A Different Lily

I've been watching some buds on the side of the house and today when I went out prospecting for flowers to take pictures of one bud had opened and look at what showed up. Isn't it pretty? I love the pale peach of the petals and the orange and pink of the center. I don't remember planting it but I'm glad I did.

 

The Stella d'Oro lilies are still going gangbusters. Still no bees though. That has me worried but maybe they're not the kind of flowers that bees are attracted to. Maybe?

 

Next to a big patch of orange day lilies is a milkweed plant and on that plant this afternoon was this cool-looking bug. I don't know what kind of bug it is but I like the way it looks and I like its color.

 

I got a shipment of author copies of books today--a week before they were expected. So, the last order took a week longer than promised and these took barely a week? I'm confused but I'm slowly building up my stock because I have no idea how sales will go in all the fairs I'm signed up for. I have to have a lot to start so that if I have to order more I've got enough to keep me going. At least that's my theory.

 

I filled the grape jelly this afternoon and it didn't take long for a House Finch to find it. The dish was completely empty so he hit the jackpot.

 

I made a Book Bub ad today. That's a website that features eBooks so I made an ad for Horizon pricing it at $.99 for the next week. Let's see if anyone bites.

 

The drawing prompt today was Transport so I drew and colored my beloved red HHR. I can't imagine having a different vehicle. This one is exactly right for me. I can put the back seats down and haul big things and I love that it has a hatchback which makes it easy to load. And it's not too big.

 

After supper I watched TV and knitted some rounds on the Iron Pyrite sock. I was making sure I could do two things at once so it'll be okay to knit on at knitting tomorrow night. I had to back up a few times and count stitches a few times but I think I can manage it.

 

 I even made time to draw a gratitude journal page for today.

 

Most of the day I spent rereading my manuscript and making some tweaks. I decided to ignore a few of the manuscript analysis "concerns." They aren't "major concerns" so I don't feel like they ruin the book and they're parts I like the way they are so I'm leaving them. Then I revisited the categories for my novels and changed some of them, one for each book and format. They tell you in Ad School to only change one thing at a time so the algorithm learns faster. Don't want to confuse the algorithm. I'm not even sure what that is. It kind of sounds like something you should keep caged in the basement.

--Barbara 

A Mostly Writerly Day

Most of what I did today was writerly. I started off seeing if I could get my monthly newsletter posted on MailerLite so I could send it out. Usually KM does it for me, and she tried her hardest yesterday, but MailerLite demanded a code for her to log in. They were supposed to send me the code to share with her. Three times. Never got it. So I thought I'd try to follow the steps to upload it and post it. I got so far and then got lost. Happily KM tried one more time, I got the code, shared it, and she sent it. Hooray!

I spent most of the rest of the day adding bits and pieces, little scenes and big scenes to The Summer of Blue-Black Nights, following the recommendations of the manuscript analysis. Slowly but surely I'm working my way through the suggestions. All in all, in the last two days I've added 10 pages of story to the manuscript. I think I'm making it better. Gosh, I hope I am. This is a lot of wasted work if I'm making it worse.

 

The other day I found an article online about writing an elevator pitch, which is a short, one or two sentence synopsis of a novel that you can deliver in the space of an elevator ride. It needs to be punchy and succinct and nearly irresistible. I wrote one for Horizon which I've always thought should sell better than it does. So I've been trying to memorize it over the last couple days. I am not having much luck with that but I'll keep trying, no, not trying, working on it. 

 

This Sparrow was taking a little bath and just as I got the camera up and ready it hopped onto the rim of the birdbath and just as I pressed the shutter, it started to fly away. I was sure I'd have a blur but was lucky enough to catch the little thing before it flew. Whew.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Balls. You can guess what my first impulse was but I reined it in and drew sports balls instead. Much more appropriate.

 

Tonight after Writer's Guild I pulled out the Iron Pyrite sock and finished the cuff and knitted the first two rounds of the leg. It's over twice as long as it was last time I posted it. Which isn't saying much but going from four rounds to ten rounds is a pretty good thing. I'm a slow knitter but I never give up.

 

I read the first few pages of Christmas at The Seaview tonight at Writer's Guild and got some good feedback. One thing I need to do is have a few more things go wrong or at least hint at them to liven it up. The education tonight was to write poetry. Oh my, it's been a very long time since I've written poetry. I tried my hand at a haiku and limerick. Neither one is worth repeating but it was an interesting exercise.

