Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 81

Friday Five

**Edited to add the picture I forgot. First my blog didn’t post as scheduled, then later realized I neglected upload the picture into my post. Facepalm, LOL! 

Happy Friday, the day before the Independence Day in the U.S.!

**NOTE** If you’re looking for an update on Wing Slayer Hunters, check out #2

Let’s move along to sharing five random things in our week:

So as most of you probably know, I sent my book, SAVAGED DEVOTION, to my editor. I’m trying not to think about it because it’s out of my hands for now. But what I will share is that I cut nearly 70 pages and about 18 thousands words from my first draft. I am happy about that, and I suspect there’s more places I can cut and tighten.
I am going to write more Wing Slayers Hunter books. This week, and probably next, I’ll be re-immersing myself in that world, and redoing my outlines and updating my bible that I desperately need to write these books. I want to write the next two books quickly, but one thing I know for sure, these books are hard to write. Very Hard. Well, all books are hard, but the world building in these books up that challenge significantly
My little herb experiment is a bit out of control. In the picture below, I now have red bell pepper, English thyme, curled parsley, sweet mint and basil! I repurposed the silver container and put succulents into it–that sits on my patio table, but I moved it here for the picture so it wouldn’t feel left out. Also, if the my red pepper grows, I will have to transplant and get it a support system for it. I even had to buy the table I have the plants on now until I can talk either Wizard or Youngest Son into building me the big plant holder table I want. Well, unless I kill them all, then we shall never speak of this little adventure again.
I’m listening to INSIDE THE FIVE-SIDED BOX by Ash Carter (former Secretary of Defense) on my youngest son’s recommendation. I hesitated on this one because youngest reads books that should be marketed as miracle cures for insomnia But he thought I’d enjoy learning about more about the pentagon and how things are run. He was right! I have a few other books lined up on my Kindle, but my physical reading is going to be focused on Wing Slayers for a couple weeks.
I think Turbo is coming over for July 4th, but I haven’t verified that when I’m writing this blog. We are having serious Covid-19 spikes in CA  (as it is in many other states) and huge increases in hospitalizations, causing restrictions to tighten up again. Wziard and I were being careful anyway, as are Turbo’s parents, so for now, we are going to keep seeing them.

That’s my Friday Five, and now I’d love to hear yours. I hope you all  stay safe and well, and those of you in the U.S. have a great Fourth of July!

Pick Your Smile

Which one makes you smile the most?

Baby Skunk

Baby Raccoon

Baby Albino Koala

Choose your smile for the day!

Weekend Roundup

The weekend was good. I made Youngest his cookies, then went and hung out with him late Saturday afternoon. When I made Youngest’s cookies, I made a few small ones that I took to Turbo on Sunday. Wziard had somewhere else to go, so I got lots of Turbo time

An aside here, when I went to see Youngest, I lost track of time, so I called Wizard when I left, hoping he’d thought to take the meat we were going to BBQ out of the fridge. But he was way ahead of me. He’d taken it out in plenty of time, and was putting it on the BBQ as I’d called. He also fed Maggie, emptied the dishwasher and set the table. All I had to do when I got home was cook up some rice and broccoli and dinner was done. I so appreciate being married to an adult. He figured I was enjoying myself, I’d be home soon since I was only 10 minutes away and he’d get things started.

I also finished my edit, and will do one more pass on the scenes that obsessive-compulsive revising disorder forced me to change when I was supposed to be just editing. Crossing my fingers I can finish that today and send it off.

The only downside is we’ve had higher than normal humidity for us, and that’s sapping my energy. I absolutely don’t feel sick, it’s just a combination of humidity and insomnia bugging my RA. It tends to vanish as fast as it appears as long as I stay on my meds, eat decent, exercise and watch my stress. Otherwise, it was a good weekend. How was yours?

