2018, Good Riddance

2018 has been a pretty rough year for me regarding writing. Even this post is a week later than I intended it to be (don't ask how crazy and stressful the holidays have been this year). I mean, I've also been dreading posting it, of course. I'd even wanted to take pictures of cookies to balance out the sour with something sweet, but I didn't get to bake as much as planned and then forgot to take pictures after the couple of batches I did bake!

Will you settle for cute Hatchimal ornaments? They'll have to do. I'll plop them at the end of the post. For now, let's get the misery over with.

I didn't publish any new titles in 2018, unfortunately, so no list of publications.

I'm looking back at my goals for 2018, plus the update post in June (nope, not linking to them -- if you really want to look, you can find them in the Blog Archive on the left -- too depressing), and I think instead of comparing the results to what I hoped to accomplish, I'm just going to highlight what I did get done. Progress -- I still made progress.

2018 Progress

❦ Continued revisions of Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2) -- over halfway done now!

❦ Started the first draft of Well of Shades (Fortunes of Fate, 7) -- this title may change (Well of Shadows, Well of Solitude, Well of Spirits? If you have a preference, feel free to say so in the comments below!)

❦ Beta read several titles under Haunted Unicorn Publishing

❦ Revised 32,783 words

❦ Wrote 795 words of first draft material

❦ Posted 23 blog posts (including this one)

❦ Sent 10 Author Newsletters

❦ Spent 39.93 hours writing, revising, and editing

❦ Spent 33.23 hours either writing blog posts or updating my website

❦ Spent 16.7 hours re-formatting and uploading the updated titles to the various retailers (I love Vellum. <3)

❦ Including the hours above, as well as reading time and the beta reads and critiques I've done, I spent 231.37 hours total on writing related tasks (up to and including this post -- I may squeeze in a couple of other end-of-year tasks if I have time this week)

I will not compare those stats to last year. I will not compare those stats to last year. I will not compare those stats to last year.

OK, I already know I had an awesome 2017, and 2018 left much to be desired comparatively, but I did get a few things done, and that's a hell of a lot better than giving up. Never give up!

It's time to brush 2018 under the rug and beg 2019 to be a kinder, gentler, more productive writing year. Goals for that in the next post, though.

Oh, and Hatchimal ornaments!

NaNo 2018 Check-In and Cat Videos

I didn't really want to write this post. At all. If you watched the tracker from the initial NaNo post this year, you'll know why.

NaNoWriMo and November were a complete failure. And to top it off, I don't feel like I have a good excuse. There was a week in there where I wasn't feeling the best. Plus Thanksgiving, along with Black Friday (online shopping only, thank you very much), also sucked up a week. Planning presents for the kids (my shopping for them is DONE -- that's a relief). Yeah, when I say that, I kind of wonder what happened to the month.

Maybe it's just the year. I mean, it started out wretched, so the pervasive feelings from the beginning of the year are just lingering at the end of it. All of November, I just wanted to say, "Screw it! I just want to sit down and plan 2019."

And that's what I'm going to do in December. That's all I'm going to do. Plan next year, and have the optimism that it will be a much better year for writing. And I'll do a lengthier assessment of 2018 in my next post. (How depressing is that going to be? Ugh.)

OK, I'm going to throw myself a bone now. NaNoWriMo 2018 wasn't a complete failure. I revised about 1600 words. That's 1600 more words than I had before November started, so it's a win, even if a small one.

But so this isn't a terrible and utterly depressing post (like the next one just might be), I needed to throw in kitties. More importantly, kitty videos! And well, a Nightshade picture because I don't have a video of him -- it seems the girl cats in the house are more entertaining at times. Shade is a bit too laid back.

If you want to see Part 2 of the second one, just pop over to my YouTube Channel. It's kind of sparse, but I may add more kitty videos in the future! Enjoy Rikku and Sylph below. =) Goofball fuzzballs.

Summoners War - Which Mon Is Next?

It's another Summoners War post - yay! (Unless you were hoping I wouldn't post anything else about this wretched game...).

After a couple months, my Water/Light/Dark account is coming along nicely. Slow but sure. As mentioned in my last post, I focused on working on my Light Imp Champion. There he is below - Shaffron, all Awakened and max level at 40. I'm still building his skills up, though, as I haven't gotten many extra Imp Champions to feed to him. Still, I'm pretty pleased with his stabbing game. ;) He can hold his own in a battle as well as pack a wallop.

I didn't just work on Shaffron. There was a special event that allowed us to get the Light Fairy Queen, and she is hands down one of the best healers in the game. Look at my cute little Fran. She's a prefect companion for Shaffron, too, and I don't regret quickly taking her to level 40. She's also max skills, since getting a hold of other fairies is pretty easy.

Now, I had mentioned I might post a pretty and shiny Mon from one of my other accounts now and then, but it just so happens I got a really nice one on the Water/Light/Dark account. Look at the Druid! And I was so lucky he turned out to be the Water one (since I would have had to shove a Wind or Fire one in storage). He's not Awakened yet, but when he is he has the option to turn into a wolf - pretty awesome. I'll make sure to include Awakened pics next Summoners War post. Currently, he's the next up for me to get to level 40.

