I’ve been trying to finish The Dead Who Do Not Sleep tonight, but I’m not sure I’m going to make it. I have 40+ pages left. I might, still. I’m not too tired yet. At the moment, I’m close to 28k. I’ve added about 2500 words so far.

Now, here’s a good idea, but I’m not so sure of the fact that you have to use their special paper/post-its, etc. to be able to upload the pen to your computer. I mean, the notebooks (160 pages) cost $24.99, which is approximately 15 cents a page, which is slightly expensive. I mean… if I handwrote novels, that would be oh, at least 2-3 notebooks, not counting corrections. It would get a bit expensive. Now, Logitech, come out with a pen that you can use on regular paper and I might just be interested. Great idea, but it doesn’t quite work for me.

I might have discovered a decent face cleanser at long last! At Pamida today I looked over their supply of face stuff, and saw something new. Since it was on sale, I decided to buy it. And Nicel Sunflower & Citrus Facial Cleanser might just be the answer to my prayers. I used it when I got home, and so far my face doesn’t feel all dried out like normal. And as far as I can tell, it’s not making me break out like everything else does. (And it smells good too!) I’m going to use it exclusively for one week to see how it works, but so far so good…

And there was something else I wanted to blog about, but I can’t remember what it is now. Hmm. I hate it when that happens. Anyway, I should go get back to work.

Bekah, Mom, Ethan, and I went to see Jessica’s dance performance today. She did a good job! It was really nice.

When I came home, I discovered a surprise… at long (long, long) last, Josie has updated her blog! I was beginning to wonder if she’d dropped off the face of the earth or something. And I want more! I’m hoping she means it when she says she’ll be posting regularly from now on. I did not receive anything from her notify list, so perhaps it’s not working. I’m not sure.

I spent part of this morning updating broken links (and adding a couple) as well as fixing some problems on my webpage. I think it looks better now. And the color scheme for the front page is growing on me. I’m still not sure about it, but I’m going to leave it be for now.

At the moment, I’m getting ready to go upstairs and write for a bit, I think. Or format a novel, and cross it off my list; I’m not sure. We shall see.

Oh, and just a note for posterity: It is Day 25 of the List of 40. Since Day 1, I have forgotten to exercise once, gone to bed early once, and gotten home too late once. I am really proud of myself for sticking with it for this long!

Since Day 1, I have also only eaten fruits or veggies between meals all but two times, I have had one piece of chocolate a week (on Sundays), and I have gotten to work on time. I have eliminated the getting up early to write goal, since I’m now working 10 hour days. I have done a fairly good job of drinking herbal tea after 8pm, with only occassional lapses. I have tried to do the dishes close to every other night.

And I’m working hard on everything else. And I’m surprised this is working out so well. Just an update before bed. I’m really headed that way now…

Originally posted on October 7, 2002

A prediction: I’m going to be able to look back on all of this craziness in a couple of months and shake my head and tell myself to never get stressed out like this again. At least, I hope to hell I’m able to do that.

Amen.

I still get anxious. I’m not over this yet, but it’s getting better. I’m more… stable now, I suppose. Focused. There are still little things I need to take care of that are leftover from that time Before, but they’re little things, and will be gone soon. I have to keep reminding myself not to take certain things so personally, since I’m still recovering from Before. And I have to remind myself to give myself a break. Stress does funny things to people, and I sure as heck didn’t like what it did to me.

I’ve been rereading archives again, in an effort to stay up later than normal so I’ll sleep better. Every time I curl up in bed to write, I fall asleep, so I thought I’d do some work on the computer tonight. I think part of that is the fact that I’m working 10-hour days, and haven’t quite gotten used to getting up so early yet. It’s getting better, but that’s part of the problem. The other part of the problem is glare at work, and eyestrain again. I swear… I’m going to end up wearing sunglasses to work. Which might not be all that bad of an idea… I do need to get my eyes checked as well, just in case I need a new prescription.

