What wasn't in the other post...

Yeah, I was serious no videos or that kind of thing in the other post I'm putting up today (wanted to keep that one clean...) but people should know me better than to think there wouldn't be some kind of noise going on...

With all of that stuff in the other post, I've got to say that for me the writing the book is the easy part! This whole get it marketed and published end is stressful!

So, here are a couple of things that I found useful in trying to keep myself centered or get myself re-centered as the case may be...

Thanks to Almost Angst Free Productions for this first one...



That one does really help some times...

As for this one, it's another track from INSOCs 2014 album that has been my theme song more than once while dealing with this world of marketing people and ebils (I mean editors)...



There are a lot of points of meaning for me in this one right now... but you almost have to be here I.E. out of  your comfort zone and getting ready to do something completely insane (like launching a book or defending a thesis or dissertation) to get all of them... 


That's the post folks...
Until next time...
the adventure continues...

Sean 27:56 For Mine is a Life Full of Miracles

Nope, no videos or shiny things in this one (ok lots of shiny things but that's not the point). On this one occasion I am actually quite serious. My life is a life full of miracles.

One of them is my wife... Lisa... you might have met her...

I can brag about her later, let me tell you about a few of the other miracles that have been happening lately...

 

Umm... first off the book (one of them) is done and if things go anywhere near right it will be out this year. 

Note that that is this year, not next month... As one might expect the print date has slipped some (Who knew that writing the book was the easy part...). Part of the reason the schedule slipped is that Lisa and I decided that the book could use some testing before it's full release (so I will be looking for a few brave volunteers to see if the instructions make sense (we learn as time goes on...)). So rather than launching the book next month I'm launching a Kickstarter to fund the tests. The book will go into a limited test release in December and the fully re-edited book will be out in April (somehow sending the final copy to the printers on April Fools Day just makes sense...).

Now then... earlier this year I did end up going to the hospital, which was not all that fun. The fact that I lived and am actually off insulin (and so quickly...) is a miracle. Add to that that the book whose cover you just looked at and two more in the top five on my production schedule are direct results of that trip... A slight change in direction for some of the writing stuff, but one that has cemented that yes, I am a professional writer. This whole mess fits into the Life Changing Miracle category.

Follow the bouncing banking for this one... 

Last year Lisa and I were going to go on a conference trip and I was worried about funding for it. I did some digging and found some old money the state of California was holding from when I was an undergrad and put in the paperwork to get it... Lisa and I never went on the trip and the money would have taken too long to get here anyway. It wasn't a lot of money, but after it got here and I paid tithing we split the remainder three ways: $68 to Lisa for some knitting stuff; $68 to me for some chainmaille stuff; and $68 that got put into the bank for a latter project...

The chainmaille order is the one that most of the materials for the originals of the designs in the book came from. As for the $68 I put in savings it was mixed with a little more money in savings and waited.

This last week I needed to open the new account for the Kickstarter and publishing stuff (my own business and easier to track if it has it's own account). With the money in savings I still needed $26.00 to open the account. I didn't want to use our regular income for this because it was a special project of it's own and I wanted it to be something I worked specifically for and found a way to do, so...

I dug around and found an old cash of change that I had but it still wasn't quite enough. I cashed in the aluminum cans I had on hand and got some cash. I was bummed and thought I didn't quite have enough till I counted everything together...

After taking out tithing on the cans I had enough to open the account with $1.68 left over! So, I was able to open the new account for the new business without having to dip into paychecks and regular house funds to do it. Sure, I could have just slid a hundred over from the house checking account but I didn't want to do that, both because I didn't want to pull extra money away when Lisa's getting ready for her double conference gig, and this version has a way better story! And yes I do feel I was blessed to be able to do it. But wait there's more!

Today I made my first supplies order from the new account, some stuff for the Kickstarter and promotion of the book. The total $68.26! 

So the money from long before we were married, that I was willing to give up for Lisa's trip (and I still gave a way part of it to her...). Actually helped with this book. Not once, but three times... And it was money I'd forgotten I'd had for the last 12 years... Don't care what anyone else says, MIRACLE.  If it had not been for that forgotten money and the failed trip (and the whole hospital/not dying/insulin thing) this book never would have happened.

One more related miracle...

