Moving On

It's day 11 of Thingadailies!

Playing

Not the greatest video, but Lulu has been playing with her toys today. Here she is playing with a ping pong ball. She's still a little wobbly, but she gets stronger every day.

Moving On

You can tell I'm getting bored with the tutorial because now I'm all "yeah, yeah, add a butterfly, make it glow, whatever." That's about as much effort as I was willing to put into it. So I'm calling the tutorial finished, even though I skipped a bunch of stuff.

Tomorrow will be... something different. Possibly something of even lower effort because I'm taking care of a friend's cats and I have a critique group meeting in the evening. (Plus caring for my two fosters.)

Speaking of critiques... I have about 10k left to read, and then I need to come up with something coherent to say that is potentially helpful to the author. That can be challenging when we're outside of genres I normally read, so I'll probably focus on pacing and world building.

Leaves

Oh hey, it's already day 10 of Thingadailies!

Kitten Cam

Much of my day was spent driving to the shelter. Lovable goofball Mister has gone back to be neutered and adopted.

Lulu had a vet appointment and the current recommendation is to stay the course. I moved the kitten cam to her room this evening, which makes it easier for me to monitor her.

Will I regret having the kitten cam on the ill cat? Probably. I sometimes get those people who are leaving comments in the chat in the middle of the night telling me that some (absolutely healthy) kitten is dying. (They've always been fine.) It's that weird internet stranger thing where people with no qualifications love to diagnose animals. Very odd. Those people will probably lose their minds when they see Lulu staggering around.

Anyhow, here's another picture of handsome Mister and his Resting Astonished Face.

Leaves

Today I added the leaves around the base of the bubble. I'm skipping some of the background trees, though I may add the flowers towering over the bubble to give it a sense of size. Or I might just call it quits because I've learned the things I need to learn.

There's one thing I've run into a few times and I suspect it's a feature, but I don't know what it does or why it sometimes appears. I also don't know how to describe it, so I may never learn unless I run across someone who really knows Affinity.

Anyhow, I still need to read 34k of this 60k gothic horror manuscript that we're critiquing on Thursday, so I should go. I may actually record a video tomorrow...

Selections

Welcome to day 9 of Thingadailies

Mister Graduates!

Mister is going back to the shelter tomorrow for surgery and adoption, so I took pictures this afternoon. This cat is ridiculously photogenic and sweet.

In other foster news, Lulu went into a nosedive yesterday afternoon, and honestly, if it hadn't been Sunday night, I probably would have called the shelter and told them it was time to let her go. She could no longer walk, and she was trying to eat but couldn't stay upright long enough to do so. She dragged herself next to the litter box to pee, but couldn't get inside the box so she went on the pee pad next to it.

But it was Sunday night and I didn't think she was in so much pain that it was worth driving to the university, so I gave her some B vitamins just in case her neuro signs and weakness were related to that, and then left her to relax on the heating pad for the night.

When I woke up this morning, I half expected her to have passed away during the night, but nope! She was able to get up and walk again, and she ate most of the food I'd left for her.

Was it the B vitamins? Are the meds finally kicking in? Or was it just random luck? I honestly have no idea. I'm still not super optimistic about her long-term outcome, but she looks a lot better today. (And yes, I will be continuing the B vitamin supplementation — if her problem is thiamine deficiency, that's fixable.)

Selections

I continued the tutorial today.

Key learnings in Affinity 3:

• Hit z to zoom in and out with the mouse, and z again to return to what you were doing
• Hit h to pan with the mouse, and h again to return to the previous task
• Once you've used the pen tool to mark all the nodes when you are cutting something out, there's a button at the top to actually make the selection. (We won't talk about how long it took me to figure this out...)
• But before you hit that button, holding command will switch the tool into node-edit mode and you can refine your selection.

I'm still getting used to the dynamic layer adjustments. GIMP doesn't have that (I think?), so I'm having to change how I think about things.

