A poor excuse...I know.

Song of the day: “Ugly” by Maria Mena. It wasn’t a constant, but a funny song anyway. For the rest of the day there was some sort of classical tune in my head that I just can’t identify the composer off. I do know it is used in a lot of movies at balls… 1700s and all that. Vivaldi? Albinoni? I can’t remember.

Today was grocery shopping day, so I’m pretty much running on empty.
I don’t know what it is about this particular task that takes it out of me, since it isn’t necessarily a heavier occupation than…building a wall, for instance…it just does.

I was right on the dot this morning, went to the edit and dealt with fifty pages worth of colons an semi-colons, which is definitely a good editing day for me. Then it was interrupted abruptly, of course, since we had to get ready to head for town where the massive bimonthly grocery-shopping chore had to be done.

We did nine stores…a record, based solely on the fact that we don’t much like the idea of having to go out again for basic stuff for at least another two weeks…and got everything we needed, piled high in the back of the truck in four hours.

Admittedly most of the space was taken up by laundry detergent, which was on sale. We decided to stock up, so now we won’t have to buy the stuff for the duration of summer at least, and saved up to fifteen bucks because of it. Hah.

We also bought a large batch of milk and yogurt, which I made into panir tonight. It’s a rather delightful dish that will be divine tomorrow when we bake it. Making the stuff is rather time-consuming-cook and curdle the milk, pour the mix in hang cloths and then let the moisture drip out until you’ve got beautiful round, cheese-like balls.

The dogs thoroughly enjoyed the leftover liquid and have been drinking it most of the evening. Hah. Luckily, the stuff is incredibly good for their intestines.

Since we rented a few DVDs, we watched the latest James Bond “Quantum of Solace” which wasn’t a bad action flick by any means, but still didn’t feel like a Bond film. I just wish it had held my attention better than it did.

Well, I’m going to turn in early…or at least try to, because I really can’t do today’s Blog justice. Besides, Blog-wise, it’s boring material. A tired writer can do only so much. Hah.

Walk on the beach and some thoughts.

Song of the day: “Our life is gonna change” by Simona Barbeiri. Beautiful! Now, if only I knew the complete lyrics, it would have actually sounded good. Hah.

So, let’s skip the morning rituals (as appears to be par for the course, I’m way behind again, aaargh) breakfast, laundry etc. etc. and jump right into the edit: I completed the new scene for “Saving Nina” which is turning out very well, if I do say so myself.

The one page I was aiming for did turn into four, however, so now the total word count of the manuscript has reached an approximate of 100.000 words (260 pages). This means that it has turned from the standard novel length to a full length, with still twelve pages to edit and thus earning itself another page or two in the process…if I restrain myself, that is.

No matter though: The book won’t be too long until I reach 120K, so I’m safe. Hah. It’s a good scene. It will need an edit…or three, but then it’ll fit into the story just fine. Some technical terms get treated in it, explaining some more about the MPD (or technically correct term DID) patient, and the main protagonist to boot. Good stuff.

We didn’t do any building today, what with our friend coming for a visit. Instead, both sisters and I drove her back home to Puerto Banus and spent an hour walking the beach while we waited for our tenant to finish her rehab.

It was a wonderful day for a stroll on the beach. The water was a bright blue today, the sky clear, the sun warm and the breeze cool. Can’t get any better than that. We walked a mile or two (lots of tourists catching a sunbath) had ice cream and skipped stones on the waves. Considering that it’s been at least ten years since we last walked the beach, it was a rather novel experience.

Our tenant was delighted for the pick-up, in particular because it meant that she wouldn’t have to sit in her uncomfortable wheelchair for hours until the ambulance finally delivered her home.

Since the drive to and from Marbella is rather long, we had a road trip to boot, and we enjoyed the sights of a places we used to visit back in the days when we still vacationed in that particular area. We even passed our old camping, where we spent plenty of winters, living our lives in a trailer. Little sister was actually amazed at how well she remembered everything.

