One wonders....

.... if we're using our exercise as an escape from writing! We seem to be hugely successful at walking of late! And doing yard work.

Write. Keep writing. See inspiration below.

Hmmmm... You're right. We're walkin', all kinds of things, but writing...??
One thing I've discovered: Walking in the a.m., first thing, is GREAT!
Now, I have to find when those "open spots" for writing are. During the day, I think. Evenings don't seem to work when everyone's home....

Well, since neither of us has a day job, one would think the whole day is an "open spot".... right? I haven't gone to an office in decades, but you might have to go the library or something to get into the right mindset. I mean..... are we full-time writers or not?

Hmmmm... good question! I felt more like a full-time writer when I was "captured" 8 hours a day in a work setting. I feel like a ghost (?or a fake?) "working" at home. Maybe it's all those years in the (corporate) world!

Dani's goals w/o July 30

My goal is to attempt the following under threat of having to wear a lead corset for the entire month of August:

Writing - 10 pages
Monday - zip
Tuesday - zip Wednesday = Writing day!!!
Wednesday - zip
Thursday - 1 page
Friday - 2 pages
Saturday - zip
Sunday - zip
Total - 3 pages

Exercise - walk 10 miles + 15 min. yoga + 1/2 hr. scything daily
Monday - 1.5 miles + 30 min. yoga + 1.0 hour of reel mowing (whew!)
Tuesday - 1.0 miles Way to go!!!
Wednesday - zip... Where are you??...
Thursday - 1.0 mile and mow 1/2 hour
Friday - zip
Saturday - zip
Sunday - zip
Total -

Revising/Editing/Consolidating files - 25 files and write first draft for VBT eBook
Monday - 39 pages of VBT notes read and reviewed for outline
Tuesday - 55 pages of VBT research reading Wow! Great progress!
Wednesday - zip
Thursday - zip
Friday - zip
Saturday - zip
Sunday - zip
Total -

We'll see what I can accomplish. I also really need to post a few things to Love of Place, so that may mean more than two pages a day of writing. Plus, I'm helping Mike solder windows and we'll be installing at the church one day this week. But, I plan to take Alphie to write there.

Now tell me what you think of the idea that we take the weekends off except during BIW weeks? Okay, well guess who will be trying to do some writing on Saturday. Sunday to Colorado Springs, so I doubt I get anything done except buy a pedometer! Not a particularly productive week, although I think I've done some good moodling for BIW.

Ann's Goals for week of July 30 - Aug. 5

Heeeeere we go! (And sure, we can take weekends off ... although I may use it if I need it!)
If I don't make my goals, I'll... I'll... give up chocolate for a week! (Oh, the terror!)

WRITING -- 10 pages total
Monday -- Zeeeeerrrooooo
Tuesday -- nada, zip
Wednesday -- 0
Thursday -- .5 pages (new, in rewrite)
Friday -- 0
Saturday -- 3 pages
Sunday
GRAND TOTAL

WALKING -- 7 miles total
Monday -- 2.21 miles
Tuesday -- 1.54 miles Gosh, already halfway... nice job. Now go write!;)
Wednesday -- 2 miles
Thursday -- 2.25 miles
Friday -- 2.11 miles
Saturday -- zero
Sunday
GRAND TOTAL

EDITING -- 7 pages total
Monday
Tuesday -- hard copy edit of 5 pages. Now to type it in! (It doesn't count until it's in the computer!)
Wednesday
Thursday -- 6 pages (in the computer!)
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
GRAND TOTAL

Okay!

Queen of Sevens this week..... next week, up the ante to eight?

I dare you. Just so you don't get into a rut. Now the real question

is: How much would either of us have accomplished this past

week without some nagging and accountability?

Here are some treats for you, too! Yummy!

Is it the thought that counts? Now post your goals!

;)

Write. Keep writing.

And how about this?? Donna D. posted it on WWW. Her husband sent it to her. Sounds like a good fight song!

