Sunday 'fess up...Himself had a proposal we're finding hard not to accept

This week Himself got the news he'd lost his job.  Which was to be expected since he's been out of work for the last month or so.  We were discussing his options, and how we were going to pay to send him back to school, when he got an offer from a friend we're having a hard time refusing.

This offer is of a job working as an automobile technician.  He'd have to go to southern California and live there for a while without me.  At least until we could get our debt paid down and find a place together down there.  This does scare me a little.  But this is the best opportunity we've had in a very long time, and this time we mean to take it instead of letting it go by without taking a chance.

We've been at rock bottom for a few years now.  This opportunity may be the rope that will carry us out of the hole and into the light.  At least, that's what we're hoping.  Himself will check out the place at the end of May/beginning of June and we'll know then if it's going to work out or not.  The guy who offered him the job is going to take him down to SoCal with him and then fly him home if things don't work out.

On the writing front, I haven't gotten as much done as I'd like.  However, I got the beta of my Beauty and the Beast rewrite back.  That story has several issues but they're all going to be easily fixed.  At least, I hope they will.  I never know with revisions if they're going to be easy or not.

Health issues are still going on.  They're going to be going on for the foreseeable future.  We're just playing everything by ear right now.  That's how it's going to have to be played.

Vlog is done as usual.  This week's a little long and I blather on about hope.  But I think this week's is an okay one.  It's certainly more focused than the last few have been.

Sunday 'fess up...Anni needs a vacation from life

Seriously...anyone know of a good vacation from real life?  Aside from writing?  Oy.  This has not been one of my better weeks.

Not much writing got done.  I tried to edit my Beauty and the Beast rewrite and something in it just doesn't seem to work.  I've pawned it off on a couple of people to beta read.  So far no comments.  I think I know one of the problems.  My issue with it is trying to either remove it - which I suppose would work but dang it I LIKE the idea - or working it in even further down the storyline.  I don't know yet and I'm waiting for the verdict from my beta readers before I do anything more on it.

Only A Name hasn't been worked on much this week.  I worked on it for a while last night but I'm still not happy with it.  I'm determined to get through the edits by the end of May and have it ready for beta readers in June.  We'll see if that happens too.

If you're wondering WHY my writing sucked this week, go read my "V is for Very, Very Grateful" blog post.  It gives all the details as to why I've spent yet another week out of work.  I am not really looking forward to the backlog of emails, issues, and idiots when I go back to work on Monday.  At least I've only got two weeks left before I migrate to customer service instead of collections.  I'm very excited about that.

Vlog is recorded as usual.  This time I used a picture of Malad Gorge as my title screen.  I haven't been there for a while but the view from the bridge is spectacular.

Sunday 'fess up...Anni's got a face full of cat

Yeah, writing this with Reidar sitting on my chest so he's blocking my face with his body is a little difficult but he's being a clingy little fluff ball tonight.  So I guess I'll work around him.

This week hasn't been overly exciting.  I missed a couple of days because I was taking care of Himself, who's having a rough time right now.  I got stuck with my boss and HIS boss listening in to me while I took a call.  Talk about nerve wracking experiences.  It's the third time they've done this to me...mostly because I'm a pretty decent collector but also because I was gone the first half of this month so two of my calls have to be with my boss sitting next to me as I take them.  I've got one down and one to go.

I finished my shawl/afghan thingy this week.  You can see it in the vlog.  I've started Himself's afghan as well now.  That one's going to take me a while because it's a lot bigger than my little shawl thingy.  But I intend to have some fun with it.

I've decided that for my title screen on the vlog I'm going to showcase places in Idaho.  I'm rather fond of my home state and I'd like to show it off a little.  There's a good chance, if I run out of pretty pictures, I'll probably head over to Washington (where I also lived) and find pictures from there too.  But Idaho's got a lot of nice places so we'll have to see what I can find.

