Howdy!

Sometimes it helps me to think by doing something else, anything else, other than writing or editing. Washing dishes. Cleaning. Laundry. Gardening.

I finished the first extremely rough ratty draft before the new year. I’ve been working through critiques in various areas and really got frustrated with it. Felt like if the first chapters weren’t working, and they weren’t, then how was I to get the rest of the book moving along at a better pace?

Got an excellent critique from my friend Peter on chapters 1 & 2 and that’s where I’m at now. Well, now today.

In the meantime, Hubby and I have moved our office out of the 3rd bedroom into the diningroom (again, yes again) so Jake could have his own room. But it’s so OPEN. Driving me a bit mad. Did talk to a friend of my daughter’s who is willing to install sliding doors for me. So that is a start, when I’ve the $ for the material.

In the meantime, we’ve been setting up our desks and bookshelves. A total mess, the bookshelves. But at least the books are off the floor.

And gardening. My son always kept our garden and yard (in the US, a ‘garden’ is a flower or vegetable garden and a ‘yard’ is the grassy part). He had the greenest thumb. But he’s been gone a year now and the weeds took over. In honor of my son, I decided we (yes, we the family LOL) would weed and plant and make it beautiful, or at least decent, again.

So these pictures are the start of the garden. The areas with just dirt have wildflower seeds planted and are just now sprouting up after only a week! Which was helped greatly by several days of gentle and constant and much needed rain.

It’s well into Spring here in North Texas. Already several 90F degree days. So getting things planted now is essential before the heat really sets in.

And as the heat does creep up, and the plants sprout, I’m finally, today, April 4th, sitting down to do something, anything, on my novel.

Chapters 1 & 2 here I come!