A Little Help From My Friend by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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My cat, Autumn Amelia, has developed a new interest - my writing. Or more specifically, anything I'm doing on my laptop. Lately, whenever I'm working she insists on joining me. I'll be typing away, totally "in the zone" with my writing, oblivious to everything around me when suddenly an adorable furry face appears, obscuring part of my screen. She sidles up beside my laptop to take a peek at my work. If she approves, I get a head bonk. If not, a pair of white paws appear on the keyboard to help me out.

I must admit this can be rather bothersome at times. Helpful as she may think she is, the sudden emergence of a long string of random letters across my screen can be a bit disconcerting. Worse is when she hits backspace or delete and I lose what I've written. Once when I left my laptop unattended I came back to find that everything on the screen was upside down. I had to call a techy friend to walk me through putting it rightside up again. It took several steps so I've no idea how Autumn Amelia managed to get it into that condition in the first place. She's obviously very talented.

Lest you think I could ever get mad at her, check out this face. No one could get mad at this face!

Autumn Amelia behind my laptop plotting the right moment to "help" with my writing

She's been known to do a little proofreading, too.

For the Love of Reading by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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Every loyal member of Goodreads knows they are encouraged to set a reading challenge for themselves at the beginning of each year. The challenge is to set a goal for the number of books to be read by the end of the year. Members can keep track by adding each new book they begin to their homepage and marking it completed when finished. The website keeps count of the total as well as tracking how many books the reader is ahead of or behind schedule.

I am a voracious reader, but before I started using Goodreads regularly I had no idea how many books I read in a year other than "a lot." January 1, 2021 was the first time I set a goal. Having no clue about the amount of books I could complete by December 31st I chose a random number - 60. I figured it was possible for me to read that many books in a year and I was curious to see how many I actually do read.

I noticed that many GR members had set goals of 100 or more, but though I'm an avid reader, I am not a fast reader and figured I wouldn't be able to finish that many. I enjoy reading far too much to speed through a book. I prefer to savor them. I was pleasantly surprised then, when I surpassed my goal of 60 books long before the end of the year. My final total was 83.

This year I've set my sights higher. My goal is 90. As of right now, I've completed four books and am two books behind schedule. No worries, though. I was many more books behind schedule at the start of last year and look where I wound up! Reaching 90 books just means I read a few more this year than last year. I refuse to speed up my reading just to reach this goal, though. Reading is one of the greatest pleasures in my life. It is not meant to be rushed. At least not for me.

I do tend to be competitive with myself, however so I know I'm going to want to hit that 90 book goal. Fortunately, there are no restrictions on what I read so if I fall too far behind by the end of the year - hello children's picture books! But I'm hoping I won't need to do that.

Brand New Website by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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Click here to visit Eileen O'Finlan's website

I knew the time to renew my contract with the company that built and maintains my website was coming up and I was dreading it. The annula fee was exhorbitant. Besides that, I wanted a new look, something that felt more me. Don Lutz, the husband of my friend and fellow writer, Jane Willan, had built a beautiful author website for Jane so I asked him how much he would charge to build one for me. His answer - ice cream. That was a fee I could afford.

Don and I met to discuss what I was looking for, what feel I wanted, how I envisioned presenting my author brand. I gave him a quart of chocolate ice cream. He built a basic site. We met again for a training session in which he taught me how to design the pages, create links, upload pictures, and whatever else I thought I might do on the site. He also linked the sign up box for my newsletter to my email marketing platform creating a smooth transition and worked with my previous site host to get my domain name transfered to me. I gave him another quart of chocolate and a quart of black raspberry.

I now have a website I love, one that I feel reflects me and my brand perfectly. I have one more meeting with Don coming up so he can help figure out how to design the rest of the pages I want to add. I will bring more ice cream. 

This, by the way, isn't just any ice cream. For years I have purchased my milk from a local dairy farm. They make other dairy products as well. Their ice cream is beyond belief. Hancock Dairy Farm uses primarily Ayershire cows which give the creamiest milk so everything they make from it is utterly (udderly??) delicious! Don's reaction to his first taste of their chocolate ice cream was, "Now this is what ice cream is supposed to taste like!" Once a week during the season, I stop on my way home from work at the farmer's market to pick up my milk which allows me to avoid the delivery charge I pay during the rest of the year. At the same time, I pick up Don's ice cream (and maybe some for myself). Hmmm...if they have it, perhaps I'll pick up some of their amazing chocolate cheese for Don to go with his ice cream. Maybe some for me, too.

Check out my new website here!

The ice cream-making cows at Hancock Dairy Farm 

in Barre, Massachusetts