IWSG Day, Cruise & January Report

Happy IWSG Day! It’s the second IWSG bloghop of the new year. Another opportunity to share our ups and downs. And give and receive encouragement, as we travel the sometimes thorny path of authorship. Thanks as always, for bringing us together goes to ninja extraordinaire Alex Cavanaugh.

The co-hosts for the February 7th posting of the IWSG are: Janet Alcorn, SE White, Victoria Marie Lees, and Cathrina Constantine!

Interested in joining us? Click on the badge above. Our Twitter hashtag and handle are #IWSG and @TheIWSG.

So what’s going on with me this month?

Well, it’s been more than a week since I’ve returned stateside from my first ever cruise. At first I worried that I’ll have seasickness. I worried I’ll drop my phone into the ocean. Or worse, I myself will fall overboard. And all this worriedness led me to a story idea of a MC experiencing their worst vacation ever. Which led them to being lost at sea. And rescued by a modern pirate or someone long presumed to be dead. Were they really rescued or have they jumped from the frying pan into the fryer?

You know how we authors are. It’s what we do, come up with story ideas from out of nowhere. It’s an occupational hazard. Although, it’s been a long while since I’ve had a story idea. Unfortunately, it sounds like a thriller and that’s not a genre I usually write in. But, I’ll file it away just in case.

Now, here are my writing results for January.

WIP	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Total Words
	January 5 – 0 words	January 6 – 0 words	January 7 – 322 words	322 words
	January 8 – 0 words	January 9 – 223 words	January 10 – 172 words	395 words
	January 11 – 156 words	January 12 – 0 words	January 13- 162 words	318 words
	January 14 – 200 words	January 15 – 0 words	January 16 – 300 words	500 words
	January 17 – 0 words	January 18 – 0 words	January 19 – 0 words	0 words
	January 20 – 133 words	January 21 – 0 words	January 22 – 194 words	327 words
	January 23 – 0 words	January 24 – 0 words	January 25 – 0 words	0 words
	January 26 – 0 words	January 27 – 0 words	January 28 – 0 words	0 words
	January 29 – 40 words	January 30 – 248 words	January 31 – 229 words	517 words

I typed 2,379 words last month! Although it was touch and go at the start and towards the end. And shopping for warm weather outfits during winter didn’t help either. Whether online and/or at a physical store, it was more of a time suck than using social media. Especially shopping for shorts. It was the worst. It’s like trying to find the last Turbo Man doll on Christmas Eve.

And as you can see, the last week of January suffered a bit too. Had no internet service on the ship. I didn’t want to be roaming either so my phone was on airplane mode. I did have the idea to write by hand but I had no pen to ‘borrow.’ Or paper to write on. I should’ve been able to write offline on my phone but not all my WIP documents were accessible offline. (Talking about you “The Anniversary Present”).

Also, without internet service, I couldn’t finish re-reading the final five books by Julie Garwood. Sigh, I knew I should’ve tackled that earlier in the month. Since I’m a fast reader, it usually takes me two to three days to finish a book, so I figured I’d have plenty of time.

But this time, I most definitely will keep my vow to finish re-reading Julia Garwood’s books. I make this vow to myself and to you, my fellow IWSGers.

Also, for most of the cruise I suffered from a coughing fit. At first I thought I was coming down with a cold/cough. But my husband pointed out that I cough the most in our room. And it lingers awhile after we leave the room. So the consensus he came up with was that I was allergic to something in the room.

For the life of me, we couldn’t figure out what it was. It was definitely not my perfume. But my coughing worsened while sleeping in that bed. It could’ve been the material the blanket, sheets or pillows were made of. Or what housekeeping used to wash them in. Sigh, of all things why couldn’t I stumble onto some unknown food allergy.

And although I enjoyed my vacation, it did ruin my health and wellness plans. Even walking up and down the ship and around when we went ashore, to burn off all those delicious foods I ate didn’t help. I went on the cruise with a five pound weight loss and came back home with a three pound weight gain. I’m back on my exercise routine but still…

Anyways, that is what’s been going on with me. And for a bonus, this is for all my northern hemisphere peeps. Here’s a few pictures and feel good vibes clips to hold you over until the brighter, warmer days come.

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February 7 question: What turns you off when visiting an author’s website/blog? Lack of information? A drone of negativity? Little mention of author’s books? Constant mention of books?

For me, my number one turn off would be if the website is hard to navigate. If I had to jump through a lot of hoops to find one piece of information. Or if a website is too cluttered to focus on one piece of information at a time.

What’s going on with you this month? What turns you off when visiting an author’s website/blog?

Ever been on a cruise? Which cruise did you travel on, where did you go? What’s your favorite cruise memory? What’s the worst thing that happened to you on a cruise? What’s your fantasy/bucket list travel destination? ….I’d love to visit Tahiti and Ahkihabara in Japan. Notre Dame and St. Tropez in France are on my list too. As well as Seoul in South Korea, the Great Wall of China and one of those countryside cultural villages.  And last but not least, the Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia, where the sky and water meet.

Happy Birthday Month (to you)! Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy Black History Month!

PS On the last day of the cruise I found this. You wouldn’t believe how aggravated I felt with myself to learn I had a pencil and a notepad all this time.