rest and restore – pamelascanepa

Weekend Coffee Share. Where I am

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. Today was a green tea day for me, and very much a rest and restore day. Yesterday after work, I got a cold tea at Starbucks and sat outside, since the air was breezy and nice for a change. Their inside seating was closed off anyway, thanks to COVID.

Time to rest and restore. I deserve it. I got my exercise this morning and walked the dog for a while. The fresh air was great once again.

A post came up in my Facebook memories feed that I’d like to share. I’m sort of in a peaceful place with life and acceptance right now, but I realize I need to stop expecting something bad to crop up, and I certainly need to disengage from COVID news or mask controversy! Maybe more gratitude is what I need.

I wrote the following post when thinking of the lotus and all it represents: “Be the lotus flower and rise out of the muck. Don’t be ashamed of your low beginnings or that you were underwater last week. Be all that you can be the minute you feel the sun on your face; embrace your beginnings or your dark yesterdays, for they brought you to where you are right now.”

Yes, this is where I am today. Gratitude. I think I should ponder on that again.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Weekend Coffee Share. Dogs and R and R.

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Allison at eclecticali.wordpress.com

Here we enjoy our favorite java, tea, or smoothie, and chat about whatever comes to mind and what is going on lately.

I’ve been blessed with a week off. Did I do any writing, you may wonder? Well, yes I did! My current WIP is around 35,000 words and is based on a side character from my book, Detours in Time. I already have the ending in mind, which means now I need to meander through it again and show a little bit more about the characters. It seems to be a more pared down manuscript when I start with the end in mind. It has been almost three years since I published my first work of fiction, and I started out as a pantser. Now, thought I write with the end in mind, I still am really pantsing it through the rest of the manuscript. I sort of leave it to stew until the muse hits me. What do you all think? Does too much planning kill the details? Sometimes they just have to come to me at the right time. My next work break is this summer. I am making a date with my manuscript for several weeks at that time! It’s been great having a week for w-riting and relaxing!

Other than that, I grew tired of sitting at the computer for too long. I do a lot of that while I am working, plus adding in certification endorsement classes to my schedule. So, I did a little loafing this week. I saw friends for dinner one night, and I went to see Glass with the boyfriend last night. I enjoyed it. It was not as tense as Split, but it was definitely a psychological thriller with satisfying twists! The characterization is amazing, and it helps to have seen the two previous movies involving these characters. I am a fan of M. Night Shyamalan, overall, and certainly a raving fan of James McAvoy. His face goes from glee, to penitence, to murderous terrorizing in seconds, perfectly. At home, I’ve watched a little Netflix, and I even got slightly hooked on Shameless. The acting is great, but there is a lot of inappropriate material. It is drama/comedy centered around the family of a “shameless” drunk. It is actually pretty sad at times. Like a train wreck….which actually is a plot point in the movie, Glass.

I plan to take my little canine to the dog park later. We have had several walks this week and morning coffee on the front porch days. He loves it, because he is off the leash on the front porch. Why not?? It’s his property, and he is a little more well-trained now. What he hates is when I walk him on a leash and we pass by a dog watering their own lawn, off-leash. Such dogs are well-trained and don’t leave their own lawn. I am trying to get Bixby to that point, and it seems to be going well. If he needs to do any serious potty time, though, he will give the begging eyes so I will leash him and walk him a bit further. Works out for me as well!

Would you believe, I haven’t gotten up before 8:30 a.m. at all this week! I was fighting a sinus/allergy issue, so that may be part of it. I went to yoga yesterday for the first time in two weeks, and my shoulders are sore. I have to get back into it. Things happen: work meetings, sickness, etc., but I did use a stretching app at home. No, it’s not the same, but it’s something. Back to the grind this coming Monday.

I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for stopping by to share a cup with me!

#WeekendCoffeeShare: Ice, Please.

Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Diana at partimemonsterblog.com. If we were having coffee today, on July 23rd, I’d tell you that I have iced mocha or regular coffee, with creamer and two ice cubes in mine, how about you? I’d also tell you–

My son has been working his job regularly, and this is a good thing. It gives him a sense of purpose, even though it may not seem like a “career” job, but he is getting a good number of hours, despite coming home early when it storms. It is an outdoor job, and he loves that sort of thing. I worry about him less when he works, since his mind is occupied and he loves physical work. Wednesday he was off, and we took a nice little walk at the beach, stopping at a quaint coffee shop afterward. I posted a few photos of things seen on our walk Thursday in a post titled, “Echoes of My Neighborhood.”

