More books? Yes, please!

In my last post, I mentioned in passing about a book challenge for 2018.  This morning I found a few books I am so excited to get started reading, I'm starting off the year with one of the titles.

Happy (almost) New Year

Hello out there!  Here we are, the final days of 2017.  I can't believe it, can you?  In just a few days, we'll be ushering in a brand new year, and shoving an old one out the door.  I'm ready, to tell you the truth.  This year's been.... interesting overall, but there's just something about the clock striking midnight, signifying a new day, and a whole new slate to work with.

Oh, Mr Orwell. Did you have to be like that?

It's only the 20th, and already I'm ready for the new year to begin!  I'm happy to say, though, that my 'writing everyday' has pretty much (mostly) been going well.  Whether it's my paper journal or a review of a book I'm reading, it's not been every day, but I've done a lot more lately than I had for awhile.

How-to guide to adding people on Goodreads (a small crash-course).

Okay!  So, this was inspired by a few people in a comm I belong to on Facebook who aren't sure how to add people (or find people TO add) on Goodreads.

Bear with me, this is a pic-heavy post.

'Like' a boss? No. I AM the boss! ;)

Helloooooooo, lovely readers!

I'm pretty excited.  I decided to buckle down and get some organizing done on my office.  (this is a pic-heavy post!  Be warned!)

Before I sign out of writer-land for the night...

.... Okay, so it's almost 6a.  Shush.  Kinda hard to settle down right now with my Maine Coon stomping about the house complaining - loudly, at great length - about.... I don't even know what.  I don't think he knows what he's having a rant about.

Anyway, so before I shut down my mind for the night, I remembered (just now) that I wanted to share something big with you all.

Well, just before I opened this tab to write this, another little splendid thing came up, so I've got TWO things to share that are pretty exciting.

End of the year reflections. Or... something like that.

I can't believe it.  2017 is almost over.  How...  When...  It's crazy the things that happen when we're not paying attention, isn't it?

At any rate...  I'm not one who necessarily does the 'New Year's Resolutions' bit.  I mean...  I've attempted (and failed) many times in years past, but I dunno.  I think resolutions are a tiny bit overrated.  I have been thinking a lot about things, though, about how I want 2018 to be tackled.  I've been thinking about that a lot since probably about the end of September.

Seasons Greed-ings.

Good afternoon, everyone!

I promise I'm still around.  I had all my time and energy focused toward NaNoWriMo.  And now, here we are, the day after I nailed it with a final word count of 50,022 words.  That was spread out over several things, the bulk of it was my book, including edits, and a couple other projects.

Now, I am currently battling throat frogs and chest gremlins.  I have a cold.  It seemed to creep up last week and hit me full-force on Friday.  And now, I feel terrible.

It begins! Happy November, y'all!

Hello and Happy November (and all that jazz).

Today, Faithful Reader, I'd like to firstly apologize for the lapse in updates. Things here at TabEnd have been a bit hectic (to say the least), but now things are slowing down to a less-chaotic pace, even though NaNoWriMo started just 45 minutes ago. EEK! Not to worry, though, I've got myself (mostly) prepared this year. Notice I didn't say all the way. Ha.

Oh, math, why must you confound me so?

Okay, where are my math whizzes out there?  C'mon, I know you're reading this.  Show of hands... 

Last year, for NaNoWriMo, I found this little gem on some random website.  Someone had put together a really clever worksheet for word tracking.  Last night - well, to be honest, I've wanted to do this for some time for the other WriMo months - I finally sat myself down and decided today's the day, it's getting done, I'm putting together a worksheet for ALL the months of the year, not just the WriMo months.

I direct this to you, Avid Reader!

Hey there!  I've got a question for all of you avid readers out there, if I may?

Do you remember what age you were when you fell in love with books?  And yes, comics totally count, too.  Do you remember what genre it was you were first exposed to that you decided, 'Hey, this is neat!' and couldn't get enough?

RFS. Rebellious Follicle Syndrome. Yeah, it's a thing (totally lying, I made it up)

So, a few days ago, my neighbour French braided my hair.  It looked SUH-WEET.  I've not had hair long enough to do that in years.  When she did it, I'd not brushed my hair that morning, and y'all know how long my hair is, right, but it's also incredibly THICK.  Kinda like my skull.  ;) 

For reference on how long it's been since my hair's been French braided, I was in high school.  I'm now in my early 40s.  My hair has undergone all sorts of torture, hell I was even BALD for a spell when I was 20! 

