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An Uneventful Week is a Good Week

And yes, it’s been an uneventful week around here–just doing the day job, writing, and living life between the two (as in fixing dinner, cleanup, that sort of thing). Yesterday a bad storm rolled through, which for me = migraine, so not much of anything got done then, but yay me! I’d already met my goals. And that’s so much easier to do when there’s not much else going on.

*My dog Skeet finds uneventful days a good opportunity to make herself comfortable on the day bed in my office.*

What I’ve Been Reading

I finished another novel in the fantasy box set (I swear I’m almost done–I started this thing back in August!). I enjoyed this one, too. I don’t like to talk about books I don’t like, because in the case of the one in the box set, it was just not to my taste, but because of it, I don’t want to name the set. But I do expect I’ll be buying more fantasy this year, because most of these books are part of series.

What I’ve Been Writing

As noted above, I met my goals this week! After not hitting my writing goals in so long, doing so twice in a row is really exciting. My writing goal was to write 375 words/day, at least five days. I did write five days, and exceeded the word count for a total of a little over 2200 words. Part of me wants to ramp up to 500 words/day (and I exceeded that one day), but it was also a bit of a push so I’m going to go for 400/day this week, again shooting for five days and a total of 2000 words.

I also met my learning goal of completing week 2 videos and assignment for the WMG Publishing “Teams in Fiction” online workshop, and I went on to week 3. I’ve done all but one video (there are five), so I’m going to set a goal to complete that and the assignment, and do the week 4 videos this week, with a bonus goal to complete the week 4 assignment as well.

What about you–do you like uneventful weeks, or do you find them boring? Do you read box sets? And if so, do you go on to buy other books in a series if you like the one in the set? How are you doing with whatever goals you’ve had, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments—I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

A Good Busy

Not much writing happening this week, between the holidays and hosting family and friends. We decided “new state, new traditions,” and started by inviting neighbors over for a drop-in open house on Christmas Eve. While we kept the menu fairly simple–a few appetizers, snacks, and cupcakes–there was still plenty to do to prepare, plus we needed to wrap gifts. And wow, what weather! We wrapped gifts outside on our deck! Can’t say I ever did that in Ohio, though we hear it was unseasonably warm there too.

We had no idea if many (any?) would come to our Christmas Eve drop-in, as a lot of people are busy that night with family, but over a dozen people showed up on Tuesday night, and we had a great fun just hanging out and getting to know our neighbors a little better. Our daughter and her partner arrived that evening too.

They love coming to our new place in Tennessee, which makes us feel really good. On Christmas, after we opened a few gifts (we kept that simple, too), we did a little hiking on the property, and DH taught our daughter’s partner how to drive the tractor and let her bush-hog, which she thoroughly enjoyed! Christmas dinner was simple as well as delicious–our usual traditional ham and twice-baked potatoes, with green beans and biscuits.

We spent the next few days with them, trying out a couple of new-to-us restaurants and a local brewery, which made for a fun and relaxed few days. On Friday night, more friends from Ohio came in, and we made use of our secondary guest space in my office. Our daughter and partner took off the next morning, and we spent the day doing some shopping and sightseeing with our friends.

We drove out to Douglas Dam, where one of our friends took this fantastic photo.

The weather has been amazingly warm and nice all week. Our friends left this morning, so DH and I went for a motorcycle ride, just doing a little exploring in our part of the county. It seems crazy to be able to do such a thing in December!

What I’ve Been Reading

I still managed to read a little every night before bed, even with guests. I’ve been reading through a big box set that I probably won’t discuss in detail, as I didn’t like one of the books in it. Nothing wrong with it, just not to my taste. I am enjoying the others–pretty typical sword and sorcery fantasy fare.

What I’ve Been Writing

I set a very low goal this week, given the holidays. I did not plan to write while we had guests, but I did get to it on Sunday and Monday, and met my goal. This week, I’m going to shoot for 250 words, for four days, as New Year’s comes right in the middle of the week and I don’t yet know what we’re doing for that holiday (if anything).

