Mountain Girl

It's Writing Tip Wednesday - on a Friday!  (Because I forgot to write it when I should have...) Which brings me to my tip:  Schedule Shit. Weekly Disclaimer Thing :  Writing, like all art, is a subjective experience.  Stuff that works for me won't necessarily work for you...though I hope it does, since I'd love for everyone to succeed.  Can never have enough books to read!  Either way, take these tips with the giant grain of salt needed to season it to your liking, since I could very well be talking out my ass. Scheduling is Like the Outline of Your Life. I know.  So deep. But it really is.  I don't know why this didn't occur to me ages ago, since it's so damn obvious, but I think the perspective shift is good.  It is!  Because outlines are important, as we know (even if they're loose ones), so scheduling shit is important too.  The level of it is, of course, up to you and what you're comfortable with....

Weekly Disclaimer Thing :  Writing, like all art, is a subjective experience.  Stuff that works for me won't necessarily work for you...though I hope it does, since I'd love for everyone to succeed.  Can never have enough books to read!  Either way, take these tips with the giant grain of salt needed to season it to your liking, since I could very well be talking out my ass. So, last week was a little bit about Fiddling, and the bare bones of my editing process.  This week will be...Outlining.  (Dun dun duuuuun!) I know people hate outlining.  It can be frustrating.  But you really should outline your stories.  Really.  Even if you're a born Pantser, you should still outline just a little bit.  It makes things so much faster . Which reminds me, I really need to re-outline my current WIP, since I'm getting lost in the middle. And that's the thing - the outline can change.  If you're in the middle of writ...

Because why not...? Inane Stuff First: I have discovered that I can indeed make good sandwich bread, using this recipe .  Before, I'd been struggling to get the damn thing to rise a second time, so while it was tasty it was also squished.  But, not any more!  I made four loaves yesterday, and another batch today to (hopefully) become buns.  We're already down to  three loaves.  It's that good. So, I couldn't be more pleased with myself.  It's fluffy, and light, and doesn't fall apart when you look at it sideways, and smells AMAZING. Someday, I'll be brave enough to make sourdough. Writing Stuff... WIP is...well, I'm working on it.  Now I've got family visiting on top of having 3 kids to watch, so my writing time has...diminished.  Still plugging away at it, though.  I'll get there!  Eventually.   I feel bad, thinking that it's not going to be done when I'd wanted it to be (I really should be ...

So.  Updates.  Yay. The elder two kids are outside, in splash-pants and rain coats.  It's not raining (it's actually supposed to snow later, got a storm warning and everything.  Yay for March in the mountains.), but everything is wet as hell on account of the snow finally melting.  It also smells of camping because there's a fire going near by. ...I want to go camping so bad, you have no idea... Anyway - I started a Cafe Press shop .  It's named after my fantastically non-witty blog because I couldn't think of anything else, It also hasn't got much in there right now (and what there is is kinda cheesy), but I figured...what the hell.  Someday, someone might want a shirt that relates to my books/website/brand thing I'm trying to build for myself.  Or a stainless steel water bottle.  Or an interesting sicker.  Someone like...well, me. And maybe my mum. Or maybe, someday, one of you guys.  One can hope. Plus, I'm thinking o...

Spring is finally in the air... One of the theoretical downsides about living in the Rockies is that spring is usually late - the snow doesn't go completely until it's pretty much May, and even then it doesn't really get warm until the middle of June.  So no garden for me until May 24th weekend at the earliest, and even then I still have to watch out for sudden and random frosts. Even so, it's been above freezing for the past few days.  The snow is melting.  The prescribed burns are...burning, so everything smells of camping and wood smoke, and it's nice.  The goddamn elk will be moving out of the neighbourhood soon (well, not the pregnant ones...those we get the honor of running from until the end of June, when the calving is over). As for myself, I've finally  gotten the better part of an outline for Book Three.  I know I say 'finally' as though everyone's been waiting for years* and years, when it's really only been a month since the las...