I was super lucky to pull that 5-Star Druid, but I also feel pretty lucky with the Light and Dark Mons that I've summoned lately. So many interesting ones that I want to work on, that I can't decide which one I should focus on next (well, after I tend to that Druid, of course)!

So, I need everyone's help. Which Mon should I work on next? I'll list the options below. You can either comment on this post or vote using the simple Google Form (if you'd like to stay anonymous, this is the best choice): Which Mon Is Next?

I can't wait to see what everyone suggests! Happy hunting!

Eludain, Light Inferno

Groggo, Light Golem

Shren, Light High Elemental

Karakum, Dark Mummy

Driller, Light Frankenstein

Silver, Light Living Armor

Thrain, Dark Grim Reaper

NaNoWriMo and Halloween 2018

Combo post! For me, the start of NaNoWriMo and Halloween go hand-in-hand, anyhow. I mean, by the time I get to the end of October and the start of November, everything's just melded into one huge lump of mushy memory. October can be a little rough for me, some years, and this year especially since the flu screwed up a lot of my plans.

Anyway, NaNoWriMo!

Nope, I'm not aiming for a full 50k this year. Not even going to consider the idea. I probably won't really be posting over in the NaNo forums at all either. A low key and quiet half-assed half-goal NaNoWriMo sounds perfect to me.

I actually have several tiers of goals this year and then a bonus goal. And yes, I'm continuing revisions of Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2) for the most part. So...

❦ Low - 8,000 words of revision
❦ Mid - 15,500 words of revision
❦ High - 19,750 words of revision
❦ BONUS - 6,000 words of a rough draft (of what is still to be determined)

The low goal is pretty much my normal monthly goal. My normal goal last month was destroyed due to the flu and post-party prep exhaustion, so I would like to catch up a little to the backlog if possible.

So, we'll say the overall goal for this year's NaNoWriMo is 26,000 words. I'll still use the potato buddy counter, but I'll also use one of the official NaNo meters on the left side. Don't expect to see this climb until November 5, though, as I have a beta read job that needs to get completed, and it's top priority.

That's enough of NaNo. Simple this year -- and I won't report final progress until the first week of December! Let's hope the NaNo Crud stays far away.

Onto Halloween. It was a bit of a scramble this year, and I didn't take too many pictures during the Halloween party because of this. But I'll wrap up this post with a couple at least. None of me this time, since I decided I'd be lazy and just throw on a Pusheenicorn hoodie. =D I hope everyone had a Haunting Halloween!

1001 Reasons Not To Clean - #41 through #45

Welcome to 1001 Reasons Not to Clean! The main goal of this series is to see if I can actually reach 1001 reasons, 5 reasons at a time (the final post, if I get there, will be 6 reasons). I'm sure I can. It's not just my crazy brain being unrealistic, right? Links to previous posts are below. And feel free to share your excuses, and they might get added to my list (with credit, of course)!

#1 through #5 ~ #6 through #10 ~ #11 through #15 ~ #16 through #20 ~ #21 through #25 ~ #26 through #30 ~ #31 through #35 ~ #36 through #40

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41. Instead of cleaning in preparation for your Halloween party, you'd rather finish off all the booze so you can buy fresh stuff for your friends to enjoy.

42. You foolishly tried to clean right after drinking all that booze and once you're sober you realize all you did was make a bigger mess. XD

43. Making a list of all the things you need to get done before the party seems like a lovely way to procrastinate instead of actually doing the things on said list.

44. It's way more fun to look up new recipes you want to try out for the party. Of course, you won't have time to make any of these recipes since you'll have procrastinated so much that you'll be rushing to clean before your guests arrive.

45. Carving pumpkins! Planning an elaborate design for your pumpkin is a better way to spend your time instead of cleaning. Who am I kidding? It always ends up being a quick and dirty carving because I still have too much cleaning to do (and pumpkin seeds to bake).

The New Writing Routine (Until It Changes Again...)

I posted back in June that my schedule has been constantly shifting. Well, with fall finally here and both kids in school (Youngest only for a couple hours per day, four days a week), the schedule has shifted again. And I thought it would be nice to report in and let everyone know how things are going, since I've been at it for about four weeks.

The Positive

❦ September has been much better than the first few months of the year. I actually feel like I'm making progress, and I feel way less scattered.

❦ I'm not as exhausted (though still a bit tired because of my own bad habits of staying up too late), since I'm not walking Youngest so far to school. 25 minutes of walking a day is much more doable than 2 hours (heck, I've even taken to walking another 20 minutes just to enjoy the day and exercise a bit, once I drop Youngest off -- still way better than 2 hours).

❦ This month I managed to revise 5.1k, only 0.9k short of my main goal. That's the second best month I've had this year for productivity! Oh, and that's with squeezing an originally unplanned beta read in.

❦ I'm at the halfway point in revisions for Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 3). Yay!

