Warmer weather brings busy times

April showers bring May flowers and so many projects.

Yes, I normally juggle a few writing projects but it seems like everything is wanting to be written at once. And I'm excited about all of these things so it's hard to focus on just one. For the record, focusing on one project while pondering the others is how I would recommend managing this balancing act. It's just not working right now.

Currently on my virtual desk:

Painting interior art for Laya's Vacation (children's picture book)

Writing The Adventures of Nugget the Space Chicken (young reader chapter book)

Writing I9 (stand-alone adult Science Fiction Mystery

Finishing Interface (stand-alone YA sci-fi)

Writing Godmother (stand-alone YA fairytale)

Fleshing out this new idea for a funny post-apocalyptic zombie/ghost story that just manifested. 

Among other things that are not-so-patiently waiting their turn. OMG. If someone knows where the dial down on the idea faucet is, could they help a girl out? Please?

On the things I can check off my list from last month:

The refresh for the interiors of The Narvan series is done and uploaded. This was more of a 'for me' thing because I wanted them all spiffy to match the new novella prequel release of One Shot at the Sphinx. Which, if you didn't grab your copy from my last post, it's still free on Smashwords, B&N, and Kobo. 

In addition to several events, I visited with the members of the book club at Jason's Books and Coffee in Grand Rapids who read Destiny Pills & Space Wizards. (And yes, I look weirdly photoshopped into that photo, but it's legit. Crazy phone camera focus)

T-rex joined me for
the West Michigan Women's Expo 

Kay-Kay and I visited six classrooms for March Reading Month, talking about books, writing, and chickens. We had a lot of fun and so did the kids. 

My new distraction:

My flock grew last month. Meet Lucy. She's a Toulouse goose mix that is settling in nicely with my chicken ladies. 

When I'm not busy working out the yard, playing with my flock, or working on that list of projects, I'll be signing books at these fun places:

April 6: Cadillac Pop Con, Cadillac, MI

April 12-14: Grand Rapids Spring Fling Comic Con, Kalamazoo, MI

April 26-27: Whitestown Viking Festival, Whitestown, IN

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

Speaking of doing lots of things, let's get to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question:

How long have you been blogging? What to you like about it and how has it changed?

It doesn't seem like this long, but apparently, I've been at this since January of 2010! When I first stepped into the blogging pool seemed like so many others were doing it too. These days it feels like our numbers have dwindled. It could be that many, like me, are still at it, but we don't post as often as we used to. Thanks to this group, I can say I at least post once a month. Hooray for that!

I met a lot of fun people through their blogs, had a great time doing various blog hops. The A to Z challenge was a particularly great one that pushed me to think of new ways to work that in each year. Sadly, these days, I don't have as much brain to devote to blogging as I did back when I was first starting out. At that time I was just getting into the publishing world, writing a lot of short stories and polishing my first novels. Now I'm busy going out to promote my bookstack and drowning in the perpetually running faucet of inspiration when I'm home. 

There are far worse problems to have. ;)

Keep blogging. 

How is it July already?

Yes, I'll be asking a similar question all year. When you stay busy, time flies by. 

June was full of fun with Laya the chicken. Laya is a naked neck silkie and the most laid back of all my chickens. Books and a chicken? Yep. She often comes with me to outdoor events to draw people over to my booth, and because hey, chickens are fun! Have you ever pet a chicken? Visit my booth and you can check that off your bucket list.

Taking a walk at the Lakeshore Art Festival

Sitting pretty at the White Lake Arts and Crafts Festival

Getting all the love at Magical Realms

I've been doing a little work in my garden as time allows. So many weeds to pull. The chickens love to eat them though so that give me some extra incentive to get weeds pulled beyond making the flower hill look nice. 

Have I been writing? The answer was supposed to be no, because I'm taking a break. However, Camp Nano got brought up in my local writing group and I did have an already started project I was mulling scenes over for...so yes, I am now writing. Sitting at 11K words so far for the month. I expect the fantastic pace will slow down now that my long holiday weekend is over.  

On the subject of taking a break, I have been reading and watching Netflix. Refilling the well, as it were.

