Oh What is Sleep? By Konnie Enos

I did a silly thing at bedtime last week. I bought a book.

In the Writer’s Chat room we recently had the Crossover Alliance, a couple of their authors, come speak to us, and one of them had a new book come out that day.

I was intrigued.

Since I didn’t win a copy, I decided to buy, and I started reading.

I purchased and opened it (on my kindle) about ten  and, it was nearly seven in the morning  before I finished it. I never put it down.

I was entranced by the characters and wanted to find out what happened to them, how it all ended.

It’s been a long time since I’ve very literally read a book cover to cover all in one night without getting any sleep or other breaks in the process, this book was that good.

Of course if you don’t much care for the dystopia genre you may not find it as appealing. But this is was even more so because it wove strong elements of religion into it.

It was a well-crafted and well told story.  

If you like dystopia stories and can handle the less then gentle subject matter, which she handled skillfully, this is a wonderful story to delve into.

December’s Child by DA Williams. I’m told it’s her first published book. We should all encourage her to write more.

And since I’m recommending books, I might as well put in a good word for one I read some time ago and hope the author writes more. This one was a fantasy and I found it quite absorbing, though I’ll have to admit I didn’t get the opportunity to read it all in one sitting. I did read it as quickly as I could.

It was also an engaging story with captivating characters. I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened to them.

Fatal Heir was written by L.C. Ireland. It’s her first published book and I’m looking forward to reading more of her work.

I’m sure I’ll hear from her. I happen to know one of her aunts really well. Or more accurately the wife of one of her uncles, as in my sister, Bonnie.
Now I have plenty of things to do today since I spent so many hours hidden in a book.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

My Bad Luck by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Okay, it is now November 23^rd, Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and normally by this time, I’m real close to the 50k mark. I usually make it sometime on Thanksgiving day — not happening this year.

My present word count for the month is 23,126, which is where I stopped like on the 11^th when I realized I had a mild concussion from the air bag hitting me in the face.

Yeah, yet another injury, and the concussion wasn’t all. Turns out, I also strained a tendon in my left knee during the accident. Meaning, I’m back to having to stay off one limb as much as possible. And I thought it was bad when my carpal tunnel started acting up at the first of the month!

I never saw this coming. And I mean that quite literally. One second the road was clear, and I had the green, the next I had a face full of air bag. When the air bag deflated, there was still no body in front of me. I wasn’t even sure the other driver had even stopped until the police pointed out her car to me. And now I have no car.

Anyway, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks unable to get on my reader or computer, or watch TV or even read at the same time that I’ve had to stay off my left knee as much as possible. Now I know what torture is like.

And here’s hoping the headaches are over!

Happy writing everyone! J

Finding the Bright Side by Konnie Enos

On my wall by our front door we have a large calendar. One of those erasable reusable things that we can write a month’s worth of dates on and fill in with our families appointments.

My youngest daughter has an artistic side so she has taken to decorating it as she sets it up each month. This month her sister helped her, so rather than draw relevant pictures for the season, they wrote words.

I walked in one day to find the calendar covered with words around all the usual stuff about appointments. Words like wir danken schon, gracias, and merci. I’m not sure where they found all the words, but they are in several different languages.

It gave me a moment to pause, think.

Do we really focus on what we are thankful for in this season?

My sister has been going through some really tough times the last several months including her car getting totaled.

But with everything that is happening there are still things to be thankful for.

I even have things to be thankful for even when I can’t get everything done that I need to because my husband only sees what he needs to do and can’t seem to realize that my to do list is twice as long as his is.

This morning for example.

He was too tired to get up and take our boys to school even though he was asleep a good three or four hours before I could even stop running kids around, let alone get some dinner and crawl in bed. And I woke him up a good half hour after I got up. Yet he was too tired so I had to drive.

It didn’t matter that he’d had more sleep or that I had a full to do list that depended on me using the time it would take to take the boys to school to do other things, like get this post up on time, rather than late.

I can, however, be grateful that I can run on only five hours of sleep. Otherwise I’d never get it all done.

I can be grateful I have a working car and a roof over my head.

I can be grateful I have daughters who at least understand how hectic my life is because clearly the men in my life seem to think I have nothing to do most of the time.

I suppose I’ll never get my husband to understand.

I came home and started typing, I was late already and my husband said something to me about getting a much needed bath, since the tub was available. After all I was yelling at him this morning about needing one.

So I yelled at him again for not listening.

