Novel Writings

Creating = Writing + Chocolate cake is dangerous

2012-01-24T10:51:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was my first ceramics class of the semester. It’s been a year since last I did ceramics. I missed it! I decided to make a Christmas-ish container type thing—it was a spur of the moment/what the heck am I going to make/I have to do something besides sit here situation. We’ll see how it turns out after it dries and is fired, glazed, and fired again.

Anyway, by the time the class was over, I had thought through some issues in my MG (making ceramics doesn’t use all my concentration) and wanted to rush home and work on it. I couldn’t because I had to pick the kids up from school (the class goes from 8:3-2:20 and the kids get out at 2:15). After I picked them up from school, I rushed home (drove a little over the speed limit) in the hopes of getting to work on it.

Alas, I had to do some house cleaning because my parents called and were on their way to my house. It was great to see them, but the weather was turning nasty and they had to rush away after only a few minutes. Still, at least the dishes were done and the floors swept and mopped. I hoped to get to writing then, but my cousin called with some questions and then my sister called with an update on my brother (he’s been in the hospital since Sunday with complications from an appendectomy). By the time I got off the phone, I had ten minutes to get to my evening History class.

The class went well, and I really think I’m going to like it, but when I got home, I had to help the kids with homework and get some food in me (hubby made dinner) and then I was exhausted!

Today I was supposed to help out in the kids’ school library. I ditched so I could do some writing and also read the chapter I need to read before class tonight.

The point of all this is that I’m back! I’m no longer in a writing funk and WANT to write again. YAY!!

Those of you who have been there will understand my excitement. I was hoping the ceramics class would due the trick and am pleased that it did (even though I didn’t get the time to write yesterday). I’m not sure the librarian is very happy, but sometimes volunteer work has to be put on the back burner for a while.

I’m working on my MG today (though I’m taking a break to blog—and then get some breakfast/brunch) and things have been going well so far this morning. I hope to accomplish more before I have to go get the kids from school (I’ll do my History reading after I get them since class isn’t until 6:00 tonight).

Anyway, this whole thing got me thinking. How do you get out of your writing funk? Are you the type of person who just writes even when you don’t feel like it? Do you have another creative outlet you do (crochet, drawing, painting, photography, etc.) to help get your creativity flowing? Or do you have something else that may not necessarily be creative that you do to help get your writing groove back?

Write/Share on!

Edited to add:

Chocolate Cake Is Dangerous!

I decided my breakfast/brunch would be a piece of the Entenmann’s Chocolate Fudge Cake that hubby brought home yesterday (he brought home two and we ate the other one after dinner). As I opened the box, I cut my pinky finger! OUCH!! Stinking cardboard cuts! It sliced off a little bit of skin and is stinging and bleeding a little. I managed to scrounge around and found what I’m pretty sure is the last band-aid in the house. It stuck together when I was trying to put it on and I mangled it a bit, but managed to get the cut covered (so I won’t bleed all over my keyboard).

Now I’m sitting down with a sliced finger, a slice of cake, and a glass of milk (we’ll pretend this is a balanced and nutritious meal). Mmmm. It’s worth it.

Friday Five

2012-01-20T13:01:00.001-07:00

1. I’m pretty sure K had a seizure last night/early this morning. All I know is that when I went to wake her up for school, she had wet her bed and drooled all over (poor girl). I got her up and into a bath and then she started complaining of a huge headache and feeling like she was going to throw up—which always happens after a big seizure. She doesn’t usually wet the bed (though she does tend to drool a bit) and when coupled with the headache and nausea, I’m pretty sure had an episode. I just wish I knew how long it lasted and how bad it was. She didn’t seem to have bitten her tongue this time at least.

2. After all that, she still wanted to go to school. I tried to convince her to stay home, but she insisted. I gave her children’s ibuprofen and off we went. When we arrived at school, she was still complaining of a headache and nausea. It took her teacher telling her to go home that finally did it, but only after K made me promise she could go back if she felt better later. She came home and slept for about an hour and wanted to go back to school. I grudgingly took her and hope she will be okay for the rest of the day. The teacher knows what to look out for, but I still worry.

3. I got a little bit of writing done while she was sleeping on my bed. It was hard because I was trying to type softly so as not to wake her. I never realized how LOUD typing can be until I was trying to be quiet! Dang! Those little key strokes are noisy!

4. Yesterday morning, I sent of the third PB manuscript for the series my agent suggested. I had also sent her a Christmas PB manuscript. She’s been sick and emailed that she’d get to them as soon as she possibly can. Poor woman! I can’t imagine trying to work and fight off the whooping cough at the same time. Anyway, I told her I’d work on my YA or MG stuff until I hear back from her. Yesterday I worked on one of my new YA projects and again this morning. But, if I do any more writing today, I think I’ll work on my MG for a while.

5. I’m feeling run down because I haven’t been getting enough sleep and am thinking of taking a nap when I’m done with this post—writing can wait, right? I mean, if I write when I’m tired, I may end up with a more mixed up and crazy world than Alice’s Wonderland!

~~Write~~ Sleep on!

Friday Five—um, I mean—Thirteen

2012-01-13T12:38:00.001-07:00

In honor of this most wonderful superstitious filled day.

1. I’ve signed up to attend college classes (9 credit hours)

2. College started on Wednesday. My first class was to be last night (U. S. History II), but the college called at about noon to tell me the teacher dropped the class for lack of students.

3. Since that class was dropped, I signed up for another class that was to be held last night (Psychology).

4. The college called at about 3:30 to say they found another teacher to teach the History class that the other teacher had dropped.

5. I dropped Psychology (they are on the same night and time) and re-signed up for History, but the class was cancelled for Thursday night since the new teacher needed some time to get a lesson plan together. Our first class will be on Tuesday evening.

6. I have Ceramics on Monday morning and History 105 (Western Civilization II) on Monday nights. Since MLK day is on Monday, I won’t get to attend these classes until January 23.

7. January 23 is AFTER the add/drop date so I really hope I like them—I know I love ceramics, but am concerned about the History class especially since I will be taking two of them this semester. What was I thinking???!!!

8. I was going to take a drawing class this semester, but decided to drop it because the class was Wednesday mornings. If I would have kept it, I’d be gone all day Monday for Ceramics (8:30-2:20), all day Tuesday to volunteer at the kids’ school library (9:00-2:15), and most of Wednesday (8:30-12:50) for the Drawing class. I also volunteer at the library part of Thursday mornings. That would have left me NO WRITING TIME!! AHHH. It was painful to drop the drawing class, but it had to be done. I’ll take it another semester.

9. One “fun” class is enough (ceramics) and I needed to fill the other two slots with “serious” classes. Hopefully it was the right decision, but I can’t help wondering if I should have taken two “fun” classes and only one “serious” class.

10. It’s been cold and windy here the last few days. I’m ready for spring!

11. I haven’t been in the mood to write much lately. I’ve still been trying, but it’s hard to make the words come. I’ll probably have to delete everything I’ve written and start over when I’m finally back in the groove of things.

12. I’ve fallen off my Wii Fit wagon. I was aiming for “playing” it every day in hopes of getting a little bit in shape, but I only made it three days in a row. Of course, it doesn’t help that the kids take the Wii Fit platform out of my room so they can play it in the living room (yes, we have two Wii systems—one for the kids and one for hubby and I . . . we’re geeks, okay?). I’d tell them to leave it in here and ban them from taking it, but how can I deny them the chance to exercise too? Maybe I should break down and buy another Wii Fit system. *sigh*

13. I’ve delayed as much as I can (well, I’m sure I can find some other distraction if I REALLY wanted to) with online time and need to get some writing done. Unfortunately, it hasn’t felt fun for me lately and I’m approaching it like it’s a chore. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I need to get out of this funk soon!!! I love writing---I just don’t want to do it right now. I know this mood will change, I just don’t know when.

Well, I made it all the way to 13 (I wasn’t sure I would). Hope you all have a wonderful and LUCKY Friday the 13th.

Write on.

Finally Friday Five . . . or so

2011-12-16T14:04:00.001-07:00

It’s been a crazy since I last posted!

1. I had a birthday and got another year older—hate it when that happens.

2. It snowed here on Monday night, and the school decided to give the kiddos a snow day on Tuesday (which was good because it continued to snow throughout the day)! Yay!! We only got a few inches and it melted away quickly, but it was fun while it lasted.

3. We got some of the Christmas decorating done. I know I said it would take two days, but I forgot that I had to spend most of the day on Saturday getting things ready for Sunday’s trip to my parents’ house. We try to come together three times a year and the December meeting includes a Christmas Program. Normally we have the kids dress up and put on the Christmas pageant, but we weren’t going to have enough kids coming this year who would be willing to do it (curse that whole getting older and more mature thing). Since it was my year to be in charge of the program, I had to put something together. I ended up doing a Power Point presentation complete with videos, scripture readings, and music. It was kind of a pain, but turned out well. Anyway, the decorating didn’t get done. We do have the tree up, the lighted deer figures and lighted candy canes are hooked up to the light show box and put out on the lawn to blast the Christmas music and flash the lights and annoy the heck out of my neighbors (that’s what the Season is all about right?). I hope to get the other lights up and hooked into the box today and tomorrow (cause it might take me two days—not cause I have THAT many lights, but it’s cold outside and I don’t want to be out there too long).

4. I finished my final for my last college class last night! YAY!!! It was U.S. History 101 and I feel I did well on it—so hopefully I did!

5. We got our Elf on the Shelf and have been having so much fun with him! The kids named him Winter Tinsel. If you’re not familiar with this tradition, click on the link above and check it out! Here’s a picture of one of Winter Tinsel’s hiding places:

And this is how we found him this morning:

Too much fun!

6. Dawn Metcalf is having a contest in which you can win some fabulous reading material. Click the link to check out her Don’t Miss This If You Missed It Contest Giveaway.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Write on.

Seizure The Day

2011-12-07T09:16:00.001-07:00

K had a seizure on Monday (she hadn’t had one since sometime around Labor Day). She’s been home from school since then because of headaches. She was going to go back to school today, but at the doctor’s office yesterday, she had a temperature—so home again.

This post by Rachelle Gardner got me thinking about my priorities and how I “triage” not only my writing life, but my life in general. For me, my family/kids have always come first (though housework isn’t considered family—hee hee hee). I drop everything to take care of them.

This has never been an issue for me, but I can’t help wondering if there will be a day when it is. What happens if I have a deadline I need to make? Will I be able to drop it and let my family come first? I’d like to think I’d find a way to do both, but—especially in K’s case—I’m not sure it will be possible. It’s not that she needs my undivided attention after she has a seizure (she usually sleeps for several hours), but I can’t concentrate and feel the need to check on her every five minutes or so to make sure she’s not seizing again or having any problems.

Monday I tried to force myself to write, but I just couldn’t. I was able to write on Tuesday so I guess that made up for the lack of writing on Monday. Had K not stayed home on Tuesday, I wouldn’t have been able to do any writing because I volunteer at the kids’ school library all day Tuesday and on Thursday mornings. That would have put my only full writing day this week on Friday (the kids have half days today and tomorrow for teacher in-service). Were I on a deadline with a novel, this could pose a problem.

The thing is, in my “triage” I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to prioritize my writing above my kids/family. They will always come first. That doesn’t mean I’ll blow off a deadline to go on a field trip with the kids or something like that (depends on how important it is to the child in question), but the really important things—where they need me will always come first. If that makes me a bad writer, I’m okay with that. I believe in God and an afterlife where families can be together forever. My writing isn’t going to get me a place in the eternities, but the relationship with my family will. I’d rather be a bad writer if it makes me a better mother.

Do you ever have days when no matter how much you want to write and have the means and time to write, you just can’t bring yourself to do it? If so, do you fight it and get some writing done anyway or do you just let it go? How do you triage your writing life/real life?

~~Write~~ Triage on!

LiveJournal Tags: life,writing,bad days,family

Brrr . . . December!

2011-12-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

It’s raining (trying to snow) and cold here today. I wanted to curl up in my bed and stay there, but the school thinks my kids need to attend, even on days like this. *sigh*

We bundled up and went off to school. I spent the first part of the morning helping out in the kids’ library (I’m now helping all day Tuesday and on Thursday mornings), and stopped at McDonald’s to get myself a large peppermint hot chocolate (I don’t drink coffee) on the way home. It’s still too hot to drink (you should have heard my taste buds scream when I tried to drink it), and I’m thinking of putting it in the freezer to cool down . . . but that means I’d have to get up from the laptop and move. #toolazytomove

After I finish blogging and checking my email, I’ll dive into working on the new picture book (the third one). Yay! I stopped working on this one to write up a Christmas one that was nagging at me (it obviously doesn’t have the Christmas spirit to be nagging like that).

