Our Hero

Name and Rank: Michael Stirling, the Earl of Kilmartin

Age:

Backstory: Michael was the older of the Stirling cousins, but because his father was a few minutes younger than John’s father, John was the one with the title, the estate, and most of the money. Not that Michael cared about any of that. There was only one thing that John had that Michael coveted. His wife, Francesca. For Michael, meeting Francesca was love at first sight. Unfortunately, he met her the day before her wedding to his beloved cousin – the one man on the planet Michael would never fight for her.

Michael buried his feelings, never letting either of the Kilmartins know how it hurt to be around them. He became genuine friends with Francesca. Which, rather than lessening his romantic feelings, intensified them as he fell more and more in love with her as a person. To deal with wanting the one woman he could never have but was constantly forced into close proximity with, he did a lot of sleeping around. Becoming known as the Merry Rake, with a list of conquests a mile long, and a rather interesting moral code about those conquests. But, it was all a front. Because he would close his eyes and pretend they were his cousin’s wife.

Our Heroine

Name: Francesca Sterling nee Bridgerton

Age:

Backstory: Francesca is the sixth of the Bridgerton siblings and the third girl. She was always the quietest of the group, and kept more to herself than most of the others. She quickly fell in love with John Sterling, the young Earl of Kilmartin, during her very first season. And had the quietest courtship and wedding of all of her siblings.

But, her quiet, simple life was to be fairly short-lived. John died of what we would now know to be an aneurysm merely two years into their marriage. The only child she had managed to conceive in that time was miscarried a few weeks later.

The Set-up and Premise

John Sterling has been dead for several years. In that time, Francesca has been the one managing the estate for Michael, while Michael was off in India. Whatever most people thought he was doing by abandoning his duties, a big part of it was actually avoiding Francesca. Because she was still off limits, but he no longer had John there as a buffer and reminder that she was off limits. Michael finally decides that it is time to become the Earl in more than name right as Francesca decides she wants children – and realizes that there is only one way she is going to get them. They both return to London, each unaware that that the other was going to be there. Forced into close proximity with the one woman he has always wanted, but could never have, Michael is also forced to consider the fact that she is no longer off limits. If she is looking for a husband, there is no reason why that husband should not be him.

My Ratings and Review

The Love Story

There is something about this one that just hits you. There is a rawness to it. On the surface, it seems to be a sex-fueled romp. And, indeed, Michael does basically seduce Francesca into marrying him. But, that is merely a surface assessment. Looking deeper, it becomes absolutely beautiful. Francesca, like Anthony before her, doesn’t intend to marry for love. Not out of not having a desire for love, or out of fear, like his was. But, rather out of the fact that she has been in love, before. She doesn’t see how she can ever feel that way for any man who isn’t John. In fact, when she first decides to remarry, she is dreading her marital bed, as well. The idea of letting another man touch her is not in the slightest bit appealing. Which makes her relationship with Michael that much harder for her to properly wrap her head around.

Meanwhile, Michael has already taken his cousin’s title, estate, and most of his money – and now he wants his wife, too. Reconciling his feelings for Francesca with the love he still feels for his cousin is not always easy for him. And yet, the reality is that John is one of the reasons why Francesca could never have been with anybody but Michael. Because he was the one man on the planet who would never begrudge the part of her heart that would always belong to John. After all, he had loved him, too. He could understand that in a way that nobody else could. And the whole thing was just stunning.

And, the moment when Frannie realizes she’s in love with Michael… dear Gods! It hurts her to admit it, and yet, she can’t help it.

The Hero

Michael Stirling is sex on legs. One of the funniest scenes in the book is Michael walking into a ball and every woman in the room basically losing their minds. This includes Francesca’s sisters-in-law Sophie and KATE (which, if you’ve read my review of The Viscount Who Loved Me, you know how in love with and devoted to her husband she is). Even Francesca’s mother gets a little goofy around this man. It’s hilarious.

But, there’s more to him than that. He is the man who pined after the one woman he couldn’t have for years. And yet, even after her husband died, he never said a word. He left her to mourn in peace, and didn’t make a move until she had made it clear that she was ready to try to move on. And even then, it took our favorite matchmaking troll saying that he should just marry Francesca to get him to do anything about his feelings for her. He was always completely respectful of her, her love for John, her grief, even her reluctance to let anyone else into her heart. He let her set the pace for their relationship, even as he tried to seduce her into marrying him. Even after she agreed to marry him, he resigned himself to her never loving him the way he loved her. But, he was willing to take what she could give him and accept it. I just loved him.