Yeah, I need a bath. I also need to get my post up, among other things. My list is a whole lot longer than that, which is why I didn’t want to drive the boys to school. I didn’t have the time.

And now I’m running even later.

My post is late and I still need breakfast and that bath. Along with the rest of that list I didn’t get to because my husband was too tired after sleeping for twice as many hours as I got last night.

But hey, at least I’m still breathing.

 Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Ode To November by BonnieLe Hamilton

November is the busiest month of the year for me, as I stated in my last post, November is National Novel Writer’s month http://nanowrimo.org, it would also be the month of my anniversary, if Tom were still alive, and it is the month of Konnie’s anniversary (and no, not the same the day or even the same year). And, of course, there’s also Thanksgiving, and Christmas shopping. As I said, it is a busy month for me. Plus let’s not forget the National Election and just incidental things like trips to the pharmacy and grocery stores and just plain household chores.

It’s a wonder I’m able finish the Nano every year.

Okay, maybe not a wonder, because, I only have one person I chauffeur around on a regular basis (my sister-in-law, who doesn’t drive) and Konnie still has a Mom Taxi. And where I need to take my sister-in-law to appointments at most three times a week (and some weeks not at all), Konnie has to chauffeur kids around several times a day.

Frankly, it’s a wonder she managed to finish the rough on her colossal sci-fi with how much time she spends running kids around and just plain running errands. It also explains why she spent so much time while she was visiting me working on editing that sci-fi; she actually was able to work for hours straight without interruption. Too bad my place is so quiet; she resorted to putting videos in just for the noise!

Yeah, our lives are totally different. I really doubt the lives of any two writers are the same. We all have different living situations, and our families have different needs.

But anyway, for all those writers out there participating in Nano, I’d like to tell you my personal motto, “Slow and Steady wins the race.” 

And for all those who are not participating because a deadline or family obligations won’t let you, keep on writing. Each word you put on the page is one word closer to, “The End.” Or I could remind you of the old quote attributed to Nora Roberts about how you can’t fix a blank page, and tell you, if you have one word on it, it isn’t blank anymore. J

Happy writing everyone!

Balancing Act by Konnie Enos

Okay, the middle of the night I roll over and the bed is empty. I find my husband on his computer, totally stressing out. It’s well after midnight on the first and his money hasn’t appeared in his account and we have less than an eighth of a tank of gas in the car, and it’s a school day.

After groggily telling him at least three times that the money would be there when I checked, IN THE MORNING, and listening to him moan about the amount of money that was in the account, I finally told him everything over a certain amount was gas money and hadn’t been spent yet and since it was more than enough for to fill our tank he had nothing to worry about.

He left, at two in the morning, to fill the gas tank. I went back to sleep.

And, following my usual routine, I got up at my normal school day hour, motivated our sons then started checking my emails and eventually verified his deposit, at a much more reasonable hour. It was, of course there.

I understand there is always a yin and yang to things but that one event just illustrated how different my husband and I are.

He doesn’t handle the finances in our household. There are many reasons for this but mainly because he’s never been able to figure out how to get all the bills and necessities covered, let alone keeping track of everything. I can do both.

Even half awake at two o’clock in the morning, I knew just from the amount he was telling me that was in the account that only one item was outstanding and how much it was for. Even though I was too asleep to fully comprehend what he was saying, I was still cognizant enough to let him know he had more than enough to get the gas he was so worried about.

On the other hand my husband was stressing out because his monthly deposit of a few thousand dollars wasn’t in his account so he was looking at a balance of only a few hundred dollars and we needed less than thirty to fill our gas tank.

That’s not saying I don’t stress.

For me it’s missing things. Sometimes I’m perfectly fine with it. I’ll look, do my best to find it, then figure it will eventually either show up or it’s gone forever. Other times, it’s pure panic. I absolutely have to have my keys, my brush. If my glasses go missing, well I can’t find those on my own and I absolutely need those.

Yeah, kids come tear apart mom’s side of the room, she’s in panic mode because she can’t find this one item.

I’ve been known to go into full out panic, screaming, fussing, crying even fighting, because something I need isn’t where I think it should be and I can’t find it.

Now my husband on the other hand has never flown off the handle because he can’t find something, even something he needs.

So that yin and yang thing. In a lot of ways we balance each other out.

Even in rearing our kids we do that.

He’s this completely overprotective dad and I’m far more reasonable, after all our youngest is pushing sixteen now. He tends to lecture and I tend to listen.

Life is always a balancing act.

But then I guess I’ve always known that.

Being a twin is being yin and yang too. My sister and I balance each other out.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.