Victoria Zigler's Blog: Zigler News, page 68

#MondayMotivation, #Inspiration, And #Wisdom - #Quotes For May 6th 2019

Nobody knows your entire life story but you. They may have heard pieces of it, but no one will ever know you like the way you know yourself.
~Nick Susi

The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others.
~Erik Erikson

Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you.
~Cynthia Kersey

Just because we don’t understand doesn’t mean that the explanation doesn’t exist.
~Madeleine L’Engle

If you restore balance in your own self, you will be contributing immensely to the healing of the world.
~Deepak Chopra

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

A goal without a plan is just a wish
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

#FurkidFriday: Lilie The #Westie's Yappy #Easter

Hi everyone. This is Lilie the Westie.

As my degu brother, Joshua, told you last week, the Easter Bunny came to visit a couple of weeks ago, and left treats.

He left me a toy too. I guess he must have known how much I love getting new toys.

I got a dog friendly Easter egg - which looks just like the ones the squeaky things in cages got, but has slightly different ingredients - as well as a cuddly toy bee with a squeaker in it...


No. The egg is not made from chocolate. Mummy says it's important I reassure you of that fact. I know it looks just like the chocolate eggs Mummy and Daddy had. But it's made from other things. Things dogs are allowed to eat. Mummy never lets me have chocolate. She says it's not safe for me to have it, and never ever shares it with me when she has any. Personally, I think she should avoid it too if it's that dangerous. But try telling her that.

Anyway, I also got this rabbit doggy treat...


Mummy says it's thanks to Nana I got the rabbit. Well, pack of rabbits, since there were three in the pack. I'm not sure how that works, since it was when the Easter Bunny had been that they showed up. But that's what she said.

No matter where the stuff came from, it was great!

Well, to be honest, I wasn't entirely enthusiastic about the egg... I loved the bee toy best, and was much more enthusiastic about eating the rabbits than the egg... But I did like the egg, and loved that the Easter Bunny brought me stuff.

Anyway, hope you got something nice, and you had a yappy Easter too!

Lots of licks,
Lilie

#AmReading + #AmWatching - May 2nd 2019 #Reviews

It's time to take a look at what I've been reading and watching during this past week.

If you want to know more about the book, or the author, click on whichever it is you want to learn more about, and it will take you to the appropriate page on Goodreads. Clicking on my rating should take you to my actual Goodreads review for the book in question. Please bear in mind that the format I've reviewed on Goodreads may not be the format I actually read.

Alternatively, if it's a movie or TV show you want to know more about, just click on the title to go to a page where you can find out more details about the movie or TV show in question; the title links will usually take you to a page on IMDB.

Don't forget: I read and watch things across multiple genres, as well as for different age ranges, so you should always check before reading or viewing, to make certain something is suitable for the intended audience, especially when children are involved.

OK...

Here's what I read this week:

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a heartbreaking story, which is well-written. Following the three different stories was a bit confusing at first, because of getting all the people figured out as regards who they were to each person. But once I got used to that, I was able to focus on the story better, and it all came together nicely in the end.

As for what I've been watching:

I watched four DVDs over the past week. First I watched the last two disks of NCIS season 8, and then I watched the first two disks of NCIS season 9. I did consider taking a break between seasons to watch one of the movies in my to-watch DVD pile, but season 8 ended in such a way that I was rather glad I had season 9 ready to start so soon after finishing it, so I ended up not taking the movie break after all.

I also watched the next two episodes of "Critical Roll" (so, episodes 12 and 13). Though I'm not sure if you'd really count that as a show I'm trying to catch up on watching, since it's not a TV show in the usual sense of the word. I mentioned it in previous review posts though, so figured I'd do so again.

Oh, and I caught a few minutes of "Ant Man And The Wasp" when it was on TV the other day. Nowhere near enough to say I watched it, but enough to tell me I want to, since I think it looks pretty good. I seem to remember enjoying "Ant Man" though, so I might have tried to see it anyhow. Still, it's nice to know at least part of the movie will be good. *wink*

#WriterWednesday: #Quotes About #Reading And #Writing

Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading.
~Eudora Welty

The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write.
~Ernest Gaines

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good.
~William Faulkner

As for ‘Write what you know,’ I was regularly told this as a beginner. I think it’s a very good rule and have always obeyed it. I write about imaginary countries, alien societies on other planets, dragons, wizards, the Napa Valley in 22002. I know these things. I know them better than anybody else possibly could, so it’s my duty to testify about them.
~Ursula K. Le Guin

It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style.
~P.D. James

If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.
~Wally Lamb

Write what should not be forgotten.
~Isabel Allende

Enthusiastic Greetings, Medical Mutterings, Long Walks, And Skylights

It was almost worth going to the dentist, just for the greeting I got from Lilie when I came home.

