Vivienne's Adventures

My favorite season of the year always switches between fall and spring. I love the cheerfulness of new things growing after winter has abated, but I also adore being bundled up in sweaters, scarves, and blankies, sitting by the fire in the rainy season, typing away at a story.  Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month, is always in November, at the height of the wet and dreary season here in the Pacific Northwest. In other words, it's perfect for finding a cozy spot to sit and write. I'll be talking about Nano more later, but I am getting excited about the season, because fall means harvest festivals, midnight corn mazes, pumpkin pie, and stories! It's a season of change, and though plants are dying and trees end up naked, it's also a time to celebrate with family and friends and cherish those around us.  A lot has happened in the past year, but 2021 isn't over yet, and there's still time to make memories and stories! I'm also particularly excited to take ...

We've all heard it said that resting is important, but American society isn't really built for that. We're all so busy, busy all the time, rushing here and there, that taking time for ourselves seems wrong, seems selfish. But we also keep talking about how tired we are, how badly we want a vacation, how much we wish we could just sleep in. I've been lucky the last year and a half. I usually have a busy week with a few days here and there where I get to sleep in and do things at my own pace. But it can be hard to let yourself do nothing when you have free time, and take time to actually relax. So, my advice. You're important, you're worth taking care of. A lot of my friends and family are always there, taking care of others, and there's nothing wrong with that. But we gotta take time and care for ourselves, too. So remember to take some time, do something fun, do something to relax, or let yourself just do nothing for three hours. It's ok. We all have lim...

So, I got something over the weekend that I get to keep forever! Well....till I die, anyway. I got a tattoo to remind myself to keep going, keep learning, keep doing my best to be a safe place for people who need it. I also wanted to point back to my Celtic ancestry a little bit, because as someone whose parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on, are American, I never really got much of a sense of where we came from as a family. I chose the trinity knot partly because it's very well known among the Celtic knots, it's gorgeously simple, and it holds layers and layers of meanings. Overall, I had a wonderful, busy weekend, and I'm looking forward to working on something to share in October! ^_^ I have a few things that are coming up that could go nowhere, or it could start something new and interesting. No way to tell for sure until later. That's the fun, though, I think. It's in trying something new that we keep learning.

Goals and dreams go nowhere without a plan. That's what I've been learning and working on this year. There are things I want to accomplish, places I want to get, certain achievements I want to reach for myself. One of the biggest of these is wanting to become a published author. I know, big surprise from me, haha!  But do you know how hard it is? It's real freakin' difficult. I didn't know where to start, at the beginning of all this. I've only recently (in the last year or two) even figured out what I should be doing. Having a game plan is great, but if you never act on it, it doesn't take you anywhere. But I've been working with my aunt to keep myself going. Since we settled on that arrangement, I've written a lot more, sent my first book to an editor, and actually reached out to a friend about designing the cover art for when the book is closer to being published. Oh, and I've looked at publishers and made a short list of places to actually se...

Sometimes you just need a little plant therapy. My sister Remy has been doing a lot of indoor gardening, and she has one corner of her apartment full of green growing things. They're really pretty. Today, while the kiddo took a nap, we went out and planted one thing, got cuttings of another thing, and put them in a small pot. Remy has this whole setup and it's really cool. I know next to nothing about plants, beyond some names.  But there's nothing quite so satisfying as taking some clippers and trimming the overgrown hedges in the front. Gosh, it felt like playing with a massive bonsai tree. I don't have much experience trimming things back, but I think I did a pretty good job. We got the ivy off the sidewalk, trimming the hedges, and the Little One "helped" me sweep everything up. (What he considered helping was actually stealing the broom and then being all cute for the neighbors.) Sometimes we need a little break, and sometimes we end up making things look...

 We're finally in my favorite season of the year! It's near the end of September, and that means corn mazes, Halloween, and Nanowrimo! I love dressing up, I love wandering around a corn maze, trying to find the correct path in the dark with friends, and I love the insanity of trying to write a full novel in a month. It's the adventuring into the unknown that makes it so exciting! That, and escaping the normal. Come October, I'll be trying to dress up pretty much all month. ^_^ Until then, I'm currently halfway through book two in my series, and I'm not sure if I'll finish this rewrite before November. I have the time, I'm not sure what my motivation will actually look like. But! I think I've figured out what I'll be writing for November. One of my lovely characters rearranged my series a bit over the summer, so I think I'll save Nano for her. (She decided to add a book between #3 Zarath'gar's Curse, and #4 The Glorified Treasure Hunt....

