I’ve been quiet lately. Mostly that’s because although I’ve gotten things done, they haven’t been very interesting. I’ve made minimal progress with the manuscript revisions, which is really frustrating. But the time hasn’t been a waste.

I researched options and interviewed several people for the job of training Shiloh more extensively. Not only is it part of my 2010 resolutions list, but it’s also becoming rather important for optimally enjoying our life with her. We’ll be moving forward with lessons and daily training homework in a few weeks; until then both our chosen trainer and we have rather hectic schedules.

I also researched our options for getting better TV for less money, and tried to enact changes on that front, but the dastardly tree outside the office window is directly in the line of sight for both satellite companies, which means we’re stuck with the stupid cable company. All that took about five times as much time as I would have hoped, and in the end we’re not saving any money or getting better service. Stinky stinky.

The recent experiment on whether I can pull off the full-time writer gig have yielded their results. It seems that I go through natural spurts and dry spells of lots of writing and then none at all, and those happen regardless of whether I’m also holding down a day job. Thus, it makes no sense for me to not be bringing in money regularly. Thussity thus, I’ll be putting out feelers for part-time job opportunities. I’ve got some ideas of places to start and am not in a huge hurry, so I feel like I’m in a decent position to find a job I’ll like and be able to stay in for a long time.

Otherwise, I’ve been reading, taking care of various chores and tasks around the house that generally get put off and are nice to take care of, and doing all my normal church things.

Decent progress, but not interesting. How’s your month going?

Alarms accidentally turned off instead of snoozed: 1
Breakfast visits with my brother: 0
Cars in the ditch before I reached the interstate: 2

Sets of keys to Mom’s car found in pocket: 1
Miles from home when said keys discovered: 9
Thanks to grandfather for letting me drop them off with him instead of driving all the way back home: 1,000

Average speed on I-75 north to Dayton: 60mph
Feeling of silliness at driving past the Dayton airport in bad weather to go another 1.5 hours to another airport, scale of 1-10: 9.5
Average speed on I-70: 40mph
Cars in the ditch along Ohio interstates: 8

Semi trucks in the ditch along Indiana interstates: 9 (!)
Cars in the ditch along Indiana interstates: more than 15
Times I swore after sliding into a snow bank: 7
Relief at no injury to myself or the rental car, scale of 1-10: 12.7

Minutes for which my car joined the ditch-party: 45
Men deserving awards for pulling my car out faster than I had any right to expect: 3
Hesitation on providing huge tip for the tow guys, in seconds: 0

Hang-ups returning rental car: 0
Total travel time to airport, in hours: 5.25
Minutes to spare catching flight: 20

Years I can wait before having a similar day: 1,000,000

In the last week or so, life has alternated between being so full (of non-writing activities, of course) that I don’t have time to write blog entries and being so frustratingly free of progress that I’ve held to Thumper’s mother’s age-old advice that if you can’t say something good, you shouldn’t say anything at all. This morning, though, I seem to have a little more steam, and I was looking for the link to a blogger I found several years ago (three, it turns out) who had some really helpful ideas about organizing work time.

And, as it turns out, the entry I wrote about it three years ago (click for original post) is strikingly appropriate for today, so I’m reposting it.

Here you go:

I’ve had a rough couple of weeks lately, with many distractions from my writing. I find that distractions tend to accumulate, causing inertia on so many levels it’s hard to comprehend, but one of the measurable ones is the drop in my daily word count – or daily editing progress. Usually it’s my husband who finally confines me to my chair and tells me to stop whining and get back to work, but even then it can be very daunting to get started.

Tobias Buckell posted this link in his blog a few weeks ago, and it struck a chord with me. Yes, it’s aimed at computer/software programmers, but the concentration difficulties are very similar. I’ve tried the “work for X amount of time, take a designated break, get back to work” method before, but it almost always falls apart after a few cycles because as I’m taking a break, I get distracted by something (ooh, shiny!) and it ends up being two hours before I remember I ought to have been working. What can I say? I’m blond, and not afraid to admit it.

