gardening – Sherry D. Ramsey

Friday Desk Report, October 19, 2018

By Sherry October 19, 2018 October 19, 2018 art, books, current projects, Friday Desk Report, gardening, NaNoWriMo, Olympia Investigations, Planet Fleep, writing life

It’s a while since I’ve done a Desk Report! Not that nothing has been happening…more like there’s so much to do, I don’t have time to report on it! But I’m having trouble this fall getting into the usual routine, since for the first time in 19 years, I’m not driving any kids to school in the mornings. That school changeover always threw the switch in my brain from summer to fall, and I’ve really noticed a difference this year without that trigger.

You may have seen me mention elsewhere on social media that Planet Fleep is now available in print as well as ebook, so that was pretty exciting. I’ve promised a new Olympia Investigations story soon, too, and it is underway. It’s turning out to be maybe the longest one in the series yet. It features some witches, so I’d love to get it done in time for a Halloween release, but we’ll have to see…

I’ve been participating in Inktober this month, to exercise some different creative areas of my brain. Daily art is like regular writing…you do see improvements in small but steady increments. I’ll add a few of my personal favourites at the end of this post.

NaNoWriMo is on the horizon! I have a novel project I’m going to be finishing up during November this year. I’ve really struggled with some of the aspects of this story but it’s hell-or-high-water time now. If (a big if) I get to the end before I hit 50k words, my plan is to write another Olympia story to take up the slack. I’m not really expecting that to be a problem, though…

We had wet snowflakes for the first time this fall yesterday–the same day a box of new bulbs for planting came in the mail! I can see I’d better find time to get them in the ground soon!

Here are those Inktober sketches I mentioned…do you find your creativity expresses itself in varied ways, or one main one? Personally, I’m all over the place, but I’m not complaining. :) I’m having too much fun!

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Friday Desk Report – June 16, 2017

By Sherry June 16, 2017 June 16, 2017 current projects, Friday Desk Report, gardening, writer development, writing life

A lovely carpet of creeping phlox

Seems like it was a bit of a slow week around the desk, but of course the intrusion of the warming weather and demands of the outdoors have something to do with that. (Not that I am complaining!) Still, I managed to keep up with most things, started a new novel revision, and spent hours refining the magic system used in that novel draft. It now makes more sense and is on its way to becoming a rational magic system. Still a few things to work out, but it definitely has a good foundation now. It was ~~a pain in the butt~~ interesting to try to reconcile the magic use/character abilities that I’d written into the story into a more coherent framework. I’ll have to make changes and adjustments as I work my way through this revision, but I feel much more confident about a good result now.

In my research into building good magic systems, I also refreshed my memory on Brandon Sanderson’s Three Laws of magic systems, which are very helpful to keep in mind when building one. The first one is at the link, and the others are linked from the bottom of that page.

A gorgeous tall tulip from a “Pretty in Pink” bulb mix from Vesey’s Seeds

I started the week bouncing between projects and finally landed on that revision, but I foresee that pattern continuing over the next little while. There are short stories I want to submit by upcoming deadlines, so although I’m a bit stuck on them right now, I have to keep going back and pecking at them until they agree to cooperate. I love it when I can sit down and write a new story straight through, but alas, that doesn’t happen all that often. It’s more likely to take a lot of digging and mucking about before I reach those two sweet, sweet words: The End.

Family, fire, and cake

Last week was my birthday (which I share with my sister, but no, we’re not twins–she was born five years after me, but on the same date) so we had our traditional outdoor party on the weekend. I made a first attempt at icing flowers made with a Russian ball decorating tip; they turned out all right, but I learned some tricks for making them better the next time. Still delicious!

Still working with my assistant, so despite the yard and garden needs, I think I’ll be able to stay productive in the coming weeks.

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Friday Desk Report June 9, 2017

By Sherry June 9, 2017 June 9, 2017 Friday Desk Report, gardening, Olympia Investigations, writing life

This month I have the great pleasure of having an author assistant helping me out with all sorts of things. It’s a short-term contract, but I’m loving the ability to hand off some tasks to someone else for a change. So far she’s taken care of some social media tasks, proofread a manuscript, created promotional materials, researched blog post ideas and found a cover image I’ll need soon. All this has freed me up to concentrate on writing and some other things, which has been great. It’s not something I could afford to pay for full time, but for short-term bursts of super-productivity, it’s fabulous.

