"Women With Clean Houses Do Not Have Finished Books." ~Joy Held

The Great “Company Is Coming” Deep Clean...

I have to admit, I don't have the cleanest house. Between my dog, who is a cross between a Jack Russell terrier and something much taller than the corgi I was told he was, and my two cats, my house tends to have enough pet hair to produce whole animals by the end of the month. I also happen to live in a drafty old house, so dust just waits to land as soon as a cloth is swept over the furniture.

My house usually isn't too cluttered, but I'm usually way too busy to keep it really clean. Being single has its advantages, like the only mess being my mess, but my lack of regular cleaning does not bode well when it comes to visitors coming over. It’s usually a marathon cleaning, right when I’m worn down from either getting all the big item events done before the holidays, or, when my dad comes down in June, I’m usually just getting out of school (thankfully, I’m not at the school where I had to bring everything home or it would be stolen…out of my locked office…over the summer). Living a writing life, or even a reading life, does not give much time to think about dust or hair hanging off the ceiling fan!

This afternoon will not be an exception to this rule for me. I did start working on the guest room this summer, so it will be the most organized that it has ever been for The Visit. I’ve actually already washed the sheets, duvet cover, and curtains. I probably have about an hour or less worth of work for that room. The rest of the house…ugh. Thankfully, my mom always comes to the rescue for me on the cleaning. She knows I have higher expectations for how my house looks for other people than it does for myself. It’s a pride thing. Without her, my house would be a mess.

So, I have to say, without a doubt, that I am eternally grateful for my Mama. She cleans a house so that her ex-husband and his wife have a clean place to stay while they are in town. How selfless is that? I think the lady definitely deserves a day at the spa for her upcoming birthday!

Check Out This Weeks' Fort Worth Weekly Blotch Blog for Xs & Os!

It's been quite a week of writing for me. I’ve been working away on my novelization of The Bookmobile, though I'm pretty sure, even now, that I won’t finish the 1^st draft by the end of November. It will be done when it's done.

THE BIG NEWS is that I finished my guest columnist duties for Fort Worth Weekly’s blog Xs & Os! My theme was being a 40-year old, never married woman dealing with being exactly that- a single woman on her love journey. I was nice to the Exs, so they need not worry.

You can read it here.

Thank you for continuing to follow me! I'll be checking in at least once a week with my random ideas and progress on my novel!

NaNoWriMo for Grown-Ups?

Besides working on my entry for next weeks’ Fort Worth Weekly Xs & Os blog, I’ve been slowly adapting my screenplay, The Bookmobile, into a novel for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Now, that may be seen as cheating on NaNo, but I see the screenplay as an outline only. It’s mostly complete, but I think this story is better served as a novel.

I’ve tried several times to work with the local NaNoWriMo groups, but they’re either meeting too far away, or have more of a child-like spin on NaNo that I just don’t fit into (or tend to write more in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi genre, whereas I’m more in the Realistic realm). I host Write-Ins at the Boot Camp, but to become an official “host,” I have to win at NaNo (meaning, in the 30 days of November, I have to have written 50,000 words). I want to have a NaNo group for grown-ups, writing about grown up things. It’s not that I don’t see the other groups as writing for grown-ups, but…their style is just not my style. A quick Google search of groups who aren’t going the playful route brought up nothing.

Maybe NaNoWriMo as a concept is just not what I need to spur on my writing? It may just be a gimmick for those who need that one time a year to get going. I want to make writing a regular part of my life. Perhaps I just need to do my own thing by creating my own brand of writing challenge? I do have a workshop I teach at the beginning of every year, Write Fearlessly- Kick Off Your Writing Life in 2016 (check it out on the Boot Camp scheduling page), so maybe that’s how I’ll get the grown-up writing done. It’s something that will help people transition their lives into writing daily.

Now, if only I can get to writing on MY NOVEL daily…