Saturday, February 28, 2015

It's Started...

Hi all,

How's everyone doing this fine Saturday evening?  I hope you are all well and enjoying your weekend.  I understand that we're to have some more snow tomorrow.  That's just great....I'm kidding.

Well, I've started research for my new novel.  I have not yet chosen a title, but that will be coming along soon.  I can tell you that it will take place in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.  It will revolve around a "cold case" from twenty years ago. 

Did you know that when you write fiction, it still has to be factual.  That means that the story, itself, can be made up, but unless you're using a fictional location, certain thing must be factual.  I like to do most of my notes ahead of time.  It saves me from stopping the writing process to look things up.  When I get started, I like to keep rolling right along.  Oh, there is always a time or two that I still need to get my ducks in a row, but that can't be helped. 

I am excited about this new fictional novel.  I am thinking seriously about having it published by a marketing firm, that way they would take care of marketing the book and publishing it.  It may cost me a tad bit more, more then I wouldn't have to bother selling it myself. 

It feels good to be starting an all together new adult fiction novel.  I so enjoyed writing the three previous novels, which were in a series, but I'm getting excited about starting something all together new.  I was considering writing a murder mystery, but decided against that.  Mostly because anything I write regarding forensics or police procedure would have to be facts and that would be soooooo very much research.  I will still have to do some research, but not nearly as much as I would if I wrote a murder mystery.

I'll give you all a little bit of information regarding my new book.  It will take place in a place called, Boothbay Harbor, which is along the coast of Maine.  It will also involve the small island of "Squirrel Island, which is not far off the coast of Maine.  Well, that's as much as I am going to give away now.  You'll just have to be patient and wait for the rest of the details.

I have to ask all of you, if you think Spring will ever arrive.  I would imagine that first, we need to have some temperatures up into the forties, on a daily basis.  I understand that one day this week, it's to reach a high in the low forties, but that's just one day.  They are calling for snow showers three or four days this week.  Oh well, whatever we get, we'll have to live with.



Wednesday, February 25, 2015

You know what today is, sure you do!

Hi all,

Of course, it's Hump Day.  The day of the week that makes all you Monday through Friday workers very happy.  At the end of your shift today, you're on the downward side of the work week.  So, smile and be happy!

Well, I've finally made a decision to start on another adult fiction novel.  What I haven't decided, as of yet, is whether I want to make it the fourth in my series, or the first in perhaps, a new series.  What do you think?  What would you do? 

A part of me wants to start fresh with a new cast of characters and situations.  Another part of me wants to continue on with the old cast and just give them a brand new adventure.  Any thoughts on this tough decision? 

If I start fresh, I am going to make it a suspenseful murder mystery.  What I haven't decided is whether I want to make it a new murder or one from a long time ago.  Of course, it will also be a family and friends story, because that's what I'm all about.  My family and friends are my life.  Perhaps I'll add a touch of ghostly happenings, as well. 

I finished the embroidery piece I was working on.  I made it into a pillow.  Last evening I worked on new Christmas gift card or money holders.  They are quite complex and it took me at least two hours to just cut out twelve of them.  Then I worked almost two hours embroidering just one of them.  I'm very pleased with the way it turned out and since it took me so long to do just one, that means that this embroidery project will last me quite a while.  That's a good thing, since I run out of projects to work on.  I know I've shared with all of you that I love sitting down on the sofa, with my feet up, in the evenings, watching television and working on my embroidery.  It's so relaxing to me. 

I know that many of you out there must be creative also.  Please comment to me what you are working on and how it's going.  I share my ideas and I'd love to hear yours, also.

Well, today is Wednesday and my hubby will be going to the local senior center this evening to play Bingo.  I am not a lover of the game, and I can't do evening activities anymore, so I will enjoy my evening working on my novel and listening to the Solid Gold Oldies on Comcast television.  What's on your schedule for this evening?  Whatever you have planned, I hope you can find some time just for yourself.  That is so very important in each of our lives.

One of my Grandson's is appearing at The Chemeleon Club in Lancaster this Saturday.  He is writing and singing his own Rap/Hip Hop songs.  I will admit that sort of music is not my favorite, but my husband and I are so proud of him.  He's in his second year of college and he's quite busy.  I just hope he continues to do well in his classes.  We wish him all the best and we are so proud of him.