The Heroine

Francesca is hurting, in ways few people of her time could understand. Love matches were still somewhat rare, so her grief is perhaps a bit of an oddity. She is raw, and she is real. Her angst as she deals with everything is just beautiful. From the pain of deciding to remarry in order to have children, to the denial of her feelings for Michael. The way she is still coming to terms with her loss, after six years. You just want to wrap her in bubble wrap and protect her from the world, because she has been through so much, and is trying to be so strong.

The Secondary Characters

Helen and Janet Stirling are Michael’s and John’s mothers, respectively. And they are a riot. One of my favorite lines is spoken by Helen. The mothers are making Michael go to Violet Bridgerton’s birthday party (AKA the ball where all the ladies present kind of lose their minds), and he is complaining about not getting a reprieve. Helen pipes up with “You did in fact. Last week. We called it malaria.” The dude almost DIED and his mother is now joking about it. With the exception of the scenes at the beginning when John died, any scene with any of the “meddling mothers” is comic gold. I love them.

No Bridgerton book is complete without Colin. Preferably in matchmaking troll mode. And this one doesn’t disappoint, there. I don’t remember much of what he does, except announce his engagement to Penelope and tell Michael that HE should just marry Francesca. But, as usual, Colin is amazing at seeing who everybody but himself should be with. I swear, him and Lady Danbury (more on her when I get to the review for It’s In His Kiss, which is next) should start a matchmaking service. They’d have the entire ton married off in a week.

Kate, Sophie, Eloise, and Violet Bridgerton. The women in Francesca’s family are only in one scene. But, they spend that entire scene swooning over Michael, and it’s hilarious. Let me reiterate. Violet is a widow who is LITERALLY old enough to be this man’s mother. But, even she gets all giggly when he pays attention to her. Kate and Sophie are both quite happily married, thank you very much. But, apparently this does not mean that they can’t look. And Eloise is just… Eloise. She’s not actually interested in Michael, but that is kind of besides the point, it seems. One scene, but it was a good one.

The Story And Writing

This story was just beautiful. The pacing was good. You definitely understood how and why they fell in love with each other – even as they tried so hard not to. And, it was interesting to mostly get away from the balls and parties. My only nitpick is that the sex scenes seemed a bit more gratuitous than the ones in The Viscount Who Loved Me. I’ve seen it described as raunchy. And, while I wouldn’t go quite that far, I would have preferred those scenes to be more tender and less… purely sexual, for want of a better explanation.

Final analysis

Michael is totally swoonworthy. Francesca is relatable. There is a good amount of angst, which I love. And the way they fight their feelings for each other out of respect for John, but just can’t help themselves is amazing. It’s hard not to root for these two to let themselves be happy with each other. Add in fun side characters and an interesting setting change, and I’m all in. Definitely recommend this one.

4.5 out of 5 stars. Docked half a star because I prefer my sex scenes to be more romantic than these were. But, overall, a damn good book.

Our Hero

Name and rank: Sir Phillip Crane, a Baronet

Age: 30

Backstory: Phillip was a second son who expected to have to make his own way in the world. He went to school and studied Botany and plants are still his first love. When his brother died, Phillip suddenly inherited everything: the title, the estate… and in a way his fiancee. Phillip’s first wife had been engaged to George. When George died, Phillip stepped up and married her for… reasons. We never really get that explained to us. But, Marina had her own issues. Namely, depression that she had had to some extent even as a child. Losing George probably made it worse. And then she and Phillip had children. Twins, in fact. And while it’s never explicitly said, this seemed to have added postpartum depression to the mix. And, since mental health care was not a thing in the 19th century, this condition was left untreated. Which eventually led to her suicide.

While their marriage was not a love match, and rather simply him taking care of the woman his brother had loved, her death still hit Phillip hard. Not at all helped by him being left with two young children to raise by himself. Though, to be fair, he was pretty much raising them by himself, anyway. Marina’s depression resulted in her very rarely leaving her bed. She saw her children only when they went to her.

Further complicating Phillip’s situation is the fact that he was badly abused by his father for his entire childhood. Out of fear of turning into his father and being abusive as well, he mostly stayed away from his own children. Which resulted in them turning into quite the little beasts in an attempt to gain some attention, but he was so emotionally damaged and afraid of hurting them, that he couldn’t see that his way of protecting them was hurting them.

