Of Wizards, Murder Mavens, and Gargoyles

Hi. My name? Homer J Goyle. Yeah, I look gruesome now, you should have seen me when I was headless.

I was called "The Headless One" by many a students here on the grounds of NIU. I was never so happy to get my new head back on my shoulders, now I can check on the women--uh, er, I mean I can guard the grounds near the old castle.

Okay, right. I was supposed to do this post for Lorelei. Color me forgetful. I'm a gargoyle after all. Got stone for head. Get it? He he.

Well... where was I?

Oh, right, right.

The post.

Today's post is updates. Well, Lorelei is busy. Has a few more long days of driving a Huskie Bus around town, trying to avoid hectic holiday traffic and all. I wouldn't know about that. I'm sitting in a courtyard. I see some vehicles pass, and people stop and take pictures of me. One guy took many, many, many of me. In fact he came on a couple of occasions and that's one of the pictures above. Lorelei was able to cajole him into taking a few picks of me. What can I say? I'm handsome, right?

Er, back to the main post.

Uh, oh. I'm to mention Lorelei is a writer, but I understand, plus she makes things with her hands. Mostly afghans, but other things like hand warmers and cowls. Hmmm. Don't know what those things are, but whatever.

She's also working on other things to take to local craft shops soon. As soon as she can get off the frigging bus--her words, not mine.

And after the holidays. She says she and husband are going to have a quiet Christmas Eve watching "It's A Wonderful Life" and something traditional, like ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans and a holiday meatball thing she says is easy to make and requires some strange ingredients like grape jelly and chili sauce. (If I could, I'd be shrugging, since I don't eat, I don't know what sort of strange things people eat)

Ah, and she tells me that her local bookstore--the only one left standing--is closing at end of the month, and she hopes to find a few books, or whatever, left to buy. 

Currently she's into murder mysteries, and something called The Dresden Files. Oh, wait. I've got a picture here... Oh! here it is.

Yep. She told me she picked this hardback up just the other day for only $5.99 at her local grocery store. I don't know. Is that a good thing? I haven't a clue. Now, I don't read, mind, but the whole thing is sort of, well, up my alley, so to speak. Dresden is a wizard PI, from Chicago. She tells me that there was something about the guy in a fedora that caught her eye. Then, she said she'd read his very first book (Jim Butcher), and thought it was okay, and wanted to read another, but she just hadn't been able to do that. Other things on her plate--so she says. But she likes to read a male point of view in the fantasy realm. She's begun this latest adventure, but she's way behind. I mean like more than a dozen were written before this. Oh, well, I guess she'll just have to catch herself up.

That was one of the books she's read. Here is the other one, which she's finished, and wants more of:

She says she used to watch the show, and loved it. Now, she can't get enough of these mysteries and hopes to snag a few soon.

And, when she can, she'll be posting herself. I hope so. This is murder on my stone fingers!

Oh, and if you're out here during the night, watch out for things that move around unseen. Well, I see them, of course. Duh!

I've gotta go back to my uh-er duties now. It was nice visiting with you folks!

Hi Kids!

I didn't have any better title. This is my up-dates...

Well, we, in Illinois are having a mild winter (he-he, I made the prediction that we'd have one, and I guess, so far, I win--everyone else was saying it was going to be "worse than last year"). Temps today are approaching 40. Last year at this time we had a foot of snow down, and it was beginning that downward trend of temps going below freezing and staying in single digits. We have no snow, and about the only weather problem is the fog. I'll take 40 degrees and fog any day!

As for me, I've been crocheting my fingers off (not literally, but close). I've just finished a pair of mittens. They're cute and should keep my fingers warm. I've made the fingerless gloves up til now, and found a mitten pattern that I felt up to trying and by golly, I did it! And you thought such things were only knitted. Tut tut.

