IWSG: March 2019

Welcome to the monthly bloghop created by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Join us as we share advice, insecurities and all things writing. Find the complete list of participants on the IWSG site.

Each month an optional question is thrown out there. This month's question:
Whose perspective do you like to write from best, the hero (protagonist) or the villain (antagonist)? And why?

I enjoy both perspectives but find the antagonist easier to write for. I like to get in the villain's mind so the reader can see why the bad guy thinks he's the good guy. That's more fun than pure evil.

If you're in the northeast like me, you were swatted with three snowstorms in four and a half days that wound up Monday morning. I'm tired of snow, but my granddaughter loves it. Shoveling and sled riding. Grammy has been walking a lot of hills this winter. I'm ready to plant some flowers.

"Gardeners, I think, dream bigger dreams than emperors." Mary Cantwell

This cold, snowy winter is really difficult for the homeless. I hope you remember the shelters and churches, and food banks that help those people.

"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others remains immortal." Albert Pike

Participating in IWSG always reminds me how fast time is flying by. My granddaughter turned two years old this past weekend. Where does the time go?

The excitement is really building for the last season of Game of Thrones. I can't imagine the pressure the writers must feel with the weight of viewers expectations upon them. We all have our theories and want our favorites to survive. We all have anticipations about the upcoming reunions and hope they're as emotionally fulfilling as we expect. We all have a few characters we hope get their due. There will so much judgement when it's finally over.

"There has never been a statue set up in honor of a critic." Jean Sibelius

I recently binged The Umbrella Academy on Netflix. It was entertaining but not great. I do hope for a second season. Any suggestions on what to binge while I'm visiting blogs today?

A lot of things are going on this week. Ash Wednesday is today. Friday is International Women's Day and Captain Marvel comes out appropriately that day. It's also my youngest son's birthday. His closest friends always text him on his birthday and wish him Happy International Women's Day instead of happy birthday.

"It is the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Next weekend, Daylight Savings Time begins. A lot of people don't like the time change and I hate losing the hour of sleep, but I like having dark in the morning and sunlight later in the day.

Do you like reading the antagonist's POV? Do you have some expectations for season 8 of Thrones that will influence your enjoyment of the series' end? Are you a Daylight Savings Time fan or do you hate it?

IWSG: March 2018

I missed a few weeks blogging in February, but no way was I going to miss the IWSG blog hop held on the first Wednesday of every month. Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for starting the group and all the administrators who do so much work to keep it running and growing. Join us and share your woes, successes, and ask questions. There's lot of talent here to help. Check out all the participants on this complete list.

The optional question this month: How do you celebrate when you achieve a writing goal or finish a piece of work?

I BUY BOOKS, OF COURSE! Not just buy them, but go meander around a bookstore for hours. And books plural, not just one.

Speaking of bookstores, here's an interesting article where comparing the buyer experience at an Amazon physical store and a Barnes and Noble bookstore. I know lots of us are bracing ourselves for the coming doom of Barnes and Noble. At my most recent writers' meeting, more than one author referred to Amazon as the evil empire.

I ordered a new printer. I had my last one for probably six years. I don't know if that's a good lifespan for a printer or not. It's arriving today so next Monday's post could be full of curse words in reference to how difficult it was to get it all figured out and WiFi active.

I'm almost 20K into my next WIP. Starting a new series that I don't have a title for yet, but I'm back in space for a little space opera romance. I'm writing a bit more than one thousand words per day but I'd like to up that to two thousand. I do use some of the techniques described in this article on how to write fast.

A member of my local writing group, Hope Stephan, gave a presentation on procrastination at our writers meeting. It was extremely interesting. There's an entire industry of books, podcast, and every other form of self-help stuff aimed at procrastinators. Hope shared this quote:

"Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly." Alain de Botton

Also,last Saturday, my granddaughter turned one year old. That year went so fast. She's walking though only when she wants to. She loves being outside though the weather isn't always cooperative. She's my little joy. We all need some joy.

My youngest son has a birthday tomorrow, so we're all in on a week of celebration. Not good when it's snowing again and I can't get outside to walk.