Recently watched and finished: 

The Last Kingdom

Legacies

Bridgerton

The Ted Bundy Tapes

The Letter for the King

Cracow Monsters

Vikings Valhalla

The John Wayne Gacy Tapes

Recently Read:

Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas

The Kingmakers Daughter by Philippa Gregory

Sometimes We Fall by Yong Takahashi

Year One by Nora Roberts

Patrick by Stephen Lawhead

29 by Vera West

Bromance Bookclub by Lyssa Kay Adams

Now that I've enticed you with Laya the chicken, I'm sorry to say that she won't be back with me until August when I'm at closer to home outdoor events. However, this month, you can find chickenless me at:

July 8-10  Capital City Comic Con - Lansing, MI

July 16 &17 Michigan Medieval Stroll - Lake Orion, MI

July 23 Kogan Con - Grand Haven, MI

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

And now to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question: If you could live in any book world, which one would you choose?

I'd have to go with my own Narvan world because I know the rules and the people there, and most importantly, who to avoid in order to stay alive. Alive is good. 

That whole world (universe?) has been with me for so long I can't imagine living any where else outside of the real world. Plus, my characters have aged with me. They're not moving as quickly as they used to. They suffer from aches and the occasional bad back day. I could fit in there in some quiet little background character roll without having to get into the plot chaos with main characters, but maybe still be close enough to see some of the action from a safe distance. 

Where would you go?

Marching into Spring

There may still be snow on the ground but at least the sun is shining now and then. Soon enough yard work will be back on the weekend agenda. Until then, I'm busy working on Seeker : Book 4 of The Narvan. The fine tuning edits are going slowly but I'm nearing halfway done. The final book in the main series is shaping up to be a long one, but hopefully also fulfilling for all the characters and wrapping up the series plot. 

Spindelkin is leaving Kindle Vella as I type this. The YA Fantasy novel is next up for going to print once I get Seeker out to proofreaders. 

Frayed, a YA urban fantasy (work in progress) will be hitting Kindle Vella as soon as I have time to get the first chapters edited and uploaded. Here's the cover so far. I'll be playing with it for months, I'm sure. I'm still playing with the cover for Spindelkin, for goodness sake. Nothing is set in stone until it goes to print. 

Upcoming book signing events:

Hall of Heroes Con in Elkhart IN - March 5-6

Grand Rapids Women's Expo in Grand Rapids, MI - March 18-20

Grand Rapids Spring fling Comic Con in Grand Rapids, MI - April 8-10

Tulip City Comic con in Holland, MI - April 24

Whitestown Viking Festival in Whitestown, IN - April 29 - May 1

And speaking of the Viking Festival, I finally finished sewing my new garb.  I had to relearn how to weave. It's been a long time since the fiber arts weeks of art class in high school. All the trim is tablet woven, which, in theory was going to give me some time to kick back and watch Netflix while I worked on it, but it turns out you have to have to actually pay attention to what you're doing. (My first strip has a about five different patterns in it because I kept losing count.)Well, crap. I ended up switching to an easier pattern for the rest of it and still had to keep flipping a paper to remind myself whether I was going forward or backward. Short term memory and I are not great friends. 

Lots of layers for all weather. 

Squeezing out the last wavering inches of tablet weaving.
Its is professional? No. Will it suffice? Yep.

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

Which brings us to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question: 

Have you ever been conflicted about writing a story or adding a scene to your story?

The short answer: Yes, but I almost always write them anyway. It's just whether I let anyone else ever see them. 

But seriously, I'm just gonna go ahead and overthink that question. Long answer: Sure. But for multiple reasons. 

A. The story or scene is too close to home. I'm pretty sure I touched on this one in a previous IWSG post. Writing is a good place to work though difficult emotions or situations, like therapy, able to distance ourselves a little and see it through a character instead of ourselves. But sometimes those things are too private or sensitive to share or might offend family members if they see through the thin veil of fiction.

B. I'm just not ready to tell that story. I don't have enough experience or knowledge of a topic or lifestyle to accurately covey what I want to show. Or it's not a genre I'm comfortable writing yet. There are a few stories lurking on my hard drive that are waiting for me to do research/gain life experience.