Once back home, little brother is making dinner while big brother and grandpa are putting up the fence on the wall that was built in the past couple of weeks…not the big wall, but the one the younger sibs worked on instead.
It’s a small miracle, but the fence that is taken off the old one, is the exact size they need. Talk about serendipity.

I hang some more laundry, still thrilled at the ease of the washing machine being right there beside the lines, help big brother and grandpa a bit and then head out with them to get a quick load of rocks for today’s gathering session.

We find a particularly nice spot again; lot’s of rocks dismissed in a messy pile that fills up the truck bed really fast. They get added to the large selection at home, at which time we head inside to have dinner: A simple dish of macaroni with sauce and veggies on the side that goes down remarkably well.

Dinner over and done with, big brother and I do a short edit on the new scene…a page and a half at most…and then decide to do a Spanish test, just to see what our level is. Not bad, considering we hardly ever speak the language but still, a little practice won’t go amiss.

I head on up to my cabin where we spent a couple of hours checking books for semi-colons and colons. The “Eats, shoots and leaves” book confused us both, so we go over a massive amount of books to see what they’re really used for.
Like we already figured out from several author sites, they are hardly ever used anymore…which is strange, since colons and the semis add flavor to a story, more than anything.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but now that I think about it, I do miss them and it makes me wonder about something…Could the lack of using these two very distinct symbols explain why stories are becoming rather bland these days? Food for thought.

Break in the usual routine.

Here are some pics of the wall. Yay! Side shot, with that bit of black being Touri (cocker spaniel) snoozing.
Shot from the pool

My cabin and little Adma (pocket Beagle from Oklahoma)

Okay, today's Blog:

Song of the day: “Sweet Goodbyes” by Krezip. Gorgeous song: Sweet, uncomplicated and not bad to have going through your head, actually. Hah.

I’m right on the dot this morning and head down to start the day with a quick write, while big brother and grandpa head out for another load of sand…it’s a four day weekend, so everything will be closed until Monday in the village, grrr.

It doesn’t go bad at all, a page and a half gets added to the scene. It’s a tad slow because I need to check up on a lot of research that I did for this particular sidetrack in the story. I need to double check everything before I put it in the scene, so as not to mess up the plot line later on, but it’s coming along well enough, I’m thinking.

We do neither the read-through nor the rewrite edit today. Instead, we go over choke points, grammar with Word’s spellchecker, remove adverbs and on the overall check inconsistencies in dialogue and dialects belonging to different characters. (Just a few, yay.)
Nothing wrong with a change in the routine, it keeps things fresh most of the time.

Oh, remember yesterdays' excitement with the screaming police cars heading for the village. Well, as it turns out it was a jewelry heist, or some such. Should have checked it out while we passed, darn it. Might have been able to catch a glimpse or two for a book.

Six hours after waking up, we’re heading out into the yard. No building today either. Considering we’ll need to save up on the sand a little, to be able to do something at least in the next four days, another change in the normal routine doesn’t go amiss at all.

On my way out the courtyard, Knight II comes storming in my pursuit, slamming full force into my leg (ouch and lots of swearing, hah) and then stumbling himself when the collision throws him off balance. Poor thing must have gotten down wrong, ‘cause the next time I look at him, he’s limping slightly and sporting a swelling on his right front paw. Serves him right for playing horse, I say.

But anyway…Since we’ve been stocking up on rocks these past few weeks, the piles have become rather unmanageable up in the building section, so, taking this opportunity by heart, we start lugging the majority of it down the mountain, where it won’t be in the way…in the future we’re going to need rocks to build up a fortification under the verandah, which means that at some point ALL those rocks are going to have to be lugged way down the mountain. The thought alone is somewhat daunting.

Little Sita III is dashing about like there’s no tomorrow, properly exhausting herself so she’ll sleep through the night and leave little brother in peace. I made a couple of pictures, so with a little luck I’ll load them up in a day or two.

We make progress, going up and down, up and down, one pile disappearing, only to give a full view of the next, and so on and on. Hah.
For me it is an early wrap-up, however. Dinner’s on me today, so with little sister’s offer to help we head inside to start. The plan is that we’re going for a run while the food is cooking in the oven, so we need to get cracking.

