Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!!

Hello, it's only me!!

Yes, I know it's been a while, but I'm still around. Never has there been a more apt blog title than 'Princess of Procrastination'...(and that's a major understatement).

People who know me know just how notoriously BAD I am at keeping up with stuff. I'm pretty sure I have a defective gene when it comes to keeping to a schedule. There are lots of genuine reasons for the lack of blog posts (my full time job, health stuff, lack of inspiration etc), but mostly it's just a case of good old (or bad old) procrastination. I've taken some steps to try and help with this, though.

Book One of The Furry Tale Chronicles

The biggest step was deciding to lay to rest my other blog. I had the best of intentions when I created my Furry Tales Chronicles blog. I wanted to keep my book stuff separate, and continue with the sillies on THIS blog. Trouble is, I can't keep up with one blog, never mind two, and knowing I was neglecting two blogs just made me feel a bit overwhelmed. I'll be posting a short note over there to redirect anyone who stumbles across it over here. I had deleted it initially, but then I realised that the web address is advertised on my publisher's website AND in my 'about the author' notes in my Crimson book. (Duh). But after my little note, there won't be anything new posted over there.

You'll notice that I've added some page tabs at the top of the page. These are just to include the information that was listed on my other blog (see, I did the job properly!). I'm going to do my very best to blog every Monday or Tuesday over here. My usual silliness, most likely (of course!), peppered with personal stuff, and book related stuff as and when there is anything interesting to tell.

Of course, it is January, the month where most people decide to give themselves a kick up the butt, so it's probably no surprise that I decided NOW to be a bit more proactive in my fight against procrastination. But despite 2013 being a GREAT year for me (two books released - yay!), it was also a bit of a sucky year as well. My health hasn't been great, my writing projects received little to no attention, my finances have been skewered, and I've struggled to keep my episodic depression at bay.

I'm determined to do better this year. I want at least one more book under my belt by the end of 2014, and hopefully I can get another novella released, too. I've already been working on SOUL IDENTITY (my epic fantasy), which I plan to publish under my real name when it's eventually finished (most of you know that I publish under a pen name for my romances). And the second of my Furry Tale Chronicles book is well under way. Looking good, so far!

Wedding Wake up call: My son, my daughter, me, & my step-daughter.

My last bit of personal stuff for today is a public declaration of my intention to lose weight this year. You may remember that I lost a whopping 42lbs a few years ago. Unfortunately (as so often happens with us chronic dieters), I put every last pound back on again. *sighs* I did make an effort last year and managed to lose (and keep off) 14lbs, but I gave up far too quickly. Today is the day that I start my new plan. Doctors would tell me that I need to lose 45-50lbs to fall in the 'healthy range', but I'm hoping for a more realistic loss of 30lbs for the time being. That would be put me at around the same weight that I was three years ago, and you know, it felt... nice... not too thin, but definitely not fat. I was recently a bridesmaid for my sister in law, and it was looking at the pictures that gave me the kick up the butt that I needed. Of course, I knew I'd put on weight, but there is nothing like seeing a picture of yourself where you think you look OK, and seeing just how big you've become, to shock you into action. Oh, I know I'm not monstrously huge, but if I'm cringing at the picture, then it's a sure sign that it's time to do something.

I'm not brave enough to publicly announce my actual weight, but I will be giving a weekly update on pounds lost (and not gained, hopefully) over the next few months. Accountability helps.

My Christmas novella, released in December

My last bit of news today (sorry for the extremely long post, but you know, it has been a while *snort*), is that IF THE SHOE FITS is now available in paperback! Yay! I'll get to hold my first book baby in my hands! So far it's only popping up in the US (I've seen it both at Barnes & Noble and Amazon), but it should be showing up in the UK (and other countries, via Amazon) over the next few weeks. I'm tentatively thinking about putting my self-pubbed Christmas novella, MEET ME HALFWAY, out in paperback, too, but at the moment that one is still only available through Amazon's Kindle. I'll let you know if and when that changes!

