SUMMER CHECK-IN/ CHALLENGE

How's everyone doing?

I'm about sixty pages from the end, soon entering the phase affectionately called, "Oh, no, there's not enough time to wrap this up properly," which as you all know comes directly after the phase, "There's not enough substance here to fill all these pages," and is followed by that all time favorite, "I have to cut something!"

Shout out to Eli who tonight will attend the RWA awards ceremony where she is up for two RITAs and Kendra who is up for the GH in romantic suspense. Best of luck, you guys! You're already winners to us!

SUMMER CHECK-IN/ CHALLENGE

Current Project: series Status:page 185

Hey everyone. The wedding was charming -- back to work on Tuesday. The page count reflects only fifteen pages this week but it is a lot more meaningful than that to me as I've finally reached the end of a section that was very hard to write. Some of it will undoubtedly be cut in the end, but for now, it's there on paper, so to say, and that's a good feeling. Did I write everyday? No. I took off three days for the wedding, but that's okay.

In the last book I wrote I warned myself to start the ending way earlier than usual so I wouldn't feel so rushed. It worked well for me and it's my plan to do that again with this book. Today will see the start of the next to last big push and as the characters have been apart for some time and have a lot to say to each other, I'm looking forward to some rousing dialogue.

How did you do? Did you write every day? Like me, did you completely abandon it only to return reinvigorated? I really wanted to take yesterday off so I got up early and got my pages in before noon -- that meant the afternoon was free and without guilt. If I don't figure out ways to do that, then I spend all the time I'm away feeling antsy and bad that I'm not home working or at least sitting there ready to work should lightening strike. Creating an afternoon escape as a carrot worked beautifully.

Goal today five or six pages, maybe more. Goal tomorrow, ditto. Repeat for the week. I hope you remember to check in and tell us how you're doing.

SUMMER CHECK-IN/ CHALLENGE

Current Project:WYOMING RANCH BOOKS
Status: BOOK ONE, pg. 142

A week ago, I set into motion the beginning of our summer blog hiatus. I was burned out when it came to presenting monthly ideas that didn't sound recirculated. It turned out almost all the contributors felt the same way so for the past week, our blog has, to paraphrase Debbie's comment, had tumbleweeds blowing down the deserted streets.

But a funny thing happened: I was writing every single day without any buddies to share the joy (and the pain). LONELY. Hey, if I have to write and meet deadlines, I don't see why you shouldn't either, so here is my challenge -- WRITE EVERY DAY THIS SUMMER. If you've written five days in a row, than spend a few minutes on the two down days to catch up on writing related projects.

Many of us have external deadlines. The right to have these comes when we've pushed ourselves into that professional space. If you are still on your way to that point, the habits and attitudes you acquire now will be fundamental in helping you with your career.

WRITE EVERY DAY. Write on your book, write on your ideas, write a sentence, write a chapter. Act like a writer and you will be a writer. It takes guts and determination to push for something you want when sometimes the carrot seems to be a mile in front of you. Every journey begins with a step. I dare you to keep taking those steps. If you're under an external deadline, than challenge yourself to try something different as you write. A technique. A style. Switch something up that pushes you and keeps you engaged. Even the act of reformatting my chapters into smaller units has changed the way this current book is unfolding and that's interesting to me and makes the challenge all the more fulfilling.

WRITE EVERY DAY THIS SUMMER. I think if you do you may find that the process is far more stimulating to your creativity than not writing ever can be.

Besides, I need company!

Check back here every weekend and we'll keep each other motivated, keep each other up to date, keep each other honest. We can each do it. Rah-rah-rah!!!

SHARING

Current Project:Wyoming BooksStatus: Chapter Five

As I reviewed the past few blogs, both mine and those of other people, a few things occurred to me. We are all at such different places in our careers and in our lives. There isn't a single one of us doing exactly the same thing with exactly the same goals and ambitions. That makes creating universally appealing blogs especially difficult.

But there are a few things we all share and that is the process itself although there are obviously dozens of differences in those, too. Through trial and error, we each develop the tricks of the trade that help us be creative. I accidentally rediscovered one last Tuesday and I thought I would remind you of it, too. My hope is that you have similar advice you can share, things that you have found work for you, that help you get to your goals, that put you in the mind to write, that inspire or reassure you.

