Here We Are Again

The candle holder says 'Dream'
A gift from my mother.

Here we are again. At the end of a year and at the cusp of a new one. A time to reflect on the past year, and a time to look forward with hope.

We've completed one more circle around that brilliant yellow orb in the sky and what do we have to show for it? A few more pounds, perhaps. Fewer dollars. But life goes on, right?

It most certainly does.

This past year has been a hard one for me emotionally. I gave up on my dreams of having my own children when I had my surgery back in March. While it was medically needed, it was still a hard thing for me to deal with. The finality of it all...coupled with the knowledge that even without the surgery, pregnancy was never going to happen for me...was a bitter pill to swallow. Mr. Janney and I have not ruled out adoption, but if we do it is a someday issue. Most likely we will remain that crazy aunt and uncle.

It has been a year of uncertainty as we struggled with jobs that ended at the 'wrong time' and schooling that didn't start at the 'right time'. But - we still have a roof over our head, and food on the table, so things aren't as bad as they've felt. I mean hey - Thanos snapped his fingers and we didn't disappear, so things can't be that bad, right?

The future is even more uncertain. Mr. Janney and I have our road retest January 3rd (we failed that part a few weeks ago). We're both feeling confident that this time we'll pass. We each failed some of our permit tests the first time around, and then nailed them the second time around. Like I told my 'doppelganger' Robyn at Sage - our timing has been 'off' all year, but it seems to be working out so, hey - there must be a reason. We're just going with the flow at the moment.

So, I've been using the time until then to work on my novels. My final edit of the revised Farmer's Daughter is complete and I just need to implement the corrections. Ring of Fire will be right behind it. Then I can pour everything into Bigger Than the Beetles. And try to decide whether I have enough ideas for a 6th novel in the series based on a dream I had the other night. We'll see. (If I do, it'll be called 'Full Dragon')

Sometimes I worry that I write too long of a story. My word counts come in near to the same length as Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring....yes, I've googled this. At least I am nowhere near the word count of Eye of the World or any of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time novels...I'm not sure I'd have any kind of fan base if I did that. Well, it's only one person who has complained about the length of the story and it's a person whose opinion I value so it's a bit of a struggle sometimes. On the other hand, I think it would make a great tv series, so there's that much.

I guess, better wrap this up for now. Just checking in with you all to remind you I'm still working at my stories amid life's uncertainty. I hope you've all had a pleasant enough holiday season and that it wraps up without incident next week as the current year blends into the new one.

Stay safe and much love!

Here We Are Again!

The start of a new year.

I've seen many hopes and wishes for the upcoming year throughout different media outlets.  When we have a rough year, it's natural to wish for a turn of events in the new year.  2014 was a decent year for me, and I had such high hopes for 2015 and boy was it a lot rougher than what I was anticipating.

But we survived it and now are faced with another new year.  Like many others I hope it turns out better than the last one!

Things will be different, to be sure.  Mr. Janney is back to work and I have changed jobs.  We're both feeling better physically, so that right there is a huge plus in our favor!

And since I managed to accomplish some of the things that I wanted to get done this past week while we were off work, and even a few that were surprises, it's given me a higher hope for the new year.  We haven't been through the clothes in our closet yet, but Mr. Janney and I went through both our dressers and weeded out clothes we can't or shouldn't wear anymore.  We got rid of a good bit.

We finally got the top coat of sealant on the table Mr. Janney made me a year ago. It's so shiny and pretty!  It took us longer than it should have because the first time hubby tried sanding the top...he sanded too far and then we had to buy a new board.  But it was worth it, because this turned out so  nice.

I am terrible at keeping my table clear of clutter.  It is somehow my hoarder parents fault - just joking...But anyway, it's a learned habit that I am determined to unlearn this year.  So far, the only things on the table are my blood testing kit, my medicine container and the roll of paper towels.  Which really, is an accomplishment so far.

