Spring Is In The Air

Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods.  We reached 90 degrees F several times this week.  Felt good.  Warm and inviting with the worst of the humidity holding off.  My confederate jasmine hedge is in full bloom and smells divine.  And what does all that mean?  Spring cleaning.

We are finally getting around to doing something with the lanai.  After nine years in this house its about time don't ya think?  We had a patio table out there.  The bar has a few beat up stools around it.  But the majority of the large space was just sort of meh with plastic chairs and loungers put out when we needed them.  But hubby and I decided to stop putting so many things on the back burner or by the time we got around to them there would be no time left to enjoy them.  We purchased patio furniture.  Big commitment for us.  LOL  What was nice was I didn't even have to set it up, our fifteen year old wanted to earn some money.  Wahoo.  Now I just have to do the finishing touches.  Which may or may not happen in the next decade or so.  (insert eye roll here)

Older son's trees have come back which is a little surprising for a couple of the varieties he is trying. Last year we had a couple of baby apples but they didn't survive to maturity.  Maybe this year, though the blooms were a little lackluster. The blueberries are going gangbusters as well, requiring a wire cage around the bed because of all the critters that come out of the swamp. And I have about a dozen Ponderosa Lemons sitting on the kitchen counter that I need to do something with; probably juice and then dry the peel as we are fond of lemon-pepper seasoning on things.

Middle daughter will start her microbiology internship this fall.  Some of the stuff they do in the lab is just … ew.  LOL  She's happy and we're happy for her but it is going to mean I have less help around the house which I suppose in a sense is as it should be as they grow up and out on their own.  Hopefully she will be able to continue to do all of the business filing for us.  That is one thing I don't want to take back but will if I must.    

And next daughter down currently works four jobs … a clothing store, a shoe store, and two child care related jobs … that gives her at least 50 hours a week.  She took the spring off from school and had a summer mission trip planned but it fell through due to things out of her control.  She's tried to plan several other projects for the summer but nothing has panned out so she's thinking she should make hay while the sun shines (earn money) as she will be back in school this fall and hopes to start nursing school in the Spring.  Not sure if she'll be living at home or have to move at that point.  We're just taking it one day at a time.

The fifteen year old … good gravy.  Between last summer and this one he has grown nearly a foot.  But while most boys wind up a "stork" after that kind of growth spurt, he's fully formed and looks more like a young college student than a freshman in high school.  And yes, the girls have noticed.  How did that happen to my baby?  I can see him cringing at the very thought I'd say something like that.  LOL.  I have a couple of more years of home school and then he'll be on his way and I'll close a chapter in my life that will have lasted three decades.  Whew, been a long time coming.

Hubby and I have something special planned for our 31st Anniversary next month.  I'll let you know more as it gets closer.  We are excited.

Now for news on the writing front ...

I've started to migrate the stories off of blogger.  I'm happy to see (by the stats) that people are reading.  The comments being posted are always welcome.  A great big gob of thanks and appreciation going out to those folks!

My last post I c-n-p'd the list of all of the stories, where they are going to be at, and what stage they are in.  Have only had a little time this week to spare for the editing and migration but I was able to get a bit of a structured plan in place.  I'm going to migrate the stories over to FictionPress (and some that are already on FanFiction) first; except for Veta's story which I am editing and posting which should be finished the first week or so of May if all goes as planned.  In May I hope to put the finishing touches to "Starting Over" and get it posted.  In June I am leaning towards finishing "Hartford Ridge" but I'll have to see where the muse leads me as I have a couple of unpublished stories that keep asking for attention as well.  Anyway, here are the stories I've moved thus far:

A Girl Called Jack (posted up to Ch 10, but has 19 in the que)
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3279512/1/A-Girl-Called-Jack

A Bunch of Wild Thyme (posted up to Ch 20, but has 93 in the que)
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3336171/1/A-Bunch-of-Wild-Thyme

Emi on the Caloosahatchee (posted up to Ch 30, in progress)
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3336116/1/Emi-on-the-Caloosahatchee

Gurl (posted up to Ch 38, in progress)
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3301880/1/Gurl

Life is a Fractured Fairytale (posted up to Ch 21, in progress)
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3279511/1/Life-Is-A-Fractured-Fairy-Tale

Yelyseveta (posted to Ch 209, in progress)
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3335256/1/Yelysaveta
Veta's story is complete on my side of things but I'm having to edit it extensively to get it posted onto FictionPress.  It is a slow process as I made the mistake of using some fancy formatting in Word and when I change one thing it messes up something else.  I'm going to post this story on weekdays and give myself the weekends to get the editing done, and hopefully get it done correctly.  As I have it planned out everything should be posted by the first week of May give or take a day or two.

