Melliferous Monday

melliferous ~ producing or forming honey

So . . . Happy New Year, eh?

*Looks around sheepishly*

Once again I got caught up in the whole mythos that a new year means a new beginning and this year will be different. It’s not really. It’s the same old, same old, only further along in the calendar.

So . . . I guess since January is almost over I should start posting again, starting with a recap of how I rang in the new year.

We spent the holiday weekend here:

It was cold and wet and unless you’re into wax museums, fun houses, or casinos (which the hubby isn’t) there isn’t a whole lot to do there. If it had just been cold we would have done a lot more walking around, but it rained most of the time we were there.

The TV in our room got maybe 5 channels, and 3 of those were sports networks. And while I did bring a book with me, I finished it by the second day. That’s when I made a horrifying discovery. THERE ARE NO BOOKSTORES IN NIAGARA FALLS!

I asked at the front desk and they just stared at me blankly. I could almost see the wheels turning – “book? What is book?” Not only are there no book stores, there are no books, not even in the convenience stores. There were no books, there were no magazines, there weren’t even any newspapers. Do the people in Niagara Falls not read???

Mental note: Do not go on vacation anywhere without an e-reader.

New Year’s Eve we were going to have dinner at one of the restaurants on Clifton Hill (where all the action is) and made it as far as the hotel lobby. It was pouring rain so we quickly changed our plan to dining in the hotel’s restaurant.

To our surprise, despite the rain the nine o’clock fireworks went off. Later on the rain had let up so we ventured down to the bottom of the hill with about a million other people to watch the midnight fireworks (it started to rain again before we got there so we bought an umbrella from one of the souvenir shops).

The only other thing of note during my absence was the grandbaby’s birthday. My little sweetie is now four! Can you believe it?

Guess I’ll have to stop calling her “the grandbaby, eh?

Goodbye 2014 . . .

. . . and don't let the door hit you on the way out!

Anybody else as ready to say goodbye to 2014 as I am? But was it really as bad as I remember, or is that just the spin I'm putting on it. Let's review to find out, shall we?

To refresh your (and my) memory, here's a list of my goals for the year:

1. Organize my days
2. Publish three books
3. Do more self-promotion
4. Submit short stories and poems on a regular basis
5. Find a writing schedule I can live with and stick to it
6. De-clutter
7. Catalogue my books
8. Exercise more
9. Start using up the wool stash in my craft closet
10. Read more and more of a variety

So how did I do?

1. Organize my days
No. Not even close. It has nothing to do with schedules or having enough time, and everything to do with laziness and procrastination.

2. Publish three books
Again, no. The three books I'd specified in my goals were An Elemental Water, Lucky Dog, and Wandering Wizards. An Elemental Water was indeed published, although later than I'd hoped, but although the draft of Lucky Dog is done, it needs some serious editing. And Wandering Wizards I never even so much as looked at. However, I'm close to being done with An Elemental Earth, as well as this year's NaNo, that has the working title of Guardian of the Sea.

3. Do more self-promotion
A big fat hairy no here. If anything, I did even less promotion than I normally do.

4. Submit short stories and poems on a regular basis
I'm seeing a pattern here. No and no. Although I did write a couple of stories and poems. :-)

5. Find a writing schedule I can live with and stick to it
This one gets a "sort of". While I wouldn't exactly call it a schedule, I did get a lot more writing done this year, and the last few months it's been on a regular basis. I've been a little slack over the holidays, but prior to that I was a writing machine.

6. De-clutter
Well, I didn't have much luck getting rid of the clutter, but at least I didn't make it worse.

7. Catalogue my books
Again, this only gets a partial yes. I converted the closet in my office (or to give credit where credit is due, the hubby did most of the work) into a book nook and the books that went into it are catalogued. However, my science fiction and fantasy collection is only the tip of the iceberg as far as my books go.

8. Exercise more
At last! A full and hearty yes! LOL I started out using the stationary bike and hand weights, but then in the early fall I joined a gym and I go at least five times a week.

9. Start using up the wool stash in my craft closet
This one gets a qualified yes. While I did use up a lot of my stash, I also added to it, so I don't know that I'm any further ahead. :-D

10. Read more and more of a variety
While I know I read more of a variety of books, I have no idea if I read more or not. My way of keeping track was Goodreads, and I fell behind on it and never caught up.

