Jennifer Lyon


Monday, May 2nd, 2022
Weekend Roundup

The big achievement was that Wizard and I did a huge cleanout of our storage closet upstairs. This extra walk in closet will be a selling feature, so I wanted it to look roomy and organized.

Youngest and his wife came by, and we went over to the house to see the progress of rough plumbing. Maggie  had a great time, but she slept after they left :-) I really wish I’d thought to take a picture of her in the back of his Jeep. He had the sun roof open, and she’s sitting there with her big doggie smile and her tongue hanging out. It’s always the best day ever in Maggie’s world.

So books. I started listening to a new-to-me audiobook, and the first four chapters are droning on about how the heroine’s so depressed she hasn’t showered. My patience is wearing thin. I get it, she’s depressed that she caught her husband with another, younger, woman on her kitchen table. But then she mentioned that it was months ago and I’m rolling my eyes. I know there’s a plot building, and I’m trying to be patient. I also think this might be more annoying in audio than it would be in print where I can skim over stuff like that. It’s not as easy in audio, so this one repetitive thing is annoying. In fact I was so irritated as I listened in the car, I snarled out loud, “Take a damn shower and move on.”

It’s also a reminder to myself as an author.  We don’t need to hammer a point, especially something like this. In real life, depression can be very dark and debilitating. But in a book, or movie, we don’t need to hear or read it over and over. And it’s lazy writing, relying on a prop to illustrate depression, rather than showing us her state of mind. Most of us can quickly understand that it sucks to be cheated on and betrayed by a significant other. But she’s really relying on not showering, while mind you, the character is spitting out one liners that are supposed to be funny.

So why am I continuing to listen? Because somewhere in this mess, a mystery character showed up. I can’t figure out if the character is a ghost, or what. I’m curious. I’m not liking the heroine much, but this mystery character is interesting.

And the heroine finally took a damn shower :-)

So that was my weekend, how was yours?

7 comments to “Weekend Roundup”

  1. B.E. Sanderson
    May 2nd, 2022 at 7:05 am · Link

    Sounds like you had an awesome weekend. Well, except for the annoying book. Yeah, if an author makes the point well enough, they don’t need to keep hammering at it. I hope the mystery character makes up for the annoyance and it turns out to be a good read.

    I spent part of the weekend giving myself a good talking to and I think I’m finally ready to stop being such a Wanda Whiner / Harriet Hermit. Sorry I was such a toad last month. Anyway, I got some housework done and some yardwork, which is a start. And I worked on a book. No new words yet, but I’m ready to let my fingers do the tapping tonight.



  2. Silver James
    May 2nd, 2022 at 7:57 am · Link

    Yay for Maggie getting a Jeep ride! And progress on the new house and prepping the old for showing. I HATE repitition. With eye-stabby purple ink passion! And I just finished a marathon listen of a series where the author used a sledgehammer on the angst. Which is sad because without all the repeats (even down to the same freaking words and sentence structure because…well…word count!
    *). I was surprised by the last book. While it had short (operative word being SHORT–YAY!!) references to significant elements in the worldbuilding and just enough info on secondary characters and their plots to give a new reader a good foundation, the book wasn’t so heavy-handed and reminded me of this author’s earlier work–that I truly enjoyed.

    My weekend? I had a screw come loose. And I lost it. The screw. I had to switch out the battery pack in the driveway security cam. I watched the darn thing drop. I saw where it landed. By the time I got down off the step ladder, the dang thing had disappeared. I won’t bore you with all the gyrations LG and I went through to find it. Which we didn’t. We found another screw that would work, after many tries. Sadly, that was the highlight of my weekend. 🤣🤣🤣🤦🏼‍♀️

    I was headed to Wallyworld this morning but it’s raining. Jake and I will wait a bit. Or go tomorrow. We’ll see.



  3. Silver James
    May 2nd, 2022 at 8:01 am · Link

    Gah. I meant to “footnote” that * which was supposed to be right after the exclamation point on “word count.” 🤦🏼‍♀️ I should get more coffee and go back to bed. Anyway, footnote:

    *Word count is the only reason, besides laziness, that I can figure out. The publisher said “This many words” and either the story wouldn’t support that many or the author didn’t care all that much or something. Anyway, I was pleased for the most part with the new release in the series. And the other books had interesting characters and compelling stories–that got lost in the constant whining.



  4. Viki S.
    May 2nd, 2022 at 2:40 pm · Link

    Excellent job getting the closet cleared out. They are always a big chore. Are you going to be able to donate stuff? I seem to always have at least one full bag to donate when I clean a closet :lol: .

    Maggie must be so cute in the JEEP. I can picture her with a smile and her tongue hanging out :-P .

    That book would drive me nuts. As soon as I found out that she was still moping around after all that time, I would consider her a no go and dump the book. You are a better reader than me :lol: .

    Did a bunch of cleaning and tomorrow I’m going to tackle my closet. Then I will call Easter Seals and get the stuff out of here.

    Yesterday youngest offered to take me to the range again this year for Mother’s Day. I’m really looking forward to it.

    I hope you are having a wonderful day!



  5. Jenn
    May 2nd, 2022 at 3:28 pm · Link

    B.E., you’re right about the author not needing hammer a point home. As an author, I know I’ve done it. I guess we just don’t “see” it sometimes.

    You haven’t been a toad, and I really figured you had other things going on. Some times those things are either personal, or internal, and we all go through it. But we’re always here for you when you’re are return and happy to see you! I’m hardly online anymore except for the blog. It’s just where I am in my life, so I really understand. I hope the self talk helped!

    I hope you have a fast and furious writing night!!



  6. Jenn
    May 2nd, 2022 at 3:37 pm · Link

    Silver, worldbuilding is a huge pace for annoying repeats! I’m looking at myself on that. And great point on word count. I hadn’t thought of that since it’s something I only really deal with when I wrote for Entangled. Thanks for bringing it up.

    UGH on the dropped screw! I can’t tell you how many times Wizard has done that will his hobbies, and both of us are crawling around looking for it. It happens so easily. Yay for finding a replacement. But boo on all the wasted time and frustration invested into The Case of the Missing Screw.

    Hopefully you and Jake got Walmart over with and are having a great day!



  7. Jenn
    May 2nd, 2022 at 3:43 pm · Link

    Viki, I’ve got a few things set aside to donate, but a lot of it was stuff we just have to throw away or shred.

    Well of course *I* think Maggie was cute :-) But I may be biased there, LOL.

    I soooo not a patient reader or listener anymore. I only hung in there because of the mystery characters that keep showing up and it seems to be getting better.

    I swear stuff multiplies in the closets when we aren’t looking! Hope you are able to get it done.

    That sounds like a fun Mother’s Day! It was thoughtful of Youngest to think of that. I love it!

    Hope you’re week is off to a great start!



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