We're sitting in our gate waiting to board our 20-minute flight to Tobago. We're on a 50-seat prop plane, which Mom is looking forward to since she's never flown on a prop. The Caribbean Airlines planes are very pretty with the lettering in purple and a flower and hummingbird on the tail.

Yesterday we had a guided hike at Asa Wright in the morning. Then we did some more hiking on our own. In the afternoon we had a different tour guide, Harry from Germany, pick us up and drive us through Arima and Tunapuna to the Pax Guesthouse. We had tea and finally got a closer look at the Orange-winged Parrots, which was exciting. We also saw a Yellow Oriole, which was another new bird.

Last night there was a night walk along the drive at Asa Wright. We saw several land crabs, a Great Antshrike, and TARANTULAS. OMG *shudders* and yet I was strangely fascinated.

This morning we're on our way to Speyside, Tobago, where I am really desperately hoping to be able to sit and relax on the beach. I know we have a waterfall and rain forest to visit, and a glass-bottom boat ride to Little Tobago Island, but I am in some desperate need of down time, and the beach sounds awesome. Especially since I am not a natural extrovert, so I've spent a lot of time feeling like I have to be up or on for all the people around us.

Looks like they're going to start boarding, so signing off for now. Keep good! :D

Our first full day in Trinidad. We got into Port of Spain just after midnight, following a long flight with lots of turbulence. We saw some amazing lightning pretty close. We were exhausted from all the travel, so we crashed at our hotel near the airport. This morning at 9, our guide Emille picked us up and we set out for Asa Wright.

The Americans built the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway back in WWII when we had an airbase here. So far it seems to be the last good road between Port of Spain and Asa Wright. The nature centre is located up in the mountains on a very narrow little road that is mostly paved and mostly potholed. There's a huge quarry in the mountainside, so the big trucks tear the road up. After a narrow and tortuous hour of riding, honking the horn while approaching every blind curve, we got to our destination.

Asa Wright Nature Centre is wonderful. It's a throwback to the colonial era, originally owned by a German but sold by him before it could be seized during WWI. The land was a cocoa plantation when Asa Wright and her husband bought it. They originally tried to keep the plantation running, but her husband died and Asa decided to turn it into a nature preserve. And she did a wonderful job.

The main house has a huge veranda were birds all but fly up and shake your hand. I've posted a lot of pictures at our trip Tumblr using my creaky netbook and the centre's creaky wireless. (I'm just grateful there's any internet at all!)

The cuisine here is heavily influenced by Indian cuisine, so the kitchen smells of curry. We had a lovely lunch that included pumpkin fritters, which OMG I have to learn how to make those. There was serve-yourself tea at 4 on the veranda, complimentary rum punch at 6 on the veranda, and dinner at 7. In between times, we hiked a couple of trails and spent a lot of time chatting with all the nature guides on the veranda.

Mom and I saw about 20 life-list birds today, including several species of hummingbird and the amazing and entertaining Crested Oropendula. We saw agoutis and some very large lizards, and I was horrified by one very large spider, fortunately far away from our cottage. A baby fer de lance was spotted by guides this afternoon, but we were nowhere near it.

I am just waiting for the internet to load all my stuff to Tumblr so I can crash. I am exhausted in the best way possible. :D

I always try to make my first post of the year my reading list for the year, so I can find it easily. Last year I read 77 books, 10 of which were nonfiction. I'm going to try to make that 15 nonfiction in the coming year.

2012 Reading List

1. The Body Finder - Kimberly Derting
   
2. Kitty's Greatest Hits - Carrie Vaughn
   
3. Chalice - Robin McKinley
   
4. Phoenix Dance - Dia Calhoun
   
5. Dragon Age: The Calling - David Gaider
   
6. A Long Long Sleep - Anna Sheehan
   
7. The Ghost and the Goth - Stacey Kade
   
8. Beauty - Robin McKinley
   
9. Desires of the Dead - Kimberly Derting
   
10. The Candidates - Inara Scott
    
11. Star Crossed - Elizabeth C. Bunce (REALLY GOOD)
    
12. The Urban Fantasy Anthology - ed. Peter S. Beagle & Joe R. Lansdale (I am totally counting this a read, even though I stopped reading two of the stories halfway through because of disgusting misogyny in one and disgusting blasphemy in the other.)
    
13. Blackveil - Kristen Britain (will someone please read the sequel when it comes out and just tell me what happens? I am sick of reading spoiled whiny characters and poorly edited writing just to find out if Zachary and Karigan ever bloody get together.)
    
14. Liar's Moon - Elizabeth C. Bunce
    
15. Forever - Maggie Stiefvater
    
16. A Matter of Profit - Hilari Bell (EVERY BOOK I have read by Hilari Bell has been amazingly insightful and unique. I will always read this woman's books.)
    
17. Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots - Abby McDonald
    
18. Down These Strange Streets - ed by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois
    
19. Carpathia - Matt Forbeck
    
20. Thirteenth Child - Patricia C. Wrede
    
21. Blood Red Road - Moira Young (GO READ THIS RIGHT NOW!)
    
22. Honor's Paradox - P.C. Hodgell
    
23. Under Attack - Hannah Jayne
    
24. The Grimm Legacy - Polly Schumann
    
25. Echoes of Betrayal - Elizabeth Moon
    
26. Delirium - Lauren Oliver
    
27. Across the Universe - Beth Revis
    
28. Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community - Andrew Marin*
    
29. Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity - Adam Hamilton*
    
30. Armed and Magical - Lisa Shearin
    
31. The Trouble With Demons - Lisa Shearin
    
32. Bewitched and Betrayed - Lisa Shearin
    
33. Con and Conjure - Lisa Shearin
    
34. Love Wins - Rob Bell* (? Do I call this nonfiction when I think his theology is shaky?)
    
35. Welcome to Bordertown - ed. by Holly Black & Ellen Kushner
    
36. The Five Love Languages for Singles - Gary Chapman*
    
37. Gabriel: Zero Point - Steve Umstead
    
38. Surrender None - Elizabeth Moon
    
39. Insurgent - Veronica Roth
    
40. A Bride's Story 2 - Kaoru Mori
    
41. The Sword & the Pen: A Life of Lew Wallace - Ray E. Boomhower*
    
42. Grave Memory - Kalayna Price
    
43. The Sleeping Doll - Jeffery Deaver
    
44. The Boy from the O - Sandy Kendall
    
45. Sisters Red - Jackson Pearce
    
46. Once Was Lost - Sara Zarr
    
47. Greatshadow - James Maxey
    
48. The Explosionist - Jenny Davidson
    
49. The Love Talker - Elizabeth Peters
    
50. The Bride's Baby - Liz Fielding
    
51. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity - David Allen*
    
52. Cold Magic - Kate Elliott
    
53. Deerskin - Robin McKinley
    
54. A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master - Rachel Held Evans*
    
55. The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin
    
56. She Loves You, She Loves You Not... - Julie Anne Peters
    
57. The Third Gate - Lincoln Child
    
58. Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver
    
59. Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas
    
60. Haiku for the Single Girl - Beth Griffenhagen*
    
61. Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (I realize this is a NYT Bestseller, but it irked me to no end that they seem to think live ammunition is used in Civil War reenactments. Um, no, dipshits, that would NEVER happen, unless y'all in the south take it WAY more seriously than we Northerners. Sheesh.)
    
62. Till We Have Face - C.S. Lewis
    
63. Across the Great Barrier - Patricia Wrede
    
64. Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
    
65. 
    

* nonfiction

Well, the ankle isn't broken. I have a bizarre small purplish swollen bit on the right side, but it's otherwise not swollen at all, maybe because I got ice on it right away and kept it on there for a good while, and kept doing the 20-on-40-off all evening. Slept with it elevated too. But this morning when I got up to let the dogs out and feed the horses, it hurt like a bitch. Since I had that bizarre purplish bit and it hurt so bad, I decided to go ahead to the urgent care. The exam portion was only $72 (I think they gave me a break since I didn't have insurance, but I know I also got 10% for paying in full today). The x-rays, I don't know how much they'll be yet, but I have a while to find out, because they have to bill me.

