Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 57

It Sprang a Leak

And adding to the joys of shelter at home, my coffee maker decided to start leaking from the water reservoir. The machine wasn't that old either. It replaced my beloved red Mr. Coffee when it started tripping my circuit breaker multiple times a week and freaking me out. The leaking machine had a side for the pot and a side that did K-Cups. The best of both worlds.

There were things I didn't like about the machine. It didn't beep when it was done. It didn't beep before it shut itself off. It didn't have a cleaning button or remind me when it needed to be cleaned. All things my beloved Mr. Coffee did.

Yes, this machine was not my favorite, but now wasn't a good time for it to spring a leak. I started the coffee maker and my 12 cup pot only had 8 cups in it. The other 4 cups of water were on my kitchen counter. :-( Not cool.

I started shopping online for a new coffee maker before I remembered I had a coffee maker that I could use. Let's call it the backup coffee maker, although that's not quite accurate. I pulled that out and got it setup for the next morning. It didn't take long before I remembered why I disliked it. This was definitely a basic model without any bells and whistles. I went back to shopping for a new coffe maker.

It came down to two choices that would work for me, but they both had those cone filters. I prefer the flat bottom filter instead. I hesitated. My parents had the cone filter coffee maker and using it when I visited was a pain. I looked again, but again, it came down to the same two choices.

I went with this one:


What sold me on it: 14 cups! I could set it so the coffee would be hotter than usual (a setting for people who put milk in their coffee which is me!). It had the option for a four hour auto off instead of only two hours. It had the clean cycle with an alert when it was time to clean. It had the option to beep or not beep. (I like the beep!) And of course, it's programmable.

I've brewed one pot so far. I liked that my coffee was hot! The hot setting is a definite winner. The cone filter wasn't too bad on day one. We'll see on that. So far, it's looking like a win.

Sewing Masks

I promised to blog about sewing masks when I recovered from the ordeal. I'm actually not sure I've recovered yet, but if I wait much longer, I'll forget too many horrific details.

As you might have guessed, I am not a sewer. In fact, the last time I touched a sewing machine was when I was a teenager. It was not a pretty picture and I happily gave up sewing when Home Ec class was over. But now we needed face masks and they are impossible to come by, and even if you can find them, the doctors, nurses, EMTs, and other front line people need them more urgently.

I saw masks for sale on Etsy and other locations, but for what they were charging for one mask, I could make dozens, and from what I read, these masks have to be washed after one wear, so it requires dozens. That left sewing. Me. Sewing. Gah!

I do have a sewing machine. My mom had three machines when I moved to Atlanta and she gave me her newest one. It was still in the box and she'd never used it. When she sewed, and she enjoyed sewing only about 1% more than me, she always used her original machine.

I had a pattern that looked achievable, I had fabric, and while my elastic hadn't arrived yet at that point, I decided we could use yarn or something in the meantime.

Cutting out the pieces taught me a few things. First, don't cut them out facing the same direction when you need to sew them face to face. Second, I could actually fold the material in half and cut both pieces at the same time instead of cutting them one by one. Three, my good scissors might be good for paper, but they were not good for fabric.



Because of mistake one, I ended up cutting out for two face masks immediately even though I meant to try my hand at one before cutting the second.

Next came sewing. I had the directions out because I was clueless. I also hoped the machine would work. My mom bought it in 1994 and never used it because she kept using her old machine when she sewed. This new one was still packed in the original box and completely untouched. She gave it to me as a gift when I moved to Atlanta just in case I needed it. (Thank you, Mom!)

The machine did fine. The person running the machine? Not so much. I'll save you my winding the bobbin issues and take you straight to face masks with seams that are...interesting.


That was following the marker on the sewing machine for 1/4". I have since decided to mark it with a pen and follow the drawn lines. I'm still not perfect, but that works better for me and my seams have improved from this zig-zagging nightmares.

The first face mask... Well, let's just say it's a good thing I labeled that the practice mask from the start because it's got issues, including being lopsided.






