In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

A beloved, decades-old recipe for meatballs. Other side of the card is below. Yes, here it is! Really. Um, really. Really!!! Lol. I've had this post on my list to write since I published Straight to the Heart: The Hawk Book Three in September. Yet I waited because I was planning to release Home and Far Away: The Enran Chronicles Book Four relatively soon. Which turned into the end of October, but in our crazy world, what's a few weeks? Hopefully if you have the ability to vote, you have exercised that right. (I'd put while you still can but that sounds dramatic, defeatist, and well, yeah.) Anyways, those plugs out of the way, here is what I think of Draft2Digital's self-publishing routine. It was fine. Really? That's all? I look around, but I don't see Future or Past Me. Past Me is checking the pork meatballs in spaghetti sauce, as I made meatballs but not with beef, trying to keep red meat out of my diverticulosis diet, you know. Future Me is.... She'...

Seven of eight chicks on a perch my husband fashioned. Their baby chick perch remains a fave spot too, lol. Nearly a week has passed since we moved the chicks into the coop. Their first few days in a new to them home was steeped in their adjustment to plenteous room, no feed overnight, and us attempting to coax them from said coop to the attached run. They seem to love more space, haven't minded waiting for breakfast (although they cried the first night when we turned off the light, and on subsequent evenings when not under the heat plate when that light was again shut off), and finally braved the strange opening to the outside world that of course is far more exciting than their spacious coop. Getting them back into the coop was a chore, and not for worms or scratch would they head up the ramp. We're still searching for an appropriate treat in which to lure them hither and yon; today I'll try some grated carrot (Update: they couldn't care less about grated carrot, sigh...

Chicks we call The Clones as it's a little hard to tell them apart, lol. Slow quilt stitching, baby chicks, and a new book distributor.... Where has the first half of 2025 gone? I thought this year would slog along, stuck in a lousy government situation, but no. 2025 is speeding past as quickly, if not more so, than the last ten years have zoomed by. Like sand slipping through my fingers is each day, as though I wake, then suddenly it's four p.m., time to do my stretches! I won't ponder that element of my existence, but I can mull over the changes to my life that certainly has NOT remained as it was previously. Like chickens! LOL. The chicks have had outdoor time the last two days in what will eventually be their run. The first day they practically clung to one another for a good twenty minutes before finally stepping a few inches in their own directions. Today they seemed to recall the grass, the shade (oddly enough they weren't keen on going into the sun), and how muc...

  Chick party tonight! Chicks are pretty funny. One has earned a moniker for her behavior at the feeder; Camilla relentlessly roots out anyone near her slot, taking it back if someone manages to push her aside, and scratching while eating. My husband suggested the name when I mentioned that Camilla thought she was the new queen, but no one could take Queenie's place in my heart. Lol. We didn't plan to name any of them until personalities emerged, and Camilla takes the freaking CAKE for personality right now. The rest are figuring out their places in the pecking order, yet not a single one has managed to actually grasp the perch rungs, hah! They are starting to play under it, attempting to fly on top of it, a lot of wing-flapping this morning when I opened the brooder. A dear friend is visiting, who saw them last week, and she said they have grown! Which was good to hear because we think they're bigger, but we see them daily and other than a few tail feathers having sprouted...

Just a quick post to inform readers that in the following books all line breaks indicating a change of scene within a chapter have been removed. I will address this issue ASAP, but in the meantime please accept my apology for the abrupt alterations within the novels listed. Many thanks for your patience as I continue to grapple with moving from Smashwords to Draft2Digital.   A Love Story: The Enran Chronicles Book One Life Stories: The Enran Chronicles Book Two Far Away from Home: The Enran Chronicles Book Three   The Possibility of What If: That Which Can Be Remembered Book One Gracious Mysteries: That Which Can Be Remembered Book Two That Which Can Be Remembered: Series Conclusion  

A peek at my back steps garden; Sweet Williams flourish as do volunteer nasturtiums. In that my husband is feeling better! Not completely over his cold, but better. In that the migration of my Smashwords account to Draft2Digital is done! Not that I'm completely at home there, but it's done. In that I wrote over twenty-four hundred words today! Not that one chapter constitutes a book, but it's a start. WHEW! Those are indeed some turning points. Especially the first and last ones. The first one personally, the last one.... Kinda personal, kinda 'professional', for what my writing means as more than a pastime, lol. Mostly the last one is a RELIEF. Well, my husband's well-being is also a relief, but you know.... Anyway, I'm feeling RELIEVED on various levels. D2D is what it is; if I'd had my choice, I be happy to stay with the familiar. Been publishing with Smashwords since 2011. I'm fine with their Meatgrinder system, or I was, but now that's the ...

A pretty apt photo for today's subject. Over three years ago Smashwords and Draft2Digital became one company. Last night I received notice that it was my turn for the migration queue, and for the rest of the night I was...slightly pensive, nostalgic, and resigned to change. Lol. Change is often not nearly as traumatic as we think it will be, current American governmental coup notwithstanding. I chose not to do more than ponder this somewhat monumental to me alteration, instead working on a one thousand piece puzzle (see above) that will keep me occupied until I feel the shingles are truly GONE. 'Nuff said about that. Yet for Smashwords, my goodness! I independently published The War on Emily Dickinson on July 16th, 2011, that's coming on fourteen years ago! SO MUCH has changed in indie publishing, although this is not an analysis entry, more of a walk down memory lane while assuaging my mind and heart that ALL WILL BE FINE. It truly will, ahem. Since then, I've releas...

We're enjoying some glorious sunshine and warmth, sometimes those don't always go together. I trimmed the garden blackberry bush, then sat in the sun reading before going in to wash the dishes. I'd hoped to get to that Cornflower Quilt, wanting to make that quilt sandwich, baste it, then bring it downstairs to begin the hand-quilting. But my work table needed to be cleared, which meant putting away the paper shapes from the above mentioned quilt. It's thrilling to remove papers as the blocks, then rows, are sewn together. Bagging those papers, I knew eventually I'd need to return them not only to their box, but from the sources where I borrowed squares and diamonds to complete it. Fortunately I'd written down how many I used, so it was a matter of counting out shapes, slipping them back into envelopes. Certainly not the exact shapes I'd removed, but the papers were in good condition, and I won't be using them anytime soon. I put the Cornflower Quilt box ...