So as far as my goals, went, except for the writing, the year was pretty much as much of a failure as I thought. Which is not to say the year was a total failure, just my goals.

But to be honest, it just gives me that much more incentive to do better in 2015.

See you then. :-D

Malefic Monday

Malefic ~ doing mischief; producing evil

There's a old saying: If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. I'm thinking of adopting it as my family motto.

Lady Luck has certainly been fickle lately. And I can't say it's been all bad, just another one of those weeks when the good luck far outweighs the bad. The big one for me this time is a toothache that started Wednesday night . . . and I still have it. Hopefully I'll be able to get in to see a dentist today. Orajel and painkillers work wonders, but there's only so much of them a body can take.

I managed to get my posts up, and on time, I might add, although I didn't write an original poem to go with the poetry form. Just as I was about to leave for my Scribes meeting, a friend whom I haven't taled with for awhile called, so I missed my meeting again.

I'd like to thank Dolly again for guesting me on her blog last week. This week she has L.Jagi Lamplighter Wright discussing why she writes fantasy. Take a moment and check it out.

This Week’s Goals:

Tuesday: Part VI of my fairy tale series takes a look at one of my all time favourites, Rapunzel.

Wednesday: Will feature a new Hump Day Hunk for your viewing pleasure. If you have any preferences, let me know. I’m always willing to do a little research.

Thursday: This week’s poetry form is the Italian form of the Canzone, a from that's related to the Sestina.


Friday: Chapter 43 of the Space Opera. As Chaney asked at the end of last week's chapter, now what?

Elsewhere in my week:

No meetings this week, although there is a poetry reading I should attened on Thursday night. I still haven't picked my poems for the anthology nor have I finished my biography. And the deadline is tonday. *sigh*

Starting Thursday, I get to work from home. At first glance this might seem like a good thing (if not a great thing) but what it'll all boil down to is self-discipline. As in, only time will tell if I have any.

That’s pretty much what’s on my plate for the week, how about yours?

Mulligrubs Monday

mulligrubs - a despondent or ill-tempered mood

The jury’s still out on the new colours for this blog, but I didn’t have any time to work on it last week or over the weekend. If you haven’t checked it out already, there’s a new blogfest that starts May 18. This is the Let’s Talk Blogfest and you can either read the original post HERE or pop over to my Random Writings blog HERE to get a look at the rules for it.

Last week was pretty busy at work. One of the girls messed up big time ‘causing the boss to miss an important deadline. She was let go, which meant the rest of us had to work all that much harder. I brought work home twice for the overtime, which meant I didn’t get any extra writing done.

I did, however, manage to get all my posts up, although I did cheat a bit by not writing an original example for the weekly poetry form. I got Chapter 36 of the Space Opera done on time, even though it meant a late night. For some reason I had a lot of late nights last week.

This weekend, there was another bowling tournament, which meant another weekend spent out of town. (Hubby placed fifth in the Pins Over Average) I didn’t bring my lap top with me, but I did get some constructive writing done. I finished reading a novella a friend wants me to edit, and then I did some edits on my own work. I also managed to squeeze in time to write a couple of poems.

This Week’s Goals:

Tuesday: I’m not sure if I’ll be starting the new series this week or not. We’ll see how much time I have tonight. If not, I’ll see if I can scare up some other random facts for your perusal.

Wednesday: I think it might be time for a little more pet humour.

Thursday: This week’s Passion for Poetry form is the Tanka, a Japanese form much like the haiku (in that it’s a syllabic form) only it’s longer.

Friday: Chapter 37 of the Space Opera. What will the captain tell the rest of the crew? Just how will Nakeisha contact the Illezie?

Elsewhere in my week:

I have a meeting of the Northumberland Scribes tonight – yes, again! We’re supposed to meet the first and third Monday of each month, but last month got screwed up because of activities in the library where the group meets.

Other than my friend’s novella, I didn’t’ get much reading done last week (though I did manage to buy three more books), so I’d like to squeeze some time in for that, if possible. I guess it’ll depend on whether or not I bring any work home with me. It’s not that I have to bring work home, it’s just that I get paid the same wage for working at home as I do for working at the office. VISA and Mastercard insist on being paid on a regular basis, so I need all the money I can earn.

So that’s what’s in my near future. How about you? What are you up to this week?