Whew

Today was the Lakefly Writing Conference Book Fair in Oshkosh. GBB drove LW, EMB, and me down and back. We were able to cram all of our books, display items, and conveyances into the back of her vehicle and ride down in comfort. I was afraid that my zero sales from last time would repeat but happily it didn't. I sold four books much to my immense relief. It wasn't until I was setting up my display that I realized the tables were narrower than I was used to. I don't know how much narrower, but it was appreciable and made for some awkward moments when I was trying to point to my books.

 

Leaving home before 7AM and not getting home until after 4PM left little day for wildlife observations or yard touring so all I have is a drawing of a Birdcage. Happily, the cage has a bird. A bluebird. The lines of the birdcage aren't always smooth and straight but it's okay. I'm not unhappy with it. In fact, I like the way it turned out.

 

Thank heavens for GPS. I could get to GBB's neighborhood from memory but once I turned off the main street, I was lost. Same with getting out of it to come home. Thank you, GPS.

I checked on BookFunnel to see how Horizon is doing in the Newsletter promo. If you sign up for my newsletter you can download a free digital copy of the novel. So far six have been claimed in two days. Not bad. 

Tomorrow I have one task and that is to critique cda's pages for Monday. I'll try to take a picture of a bird and maybe one of the remaining daffodils. I don't think it's supposed to be raining tomorrow. Maybe I'll even manage to take a walk.

--Barbara 

All Ready

I gathered up all of my book fair stuff, put it into the wayback of my vehicle, and drove over to GBB's house to put it into her vehicle. She's driving us to Oshkosh tomorrow and we're leaving early so it was easier to have it all loaded today so all we have to do is drive away. I even remembered to pack my water bottle. (I usually forget it in the car and have to go out to get it.)

 

Look what I saw this morning! It's a Downy Woodpecker! It has been months since I've seen a woodpecker and I was so excited. You can kind of tell that it was looking away and just after I snapped the picture it flew off. But I was quick enough.

 

Today's drawing is a Pig. I didn't have much time to draw today and this looked simple and easy to draw. And it was. I didn't color it pink because the only pink colored pencil I have is too cotton candy pink for a pig.

 

At Friday Night Knitting I finished Scrap Hat #3. I like it. I was going to knit on my sweater but when I pulled it out the other day to measure how much more front I needed to knit it looked like I've done something wrong. I didn't have the time or the inclination to figure out where it went wrong so I put it away again. It's in timeout until it learns to behave.

 

I spent a lot of manuscript time today. I got through another chapter scrolling back and forth trying to boost the conflict and sensory details. If I do one chapter at a time it isn't so daunting. On Sunday I have to do the critique for Monday's session with cda. I was going to work on it today but time got away from me. I have nothing to do on Sunday so that's what I'll do. Cross my heart.

--Barbara

Tulips

When I was backing out of the garage this morning on my way to TJ Maxx to return the unsatisfactory clothes I bought yesterday, I saw some green buds among the dying daffodils. Tulips! Maybe the surrounding daffodils are protecting them from marauding rabbits. (I probably shouldn't say that for fear the furry little gluttons will hear me.) 

 

Then when I was making lunch I glanced out the window and saw this. A red tulip in bloom! Hooray! 

 

In bird news, I spied a male House Finch on the square green feeder today. It spent a lot of time hiding its raspberry pink head from me so the pictures I took weren't right but then he went over to the side to look at the Sparrow on the other perch and I caught him.

 

While I was taking the picture of the red tulip I snapped this one of the sedum which has grown quite a bit since the last time I looked at it.

 

Down the way is a line of iris leaves sprouting up. Pretty soon they'll be two feet tall with gorgeous purple and yellow flowers among them.

 

There are eleven little tufts of leaves like this on top of the retaining wall. I ran out of Stella d'Oro lily plants before I got to the eastern end of the wall. Maybe one of these days I'll count how many more I need and get some.

 

Every time I look at the rhubarb it's bigger and fuller and closer to the time when I can cut some to make rhubarb sauce for my breakfast yogurt. I can't wait for that first pan full of yumminess. Pretty soon.

 

Today's drawing are called Sweet Somethings. We used to call little presents for no reason sweet somethings. These are sweet things to eat. I'm a fan.

 

 I spent most of the day working on incorporating critiques into my manuscript from the last submission to the Novel Intensive group. Then I cut and pasted some of it to send to cda for her to critique for Monday and I made a start critiquing her pages for Monday. I'll work on it again tomorrow and then finish up on Sunday. Because I've got a book fair in Oshkosh on Saturday.

And tomorrow a BookFunnel promo I'm signed up for starts. It runs until May 30 and offers 10 uplifting midlife women's stories. I entered Horizon this time hoping to get more readers for that title too. 

In the last few days I've gotten royalties payments from Amazon, Audible, and INaudio for books and audiobooks. Not large amounts, but not nothing. I went on my INaudio account and discovered that Hoopla has acquired copies of a few of my audiobook titles for libraries. Woohoo! 

--Barbara 

Drizzle

That was today. I woke up to drizzle. Just enough to be annoying. And it spit rain intermittently all day. To be even more annoying the garage door opener decided not to work when I came home from shopping this afternoon. I've noticed that it's unreliable when it's damp or raining. Must be old age.

 

Here's another daffodil that's still holding out. I like the color variation and the flower against the red twigs of the dogwood at the corner of the house.

 

Today's creature drawing is a Butterfly. It turned out pretty well. I have a hard time making the two sides match. One set of wings looks the way I want them to and the other set doesn't. It's smaller and just a little wonky. And yet I keep trying.

 

I didn't see any birds today and the only squirrel I saw was ground bound, not leaping around from crook to feeder or burrowing into the square green feeder.

