By way of an update

Things have been a little hectic in my life, both personally and professionally.

In addition to Tink's ongoing health concerns, I've had health concerns of my own. My chronic pain has gotten considerably worse, so I've got some upcoming appointments to try and get a diagnosis. My primary care physician referred me to a couple of specialists based on what he thinks it might be, and I'll be going through some diagnostic testing to see if he's right, or if it's something else altogether. It's been a frustrating process, and I don't know how much longer it's going to last. Not only do we have to narrow down what might be the culprit, but we have to simultaneously eliminate other things that it could be. And then, I can get a diagnosis and start a treatment plan and (hopefully) start to feel better.

Work has been busy, too. I'm getting into a busy season for what I do, and am taking steps to expand my work to include new and bigger clients. I haven't had much free time lately, and what little I've managed to scrounge has been spent with the munchkins and the Wifey. And, you know, sleep. I've heard that's important to get from time to time.

Fortunately, things are getting better.

Tink's appointments are slowing down and her health is hinting at getting better. I have appointments lined up so my health will get better. Work is more organized and I'm settling into a routine.

And I hope this means I'll have more time to blog. Because I have some things I think are worth blogging that I want to share. I have stories and experiences that make me feel alone, and I want to tell my story. I want to give voice to what has happened to me and how it has contributed to who I am today.

Here's to blogging.

Blood work and weight checks and follow-ups

In December 2011 (8 mos. old), Tink
could not stand (even assisted) and weighed
less than fifteen pounds. (She was 6 lbs at birth.)

A few years ago, Tink and I were almost spending more time at doctors' offices and in clinics than not. She was tiny and not growing, and her pediatrician wanted to know why.

It wasn't a matter of growing slowly. She simply wasn't growing. And wasn't hitting her developmental milestones.

So we went to specialists and she had lots of blood drawn and we were in the pediatrician's office more than once a month just so she could step on the scale.

We're at it again.

We've had appointments and blood work and x-rays, and a specialist who looked at her and said, "I've never seen this before."

So we're circling back to start again with the pediatrician, which means another round of blood work and a weight check appointment (that includes Puck because he isn't growing as quickly as he should because he doesn't want to be left out. Or something.).

With each appointment I make and doctor's report I get, I can't help but remembering where we were before, when Tink was in physical and occupational therapy. When she was a year old and couldn't stand unassisted. When blood work was so routine to her that she just stared at the tech that drew her blood with an expression that said, "And what?"

She's older now, and much more aware of the pain that comes with drawing blood. Or, as we call them, "pinches." She dreads them. And not only does she ask every health care professional if they're going to give her a pinch, but she recognizes the logo of Quest Diagnostics and whenever she sees it, she asks if we're going to the "pinch place."

Today, no. This month, yes. Next month, too.

It's harder now. She's older and understands more. She knows there's something going on. And she doesn't like pinches.

Neither do I.

It's going to be a long few months, Miss Tink. But we're right here with you.

Trying to take it one step at a time

This looks eerily similar to my calendar this month.

Things have been busy around here lately. While Puck and Tink were with Monty, I did quite a bit of extra work, and now that they're back this week, I'm balancing my time among munchkins and work and packing for our move this month. (It's going to be a bit of a process for the move so it's not such a shocking change for the munchkins.) The next few weeks are going to be equally as busy, but when September rolls around life will settle a bit into more of a routine.

Our September calendar is pretty empty right now, and I hope to keep it that way as much as possible. I'll need the time to sort of recover.

In the meantime, as August does its best to try and steamroll me, I'm taking everything one day at a time and keeping myself organized through it by writing everything down. I keep a notebook for work. Each day I write down what needs to be done that day and keep notes on that day's page when I have phone calls or meetings or whatever else. That notebook is going to be very full over the next few weeks, I think. But writing everything down will help me from being overwhelmed with everything that's coming. All I have to worry about is the next thing on my list.

It's going to be a whirlwind for the next few weeks, but it will definitely be worth it the first week of September when everything is much more settled in my life. Maybe things will be just boring enough to carry me to November when we have a trip planned to see Mimi and Papa G.

How is your August going so far?

Well, hello, weekend.

My first week at my shiny new job has come to a close, and I'm still here!

It was a bit of a chaotic week at the beginning, but I enjoyed the craziness, getting to know the members of the Marketing Team, and sort of getting settled into a new routine. (Of course, this "routine" will change after next week when I go partial-remote, and then again at the beginning of September since Puck and Tink will be home and thrown into the mix.) It's been a good week to get me started.

