May 11, 2022
Week 83
Emotional State: Ninja Chipmunks. ‘Nuf said.
Book, Life & The Chipmunk
I’ve done it. I’ve finished the read aloud edit of Book Two and it is so much better. I added some darkness to the end, and it made me cry, so I think it’s good. It could’ve been exhaustion or the tail end of the dread pirate pandemic, but I don’t think so.
What’s that mean? Well, it means I can set it down and send it to beta readers (if I had any) or an editor. I’m guessing it’ll go to the editor. I thought in my break between Books Two and Three I’d be able to work on my cozy mystery but then something funny happened. I had an idea for a reader’s magnet that would actually work for my series.
See, I wrote the first reader magnet using the chapters I’d already written because I needed something that didn’t give Angwyndith completely away, but still showed what my book could be about. And I ran out of time, to be completely honest.
But now I’ve got a new idea and it’s good. I’m already six chapters in and I know how it works and what the arc is. I’m pantsing it and have already moved a chapter around because it has all the good world building in it and should be further up. I think it’ll be a good representation of my book and the world of it. And maybe one day I can publish it as a novella.
I’m still hoping to tackle the cozy mystery this month as well and have gotten my schedule nailed down in full crazy mode to give me time to write both. I know I’ll need a break between the reader magnet and the cozy, because my brain will put Seraphina’s personality on Jenna and that just can’t happen.
That’s all well and good, but I have a more important, or rather funny, story to tell.
Why the Peanut M&Ms?!
We arrived last week from our trip and unpacked all the snack foods we’d bought and eaten along the way to and from Kentucky. One of those things was a snack pack of peanut M&Ms. My world builder put the M&Ms in the pantry and life went on.
On Monday, while working, I snagged a couple of them and went about my day. I have a late call on Mondays, so when it was finished, I typed up my notes. At some point, there was a lot of noise under my feet. It sounded like pipes banging and someone directly underneath the floorboards.
The room I’m in is the sunroom. It is not built over the foundation of the house but is built on dirt. It has radiators and electricity and is completely closed off. I texted the world builder about the noise, hoping I could hear more of what was happening. He blew me off.
As I finished work, I heard a rustling in the kitchen, and I thought it was the world builder getting some chips. I called out his name and he said he was upstairs, which was odd. But okay. I headed upstairs.
Later, after dinner, I was jonesing for some chocolate, so I wandered downstairs to make a new cup of tea and to grab some M&Ms. They were gone. I tore the kitchen apart and called the world builder down to help. (I really wanted those M&Ms). They were nowhere to be found.
The world builder blamed me. ME. He thought I’d put them somewhere, but you’d think I’d remember that, right?
Cue Tuesday. I’m working and the world builder calls me into the basement. His first question, “Did you do anything with the furnace yesterday?”
No. I’d cleaned it out before we left (we flush out the dirt and refill it every other week), so I had no reason to be down there.
He’d found the M&Ms, split open, by the furnace. Now, first of all, if I’m draining dirty water out of the furnace, why in the world would I bring M&Ms with me? And secondly, I wouldn’t have left them down there.
Anyway, so we have a chipmunk. Or a squirrel. A total ninja animal who crawled through the tiny space between the steam pipe and the wall, jumped down, passed the entire shelf rack of snacks to chew on, walked up the stairs, stole the M&Ms and ONLY the M&Ms, and then dragged them down the stairs and into the second part of the basement.
Don’t worry. They came back a later day and stole hot chocolate and raisins from the shelf in the basement, but still. Why, chippy, why must you steal the one fun thing we had left to eat?!
Karma or the universe telling me to exercise and stop snacking on sugar. Nah.
Just a ninja chipmunk.