Subject: 10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer

1. Write.
2. Write more.
3. Write even more.
4. Write even more than that.
5. Write when you don’t want to.
6. Write when you do.
7. Write when you have something to say.
8. Write when you don’t.
9. Write every day.
10. Keep writing.

Dani's Writing Goals w/o July 23

I learned how to turn photos into screensavers! Here's my Baby Girl who is looking me in the eye from the computer and telling me to get to work!


WRITING! (3 pages daily = 21 pages total on Virtual Book Tour eBook)
Monday - 2 pages
Tuesday - zip
Wednesday - 3 pages
Go, go, go!! You're doing great!
Thursday - 2 and just barely
Friday - zip
Saturday- 2 pages
Sunday- zip
TOTAL- 9 pages Hmmm. That wasn't so hot.

WALKING! (1 mile daily = 7 miles total + scythe 3x + yoga 3x)
Monday - 1.7 miles
Tuesday - zip although I did cement windows which is exercise!
Wednesday - 2.0 miles and 1/2 hour of yoga
You "walk the talk!" Yay, Dani!
Thursday - 1.0 miles and 1/2 hour of yoga.... cut short by rain!
Friday - 2.0 miles and 1/4 hour of yoga
Saturday - 2.0 miles
Sunday - 15 min. yoga and 2.2 miles neener neener ;)
TOTAL - 10.9 miles and 1 1/2 hours of yoga

EDITING (read 100 pages and shred ... just sometime this week)
Monday - zip
Tuesday - zip
Wednesday - read out loud 25 pages of prior writing... a start!
ALLLLRIIIIGHT!!!
Thursday- maybe some shredding tonight
Friday - Tag Mar/Apr/June 05 BIW files and read... that wasn't too bad!
Saturday - finally got the printer working and dumped or downsized a gazillion photos clogging up the works. Until midnight! Mike read HP until 3:30 AM!!
Sunday- zip
TOTAL- Something

In addition: Hook up new printer which means clean up computer station. Partly done.... now I need to try and get the software for the printer portion to load. Gag.Transfer bloated blog photo albums to Flickr. Shred at least 100 pages of printed material that I just HAD to print (in a prior life)! An even better idea is to roll them up and use as kindling this winter in the studio woodstove.
Kindling! Great idea!
Here's the weekend... time to GO GO GO! Sprint!

Ann's Goals

We're going to hit the bulls' eye this week!





WRITING! (3 pages daily = 21 pages total)
Monday -- zip-ah-dee-doo-dah...
Tuesday -- nada
HELP! Nagging definitely needed....
Wednesday -- 1 page --Thank you Mother Naggy! Spell has been broken.
Thursday -- 2.25 pages (?do fractions count?) Every inch counts!
Friday -- 1 page (ah! but check this out! My first attempt! http://quantumcorsets.blogspot.com/ )
Saturday -- 2 pages -- I sat here all frickin' day and only did TWO PAGES!! ... ARGHH!!
Sunday -- 1.5 pages...
TOTAL -- 7.75 pages....

WALKING! (1 mile daily = 7 miles total)
Monday -- 1.2 mile
Tuesday -- 1.2 mile
Wednesday -- 1.73 -- whoo-hoo!
Thursday -- 1.16 miles Hooray!!
Friday -- 1.2 miles
Saturday -- .6 mile -- double ARGH!
Sunday -- zippo
TOTAL -- 7.09 miles
HOORAY!!! ONE GOAL REACHED!!! (but barely)

EDITING (7 pages total... just sometime this week)
Monday Ummm........
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday .... pulled stuff together. Started on page one... hope to make headway this weekend!
Saturday
Sunday
TOTAL -- Okay, didn't do a thing here except get the stuff pulled together.... I REALLY have to buckle down!

Time to post new goals soon

And how about this for a new motto?

From Nags to Riches.

Okay, now get to it.... crack that whip!

You're on the homestretch!!