Today has probably been the least productive day of the week, but mainly because several ROML (Rest of My Life) things took me out of the house numerous times. I was even productive yesterday, on my birthday! When, I’m sure you’ll agree, most of us deserve to take the day off if we’re able.

This week’s main projects were the newest [intlink id=”3449″ type=”page”]Olympia Investigations[/intlink] story, and another story I’m hoping to have ready for a particular anthology call. They’re both fun to write, although very different tales. I’ve been switching back and forth as the mood takes me; I may try to work on a more deliberate schedule next week. I also have some rewrites coming up soon, so I’d like to clear these stories off the decks before then. My goal for this month is 13k words for those two stories combined; I’m slightly behind so far, but there’s still time to catch up!

Before I forget, I have a Kindle Countdown deal running on The Two-Week Short Story from now until June 15th. If you or someone you know might be interested, click over and check it out!

Spring has finally arrived and my gardens are starting to fill with colour–and weeds! So I’ll have to find time to work on that, too. I might need an assistant for longer than I anticipated…

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Friday Desk Report – May 27, 2016

By Sherry May 27, 2016 May 27, 2016 bundles, current projects, Friday Desk Report, gardening, writing life

tulip2016 This has been a lovely week of getting things done but NOT chasing a deadline for any of them. I’ve been busy but not frantic, both at my desk and away from it, and it feels almost as good as relaxing with my feet up every day. Okay, not quite that good, but yes, almost. And spring is finally arriving, and all the bulbs I planted in the fall are poking their heads up to have a look around. This gorgeous tulip is one of them; I have several clusters of them around the yard and I’m just loving them. Along with them I have new daffodils, other tulips in various shapes and sizes, and hyacinths for the first time ever. I even managed to spend a couple of hours outside pulling out old dead stems and leaves from last year, so the new blooms are actually noticeable.

Bundle news! My Nearspace novella, “Waiting to Fly,” is in another bundle over at BundleRabbit. So if you missed it last time or were not drawn in by the other stories in that bundle, here’s another chance. This time it’s a bundle brimming with stories featuring teen characters, from superheroes to space station buskers, apocalypse survivors to magic-users. There’s over $60 worth of stories in the bundle, and they can all be yours for just $10.The other authors you’ll find in this bundle include Eric Kent Edstrom, Carl S. Plumer, Mario Milosevic, Shantu Tiwari, Stefon Mears, Nick Tatano, Sabrina Chase, Deg Logan, Rob Collins, Michael Jasper, and J.D. Brink. It’s only around for another ten days, so you should pick up your copy soon! What a great way to load up your ereader with some summer reading possibilities!

For fun this week I wrote a chapter for a round robin story being circulated around my Second Life writing group, The Quillians. We’ve done one of these before and they’re always fun; everyone brings their own ideas to a chapter, but builds on what’s gone before. I think it’s important sometimes to write something with no pressure, no strings, and no expectations other than having fun. I haven’t done that in a while and so I really had a blast with this chapter. Now as long as the others like it…wait, I said no pressure!

I actually did not write on the novel draft this week–I decided that I needed some thinking time on it, and I think that was a good idea. I’m ready to start back on it on Monday with a better idea of some things that have to happen next. It’s an interesting facet of the writing life, how much work actually goes on when you’re nowhere near the keyboard. I also did some more thinking and preliminary research about the new idea that’s taunting me. I think it’s going to happen. Not sure when, but it’s taking on a life of its own already…

Oh, and I signed up to receive Notes from the Universe this week. So far I love them. :)

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Friday Desk Report – Oct. 30/15

By Sherry November 2, 2015 November 2, 2015 books, Conventions, current projects, gardening, geeky, NaNoWriMo, WFNS, writing life

This week’s report comes to you from the convention trail. We’re on the road to Hal-Con 2015 with coffee on board, tunes on the radio, a van full of cosplay and stunning fall foliage all around.

What moments I could snatch at my desk this week were mainly spent on planning for NaNoWriMo. We spent a good evening also brainstorming at the kitchen table for the three novel projects happening in the household next month. Much of my novel continues to float, indistinct as a distant nebula against the velvet black of space. But it will come.

A few times over the weekend, I’ll be hanging out at the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia table at Hal-Con. I’ll have books and I’ll be happy to sign them, but drop by even just to say hello!