Our Heroine

Name and rank: Eloise Bridgerton. The fifth child and second daughter of a Viscount. Though, by the time our story starts she is now the sister of a Viscount.

Age: 28

Backstory: Eloise’s father died from anaphylactic shock as a result of an allergic reaction to a bee sting when she was just a child. She was actually with him, at the time. Though, that particular trauma doesn’t seem to affect her much, anymore. Certainly not the way their father’s death affected her eldest brother. Though, perhaps that is a testament to Anthony’s willingness to step up and take care of everyone, that none of the others seem to be having issues later on.

Eloise is definitely getting to spinster age, though that is not out of lack of options. She has turned down several proposals in her time on the marriage mart. Though, it is hard to tell exactly what she is looking for. She had eventually accepted spinsterhood, and had nebulous plans for her and her best friend Penelope Featherington to just be spinsters and then old maids together. But, then, Penelope married Eloise’s brother, leaving Eloise once again adrift without a plan for her life.

The Set-up And Premise

Eloise was a distant cousin of Marina’s, and when Marina died, Eloise wrote to Phillip, expressing her sympathies. Somehow, they became pen pals. They spent about a year writing to each other, and Phillip would often send pressed flowers with his letters. Eloise was possibly just looking for a friend. It’s established that she is a devoted correspondent, often writing letters to everyone she knows – even people who live in the same house as her. Phillip, though, was looking for something a bit more. Or at least towards the end he was. He was looking for a wife. Not necessarily for himself, though. He was looking for a stepmother for his children. He wrote to Eloise suggesting that she come visit and they could see if they suit. He would, of course, arrange for a proper chaperone in the form of his aunt.

Eloise never replied to Phillip’s letter. But, Penelope’s marriage left her out of sorts and with a future that no longer looked at all clear. So, one night, she uses a ball that her older sister throws as a way to basically run away from home, and goes to Sir Phillip with little more than the clothes on her back – and no warning that she was coming so he could make arrangements for his aunt to be there.

My Ratings And Review

The Love Story

Okay, here’s the thing. Eloise and Phillip are both interesting characters. I liked them both for their own sakes, as you will see in a minute. But, the truth is, that I never really bought them as a couple. Phillip’s romantic gesture at the end is sweet, and very romantic, but it seems to come out of nowhere. I never really got a sense of them falling in love with each other. They just suddenly were. If anything, Eloise seemed to love the twins more than her husband. And Phillip seemed more interested in a glorified governess than a wife. The romance felt a bit forced, to be honest.

The Hero

I actually liked Phillip. His trauma and his way of dealing with it were believable. I’ve read complaints that he was too whiny and standoffish, but honestly, considering what he had been through, I don’t exactly blame him. He was troubled, and conflicted. He loved his children, but didn’t know what to do with them. He was a man who was trying so hard, but had absolutely no clue what he was doing and just made things worse. I like a good tortured hero in a romance novel. And Phillip was certainly tortured, and reacted to that in ways that honestly made sense for the character.

The Heroine

I also really liked Eloise. She had her own issues, and things going on. She was well-developed. Smart, sassy, and took absolutely no nonsense. The whole premise started with her taking charge of her own life in a way that most women of her station in that time and place would never have dreamed of. And, throughout the entire book, Eloise did not shy away from going after what she wanted. She has spunk. And the way she dealt with Oliver and Amanda was so perfect. There is only one point where she bent to anybody else’s will. And that was when big brother Anthony informed her that unless she feared Phillip being abusive, she was going to have to marry him after basically living with him for a few weeks. Which, that was just how things were back then. And, there was still Hyacinth to consider. A scandal would affect her, too. And, headstrong and independent as she may be, Eloise is still a Bridgerton. Family still comes first.

The Secondary Characters

This is where the book really shines, honestly. There aren’t a lot of secondary characters, since this mostly takes place in Phillip’s estate in the country, far from the social Season of London. But, the secondary characters that are there pretty much steal the show.

Oliver and Amanda Crane are Phillip’s twin children. They are… little beasts, honestly. A good chunk of the book is spent telling of the pranks they play on Eloise, attempting to scare her off. But, I adored those little brats. They were so funny, and honestly, considering everything they had been through, I just wanted to hug them. I loved reading about them, and how they came to love Eloise. Actually, their love for her was more believable than their father’s love for her. By the end of the book you could see how these children just adored her, and it was really sweet.