Anyway, Dr. Hatcher (I love him) says it's just a sprain, and they gave me an air splint to wear. I explained I had horses to feed and he said that was fine, but to watch my footing in the barn because uneven ground can cause a second injury (believe me, I knew that already! Feeding this morning was a bitch). Then I told him about going to Trinidad and Tobago in a couple of weeks, and he said it should be all healed up by then. I love him. He's got the best bedside manner of any doctor I've ever known, and he's never condescending or patronizing. He takes people seriously even if they don't have a medical degree. *G*

So the orders are to keep off it as much as possible, but he said it will be healed up just fine for our trip. I can deal with the pain as long as I know I'm not damaging it worse if I have to put weight on it. So there we go.

Now if only I could figure out this blasted camera. I've been doing intensive experimenting, using both the Nikon manual and my National Geographic Photography Field Guide (and shutterspeed and photofriends. So far I still can't get the extreme closeups that I want to know how to do. But at least I've figured out how to change the shutter speed and aperture, which I wasn't very good at before.

I've started a tumblr for my personal stuff at http://stephaniecain.tumblr.com but so far I haven't decided on a name for Jan & Steph's trip to Trinidad & Tobago. Any suggestions? :D

Since Boxing Day I've been house-sitting for a friend of my mom's. I feel pretty lucky to be doing it, too. She and her husband have a small ranch and farm near us. I'm responsible for taking care of Woodrow (the corgi) and Rooster (the gigantic greyhound), four horses, and about sixteen barn cats, as well as one semi-house cat that thinks she's a dog. The neighbor is taking care of feeding the hundred or so head of cattle (thank God). I'm having a blast. This house reminds me of the lodges I've stayed at out west. Entirely log construction, inside and outside, gorgeous wood floors, wood furniture that the husband made himself...Wonderful.

I've had a couple of little issues, like not being able to get the central heating to work (it was like 57 degrees in here the first day, and 54 yesterday), and then failing to get a proper fire laid in the fireplace last night. But fortunately after the fire smoked itself out for the second time (I don't have problems with campfires, so I'm not sure what's wrong), I went and fiddled with the furnace, and the central heating started working.

But today the real problem hit. Woodrow and Rooster informed me loudly that someone was here. (They were lying, it was just the construction crew coming back from lunch.) But I didn't realize they were wrong, so I went downstairs to see who it was. And I missed the last step.

I landed with my foot at a ninety-degree angle to the floor. I can't remember the last time something hurt so much. I sat there whimpering for a little bit, then made it over to the freezer and got ice on it. But I couldn't get hold of my mom (who is on Christmas break from school) for a while, and being out in the ass-end of nowhere (which I usually love) means I can't just hop in the car and drive to CVS for an Ace bandage really quickly. Not that I could really drive anywhere, because I have a manual transmission, which requires the use of both feet, not just one. I could probably manage gas and brake left-footed, but not gas and brake AND clutch.

>.<

I did manage to get hold of Mom about an hour and a half ago, and she's supposed to be bringing an Ace bandage when she gets done running errands in town. But I can't figure out what all she was planning to do before coming here. *sigh* I could limp out and ask the construction guys to run me into town, but as nice as I'm sure they are, I don't generally get into trucks with strange men. And I could call the neighbor who's feeding the cattle, but honestly this seems a little minor to trouble him over, since I know Mom will get here eventually.

I did take 1500 miligrams of ibuprofen, and I've eaten, and I scooted up the steps on my butt so I have the netbook. Putting weight on it doesn't actually hurt, but putting weight and then having any sort of shift of that weight bites deep. Good thing, though, because I had to take the dogs out about half an hour ago. They just couldn't wait any longer.

I haven't looked at it yet. I have thick wool socks on that I think are providing some compression, and are definitely providing insulation against the ice.

Randomly, it's really hard to get barn boots off when one of your ankles doesn't work properly.

I just signed up with a goal of 200,000 words in 2012. My projects will be to complete the rewrite of my urban fantasy novel, to complete the first draft of this year's epic fantasy novel, and to write a couple of short stories. I'm also factoring in 50,000 words of NaNoWriMo 2012 into the total.

Since Mom and I are going to TNT in January, I want to get a blog set up where we can easily post some of the thousands of pictures we will take. I'm going to have the netbook along to get pictures off the DSLR and will hopefully have plentiful web access, but I don't want to spend a huge amount of vacation time online. So any photographers or artists who have online galleries, etc., can you please respond?

