What's up? June 2023.

June 28, 2023

Several years ago I studiously produced a quarterly newsletter, beginning in March 2017 and ending with the spring 2021 edition. I enjoyed doing it. Each edition contained a word from me, a bit about what works were "in progress," a section about my best boy Deuce, an "interview" question, Fun With Photoshop, and ended with a meme of some sort. It was something I could produce during quiet moments at the day job. The old Sitebuilder software I used for a website made it sooooooo easy to upload a .pdf, and then all I had to do was announce it or link to it. That all changed when support for Sitebuilder was pulled. 

I thought I could still do a newsletter and simply load it as a page here at Between the Keys. That didn't really work. If a newsletter isn't delivered to an inbox, folks don't seem to take the time to click and go read it. 

I used to have a mailing list, which was a Yahoo Group. That worked until Groups went bye-bye. 

By mid-2021, we were still struggling with COVID-19. I had settled my stepfather's estate and begun my countdown to retirement. My husband's health was in decline. My mother is in a facility with Alzheimer's Disease. My best friend, whom I met in the third grade, had abandoned me and moved a thousand miles away. My writing partner, Christiane France, had died. I was alone and exhausted. Keeping up a newsletter was not feasible. 

Now, that's not a plea for you to say, "oh, you poor thing!" It was simply my season of trial, and as with all things, it has passed. 

On our morning walk, Deuce and I discussed whether or not I should restart the newsletter. Well, I talked and he listened as is his way. He never gives me bad advice. He simply lets me speak and lets me know he loves my voice. No one else has ever listened to me as intently as he does. But I digress...

I talked myself out of doing a newsletter. I have Between the Keys and it's time I utilize it the way I once did. Maybe one day I'll change my mind - it's been known to happen! But until then, this is still the place where I share my writing world. Thanks for stopping by!

KC Kendricks/Rayne Forrest

Social media links:

Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com

My country life at The Hideaway/Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

Snips and clips on my YouTube channel: KC Kendricks Between the Keys

twitter.com/kckendricks

pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards

instagram.com/kc_kendricks

facebook.com/kckendricks

Between the Keys, KC Kendricks, contemporary LGBT gay romance, m/m romance, Deuce's Day, a writer's life, writing newsletters, writers on writing, rural living, walking, mailing lists, listening, bestselling author

This could have started out a bit better

 June 5, 2022

Retirement. What a concept. What a plan!

This could have started out a wee bit better. Why, you ask? I was less than a week into it, and my dog tried to kill me. Well, maybe not kill me, but he certainly maimed me. And it was my own fault.

One sunny morning, Deuce and I headed out for our walk. It was going so well until we were at the last creek on the way home. There was a fallen stick across his favorite watering hole so "Mommy" thought she'd get that out of his way. 

Big mistake. Huge!

I turned my back on the dog and reached for the stick. HE thought it was Fetch the Stick time and lunged for it which knocked me off my feet in the middle of the creek. I went down hard into the water and onto several large rocks. I'm damned lucky I didn't break a hip and lie there in the cold water for hours until someone had the thought they should come look for me. 

I have the largest bruise I've ever had in my entire life on my left hip. I jammed my left wrist, something that was made worse by my Versa Fitbit digging into my flesh. My right side ribs took a beating. Thankfully, my knees escaped all injury except for a couple of smaller rocks causing temporary pain as I struggled to get to my feet. Thankfully, I was able to walk home, wet shoes and all. 

The spousal unit made an attempt to convince me to go for x-rays, and maybe I should have. My immediate sense of things was I'd not broken any bones. Ten days later I know I'm basically okay. The bruise has faded a bit and the swelling has gone down in my wrist. Sitting at the computer and typing has been problematic, but the wrist feels pretty good this morning. The hip is feeling healed enough that I'm going to take a short walk and see how it feels afterward.

We live and we learn. I know how excited Deuce gets about chasing sticks. A retriever has to retrieve. I wasn't paying enough attention to what he was doing - my bad and my fault. The poor dog didn't know what to make of me sitting in the creek. He's forgotten it all by now. 