Meanwhile, I'm working on two afghans--well, one is only a throw since it's only 44" x about 78"--long enough to fit on a couch, and for one person to snuggle under. My other one is larger, and is in fall colors. Since it takes me months to complete one, and repeated visits to where I buy yarn (yeah, I just like to go into the store and browse, so, yeah...) But it keeps me out of trouble. I can get into trouble all by myself, thank you. (keep reading)

Take when I had the middle part of the day off, because my wonderful husband took over a run (driving a bus) for me, and I decided I'd go to Panera. Bad idea. I dumped hot soup all over down my front. Well, they had all these damned orders piling up, and mine was over in this corner, plus the stupid counter where you pick up your order is tall--almost taller than where my shoulder comes to. So, I picked up the tray--which was slick, mind you, and the damned hot soup spilled, and stupid me, I tried to catch it from dumping, and there it went all over my shirt. I should have just let it drop to the stupid floor and made them clean it up and make me a new bowl. I'm stupid when I'm alone. Well, the shirt is ruined, but it was old. I had it in my hair, too. Some lady that cleans there sort of helped me get cleaned up before I went to the bookstore. I smelled of broccoli cheddar soup all day, and I still had to go pick up my husband (who'd had an equally bad day).

I've made the decision to go back into crafting. I've noticed that craft shows are still going strong. I'm not ready to do those, yet. Years ago, when I decided to quit crafting and put all my efforts into my writing, I threw all my paints and other stuff out. Fortunately I still have some patterns I used. But I can get this stuff again, no problem. But not until I've gotten myself firmly in place at a local craft store will I expand into that. I want to test the waters, so to speak, and see what is popular.

What will I work on during the non-winter months? Well, more stuff, of course, since it takes a while to make things. The mittens- each one - took about 1 &1/2 hours to 2hours to do.

But I thought I would make Eco-friendly string grocery bags, like these:

On the writing front... Yes, I'm still working on the next book to come out at some point this winter. Oh, here's a photo my friend Karen Kuban-Bell (no relation), took of a gargoyle that sits on NIU property.

Photo by Karen Kuban-Bell
Gargoyle guarding "Castle"
@ NIU

This isn't the one I chose, but when she found out I needed help to make it into a book cover, she happily said she'd love to work on it for me-do the cover. Well, Santa has given me an early Christmas gift in that respect!

Now, before I leave you, here are some blogs to check out.
The Kill Zone has the 2014 recap. that is if you want to hear the bad news of the year all over again (in case you missed any of it). On to more bizarre things As The Crowe Flies has some strange pictures--not that the images were strange, but when she photographed some common things they sort of got some haunting images appear in them, some how--she swears she didn't touch them up. I'm still not sure about that last one--sort of sends shivers up my spine. Holly's Horrorland is celebrating the 13 Days of Creepmas, and she's been giving stuff away, so I hope I'm not too late in putting this up here. And if you want something yummy to keep you warm, here is Krisztina Williams' DIY Hot Coco mix the ingredients are real simple.

Well, that's my wrap-up for mid-December. I've still got to get through the next several days of driving, and then I'll be off for 2 weeks (no pay), and I'll be hanging out with my best friend (Dennis), and doing my usual.
Until then... stay safe and don't wear yourself out on the holiday stuff. It's over-rated!

SPRING FEVER

Yep. I've got Spring Fever. You know when you can't wait until you feel a warm breeze, instead of an icy cold one, or the thought of not having to wear a winter coat, or maybe looking out your window and NOT SEEING ANY FRIGGING SNOW!

Yesterday we did have a 50 degree reading. That was nice. And my husband and I went and climbed on top of one of the remaining snow drifts in the yard. It is still at least 3 feet deep, I kid you not! There are still piles of it in our driveway, and in parking lots in town and along the ditches. I've pinpointed the date on which we will no longer see any bit of snow and that will be April 8th. We'll see if I'm correct. I've said all winter long it won't be until April when you won't see this snow on the ground. We've got some cold days still, with 30's for highs and lows down under the freezing point. But it will happen. We've been seeing all sorts of spring heralding birds in our yard or flying overhead. The sandhill cranes came through a few days ago, and they like to head back to Kansas or Nebraska to the larger birding/wildlife areas where no one is allowed inside--not even "dog walkers" or people who would disturb the nesting areas.

