Adventures in Breakfast

So what did you eat this morning? I had a bowl of Rice Krispies. Now for those Rice Krispie purists out there (a purist being one who believes Rice Krispies should remain unadorned and unadulterated, thus they either eat their Krispies plain or allow only milk to contact their Krispies), please turn away, for I am about to divulge my warped and unpure way of enjoying my Rice Krispies.

I assemble the necessary tools (a bowl, a spoon, the box of Rice Krispies, the gallon of milk, and my secret ingredient) and set them on the counter. My secret ingredient goes into the bowl first, followed by the Krispies. The milk is then poured over the top and the spoon inserted. I lift a bite to my mouth and enjoy! :-)

If you are guessing my secret ingredient to be a fruit of some kind, you are correct. Is it Strawberry? Banana? Kiwi? Orange? What can it be? Well, don't think me strange (I threw in Kiwi and Orange as options to throw you off), but I prefer to add seedless, green grapes to my Rice Krispies.

This may sound odd, or even gross, but have you ever tried it? NO? Try it and then you can tell me how you like (or don't like) it!

So, what do you eat on your Rice Krispies? If you don't eat Rice Krispies, what do you eat? I think a person's food says a lot about them . . . not that I believe you truly are what you eat (or I'd be a walking bar of chocolate by now). :-) So what does my eating green grapes with my Krispies say about me? It depends on your point of view (the way you look at things, not the POV you write in). :-)

What do you think?

To Snark, or not to Snark . . .

I know some have been offended by Miss Snark's blog recently (the Ms. Roth issue and if you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out. The link can be found to the right in Blogs I Visit section), but I am happy to say that I am a proud Snarkling! Yes, some of the comments in response to Ms. Roth's query were rude, even hurtful. Yes, I still found some of them amusing, I admit it freely. If Ms. Roth was offended or had her feelings hurt, she should have done more research before sending something to Miss Snark in the first place. Hopefully, she has learned from the incident and is now wiser.

The publishing industry isn't made up of nice people who send you hugs, kisses, puppies, flowers, and chocolate with their rejections. If you are looking for these things, get them yourself. Rejections hurt sometimes, no matter how nicely they are worded. Granted, the rejections on Miss Snark's site were from fellow Snarklings and not Miss Snark, but Ms. Roth never should have sent a query to Miss Snark in the first place. A few minutes on her blog make this apparent to anyone willing to actually read a bit.

I, for one, will continue to visit Miss Snark's blog. I find it refreshing that an agent will tell us how lame we as writers can sometimes be. It is a learning process and I must learn; if not from my own miskates (and I make plenty of them . . . yes the spelling of mistake was intentional), then from the mistakes of others.

Okay, I'm finished defending Miss Snark now (not that she needs me to defend her . . . she has Killer Yap for that, after all).

I know there will be those who disagree with me. Feel free to express your opinion, but if you do, please have the courage to not be anonymous! What good is having an opinion if we do not express it?

:-)

Posting the Post

I visited the wonderful land of USPS and sent off some copies of the novel today. It was a slow day in USPS, not many citizens or visitors about . . . which isn't a bad thing on the visitors end of things because I was able to get my MS into the hands of the Postal Workers much quicker than I had anticipated. :-)

Now I will be setting my novel aside and working on other projects for a while (including catching up on housework). I will also delve into some writing projects that need started/finished. When I've let my novel sit for a while, and when I get feedback from TWP (Those Wonderful People) I will greet my novel like an old friend . . . And then try to transform it into the best friend it can be. :-)

I'm Back . . .

And my back is back too! I'm feeling better, though I still get a slight pain now and then. I guess I'll have to start doing housework again, darn it!