2019 Goal Wrapup

This pretty much sums up how well I met my admittedly crazy writing goals, given the move:

via GIPHY

I wanted to finish my current WIP. I got about 20,000 words written on it, most of which were written before the move. Heck, I’m just glad I got anything at all written since then! Here were my other goals, which I didn’t detail out in my initial goals post at the end of last year, but that I did write down elsewhere:

Finish writing Time’s Guardian – DONE
Finish writing Time’s Judgement – this is the current WIP. See GIF above.
Complete at least one WMG workshop per quarter – DONE!
Read The Copyright Handbook – Nope
Attend WMG Business Master Class in Las Vegas in October – YES!
Send out one newsletter per month until giveaway books are gone; at least one newsletter afterward in 2019 when there’s news (ideally, quarterly) – uh, I did one books giveaway and took the rest to the library. There hasn’t been any news to speak of on the writing from since, so no newsletters.
Keep track of books read, including business and other nonfiction, and those not finished – Yep. I read 35 books this year, plus TONS of blogs.

So, I guess I would consider that kind of a mixed bag, though better than I expected. I’ll take it!

ROW80 doesn’t start back up until next week, so I’ll post about my 2020 goals then.

What about you–how were your holidays, if you celebrate them? Did you stick to old traditions, or work in something new? How did you do on your 2019 goals? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you. And have a happy New Year!

My Brain is Full

My supervisor at work says this after a long training session, and I think it’s particularly appropriate this week for a lot of people. So many extra things to do and things to think about with the holidays approaching is enough in itself, but add to that the other various things in life people are dealing with, it’s sometimes hard to be creative.

In some cases, it’s a lack of time, but for me, it’s mental bandwidth. We got some major news on the business that owns the property across the street, which necessitated a neighborhood meeting, a lot of back-and-forth, and took up some mental space. Ultimately, it’s good news, probably among the best we could have hoped for: the business managers have finally come to the realization that this location isn’t suitable for something on the scale they’re planning, which has changed and grown throughout the year. We’re still skeptical, and suspect it’s as much because they haven’t been able to attain the investment they need, but we don’t really care how they spin it as it’s a positive outcome. They tell us the land will still be developed, but in accordance with the existing zoning, so we’re fine with that. It will be interesting to see what form that takes.

What I’ve Been Reading

I finally started back into some fiction this week, after finishing another non-fiction book: The Chaos Cure, by Marla Cilley, aka FlyLady. I Flylady’s plan for getting rid of clutter and keeping my house clean back in the early 2000s when I was laid off, and it helped. While a few of the habits stuck (mostly, making my bed and cleaning out the sink every day), most didn’t, though I did go through a big declutter in 2016 after we decided we were really going to move. I do still think her plan is helpful, and have slowly gotten back into it, in a modified fashion–after all, she encourages us to make her system our own. So I was interested to see what her latest book was all about.

It’s not about her plan–that’s covered in her first book, Sink Reflections. The Chaos Cure is more of a series of tips and “hacks,” many of which I was already doing. It was a quick, easy read, and written in her casual, fun style so it was worth a look. I don’t have the brain to think of them right now, but I picked up a few new things to try as well.

What I’ve Been Writing

This has been another week where I keep telling myself “any progress is good.” While I didn’t quite make my goal of writing five days and a total of 1,250 words, I did manage to get in three days for almost 1,000 words. The story is getting more and more convoluted, so that’s not helping either. But that’s part of the deal when you write time travel.

This week, I’m going to keep trying for that 250 words, five days. Luckily, I’m mostly ready for the holidays, with only stocking stuffers left to shop for and everything else due to come in this week (I do as much as possible online). It also helps that we kept the holidays simple this year, but who knows what else will come up!

How about you–do you know that “brain is full” feeling? Are you ready for the holidays, if you celebrate? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

New Traditions

Our first Thanksgiving in the new house was, as one would expect, quite different from before. For starters, it was our smallest Thanksgiving ever. Our daughter and her partner joined us, but my parents and brother weren’t able to. While it was a wonderful Thanksgiving, it didn’t seem right without them. Maybe next year!

We also had a baked turkey for the first time in close to two decades, ever since my husband discovered deep-fried turkey. In the past, he always fried turkeys for several friends in addition to ours, starting as early as 8 AM. But this year, it didn’t make much sense to buy all that oil just for ours. Our daughter is somewhat of a foodie. She baked a turkey for friends last year and wanted to do ours this year, so that’s what we did. And it was no ordinary baked turkey–hers had butter and herbs under the skin, and it turned out beyond fantastic! She says the number one trick to get a turkey that’s done on time and not dry is to not mess with it. No opening the oven door to check on it, no basting, no doing anything with it once it’s in. I’ll take her word for it!

Her partner had to work early in the morning and they didn’t get here until after three. Normally we eat by then! But this year was a late dinner, around eight. Not a problem since we often eat dinner late anyway. But by the time we were done with dinner, we were all too full (and too tired!) for the pumpkin pie I’d made.

