UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Liz Wilson!
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Well, National Clean Off Your Desk Day was actually yesterday—the 2nd Monday of January—but it coincided with National Word Nerd Day, so you know which day took precedence with me!

Let’s not worry about being late though. I took a picture!

No, that’s not the BEFORE picture.

I know you minimalists are likely hyperventilating, thinking about trying to work with all that clutter, but it’s organized and decluttered quite a bit from how it was. I have SPACE in the center front of my desk now. I tore apart my desk yesterday and dusted and rearranged, discarded, etc. Yes, I have too many candles and a huge wax warmer in the left corner next to my monitor. More candles in the far right of the picture, tucked behind my notebook stack. I just have the essentials, you know. And truthfully, my desk is more crowded in the winter than the summer because of all the plants I bring in from the patio that line up at the back of my desk. I can’t leave them out in the cold. And doesn’t everyone have jars and coffee cups filled with pens and markers? Maybe four large containers is a bit much, but I like having my tools. And I have a medium-sized bowl to the left of my desk’s working space where I dumped all my Halls and Ricola cough drops, plus prescriptions for the respiratory infection I’m trying to kick, so I thought putting them all in one container was “neater” than the having them lined up around my working space. I’m trying. I only have one water container for painting on my desk, and I trimmed down the number of palettes cluttering up the sides of my working space. So, much better than it was. There were stacks of things. I moved all toys and figurines into the shelves above my monitor. That round tin in the front right of the picture is a single bracelet kit, so I don’t have beads cluttering up everything, everywhere.

And voila! My desk is clean and orderly (according to my particular needs!). A pristine, spartan surface is like a blank page—it offers me no inspiration whatsoever!

So, are you going to take up the challenge and clean your desk or workspace? Are you a minimalist or do you need inspirational clutter all around you? Answer for a chance to win something. I’ll decide what later!

I’ve said it before, but I pull a tarot card on Sundays as a part of my planning for the week. Just one card to interpret.

For Christmas, my lovely son-in-law had a very special gift he’d been eager to give me. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, he’d say, “I saw it, and I just knew it was perfect for you!” When we opened our Christmas presents, he watched to see me unwrap it. As soon as I did, I wore the biggest smile because he’d totally nailed it. He’d found this box of Next Generation tarot cards, which combine my love of woo-woo with my nerdy love for Star Trek.

So, I’m not sure how useful they’ll be in the future (I think they’ll likely sit in my curio cabinet with me Star Wars figures), but I shuffled them this morning and pulled just one card, and…

I couldn’t believe it! Out of 78 cards—Worf! Swear-to-God, hand-on-my-heart, WORF! I could’ve pulled the three bars of latinum (Star Trek currency), and it’s just a picture of three gold bars, and I don’t know what I would’ve “read” from looking at the card—but I got Worf!

So, as always, I concentrate on the card itself—what the picture tells me. Worf is naturally the card of Strength. Worf is a warrior, through and through, with a strict code of honor that he adheres to. When he loves, whether friend, family, or lover, he goes all in and he’ll always have your back. When he engages in a conflict, he’s not going in with diplomacy in mind, he’s going to kick ass. So, for me, this week, I’m going in to kick ass!

I checked the accompanying book to see what it had to say, and basically, I will overcome all kinds of obstacles with my indomitable will. Check

Which is exactly what I hope for. I began last week roaring in on my New Year’s ambitions. However, by Wednesday, I was sick with a virus—hacking cough, headaches, runny nose. Not COVID! I did a home test, and then the doctor did one on Friday. Now, I’ve got a mountain of pills to take to kick the infection. I’m hoping today is the last day I’m dragging ass, and that I’m going to “Worf it” this week!

Do you love it when something cool like that happens? Some lucky draw of the card or something just falls into place like it’s supposed to?

Open Contests

1. Happy National Science Fiction Day! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a $5 Amazon gift card!
2. Breaking Bad Habits (Contest) — Win a hand-painted postcard!
3. 2022 Review: Just reminding you… (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: What are we celebrating next? — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Donna Bayar Repsher!
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I love gift-giving and our family looks for every opportunity to celebrate holidays with gifts, food, and fun. So, naturally, I’m already turning my attention to the next celebration.

Solve the puzzle, then tell me whether this is a holiday you like to get behind for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Preston!
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I have lots of bad habits. I’m sure you do, too. The one that causes me the most stress is the one where I think I have to conquer one mountain at a time. By that, I mean if I have a huge edit job, I have to work through it to the exclusion of writing. Which causes me to go down to the wire when it comes to finishing a book. I wrote Guarding Hannah in a ridiculously short time. Yeah, I’m really happy with the story. In fact, I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever written, but that isn’t the point. I need to destress, not run on adrenaline.