The dish of the day is mushroom pie, and we get the large trays into the oven under one hour, leaving us just barely enough time to wash up, change clothes and hurry on up to the car.

The truck bed is filled with junk that has been stored at the top of the property, so we’re going to have to get rid of that at the landfill and then we’re on our way to our usual spot in the woods to go on our run.

It is a cloudy day. Though the sun is peeping in every once in a while the air is fresh and the atmosphere pleasant when we start out.
I’m still a little weary from yesterday’s somewhat disastrous workout and though I don’t manage the full three miles, I’m close enough to feel somewhat invigorated by the time we return to the car and spent another twenty minutes doing stretches and other exercises to cool down.

The sun is close to setting by the time we return to the house. We didn’t get rocks today, what with it being so late and all, so we arrive at home in time for me to quickly hang laundry…oh my, I only need to take three steps from the machine to the lines. The ease of it makes me almost giddy. No more hauling heavy laundry baskets; just pouring stuff in and tossing it on the table beside the lines while I hang them, from now on. Hah. Best change we made yet!

Dinner is a success. It tastes excellent, and with the carrots little sister made on the side a couple of slices from the mushroom pie fill the gaps in just the right places. Nothing like a good hardy pie after such an active day.

Big brother and I spend another couple of hours going through the read-through edit, adding a few more pages and then midnight has arrived.

Tomorrow should be a calm day, what with a friend coming over for a visit, but we’ll see what happens. Might even manage to fit in a good nature hike. Yay.

Lots happening.

Song of the day: “Temptation” by Wet Wet Wet. Wonder where it came from since I haven’t heard it in years. I used to be a WWW fan, but time passes and tastes change and all that. Maybe it was on the radio this morning, or something. Hmmm.

It was a hurried morning on the most part, considering middle sister has a toothache and grandpa made a dentist appointment for her. Big brother and I hurry our way through getting more basics of the synopsis down and before I know it, it’s time to get ready to drive to town.

On our way down the mountain, several police cars come squealing past, momentarily distracting us, but then we arrive at the office and it is time for middle sister to have her ache removed. It takes almost an hour, but when she appears she has had a local anesthetic and has been treated for an inflamed root canal. She needs another appointment next week.

Minutes later we’re back on our way up and discover that the police we saw coming past have locked down the entire village for traffic. Luckily we don’t actually need to go through there, and take the road that passes around it, curiously trying to catch a glimpse of the streets below that appear to be deserted for some reason.

Strange, but we really can’t imagine what is going on: A terrorist threat? A bank robbery? Or something more inane. Your guess is as good as mine in this case. When we arrive home there is a black car parked in front of the gate, stunning us, really, since we weren’t expecting visitors.

As it turns out, there are two men who’ve come to check up on grandpa. Seeing as he has a state pension, he is not allowed to live together with a “person of interest” without receiving a deduction, but considering that he is a single man with no interest whatsoever in having a romantic liaison with anyone, it is not a problem. The guys are gone in less than five minutes, making us shake our heads at the waste of such a check team.

Here they are, receiving wages and expenses to travel all across Spain from Madrid (an odd 700 miles away) to check up on a seventy-something year old man who gets a minimum pension. Even if he were living together with someone, I doubt that those extra fifty bucks would make up for the wages paid to such a team.

Ah well, their waste of money in the end. For us it is little more than a hiccup in the day, for them it was a near disaster, to even locate our address.
Since it already late, I have a quick lunch of a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches, and then we get started on today’s work with rocks and cement.

I’m back to foundation I made yesterday, and the younger sibs work on their own section while keeping a constant eye on little Sita III, who’s bouncing around in ecstatic bliss most of the day. The majority of the pack treats her with mild indulgence. Some avoid her, and others get downright grumpy whenever she comes near. Hah.

The sun is pretty hot while we work, adding rock after rock to our respective projects, until we need to call today’s session to a halt. Excellent progress, naturally, but since we want to get some exercise in, we really need to stop before well before sunset if we still want to get a new load of rocks.