We ate it for breakfast the next morning, and it was delicious, if I say so myself.

On Friday, we stayed around the house–that part didn’t change. My husband and our daughter’s partner got some work done on the property. I did a little cleaning, but mostly, our daughter and I took it easy.

On Saturday, we went to a Christmas tree farm and bought a real tree. My husband’s brother was allergic to them, so growing up, he never had a real tree. And the living room in our old house was too small for anything but a super-skinny fake one. We picked out a nice eight-foot tree, as high as the ceiling in our old house, then decorated. For the first time, my husband was actually excited about decorating. He didn’t have a great childhood, so has never enjoyed Christmas. But being in the new house, with the high ceiling and beams to decorate brought out his holiday spirit, and made the day really special.

What I’ve Been Reading

I read every night, but haven’t finished anything, so I’ll catch up on this next week.

What I’ve Been Writing

My easy goal for the week served me well. I got the writing in Sunday through Wednesday, then on Thursday, I made a point to do it while waiting for the kids to get here, making for five days. Win! Making a plan that took the holiday and having guests into consideration totally worked! This week, I’ll try going up to 250 words/day, for five days.

How was your Thanksgiving, if you celebrate it? Otherwise, how was your week? Did you do anything different or unusual? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, writing or otherwise? Please share–I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Figuring it Out

This was another week where it felt like I didn’t accomplish much, though I actually did. Not any significant work on the house on my part, though DH did some work on the grounds, mostly bush hogging to clear out the meadows where the deer hang out. I did do a cooking day yesterday though, so we should be good for meals pretty much through Christmas. Win!

Last week I mentioned that I needed to do the “write everything you know about your story” exercise. I did that, three times. As in, it took me three sessions to write everything I knew (and there’s still more). It helped, but didn’t, in and of itself, reveal what to write for the next scene.

So I pulled out another old trick I’d almost forgotten: Twenty Answers. In this one, you ask a question (usually, “what happens next?” or “what will this character do?”) then write twenty possibly answers, no matter how obvious, stupid, implausible, or mundane. Yep, including things like “everyone decides to just go home” or “aliens arrive and kidnap everyone.” The first few answers will usually be the obvious/mundane ones. You may be forced to write something ridiculous just to come up with those last few answers, but in between are usually a few gems. I didn’t even get to twenty yet and already see a few possibilities for the next scene. While I don’t know what will happen beyond that, I can get going again.

What I’ve Been Reading

The Fates Trilogy by Kristine Grayson. I read this earlier this summer, and what a fun read! I would consider these contemporary fantasy with some romance. In these books, the three Fates are real, and they’ve been fired from their jobs, and replaced by Zeus’ teenage daughters who have no clue what they’re doing. They must figure out how to make things right and help humans who also have special power also find love, while helping them. Highly recommended!

What I’ve Been Writing

See above. This week’s going to be busy with the holiday and houseguests, and I’m also not 100% unstuck, so I’m going to drop back to 100 words a day, for five days. I also want to finish the online workshop I started back before we moved.

What have you been up to lately? Read any good books recently? How are you doing with whatever goals you’re working on, whether writing related or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you! And if you’re in the US, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Two Steps Back – Splash

No, I didn’t walk backwards into a pond (that would be cold now!). But that’s what’s been going on this week. My husband tiled our kitchen backsplash wall this week, one of many little tasks we didn’t want to pay the builder to do. I helped a little. It’s glass tile, so will be easy to clean. I’m very happy with how it turned out!

We got our first snowfall of the winter earlier this week, very early for this area! We’re not complaining, because it was still a good ten degrees warmer than Ohio (and any little bit is good), and the roads were clear. Even better, enough people stayed in that it was a very good day for me to go to the DMV to get my Tennessee driver license. Normally there is at least a two-hour wait; I got right in.

*I don’t mind snow when it’s this pretty… and only stays for a couple of days.*

We also had our first power failure last night. Luckily, my husband had just made a fire, so we were warm. The power was only out for about an hour and a half. One of the neighbors walked out to the street and found that there had been a wreck–someone took out a telephone pole, and the electric cables were in the street. Luckily there were no major injuries and the power company had everything fixed quickly. The fire kept the house warm enough that the heat didn’t even come on with the lights.