Can't argue with THAT logic! And other random conversations with my favourite 6-year-old.

Remember in my last post, I'd mentioned something about having been out-logic'ed by a 6-year-old?

Okay, so I'm going to tell you this and then I'm going to go get my stuff done and go crash for a little while.

Escapism isn't necessarily bad, mmkay?

I would like to take a moment to talk about mental health.

Regardless if you suffer from mental illness (like yours truly), or if you don't, we ALL need to take a moment (or few) to have some down time.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with saying, "I'm not going to people today.  No, today I am going to cat (or whatever animal floats your boat, I just happen to choose cat because with my own experience with my cats, they tend to just laze about all day, staring off into space, napping, eating, more staring off into space....)."  My partner likes to unwind by playing video games or reading funny stuff aloud to me from a group he's a member on for Veterans and Active Duty Military.  I love the stuff he shares because of the fact that a) it's beyond funny, and b) having been around a number of military personnel in my life, I do understand most of the humour.  There's been a tiny handful of times I've needed him to clarify a comment or story, but that's it.  :)  He's also an avid reader like myself.

O Death, Thou Detestable Maw!

Next to the post I just shared with you all, this is about to be one of the realest, most rawest (yes, that's a word because I said so) posts you're going to see from me.

Always Remember September 2001.

Sixteen years ago today, life changed for my country in a vastly different direction that we didn't expect (or, maybe some of us did, but didn't expect it would happen in our own lifetime to see.....  Isn't that the way of things, though...).  I won't ever forget where I was or what I was doing that morning.  I won't go into it here because I just can't bring myself to talk about it.  I have discussed it in the past, but I've had a new and more personal grief hit me eight days ago with the sudden passing of a very close friend. (I will write a tribute to her in my next post)

Makeovers - internal, external, and occupationally. Say WHAT?!

Hello, my lovelies!

It's taken a couple weeks to get this slammed out on the keyboard, but here I am.  I attended a couple webinars put together by Shelby over at Little Coffee Fox

, and there's SO MUCH valuable information that was given, it was like drinking from a really tasty fire hose.  I thoroughly enjoyed both workshops, and now I'm here, at my keyboard, ready to rock.

Happy Sunday and almost-August!

So, here we are, another day, another weekend.

Can you believe the year's just a little over halfway gone?  Crazy, right?

Cat Shaming = Photo Opportunity? Yes, please.

I've secretly always envied artists that do 'series' of paintings.  Each painting in said series tells part of a whole story, and that whole series is what the overall goal of a story's message is supposed to be.  Like we writers, writing multiple books for a series (I'm looking at YOU, Stephen King, and your many books in the Dark Tower series...).  Tonight I confessed out loud (well, on social media, but same thing) I'd always secretly desired to do a photo series.  Tonight that happened to come to fruition.  I have decided to do this series in the only way I can think of: narration.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I've enjoyed putting it together  (that is to say once I came back from my neighbour's place because I was on the verge of tears from frustration at the initial onset of everything... And then watched a good episode of Paranormal Witness).

And on Wednesday, we are transparent!

Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, everyone!

How's summer going for y'all out there in the wide open world?

Just some thoughts for you. :)

If you were to come visit me, right now, this morning, you'd see a mishmash of collections.  Books stuffed in shelves, DVDs being alphabetically arranged, a cluttered desk (mine), a tidy desk (my husband's), and on the coffee table, where I'm currently parked, there's a pile of notebooks to my left, a steno notebook on my right that's being used as a mouse pad for a wireless mouse my husband let me have when my mousepad on my laptop stopped behaving when we put Linux on my machine almost two years ago.  I've got the telly on, watching some things I've recorded on the DVR, and I'm contemplating sitting and working on my afghan later, that's in my yarn bin, to the left of the telly in front of the hot water closet.

It begins....

Happy June, everyone!  It's that time of year already! JuNoWriMo began this morning at exactly 12.01a, and I hit the ground running with a whopping word count to start off at 427 words on my latest WIP. GO ME! 

Happy Mother's Day .....

Inspiration comes to me in the most unusual ways. Earlier today, I was out taking care of my rounds, and as I was walking past the mailboxes, I saw a woman sitting on the utility box talking on the phone. Something she said grabbed my attention: “Why is it such a struggle to be a Mom? I mean, I do all the things I'm supposed to do, and it still isn't enough! I don't get it!”