❦ I haven't come down with the plague yet, nor have my kids. This is rather amazing because usually we're all sick within a couple weeks of school starting up again. And yes, I'm knocking on all kinds of wood right now for even mentioning this. XD

The Not So Positive (I don't want to use that bad word...)

❦ I still get distracted during my writing/revising hours and haven't started in on things as early as I would like to. I think I'm enjoying a break from both kids too much and then I lose track of time (don't get me wrong, I love them to pieces, but small breaks are nice, especially from Youngest because she is a pistol). Once I get going, I'm fine, but it's the getting started I need to improve.

❦ Most times I'm using tea or soda to wake myself up a bit for writing sessions. Though I don't feel like I'm going to pass out like when I was walking so much, afternoons are still more difficult for me compared to mid-mornings. It's those after lunch sleepies.

❦ I'm still a bit behind on even my revised goals for the year that I outlined back in June.

All in all, as you can see, this current writing routine is working out way better than any of the others I had to juggle and shuffle earlier this year. I think that with time and getting more used to the routine, I'll be less distracted before writing time and start in earlier.

It does mean that I'm getting closer to finishing Thorns Entwine the Blade. Once I finish revisions, it's off to my copy editor. Maybe I'll even finish sooner than planned -- who knows!

The Adventures of Karriya the Wizard - The Gods, Part 2

The Adventures of Karriya the Wizard is a series based on the main character I play in Everquest. Though most of what I write actually happened, many events might be embellished and exaggerated to create a better story. Happy hunting (and reading)!

Origin Story ~ The Gods, Part 1

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How long has it been since Karriya's last adventures were told? Too long! And she has a bone to pick with me because haughty High Elves love to be in the limelight, and I've neglected her (thankfully she hasn't been completely neglected in the game, though finding time to play as of late has been a challenge).

Unfortunately, her slaying and cavorting with the gods of Norrath have faded into foggy memories, so there might be more spinning of tales than truth in this entry. Or maybe I only think the memories are fuzzy, and the tales I spin will actually be the truth in disguise...

Well then, Karriya says I'm blathering on too much and need to start talking about her. Very well.

First, she wanted me to tell everyone about the time she stormed Drunder, The Fortress of Zek (also known as the Plane of Tactics). With Yushuv by her side, they felled the brothers Tallon Zek and Vallon Zek, followed by their father Rallos Zek. But no, that wasn't grand enough in her opinion. Then she considered the time she fought and then parlayed with Luclin in The Plane of Shadows -- ah, how regal the god looked upon her throne. No, no, not enough. Solusek Ro and Innoruk? Still too boring...

Karriya is indecisive at the best of times.

Why not the time she faced the Fabled versions of many of the gods all in one adventure, both Rondor and Yushuv at her side (and Downpour, of course -- can't forget the little druid)? Yes, that's it!

At the end of the many quests in the Planes of Power there lies the Plane of Time. And in this plane, the gods await. It just so happens that Karriya stormed it when the stronger, Fabled, versions were ready to smite her and her group of adventurers. No single-handed killing for the wizzie this time, and seeing many of the gods in one place sent flashbacks cascading across her mind of all the times she'd killed them in other zones.

Mighty Saryrn and the dark Terris Thule wailed as they fell to Karriya's mighty nukes.

And then as if searching for revenge from her adventure in Drunder, Fortress of Zek, Tallon Zek and Vallon Zek attempted to splat the wizzie while Yushuv pummeled on them with his axe.

Rondor assisted with dots and heals when they assaulted Bertoxxulous and Cazic Thule.

Finally, Innoruuk and Rallos Zek trembled at Karriya and gang and the power they held, the power they used to tear the gods down.

But a picture's worth a thousand words, isn't it? At least that's the point Karriya is at because she needs a nap after all of that god slaying. Oh, and because Rondor informed her some time ago that there are now new god killing achievements. Wait, what? She has to go back to the Planes of Power and kill all of those gods again? Sometimes she forgets it is called EVERquest...

Current Game Obsession - Summoners War

I know I've mentioned Summoners War at least once in a previous post. I've been playing the game for a few months now, only as a free-to-play player. Actually Hubbie and I played it a bit a couple years ago and stopped due to some annoyances and slow devices at the time. When we tried it again recently, we reset our accounts and started fresh.

Then we added a second account each...

See, we have this blind box itch that we need to scratch and Summoners War helps with that (free, no less, since we haven't spent a single cent on the game).

And we may have just each started a third account this past weekend. Oops.

Am I crazy? Maybe. Have a lot of our other games been neglected? Oh, yes.

The thing is, though, it's harder to play things like Everquest and console games when you have kids (we still do play Everquest, and we will likely until we see the game's sunset, just no where near as frequently as we used to before kids -- I promise another Adventures of Karriya entry soon... TM). However, Summoners War is one of those games where you can easily put it down or pause when you have squawking little interruptions. Heh.