What I’ve Been Reading

How to Manage Your Home without Losing Your Mind by Dana K. White. I saw this book on another blog right before we moved. With my new house, I’d love to keep on top of keeping it reasonably clean, so this book caught my attention. It was as entertaining as it was informative, and introduced me to the concept of “slob-o-vision:” the inability to see a mess until it’s really, really, out of control (my husband totally has this LOL). If you’re looking for ideas in this area, I highly recommend this, even if you’re not really a slob. (By her definition, I’m “normal”. LOL!)

I liked that book so much, I got her other one, which I really need: Decluttering at the Speed of Life. Moving made it oh-so-obvious that we have Too Much Stuff. This book was also entertaining, and gives a bit of a different take on decluttering that I found helpful even though I have nowhere near the clutter problems she had. Also entertaining and highly recommended, especially if your challenges with keeping your home are mostly clutter-related.

Her blog, where it all started, is also entertaining and helpful.

What I’ve Been Writing

This is where the two-steps-back comes in: I’ve been kinda stuck this week, and wound up only writing one or two days. I don’t even know how many words, but it wasn’t much. The current scene has now had two false starts; it’s time to just spend a few minutes with an old technique that used to help me tons but I’d forgotten about: spend ten minutes and write everything you know about your story. I’ll try this tonight, then see how I do the rest of the week. So my goal for the week? Get unstuck and going again!

What’s new in your corner of the world this week? Did you get snow, and how was that for you? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might have, writing or otherwise? I’d love to hear from you–please share in the comments!

Progress

I’m happy to report that the title refers to both the house and my writing, albeit slow in both cases.

I went back to Ohio for a few days last week, mostly for work, but I also wanted to see my parents. I also had a couple of nice surprises in that I had lunch with one of my best friends from high school, who works across the street from my client’s office, and also got to see my daughter and her partner. Work was boring, but it was stuff that needed to be done and overall a successful trip. Also the first time I drove all the way there and back by myself! The only other time I drove all the way myself was when we moved, and I had a back seat full of critters (my turtle, goldfish, and two tanks of gerbils). At least I didn’t have to worry about the 4″ of water sloshing out of the fish tank if I had to brake quickly this time.

As good of a trip as it was, I was glad to be home. For one thing, I picked a wonderfully (not) cold week to go to Ohio, and also, we typically didn’t see things like this there, though that may be more because we were in the suburbs, rather than on a ridge top:

View from our deck one evening in October

While I was gone, my husband was busy too. He did a bunch of work outside, and after it got cold (though not as cold as Ohio), he installed all of the drawer pulls and cabinet knobs in our laundry/mudroom and in my office. They’re a little detail, but I never appreciated how nice it is to have handles on cabinet doors and drawers until we didn’t for a month.

He also made these hooks out of antlers from a deer he got while hunting last year (also, the deer was delicious). He put these up in our bedroom, and they look great.

What I’ve Been Reading

As I mentioned last week, I still managed to read during all the craziness of fixing up the old house, packing, moving, unpacking, and projects here. So far this year, I’ve read 31 books, plus a short story and two nonfiction books that just weren’t doing anything for me so I didn’t finish them. I will just touch on a couple of the novels I read, both of which I really enjoyed.

On Hallowed Ground by Jansen Schmidt This romantic suspense features a Native American heroine and a hero in law enforcement. Rich, cultural details and a lot of research on the author’s part make this one of those stories that pulls you right in to the story world. Definitely enjoyable, and highly recommended for those who enjoy romantic suspense!

Biting the Curse by Stacy McKitrick was another book I enjoyed this summer. This latest installment of the Bitten by Love vampire romance series features a heroine whose every love interest meets an untimely death, until she unknowingly hooks up with Sam, whose vampire powers should protect him, but even that becomes questionable. Another enjoyable read, with plenty of suspense!

What I’ve Been Writing

I met my goal this week of writing 100 words per night. Not that that’s very much, but I’ll take it! I even managed to get the writing in while I was in Ohio. That’s an accomplishment, as I usually find it hard to get to the writing while traveling. It probably helped that I went alone, rather than with my husband.

This week, I’m going to try ramping that up by just a little, to 250 words/day, for five days this week.

What about you–have you read any good books lately? What other projects have you been working on? If you’re a writer, do you find it hard to write while traveling? If not, please share your tips in the comments, as I do need to make regular trips and can use all the help I can get!

Overdue Update

Anyone who’s read this blog recently (this past year) can probably guess why I’ve been absent for the past several weeks. Yes! My brain has been stuck on house-house-house-apartments-house-house-apartments-house-house…

We’ve been to Tennessee twice since I last blogged, and there’s been a lot of progress on the house. All three people who read this are probably looking for pictures, so who am I to disappoint them?