--Barbara 

Today's Lily

I went out to chase a few weeds (my Grandma Angermeier always said that) and saw that the patio day lily is still blooming. Well, today's day lily was blooming. There were a couple old flowers I plucked off and there are a couple more to come. It's such a pretty color.

 

Representing the front of the house is another Dad's rose. This one is leaning up against the house where it has to be broiling hot in the middle of the sunny day but it seems to be happy there.

 

Aren't ferns pretty? There are lots of them in the same patio bed as the day lily and they're thriving. There are two types, one of them is Ostrich Fern and I forget what the other one is, but I love the way they look. And the way they come back year after year with no effort on my part.

 

A pair of House Finches spent a little time dipping their beaks in the grape jelly. I'll have to go out tomorrow and fill it up because it looks a little low. We had a surprise rain shower an hour ago so I'm sure the jelly left is watered down. I'll fix that tomorrow too.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Fish. I like drawing fish. I like coloring fish. So here are the fish I drew and colored.

 

I also made time to draw a gratitude journal page. I drew one for yesterday this morning and one for today after supper. I did the same thing last Monday and then didn't draw one for a week. I'm not even going to talk about how I need to do better. We all know I should but I'm not making promises.

 

In writing news, I took the pages of manuscript analysis I printed off yesterday and went through the manuscript comment by comment adding little scenes and embellishments so that it is closer to what the analysis recommends. I did ignore one suggestion. I even wrote a note in red that I'm not changing it because I like it the way it is. I'm the author and what I say goes.

 

I cast on a new sock. I'm meeting knitting friends on Thursday evening and need something I can knit on while chatting. The name of the colorway of the yarn is Iron Pyrite and I'm excited to see how the yarn knits up.

 

This morning I had a critique zoom with cda. She gave me her comments on the last couple chapters of my novel manuscript, The Summer of Blue-Black Nights (working title). Next time I'll share the first 20 pages or so of Christmas at The Seaview. I'm excited to share it because I'm convinced that it's perfect. It isn't, of that I can be sure, but allow me to wallow in my delusion for a week before reality comes crashing down next Monday.

--Barbara 

And It Rained

But I took DS's advice and mowed the lawn at 10am instead of 6pm like I was planning to and, while I got very hot, very tired, and very very sweaty, the job is done. In the afternoon it was clouding over and getting dark so that's when I went out to take flower pictures because I forgot earlier. The day lilies on the side of the backyard are blooming with enthusiasm. I'm surprised they aren't blurry because the wind was really blowing when I took this.

 

Dad's rose is blooming on more canes than just the first one now. This flower was standing up so pretty and proud. It was waving around in the wind too but my camera is fast enough that it captured it clearly.

 

I saw a flash of white on the suet nuggets feeder and saw a Hairy Woodpecker on there. They look just like Downy Woodpeckers only bigger and their beak is much longer. I doubted myself for a minute but then the next guy showed up.

 

He's a little blurry and rumpled up because he'd gotten rained on but it's a Downy Woodpecker on the suet cakes. Much smaller than the Hairy. Much.

 

Because it was raining I chose Water as today's drawing prompt. But I didn't draw rain, I drew three glasses with water in them. I'd have used watercolors but my sketchbook pages won't tolerate it so colored pencils it is.

 

I spent some time figuring out how to and then writing an elevator pitch for Horizon. I can't figure out why it doesn't sell so I thought maybe I need a new pitch. Now I have to memorize it and we'll see how it goes in July at the Art Garage book fair.

Then I took the manuscript analysis I got yesterday and read through it, not skimmed it like I did yesterday, and started working to fix the yellow tagged places that were "concerns." I avoided the red tagged "major concern" places. I'll tackle those once I get the easier fixes in place. I read the green tagged "working well" parts a few times just to feel good about them.

I'm glad I mowed even though I purely detest doing it. Now I don't have to dread it for at least a week. I'll keep doing it until I really physically can't, not just until I don't like it. Which I already do. A shower is very nice when I'm all disgustingly sweaty. That's one good thing about it.

--Barbara 

More Work To Do

I've been thinking that the manuscript I've been workshopping the last few months with cda (not the Christmas one) was almost ready for publication. Well. I decided to spend a credit I have with ProWritingAid for a manuscript analysis and the news isn't all good. It's good in some places where the analysis says "working well" and has green labels, some places that need a little work are labeled yellow and say "concern," and then there are the places of "major concern" with red labels. Guess I'll be going over the comments tomorrow to see what and where (and if) I can fix things.