I hope you all are staying warm, if you live in an area where it's been cold, snowy and windy, like I do.  Take care of yourself and your families.  We only get one family and we need to love them.  God bless you all.
Susan
















Friday, February 20, 2015

My Easter runner...

 
 
 
 


     Here's a photograph of the Easter runner I made for my dinning room table.  It's entirely made from felt and hand embroidered.  It puts me in a "spring time" kind of mood, even though it's freezing outside
Susan. 

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Hi all,

Well, Friday is approaching very fast now.  We are to reach record lows tonight during the night.  I certainly could do without breaking that record.  I woke up at 5:00 am this morning and we had no heat in the house.  The good thing is that by 8:30am, we had heat once agian.  My daughter had a tech guy, Gary, here as soon as he clocked in.  In the meantime, we plugged in some electric heaters that we had and two that my daughter dropped off for us.  He did a temporary fix until he can pick up the part tomorrow morning and fix it permanently.  This is definately NOT a good time for one's furnace to not work, especailly since it's less than a year and a half old. 

I have to tell you that I am so ready for some temperatures, at least, into the forties!  How about you?  I guess that for some of you, it's warm where you are.  But, I have a friend who goes to Florida for a few months during the winter and she told me that today's temperatures were only in the 40's.  Usually they have a low of about 67 degrees at this time of year.  I will tell you that I'd rather be right here than up in the New England states with all that snow.

I am currently entered in a writing contest and I have until the 27th of February to get my entry submitted.  I'm finished with the story, but I'm still tweeking it a bit.  I have to be very careful with the grammer and punctuation marks.  After I've submitted the short story, I believe I may use the story idea for my novel.  I'll have to do some research and make some notes before I even can think about starting my book.  I am a bit anxious to get started on another fiction novel.  It's been a while since I finished my last fiction novel. 

I am all finished creating my hand made greeting cards, well all except this year's Christmas cards, which I will not start until closer to the end of the year.  I do miss working on them, as I love creating anything.  Right now I am embroidering small felt rabbits to put some cold cash into as Easter gifts.  I love do embroidery work while I sit and watch television in the evenings.  It somehow comforts and relaxes me.  Have you ever done any embroidery work?  If so, do you enjoy it?  Let me know if you do.

With the weekend fast approaching us, try to enjoy your last weekday for this week.  Take care and stay warm and safe.

Susan

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Happy Sunday everyone...

Hi friends,

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday and that you all are staying nice and warm.  Let me just say that it's bitter cold outside, so if you don't have to go out, stay indoors!  That's exactly where I've been all day long. 

I finished my Easter table runner and I am pleased with the way it turned out.  Here's a photograph of it.  Sorry, but I am having trouble downloading my photograph.  I'll try again another time.

I'm thinking seriously about entering a writing contest with WOW-woman on writing.  I'd only have two weeks to prepare an entry, so I suppose I'd better make a decision soon.  I also want to start another novel, but I need to take the time to make some notes and I need to make some decisions about what the novel is to be about.  I feel like I'm a little stagnant right now and I don't like that feeling.  How about you?  What are you up to now that the first of the year is well behind us? 

I'm now working on embroidering small rabbits, cut from felt, which will hold the money we give to our grandsons and their significant others for Easter.  We don't purchase any gifts, but I still like to give them a few bucks to help them out.  Easter will be here before we know it. 

Lent starts this coming Wednesday.  Do you celebrate Lent and the celebration of the Crucifixion and Death of Christ?  Also the Resurrection of Jesus Christ into heaven on Easter Sunday?  I am a Catholic and have been all of my life, so I certainly do celebrate all of these occasions.  I believe that most religions do celebrate these as well. 

I have to tell all of you that I am so proud of all six of my Grandsons.  They have grown into strong, independent young men.  It's been very interesting watching them as they progressed from babies, to toddlers, to youngsters, to preteens, to teenagers, and from there to adults.  I've always known that they would make me, as well as their parents, very proud.  I know that they still have a lot of living to do and a lot of learning to scramble through, but I know they'll get their eventually. 