I'm still trying to finish this huge granny square afghan. I need to finish it because the yard work will take me outside and I won't have time for much else. I needn't tell you that this winter was extremely hard on all of us. And a body wanted "comfort food" in excess. Even my husband tells me he knows he will have a hard time getting back into shape. Me, I'm thinking of going back on the Adtkin's diet. I lost a lot of weight fast the last time I did this. I saw the pounds just drop off in a matter of over-night. That was years ago, before they had the snack bars and frozen foods.

And my edits are just sitting there waiting for me to get back to them. I'm blaming Spring Fever on not being able to attend to this. I've got the crochet bug bad, I guess. Every new pattern (well, every other) I see I want to try. It's crazy.

This one was something I found and wanted the pattern. Well they didn't offer it. Instead the crafter offered a lucky winner to win a free pattern. Screw that. I've crocheted since I was a teenager, I could see how this pattern went together. It's pretty straight forward.

It begins with your magic circle (chain 4, slip stitch in first chain, and chain 3-counts as first double crochet in the first row). You make 16 dc's in the magic circle (remember that the first ch-3 is one dc). Row 2 is ch 3, then 3 dcs after this, chain 5. you make four dc's chain 5 around, and join with a slip stitch. Row 3: ch 3, dc in each dc, then in the chain 5 you made on last row, make 2 dc's, chain 4 this time, 2 dcs in the chain, dc in each dc--around. You're going to do this through the fifth row, same pattern, only you reduce the chains until you get to row 5, and you have only 2 chains at the corner. Easy. I worked on this with a really thin green yarn and used a size F hook. I'm actually going to keep going on the square, as there wasn't that much yarn left on this ball, and thought I'd just make it as however large as I can.

Since I'm going to make this a quick post I'll direct any of you who are into crocheting to this page. If you have not signed up to Laying It All Out, and you'd like to, go for it. You will find lots of free patterns, some you can down load as ebooks and such. It's what had had me going cross-eyed lately, with all the great patterns. More than I'll have time to work on in whatever's left of my lifetime.

Well, I should go to work on those edits. I'll have to try and get something done today on that!

Saturday Is For Crochetters

Hi, ladies. If you are one of my many lurkers, or regular visitors, who like to crochet, or are a beginner and want something interesting to work on, well, I've got some patterns for you today!

I learned to crochet from my aunt, when it was in my teens. My mother had passed away and my aunt would have me over for a week and she would show me how to crochet and sew. I've become quite the nut about crocheting patterns, again. I used to sell a number of things I made (not just crocheted things, but pop bottles I would paint on, and other crafts) back in the 90's. I made a little money with my crafts, but the crafting trend wore off, and a lot of these cheaper products came in from 3rd world countries, and people quit buying things from crafters. As a result crafters lost places to sell their items. I went into my writing full-time. Right now, I'm needing a break from working on writing exclusively. I've lost all my patterns, so I've been on the look out for places to find some free ones. And I've found it! It's called "Laying It All Out" and if you want to subscribe, it's free! You'll get emails with gobs of crochet patterns, and even knitting every day. Sometimes you might get more than one, and you'll have more patterns than you can shake a size H hook at!

Anyway, I'd like to try and start posting about CROCHETING once a week--if I can keep this up--post about crocheting, bring you links to patterns, and other bloggers who have tutorials, that you might like, and up-dates on what I'm working on, of course.

TODAY I've got some links for you and these are FREE patterns! Some of them you'll have to find the links to what you want to look at, but again, it's FREE.

First up: A Flower Scrubbie over on Vallieskids Blog. Very easy, and a great idea for cotton yarn projects if you have some left overs especially. Actually, if you don't want to use it as a dish cloth--they're way too pretty and I must admit the cotton yarn is a bit expensive to use on something you scrub dishes with, but you could use them as nice little coasters. The pattern is so easy!

Next: Best Crocheted Head Bands--there's a number of them here, I'm sure you'll go hit on every one of them to check it out! I know I will!! Head bands are in, now. I'm not sure why they went out of style, but if you like wearing them, or you have a little girl who wears them, you'll have something cute to make for her. Here's a sample of them:

Anthropology knock-off Headband

Butterfly-bobby pins

Happy-day headband

And may I direct you over to another crochet blogger. I was amazed to find so many of you out there! This is Heidi Bears blog. She does a lot of Hexagons, and here she shows how to join them using the hook. It's a complicated maneuver, and I have done this, back when I used to crochet a lot, and needed to see how it was done.

