Hi all!  I’m sorry that I haven’t posted any more of POM.  I do promise to finish it.  I think the last book coming out kinda took the wind out of my sails.  That happened after book 6 came out as well.  It’s just odd finishing a story that is so out of canon, but I will finish it as soon as I can manage to write again.

I am still working on losing weight and getting healthy.  I’m down to 178, and progress has been slow, but it sure beats the hell out of 225!

I do have some happy news.  After several years of on and off work, I have finally got my recipe website on line!  It’s got over 1500 recipes on it so far, and I’m still adding to it.  Please feel free to send a link out to anyone you know who might enjoy a recipe sight.  This site has a bunch of family recipes on it, as well as other things.  So if you want to give me a thrill, go check it out.

http://www.recipevaults.com/index1.htm

Also, I’ll be adding new sections after I finish my own, so if anyone has a recipe they want to share, send it to TheRecipeVaults@gmail.com.

My post-HBP fic, The Price of Madness, has been updated.

At long last, my muse came out of hiding and I wrote not one, but two chapters!  I’m posting them both tonight, so make sure you start with chapter 28 if you plan to read them.  I was hoping to give you all a little present to amuse you before the final book comes out, and I made it!

Chapter 28, The Seventh Horcrux and chapter 29, A Stubborn Wizard, are posted and can be viewed immediately here:

At The Petulant Poetess:

http://www.thepetulantpoetess.com/viewstory.php?sid=2343

It should be up soon at Ashwinder as well:

http://ashwinder.sycophanthex.com/viewstory.php?sid=13797

Pook

Hi everybody!

I recently went on vacation with my family fishing in Canada.  Big fun!  If you want to see pics, you can find them here:
Pook's Fishing Pics

I also went over the links for my stories on my fanfic website and fixed a lot of links that weren’t working, so that’s sorted.

And I wrote 3 whole pages on the next chapter of Price of Madness!  A little more, and it will be off to the beta!  I’m not sure why I haven’t been able to write.  This happened to me once before when I was in the middle of Unlikely Bedfellows, and I couldn’t write a word for 6 months.  Ugh!  I think the ol’ muse is starting to perk up again, so wish me luck!

The bad news, I promised my readers two chapters by the end of May, and I haven't been able to do it.  I suck!
The good news, I am writing again for the first time since January, so I will definitely be updating as soon as I can get another chapter finished.  It's a great relief to be writing again at all.  So the guilt factor did work, I'm at least writing again at last.  But I'm very mortified that I wasn't able to make my deadline.
My readers rock!  The Kentucky Humane society got an extra 150 bucks just from my readers!  Thank all those who donated!  You guys rock!

So, I’ve been working on losing weight and being more healthy since mid-January, and I’ve lost 40 lbs so far!  Go me!  Then, I hear on the radio that there is a 5k walk to benefit the Kentucky Humane society.  Walking to aid furry homeless babies, what could be more up my alley?  Walking, good for me and my weight loss; money, good for the furries. 

I’ve got a deal to make you all.  I’ve been concentrating on my health, and found it very hard to get writing again.  I need something to kick me in the butt and give me a deadline!   So here’s the deal.  I’m asking my readers to make a donation for my 5k, if you are able.  In return, I’m promising you not one, but two more chapters by the end of May.  And I’m not asking anyone to break the bank, even just a couple bucks would help.  Those small donations add up quickly, and they really help animals in need. 

The Humane Society website is easy and user friendly.  You can make a donation right online, all you have to do is go to the page and plug in your information.  Help me lose a couple more pounds, write a couple more chapters, and help the homeless critters!

You can find my donation page here:

www.waggintrail5k.kintera.org/2007/julianne

That link goes straight to my donation page on the Humane Society website.  I will never see or touch the money, so you can be assured that nothing nefarious is going on.  Please donate if you can!  The cause means a lot to me, and I need a good guilt-ridden jumpstart to get me writing again!

My fic, The Price of Madness, has finally been updated!  My apologies for it taking so long, I’ve been going through some personal changes.

Chapter 27, Courage Under Fire, is posted and can be found here:

At The Petulant Poetess- http://www.thepetulantpoetess.com/viewstory.php?sid=2343

And It should be up shortly at Ashwinder-

http://ashwinder.sycophanthex.com/viewstory.php?sid=13797

Pook

So what’s up with me?

I do have a chapter of PoM to update, and I’ll try to get it done sometime this weekend.  I haven’t done much writing lately, because I’ve been busy.  This time, work is not the culprit.  As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on losing weight.  I was at 225 lbs when I started mid January, and I’m now down to 195.  I’ve lost 30 lbs!  Unfortunately, I still have 50 to go, but 50 is a lot more doable than 80!

Diet and exercise have been taking a lot of my time, and a lot of my mental energy, so it’s been hard to write.  But I just have to do it.  Both my folks have adult onset diabetes, and if I start being healthier now, then I can avoid that, along with a myriad of other health problems.

The good news, other than my weight loss, is that after this coming week, I’ll be laid off of work for a while.  Not good news for my bank account, but good for writing time!  I am still hoping to get PoM finished before book 7 comes out, so there should be more regular updates on PoM soon.