C. The scene might not fit in the book as a whole, but I'm jonesing to write it anyway. I almost always give into to this urge and see where it goes. It's about 70/30 in favor of ending up in the book, often with major edits to make it mesh, but these are usually great emotional moments or add depth of character.

And if you've made it this far though this month's blog post. You deserve chicks. Meet the newest additions to my flock. 

Olive Egger

Midnight Mystic Maran

Blue-laced Golden Wyandotte

Congratulations, you made it to the end. :) What are you up to this month?

ISWG: May Flowers and Rituals

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 
and find links to all the other 
participating writers.

Welcome to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group post. It's finally spring here in Michigan, meaning the weather is generally above freezing now, even at night. Is it warm? Not reliably. One day it's 70 and sunny the next it's 35 and raining with occasional spurts of snow flurries. But, on the bright side, flowers are finally blooming and my ducks are growing up.

But before we get to flowers and ducks, I should probably talk about writing. There hasn't been a lot of that going on. Though I did manage to read a book so that's progress - more so than binge-watching 8 seasons of Vampire Diaries and season 4 of The Last Kingdom.

Dreams of Stars and Lies, my next upcoming release, is progressing nicely. I have two short stories to finish formatting and then I'm waiting on the cover art. Look for the release of this collection of sci-fi stories mid-summer.

Bound In Blue: The Narvan Book 3 is going through another round of edits before it hits proofreading, but that is also on track for a Fall release.

Book signing events continue to be cancelled, with my next possible one now in July. I miss talking with readers and networking in person with my author friends. This is part of my lack of motivation. I usually come home from events all energized to work on whatever next project I have on deck, but right now life is a too quiet.

This month's question is: Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the zone?

My writing rituals usually include, turning off the lights in my office, sitting in my comfy chair, lighting a candle, maybe some incense, and making words happen until the story starts coming out of my fingers. Sometimes that means writing with my eyes closed to further block out distractions. It's often the getting the fingers going on the keyboard that is the most important step. Once that happens, the story isn't far behind.

And now... flowers and ducks

The ducks are getting their wing feathers, not that they will be doing much flying.

Violets are one of my favorite flowers

Fancy daffodils after one of the many spring rains

Yep, we had more rain

Not a stick! This Easter Hognose snake slithered through the yard.

Nap time for duckies

IWSG: April Lockdown

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 
and find links to all the other 
participating writers.

I am fortunate to work from home all the time, so my income is generally not affected by this whole Covid-19 mess. But we have my elderly MIL staying with us so she's not home alone during this shelter in place decree.

Beyond that, most of my book launch events for Chain of Grey were canceled so I've been doing a few virtual ones.

Check out Quarantine Con for some fun con merch from the comfort of your own home.

or this author reading and interview series by How Writers Write
I'll be doing a reading from Trust on April 16 and having a chat with my poet pal, Michael D. Jones about his new poetry collection.


And also, I had the itch to add to our pet inventory.

It seems that I don't ask for anything for my birthday anymore. The past few years, I just get a new pet. 

It started with my little dog, Bitsy, five years ago.

My pond with goldfish.

Then came chickens.

Then, after losing a couple to illness and a hawk, the next year, we had chickens round two.

And this year, ducklings.

Next year? I think I'm good with creatures to take care of now, but I'm not going to say it won't happen.

Really though, with all the crazy going on in the world right now, we needed a little cute, cuddly fun.

I was just going to get two ducklings, but once I was there at the store looking at the big bin of ducklings of the variety they'd ordered at my request, my gut whispered for me to get three. Always listen to the gut.

We're on shelter in place until at least April 13 so that gives us plenty of time to get acquainted with our new ducklings. We've had them since March 24.

Right now, these adorable little feather babies are living in my writing room. How is that working for writing? Not all that productively I must say, but they're darn cute so I'll forgive them for making so much noise. Soon enough they'll be living outside and we won't be seeing quite as much of one another.

These three are Indian Runner ducks. They'll be generally flightless and will help clean up the bugs in the yard and my flowerbeds in between playing in the pond and hanging out with our chickens. We're just hoping they all get along. We won't know if they are male or female for a few weeks yet so here's hoping we have a couple females because I'm looking forward to some duck eggs.

