Sadly, my favourite earbuds died at some point. I only just realized it when I was listening to Big Bang and thinking, where’s the bass? The right side had blown out at some point and I hadn’t noticed until this morning.

Finding earbuds is problematic. I prefer JLab’s J3s because they fit into my ear without any problem and don’t have this weird swoop bud form that don’t seem to conform to what I thought were normal ears. My ears are normal damn it.

All my other J3s are at work for some reason. So I’m stuck with these J5s until the new J3s come in.

This is my life. Focused on earbuds. Because you know… I could be writing.

This morning I’m looking at swag. I end up doing a lot of it. Go figure. But today it’s mostly been trying to find the right tone for another back stage pass. So far, I haven’t found that groove. I hate not having one but you know, it just might have to not happen.

Because the brain just isn’t firing on all cylinders.

I also have to go renew my driver’s license today. As in go into the DMV. But I have an appointment so… wish me luck.

My car needs a bath. My dog got one last night.

Adulting is SO exciting!

The last couple of days have been a bit crazy. Ramping up for GRL which means a lot of little things that need doing and me getting them done. Now I have to get back to doing that big thing called writing a book.

I’ve been hitting a wall actually for plot these past couple of weeks. Everything my brain tossed out was very trite and blergh. I got a tickle this morning and am going to hunt it down until I find the end of the thread. Hopefully that will work. Because in order to write a book, you kinda have to be excited about it.

Or at least I want to be excited about it.

Finished the new JD Robb while on vacation. I liked it well enough but there was this thing that bugged me. One of the mechanisms Robb uses to show Eve grew up off the social grid is her lack of understanding or knowledge of things like common sayings or typical social cues. Sometimes it gets a bit stale but nothing out of character.

Until this last book.

Where Eve Dallas doesn’t understand time zones.

I’ll have to admit, it kept jerking me out of the story because I’m all… dude, she’s a fucking LT in the NY Police department. And she’s been to other places like Mexico, Paris and Ireland during the series. All of a sudden she can’t grasp the concept of Oklahoma having a different time zone than New York? Come on… really.

I kept hissing when that thread wove back into a conversation because Dallas is intelligent. And a five year old can understand time zones. It made me angry for the character. And I LIKED the book itself. Just that one small pissy thread.

It’s stuff like that you want to avoid while writing.

There are instances when the author knows something is true but a reader might call shenanigans on for whatever reason. In those cases, you just kind of have to grit your teeth and not respond with a profanity hard enough to make the cat blush.

Case in point: Someone remarked a Kai’s 69 Mustang Grande Coupe’s back seat was impossible for a pregnant woman to get in and out of. Thing is, I actually owned Kai’s car. For years… until I sold it to a young fireman from Arizona who lusted after it so much I knew I’d just been fostering the Mustang for him. Trust me, a pregnant woman can get in and out of the back seat quite easily. Because I have a friend who seems like she’s eternally pregnant. Love her but she’s become my litmus test on what a pregnant woman can and cannot do. And I adore her for letting me hijack her life for research.

But this person is convinced otherwise. So what can you do? Okay, sure Meegan didn’t give birth in the passenger seat but sometimes I think it was close. *grins*

You’re gonna get people who say no fucking way. Even if you intimately know the situation. In this case, I laughed and moved on. Although obviously it stuck in some way because I once in a while think about it and chuckle a bit.

I do kind of miss the car sometimes. If only because it was pretty. But owning two vintage cars is a financial drain. I am adulting here!

So all of this leads to plotting. And making sure there’s no fuckery whatever threads being woven into the story. I shall go forth and try. That’s all I can do. Really that’s all anyone can do.

Except for the time zones thing. That was just wrong. It made me all grumpy.

Tuesday Evening

So my body is still reluctant to give up its UK time zone. Which is awesome because you know… work. It switched over practically immediately. Coming back it’s all… Don’t wanna. Of course a lot of that is that I’m just tired and want to sleep.

The Novel Approach will be revealing the cover and blurb from Fish Stick Fridays today. And wooooot! The post is live. Be sure to head on over to TNA for the reveal. Link goes to a very lovely blog.

On the other hand, my brain refuses to give into the tangle of Kai’s world but I’m going to have a reckoning tomorrow. Actually tonight as I lay down the final plot. Which is laughable because plots have a way of never really staying in one place.

Take for example… Claudia.

Claudia was killed on Cole’s porch. Shot dead. In cold blood. Dying at the feet of her employer. That was Claudia’s fate. I know it. I wrote it in the chapter summary. I can even picture it right now. Location: Stoop of office, gunfight, Claudia is killed. Dies in Cole’s arms.

It just didn’t sit right. I fought for her death. Really I did. She was dying, damn it. I’d killed her.

My brain said…no, don’t think so. I refuse to take part in this shit and am refusing to provide words for this nonsense.

Okay, so it wasn’t that formal but it didn’t feel right and I had to sit back and examine why. Then the parallel of Claudia and Barbara hit and I had to go retrofit a bunch of shit to my grumbling disgust.

So, now… I only plot out halfway because then I reassess and see where I need to go.

Kai’s kind of like that. I know where I’m going to go. I just need to find the path.

Cooked steaks tonight for dinner. Something quick since I’ve been working on swag stuff and other things all day. Crashed for an hour to convince my body I was back into some sort of up-down cycle but it has laughed at me.

Later though, I shall make my brain my bitch.

Took today off which I so needed. I’m actually writing this right before I go to bed. Because I’ve switched back to SoCal time. And now I’m dead tired.

Watching BlindSpot right now. I think I’ve got that right. So far it’s been okay. I’m waiting for some chemistry to kick in. But it’s decent.