Mask two came out better. In the picture at the top of this blog post, it's the lower mask. The one with the better point at the top. I learned a lot just between one and two. I've since made three masks. I need to sit down and make more now that I have thread that didn't come out of my sewing kit and the elastic finally arrived.

But sewing peeps, how the hell do I regulate the pedal? I'm either going so slow it's ridiculous or the machine is racing and I can't keep up. I can't seem to get my foot to be more moderate when I press. Tips?

Also, how in the name of all that's holy am I supposed to sew 1/8" elastic together? I can't even pin it let alone sew it. Help!

Think it Out Again

I've been thinking. Overthinking actually about too many things. Sadly, I've always been an overthinker and the virus is making it worse. It's making my anxiety much, much worse, too, but that's another story.

Among the thousands of thoughts that have run through my brain is the virus and fiction writing. I know, but there are so many things I can't do anything about. At least in this area--my stories--I have some control. Not total control because my characters go on strike when they disagree with me, but some control.

Among the thoughts factoring into this topic is how will this change our society going forward? Will it leave a lasting scar the way the depression did on that generation? I have to think there will be ramifications for most people because it's impacted so much of life.

With that being something that seems true, how does this affect stories that I'm currently writing? How does it affect stories I'll write in the future?

This is uncharted territory for me. The only other event that comes close to the abrupt and immediate change in how we live our lives is 9/11. But this didn't impact my writing because I was writing Science Fiction Romance in 2001, and just as we don't really talk about Pearl Harbor in any immediate way today, likewise 9/11 was far enough in the past of my Jarved Nine world that it wasn't really something the characters even thought about.

Even after I moved to the paranormal romance genre, this really didn't impact my writing because these stories were dealing with immediate life and death threats--like god-demons trying to take over the world--so past events never were much of a focus.

But at the moment I'm writing contemporary romantic suspense.

The first book in the series is already released (Wicked Obsession) and the next book in the series is looped through the first book pretty extensively and I don't feel as if it would work to bring the virus into this second story. And really, the third and fourth books, too, because it would change the entire tone.

And the big thing for me: I want to escape from the real world and this virus. Writing these books is a way to do that, to forget that it exists while I'm immersed with Finn, Griff, and company. My inclination is to just leave it alone for my peace of mind and for the reader's escape.

On the other hand, will it pull a reader out of a story if it's contemporary and not dealing with what's impacting much of the world so directly? I'm still mulling this over. As I overthink.

One Square at a Time

Three of my cousins have had babies. The last two had their boys after I learned to knit/crochet and I made baby blankets for them. I felt bad that I hadn't made one for my older cousin who'd had her son before I learned fiber arts, so I was determined to make a throw for him.

The problem? It takes a long time to knit a blanket for an older child. Baby blankets are nice and tiny. Older kid blankets are bigger and get soooo tedious to knit.

I went to Plan B. It's called the Traveling Afghan and every two weeks, there is a new square released. I can do a 10 inch square every couple of weeks. Much more doable than doing the same pattern over and over for the length of a throw.

Two squares done so far and I'm working on the third. I hope this idea works and I can finish the blanket this year!

More squares below!

Throwback Thursday: Blood Feud World

I thought about talking about each story individually, but since they're all novellas with one short story, I decided to talk about the series as a whole. As of now, there are six titles:

Blood Feud (short story)
Demon Kissed
Shadow's Caress
Enemy Embrace
Phoenix Burning
Games of Desire

You can see the full series with purchase links on my website. Here's the Blood Feud Series page.

My agent had tried to encourage me to write vampire romance before everyone and their uncle was writing it, but I wanted to write demon romance instead. :-) Then I was approached by an editor at Mammoth Books and asked to contribute to The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2, which is a collection of short stories from lots of authors. Luckily, Isobel and Seere showed up.

Isobel was a vampire enforcer--the vampire's version of the police--and Seere was a demon prince. They have a past, which was a necessity with as few words as I was allowed, but the romance was cut short because there's a cold war between demons and vampires. There used to be a real war, but that ended centuries earlier. Now they simply avoid each other. But someone is killing vampires and it looks as if it's a demon. They're assigned to work together to find the murderer. If they don't, there will be real war between the societies again.