How are things in your corner of this crazy world?

It's crazy world out there and in here too

With this whole viral virus thing taking over the world and bringing many things to a standstill, daily life as we knew it a week ago seems so long ago. Today, being my birthday, I thought I'd take a moment to make a few lists to keep all the crazy in perspective.

Things I'm grateful for:

1. I already work at home. Literally, the entire lower level of my house is dedicated to my home businesses. So hey, zero change for me there. 
2. My main business is online (on various platforms). I'm all set with social distancing. 
3. While many people, my son included, are off work due to closures, I'm working overtime.
4. We regularly buy a three-month supply of toilet paper online and are all set for a while yet. 

Things that have changed this week:

1. Last Saturday my 89-year-old MIL ended up in the ER for a leg infection. The hospital was full and couldn't admit her. She didn't want to transfer to the next hospital an hour away, so she's currently staying with us. So yeah, I'm working overtime and playing nurse. If I ever get around to publishing The Minor Years, which chronicles Anastassia's time as a Seeker on Veria Minor, yeah, it's based on real-life me right now. 
2. My daughter is a high school senior and her school is closed for a month. We have no idea how or if graduation will happen. Or AP exams. Or lots of things. Lots of uncertainty going on for a kid who already struggles with anxiety. On the plus side, she gets to do what schoolwork they are assigning on her own time from the comfort of her room and also sleep in. So in that one regard, it's kind of a dream situation. 
3. I officially became another year older. And after two weeks of overtime with one to go, I'm feeling it. 

Things that are not so great:

1. I'm trying to evaluate my MIL's health situation and weigh the choice of maybe sending her back to her home or into a nursing home for good. Because apparently, out of five kids, I'm the one willing to make that decision.
2. Nursing homes are also on lockdown so we can't tour any of them.
3. I don't currently have time to make a bunch of phone calls, fill out forms, or be a nurse.
4. I don't remember the last time I had a full night's rest thanks to my own sleep issues and my little dog's peanut-sized bladder and now I'm also getting up at least twice a night to help a full-grown human get out of bed and use the bathroom.   
5. As it turns out, it's really rough to release a book while events are being canceled left and right and social media is on Covid-19 takeover. 
6. I really want to be working on Dreams of Stars and Lies, but my brain is too scrambled to concentrate.

I hope you're all healthy, your pantries and TP are stocked and your employers are taking care of you. Until next post, keep washing your hands and let's hope this all blows over very soon!

This weather blows

Quite literally. Today's winds are averaging around 30 MPH. It's cold. It's blustery. At least it's not snowing (at this moment). So far we've only lost power for a minute.

Most of the high winds overnight helped melt some of our current snow, so hey, that's a plus. As you can see we've lost a few pieces of trees, but nothing big or house endangering as of yet. The high winds are supposed to continue until tomorrow morning so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Earlier this week, we ventured over to Detroit, a two and half hour drive, to see Peter Murphy and David J perform a host of Bauhaus songs. I was fortunate to see Love and Rockets in concert in the early 90's, but never Bauhaus. It was funny to realize I still remembered almost all the words, despite not hearing many of these songs for roughly twenty years. What did I have to eat yesterday? Why am I in this room? What was that important thing someone just said two minutes ago? I often have no answers for that. So useful, the knowledge we retain.

Because I'm still sick...yes, still - it's down to being generally exhausted all the time and this persistent chest congestion though, so I'm feeling fear less likely to contaminate anyone - we splurged upgraded our general admission tickets to get balcony seating directly facing the stage. This seriously hurt my thrifty Dutch sensibilities, but was so worth it. Not only did it mean I wasn't spreading any lingering germs with the generally crammed together populace, but I got to sit down and have a clear view of everything with great sound. Saint Andrews Hall is a very cool venue and having the VIP lounge and bathrooms, along with seats and a table, was really nice. I did still get the true concert experience of having a large drunk guy (sitting) next to me that deserved a neon shirt saying 'say it don't spray it' and a super annoying chatty woman behind me whose purse kept knocking into my arm every few minutes as she leaned against the railing behind me to talk to some guy. But really, it was a great concert. Peter Murphy's voice is still dead on and amazing.

