Weekend Happenings

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Hi everyone!

 

I hope you all had a good weekend. We didn't do much for Memorial Day, because everyone was busy hauling cows out to pasture, but me and Henry did walk down to the cemetery and put flowers on some of his great grandparents' graves. Henry helped by carrying the old ratty looking flowers to the dumpster.

 

It was a long walk, so I also acquired him a toddler bike, so next time, something else can carry him around when he gets tired.

 

Something fun happened over the weekend also. My cat, Inej, had gone missing a few months ago. At first I thought she might have just gone wandering, like farm cats will do, but then she wasn't coming back, so I worried maybe she got hit by a car or something.

 

Well, Monday my neighbor texted me to let me know that she had Inej, and her three kittens, and was going to bring them over since they were big enough to travel. Cue the little girl excitement.

 

Henry was asleep when she dropped them off, so when he woke up I took him outside and he was so excited. He actually handles them remarkably gentle, which I was surprised. Aren't they cute?

 

 

So when my neighbor said three kittens, I instantly started picking names for them. (I have a long history of naming kittens crazy band or book names. It's a tradition.) For some reason, I just assumed boy names. Everything is a boy to me. If I don't know what an animal is, I automatically say good boy. Don't ask me why. So I had three glorious boy names picked out, only to find out they were all girls.

 

Now, I had a cat named Peter Pan as a little kid, who was very much a girl, so the thought did cross my mind to go ahead and name them boy names anyway, but I caved in and chose girl names instead.

 

This is Vittani. She's pretty shy, but adorable.

 

This one is Shasta, and seems to be Henry's favorite. She's the most friendly, laid back of the bunch.

 

This one didn't get a name for a long time. I was drawing a blank. But I eventually decided to call her Minoa.

 

Henry also got to go to the pool for the first time, with several of his cousins. I didn't take any pictures, because I was pretty busy trying to convince him he wouldn't drown. He wanted to go in, but he kept getting cold and wanting out then, so we're going to go back on a hotter day.

 

He also got a new bed. *brushes tear* They grow up so fast.

 

 

Even though yesterday wasn't technically the weekend anymore, Jarod came home early since it had been raining, and we went and drove around the lake till dark. I haven't driven around the lake in several years, so I had a blast, and it was so relaxing to just wander around with Henry snoozing in the back seat.

 

And lets not forget the sunset.

 

What did you do over the weekend? Tell me all about it!

 

I'm Going to Starve to Death

Hello everyone!

 

Today we are totally detouring away from anything book or writing related, and we're going to talk about me instead.

 

When I was around sixteen I suddenly developed eczema, after never having it before. Long story short, I went to a series of doctors who told me all kinds of things, like change my detergent, use lotion, take more vitamins, use this steroid cream for the rest of your life, and stop using soap.

 

I live on a farm. You know that right? I can't just...STOP using soap.

 

There was also that one really helpful doctor who said it will never go away and there's absolutely nothing you can do about. Thank you.

A couple months ago though, I found a doctor who thought the eczema outbreaks might be a delayed food allergy reaction, so we did blood work and a food panel and tested me for allergies to 98 common foods.

 

Sure enough, my blood work showed that I was definitely reacting to something.

 

Now, I love food. I love cooking, eating, pinning it on Pinterest, the works. So when a doctor tells me I'm allergic to something I'm eating, I went into panic mode. Which food was he going to tell me? The horror.

Turns out I'm allergic to dairy. Like, basically all of it. Except mozzarella cheese. I don't know what mozzarella did to be kicked out of the Abuse Maddie club, but he isn't in it. So out goes my morning glass of milk, cheddar bites, grilled cheese, all things wonderful.

 

I'm also allergic to every type of grain, as well as gluten. I'm not allergic to corn though, which is a relief because I live in Nebraska.

So essentially, dairy and grains are conspiring together to keep me from eating pizza.

So, the doctor's plan is for me to completely go cold turkey off all those foods for two months, and see if that clears up my skin at all.

It. Has. Been. Torture.

I thought at first it might not be too hard. Stop drinking milk, skip the bread on hamburgers. But no, it's in everything. Meatloaf has bread, milk, and cheese in it, and it tastes like garbage without it.

Tacos without cheese or sour cream, on nasty corn tortillas are miserable things. What is the actual point of chili if you can't eat it with cheese, crackers, and cornbread? The answer: There is no point.

Basically, I'm going to shrivel up to nothing and starve to death, because I don't know what to cook. Gluten free recipes still use dairy. Dairy free recipes use wheat. Grain free recipes are full of sugar, which I'm not supposed to have either.

