Sunday Salon for 2 July 2023
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 a heat advisory Friday and multiple thunderstorms that night, with dramatic lightning and occasional downpours. Fortunately, none of the ping-pong ball-sized hail fell on our house, but it was nearby. Lots of folks lost power, too. Mostly, we’ve just been experiencing summer heat and humidity, par for the course in July.
What are you reading?
I gave up on The Choice by Nora Roberts, even though it was the third book in the series. Maybe it will work for me at another time.
Instead, I picked up Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. This was her first book and the first book to feature Lord Peter Wimsey. This year is its 100th anniversary.
What are you watching?
I finished the Korean series Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix — I was delighted by the whimsy throughout the show.
Now, I switched to Manifest — the oh-so-soapy science fiction drama on Netflix that I started watching during the pandemic, when something about a world-changing menace hit the spot. The final episodes arrived early this month. So if you like a series to be complete when you start watching, now is the time.
Our movie pick of the week was The Lost King starring Sally Hawkins. Do you remember when King Richard III’s skeleton was found in a car park in Leicester, England? This movie is about how that happened with some added whimsy that we enjoyed. The Richard III Society was integral to the endeavor — I learned about that in the novel The Murders of Richard III by Elizabeth Peters.
What are you doing?
Last week, I reported that updating my blog went smoothly. That’s when the problems started. . . . I’m still dealing with the aftermath. I did a bunch of scary things like use SSH to edit my wp-config.php file. But there’s still stuff going wrong. I’m confident that I can fix some of it (like the wonkiness of the sidebar), but I may yet have to pay someone to help me get to the bottom of the problems caused by moving my blog from http:// to https:// (the secure version).
What are you writing?
I did manage to get back to my novel–writing. I have good characters, an interesting setting, and an intriguing situation. What I don’t have, yet, is a plot — a structure that will make all of this a compelling story and not just a lightly fictionalized history lesson. This is still true after three years of working on my novel. I’m going to try tackling it from a different direction in July to see if I can get this to gel in a satisfying way.
How are you on this fine Sunday?
It’s a pain when your blog gives you trouble. Thankfully my son handles all my blog issues. I hope you got everything fixed now.
Other bloggers complain nonstop about Blogger but to date it’s never given me any problems. The software even handled the conversion to a secure platform. So strange. And the comment handlers in other blogs are very exploitative, not allowing one to link to the commenters’ blogs, while Blogger doesn’t play those annoying games.
best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Don’t you hate it when you say something, and then life goes out of its way to prove you wrong? Hope you really have your blog figured out now.
I’m sorry you had trouble updating your blog. I was one of the people who had trouble posting a comment last week after your update. Accepting intermittent blog problems over the years has been an integral part of blogging for me. Fingers crossed that your problems have been fixed.
There’s something satisfying to me, Joy, for me to hear that, after three years of working on your novel, you are still without a plot. Three of us from our writing class last spring formed a writing club this summer. Our goal is to write a not-very-good novel by October. We meet once a week and encourage one another. None of us have sharply defined characters or a clear setting, and we are hopeful that our plots are evolving. It’s fun to write, nevertheless.
I still need to watch The Lost King. I’ve been meaning to for a while.
I need to update my blog but I haven’t quite done so yet because I am concerned about having issues. I don’t really have many issues with blogger so will stick with that for now
Have a great week.
Ooo I need to add The Lost King to our watch list, as well as Extraordinary Attorney Woo! I do remember reading about King Richard III’s skeleton being found in a parking lot (well buried underneath at least) and it was so crazy to think about. That this powerful man in history just ends up being paved right over and no one knows. Life and time just keep moving on. I am definitely adding it to our list.
I’m sorry you’re having trouble with your blog since the update… that is so frustrating! Also hope the weather isn’t quite so severe this week. Take care!
Plot is my bugaboo when trying to write a novel, too! I didn’t sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo this month. I just won’t have the time for it, without dropping other hobbies (or retiring). Good for you for keeping up with your writing!
I appreciate the TV and movie recommendations! I don’t know how NetFlix didn’t market Manifest to my husband and me. It sounds right up our alley!