All this is to say I cut out the girl and added her to the bubble and then added some highlights and shadows. My version isn't as good as the tutorial, but I don't have that level of patience.

That gets me to about 7:30 minutes in the 20 minute tutorial.

Other Stuff

I added 600+ words to the cozy today (which is my current daily goal). And now it's time to medicate everyone and also read this 60k gothic horror for my critique group on Thursday. See you tomorrow!

Bubble

Welcome to day 8 of Thingadailies!

Short one today because Lulu's neurological symptoms seem to be worse this evening and I need to go see what I can do for her.

I'm about 4:25 minutes into the tutorial I started yesterday, and the big thing I've learned is that when you add a filter, you have to move it into the layer or it applies it to the whole project. (I think? I feel like I'm missing something with the way things default.)

Anyhow, I added a bubble and then added ground inside, except it looks like it's a continuation of the background because I didn't place it in a good spot. Meh. Live and learn.

I could do this a lot easier with GIMP, but the point here is to learn Affinity, so I will keep plugging along.

Learning Curve

Welcome to day seven of Thingadailies!

As I was writing a note about Affinity having quite the learning curve, I realized that it was time to just sit down and force myself to use the pixel mode (similar to Photoshop) so I don't have to switch to GIMP if I want to change one little thing while creating a cover that has images instead of vectors.

But first...

More Gnocchi!

I don't often get pictures of her sleeping. She does relax enough to snore while I'm working, but she usually wakes up when I move to a spot where I can get a picture. So this is a rarity.

Learning Curve

I'm working through a tutorial: Fantasy Photo Manipulation Speed Art | Photoshop Tutorial

You'll notice it has Photoshop in the name. There are a bunch of Affinity tutorials that explain how to use various tools, but I wanted a speedrun through the creation of an image. That means I need to translate the actions into Affinity. The options are pretty similar, so it's been pretty straightforward so far.

Anyhow, this is my image so far. I'm about 1 minute, 25 seconds into the tutorial.

That's two images and another hand-drawn layer, plus some color adjustment and warping of the forest image.

And now it's time to medicate Lulu and clean Mister's ears. More tomorrow!

Pretend

Welcome to day six of Thingadailies!

Today I continue to pretend that I know what I'm doing with book cover design. But first!

Gnocchi

I'm in my office and I hadn't taken any other pictures today, so Gnocchi gets to be my foster cat of the day. She was stretching when I caught this photo and I wish I'd managed to get her tail in the frame. Oh well. She's a great cat.

Back to the Thing

I learned how to curve text in Affinity, so that's what I did with the first part of the title. Then I decided it needed an extra pop of color, so I added the frame under the series name. Again, I'm trying to make a template of sorts so the books all look like they belong together, and I think that will help.

I need to check the centering — I find that it's harder to center things correctly in Affinity than it was in InDesign, but I'll add some guides and fix it.

And now it's time to do a bunch of medical stuff for Lulu, so I'll leave this here. My plan is to create a couple more in the series before I finalize any of them so I can figure out what works and what doesn't.

Old School

Welcome back to Thingadailies!

Today we're kicking it old school. But first, the foster of the day!

Lulu

Remember yesterday when I said I was using a bunch of pictures of Mister the Amazingly Scruffy because after he went back to the shelter it was going to just be Gnocchi all the time? Well, it's 24 hours later and things have changed again!

I took Mister for a vaccine appointment this morning, and the foster coordinator said, hey, while you're here, can I show you another cat? Then I got the "we don't know if this cat is going to make it, but would you be interested in fostering her?" speech. (I get that a lot. It's my specialty, probably because they know I won't freak out and quit fostering if the cat dies.)

So now I have Lulu. She probably has FIP. She also tested positive for calicivirus and chlamydia. Fingers crossed the meds help her. She's a sweetheart.

Aaand... she's actually modeling the thing of the day.

Old School

Thursdays I spend a few hours at the local library's makerspace with my friend Teresa. The makerspace has a ton of stuff, from woodworking tools to sewing machines, but I wasn't feeling particularly creative, so I converted a bunch of my old cardboard into a scratcher for Lulu.