The difference here, to me, is that John Richardson recommends setting a timer for work time and break time. And not just any time – 48 minutes of work, and 12 minutes of break. I’d argue that other combinations would work, but the point of this is specificity.

It’s easy to say “I’ll take a ten minute break” and let it turn into 15 or 20 minutes… or two hours. If I’m taking a 12 minute break, I’m taking a 12 minute break. I know I won’t look at the clock at the right time, so I set my kitchen timer, clip it to my pocket so I can hear it even if I wander over to the mailboxes, and it calls me back to work at the right time. I get 12 minute intervals throughout the day to do things like tidy up the living room or rotate the laundry, so even the thoughts about the non-writing tasks I need to complete don’t intrude on my working time. 12 minutes is enough time to do two small chores AND brew myself the next cup of tea. It’s a long time, really, and sometimes I find myself ready to get back to work before my break is done. Then I feel like I’m getting luxury time to just sit and do nothing, without shirking any of my various home or working duties.

Also, when the writing’s not going well, all I really have to commit to is 48 minutes of typing. I can handle that. I’d probably waste that time watching morning talk shows anyway, and not doing anything productive, so I might as well waste the time pretending to work. If, by the end of that time, I only have 200 words – or 20 words – and I’m still struggling, then so be it. I’ve written, and I can go on about my day guilt-free knowing it would have been horrible to punish myself by sitting at the desk trying to put together words that just wouldn’t cooperate. But usually by the time my timer beeps that first time, I’ve found my groove again and can’t wait to get back from my 12 minute break to keep working.

It’s funny how that works – how your brain can forget why you were so excited about a project, and needs to be reminded.

On the days when I’ve used the timer method (and I’ll admit it hasn’t been every day – I’m still getting used to it) I find that I get more done in general, not just more writing, and that’s a fantastic payoff no matter which angle you come at it from.

Once upon a time, there was a young couple who lived in Colorado. They adopted a puppy, and named her Shiloh, and the couple and their puppy often played in a big undeveloped field next to their apartment complex. There Shiloh discovered one of the Great Joys of Doggy Life: chasing geese. Actually, first she discovered the joys of eating goose poo, and her humans had to put a stop to that, but THEN Shiloh discovered the geese, and infinite satisfaction of making a whole flock of them take flight.

Alas, in time, the family moved away from the apartment and the big field full of geese to chase. Shiloh was sad about this lack in her life, but there were other good things going for the new apartment, like being able to see out the windows, so it pretty much evened out. And, on special occasions, Shiloh got to visit places where there were geese to chase. It was a good life.

(Okay, the third person narration is beginning to take its toll, so TA-DAA! We switch!)

A few weeks ago, I brought Shiloh to the seminary campus when I picked up Matt from class. With only one car, we often drop off and pick up, and sometimes it’s really easy to load Shiloh into the car and give her a bit of time to explore a less-familiar place, interact with a variety of people, go running to greet Matt when he comes out of the building, and sometimes, when there aren’t lots of people outside, I can let her off the leash to chase the geese while we wait for class to end.

I generally wait until there aren’t many people around for two reasons:

First, Shiloh can be very, very friendly and excited when she’s meeting new people–when she’s off the leash, this usually involves a very fast incoming approach. This often causes some concern because people aren’t sure whether she’ll jump on them (she won’t) and, regardless, she’s a pretty good-sized dog. People who aren’t comfortable around dogs are usually pretty freaked out by 60 pounds of canine barreling gleefully in their direction. Until we get that under a bit more control, I’m generally very aware of her exuberant tendencies.

Second, technically speaking the campus isn’t really geared toward dogs. There’s an outdoor patio where people sometimes bring smaller dogs on sunny days, but none of the buildings allow non-service animals and none of the on-campus housing allows pets. This is entirely understandable–many people who have dogs overestimate their dog’s good behavior (and lack of mess-making), or assume others will welcome an animal simply because the owner welcomes it. (See above for my awareness that not all people like dogs or are comfortable around them.) Granted, there’s absolutely nothing that even slightly indicates that dogs aren’t allowed on campus–many people love to see Shiloh and many students come play with her for a while, mentioning that they miss their own family dogs–but I still feel just a little bit like I should be extra-well-behaved when I bring Shiloh, especially when any of the seminary higher-ups are around.