I think she was relieved I had only gone somewhere for a short time, and hadn't ended up in hospital for days again or something. At least, if the fact she ended up in my arms without me having to do anything other than catch her is anything to go by.

That's one of the things I love about dogs: they're always so happy to see you.

So...

The good news is, despite me being even more over-due for a check-up from the dentist than I thought I was, the only teeth that were issues were the two I knew were problems: the one I'd lost the filling on, and the one they'd broken during surgery. Even the dentist was pleased, since she said she'd expected worse when she saw how long ago it was I'd last been seen. Though she did also lecture me a little on not leaving it so long between appointments (which she stopped doing when I told her about the hospital stuff) and tell me she expects to see me again in six months, in that, "and you better show up," kind of tone.

The bad news is, though they can replace the filling on the one tooth, the one that broke from surgery has to go, because it's too badly broken to be saved. Oh, and I have to go to the hospital to have it done, because I don't take to the numbing shots very well, so they want to actually sedate me for it.

Our dentist did try doing the filling with just the numbing shots. I had to go back on Friday for her to do that, since they hadn't allowed enough time to try during Wednesday's appointment. But after my 20 minute appointment turned in to a 40 minute one, during which time I'd had a couple of their strongest shots, and was still feeling pain when the dentist tried working on it, she decided to just give my teeth a good cleaning - the kind of clean only a dentist can achieve - and then pack in some of that temporary filling stuff to stop the teeth bothering me, and decided she should have them do the proper filling when they have me sedated for the other tooth to be pulled.

Kelly says it's because she was worried I'd bite her. Jeez... You bite one dentist, one time...

I know Kelly was teasing. Although, I wouldn't blame her for being worried about being bitten or slapped, since I have gotten close to doing both a few times when it's turned out I'm not as numbed as we thought I was. Really it's that she could tell I was in pain though. At least, I'm pretty sure that's the real reason. Though, as I said, I wouldn't blame her if Kelly's right. Either way, I'm waiting for an appointment to go see the dentist at the hospital, so I can be sedated enough that they can sort those two teeth. In theory, that should come some time in the next week or two. At least, the dentist said, "Two or three weeks," when I was there last week, and I'm hoping she's right. I'm pretty sure the appointment came in pretty quickly when I had to go to the hospital to get my wisdom teeth pulled before, so I'm hopeful.

Anyway, my friend, Lorna, took me to my appointment last Wednesday. She would have taken me to the one on Friday too, but had to be somewhere else that day. It doesn't matter. It was nice of her to help on Wednesday.

Having Lorna take me meant a bit of a long walk through town, since Lorna parked in Morrisons' car park, which is almost at the opposite end of the main high street to where my dentist is, but the best option for parking in town. I don't really mind though, and managed the walk easily, despite it being a distance I'd have struggled with a few months ago. I was even able to pop in to Morrisons with her when we walked back up there after my appointment, so she could pick something up that she wanted, without feeling drained or dizzy. Lorna says I stayed pink-ish and healthy-looking the whole time too, which is good... Before the surgery, a walk like that would have drained any potential colour from me, and had me feeling weak and dizzy, even on my good days. To be doing so much better, even so soon after surgery, is just awesome! I mean, it's only this week we hit the 12 weeks mark (this coming Thursday it will be 12 weeks since my surgery).

In other news:

A cold front moved in, and the weather's not been as warm and sunny as it was. Still Spring-like, but more the cold and drizzly days you'd associate with early Spring, if you know what I mean. I hear there's a lot of that going around, since I've seen several other bloggers saying something similar. Some of them even suddenly got more snow, which I'm jealous of, and they aren't too happy about. Kelly says I wouldn't be so jealous of all their snow if I'd had that much myself. He's probably right.

Anyway, it got kind of stormy last Wednesday. It wasn't a nasty storm. Just a bit of rain, and enough wind you noticed it even with the windows closed. I wonder if that's why the pigeon decided to come hang out in our attic? Either way, he seems to have found his way back out again - I really hope he has, since I'd hate to think he got stuck up there; we can't hear or see him any more, so we're pretty sure he got back out OK - and gave us an excuse to offer a reminder to the landlords that the skylight still isn't fixed, despite the guys having been around doing work now for more than a month.

The landlords say they'll remind the guys to come do it, but nobody's come to do it yet. I really wish they'd actually get to all the jobs that need doing, not do one, promise to come back to do another, and fail to show up.

