🙃 Some people, when they revise a novel, find that it shrinks.

Not I, mi gente. Not I.

This one apparently had swole goals, and gained a full 10,000 words in revisions.

Anyone who ever tries to tell you that there's one "right" way to write a novel is this close to selling you a bridge in San Francisco, or a time share. Run away!

I'm going to let this bulked up weirdo sit for a couple of days before sending it off to my beta reader, but... almost ready now. I'll hit that "send" button soon.

🧐 I see no other #Wholesome memes and I have another writing sprint to start, so I shall simply sic Keanu and puppies on you all and begone. Better luck next time!

#Wholesome meme o'clock.

What's the best you've got? 👀

😂 If anyone needs mental eyewash for the hard, messy agony of real news...

May I recommend this (slightly adult) story from Reddit, about a kind of first-world crisis some of us are apparently dealing with while the world is on fire? 🙃

I can't tell if I laughed as hard as I did because of the awful global news I'd just read prior to it, but either way, maybe it'll lighten your day, too.

@NiveusLepus

🤗 The day after a hard one greets you, dear bun - and so do I.

I hope you find such gentleness in the world as you return to it today, at your own pace and in your own way.

Be kind to yourself always. Humans set the strangest, silliest timelines on healing - when we should definitely take after all the critters in the field, who know that to be here at all is a gift.

(As are you. 💜)

Here's a bit of the glorious violet wings they were hiding. Tired after a long night, I'm sure, but choosing a dangerous place to rest on a sidewalk with a lot of through-traffic. #Nature

😁 Made a new #BugFriend.

Perfect day. No notes.

Oh, this is a cute bit of news to see disseminated in the West. The Guardian also shared word of a liquor under a law granting the coast in #Colombia exclusive rights to its production, to help cultivate an industry to redirect youth from gangs to a viable economic future elsewhere.

This is a bit different: a brewery with an education mission, run by ex-FARC. But the message is the same: using economic healing as a path to alleviating systemic violence & building hope. 🕊️
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/17/guerrilla-fighters-turned-craft-brewers-colombias-unlikely-beer-company-with-a-message-of-peace

A little late out the door today.

But we'll make do, whatever silly folks are in the park at this hour.

Morning, CoSo. Hope you're all waking well, even if you're a bit behind your time. 💛

Okay, bedtime.

Gotta see if I can extend my run streak tomorrow morning. Can't do that in my sleep, because for some reason humans don't get adorable running/scampering dreams like our four-legged betters. 👎

G'night, you beautiful/wretched fellow creatures! 🌑

Every now and then, an Evangelical comments on older pieces. Today, such a fellow went through my archives & replied to two old pieces in which I was talking to atheists about how to be better: 1) when sitting with theists in pain, and 2) by not trying to catch out cruel Christians with Bible verse, since that can backfire.

This one's been mass posting apologetics... but in part, because I get the feeling he doesn't know how to have a real chat. Just lonely, & online. Ain't we all, sometimes? 🙃

Two more students tonight (who are finally getting back into the swing of things after a long vacation; let's see how their English fares!), and then hopefully I can finish a paid book review.

Then tomorrow, if fortunate, a chunk of time in the afternoon for more novel revisions.

A part of me wants so terribly to continue the "midnight oil" approach that burned me out last year, but running in place all the time didn't help.

Everything will get done *better* on a healthier schedule (I hope!).