Speaking (or writing) of Christmas, the kids have been bugging me to get out the decorations. I promised we would today, but since it’s raining, I’m hoping to postpone it. They’ll probably insist we do the tree even though we can’t put up the outside decorations (kids are smart like that), but I’d rather not mess with it today.

Between college assignments and writing new picture books for my agent (my agent!! SQUEE—uh-hem, sorry, I’m still excited about that), NaNo was a bust for me this year. I didn’t even get half way—barely a drop in the 50,000 word bucket—but I’m not too horribly upset about it. Maybe I can do it next year—we’ll see.

Brr—I stepped in a puddle when I was running into the house to get out of the rain (being the wicked witch of the west and all, I didn’t want to melt) so I had to take off my shoes and socks and now my feet are cold. I’ve got to get some more socks on. I think it’s time to bust out the fuzzy socks!! That means it’s REALLY winter—even though the calendar says it isn’t. Come on, who are you going to trust; the fuzzy socks or the calendar??!!

Cold weather like this always makes me want to get back into crocheting. I really don’t have the time for it, so I’ll have to resist the temptation. This chilly weather also makes me want soup, or chili, or stew (and the hot chocolate, of course). What do you like to do (keep it clean, people)/eat when it’s cold outside?

Write on.

I’m Thankful, And I Have An Agent!!

2011-11-24T08:40:00.001-07:00

Oh, it feels so good to type that. On this day of giving thanks, I want to take a moment to thank all of you who have been so influential in my writing journey. I can’t thank you enough for the critiques and love and support you’ve all given me over the years. I wouldn’t have been able to get this far without you!

Nor would I have come this far without my family who’ve been so loving and supporting of my writing moods and neglected housework. I’m so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and children and extended family. Love you guys!!!

On to the announcement.

For those who haven’t heard, I’ve signed with Jennifer DeChiara of The Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency. As most of you know, I write for children and have been focusing on young adult and middle grade novels. Back in 2008, I entered the 2nd Annual Cheerios New Author Contest with the one and only picture book manuscript I’d written (though I’ve written a few more since). The story was posted on the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories website in 2009 and stayed up there until 2010 when the new winners were announced. After the story was taken off the site, the rights were returned to me. Hubby started bugging me to try to query with it, but I was too focused on my YA at the time and ignored him.

I finally started querying with it (though I was also querying with my YA) in September, but only “on the side.” I received some interest from an agent, but since I didn’t have any other picture book manuscripts she was interested in, she ended up passing. It only took a few weeks before another agent got back to me. This time, she didn’t ask for more manuscripts—she made an offer. I emailed the other agents and let them know I had an offer, and received another offer!

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed that it was my PB that had landed the offers, but the disappointment didn’t last long. In the end, one of the reasons I signed with Jennifer is because she offered to represent my entire career, not just the picture book. She also gave me great feedback and suggested a couple of tweaks that have helped the manuscript. She also suggested I write more picture books along the same lines as the one she fell in love with. I’d never considered this, but I’m loving every minute of it. I’ve already written one (doing some revising) and started another!

I’m so excited to be able to work with Jennifer! She’s so awesome, she’s agreed to do an interview to post on the blog. Keep an eye out for that in the near future.

May you all have a joyous and wonderful Thanksgiving Day!!

Write on.

Full of AWESOME!!

2011-11-16T09:02:00.001-07:00

This is the most amazing, awesome, creepy, eerie, spooky, beautiful, wonderful and all those other words I can’t even think of to describe this outstanding (there’s another one) trailer!

You have GOT to watch this!!

And if you haven’t read the book, run (don’t walk) to your nearest bookstore, buy a copy and get reading. I’m telling you, the novel is everything this book trailer promises.

Write on (or watch on and read on)!

Giving Up Is Hard To Do

2011-11-12T08:52:00.001-07:00

Yeah, I know, the song says, "breaking up is hard to do," but I think giving up is even harder. At least for me. I've heard that there comes a time when a manuscript has to be put aside and we have to move on. While I don't disagree with this, I think putting it aside and giving up on it are two different things. I've set manuscripts aside, but I've never given up on them--well, except for the romance I wrote back in high school. *grin* While I had no problem letting go of THAT one, there are others I just can't walk away from. I believe in them. Sure, they've been through revisions and rewrites and restructurings and revisions and rewrites and restructurings and . . . well you get the picture.

I'm in the process of rewriting my first MG--again! I love the story and characters too much to let them sit in a file and never come out to play. Granted, the rewrite isn't the only thing I'm working on, I also have a YA idea I'm writing and another MG I'm writing, and several rhyming picture books I'm trying to convert to prose (just to see if I can). And this morning I got an awesome idea for a new YA (which I added to my LONG list of ideas for YAs).

Now, this isn't usually the way I work, I promise. One idea takes off and I work on it exclusively, but that's been frustrating in the past. At times I hated a story and felt forced into working on it when my heart wasn't in it (and it shows in the scenes I wrote during that time). Or, I haven't done any writing that day because I was stuck on a scene and couldn't move forward. I've found it much easier to leave the project(s) alone for a day or so and work on something else until I'm ready to move back in. This helps me avoid writer's block because I always have something else to go to when I'm stuck, and by the time I'm ready to go back to the project I left, my brain has worked through the block and I can move forward. Everyone has their own writing method(s), and right now, this works for me.

This whole idea of moving on to something new and leaving old work behind as a learning experience may work for other people--and, in my case, it worked for that high school days novel--but for certain projects, I don't think there's anything wrong with coming back to them once you've learned more about writing and can improve them.
That being said, I'm not a proponent of working to revive a dead manuscript at the exclusion of all other writing endeavors either. No one should spend all their time redoing the same novel over and over and over. We do have to write other things because it's only through the new that we learn the mistakes we made in the old. If we wallow in the old, we miss the experience of the new.

I'm sure there are exceptions to this (there always are), but most of us aren't the exception. I'm not saying there's nothing new to be learned from continuing to work on the same manuscript for years at a time (that's how I started out), but I do think more new knowledge comes from exploring other characters and their voices.
Anyway, this little post is just my way of saying we shouldn't always give up on our manuscripts. Set them aside, write something new, but don't be afraid to come back to that set aside story. If we believe in something that much, chances are, we believe in it for a reason. Keep coming back to that story until there's nothing left to believe in.

May you all have a great weekend. =)

Write on!

A New Week

2011-11-07T09:01:00.001-07:00

When I woke up, it was raining. When we left the house to take the ten minute drive to school, it was raining. A couple of minutes into the drive, it started pouring down snow! Big fluffy white flakes of the stuff! Thankfully I wasn’t the only one caught off guard by the weather. The line to drop off the kids at school was HUGE!! The kind people in charge of the school decided not to take attendance until 8:00 so the kids weren’t counted as being tardy. Whew! The snow has slowed down and we probably won’t get much, but here’s a picture of some on the tree out front (I took it from the porch because I didn’t want to go too far outside).

Yeah, it sure is pretty, but along with the pretty comes the cold. Brrrr!!!

Despite the hectic morning, and despite the knowledge that I have to do more revisions on my Moby Dick paper for American Literature class tonight, so far this week is starting off with a bang . . . or some really good emails and a phone conversation anyway. I’ll share details when I can.

So, I’m off to revise and hopefully also do some new writing to catch up with the NaNo count (or at least give it a shot).

Hope everyone has a great day!

Write on!

Sighing on Saturday

2011-11-05T09:03:00.001-07:00

I’m so glad this week is over (well, after today)! Things have been extremely stressful and I think I have at least five new gray hairs (time to make a trip to the hair color aisle).

On Monday, I had a rough draft of my Moby Dick paper due. I’ve been trying for weeks to focus my thoughts and decide what analysis I was going to do. On Monday, I sat at the computer with no firm decision and started writing. I ended up going with the prolific use of the color white in the novel. I typed up the seven pages required (and a little over) and turned it in that night. Whew! But I couldn’t rest yet. On Wednesday night I had another massive project due. Granted, I’ve been researching and organizing thoughts for this one, but hadn’t actually started working on it (other than getting the pictures I needed). The project was a three page essay (it ended up being 3 1/2) and PowerPoint biography presentation on Nathaniel Hawthorne.

It was fascinating to learn more about him, and I especially loved learning how he was friends with Herman Melville, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Henry David Thoreau. Writers were friends and supported each other even back then. Hawthorne was an inspiration to Melville and, had it not been for him, we probably wouldn’t have Moby Dick on the shelves today. Also, Edgar Allan Poe did a review of Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales, as did Longfellow. Cool! I’ll refrain from giving you the complete biography (though it’s hard to resist *grin*). Anyway, I typed up the biography and put the presentation together Wednesday morning and was finished in time for class (yeah, what is it with waiting until the last minute with me . . . though technically, I didn’t as I was researching and highlighting info and organizing thoughts WAY before then).

AND, I got it done in spite of the issues of the afternoon! K accidentally hit JR in the eye with a baseball bat. *sigh* A few weeks ago, a neighbor kid hit JR in the mouth with a baseball bat and we stressed to JR that if someone had a bat in their hands, he was to stay far away from them. Apparently the lesson didn’t sink in. He didn’t lose any teeth or chip any, but the inside of his lip was cut by his teeth, not enough to require medical intervention or anything. Needless to say, we were baffled as to why he wouldn’t have heeded the advice to stay away from people holding bats. He was hit on his eyebrow, and everything was fine, though he had a headache and his eye got swollen. He’s black and blue now.

Did he learn his lesson? NO, he did NOT!! Yesterday he comes running in with blood running down his face. Another neighbor kid had hit him in the head with a baseball bat!! WHY JR? WHY??? He had a trip to Urgent Care where they used that wonderful glue to close the cut on top of his head. I walked down to the kid’s house and let him know we weren’t mad at him and that it wasn’t his fault JR walked into his swing. Poor kid was a bit upset. After JR got back from getting glued back together, the kid came bearing a gift of homemade muffins to apologize. He’s a sweet kid and I hope this doesn’t throw him off playing baseball because he’s REALLY good at it. =)

However, we have banned our children from playing baseball for a while (but I let the neighbor kid and my girls know that they can still play baseball together when JR isn’t around . . . shhh).

So, this weekend, I’ll be revising my rough draft of my Moby Dick paper (it’s due on Monday . . . hmm . . . maybe I’ll wait until then to do it . . . hee hee hee), and trying to catch up on my word count for NaNoWriMo. I’m WAY behind on that.

We were supposed to get snow last night, but it didn’t happen (though we had a brilliant rain storm). It’s cold and cloudy out there today though so we’ll see what happens. I’m kind of hoping for the snow which is weird since I usually don’t like it at all. I think I just want to see the pretty whiteness . . . OOOHHH whiteness!! Maybe it’s because of that stupid Moby Dick paper and all the focus on white that I’ve been doing.

Have a great weekend!!

Write on.

I Wish I Blogged More

2011-10-17T09:35:00.004-07:00

Yeah, things have been crazy since I went back to school. Homework, homework, and more homework. And that’s on top of my already busy family life.

I’m supposed to be working on an assignment for American Literature class right now. It’s an outline that’s due tonight (thank goodness it’s the outline and not the paper). I spent the last three days trying to finish reading Moby Dick so I could do the outline. I began reading it several weeks ago just after I downloaded it onto my Kindle.

Normally it doesn’t take me nearly that long to finish a book, but have you read Moby Dick? My first mistake was reading an unabridged version. Yeah, if you’ve done it, you know my pain.

I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, but it’s not one of those books you can read while the TV is going and the kids are being noisy (and if you could I don’t want to hear about it). This tome takes some serious concentration (again, if you breezed through it, don’t tell me . . . let me pretend it’s hard for everyone to get through cause it will make me feel better . . . you want me to feel better, RIGHT?)!

In addition to the chapters on cetology, whaling practices, and other wanderings, the language of the story itself is . . . um . . . old. Yeah. We’ll go with that. If someone tried to publish a novel like this today, it wouldn’t happen . . . or it would, if it were self published.

That’s not to say it never should have been published, it’s just that there’s a HUGE difference between books being published in America during it’s fledgling years and ones being published now. HUGE difference.

Okay, see what I did there? I’m so used to reading Melville that I just went off on a tangent myself! I’m so going to have to read a modern novel before I go back to writing my own. *sigh*

Really, I just popped in here to let you know about a contest the most awesome Shannon Messinger is having. You can win a wish!! No, really, you can!! Go check it out by clicking on the beautifully Photo Shopped Shannon:

And you can also win books!!! One of them is THE BEYONDERS by Brandon Mull. It's an awesome MG adventure and if you read his FABLEHAVEN series, you'll love this one too (BEYONDERS is a quest type fantasy which I LOVE).

Now, I’ll get back to writing my outline after which I’ll get started on the Hawthorn biography and PowerPoint presentation I have to have done by either Wednesday or next Monday (whenever we finish up Poe). Yeah, I thought going back to school part time was going to be easy.

