Monday, September 27, 2021

Battling distractions - and losing

 

September 27, 2021

I've become a distracted writer. I've pulled the blinds and put a relaxing screen saver on the TV to be white noise but it's to no avail. My mind whirls with all these things I should be doing, or would like to be doing, and I don't accomplish much. 

Today's distraction, after taking the man of the house to have blood drawn, fixing breakfast, and starting a load of laundry, is strawberries. I'm hosting the Cousin's Lunch this coming Saturday, and I want to make a cheesecake for dessert. What better way to infuse flavor than by adding a bit of strawberry powder to the batter? Not having any strawberry powder, I pulled a bag of sliced strawberries out of the freezer and loaded the contents into my dehydrator. 

And down the rabbit hole she went...

Setting up the dehydrator reminded me I needed to water the strawberry plants. I didn't expect much out of the plants this year, but I purchased from Burpee and I expected more of the plants to live! Thankfully, I'm already getting sets from the nine out of twenty-four that did survive. And this was from Burpee! 

I was also reminded that I wanted to order some silicone mats for the dehydrator. I'm tired of cutting parchment paper to fit the trays. Off to Amazon I clicked and...wait... The 2022 Old Farmer's Almanac popped up. So I purchased a copy after I ordered the mats. 

I opened the sunroom door and a yellow jacket flew inside the house. There was no way it was going to get out alive - and it did not. 

So, strawberries. I could take a picture and blog about dehydrating them, right? Not really, but confessing my distraction might be of help to others. Maybe. Who knows? 

I'm a distracted writer but my house smells wonderfully of ripe strawberries and will for the next two days. It's not all bad, is it? 


 _*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 
Visit my bookshelf at: 

Social media links:
Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com
My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com
Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: KC Kendricks Between the Keys

 


Monday, September 13, 2021

Time was


 September 13, 2021

And I thought it would be easy. I was wrong. 

There was a time, back in the good old days, when beginning the journey of a new book was easy. The words flowed onto the page without ceasing and the end came far too soon. 

I don't think I appreciated that enough. 

My idea for the sequel to Ride Your Luck is sound. It's even timely, although I didn't realize that until I sat down to write this blog. That's what good coffee does to me. It somehow opens my mind and allows me to think, generally thoughts I don't want to have, but sometimes apropos. 

I think I'm too concerned with getting this story "right" to work on it quickly. That has rarely been a concern. I write the story and it is what it is and if readers like it, okay. If some don't, I'm philosophical enough to know you can't please everyone and move on. 

So why is this one so different? Being introspective by nature, I continually question my motivations and actions. That's not a bad thing. It's good to know yourself and to examine what you do so you stay true to yourself and to your vision. 

Sometimes the vision shifts and leaves a person second-guessing. That's where I am with this story. Is the beginning too "heavy?" Is the beginning a trigger point? It strikes a match on an experience I had when I was seventeen, but that didn't stop me from writing it. 

Here in the predawn hour, I question if the attitudes of the current culture are affecting me. 

Time was I didn't entertain such thoughts. I wrote. 


 _*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 
Visit my bookshelf at: 

Social media links:
Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com
My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com
Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: KC Kendricks Between the Keys