The dog needs a good scrubbing. And he wants his cookie so he can go to bed. Go figure. Dog has routine. And I need to get back into mine.

Best thing about the UK besides the Five? Endless mushrooms for breakfast. One cannot go wrong with mushrooms. So many mushrooms.

A major part of the trip was Halle, the Cairn of all Cairns. She’s a bit of a diva and likes scritches. She accompanied many of the excursions out into the wild and is a very good traveler. My own cairn, Gus Gus, isn’t a great car rider. Small trips are good. Anything longer than 20 mins is a bitch and a half.

I did see a lot of swans. Swans all over the place. And a few peacocks. But swans.

There was also a Where’s Waldo Rabbit. My brain’s a bit loose. Cotswold. Rabbits. That’s it. Much rabbits.

So now it’s time to settle back into life as I know it. Time to pick up the writing and all that stuff. Oh… and to discuss Fish Stick Fridays… but that’s for another day.

Just realized I’m a bit hungry. How odd. I’ve had some chips. And Water. So…. perhaps some food.

On the other hand, here are photos from the UK trip. Over 1400 so… yeah. I’m also crap on tags. I did however get them assigned to the day and the area we were in. Woot to me.

I’ll be having an announcement of sorts on The Novel Approach this week. *grins* I’ll share that link once it goes up.

Photos are here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskkRVoU4

I am back home. In San Diego.

I truly had a fantastic time and it was lovely seeing the Five.

The flight was really long. And uncomfortable. I’m not sure why this flight was bad and one going over wasn’t but it was. So very odd.

I landed in a heat wave, woke up to a migraine and a storm coming in. Just took migraine meds and am waiting for the ache to go away. The cat won’t leave me alone. Although right now she’s sulking because I am on the laptop.

England was beautiful, rainy and full of laughter. One of the final sights I saw on the way home was Windsor Castle and the Queen was in residence so the flag was waving as we went by. Simply gorgeous place.

Today is going to be spend getting back onto my time zone and willing away this headache. Body ache really. The seat was pretty bad. Next time I go over, I think I’ll do United.

Hope you all are well and settling in for a pretty Fall.

Apparently we are watching Gogglebox. It’s pretty hilarious. It’s a tv show about people reacting to television shows. It’s circular. There is a woman whose chair matches her wallpaper.

Today is my last night here. Leaving tomorrow in mid afternoon. Dead tired.

I put away the SD card with photos. But I will be going through them and posting the best of the best when I get home.

They’ve left me with the television on and didn’t tell me what button to use to turn it off. God help us all.

Watched the Dr Who premiere. Kind of confused. And all the lights are on. Well in the house. Not necessarily in my head at the moment.

Today’s lunch was at an American Diner. Irony abound. On the other hand, I introduced Lea to a root beer float. So achievement unlocked.

And everyone else has gone to bed. I’m stuck with a TV I can’t turn off. Advertisements here are interesting. There is also a sloth on a couch. A blue couch. Not sure why. I also need subtitles a bit for the Moffat family… until they said shite.

So I am off tomorrow. Hope to you see on the other side of the world!

Today was a good day. What I have not done is download any new pictures because it is late and there are llamas on my SD card. Really. Llamas. I’ve come all the way to the UK to see a llama poop. It was very exciting.

Today was also a day filled with sheep, peacocks, deer and the occasional OMG what the fuck is that woman wearing? Yes, we were judging but really, we were very confused about what she was wearing.

Since I am dead tired and it’s nearly midnight… I’m leaving you here with these photos and promises of more. The blond dog is Halle. The liver brown one is Jaegermeister, the pub dog for Riverside 😀

Today we puttered around Swindon and a few other places. The Cairn Mascot of the Five… the female one… joined us. It’s been a very long day for little blond doggies. Halle would like to tell you all she’s extremely tired and would appreciate small tidbits of bacon to be delivered to her place on the sofa.

Yesterday was London. The pouring rain was gone today. So if we’d gone to London today, it would have been sunny but honestly, I wouldn’t have traded yesterday for anything. It was the ultimate London experience.

• Waited for a bus that didn’t come.
• Witnessed a protest which affected cab service. More on that later.
• Dug through the Tube map to get to where we needed to go. This was done quite successfully.
• Queued like made
• Called a cab that didn’t come because of above protest.
• Managed the Tube again, despite the waterfalls of sluice coming down.

Have had a lot of coffee and tea. Some lovely biscuits and well, a begging Cairn.

Today we hit up lunch at the Riverside Pub. Fantastic Yorkshire Pudding filled with bangers, mash and young peas. So so nice. And then an apple and blackberry crumble with ice cream. Tamm said Bollocks after getting BBQ sauce on her shirt and the older women next to us fled like the banshee were on them. Okay that could have been because they were done with lunch but mostly… we said it was the swearing.

Outside were two workers and I got them to show me their ink. I shall share the pix. They were adorable. One had Maori markings and had just finished them. They were at the first peel stage. He was so sweet.

Further along the day… in a day of churches, we came across the gravesite of Tiddles the Church Cat who was a very beloved member of the community.

Sadly, Tiddles Too failed at being a Church Cat, mostly because he refused to stop bringing in half dead rats into the church during services and liked letting them go among the pews as well as being unable to be left inside of the church at night because he tore shit up. Tiddles Too’s Church Cat career ended one day when someone fed him canned cat food at their cottage and he said fuck this Church Cat shit, I’m moving in with them. I didn’t ask if there was a Tiddles Three.

In Cotswold, there’s a butcher shop with a Pickled Tongue sign and apparently hares. I took a picture of the Harry Potter Hare in the bookshop. There were other more disturbing hares outside. I’ll share those later. They’re the type of hares where one needs a bit of strong drink before viewing them.