I'm looking forward to the return of Timeless this coming Sunday. I re-watched the first season last week. And my favorite summer show, Salvation, did get a second season. March Madness is almost upon us. I played basketball in high school and all my children played the game at some point in their athletic careers. But I'll be so sick of it in a few weeks, I won't be able to enjoy it. Way too many hours of it on TV.

Don't forget to turn your clocks ahead this weekend for Daylight Savings Time. And remember this:
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." Groucho Marx

How do you celebrate reaching a goal? Are you a procrastinator? How long should a printer last? Are you dreading springing ahead?

IWSG: November Edition

November already! And time for the monthly posting for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. This supportive group started by Alex J. Cavanaugh, offers advice, shares our woes and cheer for each others' successes. You can join this wonderful group by signing up here.  And even if you're not already a member, you can visit other bloggers today.

A few months ago, we started posing a monthly question to our members. Members don't have to answer it, but if they don't know quite what to post that day, they can use it.

This month's question:
What is your favorite aspect of being a writing?

I love being self-employed. I love working at home. The coffee is good at home, but I can also have a glass of wine while I'm at work. Reading is part of my job. I have a great office. I guess I just can't pick one aspect. I love being a writer. Oh, and I've met some great friends.

Other news. The IWSG anthology contest has a large number of great entries. Way to go, you wonderful writers. And I love that so many have submitted even though not everyone will be in the anthology, people will keep writing. This business is about never giving up.

More news! Crystal Collier has a new release. Timeless, the third book in her Maiden of Time series, is now available on Amazon. And to celebrate, the first book, Moonless, is now available for free but only for a few days.

Don't forget that Daylight Savings Time Ends this weekend. The dark will be coming early which doesn't bother me at all when it's cold out. I always get more writing done in the winter.

Recently in a shocking revelation, my husband and I discovered my daughter didn't know who Yogi Berra was. What is the world coming to?
"The future ain't what it used to be?" Yogi Berra

Do you like when the time changes? What do you like about being a writer? Are you grabbing up Crystal's free book?

Full Steam Ahead, Fall Back

I'm sooo busy. My job on the board with Pennwriters is keeping me busier than I want to be. Keeping up with this blog and putting in appearances in on Twitter and Facebook now an then takes up a good bit of time.

The husband still needs my help on the big paint job he's working on. My mother's birthday is today and I knew my sister and brother would visit her in the long-term care facility she lives in so I went yesterday. She's turning ninety today. I bundled her up and took her for a walk out in the residential streets where we could run her wheel chair through the leaves. It was a good time and helped pull up a few of those quickly disappearing memories of the past. Her smiles made the long trip worth it many times over.

The new WIP is coming along and the characters are becoming real people like they're supposed to. It's at the point where it's on my mind all the time. Good thing.

And there's still lots of outside work to be done. Some flowerbeds need a little loving before winter jumps us.

Facebook group for BC awareness

Later this week I'm going for my mammogram. Did all you old ladies get yours this year? Did you guys remind your wives and mothers? Be aware.  Not a fun thing but better to get rid of that one worry.

From The Old Farmer's Almanac trivia:
Tomorrow, October 29th is the birthday of the ballpoint pen, first sold in 1945 for $12.50 each.
In medieval England, apples and nuts were believed to have magical powers and thus were eaten on October 31st.

And I saved the best two things for last. You still have a few more days to send in your short story for the first IWSG anthology contest. Get the details and send it by November first.

Second thing. Turn your clocks back Saturday for the ending of Daylight Savings Time. An hour of sleeping in though it does mean it gets dark around 5 p.m.

Be save for Halloween. I'm staying home.

What has you busy? Any Halloweening in your future this year? Do you like when the time changes? Would you pay that for a ballpoint pen? I wonder how much that would be with today's inflation rate taken into account.

Final Freezing Friday

Last day of bitter, freezing cold. I hope. If my knee isn't too sore from shoveling snow yesterday, I'm going to exercise outside anyway. Unless the roads are still icy. Our neighborhood wasn't plowed until around four in the afternoon so there was no chance for the roads to clear before it froze. And did you know that chucking snow involves a lot of twisting at the knees if you're saving your back? My orthopedic surgeon explained that to me last winter as he injected it with cortisone. Took a record five cups of coffee, two large mugs of tea and glasses and glasses of water to get me through moving this last snow.

