Random shots

Kind of took a day off today, doing only a little writing on the next chapter–maybe a couple of paragraphs, along with deleting about six pages because it was going somewhere I didn’t want it to go.

My brain needed a break, I think. So I caught up with email and had a long phone call.

Over the past week or so, I’ve colored pages while chapter plotting and mentally writing. There are times I sit staring into space and speak out loud my characters’ dialogue. Imagine if I did this in public… My dogs are used to it. I’m not sure Tom ever hears me–the advantage of working in two separate areas at home!

Here are some random shots taken with the iPhone recently.


This is from that “official” unicorn coloring book I showed on here the other day. =)


This one served a dual purpose. I was revising a chapter about one of the romantic relationships in the work in progress but also, our niece Toni had just shared the news of her engagement to be married. It’s nice to get good updates from family!


Brought in these two heavy hitters to serve as muses as I tried to write a character in deep distress in the work in progress. She needs a hero! Or two. And I need to dust my laptop and keyboard again.


Another look at the guitar bracelet that one of the characters is absolutely not wearing. =)

A little magic

Today, I made a blueberry loaf. It’s quite tasty. I guess now that people are going back into quarantine, it’s time to start baking and posting the results on social media. I’m getting ahead of that curve.

This is how you know unicorns are, in fact, real.

They have a SOCIETY. And the society has an OFFICIAL COLORING BOOK. I just may color a page from it today while I’m mentally plotting my next chapter.

There’s a word for this

American intel officials have concluded that a Russian military intel unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops. — The New York Times

The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal matched the story.

“The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said.” — New York Times

In late March.

In late May, in discussions with Putin, Trump attempted to invite Russia back into the G-7 (the G-8 before Russia’s expulsion due to Putin annexing the Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula). G-7 allies reminded the U.S. that Russia is an outlaw nation and should not be readmitted to G-7 (U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, and Japan).

“Coalition forces” with bounties on their heads mean U.S. troops and other allied troops, including Britain’s.

Since March, 20 U.S. troops have been killed; there is an ongoing investigation as to whether bounties were paid for our dead troops.

Russia denies.

No response from the White House at the time I’m posting this. Trump is golfing today.

Me, in 2018. Me, today.

Side note: More than 127,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. currently reported.

How much of the U.S. population refuses to put this over their noses and mouths:

But they’re all right with this over their eyes:

Strike a pose


I picked up this coloring book back in 2017, but I’ve never colored anything from it. Mainly because the drawings are on the front and back pages, so I don’t want to pull them from the book the way I do single-sided pages I color from other books.

Most of the things I color I put on Instagram instead of here, but tonight I wanted to do a quick coloring session while I worked out something in my next chapter in my brain. (I color A LOT to prepare for writing fiction.) So I grabbed this book and fell for this picture. Didn’t photograph it before I colored it.

Here’s the blurb. The drawing is based on a photo in Vogue from the September issue, 1955.

For fun, I did some research. The model–actually a supermodel of her time–was Anne St. Marie, who was married to renowned photographer Tom Palumbo. He took thousands of photos of her, and she was truly sensational. Here’s the original Vogue photo taken by Henry Clarke.

Taking a migraine day, part 2

So back in mid-May, I sent Marika a coloring book VW bug that I put together for her, and I think on Instagram, she “hinted” that she would like a VW van to go with it. I had a van in one of my coloring books.


But it didn’t seem quirky enough.

So I looked online, and found the same van, but this one had a girl driving! Plus luggage and surfboard!

So I printed one for a pattern, and printed another on card stock for the final version. While I was coloring it, I painted the canvas that would be the backdrop.

And then she was done!

This all happened before the migraine, but Marika just received it today, so I waited to post.

Back of canvas.

Saturday Stuff

By day, I write if I can. By night, I often have insomnia. So sometimes by day, I nap.

A lot of times, I think I DON’T nap; that I never dozed off. But the other day, when I heard the chime of an incoming text message, I picked up my phone and read a group text with Tim and Jim in which one of them said Abe Vigoda had died. After a pause, my mental response was, Wait. Hasn’t Abe Vigoda BEEN dead?

Abe Vigoda, among many other notable roles, played Tessio in The Godfather, which ranks high in my most beloved movies, along with The Godfather Part 2 (we rarely speak of the third movie).

Abe Vigoda died in 2016, but now I was truly awake and picked up my phone and it was a text from Debby and no one was dead, she just wondered if anyone was parked behind her in the driveway since she had to run an errand. Far less dramatic.

Later that day, or maybe the next, I walked into the office where Tom was working. I had on the wrong glasses for distance vision, and as I peered out the window, I thought I saw a possum at the back of the yard. I pushed up my glasses, and it was actually palm fronds. I told Tom this and said, “But if it HAD been a possum, I’d have named him Abe Vigoda.”

Stay with me here.

Two years ago, I asked Tom to record what was then a new TV show, “Yellowstone.” Two seasons passed, and the recordings piled up, because when the hell did I have time to watch TV? But now I’m laid off, so at night when we eat dinner, we began watching the recorded shows, and we’re up to the two-hour season finale. Then we can watch the second season, and the third season begins next month. I’m actually watching a TV show. It’s the most shocking thing ever.

Today, I had a blinding revelation, walked into the living room, and told Tom, “‘Yellowstone’ IS THE GODFATHER!

“Of course it is,” he said. Like when you watch a show about cowboys in Montana, it’s just logical to understand it’s basically The Godfather.

Fuck. Maybe everything is The Godfather. Tom Hanks tried to tell us this in You’ve Got Mail.

The body count is high in both, but there are a LOT more dead animals in “Yellowstone” and I can only remember the horse in The Godfather.

If they ever make a true Godfather coloring book, they better leave out the horse and include Tessio (my version of “Leave the gun, take the cannoli”).

I bring up coloring books because these days, I color when I take a break from writing and color when I work out things I’m going to be writing. Since I spoke of steampunk earlier this week, here’s a page I colored out of a new coloring book.


I picked it because as I was flipping through pages, I named it “Tori: The Girl With the Gun,” which my beta readers should recognize. I didn’t realize until after I began it that I was doing the same page that was on the cover. Theirs is better.

Thanks to Marika, I now have three new coloring books to delve into. It’s possible she believes I need more “Think about writing!” time and less nap time. But more likely, it has something to do with llamas. Marika, can you please name one of your llamas Abe Vigoda?

Stormy Saturday

We had storms yesterday, and Anime is not a big fan. I went to sleep just after midnight, and at 5 AM today–BAM! Thunder. I heard some dog movement, but they’ve gone back to sleep. Unlike me. Dammit.

I am committing myself to staying away from news and news feeds today. I’m dedicating it to writing and anything else creative or positive. Maybe some coloring. Probably some cooking.

Still have plenty of this left over. Sof-sof, or what you may know as tabbouleh. It is SO good and will be part of tonight’s meal. Plus I used up that bulgur wheat pictured in a previous post.

Meanwhile, our big bathroom is like this:

Didn’t INTEND to do a remodel while we’re in quarantine, but leaking pipes have mandated it. Hopefully will be complete by the end of the coming week.

You may remember my toy orange VW that I found. I was sending a package to Marika of some other things, and on the spur of the moment I decided to color a VW bug for her (taken from one of my coloring books). After it was finished, I didn’t have a frame or mat the right size, so I painted a canvas and mounted the colored picture on it. It is now hanging in the gallery of her St. Pete home. And she wants a VW van go with it. HIPPIE SHIT HAPPENS. Eventually.


Back of the canvas. Timothy paints his canvas backs and they are like secret gifts of art. I use mine to clean extra paint off my brushes heh heh heh.