Day late and a dollar short?

Yes, I almost missed several scheduled posts like IWSG and the Indelibles. Yes, I did miss my Five Friday Facts - again! Yes, I'm sorry. No, really, I am.

But right now I just have too much life going one. I'm working hard to edit my novel, "Barely a Spark". I'm getting ready for our two month motorcycle trip on Route 66 and I'm getting ready for our move to Ecuador. Phew!

I did simplify ONE thing, I'm now down to two personal blogs plus this one. I merged four personal blogs into one, that should help. If you're interested, you can find it at Our Prime Years.

One final note - THANK YOU to almost 1000 entrants in the giveaways for my copy of paperback books at Goodreads.com. And a HUGE congratulations to the winners, E. Steen (copy of Home Again) and P. Hanby (copy of Not a Whisper).

Five Friday Facts for August 9th

Strange week...not sure why?

1. Really tried hard to get the book edited, I think the time crunch is what's hurting me. I still hope to get it published in a month but am doubting now that it will happen. Feeling bad for my readers who are waiting impatiently. Had two totally non-productive days, at least professionally. Did get a lot of niggling little chores done thought. Guess that should count? Sigh....
    
2. Cut down 49 Harley-Davidson t-shirts that are getting made into a queen sized blanket. Not a quilt but still very nice. Great price, $199, and it benefits a great organization. Check it out at Project Repat.
    
3. I'm starting to pre-schedule guest posts for Sept/Oct when I will be traveling and not posting. If you're interested in a guest spot, post a comment with your email addy and I'll send you the details. [I'll delete the comment once I have saved your information so you don't get spammed.]
    
4. I had really hoped to get back into some flash fiction but have too much on my plate right now. Sigh...maybe next year? Heck, I might even do the April A to Z blog challenge again!
    
5. Wondering why my little snuggly puppy went. She turned three yesterday.

Five Friday Facts for August 2nd

Short and sweet this week....

1. A few frustrations this week as I battled the incoming paperwork for our Ecuador visas and argued with Caremark, our mail order prescription service. But I came out on top...I think!
    
2. Did you know that Amazon has a list of ALL the ebooks you've purchased/downloaded and you can see them by Read, Reading, Hope to Read, and Stopped Reading? I went through and marked my Stopped Reading books to either Read or Hope to Read. Interesting page - CLICK HERE.
    
3. I ordered the last of our gear for our two month motorcycle trip on Route 66. Convertible pants for both of us (mesh/regular/quilted liner). We ended up with Tourmaster Flex Textile pants. Hope they fit. For me it was a tank bag for me - I did a lot of analysis in size since I don't want it too large or too tall, plus it had to have a handle so I can snatch it off the bike and carry it. Finally settled on this one, it will replace my purse for the trip and be a handy spot for sunglasses, tissues, candy, phone, etc.
   
   
   
4. I FINISHED THE FIRST DRAFT of  Barely a Spark on the last day of July. One month - now the fun begins, Second draft, edits, proofing, more edits, beta readers and hopefully - MAYBE - publishing near the end of August. Over 62,000 words written, how many will remain after the editt? Any quesses?
    
5. I find I am more productive in my writing endeavors when I leave the house. So I've been spending a LOT of time in the local McDonald's. (Don't laugh, both Not a Whisper and Home Again were written this way. I've been approached by two managers and three customers, asking if I was writing a book. Needless to say, I handed out cards to them all.

Five Friday Facts for July 26th

Yes, I missed last week. No idea why other than being busy writing on my next novel. Sorry - life happens.

1. We took a big step towards our move to Ecuador this December - ordered 90% of the paperwork needed for our pensioner's Visa. Still have a couple more things to do like get passport photos and statements from Social Security. But we're moving forward!
    
2. This has been a CHORE week, well, for hubby it has been. We've had two different tire blow-outs on our RV, the first well over a year ago. Hubby had repaired all the damage he could find but our electric fireplace still wasn't working. So yesterday he tackled that and finally found the loose connection! Yippee!!
    
3. The weather has been very cool at night, down into the 50's. LOVING IT! We've slept with the windows open the last two nights. Right now it's 9:30 in the morning and still only 68 degrees. This is MY kind of weather...similar to what we will have in Cuenca, Ecuador.
    
4. I just watched the last two episodes of Frasier. I enjoyed the series but didn't watch it on a regular basis so missed the end of the series. What fun to watch my favorite characters again as they all rode off into the Hollywood sunset.
    
5. Movie this week was RED 2 and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. I missed Morgan  Freeman, who died in the first one, and there was less character building because we already knew them. But John Malkovich was even better in this one. Hoping there will be a RED 3.

Hope you all have a great week and be sure to enter my giveaway, FOUR days to enter!!

Five Friday Facts for July 12th

This has been a busy, fun, boring, exciting week. How's that for an intro...LOL! Here are five random facts about this week.

1. I've been BUSY writing my next book in the Klondike Mystery series. Starting Chapter 10 now and writing madly. It's amazing how many plot changes & twists happen when you let your characters tell their own story.
    
2. Hubby has started working on our Route 66 plans. Two motorcycles, two people, 1 trailer on Route 66 - should be a blast. We aren't going to hurry, we want to take time to savor the journey. We're allowing a month to go from here to just outside Chicago where we'll start, then on to Santa Monica via as much of Route 66 as we can locate. We'll camp when possible (and weather permits - and we feel like it). Oh, and I'll turn age 66 during the ride! WOOT!
    
3. We had breakfast with some good riding friends from Texas on their way through to an event in West Virginia. Up at 7am to meet them in neighboring Cookeville for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Good food, great friends = wonderful day.
    
4. Went to the movies to see "White House Down". It was that at "Despicable Me 2" and I figured that would last longer at the theaters. All I can say is WoW...adrenaline overload. Love, love, LOVED it!!
    
5. I was doing SO GOOD on my diet until Wednesday night. Pouring rain, nothing thawed out and my WONDERFUL hubby went into town to pick up pizza. Hey, I ordered it....[snicker]. It was SO good!!! Then there was the movies on Thursday...I just can't do a movie without popcorn. Also gave in and had my first Diet Coke in almost two months.
   
   Tomorrow, back at it, including exercise. Especially after reading this article by Harley Pasternak: Even Physically Active Women Sit Too Much By Harley Pasternak

Hope you had a good week! We move our RV from our property in north central TN to Camping World in Chattanooga where we will hopefully FINALLY get out body work done, fixing the damage done by the tire blowout that happened on our way to Maryland from Tennessee in early spring.

My FIRST Five Friday Facts for July 5th

Another blogging friend is doing this and I liked the idea...something a little personable. So every Friday I will post five things about my week. It could be about writing. It could be about what I ate. It could be about what I did. It could be a silly joke I heard or read. In other words, it could be about most anything. I hope you enjoy it!

1. My husband has been gone on a three week motorcycle trip with his buddies and he got home this week! Really missed him and we had a lot to catch up on.
    
2. My writing has been abysmal, well, at least on my novel. I'm having trouble getting motivated. I know I work better with a deadline. Fortunately I belong to a group that has set up a challenge - 70k by the end of July. I'm using the same approach as I did with Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo. I'm allowing 20 writing days out of the month. That means I need to write at least 3500 words each of those days.
    
3. I posted a comment on a friend's blog that mentioned the fact that I love to drink green olive juice. It's true...I do, but I don't. Too much sodium. Okay, now my mouth is watering.
    
4. It has rained every day for the last two weeks. Enough!
    
5. I've started my to do list for our move to Ecuador this December. I turned all the planning for our Route 66 trip over to hubby. Too much on my plate already!

Have a great weekend!