That’s my big goal this year. Destress the work. Get little bites done in an orderly fashion as I march toward completion. I know how to do this. I was a program manager in a past life. I used to work on multiple story projects at one time using some advanced planning techniques, but I’m not going for that now. I don’t want to write MORE. I want to write in such a way that I have time to devote to something that gives me greater joy—like painting.

Yes, doodling things like these makes me happy.

I want more time to sit with paint and paper. I want more time to take some classes and learn how to do it well. I feel like I did when I started writing—I want to know everything, try everything, right now! Not that I’m looking to make it another gig for money. I just want to explore an artistic path for passion’s sake.

But to get there, I have to rope in my chaotic work habits. I’ve begun this year anew. So far, so good. I’m making progress on my new story, Mica, and I’m working on a set of edits I’ll finish this week. In the meantime, I’ve been painting in the evenings and organizing my studio space (does that ever end?). I’ll get there…in incremental steps rather than putting all my energy into fits of activity. That’s so exhausting, isn’t it?

So, I’d love to give away one of these postcards. Winner’s choice. Tell me what bad habit you’d like to tackle this year.

Christmas was LOVELY! I adored watching the kids open their gifts! I got lots of my favorite things from my family. They know me so well. Among my treasures, a couple of coffee mugs that’ll make me smile over my morning cups of coffee, a Zombie She-Hulk figurine for my curio shelf, lots of fuzzy socks, candles, and PAINTS! I still have to put everything away…but everything in its own time. We spent a lazy Christmas day, foraging through our Christmas meal, watching Spirited on TV (not as good as we’d hoped, but Will Ferrell and Octavia Spencer were adorable together). We still have a week to enjoy the kids being at home. They’re hitting the sales today, while I get some peace and quiet. Maybe I’ll attack my newly acquired riches and put them away. Or maybe not. I do have edits to work on and a story to begin to plan… We’ll see how ambitious I am AFTER coffee. I really should attack Loki’s fish tank today.

Anyways, I’d love to hear how your Christmas went! Drop a comment. I do read every one of them. And remember to get your FREE READ before the offer ends!

A quick note authors: My copy of The Novel Workbook for Messy Writers by Gabrielle Prendergast arrived! Lots of worksheets, which I love! I wanted the hard copy to work on my next project, but authors, it’s FREE right now on Kindle Unlimited! Get your copy!

Last Day of Giveaway! **CLOSED**

If there’s a short story from my Short Story page that you’d like to read, just email me the title, and I’ll send you a download. My gift to you. Send those emails to me at delilah@delilahdevlin.com now! This offer ends tomorrow!

I can’t believe I almost forgot to post today. I set a goal at the beginning of the year that I’d have a new blog every day, whether written by me or a guest author. I nearly spoiled my perfect record! I know, it’s a crazy goal. Why do it? Blogs are dead, right? I don’t believe that. Not really. We’ve seen how fragile our social media platforms can be. This blog is the only thing I can control. Plus, it does give me an outlet. I can share what I’m working on here, bore you to tears with tidbits about my life, and play games with friends.

Or, I can do like I am today and share something I made.

I woke at 4 AM this morning to finish up a set of edits before I headed out to sit at the art center today. I like acting as docent. We rarely get visitors, so it’s my excuse to paint. No computer, just me, a palette of watercolor paint, some pens, and my imagination. I laid down paint on several things, but this is the only item I finished. It’s a watercolor and pen postcard. The colors make me happy.

You all knew her, right? I mean, she was everywhere. A social media queen, a convention diva, a powerhouse writer with more projects going on than the Energizer Bunny. More energy than an octogenarian ought to have. I knew her way back when we were learning to be writers and were both members of a critique group in San Antonio—before we were both published by Ellora’s Cave (when it still existed) and we were on our way. In fact, I have this photo on my desk from an EC convention, not even sure what year, but there’s Desiree in the middle, me to the right, surrounded by lovely men, fellow authors, and having a high old time. And that’s the way I’d prefer to remember her—full of life and energy and hopes and dreams.

She wrote and played online, connected with her friends and readers, all the way up until the end. I’ll be forever proud of the work we did most recently with a series of connected stories inside my sister’s Brotherhood Protectors world. Desiree was our leader through several sub-series. She always had that strong, central vision of what the stories ought to be and how they should be “branded.” My sister called me yesterday while I was at my holiday craft sale to say she’d passed of the same awful cancer my mother had. I haven’t had time to process this yet, but I’ll miss her. RIP Judith/Desiree.