Yesterday was amazing….

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Not only did I get that blog post written while helping my son with his home school but I managed to edit two chapters in my spy novel. I haven’t worked on that in almost a month, woot. I would call that effective. To ice the whole cake, my son read me a book yesterday for the first time ever. Which means in three months of home school I taught him to read from a place where he did not even know most of his letters, let alone what sounds they made.

I also announced to my hubby that the thing that will have to give, since we got Jersey back, is the house. And he said. Ok honey.

hrm….good thing he’s not at all observant. LOL

My son read me a book. Giggle, bounce, gleeful little dance!

I am not tired, I am frustrated

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I think I have said that like nine times the last ten minutes. Homeschooling is painful. It really is. But growth is always painful. Or so I remind myself son a daily basis, so I will keep taking a deep breathe and help my son grow.

Yesterday was my first do it all weekday since Jersey came back home. Sigh. I did not get everything done. Surprise, surprise. I suppose if it had been easy before I wouldn’t have been looking to rehome my dogs in the first place. Somehow I need to find a way to recalibrate the math and make more hours in the day.

Right now I am writing this blog while I help my son with his reading/writing home school work. How effective is that? I have no idea. Laughing. But since I plan to move from the blog to working on my spy novel in a minute, I’ll let you know later.

Just when you thought it was safe to make plans….

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Friday night I got a call from the dogs’ new owners. Jersey had been digging in their back yard and they rent. Would I please take him back but they want to keep Blue. Absolutely.

So after I hang up the phone, my husband asks how I feel about this and I tell him quite honestly I’m not sure I can do it again. Jersey was my dog. And giving him up was excruciating. So hubby says, Ok, let’s try keeping him and see how it goes with just him.

I picked him up Saturday morning. He was definitely wigged out the first day but has since settled back in to home. I think he’s happier being the only dog in the house, maybe.

But getting him back means I need to make some changes so I can meet his needs now a long with everything else on my list. sigh. What it really means is I need to get up an hour earlier so I can walk him before my husband leaves for work. The problem with that, I am NOT a morning person in the worst way.

Take today for example, first day I need to get up at 6 so I can spend an hour drinking coffee and working on my writing, before I walk the dog. I rolled out of bed at 740, pulled on the first clothes I could find, poured myself a cup of coffee in a to-go mug and started walking the dog with my eyes still mostly closed. I don’t think I even remember the first stumbling half of the walk.

I could continue to get up at 730 and have time to walk the dog before the hubby leaves for work, if I want to repeat the stumbling along with coffee experience daily, but that would mean giving up my writing time. And this is the kind of decision that led to me agreeing to rehome them in the first place. I remember in my 20s getting up at 445 to work out before being at the office at 7. I remember the job I had with a 5 AM start time. I had no problem making these hours. Why can’t I get up?

I think it’s because patiently and kindly handling my son all day long is more exhausting than when I worked two jobs, than when I worked a full time job and I went to college. And that sucks.

Stupid Grin on my face

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I drove home from the cafe last night with one of those perma grins that don’t feel fake on my face. In fact, I’m still grinning now as I type this.

See after the title research and debate, I settled on a title, no I’m not sharing now, you can wait. Then I started negotiations with the woman I wanted to handle my cover design and art. Not only was she super excited about the project but we were totally on the same thought plane about it. We spent about 2 hours hammering out all the initial issues and the design is on it’s way to form and function.

It was on the long drive home that it hit me. I am going to publish. Why designing the cover art should make me feel that way when writing the novel, editing the novel, sending it out for beta, etc didn’t make me feel it, I couldn’t say.

I am going to publish. Let that sit for a moment.

I am going to jump the chasm between hobbyist writer and published author. How flipping cool is that?

Fun with Words

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It’s Wednesday night write in time. I finally made it back to the writers cafe. Two weeks no cafe was painful. But I’m back. Deep sigh of satisfaction.

And tonight I decided to work on my novel title. I got no good suggestion from you all so I was forced to irritate my friends until I got some research ideas.

First I googled famous world war 2 poems and pulled a selection of lines from those. Then I read all of Churchill’s famous speeches from the war and pulled some lines from there.

Then I read all the options and waited while people critiqued each one. These critiques have really helped me start to come up with a list of possibilities that are my own. Although my favorite is already a published titled. But still I have a list to start from.

Woohoo! This is only one of the many many reasons I love my writers group. So love and a shout out to Sno Valley Writes. Check them out here. http://www.snovalleywrites.org

The Versatile Blogger Award – Thank you!

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I would like to thank Sheri for nominating me for this oh so prestigious award. Check out her blog here https://sherijkennedyriverside.wordpress.com. She posts about the wide variety of art forms she embraces.

So 7 Things About Me:

1) I moved to Washington less than two years ago. Until that time I lived the vast majority of my life in Silicon Valley. I knew I didn’t like it there but I had no idea how much until I moved here and relaxed years of tension. Moving to somewhere where you know no one allows the space to reevaluate your life and the way you live. You can make changes. I made changes.

