Howdy, howdy!  I want to take a second to say thank you to Derek Hoffman one more time for his guest post last week!  I’m in the process of lining up more guests in the future, so if you’re interested in something like that, feel free to e-mail me (shawna.n.borman@gmail.com) or get in touch via my social media pages.

And now, on to this week.  Happy spring!  I had zero ideas what to blog about this week, so Dad suggested I do a post of random thoughts I’ve been having lately.  Therefore, if you don’t like this post, blame him.  Anyway, here are five things that have been on my mind recently.

1. I’ve been wondering why it always seems harder to write words the closer I get to the end of a story.  I still haven’t finished the shitty first draft of my current novel attempt (I know, I know… judge me all you want), even though I’m only a few thousand words away from typing THE END.  Revision ideas keep popping into my head, but I make a note and then ignore them, like a good little writer.  It’s like my brain doesn’t want me to finish.  But I will prevail!  I’ll reach THE END, then I’ll get stuck in the editing process and complain about that for a while.  Am I the only one with this problem?

2. Recently, I finished reading a book and told myself I wasn’t going to start another one until I finished the one I put down without finishing for various reasons (none of which have to do with the book itself).  The next day, I wore my Howl’s Moving Castle t-shirt and realized I hadn’t read the book yet, so I started reading that instead.  I feel like a very fickle reader.  Shame on me.

3. Honestly, I’ve been thinking a lot about my Stonecoast friends.  I was feeling really isolated, especially since it’s pretty much writing con season (ICFA, AWP, StokerCon, etc.).  But then I realized my Stonecoast people are magical psychic unicorns, because within a few days of my thoughts, I received a Facebook message saying someone was thinking of me and a surprise package in the mail from someone else.  Also, I know I’m not the best at keeping in touch with people, but I really do appreciate them.

4. I want to start drawing again.  It’s something I’ve randomly thought about for a while now, but I’ve been too lazy to see if my tablet thingamajig even works any more.  It’s super old.  Maybe I’ll just buy a new one so I don’t have excuses.  (P.S. This drawing desire will fade soon, so don’t expect anything new from it.)

5. Multiplication tables.  When I have trouble getting to sleep, I’ve started doing multiplication in my head.  I start at one and go up to thirteen, then two to thirteen, and so on until I reach thirteen times thirteen or until I fall asleep.  It’s actually been pretty helpful with the sleep bit, but I’m still slow at math.

There you have it.  Five bits of random thoughts.  Feel free to share some of your own thoughts here or on my social media pages!