A Challenging Month

I'm having quite a struggle lately. February is shaping up to be an awful month. I had several writing projects rejected during the first week. On Tuesday of the second week, I fell ill with flu, which I'm still fighting.

It looks like the theme of week three will be car trouble as Pixie won't start today. I've plugged her in, well as best as I could. The block heater's cord won't plug fully into my extension cord. I hope it's far enough to do something useful and that I don't need a boost. I had trouble with it last year before I started using gasline antifreeze regularly. I'm using it regularly this year, but I guess the last couple days of extreme cold (-43 with windchill) have upset her.

Still, I'm refusing to let any of this get me down.

I'm hitting revisions fairly hard. Chapter 5 will have a lot of cuts.

I'm also reading more and thoroughly enjoying it.

I spent most of Valentine's Day reading and it was fantastic. I'm mostly happily single, so I wasn't the slightest bit lonely. Besides, I think it's unfortunately common for couples to make a big deal out of Valentine's and not put enough love into the rest of the days. I treated myself to a delicious steak dinner, a nap, and a movie.

At least my computer didn't break after installing Windows Updates. I've been putting them off for nearly a year and it got very slow...

Well, off to read, write, and eat chicken soup.

Ciao,
R~

2020 Vision

Mostly, I’ve been planning for the new year, but I discovered I know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was a recollection under the influence that brought this to light. I also discovered I still suck at drawing, but I’m okay with that. I used to think I had to be good at everything, and I’ve realized that’s just not so. Some friends and I recently hit up a local board game pub. It was a pretty fun night. The first game was Balderdash and I was terrible at it. Because I was the writer in the group, some of my friends thought I should be more embarrassed about it and hide the fact that I don’t spend all my free time learning advanced vocabulary. But I’m not upset about it. Why? Two reasons: 1. I now know what I don’t know. 2. If one takes a close look at the top selling novels on the market, the level of the language used is not the level of many of the words in Balderdash. Not that I’m comparing my own work to those, but audience is what matters in writing. To me, it is far better to e...

Fortifying Friday - Rejection

Yesterday, I received my first rejection from an agent. It stung. It wasn't that it was bad. It was worded in a way that it may have even been personally written. Regardless, rejection never feels good unless you were secretly hoping to stay home and do nothing when a friend made plans with you. Then it feels great! I might be an introvert ;) Anyway, it hurts a bit extra when you have other things going on. Between the worries of the state of the world and being unemployed, it felt much like being kicked while I was already down. The agent said she couldn't connect with my book though she really wanted to. She also said not to take her rejection as any kind of sign that I should give up. It was nice as far as rejections go. So, I lay there for a bit. Then I let my friends know via social media. Several said that I had hit a milestone and I should try to collect as many as possible this year. Rejections, they said, were a badge of honour awarded for putting myself out there. See...

Thoughtful Thursday - Dental Access

I haven't made use of it yet as I discovered it only this week, but there are free dental screenings in Ottawa for people who have a low income. I'm not sure what happens at these things, but I imagine they're rather like the once or twice yearly visits we had in grade school from the health unit where they checked our teeth. Anyway, I thought I'd mention that in case anyone is in need. There is a schedule with the locations listed and I'm guessing it's hard to get there early enough to get seen, but I'll check it out soon. I've been using dental products that are supposed to repair and whiten. I'm unsure they are working, but I figured they were worth a try. Also, I hear if you add activated charcoal to your toothbrush before the toothpaste, it helps whiten too. It makes a hell of a mess, but I tried it. I think it might take a while to whiten, but my teeth are definitely cleaner, so I think it really does help with plaque. Activated charcoal is als...

Rae Roy

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