In other news, I finished my revisions (for the thousandth time), and tomorrow I will journey to the land of the Postal Workers (known as USPS) where I will deliver some copies of my novel into their capable hands. They will use their Postal Worker magic to send these copies to a few writing friends, some family members, and my proofreader (also known as Those Wonderful People or TWP for short). TWP will then read my novel, offer any suggestions for improvement (and in the case of my proofreader, correct all my errors), and once again the Postal Workers in the land of USPS will use their magic to return the suggestions/comments/corrections to me. I will then have the opportunity to look over the suggestions/comments/corrections of TWP and further refine/revise/tweak my novel (also known as cleaning my diamond).

Whew! It's a long and complicated process! :-)

So today after church, I will be preparing the envelopes required in the land of USPS to ensure the copies of my novel arrive at their destinations safely.

Then I will get to work on some other writing projects I have been procrastinating.

Danger . . . whine ahead!

Today, I am whining. If you don't want to see it, kindly click on a different link and take yourself quietly away.

I injured my back . . . I'm not sure how and I don't want any speculations/suggestions about how it was done. If I get into a comfortable enough position, I'm fine . . . until I move. Then the pain. I know I should go to get cracked (no, I'm not talking drugs here, I'm speaking chiropractic-ly), but who has the time for such luxuries? :-) If it gets bad enough, I shall pay the doc a visit, otherwise I'll endure. I've given birth to four children, so a little back pain is nothing (a lot of back pain? Well, that's a different story)!

And if the back pain weren't bad enough, I've also broken off a portion of one of my molars! I was innocently eating barbecue potato chips and off it came. It didn't hurt much, but it does now. I know I should go to the dentist, but who has time for such torture? :-) If I'm left with the choice between the dentist and the chiropractor, I'll take the latter!

Now, it's not that I don't like dentists, they are wonderful people (most of them) in general. However, going to the dentist is one of my fears, right up there with seeing a large spider in my house! And since the broken tooth is a molar, it won't show in my publicity shots (my smile isn't THAT big) so it's not important . . . right?

Okay, I'm finished whining now. I suppose I should try and get some writing/revising done today since I can't do much else . . . oh, hey, I just realized I have a good excuse NOT to do my housework! Maybe back pain isn't all THAT bad and would be a good thing to have for a while. :-)

Polishing

Well, I believe I've found my diamond! Now I just have to clean it, cut it, and polish it until it sparkles! Yay! Then I can write a query that puts my diamond in the best light so it dazzles the agent/editor and he/she just can't resist asking for more! :-) I only wish I had waited to send queries. Now the agents I queried won't have a chance to be dazzled. Ah well, write and rewrite.

In other news, our puppy is getting closer to having a name. We are trying to decide between Marshmallow and Miss Moon Beam (Moony for short). Perhaps we should combine the two and call her Miss Marshmallow Moon Beam (Moony Mallow for short). :-) In the meantime, I am referring to her as She-who-has-not-been-named (only Harry Potter fans will understand the reference). :-)

Well, I must get to work on my diamond. When it's all cut and polished, I'll let you know if it passes the cutting glass test. Only then will I know if it is truly a diamond.

Happy Writing!

Treasure Hunting!

Well, I've set my query aside and turned back to my MS. I intend to dig into it, hoping to find a treasure, a diamond in the rough. I will take this diamond, cut it, and polish it until it sparkles. This will be a turning point for my MS. It won't just be another fantasy story, it will be THE fantasy story! :-) Today is an optimistic day!

As an author, I believe in this MS . . . and no, I can't say that about all my MSS. Some, I admit, are crap. However, this MS has potential. I thought it may have achieved its potential, but alas, it hasn't. There is something hiding beneath the surface, a theme perhaps, that must be brought into the light. What is it that makes my novel different from the thousands of other fantasy novels out there? Yes, the characters names are different. Yes, the plot twists are unique. It's your basic good vs. evil . . . but aside from a coming of age for the MC, why MUST this story be told? I intend to find the diamond among all the cubic zirconuim. I know it's there!

So, we'll see if I am still passionate about it by the end of the day! Perhaps, after my search, I will find that there is no diamond and my MS is all cubic zirconium . . . but I'm 99.9% sure there is! :-) Wish me luck!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it!