And then we have the Bridgerton brothers. All four of them descend on Phillip’s home to rescue Eloise, and it’s both heartwarming and hilarious. In their scenes, we get the humor that this series is known for. Everything about them is solid gold. From threatening Phillip – complete with pinning him to the wall – to discussing a certain barmaids… umm… attributes… they are utterly hilarious. And then we get the conversation between Anthony and Eloise, where he has to put away the big brother hat and put on the surrogate father one. Their scene was just so sweet. His love for her, and need to see her taken care of and save her from scandal is so beautiful.

The Story And Writing

I enjoyed the story. Just, maybe not so much as a romance. As mentioned earlier, I just never really felt them fall in love. There didn’t seem to be a proper progression of it, at all. It was well-written, humorous in places, the family dynamics that the Bridgerton books excel at were spot on and interesting. It’s great as historical fiction, I just don’t know how I feel about it as historical romance.

Final Analysis

It’s a good book. The family scenes, whether that be the Bridgertons or the Cranes, are great. The problem is that a romance novel should make you swoon. It should make you fall in love. It should make you root for the main couple. And this one did none of those things. I adored Eloise and Phillip separately. I just didn’t care for them as a couple. Which is, unfortunately, a kiss of death for a romance novel.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Well, things got off to a bit of a rocky start. But, I’m baby-stepping my way into this, and am not going to beat myself up about it. Even if I end up not meeting my goal at the end of the year, I will still end up closer than if I don’t track or try to be accountable to something or someone outside of myself. So, anyway, here are this week’s stats:

I wrote 2,814 words in my novel, and 2,218 words of fanfiction. This was over the course of 152 minutes and 7 seconds. (Yes, I have a timer app. Yes, I am ridiculous.) Which means that I averaged spending 21 minutes a day on this. I also added 1,645 words to my CYOA story on Twitter. Which brings my weekly word count to 6,677 words, which is about 954 words a day. Not a great start, but it IS a start.

I have started an exercise program that involves exercising three days a week. I chose Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as my days so as to avoid having to exercise on the weekends. I did this because when I work the weekends, those are my early days. Saturdays, I’m lucky if I have time to eat breakfast. Anyway… I did accomplish that. And, I’ve lost just over half a pound. Not much, but it puts me back under 180, so I’ll take it. And, this was after going to McDonald’s for dinner on Wednesday, and eating a whole frozen pizza on Thursday. (Also TMI, but my period started yesterday, which means my hormones are going nuts and today’s weigh-in might not have been the most accurate thing in the world.) This week’s diet goal is to drink more water, and by extension cut down on soda. It’s noon, and I’m not off to the best start on that, though.

Financial stuff, one week is just not enough time to notice any patterns. I’ll report on that monthly. I haven’t really been using my planner. I set it up, but then kind of ignored it. So, actually using that will also be one of my goals for this week. As for cleaning and organizing, I got my bathroom cabinets organized, at least. It’s a start.

So, that was last week’s accomplishments. This week’s goals are to finish this lesson in my schoolwork (4 questions left in the last practice exercise, and then the quiz). Write at least SOMETHING in both the novel and my fanfiction every day. Get in a couple blog posts – I’m not going to ask myself for an episode a day, yet, but I DO want to get back into it. I’m not going to set myself an organizing goal, other than to at least maintain what I have. (Which includes cleaning off my computer table, again.) I have a new book that I’ll be working through, but I’m not far enough into it to have an idea of the challenges and goals it sets for you.

The problem with things that don’t have external deadlines, is that it’s easy to procrastinate on them. This becomes particularly true when you have ADHD, and so things like Executive Function, and just being able to focus aren’t exactly your strong suits. But, I have things I need to get done. Things I have procrastinated on for far too long. And it’s time I figured out a way to get myself to do them.

So, here is my plan going forward. Over the next 9 days, I am going to finish my last two lessons for school. I am also going to put together a proper Milwordy spreadsheet, and come up with an exercise plan. Because starting Sunday, I need to start buckling down on things. I’m not going to bother tracking word count for January and February. Not in the mood to go back and try to figure out my daily totals. So, I’m going to be starting fresh word count wise, on Sunday. Which means 10 months to write 500k words. Which basically comes out to 10 Nanos in a row. But, the way I see it, if I can get my butt in gear, that’s not actually going to be THAT hard. 1k on my novel, 500 words of fan fiction, my CYOA story on Twitter, and a blog post. That’s all it will take. Granted, some time in April I’ll be losing my current novel as that will hit the revision stage, but that just means I’ll need to also work on another book while I revise that one. It can still be done.