#MondayMotivation, #Inspiration, And #Wisdom - #Quotes For April 29th 2019

In the dark, alone, sound becomes important. The friendly hoot of an owl. The soft breathing of cows from the other side of the hedge. Even the wind has its special night voice, moving things around like a scene shifter on a darkened stage.
~C.R. Milne

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
~Henry Ford

Try to be like the turtle - at ease in your own shell.
~Bill Copeland

I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.
~Jimmy Dean

Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.
~Roald Dahl

The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace.
~Colton

Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see it.
~Confucius

#FurkidFriday: A Very Hoppy #Degu And #Chinchilla #Easter

Hi everyone. This is Joshua the degu.

The Easter Bunny came to visit on the weekend.

I tell you, that rabbit is as sneaky as Santa Paws. We never see him. But he leaves us good nibbles, which is nice of him.

This year he actually found some special pet friendly dandelion eggs, which he left three of: one each for me and my chinchilla sister, Mollie, and a third for us to share. The Mummy human says it's because of the human we call Nana that he left that extra one for us to share. I'm not sure how that works, but there you go. That's what she says.

The Mummy human says it's very important that I reassure everyone reading this that the eggs are most definitely not made of chocolate, nor do they include any chocolate in the ingredients, despite what they look like. She says it's important you know this, because she doesn't want you thinking she gave us chocolate, when chocolate is poisonous to most animals.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos of me checking my egg out:


And here's one of Mollie, who was a bit more cautious about approaching and trying out her own egg:


Easter is almost as fun as Christmas!

Hope you had a hoppy Easter too!

Squeak soon,
Joshua

#AmReading + #AmWatching - April 25th 2019 #Reviews

It's time to take a look at what I've been reading and watching during this past week.

If you want to know more about the book, or the author, click on whichever it is you want to learn more about, and it will take you to the appropriate page on Goodreads. Clicking on my rating should take you to my actual Goodreads review for the book in question. Please bear in mind that the format I've reviewed on Goodreads may not be the format I actually read.

Alternatively, if it's a movie or TV show you want to know more about, just click on the title to go to a page where you can find out more details about the movie or TV show in question; the title links will usually take you to a page on IMDB.

Don't forget: I read and watch things across multiple genres, as well as for different age ranges, so you should always check before reading or viewing, to make certain something is suitable for the intended audience, especially when children are involved.

OK...

Here's what I read this week:

Cold Days by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazing and action-packed! This is a fantastic read in it's own right, and an awesome addition to the series. While you don't "need" to have read the previous books in the series first, since you could still easily follow what's going on without doing so, I highly recommend that you do read those first.

Skin Game by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was another amazing read, and fantastic addition to the series. The plot is as action-packed as previous books, as well as being peppered with emotional scenes. And that ending was just lovely.

As for what I've been watching:

I didn't watch any movies or TV shows during the past week. I was going to try and finish NCIS season 8, and maybe watch one of the movies in my to-watch pile too. But I ended up not watching any at all. I did watch an episode of "Critical Roll" though, which is a roleplaying game I watch happening on YouTube (there's more to it than that, but that's the simplified version, for those who don't remember me mentioning it before). I'm incredibly behind on it. They're somewhere around episode 60 of campaigne 2, and I just finished watching episode 11 of campaigne 2. Oh well... So it goes.

#WriterWednesday - April 24th 2019 + 2 #Free #EBooks

There was an Easter party on Sally's blog over the weekend. She had asked her guests to come wearing hats. So I sent over a photo of Kero wearing one. You can see it in the first party post, which went up on Saturday. You should check out the party posts - the second post too - even if you don't want to see the photo, since loads of great authors and bloggers are mentioned, both in those posts and in the comments sections. So hop on over and take a look.

Anyway, in case you don't know, April is NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). I was going to take advantage of it and do a poem a day during April. I'd have had enough poems to publish the poetry collection I'm slowly working on if I had. Only I ended up not doing so. Now April is almost over, and I actually haven't written a single poem this month. There's still time for me to potentially write a couple of poems, and perhaps I will. But I definitely won't be finishing April with 30 new poems to show for it. Never mind.

I have done some more work on my adventure story over the past couple of weeks though. Not as much as I'd planned to do this month, since I'd actually hoped to finish the first draft of it before the month was out. There's still time, I suppose, since April isn't over for another week. No matter if I manage it or not though, there's some progress, and any progress is great progress, so it's all good. Plus, it's because I've chosen to do other things instead, so I can't really complain when it's my fault for not making writing enough of a priority, and using my time for other things instead. I would still like to try and finish the first draft before April is out though, and start making my writing more of a priority now that I'm doing better healthwise. Well, more of a priority than some things anyhow, since there are things that will never take priority over my writing. Spending time with my furkids, for example.

On a similar note, here's a post that discusses why you haven't been able to make more time for writing - and how to fix that. Just bear in mind that successful writers don't spend all their time behind a screen, which is why not making your writing the top priority is sometimes a good thing.