Okay, I think I've given you all something to work on today.

Lorelei's tip of the week: Trying to follow patterns is difficult, and if you loose your place that can be frustrating. Use a Sticky Note to mark where you are in the pattern. I suggest using a large one, cut it in half and use it to block off the sections you don't want to look at. I happen to be dyslexic and so this is the best way I know how to keep my eyes focused on where I'm at!

Oh, and THIS is what I'm working on today, at least for a few hours this morning while I enjoy a cup of Maxwell House International cafe'--hazelnut. I'll admit the picture wasn't clear because she used variegated yarn. If I can figure out how to post a picture of what I'm doing, I will. I'm not good at this technology stuff and have no fancy digital camera to use, so be patient. I'm working on it.

Happy Crocheting everyone!

The Facts, Ma'am

With March comes change... or so it is supposed to be that way. At least the temperatures are starting to go up, instead of down!

My week:
On Sunday night I woke with a bunch of ideas for two books--one was actually for the 8th book of the Sabrina Strong series (don't hate me). I had to get up and make notes, and since we weren't scheduled to work Monday, I sat at the kitchen table, made myself a cup of hot chocolate (with milk), and made some verbal notes (it was around 2:30 am).

The next day I wasn't able to work on much. Oh... yeah. Time (effing) change.

Monday was a go-to-town day. We did a bunch of things, including take check to pay on the truck, and then got the oil changed in it. We went to a few other places. At the end of the day I kept thinking it was like a preview of what it would be like when I retire from having to go to a job. I would know how to fill my day up with things I want to do. So, I sat and crocheted that afternoon thinking about it. It didn't help that we ran into my husband's brother and his wife and learned that she had quit working in her job for the school district (she is my age), I was quite jealous. Wish I could just up and quit like that. She's too young to take retirement, but probably had enough of a pension. Or something else is going on that wasn't mentioned. She has no real hobbies. Not even gardening. I think she doesn't like to get dirty, and she definitely isn't a camper at all. What she does to fill up her time, I haven't a clue. Maybe she's taking time to be with her aging mother. That's a possibility. Boy, the wrong people get all the breaks. If I were to retire today, I'd have lots to do.

On Wednesday it snowed. We didn't drive that day. NIU has been in Spring Break. So, we only took 3 runs, and put Wednesday up because we knew it would snow and just didn't want to deal with it. After the thaw on Monday, the ground was too soft to plow, and then the sun melted most of it, anyhow.

Thursday we drove. Six hours driving a bus is no picnic. And My husband has decided he can't do it any more. He has back issues. The run he had to do is not forgiving in giving you breaks. You have to keep on driving it until you get back to the student center (an hour run).

Today we didn't work again. We had to run to town, came back and I go my computer back into my office. It's been warmer in here and so it only takes a couple of heaters to get it up to 60+ in here.

I'm not putting pressure on myself this year. I've got the two books I'm working on. One is in edits, and the other one I'm still writing. Now that I've got my office back, I should be able to get something done, eventually. No noise, and I'm closed off from the world in here.

I'm still trying to get my speakers to work. I have no idea how I did it last time. Too many things to plug in and it says "speaker out" but I have no idea why it doesn't work. I got it to work last time by reconfiguring it. Maybe by luck I'll do it again. *shrugs*

Last year was different. I was super busy.  My publisher kept pushing back the release of my third book, I got the "edits" which may have been done by his 5-year old, and when the actual book came out I found errors in it.  Thank goodness he quit the business! I had to quickly go through each book, and especially the third one, make corrections and put them out as an Indie, and I was working on book 4, plus 2 other books!

This year I'm not pushing myself at all. I've got two books I'm working on. Edits on # 4 SS book is mid-way, and now I've got the privacy of my office, I'll settle in and work again on that.

Dhampir Legacy is still in works. I work on it as I can. The last two weeks I've been trying to write one scene where snakes are involved, but for some reason it just wasn't coming, and so during my wakefulness back on Sunday night, I realized I needed to interrupt this scene with a new one, and so that one came and I wrote it. It involves a minor character, but I need to tie up those loose ends on that.

