Valerean

The best thing about being hearing-impaired is that I've become very good at reading subtitles quickly to follow along with TV and movies, and I tend to watch a lot of foreign-language films now. Something in the Rain is a Korean romance series that is fun, realistic, and has the best older woman/younger man relationship story I've seen in a long time (I'm only halfway through the episodes, but the actors and the story are amazing.) It also shows what working women in Korea have to put up with from male superiors. It's available to watch for free on Netflix in the US, so if you're looking for something different to sigh over, this is the one to watch.

Every year I make new lavender sachets for my dresser drawers. This is a spring ritual of mine that's just for me, but the arrival of the virus killed that last year. All my sachets are two years old now, so this year I absolutely have to make some new ones. I think that will be my next project after I finish the Election Night quilt. Image credit: John Ioannidis

To begin the process of dipping my toe into self-publishing I went and tried to create a website for my new pseudonym on Wix, which turned out to be a massive headache that I don't need right now. So to save time and pain I've created a simple blog on Blogger for my alter-ego, and over the next couple of days I'm going to be relocating most of my posts about the NA series over there and deleting the rest. I might mention how it's going on this blog now and then, but I want to keep the NA project and Valerean separate. I'm beginning to realize just how much work and aggravation self-publishing is going to be -- massive -- but I'm trying my best not to freak out or talk myself out of it. I still think I can do this if I don't let the challenges discourage me. I'm not stupid, just intimidated. I've already solved the web site problem by opting to do what I know versus what I don't. On the side I'll be working on some free stories to put o...

More slow but steady progress on the election night quilt: For some reason my camera doesn't want to focus on the backing, probably due to lack of contrast. But I'm more than half done the hand stitching now: If I can keep working on it every night I think I'll have it ready to bind by the first week of March.

Despite the cold weather and local critters the little garden at Casa Valerean is doing quite well. We have lots of strawberries: A few radishes: The spinach is doing much better than I thought it would: Nothing seems to make the chives or the oregano quit: All the credit for our bounty goes to Kat and her dad. I'm really proud of what they've done with this project.

We had a transformer blow near my house last night, and my already ageing desktop computer did not appreciate the sudden power loss. This is why I say backup religiously; I didn't lose anything but three sentences of the WIP I was working on at the time. But my tower was very slow to come back on and the problems I was having with it got worse. Weirdly I had gone to Office Depot earlier that day to buy a tower because it was on sale for $150.00 off; I was planning to replace the old one next week. So that worked out nicely (and a bit eerily. Could I be psychic? Ha.) Anway, say hello to the new desktop. :)

I'm still moderating comments over on the old blog; most are SPAM but now and then I get something interesting, like this one left on Novel Outlining 101 : "I don't use alot of outlines since I let my stories flow on it's own pace. Outlines can summarize the stories plot but when you try to change them, you'll end up with a new plot that you need to rewrite. So I always first identify the main point such as the characters, settings, and intentions. And also make sure to have a backup plot, incase you don't like the way your story outline going." Although it's poorly written I thought the intention behind it was good. I believe this is someone who does write and believes strongly in their process. Probably someone inexperienced, maybe a kid, but still with a sincere opinion opposed to my own. I may not agree with it, but I'm not the God of Writing, so okay. And a backup plot? I've never heard of that. That's not a bad idea at all. I ...