Write on.

Shhh . . . It’s A Secret

2011-09-26T12:12:00.001-07:00

Actually, it’s a lot of secrets! Last week the post office was good to me and delivered my four copies of SPRINKLES AND SECRETS by Lisa Schroeder (my three youngest kids and I are reading it aloud in our “Book Club”) and also my two hard cover copies of CIRCLE OF SECRETS by Kimberley Griffiths Little. Over the weekend, I finished Circle of Secrets (LOVE it and there will be a review coming) and hope to start Sprinkles and Secrets today . . . I might have to read ahead of the kids though cause it’s slow going in the book club sometimes *grin*).

I wasn’t sure things could get any better until J told me there was a book fair at her school this week (middle school). Of course, I had to go this morning . . . I mean, we’re talking books (and the librarian is a close friend of mine)!!

And what did I find there? Paperback copies of CIRCLE OF SECRETS that included charm bracelets! Yeah, I had to buy the only four copies the book fair had (for my two daughters and two of my nieces)!!

Here’s the beauty of them all laid out on my bed:

And a closer picture to show the charm bracelet (probably should have removed the price sticker to show it better . . . oh well):

You probably noticed I have an extra copy of Circle of Secrets (hard cover) . . . I bought an extra because I’m hoping to have a contest on my blog in the near future in which I will be giving away the extra copy . . . as well as some other goodies. Stay tuned!

In writing news, I’m working on a new project and revising an old one (a MG).

Write on!

The Inbox: A Tale of Horror

2011-08-18T15:09:00.001-07:00

I’ve enjoyed attending WriteOnCon this week (it ends tonight). I’ve learned and grown and have been inspired. Tomorrow I will be busy catching up on housework that I’ve neglected for the last three days (the Con started on Tuesday). Because of this, I’ve decided to do a blog post today instead of my Friday five (or four) tomorrow.

My desktop icons blink to life. Amid the shortcuts for games and programs, one stands out. It’s the Firefox link. Its blue globe wrapped with the orange fox is more intimidating than one would think. Why is this icon so sinister? Because Firefox connects me to the internet and the internet connects me to my gmail.

I place a trembling finger on my laptop version of a mouse. The arrow inches across the screen, making its way to the Firefox shortcut. Once in position, I pause. Do I want to click? I only use my gmail account for submissions and the occasional entry in a contest. If I have mail, it’s most likely a reply from an agent.

The brave part of me wants to click. It’s so easy to do. One little movement with my thumb or a simple lift and tap of my finger will do it. But I’m afraid. What’s out there in the darkness of the internet? Will I find rejection? A request? What?

I have to know, and so I click.

And there it is.

Nothing.

*sigh*

I’m not sure which is worse, an empty email inbox or an inbox with a rejection or two (or more).

Yeah.

I’m once again in the submission stage in my search for an agent (after not submitting for over a year while I did a complete revision and started a few more projects). I’d forgotten how time consuming and gut wrenching the process is.

First, there’s the time consuming research. Making sure the agent is one who accepts the genre. Reading interviews, tweets, and anything else I can find (sometimes I’ve taken notes so I look through my notebook and update as needed). If I were to add it all up, I bet I’ve spent more time researching agents than I did researching info for my books! Alright, probably not, but it seems like it.

After the research, comes the query letter. It’s not something as simple as copy and paste (other than the novel info). The personalization comes into play. Putting the research to good use, I craft a beginning (or ending depending on agent’s preference) into the query so the agent knows I didn’t just pull their name out of a hat.

When all is finally ready, I have to let the query sit for at least 1/2 an hour. Then I come back to it and look it over to make sure it’s error free (though sometimes I still manage to miss things). Once I’m satisfied, I steer my arrow cursor to the send button.

Usually at this point, I pause because I’m overcome with doubt. When I work up the nerve, I hit send. It flies across the internet and lands in the agent’s inbox (or that of an intern). This is terrifying!!!

It’s out of my hands. I’ve done everything I can and put my query and/or pages out there for consideration.

Now I wait . . . and wait . . . and wait. There’s always a moment of panic when I click on my email and wait for the page to load.

Earlier, I said I wasn’t sure which was worse, an empty inbox or a rejection. After thinking about it while I wrote this post, I think the empty inbox is worse.

With the empty inbox, I don’t know. The hope is alive, it’s exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. I try so hard not to get my hopes up, but I can’t help thinking that maybe this time I’ll get a request for a partial or full. It could happen. Hope; a dangerous plant to cultivate.

At least with a rejection, I KNOW. The hope is dashed. I can go to QueryTracker.com (a great way to track submissions)and change the query icon from an envelope with lightning bolt (for equeries) to a red frowny face rejection icon. I can move on to the next agent on my to query list and start the process all over again.

The Inbox is a terrifying tale of horror that retells itself each and every day.

Since it’s doubtful that I’ll have time to log in tomorrow, I’ll be early and say I hope you all have a great weekend!

~~Write~~ Submit on.

There Are Dandelions on the Other Side of the Fence Too

2011-08-12T12:58:00.001-07:00

Jon Gibbs has some amazing links on his Interesting Posts About Writing this week. One of them is Confessions Of A Writer With A Book Deal by Natalie Whipple. Her post is a great reminder not to get into the “grass is always greener” mode of thinking.

Will it be nice when I land an agent and get a book deal? You bet it will. Will I celebrate? Absolutely. However, Natalie’s post reminded me that there is opposition in all things. Along with the wonderful things an agent/book deal will bring, there will be not so wonderful things. New pressures, new deadlines (self-imposed deadlines are nothing to the real beast from what I understand), and new worries.

The grass may be a bit greener on the other side of the fence when I first get there because it’s new and wonderful and beautiful to me. But after a while, I’ll start to notice that the green grass on the agented/published side has just as many dandelions (maybe more) as I had on the un-agented/unpublished side.

And dandelions love to multiply (no matter which side of the fence they grow on)! But they have their good uses too. In real life dandelions can be used for gall bladder, kidney, and urinary disorders; the juice from roots is used for diabetes; the greens are more nutrient rich than spinach . . . among other things. In our writing lives, dandelions are obstacles we have to overcome. These will make us (and our writing) stronger . . . IF WE LET THEM.

That’s the key. If we let the dandelions take over the grass, we’ll lose control. We have to choose how we react to them. Let them win and ruin the grass, or take charge and pull them out, use weed killer, whatever.

My personal choice will always be to fight back and rid my grass of as many as I can. That’s not to say I won’t have bad days when the dandelions multiply by five (or more), but I know those days are my choice (though I can make all the excuses in the world). If the pesky yellow flowers grow and spread, it won’t be the fault of the market, or the publishing houses, or the agents who reject me. No. It will be because I made a choice to let things get to me. I allowed the dandelions to grow instead of digging them out (much more satisfying—though time consuming—than the weed killer IMO).

So even though the grass seems to be greener on the other side, there will always be dandelions. Even if we can’t see them on the surface, they lurk beneath just waiting to come into the light. And it’s good to know we’re not alone. Other authors (such as Natalie) have noticed and are sharing their dandelion experiences with us.

Have a great weekend!

Write on.

Friday Five . . . yay I have Five this week!

2011-08-05T13:52:00.001-07:00

1. We’re starting to get into a school routine. It’s hard after the freedom of summer (for all of us). We’re trying to get back into the habit of doing homework, chores, and dinner at the scheduled times. Some days are easier than others (right now, Monday and Thursday are tough because the older two have after school activities). Also, our youngest, JR, just turned eight so he’s starting cub scouts. He’s thrilled, but Thursday he brought home a model boat kit. I guess they have boat races or something (E wasn’t very involved in scouts . . . except for the Pinewood Derby car races) so boats are a new adventure. He says he’s supposed to build and paint it so that’s what he’ll be doing after school today. Anyway, a schedule is much easier to type up and print out than it is to follow. And I don’t go back to school until the 22nd (only taking two classes; American Literature and U.S. History) so I’m sure there’ll be a shakeup in the routine then.

2. Writing is going well. I was able to finish the critique and have moved on to taking notes for the next project. I decided to try a different method and am actually plotting and planning before diving into writing. I’m also trying a new thing: Blockbuster Plots Pure and Simple by Martha Alderson, M.A. I only got my scene tracker kit in the mail yesterday and haven’t had much time to play around with it so I’m not sure how it will work (or not work) for me. I’ll be sure to come back and report when I’ve experienced it a bit more.

3. We’ve had some pretty good thunder storms rolling through the last few days. We need the rain, so I’m not complaining at all. I love when it clouds over and the thunder starts rumbling . . . but it’s the humidity I can do without. I haven’t weighed myself lately, but I’m sure I’ve lost at least five pounds from all the sweating I’ve been doing. I’m showering two times a day (at least)! Yeah, I could never live in the South.

4. I ended up rewriting my first chapter of the old WIP yesterday. I know, I know I’m supposed to be working on the NEW WIP . . . and I am . . . except for yesterday. I had an idea to enhance the first chapter and was only going to make a note for it, but that note ended up being a revision. Oh well. It’s a better chapter now. I decided I’m going to give in to the occasional urge to tinker with the old WIP . . . BUT only when I’ve been working on the new WIP and need a little break or get stuck, or whatever. Yeah, that’s my plan.

5. Have you ever gotten to the point that you hate your MS? I know we should love our work, and I usually do, but yesterday’s foray into the first chapter of the old WIP made me realize how sick I am of that novel!! Granted, I first wrote the blasted thing in November of 2007 (or maybe it was 2008) and it’s been my constant companion through revisions, revisions, revisions, a complete rewrite, and more revisions for the last almost four (or three) years. Change is good, even when it comes in the form of revisions, but changing to a whole new WIP is definitely called for right now.

So, have you ever hated a MS and dreaded working on it?

I’m off to get the kids from school now (there’s still 25 minutes before the bell rings, but it takes a while to get through the line if I don’t get there early).

Have a wonderful weekend!

Write on.

Friday Four

2011-07-29T12:02:00.001-07:00

1. Maybe by doing a Friday four (cause I’m not sure I can come up with five) I can find something to blog about every week.

2. I got a return email from the teacher (see previous post if you’re confused). She was very kind, but said she hadn’t ever had a parent complain about The Hunger Games before. She read it to her classes last year and is disappointed she won’t be able to read HG with J’s class. She also said she’ll have to think about whether or not to read it with her other classes (6th grade is middle school here so they have it set up like a Jr. high). This surprised me (and gave me a teensy twinge of guilt). I honestly didn’t expect her to pull the book. I thought she’d give J something else to read. The writer in my feels horrible for having her pull the book from her curriculum, but the mother in me is relieved . . . and mother trumps writer every time! I downloaded some of the books on the teacher’s reading list to my Kindle and ordered print versions of the rest of them.

3. The kids have been enjoying school, but in my excitement for them to go back, I forgot about all the $$$ I’d have to spend. The lists of school supplies needed just keep on coming! In addition to the school clothes and supplies, I’ve got a birthday party to pay for this weekend (J’s b-day is today, JR’s was the 14th, E’s was June 22, and K’s is Aug. 8 so we have one huge party for all of them) . . . yeah, our money tree shriveled up and is almost dead!!

4. I hope next week will allow me to get some writing done. I’m working on a crit for my ever patient crit partner, Joni, and hope to get it finished over the weekend (yes, in spite of the party and everything). Come Monday I hope to dive into my new WIP. We’ll see if it happens that way . . . and it probably won’t. My life is just as messed up as LJ right now . . . well, okay, more like LJ a few days ago (because at least now I can post on LJ and my life is still a crazy mess).

Have a great weekend all!

Write on.

You’re Going to Read What in Your Class???!!!

2011-07-28T10:40:00.001-07:00

Maybe I’m an overprotective parent and should just crawl back under my rock and let this go, but the mama bear in me wants to fight tooth and nail to protect my daughter.

J will be twelve-years-old tomorrow and started sixth grade this year (they started school yesterday . . . YAY!). Last night, she brought home a letter from her Reading teacher that welcomed students and parents and included a list of some of the novels they will be reading as part of the curriculum this year. And the problem begins.

While I’m not a fan of banning books or restricting others from reading whatever they want, I’m rather picky in what I allow my children to read. I tend to screen novels before I allow my children to read them . . . sometimes in my screening, I decide a novel isn’t appropriate for them to read (depending on their age and maturity level). Maybe I’m the only parent out there who does this, but it’s just how I am. I know my children. I know their fears, concerns, phobias, etc. and have a pretty good idea about what they can handle and what they can’t.