So wish me luck on the weight loss, and on the writing!  You know, this is the first time I’ve weighed less than 200 lbs in about 8 years.  If I can get down to 175, it will be the first time I weighed that since I was 16 years old!

I have no internet acess at home right now.  The good news is, on friday the cable company is coming out and we'll have a cable modem!  Yay!  So forgive me if I dissapear for a few days, but I'll be back!  My work is so crazy right now, I won't have much time anyway.

I haven’t posted here in forever.  I’ve been so busy!  My work exploded, and I’ve been working loads of overtime.  That’s nice for my pocketbook, but not very conducive to having any time to be online.  Next week should be my last overtime week, and then I’ll be back to normal.

My post HBP fic, The Price of Madness, has been updated.  Chapter 26, Albus Lives!, has been posted and can be found at The Petulant Poetess:

http://www.thepetulantpoetess.com/viewstory.php?sid=2343

Chapter 26 has also been added to the validation queue at Sycophant Hex.  I’m not sure how long the queue there is taking these days.  My last chapter took around four weeks to make it through the queue there.

On a personal note, I’ve lost 20 lbs!  Yay me!  I love our HP weightloss group.  I love the LJ community, and I love calorie-count.com.  If any of you want to join us at our weight loss support group, you can find us here:  http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/HPWeightLoss/

In writing news, I’ve written chapters 26 and 27 of PoM, but there seems to be a bit of a hold up at the beta.  No worries, I’m sure it will be straightened out soon!

In other news, Pook is on a diet.  Ick! :D  4 days so far, and hopefully I’ll stick to it.  To encourage my sticking to it, I started a weight loss support yahoo group for HP fans.  I also started an LJ community for keeping food diaries.  If any of you want to join me on my quest-

The Yahoo group is here: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/HPWeightLoss/

and the LJ community is here:

http://community.livejournal.com/hpwldiaries/

We’ve got 27 members so far, but the more the merrier, I say!

I hope you like "happy bunny"!



It's not as sharp as I would like, but I am not exactly an icon making genius!

The Price of Madness has been updated!  Chapter 25, Paying the Price, can be found immediately at The Petulant Poetess:

http://www.thepetulantpoetess.com/viewstory.php?sid=2343

And it’s in the queue at Sycophant Hex, so it will most likely be available there in around 10-14 days.

Happy New Year and happy reading!

Oh my Gods!  I just read the coolest fic ever, and it was written for me!  I’m the luckiest Pooka in the world, I am!  It’s called “Master in the Trees”, it’s bloody brilliant, and you should all go and read it immediately.

http://sshg-mod.livejournal.com/30152.html

What are you still doing here?  Go!  Read!  Now!

Finally!  I finally finished the first draft of chapter 25!  I wouldn’t look for it to update too soon though.  It is almost the holidays and I am hoping that both of my betas have better things to do than beta this chapter!  Hopefully it will be posted as a belated holiday present shortly after the first of the year.

Speaking of holidays, here’s the final count of what Pook’s made for Christmas.

-Knitted 15 scarves

-Made 5 cookbooks

-Made 3 baby blankets

-Made 4 bracelets

-Made 3 pairs of earrings

-Covered one photo album

Good grief!  No wonder I’m tired!

Happy holidays!

Ok, I’ve almost got the next chapter finished.  Almost.  I think I can top it off tomorrow and then send if off to the betas, so maybe I’ll manage a little update holiday present yet.

I was hoping to finish it over a week ago, but Christmas is sneaking up behind me on little ferret feet and I’m not ready!  Bri and I don’t have much money, so Christmas presents from me are generally of the “what can I make that will be nice but very cheap?” variety.  This year, it’s mostly scarves.  I got the yarn on sale, Gods bless Hobby Lobby, and I’m knitting like a fiend.  So far, I’ve knit 13 scarves and I have several yet to do.  Time consuming, but cheap!  I also printed some recipe books of family recipes and put them into three ring binders.  And I made 3 baby blankets.  And I covered a photo album.  *sigh*  A Pooka’s work is never done!  So I apologize for the update delay, but I haven’t been able to help it.

If anyone is looking for something to read, the Hermione/Severus gift exchange is underway, and everyday they post a couple new fics and an artwork.  I’ve read many of the fics already posted, and I can tell you that there are some really wonderful things already posted.  That gift exchange is a real treat, so don’t miss it!  You can find it here:sshg_exchange

Put "I've seen ____ of these 169 movies" in the subject line and repost. SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 movies, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are 168 movies on this list. Put your score in header and re-post. Then after you've finished your list, tag 5 friends to do the list... Let's see who has no life :)

Now, already I have a problem with this meme, as the number of movies is not consistent, but what the hell, I like movies! :D  If anyone wishes, consider yourself tagged.

Despite the 87, I contend that i do indeed have a life.  I just have a life that involves lots of movies! :D

So the whole point of this post is not actually to show off in diva fashion, but to thank Planescape Bard, and to let you know that not only did I quiet my head, but I was so inspired last night that I wrote half of the first draft of chapter 23 and I finished it today.  There will be no long, dreary wait between updates, and I’ll get it posted as soon as the betas have time to have their wicked way with it.  And I tell you, it’s quite a relief not to have to worry about the next update during this busy time.