Bethjoy.com

I just looked at my website stats after a while of not looking at them. The results were surprising. So far this year the least amount of unique visitors on my website per month was 447! That used to be a lot of visitors for my website. And so far this month I’ve had 1,012 unique visitors!!! That is a HUGE number. True, most persons don’t seem to be staying long but still… It makes me feel like posting more:) I’m planning on making more movies anyway. Please look at the previous post, it has a movie I’m quite pleased with in it.

Oh and another neat thing, the stats page shows 29 persons adding my website to their favorites list! That’s really neat! Now if everybody who visited my website would just buy a copy of my book/books when I publish it/them I’ll be very happy. Of course I’m happy now and I’m very glad I’m happy because I haven’t been happy for the greater part of this past week which is unusual for me but one thing about being sad is that you are more happy when you are not sad than you would be if you weren’t ever sad or something like that.

It’s been quite a while since I uploaded a movie onto my website but once again here is a movie. I actually just thought up the movie less than four hours ago so since its almost four minutes long I’ve been doing a very fast job with it. Of course I’ve also taken a shower and browsed the internet a bit during that four hours and also eaten a snack while trying to decide whether or not to film the movie so I’m doing very well.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

So I have started a new rough draft! And I have been writing for the last hour and eighteen minutes on the story. I did a bit more planning writing before starting the rough draft. So far the story is very interesting and it is like the Strylar story I recently completed and was one of the best things I wrote. I’m interested in the story and I’m trying to make it “deep” and using the “show not tell” method and trying to weave threads of subplots into the story and all sorts of things. But the main point of the story is that I like it and that there is a lot of action that could happen in it and that it has a high probability of being even longer than the other story. So I’m quite pleased.

Also in my accomplishments for the day of Thursday (it’s no longer Thursday) was making a hat and matching dress. The resulting combination is either an old English clown or turn of the century high fashion with perhaps a nod to regency gowns. In other words… Interesting. It’s in peach and green and I used a different sort of ruffle which is also… Interesting. So I learned something new today and Continued writing on a story for the second day in a row (I did the first ideas for this story last night so this is the second day of production). I’m looking forward to writing more on it tomorrow. I’m hoping it will turn out to be an interesting story and one of the characters actually got a description! Quite a long one and just for the fun of it I think I’ll post it. This book is written form the main characters point of view in first person.

Today I planned to once again peruse the old legend section of the library. I entered the library, smiled briefly at the librarian who smiled back in the kindly way that spinster librarians seem to have, then I went to the old legend section. In a quiet corner and screened off by book cases from the rest of the library it was very quiet there, and very archivish.

I had half a mind to say something and what I felt like saying was “From the looks of you there might have been a famine” just to see if my reply would be, Form the looks of you, you might have caused it” just like a conversation that had happened in a joke book I had read. But I didn’t say anything. The adventurer, for adventurer I assumed the person was, didn’t say anything either. We stood looking at each other.

And there you have it. An excerpt from the book which probably doesn’t tell you much but that was the introduction of one of the key characters of the book who is right with the main character in importance. And so that you know, the main character weighs at the beginning of the book 220 pounds. The book title, as I have currently named it, is “How I lost 100 pounds and gained 180 pounds” which I suppose isn’t a remarkably interesting title but it was when I chose to name the story that. I can always change the name later if I want to.

So there is big news brewing about and hopefully soon I will be able to announce that I have completed this story and that it is long and that I like it and so forth and etc.

Here is my cousin Erika holding up the dress she made almost totally by herself. She designed it too though it is loosely based on a dress that Belle wore in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

A picture is worth a thousand words they say… So that means that this is not as short a post as it appears…

Monday

On Monday morning Mom and I went to the airport to pick up my cousin Erika. She is visiting us during her spring break and she is from Virginia. And she likes shopping so we immediately went from the airport to the Thrift Store where I only purchased about ten dollars worth of stuff. Then we went to Walmart where Erika purchased the materials to make a fancy formal dress after a Jessica Mcclintock design. Once we got home preparations got underway and we used the test fabric Erika had gotten to experiment and learn what did and did not work. And my memory is not serving me well… Oh, I didn’t buy anything at Walmart and that was not normal

Tuesday

One Tuesday some comic books by Dilbert were read and we went to the Mall and Dollar Tree. At the Mall, which impressed Erika greatly as it is two stories high and quite large, I again purchased nothing but I enjoyed looking at everything and seeing the tiara I planned to purchase for myself on my birthday. Lately I’ve been trying to be more frugal and it has been having an effect on me.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we did a bit of sewing if I remember correctly but the big event was going shopping after Lunch. We ate out at lunch with some friends tow of which were having a wedding anniversary and didn’t know that we were going to be there, or their son who had flown out from California. There was great surprise by them when they came in. After Lunch we went to Borders where again I purchased nothing. Erika got instructions on how to speak Gaelic and some CD’s. I’d like to have many CD’s only I want them in my bank earning interest(Certificates of Deposit). We then went to Target. They had the cutest little toys at Target and once again I didn’t buy any of them but I plan to go back and remedy that on my Birthday if not sooner. After Target we went to a different Mall. This one was very upscale(not sure on that word) and had a Jessica Mcclintock store. Erika went in to see if she could see the dress she liked. She saw one like it. I saw myriads of dresses I liked and I carefully studied the construction techniques of them so that I would be able to make them myself later. Once again, I didn’t buy anything.

