On a limb with Claudia

“Nothing is so important that you cannot make fun of it.”
~ Arthur C. Clarke

Happy Monday!

Ah, there’s nothing like a little Irish stew when it’s snowing outside. I have a stew bubbling in the crockpot and the snow is coming down. Mmmmm

And mutterings! How can we have a Sunday with out Muttering!?! I still love the mutterings – and hope you do too.

How do you play? You simply answer these word prompts (created by LunaNina) in the comment section. When you’re done, go back and look at what others had to say. What’s amazing about mutterings is how similar we are, and how different.

Let’s play!

Here are your prompts:

1. Humbled ::
2. Buns ::
3. Snowstorm ::
4. Sweetheart ::
5. Punch ::
6. Glass ::
7. Classical ::
8. Heels ::
9. Twitter ::
10. Husband ::

Here are my responses:

1. Humbled :: by the gorgeous sunrise
2. Buns :: of hot crossed
3. Snowstorm :: beef stew
4. Sweetheart :: candy
5. Punch :: and Judy
6. Glass :: ego
7. Classical :: loss
8. Heels :: hurt
9. Twitter :: twitterbug
10. Husband :: Best Friend

Happy Sunday! when you play I’ll link to you here!

Previous Chapters
Recap of the Beginning and character summary

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN

Friday morning — 5:25 A.M.

Dressed in her pajamas, Jill ran down the stairs from the loft. Her bare feet made a tight drumbeat as she pounded past the landing. Slipping around the corner, she almost ran over Honey. Honey had been wheeling at top speed toward the stairs. Jill caught Honey’s chair before they fell over.

“The jury returned!” the women said together.

“Ann just…” Jill started at the same time Honey said, “I got…”

They both gave a nervous laugh.

“You first,” Jill said.

“The jury insisted on staying all night.” Honey’s voice was fast and excited. “The victim’s advocate said they reviewed every bit of evidence, everything. She got the call this morning. The jury has reached a decision. That’s what she said. ‘The jury has reached a decision.’ What did Ann say?”

“Pretty much the same thing. Ann said she was sure they would stay the weekend. After all the befuddling counter testimony and everything else, she and the DA thought the jury was confused and would want the weekend. But…”

“The victim’s advocate said this was good news.”

“Ann said a quick verdict is usually a guilty verdict.”

The women beamed at each other.

“We made it!” Jill exclaimed.

[...]

Today is the first day of my novel, Learning to Stand. Learning to Stand is the second book in the Alex the Fey thriller series.  The novel will appear one chapter at a time for the rest of the year. Learning to Stand is available in paperback at Amazon books or through our store.

Enjoy!

Title Quote

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life?
How do you go on, when in your heart,
you begin to understand there is no going back?
There are some things time cannot mend.
Some hurts, that go too deep, have taken hold.”

–Frodo Baggins in Return of the King;
Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens inspired by J.R. Tolkien

F

CHAPTER ONE

January 31 – 3:15 A.M. CET
Paris, France

“Shall I get a car, ma’am?” the doorman asked in French. He held the door for her to walk through. “Maybe an umbrella?”

“Non,” she replied. “Merci”

She stepped into the driving rain from the warm CIA hotel lobby. Wanting the rain, needing the river, she was drawn into the wild, dark morning.

She and Homeland Security Agent Arthur ‘Raz’ Rasmussen were in Paris to clear out the Fey Special Forces Team vault. Two and a half years ago, the blood and lives of eleven troops were spilled onto the floor, boxes and crates of that storage vault.

Ten friends. Ten beloved teammates gave their lives. She was the eleventh ‘troop.’ Turning onto the wide boulevard, Rue des Saints Pères, she snorted at the word ‘troop.’

She would have died.

She should have died.

But her friend, mentor, and, as she found out a few months ago, biological father, Ben received a tip that her team had been assassinated. Ben and his assistant, Raz, found her in the vault doorway with her best-friend Sergeant Jesse Abreu’s head on her lap. Raz carried her from the vault moments before she bled to death.

Two and a half years ago.

[...]

Last December, Dax Moy posted a note on Facebook that he was looking for participants for a new workout program. He wanted to work the kinks out of the program before it went on the market.  At the time, I was floundering for a workout program. I had just completed the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Half marathon and wanted to get back into the gym.  Always looking for ways to get rid of fat, I took Dax up on his generous offer.

Here’s some interesting stats: 536 people signed up. By mid-way through the program, only 175 people were left. Around 4o people completed the program.

To be honest, a lot of people signed up because the program was free. Maybe they wanted to do it and couldn’t. Maybe it seemed to hard. A couple friends of mine said it was too restrictive. Either way, a lot of people looked and few people actually did the program.