I need Paleo, Vegan, Keto, sugar free recipes, all rolled up into one, essentially. Here's the deal. You can't take the sugar, dairy, grains, and gluten out of a recipe and have anything left.

Which leaves plain meats, fruits, and vegetables.

 

But get this, I'm allergic to more.

Honey, and cinnamon. Eggplant. Green beans. (Why? That's literally the only vegetable Jarod will even eat, and I'm allergic to it.) Also, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and pineapple.

I love pineapple. Why must I be allergic to it?

 

So, in short, it's been a very depressing week. My body hates me, and I'm starving.
Every time I think I get an idea for a meal to make, there's my allergies, laughing at me.

Jerks.



All Images From Google

Tales of Editing

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Hello everyone!

Today we're going to delve into what my editing process has looked like with Red as Blood.

 

I received the line edits and revision requests at the end of April, and have been trying to work on them a little each day.

 

The team at Rooglewood Press sent me seven big things that they wanted worked on in the story, along with leaving notes and comments in the document regarding specific lines and scenes.

I'll say, its been really exciting getting to work with real editors, and have that input, but also pretty terrifying.

 

I actually cried after I read through the notes and revisions the first time. Not because I didn't like any of their requests, or that they were harsh, because they were very helpful and encouraging. But it just seemed so overwhelming. There were comments everywhere. So many things I needed to fix and smooth out and plot better.

 

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One of the main things that popped up repeatedly was the lack of emotion involved in my main character, Zaig. He's the only point of view character for the story, and I'm afraid I didn't let the reader into his head, at all. Mysterious guys are great and all, but not when they're the only character and you never get to find out about them. So I have to fix that.

 

That realization was really depressing. I shouldn't have been surprised. That has been the consistent problem with all of my stories since I started writing years ago.

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I believe I was actually told that I blocked everyone out on my own emotions as a teenager, so apparently its a pattern.

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You would think I would have figured out how to fix a problem that I've had for at least ten years, but no. It's still very much a problem, and one of the main things I'm struggling to incorporate into the story.

 

Another big issue, that also kind of ties into the emotion problem, is that the editors apparently picked up on a romance in the story that I didn't purposely write, and are now wanting more development on it. Now, I am thrilled that they ship my characters together. But I am totally floundering at trying to deepen a relationship that I didn't know existed. I'm trying.

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So, how does one go about editing a story exactly?

 

Well, the first week I didn't have my computer so I dashed over to my parents' house and opened and saved all the files so that I could print them off. Once I had the story printed I went through with a blue pen and added in notes on all the comments the editors left. Then with a red pen I went through and wrote down my reactions and thoughts on how to fix those problems.

Yes, that is Ernie

 

My computer is back now, thank goodness, so that has made things much easier, and I've been able to go through the document on the computer and add in those things I wrote on paper. Some of it has been simple, easy fixes, just adding a line or two. Other times I've had to add whole scenes, and cut out others.

 

One of the changes requested was to change the story world/time setting. I'll give you a guess at what period its going to be set in now.

It's all for the best though. When I'm not banging my head against the computer I'm really enjoying where this story is heading, and liking the characters even more than I originally did.

 

The past several days I was horrifically stuck and complaining about my lack of inspiration, and Jarod said: "Why don't you pray about it before you start every day?"

 

That was a breakthrough moment, and I have no idea why I didn't think of that. He's such a great hubby. I don't know what I'd do without him. (Certainly wouldn't get this story edited, that's for sure.)

 

Yesterday was a great day, and I was able to knock out a huge chunk while Henry was taking a nap. I'm now halfway through chapter six, out of eight total. They're not perfect yet. I've mainly been going through and fixing the big things that I'm confident in, and as the characters and world are developing more I'm jotting down notes of little things that come to me later, and I'll go back afterward and fill those in.

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So despite the craziness, it's actually going pretty well, and I'm super glad I get the opportunity to work with editors and deadlines, and all this "real" writer stuff.

 

Camp NaNo 2018

 

Hello everyone!

 

This past April I participated in Camp NaNo. It's an offshoot of NaNoWriMo (National writing month) where instead of trying to write a fifty thousand word novel in the month, you can choose whatever word count goal you want, and try to reach it in the month of April.

 

This year I decided to work on my Bad Boy story, since it was only a couple thousand words long to begin with, and my goal was fifty thousand.

 

Honestly, I just set that number because that's the usual word count for a novel, but I had no intentions of actually reaching it. Camp NaNo was just something to occupy my time until I got the edits from Rooglewood Press, on my Red as Blood story (more about those in a different post).

 

Does anyone else have the problem where if you're told you can't do something, you want to do it that much more?

It can't just be me.

