I will be speaking at the Open Door Writing Group at 1pm at the Tyler Public Library on April 24, 2024 on the topic of “How to Write for an Anthology”. Come on over and join us! Open Door Writing Group
Category: Everywhere But Home
I will be speaking at the newly formed Open Door Writing Group – Night Group at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (1629 Old Omen Road in Tyler, TX) at 6pm on April 18, 2024 on the topic of “How to Write for an Anthology”.
I’m trying to get everybody on board for the upcoming ODWG Frog Anthology!
Come on over and join us!
This month, I managed 17,967, but 2/3 of it was lessons for the ODWG. I also tried to train a new membership chair for one of my local writing groups.
I wrote one really long poem about teeth. No, really. It started off about teeth and then it got weird. I also wrote a poem about grief that involved Pokemon. You know you want to read that one. (There were several other poems this month as well, but those were my favorites).
I also was the featured speaker of the month for my local writers guild. I spoke on “How to Get Back on Track After Life’s Disasters.”
In real life, I had to figure out how to do my local church’s annual certification because our board president’s life exploded that week. I attended the first of hopefully many delightful meetings of a local yarn group. I loom-knitted one sock and then tried to figure out how to regular knit it’s partner after my sock loom broke. I started a crocheted snowflake blanket.
I also spoke at two other groups, using the “How to Get Back on Track…” lesson as a starting point. Which was only funny because disasters kept making it so I almost didn’t get to speak at either group (first an epic hail storm and then a mass internet outage).
I also read The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet.
I will be speaking at the Open Door Writing Group at the Tyler Public Library at 1pm on February 28, 2024 on the topic of “How to Get Back on Track after Life’s Little Disasters”. Come on over and join us! (I will try to promise a hail-free experience, unlike what happened last time I gave this lesson – hahaha)
This month, I eked out 8,749 words, but a lot of it was poetry, so when I think about it that way, that’s a LOT.
I prepared and presented two lessons at ODWG. I also worked some more on the Lake House Mystery and made a whole new system for tracking my poetry and short story submissions.
I also rearranged my entire writing studio again because it turned out that one of my bookshelves could not stand up without the support of the two on either side and books were everywhere.
In real life, one of my kids had an MRI for migraines and also sliced open his foot badly, all in one month. My dad visited for a long while. I started crocheting the Pineapple Peacock shawl, took it apart and restarted it twice more, then finally gave up. Knitted a scarf for my spouse instead.
We had a polar vortex hit and had several “ice days” I started reading “Barbara and Susan Talk About Empty Nests” once a week as a kind of devotional for therapy homework. I also read “Shadow and Bone” and “Lessons in Chemistry”.
I will be speaking at the Open Door Writing Group at the Tyler Public Library at 1pm on January 24, 2024 on the topic of “Using Pacemaker for Writing Schedules”. Come on out and join us!
I will be speaking at the Open Door Writing Group (at the Tyler Public Library) at 1pm on January 10, 2024 on the topic of “How I Use Scrivener to Plot and Write”. Come on over and join us!
I’ve got some exciting news, y’all! In November I’ll be attending the 20 Books to 50K Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The lovely folks in charge of that conference gave me a scholarship for the conference ticket, so I’d like to publically thank them for that. Thank you, 20Books Conference Committee!! Nick and I will travel to the conference together and use it as a combined work trip and 25th wedding anniversary rolled into one. By day, he’ll be working remotely while I attend the conference. By night, we’ll paint the town red with whatever author friends we make along the way. I’m so excited about this conference. Everyone says it’s fabulous!
Before we get there, though, there’s still the rest of the summer to get through. I’d thought this summer was going to be quiet because my youngest ended up making the hard decision not to travel with DCI this year, due to a myriad of reasons and circumstances that I’ll not go into here. So traveling to see him performing across the US fell off the list of things I’d do this summer. In the meantime, I’ve been finishing the short story I mentioned last month, teaching my midkid to drive, adopting a kitten, planning two trips, working on my speaking engagements, helping with both planning a conference and installing a new treasurer for the East Texas Writers Guild, and juggling all the schedule changes unexpectedly sent my way. Which is why those that know me in real life have started to wonder if I exist at all. I do, I’m just constantly in meetings or driving lessons or keeping the Foxglove the Wonder Kitten from biting all the things.