 

There was a squirrel melted on the patio this afternoon and I took its picture. I'm sure they get hot wearing fur all the time and the concrete patio feels cool when they press their bellies to it. Makes me giggle when I see it.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Family so I drew my grandchildren from their school pictures framed where I can look at them all the time. I'm not so good at drawing faces but I keep practicing and getting a little better. They don't look like the kids but at least they look like humans.

 

Even more Stella d'Oro lilies are blooming. I love looking out to see all the yellow flowers across the top of the retaining wall. 

 

DS called this afternoon and invited me over for burgers on the grill. He made grilled zucchini and we had cheese on our burgers too. It was nice to sit on the patio and have supper with him and OJ. The girls are away with DIL1's mom and aunt for the weekend. I missed seeing them but was glad for the food and company. The guys went camping with the Scouts last night at a local waterfowl preserve. It sounded like good times were had by all.

I got a call from MW this afternoon saying that he wanted to stop over to buy another copy of Spies Don't Retire. It's the third copy he's bought. He keeps giving them away. I don't mind, I'm happy to sell another book. I asked if he's had time to read it and he said, "More than once." so I guess he likes it.

--Barbara

Bird Day

I saw a flicker of movement on the patio umbrella and when I looked up there was a Nuthatch on it. I picked up the camera and the Nuthatch flew over to the suet nuggets for a snack. It even clung to the side where I could see it. Nice birdie.

 

A pair of Goldfinches landed on the finch feeder and stayed long enough to have their picture taken. I haven't seen many Goldfinches this summer so I was glad to see these.

 

This Robin was very delicately bathing. Usually they're flapping and splashing out half of the water but this bird just carefully dipped its belly into the water, then stood up. It did it again a few times and then flew away.

 

And a House Finch worked on digging out some orange pulp. They're very focused when they're on the orange. They look like they're concentrating.

 

The Stella d'Oro lilies are still going crazy. This plant has a lot of flowers, some coming and some going. It's not the only one that's showing off.

 

For today's drawing prompt I went with Something Made of Wood and drew clothespins. They're made of wood and are surprisingly challenging to draw. I was glad I chose a dark brown marker for some of them. The dark color hid a multitude of sins.

 

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I finished the Evergreen Alpaca Man Hat. I think it looks like a big green gumdrop. Only knitting on it on Fridays made it take a lot longer than it should to knit it but I've been so driven to write that knitting has taken a backseat for a while. I've got to cast on something else because I've got another knitting night next Thursday and I need something that doesn't need much thinking. Maybe a sock.

 

There was a squirrel laying on top of the fence at the back of the yard looking like it had melted but the picture was blurry because he was too far away. Oh well.

I got to pick OJ up from camp again today. Twice in one week! Hooray! The only writing I did today was the July writing progress email letter. I'm so glad I have KM to deal with MailerLite for me. I could probably load it but it'd take me hours and she can just zip and do it. Worth every penny.

--Barbara 

First Draft Done

I spent another day mostly on the laptop and finished the first draft of Christmas at The Seaview this afternoon. Then I reread it and still liked it, with a few minor edits. The speed with which this story came together is mind-boggling. I've never written at this pace before. I liked it a lot but know that it won't continue. After supper I wrote the blurb, the first draft of it anyway. Now I'll let it marinate for a while and, in a week or so, go back and see if I still like it.

 

In the afternoon, the late afternoon when my eyes were blurry from staring at the screen for so long, I went out and filled the bird feeders. Even though I haven't seen any Orioles in a couple weeks I still filled that one because the House Finches like the oranges and grape jelly.

 

Despite my opinion that the patio day lily was days away from blooming, it proved me wrong. When I went out to fill the feeders there it was leaning over the birdseed can in all of its orange glory. The day lilies on the side of the house and the lot line are starting to bloom too.

 

And the Stella d'Oro lilies are still going crazy. This plant had only a couple blooms on it yesterday and today it had a dozen. They're so pretty. I love taking closeups of them. Although I wish there'd been a bee in there.

 

That was my day. I didn't do any art or take a walk, I was too engrossed in finishing the first draft of this novella. It ended up being 28,437 words and 100 pages exactly. I don't know how many book pages that makes but it's enough to print in paperback, I'm sure. So I ordered a cover designed but they asked for information I don't have yet, like how many printed pages it will be so they can figure out the book spine print. Guess that'll have to wait until I've workshopped this with cda and it's closer to being ready to be published. Dang it. I was really looking forward to getting a cover soon.

