WordPlay

by Doranna

Last week I wrote a lamentful blog about my April 20 deadline for finishing first draft of LYNX REVEALED.  You know…some chatter about deadlines, some chatter about unexpected CEs, some whining from the muse…

It was a stiff deadline and I needed to prove to myself that I could make it after several years of life transitions that turned my writing routines all murky, if ever ongoing.  But hitting homestretch in the story with the addition of several hours of work per day on the CEs, and…

Well.  I was sad.

Also, there’s always someone here at the office standing station with his insistent little Beagle feet against my leg, clamoring for attention.  He’s always done this, but he also misses Belle.

“Training time! Train the Beagle!”

“Train the Beagle NOW.”

Well, here I am to tell you that HA HA HA!  Friday morning, I wrapped up that first draft ANYWAY!  And yes!  I’m using lots of ALL CAPS!

Because I DID IT!

Take THAT, Chaos!

Done! Done done donedone!

Not only done, but darn close to target!  (80-85K words for the Nocturne line.  And I know I’ll be adding about 500 in a missing scenelett, and will tighten down a bit in second draft, when I won’t generally do much but refine the words on paper and slide through the story with defining tweaks to the various threads of it.)

The close-up. Strike a pose!

Of course, here I am two days later and the Muse is missing her first draft time rather badly, in spite of a full weekend of doggy and family events.  But she’ll have to suck it up; there’s a week or more before I go back to the story with second draft.  On Monday, I start right in on the proofs for CLAIMED BY THE DEMON, while simultaneously working CEs on the new edition of SCENT OF DANGER.  Plus, the cover–!

And also this coming week, Big Things in the Offing for the Dogs.  But that’s another blog.  This one is all about BEING DONE.

Do the dance, Numfar!

by Doranna

Yup, the new comment system is up and running, with all the old comments back in place.  I still have to tweedle and tweak things around, but I’m already having fun with it and I hope so are you!

Agility trialing in New Mexico generally means dealing with at least three seasons, usually all in the same day.  When I show up at the trial site, it’s with a full complement of winter gloves, coat, and hats over sweats…at least two different pairs of shoes…sweats, several lightweight layering jackets, and–of course–shorts.  And, oh–baseball cap, shade hat, and sun block, plus cooling coats for the dogs and the $5 Home Depot garden sprayer of water.

This past weekend, I used them all.  Typical!  But nothing got too extreme–if you don’t count the moment the microburst charged through the trial, prompting the dreaded warning–”Grab your shelters!!”–and we all dove for the shelters as the wind tumbled through, taking out a series of shade shelters along the way (and prompting many of the rest of us to pull the canopies off).

Still, this weekend the permutations stayed relatively mild (as opposed to 20F or 60mph winds), and although Dart and I experienced some so-sad almost Qs (tear hair, rip clothing, wail), in general we had a really good weekend.  Which we all really needed, so there you are.

Plus, we took pictures.

In the end it was Dart’s best weekend so far, with four of six Qs earned, a completed Excellent Standard title (finally!), and a completed Masters Jumper title.  Good boy!

Plus, did I mention…we took pictures?

In which Dart demonstrates that he has no issues with core strength

I like this one just for the little Beagle butt disappearing around the inside curve of the tunnel…

And this one for his speed up the A-frame!

A moment at the start line.  Good boy.

Some WHEE! at the end of the course…

I love this shot (well, of the dog, ahem) because it’s everything I want to see in him–drive, a beautiful slice, and the obvious understanding of the handling–not just the rear cross, but the 180 degree jump pattern to follow.

Love him in this one, too–driving for the finish.  (The hand is compensating for a funky angle on the final jump.  Or at least, that’s what it’s supposed to be doing.  He made it, anyway!)

by Doranna

You may have noticed that things look different around here.  Not vastly different, but if you head to make a comment, you’ll see what I mean.

New!  Cool!  Exciting features!  You can respond to someone specific in a thread! Share the page super-easily!  Get replies in email super-easily!  (Yes, I have a surplus of exclamation points on my hands today.)

