SUMMER, GARDEN, ETC.

Hey everyone:
Yeah, it’s been 13 days since the last blog. Seems like much more than that to me. We haven’t blogged because nothing is going on writing wise. Sister just can’t find the time to work on THE HANGMAN, and if she can’t write, I can’t edit. I have, however, started knitting again. And I am even reading a book by Catherine Coulter, NEMESIS is the title and naturally, Savich and Sherlock are busy saving the world. But I still enjoy reading about them.
Well, the garden is putting out tomatoes as fast as it can. The cucumbers are just about finished. I will miss them greatly.
We haven’t sold the house yet, but we are changing realtors. The first one just didn’t work out for us. Hopefully, the next one will jump in with both feet and get it done.
We’ve been going through things and trying to downsize, but it is so hard to get rid of stuff you have had for years. Stuff that means something to you. But, we are going from a 3/3 to a 2/2. And we’ll have to go from a 9 1/2 ft Christmas tree to, maybe, a 6ft. That sucks. I love tall trees.
Well, I suppose I should get up do something even if it’s wrong. Probably will be. I seem to be in a strange mood today. I know part of it is that I want to see my sister, but we just can’t get in a trip to Colorado right now. Hopefully, well not hopefully, by Hell I’m doing it after we move and all this real estate crap is taken care of. Poor thing she is not getting any younger (haha) and it has been over two years since I saw her.
(NOW SHE’S PISSED)
You all take care of yourselves and get some work done. We’ll talk later

DREAMAH

FRIDAY, RAIN AND ROSES, SUNSHINE IS COMING, WORKING ON THE HANGMAN

Memorial Day weekend is here.  It is hard to believe that the month of May ends on Tuesday and we begin to head into summer. We had a great rain nearly all day yesterday. As I live a little south and just outside the main city limits of Colorado Springs, I did not receive all the hail they did. They really got blasted on North end of town. They showed the hail on TV and it looked like snow had fallen. Then it began to melt, and all the streets were flooded, the ones which had received the most hail. We are supposed to get some more rain today but it is going to be moving east and the sun is supposed to come out this afternoon.Right now the wind is playing a merry tune on my wind chimes.

I fed and watered my roses yesterday before it rained, so they should be quite happy. I’m still trying to figure out what is causing the leaves on my yellow rose bush to wilt. The one prize-winning medal yellow rose has not produced one sprout or even a glimmer of a leaf. It still has green stalks, so I guess I’ll just leave it alone and see what happens.

 

I will be so glad to see sunshine. For some reason the last couple of days, probably because of this blasted cold, I have been so down in the dumps. I don’t do being sick very well.  I’m a terrible patient.  So it’s time for me to stop  feeling sorry for myself and to either get on the stick and do what I have to do, or call it quits. Since my motto is NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER, I’d better get busy and do something, even if it’s wrong. I just wish I could stop coughing so much.

I did get some work done on The Hangman yesterday, in fact I wrote over 1000 words, which is good. I just don’t know where some of these characters are taking me in this book. I’ll just have to follow their lead and see what happened. I want to get The Hangman finished, but I want it to be a good story and everything be consistent in the storyline. I didn’t have this much trouble with The Stone Killer. It could be because I took a break from writing. I was really on a roll but then I had to stop for a while. This book will be up loaded as soon as I can get it completed and edited.

In the meantime give our other books a read. They are available on Amazon.com as e-books and as paperbacks.

Everyone have a great weekend and stay safe.

