Late May

 I am 99.9% done with the first draft of my latest book. I realized I didn't talk about a semi important character in the epilogues so need to go back and add her.

But mostly I am done. Hooray!

The last week has been WET. We have gotten so so so much rain!  Dayton got almost 9 inches of rain in May, and most of that was in the last 10 days or so!

Our house is on a hill and we have a good roof so no leaking, which makes me happy. There are flooded roads here and there.

One of my odd characteristics is that I like reading about people who do dangerous and crazy things, while also personally having zero desire to do said dangerous things. I have been following the tragedy of the five Italian divers in the Maldives closely.

Short story is that earlier this month, five divers in the Maldives (a group of islands in the Indian ocean) made their way into a deep cave system and all died.  Which is very very sad. Three of them were women, two were mother and daughter, and all were experienced divers. However, there is no indication that they were trained in cave diving, which is extremely dangerous because of course if you get in trouble, you can't just go up. You have to get out of the cave first. It appears that four of the five took a wrong turn and got lost in the low visibility murk and ran out of breathing air.  The fifth guy made it to the entrance of the cave and died there.

So you have to have a certain personality to do dangerous things like dive into cave systems or climb tall mountains. A surprising number of people are overly casual (in my view) about such things. Sometimes this results in nothing more than a few scrapes, but sometimes people die.

I am reading a book called Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver by Jill Heinerth. She has spent incredible amounts of time diving in narrow cave systems. Crazy stuff. Her personality is a weird and wondrous combination of excitement over being an explorer, along with being very detail oriented. She describes her preps for deep cave diving as being extremely meticulous. She checks things over and over. She has lists. 

She has had close calls. She had a serious bout of decompression sickness once for reasons that are not quite understood.

Anyway, the Italian divers were a research group. At least one, maybe more, was a Ph.D. level scientist. And yet, they dove into a cave system without backup tanks, and without a guideline, which is what every cave diver should do. That is, bring a rope, tie one end to the entrance, and take it with you so that you can use it to get back if you cannot see well or get disoriented. These five did not do that. They  made so many mistakes.

Truth is, intelligence doesn't mean wisdom. You can be super smart and still make idiotic decisions. In this case, those decisions led to tragedy.

Back from St. Croix

 Kevin and I got back from our annual vacation to St. Croix, USVA, on Saturday night.

Kevin took 18 million lovely pics, but he hasn't worked on them yet. This picture of me is not the most flattering, but oh well. You can see there is an ocean behind me!

Here is a picture of a very handsome feral chicken.

We had a fabulous week, as usual. I was happy to come back though. I missed the kids.

Our pool was green when we got back, but we threw in chemicals and whipped it into shape.

I am almost done with a book. I know I say that a lot. Because I write fast.

So yeah, we vacationed and we came back. We are mostly done with school for the year. I am in the mood to clean the house, and have been decluttering and stuff.

It is good.

Good-bye, precious Buddy

 

Friday was a sad day. Miriam went out to feed the cats and our oldest cat, Moonbeam, had passed peacefully in his sleep.

He was very old. I am thinking 14 or 15. He was fat his entire life. So it wasn't a huge shock but it certainly was hard.

He had been slowing down but was still friendly and moving around well. No sign of illness, but maybe his heart just gave out.

He was a stray kitten along with his mother and a sibling, way way back. We kept him and found homes for his mother and sibling. He was incredibly friendly. Maybe because he was underfed as a kitten, he had a rapacious appetite and was overweight for most of his life.

One of our neighbors once said to Kevin (while pointing at Moonbeam), "I think your cat is pregnant."

Kevin said, "Well, there are two reasons why I don't think that is true. One, he is a boy. Two, he is fixed."

So long, sweet Moonbeam. You were a wonderful, wonderful cat and we miss you.

Late April

 I do love this time of year!  It is not too cold, not too hot. There are not a great many bugs yet.

The grass is growing with great enthusiasm, and various trees are flowering. 

Spring is awesome.

As I said in the previous blog post, we had our pool liner replaced. That meant we opened the pool earlier than usual. Kevin and Rose and Daniel have been in several times. I went in once. It was 76. That is rather too cold but it was Ok. It was good for me. I prefer at least 5 degrees warmer though.

We have had sunny days and that, plus the solar cover, is heating the water quickly. Given it is not yet May, the water is impressively warm. I should add that at night the water cools pretty seriously. 76 is the highest it has been. The kids have gone in when it was 74. BRRRRR.

Today is a bit cooler. It was like ... 64 at the highest point? But delightfully sunny with little wind, so a charming day.

Ok, more serious stuff.

