Well, if I did something wrong, it will show up after the fiscal year ends, which has already happened in my book. We shall see how things pan out! (Note: I think I did okay; there were a couple of ‘eh’ authorizations there, but nothing major, and I think they will be fine.)

Had an argh moment today, though. I was writing at lunch, going at a steady clip, raising the tension a bit before all hell breaks loose, and I hit a key and my Dana deleted everything I had written for the past two days. (Which was only about 500 words, but still.) Hitting ‘undo’ did not help, and I still don’t know what I did. But it was frustrating, because it was going so well!!!!! And now I have to rewrite that chapter. ARGH!!!!!!!

Huh. Someone from MIT searching for “The Twa Sisters JenStClair” stumbled upon my blog today. Just in case they come back, I did write that story! Haven’t decided what to do with it yet, but I’m still planning to submit it somewhere…

Weird. Although I do like it when I get interesting hits like that one…

The doll looks very cool. I need a stand, but that’s about it. Hmm. It’s still light outside… I could go get one now…

I’m rereading Charles DeLint’s Memory and Dream at the moment, because it’s the book I return to most often when I’m having second thoughts about my choices in life. Not second thoughts, really, but… thoughts.

And we made from scratch vegetable soup today, using all home-grown veggies with a fresh tomato sauce base. Heaven. Absolute heaven. We’re also making spaghetti sauce, which is also with fresh tomato sauce. This is something we do every year. Yum. The whole house smells great.

The weather outside has turned to fall quite quickly, and I think part of my problem is that I’m not ready for fall yet. It’s my favorite time of year, but this summer flew by so quickly that I’m having to reread my archives just to convince myself that I did live through it.

Time flies… Before I know it, it will be Christmastime again. Yikes.

Stopped at a new store yesterday on the way home from Storage, it’s called Country Treasures and it’s full of cool stuff. I have my eye on some handmade wooden spoons as well as lavender for $1/cup. Christmas shopping already? Not yet, but I’m thinking about it.

The owner and I also talked for about an hour–and I might have my very first booksigning at the store. Wouldn’t that be cool? I’m not going to be in town for their open house, but a booksigning would be wonderful. I’m beginning to wonder if I need to get some more books from my publisher. Hmm.

Other than that, things are moving. I have to work tomorrow, which is okay, since I’m working 7-3:30 all week so that’s nice, but I do like my day off. And now that crunch time is approaching craft-wise, it’d be nice to get as much done as I possible can so I’m not stressed about the shows.

Anyway. I need to go feed the animals, then go back upstairs and finish my doll. Perhaps I’ll post a picture of her later; she’s cute!

Well. I’m working on a doll at the moment; she’s looking fairly good so far. I tea-dyed some fabric yesterday, as well as some already-sewn doll parts. Things are looking up in the craft department.

In BiS news… well, after writing yesterday morning and staying up until 11pm last night (so much for my previous post; I should have just kept my mouth shut) trying to work on a doll who didn’t want to have hair, apparently, I haven’t gotten anything else written… yet. But I will. After I finish this doll. I’ve given up on the other one.

And the new EbookReader Review is up! Squeaked in, even! Good work, Vicki.

So. This post is going to be about sleeping habits. In the past, I used to stay up until all hours of the night, writing, whatever, and then get by on six or so hours of sleep and be just fine the next morning. My caveat will be that I didn’t start work earlier, didn’t work 10 hours days, and had a totally different job from this one, but…

I can’t seem to stay up late anymore. At least not when I’m writing; if I don’t have to get up the next morning I’m tending to get up early anyway and write in bed. Which is okay; I got almost 1k done this morning alone, but it’s a total reversal from what used to be my norm.

I went to bed at 9:30pm last night. After waking up twice during the night (Okay, once was at 10pm when the phone rang and once at midnight when the storm (thanks, Vicki!) came through) I slept until 7:30am. That’s like 10 hours of sleep. Probably more like 9, but still.

Is it the 10-hour days? I think that’s part of it; working 10 hours is a lot, for anyone. I think the other part of it is getting up so early throughout the week; I can’t sleep in anymore to save my life. Which is ok too.