I need a year off from doing very much writing. That might be why I've  turned to crocheting. I hope to do a little more gardening too. Need to loose some winter fat BAD!

Those are the facts. Hope your week went well.

Signs of Spring & WIP's

Hello, my pretties.
Well, the first real signs of spring have shown up this week! In fact today was the first spotting of the red-winged blackbird--a sure sign of spring for us. A robin showed up earlier, but these birds don't really go south for the winter--although if I were a robin, this year, I would have headed for Mexico!

My husband has been putting birdseed out for the birds, and squirrels in our snow-packed drive. Currently, and since the rain last week, we've got an ice pond. He put out some salt where we park and walk around the truck, but the rest of the drive is icy. But I saw that the mountains of snow along side the road by us has been visibly reduced to at least half of what it had been. The sun is traveling back north, meaning the length of days are getting longer, and the sun's warmth--even when it's only 20 out--helps with the melt.

That's the news on our weather here.

On my WIP's. Well I have a couple. One is my large granny-square afghan, which is about 75% - 80% done (that is the squares that are done--sewing it all up is another project that will take time, of course) I think I began working on this larger project at the end of December, or around Christmas time.

My writing projects still consist of working on over-all edits of the 4th novel in the Sabrina Strong series, which goes slowly. I'm now not seeing this finished until March or April. I don't like rushing a book these days to get it published. I simply can't do that.

Work on my stand-alone book Dhampir Legacy is still being written. I'm working on the last portion of this book--the climax. I'm guestamating this as being finished (written) at some point in March. And then I let it sit and I'll be working on editing after I get Vampire Caprice done and published to Amazon. I hope to also put it up at Smashwords for those of you who do not have an e-reader. You can go and buy the PDF version of it there.

I've had a number of setbacks because of the weather, and related problems, things like having to fill the washing machine manually (because of the pipes being frozen) was not a joy, and it took about 3 hours to do a load of laundry! Thankfully, the pipes haven't burst, and we're back in business, as they are all thawed out.

Although I may not have had to do much work outside, like my husband, I still had to drive in horrible weather, and driving a 12 ton bus in the winter is stressful. My route is an hour long, and the time points are extremely tight, especially when a lot of people ride and I have to stop at a number of stops along my route. I rarely have enough time to eat or hit the bathroom--but I make time. I've dubbed this route my "diet" route. I usually come home exhausted, and an exhausted mind is not easy to recover from. So, the signs of spring coming in is a wonderful thing to see.

And this year I'm calling my 60th  Jubilee (sounds better than birthday to me). When I come up with a few ideas of how to celebrate it, I'll let you know. I'll try and have some giveaways. More on that later on.

Hope you're having some signs of spring where ever you are today! I know I'm looking forward to not seeing snow out my window for a long, long while. But this will not happen any time soon.

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!!!

Yeah. In case you haven't heard we've been hit by the winter from hell here in the mid-west. But we are dealing.

The water pipes in our laundry room have been frozen for about a week--which meant we had to fill buckets and gallon water jugs up in order to fill the washer. Interesting note: the thing takes at least 16 gallons each fill and will not do a partial load.

My husband has plowed at least every other day these past weeks. Did I mention that there is no where for the snow to go anymore? We've thought about doing snow sculptures just for the hell of it, except it keeps getting too cold to do much of anything outside.

This morning we had to drive our transit buses in this crap. Well, I simply decided I would not be able to keep my bus on time. At least our company is understanding about that. There were no good roads until much later on. And I was happy to see that for the most part everyone knew to go slow. The ones who didn't, the ones who thought they could drive like they always do... well God save anyone in their way. I saw plenty of those today. One guy couldn't stop for the red light and slid right through the light I was waiting at. I know not to jump the gun at the light. These guys are nuts.

We have begun putting out seed for the birds and critters. Today one of the squirrels was sitting by the truck on it's haunches looking into the picture window, his head moving to eye the porch. That they are looking for us to feed them is both cute and almost sad. The snow is too deep for them to dig in to find anything to eat. Besides, it's fun to watch the different birds and squirrels come in to eat.