On the writing front, I FINALLY got one of my scenes rewritten that's been bothering me.  Two scenes, actually.  Now I'm planning on spending most of today working on the third scene that I need to fix now that I've changed things up a bit.  I'm hoping that this batch of edits will be done soon.

Vlog is up as usual.  As are some music videos for you to enjoy if you wish.

Sunday 'fess up...Anni's had an okay week

*waves*

This past week's been okay.  Nothing spectacularly fascinating going on in my life, other than I'm FINALLY done with the vertigo.  I'm also back to work.  And I found out when I start training for customer service so I can get out of the collections side of the business.  I guess that counts as something moderately interesting.

Writing...writing...writing...oh yeah.  Only A Name is going BACK to the third person omniscient it was when I first wrote it.  It just makes the story flow better.  This means rewriting some scenes and adding new ones in certain places.  But it'll make the book better...I hope.  Otherwise I'm just wasting my time again.

I'm most of the way through with my afghan/shawl thingy.  I'll probably have pictures to post by the end of the week as long as it remains as slow as it's been at work.  Then I'll get started on Himself's afghan.  Then I'm going to start experimenting with styles from patterns in some books I borrowed and make some afghans for family and friends for Christmas presents.  At least, that's the plan.

Vlog is done, as always.  I'm mostly rambling again this week.  I also changed the name from "Anni's Vlog" to "Anni's World" since, y'know, it's all about my world and my life.

I'm also, in a separate post, going to post the first chapter of Only A Name for people to read.  I hope that you guys enjoy it.

Sunday 'fess up...Anni had a long week

This week's 'fess up is brought to you by...REIDAR! Who is, in this picture, playing "hide and pounce" using my bath towel as camouflage.  I've been such a downer lately that I wanted to start the blog off with something cute and a little silly.

Silliness aside, Himself is home.  His mom isn't doing well.  He's just glad he got to see her because shortly after he left she took a downward turn.  She's stable now but they're back to measuring her in days instead of weeks or months.

Health issues are unresolved.  I go to the doctor on Monday so with any luck we'll have a solution after that.  At least, I hope we will.  It'd be nice to figure out what's causing the issues.

I'm doing the A to Z blog challenge.  If you really want to see all my posts from A-H this week, they're here on the blog.  I've been choosing random topics like crazy and sometimes scheduling posts on those nights when my imagination is really working and I can knock out two or three posts at a shot.

On the writing front, I've decided after listening to some rather awkward writing (my own...I recorded the first few chapters of Only A Name) that I'm going to have to rewrite a major portion of the novel to include Colwyn's POV.  Certain scenes in the first few chapters would be improved by including his POV and where the book slows and drags considerably I could add in a chapter or two of conflict centered around him.  So it's back to the drawing board for Only A Name.


I had a dream last night that would make an excellent story.  Only problem is...I don't remember enough of it to work with.  It was some bio-engineered guy and two kids and something about a family kind of like the mafia (the old Italian style mob families).  And that's it.  The nice thing is I'm likely to dream about it tonight so when I wake up and it's still fresh in my mind I'm going to jot down as many notes as I can.

I had a request from @KDSarge to put up the recipe for my broccoli cheddar soup.  Now I'll admit I'm a semi-homemade cook.  I'll take an ingredient that's from the store and turn it into a much grander homemade meal.  That's what I do for my soup and EVERYONE loves it when I fix it.  So, here's the recipe I use when I make my Semi-Homemade Broccoli Cheddar soup.

2 packages Bear Creek Cheddar Broccoli Soup mix (I use 2 of the 8 serving packages)
1 kielbasa smoked sausage, chopped (the horseshoe shaped one, not the links I've recently seen)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 1 lb. bags of frozen broccoli florets (you can use chopped if you prefer smaller bites of broccoli)
2 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 c. grated mozzarella cheese
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chili powder

Cook the Bear Creek soup mix as it says on the package.  That's 16 cups of water brought to a boil and the soup mix whisked in.  Yes, you'll need a big pot.  Turn down to medium and let simmer for 10 minutes.  While the soup is simmering, take a large skillet and put in about a tablespoon or so of olive oil.  Toss in your onion and start sauteeing.  As soon as they start to soften, throw in your chopped sausage and brown the sausage together with the onions.  Once they're cooked, set them off to the side.  You'll need them in a few minutes.