One of the reasons why I believe I can do this, is my husband also decided to finally make me some shelves.  Either because he loves me or just so I'd stop asking, I'm not a hundred percent sure!  I was just asking for free standing shelves, but he felt that they would get in the way so he decided to build them into an already existing nook.  Really, this is why I let him rearrange the furniture and stuff like that because he has a better eye for it than I do.

And he did a great job!  I finally have somewhere to put my bulky appliances. What home ever has enough counter space anyway? I mean, unless you've designed the house yourself, the odds are slim.

Our toaster spent many long months sitting on the edge of our table near an outlet, but it wasn't close enough so we always had to use an extension cord.  And I never had a good spot to store the large electric grill a friend bought me for my birthday a few years ago when we didn't have propane to cook.

But I do now.  I grin every time I walk by it.  I still have a few pieces to relocate.  The rotisserie cooker Grandma Peterson gave us a while back still needs to change locations.  It's a huge relief for me to have this.  I did help him.  I was working on doing the dishes that day so I could be near whenever he needed me to hold boards and put in screws.  We had to put the dog in her cage during all this, because she wanted to be right in the middle of all the action and that's just not a good mix with power tools.

I still have to reorganize the items that were already on the small shelf that this is build under and into.  Then my toaster will be sitting on the top, right where there's an outlet so I won't have to move it anymore or use an extension cord.

Another thing that happened is I had a break through with one of the scenes in my novel that's been bothering me.  So I'm hoping that means the writing bug has bitten and that stuff will start flowing again.  I know I'm not the only one that likes hearing that...my mother-in-law asked my just last night if I was going to be releasing book 3 anytime soon.  Well, it's looking sooner than what it was last week.  Not going to be brave enough to even begin to estimate a date though!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy start to the new Year!  Here's looking at 2016!

Christmas and the Week After

Christmas is at the end of this week, and while for many Wednesday is the last day of the work work, for Mr. Janney and I it is also the last work day for this year.  We don't go back to work until January 4th!  Which wouldn't be a bad thing except only four out of those 7 days are holiday pay and Mr. Janney will be the only one getting that because I'm still too new there.  At least I'll be able to collect unemployment for those days, which is better than nothing.

For the most part, I'm looking forward to the time off.  I plan on sorting through our clothes and maybe reorganizing my desk.  It's good to have plans, right?

We'll see how far I get.  See you in the New Year (maybe by then I'll now how I really feel about the new Star Wars movie!)

Check out Amazon this week.  For the next two days, my novels Farmer's Daughter and Ring of Fire will be on sale for Kindle at only 99cents.  Then for three days after that, it'll be $1.99.  Also available on the UK site: Farmer's Daughter and Ring of Fire

Full Speed Ahead

This post is really late tonight, because oh my goodness what a day it has been!  First there was the almost 9 hour work day...which started with me realizing I had left my ID/Time badge in my other pants and ended about 30 minutes sooner than usual when the lights went out at 3.  Of course, we had to wait and clear the line of meat before we could clean up and go home.  No big deal.  I come out into the locker room and find text messages from my hubby saying that we had no power at home.  ???  This could have been a problem as we heat by electricity!  But it came back on, and turned off again, and came back on...I almost wasn't sure if I dared try to write this!  So we went out to dinner, got double fortunes in our fortune cookies (that has to be good luck!  Esp. since they were spot on!) and came home to lights still on.  So here we are!

My hopes for the new year are fairly simple.

I expect to get myself caught up to speed on all this social networking business, which is really kind of fun, and sell more copies of my first novel.  I know that there will be some locals things done to help promote it, as my fifth grade English teacher has been talking to our local library about helping me out.  I'm not sure which is cooler...having the library hype my book, or my former English teacher giving it the thumbs up!

I also expect to finish the second book in the series, Ring of Fire, and edited and published.  By summer, if I'm lucky.  That's my goal at the moment.  Because once I 'finish' it, I know I'm going to want to let it sit for a bit before I edit it and do any necessary rewrites.  I don't think I'll need ten years like last time!