I LOVE the new motto! Absolutely, yes! Post new goals tonight. So far, I think you're the winner of this first go-round. However, let's agree that if we both MEET our goals, then it's winners all, and chocolate all around!

Chocolate, mmmmmm-yum!


Omigawd, that makes me want to eat the computer screen! :) I had a brilliant idea for sending chocolate. We could send gourmet hot chocolate mix. I mean, you can drink hot chocolate anytime, can't you? With a little schnapps? And whipped cream on top? I can make myself drink that to be polite. Har! You?

Quantum Corsets

Well, shoot. I wanted to get them side-by-side, but can't do it. I wanted them BOTH in the title block of the blog but couldn't do that either!
I used Firefox to noodle around, as it gives me a few more options than Safari, but still nowhere near as many as you have.
How do I shrink pics and move them around? Is there a button? No button.... I just dragged and grabbed corners and pulled them in. Let's see how this looks after I publish it.
Looks great... but I can't grab and pull. Oh well!
-- ann

3.5 Days to Go....

Mother Naggy wants to know how you ladies are doing. You're halfway through the week ... Now, am I going to have to nag you NEXT week as well?? Here's a quote to nudge you both forward:



"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."
A. A. Milne

Ignore the laundry. Focus on your tasks. Discovery awaits.

Love,
Your Mother

A most "toothsome" thanks to Mother Naggy!

"Went dental" yesterday... narrowly averted root canal. Lesson: Listen to your body when it says "ow!" and don't put it off!

Ladies!

Get. On. It.

What seeeeeeeeeeems to be the problem?

Mother Naggy releases a BIG sigh.

When you get to heaven (or your afterlife of choice)...

OK, yes, I did copy the image from here
http://7deadlysinners.typepad.com/sinners/2006/11/in_heaven_you_g.html
But it was perfect for the moment. I just know your kitties had a wonderful life with you...
Hold the memories and give your other "babies" an extra hug tonight!

Sniff. Oh, thanks. That is really nice. Sob. Now I better work on getting to heaven so I can see all my little ones again. It's looking a little iffy given some of the things I've said to the H.P. of late. No not Harry Potter. Higher Power. LOL. Snort. ;)

Headache...

I'm baaaaaack... but with a nasty headache/borderline migraine (see image above)! Must be all that hospital coffee I imbibed during the past five days.
Thanks for the purple health-rays... The kid is home from the hospital and recovering nicely. Thank goodness for modern antibiotics ... although they may have led us to this particular problem, i.e., antibiotic-resistant staph infection.
Hoping tomorrow will see me back to writing!
How goes it with you, Nag Sister? Started that editing project yet???

Dani Goals - Week of July 16

Dang that going back and re-reading old BIW stuff. I'm going to read those 50 pages this week even if the temperature hits 150. Over 100 again today. Blech. Heat is a fine procrastination tool. Why do I have such a hard time reading my own stuff?

My other goal is to have a pretty good draft of the Virtual Book Tour eBook by the weekend.

Exercise as temperature allows. I think I'll take advantage of the heat by having three raw food days, heavy on the veggies. Hard to eat more than 1,000 calories doing that. And it really helps my digestion getting a regular break from all the mish-mash. (Like the Himalayan buffet at lunch yesterday.) I feel yet another eBook coming on.... the Every Other Day Diet. They should just pay me big bucks to spew out ideas. :)

Hope your first-born is better!

Hope everything is looking better!