I managed to do a bit of writing work this past week, but nothing near what I'd hoped. This is just real life, or at least my life. Sometimes I think the universe doesn't like me to make plans. 

Or maybe it does so it can toss roadblocks at me. I'll have to think about that. 

_*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
My home on the web- Between the Keys: 
http://kckendricks.blogspot.com
Visit my bookshelf at: 
https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne_3.html

Social media links:

twitter.com/kckendricks

pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards

instagram.com/kc_kendricks

facebook.com/kckendricks

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

Between the Keys, KC Kendricks, simple country pleasures, contemporary gay romance, a writer's life, m/m romance, writing time, time management, black Labs, walking, LGBT romance, blogs about writing

Step away... and away

November 19, 2015

A few weeks ago I got a Fitbit Flex. It’s one of those little gizmos you wear on your wrist, like a watch. It counts your daily steps and sends the info to an app on the device of our choice. I have the app on my cell phone because it’s always handy.

 

The app tells you all sorts of things. It ties into MyFitnessPal.com and together the two apps will drive you nuts provide steps walked, how many miles walked, active minutes, calories burned, how well you slept and how many pounds to go until you reach your weight loss goal (if you set that one).

I told myself I wasn’t going to get all caught up on the craze to take 10,000 steps a day.

Aye. Right.

It seems I like the daily challenge of feeling the gizmo vibrate on my wrist. For the past week, starting with last Thursday, my totals are:

Thursday    (11/12)            11,574

Friday         (11/13)            10,659

Saturday     (11/14)               5,480 (rain)

Sunday       (11/15)            10,664

Monday      (11/16)              7,875 (homeowner “stuff” needed done)

Tuesday      (11/17)            10,125

Wednesday (11/18)            11,194

That’s not too shabby for a woman with a desk job during the day and a writer gig in the evening. A quick twenty-minute walk before work, and a good thirty-ish minute walk during my lunch hour puts me within striking distance of 10K. The incidental trips around the building, up and down the stairs, picks up the rest.  But now I’ve discovered - there’s more.

I just found out there’s a 15K step badge you can earn. Maybe I need to step away from the gizmo before I hurt myself. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
twitter.com/kckendricks
facebook.com/kckendricks

Have you joined my mailing list? No chatter, just news.
Send an email to:
betweenthekeys-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

10,000 steps

October 26, 2015

Sooooo I bought into the Fitbit craze and got a Flex. So it was $90 I probably shouldn't have spent, but hey. I don't have any serious vices. Why not have another fun gadget? (Maybe gadgets are a vice - who knows?)

I work in an office setting, plus I write. That's a lot of time at a desk. To counter that I generally take a walk in the park on my lunch break. The first full day of having the Fitbit, I logged 5047 steps. Whoa, baby. Really? I did that many without varying my routine at all? I rather impressed myself. Halfway there without actually trying. 

Being a pragmatic sort, I realized right then and there that 10,000 steps a day, every day, might be out of range. I set a goal of 5500 for the next day and added five minutes to my lunchtime stroll. I ended up at 5322 for the day. 

Okay. That told me I needed to add a purposeful walk around the office building, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. This is over and above going to other offices to check on my charges. This would just be a flyby. Let 'em wonder what the hell the office manager is up to.  The added five minutes and two flybys got me to 6686. 

At this point I'm not sure the Fitbit is adding correctly. That's a quite a jump. 

Friday. A twenty-seven minute walk in the park, two flybys and bowling night. Total=7944.  Hmm. I would have thought bowling would add more, but it is what it is. 

Fast forward to the next Friday and the same routine got me to 8790. By now I'm really confused about the way this gadget measures steps. 

Saturday, October 24. Great weather. I made up my mind I was going to hit TEN THOUSAND steps or fucking die trying. 

As it happened, we had quite a To Do list for the day. First up - an early morning pantry run to Wal-Mart (yeah, yeah) to restock the larder. After that a few chores in the yard including climbing up and down a ladder a few times and a trip to fill up the gas cans and get diesel for the John Deere. All of that and I'm at about 7000 steps. Fine. I set out for a walk in the woods, taking the two-mile loop. It's almost four o'clock when I get home and the Fitbit says I've only gone 9467 steps. Fuck. Me.