So I said I was planning two trips – the other one is a pilgrimage with my 80-year-old father to see my mother’s grave. She was buried amongst family in their hometown — Superior, Wisconsin — which is sixteen hours away by car. Along the way, he wants to stop in Lincoln, Nebraska, to see his brother, Platteville, Wisconsin to see my birthfamily (who he hasn’t met yet), and Eau Claire, Wisconsin to do some research with a former student (and maybe see my cousin and his family?). On the way home, he’s hoping to stop in Minneapolis to see his cousin as well. All in an eight-day whirlwind trip that includes four days in his hometown for two reunions and a chance to see the rest of the family. Eight days isn’t enough, y’all, but I have the ETWG Conference on one end and a speaking engagement on the other, so that’s all the time we’ve got. Being my dad, and therefore the source of my personal time blindness, he’s scheduled a bunch of stuff for days we won’t actually be there. Whee! This trip is ripe for stories that will make it into my adoption memoir, I’m sure. I will be taking notes and pictures. Follow me on social media for all of that.
Me and my dad
When I last posted, I was about to go see the orthopedic doctor, which the former health blogger in me insists was a whole experience that probably should have a post to itself. But since I’m not doing much of that these days, I will just show you my glorious new prescription shoes:
If you don’t know me, please know that a) I usually hate shoes, and b) pink is not normally my favorite thing. However, these shoes are like walking on bouncy marshmallow clouds and it turns out I love that! Also, they match my new color-shifting glasses, which brings me joy. 🙂
For Spring Break, we spent half the week in town, doing generic house stuff and watching movies. The second half, we traveled (my youngest driving for the first time!) to College Station to visit my dad, sister, and other family. We repainted his outdoor statuary, had meals with the fam, and watched a lot of Ancient Aliens (which my dad is addicted to right now). On the way home, we stopped in a thrift store and bought me a practically brand new computer monitor, which I’m overjoyed with.
In writing news, I’ve been gearing up to attend the East Texas Book Fest next month. When I signed up, I’d hoped to have a book of my own available to sell, but that just hasn’t been a reality. But I’ll have copies of my anthologies available, and I’ve been working on how to dress up my little table. I’m super excited about the event and I hope to see y’all there! More info here: East Texas Book Fest
It’s Doctor Appointment Season! Since I have a billion and one health issues, I see a lot of specialists. One year I decided it would just be easier if I saw them all in February – who knows why at this point? Since they usually are 6 months or a year apart, I end up seeing at least one doctor every week through February and into March. So far I’ve seen the neurologist (my brain is apparently fine, even if it doesn’t feel like it), the ENT (my sinuses are still gross), and the rheumatologist (oh so much wrong with me). The rheumatologist referred me to the orthopedist (is that a word?), and I see him on Monday.
In between all that, I’ve been:
- dog-sitting,
- teaching lessons at Open Door Writing Group (who had a fantastic turnout this month!),
- writing ALL THE VILLAIN SCENES for Caro’s Quest,
- critiqued an entire paranormal romance novel for a friend (I’m so excited for that one to come out!),
- drove my youngest to work and back about 30,000 times,
- chaperoned a winter guard contest,
The awesome mascot statue at the winter guard contest
- attended my kid’s pre-UIL concert
- figured out that I’m way ahead on my word count compared to last year (thanks Sprint Club!),
- painted the hallway bathroom, then painted the backs of the built-in bookcases the same color because I loved it so much,
- got a fun haircut
- started repotting plants and tidying up my yard for the spring,
- and spent far too much time troubleshooting iPad woes.
That’s it for the end of February and early March.
What have y’all been up to? Let me know in the comments below. 🙂
Lisa Holcomb 