--Barbara 

Itchy

I have a mosquito bite on the back of my right upper arm that itches like crazy. That's all. I just needed to complain.

Dad's rose is blooming on one cane. There's a little clump of buds and flowers right under my window so I can rise up out of my desk chair and see it. It's so pretty. Thanks, Dad. Another cane has laid down on the ground. It had a flower on it but something, I suspect a bunny, ate it.

 

Out the patio door there's a day lily that's sent up a very tall flower stalk. The buds are slightly pale orange and days away from opening but I thought you'd like to see them. The weight of the buds has bent the stalk enough so that it's not in danger of being beaten up by the wind chimes. Whew.

 

The Bleeding Hearts are just about done blooming. There are a few flowers left on those arching stems but they're fading fast. I like how they change to a pale purple as they age.

 

Remember I got 2 of the 10 author copy books I ordered the other day? Well the last 8 came today, 3 in one package from the USPS and 5 in another from Amazon. You'd think they could get their act together.

 

I chose Something You Used Today as my drawing prompt and drew my keyring. It's hanging on a peg by the back door so that's what I tried to draw. I didn't color it because most of it is black and the rest is silver.

 

Sadly the spate of words that has been my companion for the last 10 days dwindled to a trickle today. I had to stop and think about what I wanted to write instead of having it careening out my fingers almost faster than I could type. I'm closing in on the end of the novella with 26,619 words on 94 pages. This afternoon I sent the first guests off to the airport for their flight home. Next will come the other non-relative guests, then Rose will have to say goodbye to her children and their spouses. It'll be difficult but she's got Iggy to lean on. I also initiated a ticket to have a cover designed for it. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

I had lunch today with two of my old neighbors from when the kids were kids and we were stay-at-home moms. We went to a place where ladies who lunch were there in droves. The crush was made even crushier because today was the first day of their "20% off everything" sale in the attached store. They are not shy about pricing. We looked around but didn't find anything we couldn't live without.

Tonight was OJ's soccer game. It was the "late" game that starts at 7 o'clock. It rained on the drive over. It sprinkled off and on during the game. And it rained on the drive home. I drive over a really tall bridge there and back and I don't like it much in the rain. The game was a tie. At least it wasn't scorching hot.

-Barbara 

Bearable

I saw a baby Robin this afternoon. You can tell it's a baby because of its speckled breast. It wasn't chasing an adult around peeping to be fed. It was doing its own searching through the grass for something yummy to eat. Like maybe a worm.

 

I went out to take a picture of the Stella d'Oro lily with the most flowers on it. Look at how many there are! It's literally covered with blossoms. So pretty, even if they're only blooming for one day each.

 

There are some pretty weed flowers growing in my lawn. To be frank, my lawn is at least half weeds. I should probably contract with a lawn service to get some weed and feed spread on it, not spray because I don't want the over-spray to affect the flowers, etc. but granules that will stay where they're put. Although I'm afraid if they put on weed killer my lawn will look like it's got the mange. I know this isn't a clover but it kind of looks like a clover. I refuse to pay for the plant ID apps I found on Google Play so I don't know what it is but think it's pretty.

 

What I did most of today was write. I can't stop, you guys. It's completely nuts. I'm up to 25,182 words and 90 pages written since Saturday, June 14. The story's winding down. I'm on the last day of Christmas week and it's the day everyone leaves for home so I'll have some emotional goodbyes. Right now people are making plans to meet in the States to continue friendships made during the week. Oh, and I posted a question on an author FB page asking if I can publish a paperback with this few pages and the answer is an unqualified YES! One respondent recommended making it 5x8 instead of 6x9 so it looks like more. Great idea! I'm having so much fun. I'll be sorry when it's over. (This is an early picture. I was too busy writing to take one today.)

 

It wasn't until I took out the trash for tomorrow's pickup and was closing the house to come back here and blog that I realized I'd forgotten to draw anything. So I opened up my sketchbook and found this prompt of Words, Texts & Letters. I just used a fine liner pen to draw the alphabet. It isn't much, it's in black and white, and it didn't take long, but I like it. And I enjoyed it. Those are shapes that I know.

 

We had a real Wisconsin summer day today. It got up to 76 degrees and while the humidity was still pretty high it was nice enough to have a walk after supper tonight. Ah. 

--Barbara