Last weekend I attended the Pennsylvania State Battle of the Barrel Tournament. This was my second one, and thanks to Burgettstown Fire Chief Jerry McClain, I now know what I'm watching. And I'm hooked. As for this photo, I like the repeated angles of the tent, the building roof, and the arc of the water striking the barrel.

We’ve tackled a few more hurdles. Kensi breezed through her first veterinary visit. No bad kitty diseases. Yeah, she has worms and fleas, but I’d have put money on that. Treatment has begun for both. She was a perfect little angel for Dr. Barnes. Received her first distemper shot and had blood drawn without making a peep. And she traveled well, too. This is important, as kitties in this household go camping. The other hurdle we overcame yesterday was Hubby’s resistance. He can’t argue with what a nice kitty Kensi is. Nor can he argue with his stubborn-as-mule, hard-headed wife. So, with a sigh of resignation, his arguing is over. The next big hurdle is Skye. No amount of reasoning on my part will have one bit of influence on her. While Kensi passed the contagious disease test with flying colors, the flea issue will keep her apart from her new big sister for a while. Skye is horribly allergic to the little bloodsuckers, so the little one is confined to the basement until I’m sure she’s ...

Meet Kensi. I wrote about her last Wednesday on Working Stiffs . Back then, she didn’t have a name. Nor did she have a home. Now she has both. The name I’ve settled on is Kensi after the character on NCIS Los Angeles . I just like the name. It’s different (There will probably be 4,000 girls named Kensi starting school five or six years from now and my unique name will be as common as dirt.) As for her home… Yeah, everyone guessed it. She’s not going anywhere. There are details to be worked out. Hubby’s still resisting the idea of another cat in the house. So I’ve moved her into the basement. My excuse is that leaving her food out on the porch at night draws raccoons and I refuse to feed good cat food to the wildlife. Ulterior motive? Litter box training. A must before any kitty, cute or not, can move upstairs. It took her a couple of missteps, but now she’s figured out how it works. My other ulterior motive is quarantine. Until she’s had her shots and been tested for kitty diseases, I ...

Need I say more?

We seem to have a new kitten. To see pictures, read about her, and possibly help name the new baby, come on over to Working Stiffs today.

I’m sorry to say I didn’t even last a week at the Write First Challenge. This just isn’t the time for me to not check email early. As I mentioned before, I’m taking a rather intense online course on querying given by C.J. Lyons. I’ve learned so much already that my head is spinning. The sheer number of messages produced by the participants has increased the mail in my inbox by about a thousand percent. When I let it get ahead of me, it takes hours to catch up. Yeah, I know. Excuses, excuses. The fact is I learned I’m not an early morning writer. I’ve trained my muse to be at the office by 9AM. Asking him to arrive earlier just doesn’t work. Or maybe it’s the fact the caffeine doesn’t kick in until then. Whatever. I’m going to come up with a different set of writing guidelines that work for me. But probably not this week. This week I’ll be writing, but my nonfiction efforts will be taking priority. Hey, writing and getting paid for it is a GOOD thing. I’ll be covering two different even...

Yes, I’m still here. I’ve been fighting off mental meltdown for the last couple of weeks. Okay, months. This weekend, we escaped to our camp in Confluence for a few days. With Hubby still unemployed the concept of weekend is a little vague. Sometimes it’s Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes it’s Friday through Monday. You see, I take my laptop with me, so ONE of us is still working. I’m not complaining. Anything but. Because while I may be working, it’s only on one of my “jobs.” The one that also qualifies as my passion: writing. Lately it’s come to my attention that my life has been out of balance (previously mentioned mental meltdown). While I enjoy teaching yoga, selling Avon, being an area rep for Pennwriters and president of our local Sisters in Crime chapter, the sum total of all my jobs and activities tend to steamroll over my attempts to write. This must change. Otherwise that mental meltdown thing may just come to pass. While I’ve been contemplating how to make sure I stay on trac...

Come on over to Working Stiffs where I'm blogging today and showing my age while ranting over modern technology.

I’d complain about it being a crazy busy week, but I fear I’d sound redundant. Life has been frantic all summer. And we simply will NOT discuss how much I did or did not accomplish on the to-do list I mentioned on Monday. Let’s just say it’s leeching over into my weekend and leave it at that. This morning, I put my query writing skills to use by composing a kick-ass cover letter to go with Hubby’s job resume. It’s something I’ve meant to do for a while now, but he never thought to ask, and let’s face it, if you don’t nag me about these things, they tend to get pushed to the bottom of that very long list. But a job opening has come to our attention that required one, so it was time. I’ve concluded that writing a cover letter for a resume isn’t far removed from writing a query letter for a story. Except instead of pitching the key elements of a novel or an article, I was pitching the capabilities of my husband. And just like writing from a character’s POV in fiction, I was writing this l...