2) I started writing when I was a child. I entered one contest in elementary school and was the only child not to get at least an honorable mention. I took that very much to heart and stopped submitting my work anywhere. I was in my 20’s when I took a creative writing class. At the same time I decided to try my hand at blogging. The entire experiment lasted only a few weeks but during that time I posted up a short story I wrote for my class and a friend of a friend of a friend bought said short story with my time to convert it to a screen play for a short film. It never got made into a film.

3) I’m married with one adorable six year old son.

4) I spent most of my working years in the tech field. I’ve been a project manager, desktop services manager, corporate videographer, and a desktop services tech – inhouse.

5) I have a degree in history. I had plans to teach. Then we moved here. Teaching is very much a who you know game at the community college level. I don’t know anyone here. I needed a new plan. Currently I use my degree to backstop my novels.

6) I credit my kiddo with bringing me back to writing (and my cuz David). Nanowrimo came along at just the right time. I needed something for myself after struggling with an undiagnosed ASD two year old all day. Once we moved here Nano plugged me into an amazing group of writers who have become some of my favorite friends.

7) I love games. In fact some might call me compulsive about games. LOL. Board games or card games as long as they have at least equal parts strategy and luck, the more strategy the better. I actually spent a cruise to Hawaii, the at sea portion, learning to play bridge and playing bridge. laughing at myself.

The Versatile Blogger Award is given in recognition for the great commitment, diverse talents and generosity shown by bloggers here in our community. There is so much creativity on display that it is difficult to reduce a list to only a few, but for those nominated, it is hoped that it will motivate them as well as celebrate their work to date.

Here are the rules:

  • Show the award on your blog
  • Thank the person who nominated you
  • Share seven facts about yourself
  • Nominate up to fifteen blogs
  • Link your nominees’ blogs, and let them know

If you’re reading, you’re nominated.

If only I knew then….

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

Remember when you were a kid and you would say when I’m an adult I’ll …

go to disneyland every day

eat ice cream for dinner

never go to bed

etc, etc, etc

And your parents would say just wait, when you’re an adult you’ll find out you have to go to work every day, and pay the mortgage, and the car payment, put dinner on the table, etc, etc, etc.

Sure they were right. But those things aren’t that hard really.

Why didn’t anyone ever talk about what’s really hard being an adult. Making the choices that you hate for because it is the right thing to do for everyone involved. That’s what sucks about being an adult.

I  spent a good hour yesterday bawling like a baby after I rehomed my two dogs. It made sense logically. They were not getting their needs met with us, not since I started home schooling my kiddo. And the situation was not going to improve anytime in the next several years. Home schooling is only going to get more time intensive, the subjects that are hard for the kiddo will only get more complicated. The house must be cleaned, I can’t afford a cleaner. Food bought, meals cooked. These things are not negotiable.

What is negotiable is this: the dogs, my health, my attempt at a writing career. Which one to give up? Which one do I stop spending time on? This is the part that is hard about being an adult.

Clearly, I picked the dogs. I met with a couple who was interested. They brought their current dog with them, he was healthy and friendly. They seemed nice. I let them take my four legged babies home. Then I cried, all the way home, and for some time once I got home, until she sent me a text, with picture of my four legged babies happily laying on the deck at their place.

This morning my house felt empty. My son wanted to talk about the dogs again, it’s how he processes. I managed not to cry but it was a struggle. And then I got a phone call from the new owners, they took the dogs to the vet this morning. Suddenly I feel so much better. They are responsible enough pet owners to get their new babies immediately checked by the vet. Of course, I knew the dogs were healthy, but they checked.

I think everyone will be happier in the long run and quite possibly in the short run for the dogs. They have a new four legged playmate, a huge forest to run in, owners without children who spend their free time hiking and camping.

My husband is already perkier (he doesn’t like pets).

My son gleefully announced, “I forgot to put my shoes away and the dogs didn’t chew them, because the dogs aren’t here,” this morning.

I will eventually finish grieving. But for now, please ignore the occasional fat tear that sneaks down my cheek.

It is my son’s sixth birthday

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In his honor I will enumerate six things I love about him.

1) He knows things. Things that only someone with seriously emotional intelligence would know. Things it took me 30 plus years to learn.

2) He will always have a cuddle with his mommy. Even when I am cranky and irritable and short with him, he will give me a cuddle to help me be in a better mood. He meets irritation with love. I’m still working on that one.

3) He makes me look good. Every where I take him people love him and think he is an amazing little child.

4) He can admit when he doesn’t know things. Another thing it took me like 30 years to learn.

5) He traded in a love of Thomas the Tank engine for Star Wars. This may seem small to the uninitiated but when your child loves something it is a huge part of your life, and I HATED Thomas.