That's it for now! I'll see you next week, when I'll have some news about promotional stuff for IF THE SHOE FITS. *grins*

My Auntie Is Giddy

As in oh my giddy auntie. As in oh my daisies. As in oops. As in *shifty*. As in any and all polite ways of saying the word that rhymes with 'duck'.

My bad. My very bad. My so bad that there should be a personalised definition of the phrase especially for me. It's been two months since I last blogged (I feel like I should have gone to confession to say that, even though I'm not a churchy person). Hmmph.

I'm in the throes of a deep bout of procrastination. Not only have I not blogged, but I haven't done much of anything else either. Except work, try to keep up with the housework (the keyword being 'try' there, because I'm pretty sure the housework is stomping way ahead of me in that particular race), and doing my best to not let the Shingles Beast get the better of me.

Technically I recovered from shingles about six weeks ago, but in reality I'm still feeling the effects of it. To say it knocked me for six would be an understatement. I'm one of the lucky ones; the pain 'only' lasted about a month. I can honestly say that I've never had pain that bad, and that includes childbirth, because childbirth never reduced me to tears (well, it did on my daughter, but that wasn't because of the actual pain, more because I was stressed). The nerve pain that I had with shingles was excruciating. But while that was bad enough, it's the lingering tiredness that I can't quite shake off that is debilitating. I find that I can't do as much as I used to do without feeling exhausted.

None of us are getting any younger, and sure, I can't do what I could do ten years ago, but I find that I haven't got the stamina to do what I was doing ten weeks ago. It's really odd how something as simple as the chicken pox virus can really send you body out of whack.

Anyway, moving on...

I'm gutted I failed the April A-Z. To make it worse, I only failed by three days. I manged to limmerick my way from A-W, then I ran out of steam. So close! Arghh!! I'm pretty sure this embarrassing failure has compounded to my avoidance of my poor, wee blog. In fact, my Writing Mojo is not only blushing, but refusing to have anything to do with me.

And it's not only my Writing Mojo who is shunning me either. My Editing Mojo has a distinct look of disdain on his face, while my Manuscript Read Through Mojo keeps looking at me as if I'd just crawled out from under a particularly nasty rock. Honestly, I'm surpised I'm still alive after all the Daggers of Doom glares that have come my way.

But it's not all bad! No! Indeed, there's been some good stuff in the last two months! While I am mortally ashamed of myself for not finishing a read through of a friend's manuscript, I did recieve her debut book through the post last week (which, by the way, was one of the only original manuscripts that I have ever managed to fulfil my read through promise with, even if I was late with it *shifty*). My good friend The Watery Tart (aka Tami Hart, aka Hart Johnson, aka Alyse Carlson), was officially a published author earlier this month. Yay! *sends subliminal 'go buy it' thoughts to the world at large*

It's very cool to own a book that was written by a friend. *nods* I haven't read it yet (well I have, in it's original form, but not in this form), but I did open the book and have a *squee* moment when I discovered that not only is it cool to have a published author for a friend, but it's also cool to recognise other friends in the acknowledgments. *squees again*

My friend on my bookshelf.  So to speak.

I also discovered a new obsession in the last two months. I finally got around to reading some books by an author who was recommended to me ages ago. Now, I'm a Book Slut and will read almost anything, but every now and again a series will come along that really grabs at me. This doesn't happen very often - I can name the  Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings series, and Salvatore's Dark Elf books as the only examples - but now I have another series to add to my elite list. Robin Hobbs books, specifically her books telling the story of FitzChivalry Farseer and his friends. Loved, loved, LOVED these books. Loved them so much, in fact, that my FanFic Mojo is currently emerging from exile, rubbing his hands together and seriously thinking of flexing his writing muscles.

Some new friends.

In other news, my newest additions to the family (two bearded dragons going by the names of Pinky and Perky), have been busy beardies indeed. Pinky has so far laid 50 eggs in the last two months - 21 in the first clutch, 29 in the second), and judging by her frantic digging, and overall scatty behaviour of the last couple of days, there's a third clutch on the way. So far none of the eggs have been viable, but it's still cool to say that I have dragon eggs in my house (that'll be the geek in me).

