Monday, December 1, 2025

Welcome Back!

Oh hey, it's December already. That means it's time for Holidailies, the daily blog challenge!

Quick introduction

Hi! I'm Theresa. I write SF/F books as T.M. Baumgartner and cozy mysteries as Tess Baytree, but much of my time and energy goes toward fostering kittens for the Yolo County Animal Services Shelter.

My current (10+ year) knitting project is The Dragon Who Has Seen Some Stuff — so far I've finished the wings, which are not even approaching identical. If I ever finish it, this thing will have loads of character, which is the polite way of saying I can't be bothered to go back and fix mistakes.

10k Turkey Trot 2025

A few months ago, I decided signing up for my town's Turkey Trot would be a good idea despite being in my 50s and not having run for at least five years. I had to modify my training schedule from three times weekly to twice in order to keep my knees and shins happy, but I finished the 10k last Thursday with a blistering pace of 14:06 minutes/mile. And I didn't come in last place, though I'm pretty sure everyone who finished after me was walking.

What to expect for Holidailies 2025

That's a really good question. About a week ago, I decided I should come up with a list of topics so I wasn't desperately casting about for something at 11:30pm every night in December, but there was zero follow through, so... Expect kitten pictures, random anecdotes, and probably some feedback on my attempts to learn Affinity.

(Affinity 3 just came out. I've been using Affinity 2 for the typography on my covers, but going back to GIMP when I need to manipulate the image. Will Affinity 3 inspire me to do everything in one place? We shall see.)

Kitten picture of the day

This is Cool Ranch, one of the Snack Pack litter. He has discovered the best way to get through a gloomy December morning.



2 comments:

Maria said...

I'm busy learning Krita (maybe like Gimp. Or possibly Inkscape, but definitely more powerful.) The learning curve is, well, don't expect any finished covers this year. So far I've loaded the software and figured out how to open files. I've combined two files. Cutting things out is not going smoothly. The current cover project is going to "let's make this simpler." Pretty soon it will be one piece of stock art with my name and title! I'm glad you survived the trot. We were a little worried about you. :)

Maria said...

P.S. I expect to see you posting over at Scalzi's blog tomorrow. I will be there. Some good trad books posted to day. I have expanded my wishlist to accommodate.