Housekeeping and Birthdays

I'm not the best at keeping my house clean, but it's even worse after a trip.  Particularly when we get home in the evening and all the luggage gets dumped on the floor to be dealt with the next day.  Well, it's the third morning we've been home and my living room still looks like this:

People keep dropping by and this is the sight that greets them.  Friendly, warm, and inviting isn't it?  Everyone loves to be met with bags of dirty laundry.  I might have to actually do something about that today instead of writing like I did yesterday. 

I've also been reading On Writing by Stephen King.  I'm only about halfway through (so past the memoir and into the toolbox) and one thing really hit me hard, so I'll share it.  John Gould once said to him, '"When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story," he said.  "When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story."'

Wow. 

Apparently it also hit Stephen King hard if he can remember it all so vividly so many years later.  (And, yes, I just used an -ly word and I'm cringing about it.  Argh.)

In other news, Bree Despain's birthday is today and she's doing a giveaway of Dark Divine inspired jewelry.  Go check it out if you get the chance and wish her a happy birthday.