On the author front, I am trying out Hootsuite for my social media. There was one day I couldn’t post because it had a glitch. But I have set up some posts to start this Weds. We’ll see how it runs! I won’t use it for WordPress, though, because I believe that my voice is more authentic if I write, edit when I can, and post when I am ready. Yes, sometimes that means posting in the moment. I also have been running a Kindle Countdown offer for my latest sci-fi book, Detours in Time, which will be just $1.99 in Kindle format until 7/25, with a comparable savings in the UK. So far, I can say I’ve sold more books than I would have otherwise. That’s the goal! Feel free to check out the preview of my book or to get your own copy at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0711ZW6XF I will not reduce this book any lower or put it on free promo. for a while, because I have spent a good amount of money on editing, promo., cover, and marketing materials. A fellow author, Carol James Marshall, wrote a blog post on that, titled “Art is Not Free.” She’s right. Seriously. Imagine if pro- athletes spent the first year of their career earning less money than they spent to get into the game. In fact, a Time.com article states rookies get a “league minimum base salary of $450,000.” * Unreal, right? Our priorities are messed up, when you also consider beginning teachers’ or police officers’ salaries. Ugh. Okay, rant over. Reviews for my book are coming in at an overall average of 4 stars for my first 8 reviews. That’s even good for a batting average, right?

DetoursinTimeAdIMG_0329 Detours in Time, a sci-fi, time-travel tale.

On that subject of art not being free, I thought of my own reading and buying habits. If something is advertised for free, yes, I’m likely to load it on my Kindle. Heck, I may see two different free books and load them. Will I hurry to read them? No, not unless someone else has recommended. Does anyone value something that is being given away? I’m also less likely to give a review on a free book. I also might likely speed through it. So, I am trying to spread the news and make it seen, so that buyers are more likely to purchase it and value it. This also means I need to learn to use AMS Amazon ads, which is a whole other blog post. 🙂

I had a great weekend with some work buddies at a cookout that was relaxing and led to much over-eating. I am not doing much cardio this summer, just yoga. It’s so hot for cardio! (I live in Florida).I’m also spending a lot of time learning about my avocation as an author, jotting down ideas, spreading news of my book, and honing my writing skill. I love the Flash fiction challenges here on WordPress! This week, I joined in on a Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers Challenge and wrote my own, titled “Stairway to Heaven.” You may find it here at https://pamelascanepa.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/stairway-to-heaven-flash-fiction-for-aspiring-writers-fffaw/ for a short escape!

Last night, my boyfriend and I watched the movie, Memento, with Guy Pearce. It came out about fifteen years ago. I recently read a blog post about Christopher Nolan movies, and it was mentioned. I remember that this movie struck me and had an impression on me. It was highly acclaimed in this blog post. I regard it highly as well. While watching, it didn’t seem like my boyfriend liked it. He found it confusing. Well, yes it is. A lot of it goes in reverse order. Not only that, you get glimpses of an event, but not all of the event, so you really can’t figure it out until the end. This movie will disorient you, and I think that is the goal. The main character had a brain injury and has a short-term memory disorder. He can’t make new memories. So, as he’s trying to find out who his wife’s killer is, he is putting together clues that he will forget about moments later unless he takes snapshots, makes notes, or tattoos them on his body. And these brief glimpses we get are probably much like those that a person with such a memory disorder would have. I felt sad for him, because for such a person, it is almost impossible to put the big picture together, much like any viewer of the movie will have trouble predicting where it’s going or even knowing for sure who villains are. Again, the movie does make a point, a very sharp, cutting point. I’m sure that’s the intent.

Thanks for tuning in to my Weekend Coffee Share. It turned out longer than intended, but it does sum up my week. I couldn’t help but get on a tangent with the “Art is not Free” statement. I truly respect the arts and would like to see them elevated in status in our society once again, to include Literature, Art, Poetry, Oral Storytelling ( where people would pay $20 without batting an eye to hear a really good storyteller, just like they pay $50-100 or more for famous musicians and far beyond that for sports games). Ah, maybe I’m just a dreamer. 🙂

If we were having coffee, I’d also ask you about your week. Feel free to share with me, or visit Diana’s blog and add your link to your written coffee share by clicking on the blue button at http://parttimemonsterblog.com/2017/07/22/weekendcoffeeshare-in-which-i-am-a-wee-lazy/ Have a great week!