Dreamah

SPRING TIME, CACTUS, ROSE BUSHES, FORSYTHIA BUSHES, WORKING ON THE HANGMAN

For anyone not living in Colorado Springs, Colorado, wintertime is still a threat for you. That is unless you live in the South. You would never know that winter is still here in Colorado. Our temperatures this week, all the way through to the next Friday’s prediction, is going to be in the high 60s and low 70s except for maybe this coming Monday when we’re supposed to get some light rain. Monday’s highest prediction is to be 54. Having not lived in the Rocky Mountain area for many years, I would like to believe spring time has arrived due to the fact that the trees are blooming, flowers are blossoming and I’m in the mood to plant flowers.  I bought myself a lavender rose-bush, a white rosebush and two deep yellow rose bushes, plus two forsythia bushes. The forsythia bushes I’m going to plant in the back yard where we repaired the fence and it gets sun all day. Since we have a bunch of lilac bushes along the fence, I thought bright yellow forsythia’s in the spring would look great.  I also purchased a climbing rose bush. It is a deep, deep red and will look fantastic growing next to the tall pink roses that are along the fence in the front yard.
My nephew, who lives here in Colorado, came down and dug out the flowerbeds so I can prepare them to plant the roses this weekend.

There was a flower bed loaded with cactus on the far north side of the yard. He helped, correction, he dug out all the cactus while I took a shovel and helped pick it up and put it in bags to be carried away. Needless to say we were both picking stickers out of our hands with tweezers. So now all I have to do is go purchase some potting soil or good dirt and plant the rose bushes and the forsythia’s. We have a lot of what’s called hens and chicks growing in the flower bed next to the house along with some Russian sage and some marigolds plants. The marigold plants come up each year from the seeds of the previous season. I plan on buying some more Russian sage to plant in the opposite flower bed where I have the roses.  I have this thing about yellow flowers.  Yellow is my favorite color. I do like dark red roses. Of course I like the white rose as well, and also lavender roses. In fact, I just love flowers of all colors, period.

Things are progressing rapidly with The Hangman, and I hope to be finished within the next couple of weeks. Then comes the tedious task of editing, and editing, and editing some more.

Don’t forget to check out our other novels. CREATING KATHRYN CROWN, A CIRCLE OF MURDERS, and THE STONE KILLER, the first book in the Jonas Black series.

Remember my motto, NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER.  No matter how bad things get, or how hard the task, the sUn will come up the next day in the world will be brighter with you in it. Keep writing.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend, stay safe.

Dreamah

COOLER TEMPS, SUNSHINE, DIET FOR PYEWACKET, WORKING ON THE HANGMAN

I am so thankful that the weather has turned cooler for a few days.  I have learned to appreciate gray days and nice cool weather.  I love the bright sunny days, but when the temp is close to ninety, it will cook you in no time. More rain is in the forecast for this coming week  and the temperature for Monday and Tuesday is to be in the sixties.  I believe I am a winter person, because I love the fall and winter cold.  After living in the heat and humidity of Florida for so many years, I do love the drier weather of Colorado.  Also, we don’t have giant roaches flying around at night landing in your hair.

I have had to put Pyewacket, my black cat, on a diet.  He has gotten so fat, it is unhealthy.  Needless to say, the other two cats, Stanley and Bandit must share this diet.  I don’t leave dry food down all day, like I used to.  They get their little bit of wet food and about a half a cup of dry in the morning, and a half a cup of dry in the evening.  If they don’t eat it all, it is picked up and put away.  Stanley and Bandit don’t over eat, only my big black cat does.  I love him too much to let his bad eating habit continue.  He was always skinny until I had him neutered.  Then he gained way too much.  My big boy must lose five to ten pounds.  I can hardly lift him, he is so big.

Well, I am still working on THE HANGMAN.  I am taking is slow and steady, so as not to forget to put in important information.  That’s why we did the rewrite for THE STONE KILLER.  THE HANGMAN will be uploaded this years.  Sometimes, I have a few too many projects going at one time.  I write every day, and edit as I write.  Maybe that is what is slowing me down.  Anyway, I’ll get it completed and will have learned from the experience of writing this book.

Everyone have a great Fourth of July, and stay safe.