So, the list (which included only a few of the novels the class will read) included The Hunger Games. Don’t get me wrong, I loved this book! Katniss is a strong character and the world Collins created is both fascinating and frightening. However, I don’t feel it’s appropriate for my twelve-year-old who was freaked out after reading Paris Pan Takes The Dare (which I also LOVE and so did she even though it freaked her out a bit). My oldest son (now 18) read The Hunger Games, and I’d have no problem with J reading it if she were fourteen (or maybe even next year depending on how she mentally matures this year). But at her present mental maturity, I don’t think she’s ready for the violence and intensity of the novel.

There are so many middle grade novels out there to choose from, and I don’t understand why a sixth grade teacher would want to include a young adult novel in the curriculum for such a young age group. Wouldn’t middle grade novels be more appropriate?

Am I way off base? Am I too overprotective? I’ve composed and saved a draft of an email to the teacher outlining my concerns, but wanted to send out feelers to you all before I sent it. Have you read The Hunger Games? If so, do you think it’s appropriate for sixth graders?

Do any of you have kids around twelve-years-old? Would you (or have you) let them read The Hunger Games? If so, how did they handle it?

I briefly outlined the plot for J by telling her it’s a novel about a future world where the people are divided into districts and a boy and girl from each district are chosen, taken away from their families, and forced to kill each other for TV entertainment until only one of them is left. Yeah . . . she doesn’t want to read it.

I looked up the other books included in the brief list on Amazon, but haven’t read any of them (though I plan to):

Schooled (MG), Esperanza Rising (MG), Maniac Magee (MG), Stargirl (another YA), and Tracker (MG).

Have any of you read them? If so, should I be concerned about any of them (the YA in particular)?

~~Write~~ Read on.

Revisionland: The Rides

2011-06-02T14:20:00.001-07:00

You made it in the gates of Revisionland! Congratulations. Now get to work.

Since revising styles vary, the order in which you’ll ride and even the choice of rides will vary too. Let’s take a look at a few of those available.

THE ROLLERCOASTER/KIDDIE COASTER

This ride is a wonder right out of a Harry Potter movie because it’s constantly changing (like those Hogwarts staircases). Each person will experience something different on this ride, though it takes everyone up and down and around and has some twists and turns along the way.

Your ticket for the rollercoaster is a manuscript that needs anything from major overhauling to changing little things . . . and let’s face it, we will all ride this one at some point.

If your manuscript changes are minor, your rollercoaster ride will resemble the kiddie coasters in a regular amusement park. If, however, your manuscript needs some major changes, your ride will be a bit more frightening. The more you need to change, the higher up the tracks will take you. When you plunge, screaming, down the long drop on the other side hold on tight and don’t jump out. Let the safety bar of determination and love of writing keep you in your seat.

THE GRAVITRON/TEACUP RIDE

These ride spins you around and around, looping over and over and over. The ticket for this is a beginning or other section of the MS you can’t seem to get right. Jump aboard this ride and send yourself (and your mind) spinning.

If it’s major problems you’ll have to hop on the Gravitron. Smaller issues get you a ticket on the Teacups which still spin you about, but aren’t as gut wrenching.

You may have to ride several times before you’re ready to move on. Eventually, you’ll emerge with a revision you like, but don’t be too excited. You aren’t through yet.

THE DROP TOWER/THE SLOWER DROP TOWER

Happy with your work, you send chapters or maybe the whole MS to your trusted critiquers (or agent or editor) and climb aboard this ride. It takes you up, up, up. You’re feeling nervous and excited. Once at the top, you look down and wave to everyone below. You’re sure the critiques will come back glowing, telling you all is ready for submission. You’ve worked hard and have done wonderful work, after all. And then it happens . . . the critiques come in and the ride plunges you back to earth.

If you are among the lucky whose critique does come back with only minor changes needed, the ride will drop slower and you won’t have the fast plunge the major changes will bring. But no matter how you get there, you’re brought down to earth. You aren’t even close to done. Choose your next ride and keep going.

These are only a few of the rides you’ll experience in Revisionland. You may enjoy the rides or you might get sick (or burned out or whatever). You may even spend a long time riding (or writing) in Revisionland. Other writers might take a few spins on the rides before leaving the park for the bus terminal at Submission Central . . . which is another adventure all together.

Write on.

Rejoining The World . . . Since it’s still here.

2011-05-23T15:41:00.001-07:00

The world didn’t end, but on Thursday afternoon, my round of rewriting/revising did. I finished my book, then went back and restructured the beginning. After that, I went through and corrected some errors.

I sent it off to an agent who has been waiting for over a year . . . and then I noticed a random word at the beginning that had been left over from some changes. Oops. Oh well. I’m human. Hopefully it won’t be held against me, but I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before I sent it off. Oh well. That’s the way it goes and I’m not going to let it eat me up inside.

I’m just happy this part is over.

I got some bookmark making supplies in the mail today so I’ll be working on some bookmarks for some very patient people who have been waiting (If you’re reading this . . . sorry it’s taking so long).

After the bookmarks are finished I’ll work on a query and synopsis. When I need a break from that, I’ll be starting on something new. Hooray!

I’ll also finish up the blog post about revision that I’ve been working on . . . hopefully by Wednesday.

And that’s where things stand with me . . .

Hope all has been going well for you!

Write on!

It’s been FOREVER

2011-05-15T12:31:00.004-07:00

I’ve been a bad blogger and have neglected posting. In my defense, I’ve been doing lots of revising. I’m so close to the end I can taste it . . . and it tastes like chocolate.

I do intend to make a proper blog post with lots of good writing advice and all that fun stuff sometime in the near future (after I finish my revising . . . which I hope to finish in the next couple of days).

For today, I’m popping in to share the trailer for FOREVER by Maggie Stiefvater.

Forever Trailer

I hope you enjoyed it!

You can buy a copy of the book here: Buy FOREVER.

See you on the other side of revisions.

Write on.

Much Ado About Monday

2011-04-04T09:28:00.001-07:00

I had hoped to get around to posting something over the weekend, but it didn’t happen.

The Thursday field trip was lots of fun, even though I was sure I’d die once I reached the ruins. The hike is only 1/2 a mile, but it’s all uphill!! Yeah, our legs were sore for days!

My brother-in-law and his kids came to visit from Idaho. It was great to see them again (we see them about once a year). He came to our house on Saturday and then we all went up to the in-laws in Flagstaff. It was fun to spend time with them. We had hoped to make it to Walnut Canyon, but time got away from us. We’ll have to go another time (we promised J since she had to miss her fieldtrip there last year). I admit I was kind of glad since I wasn’t really looking forward to another hike.

So, it’s Monday and I’m diving back into revisions. I’m at the end of chapter fifteen (only a page and a half to go). I’m hoping to finish through sixteen today. *crossing fingers*

Tomorrow is the last day to bid on my custom bookmarks in the Kidlit for Japan auction. There will be two winners. There are lots of other things available too. Even if you don’t want a custom bookmark from me, go on over and bid on something to help a great cause.

And now I’m going to grab something to eat and get busy writing.

How is your Monday going?

Write on!

Much Ado About Monday

2011-03-07T13:32:00.001-07:00

I spent the weekend working on the beginning of my revision. I now have what I hope is a strong opening. Here’s the first paragraph:

I'm not supposed to be here. The smell of fresh cut trees teases my senses like a fly caught in a spider's web. Like the spider, I can't ignore temptation. If I'm caught, I'll be scolded and sent home. Unless I'm caught after I steal, then I'll lose my hand.

It’s still a WIP, but getting something down makes me happy . . . sort of. It’s a blessing and a curse. The blessing is, of course, having it written. The curse is it’s in present tense and the rest of the novel is past tense. I tried changing the beginning to past, but it doesn’t work as well. I guess my character decided that along with her new name (I changed it before I finished my rewrite), she had a new voice.

So . . . now I get to change the rest of the novel to present tense. I’m okay with this since I’m doing a line by line revision anyway.

Chapter one is finished and part of chapter two. I plan to work more today, but right now I’m blogging, eating lunch and running through a few emails (I’m such the multi-tasker).

One of my emails contained this fantastic news! This makes me crazy happy.

Still another shouted the great news that Write On Con 2011 has official dates! August 16-17th! If you go to the Write On Con site, you can learn how to win critiques (more prizes to come) for helping spread the word. Write On Con was amazing last year and I’m so excited to attend again this year!

Also, Authoress is having contests on Twitter today. You can read more about it on her blog, Miss Snark’s First Victim. There are some amazing critiques and books being offered as prizes.

There are probably many other contests and things going on in the blogosphere as well, but I’m out of time (lunch is gone) and have to get back to my revising.

Hope you all have a great day!

Write on.

I WILL!

2011-02-21T12:05:00.001-07:00

Occasionally I think we all need a kick to get us up and moving. Today, mine came in the form of Dawn Metcalf’s post. Because of this, I’m all kinds of inspired to finish my rewrite. After being sick all weekend, I’m also trying to catch up on housework, but I WILL get some writing done today, and I WILL finish my rewrite by the end of this week.

You heard me!

No more excuses, no more allowing life to get in my way. I know I haven’t been as determined as I should have been. I've allowed life and struggles with K to get me down and used it as an excuse to put off my writing. Not that I didn’t need to spend time caring for my family, I did and do, but I could have done more with my writing between caring for the family.

From now on, I WILL.

I won’t let my piles of laundry, dishes, and floors needing mopped keep me from writing. I will write while the washer and dryer are running. I will write while the dishwasher is running. I will mop one floor and leave the other for tomorrow. I’m getting back on track, and I won’t allow myself to make excuses not to write.

This is what I want. This is what I need. I WILL do it.

As Dawn so eloquently put it, “Go! Write! FTW!”

In the face of life’s challenges, what inspires you and keeps you writing?

Write on!

Subconscious Author

2011-02-17T11:13:00.001-07:00

Authors talk about the Internal Editor all the time, but they don’t often talk about their Subconscious Author. This post by Lisa Schroeder got me thinking . . . does every writer have a Subconscious Author? I would think we all do, but I’m not sure.

I guess it would help to define what I mean by Subconscious Author (SA). This is the force that makes you add a plot point, or detail without knowing why. In Lisa’s post, she mentioned making a conscious choice to include a certain element into her story. She wasn’t sure how it would work, but knew she wanted it in there. I’ve done that too, and then figured out a way to make it work, but I consider this to be my Conscious Author (CA). The SA makes you put things into your story without any clue why or how it will work out or if it will work out (though it usually does). If someone were to ask you why the element/plot point/detail was there, you couldn’t give an answer other than, “I think it’s cool” or “I want it there” or “It just is” or some other lame reason.

For example, in my current WIP, I assigned eye colors to my characters. I didn’t know why, but they had to be certain colors . . . not just the main characters, but the minor ones too. While my CA didn’t worry about it, my SA mulled it over, worked it out, and determined the reason. During the rewrite, I discovered this reason. Sometimes I think my SA does more work on my novel than my CA does.

There are other examples as well . . . little plot elements that didn’t make sense, but had to be there . . . but if I share them, it will give things away. I’m always so excited when I discover why the element/detail had to be there and how it all comes together to make the book stronger, or add a twist. I wonder if this is how other authors work . . . especially when planning a series. Maybe a little detail the author threw into the first book because the SA author said to ended up being important and came to play a larger role in a sequel . . . even though the author didn’t plan it that way.

I’m a plot driven author, and I get a plot idea before I get my character idea. But I know there are character driven authors out there too, and I wonder if their SA works differently than my own.

What about you? Do you have a SA inserting little things into your WIP for your CA to discover later?

Write on (no matter how you do it . . . just do it).

Just Another Day

2011-02-14T11:24:00.001-07:00

The kids are off to school where they’ll hand out the Valentines they’ve been bugging me about for a week. I was going to bake a treat for them to take (all the classes are having “parties”), but I spent the weekend sewing a dress for K, and I ran out of time.

She wore the dress to church yesterday and is wearing it to school today so she’s happy. This makes the backache and sleepless Saturday night worth it! This coming weekend, I get to make a dress for J. Thank goodness for my Pfaff coverlock machine! It’s sew much faster.

Honestly, the worst parts about sewing (IMO) are folding the pattern to the proper size, pinning it to the fabric, and cutting it out. Otherwise, it’s a breeze . . . I don’t even mind doing buttonholes or zippers!

Last night, I made a charm bracelet, necklace, and bookmark for E to give his girlfriend for Valentine’s Day. It’s so weird he has a girlfriend. This time last year, he showed no interest in dating. *sigh* I miss those days.

Hubby and I decided not to get Valentine’s gifts this year, and I’m happy not to have the pressure of trying to find something. We have each other and, with all the recent stress, that’s enough.

I spent my Monday morning preparing a casserole for dinner tonight (it’s ready to bake and is waiting patiently in the fridge), doing dishes, and washing laundry. Now I’m hungry and am going to find something for lunch. After lunch, I hope to get some writing done.