I help big brother with the last bit of another step he adds to the first stairs he created. While we were working with the rocks, he has been all over place, fitting in a tap for the washing machine and putting the large machine in place on the elevation, I made the other day. He replaces the broken handle of the back lid of the truck bed and helped mom while she tried her hand at tiling the new section of the skimmer for the pool.

Little brother and sister have already headed inside to start on dinner when big brother and I head up to the drive sweep for a quick run up the mountain. There really isn’t time for an actual jog…our tenant needs to be picked up from her rehab session, of course…and we’re just about done when the truck returns, right on the dot.

I barely have time to catch my breath when we depart (still in our sweats) to get a quick load of rocks, before the day is through. I gotta admit that I should have taken a breather, ‘cause by the time we’re done loading, my entire torso is screaming for rest, hah.

More than happy to have a quick dip in the pool, we arrive home, unload the batch and I hurry down to the courtyard to dive in. Cold and wet. It revives me enough to head inside, have dinner (chili sin carne) and then set up the computer for a final hour of editing, before midnight arrives.

Admittedly, we only manage a page or two, considering my eyes literally fall shut throughout the session, but still it is enough to settle my worries about not getting through it fast enough. Fifteen pages to go and we’ll have the rewrite-edit done.

I have a slight sunburn, I’m bone tired, more than eager to get to sleep and I’m done early with today’s Blog. Yay.

A tiny little rant in the middle. Hah.

Song of the day: “Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps” by Mari Wilson (or Doris Day). I love the show with this as the title song, so it’s no surprise that it kept tumbling through my head.

Hmmm. Another busy day I guess. Got a tad too little sleep, but considering we’re on a schedule there really isn’t much helping it. A done deal can’t---well, you get my drift. Hah.

There is the usual morning stuff that goes down this day; the sun is shining brightly even though there are veils of clouds flitting across the sky, and the dogs show their habitual enthusiasm when we head down to the house. Some chores get done, but instead of starting on the edit, I settle down to write.

Last night we had a rather fun idea to add to the story, some more background that will give the reader a nice insight into the male protagonist. While I set to it, big brother and grandpa head out to get a new load of sand for today’s building.

It doesn’t go bad at all, considering I tend to have some trouble shifting into a writing mode while fully set on editing. I actually manage to write out two pages of the new scene in the forty minutes it takes big brother to return with a full truck and enters the house asking me…rather hopefully, I might add…”How’d it go?”
“It’s coming along,” I answer, with a shrug madly continuing to type before the well is depleted.

Ten minutes later it is time to start working on the synopsis we’ve been thinking about for the past week or so. Now, as any writer (at least those I know of) will tell you, synopses are hell to write and so friggin’ annoying that they make me wanna hurl.

Nothing is worse than taking out the bare essentials of a story you’ve slaved over for endless hours, and put them all together in a cohesive and basic sum up…while still keeping it remotely interesting. There is no such thing, really. You can’t really create atmosphere and interesting characters if you have to stick to the basics. It’s just not doable.

We go through the chapter, picking out details and whining about which fact should be added and which should be left out, because not only do editors/agents want it cohesive; no, they want to have the entire story distilled until the life is sucked out of what is intense, passionate, funny or deep.

I honestly don’t get this part of the writing biz. Why would anyone in his/her right mind want an author to bother with such things? You’d think that they’d want you to write beautiful, or exciting, or scary, of funny stories, but no…ya have to diversify and do everything. Heck these days they’re even asking authors if they have a marketing plan. Strange how that works. Nothing against the marketing folks, but seriously, I don’t know…or want to know about marketing. It just isn’t my thing.

But enough of my rant, where was I? Oh yes, distilling the book. Aaaargh. We manage to get most of the first fifteen chapters down, it’s a slow and mind numbing task that makes me want to smash the computer, but what the heck. It needs to be done…apparently.
More than happy to call the task to a halt we head outside to do some building. Yay.
While the younger sibs head to the lower wall, middle sister start mixing cement and big brother starts on another set of stairs, I climb down the first stairwell, into the small yard where a small terrace needs to be built for bushes and flowers.

