Archives for March 2026

When I was waking up the weather looked foul. Dark, drizzly and stormy. In the evening there were big flakes of snow, even.

I did my complete morning routine and used my manuscript time to figure out universal links for books 2 and 3. Which took longer than expeceted.

Husband and I talked about melodic minor over breakfast while I knitted a bit. Then I did the breakfast dishes while he started a load of laundry and then it was time to brave the weather:

I should get myself a new hat, this one is starting to disintegrate. Since I bought it back when my husband was still working at the department store it might be 25 years old, oops.

Oh, and in between the dishes and leaving the house I tried buying some sheet music of „Ambre“ by Nils Frahm, and it took me twenty minutes to convince that website that I did not want a subscription but just wanted to pay for this one piece of music, thanks.

Lunch was ready when I returned:

The plan was to play my video game until 4 and then work on the newsletter. Well. I played a little longer than 4, then took a shower, cut my toenails, talked with my son, did some research for today’s trip to Munich and was done with all of that just in time for being coached at 6. I did open the newsletter website, I think, but that was about it.

Only to have to tell my coach that the last two weeks went a little different than planned. On the bright side I did publish book 3 so all was good.

After the coaching call I sent the first three chapters of my romance novel off to a writing contest, then tried doing the newsletter again until the boy reminded me that he was waiting for me for our weekly video game bosses. He helped me very patiently, and only when it was 9 pm, and I made one stupid mistake after the other, did I realize I had forgotten to eat dinner.

So I ate something, made a list for today, started writing this post, found that my blog had locked me out, tried to fix the issue but failed, finally did the dishes, prepared everything for today and went to bed too late.

And today will be slightly insane but I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow. At least the blog let’s me in again.

There was the time change so I definitely didn’t get enough sleep. When I woke up it was snowing like crazy. I did most of my morning routine but not the manuscript time, ahem.

There was yoga and breakfast and the weekly phone call to my mother, there were dishes and reading the daily chapter of „War and Peace“ (that is a veritable soap opera, by the way), and then there was lunch:

I spent the whole afternoon playing Genshin Impact, something I had actually planned for. Then I dawdled, the boy and I did bodyweight training for a whole twenty minutes, he offered to do the dishes, and I watched a bit more of the BTS documentary.

I had promised to take a sock photo in better light but there was only a very short time where the light was actually bright and I missed it, so here is a bad photo in bad light:

And then there was bed.

I am a bit torn between spending today the same way and actually getting something productive done, we’ll see what will come out on top.

Again, not much time but I did most of the things I set out to do, including opening the manuscript. I’m still doing timeline stuff.

There was yoga and dishes and then I went out for my walk/run:

My husband made lunch:

I had met that mother of a student who also writes while out in the woods and we had exchanged pen names. So far I really like her book.

I went on Zoom, met with a bunch of writers and finished a sock. Then I started a hat. I’ll take pictures later today when there will be more light.

My husband, the boy and I then met for a glass of alcohol-free champagne and some salmon on toast:

We then watched a episode of ‚Columbo‘ that was pretty good, I played some more video game. did the dishes too late, started writing this post and went to bed too late.

Which was a great move the evening before the start of daylight savings time but there you are.

I went to bed only reasonably late, slept well and only dawdled a little bit. I wrote morning pages, then opened my laptop and started uploading book 3 so I could publish it.

Well, there were dumb typos in the manuscript, all introduced while proofreading. Good thing those got caught before anyone bought the book.

I did yoga and meditated a little and then ate breakfast with my husband. He was off pretty fast because he wanted to go for a run the first time in ages.

So I turned to my laptop again, corrected the typos and started the whole uploading process again. Managed to use the wrong cover at first, didn’t remember how to do any of this, so the usual.

But only an hour or so later I had uploaded all the files for the ebook and paperback on Amazon. The ebook is already live (“Masked in Silver” by Susanne Winter, book 3 in the Eva Mandel Urban Fantasy Series), the paperback will take a little longer.

Then I did the dishes, vacuumed the old part of the house, and decided to use the sunny (and cold) weather to get the vegetarian salmon I forgot the day before. My husband had another list of things he wanted from the health food store and, of course, I needed some more chocolate.

The health food store did not have veggie ersatz salmon. Neither did the other health food store but they had the vitamins the boy had asked me to get, neither had the supermarket near the train station, so I went to the exact same supermarket I had visited the day before and – finally got what I was looking for. Phew.

Husband had made an easy and quick lunch, omelette with cheese and fried zucchini:

I took a short break and then called the dentist’s office because they had sent me the invoice for the boy’s dental cleaning. I need his name to be on the invoice so I can get some of the money back from insurance. Only when I stood there on the phone, looking casually at the invoice I saw „cleaning for the boy“ written on there for the first time. Oops. I explained my mistake and said I was sorry.

And then there was the teaching of the students. I managed to reschedule all the lessons during my trip in April, yeah!

I talked briefly with my husband (and told him that the ebook was already live), did bodyweight training with the boy, ate dinner, started writing this post, did the dishes, made a list for today, played more video game and watched the documentary on the new BTS album.

And then bed.

In between all of these things I also figured out the best day and time to go to the museum next week, tidied stuff away and helped to fold the clean laundry.

Definitely a good day.

Yes, went to bed too late. And set my alarm earlier than usual because my husband had an early doctor’s appointment. So I skipped manuscript time and yoga again.

We had an early breakfast and just as I thought I should start the fire in the woodstove he was back again. We did a bit of housework and then I walked to the nearby supermarket. Only to forget one important thing so I guess I’ll get back today or tomorrow.

I actually did get the final version of the book cover and the plan was to start publishing book 3 in the afternoon.

Well.

But first lunch:

That sauce was made from leftovers and there were fresh spaghetti. Also, a bag of gummybears somehow ended up in my bag in the shop. Weird.

I had quite a bit of time in the afternoon. The plan was to play a bit of video game after lunch, then teach one student, work on publishing stuff, teach two more students and then relax.

But I picked up my controller just real quick.

On the bright side I did make some great in-game progress.

After teaching I ate a quick dinner while my husband was doing the dishes and I later joined him. I played more video game, started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

And today will be full and busy again and then – Easter break!

I went to bed too late yet again. Part of me wants to give up, part of me wants to stop talking about this but not getting enough sleep would still be a problem either way.

I wrote my morning pages, opened the computer and tried finding a document with the keywords I used when publishing book 1 and 2, failed because there doesn’t seem to be such a document anywhere, and decided to skip yoga and meditation because I didn’t feel like it and my husband was already almost done with his breakfast.

I finished knitting the heel of the current sock-in-progress after breakfast, did the dishes, helped my husband order something on the internet, saw that I had an email from my cover designer, okayed the last version and went for my walk/run:

It was very windy. The weather changed quite dramatically, we’re even supposed to get snow again.

When I came back home lunch was already on the table so we ate together and talked some more:

Then I played some Genshin, took a shower and only then realized that I had forgotten about the load of laundry that was ready to be hung up.

I frantically folded the clean laundry still on the rack so that at least one of them was free, hung up two sheets and had to leave it at that because my first student was about to arrive.

I sent the boy a message to please hang up the rest of the laundry but later it turned out that my husband had had a cancelation and used that time to do all kinds of housework. He even cleaned the basement stairs.

After my last lesson I played some piano exercises, refilled the water in my piano’s humidifier and ate dinner. I read a little, played a little, did the dishes, started writing this post, made a list for today, played some more and went to bed.

Today has already started off weird because my husband had a doctor’s appointment at 7.45 which meant getting up earlier for both of us.

My big hope for today is to move book 3 forward to publication, we’ll see how that goes.