This week is gonna be a busy one! I have the kiddo this week, I have appointments, and I also have to write up what I'm going to talk about next month at the writer's meeting, and start figuring out stuff for October and November. Oh, and I will have a surprise for you all next Monday, but until then, please enjoy this picture of a distracted Vivi who's pleased with how her makeup turned out for once.  The closer we get to October, the more I'm getting excited for my ten to fifteen minute talk. I really hope that some of the things I've found that work for me help others and encourage them. But I'm also fighting that inner voice that says I'm not qualified enough to talk, I don't know enough to be a speaker at our monthly meetings, no-one's gonna care what little I have to say, and so on and so forth. But...there's still a big enough part of me that doesn't care and won't listen to that voice. (It's still there.) That voice won't...

I know things are still tough for people right now, and I don't want to ignore that. The pandemic is still here, people are stressed, cautious, or unbelieving, and there's a lot going on. I've recently been thinking about how all of this is affecting us, and none of us are immune to all the crap that's going on. Everyone has a different experience, different situation, different opinions. It's a lot. But, this does give us the opportunity to recognize that we may want to take a step back, find a quiet space to rest and recover a bit. We don't have to agree with everything, we don't need to know everything, all the time. We are just as important as the people we love, and taking time to ourselves is Not a bad thing. Sometimes it's necessary. I make a habit to retreat to one of my happy places so that I get time for myself, where the distractions are few and the coffee is tasty. I know its hard, especially for us lovely neurodivergent people, but taking a ...

  So, as most of you probably know by now, my nephew is my favorite person in the world. I love this kiddo and it's so fun to watch him learn and grow. Like, seriously! I've always been one of those people who loves babies and will volunteer to babysit, and I dearly love those children. I'm also involved in the nursery at my church, and I love it! But it's something else entirely when the little one is your sister's baby. I'm his auntie--and he can finally say 'auntie'! It's the cutest! I have such a special relationship with the Little One, and he's always so excited to see me. ^_^ Even though I'm the 'adult' teaching the kiddo, I'm still always learning. Learning his personality, likes and dislikes, and learning to make sure I pay attention to the little things. For various reasons, haha! Sometimes we take something for granted but the Little One is utterly fascinated by that same thing. Sometimes we don't think about a part...

Hello everyone! I took an unexpected week off, since everything was wibbly wobbly and I was so busy the first half of the week that I needed the other half to recover. But I'm more energized now, and ready to go! Last week was a lot, but it wasn't bad. This week started off on the right foot because I got to see my nephew and got all the snuggles, got to hold a one month old baby girl at church (she's so tiny! <3) and last night was the first in person meeting for my writers group! The writers meeting was fantastic! It was so good to see people in person again! Even though we were all masked, it was nice to catch up with people I haven't seen in person for what feels like two years. (The pandemic turned time into soup, therefore, time no longer makes sense haha) I also got my grandfather involved with the group and he's now on the board with me, and we were there early. It felt just like old habits in my family: get to the event first, and be the last to leave. I...

So, I want to actually work on a query letter so that I can get my books published, but among other things, I need to be able to talk about comparable books. Comparable books, published within the last five years. All this is fine and well and good....but all the books I want to use are older than five.  So I put together a list of at least 15 books that have been published (some super recently) and collected them from Kindle or the library so that I could read books and see what I could use for comps. On the one hand, yay books! On the other hand, it still feels like I'm procrastinating working on the query letter. Sometimes brains are weird and you end up with conflicting emotions over something that would seem otherwise simple to anyone else. But you know, we do our best and when one thing doesn't work, try something else to get the overall thing done. It may look like taking a detour or a step back, but the overall project will get done in the end. ^_^

I've been looking back quite a bit recently, and while it's not necessarily a bad thing, I don't want to get in the habit of it for too long. Moving forward is important. Now that I've become a lot more comfortable with who I am, and become more used to being on meds, it's time to start making strides towards what I want, otherwise I'mma be stuck for a long time. I don't want that. But it's hard! Sometimes it's a pain in the neck trying to figure out what it is that you want, and even harder to get there. But I've got two goals right now. I want to move out and get a place of my own, and I want to get my book published. Sounds easy right? So much goes into each of those, though! Like, there are so many things! I need to make more money than I do now, I need to build up my credit, find a roommate, etc, etc. On the other side of things, getting published is really complicated and takes one heck of a long time. Right now, I'm looking at my optio...

Growing up, my sister and I were really close to my cousins. The five of us, me, my sister, my cousin and her sister and brother, formed a tight group that would play dress up, put on plays for our parents, and make up games all the time. We spent a lot of time outdoors and in trees.  Growing up past that, however, things changed, as they're wont to do. Currently, my sister is married with an adorable kiddo, my oldest cousin has two girls and is going through some tough life situations, but I've been able to play DnD with her for the past year or so? (Time is soup.)  Her brother is on a road trip in the van he lives in. It seems he's happy and doing well, and I've stayed in contact with my oldest cousin, but her sister?  I've been lax, and I haven't done a good job of staying in touch with her. I really don't know what's going on in her life, but I hope she's doing well. I just found out (kind of out of nowhere) that she just released a song! Like, s...