You might also notice that all the previous comments are missing.  No fears!  They’re all still here, behind the scenes; they’re just not currently showing.  Or they weren’t when I wrote this.  I did put a process into motion that’s supposed to make them show up.

We Shall See.

Meanwhile, here’s a little something for your Saturday while I’m off running agility with Dart, and Connery is wishing he was running, too.  A couple of the reasons the boys are rarely inside while I’m writing…

by Doranna

For starters, an update on Miss Belle–she’s doing well on her bucket list, and has regained some weight and energy on the new feeding protocol.  She’s having some good days, and we’re grateful.  It doesn’t seem as though it’ll be too much longer.

The Dartspression at the end of a training sequence, where there will be COOKIES forthcoming. Or a TOY. You just never know, do you?

Days of Dart should pretty much be called Month of Dart.  The World of Dart.  The intensive all-consuming “HOW many events in a row?” weekends of Dart.  And the preparation for same.

With Connery on rehab, Dart has a spotlight on the training and trialing stage.  Not to mention he’s in a pretty intensive proofing/generalizing stage beyond what my previous dogs have asked for.

So he’s going to handling class, tootling around in the car to work in a variety of parking lots, biking with Connery for Connery’s rehab, had a big playdate, and this month has one weekend after another of events–agility trials, a seminar, obedience trial…

This means I have one weekend after another of same.

So with any luck, the blog will be full of doggie pictures and doggie fun, and maybe even a couple of doggie surprises.

(Even though, I should probably add, I have a book coming out in just over a month.  This is it.  Here.  TAMING THE DEMON.  That one.  There.  And if you have a review blog or active, widespread review habits and are interested, I’ll be glad to send out a copy while they last.)

Our most recent outing was to partake of a Gerry Brown seminar–Dart’s very first such thing–which was awesome and gave us some tools I think will be critical to helping Dart’s confidence on course.  Piccies currently in development!  Meanwhile, here’s a bit of Dart from the latest agility trial–a twisty little course on which he never did give me full speed, but he did manage to stay on that tricky course after an *ahem* rocky start line.  Go, Dart!

Thank you all for your comments in response to the Imperfect Service Dog post–and for your donations to Paws with a Cause, those of you who made them!

In that post, I asked three questions…I thought maybe it was MY turn to answer them.

1. You’re attending an event.  You see a service dog of awesome cuteness.  YOU CAN’T STAND THE CUTENESS!  You miss your dog who is not at the event.  Because this is a service dog, you feel safe with it.  Also, you used to/do have a dog of that breed.  Your first impulse is to go “AWWW–!” and you feel an inexorable tug to go pet the dog.  What do you do?  (Or if you’re William Shatner, what DO you DO?)
2. You see someone with a service dog who appears to be functionally intact.  You wonder what on earth they need this dog for.  Are they just gaming the system to feel special?  Maybe they’re taking advantage!  You are wildly curious!  Your mouth opens!  What do you say?
3. You’re making casual conversation with someone who happens to have a service dog.  The dog is behaving appropriately, but you’re surprised to see this breed with a service vest on.  You know something about [family dogs/breeds/once taught your dog to sit], and you know this breed has a reputation for its cheerful resistance to training.  You open your mouth and out come the words–

 

So here goes!

1. Generally speaking, I leave the dog alone.  However, if I was to feel utterly compelled to pet, I might ask, “May I say hello to your dog, or is s/he working?”  And then–the most critical part–I would wait for an answer.

As a person with a service dog, this approach would work for me as long as it didn’t interrupt whatever personal business I was handling at the time.  Some folks may be fussier, especially if they’ve dealt with one too many intrusions on their day.  I admit, I have been astonished–speechless, at times–at how many people don’t ask–or if they do ask, they don’t wait for an answer.  Or if they do get an affirmative, they then swoop hastily upon the dog in a fashion guaranteed to alarm all but the stodgiest canine.