There is a general assumption that if you work from home, you have plenty of spare time. If you are one of those who makes such assumptions, let me just say…STOP IT. Here is a sampling of what’s on my agenda for this week. Today: Post reminders about Thursday’s Pennwriters meeting to the area Yahoo group (done). Post critiques to online critique group (done). Write a blog post (in progress). Laundry (in progress). Read the latest class from an online workshop I’m taking. Return phone call to my new Avon District Sales Manager. Call the dentist office to make appointments for me and Mom. Start work on an article for Sisters in Crime. Work on a proposed article for Pennsylvania Magazine . Work on Chapter Two of new manuscript. Help Hubby with job search online. Tuesday: Anything that didn’t get done yesterday. Get blood work done. More laundry. Inventory, invoice, and package Avon delivery (This will take almost half the day). Read chapters for two critique partners. Get to work on long-...

I'm over at Working Stiffs today with the rest of my photos from the weekend.

Photo Friday just slid by this week. Lack of pictures wasn’t the issue. Lack of time, on the other hand… So exactly WHAT has been keeping me so busy, you ask? Friday night I headed to Oakmont and the Mystery Lovers Bookshop for a hot night with Tess Gerritsen and Lisa Gardner. It was the first time I’d met either of these ladies. I always love to see standing room only at an author event. Saturday, there was the Battle of the Barrel. I was covering it for our local online community news network. What a blast! Steamy, hot 90 degree weather, but a ton of water to keep everyone cool. The big problem was keeping the camera dry! Sunday, our Sisters in Crime group gathered for another Firearms 101 workshop. I haven’t uploaded those photos yet, so check back.

I’ve completed the first chapter of my first draft of my current work in progress. We could argue about what a “first draft” really is, since I’ve rewritten the first chapter at least six times. But it’s too hot to argue. Suffice it to say, I’m ready to move on to chapter two. Brightly colored sticky notes map out the first act on my closet door…my version of outlining. The new manuscript is officially under construction. Meanwhile, my garden is exploding. Heat and rain have resulted in an abundance of zucchini and cucumbers. The onions are doing well, the beans are in blossom, and carrot tops battle the weeds. But it’s those zucchini and cucumbers that are keeping me on my toes. If I miss picking them even one day, that cute little squash turns into a green ball bat. What to do with them all??? Yes, I could can pickles. And I could bake zucchini bread and stash it away for later. But both of those tasks create heat. A LOT of heat. Have you ever canned? I used to. But the universe has ...

My question is this: Are these robins (who are nesting right outside my office window) screaming at the sight of the wasp? Or are they contemplating having him for lunch? And I don't mean as a guest.

It's my day to blog at Working Stiffs and July's theme is summer. Most of the other Stiffs have been sharing vacation exploits and photos, but other than our journeys to Confluence, we aren't taking a vacation this year. So instead, I've offered a photographic tour of my rural world .

Meet Moochie I fear I'm stuck with him. He belongs to the neighbors, but started hanging around here last winter, romancing Skye through the front window and socializing with the Katz Family in the barn. Now the Katz Family are all gone (vanished one by one...we fear coyotes), but Moochie remains. He spends more and more time on our front porch, waiting for someone to come out and cuddle him. I keep trying to remind him that he lives next door, not here. But with a face like this (even with the scars and bite marks from being beaten up TWICE by some stray), it's hard to shoo him away.

Apologies are in order. I try to post something here two or three times a week, but life has been a tad hectic. Nothing horrendous, mind you. Not even anything grand and wonderful. Just hectic. Last week, fellow blogger Clarissa Draper tagged me with The Versatile Blogger Award. I’ve been attempting, since MONDAY, to fulfill the requirements of that award. Well, you can see how well I’ve done. So I’m delaying Photo Friday until Saturday in order to accept my award and pass it on. First, let me thank Clarissa for the honor. Since this blog is as much about the “etc” part of the title as it is about writing, I guess a versatility award fits pretty well. Now, I must share 7 things about myself. Preferably without putting you all to sleep. 1. I sob uncontrollably when an animal dies in a movie. Forget the whole disclaimer about “no animals were harmed during the filming,” I still implode in a puddle. I can watch movies about war and serial killers and I’m fine. Just don’t expect to see me...

Skye thinks it's TOO HOT.

I'm blogging today at Working Stiffs about my ongoing frustration with writing the first chapter of my new manuscript.

We spend so much time waiting for things to get better so we can then be happy that we often miss the precious “now” moments. For instance, things will be better when my husband finds a job. And I land a book deal. I’ll be happier when my elbow heals and my allergies clear up. There’s always something. Today is the summer solstice. So since I complain so much about winter, I have to stop and embrace today. The sky is blue. Everything else is that lovely rich green of late spring/early summer. We have more hours of daylight today than any other day. A mockingbird serenades me outside my office window as a gentle breeze ruffle my lace curtains. Money’s a little tight…so what? Right now I have some time to work on my new manuscript. Right now, my mom is doing well. Right now we have food in the refrigerator and the bills are all paid. Right now my biggest health complaint is a sore elbow. Right now my hubby and I are still best friends in spite of a few trials and tribulations. Right now ...