I’m cleaning up my submission files. I subbed AbNo to DDP oh, about seven months ago, and haven’t heard anything other than an early email that said somewhere around the end of September or October. Since I couldn’t remember what email address I subbed with, I sent new contact info and a query. I also sent my new contact info to FictionWorks, because I completely forgot to do that before. I knew I’d forgotten someone… That reminds me. I have to make sure Sandy has my new address too. (email sent.)

Umm. Let’s see. I think I could probably safely go to bed now. I really should be writing, but what happens once Edward, Regina, and Lily get to Regina’s family’s homestead is still gelling in my mind. Whatever happens, it’s not going to be all good…

In which I lock myself out of the house and have a bit of an adventure…

Oh, it’s definitely spring!! The apricot is blooming, there are daffodils all over, and my fingers are itching for my camera.

Today is my day off, of course, and I’ve made the decision not to clean today. I’m going to grab my camera and take some pictures, and then write for the rest of the afternoon. Absolute heaven.

I want to send a big thank you to everyone who has bought one of my books. Not only are they all doing well (at least in my opinion) I’ve been quite surprised at the number of sales I’ve had lately! Thank you all!

Well… Let’s see. I did my taxes last night, and they weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they would be. Thank goodness for downloadable forms.

Still working on Full Moon. I’m going to have to redo the beginning a bit to reflect what I now know, but I’m not complaining. I think I can safely say it’s not going to be a straight romance, though. I’m not sure what it will be. Fun, I guess.

I perused the web last night trying to find a local writers’ group without much luck. Ah well. I wasn’t all that surprised. But I did find author Jeffrey Marks who writes a mystery series starring U.S. Grant, so I’ll have to read it, since Dad still claims he found U.S. Grant’s initials on the beech tree in the woods. (They were a bit blurry to me, since they were so old, and I noticed the other day you can’t really tell they were initials anymore.)

And life goes on…

Ended up sticking with Full Moon anyway. I’m almost to 11k, which isn’t all that great, but isn’t horrible either.

Today was nice, but a bit cool. I cleaned out my car, gave up on cleaning out the jewelry mess less than a quarter of the way through the box, and I’m thinking I’ll end up going to bed early since I didn’t get much sleep last night. But I’m going to write first. Regina’s got a family I didn’t know about before, and I think they’re going to turn out to be very… interesting people. Nothing compared to what Vicki’s Earl turned out to be, but I don’t want to give the game away.

Thinking today, of things and the future in general, and I’m having a hard time (as usual) keeping myself from being too impatient. I have to keep reminding myself that this doesn’t have to be an overnight thing, and that by my birthday, I will be close to debt-free. (I’m impatient. What can I say?)

I’m also going to say that I’ve been using the Visor almost exclusively for the past few weeks, and hotsyncing only every once in a while. I format when I hotsync, so I get a wordcount about once a week. Which works fine for me, so far.

This has been a bit of a rambling entry, but I’m in a weird mood tonight. Blame it on the weather.

Helping Mom clean today. I took a load of stuff to storage, and managed to find not only my missing reference books, but my box of pretty things for the office as well. I also liberated my bike and a coat rack. Dad didn’t even complain. Now I have my vulture back on top my computer, and all is well.

I’m wrestling with Full Moon, but I’m not quite sure why. I’m getting no glimmerings of what happens next, and that’s beginning to bother me. I’m thinking about finishing a short story and giving Full Moon a break for the rest of the weekend. Or working on TDWDNS instead, since that’s what I’m supposed to be working on. We shall see.

Spring seems to be in the air, although it’s cool today. I’m going to go on a bike ride later on. Or maybe soon. We’ll see.

While perusing my archives after noticing that someone spent 20+ minutes reading them today (hi, mystery person!) I stumbled across the original entry for my first dream-man dream. Interestingly enough… check out the date.

So, it was a bit more than a few months, when I mentioned it in this post, but what I find so interesting is that it was almost a year later, exactly. Hmm.

Spooky.