sponsor duties.  I also have lots of administrative things to deal with for school (both my own and my son’s homeschooling/pt-school).  It’s a start however, and it’s nice to be starting with a feeling of accomplishment.

Where Was I?

It’s been a few weeks since my last post.  I was on vacation with my family and…  surprise (even to me), I decided to really take time off.  And yes, before you ask, it was….

Really!

Looks like playtime is over. The first clue was my husband heading back to work Monday. I took a few days to myself (YES!) after that. And now.. I’m here with my ROW80 check in (I did close to nothing with my stories, but I read, I made notes, I watched a bunch of TV, went on walks in the woods, daydreamed, saw cool places….  in general, I took a real vacation) and my WIPpet.

As for the WIPpet, I took to heart some of the commentary I received (and haven’t answered…  my bad) to my last post.  Since I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do, I guess I really was looking for some validation that I wasn’t messing with things too much.  The heart wants what the heart wants, but it’s nice to know that giving in won’t hurt others, so to speak.*

That said, if anyone is interested in continuing to read my Unnamed Story as a beta reader please let me know.  I’m in the last two chapters of the piece, and having something of a crisis of direction.  I’d love some serious input.

And now, onto the…

WIPpet

I’m jumping back in the Swan Song Series, into the third book I’ve planned out and back into Atyr’s head…  Atyr as a girl, not the mature grandmother you’ve gotten to know her as in the Unnamed Story.  It’s the beginning of her section in this third book; she thinks she’s dealt with all the problems that could involve her and that, mild nausea aside, she’s about to close out the journey of her youth and become one with her spiritual leader.

Yeah…  like I’d let that happen.

So here you go, 14 sentences (I’m posting this on Thursday, so you get a bonus for the day) from Swan Song Refrain (working title):

Atyr didn’t know how long she’d been tied in her seat; she was just glad that this stretch of the journey seemed to be ending.

The side to side waddle of the riding beast’s stride became abruptly short and jerky, an almost spinning sensation as the beast seemed to start forward and then rest back. From beneath the heavy cowl of her robes, Atyr caught bright glimpses of blue and white, tan and brown. Lots of brown… Brown feathers, brown clothes…

Even her hands were brown now.

At least the dusty color was soothing to the eyes. She gazed down at the shishtriara’s feathered neck and let herself fall into a moment’s tranquility tracing the waves of caked dirt with her eyes. Here and there some of the beast’s true cream-colored down peeked through.

The pattern rippled as the beast shifted, its serpentine neck twisting as the beast turned its head to her. Heavily lidded eyes peered under the covering of her seat frame up to her, a faint glow of the day beyond reflected in them.

Despite the warnings she’d been given, Atyr felt herself start to inch back from the beast. The flaps over the creature’s nostrils vibrated faster; a trill escaped its fanged mouth. Its jaws opened in a parody of a grin.

As always, thanks to Kathi Schwengel of My Random Muse for maintaining the WIPpet challenge.  Please feel free to comment, critique… praise 😉 the group of us.  We’re a pretty friendly bunch.

*Yes, hyperbole.  I know that no one will be hurt if I change my WIPpet story.  Nor will any shistriara… much.