I also want to start exercising regularly, and trying to eat better. And track my spending so I can create a proper budget. And look for another job. And get my bedroom actually organized. And, that looks like a lot of things I’ll be trying to cram into my day. But, exercising shouldn’t take more than 15-30 minutes. I want to do a daily 20 minute organizing sprint. And if I enter expenses into my app and my Happy Planner as they happen, that’s a minute here, a minute there. All in all, I’m probably looking at about 2 hours or so. Hardly a real problem finding the time. It’s more an issue of finding the mental energy, because of the whole ADHD thing.

But, I’ll have apps and my Happy Planner. So, I’ll make to-do lists and a habit tracker. And hopefully checking things off will be helpful. Plus, and this is where the “accountability” part of the title of this post comes in, I’m going to be posting daily check-ins to Twitter. The last thing I do every day before bed will be to tweet what I accomplished that day. Word count, broken down into what I worked on, what I managed to clean, if I exercised, whatever else may seem pertinent. I’ll probably also post weekly updates to my blog. The daily ones were a bit overwhelming. But, no reason why I can’t write something every Thursday (my one day of the week that I’m off no matter what week it is) saying what I’ve accomplished that week.

I have two different timer apps. I have Twitter. I have a to-do list app and a Happy Planner. I have my coping strategies in place. I just need to start implementing them. I can do this.

Word count: 1,452

Blog posts and a bit of fanfiction. This scene I’m writing is getting a bit unwieldy. It doesn’t help at all that it comes much later in the story. So, she’s telling a story he may have already heard part of. My favorite “Bella, you’re not making any sense” moment is Elijah asking where Andrea fits in all of this. Umm… he knows that Klaus is Hope’s father. Pretty sure that THAT’S where Andrea fits into this. Unless he meant how she ended up being turned, which could certainly make sense. But, this scene is still a lot of fun.

Step count: 7,059

I have no idea where I am on calories. I still need to enter my baked ziti into my app. But, pretty sure I was mostly okay. Might have gone a smidge over because of too much soda. I really need to start weaning myself off of that.

I am at the point in my outlining book where I actually start writing revision notes, again. Which, for this chapter, means going through everything I have, not just from going through this book, but my old revision notes, and actually try to assign scenes to certain points. Basically, I’m at the point where I’m supposed to start actually outlining this thing. It’s scaring me, and I think I’ll wait and start on it on Thursday when I have more time.

I have also started reading this interesting organization book. It’s all about finding your own organizing style (there’s a quiz. I’m a butterfly. This doesn’t surprise me), and then spending 15 minutes a day working on one thing at a time. I think this should be doable. I’m actually looking forward to getting started with it.

Anyway, that was my day, yesteday.

Word count: 1,411

Monthly total: 7,335

Yesterday’s words were my blog post and starting a scene of Hayley and Freya telling Elijah the “family history” that the Mikaelsons made up to tell him. Since the whole hybrid thing, and Klaus being able to father children is not exactly something they can tell him because it would raise too many questions. Therefore, they had to make themselves all MUCH younger than they really are. It’s an interesting scene. I cried through a lot of it. Which then had me laughing at myself. Because, even within the story universe, this story is fiction. But, in a way, while the reasons may have been different, the emotions were real. Hayley was explaining about how Klaus had blamed himself for Henrik’s death. It was very sad. Granted, today it occurred to me that this conversation cannot take place the way I wrote it, unless I come up with a way for Josh to “figure out” that Andrea is a vampire and tell Elijah. Because that is NOT a conversation that can happen in letters or over Skype. Yes, Hayley knows that Elijah is one, but she’s still not going to come clean in a situation that she can’t compel him to forget if she’s “wrong”, because she needs to keep up the charade that she just met him. But, figuring this out is future me’s problem. I’m going to keep writing this scene the way it’s playing out in my head and make any changes necessary to make it work with where it needs to be in the timeline when I’m getting ready to post it.

Step count: 1,508 I really need to figure out a way to make myself actually get moving on my days off…

Not entirely sure about calories, because I still have to enter the recipe I made into my app, but pretty sure I did alright.

