Serenity Now

Today, y’all get the confluence of a few things that have been flowing in my life that aren’t necessarily about writing, certainly aren’t paranormal, but they do influence my writing.

First, what genius thought up perimenopause? Because this betwixt and between stage is like the hell-end of purgatory and I can see the fire and brimstone from here.

*Deep breaths. Serenity now.*

I sometimes wish I was more crunchy granola with the whole maiden/mother/crone, moving through life stages, welcoming a change in fertility, yadda yadda yadda. This is a freaking nightmare. I can’t think and the mood swings should come with a warning claxon that screams, “Step away from your mother! Maintain peace at all costs! Go to your room if you value your life!”

*More deep breaths. Serenity now, please.*

Second, ADD can be kind of fun. Things that were lost become new again when found. This is not actually so when the lost thing is a bill.

*Whoo. Getting light headed. And was I not asking for serenity loudly enough?*

The mood swings are killing my writing, too. I am currently on my fifth version of this @#$*& Steampunk story. It’s not enough, apparently, that even though I started it four years ago it now looks like I’m just jumping on the bandwagon. No. Now I realize that because I have no magical or paranormal elements to it, I’m actually writing science fiction – and I swore I’d never write science fiction because the worldbuilding and the details are an absolute killer. Welcome to my fictional nightmare.

*Screw the deep breathing. Where the hell is my serenity?*

So. Wildly fluctuating hormone levels, wonky brain chemistry, and worldbuilding that is sapping my will to live. I haven’t decided whether to go Virginia Woolf or Mad Max with this little crossroads of life. But you know what I do want?

SERENITY NOW!!!!!

Forgetful

I wonder if normal people do this, or if it’s a function of my ADD, or what. I can’t remember big things that happen.

I mean, I remember my kid’s birthdays and when I got married, but I was trying to think today of when I had my hysterectomy. I know I had it in September, the year we moved from England to South Carolina. But that’s it. I define time by where we lived, not WHEN we lived.

I forget how old I am. Sometimes I’m older, sometimes I’m younger. Well, I’m not often younger. *gg* I have to do the math to remember, which is okay because at least I was born in an easy year to add from — 1970. Unlike my dh, who was born in ‘62, which is harder to do sums from.

I think I need to write a master list of where I’ve lived and the years we were there. I mean, I know that we moved from Louisiana to Virginia on The Monkey Princess’s 1st birthday, so I can figure out when we did that. And that we celebrated Monkey Boy’s 1st birthday in temporary quarters at RAF Lakenheath, so I can do that math.

But man, I wish I could just remember stuff like regular people.

How do y’all do it?

A fairy tale for your Valentine's Day

A couple of years ago, I decided to try a new style of writing and came up with a tweaked version of one of my favorite Norse fairy tales.

I posted it on my author website and people seem to enjoy it, so I thought I'd give it to you here.

(The story has been deleted while I revise it for publication.)

New reading

Obviously, I did some serious glomming onto Lora Leigh. Some pretty uneven writing, imo. Some books were really wonderful, others were just a thin plot strung together with sex scenes. Not good.

I finally finished reading Seize the Fire by Laura Kinsale, who is one of my all time favorite historical romance authors. I think she writes amazing heroes. Her heroines are ok, but I read for the heroes. This one had pretty severe PTSD, depression, suicidal thoughts. He was awesome!! Yeah, I'm weird that way. *lol*

So now I'm reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. It's said to be the first English detective novel. I love Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and Dorothy L Sayers, so I'm looking forward to this.

The blast was contained

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and read and commented on my Friday post!

The weekend actually turned out pretty well.

Oliver did have surgery on Friday. He's always had a sensitive stomach and when he feels icky, he eats grass to try to make himself throw up. It turns out that he ate so much grass, though, that some of it wove itself together into a mass in his stomach that blocked everything from moving on. Over half a pound of grass. My dog thinks he's a cow. The vet said it's only the second time she's seen that in 26 years.

He's recovering very well. Has staples rather than stitches, but he can't get to them to lick or pull them out because they're so high on his belly. Yay!

The Pinewood Derby turned out great, too! DS won 2nd place in Best Concept Car! He didn't win any of the races, but he's been carrying that trophy with him since he won it. Seriously. He takes it downstairs to watch TV, he brings it to the dinner table, he takes it to his room with him to sleep.

Yesterday, we were huge layabouts. I read 5 books. It was awesome. I made my Moroccan Meatballs in Tomato Sauce with Poached Eggs for dinner. Tonight is a crockpot Italian Sausage Stew.

And for more great news, I lost 2 lbs! I don't like that I have to do Slimfast to do it, but it's working. Yay!