Here are some major violet (and golden) light beams to help along the way.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{eHugs}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Ann's Daily Report

Writing:
Goal - 30 pages
Monday - 6 pages
Tuesday - 2 pages
Wednesday - 2 pages
Thursday - 3 pages
Friday -
Saturday -
Sunday -
Grand Total

Walking:
Goal - 7 miles
Monday - 1.2 miles
Tuesday - NADA! argh!!! .... hope to do better tomorrow....
Wednesday - 1.93 miles.... now, to WRITE
Thursday - 1.37 (I love pedometers...)
Friday -
Saturday -
Sunday -
Grand Total

Editing/Rewriting:
Goal - 30 pages
Monday - ZEEERO
Tuesday - ummmmm.......
Wednesday - errrrrrrrrr.....
Thursday - hmmmmmm.... (this is going nowhere)
Friday -
Saturday -
Sunday -
Grand Total

Dani's Daily Report

Week of July 9, 2007

Writing :

Goal - 30 pages

Monday - 2 pages

Tuesday - 9 pages

Wednesday - 4 pages

Thursday - 1 stinkin' page

Friday - 4 pages I had to give up

Saturday - zip

Sunday - zip

Grand Total - 20 pages

Exercise:

Goal - 7 miles

Monday - 1.o miles with reel mower

Tuesday - 1/2 hour yoga with Lilias

Wednesday - 1/2 hour yoga ... argued about walking - took lots of energy!

Thursday - 1/2 hour yoga .... no walk due to thunder, lightning, and squalls!

Friday - 1.6 miles and now I'm going to do a little yoga

Saturday - not enough to count

Sunday - too hot

Grand Total - Not enough!

Reading/rehashing:

Goal - 50 pages

Monday - 0 pages

Tuesday - Zip

Wednesday - Nada - procrastination, pro-cras-tin-a-a-tion is making me wait... keeping me wa-a-a-i-tin' .....

Thursday - Sigh

Friday - Sacre Bleu! I cannot make myself do this. A Republican donation here??

Saturday - Zippety do-da Better read a lot tomorrow!

Sunday - Oh, geez

Grand Total - 0 and MMB (Major Mental Block)

Can you go in and edit the title window for me?? Thanks!! Now it's working again. Go figure. Also, I've clicked on "post options" and changed the date so that this post will be "on top" during the whole week. That way, if you have your post set up like this, we can just go in and update the same window throughout. Make sense?

Daily Inspiration

There are two kinds of pain in the world, the pain of discipline and
the pain of regret. The pain of discipline weighs ounces. The pain
of regret weighs tons.

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in." Andrew Jackson

There's no writing like colorful writing! Hooray!

This from a daily organizer e-mail I get:

Make a vow to yourself, another person, or post to members of an
online group for one specific thing you have been procrastinating
about. Include a consequence and a time schedule. Sample: "I will
deal with one pile of papers (designate the pile) by such and such a
date or I will donate to a cause I hate."

Shall we post some goals and if we don't do it, we have to contribute to the Republican Party?? That should get me motivated to clean-up! Edit! Write! Clean toilets!!

Me and meme

Eight things that most people don't know about me:

1. I hate to write

2. My ultimate career goal is to be a full-time philanthropist

3. I never met my real father

4. I know how to cut glass

5. My favorite part of gardening is harvesting seed

6. I once tried to get a job as a makeup artist for a mortuary

7. I was born and raised in Germany and I still consider it my heart home

8. I have 22 cats

And this is the author photo for the BIW blog interview. I had to

show off the BIC HOK TAM mug. I call this photo Plotting My Next

Move Or Is It Moving My Next Plot?

Too wordy, you think? Snort!

The Stinkin' Title...

Still no stinkin' title window that works after changing the template twice! ARgggh.


... and I can't do this in a different color, or bold, or anything. Guess I'll do the titles, and you can do special effects! ;-)

Embarking on a journey ...

Every stride is a step on the journey...
Even if it's just a walk around your house, down the lane, or across the field! So, how far did you walk today? I've done .6 mile, and will do one more such round after dinner (and will report back!)
Every word is a step on the journey ...
How many did you write today? Did you reach your goal? Every word counts! Even these! :-) (See my comment to your post below...)

Truckin' on and naggin' as I do so ...
Your three-dot Nag Sister

Aborning - (while) being produced or born.

Not even the slightest labor pains yet today. Better go walk.

Still no stinkin' title window that I can use. I may have to change the template to something less cantankerous. What do yout think?