After the soup has simmered for 10 minutes, throw in your broccoli.  Let that cook for about five minutes and then throw in your grated cheese and the garlic and chili powder and stir well.  Make sure there's no lumps of grated cheese floating around and then toss in the sausage and onion.  Let the soup simmer again for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.  Serve immediately.  It's an awesome recipe, takes maybe half an hour or so to prepare, and is sixteen servings of soup.  Probably more if you're going for smaller servings.

I've also added potatoes to this, pasta to this, chicken instead of sausage, and even added mushrooms one day with the chicken.  That's why I love the Bear Creek soup mixes.  They're very versatile and you can doctor them up however you like.  I'm inherently a lazy cook so making broccoli cheddar soup the normal method (which I've done and if you're really interested, I'll share my favorite recipe for the long way next week) isn't my favorite way of doing things.  So I tend to take shortcuts and it still turns out really, really good when I use the pre-packaged mix.

Vlog is up as usual.  I ramble on about my crocheting projects and a few various other things.  I'm including the vlog in the line up of videos down below as always.

Sunday 'fess up...Anni's depressed and exhausted...and still dizzy

I swear, I must have insulted someone in another life or something.  My butt is getting kicked by karma with every breath I take anymore.  I haven't had a good year in........way too long.

Everyone should know by now that I was asking for help to get both me and Himself to Texas.  Obviously I didn't get to go.  But thanks to donations and a generous loan from a good friend, we had enough to get him there, get him a rental car, get him into a motel (since his sister won't help him at all), and to keep him fed while he's in Texas.  Thank you to everyone who was so kind and generous and helped us out in our time of need.

I got to talk to my mother-in-law on the phone.  There were some harsh words spoken, but there was also forgiveness given for some of the rotten things we've said and done to each other.  She has been like a mother to me and she was glad to hear I still thought of her like that.  So even though I don't get to see her in person our peace has been made and my goodbyes were said.

Writing this week was interesting.  I finished my Beauty and the Beast retelling.  I also downloaded the Scrivener beta for Windows and imported Only A Name into it.  I'm currently working on getting it divided into chapters and giving it another edit.  I've also made some progress on Cracked World and I also dredged up Birth of the Silver Lady to start editing and revamping it as well.

I'm also participating in the A-Z Blog Challenge.  So expect to see a post every day.  Sundays are the only days that we're not supposed to post a blog entry for the challenge, but my SFU will still be up each week.

Vlog has been completed as usual.  It's not a cheerful vlog because I talk a lot about how depressed I am and how I'm going to miss Himself while he's in Texas.  But he needs to be there so I'm not going to begrudge him this chance to say his final goodbyes to his mom.

By the time this goes up, I'll have been up for over 24 hours most likely.  I'm having a major fit of insomnia and I'm just not able to go to sleep.  My stomach is in knots.  I'm terrified of something happening while Himself is in Texas.  I shouldn't be.  I don't know why but my subconscious has been filling my dreams for the last two nights with everything that could happen - plane crash, his mother and/or sister blackmail or brow beat or whatever him into staying in Texas, car crash...the list goes on and on.  I even have him getting bitten by a snake and dying at some point in one of my dreams.

At least I've made a new discovery with a new music site.  That's my "Muse Music" playlist.  These are all songs that have either inspired my writing or are inspiration while I write.  The list is probably going to get longer too as I add more songs that I like.  Then again, I love to have music playing while I'm writing so that's no big surprise.