 

Everything went wrong that month. We had a freak blizzard blow up, and were without electricity for four days, so I was writing everything by hand.

Then the RAM in my laptop quit, and it was being repaired for nine days, so I did all of my writing using Notes on my phone.

 

All month long I was just a little bit behind my target word goal, and the idea of the month ending and missing my goal by a couple thousand bugged me to no end, so I kept on.

 

And, as evidenced by the lovely button up there, I won! I made it to 50K, with a little bit extra!

 

Bad Boy, is nowhere near finished though. I'd say it's only at about the halfway point. But that's ok! It's a great start, and I've got it on pause for right now to work on Red as Blood edits, but the first draft should definitely be completed this year.

 

Most of the new stuff I wrote is still on paper or in my phone, so I'm not going to post any snippets just yet. But soon!

 

Now, I'm off to either wash dishes, or do some more editing. I'll decide which one on the way.

 

What about you? Did you do anything fun in April? Did anything go horribly wrong? Did your stubbornness kick in and spur you to action? Do tell. I'd love to hear from you.

 

 

Book Review: A Stray Drop of Blood

From Google

Hello everyone! 

Today I’m going to be reviewing A Stray Drop of Blood by Roseanna M. White.

My computer’s RAM quit, so I’m currently without a laptop and doing this all on my phone, so I apologize in advance for any formatting errors, and the lack of pictures. 

Alright. Moving on. 

My rating is 4 out of 5. 

About the Book:

Beautiful is a dangerous thing to be when one is unprotected. For seven years, Abigail has been a slave in the Visibullis house. With a Hebrew mistress and a Roman master, she has always been more family than servant . . . until their son returns to Jerusalem after his years in Rome. Within a few months Jason has taken her to his bed and turned her world upsidedown. Maybe, given time, she can come to love him as he says he loves her. But how does she open her heart to the man who ruined her? Israel's unrest finds a home in her bosom, but their rebellion tears apart her world. Death descends with Barabbas's sword, and Abigail is determined to be there when the criminal is punished. But when she ventures to the trial, Barabbas is not the one the crowd calls to crucify. Instead, it is the teacher her master and Jason had begun to follow, the man from Nazareth that some call the Son of God . . . Born free, made a slave, married out of her bonds, Abigail never knows freedom until she feels the fire of a stray drop of blood from a Jewish carpenter. Disowned by Israel, despised by Rome, desired by all, she never knows love until she receives the smile of a stoic Roman noble. 

My thoughts: 

This book destroyed me. I haven’t touched a book since. It was literally the most love/hate relationship I’ve ever had with a book. It made me feel every single emotion there is. Happiness, love, anger, hatred, utter confusion. I questioned my morals at times. 

I love books that can do that to me. 

To give a little bit more detail than that, I really loved how White made the biblical story world so realistic. I’ve never studied ancient Israel or Rome, but she wove in so many details that I felt like a master of it by the time I was finished. 

I also loved how she stayed completely true to the biblical account of the events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion, but created such an amazing story for these new characters. 

This book combines all the things I always wish christian fiction had more of. The characters were so flawed and imperfect and human. The salvation that many of them experience feels real and genuine, and I love how that saving faith doesn’t just make them all suddenly sinless. They still struggle afterward. Big time. I also like the fact that their personalities stayed the same after being saved. I wasn’t left reeling thinking who is this character all the sudden. 

I love how even though Jesus was literally walking the earth during the time of this story, Roseanna doesn’t take liberties with miracles. She uses them, and they are talked about, but she doesn’t build up a huge problem only to have a miracle step up and save the day. 

And oh my goodness the characters. Amazing.

Abigail is the main character and she’s everything a female role should be. She’s strong, and witty, and fun. But also feminine, and vulnerable. 

Jason was the character I wanted desperately to hate but absolutely couldn’t. He was the one who had me questioning my morals. I feel like I should have hated him, at least at the beginning, but I didn’t. 

Titus is another character that gave me fits. He starts out as an angry jerk, and I loved him. Through the middle of his character arc I could not stand him, and I threatened to stop reading the book because he made me so mad. And then towards the end I once again started to like the guy. 

Menelaus was a side character who didn’t get a lot of page time, but I loved him anyway. 

Content:

This is definitely not a book for younger readers. It deals a lot with topics like sex and rape. 

Now, the author handles it fantastically, and doesn’t get graphic, and she’s very good at portraying the pagan lifestyle of Rome during that time, but some people still might be uncomfortable with it. For the most part I had no trouble with it, but there were a couple characters that made me uncomfortable, so that’s why I gave it four stars. 

Overall, it was a thrilling roller coaster of a ride, and once I’m able to pick up a book again, it will probably be the sequel.