Got myself a couple books on organizing, and fell into an Amazon rabbit hole of books on coping with ADD. And then got into a conversation with some friends on Twitter about burnout, and ADD, and procrastination. Weirdly enough, these two things are NOT related. It’s just a coincidence of timing that two different internet brouhahas managed to converge.

Word count: 257

Month total: 5,924

As you can see, I failed miserably, yesterday. Procrastinated far too much. Ended up only doing my check-in blog post for Friday and added a net 13 words to my fanfic. I did get that posted, though. So, there’s that. Made someone cry. Any day that you’re told that you made someone cry is a good day in a writer’s life.

Didn’t really get anything else done, either. Except go grocery shopping. At least got THAT done.

Step count: 9,122

And, in my defense, that step count is part of why I accomplished little else. Not the whole reason, as the party didn’t start until 5pm. But, my work’s Christmas party was yesterday. Had so much fun. Spent most of two and a half hours dancing. As much as I need more money than that place can give me, yesterday reminded me of why I’m going to miss it once I find something better. I love my coworkers so much. Don’t really like the JOB – I’m not sure that anyone particularly LIKES working retail, and an introvert working retail is just… Well, it’s not fun. But, I do love my coworkers. And even more so on nights like last night, where we can all just let our hair down and have fun.

So, yesterday may have been an abject failure in terms of my New Year’s resolutions, but it was a much-needed balm to my mental health. And I’ll take that trade-off.

Today I need to do another blog post, and then write the scene that was writing itself in my head this morning. And then whatever else I can do to get my word count for the day. I refuse to lower my yearly goal in the first week, dammit! I WILL catch up!

I have also discovered a book on organization specifically for people with ADD. I think I may buy that. Because it is right up my alley.

Words written: 1,409

Total words for the month: 5,667

As has been the usual this month, that was my daily blog post and my fanfiction. I finished that chapter of You Can’t Fight Destiny. Elijah made me cry. He ruined my plans of having a Haylijah kiss – brought on by the way they looked at each other at the end of his flashback in the tv episode. We’ve all been saying ever since it aired that if he didn’t have a girlfriend, he totally would have kissed her. So, when I started writing this story, I fully expected them to kiss when I got to that scene, since there was no Antoinette holding him back. But, then he didn’t, because he didn’t trust himself to leave it at one kiss. He was afraid he would ask her to stay – and he didn’t want to be a rebound. I wanted to cry. Both because I wanted my Haylijah kiss, dammit! And because he was breaking my heart. He was falling for this girl, just from spending one day with her. And even though she was flirting with him, he took her as being on the rebound. Chapter ended with him hoping that she had felt the same connection that he did and would come back to him. I’ve been calling him my poor, lovesick fool.

Step count: 7,066

Stayed within my calorie goal, but that was in large part due to earning bonus calories.

And, that’s about it.

Word count: 1,395

Monthly total: 4,258

That was, again, my blog post and working on You Can’t Fight Destiny. I gave myself mood whiplash with that thing. Some of the things going through Josh’s head were hilarious, but every time Hayley opened her mouth, I burst into tears. That girl was just breaking my heart. But, eventually got her out of there and to the art show. Where Elijah was flirting and adorable. And writing this scene in his POV means I don’t have to deal with Hayley worrying about what happens tomorrow. I can totally sidestep the angst and focus on the cuteness. Part of today’s project on that is deciding if I want to lead this conversation back to the one they had on the show – which was pretty cute – and if so, how to do that. Ended up diverging a bit because I needed Elijah to flirt with her and be adorable.

Also did some reading in my outlining book. Have reached the part about deciding if you want to use a storyteller. And now I’m toying with the idea of making the entire series a history account told by Aruca. I need to think on that some more, though. It could be interesting. And I kind of love the idea of hinting from the beginning that even Nicolaus doesn’t know everything. I keep coming up with all kinds of interesting ideas, but so far, nothing that will give me an actual scene-by-scene outline. Dear Gods, I hate outlining.

Anyway… step count yesterday was 2,259. I always do horrible on that on my days off. Need to figure out ways to up that. Did really good on my calorie budget, though.

Finished catching up on the fanfic I was reading. Caught something amazing in the last chapter that I didn’t catch the first time reading it. Ended up flailing on Twitter with the author about it. So, that was fun.

Cleaning and schoolwork still not happening. I’ll get some cleaning done this weekend. Monday, I intend to restart the last lesson I started in my schoolwork. I’m technically to the quiz, but I totally don’t quite understand this, so I think I need a refresher.