Working on the marketing and business side of the book is stressful and that's no lie... (somewhere in our stake there are a couple of people walking around headless for bugging me while I've been trying to get the publishing and Kickstarter nailed down...). Just when I want to get out of here but it looks like it's not going to happen... Lisa gets a chance to go to a two day conference in Boise and because work asked her to go, it's covered and doesn't mess with the double conference! 

As usual, no more info on that one till it happens (other than the fact that somewhere between here and NANOWRIMO in November I'm going to get two days of just straight up fiction writing in (no marketing, statistical analyses or other "shirt and tie people stuff").

Summing it all up... 

Miracles can and do happen. But, sometimes you have to take the effort to make yourself worthy to receive them and to put yourself in the right place to receive them. Sure there are the ones that happen without your help... but a lot of the time it's preparing and asking (and knowing what to ask for). The miracles can and will happen, you just have to be ready...

That's it for this post 

Until next time... if the miracles aren't happening, make 'em yourself!

Update and chowdown...

Fairly short one this week (and if you don't hear from us next week it's because something big is in the works...)

We (Lisa and I) are fairly up to our eyeballs this week, but I thought I'd get back to something I said I would talk about later...

The pasta sauce in this picture is all from food storage or cabinet items...
It is actually pretty simple and quick and tastes good. We use Thrive freeze dried products in it, but you don't have to (you just have to find someone that does high quality freeze dried (not dehydrated) meats and veggies (sorry this is not a "sprouted wheat" recipe...)). (Lisa and I are also ThriveLife consultants so if you want to do a party or place an order add a comment and we will get back to you!) We also get our spices from Penzeys. (No kick back here, just some amazing spices at awesome prices.)

1 cup freeze dried beef crumbles
1 cup freeze dried sausage crumbles
1/2 cup freeze dried mixed peppers
1/4 cup freeze dried onions
2 6oz cans tomato paste
3 cups water
2 tbsp basil (dried)
1 tbsp oregano (dried)
1 tsp smokey paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Don't bother to re-hydrate anything! Put it all in a pot and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. I'd give it 15 minutes to a half hour to simmer depending on what you want to do with it. Served over pasta I would go for the longer end. If you're like me and like to add some rice (about a 1 to 1 ratio) and use it in stuffed peppers the 15 minute end is fine.

It's good stuff from food storage!

Told you it would be a short one today...

What else is going on? I'm not saying...
But it feels about as calm and orderly as this...



Hopefully be posting again in a week or so...
Till then take care.

Weekend? Or, the Muddle in the Middle?

Well, the last 96 hours have been interesting around here...

I'll get the obligatory jabbering about writing out of the way first... between Friday morning and now my prospects of getting a book out by my chosen date of October 31 have gone from "yes definitely!" to "Probably not!" to "Schrodinger's cat!" (both released and not released at the same time...) to...
"If things work out right the one will be out in limited release for testing and the other one (that I'd planned on for "December or so") may be out in October!"

As is, I've got the one down to two appendices and a cover, but because of some changes in formatting for the Ebook version, and working out a rout for the printed book to come out too, I have to do some layout changes. This really is happening.

More to come in the next few weeks, but for now we'll just say that it was the start of of "Patrick and Lisa's Treasure Hunt Weekend."

And this brings us to Saturday...
Saturday was the Stake "Take-n-trade" activity, a chance to get rid of stuff you don't want, find some stuff you can use, and do some good old fashioned horse tradin'. It was also a morning activity so I flew solo while Lisa got some well deserved rest.

And the results? I found money!

Seriously I found a bag of coin wrappers someone wanted to get rid of and when I was home I found money in the pack! The legend of my garage sale skills continues! I also found this...

As some of you might know Lisa has a thing for little boxes...

And this nice little guy has character...

After returning home to pick up Lisa we set off on part two of the mission...

A local lawn and garden center was reportedly having a "spin and win" event. After confirming the rumor we came away with a 10 percent discount, some fertilizer and a weed killer to keep those pesky plants out of my project parking and building stuff zone...

We also found lunch! Then we took a trip to the grocery store. Not very exciting (no pictures), but it had to happen some time.

After putting the groceries and a little recoup time we set off for the last major event of the day the Sagebrush Art Festival...

I actually had several people ask me about my chainmaille belt that I made. We had some good talks and made some connections. I also talked with Lisa about a future project that I will refer to as: OPERATION KEROUAC... the name alone should keep people wondering until I'm actually ready to talk about that one (note: that would be a 2017 project at the earliest (did I mention I have a writing schedule...))

