Amanda L. Davis's Blog

Testing

you can ignore this post. :) YouFollow my blog with Bloglovin

Been Awhile . . .

It's been awhile, huh?

I've been so busy I've barely been able to think.   Except yesterday, I took time to think yesterday, and I thought 'Hey, I have a blog, don't I?'

Then I came here to visit you all. :)

I've been making cockades, knitting, sewing other things, working on a fence, taking my grandfather places, and working on my book.

You know. Like my last post. Same old same old. ;)

 I'm very happy with my same old same old, don't get me wrong! I love it.  I just don't have much time to blog. :)

I've written 30,000 words on VE   and . . . deleted 26,000. Ouch.

I've made 40 or more cockades

Knitted about 10 1/2 scarves  and listed some of them for sale in my shop.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BunnyCraftsNFiber?section_id=13080904

Helped my sister and father put up about 280 feet of fencing, which included digging a 280 foot long trench to bury the fencing 6 inches deep.  (Wire stock fence 2x4 holes).

And Taking my grandfather various places for various tests that come with being 83 years old.


Today I am back to work on cockades - have to get 6 or 7 shipped out today along with a hat. I hope more orders come in soon, though, because, believe it or not, 6 or 7 cockades isn't that many. ;)

And I need to prepare for the upcoming Florida Christian Writer's Conference. It's happening next month (But we leave on the 24th of this month), and I'm teaching a class there!

Hope you all are in excellent health and will continue  reading despite my  absences. :)

Crafting and Writing

Any guesses as to what these are for?





I use them in my crafting.




Cockade templates!







I use the circles when I'm pinning the cockades so that they're all about the same size. They're often a little bit different, since I  personally pleat them all by hand then stitch the pleats by hand.

The circles are drawn in permanent marker onto an old bulletin cork board and the cockade pleats are pinned in place so I can position them perfectly. :) It works out pretty well.



I've been pretty swamped  with things to do - writing on VE, making cockades, making pillowcases, taking care of the chickens - that sort of thing. You know, every day usual run of the mill stuff. :)


I'm having to rewrite the first 15 or so chapters of VE - it should have been done a loong time ago, but that's how the world turns. Anyway. I'm working! Don't worry.

Nothing New

There's not much new going on around here. I'm working on rewriting the first half of Viral Execution. It's going all right, and I'm doing a bit better than last time I blogged. Not a lot, but a bit.  I think I should do a blog post about dyslexia some time. What do you think?


On a different note

Have you ever heard of writers' conferences?   They're weekend long (or longer ) retreats where aspiring writers go to learn more about writing from various teachers (often published writers and/or editors) and sometimes they learn about getting their books published, too.

One of the writers' conference I attended was The Florida Christian Writers' Conference. It's in Leesburg, Florida every year, and it's a great conference. Where both my dad and I met our editors who decided to publish our books.   The conference is coming up again this year at the end of February. I encourage you to check it out. It's one of the best Christian conferences out there, and relatively inexpensive, as conferences go.

I will be teaching one hour long class one day, and my father will be teaching  a class that continues over the weekend.  There are a bunch of other classes as well, but I don't know the names of them.  There's more info at the FCWC website.

http://www.floridacwc.net/

I encourage you to check it out and come if you can and if you're an aspiring writer. 

Fighting to Type

Some of you know, some of you don't, but either way -- I have some learning disabilities, the main one is dyslexia. You might have heard of it. It's becoming more commonly diagnosed, but there are levels of severity.  Some people have it but barely notice it, some people have it and have to have years of therapy to over come.

I'm in the latter group.  And we don't overcome. It's a daily fight.  Lately, it's been more difficult for me. I'm not sure why, but my words are turned around. I say the last word in a sentence before the first, or type the third word before the second. There's no rhyme, no reason. It just happens.

It means writing is going more slowly than usual, but I will keep fighting to type. And I will win.

More Writing

My father started reading Viral Execution (VE) a few days ago and determined that Chapter 1 just isn't . . . lively enough.

 It needs more actio.

So now that's what I'm working on - 'Actioning' up my Chapter 1   through a total rewrite.

At least I get to wear cool socks while I do it.

A Short Update

Sorry for the lack of updates here. IT's been pretty busy around here.

My mom finished reading Viral Execution and I implemented all the edits she gave me, and then my dad started reading it. He told me to rewrite chapter 1 to make it more exciting, and now I'm almost done with that.



Find out more about my daily doings at.

www.averageamanda.blogspot.com

Editing Away

Have you been wondering where I've been lately?


Probably not. But I'll tell you anyway.

I've been at home a lot, trying to find time to edit.   I've also been in the car a lot. My grandfather has had to start physical therapy for some things and has needed to go to the therapy place ( half an hour away) three times a week. It's been my job  to drive him, so that takes up quite a bit of my time.







But at least I get to wear cool socks while I drive. =) It's turned pretty cold around here, so I've been wearing socks a lot.

I'm doing a bit of editing right now. I'm up to page 178 in Viral Execution, and it's going all right. I'm a pretty slow editor. 

Other than driving and editing I've been sewing. Christmas presents, orders for other people's christmas presents. That sort of thing.

I make and sell these pillowcases www.bunnycraftsnfiber.etsy.com and so I've been doing a lot of that lately. You should consider buying one. They make good Christmas presents. ;) 

Enough with the shameless plugging and back to editing!

Contest Winners!

And the winners of the contest are . . . Jacob F. in 1st, Amy C. in 2nd, and Katie L. in 3rd.

Each winner will get to name a character in Viral Execution, and Jacob wins a copy of VE, and Amy receives Monica's necklace. Winners, please send me a message so we can discuss your character names.

Editing Update

I've been pretty quiet around here, because I've been rather busy. Per usual.  Not surprised, right?


Thanksgiving was great, we had just family over and had 18 people at the house, and not all my siblings were present! Sad, but they were too far away to make it over. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

Editing on Viral Execution  is going pretty well. Round 2 of edits is done, and now I'm working on round 3.  Round 3 consists of my mom's edits, and she can be pretty tough some times, but they're not as hard to take as my dad's edits. ;)   He can spot an error a mile away.


But it's good.  I don't want mistakes in my book!

I hope to finish all the edits by early December, but I'm in Georgia right now visiting friends, so editing isn't going very quickly right now.