I'm still killing commas and working on my query letter. Not much else to report, though we did get a new puppy today. She's a lab mix and as of now, is nameless. I jokingly called her marshmallow and now the kids use that name, but hopefully she'll have a real name soon.





Have a great weekend!

Commacidal Maniac!

Over the last few days, I dug into my MS (manuscript) . . . Killing commas everywhere! I am now officially a commacidal maniac . . . Or maybe I would be considered a serial comma killer. Anyway, they were all mercy killings and my MS is much better for it! :)

Commas are the bane of my MS's existence. They pop up like weeds and must be pulled out and discarded before they take over the MS! There is still much weed killing to do in my novel, but I am taking a break for a moment. Hopefully, more commas didn't appear after I shut my computer down for the night.

In other news, I need to do some work on my query letter. I'll get it right one of these days! I don't know why it seems so much harder to write the query letter. It boggles the mind and depresses the soul. *sigh* It took three years to get the novel where it is today (and not just because of the overgrown commas). Hopefully, it won't take another three years to master the art of query writing. And before you send helpful links to sites or recommend books about writing query letters, I've probably already been there, read that. It's like taking a test. I know the answers but can't get them from my brain to the keyboard in the proper order, so my efforts are in vain.

Well, I must head into town to purchase milk. My children seem to think they need to pour the stuff over their cereal before they eat it. What's up with that?

You must see this!

Okay, while enjoying a chat board today (yes, I know, I should have been writing), I came across a post that took me to eBay to view the latest and greatest, most technically advanced "must have" item on the market. You can find it here. You really must check it out. Bid on it, have it for your own! What could be better or more important to our everyday existence than this marvelous item?

Seriously though, I didn't get much writing done (although I did delete a few commas from my novel) unless you count all the posting I did on Verla's board and this blog (personally, I plan to count them both). Maybe I can settle down and work on my novel later tonight . . . no wait, I can't, it's American Idol night. Yes, I am a fan though this season isn't as exciting as past ones, IMO. So maybe after AI is over . . . no wait, then it's time for Scrubs . . . okay, after Scrubs, I will work on my novel (even if it's only to delete one more comma). :-)

And so it begins . . .

Ah, change. This is my first (and maybe my last) blog. Here I will share my trials and triumphs (hopefully more triumphs than trials). Each day brings me closer to my goal of publication. Yes, I am an author. My current focus is on my novel, though now and then I may deviate and work on something else. It has taken me three years to get my novel to where it is now. Three years may seem like a long time to some of you, but I think a good novel takes time. Now, don't send me hate mail if you popped your novel out in a matter of months. I'm not saying it's crap (I can't judge it if I haven't read it . . . however, if I did read it and thought it was crap, I'd tell you)! If you can pop out a really good novel in a matter of months, more power to you. I, however, will continue to spend time editing, perfecting, changing, and hopefully improving my work. I was asked "When will you make an end?" to which I wisely quoted from the movie The Agony and the Ecstasy, "When I am finished."

I am getting closer to making my end. It's the revision that takes time. Why? Well, for one thing, punctuation is not my friend (as you can probably tell from my posts). Also, I do have other obligations in life . . . namely, home and family. Being a mother and a writer is difficult, but I wouldn't change either one! I find great joy in my family (the housework, I could do without, but it's all part of the package) and in expressing myself through my writing.

Therefore, I will continue to plug away at refining and improving my novel until, at last, I am satisfied. Then I will send it out into the world, hoping for the best but always remembering the children's market is tough and there are bound to be rejections. However, I am confident that one day it will find the perfect home with the perfect publisher. It may not bring me fame and fortune (I'm not J. K. Rowling after all) but knowing that children are reading and enjoying my book will bring great satisfaction. Don't get me wrong, I expect a nice paycheck but let's be realistic here! :-) It may take a while longer, as I have to break from writing to care for my loved ones, but my novel and my family will be better for it in the end. :-)

And so, this is my blog, an inside look into the joys and pains of motherhood and writing. My vicissitudes.