Friday Five

TGIF! Okay, jumping right into sharing five random things about our week:

My book will be ready to send to my editor the beginning of next week. That’s the great news.
However, she’s booked up and dealing with a major life change, so it’s going to be a while, possibly even months, before she can get to it. I’m not going to stress about it, I’ll send it to her next week and she’ll do it when she can. I feel she’s very important to the trilogy since she edited the first two books.
Next week, I will pull out the Wing Slayers and see if it’s feasible to keep going with that series. I want to, but I also have to support myself I think I can do it, but I’m going to really make sure before I fully commit.
California is one of three states seriously spiking in Covid. It’s depressing as hell. We closed down early and hard, flattened the curve at a huge economic and emotional price. And then what do we do? We let a big dose of Stupid, along with her cousins, Foolishly Stubborn and Willfully Ignorant in to ruin it for everyone. Sigh.
But it’s Friday! Sunday, I’m going to see my grandson. And I think today I might make some cookies, either shark cookies for Turbo, or special chocolate chip cookies for Youngest. Not sure which boy will win the cookie prize yet

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope all of you have a fun and healthy weekend!

Maggie Tales

Hi guys, it’s me, Maggie! See here I am resting by my mom when she’s working.

Did you know? I have two super important jobs. One is making sure my mom doesn’t work too long. I’m pretty good at that. I make her get up to take me on walks, get me treats, let me out back and, of course, eat dinner at 4 p.m. sharp. See my mom is not supposed to slip into her pre-Maggie days of working too long at the computer and hurting her bones and stuff.

Good thing I’m here, right???

Want to know my other job? Mom gave my a pro-mo-tion! It used to be I just played chase with my lizard friends.

But…um…sometimes I accidently, totally not on purpose, kill them. I may have done that twice this week so far.

Oops.

Anyhow, Mom says I’m now the Director of the Lizard Depopulation Project.

I’m not sure what those words mean, but I suspect it’s that I’m super-duper fast and really good at catching lizards when we play chase. And I am!

Those are my important jobs, what are yours?

Weekend Roundup

It was a great weekend.

Friday, I finished my revision of Savaged Devotion. I will need to do one more straight edit, but I’m going to email my editor today too see if and/or when she has room on her schedule for her edit/revision notes. I’m sure she will suggest substantial revisions, but that’s all part of the process to make the book better.

Saturday, I cleaned and prepped for Father’s Day. I also outlined my production budget for Savaged Devotion, and I cooked ribs for Wizard for an early Father’s Day (I bought those before I knew kids were coming over.) Oh, and Youngest Son came by with a Father’s Day gift for Wizard and hung out for a while.

Sunday, Oldest and family, and Middle and wife came over. It was just a super nice day. First, when Turbo got here, he walked in all by himself (his parents were right behind him), went upstairs to get his favorite stuff animal, got some cars and started playing. He’s so comfortable here now, and it’s all that Wizard and I hoped for. And middle son and his wife hung out here with us too, and they stayed after the others left. We’d missed them so much in the beginning of the pandemic, and are now seeing them more again. Maggie loved all the company

Gratuitous Grandma Brag: Turbo went to the pediatrician for a well check and shots, and the doctor asked if he knew 20 words. His dad laughed and said he easily knows a 100 words in both English and Vietnamese (I can vouch that he probably knows a 100 words in English and can speak in complete sentences.) Turbo can switch effortlessly between languages depending upon who he’s talking too. Even his bilingual mom is surprised how easily Turbo can switch between languages. He’ll do this at his other grandparents, so he speaks Vietnamese to them, then when his dad walks into the room, switches to English to repeat what he said because he knows dad understand English better than Vietnamese. Turbo is about 2 years and 3 months old, and it all makes sense to him. It makes me wish I’d grown up bilingual!

We won’t discuss the lizard Maggie chased outside…and caught…which I only realized when it was too late. RIP lizard #243. Sigh.

Overall, it was just one of those very busy, fun, family-filled weekends that make us grateful for all that we do have in our lives. In these times, that’s more important that never.

I’m excited to tackle the next stage on my book, and start thinking about what I’m going to write next.  I will have to make hard choices based on reality, not wishful thinking or nostalgia. We have to know when to let things go and move onto the next chapter.

So that was my weekend, how was yours? I hope all the dads out there had a great Father’s Day!

Friday Five

Guess what time it is again? That’s right, it’s Friday Five! Here’s mine!