It's also a game where you don't really need to put a lot of thought into it if you don't want to. Battles are pretty repetitive and you can put them on Auto. I know this sounds insanely annoying for some people, but when you're trying to unwind after a day of the squawking, sometimes using as few brain cells as possible is a good thing. There are also so many Monsters (Mons) you can obtain in the game, so it kicks in my "Completionist" gene, so I of course want to max level every Mon I can get my hands on (this is easier said than done because there are also Star Levels and every time you move a Mon up a Star Level, you need to level it again).

Finally, what really pulls me in is the art. It's all so pretty. <3 That's my Hwa up top -- she's transmorgified (kind of like a costume) into Night Stalker Hwa. I must collect all the pretties! Which is tough and even tougher if you're not paying. Even though I haven't spent any money, I've gotten some pretty nice Mons.

With so many Mons, though, I've found myself neglecting a certain subset that I wanted to experiment with. There are five elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Light, and Dark. The first three are pretty easy to come by, the last two not so much (at least not the higher natural 4 and 5 Star Mons, and even many 3s). I wanted to fiddle with the Light and Dark Mons, which is why I made the third account.

Now, it's nearly impossible on a baby account to only play Light and Dark, even though in the progression the game gives you two Light Mons. So, I decided I'd add in one more element -- Water (since your first freebie progression Mon that kicks ass is Water). I also used a couple from the other elements I needed to get past a some steps in quest progression. Otherwise, I've given myself the challenge to use only Light, Dark, and Water Mons. This isn't going to be easy!

Luckily, I summoned a pretty 4 Star Water a couple days ago -- super lucky for an account that's only four days old as of this post! See the handsome Water Sylph? (Action shot!)

I wanted my first Light/Dark scroll, though, so I plowed through a certain scenario to obtain one, and had to fight this cool dragon at the end. Again, awesome art!

And... I summoned a 3 Star Light Imp Champion. He's a Defense Mon. So, he's officially the first summoned Mon (one you can only get from summoning from those rarely found Light/Dark scrolls -- maybe two per month, three if you're lucky with finding scroll bits to buy) that I'll be experimenting with. I have a few Lights and Darks that I got from secret dungeons as well, but I won't regale everyone with those for now.

I may make this into a blog post series, though. At least as I go through and experiment with things on my third account. Maybe I'll even post some of the pretties from my first and second accounts. Got to love the eye candy! Should I come back in a month to tell everyone how I liked using the Light Imp Champion? Or am I boring you all to tears? Lol.

1001 Reasons Not To Clean - #36 through #40

Welcome to 1001 Reasons Not to Clean! The main goal of this series is to see if I can actually reach 1001 reasons, 5 reasons at a time (the final post, if I get there, will be 6 reasons). I'm sure I can. It's not just my crazy brain being unrealistic, right? Links to previous posts are below. And feel free to share your excuses, and they might get added to my list (with credit, of course)!

#1 through #5 ~ #6 through #10 ~ #11 through #15 ~ #16 through #20 ~ #21 through #25

~ #26 through #30 ~ #31 through #35

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36. When you're actually cleaning you find this beautifully spun spiderweb, and you don't want to destroy the spider's painstaking work.

37. No matter how well you think you wipe down the outside of the windows, once you pop them back in and the sun shines happily through, you see all the streaks that you missed.

38. You just cleaned the mirror in the kids' room 10 minutes ago, and the Preschooler bangs her head on it because she doesn't want a time out. Smudged forehead prints anyone?

39. Fireworks!

40. You're determined to take a whole week off of everything (well, except for taking care of the kids, of course) and play World of Final Fantasy the whole week.

Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off $0.99 Sale

So, Mind Behind the Mind (Trinity Torn, 1) didn't arise victorious in the the 2017 Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO), but it led me to a great community of fantasy authors. SPFBO 2018 has just kicked off, and one of this year's entrants has organized a great promotion. Past and present SPFBO entrants were welcomed to participate. And I figured it would be an excellent opportunity to join in with Mind Behind the Mind.

The SBFBO Fantasy Book Sale is from August 1 through August 5, 2018, and there are over 120 books priced at $0.99!

This is the first time ever I've dropped Mind Behind the Mind down to $0.99. If you've been thinking of grabbing a copy, now is the time! You can find it at various retailers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, and Google Play. Just hop on over to the Books2Read page for Mind Behind the Mind and you can purchase via your preferred retailer from the list provided after clicking Buy Now.

Of course, if you want to take full advantage of this promo, you'll have to wander over to the SPFBO Fantasy Book Sale page, where you'll find over 120 books discounted to $0.99. Lots of different sub-genres as well. Perhaps you'll find something being offered that you've been hoping to give a whirl.

What are you waiting for? Go buy some awesome fantasy books!

Ant-Man and The Wasp - Awesome Team

***WARNING: Spoilers ahead! If you haven't seen Ant-Man and The Wasp yet, you may not want to read the post below until you have. And I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to see it, especially if you like to laugh. So, go on, watch the movie, then come back and read my thoughts.***

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Ant-Man and The Wasp Movie Poster

Ant-Man and The Wasp -- I'd been looking forward to this movie ever since the first installment of Ant-Man, which was a hilarious movie, and one of my favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe titles. They definitely tried to keep up the humor in this sequel, so I'll give a thumbs up for consistency. Though, I have to admit, while I enjoyed the movie, it still wasn't quite as good as the first where they hit things more on the head with the humor.