Sunday 'fess up...Anni's a little dizzy

Okay, not a LITTLE dizzy.  I'm A LOT dizzy.  We're talking out blacking out because of the dizziness type of dizzy.  Luckily I haven't blacked out since Tuesday, but I did that rather spectacularly in the women's restroom at work after having done it for about 10 minutes at my desk.  People around me thought I'd just dozed off at my desk, which I do have a tendency to do.  But I wasn't asleep.  I'd passed out.  Yeah, my co-workers aren't the brightest crayons in the box.

I'm off work until we either stop this completely or at least come up with a viable treatment plan for this.  Motion sickness pills only help a little.  And that's what I was told to take.  I was also told to take Valium but I won't take that unless I absolutely have to.  It knocks me out and makes me even loopier than normal.  It's designed to make me not care about anything and to sleep it off.

Sitting up to write is difficult, so I've taken to curling up on the bed and writing from a mostly lying down position.  This presents a few challenges - not the least of which is a laptop that falls over if I've got it on my legs.  But it works and I can write somewhat comfortably while I wait for the dizziness to pass.

I haven't gotten much done this week, but I have gotten a few things done.  I got the second chapter of The Fallen up on WordPress.  I'll make sure the links to that and my other story from Monday are at the end of this.  I've also finally figured out how to work with Cracked World so now I'm making progress on it again.  Slow but there's progress.  I keep wanting to crack Only A Name but I've made myself wait.  It needs a little longer to simmer before I go attack it again.

For Earth Hour, I turned off my bedroom light and tried to write by candlelight.  I don't know if that kicked the Muses into high gear or what but Cracked World suddenly started cooperating.  I may have to do the "writing by candlelight" thing again.

Picked up Fiction Writer's Workshop on Saturday.  I'm going to use some of the exercises for Writing Wednesday posts.  I'm not going to copy all the exercises in the book but I will use those ones that I find particularly useful.

I did do some reading and found out something interesting: statistically speaking, fantasy short stories are a lot harder to sell than science fiction short stories.  I found that bit of news very interesting and wonder how true it is.  I certainly haven't had much luck on selling my short stories.  Of course, I haven't submitted any of them within the last month.  I got tired of finding rejection letters in my email and my snail mail.

Posted the usual stories for Monday and Friday.  Links are here as always.  If you do go read them, please leave me a comment.  Even if it's just to say "Hi I've been here".  It'll make it so I want to continue posting.

The Soldier and the Boy
The Fallen - Ch 2

Vlog is done, as always.  I babble a bit about various things including this past week and my upcoming birthday. It's in May, and Himself and I had a long talk about what I wanted.  It's all very simple and I mention it in the vlog.  If you're that curious, you'll just have to watch the vlog to find out.

Sunday 'fess up...Anni won an award!

First of all, many thanks to Deirdre for my blog's first award.  *blushes*  I appreciate your visit and I'm honored you thought I deserved the award.

Second......can we just not talk about writing this week?  Please?  *looks around*  Oh all right.  I'll admit it.  I failed miserably at the writing this week.  I got some reading done though, and I figured out a few twists for Cracked World.  But all of the edits on Only A Name kind of burned me out on writing.  I'm feeling a lot better now so I expect I'll be able to tackle Cracked World more this week.

It's pretty much guaranteed we're not going to Texas.  Unexpected car repairs (brakes went out) and medical bills as well as me having to cancel my overtime this week (got sick) have forced us to take a major hit in our finances again.  But we're still going to take a mini vacation in April.  Even if it's just hanging out in a hotel/motel in town & avoiding everyone we know for a day or two...we're going to get our vacation.

Did a little beta reading for KD Sarge this week.  I'm not very good at it but I hope that I at least helped out a little.  I read a new book this week and I enjoyed it but, well, I'm reserving judgment on the rest of the series because of how disappointing I've been finding the UF books I've read lately.  I'll get a review of the book up on Books in the Woods here in the next week or so.

Vlog is live, as always.  I actually finished it last night.  It was kind of nice to be able to sleep in today and not have to worry about getting that done.

