Sorry I've been away. I've been working like mad. Both driving carriage and
writing. Last week I finished the rough draft of the third installment of The Carriage Chronicles; The Accidental Star of the Dog and Pony
Show. This is the last of the Bill/Carlos (Carlin) saga. However, I did
leave a little wiggle room to write some other linear tales, such as Nora's
story and the romance between Marlin and his fiancé. So at least there's that.
I have no less than three other novels percolating on my
laptop, and I would like to get started on those soon.
After finishing the first draft of The Accidental Star, I set it aside and, with the exception of
going through and fixing typos, for which I am legendary, I went to work on a
couple of other projects I've been meaning to get to.
One of those, the project I have made my priority, is a new
dry erase board. The one I currently use is typically overrun with notes. And
when I run out of room on the board, I write notes on Post-Its and plaster them
all over the white board. Which defeats the purpose of the dry erase board,
since you 1) cannot read the notes I wrote there and 2) it messes up the dry
erase ink so they are virtually unreadable anyway.
So, my solution was to buy a Dry Erase Kit by Rust-Oleum and
paint a 4x3 section of the wall where my dry erase board used to hang,
effectively doubling the space I use to
write notes, plot arcs, character arcs, and witty snippets of dialogue before I
forget them. Because I guarantee I will forget them if not written down. Where
I can find them. Because sometimes I write stuff down and forget where I wrote
it down. Yes, I am a forgetful mess.
Now, a note about me: (Okay, another one... since you
already know I have the remembering capabilities of Ten Second Tom*) I am
probably the single most impatient individual you will ever encounter in your
life. Seriously, I'm worse than a Golden Retriever waiting for you to throw
tennis balls. So the two hour window kind
of chaps my ass. I'm also cheap frugal. I believe in getting my money's
worth out of a product. Okay, reality check: I believe in squeezing every last
dime from whatever it is I purchase. So... I rushed it. I only waited twenty
minutes between coats, and I put on four coats. So what I ended up with was a
saggy mess reminiscent of parts of Southern Utah. So, while waves and sags in
red sandstone are beautiful, they would not be appropriate for properly applied
Dry Erase paint. So, I sanded the sags, ripples and drips down and bought
another kit.
Now, since I already had a 'dry erase' base, I knew wouldn't
have to apply as many coats the second time around. So I only mixed half of the kit. I measured
out 9.5 ounces of the base in a mixing glass, and only added 4 ounces of the
activator. I set the timer on my phone for two hours, and applied a thin coat
of paint. 30 minutes later I applied the
second coat. That seemed to work out much better. Then I waited 45 minutes to apply coat #3.
It turned out all right. And it fit in the spot I wanted, so
that beats buying an enormous Dr-Erase and trying to mount it in too small of
an area.
I also wrapped the foam roller with plastic wrap between
coats. I do this all the time when I paint a room because it keeps the paint on
the roller or brush from drying out between use. I've kept them wrapped (with
regular, non-dry erase paint) for up to a week to facilitate touch-ups. Then I
throw the roller/brush away, because I'm too lazy to wash it out and I don't
have a utility sink. My kitchen gets enough rough treatment without adding paint
splashes that make it look like Jackson Pollock is using my kitchen as his
studio. Although that wouldn't happen anyway since he's dead.
By the way, I have a love/hate relationship with Frog tape.
For those of you not in the know, Frog Tape is a special (read expensive) type
of masking tape that forms a bond between the paint and the wall. It's supposed
to stop bleed through. I used it when I painted my office and it worked
okay. It worked all right for the white
board project too. But you have to make sure that the paint that gets on the
Frog Tape isn't really thick, or else when you peel it of you get a ruffled
effect. So while you may not get bleed
through, you can get bleed over. Of course, 1) I'm not a professional and 2)
your mileage may vary.
Here are the step by step photos:
My old Dry-Erase. Too crowded...
It's called a Dry-Erase, not a Post-It holder...
I measured using a laser level and Frog Tape, marking off the area I want;
It's the camera operator, not the area, that isn't level...
This gives you an idea of the new size compared to the old Dry Erase. Much more spacious
I filled in the holes from the old board and sanded the wall to make it a smoother surface. Dry -Erase ink gets 'caught' in crevices.
First coat; Kind of thin. It would have been better if the wall was white, but my office is blue, so...
Second coat, getting better...
Third coat,
And here we go. You can see that it covers the blue. The camera on my phone isn;t good enough to show you the sags and drips, but after allowing it to dry, sanding and re-painting, it looks pretty much the same. And it works well, too. I'm satisfied. If I was a little taller I could actually reach to the top and write up there without it going all skewed
and
ending
up
going
all
kattywompas and
sloped.....
Here are the step by step photos:
My old Dry-Erase. Too crowded...
and
ending
up
going
all
kattywompas and
sloped.....
So, now I will be getting back to The Accidental Star of the Dog and Pony Show. So far for tag lines I have:
When did Happily Ever After become so perilous?
Insert blurb here, which I haven't fully written yet, so blah, blah, blah...
And then,
He never wanted to play a hero, but now he has no choice,
