Joyce Harmon's Blog, page 5

The book gets larger, the writer gets smaller – a 12-week challenge

Okay, something’s gotta change around here.

That book I’m working on? Covered in digital cobwebs. I’ve got no energy, no ambition, no ideas, no creative spark.

I’m also overweight, out of shape, and I’ve got bad knees and I walk like Lurch.

Last week I went to the Y for one of my increasingly rare workouts, and I saw a flyer for a “12 week weight loss challenge”. I strongly suspect that my no-energy, no-ideas problems are tied in to my overweight and out of shape problems. So I signed up. It sounds like a fairly standard type of diet program – meet once a week, have a class and a weigh-in, count your calories and grams of this and that, write them down in a little book, exercise, you all know the drill. If I can just stick with it, I think I’d be bound to come out the other end lighter, and that’s good.

But then there’s this book, which I’d always intended to finish this year. 12 weeks takes us to mid-December. So I’m making my own 12-week challenge. Lose weight and finish the book – at the same time!

And because I know myself, and know how easy it is for me to make grand resolutions and then quietly drop them a week later, I’m going to blog it. I’m counting on my blog audience, or at least the knowledge that I have a blog audience, to keep me going.

The Weight-Loss Challenge starts this Tuesday, so I’ll be counting pounds lost and words gained on a weekly basis starting on Tuesday.

So follow along with me on a 12 week adventure. Fair warning – there may be whining.

 

Fifty Shades Of White

What I’m doing when I should be working – I found the create your own jigsaw function at Jigsaw World, and made a jigsaw puzzle from a picture of my dog. Then I put it together. It was surprisingly difficult.

 

My second childhood is turning out to be a lot harder than my first

Some of you (Facebook friends, anyway, since it was pre-blog) might recall that I got a bike last year. Yes, I did. I got a bike and started riding it. I was thrilled that I could ride it, since my previous biking experience had been almost forty years ago. By ‘could’, I mean I am able to keep the bike going in a forward direction without falling over.

But it’s hard! I remember pedaling all over town, easy-breezy, light as thistledown – it was like flying. Now I can bike for a few minutes on the flattest surface I can find, and then I’m wiped out. Still, at least I can do it, and I suppose it will get easier with practice.

So last week, in another chapter of regaining childhood skills – I got a hula hoop. (Oh, I know, we’re supposed to call them just ‘hoops’ or ‘exercise hoops’ these days, but for those of us who were there at the dawn of the first craze, they’ll always be hula hoops to us.) And – at least so far – I can’t do it! I’ve been trying, and I’ll keep trying. I’m getting a video from Netflix, and I watch the little tutorials on You Tube. Butbutbut – I remember this as easy!

I suppose Operation Cartwheel ought to be shelved for the foreseeable future, don’t you think?

(Hey, wasn’t I supposed to be writing a book? wanders off muttering…)

 

You watching the Olympics?

I am. This is something new for me; I’d never much gotten into the Olympics before. But since the last summer games, I’ve learned how to swim. (Yes! All that stuff about old dogs and new tricks is a bunch of hogwash.) So I thought I’d watch some really good swimmers. Of course I’ve got sucked into all the other stuff – beach volleyball! Water polo! (All this while I’m trying to work up a head of steam on my new book.)

And here’s a Netflix queue recommendation for you. 1980s miniseries: The First Olympics 1896. It’s about putting together an American team for the first modern Olympics. I watched the miniseries when it aired back in the 80s and recalled it as quite good. (I think it got horrible ratings. This was back in the heyday of the miniseries, and The First Olympics was up against some other mini that got all the eyeballs.) With all the publicity about the current Olympics, I remembered it and found it on Netflix. It was as good as I remembered. Makes an interesting contrast to the current Olympics, so endearingly amateurish, the new team trying to figure out what a ‘discus’ is by studying old Greek pottery, stuff like that.

Anyway, give it a try. My recommendation to you. (Spoiler alert – there’s no beach volleyball.)

 

Bidding On Death, free Kindle giveaway

Here it is! Post in the comments to get a gift certificate for a free copy of Bidding On Death, Kindle edition.

Also – here’s another piece of Dog Art:

Regency pop quiz!

Here’s something to ponder. Fans of Regency romances will find it a snap, I predict.

The title of the Regency I’m writing is “A Feather To Fly With”. It’s based on a bit of Regency-era slang.

So the question is – when someone says that a person ‘doesn’t have a feather to fly with’, what do they mean?

Post answers in the comments.

 

Me, interviewed

I may not be famous enough to feel the need to punch a paparazzi, but I can now say that I’ve been interviewed.

Go on over to the Gladiator’s Pen, web-home of Elise VanCise, and see what I had to say

Joyce’s Interview

Died On The Vine, free Kindle giveaway

But you have to act fast! Be one of the first ten commenters to this post to request your free copy and provide me your e-mail address, and I’ll send you a gift certificate. This is for Died On The Vine for KINDLE.

Watch this blog for a giveaway of Bidding On Death for Kindle, later this week.

 

Bidding On Death now available on Barnes and Noble!

Just for you, Nookies, the upload to Barnes and Noble finally ‘took’, and Bidding On Death has gone up for sale:

Bidding On Death at Barnes & Noble

So, there’s that.

UPDATED:

ARRRGH!  Where’s the blurb?! They posted it without the blurb!

I need a drink…

 

Hey, you like me, right?

Sure you do!

So, know what? Why don’t you go Like my Amazon page?

Joyce’s Amazon Page

You can ‘like’ by clicking the little thumbs up button in the upper right.

C’mon – it’ll be fun.