I’m sitting here in my virtual living room, talking to Jessica Broughton, part-time writer and author of the blog GrrlWriter.

Hi, Jessica.

Hi, Tim.

I really need to update the picture, since I don’t have the pink anymore!

Yeah, well, I think that’s probably true of all of us. I know it is of me. The part about needing to update the picture, that is.

I was reading on GrrlWriter about the Day Zero Project.

Day Zero Project is a website started by New Zealander Michael Green. Their mission is simple but powerful—1001 days to complete your top 101 goals. It’s a totally free website where you can create your own list, get inspired by other people’s goals and dreams, and as you complete your goals or get them started, you get to check them off. It’s all about supporting each other and reaching for the stars.

What are some of the goals that you’ve set for yourself?

I’m sitting here in my virtual living room with Sandra, of one of my favorite blogs Add Humor and Faith…mix well. I absolutely love her stories, especially the ones about her and her Hubby. And I actually wanted to have her over (virtually) for Valentine’s Day, to talk about love and marriage. But because of things happening on my end, I couldn’t pull it together. But I’m happy she’s able to spend some time with us today.

Hi, Sandy.

Hi, Tim!

As I understand it, you and Hubby will be married 45 years this coming June—the day, in fact, just before I turn “only 42.” A city girl and a country boy. And you’ve been in love with him since you were 15. How did you and Hubby first meet?

On New Year’s Eve when I was 15, I was staying overnight with my friend, Robyn. Her boyfriend, Wayne, called from a party he was at to tell her that he would like to stop over for a little while at midnight to see in the new year with her. But, she explained that I was there. No problem. He said he had a friend that he had wanted me to meet anyway, and that friend just happened to be right there at the party too! Okay, Robyn told him they could both stop over for just a little while.

Today, I had planned to publish a piece making fun of book reviewers and literary critics. Because in my opinion, publishers spend way too much time sucking up to them, which is why I decided to become a book reviewer. Unfortunately, I was unable to make fun of them without sounding bitter at them, which should tell you something about how I feel about myself. Factor in the fact that I’m also an indie publisher who is genetically incapable of sucking up, and you’ll finally understand why I should probably be in a mental institution.

So instead of publishing that post, I figured I’d let it sit for another week, see if I can do something constructive with it. In the meantime, I’m linking to a few funny, interesting, and inspiring pieces that I’ve read on the web this week.

• Pam Epstein is completing her PhD dissertation, about love and marriage from the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth century in America. For her research, she's looking at old newspaper personal ads, and sharing some of the more interesting ones with us. Here's an entertaining ad she posted today, from someone offering a, uhm, rather interesting romantic service.

• I met Jim "Suldog" Sullivan online via our mutual interest in libertarian politics. Since then, he's been writing pretty regularly in his uniquely personal (and often funny) blog. Here's a post from his archives, about how he met his wife.

• Sandra at Add Humor and Faith...mix well recently posted about marrying her Hubby, and how God gave her the kind of husband she needed (rather than a "perfect" husband).

• And of course, here's from my own archives, my own story of happily ever after.

• Lastly, maybe Valentine's Day is about romance, not about sex. But... Well, maybe it can be about sex, too. Check out these 13 funny-sexy panties. (Maybe the Missus will get herself one of the dirtier ones for my Valentine's gift!)

I’ve been slogging my way through NaNoWriMo. I’ll probably call this novel From the Ashes of Courage (or some variation thereof), because I think it reflects the theme and mood of the story: risking all in the face of defeat; and less Love Boat, more As Good As It Gets.

At this point, when it comes to NaNoWriMo, I’m about 15,000 words behind where I ought to be, and I don’t appear to be catching up. This, after I bragged that I wouldn’t have any trouble keeping up. (That’ll learn me to keep my big mouth shut!)

I could blame my accident last Saturday.

Lately, as you may have noticed, I’ve been rediscovering blogging. That is, I’ve been writing more blog posts, more regularly. And not just posting more here on this blog, but rather on various sites in the J. Timothy King Website Network. And not just posting more articles, but also reading more blogs. And not just posting and reading, but posting and reading for the fun of it.

Over the weeks and months and years, I’ve gotten out of touch with the blogs and other sties in my RSS feeds, not even skimming them for interesting posts. But of late, I’ve started to visit certain feeds more regularly, and I’ve developed a process by which I can discover more interesting blogs, to skim them, and to categorize them by priority, depending on how interesting they are to me and how close their authors are to me personally. And it’s actually provided some enjoyment for me. (I just have to remember to let blogging stay fun and not to become work, or else I’ll get stressed out by it, and that will be the end of that.)

So I thought today, I’d post some of the interesting recent posts from some new blogs I’ve discovered. All of these blogs have already made it into my “preferred blogs” category, so I’ve already found some affinity with each of the authors of these blogs.

Enjoy! -TimK