For all of these reasons, even if Dart is not working at the time, I no longer allow petting unless I have specifically given him an off-switch of picking him up.  From there, visitors can’t swoop down on him, and I have complete control over how he’s being handled–I can always turn away or gently put my hand between him and a face that’s too close.  Not because I fear for the face, but because hello!  RUDE!  He doesn’t deserve to deal with it.

2.  Although it’s perfectly possible to query appropriately about a service dog’s duties, it may not be as simple as you think.  Not everyone wants to talk about their personal health–and even if they’re fine with that, not every moment is a good one for them to do it.  Even something like “she’s a seizure alert dog” offers a world of personal information.

Also, I’ve found that answering the question often leads to more questions.  My answer is, “He provides me with neurological grounding exercises.”  To which most people say, “What does that mean?”  And suddenly it’s a whole conversation about my health.  Do Not Always Want.

However you decide to handle it, being sensitive to the handler’s response is paramount.  Be curious, not nosy.  And whatever you do, however badly you want to know, there is never any excuse for asking twice if the handler demurs the first time.  Especially if the first response is a very clear, “This isn’t a good time for me to talk about that.”

3.  As long as you’re admiring the dog, you’re good.  It does not count as admiring the dog if you diss his breed in the process.  “I’ve never seen a [insert breed] service dog,” isn’t a bad way to do it.  “Wow, a [insert breed]–awesome!” will probably also get a smile.  “I can’t believe you have a Beagle service dog–that’s such a dumb breed!” might get you a pasted-on smile, but don’t mistake it for the real thing.

(Note that I’ve only had Dart in his active service dog role for a short time, and yet I’ve experienced all the “don’ts” I just mentioned.  I can understand why those with extensive experience might get a little short in their responses, although I hope I never do.  But just maybe, given the great discussion here, we’re a start of the awareness brigade!  Let’s make it contagious…)

Meanwhile, over on the contest side of things…I did my infamous “blind stab at the screen” and Melissa won the WordPlay contest!  Those of you who donated to Paws with a Cause should keep an eye on the Event Web Page to see who wins the grand prizes!

by Doranna

With a title like that, you might be tempted to think I’m talking about the international editions of my books, or the cool covers that sometimes result when the book comes out in a different country.  But no.  Because when my life isn’t all about writing, it’s all about training the dogs.

Yup, it’s time for another Dog Agility Blog Event.  (One of the perks of participation is totally selfish–it spurs me to read all the other blogs, and to look at the subject a whole new way.  Check ‘em out!)  This month we’re pondering the internationalization of the sport, a matter which brought some puzzlement in behind-the-scenes discussion.  “I’ll never compete internationally, so…?”

I am pretty darned sure I won’t ever compete internationally, either.  Never mind being good enough…I don’t fly!  Boom.  Grounded.

But I have a very strong belief in the strength of options.  Options when it comes to training techniques, training tools, training theory.  In fact, I feel strongly enough about having options that even when I run across a technique that makes me wrinkle my nose, I check it out.  You never know when some little piece of information will crop up as useful later on–another dog, another situation, another task.

Just TELL me what to do. Really. Then we'll all be happy.

Once upon a time (she says, by way of illustration), I was new to the idea of shaping behaviors.  Not to mention I had a young dog (ConneryBeagle) who didn’t like shaping behaviors.  Connery wants you to define exactly what you’re asking of him.  Do this; don’t do this.  He doesn’t like being asked to suggest things.  Furthermore, if he thinks his way is valid, he will suggest the same thing over and over and over and over and…look at you in disgust and quit.  Whereas if he does suggest an alternative to a previously defined behavior and you say, “Nope, do it this way,” he will then happily do it that way.

Our experimenting with shaping behaviors was very short lived.  Now that Connery is much more seasoned, I can give him broad hints about what I’d like him to do and then clicker reward, but that’s really a different thing, and I fade the clicker as soon as I can.  But at the time, I read up on it, learned about it…watched other people doing it, and tucked it away.