6) Some of my best friends, the people I am closest too, that always get me, that always support me, I met because Henry made friends with their kids. Because Henry makes friends with everyone, every where he goes, every day.

So here’s to an amazing little kid who makes those around him feel special and loved.

Reader Tag Game

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Yesterday a fellow blogger and nano writer posted this to his site with his own answers. My thanks for giving me something to post today. https://thephantomchild.wordpress.com  if you want to check him out.

1) You have 20,000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next?

I don’t have 20, 000 books on my TBR list. In fact I try not to have a TBR list. I read based on what appeals to me at the moment I want to read. Even when I am researching like a mad woman, my TBR only includes those books I am actively pursuing from the library, ie on a wait list for or have ordered them to my branch.

2) You’re halfway through a book and you’re just not loving it. Do you quit or commit?

I never say quit. What actually happens is I put it aside. I actually have a pile under my bedside table for these books. I pretend I am going to pick them back up some day and read them through. In reality what happens is they sit there partly read until they collect dust (this is assuming they are not public library books)and then I get irritated with the clutter and move them up to the library. There they sit until I realize I have run out of room on my shelves and then they get purged for trip to the used book store where I sell them back for more books to read. If they are public library books then they sit half read until the next week when I go to library and quietly return them.

3) The end of the year is coming and you’re so close, yet so far away on your Goodreads Reading Challenge. Do you quit or commit?

I don’t have a Goodreads Reading Challenge. It sounds suspiciously like a TBR list. I don’t do those.

In fact I don’t even have a Goodreads account. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.

4) The covers of a series you love DO. NOT. MATCH. How do you cope?

blink, don’t even care. If the words are good, nothing else matters.

5) Everyone and their mother loves a book you really don’t like. Who do you bond with over shared feelings?

laughing. I rarely find myself reading what other people do. For example, Monday at my son’s co-op another mom saw my book and went “oooh, Death by Chocolate, that sounds delicious.” So I show her the whole cover, where she reads that it’s actually about a Victorian serial killer who used chocolates as her delivery mechanisms in Brighton. Her face fell. “I thought it was a cook book or something.”

6) You’re reading a book and you’re about to start crying in public. How do you deal?

Books rarely make me cry but if they do, I go for it. Why not. Most people don’t think twice about what others are doing anyway.

7) A sequel of a book you loved just came out, but you’ve forgotten a lot from the prior novel. Will you re-read the book? Skip the sequel? Try to find the synopsis on Goodreads? Cry in frustration?

God this is embarrassing to admit but…even when I remember exactly what happened in the previous books, I still read the whole series over again prior to reading the new book. Yes, I read all the Harry Potters each time a new one came out before I read the new one. Each time.

8) You do not want ANYONE borrowing your books. How do you politely tell people nope when they ask?

Um, I actually love to loan my books out. I keep a list of who has what, so I can be sure to get them back.

9) You’ve picked up and put down five books in the past month. How do you get over your slump?

This is also mildly embarrassing to admit but when I am in a “nothing reads good” slump, I read Agatha Christies until it passes. Sometimes it takes me reading every mystery she ever wrote. But it always works.

10) There are so many new books coming out that you’re dying to read! How many do you actually buy?

I only buy that which I cannot get at the library. Or that which I cannot live without once I have read it from the library.

11) After you’ve bought the new books you can’t wait to get to, how long do they sit on your shelf until you actually read them?

laughing, they don’t. If I’ve actually been waiting for something to release, I’ve usually pre-ordered it and will clear my schedule to the best of my ability to binge read it. If it’s a sequel I will have already read all the others to be waiting when the UPS guy knocks on my door with my new book.

If you feel like answering these questions will fill a hole in your blog this week or you just want to laugh while you write, I did, then consider yourself tagged. Answer on my friends.

What is in a name?

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A rose by any other word would smell as sweet? Shakespeare asserts it would, but I’m not sure I’m buying that. In fact, I’m pretty sure if a rose was named skunkrot no one would realize it smelled sweet because who wants to smell skunkrot?

Not me.

Hence the problem of no name for my book.

I have no name for my book. According to beta readers it’s awesome. One woman complained she was compelled to continue reading on the airplane home from spring break despite everyone else on the flight sleeping because it was that good.

A book with that sort of press, needs a name worthy of it.

Help me, please.

Set in 1945 London. Main character is an ex Queen Alexandra Royal Military Nurse. She writes a screen play as a ruse to get close to a soldier she thinks she fell in love with while nursing him during the war. Hyjinks ensue. Main character must discover all the things about herself she had no idea were lurking beneath her own skin.

My nano child of yesteryear (2014 to be exact) must see the light of publishing this year and to do so it needs a name for the birth certificate. Give me your suggestions. Off the top of your head. Well thought out. 50 names you would never use for your own book. I don’t care, just comment a suggestion of any sort, I beg of you.