Did you ever realize that one never stops learning?  Every day of our lives we continue to learn new things.  Some of them will change our lives, and some we won't even retain.  I am thankful that I am able to continue the learning process.  Maybe some of the things I'm learning aren't really very important, but to me, they  matter.  What do you feel about the process of learning?

I do hope that you all had an enjoyable weekend and that you relaxed today, keeping the day a special day for our Lord.  I did.  I did the Divine Mercy Chaplet, in song, this morning, which moves me to tears.  Then I watched the Mass that was celebrated by Pope Frances from the Basilica at the Vatican.  I also sang some of my favorite hymns including:  Here I Am Lord, Amazing Grace, On Eagles Wings, and a few others. 

If it's cold where you are, I would suggest that you stay inside and keep warm.  It's to be very, very cold tonight with minus numbers of wind chills.  I wish you a good day tomorrow and may God keep you in His arms.
Susan

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Happy Thursday!

How's everyone tonight?

The first thing on my mind tonight, is the weather.  It's turning frigid here, with the wind factor, the temperatures tonight are to go down to -7.  That is just wayyyyy to cold for me.  But, as I've said before, there's nothing we can do about the weather.  So, I guess I'll get off that subject and hope everyone stays warm.

I am considering joining a website for writers, but it's a paying job.  I need to find out some facts before I make the final decision.  If they state how many articles per week I need to write, then I will have to think long and hard about doing it.  I simply can not put myself in a stressful situation, whether I am getting paid or not.  I would like the experience and the chance to prove to myself that I can write articles, but any stress or tension, would be bad for my health.  I will not do that to myself.  Hopefully, in a day or so, I'll get some answers and then I will make the decision.

I think I'd like to start another fiction novel as my next writing project.  First, I need to decide what I want the book to be about, decide on the characters and develop the plot.  Are any of you working on any creative projects?  If so, I'd love to hear what you're up to creative wise.

I'm almost finished with my Easter table runner.  I just have to do a blanket stitch around the outside of the runner.  I'm using a blanket stitch to attach the front and back together.  When it's completed, I'll post a photo of it for you to see.

I finished my cleaning this week.  So, I'm glad that chore is done for a little while.  I'm not a fussy cleaner anymore.  When I was younger with a family, I cleaned every week.  But now, it's just my husband and myself.  We don't make much dirt and we have a new furnace and central air conditioning.   So, there's not too much dust generated from them.  I suppose the other reason is because I just don't care as much as I used to care.  Keeping myself healthy is more important to me than an immaculate house. 

A close friend of mine is coming to my home tomorrow and I'm going to teach her how to do embroidery work.  She needs to stay off of her feet a lot, but she needs something to do while she's sitting with her legs and feet propped up.  We don't get together much anymore, because neither of us drive very much anymore.  Although, we do get talk on the telephone often, which I'm very happy about.  We have been friends for over thirty five years.  I can't wait to visit with her.

I have to share with you all that one of my Christmas Cactus plants has nine blooms on it.  Actually this is the first time it has bloomed for me.  I love the Christmas Cactus plant, mostly because I have such good luck with them.  I also love that they bloom around four times during the year.  Have you ever bought any of these plants?  If not, maybe you'd like to try raising one.  They like a cool area, with no direct sunshine.  They also like an area where there's no bright lights.  Give it a try sometime and let me know how they do.

Well, I guess I'll close for now.  Take care everyone and God bless each of you.  Have a good Friday and enjoy your weekend.
Susan



Monday, February 9, 2015

Decisions, decisions, decisions....

Hi all,

How's everyone doing this fine Monday evening?  It was raining here but I understand that it's on it's way East, which I'm happy about.  We have some really cold weather coming up towards the end of the week.  Oh well, whatever we get concerning the weather, we get!

My topic is referring to what I want to start next.  I'd been seriously thinking about starting a new novel, then I started taking an on-line course concerning jobs for writers.  I'm not really looking for a job, because it means I am tied down to time schedules.  Since I became ill with Chronic Congestive Heart Failure, I am really not able to meet deadlines.

Working for this company includes writing articles for them on different topics.  What I don't know, is if I can choose to do only one or two a week, or if they dictate how many articles per week I need to write.  I have to say that the idea intrigues me, if I won't be under any pressure.