I can do this. I can go another 500 or so steps. I CAN DO THIS! I walked down to my mailbox and back. That's 975 feet out the lane and 975 feet back in. I know it's that far. I measured the distance when I had to pay a contractor to scrape off the topsoil and put the first one hundred ton of stone down back in 1981. I look at the read-out on my phone and it says 9989. 

BITE ME! 

A few steps around the house and the Fitbit gizmo vibrated. According to modern tech, I'd made the whopping big total of 10,007 steps and it was still daylight. By the end of the day I'd registered 10,539 steps. I got the badge. 

What's my take-away from Saturday's exercise? I'm not crazy enough, or obsessive enough, for the Fitbit craze. If I don't get 10,000 steps a day, who the hell cares? Not me. I'll continue to play with my gadget because, admittedly, it's a way to remind me to take those extra strolls around the office and add a few minutes to my mid-day walk when possible. But from now on, I'm counting along with the Fitbit.  

KC
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks

Have you joined my mailing list? No chatter, just pertinent news. Email to:
betweenthekeys-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

How to Celebrate Anniversaries (or not)

October 12, 2014

Autumn is here. I took a stroll along familiar paths and it's easy to discern the signs that winter will be here early. Many of my neighbors must think so, too. The sound of chainsaws echo off every hillside as they lay in firewood. We overstocked last year so we aren't adding to the cacophony of buzzing sounds. 

Today marks a few passages in time for me and the family. It's just part of the progression of days to me but some folks get excited about it. I mark it on my calendar, but it's just another day. I think anniversaries meant much more when they were new(er). 

Give me the Hallmark card and let's get on with it. 

A different event in our day happens this afternoon. The youngest of my beloved's grandsons will receive an achievement award and we've been invited to attend the ceremony. This is nothing new being he's the fourth grandson to get this same award, but we will go and applaud his success. 

Personally, I think his real success has been surviving the "lessons" of his older brothers, but I digress...

Read more about our first attendance at one of these events in the "How it's not nice to prank your kids" blog entry. I still think about that day and laugh. 

***

On the writing front, I finally finished Ace, Deuce, Trey, the third installment in the Ian Coulter's Amethyst Cove series. I spent most of the summer tinkering with the story and then decided the old writer's adage was applicable: I wrote the story for me. So it's a long story and the characters act like who I really want them to be. Look for Ace, Deuce, Trey in December 2014. That gives you time to read Double Deuce and then Deuce of Diamonds so you're all caught up on the action. 

I've got two new stand-alone stories underway. Those ideas interfered with completing Ace, Deuce, Trey in a more timely fashion, but that's the life of a writer. New "voices" can be very persistent when they pop up. One of the stories has a March 1, 2015, submission deadline at Amber Quill/Amber Allure so I can take my time, but it's best if I get it finished early. It will be part of a PAX next year. 

The other came about when I realized the title I'd given a blog was a perfect title/idea for a book. So I changed the blog title and banged out the first 3500 words of the story. It's waiting for me to get over this busy weekend and settle down to writing again. The dark winter evenings are good for writing provided one can overcome the urge to hibernate. 

And so it goes this brisk autumn morning. I think I'll go bake something. It seems like the thing to do to warm up the house. Pumpkin spice cookies, anyone?

KC Kendricks
http://www.kckendricks.com
http://www.twitter.com/kckendricks
http://www.facebook.com/kckendricks
http://www.pinterest.com/kckendricks

The Road Less Taken - Robert Frost

October 23, 2013

 

I have always loved The Road Less Taken by Robert Frost. Like the fellow in the poem, I find a long walk through the woods both invigorating and peaceful. I'm fortunate to live in a rural area surrounded by woods. I can choose a path for a morning walk and know mine are first feet to travel the road that day.

 

The autumn colors are slow in arriving this year, but by Saturday I expect to be able to walk the old paths and enjoy the fall woods. If I don't do it this coming weekend, I may have to wait a year. And like the poet, I may never pass this way again so now is the time.