Rocks need to be moved over…they’re still there, seeing as they’re leftover from “the wall”…a deep gutter needs to be chopped and dug, and a foundation has to be laid. I dig in with fervor, really, my dogs watching from atop the wall with chagrin since they’re not allowed to join me. Poor babies, in the end they figure out they can enter the courtyard and cluster around the fence that surrounds me. Hah.

I get most of the foundation laid when the end of today’s work in the garden has come to an end, and it is time for us to head out to get another batch of rocks. The piles are getting to by mighty high these days, but since we really don’t want to pass up on the opportunity of the rather convenient spot we’ve found, we tear off and start loading up.

Lots of big rocks today, some definitely weighed more than Chaos (my Basset) hah.
They went easy though. Guess all the lifting is paying off, ‘cause now I’m literally tossing eighty pound rocks around. It freaks me out a little, actually. I’ll eyeball the rock, wondering if it’ll be too heavy, shrug, lean down and just try. First, it’ll feel too heavy but then it’ll come up easy as you please. And they just keep getting bigger.

There’s some laundry to be done after we get home and unload the rocks, some messes to be cleaned and dogs to be kept quiet while big brother and grandpa head out for another load before sunset.

Little sister made dinner so I wolf that down and start to prepare for today’s final editing session. We don’t get much done, just a page, but one is better than none, I suppose.

That done, midnight has arrived and I can take my dogs up for the final rituals of the day. I’m a little cross-eyed with fatigue, so I’m thinking I’ll turn in early…if I can. Hah.

Ehm, interview and other stuff.

I just saw that my very first official Interview is out with Joey Pinkney, a reviewer who also does interviews with his authors. Rather strange to see your own face on someone else's page this way.
Here's the link for those who want to check it out: 5 min. 5 questions interview.


Song of the day: “The boy does nothing” by Alesha Dixon. Strange song, but sorta catchy.

I’m going to keep this as short as possible, seeing as I’m dreadfully late again. I don’t get it…I don’t really mind, but having to say it every day is getting to be a tad boring, isn’t it?

There are the usual chores, breakfast; dog stuff…the little pup is doing grand, by the way, already fully attached to little brother and sister…and an excellent four page edit that brings us through the first section of the day.

Rather than build on any of the walls today…thank God the big one is done already…we decide to work in the courtyard for now. As it turns out the washing machine burst a tube again, so figuring that we’ve had enough of it, we decide to create an elevated section in the courtyard where the machine can make a mess to it’s heart’s content in the future.

First, there’s laundry to take down. It’s a pleasantly warm day again, with a warm breeze so the big load has dried quickly. Mom and I fold it so there is room to work in the courtyard.

Then, an old closet needs to be removed, because, let’s face it; we haven’t even looked in the thing for years and spend over an hour removing what appears to be a cluster of old rat nests. Aaargh. So gross, how those critters literally destroy everything to make their mess.

Finally, we get everything cleared and loaded up on the back of the truck. Middle sister makes a nice batch of cement by hand and then starts clearing out more mess to lug out to the car. While big brother and grandpa head to one of our rentals to repair a water main leak, so I wile away the time fixing up an old table so if we want to edit and don’t like to be distracted by the TV we can settle in the courtyard.

An hour later…I hate the way preparation takes so much time that you can’t get a lot done…we can start with the actual work of the day.
With large concrete blocks, scavenged from the property by grandpa, I build up a small square in the corner. Big brother repairs the new damage in the washing machine, the younger sibs clear out the pantry that was once again flooded and mom helps out by hosing down the spills from the emptied closet.

The afternoon rapidly draws to an end and we head on out to bring the junk away and get a new load of rocks. It goes remarkably fast today (little sister is with us too) and we have the truck bed full in less than fifteen minutes. Once back home, unloading the truck goes just as fast and we head inside to have a quick snack.

Big brother and I do another edit (the read-through one, rather than the rewrite of this morning), this time in the courtyard so we won’t be distracted by the TV, and add another three pages to today’s quota.

It’s around midnight when we call it a night and I head on up to my cabin to feed the dogs and get online for a bit of relaxation. Not a minute wasted today, which carries a certain amount of satisfaction, I’ll admit.