This morning was the last meeting of the Novel Intensive critique group. One of the members couldn't make it so we had lots of time to chat about publishing and agents and stuff like that. I got a lot of good comments from them and will be spending time rewriting and tidying up my manuscript. I feel like I've got the bones of the story written and now I need to go back in and add details of scenery and sensory and beef up the conflict.

There's nothing on my calendar for tomorrow and I'm pretty happy about that. I went to T.J. Maxx to buy some new sheets and a cotton blanket today and picked out some pants and two shirts. I tried them on when I got home and don't like any of them so I'll take them back tomorrow. Okay, so there's one thing on my calendar.

--Barbara 

Tiny Flowers

I took a walk this afternoon and spotted these grape hyacinths on my way back into the house. They're so tiny I'm amazed that I saw them at all. And they're tucked in among the grass and weeds so they're essentially hiding. But aren't they sweet? I can't bend down far enough to sniff them but I hope they smell good.

 

The bird of the day is this Goldfinch. I was excited to see him when he landed on the top of the crook and then he swooped down to the square green feeder and stayed just long enough for me to take his picture. If you look at the back of his neck you can see that he isn't completely molted from avocado to yellow.

 

Earlier I took this picture of a couple male Sparrows on the feeder just in case no more interesting birds showed up. I had fun watching a Robin running around on the grass while I did yoga this morning but I was busy posing and panting so I didn't take a picture.

 

When I got back from my walk I sat down and immediately drew a gratitude journal page. For the last few days I haven't thought of much to be grateful for so I haven't drawn pages but I'm enjoying a rom-com audiobook so I had to put that on. I have fallen for a writer named Abby Jimenez. I found her when I was looking for a romance book to read to learn how to arrange the romance in Anneke's Legacy and I like them. They're light and a little spicy. Fun to listen to.

 

Today's drawing is a Flamingo. I have little flamingo statues on my desk that keep me company while I write so I decided to try my hand at drawing one. I didn't do too badly, if I do say so myself.

 

The freezer fixit guy came this morning and used his magic steamer to thaw the ice jam in my freezer AGAIN. It seems like it's an annual thing. He said the age of the fridge is part of the problem and that the insulation is probably breaking down. He's a nice friendly Hmong guy and isn't too expensive. These ice pieces are what he dug out of the floor of the freezer once the drain was cleared. I'd also put a Tupperware under the place where the water comes into the fridge. That was ice too. And when the fridge dies I'll probably buy a new one from his company. They're just a couple blocks away and I think I'd rather give my money to a local merchant than to a big box store.

 

After supper I finished the ribbing of Scrap Hat #3 and moved on to the body of the hat. Naturally the white Thick & Quick yarn will run out before the hat is complete so the top will be another base color with extra scrap colors carried along.

 

I got my critiques finished this afternoon so I had time for a walk before the sun went away for the day. I've enjoyed the group but I'll be glad when the intensity of it is over. This is been very time consuming for the month.

--Barbara 

Can Robins Hear Worms?

I watched this Robin walking around under the feeders, pecking at the ground, and then it pulled up a skinny worm and ate it. Just like that. How'd the bird know the worm was there? Could it hear it squirming around under the ground? I don't know.

 

Today's squirrel was the fluffy one. It spent quite a bit of time on the suet nuggets. They must taste really good. I know there are three different flavors in there right now. The least popular ones seem to be the berry flavored ones but the peanut and sunflower ones are disappearing.

 

Here's another daffodil and hyacinth picture. Just because I can. And because they won't last much longer before they're all shriveling up and turning brown.

 

I drew a Dragonfly again today. I wasn't in such a drawing mood and when that page flipped up I decided to just draw it again. I thought about drawing another one but then wasn't in the mood for that either.

 

This morning I had a critique Zoom with cda. I'd sent her a creepy short story I wrote years ago and she really liked it. In the afternoon I did some online searching to see if I can't find a horror mag or anthology to submit it to. One magazine I found actually pays per word if they accept your story. Amazing!

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon doing the critiques I need to have done for Wednesday morning. I have one of them completely done and need to read the other two a couple more times and add comments. These five weeks have been a lot of work.

--Barbara 

New Sprouts

I went out to fill the birdbath this morning and notice that the Bleeding Hearts had sprouted in the last few days. They must have been sprouting unnoticed for a while because they're kind of tall for new sprouts. Guess I haven't paid attention.

 

The squirrels were busy today. I saw this one on the suet nuggets feeder. At first it had its back to me and was nibbling away with a lot of enthusiasm, then it moved around to the side so I could see it better.

 

Later on I watched one leap from the suet cakes feeder across to the square green feeder. On the first try it landed on top, tried to swing down to the perch, and fell down. But it wasn't discouraged. It scampered back to the birdbath and tried again. That time it went straight for the perch, caught it, and climbed right in. I am amazed at the distance it can leap.

 

Today's drawing is a Rooster. Once again I started in the middle of the page when I should have moved over to the left a little so the tail feathers weren't squeezed on the right. It looks okay this way.

 

I finished knitting Scrap Hat #2 this morning while watching CBS Sunday Morning. I only had one round to knit before it was time to close up the top so it didn't take long.

 

What took long was casting on Scrap Hat #3 because I twisted the cast-on when I started knitting the first round and had to take it out and start again. Then I knitted on the ribbing while listening to the end of Project Hail Mary on audiobook. It didn't end the way I thought it would but it was a good story and a good ending. I didn't cry. It would have been a hard book to read in paper or digital, I think, but was an easy listen even if it was 16 hours long. It didn't seem that long.

 

Tonight I watched Guys and Dolls on Prime. I could sing along to all of the songs on that one too. God, I'm old. 

--Barbara