The exterior painting is mostly done, with the exception of the porch posts and deck railings, and a few spots of trim. Also, the builder finally got rid of the big dumpster in front so I can finally get a decent photo:

They’ve mostly been working inside this past month. They have stained the beams, installed the tongue-and-groove ceiling in the great room, master bedroom, and my office, and have put up most of the window and door trim. Ahhh, the smell of Minwax in the evening…

When we were there in early May, our daughter and her partner joined us. It was the first time they’d been to the property, and they loved it! We went for a hike around the land. There is an old, fallen-down farmhouse on the other side of the ridge from where we’re building, and our daughter found the outhouse that went with it. She also found wild roses along our driveway, and there were wild strawberries growing on the other side of the ridge. Fun discoveries!

A lot more had been done when DH and I returned last week. Kitchen cabinets were in, and so were the built-ins for my office!

And in case you’re wondering, no, our entire house is not being painted mauve. That’s the primer (which was weird to me, as I’ve always seen white primer).

In addition to the house stuff, there’s also been some big changes in our real estate investments (aka my retirement). We sold the 16-unit building we owned here in Ohio, which leaves us owning only our house here. We then bought two small complexes in Tennessee, one with 10 units, the other with 13. There is a lot of paperwork involved in both selling and buying, and I’m the one who handles that, so… apartments have been very much on my mind. It helps that the new buildings came with property management in place, and they look like they really have their act together, so once I get online banking and a few bill payments set up, our work with these should be minimal.

We’ve also started working on our current house, getting it ready to sell. My husband’s been patching walls and painting, and we’ve started to pack away personal items and get rid of clutter. We’ve already taken a load of outdoor stuff to Tennessee, and will take more once the house is under lock and key.

What I’ve Been Reading: Of course I’ve still been reading! I can’t go to sleep at night without reading first, kind of like how Beavis and Butthead can’t sleep without TV (thumbs up if you get that one!). I’m too lazy to link them all or find covers, so I’ll just list them. There were a couple of additional non fiction books I started but did not finish, that are not listed here. I highly recommend all of the books below!

Soldier’s Duty by Patty Jansen. Third in her Return of the Arghyrians science fiction series, which I really enjoyed.
Writing with Chronic Illness by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I found this one really helpful in seeing how someone else has dealt with this and still manages to produce a lot.
Heir’s Revenge by Patty Jansen. Fourth and final book in the Return of the Arghyrians series.
“Savannah’s Destiny” by Stacy McKitrick. A fun, entertaining short story that meshes her Bitten by Love vampire romances, and her Ghostly Encounters paranormal contemporary romances.
Growing as a Professional Artist by Leah Cutter. Came as part of a writers bundle I bought. Some good tips on dealing with being a introvert and having needs that are different than most people (creating art).
Atomic Habits by James Clear. Details why and how we form habits, and how we can control which new ones we form (and get rid of bad ones).

What I’ve Been Writing: Uhhhhhh… not much. I started about a month ago with a greatly-reduced goal of 100 words/day, five days/week. I hit that for a couple of weeks, then hit a snag in the WIP. It was too easy to just set it aside, especially when the latest Tennessee trip came up and apartments took over my brain. I have still been thinking about my WIP though, and I think I see a way through the hangup, so I’m going to try getting back to the WIP. Since the new house, and all the stuff to do at the old one is still taking up a lot of my brainspace, I’m going to start back in with my easy goal of 100 words/day, for five days.

What’s been going on with you, or in your life? Do you sometimes feel that your brain is too full to be creative? How are you doing with whatever goals you might have? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Getting to It, Again

Things have been crazy since I last posted, three weeks ago.

In that time, we’ve sold an apartment building, realized our house was waaaay over budget (and figured out some ways we can mitigate that), and contracted to buy another apartment building. Oh, and there was a holiday in there too, for which I had to do extra cooking and cleaning (fortunately, I had help).

So yeah, no time or more importantly, brain, for writing or blogging.

The apartments are kind of a big deal, because that’s most of our retirement. We manage them ourselves, and that has made them more profitable than they otherwise would have been. We can’t exactly do that once we move, so we decided to sell them, and buy something in Tennessee. This has all involved me collecting a lot of paperwork, executing contracts, researching potential purchases, and more–enough that I’ve had no brain for writing. Fortunately, the new apartments we’re under contract to buy make good money–enough that it will help with the house’s budget overages. So it’s all good.