Luis's tangents were funny, per usual, and I loved it that Scott's ex-wife's current husband who hated Scott in the first movie now loved him and was hugging him all the time. That reversal was fun.

In Ant-Man and The Wasp we see the repercussions of Scott's actions from Captain America: Civil War. And because Scott is under house arrest, it makes this movie more centralized, taking place in one city. Now I know some people didn't like that it wasn't integrated as much into the rest of the MCU as some of the other movies, but I think it worked. This movie was happening during all the events of Avengers: Infinity War, so it makes sense that Scott doesn't get mixed up in all of that. The nice thing about most of the MCU titles is that even if there's not a ton of weaving with the other movies or characters, it feels like it still fits in the whole universe, and that's what Ant-Man and The Wasp felt like to me -- I knew it was part of the MCU, and there were just enough references in the movie to make it feel that way. Any more and it would have been too much for me, I think.

One of the best things about this movie was that both Ant-Man and Wasp pretty much got equal screen time. If anything, Wasp might have had more kick ass scenes than Ant-Man. I was thrilled to see that she wasn't relegated to a sidekick and that she had a central role in the movie. Quite frankly, since the movie focused on finding Hope's mother, it should have been titled The Wasp and Ant-Man instead!

The whole family theme throughout the movie was great. This wasn't a story of huge, global repercussions, but more personal journeys. And I think it was well-placed after Infinity War since it brought us all back down to Earth (literally and figuratively).

And the villains even reflected this focus. I know, I know, some of you didn't think the villains were big and bad enough. But they weren't the point of the movie, really. They were simply obstacles in the way of saving Janet from the quantum realm. Sonny Burch was your typical money-hungry criminal, and there was just enough of him, in my opinion. Ghost, on the other hand, was a woman striving to stay alive -- quite a different motivation. And in the end, her story was connected to the family theme as well. She'd lost her family in the accident that changed her, but at the end we see that Bill had become her family, since he refused to abandon her.

The one thing with Ghost I would have liked to see was a better fleshing out of her backstory. We pretty much got a big, old info dump. I know they tried to make fun of the fact that they were info dumping, but it wasn't enough to actually forgive the huge info dump that it was. I also figured Janet was going to be able to help her from being in the quantum realm for so long -- saw that not-so-much twist miles away.

And then we had the mid-credits scene. I knew that was coming, too, I just didn't know who was going to be effected. Scott didn't turn to ash, but Hope, Hank, and Janet did! Poor Ant-Man, stuck in the quantum realm. I was hoping for a Captain Marvel reference, but there wasn't anything blatant. I read an article though that mentions she may actually be stuck in the quantum realm? Which would make it connected, however not something neither I nor my husband caught when we first saw the scene.

Overall, I think Ant-Man and The Wasp was well-balanced and it gave me lots of laughs. I'd love to go see it again soon, but I'm also really looking forward to Captain Marvel and how she'll be integrated into the MCU.

Writing Update - June 2018

It's been a rough year. Clearly I've expressed this in some of my past posts, but it was about time that I took a closer look at what was going on and what I should do about it. Unfortunately, the answer turned out to be cutting back on my writing goals.

Everything kind of went to hell last November. I'd had a huge schedule shift in mid-September, and I was able to kind of keep my head above water and give NaNoWriMo a go until I got bronchitis around Thanksgiving. It's been a bumpy road since then, even though I was optimistic that I'd still be able to average the same weekly word count as 2017. The schedule shift didn't work for my writing productivity at all, though, and other life obstacles made it so I crashed and burned at the beginning of this year.

The thing is, the schedule has shifted again (no more naps for my youngest -- yay?). And then it's going to shift yet again in fall (4K four times per week in the afternoons... of course, over the time when I usually eat lunch). My brain is most productive with writing mid-morning, and it's not looking like I'll get my mid-mornings back to write until Fall 2019.

I'm trying "Quiet Time" with my youngest a couple days a week, but she still interrupts and once fall hits, there won't be time for that since I'll need to feed her lunch super early. Again, this all doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing. Afternoons aren't completely out of the question once fall rolls around, it's just harder going for me, so I'm slower.

Also, I've really lacked focus on my health and organizing the house (1001 Reasons Not to Clean -- yes?), as well as spending some quality time with my family. All of this is why I've decided to reduce my writing goals. Then when Fall 2019 finally arrives, I can ramp them back up. It sucks to start going even more slowly, but it does suit most of my mantras I have for the year:

❦ Slow Down.

❦ Just Write.

❦ Live.

❦ One Word At A Time.

❦ Any Progress Is Good Progress.

❦ All In Time.

If ever I needed to start repeating all of those in my head several times a day, it's now.

What does this mean for my plans for the rest of 2018?

I won't have any publications this year.