My intention to participate in the February edition of 30K in a month didn't pan out very well due to the fact my brain has been mostly mush and all I want to do it sleep. Being sick for nearly three weeks straight does tend to hamper the whole productivity thing. Instead, I've been working on a rewrite of a 10K word short story. It's going so very slow, but any progress is good so I'm not going to complain about it too loudly.

Since I haven't been very good at writing this month, I'm (also slowly) working my way through Nick Wilford's Corruption. I haven't read the first book, but it's been pretty easy to follow along.

Now then, I suppose I should get some writing done.

IWSG December: A glance around my office

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here. 

Wow, it's December? Last month flew by in a stream of hosting NaNoWriMo events, book selling events, writing 50,000 words of a YA fantasy novel, and proofing the ARC of my next book. So yes, it was a busy month! I'd say this month is less busy, and technically it is, but it still feels jam-packed. I'm looking forward to January - the month where I (usually) catch my breath.                                                                                                                         I'll be doing a cover reveal here for Trust: Book 1 of The Narvan, in a few days, but until then...                                                                                                                                                                Let's focus on this month's IWSG question: What are five objects we can find in your writing space?

New for NaNoWriMo this November, is my jaunty pirate hat. This year we had an inner-regional word war to help our writers stay motivated. I headed, you guessed it, the pirates. The best part of this hat, was the giant fluffy feather than got in everyone's faces anytime I was nearby. Now it decorates my desk display of books that aren't quite put away between events, since I've had one about every other weekend for a while now.

And if you're wondering, my pirate team sunk our opponents, the ninjas! It was a good battle, made even better by being wordily victorious.

Last year I headed the villain team and also won. I'm sensing I might belong to the dark side.

Just over my head, where I do most of my writing from my comfy chair, is this cabinet. Inside are so many treasures, like a stack of  packages of blank notecards I got for a penny each at a office store sale years ago and seem to be saving for...something. It also houses some of my super old writing that we don't talk about or look at but also can't throw away, a large stash of cassettes from the late 80s and early 90s that I also refuse to part with, and various craft supplies.

One of those crafts is book art, in which I, in one of my many spurts of random craftiness a few years ago, decided to try. I needed something to fill the open spaces in my cabinet and this seemed like the perfect solution. It also mostly hides all the stuff spilling off the shelves behind them. Functional and nice to look at.

Have you ever watched Farscape? No? What's wrong with you? It's one of my favorite shows of the old sci-fi channel, back before they went wonky with a y and focused on stuff like Sharknado. Just. No.

While I love all the characters of that show, Scorpius was my favorite, in all his incarnations. He was a very interesting antagonist and well-rounded. Creepy at times, evil a lot, but also with a compelling backstory. And then we get into the imaginary versions of him. Good times. Now I'm going to have the urge to watch that series again. Darn it, I don't have time for that!

I did a post five years ago on how to make these book page roses. I'd made a bunch of them as an auction item for a NaNo fundraiser. They turned out really nice so I'd also made some for myself. Because I totally need more crafty things hanging around in my writing space to distract me. Remember that time you made roses, they whisper to me. That was fun, what else could you make? You've got a bunch of pages still sitting around in a book somewhere. You should do something with them. Come on.

Evil, taunting craft things. What, you can't hear them too?

Stop and hear the roses wasn't a thing? I swear it was.

One of my long-time favorite crafty things to do is paint. I painted this gargoyle twenty-some years ago. Egads, has it really been that long? (See, lose track of years just as quickly as months.)

So, as it turns out, one of the worst places a distractedly crafty person  can ever work is a craft store. I did. For several years. Oh and several glorious years they were, except for dealing with people (both customers and co-workers), it was heavenly!

You know where you should never put me? In charge of ordering the ceramics and telling me I can paint the display pieces and keep them later. But we had a great selection of  gargoyles, fairies, castles, wizards, and pretty much anything fantasy-oriented in the catalogue.  There are days I miss that job, but the store closed and it was onward to other things for me.