My husband took a few more house pictures when he went there last week to look at the apartments. The exterior is finally getting paint. The fireplace on the back porch is done, and drywall is also done. I picked out interior paint colors and emailed the builder, so that comes next.

What I’ve Been Reading: In the past three weeks, I’ve completed two nonfiction books, plus a short story anthology.

The Fiction River was enjoyable as they always are, and yes, there were two or three stories I skipped because they were in first person present tense. Despite the title, only a couple of the stories were romance; the others dealt with love for one’s children, family, friends, or even a place.

The Due Diligence Handbook was all about things to look for and check into when under contract to buy commercial property, which includes apartment buildings larger than four units. We are under contract to buy 23 units, so this seemed worthwhile. It really didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, though, and a lot of it was not applicable to apartments, but more focused on retail, office, or other types of commercial property.

Work Optional was a good book about preparing for retirement, and was written by the author of the Our Next Life blog. Like the blog, the book goes over the financial aspects of preparing for retirement, but focuses mostly on the emotional side of it and planning what you’ll do with your time–material that isn’t well-covered in many other retirement resources. Recommended, whether you think you’ll be able to retire early or are just hoping for a traditional retirement starting in your mid-60s.

What I’ve Been Writing: Uhhhh….. (see above). The apartment and house stuff pretty much took over my brainspace for the past few weeks. There just wasn’t anything left for writing. It was compounded by the fact that I’m in a stuck spot right now. So this week, I’m going to try to ease back into it with a very modest goal–100 words a day, for five days. We’ll see how that goes.

What about you–do you sometimes feel like there just isn’t any brain left for writing (or something else)? Have you read any good books lately? What’s been going on in your life? And how are you doing with your goals, whatever they might be (I hope better than me!)? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Family First

This week, I lowered my writing goals a bit, because I knew I’d be spending more time with my family–and family comes first in my priorities, definitely above writing. Kristine Kathryn Rusch wrote a good blog post about this a few weeks ago, and it’s worth the read on the importance of setting these priorities, especially when we have limited time and energy.

When regifting is cool: the bell to the left of our wedding cake topper was a gift from my mom – she received it for her 25th anniversary!

This week, we celebrated my being married to my own personal hero for 25 years. That’s a long time! And it’s been great. We’re looking forward to 25 more years, starting with an adventure moving to a new house in a new state. DH and I went out to our favorite special-occasion restaurant on Tuesday, the day of our anniversary. We’d planned to have my parents and our daughter and her partner over for a celebration at our home yesterday. My mom wound up hurting her back, so we went to see her on Friday instead, and enjoyed spending time with the kids over the weekend. My mom was feeling a bit better, and we had a nice visit (with my dad, too). And having the kids over is always fun.

So not much focus on the writing, but that’s OK.

Nothing to report on in Tennessee, but I hope to have some more house pictures soon. Oh, and this is why my husband and I didn’t buy each other any gifts–we’re buying each other a new house, LOL!

What I’ve Been Reading: I’m not going to name this week’s book, because while I enjoyed it, it really ticked me off.

I knew when I bought it that it was short, no problem. I knew it was the start of a series, so I expected that there would be some plot points not tied up at the end.

Except what it actually was, was the start of a serial.

Meaning nothing was tied up. It left off in the middle of the action, and nothing was complete.

I’ve read serials before, and it’s fine when I know that’s what I’m getting into. I’ll typically wait on them until the whole series is out, so I can grab the next book right away. In this case, there’s one more book out, but I have zero expectation that it’s finished, so I’ll pass on that. Fool me once, you know?

I also got a nonfiction book from the library that just wasn’t doing anything for me, so I let the loan expire. No big deal.

So not a good week for reading. I’ve started another novel by an author I know will deliver, and I bought an omnibus of the series, so no worries about being left hanging. I already read the first book, and it was appropriately tied up (with a few things left loose) so I have no worries about this one.

What I’ve Been Writing: With all the celebrations, I lowered my weekly goal to four days writing, of 500 words each. I hit that goal with 2200 words. Normally, I’d raise the words/day for this week, but it could be a busy one too, so I’m leaving it at 500. I’m also still getting a feel for the story, so more is pushing it.

What about you–any celebrations in your life lately? They don’t need to be a milestone like mine! How’s your reading been? Do you like serials, or stick to fully-finished books? How have you been doing on whatever goals you’re working on, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!