I think I have a touch of a 'bug'.  I thought it was something with my heart, but now I don't think that anymore.  I called the cardiologists office today and got an appointment for Wednesday, but I'm not sure now that it has anything to do with my heart.  I'll see how I feel tomorrow and if I am feeling okay, I will call and cancel the appointment.  I don't want to go in there and waste their time or my money.  On Sunday, I got such a bad 'chill' and I couldn't get warm.  I already was wearing a long sleeve turtleneck shirt and to that I added a sweat shirt and a large blanket, doubled in half.  I shook for about thirty minutes before it got better.  I stayed that way for going on two hours.  After it passed, I was so very tired.  Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well that night, either.  So, I'm hoping for a better night's sleep tonight.

One of my Grandson's, Tucker, has taken an interest in writing and singing rap music.  He is currently in college and I was so surprised to hear about this interest of his.  I asked him that if he has time, could he try to use one of my poems and put it to music.  I'm not really into rap, but he is, so that's okay with me.  It's so nice to see that some of my creative abilities were passed on to my grandsons.  Another one of them, Tanner, has started painting and he's very interested in photography.  I can't tell you how very proud I am of my six Grandsons.  They range in age from, almost 18 to almost 24.  They've all turned out to be very strong young men.  Okay, I am a proud Grandma, what more can I say?

Any ideas on what I should write about next?  If I write a fourth book in my series, then I already have the cast of characters.  I would need to come up with a different trip for them.  They've already gone on a car trip to Ocean City, MD, (Sassy with a Capital "S", a cruise aboard a ship, (Crafty-Cruise With a Capital "C") and a train trek across the United States, (Train-Trekking With a Capital "T").  Any ideas?   If you'd like to read any of these novels, they are available for electronic reading (on any electronic device) by going to www.amazon.com.  Just enter my full name into the search block and all of my books and booklets will come up for your perusal.  You can also borrow any of them from their KDP lending library.  I have a page for each of these three novels on this blog if you'd like to check them out.

What I do know, is that I am going to start another project and very soon.  How about you?  Do you have the February blues, what with all this rainy, snowy weather?  I hope you all are warm and dry where ever you live.  Stay well, and be safe always.
Susan




Thursday, February 5, 2015

Maybe I should?????

Hi all,

Yesterday, I was talking with a close friend of mine and she asked me if I'm going to write a fourth book in the series I have written.  Truthfully, I had not even given it any thought, but found that the idea kept popping into my head all last evening and off and on today. 

I know I want to start another writing project, but I thought that project would be a second book of poetry.  I so enjoyed writing my first book of poetry entitled, "My Soothing Book of Poems."  But now I'm not so sure that a book of poetry should be my next project. 

I love writing, that's for sure.  But, before I start any writing project, I need to finish up on my hand created greeting cards.  I should have them completed in the next week or so, at least I hope so.  I don't do well when I have too many projects going at the same time.  I suppose, that at one time, I handled several projects at once, but I can't do that anymore.  Not since, I became chronically ill almost nine years ago.  My energy wanes as the afternoon goes on and this is my every day life.  I will never get any better, and I pray that God will let me stay the way I am, for a long time yet.  I don't ask for any better life for myself.  I accept my health and my life, as it is.  I am thankful that I am still alive to do my writing and other creative projects.

Well now, what have you all been up to lately?  I hope you are trying to find some time to do something creative.  I do know how busy you can be, especially if you still have children living at home.  When you decide to have children, they should be and must be your very first concern.  At least, until they graduate from high school and move out on their own.  But, every single parent needs some alone time to spend doing something that makes them feel good.  In my opinion, doing something creative, is a great way to bring self worth to yourself.  I promise you that you will be a better mom or dad if you do something creative to make yourself feel good.  Think about it.

I am considering joining a website where you can earn money by writing articles for the clients on this website.  But, I have to tell you, that I'm not sure I completely trust this website.  I suppose someone much younger than me would have already signed up, but I'm always a bit reluctant with web sites I don't know anything about.

Tomorrow is Friday, so it's the last day of the week for all of you that work Monday through Friday.  Think about the possibility of doing something creative over the weekend.  Be safe and God bless you.
Susan