Hah! Just one page. I’m so proud.

Emotional Roller Coaster: WHY?

No particular song in my head today…I don’t know if I should see it as a good sign or not.

The day starts off weird…or at least it feels that way. I wake up half an hour late, due to the fact that the alarm doesn’t go off…I don’t know why, I did set it last night and when I check it is in the on position, so something is definitely wrong.

I hurry on through the morning rituals and then head for the house to quickly hang the laundry. What with the storm during the night, everything is wet outside, including the laundry that failed to dry since yesterday…even under the courtyard roof.

We manage to get in a three hour edit before it is time for little brother, mom, our friend Danni and me to head on out in the truck. A long drive ahead, so we need to start out early, armed with some snacks and drinks that should tide us over.

Though we debated the issue endlessly, little brother really has strong feelings about wanting a “replacement” dog for dear Sita…I know, it is a horrible word for it, but that is what it all boils down to in the end, a dog that will fill the gap that is left by the one that passed on. It’s by no means easy, but at least a new dog will keep everyone distracted enough that we don’t feel the loss so strongly.

So we start on our way, heading land inward to a small village in the mountains where a woman lives who’s seeking a good home for her litter of nine Black Setter puppies. As many foreigners living in this particular area of Spain, she is more than happy to be able to offer one to us.

When we arrive at the small village and are led to the back through a flower-filled patio, there they are, a gorgeous bunch of puppies no more than nine weeks old. All black. All beautifully built, and wiggling like mad in their attempt to get through the light knee-high fence that keeps them contained.

It takes little brother less than five minutes to pick out a pretty little girl with a white tuft on her chest and some similarly white hairs on her paws. She’s the quiet one of the litter, who’s only interest is to snuggle up close to him while he squats down in their midst.

A done deal for everyone concerned, especially since the little girl has had two vaccinations and was thoroughly checked over by a vet just a week earlier…as her papers prove.

She’s a sweetie-now called Sita III-and on the way back, unintentionally taking the scenic route, (‘cause I took the wrong turn, hah) the poor pup got carsick. It was her first time in a car, as is often the case with those youngsters.

No one minded the scenic route, however. It gave us a most wonderful few of the Malaga area after all. It was beautiful actually. Went straight through a nature preserve, beautiful trees, rocky slopes, lots of green. I wished we could take a moment to hike there, but that will have to wait for some other time, much to my regret.

The weather was nice too, cool air, slightly clouded sky with massive fronts thumping against the sierras. Like I said: Beautiful. If I hadn’t been the driver today, I would have been taking pictures like mad. Hah.

By the time we get home, little Sita III is wagging her tail and looking at everyone with adoringly cute brown eyes. She’s already fully attached to little brother, and we leave him to introduce her to the rest of the pack while big brother, grandpa and I head out again to get more rocks.

It is such a bloody beautiful day that we decide to do two loads again, and add to the piles rapidly. It is once again close to sunset when we finish up and return home for another late dinner…more laundry precedes, of course…prepared by little sister, who spent her day well by cleaning up the kitchen.

Spaghetti and sauce; we’re so easy that way. It never goes wrong.
Though we attempt another edit, my mood has drastically changed by this point. I don’t know what the heck is going on but all of a sudden, every tiny little problem in front of me seems insurmountable.

For the first time in months, I actually have a slight panic attack again, so I decide to call it an early night and head on up to my cabin with my dogs, rather than spent a frustrating hour behind the computer.

Big brother soon follows me up and we talk for several hours, until at last the churning feeling in my gut subsides and then disappears entirely. Sometimes, a body just needs to vent a little, I guess. Nothing works better than looking at whatever problem sweeps through you, logically, and get it all settled in their right place again.

So, as a sum-up: It is a fact that for all intents and purposes it was a really good day…regretfully those pesky little “feelings” and emotions don’t necessarily agree. I can honestly say that at days like these, I wish emotions were more controllable. I mean, seriously. If feelings can’t be controlled in some shape or form, and are able to ruin a perfectly good day, what use do they have? *sigh*