Hereby are my official Nag Sister daily goals for this BIW:
• Walk one mile a day (or equivalent)
• Write five pages, rough draft of book #3
• Read/tweak five pages of rough draft (starting at the beginning of book #3)



... Succeed, or stab me with a quill pen! (ouch!)

... Finishing the draft of this book by end of year (or earlier!) would be marvelous...

-- ann

I rather like this tandem.... more like a double-decker tricycle.

So you don't get an image size choice.... small, medium, or large.... in the photo upload window? Bummer.

Here's an idea .... how about if you check out Nag Sisters at a library computer? Just to see the differences.

The last post looked good though. I got it in my mailbox. Are you getting this post in your mail? I can change that back if it's too dang annoying.

Tomorrow, Sis! BIC HOK TAM! Are ya ready??

I'm already dreading pouring out more drivel. I have to force myself to read at least ten pages a day of crap I've typed in previous BIWs. So here's the goal again:

Read ten pages of crap

Type five pages per day

Walk one mile or = per day. Yeah, biking five miles ought to be about the same as a mile of walking. Snort! I'm doing yoga again. It's very depressing. I can't even do a half-lotus and even worse, if I stay on the ground too long, it's difficult to stand up. Is that scary, or WHAT?????

Signing in case we ever have more than two Nag Sisters,

Dani

Of corsets and sometime-corpses

Arg! Sounds like your weather is about like ours. It's been above 100 for days... yesterday, though, we had a break (85) and today I'm hoping for same.
My back is still giving me problems... maybe I need a "superstructure," a la Inez, such as the one on the left!
I finally drilled down through setting and various "help" things to find out Safari isn't supported on all the nifty stuff. I need Mozilla to do all that. I can't even figure out how to re-size the images, dang!
Good luck with the soldering job.... try to stay cool.... with a fan, perhaps? Many breaks for cool libations? Here's hoping with a little Nag Sister nagging, a tall glass of iced tea or two, and a cool shower at the end of the day, you feel more like the fellow above! (he must've had his iced green tea this morning ... look at that aura!)

Five miles, wow! I don't know what's going on with your post window.... did you go into "settings" to see what you could see? I just changed so we can have a comments link but it doesn't seem to be appearing. And I can't type anything into the post title window yet. Blech

ANN PARKER CYCLES FIVE MILES! Wow, that's headline news. :)

I gardened yesterday, but that's about it. It was just to flippin' hot. Today I have to solder stained glass. The Pieta window. I feel

about like this corpse.

Different templates? Oh my aching back!

Elsie Palmer! How nice to meet you!
Wouldn't she be lovely in the book though ... although maybe I can just use the photo for inspiration.

Bicycled 5 miles today... does that equate to 1 mile of walking? And now my back is killing me!

OK, I think your template must look different from mine. I'm using Safari (maybe not the optimum ... but all I have). I see "check spelling", the little photo button for inserting an image, and that's all, except for "preview" way off the right. There's a whole range of things I can't do, like (sniff) colors, bold, italic and such.

I don't really want to be in the book.... I'm too young you know, and it would be stretching artistic license a bit. But you really should go stay at the Castle and go up into the canyon at least once. Mother hated it, but we loved traipsing around up there. It was much nicer than England, really, because we didn't have the dreadful rain.

Well, that is all I have to say about it. Delighted to be here.

Most sincerely,

Miss Elsie Palmer

The Queen Bee.... oh, let me guess where this is going! A few modern ranchwomen could take this quote of hers to heart:

"...Women should remember that all the evils of society are caused by the bad management of men, and women are greatly to blame for folding their hands and permitting this state of things," declared the Antelope in 1880.

She had NO idea how things would turn out!

Poor Madame X .... do you know the story behind that? Her reputation was MUD after that painting was unveiled. But it is a great depiction of the other side of Inez! Striking woman without being a common beauty... class and intelligence is definitely there.