All the other titles in the series are novellas and this gave me more space to explore the world. You see, although I'd never planned on writing vampires, once I did write one, I became fascinated.

Vampires are "born" into clans depending on who brings them across and everyone ties back to a clan lord. There originally were seven, but one died in during the Demon Wars and his "children" are now untethered. Some have gone rogue.

The Demons have a feudal system with kings/princes/earls/etc and there are different types of demons with varying strengths and weaknesses. Demons can fall in love with anyone, but they can only mate with someone who is at least half demon. Mating is until death do us part.

Demon Kissed explores the demons, introduces the demon executioners, and we learn there's a human contingent. The demon slayers.

Shadow's Caress has a vampire hero and a human heroine who used to be a vampire hunter, another human group that knows the truth about the paranormal creatures out and about.

Enemy Embrace has a heroine who's a vampire hunter and she's hunting a rogue vampire. The hero is a demon executioner who is assigned to kill the same vampire by his king. This is as a favor to one of the clan lords. Now another group is mentioned, one that comes into play in another novella. The wizards.

Phoenix Burning brings in another group of vampires. They feed off of sexual energy once they come of age and Phoenix has reached her time. Her hero is a regular vampire. This story is where we get to meet the vampire clan lord who is headquartered in Los Angeles. He's worried about the rogue vampires.

The last story that's been released is Games of Desire. A wizard heroine and a demon hero. The wizards have a few factions of their own and all isn't hunky dory in their world either and they for damn sure don't trust vampires or demons.

I actually have three more stories set to go in this world that goes deeper into two of the factions of wizards, the rogue vampires and connected vampires, and the third story involves a demon princess. I just don't know when I'll get around to writing these stories. I'd like to, though. This world is full of magical and paranormal beings and the richness of possibilities intrigues me.

Soothing Anxiety

I have anxiety. I've always had it, although when I was a teenager, I couldn't name what it was. Over the last three plus years, it has become really bad. Bad enough that I literally could only get about two hours of sleep a night. Something had to change, and I didn't want to go on medication, so I decided to try crochet.

It helped. A lot. And after four months, I decided to learn to knit as well. I figured this way I could make any pattern I liked. Sadly, after knitting for a few months, I forgot how to crochet and didn't feel like relearning it, so I've stuck with knitting.

Knitting has also been a really good way to help my anxiety and I've needed it a lot lately. Worrying about this virus, about whether or not I was going to have a job, and a million other things has kept me up at night.

I've been knitting a lot lately. I need to.

I turn on something mindless on TV, but enough to distract me from real life, and I knit. I'm currently hooked on knitting 10 inch squares. They're quick, but can still be challenging depending on the pattern, and I don't have to commit weeks or months to them, which also keeps my brain occupied because instead of the same pattern repeated, I have something new to work on every couple of days.

I'd love to see life get back to normal. I'd love to focus on my writing without worrying about someone I love getting sick. Without worrying about losing my job at the airline. Without wondering what this world is going to look like at the end of this.

I'd love it, but from what I've seen, this isn't going to happen any time soon. And so I'm making lots and lots of squares. I'll share some on the blog soon.

Journaling

I'm not a journal writer. Usually. But I read an article online about how in the future, pandemic journals would be of interest to historians. That it would give them an idea what life was like in the middle of this mess.

Point taken!

So I went looking for a proper journal. With all my notebooks, I had to have something that would work. Yeah. I couldn't find anything I really wanted to use. I started looking online and realized that was major stupid. I finally had a brown hardcover journal book that would work, complete with pen loop. Okay, here we go.

The reason why I don't journal is that I usually have nothing to talk about and this time wasn't any different, but the article I read said even ordinary, every day stuff would be of interest. That's what I'm writing about. Ordinary, boring days.

I'm also journaling out my fears. I have a lot of anxiety around this.

I try to think of the ordinary things that someone from the future might want to know, although it's hard to guess what someone 100 years from now might care about.

Probably I'm doing this wrong. Probably I should just journal about what is interesting to me, but like I said, I'm not very good at this kind of thing and so it's easier to write to someone in the future than it is to write this for myself.