Write on.

Without A Place

2011-02-11T13:53:00.001-07:00

Last Friday I posted about making sure we use analogies appropriate for our characters. Today I’m discussing an often forgotten character. You’re probably thinking I’m crazy. You haven’t forgotten any of your characters. You’ve devoted hours (or days or weeks or months) developing them. You know who they are, what they want, how they’ll grow throughout the story, etc. Each character’s received the attention and development time they deserve.

You may be right. Perhaps I’m the only one out here with a forgotten character, but you might want to read on to be sure.

After months of revising and rewriting, I realized why my novel isn’t quite working for me. I’m missing a character.

The setting.

Yes, it’s a character, or it should be.

I’m not saying I don’t have some setting details scattered throughout my MS, I’ve several of them. The problem is, I haven’t spent time developing my setting like I have my characters and plot. I know where the story takes place, the time period, the world, the situation, but I haven’t conveyed it properly into the MS. A few details here and there aren’t enough.

But I already know where, when, what . . . there’s nothing left. Is there?

Yeah, there is.

Why?

No, really, “why” is it.

Before we get into a “Who’s on first” situation, let me explain. Your characters have a purpose, a why, and your setting needs one too. Ask yourself this:

Why is the setting I’ve chosen the perfect place to tell the story? Why will it work better than any other setting?

Don’t give me any of that “because I said so” or “it just is” nonsense either. Really take a minute to think about it. I’ll wait.

Back? Good. Hopefully you’ve gotten a firm idea of why your setting is THE setting for your story.

Now I want to experiment. Think about your favorite books (I know I’m making you think too much, but bear with me). You’ll likely think of the main character first, next, maybe the plot, but I bet you also think of the setting.

Examples:

Harry Potter and the (anything) by J.K. Rowling: I think of Harry. Voldemort. Hogwarts! Wizarding world. (setting, people!) What kind of a story would the HP series have been without the setting/world?

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan: I think of Mary. The village surrounded by fences. The eerie forest full of zombies waiting outside the fences. Setting plays a HUGE role in these books.

The Healing Spell by Kimberley Griffiths Little: I think of Livvie, her family. The Gator (Baby). The Louisiana Bayou. I’ve never been to Louisiana, but I felt like I was there while reading this book.

Shiver series by Maggie Stiefvater: I think of Grace, Sam, Cole, Isabel. Werewolves. Snow. Lots of snow. Cold. So much hinges on the setting (especially the climate) in Maggie’s Shiver series.

Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary, Dystopian, Steampunk, etc. no matter the genre, setting plays an important role in ALL of my favorites. I couldn’t think of one single book I LOVED that didn’t have a strong setting. Can you?

Just as your characters interact with other characters in the novel, they need to interact and react with/to the setting. We experience the world around us on a daily basis. If we’ve spent hours fixing our hair and step outside into a windy day, we’re upset. If we planned an outing and it’s raining like mad, we have to adjust. If we’re melting from heat, we’d sell our mothers on the street for a fan (you know you would). We need this same interaction/reaction between our characters and their setting.

Let’s say your character needs to climb a up a mountain (or down a cliff) and rescue his/her best friend. If it’s a clear day and your character is afraid of heights, that’s tension with some setting details. It’s okay, but if you changed that clear day into one with pouring rain or snow, the tension is heightened (pun intended). Now you have a setting as a character forcing your main character to interact/react.

Let me explain it in another way:

Think about portraits . . . like the school photos you got when you were a kid. You sat on a little stool with a colored (or maybe gray) backdrop behind you. It was staged, lifeless. Now think about a picture (no, they’re not the same thing). Pictures are taken on impulse. They aren’t staged. They’re natural. Trees are in the background, snow is falling, people are laughing, throwing things, smiling, but not in a staged kind of way. They have life. They are interacting/reacting to/with the world around them.

Have you ever heard anyone say writers paint a portrait with words? NO! They say writers paint a picture with words. We don’t want our setting to be a backdrop for a portrait, we want it to be a part of a picture; a strong setting full of life that lives and breathes with our characters. It enhances them, challenges them, changes them.

If our setting isn’t a character, our story is without a place, and it probably won’t earn a place in readers’ hearts either.

Write on.

I Believe Spring Will Come!

2011-02-08T12:34:00.001-07:00

Even though I should have been working on my rewrite/revision, inspiration struck elsewhere.

I blame it on this blog post by Janni Lee Simner.

The contest inspired me to write a poem (which I won’t post here, but did post there). After I finished the poem (and wasn’t happy with it since I’m not the best poet), this line kept running through my head, “Within each snowflake lives the promise of spring.”

I decided to get out my pencils and drawing pad to illustrate that line.

Within each snowflake lives the promise of spring.

Now that my creative juices are flowing, it’s time to find something for youngest son to eat for lunch. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some word on my rewrite/revision done after we eat. =)

What are you doing to tap into your creativity today?

Create on!

“Ogres Are Like Onions”

2011-02-04T16:45:00.001-07:00

I love the exchange between Shrek and Donkey where Shrek tries to explain ogres. It’s a great example of characterization, and also showing vs. telling.

Shrek could have told Donkey, “Ogres have layers,” but by using an analogy (onions), he illustrates (pun intended) it for Donkey. The exchange between them after Shrek’s declaration of “Ogres are like onions” further builds characterization for both of them.

Even though Donkey tries to sway Shrek to go with a more “pleasing” analogy (cake or parfait), Shrek sticks with his onion because it’s something he knows.

Like Shrek, our characters need to stick with what they know. Drawing an analogy with something unfamiliar to our characters damages their credibility and betrays our readers’ trust.

While we’re on the topic of onions/layers, we need to be sure to peel back the layers of our characters and get to the core of who they are. If we don’t know the core, the layers won’t matter.

Forms, interviews, personality quizzes, etc. are all good ways to get to know our characters. I use several different methods, but my favorite is the Psychological Type Profiles. I can access links to quizzes, etc. from this site.

Your own character building techniques will help you find the core and build layers around it . . . kind of like an onion growing. Starting small and expanding until full potential is reached.

In my current WIP, the MC would be likely to use analogies involving wood/whittling because it’s what she knows.

How well do you know your characters? What kinds of analogies would they use?

Write on.

Springing Into It

2011-02-02T09:02:00.001-07:00

Punxutawney Phil did not see his shadow this morning and has predicted an early Spring. It seems Mother Nature wishes to argue the point, however, because temperatures are in the teens in my area right now (the freezing wind doesn’t help either).

With the horrible weather, it seems like a great day to stay inside and get some writing done. And I should be able to do it too!

Last night was the first night K has slept in her own bed since her seizure last Tuesday. Not that I got much more sleep because I kept getting up to go check on her, but the sleep I did get was probably more restful without her little feet kicking and her hands pushing me. She started her 2ml dose of Keppra yesterday so she’s really tired and cranky (side effects).

Being the horrible mother that I am (at least she thinks so), I sent her back to school today (though her blustering was fit to rival that of Mother Nature’s). We’ll see if she makes it through the day or if the teacher calls and sends her home.

I got the dogs fed and back inside (it’s too cold to be out), made myself a cup of hot chocolate, and am going spring into my writing as soon as I finish this post. I didn’t realize how much I valued my “alone time” until I wasn’t able to have it (for almost two weeks).

Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and the time I spent with them, but I missed having the house to myself with nothing but the clicking of the keys on my laptop . . . well, that and the occasional concert of dogs barking and Loki, the macaw, talking.

Music for my writing soul.

Spring on!

Win an ARC of Blood Magic!

2011-01-31T13:45:00.001-07:00

If you haven’t yet heard the news, Tessa is having a contest for an ARC of Blood Magic. I couldn’t pass up a chance to enter. All I had to do was pick my favorite story from the Merry Sisters of Fate . . . no problem . . . yeah . . . that was my first mistake.

*sigh*

I’ve been reading stories on the Merry Sisters blog for quite a while and narrowing it down to one proved harder than I thought it would . . . until I remembered this one. Though many of the stories are amazing, this one stands out to me. It’s one I remember and what I now think of when I hear “mermaid.”

If you want a chance to enter, click on over to the contest and see if you have an easier time of narrowing down your pick for favorite story.

Choose on!

Pray on Monday

2011-01-17T11:46:00.001-07:00

The kids are home from school for MLK Day. I’m not able to write much when they’re home so I’d planned to sort through emails and blogs, post here about my progress, and finish up some critiques.

My plans changed when I read this: http://community.livejournal.com/debut2009/1059044.html

that had a link to this: http://lkmadigan.livejournal.com/185246.html

My progress seems insignificant in light of such news. My thoughts and prayers are with Lisa and her family.

The first link will take you to a giveaway, and the second is to Lisa’s post where she shared her news. Even if you don’t enter the giveaway (I decided not to), I hope you’ll post on your blogs, twitter, Facebook, or whatever and let Lisa know we’re thinking of her.

Pray on.

What’s Up?

2011-01-05T09:06:00.001-07:00

I’ve outlined the last part of the rewrite, and, after doing some additions and rearranging yesterday, I’m ready to dive into writing the end of the WIP today! YAY!

I’m not sure how long it will take me to get the end written, but I’m hoping to be finished by this time next week at the latest. Then I’ll do a few more revisions (yes, I revised before I was finished writing . . . I’m bad . . . very bad . . . don’t follow my example).

The new writing schedule seems to be working well for me. Though I will admit that I find it hard not to sit down and write after I get the kids home from school. Within a few minutes, we are busy doing chores and homework and the urge passes though so it isn’t too bad. I think much of it stems from the fact that I’m so close to the end that I just want to get it finished. LOL

Anyway, this has to be a quick update because it’s time to get busy writing.

What’s up with you on this Wednesday? Do you have any writing goals for 2011? If so, how’s it going so far?

Write on!

Tomorrow . . .

2011-01-02T20:31:00.001-07:00

The kids go back to school. I don’t.

This makes me happy.

I’m looking forward to a day of writing and more snow melting.

Snow is cold. My house is cold and running the heater at the temperature I’d like is too expensive. I wear layers.

Though I’ll miss not attending ceramics classes every Monday and Tuesday, the hours of writing time I’ll gain will be well worth it.

I spent the first day of the new year catching up on a bit of sleep. New Year’s Eve we ended up jumping in hubby’s four wheel drive truck and heading to Flagstaff to get the kids. YAY! It took three hours to get there (usually it takes about two) and three hours and a little bit to get back (it was darker and more frozen on the way back), but it was worth the trip to have them home and not have to worry anymore.

We got home at about 11:30 pm so we stayed up to ring in the new year and then went to bed around 12:30. We slept until about 7:00 when the youngest got up and crawled into bed with us (believe it or not, I missed that)!

Being without my kids and not being able to reach them, really made me appreciate them more. Sure, my house is more of a mess now that they’re home (it was much easier to keep clean with just the three of us here), but the mess on the floor, the extra dishes, even the squabbles are precious to me because they mean I have my kids.

So, while I’m looking forward to the kids going back to school tomorrow, I’ll also be glad when they come home again.

I’ve made up a schedule for my writing and hope I can stick to it!

Monday-Thursday I will write from 9:00am until I go pick up the kids from school at 2:30pm. I may or may not take a lunch break (more than likely, I’ll just have some snacks next to the computer). I will not answer the phone. I will not check email. I will not blog (or read blogs), tweet, or Facebook (so scold me if you see me).

After I get the kids from school, we will do homework, chores, family time, and dinner. When the kids are in bed, I will read, write reviews, critique, blog, tweet, Facebook, or whatever (I’m going to try to watch less TV).

Friday I will have from about 11:00-2:30 for either writing, blogging, reading blogs, tweeting, Facebook, or whatever. It’s kind of my free day to do what I want (the late start is because I volunteer in JR’s classroom on Friday mornings).

Saturday and Sunday will more than likely be non writing days because I want to spend more time with my family (the kids are in bed right now or we’d still be playing games).

Another change is I’ve moved out of my bedroom . . . well, for my writing anyway.

My computer is now on the dining room table. That way, I won’t be tempted to watch TV or be distracted by my pile of TBR books. Of course I have to move the computer for breakfast and dinner, but it’s better than being distracted! Plus, I can be next to the laundry room and do laundry while I’m writing (though I WON’T fold it, just wash and dry it and put it in a pile on the couch until the kids come home *grin*).

That’s my plan. Of course, there will be Dr. appointments and other life things that will interfere with my schedule, but I still think having a schedule will help in the long run.

Do you plan your writing time? If so, how. If not, why not?

Plan on!

What Clay Taught Me About Writing

2010-12-31T13:51:00.001-07:00

In the spring of 2010 I made the decision to go back to school and work toward my degree in Elementary Education. On my schedule that semester I had English 102, Cultural Diversity in Education, Geology, and the Geology Lab. Early into the semester, I realized the Geology and Geology Lab classes (same teacher/class hours) were going to be too much for my haven’t-been-in-school-full-time-with-hard-classes-for-fifteen-years brain to handle.