Busy, busy, busy! I’ve rewritten the climax scene at the end four times, but I think I’m close to happy with it at this point, so yay! I’ll see when I reread it this morning, and do a little clean up. I’m projecting finishing up this revision pass Monday or Tuesday, or possibly Wednesday as I have a couple threads I need to go back and tie up.
My basil and oregano seeds are growing great so far! My rosemary is just beginning to sprout. I’m silly with excitement that I’ve kept it alive for two or three weeks. I was going to take a picture but the day flew by before I got a chance.
Maggie’s not happy that I tried to get her to model her new collar. She’ll sit because I told her to, but you can see her complaining, She’s got a little drama queen in her sometimes, LOL!
I tried a one pan chicken fajita recipe last night and I love it, and Wizard happily ate it. He even ate some cooked onion and bell peppers, which surprised me.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! I think two out of three kids are coming here, and third kid has family going to his house, and included us, it just didn’t work out. It should be fun.

That’s my quick Friday Five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend, and a good Father’s Day!

Hunk or Dog?

Sorry for the late post, there was a publishing malfunction

True story, I had to deal with an off leash pit bull mix and a German shepherd mix in the field yesterday. I’m not going to lie, I was scared, or at least I was once I got Maggie and I safely out of there. I had no idea that those dogs actually had owners until I was nearly out of the field and saw the couple–I’m not kidding–hanging back on the other side of some brush so they didn’t have to deal with the owner who leashes and controls her dog.

So I’m over people today.

 

 

I’d pick the dog. How about you?

Weekend Roundup

What weekend? I thought yesterday was Saturday, and suddenly realized last night that it was Sunday and I hadn’t written a blog.  The weekend was pretty good.

Saturday, Wizard went to help Youngest fix a fence post, and I spent the morning making just-for-fun cookies for Turbo. I had a great time, blasting music in my kitchen and trying a new-to-me technique of flood icing with royal icing than my usual buttercream. My attempt is extremely amateurish, but I’ll get better as I learn to get the icing the right consistency, figure out a better design and use a few tricks (like icing the cookies on a rack to let spillovers drain).  But I enjoyed doing it, and Turbo loved them (2 year olds aren’t picky as long as it’s a cookie with icing, LOL)

The rest of the day I worked. I’m making decent progress on the revision. This part needs more work, and I just keep plugging along.

Sunday, we went to see Turbo. If you’re wondering, I don’t show Turbo the cookies until his parents say it’s okay. They let him pick one, then gave him half of that, and he was thrilled. Turbo’s dad went into work for a while, and we encouraged his mom to go do whatever she wanted to get a break while we played. Just before his mom got home, Grandpa said, “I’m going to check traffic,” and pulled out his phone. Turbo and I were playing on the floor, and when Turbo heard that, he got upset. “No! Grandpa, stop it!” Then he crawled up in my arms. I was amazing that he knew that meant we were leaving soon. For the entire three hours we’d been there, he hadn’t cried once.

Today it’s back to working on the book.

That was my weekend. How was yours?

Friday Five

TGIF! Time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

I have 300 hundred pages revised. Well for those pages, it was just a little cutting, redoing a lazy sex scene, and general cleanup. Fixing the sex scene took the most time, as those have to dig into emotions and trust, or have some value, otherwise, they’re pointless and boring. Especially in the third book of a trilogy. But, oh my gosh, I once again love Justice and Liza, and I’m adore Justice’s dad, Noah and Liza’s mom, Amber. All these characters are truly trying to become the best version of themselves.
Ideally, I’d like to cut 10 to 20K words in the next 200 pages, but that’s a tall order so we’ll see. This last part will probably take up to a week, or as long as I need, to do it right. Then while I’m working on the final clean edit, I’ll reach out to my editor who worked on the other two books to see if she has any room on her schedule. Once my editor gets a hold of it, I’m sure I’ll have a lot more revisions in my future.
I had a glass of wine last night and enjoyed it. Lately, we’ve stopped drinking wine most evenings. It just sort of happened. Part of it was being tired in the evenings from world events stress, I guess. Which is kind of funny since a chunk of the memes on FB are about drinking more during the pandemic. I’m such a rebel, LOL!
Maggie’s new collar and leash should come today. She’s very excited
We might see Turbo on Sunday. I’m so caught up in work right now, I’m barely noticing much else. Getting this book done to the best of my ability is vitally important to me. While it was circumstances beyond my control that stopped my writing, I still let down fans and I don’t take that lightly.

That’s my lame five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend, and stays healthy and safe.