Story links from this week's Magic Monday and Freak Friday:

The Rescue
The Fallen Ch 1

Now for the vlog and a few other videos for your entertainment.

Sunday 'fess up...Anni's week was busy

Hello everyone!  Welcome to this week's Sunday 'Fess Up!!!

This week has been a long one.  I ended up getting sick on Friday but I'm doing a lot better today.  I'll be doing more overtime next week, so my free time is limited.  But at least I'm going to be getting things done.

I'm rather proud of myself this week.  Even though I haven't spent as much time working on the revisions on the computer, between my breaks, lunches, and dead times at work I've gotten over 3500 words hand written for the current scene I'm trying to rewrite/revise.  I'm doing the transcription today so I'm ahead of where I thought I'd be.

I've only got a couple more major scenes before the end of the book.  I'm getting really excited.  Not only because revisions are almost done but also because I've got a couple new projects I'm REALLY wanting to work on.  One will ultimately become a serialized series on my WordPress blog.  The other...I'm not sure yet.  I'm not sure if it's going to be a serialized story arc or if it's going to be a novel all on its own.  We'll have to wait and see how it plays out.

Now for some random cool videos...

Sunday 'fess up...Anni's week has been okay

Before I start my 'fess up, I want to bring something to your attention.  Rachel - aka Go Go Rach - needs help.  She's in a very rough spot.  I know how it is.  I've been there.  There's a donate button up at the top of her blog.  She's not into begging, but she really does need some help right now.  I'm broke until next Friday, when - as long as I have bills paid - I'm hoping to be able to help her out with something.  In the mean time, go help her.  She's helped a lot of people, is on the threshold of helping so many more - but now it's time for others to help the lady warrior that is Rachel (@gogorach).

In writing, I broke 220 pages in Only A Name for revisions.  Only about 100 or so more to go, and a number of scenes to cut and/or rewrite.  But I'm making progress.

Had a couple of new characters wander in.  First is a mostly deaf empathic visionary named Kimberly Anne Fairchild.  An 'empathic visionary' is one who sees through the emotional residue left behind when something big happens (like a murder, a huge party, etc.).  The other is named Amelia.  Amelia is a lady in a sci fi world kind of reminiscent of Dune - kind of a medival society in a sci fi universe type thing.  I know she's kicked out of her home by her father, has an older sister named Damaris, and ends up as the wife/queen of a group of space pirates.  How she gets there I don't know.  I also know Kimberly has overbearing parents who ignored her hearing loss and tried to make her behave like a "normal" child, hates asking them for help, and is extremely independent.  Both of these ladies are on hold until I get Only A Name done though, as I need to finish the revisions before I start yet another round of projects.

Got the vlog done as usual.  I realized today that I've been vlogging now for 10 weeks.  I think my last two vlogs have kind of fallen short of what I set my standard to but I think this newest one is better than the last two.  As always, here's the vlog post I did.

And now a couple of fun videos for the heck of it.

That's it for this week's blog.  The FFF post is on temporary hiatus.  I barely have time right now to do my Wednesday and my Sunday posts.  I'm going to continue with my foreign foods theme eventually, picking up with other Asian foods.  It'll just be a few weeks before I get back to them.

Sunday 'fess up...Anni's making progress!

Hello my lovelies!

It's been a long week but a good one as far as writing goes.  This week's 'fess up is going to be pretty short because I'm wiped.  Been pulling a lot of overtime.  I'm going to keep pulling tons of overtime but I'm working towards making sure I have time to write every day.

I was able to get one fairly important scene added and the scenes around it rewritten in Only A Name.  I've added another scene that I will probably cut out again during my next round of revisions.  I already don't like it but I'm going to finish it and move forward instead of focusing on it.  I'm not having trouble writing it so I guess that's a good thing.

Cracked World got a thorough read through, though I haven't done much else with it.  Came up with a new story idea currently titled "Deirdre's Legacy".  It's not completed yet so I don't know where it's going.  But we'll see.  I haven't done much with "The Light" but I expect to get it finished soon enough as well.