The background: It's Tuesday. The dh is gone which means I have all sorts of time to really get back into the this book. However, Plants vs Zombies is proving a great big hairy distraction. I am tthhiisss close to getting the Tree of Wisdom to 1000 feet where I can then type in "Pinata." It's the last goal I have with this game that has been my steadfast companion for the past several months. It's been a whole lot more comforting and entertaining than waiting, waiting, waiting, that's for sure.

The instigating factor: Around 3:30, things finally begin to gel with the book and I am off, writing like a speed demon, inching close to Writer Nirvana, and then the dog barks and I look at the clock. It's ten to five and I have to be in the park at five o'clock for puppy/owner obedience training. I have to quit writing RIGHT NOW. But I am so close to the end of the chapter!!! Agonizing, I accept the inevitable and leave.

The pay off: Guess who knows exactly where to start again the next morning? Guess who can't wait to get to work? Guess why? Well, you know why.

The conclusion: I USED to know to leave a scene unfinished at the end of the day, specially as I was getting back into a project and my work ethic (cough, cough) smelled like a string of dead fish left out in the blazing sun. I had forgotten it. Now I know it again.

Your Turn: Share some trick or method with me that I may have forgotten to use or one that just tickles you or amuses you or maybe even something you find yourself doing and have no idea why but it works. Pat your tummy three times and turn a cartwheel? Line up pencils? Make coffee? Beat solitaire?

And by the way, last night I grew my tree the last hundred feet and typed "Pinata"!! I am thrilled to say my zombies now spurt wrapped candies when their heads fall off.

Life is good.

Questions

The note came yesterday, and since reading it, I've thought of little else.

What note? Isn't it amazing how powerful a question is? For instance:

1. Why did she hide the letter?
2. Is someone in the house with me?
3. Who else knew she always put cream in her coffee?
4. Did she sense someone behind her at the train stop?
5. Why did the police car circle the hill twice?
6. Do you know where my baby is?
7. Where did all this money come from?
8. Did he tell his secret before he died?
9. What do these numbers mean?
10. What's in the box?

Questions, or rather discovering the answers to questions, are what keep us engaged in a conversation, in a movie, in a book. Often the question isn't in that form. Narrative reveals a bullet riddled body missing hands and feet has washed ashore along the river. We extrapolate the question from the report. Why would a murderer cut off someone's hands and feet? Or we read that someone's long lost lover who disappeared ten years before and is presumed the victim of foul play, turns up alive and well and living in Cancun. Why did he do that to her?

Questions are an invaluable tool for a writer. We ask them when we start thinking "What if ----?" As we plot, we refine them: What kind of person --- would live in this remote place --- would kidnap their teacher --- would resort to blackmail --- would fall for such a blatant lie? And as the plot unfolds, we ask a million others. The answers only seem to beget a new slew of questions.

We can also use questions to pry ourselves out of a temporary knot. Story dead in the water? Start asking those characters of yours some very pointed questions and do it like you mean it, soldier!
You -- "Okay, Missy, why did what he just said make you so angry?"
Missy- "He hurt my feelings."
You -- "You weren't hurt, you were mad."
Missy -- "No--"
You -- "Don't try that act on me. I made you, I can take you down. Tell the truth!"
Missy -- "Because he lied to me! Again. He always lies and I always believe him. There, are you happy?"
You (smirking) -- "You're still holding back, but at least you aren't sniveling anymore."

Questions, of course, are the manifestation of this thing most of us battle on a daily basis -- curiosity. Curiosity is both why we write and why we read. The need to know and understand and be thrilled and excited and "live" a situation or a dialogue are a direct reflection of basic curiosity.

Do you ask yourself and your characters questions? And out of the questions above, which one would you like answered (please provide an answer as elaborate or as simple as you wish.)

As for the note that came yesterday? What did it say? Simple --
Alice -- don't forget to blog tomorrow @ the MWV-RWA Blog!

SCIENCE VS ART

Current Project: Montana Open Sky series
Status: It's moving along the editorial trail, hope to hear one way or another soon

FOR SALE

Or lease or rent ....
What? you ask.
Saturday Check-in.

I've been doing it for quite awhile now. Can't even remember how I got it. Perhaps I appropriated it from Paty when she left town a time or two, I'm not sure. Ownership is at best hazy so any deal should be under the table, wink, wink.

