As regular visitors to this space know, there’s a new Blog post every Friday. I usually write these on Thursday nights, but occasionally I’ll wing it on Friday. So here’s my dilemma. It’s currently Thursday night (as I’m writing), and most of the potential Blog Posts in my head are about rewrites, because that’s what I’m doing and—to be honest—that’s what I’m dying to get back to. But we have a contract—I deliver a weekly Blog Post and you pretend to read it—and I suspect by now you’re sick of hearing about editing. What’s a blog-blocked writer to do? Apparently spend way too much time skimming ideas for blog topics on the internet, and still not know what to write.

So, rather than watch the Google Black Hole suck up more valuable could-be-writing/editing time, I’m taking a grab bag approach, combining a bunch of different, popular ideas into one post. Brace yourselves.

Our format: the Friday Five list.

1. 

   Do you write with music? No. Not unless you count the neighbor’s psychotically yapping dogs. Or, at night, coqui frogs. At this point, my brain can’t handle the extra sensory input. But I am tempted by the idea of creating playlists for my characters of songs that they would enjoy. When I have no more writing/editing to do.

2. What is your favorite blog? For sheer entertainment value, and also writing inspiration, I love Chuck Wendig’s blog. BEWARE: The man put the potty in pottymouth (you think that should be hyphenated?), so he’s definitely not for everyone. However, tucked between his creative conjugations of profanity are often gems of powerful insight, and he always makes me laugh, the most underrated of the superpowers.
3. Something New You Tried and Loved: The Blueberry Buzz smoothie at Sweet Cane Cafe in Hilo. Who would have thought blueberries and coffee go together? I treated myself to one earlier this week while doing edits (blueberries and coffee—brain food!), with macadamia nut milk (I am in Hawaii, after all) instead of half-and-half, served in a fancy-schmancy Mason jar. Which brings us to…
4. Something You May Not Know About Me: I’m taking a risk outing myself here to my old West-by-God Virginia kin and friends, but I’m a (gasp!) vegetarian. (I should note that growing up, my love of venison was legendary in my family.) Many people—for health or environmental or I-forgot-to-go-shopping reasons—do Meatless Mondays, but since we’re already vegetarians, my husband and I do Moo-less Mondays, thus the vegan editing smoothie.
5. Something You Didn’t Know About My Dog: Okay, I just made that one up, but there are a lot of recommendations for posts that revolve around pets. I do post about our pets (Dangers of a Dingbat Dog, for example), and since the three dogs and cat haven’t killed each other yet I plan to do a Pack Update soon. In the meantime, here’s a random nugget that really surprised me. Both of the strays that wormed their way into our lives last year (no, that’s not a heartworm joke) have skin issues, but Fritz’s are the worst. The poor guy licks and chews and scratches a lot. Part of his problem: chin acne. Seriously. Who knew dogs get acne?? I wonder if he’s embarrassed because I just picked up the doggie version of Clearasil for him, and he’s not exactly a teenager anymore. But he’s still awfully cute.

So there you go, a Friday Five post. Next week, a different kind of Friday Five… the Book Five Cover Reveal!