But I kind of miss being a nightowl. And I wonder… if I did get a different job, would my sleeping patterns change? Perhaps…

Okay, I did it. I’m now the Municipal Liaison for Cincinnati for NaNoWriMo. Whee!

I volunteered for two reasons: to meet more writers in the area and to expand my horizons a bit writing-wise… I can’t lock myself up in my room and not meet people for the rest of my life, after all.

And anyway, I want to show off my Dana. Ha. No, really. It should be fun.

Still haven’t decided what to write yet, though. I’m working on finishing BiS first.

Which, by the way, is going quite well. I think I might have an inkling of the ending, even. (Actually, the ending I envision is already written! Yay!) I’m hoping to write a lot this weekend, so we’ll see.

nnnnnnnngh.

I feel like I’ve been in constant motion all week long, which is both true and false, in ways. This end of the year fiscal thing is really… interesting. Now I know why the fiscal people were so swamped last year around this time.

But… in truth, I’m rather enjoying this. It’s work, yes, but (and I might as well make this my motto) I’d rather be busy than bored. It sure makes time fly.

Next week, it looks like I’m going to give up my day off and work 8 hour days, which is ok. I do rather like the earlier time off, after all, and I get to sleep in a little bit. I might, however, work 10 hours Monday and Tuesday and then divvy up the rest throughout the week. We shall see.

Anyway, I think I’m doing pretty good at the moment. But we’ll see… this is the first time I’ve been through this fiscal stuff, after all.

Writing time at work is my sanity, and I’ve gotten quite a bit done during lunch. I’m this close to making 20k again, and I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be a short book as well. Which is okay; LiS was short too. But we’ll see.

At the moment, it’s fitting together quite nicely. I’m still not sure how it will end, but I remain hopeful that I’ll figure it out before I type “The End.” (That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Work’s busy. It’s the end of the fiscal year. I’m still not feeling overwhelmed, but ask me again next week and I’ll let you know.

Yikes! Got an email from the folks at NaNoWriMo today, and I guess it is about time to start thinking about what I’m going to write. Hmm.

Let’s see. I should be done with BiS by then, God willing, and I have two choices. I could write Scarecrows, the next Beth-Hill book, or I could write the next Jacob Lane book, The Eighth Room. Decisions, decisions.

Of course, I could write something totally different, but look where that got me last time…

Anything else? Not at the moment.

Ugh.

I was in a bad mood this morning, brought on by… I’m not sure what. Not wanting to go to work (As Tuesday is really Monday for me and all…) not wanting to go to the afternoon meeting…

Well, I ended up only going to the meeting for 45 minutes, and the afternoon flew by. So I really couldn’t complain. And after getting to write for a solid 1/2 hour at lunch, I felt pretty good. Oh, yeah. Got my glare screen too and got rid of two of the flourescent lightbulbs above my desk. I’m all set!

It’s Dad’s b-day today, but we’re doing stuff for him tomorrow. We might go out to eat tonight, though; just the few of us who are here. We’ll see.

Anything else? BiS is going just fine. I just patched in a chapter, and I’m in the middle of making it fit back in. And that’s about it.

Oh, and Sunday night I had a dream, but I’m not going to mention what the dream was about until tomorrow when I can see if it’s going to come true or not.

Okay, well Saturday was yard sale day, and I counted seven sewing machines. Yesterday was Burlington, and we counted guitars. At the end of the day, we were up to 18 1/2 (the 1/2 was half a neck and part of the soundboard of a Fender guitar.)

I did get a box for the foot of my bed. It’s too high for Ethan to play my keyboard on it, but we’re trying to make things work out. It was only $20. I also picked up a couple of books (The Story of the Irish Race and a knitting book) and another bag full of fabric from the $1.00 table.

Haven’t tried the knitting book yet, because my clearer instructions didn’t work (I can’t figure out what to *do* after you cast on!) but I shall tonight, perhaps. At the moment I’m trying to find something for Dad’s b-day tomorrow.

I didn’t get much written over the weekend, and I’ve been working a little bit today, but I’m probably not going to get much done. Ah well. I will write more this evening and tomorrow. Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll have quite a bit done. We’ll see.

It finally stopped raining after it started this morning at 5:30.