Anyway, if you're faced with a blank page, and struggling to start, just remember it all begins with a word, and see where that one word takes you. Also, the 'sitting down and doing it' part of writing might be tough sometimes, but do it anyway.

So, do you need to name a place in your story? If you do, check out this post on the stumbling art of naming places for some ideas on how to go about it.

Also, here are some crazy creatures you might want to think about as possible additions to your fantasy stories. They'd especially be fantastic additions to a historical fantasy, since they're real or imagined creatures from medieval times. Or, perhaps, they might help inspire creatures completely from your imagination. Made up imaginary creatures are great additions to stories too. After all, that's where some of the legends come from. Not all, since some are based on real creatures. But some.

On the other hand, here are some mundane elements you should probably cut from your story. At least, if you're not using them intentionally as plot devices, which you might be in the case of some of the things on the list.

Next, here's how not to get ahead of yourself when you're writing.

Last, but certainly not least: April 22nd was the anniversary of when I published my first book. I first published one of my books - "Mr. Pumpkin-Head And Other Poems" - on April 22nd 2012. Seven years ago. Also, May 3rd is my bloggerversary; I started my blog on May 3rd 2006, so I'm about to celebrate my 13th bloggerversary. So, to celebrate both events, the eBook versions of two of my most recently published books - "Puppy Poems And Rodent Rhymes" and "Where's Noodles?" - are both completely free via Smashwords with coupon code BJ97F, until May 10th 2019. This offer is exclusive to Smashwords. Oh, and... Yes. It is the same coupon code for both books. So, grab your copy of "Puppy Poems And Rodent Rhymes" here, and grab your copy of "Where's Noodles?" here!

Walks, #Crafting, #Easter, And Weather

Last Wednesday, I went for my first real outing since having surgery. Kelly and Lilie have been going out regularly, of course. But the only time I've gone further than our doorstep since February has been when I went to the hospital a couple of weeks ago. We figured it was about time to change that. I think Lilie was as glad to have me come along as I was to be out. It was nice weather for it too: sunny and dry, but not too warm.

We don't want to push me too hard too fast, so I've only been out twice in the past week. The second time was Easter Sunday evening, when we spent some time down on the seafront, which is when the photos at the top of this post were taken.

By the way, April's Makerly box arrived on Wednesday morning. This month's craft kit is for Moroccan basket weaving. Just thought I'd mention that, for the benifit of anyone who might like to know. I've done paper weaving before, but not basket weaving. I imagine there are similarities to the process. I'll find out when I come to do the kit, I suppose. Oh, and... No. I haven't finished any more craft projects this week, in case you were wondering about that. I've made a bit of progress on the second owl sewing kit I'm working on, but that's about it. Ollie the owl is now maybe half stitched... If that. I'd planned to work on him more, but didn't. Got distracted with other things, mainly games of fetch with Lilie.

I didn't do any baking this week. After all, as I'm sure you know - unless you've been living under a rock, or in one of the few areas on the planet where it's actually possible to disconnect completely from things, and have lost track of time and dates - this past weekend was Easter weekend, and I figured we didn't need to be eating cakes as well as chocolate. Of course we had chocolate. We don't do anything for Easter, except buy each other Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies. Although, I'm not sure if that actually counts, since we'd buy those regardless, or something else sweet if Easter eggs didn't exist. No offense to those it means more to, but to us it's just an excuse to eat chocolate. So, there were chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies involved in the weekend. I had a white chocolate lamb too. Here are my bunny and lamb. Yes, it's me holding them...


All three of the furkids got stuff for Easter too, of course. Well, we couldn't have them feeling all left out, could we? But I'll let them tell you about that themselves over the next couple of Fridays.

Anyway, the day I went for my first walk in months wasn't the only nice day we've had weatherwise lately. The weather's been mostly lovely. There have been some foggy or hazy mornings and evenings, and there's still a bit of a nip in the air some nights after the sun goes down. Proper Spring weather. They predicted a heatwave over the weekend, and weren't far wrong. It didn't get quite as high as predicted in our area. I know it did in some parts of the UK though, since there was something in the news about complaints of 24 degrees C and above weather melting Easter eggs. But it did get pretty close to what they'd predicted here. On Good Friday, for example, it was 21 degrees C here. It stayed around that temperature all weekend. During the day anyhow. At night it was more like 10 degrees C. Not a heatwave by some standards, but quite warm compared to the temperatures we'd been having, and for the time of year. I think the ocean breeze helped stop it getting quite as hot here. It was hot enough from my point of view though, since I'm more of a cooler temperatures kind of person. It's OK though. My Easter chocolate is in the fridge, so it won't be melting any time soon. *wink*