Of course, this Friday is different from any other Friday I've had in about four years because it actually means something. Now that I'm no longer a freelance writer, I have weekends again, and I know that tomorrow morning I can sleep in and I don't have to work. It's strange to think that. I'll be able to get caught up on housework, do some reading, maybe even hang out with friends. And I don't have to work.

One particular thing I'd like to do this weekend is to get the coffee house book back in shape. I've been greatly neglecting it (but haven't stopped thinking about it) for quite some time due to many of the changes in my personal life, and now that my schedule is different, I may actually have time to finish up the background work for the collection and write the coffee house book. Finally.

I will take some time this weekend to talk about my job a little more, and some other fun, exciting things that are coming up. In the meantime, have a happy Friday!

100+ Books in a Year Reading Challenge Update

I know I haven't been updating the way I should, and I'm quite behind on my reviews of the books I have read, but I promise I've been reading! Not as much as I'd like to be, but I'm doing what I can. It helps that I have projects that involve reading fiction for a freelance client.

I don't know that I'll hit 100 books this year, which is fine. (I'd have to do a helluva lot of reading for the last half of the year, that's for sure!) The important thing is that I'm reading more than I would have otherwise, and I'm happy with that.

I've read 13 books as of May 31st, which totals 5,214 pages. I'm happy with that.

I hope to get a lot more reading done in the second half of the year, particularly as I expect things will normalize a little better than they have so far. And, if not, well, I read 13 books in 2012.

Right now I'm reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It's one I read quite some time ago, and it's one of those books I knew I'd want to reread. It just has that kind of story. So that's what I'm doing.

And I'll try to get past reviews up soon.

What are you reading?

What I've been working on lately

I've been kind of busy lately. I've been purposely trying to keep myself busy since the kids are visiting Monty, but even if they'd been here the past couple of weeks, I'd be busy. I've got a lot going on these days. It's good, but it also means that I haven't been posting as regularly as I would have liked.

Freelancing is going well. I have a couple of projects I'm really enjoying right now, which is good, since they're taking quite a bit of time and energy. Periods like this remind me of why I love my job as a freelance writer, and show me that I can and do make a living at it. If you're thinking of venturing out into the freelance world, do try it, but do your research first. Things have changed a lot since I started four years ago.

I've also been taking some time to work on my grant application, which means I'm taking time to work on the coffee house book. The more I work with the coffee house book, the more excited I am about the project. I got to talk to one of my brothers about it yesterday, and telling him about the overall project, as well as the individual aspects of it. He said he thought it was a cool idea (which he's kind of obligated to say since he's my brother and everything). Laying it all out like that reminded me of why I want to do this project, and why I'm willing to spend so much time making sure I do it right. I'm not going to compromise the idea to get it done faster. The idea, as I have it, is what it needs to be. And it may take a long time to finish the collection, but it will be worth it. For now I may have to work on snippets here and there, but if I'm awarded this grant, I'll have more time and flexibility to devote the time to the project, specifically the coffee house book, that I want to.

Reading Challenge Update

Reading has been going better since I've started working with this new client. So far I've read Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and Watership Down by Richard Adams. (Reviews of Rand and Adams will likely be posted this weekend.) I didn't read Atlas Shrugged as deeply as I would have liked, particularly because of what the book represents, but I did get through it, which is enough for me...because of what the book represents.

I'm happy with how I'm doing. I know I need to read more quickly to hit the goal of 100 books, but with the way things have been going, I think I'm doing pretty well. I'm glad I'm doing this challenge--it's forcing me to take time to read, to immerse myself in stories. They say writers should spend time reading, and this challenge is helping me do that.

Right now choosing stories has been easy. I have a list of books on my shelf I'd like to read, and I'm being given stories by my client to work with. But I know that as I get further in the challenge, it might get harder to pick books. There are always and forever books to read, of course, but I'll have worked through many of the titles already on my want-to-read list, and will need to add to it. I'm also resisting the temptation to go through an entire series for this challenge. I feel like it would be too easy to read, say, the Harry Potter series. Sure, it would count, but it's not really my goal for this reading challenge. In fact, except for reading Song of Solomon and Sula, both by Toni Morrison, I would like to only read one book by each author I pick up this year.

How's your reading going this year?

An update on the coffee house book

Sura Nualpradid / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I promise I'm still working on the coffee house book! I expect to have the rest of my background information collected and organized in the next few weeks, and then I'll finally be ready to write the first draft of the story.