I am making no promises because real life happens but if my plan works out I hope to finish at least a half dozen of the "in progress" stories by the end of the year.  That is asking a lot of myself so depending on my commitments to family and our business that could very well change but it is a goal I have set for myself.  At least I'm going to try.

Update on the Migration of Stories

Well, it is taking me longer to edit Veta's story than I thought.  How on earth can you read something a gazillion times and yet right as you go to post it you find at least one more typo of some type.  Honestly.  But at least I have 192 of the chapters up so far.  I'm going to take the weekend off - heap loads of family stuff to take care of.

As for the migration of the other stories, I think I've finally managed to get a handle on everything I have going.  Or at least the stories that have been posted online thus far.  I have updated my Introduction page of Fictionpress.com and hope next week to do the same for Fanfiction.net but if you are interested here the basic outline that I'm currently working with:

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Gonna start trying to migrate all of my stories here from Blogger. It will take some time and that's a fact but I'll at least get a start on it. I'll update this as I go but basically here is the full list of stories currently online, in alphabetical order by story or series, and where they are at. Note: I use the same name on FanFiction.net as I do here. Just look my author page up in the search box. There are also a couple of other partially completed stories but I won't post them until I get some of these completed.

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CSI: Miami Series:

Episode 1: As Good As He Once Was (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

Episode 2: Every Mile A Memory (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

CSI: New York Series:

Episode 1: Missing Heart (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

Episode 2: Rules of Engagement (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

Episode 3: Buried Above Ground (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

Episode 4: Bridget Over Troubled Water (on hiatus due to co-author's schedule) - Fanfiction.net

Episode 5: The Haunted Theater (in progress) - Fanfiction.net

A Study in Ginger (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction

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Dystopian Series:

The following books are a trilogy. Each of the three can be read as a stand alone story but they all take place in the same AU, just at different points along the timeline. Their order is "Larkspur in Eden," "Fel By the Wayside," and lastly "The Linder Legacy." There is another story in this series tentatively titled "Evie and Tate" that I hope to get posted this summer after finishing Larkspur. That will change the series into a Quad.

Larkspur in Eden (In progress) - Fanfiction.net

Fel By The Wayside (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

The Linder Legacy (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

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Zombie Stories:

Journal of the Zombie Years (in progress) - Fanfiction.net

Zombies Aren't Real ... Are They?! (in progress) - Fanfiction.net

Emi on the Caloosahatchee (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

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All Other Stories in Alphabetical Order Regardless of Location

A Bunch of Wild Thyme (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

A Girl Called Jack - (in progress) - Fictionpress.com

All Roads Lead Somewhere (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth - (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men (COMPLETE) - migrating from blogger soon

Carry On (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

Dark Days (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

Eidetic Sunshine (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

Enduring on the Lake (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

Forsaken Harvest - (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

Georgie (COMPLETE) - migrating from blogger soon

Gurl - (in progress) - Fictionpress.com

Il Agita di Amore (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

Life is a Fractured Fairytale - (in progress) - Fictionpress.com

Over and Over and Over (in progress) - posting soon

Over the Mountains and Through the Fire - (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

Rain, Rain, Rain (COMPLETE) - migrating from blogger soon

Teaghan (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

There Is No Such Thing As A Thornless Garden (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

This Is Me Surviving (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

To All Things There Is A Season - (In progress) - Fanfiction.net

Up On Hartford Ridge (in progress) - Fanfiction.net

When All Doors Close (in progress) - migrating from blogger soon

Will To Survive (COMPLETE) - Fanfiction.net

Yelyseveta (in progress) - Fictionpress.com

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Tonight I migrated Winx's story (Life is a Fractured Fairytale).  It is still in progress but I did add chapter 21 for anyone interested.  I'm not sure which one I will finish migrating next but as I migrate them the chapters will disappear from blogger with only a place holder page referencing the new location.  I will keep this blog page for posting updates and as a back up just in case.  You always need a just in case plan.

Thanks to everyone reading and commenting at FictionPress as well as those that have found the stuff at FanFiction.  I'll continue updating about once a week to let everyone know where things stand.

FictionPress:  https://www.fictionpress.com/~motherheninflorida
FanFiction:  https://www.fanfiction.net/~motherheninflorida