Welcome, May! And to those who celebrate, Happy Beltaine!

What a crazy ride April turned out to be, but I survived Camp NaNoWriMo.  Morty and Terrence are still going to share things with you, too, not to worry!  Terrence's buried in homework and Morty... Well... Morty's .. Morty.  Ha.

Frustration, thy name is procrastination!

I want to show you all something. It's something that I noticed (and brought me to a cold realisation) this afternoon while waiting for my ride to go to my eye doctor appointment (which went well, by the way, glasses will be ready in about two weeks!).

Ready?

Inspiration in random places? Yes, please!

Before I hand the floor completely over to Morty and Terrence, I want to share something nifty about writing inspiration, and how random the places a writer can draw from to obtain an idea.

Q&A With Morty!

Good afternoon, friendly reader! Today's interview is with Morty McKowsky. Morty* is 20 years old and from Jersey Shore, New Jersey. Morty is a rather unique individual. He showed up to our visit wearing Day-Glo orange pants, neon yellow shoes, and a rather loud Hawaiian shirt with pink and purple palm trees all over it. His hair was slicked back with Vaseline (he said it keeps it back the best, gel just wasn't doing it). I have to admit, I wasn't quite sure what to make of him. I'll let you decide.

My sit-down with Terrence!

Hello there, friends!

We're sitting down today to talk to Terrence✨, a 17 year old girl who is in her Senior year of High School at Silverleaf Academy✨.

Terrence is a nice young lady, and we appreciate her willingness to sit down and discuss all things writing, as she herself is a writer as well.

FitBit on a budget. Say what?!

Okay, antics with Morty and Terrence will begin later today.  I've got something I want to show you right now before I get off the computer for the night.

It begins..... And I'm JUST about ready this time.

Welcome to April, Appreciated Friend! Welcome to the insanity of writing 50,000 words this month. Yeah…. And then a break in May, and then back at it for JuNoWriMo in June, NO break in July because there's another Camp NaNoWriMo for July, and then off for the summer until NaNoWriMo in November, then off till April. Rinse, repeat.

I… am a glutton for punishment, I think! That's gonna be a LOT of typin'. Let's see…. 50K per month, four months…. That is 200k! IN FOUR MONTHS!

I accept this challenge.

Let's do this!

Probably a LOT more excited than I should be, but.... Ehh... I can't help it!

Recently, my neighbour gave us her huge crockpot, as she's moving soon.  I mean, this thing was big enough for my little 4qt, plus it still had room.  heheheh

It's a lovely (and HEAVY) kitchen gadget.

Now, anyone who really knows me, I tend to be a bit complacent when it comes to certain things.  I find something I like, and I stay with it until I get bored, or curious, to see what else is out there.  A lot of my random recipes have come from, "What if..." and I've learned some new and interesting things.  Like, for example:

Anyone else have this problem?

I'm a member of Writers Night Quills on Facebook.  It is, as the name of the group suggests:  a group for writers to get together and discuss all things writing.

Yesterday, I cleaned off my desk, and completely revamped my work area.  A friend of ours gave me a small shelf that I was initially going to put on my desk, but upon doing so, I realized I would have really NO room to work with, so I decided to do something else with it instead, which cleared up a lot of precious real estate on my desk to be able to do other things like bullet journaling, morning pages, and the like.

A call to action.

If I may, friend, I would very much like to ask a huge favour of you.

My friends and their little boy lost their clothes in a fire at the laundromat a few days ago, and they need a helping hand in replacing the garments that were destroyed.  The dryer had caught fire and now they're in a bind.

If you are unable to donate money, can you donate a few seconds and share the link below on your respective social media account(s)?  Help get the word out as quick as possible to lend this couple a hand?

Thank you so much!

PLEASE HELP!  (link will open in a separate window)

Let's do this!

I am giving up carbonated beverages.  Soda, energy drinks (yes, you're reading that right.  No, I promise, aliens have NOT taken over, this is not some sort of Outer Limits type thing, this is most assuredly me).

An epiphany. Sort of. (Maybe?)

Oh, wow.  I've got something that just hit me right between the eyes.

Glorious festival of interruption!

Well, then.  I've just realized it's been a little bit since I've pounded the keys and updated this page.  I am a slacker!