There is a couple who are friends, who (like us) have a large family. The husband is a Type 2 diabetic like me. A few weeks ago, he had an injury with a chainsaw; he cut off the very tip of one finger. 

Long story short, the finger didn't heal well. It has been a really big deal and very exhausting, with lots of antibiotics and pain.

Now I do not know details, but it is LIKELY that part of the problem is diabetes, because long term diabetes often causes problems with blood vessels and the flow of oxygen and the body doesn't heal as well as it used to, especially in the extremities.

Which is scary for me, though I will say that I am not a chain saw kind of lady. I am not strong enough, and they scare me. But life does happen, and this kind of thing does happen, and wow, our poor friend!

I have been working hard to keep my blood sugars low for years and it is incredibly tiresome and they have been creeping up some blah blah blah. So annoying and frustrating. But also worth it, because I never have run REALLY high. 

All of this is a good reminder to keep on keeping on.

A week or two ago I mentioned a lady who used to attend the same church as me, and we lived in the same neighborhood, and then life happened and we drifted apart. She is now in hospice care for cancer. Probably will die within the week. Obviously sad. She loves Jesus and will be walking Heaven's streets of gold soon. Her poor family though...

I do sometimes struggle with whininess about food limitations and various aches and pains but am so grateful that my body works pretty well.

I finished another 1000 piece puzzle. The smoke from the train took awhile but I did it!

Rose made boats out of cardboard and floated them in a tub. She is very creative.

Our three sons

Mid April

 I am missing church again today because Daniel is quite sick. He just has a bad cold but in spite of his comparitive age (he is almost 14) I still don't want him home alone when he is sick. 

Kevin took several other kids to church. The older ones do their own thing with their own churches. We have a lot of cars and people going here and there!

I felt off all last week which was annoying. I had days when I felt pretty perky and days when I took three hours naps at noon.

A year ago, a dear friend of mine from college died of cancer.

This year, an old acquaintance of mine is in hospice for cancer, and she is younger than I am. We used to interact a lot as we went to the same church and lived in the same neighborhood (this was 20+ years ago) but then they moved and we moved and we changed churches and I haven't SEEN them in a long time. But I am FB friends and am praying for them. She is at the point where nothing can be done and they are just keeping her comfortable. She is home, at least. Anyway.

I get irritable with my body sometimes, but I know I am blessed that my biggest problems are digestive issues and occasional mild illnesses.

The biggest excitement of last week was the pool. We paid a company (lots of money) to take off the old liner, which literally had holes in it, and replace it.

 

The two men were incredibly quick. In a few short hours, we had a brand new pool liner.

Then came the refilling the pool part.

It took well over 24 hours to fill it up to this point. That was important because when the water got to this point, the pool people came back and removed a vacuum system which was sucking in the pool liner until there was enough water.

While we were filling it up the first day, we had two hoses in the pool all the time, which meant the water pressure inside was hilariously bad. To the point that showers had to be planned. We would turn off one hose for a little bit and then turn it back on when the showers were done.

After the pool people removed their vaccum, we turned off one hose and last night, latish, the pool was full again. It took more than two full days. Our pool is very large.

Now the pool is "open" for the season, but no one is getting in yet. The water is hideously, hideously cold.

I am hoping with the solar cover, we can get it up enough to jump in by the end of April but that seems a little optimistic. We will see!

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

 Easter Sunday!

This is arguably the most important celebration of the year for Christians as we celebrate Jesus Christ overcoming death, rising, and leaving the tomb.

We are saved from eternal separation from God through Jesus's willingness to die on the cross for our sins.

Unfortunately for me, I am sick so am not going to church today. Most of the kids have gone. Kevin is sick too so he is in bed. 

It is just a cold but my asthma loves to flare up enthusiastically when I am sick, so I am taking it very easily.

The daily temps have been up and down a lot. Over the last week, we have had high temps in the 80s, and high temps in the low 40s. This pic is (if memory serves me) during a cold day, but we have this warm spot on our deck and obviously a bunch of the kids decided to go and hang out together.

I finished a 1000 piece puzzle. 

Rose wanted to do a "prank" for April Fool's Day, so she got up early and put plushies everywhere. There were plushies on sofas and chairs. It was very cute.

I did a science experiment with the kids. We put all these jars out. Most had water in them. One was empty, and one was full of oil. Every jar had the identical amount of liquid (except for the 'air' one). We then put four ice cubes in each jar and measured how long it took for the ice cubes to melt. It was fun and I was surprised. The jar with plain water at room temperature took like 20 minutes to melt. The jar with water mixed with sugar took closer to an hour. Amazing that sugar made such a difference but it did.