Dreamah

RAIN, GLORIOUS RAIN, NEW OIL PAINTING, WORKING ON THE HANGMAN, IDEAS FOR MORE NOVELS

Rain, glorious rain is falling on my dry yard.  Thank you Lord.  We had another grass fire, a controlled burn which got out of control. not too far from where I live.  And last night when I took Titan out before we went to bed, I could smell the strong odor of wood smoke.  Grass fires scare the hell out of me.  So let’s be careful folks.

 

I’m waiting for some of the oil paint to dry on the new painting before I proceed.  Orange, yellow and certain reds do not dry as fast as others.  Alizarin Crimson takes forever to dry.  How many people love to paint raindrops?  I do, also butterflies, bees, dragonflies and most insects, including ants.  And I love ladybugs.  I don’t like roaches of any kind.  Florida has some huge bugs which I don’t miss one bit.  I did a painting of a rose for my sister and told her I was going to paint an ant on the rose.  I was teasing her as she had asked me “please don’t put a bug in my painting.”  I didn’t.  I finished the painting without the bug.  I thought an ant would be cute.  I have a dragonfly resting on cattail that I want to paint.  It’s in line with the others in my studio.   I have to finish this one painting before I can do any others.

Well, I’m plugging along on THE HANGMAN.  For some reason, it is not flowing as smoothly as THE STONE KILLER did.  I need to dig deeper into the lives of my main characters and put their hearts and souls on display.  That’s what the storyline needs.  But, sometimes while I’m writing, ideas for other Jonas Black books bombard me.  When that happens, I stop and jot down the rough storyline, especially if it is from the killer’s point of view.  As I have stated before, I believe to write a murder story you must have a clear picture of who your killer is and why he/she is committing the crime.  You commit the crime, and hopefully the rest of the storyline falls into place and characters evolve.  Anyway, that is the way it is supposed to work.  It doesn’t always go as planned.  The characters have a big say  as to whether they will do what you might have planned for them.  Sometimes my people tell me what they will or will not do.  I am so thrilled when that happens.  That’s when the novel really takes off.

Well it is time for Titan and the cats to head to bed here in Colorado Springs.  It will be nice going to sleep to the sound of rain falling outside my window.

Everyone have a great Thursday, Friday and a fantastic weekend.  Please stay safe.

Dreamah

WORKING ON THE HANGMAN, ONE PAINTING FINISHED AND DELIVERED, WORKING ON THE NEXT ONE AND WRITING. BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

Well, THE HANGMAN is coming along nicely.  My characters are still talking to me, thank goodness and the storyline is flowing.  All is well in the writing department, as it is with my painting.

 

 

 

 

I finished the painting of Cooper, the dog.  He was such a sweet animal and it was so sad when he died.  The picture on the left is the one I worked from and the one on the right, of course, is the finished painting.  Of course viewed this way, I can see small imperfections  which can easily be fixed it needed, but all in all, I think I captured his likeness.  I delivered his painting last night and was delighted by the reaction of the recipient.  She really liked it, which means a lot to me.

We all went out to dinner to an Italian restaurant on W Colorado Avenue.  It was fantastic.  I ate too much and that second glass of wine tasted delicious, but I could have done without it.  I don’t drink much.  Came home, stayed up for a while and then went to bed and slept until three this morning.  I stayed awake until five at which time I curled up in my recliner and slept until eight.  The critters were kind enough not to wake me until then.  I’m trying to get them used to waking me at eight so that when we turn the clocks back on November 2nd, I won’t be getting up at six, but seven the new time.  We shall see how it works out.  They are hungry when they’re hungry and let me know it.

Well, back to work on THE HANGMAN for a while and then on to , my friend, Bill’s painting.   All I’m doing to it is finishing it up.  He did 95% of the work, I’m just putting in the final touches he had planned on doing.  He was a great friend and I will always miss his hearty laugh and ready smile.  I thank God every day that his wife, Shirley, survived the accident and is doing so fantastic.  She is a miracle and  an inspiration of overcoming the odds.  Determination and hard work will make you succeed.  NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER!

Everyone have a great day and stay safe.

Dreamah