Yes, Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2) won't be published until 2019, and the next Fortunes of Fate story is also getting pushed off. The run down of my plans are below. I'm shifting from hourly goals to simple word counts as well.

2018 Writing Goals -- Redo

❦ Summer: Revise 1.5k words per week (1 week off) --- Fall/Winter: Revise 2k words per week (2 weeks off and 3 weeks of planning and other writing tasks). This should put me at 37k words revised by the end of the year. All of this will be on Thorns Entwine the Blade. Before this week, I was 40k into revisions (I know, the word meters are broken), so I will likely have 14k-23k left to revise in 2019 (along with then sending to my editor, applying edits, and formatting before it's published).

❦ Pause critiquing efforts (unless one of my close writer friends needs extra eyes -- I will squeeze in time for them) until I'm ready to do them on a consistent basis again. This doesn't include beta reading and developmental editing for Haunted Unicorn Publishing. That's my side income right now (that mostly covers my writing expenses, since my hubbie is the main breadwinner), and that still takes precedence whenever I have a client.

❦ 1 newsletter per month (this isn't changing, and I'm still sending out chapters of Chains of Nect).

❦ 1 blog post every 2 weeks (another staying the same, at least).

Hopefully simplifying all of this will help me get into a routine for health, house, and family. And once all of that is more solid, I can increase my writing quotas. Also, by lowering my weekly word count goals, I'll actually get to feel the satisfaction of hitting my goals, which always makes me feel better. I've already hit 1.5k for this week -- yay!

Oh, and clearly the 5-Year Plan isn't viable anymore. I'll work on a new one in December to reflect my reduced writing time through 2019. I'm sure I'll be editing that damned thing every year, but it's still nice to have to give me a bit of perspective.

Happy writing and reading, all! Just remember, if Life takes a hammer to the asphalt and the road becomes too rough, sometimes you just need to slow down.

Still A Trio Of Terror

Time for more kitty pictures! Has it really been over a year since I posted any? Well, the Trio of Terror are as naughty as ever. Also, now all three are happy to jump up on the counters without aid of a chair (Sylph also likes being a pillar cat), though Nightshade is the only one who jumped onto the radiator and then a high windowsill right on top of our TV sound bar. Obviously, this didn't end well (sound bar crash, boom, banged). He's lucky he didn't break anything. =/

If you want to pop over to past posts with Trio of Terror pics, you can find them on Kitten, Kitten, Kitten, Kitten Intermission, and Kittens to Cats! Onward with new pictures...

First of all, they still love their cat tree, though it's kind of hard to fit all three on it nowadays - lol.

I am also not allowed to make the bed.

Look at the little heart kitties. I think it's great that we got siblings because they love each other and snuggle instead of hating each other. Though for a while earlier this year Sylph hated Rikku after Rikku came home smelling like the vet (she had her teeth cleaned). Thankfully, Sylph wised up because I love it when the girl kitties snuggle like this to form a heart. ♥

Here's the goofy Sylph, "Ice, Ice Kitty" (yes, sing it to the song that just popped into your head, but say meow instead of those silly beats). She comes running when we're getting ice from our fridge and licks up any little shards that escape. Also, I've gotten a couple pictures of her sitting on my lap. She looks pissed I took a picture, though. There isn't supposed to be any proof she likes to snuggle occasionally. Nope. She's still the most aloof one of the three, and she especially hates strangers -- she'll hide for hours after someone leaves until she deems it safe to emerge.

Nightshade is still our derpy Boo Kitty. No, cat, you're not a stuffed animal, and I don't appreciate you knocking down a bunch of stuffed animals just so you can lay there. Though derpy, he's still the most laid back cat in the house, and he puts up with a lot from my youngest (no matter how much we tell her to be nice and not pick him up).

Rikku is still my snuggle buddy, especially when I'm sitting up in bed. She makes it really hard to get up in the morning when she plops on my chest. She's the, "I'm the Kitty, gotta love me." Yes, must pet her, or she'll chew on your Fitbit. And she's taken the crown for naughtiest in the house. Crazy, too -- Rikku Cuckoo Kitty. Also, she loves to hang off the bed like you see in the picture. Reminds me of those "Hang In There, Baby" posters. So we always say, "Hang in there, Cuckoo."

One more picture. Hey, wait, that's not one of the Trio of Terror, that's Cathulhu!

Deadpool 2 - Forever The Merc With The Mouth

***WARNING: Here it is, your spoiler warning. If you haven't seen Deadpool 2, I highly recommend you don't read ahead, unless you like spoilers. Do you like spoilers? What fun is that? Go get your laugh on by watching Deadpool 2, then come back and read this post.***

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Deadpool 2 Movie Poster

Honestly, I'm not sure where to begin. I mean, it's not like I had kids interrupting me while I watched Deadpool 2 (our once per year date night -- ha ha).

I guess I'll start with this: it's funny. Yeah, a little simplistic, but hey, it's been hot out and I think my brain melted a little. Of course, it's only funny for those who like Deadpool's sense of humor. And seriously, Deadpool doesn't shut up. Ever. He's the kind of person I wish I could be, coming up with the wiseass remarks and burns in the moment (instead, I'm the person whose tongue trips over itself -- this is why I prefer writing to speaking, I can go back and fix things).

