I think I'm ready. Most everything is clean, and what isn't can get cleaned tomorrow while the rolls rise and everything bakes up nice. Going to be my mom, 2 sons, and one son's partner, plus my husband and friend here.

And now going to do Last Out and Treats and go to bed.

I am being distracted from writing by the need to plan and cook and host Thanksgiving. I like cooking, and I like feeding people good food, so this is a favorite holiday for me.

Walking around in the yard watching the dogs...figured out that stepsibs in my world are called your cord-brother or cord-sister, cause of the marriage cord tied around the wrists of your parent and their new spouse.

Also, Opal killed a squirrel today, and I had to deal with the corpse.

First snow in IN. Sgt. Pickles wants to go out every 30 minutes to see if it is still snowy, cold, and dark. I think he thinks that if he keeps checking, one of these times the door will open into summer.

More writing today, but I am going to make my map tonight. I vow it. Basic map. Really. So I know what is where in relations to what.

I like writing things that people can relate to. The point of the story isn't that she gets magic; it's that she had a terrible mother and has to learn boundaries and assertiveness. So many of us can relate to that, and perhaps find some healing through my work, even though it's "fiction"

I did not know it would be so fun to write a guy crying in his beer about how he's So Hard Done By when he largely brought it on himself. Complete with barmaid who DGAF and a couple other dudes who point out if you pay your bills, this shit doesn't happen to you. (giggle) TONS of fun.

Despite the best efforts of my dogs, I got a 2100 word chapter out today. Yes, I am one of those people who has the muse periodically shit on my head as I try desperately to type fast enough.

They like to wait until I pause to pick the correct word and then give a loud BARK behind me.

I've been ducking it for a bit, but I need to settle down and do some mapmaking. After all, if the caravan does regular trips between city A and city B, I better know how far that is, terrain, and likely problems.
I'm a writer not an artist, but the map is just for me, so that's okay.

In the "weird stuff authors look up", today I was looking up howler monkey calls to use them as an area sound attack. Debuffs attention and focus and buffs fear, I think!

I think I'm going to have to rewrite the caravan bit from memory. That's okay cause I was going to make changes anyway. It's all good.

Got the assassination and aftermath written. I know I wrote a bit about MC joining the caravan, and I can't find it anywhere. That's the problem with writing snippets and joining them up.

A little more expansion and putting in some larger prewritten bits, and book 2 has happened!

Had a really good time with Older Son talking through the attempted assassination I'm doing. He had a lot of good points and ideas and I will definitely be working on that tonight.

After Mr. "I want to go out back and bark at the wind" finally settles down. (eyeroll)

We took both Sgt Pickles, the brindle pit/hound mix and Opal, the Staffy/boxer mix, out for a walk today. Sgt is learning to walk on a leash, as opposed to galloping at full speed, nose down ears off. Opal is learning to walk on a leash instead of hiding between human ankles. Good for all of us!

I'm a migraineur. Which means that if anything changes in my environment or body, my body thinks the appropriate response is a migraine. I'm pretty careful about food and good sleep, but I can't do anything about weather fronts.

So no writing today. Lots of dark rooms.

Writing for me happens in fits and starts. Sometimes I'll just sit down and write an entire scene off because I SEE it, and sometimes I leave the file open and get it in sentence by sentence between making lunch, cleaning, and letting the dogs in and out and in and...yeah. Opal and Pickles in sun.

Hi! I'm Alexandra Stewart, an author and reader living in Central Indiana, in the USA. I live with my husband and our best friend,who will be referred to as Husband and BrainNinja, respectively. We are owned by two cats (Jeoffrey and Nyx)
and two dogs (Sgt. Pickles and Opal.)