We did. D and I worked out together in the morning and at night. The program consisted of four short workouts a day – three gym workouts and one aerobic workout. The workouts were fast interval circuits. Truthfully, we had a blast.  Yes, the workouts were challenging. But at 20 minutes a time, they were over quickly and truthfully fun. Many of the workouts were timed so we worked to beat our times every day.

The diet consisted of the Elimination Diet plus carb cycling. We even added two days a week of fasting in the middle of it.  At one point, Dax called this his “circus.” And it felt like a circus.

What I loved about Dax’s new program:

1. Great workouts. The workouts were fun, challenging and always different.
2. The workouts changed every week, so I never got bored. The variety of exercise helped my body rapidly change.
3. The short workouts were easy to fit into even my busiest day.
4. The Elimination Diet is a great diet. No wheat, no dairy, no alcohol, no caffeine, and no sugar. The only challenge is eating out or eating at friend’s houses. The detox was intense, even though I don’t eat a lot of those things.
5. The fasting day. I’ve never tried fasting. This is dinner to dinner fasting. So you stop eating after dinner on one day and don’t eat until dinner the next day. I am learning a lot from the process of fasting.
6. Dax was very attentive. He answered every question I asked and even visited my blog. Dax has a way of seeing the issue very clearly and responding in a clear appropriate way. I’ve paid for training and received less attention than I had from Dax in this program. I’m jealous of his personal training clients. They are lucky people
7. There was  a great community of people involved in doing the program.
8. I loved doing the program with D. We had so much fun. We’re planning on continuing to work out together for the rest of the year. Great stuff.
9. And you can’t beat the results! I lost four pounds, six inches total and four percent fat.  In one month, that’s pretty freaking amazing.  Dax has also designed a program for the rest of the year for us. Wow, that’s real generosity.

What I didn’t love about Dax’s new program:

1. It’s hard. I mean muscles aching, barely able to move hard some days.
2. Lack of control. I tend to plan out our meals. Because the diet kept changing, I was never sure what we should eat or when. In the middle, I felt like I had an eating disorder. I was confused, hungry and had no idea what I could eat on any given day. I realize I could have done a better job with this, but last month was so busy I just didn’t have time.
3. Four workouts a day are too much. I’m fortunate that I can spend the day in sweats but that’s the only way I could get it all done.
4. Stress. The changes in workout and changes in diet combined to make the program feel chaotic and stressful. At one point, I couldn’t sleep I was so stressed out. Dax recommended I take ashwaganda which seemed to help. Of course, I had a full month trying to get Learning to Stand completed.  So it easily could have been me.

I don’t think you can argue with results. More than the weight/fat I lost, I feel strong and capable. January was a great start to a year of fitness. I’m hoping to carry all that I learned into an exciting year. Dax has created a plan for the rest of the year. I’ll be interested to continue to follow is outline and hope to continue to have great success.

If you have a chance to try this program, and you’re ready to really DO something about your health and fitness, this is the program for you

You work for years. You send your project to your friends, family and finally shell out for a ‘real copy editor’ and a ‘real content editor.’

Then, if that’s the path you choose, you send it to your publisher’s editor. This editor slaves away to make your manuscript make sense. The two of you work your butts off to clarify the story, find all the typos, and make sure the grammar is correct. All the while the cover is being created.

Then your 120,000 word document goes through the process. A book block is created. The cover is approved. And a proof arrives.

You go through it another time – just one more look. And you find a typo or 700.

No problem. Easy to fix. Correct the book block and the book wanders off to be printed!

And the book is finally printed!!

You wait. One book sells, then two. When you look again, you’ve sold 50 copies, then 100. The book is selling! YES! Take that Mr. ‘you suck at writing’ English Teacher!

Now, you need to prepare yourself. Feedback is on it’s way. The Internet gives your readers immediate access to your email, voice mail and website.

Oh, don’t worry. People who hate your book won’t go out of their way to tell you (at least to your face).  You won’t hear specifically how much you suck or your book sucks or what a hack you are. No, only social media forums are the elementary play grounds of adulthood. As long as you avoid asking anyone in a social media forum about your book, you’re probably safe.

Most people will tell you how much they like your book.

Then they will tell you about the typos, copy edits, misplaced quotation marks or whatever else their forth grade grammar teacher told them was wrong. It never fails.

It doesn’t matter that there are major copy edit errors in every Harry Potter book, that in half of one of Patrick O’Brien’s Master and Commander books he calls a character by the wrong name, that any book on the shelf has copy errors or even that British grammar differs from US grammar.  Because Microsoft and Apple have a grammar checker on their word processing program, your copy is supposed to be perfect.

Most people are trying to be helpful. Truly. They just want to help.