NOTE: I want Mom to be able to upload stuff as well as doing it myself. She keeps a nature blog and I want to find a way for her to post pictures easily all the time.



This entry was originally posted at http://innerslytherin.dreamwidth.org/997966.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Yesterday was a good day. I validated my NaNoWriMo novel and I received a debit card in the mail from the state of Indiana, with a blissful amount of money (compared to the $20 I had left, anyway). I can buy cat food and pay bills now.

Today I found out the unethical asshats at my former employer Sysco Foodservices have appealed the decision the state made in my favor. I should not be surprised, but I confess, I thought they would prefer to pay the unemployment rather than face a lawsuit or a formal charge of violating FMLA. Unfortunately they seem to think their moral gray area will win, and in the world of big business and money running things, I suppose it will.

I'm planning to spend the unemployment cash I already have as quickly as possible. If nothing else, I'd rather have the state collections people calling me rather than three credit cards and two medical places. It has to mean fewer annoying phone calls, right?

*sigh*

Anyway. I have a telephone hearing on December 13, and wow, way to prolong this even further, powers that be. I have no idea how to handle that. The instructions from the state are barely helpful, and I'm not even sure what information I need to provide the judge.

I'm so overwhelmed at the moment. I spent nearly four years working for a company that mistreats people as a matter of policy. I spent the last four months of that time suffering from debilitating migraines and crippling depression related to both the migraines and the toxic work situation. Migraines that STOPPED ENTIRELY when I left that job. I have run through my bank account and am probably going to have to cash out my meager 401(k) to continue paying bills. I can't find a job. I can't bear the thought of going back to seasonal retail. And on top of everything, I'm sure my dad won't react well to this news, which will make his work situation worse. I have a heart full of vile things I want to say to Connie, who claimed to be my friend but proved herself not to be.

I am currently modeling my prayers after those of David, persecuted in the wilderness, who said, "O God, do not be far from me; O my God, hasten to my help! Let those who are adversaries of my soul be ashamed and consumed; Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor, who seek to injure me. But as for me, I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more." (Psalm 71:12-14).

And honestly, right now those prayers aren't doing much for my emotional or mental state. I just want to immerse myself in Warcraft all afternoon and not think about anything.

WOOHOO!!!!!



I broke the halfway point today and had just over 6,000 words! Heading to bed early (haha, yes, 1:30 am is early these days) as a reward, and tomorrow I get to play Dragon Age or Warcraft for a couple of hours. I'm on a roll now, baby!


Also, I have realized that this is going to be a really bloody long novel. I'm pretty sure this one is going to end up right around the 100K mark when all is said and done. But that's okay, right? Epic fantasy is epic. :D

Finally, this novel (or this novelist) is picking up steam! Woohoo! :)

Lemme tell you, this has been a really crappy NaNo so far. Not for any reason except this: my discipline is broken.

I have a plot I love, characters I love, and a setting I absolutely and completely love.

I just have no butt-in-chair-ness.

But today, I said I was going to hit 10K or die trying, and fortunately, I'm still breathing (just barely, and only thanks to Benadryl, but I am). And my word count so far is



Huzzah!

Some of my favorite writing links, just in time for NaNoWriMo:

• Outline Your Novel in 30 Minutes - This has a lot of useful questions to get to know your characters. I've used this several times.
  
• Sketch a Novel in an Hour - Very similar to the first, which it's based on.
  
• The Snowflake Method - I haven't used this before, but it looks good for visual people.
  
• Novel in 30 Days worksheets - Lots of worksheets to develop character, scene, plot, and more. Based on Victoria Lynn Schmidt's Book in a Month. I haven't used these extensively, but they look useful.
  
• First Draft in 30 Days - From the book by Karen S. Wiesner. I don't follow this method 100%, but I love this book, and I love the worksheets. This year I've worked with it extensively during October to plot my novel, and I feel like I have a better handle on my idea going into November than I ever have. She has a few of the worksheets available online, but I bought a copy of the book and typed the worksheets into Word to make them easier for me to work with. I will say that I've been using this method for the past three years, and this is the first year I've fully embraced it.
  
• How to Prep for NaNoWriMo - Advice from Jennifer Blanchard, who runs one of my favorite blogs Procrastinating Writers.
  
• Procrastinating Writers' 5 NaNoWriMo Posts You Don't Want to Miss - Links to 5 useful articles about NaNo. One of them is the article I linked above.

And a very useful (and fun) tool I acquired several years ago and use every year: NaNoWriMo Report Card - this is the download link for an incredible spreadsheet. Originally Created by Eric Benson - Edited for 2004 by Rebecca Waterhouse. I just keep updating the year, and if I want a word count other than 50000 as my goal, I do a CTRL+H to replace 50000 with whatever word count I want (I'm aiming for 80000 this year).

What I've managed to do this weekend is depressing. Yes, so I put a new battery in my car (and in the process realized I had no antifreeze in there--yikes!). And I spent some time with my aunts. Did some organizing that desperately needed to be done. Finished reading another book. Converted another tape of music to digital files. Reached level 70 with my main alt in Warcraft. Played with the kitties.

What I didn't do: write.

I opened my revision file. I looked at the revision. I looked again at the manuscript I've been thinking about self-e-pubbing just for fun. I flipped through a notebook of ideas and thought some more about my options for NaNoWriMo (What? I like to plan early!) And yet I managed to do nothing.

I've told myself that I'm not going to bed without revising another scene. I have an hour and a half before I have to start the Sunday night bedtime routine, so it's possible.

So here's the plan: go scrounge up some supper, pour a glass of Oliver's Traminette, and REVISE.

To give myself some motivation to keep working on the revision, I'm posting an excerpt of the novel I'm currently revising (again) to try to get it ready to query agents. Any and all critiques are welcome. This is the first eight pages of my novel Maze of Moments, a modern faerie story.

***



Forget writer's block, artist's block was the real bitch. Zeva Couran shut the door of her house and studio, locked the deadbolt with her key, and took a deep breath. She'd spent the past hour and a half staring at the clay and feeling like she was suffocating. Maybe a walk would get the creative juices flowing...or release some frustration. The sun set late during June in Illinois, and the neighborhood she lived in was down at the heels, but not truly dangerous.

The Rottweiler at the yellow house down the street barked. A crow answered from the maple tree in front of her house. Zeva pocketed her keys and walked west on the sidewalk. After a block her stride lengthened as her muscles stretched. The air was sultry but comfortable, and she could see stars beginning to struggle out past the street lights.

Four blocks and two sets of train tracks later, there were fewer street lights, and half of those were burnt out or flickering on and off in drunken rhythms. No one stood around on front porches. No cars drove past. As she tried to pick up her speed, her boots clumped louder on the cracked pavement. Her arms, bared by her tank top, prickled as if something had brushed against her. Refusing to glance over her shoulder, she rubbed her arms and tried not to think about why she didn't want to look.

( Read more... )

I've been making a lot of those lately. "It's a three-day weekend, I don't want to work on the revision." "I have a migraine. I don't want to work on the revision." "I worked on plotting and world-building for a different project, I don't want to work on the revision too." "I spent all day doing housework, I don't have enough energy for a revision day."

Seems like I've been making a lot in my personal life too. "I'm sorry I suck so much at keeping in touch." "I just haven't felt like being online."

The truth is, I don't feel like I have enough energy for everything life throws at me as well as everything I want out of life. Since it's impossible to ignore the need to work & pay bills, impossible to ignore a migraine that feels like a spike through your left eye, and impossible to ignore kittens who are running roughshod over your head? I end up letting personal stuff fall to the wayside. I don't answer emails quickly enough. I forget to call my best friend. I stay up too late one night and drag around at half-energy the next.

I've been simplifying and cutting some things out of my life lately. I intentionally let go of a friendship that meant a lot to me, but simply became too emotionally vampiric for me to continue. Even the friends I do value have gotten short shrift lately, and I'm sorry about that.

Of course, I also have had some victories. I think I've done pretty well at raising two kittens at once, which wouldn't have seemed like such a victory this time last year, but definitely is. I've gotten a third of the way through my novel revision, despite the new migraines that started in June. I've read over fifty books this year.

We're slipping into autumn, which is always a reflective season for me. Something about the combines throwing up clouds of chaff in a bean field, the golden light, the breezy cooling of the weather, makes me take stock of my life and yearn to give in to my wanderlust. Knowing my birthday is a month away makes me wonder where I'll be and what I'll be doing on my birthday next year.