Fast forward a number of years, and along comes adolescent Dart Beagle–who has flunked being a show dog because he forgot to descend both testicles (this doesn’t surprise me; he’s inordinately fond of them), and who couldn’t be placed in a pet home because he vibrates with intensity.

(The number of people to use the word “vibrate” to describe him, completely independent of one another, is no coincidence.)

So lo, Dart came to my house where I love him fiercely and am willing to be humbled by his antics in agility.  And obedience.  And tracking.  And where in spite of all that, he’s also taken on the mantle of service dog.  (That’s another blog.)

On the other hand, Dart does not love the flash on this particular camera...thus the squint. But he does love the bucket, which--with shaping--he not only learned to balance on in a single session, he also realized that in order to balance on it, he'd have to flip it back upright when he knocked it over.

Dart looooves shaping.  Dart loooves figuring stuff out.  He loooooves knowing he’s clever and proving it.  And Dart LOVES the clicker.  Dart loves the clicker SO MUCH that I use it as a reward during times when he seems stressy.

The point being, if I hadn’t explored both shaping and clicker use just because it wasn’t right for my dog at the time, I wouldn’t have had the option to grab those tools when Dart came along.

So no, I’m not going to compete internationally.  And I don’t particularly like what I’ve seen–safety-wise, fairness-to-the-dog-wise–on some sample AKC Masters C courses (although I also saw one that looked like challenging fun).

But I’ve been watching videos on some of the international techniques, and I’ve watched the videos of world competition, and if some of what I see makes me think “what the effing F is the point of THAT?” it doesn’t mean I won’t look into it, see what proponents of such maneuvers are saying, and see where such handling is supposed to be optimally useful.

Because you never know.  One day it might be the perfect tool to help one of my dogs understand whatever lesson we’re trying to learn on that day.

by Doranna

Also known as “Win Prizes, Support Service Dogs, Feel Good About Self, and also Maybe Win Other Prizes.”

One of the things I don’t generally discuss overmuch is my health (although it’s the reason for my current paucity of posts);  The Lyme has been active for 25 years and diagnosed for less than one.  All the writing, the training, and the trialing is done in spite of…and because I’m really, really stubborn.

There are a lot of things I don’t do, or can’t do without a companion, and these things I integrate into my life as gracefully as possible, so most people don’t even put two and two together.

One of the reasons for that is a sensory dysfunction that generally has me fleeing (literally) for the hills.  (Am I a hermit?  Why yes.  Yes I am.)  To help manage this issue, I use certain focusing and brain exercises that take a lot more effort than you can imagine if you haven’t ever desperately relied on them.  I use these constantly and pretty much invisibly.

One of the things I’ve always done to ground my brain is to bring a dog along when I drive.  Having that quiet presence in the car is one thing–but the real value comes when I get where I’m going and we work together in the parking lot.  It re-grounds me without adding overload…and it’s the very fastest way to do that.  But when it’s too hot to leave a dog in the car…. I stop going places, or I pay a much larger price when I do.

So as of last year, I’ve gone official with Mr. D’Artagnan Beagle:  He’s a service dog. Because a service dog can come inside.

The reason this works for us is not only because of who he is, but because of who we are together.  And because I’ve been training dogs for [mumblemumble] years, I can make choices that are good for him, good for me–and most especially–responsible to the rest of the world.  Before I took this step, I consulted with a service dog trainer–and now Dart and I will grow together in this.  He is an imperfect service dog–eager and learning refinement–with an underlying aptitude, and that’s what makes him exactly perfect for me.

Look who has yet to learn the "tail tuck."

I’m immensely lucky. Not every dog is suited for service work, even if you start from puppyhood.  (Neither of my other two kids would be happy or successful in this role.)  So that’s luck #1.  Luck #2 is of course the fact that training is one of the things I do, and have basically always done.  Had I not run into the health stuff, I would have happily pursued it as a profession; as it is, I simply pursue it with dedication.

I don’t take this luck for granted, and I know…well, how lucky I am to be lucky.  That’s why I’m outing Dart’s quiet Other Role in my life –so I can participate in the “Bloggers Help Paws with Cause” event.

