Melani Blazer

My percentage keeps climbing.

Well, in a previous post I rambled on about life changing events. I can’t say I predicted this outcome, but it looks like things aren’t changing as drastically as I’d have liked. In a way, I’m glad because the option before me seemed very frightening and overwhelming. On the other hand, I’m ready to leave “This” situation behind.

The major news came Friday morning at the eye doctor. Seems I have an issue with my cornea and right now vision in my right eye is uncorrectable. Since I spend all day working on the computer, it means my eyes are about dead anyway, so I’ll probably cut back more and more on my online time at night. Bigger Poo. End result is meds for four months and then assessment and referral for cornea replacement and potentially an implantable contact. The whole thing sounds scary, but the end result is I’ll be able to see clearly again, YAY!

There is a plus–the muse has enjoyed writing by hand and I’m really making progress on my book. I hope I can get this one completed, edited and then address the companion/series books I have planned and then pitch the lot to agents. I’ve got so many other fun stories (to me anyway) out there, started, that are begging for my attention. I should be so lucky, eh? Anyway, I’m heading out to scribble my hearts content. I’ll be back with updates soon!

Happy writing and happy reading!

~Mel

If today were a scene from a book, I’d definitely be flipping to the back page to see the outcome.

But it’s not, and I’m reminded by the philosophy I’ve had since I can remember–and what really drove me through high school. Everything you do today will affect the rest of your life. Maybe in a good way, maybe in a bad way. Maybe in a big way.

Today I’m at a crossroads and hopefully by 5pm today, I’ll know which direction my life will take. Either way, I know it’ll have an impact on me. It’s always so frightening when you’re on THIS side looking forward. Yet tomorrow I know I’ll be doing one of two things. (I’m hating surprises right now…)

While I can’t go into more detail, I can say this doesn’t affect my writing directly. There might be some changes to my life that affect my online time or what I can dedicate to writing, but in the last few days I’ve come to see how much writing calms me and gives me a security blanket. It’s not going away, that’s for sure.

Plus, being in this position gives me the perspective I can use as a writer, to stretch my characters to their breaking point and give them live altering decision and events.

I’ll be back later to (hopefully) share good news.

ETA: Been and done. I’m exhausted and have nothing to report, other than I hate talking about myself. I’m going to predict things are more likely to stay the same than change, but at this point, it’s move forward waiting for the signal at the crossroads to change.

I’ve been outted.

It’s my birthday. So I’ll bring cake ice cream and chocolate covered strawberries.

Not telling you how old I am (or how old I feel).

Cheers! (Not responsible for weight gain associated with consumption of abovementioned goods!)

~Mel

I’m seeing a lot of my fellow bloggers signing up to do this 70 days of writing.

I thought about it, for about 10 seconds. While it sounds brilliant in principle, I couldn’t see myself able to meet the minimum pages to reach goal, then I’d feel uber guilty and well, like a loser. My excuses are simply that, excuses, things like a full time job, a husband who would like to share more than a hello/goodnight with me in the evenings and a house that seems to breed dustbunnies and dishes, keep me from having the time to sit and pound out 6-7 pages per night.

Sure, there are days I have, but there are days where the most I can get is one page, handwritten, but I do write EVERY DAY, and I think about my story, my characters, their motivations and missions at times when I can’t get to the keyboard.

I don’t think signing up for a dedicated page count challenge was good for me, but I do feel motivated to push myself toward a personal goal.

It’s imporant we set goals for ourselves and strive to achieve them, more so than trying to be like author A who pounds out a full length book every 2 months. Chances are, the rest of her life doesn’t mirror mine, so why should her writing?

To help motivate ME, I added my current WIP, “WF1″ to the sidebar so anyone who wants can watch that perentage creep up there. Hopefully it won’t stall and I find you all standing around my house with shotguns.

Now, hopefully putting that out there won’t be ME shooting my muse.

Happy Writing, and best of luck to those doing the challenge! I’m rooting for all of you to meet your goals~!

My husband and I often say that if we were rich and had access to a lot of land, we’d have ourselves a private animal haven.