Now, I know there are people out there who say it's pretty much just a rehash of the first movie. But what do you expect from a specific brand of humor? All those sitcoms on TV? Yeah, same kind of humor over and over again. That doesn't make those shows any less funny for people who love that kind of thing (I mean, how many seasons of Seinfeld were there?). Same with Deadpool -- if you loved the humor in the first movie, you'll love it in the second. And if you complain about it being repetitive, you didn't really love it in the first movie and you can go suck a lemon because you're clearly not the target audience.

Deadpool's humor is of course the biggest draw, but like with the first movie, there's still a solid story arc. Mind you, I was a bit shocked that Vanessa died in the first five minutes, though it worked (and well, nothing that couldn't be fixed in the end credits with Cable's little time gadget -- heh). After losing Vanessa, Deadpool needs to find something else to live for, and while he's pretty selfish at the beginning, he eventually makes it his goal to save Russell, a kid who could destroy much of the world if he accomplishes a single act. He even sacrifices his own life to save Russell from turning into the monster that Cable claims he'll become.

Speaking of Cable, I loved his arc (and when Deadpool called him Thanos -- lol). At first, he's the big bad. But you see he's not really bad -- he's trying to save his family. He's simply a hero that's at odds with another hero (and I use the term hero loosely, since we all know Deadpool is the biggest anti-hero, ever). You can see the logic and good intentions behind his acts, even if he is trying to kill a kid. And in the end, he actually sacrifices being able to see his family again to save Deadpool. Of course, the teddy bear he carries turns from charred and bloody to clean and shiny, so he knows his family has been saved. And it was great how after he turned back time, he still aimed to shoot at the kid and have Deadpool take the bullet. So the outcome would be the same. But this time, the skee ball token stopped the bullet since Cable had clearly given it back to Deadpool.

Even with all the humor, the story arc was pretty serious, and this created a great balance.

My biggest qualm was the short screen time for Juggernaut, and his subsequent quick death. My biggest exposure to Juggernaut was with that old 90s X-Men cartoon. And I loved the conflict of Juggernaut with his brother, Professor X. Now, the relationship was hinted at in Deadpool 2, but by killing Juggernaut off, that squashes the possibility of him showing up in an X-Men movie (since the universes have been established as connected). It's one of those instances that I hope dead doesn't stay dead. It would have been awesome to have an Easter Egg at the end with Juggernaut emerging from the pool, as if he was just knocked out instead of killed. Dead isn't always dead, right? Not in a comic book! I can hope.

Oh, also Domino = love! I can't wait to see more of her. That power of hers is pretty awesome, and I always got to love strong women who don't take shit from anyone (including Deadpool). The rest of the X-Force dying was hilarious, too. Especially since the previews were a red herring and made you think they were all in the fight. Super glad they picked Domino as the survivor, though.

I'm sure when I watch Deadpool 2 again, I'll find a few more things that I like, and other things that bother me, but I think this first viewing I was laughing too often to notice many of the negatives. I mean, that's why I went, to laugh. Mission accomplished.

And I can't wait to hear what's next for all of these characters. Even if we don't get Deadpool 3, I'm sure he'd work well in an ensemble X-Force movie!

1001 Reasons Not To Clean - #31 through #35

Welcome to 1001 Reasons Not to Clean! The main goal of this series is to see if I can actually reach 1001 reasons, 5 reasons at a time (the final post, if I get there, will be 6 reasons). I'm sure I can. It's not just my crazy brain being unrealistic, right? Links to previous posts are below. And feel free to share your excuses, and they might get added to my list (with credit, of course)!

#1 through #5 ~ #6 through #10 ~ #11 through #15 ~ #16 through #20 ~ #21 through #25

~ #26 through #30

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31. Spring is finally here! Wait, it is spring isn't it? Mother Nature is laughing again because we kind of skipped over spring and went straight into summer. Anyway, winter is finally done, and you want to enjoy the lack of snow on the ground and warmth in the air.

32. You walked two hours today because you needed to ferry your preschooler back-and-forth to school (no, I don't drive and I have my reasons, we'll leave it at that). Exhaustion doesn't begin to define how you feel.

33. You walked two hours yesterday, and somehow you feel worse than you did the day before. You're getting too old for this shit (or you're just more out of shape than you're willing to admit).

34. You'd rather go for a walk with the family to see if you can spot any ducklings by the river.

35. Instead of quickly and easily snagging the pictures you need for your blog post, you waste an hour trying to figure out why your pictures aren't downloading properly to your computer, only to find out that Apple has switched all of its pictures to a new format (that since you've only recently upgraded to a phone that uses iOS 11, you had no clue about said switch until now). Eventually you find the converted JPEG files peppered in the downloads -- because even if something looks like it's done downloading, it rarely ever is. Hey, you were supposed to be cleaning during that wasted hour (or maybe you weren't and are just using the photo issues as an excuse not to clean...).