See, FINALLY.  We get to the part about winning things!

Basically, there are whole lot of blogs offering a chance to win a whole lot of bookish things–in return for  donations to Paws for Cause (one entry per each dollar donated).

Here on the blog, I’m giving away an ebook set of the entire Changespell Saga.  (Already have it?  Enter anyway.  We’ll work something out.)

To Enter:  Answer these questions in the comments!  Don’t worry…it could be that there’s no exact right or wrong.  I’ll do the pick from a hat thing–but I won’t lie.  Thoughtful responses (as opposed to token words just to get entered) will have an edge.

1. You’re attending an event.  You see a service dog of awesome cuteness.  YOU CAN’T STAND THE CUTENESS!  You miss your dog who is not at the event.  Because this is a service dog, you feel safe with it.  Also, you used to/do have a dog of that breed.  Your first impulse is to go “AWWW–!” and you feel an inexorable tug to go pet the dog.  What do you do?  (Or if you’re William Shatner, what DO you DO?)
2. You see someone with a service dog who appears to be functionally intact.  You wonder what on earth they need this dog for.  Are they just gaming the system to feel special?  Maybe they’re taking advantage!  You are wildly curious!  Your mouth opens!  What do you say?
3. You’re making casual conversation with someone who happens to have a service dog.  The dog is behaving appropriately, but you’re surprised to see this breed with a service vest on.  You know something about [family dogs/breeds/once taught your dog to sit], and you know this breed has a reputation for its cheerful resistance to training.  You open your mouth and out come the words–

No, wait!  This is a trick question!  Out come the words, “I can’t believe you’re using a Beagle as a service dog!  I [had/knew] a Beagle once, and it was so [dumb/stubborn] that it would never [sit/come/shut up/fill in the blank].”  And here is my answer, the one I will probably never say in public so you now have this sneak peek into my brain: “Right!  Because the dog trained YOU!  Now who’s the SMART ONE?!”  (And in my brain, I will use all caps.)

The MAIN EVENT! The prizes include two $65 gift certificates to any online book store, and a huge box of books and swag from Romance Book Junkies (US residents only).

The blog event is being organized by Bitten by Paranormal Romance and Romance Book Junkies–and here’s what they have to say about THAT!:

“We have a total of 59 blogs working together to raise money for this great cause. There are some awesome prizes up for grabs–and here’s a little about the cause:

Paws With A Cause® enhances the independence and quality of life for people with disabilities nationally through custom-trained Assistance Dogs.

PAWS® increases awareness of the rights and roles of Assistance Dog teams through education and advocacy.  Founded in 1979, Paws With A Cause is dedicated to helping its clients who are challenged by many disabilities, such as Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Seizure Disorders, and Hearing Disorders to name just some.  Each of our dogs are trained to meet the specific needs of our clients. Tasks may include opening and closing doors, picking up objects, pulling a wheelchair, turning lights on and off, and alerting a person to particular sounds like a telephone, doorbell, smoke detector and many others. Our dogs change lives by enhancing the independence of our clients. By just opening a door, a dog opens up the world for a person with a disability and your donations will go to making that happen.

PAWS is a non-profit organization.  Paws With A Cause/4646 South Division/Wayland, MI 49348″

How to donate:

1. Go to http://www.everribbon.com/PawswithaCause

2. Click on “Make a Donation”

3. Enter your amount. Everibbon will add a small fee to your donation for processing. You will receive 1 entry into the giveaway for every $1 you donate.

4. In the box that says “on the behalf of” please put your name. This is the name that will be listed on the Everibbon website, so use a public name. Do not check the box to make an anonymous donation because Danielle won’t be able to track your donation and  process your giveaway entry.

5. Next it will ask you for your credit or debit card information.

6. Then it will ask for your email address to send you a receipt. This is so that you can submit it for tax purposes.

7. Ta Da!  Now contact Danielle to enter the giveaway!

8. Please email Danielle (RomanceBookJunkiesDanielle@Yahoo.com) with the name you used to donate your money, and tell her how much you donated and if you live in the US or are International.