Could I go to the pet store and buy this? Yes, but they're like $20 and I'll have to discard it after Lulu leaves. So there we go. It's my thing of the day.

Typography

Welcome back to day four of Thingadailies!

Mister

Mister is once again the model for the day, mostly because he's leaving next Tuesday and then it's going to be all Gnocchi, all the time. But in the meantime, look at his ridiculous whiskers!

Typography

I wanted to see how the vector cover would look with the title, so I threw some stuff together. I also added paw prints, which I think helps it look more like a mystery. Affinity 3 still has some quirks I haven't quite figured out, but I'm getting more comfortable with it.

Tomorrow I may learn how to curve text and see what that does. Or maybe I'll finally get around to recording audio, though that may have to wait until Friday since I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow.

Vectors

Welcome to day 3 of Thingadailies!

I'm sort of cheating today because I didn't finish the thing, but... <shrug>.

But first, here's more Mister

Professional scruffy boy Mister is still here. And honestly, that's fine because he is absolutely adorable and he's really easy to take care of. The only reason I'm laughing about it is that when I was asked to take him, the email contained the line "...will be out of town Friday 1/23 until Saturday 1/31 and I'm looking for someone who can care for him during that time."

So today (the 3rd of February) I finally sent mail that was just sort of "hey, do you want me to bring him back?" and apparently I'm keeping him until he goes in to be neutered next week.

He is perhaps not the sharpest tool in the shed. I put all his toys into a small (open) box this morning, and when I left the room he was meowing at the box. He eventually figured it out!

Drawing with vectors

I'm reasonably comfortable doing photomanipulation with GIMP (similar to Photoshop), but my cozy mystery covers are created using vectors. I've been thinking about recovering the cozies for a while, and this is giving me a chance to get used to the new version of Affinity.

Here is what I have so far. It will look more like a book cover once it has the typography, but it needs a lot more work before I get to that point.

I'm not sold on the background color and I think it just generally needs more stuff, and specifically more stuff that says "mystery!", but it's a decent start.

My goal is to get something that gives me a template so I can modify the background and a few things on the table. That will make the series cohesive and make it easy to create a cover for the next book.

At least I'm figuring out Affinity, so even if I end up scrapping this, I've learned something.

Advertising

Good news: I figured out how to get iMovie working for me. If my phone isn't plugged into my monitor, iMovie doesn't keep popping up the stupid import window. Easy workaround is to just not charge my phone when I'm editing. No problem.

I didn't have the energy to do my own audio today and I couldn't find good trailer music for another book trailer (partially because I'm looking for free things and partially because I don't know how to effectively limit my searches).

Was I going to give up on Thingadailies on day 2?

Then I remembered that I have a foster cat who needed an adoption advertisement.

This will probably not encourage anyone to adopt her. But it's still funny.

Spite

Hi there! It's day one of Thingadailies, the blogging challenge to create one new thing every day and write a post about it. Now's a great time for you to join in!

I run on spite

I'll try not to rant, but I have a hate/hate relationship with generative AI. It destroys the planet while making you stupider, what's not to hate?

So a few weeks ago, someone created a mini-movie for a friend's book with genAI. And I know his heart was in the right place, so I'm trying not to judge him for this. But... 

It made me realize (again) the difference between shoving a bunch of poorly scripted, weirdly angled, and horribly edited scenes together versus doing the work to create something that's watchable. Seriously, I made it through the first five minutes of this "movie" only because I was trying to figure out why I was reacting so poorly to it.

So my challenge for the day was to create a trailer for the same book that used no genAI and was better. Because I run on spite.

Sure, no problem, I can do that...

Did I achieve my goal? I think so, if only because mine is about 30 seconds long. Is it great? Meh. It has problems. Finding the right images on DepositPhotos was a challenge. I'm unfamiliar with iMovie, so my titles look pretty amateurish, and the text itself could have used another pass.

