Monday, October 10, 2016

Monday Meanderings - October 10th

First Meandering ...

I'm continuing to edit Swing Vote. I made a change to a couple of plot items, and now the timeline doesn't work anymore. It needed tweaking, but now it needs major shifting around. This is when I'm really glad I work in Scrivener.

Here's an excerpt (once again, Caleb is 11 and Noah is 10):
“We’re not your slaves, you know,” Noah grumbled.
“I’m not your slave either,” Marc said. “Who do you think made your breakfast?”
“You did?” Noah’s expression brightened. “You’re a good cook. Better than Ike.”
Marc lost his train of thought for a moment, trying to imagine his sister’s father-in-law, Jack Randolph, with this pair of precocious boys. The thought lightened Marc’s mood, and he remembered the point he wanted to make. “Did your dad farm this place?”
“Yeah,” Noah said. “Why?”
“Just wondering if you understood about working.” Marc grinned at the boy’s scowl and added, “My sister lives on a ranch in Montana.”
“Can we come for a visit?” Caleb turned to face him, the wash cloth dripping all over the floor.
“Don’t drip on the floor.” A single brow quirked, Marc pointed a finger at the sink until Caleb tossed the washcloth behind him. “Her husband is a surgeon, but his father is the rancher. Everybody worked there, even me, when I was laid up with my leg for so long.”
“What happened to your leg?” Caleb leaned over as though he thought to see some deformity through Marc’s jeans.
“Don’t you remember?” Noah said. “Ike said his leg got blown up. Is that a fake leg?”
“Can I see?” Caleb reached toward Marc’s jeans leg.
He stepped back, his head beginning to spin. “No, it’s not a fake leg.” He pointed to the sink. “Clean, then talk.” After a quick about-face, he strode from the room, grimacing at his limp.
Ike sat at the formal dining table with a hand over his mouth, stifling his laughter.
“Shut up.” Marc sat at the table and oriented the large map toward him.

Second Meandering ...

Lots of work being done on the house. Some doors are in, and Saturday the family put in windows (we're doing some sweat equity). The roof base was approved Friday, and they're supposed to put the roof on today.

I'm really excited about the size of my exercise room. My current one only has a little floor space for floor exercises. The new room will hold all my equipment (treadmill, weight bench, and exercise bike) and have room for my Total Gym and still have a larger open space.


What do you like to do for exercise?

31 comments:

  1. Got blown up - you have to love the way kids talk.
    It's looking like a house now! Great you'll have an exercise room. I hit the gym several times a week, so we'd need a really big room for all the equipment I use.

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    1. I prefer my exercise room to going to a gym. I hate the wasted time going back and forth.

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  2. Wow! Your house is really progressing. I love to walk outside with my dog. Awesome you have an exercise room planned.

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    1. We're having to make decisions about some things we hadn't anticipated since the place is smaller than the floor plans made it seem.

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  3. beautiful house ,great improvement .i too have space where i do my work out quite ventilated

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    1. Yeah, ventilation is important. My current room has no windows. The new one will have two!

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  4. I still am in love with the title of this book. It takes so much courage to tweak a plot once it's pretty much set. But if it makes the story better than it's worth it. I'm sure you've made a great choice! Yeah, I like Scrivener too. Only with my current project, working in it seems to be stifling my mojo. Not sure what's going on with me. lol (Exercise - I mostly do Zumba and core conditioning.)

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    1. Well, you can always compile it into Word and go from there. Good luck!

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  5. Would sure be nice to have a bigger exercise room. Coming together indeed. Always interesting when one tweak leads to many others, sometimes a pain though haha.

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    1. But I'm actually kind of excited by the changes, even if I'm frustrated too. :D

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  6. I like to walk for exercise. The house is really shaping up!

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    1. I work on my computer while I walk on the treadmill. Love it!

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  7. Did I see a door in that photo? Now that's progress.

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  8. Hi Donna, I popped over from JeffO's blog. Hello to another Writer Gal! I LOVE your autumn leaves background! It's my favorite time of the year. (My background is from a photo I took of a tree in my front yard a few years ago.)

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    1. Thanks for dropping by, Becky. That's a beautiful background on your blog.

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  9. I see construction is progressing nicely. Ike is so mean. Great way to show what wounds can do without telling everything Donna. The excerpt was funny and meaningful all at once. Kudos.

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  10. I liked your story premise. And wow! Love your exercise room!

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    1. I love writing precocious kids, having raised six of my own, including four sons. :D

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  11. I don't even like to think about exercise :) Unless it is thinking about hot gym trainers exercising....

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    1. I do other things while I exercise. On the treadmill, I work on my laptop. When doing weights, I watch movies.

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  12. Loved your excerpt. Glad when your new house is finished.

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  13. Great dialog:) But...I don't trust guys who spell their name Marc with a "c" ;)

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    1. Haha It's short for Marcus. I hope that makes your feel better. :D

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  14. Yay for walls! Fun excerpt. I hope the editing goes smoothly. Exercise... I don't do much of that lately, but we like going to an amusement park to exercise. LOTS of walking.

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  15. I never figured out Scrivener. I went back to word and my multitude of real-life notebooks and binders.

    The house is looking great! Three cheers for the exercise room.

    As for exercise? Let's talk about that next week.

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    1. I'm really enjoying Scrivener. There is a bit of a learning curve but YouTube has some great videos.

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  16. Great excerpt, Donna, thanks for sharing. I haven't used Scrivener before, but I hear it's great for being able to find things.

    I'm bad at exercise. I just go for long walks. I used to follow a Pilates channel on YouTube, but there's no floor space in my room to do that in the house I'm renting.

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