Thursday

This day was probably the best shopping day. On this day, I did buy things. I made up for all of the frugal decisions that I’d made earlier and I was very glad I had been frugal earlier. To begin with, we went to the Dollmarket. The Dollmarket is the largest doll store in the United States, or one of them anyway. I very much enjoy going there and I wandered about look at the dolls. Previous to my arrival there I’d made out a list of the dolls and other things I was interested in and from that list I think I only bought one thing… However I bought two very nice paperdoll books, a teaset and… Clarissa. Though Clarissa isn’t her technical name but she doesn’t have a name and is just “American Model Basic Brunette” and I think that Clarissa is a much nicer name than that. She stands at a height of Twenty-two inches high and considering that I don’t think I have a doll over eighteen or nineteen inches high she’ll probably be the tallest of my dolls. She is so tall I understand that sewing for her is like sewing for a real person. I’m really interested in seeing what Clarissa looks like for she doesn’t arrive in stock until May and though I’ve seen her picture and other American Models, I haven’t actually seen her. However the doll they did have in stock that I liked was a grand total of $239.99 and I ultimately decided that while I could afford $79,99 for a basic doll with the cash I then had on hand I couldn’t afford the other one.

THEN we went to Hancock fabrics which is in that area. Shortly after my arrival there I learned that Mccall Patterns and Butterick Patterns were on sale for 99 cents. I was quite pleased about that. Last time I’d been to that store the Mccall patterns were on sale, but not the butterick patterns. And there were definitely some patterns I wanted. I quickly pulled out the butterick pattern book and looked up the costume section and saw some Hat patterns and thought “Oh wouldn’t it be fun to know how to make hats” so I promptly got that. I suppose I won’t detail out the entire process but I got two evening dress patterns with interesting skirts and a gorgeous turn of the century pattern that is quite complicated and a pattern for making footwear. I also got some remnants and had a good time.

After eating supper at the Olive Garden I then proceeded to spend the remainder of my money at Dollar Tree. However Frugality was still upon me and I still have Eleven Dollars left even after this week of shopping. That’s quite impressive for me. True I did have to break into my emergency one hundred dollars but that is what it’s there for. Anyway, I had a great time. When we came back home Erika resumed work on her dress and pretty much finished it last night. It looks quite interesting. I’m very glad that Erika is pleased with it.

Friday

So far it is Friday morning. Presumably I’m not awake yet and I don’t know if Erika is either. Mom said she wouldn’t wake me up this morning so although I woke up about an hour ago I’ve been quietly in my room reading my Bible and writing this post and preparing for the last busy day since Erika is going home again tonight.

This post is almost the first thing i’ve really written this week. It hasn’t been a writing week at all but hopefully next week will be. I have that pirate story to finish… So until I write again, the End!

First we have Emma Grace with her proud parents.

And Emma Grace with my father and her Grandfather.

And Emma Grace with my mother and her Grandmother.

And two close ups of Emma Grace. I’m in a hurry right now so I can’t write more. The pictures will have to speak for themselves.

I picked the flower Emma Grace is holding and gave it to her. She didn’t eat it but at one point during the photography her mouth opened and her hand moved towards it. Fortunately they that held her prevented such a thing from happening.

Again I have learned an important lesson about not mentioning a story in process until it’s been several days into production. Today I did no writing whatsoever on the pirate story nor have I written on any story at all. Instead I merely took today off and briskly wasted it on whatever came into my head. And now, looking back over the day, I’m just a little sad because I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped too. Oh well. Tomorrow will be here soon.

After not posting for a long time I’m going to make it up today. I’m currently on page 9 of the Pirate and the Pink Rose so I have sixty-six pages left to go and I’m already losing steam. Oh well, I’m still in the race. Emma Grace came over today and I got to look at her in all of her cuteness. She is very cute and her eyes are now definitely blue. I’m not sure about her hair color yet.

Six and a half pages of intense action. I wasn’t quite sure how the story was ultimately going to turn out but it seemed to end right on the dot at Chapter Thirty-eight and there is even room for a sequel as the Black Dolphin does not flounder beneath the wave. Anyway, it’s now time for me to review the material and start writing the rough draft but I thought I would post an update first.

For some odd, unaccountable reason I decided this morning that I was going to try to write a seventy-five page pirate story… this week! So four days… That’s about twenty pages a day. Not to mention the fact that I really don’t like pirates or pirate stories but I suppose I should have expected something like this to happen after purchasing the Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack.

The reason I was amused is that my website just got a bunch of spam comments put on it and I was contemplating naming the pirate crew after the spam names on the comments… Though I may not do that. I’m not sure how they’d do sailing under the dread Captain Uglosa.

Anyway, my break time is up and it’s now time for me to start writing on the story again. I’ll need to spend about four hours a day writing every day if I’m to accomplish my goal. It’s doubtful, but I might try doing it for the grand fun of it. I’m currently writing the chapter planner and I’m at Chapter Twenty-one of Thirty-eight chapters. So I’m over halfway through the book and unfortunately the main characters are now very near the island that has the treasure on it. So I have to think up some more action to happen…