I've been busy on the manuscript. It's a slow go. I get home, have lunch, and try and get a few hours in, if that's possible, of writing. Then, I'm brain dead, or just dead from my day. But I'm having fun getting this book put together. Realized I was still on the "crisis" part and I'm building toward the climax. I've decided that I'm going to be like warm weather, and come late. Maybe in May we'll see this snow all melt and be gone. So, there isn't much time for much else. Including blogging.

My treat of the afternoons has become a mix of hot cocoa with a half teaspoon of instant caffeine free coffee and vanilla flavored creamer. It almost makes my day. That and my hot bath were I can warm up and see my toes turn pink again.

But we are at the crux of winter, now. The days are getting longer, and the sun's angle is better. So, there's hope.

And my granny afghan is coming along. I need more yarn but I'm working on the colorful squares. I've got 148 so far and I need 324 for this large afghan. I do this in the late afternoons to relax. It doesn't require much brain power and I'm not straining my eyes reading something. I've actually become crochet happy. I've actually discovered a whole community of crocheters and a bunch of FREE sites where I can grab some patterns. I downloaded a free ebook for these things. I don't know if I'll make them all, but there's a few in there I'd like to try.

This one is pretty. I'd like to make it some time. But mine is
more on the traditional colors.

I haven't had much time to come around to get to everyone's blog, and afraid that facebook has also been a similar experience as well. I simply don't have time to do it all.

So, until things warm up, and I'm back in my office, or something else happens. I'm just going to ride out this winter wrapped up in my afghan, sipping my cup of warm cocoa/coffee, working on the vampire books.

A Bit of This 'n' That

Merry Christmas to all my pretties!

 I wanted to give you some up-dates what's been happening with me, and my husband and my writing.
This has been a heck of a year! I went Indie, as you may know. That was a busy summer! I got all three of my Sabrina Strong books out as an Indie with the help of my friend/formatter, John Gill (Carole's husband). He was also instrumental in helping me get "The Cat Whisperer" formatted for both Amazon and Smashwords, as well as helping me with the cover.

I finished my husband's afghan. I never realized it, but I've never made him his own before. I've made others just to go over couches, but this one is his.

As you know we had to give up the kittens so that they would go to a good home. This is a picture of Peewee, the smallest kitten in the 5 that were born under the porch steps in the fall. She was so small, she snuggled in between her two bigger brothers, and hid. I was the first one to see her, small as a mouse, but there. I had been very worried about her. Well, here she is. A healthy little kitty, now 2 and a half pounds of spunk! I'm so happy my sister has her, she's delighted I must say, and I'm very happy that this little bundle has given her such pleasure.

This is Peewee ("Sadie") the smallest kitten
in the group of 5 kittens we had to raise and then
give to shelter, but my sister has this one!

I've been told the gray kitten went to her sister-in-law, and that was good news. I hope to hear what happened to the others. But I'm sure they'll all get great homes.

While I sit and look out the window at the melting snow, we are under a winter storm warning for tonight, and so I'm getting this post up just in case I can't do this tomorrow. Christmas has snuck up on me! I didn't have much time to get cards out and forgot to get more stamps, so I just didn't do it.

I am still working on getting the fourth Sabrina Strong book done, with the help of friend and author, Shelly Arkon.

I am currently working on another WIP. As a matter of fact I've almost got 50k words done with it. If I had pushed it, I would have gotten that much done within the 30 days usually set aside for NANOWRIMO. I'm about 4 days over it, but that's okay, as this is a new achievement. And it's nowhere finished at all. Anyway, in case you aren't familiar with what I'm working on, this is something I had written many years ago, and I've decided to dust it off and breath new life into it. I've renamed it "Dhampire Legacy". I've got plans for the cover and two co-workers have agreed to give me a hand in making the cover. I'm not going to reveal any more about that right now, but I will when things begin to move along toward making it and then I'll have a big reveal. But that's a long way away. Next year at some point.

This year I have done what I said I'd do: enjoy life. I did not push myself too much. I went for walks, I crocheted in the afternoons, and read something after dinner before going to bed. And the naps in the afternoon have been wonderful!

I wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas and we'll see you in the new year! I'll be lurking around my other blogs and usual places in the next few days as well!