It's been fun, but participation has been steadily dwindling until the people who I believe used to count on it the most no longer show up. I think what that means is it's time for a shot in the arm, a new face and voice, a new enthusiasm. Or perhaps Saturday Check-In will become another vacant house on the street with a slightly worn looking for sale sign pounded into the front lawn. And if that's what people want, that's okay. The "property" will still be there no matter if it's occupied or not and when enthusiasm for a weekly place to be held accountable and check in on how people are doing is once again needed, why you can throw on a fresh coat of paint and open the draperies and go back into business!

Now if this thought leaves you sad, let's make a deal. You take it over. Bring your insight and I promise I will stop by often and admire what you've done with the place. I personally always thought a few walls should be knocked down. Open it up, let in some light. But I could never tell which walls needed to go and lacking the foresight to envision the remodel, did little to modernize. I hope one of you has some grand ideas and are even now scrambling to find your checkbook to see if you have enough to make the purchase (cash would be appreciated, no credit cards, please.) Or maybe you could go in on it with a few other people and form a consortium!

Now you're probably wondering about a price. Since I stole it from Paty, I suppose the only fair thing would be to look the other way while someone "stole" it from me. How's that for a bargain?

Since I am moving out of Saturday as of this Saturday, I'm also having a garage sale. On the table to your left is INDECISION. There's lots of it, two or three baskets as I recall. Bargain basement pricing. Okay, it's used, yes, I agree, but there's still plenty of life left in it. There's always life left in indecision because it's so good at stealing what it wants. One low price takes the whole lot.

Oh, I see what you're looking at. That big black cloudy thing there is FEAR leftover from, well, fear is never leftover, there's always plenty of it to go around. It's got a bad rap. Think how well it multi-tasks. It can be a moat, isolating you from pain and rejection (and joy and success, but there's always two sides to everything, isn't there?) It can be a mountain you can't bulldoze or wash away with a flood, a raging river you can't cross with the stoutest ship, quicksand or a tornado. It can keep you safe, it can do almost anything but propel you forward, but don't let that one little fault keep you from grabbing a bag and taking all you want. I've had this batch for years and just don't want to keep moving it around with me anymore.

And that leaves us with that pile over there. It's APATHY which I mentioned before I was getting rid of. Apathy is gooey and sticky, so if you're in the market, put on a pair of gloves before you wrangle some into a box to take with you. Warning: if it touches you, it may manifest itself as fear or indecision or both. May leave an invisible rash. May make you tired, vulnerable, weak. Symptoms can last for weeks or years. Interacts with other issues. Use at your own risk.

That's it. The Saturday Check-In house is empty and ready for occupancy. If you aren't ready to commit for good, give it a try for a week and see how you like it. But while we're on the topic of getting rid of things you don't want anymore, do you have anything you'd like to get rid of? I'll leave a table on the lawn in case you want to try unloading it here. Good luck!

SATURDAY CHECK-IN

Happy Spring, everyone. As I sit here typing this, I can hear birds twittering (they were the original twitterers) outside and catch a glimpse of a daffodil or two.

I'm still playing the waiting game. It'll be three weeks Monday. That's not very long so why does it SEEM like three months?

Meanwhile, I did not forge ahead as I announced I would last week. I did continue to shine and polish chapter three and my hope is to get myself under control and work on chapter four today. I did a blog interview for the Rogue Phoenix Press http://www.roguephoenixpress.blogspot.com/ this week which I believe Chris is going to post today. I hope you'll drop over and say hello. I'm announcing it here as I no longer have any contact with our loop. Have no idea why. I'm pretty sure the trouble is the nut on the end of the steering wheel, as my father used to say, but just knowing I should be able to figure it out doesn't help me figure it out. Sigh.

I hope everyone else is doing well and look forward to reading how it's going...

SATURDAY CHECK-IN

Current Project: author?
Status: waiting

Here we go again, Saturday has rolled back around. How is everyone doing with their projects? I am still in limbo land but starting Monday, my goal is to pick up where I left off and write chapter four of the first book or brainstorm another book or two. Tired of drifting, time to work again. Tired of being apathetic, want to be pro-active. And real tired of housework.

Your turn.

CONFUSION

The above photograph is me staring at this computer wondering what on earth to blog about today.

We all have this trouble from time to time, right? And the frustrating thing is I remember two weeks ago after I finished that week's blog that I had a good idea for another one and made a mental note to use it this time. Apparently, I have misplaced the mental note. It's probably off having fun with the slipper I can't find.