And some people are just snipers. My most recent worst case was in a social media forum. (Yes, I should have written this post before I went there.) Someone shot a sniper round in my latest book release with an: “I see major spelling errors…um…”

She didn’t say WHAT she saw. She didn’t bother to say WHERE she saw it. She just said she saw it. No more follow up. I went into a complete meltdown panic. Finally a couple other friends said, “I see this word…”  (Luckily, one typo was in the bookstore and not on the book. One was a word in a quote .)

Another time, someone IMed me in a panic at 10:45 p.m. over a copy error in a sentence in the middle of the book. This is what I mean. Panic. Mayhem. The world is coming to an end. Your 120,0000 word book has a copy error in it!!! Oh. My. God.

Most people are trying to be helpful. And some people aren’t. We could postulate for hours as to why people snipe or say weird things or demoralize. But who cares? Really, why waste your time when other people are willing to help?

What do you focus on? I prefer to focus on the fact that most people are trying to be helpful. When people tell me about copy edits errors or typos or copy errors, I say “Thank you for pointing it out. I appreciate your support.”

Why do I say that? Because I truly appreciate people’s support. I wouldn’t have seen these copy errors if they hadn’t point them out. A few people have generously taken their time to help copy edit books for me or share their ideas to better the text. I am grateful. I need this kind of help. Every author needs this kind of help!

Since my books are published using print-on-demand technology (and really shouldn’t all books be published print on demand?), I keep a book and flag it with copy edits. Six or nine months after the book comes out, I’ll make the corrections and publish a second edition. Easy.

Here’s what David Pogue does with feedback. This is a very funny video worth watching but the part I’m referring to is at 19:21 – just skip ahead.

What will you do? What have you done?

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”
–William Shedd

Sunday. I do love Sundays. We’re fasting now on Sundays. And today, we’re going snowshoeing. Snowshoeing and fasting. Somehow they fit together.

Like Mutterings! These word prompts (created by Pea at LunaNina) fit so well into my life. And when everyone plays, it’s like a joyous chorus of thought, emotions and senses. Lovely in every way.

How do you play? Simply answer the word prompts in the comments. Easily done!

Let’s play!

You’re prompts:

1. Furniture ::
2. Beauty ::
3. Sip ::
4. Block ::
5. Forehead ::
6. Championship ::
7. Hurl ::
8. Whip ::
9. Destruction ::
10. Leather ::

My responses:

1. Furniture :: solid
2. Beauty :: within
3. Sip :: ping tea
4. Block :: the jerk
5. Forehead :: against the table in despair
6. Championship ::  skill
7. Hurl :: ing (English name for the Irish game Iomáint)
8. Whip :: ping boy
9. Destruction :: American Rain Forest
10. Leather :: chaps.

Thanks for playing! When you play, I’ll link to you here!

• Becky
• Robin
• Jenifer
• DaNewKid
• Not a Mean Girl
• Ruprecht
• Topsurf
• Capricorn Cringe
• cha0tic
• ZengoddessJen
• Miss Riss at Wild Hair
• Jameil at (I don’t know why)
• Heart in San Francisco
• Janet at Fond of Snape
• Claudia at Skipping Stones

Previous Chapters
Recap of the Beginning and character summary

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

Thursday Night — 7:15 P.M
The Castle

“I made dinner.” Sandy rushed around their apartment. “Delphie will be here…”

Sandy ran to answer a knock at the door. Delphie came in and hugged Sandy. Seated at the dining room table, Noelle watched Sandy run through the apartment. Her mouth hung open and her eyes tracked Sandy from room to room.

“Come on Nash,” Sandy yelled down the hall. “You have to get up.”

“NO,” Nash yelled. “I told you before. I’m sleeping. I’m tired. I don’t know what your problem is but I worked and worked and worked and…”

“I’ll get him,” Delphie said.

Sandy nodded to Delphie.

“Sandy?” Noelle asked.

Sandy had run into the bedroom to change into something warmer.

“Sandy?”

Sandy didn’t respond.

“SANDY!”

Dressed in her underwear, Sandy poked her head out of her bedroom. Noelle blushed at Sandy’s puzzled eyes.

“What’s going on?” Sandy pulled a long sleeved T-shirt over her head.

“Where are you going? You haven’t said. You just got of the phone and started running around!” Noelle began to cry. “I don’t know what’s going on and…”

Dressed just in the T-shirt, Sandy pulled the little girl close to her. She held her arm out for Nash when he came into the room. He joined their hug.

“Your father and his friend, Mr. Pete, have been injured. They’ve been airlifted to a trauma hospital in Colorado Springs,” Sandy said.

[...]

In this video, British singer Robbie Williams has one of those miraculous moments – his dreams came true. Watch his face. See the surprise, gratitude and awe of the moment when dream meets reality.

Some day you’ll have the same experience. Your dreams will come true.

In the words of Winston Churchill, ““Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense”