Month: October 2017

Day 3 of our cozy reading thing in October. (In case you’re wondering it will go on every weekend until the end of October as far as I know.)

I’m planning to maybe get a thing or two done today, and still have time to sit down and finish reading „The Delirium Brief“*. I also picked up „Why We Sleep“* again but I’m not quite in the mood for non-fiction.

Today I even managed to remember to take a picture of my breakfast (food pictures are a thing for this event) though I’m afraid it’s not looking much.

Imagine yummy blueberries, banana, amd muesli under the heap of yogurt, and honey would have been more photogenic than rice sirup but rice sirup has less fructose which is a good thing if you’re fructose-intolerant.

So I’ll update this post periodically. Only 40 more pages until the end of the novel I’m reading, it’s getting pretty tense.

Update 4 pm:

Well, actually the only thing I have done so far was reading, playing games on my iPad, refreshing instagram, and finish reading „The Delirium Brief“. Oh my, this one is so good! And now I’ll have to wait for the next in the series to find our what happens next which is really unbearable.

I also helped make lunch. We had chili for the second time this week because there were ripe avocados in need of being eaten. Also an excellent pinot that was already open:

Seems I need to work on my picture-taking skills. One of these days they’ll turn out less blurry.

I also worked a little more on the crochet blanket I showed you last week, and ran out of yarn knitting my Easy sahwl by Martina Behm. This is the second time this has happened. Each time I’m knitting along, hoping to be able to finish the shawl, only to run out of yarn shortly before the end. The first time I had thought I had a 150 gram skein when in fact it’s only 100 grams, and this time I had weighed everything really carefully, and ran out six rows before the end.

There might have been a way to fudge it but I didn’t want to so I ripped half of it back (and a bit more so that I won’t run out of yarn the next time, and started knitting i for the third time.

I am getting a little sick of the project but I have to say I’m getting good knitting mileage out of this yarn.

I’m not quite sure what novel to start reading next so I went back to „The Freelancer’s Survival Guide“* by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I started this back in August and have found it really good and fascinating. Also somewhat tough but that’s a good thing.

For fiction I’m waflling between J. F. Penn’s „Gates of Hell“*Estelle Ryan’s „The Braque Connection“, and reading samples that I have downloaded. Discarding some of those from my ereader would be a good thing but usually I just end up putting most of them into the „to be bought later“-folder which doesn’t really solve anything.

Update 7.45 pm:

I never really gave up hope to do something productive today but the only thing I did get done was making a list of things to talk about on my knitting podcast for the next episode. I do an English episode every ten episodes where I talk about everything I talked about before which is rather epic. I also want to mention that due to the layout of this blog links are really hard to read because hypothetically they are gray and the regular text is black but – because I turned the background color to a pale yellow – they actually look the exact same. Sorry. So if you have an inkling that something might be a link just let your mouse hover over it to see if it actually is a link.

There was a point where I thought I’d keep my writing stuff and the rest of my life separate but that’s not really me. So if you’re interested in knitting and maybe also understand German follow the link above to my knitting podcast.

The one thing I did get done as well – apart from watching an episode of „How I Met Your Mother“ while eating dinner (and again – no picture) was to watch the second one of Nick Stephenson’s free videos about marketing. While crocheting a bit more on my blanket. I really hate video because you have to sit down and listen and watch but it’s bearable while doing something else.

Sorry, the crochet is really dark. We have this awesome energy-saving lightbulbs everywhere in the house that make taking pictures really hard when it’s dark. Anyways, he got me all riled up about marketing and being a professional author (which I’m not quite yet), and so I just went and bought the Susanne Winter domain name, and some web hosting. So if everything goes right (which it should) I’ll write from the new and shiny susannewinter.com-site next week. (Unfortunately it isn’t live yet. Bummer.)

I still haven’t worked on the novel today, and judging by the time and my Oktoberfest-beer-level nothing in that realm will happen today. But still. Progress. In a way. At least I have a round crocheted on this blanket, and I finished reading a novel. And started reading „Reader Magnets“ by – you guess it – Nick Stephenson.

I’m really looking forward to next weekend’s „Herbstlesen“ and to see you guys again. For now I’m out, I need to get up early again tomorrow because my son needs to go to school, and I like making him breakfast.

* Affiliate-Link. If you buy through this link it doesn’t add any cost for you but gives me a small percentage. Thanks.

Like last weekend I’ll participate in the cozy „Herbstlesen“-event that the Winterkatze puts up again. Though I have to say there won’t be as much reading today as there was last Sunday because the day I have planned is busy, busy, busy.

So first I’ll do the dishes, and then I’ll go for a run, and help making lunch, and in the afternoon I hope to record another episode of my knitting podcast.

I am currently reading „The Delirium Brief“ by Charles Stross which is excellent, and has me on the edge of my seat. I can barely put it down, and will probably finish that this weekend. It is the eighth novel in the „Laundry Files“ series and I recommend starting with the first book. If you’re anything like me you will then just speedread through them all.

Yesterday I read my way through the short „The Healthy Professional Writer“. I did like it even though I only took a few things from it. I think this would be excellent for writers who suffer from migraines (which I don’t) but I still found it fascinating to read about the author’s journey to health. I like it that she stresses the fact that there is no one true way for every one but that we need to listen to our bodies and find out what is good for us.

The other non-fiction book I’m reading is „Why We Sleep“. Really good book too, only I’m not sure if I’ll have the head space to follow along today. I’m still stuck in the first part where he shows all the benefits we get from sleep, and what can go wrong if we don’t get enough of it. Which is somewhat terrifying and has me want to put in more effort in getting enough sleep. (And I’m typing this rather tired because we went out to see a band or two last night.)