On Thursday, I took the younger three kids to the local Air Force Museum and we watched an IMAX movie called Wild Ohio, which was about Ohio and its wonders of nature. It was very good. For such a flat, relatively boring state, we have a lot of gorgeous areas.

After the movie, we started walking around the AF Museum which is HUGE. And I started getting really tired. I was thinking, girl, you are not in good shape!

The next morning I woke up sick so Ok, that is why I was so tired.

I have been sleeping a lot the last few days. It is nice having older kids as they don't require so much care as when the house was full of babies and toddlers, though I adore those ages too.

Happy Easter!

About Writing and Authors

 I finished the first draft of my latest book last week. It is 109,000 words, so VERY long.

Editing is going to be so (not) fun.

Whine whine whine.

I don't like editing.

ANYWAY, along with being a writer, I am a big reader. I love to read good books. I am so thankful for all the authors out there who work hard and produce great content.

This week, I came across a little excitement in the literary world. A woman named Mia Ballard self published a horror book. Based on my understanding of the plot, it is a hideous book, but then I don't like horror. I am definitely not the target audience.

The only Steven King book I like is "On Writing" which is about... writing.

Anyway, Ballard's book was picked up by a major publisher, Hachette. All was barreling on toward a major release until various people, including someone at the New York Times, claimed that the book was mostly written by AI.

A lady who has a youtube channel called Frankie's Shelf did a 2 plus hour video on why she thinks the book (called Shy Girl) is AI slop.

I watched probably half of the video, because even hearing someone critiquing a very badly written horror novel is too intense for me. So I watched the first part until it started getting gory and then jumped to the end.

It is actually not trivial to figure out whether someone is writing using AI. AI analysis tools are notoriously uncertain.

BUT this book, Shy Girl, is so crazy that either the author is a truly dreadful writer, or she used AI for most of it.

Among other things, the book, which is like 210 pages long, uses the word "sharp" more than 150 times, often as part of a strange simile or metaphor which sounds sort of exotic until you think about the metaphor or simile, whereupon you conclude that it makes no sense.

I was convinced by Frankie's Shelf. This book is AI. Not that I would ever read it, of course, but it is fascinating, especially from the perspective of an author who has never used AI for anything in my writing.

(I think there might be appropriate uses for Chat GPT though telling it to write sucks. But I am kind of a Luddite where such things are concerned.)

Anyway, Hachette withdrew the publication. The author is saying things like, you are all mean to me, and maybe my editor used AI?

I am guessing the author had an idea for a horror novel and just plugged and chugged it into AI in the hopes of making a quick buck. And she did, and then it was picked up by a major publisher. 

Hachette should be ashamed of itself. When a book uses "sharp" 159 times in 210 pages, something is wrong.

I am confident that AI cannot write a good book. It takes human creativity and intelligence to generate a good plot, and keep track of details, and not use the same word way too often.

It is interesting because somehow Hachette was hoping to make money presumably and just took this book without really noticing the myriad problems. Like, did anyone, ANYONE, actually read it? LIke an editor? Because the writing sucks. (Again, based on parts read out on Frankie's Shelf.)

Speaking of bad writing...

I love cozy mysteries and I am always looking for new authors who write good cozy mysteries.

Yesterday I read part of one and skipped to the end after I found myself thoroughly annoyed by writing errors.

First error: The author shifted from first person to third person back to first person during one page. It read so oddly. I am doing this, I am doing that...

And then suddenly SHE is doing this or that.

Major error.

Then later the protagonist, (who is first person again) is sitting in a room eavesdroppping on a conversation in an adjacent room. She is listening through a door which is cracked open. The book proceeds to describe the movements of the people in the room beyond the door. That...doesn't work. With first person, the author needs to stick to the main character's thoughts and senses. She wouldn't be able to know what is happening visually in the next room.

It was so annoying I jumped to the end of the book to find out the villain.

And was annoyed further when the main character decided to confront the person she thought was the murderer (and she was right) and accepted a cup of tea from said murderer, who had killed someone else using poison...

Not surprisingly, main character was drugged and dying when the heroic police officer burst through the door to save her.

I cannot handle a heroine who is so STUPID as to confront a poisoner and accept tea from said poisoner. Wow.

Today I read a book where there was another major error in the plot.

I don't think I am getting more fussy with age. I don't think. I hate it when there are plot points that don't make sense.

Though to be fair, the great Dorothy Sayers once forgot a kid in her book "Clouds of Witness". There was a child who was introduced and then the parents were rampaging around doing things, and the kid was never mentioned again.

So every author makes mistakes. The ones these last two days were particularly egregious, or I am just cranky.

Of course, as an author, I make mistakes too, but I don't think I often screw up major plot points.

Also, I never ever use Chat GPT.