 

Here's my favorite poem. Enjoy!

 

The Road Less Taken - Robert Frost

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

 

KC Kendricks

website

pinterest

twitter



Visiting the park on lunch break

October 2, 2013

I work in a growing town with a population approaching 50,000 souls. The community has its share of problems, same as all small towns losing their small town identity as they grow. One thing the town hasn't forfeited is its historic parks.

Over my lunch hour, I visited one of the oldest parks for some fresh air and a twenty-minute walk to shake off a morning stuck behind a desk. With autumn upon us, the number of lovely days left in this calendar year are dwindling. 

Anyway, I wanted to share a photo of this park still decked out in summer greens although it's evident autumn color is poised to arrive.

KC

Some motivation required

March 21, 2013

The calendar says lovely Spring has arrived and as in years past my thoughts have turned to getting outdoors and doing ...anything.

Seriously - I don't care what the activity as long as it gets me out of the house. It's been a long, cold winter and I've been a slug since Christmas. The camel-colored slacks I'm wearing today that fit like they'd been made just for me last fall are a wee bit tight now. Not so much I risk the seams by wearing them, you understand. They're just snug.

So it's time to take action and start the yearly ritual. Again. Every spring I buy a pair of walking shoes and start walking. And every year I tell myself if I just hadn't quit walking in November, I wouldn't have to get back in the groove now. (I'd still need the shoes.)

What can I say except it was COLD in November? Give me a "wimp" button and I'll wear it.

The truth is I think I write better when I get out and walk. The fresh air and sunshine lift my spirits as well as oxygenate my brain cells. My theory is better brain cells, better books. It's win/win.

I found this cartoon a few days ago and I've been laughing over it ever since. I don't need quite this much motivation, but I sure would appreciate the mercury rising above 50F.

KC

I've been for a walk, on a winter's day

December 16, 2009

Baby, it's cold outside! My silly cat hasn't touched real terra firma in days. His paws are just too delicate. Even the dog needs a good shove to get him out the door. And people call them 'dumb animals'. For myself, I brave the cold air almost daily for a walk. I know I shouldn't ask, but what does that say about the level of my intelligence?

One summer, way back when in the 1980's, my mom and I used to get up at five in the morning, Monday through Friday, and walk. We were faithful until winter hit, and we thought it too cold to go outside. We stopped "for the winter" and we never started again. Now, since I'm finally walking almost every day again, I'm afraid to stop for fear the same thing will happen again. I bundle up and go unless it's raining buckets.

Does the walking help me as a writer? I'm not sure. I'd like to think so. What's good for me is good for the stories.

Yes, we writers can be an obsessive lot. Everything goes back to the writing with us. We can't escape writing - it's our drug. It keeps our brains happy.

I do wonder what people think as I stroll along, grinning, or even talking to myself as I work on dialogue. Of course, I walk with my iPod plugged in, so maybe they think I'm trying (and failing) to sing. It doesn't really matter. I walk to please myself, much like the writing.

Walking has helped with other things, too. It's taken a few months, but my co-workers no longer have panic attacks when I leave them alone for half an hour. Apparently, it stresses them when the den mother abandons them. Well GOOD!! They cause me enough stress, and walking eases that. I've lost a few pounds, and my blood pressure cuff keeps telling me I'm really dead.

Today, as I walked along, my iPod spit out an old song, one full of magic - "California Dreaming" by the Mamas and the Papas. I turned up the volume, and inside my headphones, the wonderful stereo sound of the Sixties bloomed, rendering the incredible harmonies in their full glory. It transported me back to a very different time when my best girlfriend and I knew every word to every song on the AM radio bands. We'd sit on the porch steps for endless hours and sing along. Winter's cold didn't stop us.

I think I'll load a few more old songs into my iPod, and try to let go of even the writing as I walk. And when I return to my desk to finish out the workday, I'll be able to smile at the kiddies in the office. Because, you see, I've been for a walk, on a winter's day.

KC Kendricks
Visit my website at http://www.kckendricks.com