I know it seems like I've been procrastinating or simply not working on the coffee house book, but that isn't the case. The reason it's been taking so long to get all the background work done is because it has to be so extensive. After all, the coffee house book is one aspect of a larger collection of works, all of which are closely interrelated. When I began, I knew I would have to do background work for more than just the coffee house book before I could write it, and that's what I've been doing.

Character biographies and relationships, outlining the coffee house book (and the other books in the collection), and, yes, world-building*. As all this background stuff is being wrapped up, I'm looking ahead to the actual writing.

It's been a long time coming, and the book has seen many different versions of itself before ever being written, but I'm finally, finally coming up to the next stage in the process. The stage that is the most fun, the most harrowing, and the biggest. The writing.

I think I'm going to need a drink.








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*The collection is set in the real world, but I still have to create a community to fill the stories. I still have to build the world of the stories for the collection.

Can't talk...writing.

I haven't been posting as often as I'd like, but I have good reasons. They are:

Bean likes fruit snacks

And:

Not even one, and already a couch potato....

And:

My goofballs!

And, really, what could be better?

That said, I am writing. Quite a lot, actually. And after Christmas, I'll have updates on the coffee house book. Enjoy your holidays, and may you be surrounded by friends and family.

What I've been doing lately....

My sister, brother, and niece visited at the end of July for my daughter's baptism. I'll be back soon (today or tomorrow) with a "real" post.

The coffee house book is calling!

Now that my beautiful Bunny has arrived, and I'm settling into a new routine with two kids and an increased freelance workload, I'm trying to make time to get back to the coffee house book.

Photo source

It's been bugging me quite a bit that I haven't had the time to work on it. Ideas have been rattling around in my brain, developments have been revealing themselves, and characters have been begging to be written. So in between scribbling about nursing education and wiping snooger noses, I'll be writing about (and drinking) coffee.

I will not be posting excerpts here, but I'll be keeping you updated on the writing process, how the story is developing, and anything else related to writing I can think of. (After all, this is a writing blog. And I've missed updating this blog just as much as I've missed working on the coffee house book.) However, to keep me accountable for the coffee house book, I will be updating with my writing task list often. I'd like to update daily, but I will post my task list at least weekly. And at least once a week, I'll "check in" with progress on my writing life.

Here's my first coffee house book task list:

• Work on character biographies
• Outline chapters for finished character biographies
• Create a detailed description of the coffee house
• Start creating a detailed outline for overall book story line
• Write up the recipes for the chapters

Here we go!

I've been cheating on you with another blog

I realize I haven't updated this blog in a while. I've been writing much more frequently on love. ink. coffee., and I encourage you to hop over there to see what I've been up to.

I will be continuing to do writing posts there, and will post here as I can.

And then she was back.

Due to a lot going on in my personal life (which you can read about here, if you want), I haven't been posting here. Normally, I would apologize, but I make no excuses for the fact that my family comes first in my life.

The good news is that I do have several posts in the works that I was working on/planning to write last week and the week before. So for the next few weeks, this blog will not be lacking in content!

In the meantime, here's a picture of me with two people I love:

The Coffee-Stained Family
December 2010

Fall weather, family news, and a little sadness

The weather is getting cooler here. Finally. In fact, earlier this week, it was in the 50s when Hubby left for work. I'm so glad, too. I really love fall.

Our family life is still quite chaotic. Let me 'splain.

No. Is too much to 'splain. Let me sum up.

Have I been neglecting you, my darlings?

I'm sorry.

Since starting my fancy full-time writing gig, things have been a little crazy in both my work and home lives. But I'll be better, I promise. I'm spending this weekend getting caught up with everything, and starting Monday I'll be posting with more regularity here.

Incidentally, I've figured out why I've been having trouble with the coffee house book (again). I won't be changing the layout or point of view or anything like that this time, though. Don't worry. I know how curious you are, so I'll be explaining sometime this weekend in another post. Do you think you can wait until then?

Happy Friday, dear readers. Have a nice iced mocha and enjoy your weekend!

There will be a coffee house book...someday.

I promise I'm still working on it. And thinking about it. And worrying that it won't work. But still writing on it.

Writing the sections in first-person POV is hard. I knew that going in. And at first, I thought the difficulty would be capturing the differences in the different characters' voices. The trouble has been in using first-person to tell one aspect of a bigger story.

Until recently, I'd been focused on the big picture of the book's story. I knew what I wanted to happen and how. But now, I have to break that story down into the pieces seen by the characters. For example, Vivi is the manager. She's helping plan the anniversary party, so she has a big hand in what's happening. The wanna-be Regular, on the other hand, only knows that the coffee house will close early the night before and open late the day of. Where Vivi's focus is on the details of the planning, the wanna-be Regular's focus is on getting in with the staff so she can be in on the planning.

