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...

Too Cozy?

It's the last day of the year, which means absolutely nothing other than a bunch of people agreed the calendar should start around this time of winter. Whole swaths of people have agreed on other times and seasons, so clearly this has no mystical significance.

All that is to say that instead of, I don't know, reflecting on the year or some such nonsense, I spent the day not talking to anyone and listening to audiobooks.

Firestorms

I finished The Hunter by Tana French, and other than a somewhat unrealistic forest fire climax, it was good. (As someone who has gone through a number of fire seasons in California, I'll just say this: if you're close enough to the fire that you have burning embers falling on you and you somehow survive, you're going to spend the next week coughing. Having a wet towel over your mouth isn't going to help much. We've had days where it hurts to breathe and we were 100+ miles from the fire.)

But no really, it was fine. You should read it. The author does amazing work with her characters.

If I Ruled the (Genre Fiction) World

After that, I started The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. I'm nearly halfway through, and I'm enjoying it, but if I'd been the developmental editor, I would have suggested three changes.

(Absolutely conceited of me, I know. This is the point where I put on my "International award winning local author" t-shirt. And then I laugh, because even I can't take myself seriously.)

The book is a cozy fantasy, and there are some points where it really leans on the cozy part. The main character and her library assistant (a sentient spider plant) flee the library that is being sacked by the revolutionaries who have overthrown the emperor. They leave with a bunch of books on magic and end up at her old island home that the former emperor has starved of magic. Things progress.

My complaints:

1. In the beginning, the main character loves books and only books. She has no friends (other than the plant assistant), to the point that all the other librarians fled a week before and nobody thought to warn her. I get that loving books makes a character relatable, but if an adult has no friends — and doesn't notice the lack — despite apparently having been brought up in a loving home and possessing social skills, it just feels like the author was too lazy to flesh out the character.
   
   
2. She eventually starts using the forbidden magic in the books for good things. That's great. But there's absolutely no cost to using the magic. And it almost always works on the first or second try. This character is a librarian, not a trained mage. It just feels too easy to me, but maybe that's what cozy mystery readers want?
   
   
3. Again with the cozy part — we get extended scenes of the main character learning to do simple chores for the first time. And again, everything works on the first or second try. Also, why does every book showing characters moving into a long-abandoned house have them sweep the floor and call it done? In reality, houses are spiteful piles of rock and wood that are just waiting to disintegrate when you aren't paying attention.
   
   What I'm trying to say is that I would have cut the scenes where the main character sweeps the house and immediately notices how cozy and welcoming it is. Spare me with that nonsense, and show me a scene where the main character sweeps the house and discovers the unfixable water damage and a fire ant nest.

Despite all that, the book is pretty enjoyable. Give it a try if you're into cozy fantasy. I think I may just be too much of a bitter homeowner to really be the target audience.

Obligatory Kitten Picture

Happy New Year!

Home Again, Home Again, Lickety Split

I'm back home and no longer in the hotel with no drawer pulls. This is my own dresser. Sure, pieces are falling off, but at least it has drawer pulls!

I spent seven hours in the car listening to a big chunk of The Hunter by Tana French. Weirdly, I'm fourteen hours in and the title still doesn't make sense (there really isn't anybody hunting in this novel), but it has kept my interest, so that's good.

I still have a few cookies left, which is a rarity after that journey. At some point, I'm eating just to keep awake. Not great, but at least I don't fall asleep and crash.

Down south they were having Santa Ana winds and it was close to 80F. Here it is currently 42F.

My feral cat did not miss me. At all.

Obligatory Kitten Picture

I was trying to pick up so I could start a load of laundry. The Snack Pack had other ideas...