9. Ta Da again! Thank you for donating!

Warning: Play nice!  If Danielle receives more than one email with the same person’s name and donation amount, she’ll ask for your receipt from Everibbon.

Have lots of fun, admire a service dog, and head over to the Event Web Page to check out the other participating blogs and their prizes!

The Dart Outtakes…he’s not so fond of the camera flash!  His tail would wag happily until the moment I lifted the camera, and then…oppression…

So, you know, sometimes when it comes to settings for my books, I make things up.

No, really!

And sometimes I create Tardis-like areas in the middle of real places, and then I make things up, but within those parameters.

And sometimes I use real places and I research the patootie out of them.  It’s easier now with Google Earth and satellite maps and such, but boy, when I was doing Capetown for the FEMME FATALE novella I had to engage some serious research mojo, and I was thrilled when someone who’d been there said that I nailed it.

Every now and then, I have the chance to tramp around a book setting in person.

There should be a caption that follows me around at times like these.  “Step back!  Make room!  The muse is about to WALLOW.”

Last weekend, I should have been at an agility trial.  Instead, the night before the departure, ConneryBeagle was badly injured.  We cancelled the trip and there are some details and updates over on FaceBook, but for now I’ll just say it was a freak yard thing, and no, we don’t know if he’ll be able to run agility again, and yes, I’m still crying.

And also, that there’s only one thing to do when stuff like this hits: not only does the muse get to WALLOW, but I take her out to the kind of place that comforts me–up into rugged trails.

Convenient, then, that I’m working away at the third RECKONER book in the background of my other projects, and that a certain amount of the action takes place on the side of the very mountain looming up to the west of Casa Durgin.

So I grabbed up some company and I grabbed up Dart Beagle, and off we went.  For the first little bit, anyway–then the trail got more rugged and it was only me.

I didn’t have the camera for that part, which is just as well–it would have banged around a lot, as the trails were up and down and around and mostly carved into the side of mountain ridges.  Narrow little trails, and during the rare moments when I met up with someone coming the other way, I was very glad for Dart’s boingy qualities.  More than once I asked him to levitate up the side of the mountain to perch like a little mountain goat while other hikers–and their significantly larger dogs–passed us by.

(Dart, it must be said, apparently thought the “perching like a little mountain goat” was the best thing EVER.)

I was also pleased that all of those dogs were on lead, as they’re supposed to be.  That would have been a bad place for the “He’s friendly!” routine.  But everyone was pleasant and responsible, and for the most part it was just me and Dart, surrounded by awesomeness.  I love wandering the microclimes of a desert forest–everything changes so quickly with altitude and orientation.  Is it south or north facing?  Shaded by another ridge, or out in the open?  High or low?

Dart thought it was awesome, too.  Four miles of nonstop awesome.  At one point he was so excited by all the new scents that he started giving voice right there on the trail.  It was an Intensity of Want.  And it gave him a whole new perspective on what it’s like to walk together.  Real life stuff, not ho-hum down the road.

On the return loop, in the flatter, wider area near the parking lot, I did run into a couple who thought their three very large dogs were speshul off-lead snowflakes.  Naturally, at least one of these loose dogs was completely non-responsive to recall, and approached us with a dominant body language–head low, neck stiff, tail raised high and held tight.  I’d gone off the trail to put Dart up on a picnic table, but onward it came, so I smacked my nice stout walking stick in its face (against the table bench, which tells you how close it got).  “I don’t know you!” I said loudly.  Smack!  “You are not welcome!” Smack!  

Dog’s dawning realization: Crap, this lady is nuts.  Maybe I don’t care THAT much about bullying that Beagle thing.

Dog’s Owner (everybody, join in the chorus!): He’s friendly!

Me (with the stick still locked and loaded): I DON’T CARE.

And maybe I was channeling Garrie’s reckoner attitude, because I didn’t.  I’m tired of stressing over confrontation caused by people who think their dogs are speshul snowflakes.  Responsible dog owners make sure their beloved pets don’t cause problems for other people.