I needed to drop them, but since I was on financial aid, I needed to replace them with other classes (6 credits worth) so I’d still be full time.

That’s when I looked through the schedule and decided ceramics might be fun. Make no mistake, I had no idea what I was in for. I thought “ceramics” would be painting ceramic figures. I was very wrong. Ceramics was working with clay to make your own art, firing it in a kiln, glazing it, and firing it again.

Was I a bit intimidated? Heck yeah! I’d never in my life worked with clay or kilns or glazes, but I set to work and made my first piece using a bowl as a mold.

The close-up is to show you there’s a design in the bowl. I didn’t carve it deep enough so it didn’t show up well through the glaze. This piece of misshapen work taught me I needed to carve deeper into the clay and that clay shrinks as it dries and is fired (also, it taught me that I don’t care for Robin’s Egg Blue glaze).

Sometimes, I need to cut deeper into my writing to make sure my plots/characters are developed enough.

Next I tried to make something without a mold (free building).

I did manage to carve the design deeper into the clay so it showed up, but the form was sloppy and kind of disturbing.

Sometimes my writing is sloppy and disturbing too . . . though the disturbing part isn’t always bad. *grin*

The rest of the semester, I continued to learn about clay and glazing and improved my skills.

I learned the more I write, the more I improve.

Then I learned you could attach clay to other clay by slipping and scoring (slip is a mix of clay and water to make a paste consistency that you put on the clay before attaching it; scoring is scratching up or cutting lines into the part of the clay that will be touching the other clay). This opened up a whole new world of possibilities.

This taught me I shouldn’t be afraid to add elements to my writing to enhance it. Description can be my friend as long as I don’t overdo it.

I even tried the pottery wheel (this bowl is really small).

In the fall semester, I decided to take ceramics again (the only classes I took). I spent most of the semester learning the pottery wheel. This bowl taught me I could put glass marbles in the bottom and they melt in the kiln. FUN! Most of the bowls I made on the wheel I gave to my sisters and didn’t get pictures of them (cause I’m brainless like that), but they were all large bowls!

Using the wheel taught me that sometimes work needs to be scrapped. One of my sisters asked me to make her a bowl set (large and small bowl) similar to one she received for her wedding. I tried over and over and over to make the bowls for my sister. I believe I ended up making seven large bowls and four small ones before I got two I was happy with. Those numbers don’t include the bowls I started on the wheel that didn’t even make it to the kiln (they fell apart right on the wheel). But there came a point when I stopped trying to make her bowls and moved on to making other things.

This taught me that sometimes I need a break. It’s okay to stop working on a novel and move on to something new. Did I go back to making bowls for my sister? Yes! And it’s okay to go back to working on the novel I set aside too. But when I got frustrated, I went on to make something else.

The mermaid/fish vase is by far my favorite piece of the semester even though I had to glaze and fire it three times to get the effect I wanted. The first time I glazed it, I painted on the glaze. It wasn’t thick enough and the clay showed through more than I wanted it too. The second time I glazed it I painted it again, thinking the second coating would surely do the trick. It didn’t. I needed to go back and do it right. I re-glazed the mermaid, the fish, and the bubbles, then I painted them with wax. After they were waxed, I dipped the whole vase into the blue glaze. This makes for a thicker coating than you can get painting on the glaze, and waxing the pieces prevents the glaze (the one you dip the entire piece in) from sticking.

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t wax and glaze the piece the first time. For one thing, I wanted a wavy look (to make it seem like water), and for another thing, painting wax on each individual item and keeping it off everything else is time consuming and HARD! If I had waxed and dipped the piece, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the wavy effect I wanted. Sure, I would have saved myself some time, but I’m not sure I would have been happy with the end result. What I should have done was wax and dip it the second time instead of trying to paint it on again.

Making this vase taught me two things. First, that I shouldn’t try to cut corners in my writing. Doing it right the first time (or in this case, the second time) prevents me from having to do it again. But it also taught me that sometimes it takes many revisions to get a story I’m happy with. Even if it takes me a bit longer than I’d like to get there.

There are many more pieces that I made and that taught me valuable lessons, but those I’ve shown are enough to make my point.

“And what is that?” you’re wondering by now.

It’s this.

Working in clay is like writing a book.

Most of us start out having no idea what we’re doing. We think, “Hey, this might be fun. I think I’ll write a book.” But when we get into the process, we find out it’s not exactly what we were expecting. Still, we dive right in, determined not to give up. We write that book. It may be misshapen and probably didn’t work exactly like we’d hoped it would. We go ahead and revise and sometimes discover that it’s still not quite what we wanted. So we start asking questions, finding out more about our craft by reading writing books, asking other writers, following blogs, whatever it takes. Slowly (at least in my case) we learn more and more. We write more, we revise more, we learn different techniques.

We learn what we can add, what we should take away, how to polish it and revise it. We show it to others, get their opinions. Learn that what we’ve done is good, but there are still ways to improve. So we go back and start again (or at least revise again). This time, we’re happier with our work. Again we show it around, feeling all proud of what we’ve done, only to learn it’s still not quite where it needs to be. Something is missing.

The more I work with clay, the more I learn. It’s the same with writing. The more I write and learn about writing, the better my writing gets. I’ve been told by my instructors as well as some of the people in the class that I learned how to work with clay pretty fast (most of them had been doing this for years and hadn’t learned what I had).

Unfortunately, it hasn’t been the same with my writing journey. It’s been a slow process!

Technically, I wrote my first “novel” in sixth grade, and I continued writing through high school and beyond (mostly poetry). I took creative writing classes in college (my first go-round), but didn’t really learn much. I decided to take my writing seriously in 2003. I set to work on a MG fantasy novel. I joined a critique group. I read writing books. I got some good feedback and revised and revised and revised. In July of 2003, I gave birth to my fourth (and last) child.

This put my writing on hold. I no longer had time for critique groups or writing. I worked on my novel here and there, but my main focus was on my family. As JR got older, I went back to my writing. I sent out a few queries and got the rejections I deserved. I wrote a sequel to my first novel and started the other two books I’d planned for the series (Nano 2005, 2006, 2007). I revised some on them, but mostly concentrated on the first book . . . revision after revision after revision.

Just as I learned from trying to make my sister’s bowls, I learned a lot from writing those other novels; the biggest lesson being I needed to move on to something different. In 2008, I wrote a brand new shiny novel. I’ve been revising it, polishing it, making it all nice and wonderful ever since (I also had a full-time job for a while there so I didn’t have much time for writing). But that’s not the only thing I’ve been doing. I also wrote a Picture Book for the Cheerio’s contest (won a first prize), jotted down several ideas for new novels, read, read, read, read, read, and read some more. I also became a reviewer for TeensReadToo.com (more reading with some writing on the side).

I sent out some queries for shiny new novel. Received rejections, did more revisions, and queried some more. I even entered a contest with the first 250 words and received an honorable mention.

An agent asked to see my full MS. I sent it. An editor asked to see my full MS. I sent it. I received a rejection from the editor, but before the agent had a chance to reject me, I let her know I wanted to do some revisions. She asked to see the full when I finished the revisions (that was back in May of this year).

The revisions I planned ended up being more than I had anticipated, and I’m currently doing a complete rewrite of the novel.

But that’s okay. Sometimes imperfections in the clay would be too much work to file or smooth out; it’s better to smash the pot you’re making and start over.

Here I am at the end of 2010. I thought for sure I’d have the rewrite done and sent back to the agent, but I don’t. Have I stopped working on it? No (though there were days I didn’t write). I’m near the end now and anticipate I’ll be finished rewriting and revising by the end of January (at least I hope so). I’ll send it off to the agent and see what happens. There’s a good possibility that even after all the work I’ve done, I’ll receive a rejection from the agent. I’m prepared for that.

The story has changed quite a bit, kind of like pottery does once you put it in the kiln.

When you glaze pottery, the glaze dries to a powdery finish that could be scraped off . . . it’s not until it’s fired again (and at a higher temperature than the first firing) that the glaze bonds with the clay. The heat changes it, and revising/rewriting/learning our craft changes our work.

Even if the agent does reject the novel, I’m happy with where it is going now. I like it much better now than I did before . . . just like the mermaid vase.

In 2011, I plan to finish up my rewrite/revision, and write another novel I’ve had on the back burner . . . I may even get to write one of the others I have waiting. I’m taking time off school (at least the Spring semester) and really concentrating on my writing.

I’m thankful for the opportunity I’ve had to work with clay and look forward to working with it again in the future because I still have much to learn. I also still have much to learn about writing and I look forward to 2011 as the year when I’ve finally written a novel that makes me happy (hopefully more than one).

What do you hope 2011 brings for you (other than a book deal; we all hope for that)?

Happy New Year to all of you! Whether it be in your writing life or your personal life, may you be better by this time next year than you are now.

Improve on!

Wednesday Weather

2010-12-29T11:06:00.001-07:00

*sigh*

It’s cold and wet here today. We might get snow either later today or tomorrow.

This is bad.

Not that I don’t like snow, I do. It makes things clean and pretty and white . . .

But this storm is also bringing snow to Flagstaff and the roads on the way to Flagstaff. My kids are in Flagstaff and hubby and I are supposed to go pick them up tomorrow.

Between today and tomorrow, the forecast is calling for 1-2 feet of snow in Flagstaff. Of course, they’ll do their best to keep the roads cleared off, but they’re going to be a mess . . . especially on the way to Flagstaff!

Also, we’re supposed to go to my parents’ house for New Years. My parents live in Snowflake. In order to get to Snowflake, we have to travel over the Mogollon Rim (pronounced mo-gee-OWN or mo-gee-ON) which has a higher elevation and is expecting accumulation in the 1-2 foot range as well.

*sigh*

We may not be able to get our kids back home in time for New Years Eve, and we may not be able to go to Snowflake either. Hubby and I may end up spending New Years Eve here at home with E. Bummer. Not that I don’t love hubby and oldest son, but I was looking forward to being with my parents, brothers, sisters, and their families (some of them weren’t there for Thanksgiving but will be there for New Years Eve). We play games all night, eat delicious food (pot luck type situation), and have a never ending supply of Chex Party Mix. Then we toast the New Year with Sparkling Cider (most of us don’t drink alcoholic beverages).

That may not seem like much, but it’s a blast, and I was really looking forward to it. *sigh*

Hopefully the roads will be clear by Thursday afternoon so we can still get the kids and follow through with our plans.

In the meantime, I guess I’ll do more work on my rewrite.

What are your New Years Eve plans?

Write on!

To Do Tuesday

2010-12-28T11:57:00.001-07:00

Well, we made it through Christmas!

Yes, that was a mighty feat in and of itself. *grin*

Here’s how it went down:

Saturday the 18th, youngest son, JR, and youngest daughter, K, were playing “horse” as they cleaned the hall. JR was riding on K’s back even though I’d asked them to stop at least a thousand times. K stood up and JR went down (hickory, dickory, dock . . . well, more like crunch). He cried and cried and said he thought his arm was broken. He did have some swelling, but nothing seemed obviously broken. Still, he insisted he’d heard it crack when he fell so I took him to Urgent Care (faster than the ER).

They did an examination and took x-rays but didn’t see anything broken. They said they’d send the x-rays off to a specialist in Tucson and let us know if they found anything. JR went home with his arm wrapped and a sling. By Monday he was still complaining and crying, and I called our primary care physician. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to be in the office all week. The only one available was the nurse practitioner who works out of that office. I debated about just taking him in to the ER, but decided to go ahead and let him see the NP. She ordered more x-rays, and JR and I came home to wait for them to get back with us.

They called about three hours later and wanted me to bring him back into the office. I did, and they said he had a chip fracture on the end of the ulna (at his elbow). *sigh* They put him in a half-cast (which means it only covers the underside of his arm where the break is and leaves the upper part of his arm uncast) and wrapped it with a bandage. They instructed him to wear his sling and made an appointment with a pediatric orthopedic doctor for January 14th. In the mean time, he’s managed to loosen his arm in the cast and is bending it . . . though he can’t straighten it, he can bend it at the elbow as he plays with his toys and video games, etc. I’ve tried to explain that he needs to keep it immobile, but he’s a seven-year-old boy and it’s hard for him to be inactive. I might have to take him in and have them do a full cast. *sigh*

Christmas Eve, hubby and I made another trip to Urgent Care because he smashed his finger while trying to switch out the hitching ball on the truck he borrowed from his friend (because hubby’s truck had some problems and ended up in the shop). No broken bones for hubby, but they gave him a splint to wear and told him to wear it for three weeks . . . he took it off Sunday and hasn’t put it back on . . . I’m beginning to see where JR gets it from. *wink*

Then K twisted her arm and ankle while playing on the trampoline (one year of owning it and this is the first real problem we’ve had so I guess it’s not bad), E smacked his ankle on the side of his bunk bed (metal frame), and J had a bit of stomach flu.