At any rate, a few weeks ago I had Shiloh on campus. It was chilly, early evening, but the sun hadn’t set yet so in the light it was warmer. I know the Seminary grounds staff has been complaining about the geese, which are a significant problem. They don’t really migrate any more around here, so these geese have been in the campus area for several years, at least. The deterrents that the seminary uses don’t really work any more, but using new ones will require quite a bit of money invested, and that’s not really an option in this economic climate. Anyway, there weren’t many people around, but there were some geese, so I let Shiloh off the leash and told her to go get them.

With great joy, she sprinted toward the geese, making sure they all took off and were going to stay airborne, and then came back to me, immensely pleased with herself. I spotted another cluster of geese around the corner of a building, so we went and chased them off, too, then returned to the main courtyard area.

Who should be coming across the quad than the Head of Building and Grounds! I waved, since we know each other from the time I was employed there, and he headed toward me.

“Is that your dog?”

“Yep, she is.” Please, don’t be mad at me for letting her run around off-leash.

“I’d like to buy her.” He laughs, so I know he’s not really serious. “What I wouldn’t give for a couple of dogs on campus, trained to run those geese off. But we can’t, because of liability, long-term.”

I volunteered that Shiloh will be glad to help whenever she’s on campus, and Tom made it clear that we’re welcome any time. Yay!

Fast forward to Tuesday. Matt and I were flying back from New York, and when I turned on my phone after our last flight I had a voicemail waiting–it was Tom, asking me to give him a call.

Turns out the school is hosting a big dinner the night before the inauguration ceremony for the new president (who started back in July), and they want the campus to be as clean as possible. Shiloh and I have been contracted to arrive on campus at 9am and stay until a little after 5pm, and keep the geese out of the main areas of campus so the sidewalks will stay clean for the fancy visitors.

I think this is hilarious, but I’m glad to be able to help. Tom asked me to set an amount I’d like to be paid and he’ll get it approved. I have no idea what to ask for. If it’s a warm day, I intend to sit and read or write outside for most of the day, with occasional circuits to be sure the geese don’t get any crazy ideas into their heads about sneaking back. If it’s cold, it’ll be quite a bit more tedious.

But, for a while at least, Shiloh will be the Official Goose Chaser of Denver Seminary.

I couldn’t make this stuff up.

Last week, we visited Matt’s family in central New York. Once again, I took the camera and once again, I took no photos with it. I need a camera grafted into my hand or something. At any rate, it was a good visit, full of conversations and laughter and visiting and cuteness (the latter mostly on the part of our niece Tori, who is 19 months old). It was a good visit, and it was good to come home at the end.

But what I’m really writing to tell you all is that Shiloh can now (informally) be known as a working dog! More accurately, she will be doing one of her favorite things, and I will be paid to get her there and keep her under control during the one day we have been contracted for.

And now it’s time to play LEGO Star Wars with Matt, so that tantalizing tidbit will have to hold you over until I write out the whole story tomorrow.

It’s been a busy month and I think the best way to sum it all up is in photos.  Let’s go, then.

We decorated our tree on December 6th.  Pretty, yes?  I liked it:

We also decorated our windows and porch with lights, and appropriated the community bushes in front of our porch.  Viola!

And I did a LOT of baking. This is just one day’s collection, out of six or seven.

For Christmas, Shiloh got a new bone with real (!) meaty bits still on it. She also watched us carefully to be sure we did not steal her priceless treasure.

And I got a horse! He’s a bit small but, you know, we’re working in baby steps. His package dubbed him ‘Houston’, and he now resides on my desk in the office.

The next day, we used our Christmas money to buy a new (big!) TV. For reference, here’s the old setup:

Here’s the new setup, taken just a few minutes ago as Matt plays video games:

The big blue thing is still with us, it just traded places with what is now the media cabinet and is doing honorable duty housing baking pans and serving dishes in the dining room.