(Also, wtf iMovie, why are you popping up an Import window every two seconds when my monitor is connected? I had to disconnect my monitor and edit on my laptop screen. So irritating. I'll be looking for different editing software if I can't find a fix for that.)

(Music by soundbay: https://www.youtube.com/@soundbay_RFM)

(Images licensed from DepositPhotos)

Do you need to be a speed reader to catch the captions? Maaaybe. Or maybe it was intentional to make you watch it multiple times so I can get the view count into double digits. We'll never know.

Anyhow, welcome to Thingadailies 2026.

Oh Look! Another Blogging Challenge Approaches!

We're nearing the end of January. What have I been doing?

Writing

I'm about 20k into the next cozy mystery. Did I have an outline? Sort of. Did I immediately deviate from that outline in chapter one? Yes. Have I mostly stuck to the outline? Weirdly, yes. Maybe I'm learning to outline after all. Or maybe things are about to go completely off the rails. I guess we'll find out!

I also wrote a short story that I really like which I intend to submit to an anthology. This year I'd like to submit to more anthologies — I write about two short stories every month anyhow (for my Patreon), so it would be nice to do something with those. If I find some anthologies to aim for, then I won't have to come up with my own writing prompts.

Fosters

This week I have two: one long-term and the other just for the week.

Gnocchi is seven years old and she dealt with the stress of the shelter by collecting caution stickers. She's been here almost the entire month and she's fine, other than being prone to overstimulation if you aren't careful. She'll make someone a great cat even though getting her in front of potential adopters is going to be a pain.

We have been doing clicker training. So far her repertoire consists of "touch", "kennel", and "sit". She's still iffy on those last two, but she enjoys the training sessions.

My other foster is Mister, who is staying in the spare bedroom while his regular foster mom is on vacation. Mister has some mild medical issues and a terminal case of Resting Astonished Face.

I love fostering small kittens, but I'm enjoying the simplicity of older fosters who don't mind if I sleep in every morning.

February is almost here

February is Thingadailies, the blogging challenge to make something every day and write a blog post about it. In past years I've done origami, paving stones, a chapter of a book each day (which became Death Walks a Dog), image manipulation, fake book covers, and some other things I can't remember.

This year I think I'll be bouncing around to different projects:

• real book covers (especially a new cover for Shift Happens)
• book trailers (I'd like to get comfortable with video editing)
• maybe some YouTube shorts? I did an Instagram Live interview recently and being on camera was weird.
• probably other stuff I haven't thought about yet

So there we go. More to come in just a few days!

Fingers Crossed for the New Year

Happy New Year!

It's the last day of Holidailies! Or rather, it would be, but I think the website is in a different timezone so the entries are already locked.

I got some writing done today. Not that I have resolutions, but I would like to prioritize writing more. It's easy to put it off by working on the other endless tasks associated with publishing, but the writing needs to be first. I've been avoiding word count goals for burnout reasons, but I think 500 words per day is reasonable. Most days I should be over that, but even on days when I'm having a hard time concentrating, 500 words is doable.

So there. That's my plan.

Way Too Much Cozy for Me

I listened to more of The Spellshop, and the problems I noted yesterday are coming back to bite the author in the ass. Characters are now arguing that of course they can't do the magic thing, but since there's no cost or downside to using magic, it leaves the reader wondering why not. The plot has been heading that way for the last half of the book, so obviously they are going to do the magic thing, on the first try with no difficulty. Just get on with it.

Also, the main character and her love interest get interrupted every time they have a moment alone. Usually, I'd be irritated by such heavy-handed plot interference, but honestly, I don't care about them being together and I really don't want to listen to this author attempt a sex scene, so in this case I'm making an exception to my rule about limiting convenient interruptions.

I think I'd like this book better if about a third of it were cut out. That's fine. I'm sure other people will enjoy it.

Obligatory Kitten Picture

Have I used this one before? Probably. But Sabot was adorable.

I'm one full day into the new year with no kittens yet...