Work is...work.  That's all I can say about it.  I'm exhausted because of the overtime but nothing much else has changed.

We had to make a hard decision this past week.  Because of both of us being out of work due to the bug that knocked us flat, we didn't have enough money to pay all our bills.  Car payment got deferred and rent got paid.  But the $200 I needed to make sure his guns and Monstrosity - my lovely Toshiba Satellite laptop - was used to pay other, more vital bills.  This means that I will not be getting my laptop back.  The guns are more important to him since they've been in his family for generations.  But neither of us can do anything about it.

I do have another laptop.  A friend of mine is letting me "rent" her old laptop for $20/week.  She says eventually I'll pay her the $400 she spent on it and I can have it for good.  So I tentatively have a Vaio laptop.  It's smaller and lighter than my Satellite...but it's VISTA.  I greatly dislike Windows Vista.  I need to upgrade to Windows 7 eventually but that's more money than I have right now.

I managed to get my vlog done, in spite of iMovie trying to eat it before I could get it posted to YouTube.  It's rambling and I get on my soapbox about a couple of things.  But it's got promise.  I'm still working on the vlogging bit.

That's it for this week's 'fess up.  Coming up this week, my new Writing Wednesday project with the lovely @KDSarge on Twitter.  Come back and see what we're up to!

Sunday 'fess up...Anni's not overly creative this morning

*waves*

This week was rough.  My depression kicked my ass big time.  But I plowed through revisions on ONLY A NAME to the point where I can honestly say I am about 35% done with the revisions.  I was pretty crippled up with a massive headache for three days this week, so I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked to.  But I still made some progress.

Did the vlog on New Year's Eve.  Did a 'year in review' and 'goals for 2011' post on the blog.  I'm rather happy about my new goals.  No new short story for WordPress this week.  I was more focused on not dying from my headache and getting revisions done.

I got Sims 3 Ambitions from a friend for a late Christmas present.  I was so proud of myself.  I did my vlog, a blog post, and revised 1 1/2 chapters on ONLY A NAME before I gave in and cracked out for a couple hours.  I like this new expansion, so it's a definite time sink if I'm not careful.  But I make myself write/revise/edit for at least 2 hours before I let myself play Sims 3 so I'm not too bad off.

Hubby gave me a late Christmas present as well, from a gift card he won at work.  Why his work is offering Barnes and Noble gift cards when they sell cosmetics is a little beyond me, but hey, it's BOOKS!  I'm not going to look twice at a new book.  Or am I?  My husband bought me the Kama Sutra.  I think he's trying to hint at something but I'm not sure what.  LOL

I had a new character wander through my imagination yesterday.  Her name is Ash (or Ashe...same pronunciation, just an added 'e' at the end), and she is demanding I write her story.  Only problem is she isn't TELLING me what her story is.  I have no clue what to do with this obnoxious woman.  I don't even know her.  I'm keeping my notebook close at hand so when she does start spilling her guts I'll be able to make notes so I can eventually write about her.  She'll either tell me what she wants me to write about, or she'll fade away until another story comes along that she'll fit in.  I'll figure her out eventually.

On the whole, 2010 - in writing terms - was good.  I did a lot of it, and I'm getting better at it.  So I'm keeping up with it in 2011.  Including my Sunday 'fess up blog posts, to help keep me honest.  If you're curious about what else I'm adding to the 'fess up list, go check out the year in review post.

I fell behind on the #HTOTD hash tag this past week, so I'm going to make sure I get one posted every day this week.  Um...I think that's it for this week.  OH!  I've decided to make the vlog a weekly thing.  I'll probably post it on Friday or Saturday (depending on which one is my day off) and then show the link in the 'fess up as well as post it on Twitter.

That's it for this week's 'fess up.  See you here next week for more good news!

(Added the vlog post too!)