Does anyone read the Cat Who books? The hero in those books (besides KoKo the cat) is an ex-newspaper reporter who in later books writes a column for a small local paper. He's constantly facing a deadline and scouting out ideas for what to write about. He attributes his ability to write 1,000 words about almost anything to a teacher he had way back when.

The world has changed. Thanks to the Internet, many of us are in the position of having to come up with umpteen words about miscellaneous subjects and sometimes, frankly, our feelings about having to do this mirror the expression on the face of my friend up there. And not only do we have to come up with something semi literate but it should also come from the viewpoint of a writer addressing other writers. And, because of commitments, it needs to get done whether or not we have anything amusing, thoughtful or profound to actually say. Ack!

Speaking of our changing world, remember the expression "shameless self promotion?" Is that notion totally outdated now? Everyone (including me) is constantly touting their latest book, their latest review, it's part and parcel of the game anymore, but I don't think it used to be. I think the apology inherent in that expression, that we know we shouldn't be talking about our accomplishments and patting ourselves on the back, that we were raised better than that, that accolades are things we blush at and would seldom repeat to others, well, I think that notion is almost dead. In fact, I'll wager that the next generation will think that kind of humility is downright Victorian!

One more observation and then I'm going to go mop a floor -- and btw, having spent the last two months working on the proposal and putting my time and energy into writing, the house went to hell in a hand-basket (where did that expression come from, anyway? What's a hand-basket?) However, catching up on these chores has been an interesting change from writing. I am actually kind of enjoying the concrete aspects of washing a window. I know when it's clean, I can see if there are streaks, no one from NYC is going to come inspect it and announce if it meets her standards. It's my job, it has a beginning, a middle and an end that is in sight and totally reachable. I digress...

Okay, back to the observation... something else that seems to be shifting is the whole concept of privacy. Thanks to our gizmos and toys and hand held battery operated computers and phones and other communication devices, we've all gotten used to being in constant touch with friends and strangers alike. Generally speaking, this aspect of life is more pronounced the younger you get. Many twelve year olds text their buddies at every stage of every act they commit, literally thousands of tiny little messages a month. I'm old enough where it seems crazy. Maybe it's because I, personally, tend to be something of a loner, but egads. I had a five minute time limit on talking on the phone when I was a kid. Why? I assume my parents thought there was something more useful I could be doing with my time. My own daughter had her own phone line when she was a teenager. Her daughter has a cell phone. I sense a pattern...

I think I have earned my curmudgeon badge! Tell me how wrong I am. I'm open to debate!

SHOW DON'T TELL

Current Project: Montana Open Sky Series
Status: Almost there

Show don't tell. It's the oldest adage in the world, isn't it? Consider this. I asked Elisabeth if she would read my first chapter which I have been struggling with like crazy. She agreed. She gave me some invaluable suggestions, and one little one was this: I had written, "You know anything about the gate over in Shadow Canyon?” Pierce asked as he dismounted. There wasn’t much snow on the ground at this lower elevation.

She suggested: "You know anything about the gate over in Shadow Canyon?” Pierce asked as he dismounted. His boots landed on a thin layer of crunchy, day old snow, a far cry from the three foot drifts he’d encountered at higher elevations when he’d been checking fences earlier in the day.

A little light bulb went on in my head and this is why:

There isn't a lot of debate about the value of showing versus telling. What little disagreement does exist seems to center on the degree. A book where one scene after another showed every nuance instead of using narrative would soon get so long and unbearable you'd put it down in a corner and sneak away. You simply can't show EVERYTHING. This I understand. As writers, we all pick and choose which scenes we'll develop and which scenes or situations will be condensed and used as transitions.

What Eli illustrated for me was how simple this same concept can be incorporated in small ways. She gave the image of three foot drifts of snow. She gave the crunchy sound of a boot landing on a thin layer of icy snow and we even know it fell the day before. It didn't take that many more words, but it has a nice feel to it that I like and it made me start looking at other throw away lines a little more closely.

It's interesting how we choose which scenes to illustrate, isn't it? How do we know? Most of us say we see certain scenes and I wonder when we write if we are really writing our way from one vision to the next. That makes sense to me though from now on I intend to pay more attention to the lines between the scenes...

Does this kind of thing strike you where you live? Do you have trouble balancing narrative and exposition? How do you decide which to use?

