Press Pause
My weekend:
write,
edit,
write,
edit,
edit,
edit,
pause to refill
church &
this perfection:
Edit
now back to editing as deadline looms. What’s your week looking like?
All the best,
KMJ
Flipping the Script
I have gotten my edits back from my lovely editor on my final book in my Crimson trilogy and to say my head is spinning right now is a huge understatement. I have to keep cleaning my glasses to see the black left on the pages through all the red at this point (yes I know a necessary evil but still, WAAAA!). So to that I will be a little MIA for a bit while I clear the fog in my brain, try to flip colors and turn my frown upside down to bring some order and control back to this story. See you on the other side and I hope your week is fantastic.
All the best,
KMJ
Image from Amanda On Writing Tumblr
Persistence
Yesterday I met with my buddies, The Knitsters for the 1st time in a long time. It was wonderful to step out of the Bat Cave and into the light for a few hours and it was also great to pick up the knitting needles again after being away from them for so long.
In anticipation I bought some new heather gray yarn in order to start on shawl that I had been admiring my friend knitting with a beautiful open weave stitch that was a step up from my usual knit/purl action.
I cast on the 97 stitches and got to the point where I needed some help so I got my friend to show me the steps in the stitch that I didn’t know. Here’s how it went: K1*yfwd, k3tog,yrn,P1,rep from*
No you’d think I’d be able to count, pay attention, and get that pattern but, um, no. My 1st try and I ended up off by 20 stitches. My 2nd try and I ended up off by 3, my 3rd try and I was off by 1. Yes people it took me 4 tries and this was no small scarf, I was casting on 97 stitches with each go, but after 4 times I finally got the row right and was so pleased with myself.
I think this says something to my never give it spirit (or just shows I’m loopy). Now I have to turn this attitude back toward my writing but remember to move away from the keyboard at times and bring it back to the needles.
Have a great weekend and I hope you try something new or an old fave this weekend.
All the best,
Kwana
Being Jack
I had to give Jack a bath yesterday as well as the rest of the house since he got up high and got into the dangerous leftover Halloween candy. I swear having Jack around is like having a very bad teen. I’m thinking I may finally need a liquor cabinet with a lock to keep the bread and chocolate away from him. Yep, he got into it all and ended up sick all over himself and the house. Nope, things have not been fun for the past few days. Not fun at all. But, thankfully we’ve made it through fresher and cleaner.
And I’m glad to see in the end he’s thinking about his actions. Or maybe he’s plotting his next mission. Who knows?
All the best,
KMJ
Boo!
Don’t get too tangled up in the tricks and treats this Halloween!
It’s back to work on Friday!
All the best,
KMJ
P.S. There is still time to comment on yesterday’s interview with author Lise Horton and be entered in the giveaway. Click on over.
image from here
Squeak on!
Jack says (in his own Jackster way) a big thanks for all the birthday wishes here and on FB. For his birthday he got a fun new ducky gift (sorry for the bad pic) that was supposed to be extra durable. We was in love with it and then quickly became obsessed with finding the squeaker inside.
The duck lasted all of 20 minutes before the squeaker was found and out. As you can see with Jack nothing is indestructible.
He never gives up until he achieves his goal.
We can learn a bit from the old Jackster.
Wishing you an indestructible week filled with knocking out all your goals.
All the best,
KMJ
Scribing New
After working in Word for all of my books (and all of my near books) I have long been jealous of my writing buds who smoothly tout the benefits of working with the writing program Scrivener. They talk about how they don’t have to writer linearly, how they divide and then compile their scenes, how they can color code their scenes however they want and outline their work right there on their computer and so much more. Yeah, I was mad jelly. But you see I had Scrivener on my computer and I tried the program, but my hard to retrain brain just couldn’t get around the program.
Well, last week my good friend, super talented writer and it turns out computer wiz, Laura K. Curtis came by to help take me out of the ‘Dummie’ stage in my long Scrivener quest.
After her patiently going over and over how to insert files, add new files, label postcards and explaining ‘The Inspector’ (what is that again?) I’m honestly nowhere near what you would call an expert…
But maybe I can now call myself a Novice as opposed to a Dummie. Hey, as long as I remember to keep hitting save every few minutes and just keep writing I should be a Novice plus in about 2 years or 3 books. Whichever comes first.
Tell me are you trying to tackle learning anything new or have you done so after doing it the same old way for so long?
All the best,
KMJ
In the Breeze
Just a bit of Sunday beauty seen at a stoplight yesterday to remind you to pause sometime and look around. You never know what beauty you may be missing when you’re blowing by life a little too fast.
Have a great day!
All the best,
KMJ
Skunked!
Good day peeps! Hope this hump day is treating you right. I’m starting off trying to get over a couple of humps. The 1st, the day before, of tripping over my laptop cord and watching that thing crash to the floor. Heart stopping there. And the lesson: Backup! Backup!! Backup!!
The next is: a skunk must have gone by last night and had a spray storm right by our house. Ugh! The smell work me in the middle of the night and it still has me riled today. I’m hoping the smell of frying bacon is a worthy air freshener. In my mind it is.
Oh well that said, I’m wishing you an easy way downhill from the hump. Watch those skunks.
All the best,
KMJ
They’re Closer Than You Think
Now that I’ve finished book 3 and handed it in I’m left tapping my fingers until I get my editing notes and have to look at the final book in my Creative Hearts series for the big clean up to get it ready for production.
In the meantime it’s time to face the fact that it’s time to move on and step into a new world of my own making. Now sure, I could very well add on and on and on to this series, but it really is time to start something now. There are new stories, new ideas and most importantly, new characters that are starting to take shape and voice in my head, while the old ones are enjoying their Happily Ever Afters or at least Happily for Nows off in the sunset. Yes, the time is now.
You can’t live your life in the rearview mirror. All the while hitting the breaks and holding up traffic. There’s too much crash potential. As the warning heeds, the objects behind you are closer than you think.
All the best,
KMJ