In my dreams, I would like a job change.  Mostly because what I am doing hurts my hands.  I had trouble driving home after work today.  Every time I had my left hand on the steering wheel, it would hurt between my middle and ring finger.  It's very unsettling.  Especially since I don't get to drive much anymore.  No real reason, aside from not having our own vehicle.

Which is another of my hopes/expectations for next year.  For my hubby to get his truck back on the road.  This project is closer than the last one, so I'm thinking it'll happen.  I so miss my little Beretta.  It was such a good little car, even though there was a spider in it once, but that's a story for another time.

Oh, and I'd like to be able to get propane for our tanks again so I can stop heating my electric as much and actually start cooking/baking again!  I kind of miss that!  I've lost track of how long it's been since we ran out.  Two years?  It can't be three can it?  I really don't know.  I do decent enough cooking by electric...a griddle, frying pan, slow cooker and the microwave.  If I want to use an oven for anything I have to either use my mother's, my mother-in-law's, or my one friend who is also a neighbor.

Every year is the same.  We take time to reflect on the past year, good or bad, and hope the new one holds better things.  This past year was pretty good for me, and I have no reason to doubt 2014 will be any different.  I know bad things will happen, they always do.  But they don't have to ruin a year!

What are your hopes for the New Year?

Looking Back to Move Forward

In every religion there is a grain of truth.  The Roman god Janus was often depicted as having two faces, one facing backwards and the other facing forward as he was the master of time.  January is named in his honor, which is fitting as it is the beginning of the New Year.  These next few days many will devote to setting resolutions, if they haven't already.  Many of which they will not keep.  It is a time for both beginnings and also endings.

Before I start looking forward to 2014, I want to take just a few paragraph's to look back at 2013.

The first half of the year, was pretty bland as I remember it.  I downloaded my novel from me email towards the end of April and was overtaken with the writing bug again.  It felt really good.  And all I did was read through the rough draft and decide that I like it, except I had to change the ending.

At the end of July, my partner of almost five years kind of sort of proposed to me.  We had an argument about marriage the weekend before my vacation from work and that next Monday he bought something on EBay...and of course since my birthday was approaching, I tried twisting his arm to get him to tell me what he'd bought me.  He said it wasn't anything for any of his vehicles, but that night he passed his phone to me and said, "Ok, go to my EBay app..."  He had bought wedding bands!  One of the few times in my life I was speechless.  Until I said, "Are you serious?"

Which he was.  And since he didn't care about when it was done, I had things arranged and by that weekend in August we were married.  Like I told a friend, "We've been together for almost five years...why piddle fart around?"  We did get some grief for marrying "so quickly" but I was happy with the day, and he was happy with the day and that's all that really mattered.  Neither one of us wanted a big church wedding.  Or any kind of big wedding.  We had a reception a few weeks later.  We actually had two receptions, one for our local family and one for our New York family.

And then in September, I made the impulsive decision to self-publish my novel through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.  A few weeks later I published to CreateSpace.  And afterwards realized I had no idea how to get the word out and market it, or myself.  Which is what led to this new blog.  And my emerging presence on Google+, Twitter, Pinterest...and yes, to some degree Facebook.  I had over a thousand free downloads on Kindle, and a handful of real purchases.  I've even sold a few paperbacks.  And released to Nook as well now.  It blows my minds a little to think that there are over a thousand people out there with my work in their hands...or on their Kindle which is pretty  much the same thing.  And that was a worldwide event!

And in November, I was able to go to New York City for the first time in my life.  That alone could have made the year!  Finally I was able to see the Statue of Liberty with my own eyes!  I got to look down from the top of the Empire States building!  I got to walk the streets that I see so often in CSI: NY!  I loved the sounds!  The traffic is everything they say it is, although I didn't drive in it.  The subways were pretty cool in my opinion, even when it was 5pm and crowded!  I loved the little bit of lights before we left.

December has been a month of winding down.  Much needed after the exciting few months we've had.  As much as one can wind down during the holidays!

Tomorrow, I will take a few paragraphs to 'look forward' and dream a little.  Because after all the good things that have happened in 2013, there is no telling what is going to happen in 2014!