Just a little bit of lunch-time introspection...

Ganked from a lot of my friends, here's the NPR's Most Popular Sci-Fi & Fantasy novels meme. I voted, and of course am outraged that some of my favorites didn't place very high (or even make the list. WTF where is Paks?!) but I'm pleased that I've read a bunch of these, and today I started the highest ranked book that I hadn't read yet and have always meant to.

I'm cheating. I'm going to bold things I've either read all the way or read all I plan to. I'm going to italicize those I plan to read. I'm going to strike through the occasional Never in my life shall I read this book.

Also, I would like to say that I already did this meme once, because I printed off the list as soon as it was released on the website, and marked all the books I'd read.

( Read more... )

Wow, I thought I was at 36. Forgot about Xanth. A lot of these books have been on my to-read-someday list anyway (like Dune), but so many good new books come out every year I hadn't gotten around to a lot of them. I also read much more heavily on the fantasy side than on the science fiction side, and I'm incredibly disappointed that the Coldfire Trilogy by CS Friedman and the Company Wars books by CJ Cherryh didn't make this list. I know Coldfire is science fantasy more than science fiction, but still. *grumps*

And lately some of the casualties have been a couple of scenes I always liked and a character who, honestly, sort of annoys me.  But fortunately I've discovered a few foxholes, like a couple of scenes with a new character I like more than I expected, or a way to rearrange the plot in a way that both speeds up the lagging pace of the novel and also salvages what I liked best about my favorite deleted scene.

Another casualty of the revision process lately has been my confidence.  I've been saying for years that I think this is my most readily marketable novel.  This is the first one I plotted out in advance, and it has series potential but stands alone, and it does a lot of things I want the novel to do.  AND I'm suddenly not sure that I'm doing it justice yet.

I've been vicious with this revision.  I've looked at every scene and asked what it actually accomplishes, what purpose it serves, if it puts me to sleep rereading it.  A lot of scenes have simply been slashed out of existence because of that last reason.  And now I'm wondering:  If, after 7 years of living with this novel and thinking about this novel, I have deleted about a third of it, what's to say that after another 7 years of living with it, I wouldn't realize another third of it needed to go?

This morning while I was doing some mundane stuff at my paying job, I got to thinking about the main conflict in my novel and started wondering if it's really as compelling as I think.  What if the "bad guys" are right?  Will readers look at the situation and go, "You know, they have a point.  Why IS it that way?  Who actually benefits from this situation, and why shouldn't they try to change it?"  Because that's absolutely NOT the reaction I want.  But maybe I'm setting myself up for that.

It isn't enough to tell a good story.  I want the story to make sense.  I want the conflict to tug at readers' guts and make them root for the good guys.  And suddenly I wonder if I'm doing that.

Cannot wait for m_stiefvater's next book, Forever, to hit shelves! Check out this gorgeous stop-animation book trailer. And she wrote that hauntingly beautiful music for it too!



You can pre-order the book here at Fountain Bookstore. I'll be doing that myself very shortly. :)

Yikes.

I'm a reader of Procrastinating Writers blog and Write It Sideways blog. For the month of January, both bloggers are producing a "Better Writing Habits" newsletter, and I'm subscribed to that. So I'm going to try to post my responses here each day. We'll see how that goes! ;)

What are your worst writing habits of 2010?
Today’s Challenge: Identify your worst writing habit to be overcome, and devise a game plan stating exactly what you will do to break that habit in 2011.


My worst writing habit to be overcome is easily my habit of procrastinating. So my game plan:

• Stop choosing Warcraft or Criminal Minds fanfiction over writing original things. Not that either things are bad, and I want to continue participating in the CM fandom as well as leveling my Dwarven Hunter and a couple of favorite alts on Warcraft. But I need to do those things after I've done my writing for the day.
  
• Write 200 words each day. Rain or shine, sick or healthy, busy or lazy, it doesn't matter. 200 words is a minimum.
  
• Stop reading so many blogs about writing and just write. I need to choose quality over quantity when it comes to the writing blogs I follow (and really, any of the blogs I follow). I need to keep current on what's going on in the writing industry, but too often I feel like a writer because I read the blogs, when I really should feel like a writer when I write.