The idea is, of course, that once you've read all the sections, you can put all the pieces together, and you know what's gone on from conception to execution for the anniversary party.

Easy for you, not so easy for me.

I know I'm not the only one who's hitting complications in the writing world. What are you struggling with right now? What are you doing to try and fix, or work through, it?

However, in a bit of good news, a friend and fellow writer helped me figure out the details of an installation piece at the coffee house titled "Deadly Seven." One of the characters created it as a senior project. That's all I can tell you. You have to wait and read the rest.

Coffee house book update

I promise I'm still working on the coffee house book!

I'm doing a lot of background work right now: intense character biographies, scene outlines, and research, research, research.

I plan to finish writing by the end of June so I can start edits in July. My goal is to have manuscripts to beta readers in the fall so I can do another round of edits in November.

What are you working on?

What was I thinking?

I'm crazy. Really. I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm regretting it. Ragh!

In the latest manifestation of the coffee house book, each chapter is written about a character who is either a patron or employee of the coffee house and that character's relationship with the coffee house and its owner. Through each chapter, you learn about the coffee house and its owner, as well as the people who fill it.

Well, I decided (for some reason) that this wasn't enough for me in this project. So I also decided that each chapter would be told from the perspective of its character....in first-person point of view.

I know. I can see you shaking your head at me. And believe me, I've been shaking my head at myself since I started this crazy project! And I've been spending the past couple of weeks trying to convince myself that the story would be good--or better--if the chapters are told in third-person POV.

I just can't do it. The chapters need to be in first-person. It's hard, it's frustrating, and it's going to take quite a bit of character biography-ing. Luckily, I found a really great character biography worksheet that's working perfectly for all these "minor" characters, as well as a scene list worksheet that's helping me keep my story straight within the vignettes.

I have more background work than I thought I did, but if it helps keep me organized, it'll definitely be worth it.

I'll get this story written yet!

Remember the coffee house book?

Yeah, I'm still writing it.

It's going a little slower than I would like, but it's starting to pick up.  I'm hoping to get back on schedule soon so I can still meet my (self-imposed) deadline.

I've been spending some time working on Newly Wed, which is the updated title to Pondered, which was the project name given to the rewrite of my NaNo 2009 novel.  I'll still be working on that rewrite since NaNo winners get a free proof copy of their book, but that's more of a souvenir thing.  If I don't get it done, it'll be okay.  Ultimately, the coffee house book is my priority project.

The great thing about the coffee house book is that it's revealed my writing niche.  I have ideas for future books that are similar to the coffee house book (in format), and instead of wanting to set aside the coffee house book to work on these new ideas, I want to finish the coffee house book and then work on these new ideas.  They all kind of fit in together, which is fun.

The good news for my writing is that I'm taking a trip the week of Easter, so I'm hoping to be able to get some writing done while I'm gone.  Yes, I know it'll be crazy; I'm taking a week-long trip with a seven-month old.  But if nothing else, I can try to do a little writing during the long drive from central Florida to central Illinois.

If my writing continues to pick up, I may even have something worth sending to readers next month!


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Image: Ian Kahn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

NaNoWriMo update

You can see to the right where my word count is for NaNo.  I update it regularly, so it's probably accurate.

I'm not where I wanted to be by today, but that's okay.  In addition to working on pieces for clients, I've been busy at my other job.

I'll have this weekend to catch up, as well as the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Since Hubby and I are not traveling for Turkey Day this year, I'm hoping the weekend will be nice and relaxing for us.  And since Gma P7* and Auntie M-- will be here, I'm guessing I'll have Bean-free moments I can use to write.

I'm really enjoying writing this novel, but I also know it's one I'll probably never revise or really work with again.  The story is fun and pretty easy to write, so when I do get a bit of time for NaNo, the words come easily.

To be honest, I'm eager to get back to my coffee house book, as well as brainstorming a few other ideas I've had (although my coffee house book is the priority project beginning December 1).  Once NaNo has passed, I'm going to spend December tweaking my website, working on my new and improved writing goals and schedule, which will be broken down month-to-month as well as week-to-week.  Then, beginning January 1, 2010, I'll be jumping full-force into fiction scribbling (when I'm not playing the role of a Fforde Ffan, that is).

I really think 2010 is going to be an exciting year for the Coffee-Stained Writer!



*For info on my family abbreviations, go here.