So they moved on to bother the next person who didn’t want to be visited, and we went on our way unruffled to finish up the hike.

Soo…  Connery’s still injured.  The world has still been sad and overwhelming lately, with the Lyme flaring up to greet it.  But Dart had a great time (and slept hard on the way home!), and I got to wallow in a couple of hours of hiking and not thinking, and the muse got to wallow in scene setting, and found some great story landmarks and even a couple of plot developments.

Soon enough, the season will turn, and those trails will be impassible with snow and ice.  But before then, the muse says, I’ll find another day for wallowing.

Where do you wallow?

by Doranna

The Write Horse feature marches on!  Patty Wilber (she of “I went to the Worlds!” fame) will still be hanging out here with us on the newly flexible WordPlay blog.

*kermit waves*  YAAAAAAAAAAY!

And soon, it seems, I’ll have some lovely stories about finding the leak in the water line that’s somewhere between the cut-off and the barn.  Except that even with the cut-off OFF, it still leaks some, so we kinda wonder if its not involved.  Either way, there’s no external evidence, so we’re rigging up a Listenometer with a PVC pipe, styrofoam cup, and stethoscope (with thanks to Mark Himes of Beecher City, Il).

But with 10 days of dog event pile-on before us, it’ll be a while before we can dig.  So we’re turning off the main at night, too.  Yes, we are insane.  But it’s the DESERT!  AHHHHH!

Meanwhile, here is Dart Beagle with his bed wrassling:

by Doranna

I’m not talking about the Frankenstorm, bless its little heart.  Although plenty of people are, and I wish them the much safety, dryness, and trees that don’t fall down.

Nope, it’s the LymeStorm.

The LymeStorm is making me face what I can and can’t do–and forcing decisions about what of those things is the most important to do–both privately and professionally.  Although when you’re writing for a living, the two are heavily intertwined.

I love this blog.  I love chatting to people here.  I love posting videos and pictures and I even love making fun of myself.

But it turns out that blog time is writing time.  It turns out that I’m sacrificing one set of words for another, because I can no longer do both.

Blog time is also social time.  It turns out that I’m really sporadic on FaceBook–another place where I can keep up with people I care about–because…right, I’m using up those efforts with the blog.

You can see where this is going.

Or maybe not!

Because I’m still going to blog, but I’m not going to do it on a deadline basis.  No Monday/Wednesday clockwork posts!  Just…whenever I feel like it. That might be once every two weeks or it might be once a month.  I’m going to try it this way through the end of the year, just to see how much difference it makes.

Because I have the power to make a choice that’s not easy but is healthier!

So I hope this means I’ll be on FaceBook more often.  And this is hardly fair, but because Patty of the utterly charming Write Horse feature is off at World competition this weekend with awesome Buckshot (!!), I haven’t had a chance to see how she’d like to handle things relative to this change.  We’ll let you know about that!

So here I am on FaceBook!  Friend me! 

And if sporadically dropping by here at WordPlay to see what’s new doesn’t float your boat, it’s easy to get these blog posts in email.  Or in RSS

In the meantime, because this wouldn’t be my blog without some dog fun, here’s Dart Beagle at agility practice last weekend, putting in some of his best agility runs to date.  Good puppy!

(He’s just turned three years old, but I have a feeling he’ll be “puppy” until the end of his days.  Head on over to FaceBook if you want to see the evidence of this from his weekend activity…)

On the first run, he missed taking the out-jump after the chute near the end, and you’ll see that I don’t mention it to him.  I was asking him the question: “Are you ready to take responsibility for this combination?” and his answer was a completely, gleefully honest failure to even notice it.

Stopping him to re-do the sequence would have been demotivating and unfair.  It’s my job to prepare him for such blind out-combinations, and asking him this question tells me he’s not ready yet.  So now I support him with handling in courses until he is.  8)

The second course has some combinations that were really, really hard for him.  I was so proud!  PS the table is set about a bazillion inches too high for him.  He likes it.