Yesterday I found out my lineup of WITS visits for this school year. I’m looking forward to interacting with some great teachers and students again this year.

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Monday, Nov. 2/15

So Friday’s post started off well (although I was composing it on my phone, which was somewhat cumbersome) and then we started running into Generalized Road Difficulties. I won’t go into all the boring details, but simply say that the blog post fell by the wayside as GRDs escalated, and then we were at Hal-Con and that was the weekend.

Hal-Con was great overall, although the weather was cold and rainy off and on, and this year they didn’t have the underground pedways open. So that meant a trip outside for decent food, access to parking, etc. The expanded space this year was great, but the traffic changes, not so much.

However, I had a spectacular time hanging out at the WFNS table with the Federation folks (Writers’ Federation, not United Federation of Planets, of course), and chatting with/meeting other writers like C.S. MacCath, Clare C. Marshall, Kat Kruger, and B.R. Myers. Sold some books, too, and ran into several old and new friends. Attended some great panels like Whales in Space and Star Trek Empires in the Night Sky, and a very entertaining Q&A with Kelley Armstrong. She answered the question “What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?” with the too-true answer “The hardest thing about being a writer is *staying* a writer.”

And despite yesterday being a travel day, I managed 1136 words to start NaNoWriMo, which was more than I’d counted on. My true daily goal this year is considerably more than the standard 1667, but I was pleased to make a start and discover a character attribute I hadn’t previously known about one of my viewpoint characters. Love it when they surprise me with something. :)

And so, as the Asura say, Excelsior!

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The Garden Today (5-28-2015)

By Sherry May 28, 2015 May 28, 2015 gardening, just for fun

Spring has finally sprung here in Cape Breton, and my garden has been roused to life. Some days I like to take a quick stroll around and take some phone pics of whatever’s in bloom. (Although it’s warm here today, it’s also windy, so some blurriness may be detected!)

Is there anything as cheery as forget-me-nots?

And of course, no spring garden is complete without some daffodils. I adore these ones with the peach-coloured centers.

I have quite a lot of tulips, but they’re not all at their best today. I love the creamy white Triumphators with their distinctive shape. The yellow/white/hint of pink are new this year, “Peach Melba.”

Candystripe phlox starting to come on board, and a pink rhododendron that always surprises me by bursting into colour seemingly overnight. A nice fat bee was visiting it today.

And finally, some Candytuft and a shot of colour from blue muscari.

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A Garden of Stories and Words

By Sherry June 20, 2011 June 20, 2011 gardening, personal & miscellaneous, reading, writing life

I’ve been trying to remember how long it is that I’ve been listening to podcasts. Quite some time, for sure…if I open my old podcatcher and look at some of the dates, it’s been at least five or six years. I haven’t listened to a huge variety of podcasts over the years, but I’ve listened to a lot of episodes of the ones I like.

I love podcasts because they are perfectly suited to my preference (or possibly obsession) for multitasking. I can listen while I clean, while I do laundry, while I walk, while I drive…and especially while I garden.

Gardening, of course, is rewarding in and of itself, and I do enjoy the instant gratification of pulling weeds. However, at my house, it’s a solitary pursuit most of the time, unless I recruit kids or husband to help out–so yeah, like I said, most of the time, solitary. And a great chance to listen to podcasts and audiobooks.

I think my first combination of listening and gardening was Mike Stackpole’s The Secrets podcast. Around that time I was also listening to a lot of episodes of Escape Pod, so that summer was a nice mix of storytelling and writing advice. Throw in some regular episodes of This Week In Science, and my brain got just as much of a workout as my arms and back.

Not long after that (maybe the next summer) I added Writing Excuses into the mix, and found Decoder Ring Theatre. I still had a steady diet of Escape Pod stories on the go as well, but I discovered Podiobooks, where I still find a lot of great stories to listen to. I’ve spent literally hours in the yard and had them fly by like nothing, because as I methodically pull weeds and prune shrubs and spread mulch, I’m really transported to other worlds and times, or considering how to improve my own stories with the advice I’m hearing. (Of course this list of podcasts doesn’t include everything I listen to, but this post was only going to be so long, you know?)

And as the pictures show, it’s paid off. I likely would not spend as much time in the garden if I didn’t have podcasts to listen to, because they enhance the experience so much. I can actually look at portions of the yard or even certain plants, and associate them with a story. Which simply makes it all that much more enjoyable.