And Sew It Goes

After weeks of saying face masks were unnecessary, the CDC finally recommended that everyone wear one when out in public. Also, leave the medical masks for the health professionals who need them. Like anyone can even find one to buy anyway, right? The hoarders and profiteers have already grabbed them all.

That leaves making your own mask or buying one that someone else has made. I saw there were people selling them on Etsy...for like $25 a pop. I know that they don't cost that much to make and how long can it take to sew one up anyway?

You see where this is going, right? The "I can make that" syndrome. I fell smack dab into that even though I literally have not touched a sewing machine since I was in junior high school and that even sewing on a button recently proved to be more challenging than I remembered.

Sooooo I found a video on YouTube and went looking for supplies. Do I need to tell you that Michaels was sold out of the fabric recommended and that JoAnn only had one color left. It was orange. Cool. I ordered that and then went looking for 1/8 inch elastic. Yeah. Again, no dice at the craft stores, and while Amazon had it, they were all shipping from China. By the time it arrived at my doorstep, it might be too late. I went to eBay.

Found someone selling elastic in the US, and I no doubt paid a premium for it, but it shipped within a couple of days. And then I decided I couldn't count on JoAnn for fabric, so I went searching on eBay for that, too. Found it in the US as well. That shipped a couple of days after the elastic. Again, I'm sure I paid too much, but it was a wise decision as shortly later that afternoon, JoAnn sent me an email apologizing, but my item was not available after all. I knew that was going to happen!

Now I wait for my supplies to arrive and then I try to sew. It probably would have been cheaper in the long run--and less frustrating--to have simply ordered face masks from people on Etsy who know how to sew.

The Happy Playlist

Back in 2017, I blogged about making a happy music playlist. At the time, I'd barely started it, but I thought it sounded like a good idea. Now, it's more fleshed out and I'm glad I have it. We need happy at the moment, right?

One of the songs that I always find myself singing when things get tough is Lullaby by Shawn Mullins. It's because of the chorus. There's something I find reassuring about hearing it. There have been days I've had this song on repeat indefinitely.

Some of the songs are on the list because of the upbeat tempo. Knock on Wood by Amii Stewart,  Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant, Run, Run Away by Slade to name some of those.

A few of my more off-beat choices are Sunshine Day by the Brady Bunch kids, Walk the Dinosaur by Was (Not Was), and I Eat Cannibals by Toto Coelo. I love novelty songs.

I also enjoy songs with positive lyrics, like The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades by Timbuk 3. I know they said the song was about nuclear war, but I refuse to accept that. :-) To me, it will always be about an awesome future coming some day. I also include I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing by The New Seekers, Good to be Me by Uncle Kracker (with Kid Rock :-/), Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves, I'm Good by the Mowgli's, and of course Happy by Pharrell Williams.

Come over to my Facebook and share your happy songs there. The blog posts over there every time it goes up. I'm looking to add more to my playlist. I think we all are.

Wicked Obsession Finals!

I found out last week that Wicked Obsession is a finalist for Best Romantic Suspense in the Carolyn Readers' Choice Awards!

This is literally the best news I've had since the virus hit the United States. I'm thrilled to be able to share something happy and exciting for a change.

It's part of the Kindle Unlimited program and you can check it out here.

Here's the blurb from the book:

Blue-Blooded Woman As an ambassador's daughter, Langley Canfield has lived all over the world, but she's never fit in—not abroad and not at home. She thought she found a man who loved her for who she is, but when it becomes obvious that she's the only one with deep feelings, Langley breaks up with him and heads across the country for a friend's wedding. Blue-Collar Guy Special Forces Sergeant Ryder Pienkowski knew that he'd never be able to hold on to Langley Canfield, that she was completely out of his league, but it still stuns him when she ends things between them. He's trying to get her out of his head when her father arrives and tells Ryder there's a death threat directed at her. Without hesitation, Ryder hops on a plane and flies out to protect Langley. She might not want him anymore, but he's not letting anyone hurt her.
And if you read and liked the story, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!