Pretty much as soon as the new TV was hooked up, we had some guys over for a gaming extravaganza. The boys had a great deal of fun killing Nazi zombies, and I did a great deal of cleaning in other parts of the house.

To compensate for all this television watching and video gaming, we went snowshoeing with some friends up near Brainard Lake.

For part of the time, we made Shiloh wear her booties. She doesn’t like them much, but they protect her feet from clumping snow and shards of ice in the winter, and from cacti and other prickly things in the summer, so we’re trying to get her more used to them. I wish I’d gotten video of the first few minutes she was wearing them. It was priceless.

Along the snowshoe trail, which in the summer is actually an access road to a reservoir, there were several signs which made one policy very clear:

Wait. What? No shooting, except for the people who would logically be shooting anyway. I mean, I realize there are plenty of mountain folk who go out and shoot cans or their friends or themselves in the foot, but do you really think they’re going to pay attention to a little sign? It made me laugh.

Nothing very interesting has happened since then. Video games have been played, laundry has been done, the dog has been walked. I’m trying to get back on the writing productivity bandwagon, but it’s been a bit stop-and-go. Not hopeless, just slower than I’d like.

Today I vanquished… er… assembled… this cute little table, which will help provide horizontal space that was lost when the TV cabinets got exchanged. See? Cute! Assembled! No missing or extra pieces! Go me!

And that’s the last month, in photos.

I know I’ve been delinquent all year about figuring out how to give everyone access to the list of books I’ve been reading.  I’m always delinquent about something.  It’s a bit of a miracle that it’s been something so comparatively trivial this time around.

At any rate, I’ve finally remedied the situation–and none too soon, given the hour.  I can confidently say that I will not be reading any more books this year.  Also, I managed to put together some stats about how much I’ve read in various genres with, I must confess, a bit of a surprising result.

The new page can also incidentally be found as a permanent page under “Reading Lists” on my main webpage.  Click here for my 2009 book list.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been brewing up some resolutions for the new year.  Concrete goals for myself that will direct my progress and stretch me–sometimes in entirely new directions, and sometimes in ways I haven’t been stretching lately, and that I miss.

So here’s my list, with some notes:

1. Write and revise a whole novel. I have the ideas sorted out in my head, but I really need to speed up my production process. This will take the most dedicated time of all my resolutions, but I’m confident that I can do it.
2. Research dog training options and complete Shiloh’s Canine Good Citizen certification. Elements of the test are listed and explained on the AKC website. Also included in this will be attention to Shiloh’s sometimes-excessive warning barks at noises outside (especially knocks on the door).
3. Finish five quilting projects. These can be projects I’ve already started which have been sitting unfinished in the closet.  There are at least two of those, and I have a solid idea for a third quilt to gift someone special this year.  A corollary to this is the goal of not buying new fabric for these projects, but using materials already in my stash.
4. Read 50 fiction books already on our shelves that I haven’t read before. Because there are a lot of books that I’ve picked up from various sources and never read, and I’d like to remedy that.  Also, reading books we already own saves money, whether it’s book-buying money or gas money getting to the library.
5. Exercise for one hour every week. This seems like a pitifully little amount of exercise, but I’m keeping in mind that 1) I will be traveling a lot this year, and should still be able to maintain this goal despite that (even though exercise usually flies out the window when I travel), and 2) my everyday life is pretty active, and this refers to dedicated exercise time, not incidentals like pushing around the vacuum.
6. Query five agents every week until a contract of representation is signed. This is pretty self-explanatory to me.  I don’t stop querying at requests for partials or fulls, an offer of representation (or many!), or anything else except a signed contract.

That’s it.  Those are the things I am resolved to accomplish this year.  I intend to print them out and hang them in some conspicuous place so that I cannot forget them or ignore them.  I think it will be a good year.

