Anti DST Sunday Summary and #ROW80 Progress Report

  1. It’s that dreaded day of the year–Daylight Savings Time.  :shudder:  The antiquated, non-sensical practice that boots us out of bed an hour early for the next eight months, screwing with our circadian rhythms, and making (for many of us) not one whit of difference to our daily schedule because we aren’t doing crap after work that we need daylight for and you’ve just robbed us of sleep and made it harder to get up in the morning.  My mother in law is probably dancing a jig about now.  She loves DST.  Mine and hubby’s deep and passionate loathing of it amuses her.  I have only JUST managed to start getting my butt out of bed on time since Christmas because it’s FINALLY DAYLIGHT (and ergo my brain accepts that, yes, it is time to get up), and now they’re going to go screw with it again.  It’s such an idiotic concept.  You aren’t saving daylight.  That’s totally robbing Peter to pay Paul or cutting off a few inches of blanket on one end and sewing it on the other.  It doesn’t save electricity at all (with all our vampiric appliances these days, I don’t think anything does that).  I say pick one and LEAVE IT YEAR ROUND.  None of this dicking around with my body clock.  If people want extra daylight, let THEM wake up an hour early and get it at the front end of the day.  I’m going back to bed.  Well, no, not really because I have to be able to go to bed early tonight in order to get up in the @#%#$^#$ dark tomorrow.
  2. As a progress report, I have next to nothing to show on the writing front since Wednesday.  I managed just over 1k yesterday, the first day I got to properly write since last weekend.  My time and attention was taken up with our canine visitor.  It turns out he had been wandering our neighborhood for seven weeks.  He wasn’t chipped, and one of my neighbors on the back side had already done the same kind of thing I had–notifying the shelters, all the local vets’ offices, and doing a social media blast.  So poor boy was probably dumped.  Thursday we had another snow day (really a sleet day) and it was so so cold.  So I gated off the kitchen and brought him in.  After several hours, he finally calmed down and laid on a bed.  Eventually we were able to migrate into the living room (because, holy cow, the kitchen chairs did a number on my back).  I had originally thought he wasn’t an inside dog and that’s why he flipped out so much about coming inside.  I think now it’s that he’s just been on his own for SO LONG.  He was a really good boy.  No accidents, no attempts to tear up or chew anything.  He was just so excited to have some kindness.  We’d though he would lay down on his bed in our room that night as long as we were both in there, but no.  So my poor husband was up with him most of the night, and I took him to the Humane Society here on Friday.  Since he’s a pure blooded lab, submissive, and good with kids, they think he’ll be adopted easily, which made me happy.  But yeah, that’s what I did with my week.
  3. I also did a lot of reading, blowing through the next two Kate Perry Laurel Heights books and starting Laini Taylor’s Night of Cake and Puppets.  The latter is a novella between books 2 and 3 of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, which covers the first date between Zuzanna and Mik.  I am pretty sure that Zuzanna is one of my top 5 all time favorite book characters EVER.  The narrator who does the audiobook is fantastic–she sounds EXACTLY how I imagine Zuz would sound.  Cannot recommend it enough.
  4. Hubs and I had an adventure yesterday.  See, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel came out this weekend and because our college town theater caters to college students (who have no taste for such things), it wasn’t here.  It wasn’t even in my hometown an hour away, which has 18 screens.  So we drove to Tuscaloosa to see it (which kinda reminded us both of our college days when we’d drive up from Oxford to Memphis for date night dinner and a movie).  The movie itself was amazing.  All star cast.  Judi Dench.  Maggie Smith.  Bill Nighy.  The only person we could think of who might’ve helped inch the bar up even higher would’ve been Helen Mirren.  (It is a long-standing personal dream to see Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Helen Mirren in a British Grumpy Old Women).  There were SIX romances in this movie, which just made this romantic heart go kerplop.  The caliber of acting is phenomenal (as it was in the first one), and the writing fantastic.  So many wonderful lines.  Just so, so good.
  5. After the movie, we hit up Southern Ale House, where we both decided to push the envelope with food.  Meaning we both got burgers.  He had a real bun and I had the first real cheese I’ve had in a year.  I’m pretty sure we both had religious experiences and came near tears.  We both manage our food allergies pretty well but actually getting the things we love and can’t normally have…it makes you appreciate them.  I didn’t break out into hives, which was great.  I’m not pushing my luck because I’ve learned that it’s an additive thing.  I can have tiny amounts of dairy without reacting, but eventually I hit that threshold and tip over into a lot of itchy unpleasantness.  Nice to know I can have the occasional slice of real cheese on my burger because as much as I appreciate Daiya, there is no substitute for the real deal.  On my list for…soon, is to try the gluten free brioche dough from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day to see how it works for buns.
  6. I’ve been fiddling with my product description for To Get Me To You trying to make it clearer that this series is very Southern.  This was what I wound up with:
    Just a city girl, living in a lonely world
    Displaced Steel Magnolia Norah Burke doesn’t know the meaning of failure.  But when she threatens to blow the whistle on some shady business practices at her Chicago marketing firm, she gets fired fast as all get out.  Licking her wounds, she heads back below the Mason-Dixon for a little home-grown Southern comfort.
    Just a small town boy
    With his iron-clad Mississippi roots, Councilman Cam Crawford is a man who values tradition, preservation, and the love of a good dog.  When a big box warehouse store tries to capitalize on his hometown’s economic downturn, it seriously burns his biscuit.  He’s not about to let anyone’s ambition destroy what he holds dear.
     
    A David vs. Goliath story with a side of grits.
    This unlikely pair just might be the perfect allies–in war and out.  But as the battle to stop GrandGoods heats up and sparks of attraction turn to something more, will Norah’s bigger-picture perspective go with Cam’s “keep it as it is” attitude?  Are they meant to be like biscuits and gravy?  Or are they just as wrong as un-sweet tea?

    I’m pretty sure I’m happy with it.  We’ll see if it tickles readers’ fancy.  In general, I have a whole host of things I need to tweak and update to amp up the Southern. Because, really, that’s a part of my brand and part of who I AM–something I had to dial down and revise out of my paranormal romance.  NOT having to do that is one of the things I love most about my current direction.

  7. Lots to do today since we were gone for most of yesterday and I was at the coffee house for the rest.  Menu planning.  Grocery.  Floors (we’re dealing with the aftermath of all that rain, meaning lots of muddy pawprints and just gross).  Princess Daisy needs her bath.  Callie needs furminating (because we hit 80+ degrees one day last week and that tripped her Need-To-Shed-In-Chunks setting).  Laundry.  And I’d really like to finish the scene I’m on so that I can start next week on the next one.

6 thoughts on “Anti DST Sunday Summary and #ROW80 Progress Report

  1. I’m completely in agreement about DST. I’m always messed up for about a week, and I hate it.

    It was very kind of you to take in that dog for awhile. I’m glad he’s okay. Hopefully they’ll find him a good home.

    I like your blurb for To Get Me To You. I would most definitely read it. 😀

  2. I like the blurb also. I don’t like DST. Is it just me, or does it seems like it happens earlier every year? Didn’t it used to be at the end of the month?

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