IWSG: October and so much reading

If you're not familiar with 
the Insecure Writers Support 
Group, check it out here. 

When I went on a short vacation at the end of August, I hadn't planned (as usual) to have time to read, but hey, a miracle happened and I did. Yes, we covered my little three book excursion into readingland last month, but it's gotten worse. I've been sucked into an unplanned reading binge. (cue the ominous music)

I haven't done this in a while. And for good reason. All writing stops when I go into reading mode.

Lots of other things stop too, like getting enough sleep, being on time for work, keeping lunch breaks to an hour, maybe hanging out in parking lots in my car for an extra half an hour or longer when running errands... yeah, reading and I have an addictive relationship.

Book shaming time. In the past six weeks, ten days of which I was waiting for shipments of books to arrive, I've read twelve books. And not just short books, 500 to 600+ page books of small type. I even broke down and bought an e-book of one of them because I wasn't near a bookstore at the time. Darn you, J.R. Ward and your Black Dagger Brotherhood.

What makes this series so addicting? It's not your typical paranormal romance. There is a lot going on in the world in which it takes place, lots of action, so many subplots, and lots of well fleshed out POV characters beyond the usual two. Each book ends on a satisfying note, but I had to know what happened next in the greater story. Like. Right. Now. Several of these I read in a day or two. Seriously. And I work full time and have other obligations. Evil damn books! It turns out four hours of sleep is fine on occasion. And...that may or may not be four in a row. Soooooo anyway, yes, I'll be reading the rest of the series soon, but I'm at a good pausing point and I should get back to editing and writing for a little while before November hits.

What started to drive me nuts, because there's always something even when I love a book / author / series. 1. When a word like alacrity gets used a lot, it starts to stand out like sore thumb because it's not a commonly used word. 2. When technology is liberally named throughout a series (like using a Blackberry or hitting send to place a call) and quickly becomes dated.  3. When you read the first book and think certain words and phrases are awesome for characterization, but then realize everyone in the series uses those same words and it's not natural sounding or logical that they would. 4. Overuse of slang. Again, totally cool when a single character uses it because it works for characterization. Not cool when everyone is using natch at the ends of sentences. It's totally not natch.

With reading, preparing for NaNoWriMo, three author events, winterizing my pond before winter this year for a change, still looking for a home for the exchange student we didn't plan on, and getting a head start on sewing my Halloween costume before the week before Halloween... it's been a busy month. From here on out, life only gets more hectic until January. While I'm taking a deep breath and trying not to get freaked out by that last sentence, let's get to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question.

How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?

When I'm stressed, I don't have any energy left over for writing. I have a hard time even focusing on editing. So things like a divorce, death of friends and family, or giving birth tend to lead to dry spells of weeks or months or even a year or two. You've got to take care of yourself. The words will be there when you're head is back in the game.

Has writing helped me through anything? I guess I'm not in jail for taking my frustration out on anyone in a physical manner. There tends to be a lot of death and violence in my books. Coincidence? There's a good chance there's a connection. There is something to that whole, 'the quiet ones are the ones you have to watch out for' thing. However, I do try to keep it fictional. If you've ever been my boss, you're welcome.

IWSG: February

 It's a new year, and it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post! 

This month's question is: What do you love about the genre you write in most often?

I enjoy the 'what if' aspect of speculative fiction.

What if humanity had to evacuate Earth, after a long journey on one of the first seed ships, you finally arrive, only to discover other evacuees are already there and established, and you're outdated and irrelevant? 

What if you were told to kill the person you loved because they were guilty of a crime (and they are, but you feel their actions were justified) to gain the support you need to save your homeworld from an enemy? 

What if you wanted to have a child, but society says you don't qualify because if your ancestors' health history, even if you're perfectly healthy?

Sometimes I set out with a what if in mind from the beginning, other times it comes to me in the opening chapters when I'm contemplating the plot or during edits when I'm trying to refine the plotlines or character motivations. When what if questions cross and multiply, that becomes a fun bit of chaos to sort out, but I try to only do that with novels. Short stories tend to focus on a single question at the heart of it all. 

In other news...

