Pretty designs and blank minds

A couple of short updates today.  First, I received my first Postcrossing card from the US.  "Bizzlebee" sent me a postcard with a picture of her dog and a beautiful handmade card as well.

 She usually sends cards with bluebonnets and donkeys, but since we actually live pretty close by, she sent me a picture of her 12 year old dog.  He/she's go the prettiest blue eyes!

 Bizzlebee also send me this beautiful handmade card.  She's been doing arts and crafts for stress relief lately.  She actually has an Etsy account too, it's empty at the moment (like mine), but she's looking to add things pretty soon.

This is day nine of the challenge.  I haven't started writing yet, but as soon as this posts, I'm planning on getting back to work.

7,328 words written

1 completed chapter

What I've learned about the process:
Second chapters are hard!  The first chapter was pretty easy because a lot of it was catching the reader's attention.  But this second chapter I have to set up a whole new section of exposition and lay the foundation for the current timeline (the novel has flashback chapters).  I've gotten stuck  several times while writing this chapter, simply because I don't know which direction to go next.

What I've learned about myself:
I need someone to "talk through" issues in my writing.  I was stuck for three days at the beginning of my second chapter, only writing about 1000 words over the three.  But then I sat down with the Husband and just talked about the issues.  Just putting random ideas out there and brainstorming with another warm body in the room helped me figure out where I wanted to go next.