Still, we managed to get the tree up on the 21st, I managed to bake a few cookies, and Santa and Mrs. Claus managed to stay awake long enough to fill the stockings and leave presents.

Then the in-laws wanted to see the kids (we went to my family for Thanksgiving so they were feeling left out, I suppose). So MIL and SIL came down and picked up J, K, and JR (E stayed home) and took them to Flagstaff to stay until Thursday when hubby and I are supposed to go and pick them up . . . then we’re supposed to go to my parents’ for New Years on Friday and the kids go back to school on Monday.

So, what am I going to do today while the kids are gone? As soon as I’m done writing this blog, I’m going to jump in and see if I can get some work done on my rewrite (yep, still working on that). And later today, I hope to make some more cookies and do more laundry (maybe I can catch up while the kids are gone and aren’t changing their clothes every five seconds).

What fun (or not so fun) things have you done so far this holiday season? Did you all have a great Christmas, or was yours filled with drama and stress like mine?

Write on!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T08:05:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Hope your day is filled with joy and happiness. One of my gifts was an Amazon.com gift card so I’m very happy. =D We also got Family Game Night 3 for our Wii and I look forward to playing with the kids . . . as soon as we can drag them away from their toys. ;-)

What fun things did you get?

May your day be filled with the joy of the season.

Write on . . . or in my case, shop on. Yay books!

So . . .

2010-12-12T16:31:00.001-07:00

I haven’t gotten any more writing done, which is a bummer. Things have been crazy busy with the holidays and getting ready for the sale at the kids’ school (a Holiday store they do each year). Also, news that the kids’ school will likely be closing next year has put a damper on things. The district will be rearranging things so the kids and teachers will go to one of the two other elementary schools in town.

Anyway, I’ve been spending my time finishing up school (tomorrow and Tuesday are the last classes for the semester) and dealing with the sadness of not going back next semester. I’ll miss it, but I really need to take some time to get my house in order and get my novel finished . . . oh, and decorate the house for Christmas. Yeah, we haven’t even done that yet. And the shopping . . . yeah, that still needs done too. *sigh*

Hubby has purchased a few things for the kids, and I bought a stocking gift for each of the girls, but that’s the only shopping I’ve done. It’s strange since I’m usually the one doing all the shopping, but it’s also kind of nice that I haven’t had to worry about it this year. *grin*

Anyway, I’m looking forward to getting the decorating done, my novel finished, and getting back into a routine with my housework.

How have you all been? Are you ready for the holidays?

Live on.

Mad Monday

2010-11-29T19:31:00.001-07:00

What a crazy week! I lived through the holidays, but I’m still fighting a cold/virus/deadly thing. I think I’m going to have to break down and go see the Dr. because it’s not getting any better. *sigh*

Still, we had fun going to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving. I ate way too much pie (my favorite part of the feast). The kids spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa (except K who wasn’t feeling well). Hubby and I brought K home and I ended up sleeping in the living room on the futon with her. Can you say, “ouch?”

Yeah, it didn’t help with my cold/virus/deadly thing since the futon is positioned under the window and it needs caulked something fierce because it was burr burr freezey cold!

The next morning, K and I drove back to my parents’ house (she was feeling better). K spent the day playing and having a great time while my sisters and I made cheese balls. Mmmm. Another of my favorite holiday things.

We have our own recipes so there were several batches made. I brought home seven cheese balls and there are only two left today. Yeah, my family likes themselves some cheese balls! Okay, I admit, I ate two of them all by myself with some Wheat Thins.

Anyway, between all the bustle of Thanksgiving and kids’ school programs and sickness and all that fun stuff, I still managed to get some writing done.

Yep, I passed my 70,000 mark, but I’m not done with the rewrite yet. I’m close . . . oh so close though. Pretty much all the new stuff is done and all that’s left is to rewrite the ending chapters of the book. They’ll stay pretty much the same as they were in the previous version except they’ll be changed from third to first person.

The changes will be minor (I hope) so it should go quickly here at the end. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. *grin*

Anyway, I’ve almost reached my Nano goal as well. I should reach 50,000 tomorrow.

So, how was your holiday? Have lots of fun? Eat too much? Leave a comment and tell me about it!

Write on.

The Madness of Monday

2010-11-15T20:46:00.001-07:00

I didn’t update on Friday so I’m here today.

I haven’t had a Monday like this in a long time (thank goodness).

Last week, I had sick kids from Tuesday thru Saturday. On Saturday, I was unlucky enough to catch the virus so I spent my weekend feeling miserable and trying to catch up on all the writing I missed.

I’m still a bit under the weather (though I’m feeling a bit better). I didn’t catch up on the writing I needed to do (falling behind on the Nano front), but I was able to get some writing done.

Yes, that says 85% . . . but the problem is I’m not close to the end of the story. I’m afraid I’m going to have to make a new goal (more than 70,000 . . . but I’m not sure how much more).

Still, I’ve come a long way in the last few weeks and I’m happy.

Anyway, back to my crazy, mad Monday.

I didn’t sleep well and woke up late. This meant a mad scramble as I tried to get the kids off to school. They ended up being tardy.

I made it to ceramics class, but the lasagna pan I’d finished on Friday didn’t quite survive the car-ride. One of the handles broke off. This made me sad. There was no way to repair it. I thought about throwing it into the recycle bucket, but then had a better idea. Just break off the other handle and the rest of the pan was still usable. I figured a lasagna pan without handles could still work (though I might get my oven mitts dirty when I remove the pan from the oven).

So, after breaking off the other handle and scraping away the excess dried clay, I started a new project. A small bowl on the pottery wheel. After the small bowl, I moved on to a much larger bowl in the pottery wheel. I was thrilled with the results . . . and then my teacher suggested I use a stretched out spring to texture the bottom (to cut it off the pottery wheel bat). It sounded like a good idea to me so I made a trip to the hardware store and bought a couple of springs.

I cut the pot, but now we’re worried that the spring may have been too high and the bottom ended up too thin and might crack as it dries. The bowl was BEAUTIFUL (I used two different colors of clay) and I’m going to be so sad if it cracks.

Then I came home, ate a quick lunch, got a little writing done, then had to go pick up kids from school. By then, my head was pounding and my nose stuffy again. I got the younger kids, brought them home, went back to pick up the oldest from high school, took some Motrin for my headache, then took oldest son to Teen Court so he could be tried by a jury of his peers for the accident he had back in August.

That was about an hour of waiting around for about ten minutes of “court” and sentencing. He’s got 28 hours of community service and two jury duty assignments for Teen Court.

Now I’m exhausted and am going to crawl into bed for some much needed sleep . . . I hope I can get some!

Write on . . . or sleep on . . . or whatever. =)

TGIF

2010-11-05T12:39:00.001-07:00

Okay, it’s Friday again and that means it’s time for a blog post.

As most of you know, I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short, or Nano for even shorter). I’ve also been working on finishing up my rewrite of my YA novel so I can send it back out into the world.

Since I didn’t get the novel finished sooner, I’m using Nano to complete the novel. Don’t worry, I’m only using words I wrote after Oct. 31 for my Nano count. So, Since Nov. 1, I’ve managed to add another 6,462 to my novel.

I was at the kids’ school all morning dealing with volunteer and PTO stuff so I haven’t done any writing today. This means the word count is expected to rise . . . at least a little bit . . . at some point in the day.

My overall progress on the rewrite looks like this:

It seems I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel . . . it’s small, but it’s there and getting bigger each day. YAY!

Once I get my YA rewrite finished, I’ll be working on a new YA project I’m calling “Behold the Dead” in order to get the rest of my 50,000 Nano word count. Yeah, I’m assuming the YA rewrite won’t end up being an epic novel that needs another 44,000 words to finish. ;-)

So, how’s everyone doing on their Nano progress? Don’t lie now because some of you are my buddies on the Nano site and I can check up on you. =)

For those who aren’t doing Nano, why aren’t you?

Now I must get busy with the rewrite before I have to go get kids from school.

Write on.

A Few Things on Thursday

2010-10-28T13:09:00.001-07:00

I’m a day early on my updating, but I’m taking a break from my rewriting and thought it would be a good time to blog.

First of all, I’m going to share a link to an amazing auction with you. Swati Avasthi, author of SPLIT, is having an auction to benefit the Family Violence Prevention Fund. There are all kinds of things to bid on, including critiques (from agents, editors, and authors); signed books, photography, and much more.

Swati was kind enough to allow me to donate some bookmarks to the cause. You can find them under the “Everything Else” category. In addition to the already made bookmarks, I’m offering a custom bookmark (you get to choose the charm, colors, etc.).

In my Etsy shop, I sell my bookmarks for $8, but you might get it for less in the auction because bidding starts at only $4!

Go. Bid. Get stuff you want. Help a great cause.

And now to an update on my word count. Things are finally starting to flow! I’m optimistic that I’ll be finished before long, but I’ve given up setting a specific date to be done. ;-)

Even though I’m not finished writing for the day, I’ll go ahead and give you the word count as of right now):

Do you see that? Can you believe it? I’m over halfway done!

I’ve been having fun playing with Scrivener for Windows, even though there are some bugs to fight through. It’s still amazing software (though it’s not for everyone), and I plan to purchase it when it comes out early next year. Even though I’m still working on my rewrite in Word, I plan to write my NaNo novel using Scrivener (it will transfer back to Word as a .rtf file when I’m ready to finalize and format the MS), but I love the flexibility of working in Scrivener. NaNo will be a blast! I’ve probably mentioned this before (I can’t remember so if I have ignore me), but I’m writersblock on the NaNo site if anyone wants to add me to their buddy list.

Now I must . . .

Write on!

Scrivener Shall Be Mine!

2010-10-25T12:59:00.001-07:00

Obviously I didn’t make it back on Friday to update. I ended up volunteering at the kids’ school all day (helping with health screenings) . . . but I’m too excited not to post today. Here’s why:

My name is Joan, and I’ve been suffering from Scrivener envy for several years. I do not own a Mac so this software was unavailable to me. I saved up money for a Mac, but then we ended up having to spend it on silly things like car repairs, food for our empty table, clothing for the children.

I didn’t start saving again because I knew Christmas was coming and I’d just have to give up my Mac savings for presents for the kids . . .

. . . and then the most wonderful thing happened:

SCRIVENER for WINDOWS!!

It’s true!

It is being released in January or February of 2011!

But I don’t even have to wait that long because I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month and there is a wonderful post on the forums that I only just discovered. In this wonderful post, I learned NaNo participants can beta test Scrivener for Windows (some of you probably already knew that, but if you knew it and didn’t tell me, you better not admit it)!

Yes, there may be some bugs, but it will be worth it to get my hands on this software early (I just have to remember to save, save, save my work). And there are even better things mentioned in the post. Instead of me trying to explain it all to you, I’ll just put a link so you can go read it for yourself.

If I wasn’t already going to do NaNo, this would be enough to make me do it . . . and I’m more determined to reach the 50,000 words so I can take advantage of the generous discount (info in the link above . . . if you can’t find the link, it’s the word link in the previous paragraph)!

The beta version should be released in a few minutes . . . or so, and I’m thrilled beyond reason (as my FB status attested earlier today)!

In other news, I haven’t worked much on my rewrite. My word count is a sorry thing to look at, but I decided I’ll use NaNo to finish writing my rewrite and then work on my new YA idea to reach the 50,000 word mark and beyond. So, I should have a finished rewrite and a great start to a new novel by the end of November! YAY!

Oh. . . and if you wanted to actually look at the sorrow of my rewrite word count, here it is:

Emerging From the Cave

2010-10-08T14:29:00.001-07:00

Though I’m not finished with my rewrite, I’m emerging from my cave to update you all on my progress . . . both in life and with the novel.

Life:

K had her neurology appointment on Tuesday. Our insurance won’t cover the expensive testing he would normally do (we’re looking into different insurance), so he did his best to diagnose based on the medical history we gave him as well as the exam he gave her.

He determined she had a few other seizures. One at school when she looked into the overhead projector and didn’t respond for a bit (we found out about that last Friday at parent/teacher conference). The second and third were at home when she was speaking to me, but the what she said didn’t make sense (I hadn’t realized these were seizures, but they were strange behavior so I reported them to him).

So, his diagnosis is viral encephalitis. Since the “treatment” for it would be the same no matter if he ran the tests or not, he opted not to make us file for bankruptcy (nice of him). The treatment is to watch her and see what happens. If she has another seizure, we are to contact him immediately (well, after we call 911, of course). He even gave us his cell phone number. If she does seize again, she’ll be admitted to the hospital and they’ll run all the expensive tests we’re hoping to avoid.