SATURDAY CHECK-IN

Current Project: Open Sky Proposal
Status: everything pretty much ready except for 2nd half of chapter three

How's everyone doing? I've spent the week ironing out issues with all three books. They're finally beginning to seem like three separate but important parts of a whole, so that's a relief. Who knows if they'll sell -- whether they do or not, creating them has been an experience worth having.

I'm writing this before I leave for Vancouver for the Michael Hague Portland Winter Intensive this weekend and have purposely put off finishing the proposal, anticipating that I'll hear something over the next two days that will cause an aha moment. I want to be open to making changes.

Hope your weekend is good.

SATURDAY CHECK-IN

Current Project: Open Sky Books
Status: coming right along

I've had a busy week. I can't remember what I said I wanted to have done by today but this is what I can claim. Partial synopsis for book one, two full chapters. Proposal synopsis complete for books two and three. By this time next week, I'd like to have the whole thing ready to go so that I can take all that knowledge with me to the Michael Hague Portland Winter Intensive weekend and use the things I see and hear there to pick up flaws and fill gaps, etc. Then it's off to NY and we'll see.

Debbie -- You are a free woman! I can hear the relieved (Oh, dear, I hope it's the sound of relief) sigh all the way down here.

Lisa also completed my web site this week. I'm looking forward to having the time to tweak the blog page. The add a gadget feature is mighty compelling!

What has your week been like and what do you hope to accomplish the coming week?

SATURDAY CHECK-IN

Current Project: Open Sky Books
Status: well...

Afternoon, everyone, hope your Saturday is looking good. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm on pins and needles waiting to hear what Debbie found out at work this week and how she and all the rest of you are doing advancing your goals.

I completed my author's alterations on the last book, the last step for that book, so I am really, truly out of work. meanwhile, I'm writing and rewriting the first chapter of the first book in the new series, doing my best not to try to stuff so much backstory into the first page. Ack! Every time I think I have it, I get restless and realize I'm not even close. But I'll get it, never fear. My dh and I talked about the first book on a drive to Eugene this week -- the man is really getting good at helping form a plot. Things keep up this way, he can be the writer.

So, how are you all doing?

The Journey

I mentioned the other day that I was reading John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley. For those of you who don't know, it's the story of how Steinbeck, who wrote about Americans in America, reached the ripe old age of 58 and realized he'd been trapped in New York for too long, he hadn't seen or interacted with the rest of America in twenty years. So with his Standard black Poodle, Charley, he left on a driving trip that took him a year to cross the country to his home haunting grounds of Salinas, CA and then return, making a loop through the country. It's interesting to note that he wasn't recognized even once in that year. Well, you know, it was pre Internet.

I'm almost finished with the book and it has taken me a long time to read. Months, I think, and it's not a big book, I have just turned into a very slow and sometimes infrequent reader. Or maybe it's the kind of book best read slow, better to absorb the images. I don't know, but when I read the following (near the end of his book), it struck me.

He writes, " I speculated with a kind of wonder on the strength of the individuality of journeys and stopped on the postulate that people don't take trips -- trips take people." A few sentences later: "Who has not known a journey to be over and dead before the traveler returns? The reverse is also true: many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased."

What struck was not only the truth of this statement concerning actual trips. I, myself, have been on both those types of journeys, the sailboat trip to Mexico that still lives on or the vacation to Florida when I was sick with a sinus infection -- that trip never really started.

But what his words also reminded me of was the journey we take with a book, and that can be both as a writer and as a reader. As a reader, for instance, we all know of books that linger with us a lifetime while others are hard to recall the day after we finish them. Perhaps those were books that were finished before they ran out of words, books that failed to engage us, books that we plowed through out of some kind of feeling of obligation to some unknown discipline.

As a writer, I think this sentiment may be even more true. A story is a journey in every sense. For the characters, for the writer creating their paths, for the reader engaged in learning how it all turns out. Think of Samwise the Hobbit and his speech, I believe at the end of the second LOTR movie, when he asks Mr. Frodo to remember the stories that were the best ones, the ones where everyone had to know how they ended, what happened next. Those were the best stories of all because it all mattered. (I heard btw, that they filmed that scene a year after making the movie because the ending needed something to carry the hobbit's part of the story forward, to give it importance, maybe a summation, even.)