I’ve decided the animals have learned of our goal, and haven’t bothered to wait until we have either extra money or space. We currently have four furry felines. We’ve been as high as seven. Currently there are no less than 4 squirrels who visit regularly and will take peanuts out of her hands. My husband has named them. Fred, George, Henry and Twiggy. The black squirrel, shadow, makes an occasional visit but is rather shy.

Today, after rolling out the hot rod and washing it, my daughter decided she was going to wash her father’s truck, which was pull oh-so-gracefully in the front yard. When she walked around, however, she spotted something lying in the sidewalk. Closer inspection yielded a tiny baby bunny.

I was able to walk right up to it. (Okay, I limped up to it, petted it, and then it bolted and ran smack into my bad leg…weird). Instead of running away, it ran toward my daughter who subsequently caught it and we put it in a box. We assessed it had no injuries. No momma bunny to be found. We live on a busy street corner very near a school. It’s not a good place for baby anything, much less something as defenseless as a bunny. There are young boys who haven’t quite learned it’s not nice to be cruel to animals. Leaving it would have been more wrong than capturing it.

We petted it, longed to make it a pet, but then drove it down about a mile out of town to a church that backs up to several wooded acres and let it go. Figured it was the right place to release, for lots of reasons.

I figure this sort of thing will have thing will have to come up in a book someday.

ETA: My husband just reminded me the most recent heroic moment was just last Friday night. We went to a car show held every Friday evening in a shopping center parking lot. It was crowded, with lots of people and probably nearly 100 old cars. Suddenly, I see a mouse dart out from under a car. It nearly ran into this guys shoe. I pointed to my husband and daughter, and by then, other people had seen it. As expected, there was a few screams, laughter and the typical 10 yr old boy wanting to catch it.
Boy chased it under a GTO. I got down on other side of GTO and plucked the baby mouse—it’s body was less than an inch long–off the concrete. My daughter and I trekked across the parking lots and behind a department store to release it into the wooded area back there.

I guess we are animal angels, eh?

What a week.

Good things that happened:
BS’d a little on the book I’m preparing for submission, figured out a tentative ending and completed a working synopsis
Went gambling on the riverboat and ….broke even.
Got a killer outfit on clearance. I love deals, but

Bad things that happened:
Realized I have no shoes to go with killer outfit and those will likely cost more than I spent on the clothes
Stepped off the curb (while looking up at pretty fireworks) and sprained my ankle. Got air cast from ER tho.
Yahell messenger won’t let me log in!!!

This weekend is the local Summer Fest parade, and Sunday is a “mud bog” (where men with big 4×4’s play in the mud) and my husband was asked to be the judge. Was looking forward to it. Now I get to walk thru sand with crutches and an aircast. Ick. Tho it’ll be a crazy time once I get there and seated.

Um….Been doing alot of writing. That’s what I’m supposed to do, I guess. oops .

So that’s my Friday rambling wrap up.

How was your week? Big plans this weekend?

First. please excuse the flyby. it’s 30 minutes after standard bedtime and I just finished a rough synopsis. My eyes are wobbly and I can’t stop yawning, but I defeated it, dammit. I won and I think the ending is…not crap, at least not mushy smelly inconsistant crap.

ew, sorry. bad picture, eh?

In other interesting news, my daughter got her permit and tonight was the first experience (well, not completely, but first on the road at speeds of over 15mph experience) of her behind the wheel. The overly bright but focus deprived child managed to speed, accelerate too slowly, stop too quickly and otherwise give her father in the back seat a coronary. I thought she did pretty good, considering my biggest fear was her staying on her own side of the road and not getting distracted by the golden arches as we drove by.

We made it home and my vehicle has no more scratches than when we left. Oh, but I didn’t check the back of the passenger seat. That might be where my husband’s fingernails are embedded. *makes not to put rubber in seat as well*

Have you been reading? I read Emma’s Living Legend. Complex, riveting and damn good. It’s a page turner. A book that makes you think, and yes, I definitely like those. Check it out if you can.

And what’s with Fourth of July arriving so quickly? We didn’t even go fireworks shopping. Kidlet and father might do that tomorrow during the day. It’ll be outrageous tomorrow night. Pray for me.

And with that, my pillow calls. G’night all!