Happy Sunday! Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at ReaderBuzz. Check out her post and the links to see what other bloggers have been up to in the last week.

How’s the weather?

We had an amazing day yesterday for January in Missouri — mid-50s and sunny. I’m glad that I enjoyed it while it lasted because today’s high is predicted to be 32 degrees.

What are you reading?

I haven’t read much at all this week. That energy seems to go into my writing, which is good, but I want to see if I can snatch some reading time somewhere. I’ve been watching video during meals. I think I’ll switch back to reading while I eat. That usually works for me.

What are you watching?

Vera, the detective series set in northeast England is what I keep watching when I could be reading. I’m nearing the end of the available shows and I don’t want it to end. So, there’s another motivation to slow it down a bit.

Our favorite movie this week was Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022, Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba). This is a story about the magic of story. I predict that anyone who reads this blog or participates in Sunday Salon will be just as enchanted as we were. We saw it on DVD from Netflix.

What are you writing?

My British Isles Friday post this week was about Colette, a British film about the French author starring Keira Knightley.

I wrote scenes for my novel! Novel-writing takes a lot of work that isn’t scene-writing — research, character development, plot structuring. Those are important but they can also be a way that I procrastinate. The one time that I know I’m not procrastinating is when I’m writing scenes, so I’m pleased that I made that transition.

What are you doing?

I’m figuring out a balance between “work hard” and “play hard.”

At this moment, “work hard” looks like working on my novel for at least eight pomodoros (about four hours) on most weekdays.

“Play hard” is a little trickier. My brother helpfully points out that “play hard” for me looks very different from what that seems to mean in our culture. It’s not going out to parties or bars or dance clubs or sporting events. For me, “play hard” activities are fantasy travel and imagining the future and thoughtfully consuming video and audio and written material. So, those are the activities that I intend to build my weekends around in 2023.

How are you on this fine Sunday?