We all know what kind of books we want to write and read. This is hitting home hard right now as I founder around in the plotting of my current work -- I want it to matter. I want the story to pull my characters and pull me and pull my readers. I want more than bullets and chases and yet I want excitement and adventure. I want the journey within my books to continue until the last word on the last page -- and maybe even beyond an hour or two. That's my job and it's a challenging one.

Obviously, Travels With Charley will be the kind of book I think about for a long time. Do you have one like this in your life or any thoughts about the internal journey in your own work?

SATURDAY CHECK-IN

Current Project: Montana Books
Status: Wow, there's a lot to do!

Hey, everyone, it's a beautiful (okay, dreary) January day outside, perfect for snuggling up to your computer. Come on, you know you want to, your fingers are tingling, right? Okay, so maybe that's from the cold, but I say put it to good use and get those digits moving. That'll warm up your hands, your hands will warm up your arms, your story will warm up your heart or your gut and presto, pretty soon you are glowing inside and out with a feeling of completion and accomplishment. As for your toes? Cozy slippers.

Pep talk delivered.

Today my goal is to come up with a country for my heroine, a Montana ranch for my heroes, and a political situation to keep everyone jumping. I watched Cliffhanger (a movie) last night as it was on TV and it said it was filmed in the Rockies. I learned zip about Montana although it surprised me all those people could tramp around at the top of all those mountains without every really getting wet or falling into snow up to their armpits. Lots of rocks, I guess...

How are you doing on your goals? And if checking in here is one of them, be sure to say hi!

SATURDAY CHECK-IN

Current Project: Three book series set in Wyoming
Status: plotting

After reading a couple of times this week that people intend to use the Saturday check-in to help keep themselves on track, I felt doubly ashamed I forgot to do it last week. But as they say, "I'm baaacckk---"

At this point, I'm cautiously optimistic about the books swirling around in my brain. While it seems I've been gone from writing a long time, it's actually less that seven weeks -- still seems forever. It's good to be inching my way back.

The meeting I missed this week had to do with goal setting and people have been coming forward with theirs. I'll do mine here and invite anyone who wants to to either state or restate theirs to do so now. That way they'd all be in one spot and maybe they'd encourage each other!!!

Mine: Finish and submit a proposal by the first of March. This means a fully realized backstory to act as an umbrella for all three books, a fleshed out first book with three chapters and a synopsis as well as a partial short synopsis for each of the two subsequent books. I've spoken with my editor and if it all comes together, that would mean I would write the first book by summer, the second book in the fall and the third book in the winter. That's the plan. All I have to do now is think Wyoming...

Your turn.

SATURDAY CHECK-IN

Current Project: Nothing!
Status: Ack!

Did everyone survive Christmas? As the week before New Years begins, are you gearing up to reschedule your time, reopen projects set aside for the holidays, re-commit to writing?

This is the first holiday in years where I haven't had a deadline although there is a book on my desk waiting to be edited even as we speak. The edits are due in NY on Wednesday. I hadn't realized that until just now. Oops, better get to work.

Your turn...

SATURDAY CHECK-IN

Current Project: still thinking
Status: ready to work

This check-in is a lot easier to write when I'm actually working. Without a project, ticking off the weeks seems fruitless. So, muse, wherever you are, come on back to me. Lest you think you're the only one giving any ground, I'm willing to meet you halfway. Name your price. More freedom to stretch your wings? Done. Less whining from me when the fruits of your imagination land us actual work? You got it. An apology for past transgressions? Consider it offered

Until such time as the muse deems I've suffered enough and comes home, I'm trying to enjoy the free time. I haven't wrapped Xmas gifts yet, but I've bought most of them, in fact it's a rare day where I don't go somewhere on some mission or the other. Despite the cold, the puppy from hell still needs walks. I've also watch daytime TV for the first time in quite awhile. Won't be sorry to give that up. Ditto house cleaning and laundry and all the rest. Why does idle time seem such an attractive commodity until you actually have it?

How are you doing?

SATURDAY CHECK-IN/NANO UPDATE

Current Project:none
Status: quo

Another week has passed. It's been a strange week for me, all things considered. Today I'm getting a new lap top -- it's on the FedEx truck even as I type. I'm looking forward to it with trepidation as I'll have to figure out how to get it up and running myself.

A few ideas have been rambling round in my head so the cogitation continues.

How about you?