That reminds me.... are you doing anything more with Palmer? I went to the Glen Eyrie website and they had some interesting trumped-up story about him at the Glen Eyrie website . I think it's in the "about us" section under history of the castle. Also go look at the Madrigal section under holiday events. I want to do that for my birthday and spend the night, then if the weather's nice, hike into Queen's Canyon.

(As an aside, I just looked up Madame X at Wiki, and they mention a novel entitled Strapless that I'm now curious about.)

I get the live url by typing what I want, highlighting the words I want to link, then clicking the icon that looks kind of like a green earth with bull's horns. Just to the right of the font color change icon that looks like six multi-colored boxes with a Big T. It's in that same strip with the photo icon, see it? Be sure you're in compose mode, top right.

I'm having trouble with the Title window.... can't seem to type in it. Blogger definitely has its quirks from day to day. Also, did you notice that I changed the blog so you have to sign in to read it? I don't think the world needs to see it, and we can invite others in if we want. Don't you think?

The light and dark sides of Inez...

I've always loved the painting of the all-in-white Mrs. Henry White ... what a nice image of the "light side" of Inez. I DO think that Sargent's Madam X could be her "dark side." All she needs is a hidden pocket for the Remington Smoot No. 2 pocket revolver.


The cleaning of the room proceeds slowly. I need to dash to the library first! I'm looking for information on Caroline Nichols Churchill (http://tinyurl.com/3czfbv). I wish I could "link" the url, but can't figure out how to do this on my Mac!


Also, I tried to stack the two images one on top of the other w/out much success... is there a trick to that? (I seem to be able to drag them around, but the only other way is to insert the picture, then type, then insert another pic, then continue to type after that. Once you've published the photos, it's harder to edit the post.)

-- Ann

My Writing Room

And here's my office.... lovely, no? Alas, this picture is from the last time it was somewhat orderly - roughly one year ago. Now, I barely can enter the room because it's turned into major storage and hidey-hole. I found a basket of laundry today I didn't know existed. Suddenly, my wardrobe has expanded.... and I have new sheets. Snort. How's it going with your clean-up?

When I walk into my office, it feels like this!

OK... this isn't REALLY my office, but it's close, in style and content (only my walls aren't orange!). I found this and other great "messy office" images at Mess in the Room .

Something MUST be done. And before Monday and BIW. Oh, where are the hired help when one needs them?? ;-)

-- A despairing Nag Sister (and how'd you change the comments on the right??)

Nag Sisters

Are you reading their comments to the right? :)

Jeeez okay!

Talk about packin' heat! I believe you even without the loaded gun. Speaking of heat, close to 100 here today. You? Now to really lay on the heat. I figure if you write 5 pages a day, five days a week, you can finish the third book in four months. And edit in November before the holidays, and B*I*N*G send it to your editor before the year is out. So now your favorite fan asks you, how long from that point before the book is ready to buy? So I can keep my calendar clear at that crucial time in 2008.

Har! It sounds so easy peasy in the 'magination, doesn't it?

Now off to get some more good pics ...... good luck with getting the writing room in shape. I can't bring myself to open the door in mine right now .... it's become unfortunate storage space.

OK pardner. I'm in for 30 pages next week.
Am I bluffing?? Or is it real?? We'll see when the cards are dealt!
-- Ann

Dropping by for a visit

Wishing you both a wonderful week of writing in the near future. I'll be looking forward to spending some time with you, Ann. Now that you're taking a "gamble" with your writing career. :)

Love,

Inez

Hey where are you?

Aren't we supposed to check in sort of daily?

So how about Paradise Lost - The Diary of Inez Stannert . She asks rhetorically and danglingly..... as a blog name? Talk about anonymity. And promotion potential.

comments

I don't understand the comments problems since I have it programmed for comments allowed. Sigh. And I'm noticing that I don't have a color icon above either. Let me go check the compose mode above and see if it's in there. Yep, there it is. Okay, now I'm off to Colorado Springs for the day. First I'll go see who won the book! Cheerios!