So I’ll come back and do updates on this post periodically over the day, I only don’t know how many.

Update 3 pm:

I went running, and it was really enjoyable, seems things are changing for the better.

Then my husband and I made spaghetti bolognese. I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture. Then dishes, then a piece of cake and some more reading.

I’m 70% into „The Delirium Brief“ and things are picking up. If I could as I want I’d spend the rest of the day reading.

Update 6.20 pm:

Well, that didn’t go as planned. On the bright side I did spend more time reading than I had thought I would. On the not so bright side I was not able to prepare the podcast episode because the blog with the shownotes was down for most of the afternoon. So I just gave in, read all the internet and a little in my book. Which I’m really enjoying still.

The bad thing is that I will need to get everything done tomorrow. Humpf.

But now it’s time for dinner. Then reading. It feels like I am in need of a day off. Yet again. But „The Delirium Brief“ ist still rather riveting. I’m on page 296 and we’re approaching showdown. (Still 90 pages to go so there will be room enough for things to get much worse before the end.

So the Winterkatze is doing her annual fall reading challenge again. I have been enjoying reading about it on her blog, and the other’s and so I thought it would be fun to participate as well. Now the problem is that the whole thing is in German while this blog is not.

I hope you don’t mind much.

The rules are that you spend a day doing the things you love that make you feel good (as much as possible) which includes reading, and then you write about it on your blog. Most people make updates to their posts several times in the course of the day.

I woke up at six which was a little early, and immeditaly started reading „The Dante Connection“* by Estelle Ryan. It’s the second in a series of mystery novels. The main character works for an insurance company that specializes in art. She is autistic with a special interest in reading body language. I had really enjoyed reading the first in the series „The Gauguin Connection“ which I had picked up for free a couple of months ago. Since the third in the series was free some time last month I decided to also buy the second one, and get the third.

I had hoped to finish reading that one yesterday but I got distracted by non-fiction again.

While eating breakfast (and I forgot to take a picture; just imagine a bowl of müsli with yogurt) I switched to reading Hal Higdon’s „Half Marathon Training“*. I started reading that last year when I was training for a half marathon, then I injured my hip, and had to stop running for a few months. since I’m now back to running I picked it up again. So far it has mostly been inspiring stories about people who run. Which is nice but not what I need right now. I’m hoping for a bit more meat and information soon. I’m also not sure if I should follow his training plan. I’m thinking of going from running three times a week to four times but that training pan would have me run five times a week which means I would have to seriously change my life around to fit in the other bits.

I then made the weekly spread in my bullet journal which got me started thinking about NaNoWriMo. I’m nost sure if I should participate this year because I probably won’t be finished with revision on novel three by then. I don’t really want to start yet another novel without any planning, world-building or outlining, and I don’t think I will have time to do any of that in October. But that reminded me about „The Story Grid“* by Shawn Coyne which I had been meaning to work through in August. Working through anything won’t happen soon so I’m thinking I maybe should just go ahead and read it, and hope that things stick.

I’m still reading the part where he explains how he found the blueprint to story, and I keep wishing he’d cut to the chase. And yes, I know I could skip ahead, but I really don’t like to.

Update 2.30 pm:

Not all that much reading since, I did crochet some, and while doing that I couldn’t really read because the pattern is pretty complicated, and I need to look at every single stitch and count all the time. (The pattern is called Sophie’s Universe, and it’s gorgeous.)

I also did my usual singing and piano warm-up, and made spätzle for lunch.

I’d really like to finish reading „The Dante Connection“ today. I will also spend a little time typing in revision changes in the novel I’m currently working on. There’s a ton of new scenes I need to type in, and so far I have managed to reduce the thing from 63,000 to 56,000 words. Which is much too short. I’m seeing another round of revision in my future. Have I mentioned that I don’t really like revision? But as often the only way out is through. (Well, that and giving up but I don’t really like giving up most of the time.)

The Winterkatze pointed out to me that this is not a ‚challenge‘ per se, and that there really are no rules, my bad. Otherwise discussion in the (German) comments was about the half marathon training which sounds more impressive than it is at the moment, so far I have run 5K once (which took me all of 45 minutes which shows you how very slow I am), and the Winterkatzes giving me helpful tips about my potential NaNoWriMo project. I don’t think I will write short stories or novellas set in the universe I’m currently working in, though. I am really, really looking forward to writing something different. I’ve been working on this trilogy, and the skills I need to be able to finsh them properly for years now.

I might heartlessly abandon the trilogy for a few weeks, though, and plan and start something new. But then finishing has a really high priority as well. Maybe I’ll manage to finish revision of 1 1/4 novels over the next three weeks, and then I can plan a new series until the beginning of November.

Yeah, probably not.

Update 8.15 pm:

I spent the afternoon on the internet, and doing more crochet, and reading some more of „The Dante Connection“ but not enough to finish, and I did a load of laundry, and some light strength training. Then was dinner (sorry, no picture), and then I watched „Star Trek: The New Generation“ and „How I Met Your Mother” with my son while knitting on the Easy shawl by Martina Behm.

I’m going offline now but I’ll be reading a bit more in bed.

That was a really nice Sunday spent with you guys, thanks, and I’m looking forward to next weekend to do it all again.

* Affiliate-Link. If you buy through this link it doesn’t add any cost for you but gives me a small percentage. Thanks.