Manicate Monday

manicate ~ having a woolly growth that can be peeled off

Dare I believe that Spring is truly here? The weekend was beautiful, weather-wise. So beautiful in fact that I had the deck door open both days. In fact, this is Sunday night after midnight as I write this, and the deck door is still open.

My feathered friends have been spending a lot of time in my back yard lately. When they're not swimming in the water on the pool cover they're perched on the edge of the pool or napping under the birch tree that grows beside the pool. They've even napped on the deck a time or two.

Sunday afternoon there was a great disturbance in the Force when a third duck intruded on the happy couple. He was chasing her around the deck, biting the top of her head, with her mate squawking and flapping along her other side. I went out on the deck and scared them into the water where the intruder gave up and flew away. Then I went back inside and got a crust of bread to feed my friends. (Shh! Don't tell my hubby! He doesn't like it when I feed the ducks LOL).

Deleting those three posts that were getting spammed so badly was a stroke of genius. Now I'm only getting two or three notifications of spam in my inbox a day, rather than the ten or twelve I was getting.

I actually made it to my poetry group meeting last Tuesday. I think this was the second time this year. I've been having a dry spell with poetry this year and I was really hoping that it would recharge my poetical batteries. But while I enjoyed the poems my fellow CPW members read, I didn't come away with any more inspiration than I started with.

Wednesday's writer's group was a tad more interesting . . . We had a lively discussion (the three of us who were there) on what makes a scene, and from the research we did as individuals we came to the conclusion that it's anyone's guess - our sources seemed to conflict with each other.

I made absolutely no progress on organizing my electronic files, but I did finish my first round edits on Magical Misfire. I checked over my dialogue, made some changes, changed the name of my minstrel, read it over from the beginning and changed the name of the minstrel again. By this time I was starting to really dislike the story, so I knew I was done. LOL

Feeling nostalgic last week, I looked up my old blog. Not my first blog - I can't remember its name or address - but the one before this one. Back before I took my writing seriously and basically posted whatever popped into my head whenever I felt like it.

Aside from providing some great entertainment, it gave me an idea for my Friday feature - Random Ramblings. Starting this Friday I am going to post whatever pops into my head. It might be an opinion, it might be a fact, it might be a pet peeve, it might even be fiction - hence the Random in the name.


Blog Stuff For the Week:

Tuesday: My last entry for National Poetry Month. I'd like to say I'll post something new, but I've been having a dry spell as far as poetry goes this year, so we'll have to see.
Wednesday: A new Hump Day Hunk for your viewing pleasure.
Thursday: Chapter 64 of Water - Let's see if Ravi can get his element under control before he and Taja end up drenched. ;-)
Friday: Today is the first day of my new feature, Random Ramblings.

Other Stuff For the Week

Today I have been invited to help teach a group of ladies to crochet snowflakes. Doesn't that sound like a fun way to spend an afternoon?

Get those darned story files organized and then compare them to my paper files. I know I have more complete stories kicking around - I just don't have them in an electronic version.

Go through my flash fiction to see if there's enough for an anthology or do I need to write more of them.

Ditto for my poetry. I've pretty much given up the idea of an all dark poetry anthology - some of those poems are way too personal to share - but a mixture of light and dark poems may be feasible. I also need to pull out my parodies - I've been toying with the idea of an all parody anthology and I want to see just where I stand with that. I actually have been attempting to write a parody of The Raven but between the funky syllable count and rhyme scheme it's slow going.