We did bring home some goodies...

Some onyx and pearls that Lisa has in her box. And,

A ruby in zeolite carving. This stuff is a bit of a challenge to work, and this one was nicely done.

Sunday we got some sad news concerning Lisa's mom. I will let Lisa decide if she wants to talk more about that (I've already taken my trip down that road for this year...).

I also found a boy that I am convinced will be a ward clerk some day... I was standing in the bishop's doorway talking to the bishop and this kid (who's about two) starts to walk in. I looked down at him and said "I don't think you want to go in there." The kid looks me square in the eye and asks "Why?" and not just the 'I'm saying a word' why but the 'you will tell me what I want to know' why! And he stayed put until I gave him an answer. This kid definitely has a future...

That brings us to today... where Lisa got to deal with 'interesting' people, and I got to work on... (whimper...) marketing materials... at least they're for my own book project.

How did Lisa survive the people and how did I survive the less fun side of writing?

Let me answer that with track 2 of Information Society's latest album...



I told you it's scary inside my head...

Well gang, that's it for today. Until next time...

Wear a scarf... it's starting to get nippy at night (and yes those are some of Lisa's).

Why is there a snake skin on my table?

Relax folks there really wasn't a snake skin on the table, just a scarf being blocked that looked enough like a snake skin that I asked myself that question three times. I'll let Lisa get to that in her part of the post.

I have been working a lot on getting this book ready to go out (and the next one and the one after that). So, I might not quite be sane at the moment but the following things have actually happened:

1.

I added a custom steel chain to my favorite cane (it happened after I ripped the original strap clean off). I've been wanting to customize it for a while and this is the first step. Phase 2 happens when I actually have a chance to make and cast a new end plug (bronze boar or dragon head). Phase 2 will also include a new leather grip ('cause the current one is gonna die when I weld the head on...). Phase 3 (even further in the future involves a new paint job in a more Nordic style. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this thing is a tool and a fashion accessory. Eccentric writers gotta have their trademarks and I'm working on making this one of mine.

2. This one also involves the cane... Today after finishing the new strap/chain I actually knocked a rather large bug out of the air with the chain (that'll teach it to try to fly into my house (if it weren't dead! (yes folks some insects were harmed in the making of this list item!)))

3. I have broken the "sugar barrier" and reentered the world of barbecue! For too long the general barbecue consciousness in some parts of my family has been dominated by Kansas City style barbecue (which is the most mass produced (and basically involves hurling a large amount of honey or brown sugar at ketchup...)). I've been experimenting with an old friend I discovered on my mission Carolina style barbecue sauce (mustard based...) and a new friend the "Alabama white". I will get back to this in up coming posts as I have some more results and a more perfected recipe.

Well, that's my side of the world... In a surprise move...
Heerrreee'ssss Lisa!

Yup, you get both of us today.  I have been frantically knitting.  The first weeks of the term are always crazy.  Knitting is relaxing and helps to keep me sane and my mind on something soft and lovely instead of grinding on the idiots  problems of the day.

So here is the "snake skin" that I finally blocked.

I suppose it does look like a snake skin (Although I didn't know that until I read the title of this post.) I called it my "Raisin Waves Project."  The pattern looked like waves, and the color of the yarn is a reddish brown like raisins.  The scarf ended up much longer than I thought it would  - about 70".  I wasn't sure the blocking frames would work, but the nails were just perfect to pull the points out and instead of using the other frames as cross bars, I laid two on the table and used some books to keep them the 7" apart.  The "snake skin" is now nice and lacey as it should be - although I'm now going to think "I'm putting on snake skin" every time I wear it.

Also working on some other projects, which will not appear here until after Christmas.  Here is a glimpse at a shawl I'm working on.

On the writing front for me, the dissertation is back in swing.  Met with my dissertation adviser and we figured out how to redesign the study so I only need 36 participants rather than 120!  This actually feels like something I can accomplish within the next year.  I just may be able to graduate in May 2016!  Now to make sure I have the time to work on it.  I'm still working full time at ISU, and I have been facilitating workshops for Quality Matters - which I love doing, but it does take time.  I have one starting tomorrow.

Well, that is what has been going on around here - lots of projects, writing, moving forward, and grateful that the temperatures are finally dropping.  Now if Idaho could just figure out how to stay in Autumn a bit longer before it jumps into Winter.