Onto brighter things for the weekend. Tomorrow morning is my local writers meeting. I love the members. They're so upbeat and supportive. There's none of that clique stuff and not getting along going on with our group. Our president is speaking about goal setting and since my plans for the year have recently been shaken about, I need to hear some of that.

On to other good news, I'm getting pretty excited about my A to Z theme as I work on posts. I hope I can tell you in next Friday's wrap-up brag a little about all my posts being done. And I'm well over half way into my first draft of my current WIP and that makes me happy. I'm almost to the part, the last quarter, where I always write fastest.

On the home front, my daughter will be home on Saturday night for spring break. We already made plans for almost every day. And then I'm going to drive her back the following weekend and spend the night. We made plans for that night too. Sunday is my youngest son's birthday so we'll probably have a house full of family all day. It will be cards games all day long and lots of teasing and picking on one another. That's how we do it.

Don't forget about the start of daylight saving time this weekend. I do love it when it stays light later in the day.

"Self-praise smells bad." Swedish proverb

Are you getting your posts ready for A to Z? Ever had a cortisone shot? Knees are as bad as in the ankle. Had to reevaluate your goals lately? Did you remember it was daylight savings time? Met anyone lately that stank of self-praise?

Fast Friday

Fast as in, how is it the end of October already? I always liked November as a teacher because there are lots of vacation days mixed in there. Now that I'm retired, it means the end to Daylight Savings Time. Early dark will inspire me to spend more hours writing. I hope. Don't forget to turn your clocks back tomorrow night. And some people change their smoke detector batteries when the time changes so don't forget that. We always do that in December.

In time for Halloween, here's a link about a puppy-sized spider. Not many things scare me but there is something really creepy about spiders. Knowing one of these proportions really exists is nightmare material. And two inch long fangs! Check out this scary creature. It must be an alien.

Tomorrow is my local writers' meeting. I love those and I even made my writing goal for this month after two months in a row of missing it. Starting next week, our writers group is having an online class on SEO. That is such an ever changing project that I'm looking forward to learning some things. Whatever those things are.

From the Old Farmer's Almanac:
The remedy for bad times is to be patient with them. Arabian proverb

Five Moon phases in one month (like this one) foretell a cold winter and a cool summer.

According to Greek tradition, a cactus placed by the front door will guard a home against evil.

Put your Halloween pumpkins out in the woods or fields for wildlife to snack on.

And this little graph of what is going on at my house. Now that my son from Colorado is back in the house for the winter, things are a little noisier. Lots of children, grown children, filling the silence and disrupting the peace in the most fun sense of the word.

Questions the kids ask mom vs dad.

Do you change your smoke detector batteries at this time? Love or hate Daylight Savings Time? Do you have a cactus by the front door? What do you do with your pumpkins after Halloween? Care to meet a spider the size of a small dog?

Newest Excuse

Wormhole fest post here.

It's not difficult to find methods of procrastination or make excuses for indulging in them. My best one this week is that my children are on spring break and I'm in full mom-mode cooking and giving them some special care. But each morning when I wake up, surprised at how late I slept, I'm reminded of a more scientific rational for not getting more of my A to Z posts ready this week.

Statistics show that the recent time change to Daylight Savings Time is really slowing me down. Some of the things we can blame on the recent loss of an hour's sleep?

How about higher blood pressure and more chance of heart attack until we adjust? More care accidents occur. More wasting time on the web when we should be working. Overeating. More headaches. Just about every study points out lower productivity at work. Even the stock market supposedly reacts with a bit of a nap.

I can vouch for lower productivity on this home front but I'm not sure I can blame it on that lost hour.

As a sports family, we've always loved this time change for giving us that hour of daylight in the evening so we could 'play ball.' And after this vicious winter, the extra sunlight will be appreciated.

Just as there are many negative things connected to this time, some studies also show that once you adjust to the change, you'll be happier as the hours of natural light extend into evening. That's my next excuse. How can I write when it's so sunny and warm out?

Did the time change bother you at all? All adjusted by now? Did you notice any of the above mentioned issues? What's your biggest rational to procrastinate recently? Have a good one I can use?

Don't forget Wormhole Week. Join the fun as we speculate on our technological future.