Lastly, there has also been two birthdays in the Smith household this month. The Hubby was [undisclosed age due to self-preservation] on June 11th, while my eldest child turned sixteen yesterday. If ever there was a reason to feel old, it's when your children are closer to the age of twenty than you are.


Oh my giddie auntie indeed.

All images self-taken.

*is alphabetting*

Or maybe that should be 'Twenty Six Ways To Waste Time When You Should Be Doing Other Things', but that doesn't fit very well between asterisks, and it is also far too long for a title, so *is alphabetting* it is (which I like anyway, because I am utilizing my penchant for making up words *nods*).

Recently, a few of my blogging buddies took up the challenge to blog from A - Z (which I thought was a brilliant idea) and I was disappointed that I couldn't join in. I mean, I could have, but my recent track record for blogging hasn't been too good, and I didn't want to commit to anything because I knew that I would most likely end up backing out of it. Anywho, just because I couldn't take part doesn't mean I can't have an A - Z on my blog, right? Especially if I cheat. *shifty* So coming up is an A - Z list of blogs that I have already written. This serves two purposes: one, I get to have fun trying to find old blog posts that correspond with each letter of the alphabet, and two, I get to do a a bit of shameless self-plugging. Issallgood, innit?

Here we go!

A is for asterisks, because I just love 'em.

B is for beer, because it is awesome.

C is for confuzzlegasted, because I love making up words.

D is for Dean Winchester. No explanation required.

E is for 'Ellied', a rather unfortunate circumstance that happens when you get cornered by my daughter.

F is for freaking out (which happens to us all).

G is for ghosts, whether real or imagined.

H is for halloween, my second favorite holiday of the year.

I is for innuendo. Obviously!

J is for jumping on the blogwagon (and fondly remembering my very first blog post).

K is for kinky, because I was desperate to find a blog with something to do with 'k', and couldn''t think of anything else, so I loosely connected. *shifty*

L is for Lamonized Limed Lemons. Because I am insane.

M is for Mojo Moments, because we all have 'em. *nods*

N is for NaNoWriMo, which seems to be a label I use quite often,

O is for openings, and not of the smutty kind.

P is for pointless rambles, which to be fair, could have been the majority of my blog posts. *snorts*

Q is for questionable questions, which as far as I'm concerned are extremely annoying.

R is for rhyming, which I attempt quite often, but don't pull off as well as I would like.

S is for saps, because I definitely fall into the cry-baby category.

T is for Taffing. Youknowzitmakezsense!

U is for Uh-Oh. Because that's what I think when I see the state of my typing.

V is for volcano, because I actually blogged about one. *faints*

W is for writing. Or in this case, a letter to my Writing Mojo.

X is for x-rated. Well, it's not really x-rated, but this was the second letter that I had trouble with when looking for a blog, so I am utilizing the very loose connection angle again. Not exactly x-rated, but something that should be banned. Maybe. I don't know. Ugh, 'x' is really hard!!.

Y is for y-fronts. Unfortunately. *snort* (I don't know if it's because I've gone over the limit of how many links you can fit into one post, or if it's because my laptop is playing up (or indeed blogger is playing up), but for some reason it won't let me shamelessly plug y-fronts. Imagine that! If you would like to read a pants post about pants, this is the link: http://procrastinatewithtundiel.blogspot.com/2009/12/its-all-pants-i-say-pants.html) Hmm, it will let me post a full link, but not a magic link which is hidden within the text.... vewy vewy stwange....


Z is for zzzzzzzz. Because I blogged about sleeping. How convenient!

And here endeth the shameless plugging. Oh, wait, no it doesn't! I have one more plug for you, but this time it's for my writers group. June is our A - Z month, and our website - http://www.the-burrow.org/ - is currently showcasing drabbles inspired by the letters of the alphabet. Drop by every day for a new drabble! And in case you thought we couldn't count, yes, we know there are thirty days in June and only twenty-six letters in the alphabet. That's why we have drabbles inspired by Sundays every, erm, Sunday! *winks*