Sorry about the lack of responding to comments and visiting blogs lately. I do read and appreciate them, really. Outside of writing, I've been dealing with aging Mother-in-law health issues - as in she may need to move in with us very soon. She's been falling more often and is no longer resisting the idea that she should probably not be living on her own. Several of us family members live within a ten minute radius, but when everyone has their cell phones on silent at 4am, and you fall when you get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, distance isn't the issue. While, we now have an app for that, I'd much rather know she's safe in bed. If that means we need to make room for another body around here, then I guess that's what needs to happen.

This week's fun was summed up with my sister-in-law taking her to the ER because her leg that was bruised from last week's fall swelled up due to poor circulation and the fact that she refuses to keep it elevated no matter how many times I tell her to do that when I'm over there. The more fun part was that she had no idea where her ID or insurance card was and was positive that I had it. I didn't. She put it...somewhere. Oh the joys of getting old (she's eighty-seven).

On top of not sleeping well (half-anticipating another 4am phone call), and not feeling quite right (daughter brought home some illness from school), I haven't been ultra productive outside of work, because paying the bills is top priority with what energy I have. Unfortunately, all things book don't pay the bills. So back burner for those items for the most part.

The 30in30 challenge is creeping along. That's my progress level. Creeping. My brain has been too scattered to be very productive even on my rewrite project. 

How's your February shaping up so far?

Summer Project: Building The Pond

No, I'm not writing a book about The Pond. In between attending author events and book signings, I've been busy digging and lugging and getting downright muddy with a real pond.

I thought this was a lot of rocks...ha! 

You may remember this photo from a previous post.

See all those rocks flowing down the hill? I collected those from a house across town van load by van load three years ago. Then I unloaded them in a big pile. A year later, I moved them all to this hill. Who needs a weight set?

The digging has begun.

Well, I decided it was finally time to do what I intended with those rocks rather than let them be the haven for snakes and weeds they had become. So this summer, it was time to build a pond. Two of them actually. But it started with moving all those rocks again, but only a few feet to either side this time.

I'm not good at stopping to take pictures when I'm in the middle of a project, but here's where I was after several days of moving and digging. The top pond was difficult as the first foot was hard clay, rather like cement. Thankfully, nature took mercy on me and provided sand for the rest of the depth. The top pond is 3 foot by 5 foot and 2.5 feet deep.

I tried to give the waterfall some
angles to make it more interesting.

It appears it was spring when I first began this project because the tulips are just done blooming. Summer really rushed by this year!

There are 23 feet between the top and bottom ponds. All of which needed to be made into a series of waterfalls. I spent a lot of time standing and staring at the hillside. It was much like contemplating a scene when writing. A lot of chin scratching, some scrunchy faces, tipping of head from side to side, walking up and down the hill and standing in various places along the way. Days passed, summer moved along.

My collection of rocks included two nice slabs of marble, which I planned to use for my upper and lower fall. The smaller falls used various flat rocks that I had around. With the fall as long as it is and as wide as I ended up making it, I ended up having to borrow from the newer pile of rocks I'd bought and moved here this spring. There was much moving of rocks, a bit of swearing, and two blackened fingertips that were caught between rocks as they shifted into place (and quite a lot of swearing at those moments).

I hit up my local Lowes for their clearance broken bags of stones and pebbles to fill in the gaps.

As you can see from the photos there are a lot of tall plants next to the waterfall. They weren't tall when I planted them there, but we have super soil. That meant I spent some time digging out a lot of overgrown plants. Though I was able to give some of them away, several of my prospective plant takers failed to get back to my and my patience ran out. I did expand some of my flower garden area on the hillside to accommodate some of the offending plants, but the rest got pitched out into the field. Hard as they are, they may grow there and naturalize the otherwise boring field of weeds. If not, oh well. I have plenty more of those particular flowers.

Work began on the lower pond. I wanted this one to be deep enough that the bottom (hopefully) wouldn't freeze. I also wanted it big enough to support fish and plants and help fill the space on the hill.