It’s time for one of my favorite blogging traditions (how lame am I? please don’t answer). The first sentence from the first entry of every month during 2009:

• January – So I’m in Houston; no problems with my flight.
• February – I haven’t been doing a very good job of following the news lately.
• March – The kitchen is a mess this morning.
• April – Aussie writer Colin Rawsell has posted an excellent entry in his blog about depression and its effects on writers.
• May – I am a vain, fickle creature.
• June – Apologies yet again for failing in my blog schedule… I’ve uploaded more photos from the trip and made comments over on flickr, in the Utah album.
• July – I haven’t posted in quite a while.
• August – Made up a salad tonight to take to dinner at our friends’ house.
• September – For those of you actually reading this via my website rather than Facebook or a feed, you might notice that the blog is lacking in its usual visual charms.
• October – I have been lax in my bloggelation duties.
• November – It’s gratifying to go back and read things I’ve written here and think, “Huh, sometimes I’m pretty funny.”
• December – Well December has come in with a bang here–first of all, my sister-in-law delivered a healthy baby boy in the wee hours of the morning, so that makes me an aunt again!

Also, Jenny Rae Rappaport posted today about how for people our age (I’m within a year of her) the last decade was full of milestones and turning points as we went about figuring out what life’s about and how we’re going to get on with things. So here’s the list of momentous things (for me) that have happened in the last ten years, roughly in order:

1. Lived in Hungary for 4 months
2. Graduated high school
3. Went to four colleges
4. Still managed to graduate in 4 years
5. Learned to quilt
6. Learned to ski
7. Figured out I do like physical exertion, sometimes :)
8. Bought a car
9. Spent 5 weeks exploring Europe
10. Got married!
11. Moved 18 times
12. Lived in 5 states
13. Finally found Home
14. Got diagnosed and went on medication for depression
15. Got a Masters’ degree
16. Went into debt
17. Trained a puppy
18. Wrote two novels
19. Rewrote one
20. Figured out what in the world I’m doing

I’m working on a real update with actual information and maybe even photos that should go up before the weekend.  I know, I know.  You’re thinking, “Dearest Betsy, you always dangle these promises but you never follow through!”  Well, I’ll try really hard this time.  I promise.  Unless I get busy and forget.  Then I probably won’t try very hard, but I will feel really bad.

Also?  Thanks to Maggie Steifvater and her evil insidious blog posts about it, I am seriously considering some resolutions for the next year.  And by “seriously considering” I mean “I feel like I should but I have no idea what they should be so I’m thinking hard.”

That’s about all for tonight.

Apologies for disappearing like that.  Again.  Remember how I was getting ready to assess what needed to be done before Christmas a few weeks ago when I posted last?  Yeah.  I was behind.  Way behind.  And now I’m not!  Mostly.  Also, a great big portion of last week got eaten up by preparations for our now-annual Christmas party, which went off with hardly a hitch last Friday.  We had 39 people in our rather small apartment at one time.  It was hoppin’.  Unfortunately, despite my best intentions and the fact that I had the camera out on a table so I wouldn’t forget, I didn’t take even one photo of the entire night.

Saturday morning I would rather have not left my bed at all.  The week’s work was a little crazy on me, and I took the day off to cuddle on the couch with the magic blanket and the dog and a book.

Sunday morning went more or less as usual, with the usual church activities.  But the highlight, really, was the children’s mini-pageant.  It was hilarious–unintentionally so–thanks to the littlest kids, who proved to be an amazingly unruly flock of sheep.  I really hope someone got it on video and can post it on YouTube, because it almost made me cry, I was laughing so hard.

Anyway, the rest of the day went pretty quickly, thanks to our friends lending us their copy of LEGO Star Wars.

This morning I revisited the lame query letter I may or may not have mentioned on the blog before–it was still lame, so I ditched it and have the beginning of a (hopefully) less-lame version in the works.

I still need to wrap Matt’s presents, and mail some things for people who know their stuff will be a bit late, and buy stocking stuffers for Matt.  We usually do that in a shopping trip together–go to Target and split up for a half an hour, check out separately, and hide our purchases on the ride home so the stocking presents stay secret.  But that’s about it.

I’m looking forward to getting back to writing.  I’ve missed it these last few weeks.  It’s good to feel that way about my job of choice.

And that’s about all there is to it.  More soon!  Much sooner than two weeks.  I pinky swear.