Avengers: Infinity War - Wow, Just Wow

***WARNING: I know Avengers: Infinity War hasn't even been out for a week, so you might not have seen it yet. However, there are a lot of spoilers below. It's hard not to spoil something when talking about this movie. And if you've been following any of the other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, you should really just go out and see the third Avengers movie already! But if you don't want spoilers before you do so, come back and read this post after you've seen the movie.*** ❦

Avengers: Infinity War Movie Poster

I went into Avengers: Infinity War fully expecting some characters to die. With as huge of a cast as this movie has, it was bound to happen.

But I didn't think I'd find myself saying, "Not Loki!" in the first five minutes. Ack! I felt a little betrayed. (Heimdall, too!)

Now, I know comic books are famous for killing people off and bringing them back. I fully expect the MCU to be the same. I mean, Loki came back once already, though this time even Thor admits that he's not likely coming back this time. Which sucks. My hubbie made a good point, though. Loki's story arc is pretty much played out. Not that I want to fully accept that, along with his death, but part of me knows it's true.

Honestly, the beginning of Infinity War is what bugs me the most about the movie. Not because of Loki's death (I mean, I'm upset, but I get it), but because of how it felt like the movie that came directly before it, Thor: Ragnarok, felt kind of pointless. Ragnarok was a great movie, and at the end Thor saved as many Asgardians as he could. To only have Thanos wipe them out? And off screen? I know he only supposedly kills half of each race. Haven't the Asgardians lost enough already, though? It just felt like everything Thor did, in the end, didn't matter. Kind of a big blow when that was the previous movie. (Also off screen is the "decimation" of Xandar, the planet the Guardians saved in their first movie -- though this stings, it's not as much, since that movie is further in the past.)

Wait, you think I didn't like the movie? On the contrary, I loved it! My issues with the beginning aside, Avengers: Infinity War was excellent. With so many characters, it could have easily fallen apart, but I thought balancing them all was done wonderfully well. And Thanos. Wow, just wow. Now that's a well-rounded villain. You could totally see how he came to his conclusions and why he wanted to destroy half of the population of the universe. He thought he was doing the right thing -- it made complete sense to him, and he felt his actions would mean that he'd save life in the universe. The addition of seeing his deep love for Gamora rounded him out even more. This movie was Thanos's story, pure and simple. The Avengers? All the other characters? Just part of Thanos's tale, really secondary characters in this movie, which is probably why they felt so well-balanced.

But speaking of Gamora... Ack! She was one of those characters at the top of my list that I didn't want to die. I was so pissed when Thanos killed her. Again, I get why. Totally makes sense. That doesn't make me any less pissed. For her, though, I suspect she's not going to stay dead. I'll leave my theories until last, though.

The other kind of issue with Infinity War is the end. It's not really an end. It stops in the middle of the story arc. This is clearly a Part 1, and that might upset some people who expect a full story. The cliffhangers push the writer in me toward a brain aneurysm, just a little. You can betray a lot of readers if you end a novel on a cliffhanger. But again, for Infinity War, I get it. This is a huge story, and it needed two parts. Ending it with Thanos watching his sunset works and is fitting, if they needed to stop it in the middle. All is lost now, right? Many of the Avengers turned to ash. Hell, Rocket is the only Guardian left (unless you count Nebula)!

It's an emotional end. Now, I usually get pretty over-emotional about things, but I didn't at the end of Infinity War because I knew it was coming. I knew Thanos was going to snap his fingers, and we were going to lose many of our beloved characters. Not because I read spoilers, either (I didn't -- I don't, and made sure hubbie didn't this time). I expected it. Though my hubbie and I were pretty shocked that Cap and Stark were still standing at the end. There's always a chance they're fall in Part 2, though.

What else do I expect? For time to be turned back. Here come my suppositions for Part 2. All those characters who turned to ash will be back. They have to be. Can't have the next slated Spider-Man movie otherwise. And the next Guardian movie would be Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: The Lone Raccoon (Rodent/Rabbit - hehe). At the end of Infinity War, Thanos's glove is melted, ruined, but the infinity stones are still in one piece, including the Time stone. Doctor Strange did mention that giving up the stone was the only way they'd come out of this -- the only way they'd win. Now that Thanos can't control all of the stones with the gauntlet, the remaining Avengers will find a way to get the Time stone back and use it to turn back the clock.

However, this turning back of the clock will be limited to those who turned to ash, those who died from Thanos's finger snap. Which means Vision, Loki, Heimdall, and Gamora will still be dead (crap). The Time stone isn't the only way to bring back the dead, though. My other guess and expectation is that Guardians Vol. 3 will be Quill and gang seeking a way to bring back Gamora. And they'll find a way! (They damned well better because if one of my fav kick ass female characters is permanently taken away, I will be beyond pissed -- her story isn't over, damn it.)

Of course, all of that is just my speculation. We definitely know that many of the fallen can't stay dead because of other movies that are already planned.

So, who do you think is going to make it to the end of Part 2? And how impatient are you for next year?