The first foot and half was again hard work, though not because of clay this time, but because when the house was built, the excavators had shoved all the yucky piles of debris onto the hill because the soil was good. Unfortunately, it also included a lot of what had been tree roots and stinky black dirt. It smelled so bad! Once I got through the two feet of random wood bits from the excavators, I got live wood bits thanks to tree roots, both from trees still here and those we had removed before building. There was much clipping of roots and swearing and hacking of roots with shovels.

The shovel and I grew very close over the weeks that passed.

The lower pond is 5 feet by 9 feet and has steps at 2, 3 and 4 feet, with the lowest section at 5 feet deep. Even more fun than digging all that dirt out was deciding where to go with it. I don't mind digging. Lugging carts full of dirt is not my favorite thing. It's not even something I sort of like. In fact, I dislike it very much. After awhile I enlisted my husband to take the dirt carts away with the lawnmower to patch up the lawn wherever he wanted.

Then came the issue of doing a pond on a hillside. Where does one determine the level of the pond when one side is significantly higher than the other? I decided to make a step on the tall side and raise up the short side with some of the dirt from the pond to even out the difference.

There was much anticipation while
I waited for the top pond to fill and
water to start down the fall.

Just when I thought the digging was over, I remembered I would need to dig a trench along side the whole thing for the pipe to bring water from the bottom to the top and for the electric that would need to come down from the house to the pump and filter in the bottom pond. Oh good! More digging!

I ended up going with 1.5 inch irrigation hose for my waterline because of the distance from the pump. This allowed for a good flow of water down the fall. It makes for a lovely rush of water sound that draws birds, butterflies, and frogs. Yesterday, a heron came. It was pretty, but it better not eat my fish. Hopefully, the dogs in the yard will chase it off again like they did today.

Yes, there are fish. The top pond is home to a lively guppy population. (There's a post about the originator of my guppies out here somewhere. Yes, the progeny of the great guppy mother have prospered). I put them out there when the top pond was half full and beginning to teem with mosquito larvae. Euw! The guppies feasted. Sad to say the waterfall and lower pond took much longer to finish than I had originally anticipated due to weather, limited time, and my energy level. By the time the lower pond was ready for the pump, the top pond was so green and dark that I was sure there was nothing left alive in it.

The first fall is the longest.

Once I had the pump and filter installed and all the lines run between them and the ponds, it was time to switch the whole thing on. Slowly, and with the help of some barley tablets, the water began to clear. Surprise! The guppies had multiplied like the guppies they are. Baby guppies everywhere!

It took a few days of tweaking stone placement, one day of letting it all dry so I could use pond foam to fill gaps and further direct the water flow, and a week of wondering where my water keep going (dirt settled on the rim of the top pond, creating a slow overflow area that was well hidden), before I was finally happy with the project.

Not all the way happy though. Those two nice slabs of marble I mentioned? They survived the move over from their previous home, they were moved here several times. They were walked on and shuffled here and there. But when I finally placed the lower one near where I wanted it? It broke in half. Yes, you guessed it, more swearing ensued. I did install it for now, but I will replace it next year. Right now, I just want to finish the landscaping and buy a bench so I can enjoy watching the fish and frogs.

It only took a week before the frogs
started arriving.

The bottom pond is home to 14 goldfish. The ten cent kind. I learned my lesson with that with my other pond. If it's not the heron, it will raccoons feasting on expensive pond fish. It's also home to about half of the guppy population. How? Well, when the water started flowing, it pushed all those babies right off the surface of the top pond and propelled them all the way down to the lower pond via the waterfall. An amazing amount of them survived. There are also several full grown males down there. Sad for them, because all the full grown females were smart enough to hang out at the bottom of the top pond. Baby guppy explosions will be on hold for a while.

There's still some work left to do. The electric needs to be finished, but it's running off an outdoor extension cord for now. The landscaping needs some of my time, but I'll get to that when the mood strikes. Mulch will come when it's on sale at the end of the season. One of these days I'll finish digging the hole for the filter system, but it's okay in its half hole for now.  One day I might hang a nice flower basket from the top of my electric post or decide to chop it off further down. The pond needs plants. All tasks for another day.

 I'll leave you with the view from upstairs. Don't mind the hose and shovel. We've all grown quite attached this summer.