Author: Claire

ROW80-2, wk 3, rpt 2

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I have a new secret weapon and it’s called Write or Die from writeordie.com.    Well, it’s not so secret for many other people, of course, but for me it’s been a godsend because I am VERY easily distracted by the web.  With Write or Die, I set this baby for a 30 minute increment, set a goal of anywhere from 300 to 500 words, depending on where I’m at, and GO!  I have exceeded my goals every time.  The screen starts to turn red if your hands are idle too long.  I can’t have that so I write and write and write and before I know it, I’m at 500 words with 18 minutes left to go or the alarm goes off at 30 minutes and I’ve written 900 words.  Heavens to murgatroid!  I’m a writing goddess with this tool.

I got all my words in this week.  Still no beta reading, though I managed a couple of small critiques.  My critique debt is massive, however, and I feel guilty about it but I feel compelled to write more than edit or beta read right now so I’ll probably stick with this until I smell the smoke of burnout.

My cumulative stats are updated on my ROW80-2 page.

Linky for the other ROW80 participants is up and ready for you to share the encouragement with my peers.  Thanks for the read!

The “Suspicious Gopher” and other family legends

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If you haven’t seen this clip, you’ve probably been living under a rock or have extremely bad internet service.

Alright already.  It’s actually called “The Dramatic Chipmunk”.

I’ll start off by saying it’s not my fault I can’t remember the name of the clip.  First, off, it’s a prairie dog NOT a chipmunk.  There’s a world of difference.  Prairie dogs are much bigger and nastier than chipmunks.  In New Mexico, where I used to live, they were known to carry bubonic plague (yes, really) and made nasty pock marks all over kids’ playgrounds.

Second, it looks more suspicious or suspecting than dramatic to me.

Anyway, my failure to remember the correct name has achieved legendary status with my two sons and my oldest asked me to preserve my gaffe on my blog.  Fine.  Here it is.

Over the years I have referred to said “dramatic chipmunk” as, ahem:

  • The suspicious gopher
  • The surly groundhog
  • The dubious guinea pig
  • The grouchy hamster
  • The skeptical squirrel
  • The pretentious prairie dog
  • The outraged rodent
  • The pugnacious beaver (that’s good for a few howls from my husband…what?!)

…and I’m sure there were a few more.

Wait til my boys bring their girlfriends over.  I’m sure I’ll be ready to dethrone the suspicious gopher and crown something else “Mom’s stupid saying” only next time it’ll be about one of THEM.  Mwuhahahahaha….  Can’t say they weren’t warned.  **cue dramatic music**  Da-da-daaaaaaaaaa