She’s not on any medication at this point. He thinks she’ll continue to recover and within the next two to three weeks, her memory and behavior issues should resolve themselves. He will see her again in January unless she seizes before then. He sent me home with literature about the different types of seizures so we can read up and hopefully learn to identify them (complex partial seizures, simple partial seizures, and atypical absence seizures). Of course if she’s twitching on the floor or being stiff and foaming at the mouth like she did the first time, we’ll know she’s seizing, but the others are more subtle . . . thus the literature.

The kids are on Fall Break for two weeks (gotta love the “modified school year), so I’m not sure how much writing I’ll get done, but here’s that update.

Rewrite:

My current word count looks like this:

I’m hoping to finish by the end of this month so I can participate in National Novel Writing Month again this year. We’ll see if I make it. I’m almost to the point where I can use most of the scenes from the previous novel. Though I’ll have to make a few changes to these scenes to make them work in this version, I’m thinking the changes will be minor (other than the POV change, of course).

And that’s my update. I’ll try to post at least once a week (probably Fridays) from now on.

Write on.

Give Me A Break

2010-09-23T06:13:00.001-07:00

You may have noticed I’ve been offline for a while now (at least I’m deluding myself into believing you’ve noticed) . Part of it was because I was forced into it through internet trouble, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the internet free days . . . well mostly. Like any addict, I found myself suffering from withdrawals, but going cold turkey opened my eyes to the enticing ways of that frivolous waste of time called the internet. To be fair, the internet has many wonderful advantages that when placed in the right hands can do wonders for a writer.

My hands are NOT the ~~write~~ right hands. My hands find it far too easy to click on link after link and take me further into the world wide web instead of working on my WIP.

In all honesty, I didn’t think I spent that much time online. I figured the hour or so I spent visiting blogs, responding to emails, tweeting, etc. was but a small portion of my writing day . . . but being without access brought home the sad truth.

If I got to a rough spot in my writing it was so easy to click on my email, or follow a link from a tweet, or reply to another blog. These “little” trips online throughout the day wasted more writing time than I’d ever imagined.

Though I still have many distractions to take me away from writing (kids, housework, pets, food), they are more “necessary” evils. The internet isn’t “necessary.” Years ago, writers didn’t have access to the world at their fingertips and they still managed to write. Am I better than they because I have the internet? Nay! . . . in fact, I may be more worser of a writer (intentional murdering of English grammar because I’ve been awake since 4:00 a.m. and am feeling silly).

And so . . . I’m going to make it official. I’m taking a break from the internet while I concentrate on finishing my rewrite. This doesn’t mean I’ll be vanishing completely like I have for the last few weeks. I’ll still drop in from time to time to update my blog, shoot off a quick tweet, read a blog, etc., but I won’t be replying to blogs, clicking on links, and otherwise “surfing” the waves of available distractions.

So, though I may not reply to your blogs, I’m still reading now and then to keep up with what’s going on. Who knows, I may even occasionally reply—

“NO! Stop it! She won’t be replying either!”

Woah! Sorry about that little interruption from my inner editor (she’s overprotective of my time and extremely jealous of the internet . . . I think she was the one who somehow caused the internet troubles in the first place, though she’ll never admit it) . . . what was I saying . . . oh yeah, I have to limit myself more.

I hope none of you wonderful people will be offended by my decision. I do still care about what’s going on in your lives, but I have to be selfish and concentrate on what NEEDS to be going on in mine.

As Shakespeare put it, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” In this case, it’s sweet because I know I’ll accomplish more writing, and sorrowful because I’ll miss the interaction with all of you.

See you when I emerge from my writing cave . . . all bleary eyed and staggering from lack of internet contact. ;-)

Write on!

Exercising Creativity

2010-09-07T14:33:00.001-07:00

You know how they say if you don’t use your muscles, they’ll deteriorate? I think it’s the same with creativity. If you don’t do something to exercise your creative mind, your creativity deteriorates. We certainly don’t want that to happen!

In exercise, it’s good to keep things fresh by doing different exercises to keep the muscles stimulated. The same old exercises won’t work the muscles as well, or at least won’t exercise more than the same muscles over and over (at least I think that’s how I remember being told it works . . . I don’t exercise enough to really know what I’m talking about . . . but go with me on this one).

I think this is also true for creativity. Sure, I write, but I also need other creative outlets to keep from becoming stagnant and to focus on different creative muscles. In addition to my writing, reading books, making beaded bookmarks, drawing, singing, sewing, painting, etc., I recently found a new creative outlet!

Some of you will remember I took a ceramics class during the Spring semester and fell in love with it. So, I decided this is a form of creative exercise I should continue. I signed up for it again this semester. First of all, let me say, if you’ve never played with mud, you’re missing out. I played with mud all the time growing up, and as I’m in ceramics class, I’m taken right back to my childhood . . . though I’m a bit more creative now and the mud is in the more solid form of clay.

I missed getting to play with the clay yesterday because of the holiday so I was all kinds of excited to get to go back to class today. Especially when I arrived and found my first finished project of the semester waiting for me.

Front:

Back:

Side:

I set out to make a vase (though several people in my class thought it was a wine bottle chiller . . . I suppose it could be, but I don’t drink wine so it’s a vase), and I’m pleased with the results. I’m not sure what possessed me to make the top like I did . . . it just happened . . . but it gives it a little something extra, and I’m happy.

Doing something like this (or any of the other creative exercises I do) keeps my creative mind energetic and fresh and ready to . . . well, be creative! I glazed two other pieces today and put the rest in the kiln for the first firing. I’m excited to go back next week and do some more! I have so many ideas for new projects and can’t wait to see how they turn out.

In the creative writing front, after playing with mud, my mind is full of creativity, and I’m ready for a day of writing tomorrow! I got another two hundred words done over the long weekend (brother-in-law came from Idaho so we spent most of the time visiting with him), and am planning on doing more writing tonight (after homework and dinner and bedtime for the kids).

But tomorrow will be a full day of writing!! At least that’s my plan. Now I just have to hope that life doesn’t interfere with my plans.

What do you do to exercise your creative muscles when you aren’t writing?

Create on!

What are these?! With pictures.

2010-09-04T13:28:00.001-07:00

In my back yard a little while ago, the kids found these large and frightening things:

Is this one above some kind of wasp (all three pictures are of the same bug) and the one below a bee (again all pictures are of the same bee thing)? Hubby thinks they’re both bees and that the one below is a black bumble bee (I’d never heard of one before and looked it up . . . it’s possible, I suppose, but the wings look to big for a bumble bee IMO).

Here they are together:

Strange . . . I’ve never seen them around here before but they freaked us out pretty good. They are BIG (you can see a bit of the chain link fence behind them for reference)! I didn’t want to get too close and don’t have a great zoom lens so sorry if the pictures aren’t the greatest.

Can anyone identify them?

Help on!

Really, September? Really?

2010-09-04T06:49:00.001-07:00

I don’t know why September felt the need to arrive so soon. August had barely begun, and then September came in and kicked it aside (September is kind of pushy like that). I’m miffed that it arrived ahead of schedule and brought my impending deadline that much closer. Curse you September!! Couldn’t you have waited another week?

*sigh*

I’m a bit stressed because I worry that, once again, the date I set for being finished with my rewrite will come and go, and I still won’t be finished. I hate missing my goals, and I don’t think the goals have been unrealistic. Unfortunately, whenever I set a goal for a certain date, things conspire against me to ensure I’ll never reach the goal.

Just a few minor things happened this time . . . like my son having an accident and my daughter having a seizure . . . but I should have been able to push through them and write, right?

Yesterday was a great writing day, but still not quite great enough to get my word count where I’d like it to be right now (at 40,000).

My self-imposed deadline is a week from today and I still need another 48,899 words. Yeah, chances are slim, but I’m going to try!

I probably ought to change my goal to be HALFWAY finished by the 11th so I can feel accomplished instead of bummed (because reaching the halfway point would be much more realistic at this point).

But changing my goal would be cheating so I won’t do it. I’ll work as hard and as fast and as much as I can and see where I stand next Saturday.

Okay, now an update on K. She had more blood work done on Wednesday. I got a phone call yesterday saying that everything came back normal. Our doctor referred us to a pediatric neurologist so she has an appointment with him on Oct 5th. She hasn’t had any further seizures, which is a good thing. =)

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Write on.

How did I miss this? and other stuff

2010-08-29T17:14:00.001-07:00

While catching up on my friends’ blogs today (I occasionally find time for it), I came across Cindy Pon’s awesome book giveaway. I’m not sure how I missed it, but since it doesn’t end until Sept. 3, I still have time to enter. She has some pretty cool books to give away so check it out!

I’m getting a bit more sleep now. K hasn’t had another seizure and we plan to send her back to school tomorrow even though I’m still nervous. But I can’t keep her home forever and watch her every second (well I could try, but it would drive both of us crazy).

My word count hasn’t improved by much (about 400 words), but I’m hoping this week will be seizure and car accident free so I can get some writing done!

Of course, I’ll be in ceramics class tomorrow and Tuesday (or maybe just tomorrow . . . or maybe just Tuesday) so I probably won’t get much writing done until Wednesday or Thursday (hubby is off Wednesday and he’s distracting so I may not get much done on Wed.) .

I’m still planning on being done by the 11th though so I’ve got to find some time to

Write on!

Thursday Things

2010-08-26T10:30:00.001-07:00

Wednesday is over. I ended up leaving hubby to entertain on his own, and I hid away in my room to grab some sleep when the in-laws arrived. *evil grin*

K hasn’t had any further seizures. I called the neurologist’s office (the number the hospital gave us), but I had to leave a message because I guess they weren’t open yet. We’ll see if they call back. I think I might call our personal doctor and see if he has a recommendation for a neurologist too (always good to have choices).

All the kids are home from school again today. Oldest son is having back pain from his accident and it hurts him to sit in the chairs at school (he went for part of the day yesterday before he called me to come get him). We’re going to take him to get checked out.

Last night, K slept in our beg again. She shares a room with our oldest daughter, J, and J didn’t want to be in her room alone. So . . . I ended up sleeping on the futon/couch again while J and K slept in the bed with hubby.

The futon/couch isn’t very comfortable, and sleeping on it two nights in a row makes it even more uncomfortable. But that’s okay, I didn’t sleep much anyway. I’m too stressed out about K. I’ve been through so much with both my girls already, that I’m not sure I can do it again. Even being in the ER on Tuesday almost sent me into a panic attack.

All that kept running through my mind last night were the horrors of the previous troubles with the girls . . . the weeks in the hospital and the surgeries, the breathing machines, having to learn to insert a feeding tube, the way my little K looked all twisted and stiff during the seizure, her incoherence afterward . . . the stuff of nightmares, only I wasn’t asleep.

So, I’m tired today, but I’m pressing forward anyway. I guess I’m just panicking and will hopefully calm down as time goes by (hopefully with no further seizures), but, right now, I’m afraid to leave K alone.

She has an eye doctor appointment today (she’d been complaining of not being able to see the board at school). I thought about cancelling the appointment, but decided to go ahead and get it done. After the appointment, I’m hoping to get some writing done . . . but we’ll see if I can let go of my worries enough to dive into writing.

How are the rest of you doing out there? Hope your Thursday things are more fun than mine. ;-)

Live on.

I Hate Tuesday!

2010-08-25T11:37:00.001-07:00

Okay, not all Tuesdays, but yesterday, for sure!

First, son got into a car accident. He turned off the highway onto a dirt pullout and, not being familiar with driving on dirt, couldn’t stop in time and hit a parked truck. No one was injured, though son is sore today. There was some damage, but we had full coverage so we’ll survive. In all honesty, I’m glad the truck was there for him to hit. He couldn’t stop and would have gone over the cliff!

Okay, so as if that wasn’t enough to stress a mother out, second daughter, K, came home from school with a 100.2 degree fever. At about 5:00, she had a massive seizure! We spent most of the night in the hospital while they ran tests, but everything came back normal (including the CAT scan). They have no idea why she seized, but gave us a pediatric neurologist’s number to follow up. They’re just calling it New Onset Seizure.

The doc said it isn’t uncommon for a child to have a seizure and then never have one again, but he also said if she’s susceptible to them, she’s more likely to have another one. The kicker is, we won’t know if she’s susceptible unless she has another one. Honestly, one was terrifying enough! It’s not like I’ve never witnessed a seizure before (I have a friend who has them), but it’s a whole new ballgame when it’s your own child! It’s horrifying!!

So, everyone is home from school today because we’re exhausted after the hospital and car accident excitement. We’re keeping a close eye on K. Other than not remembering what happened just before and just after the seizure, K seems back to normal. She slept in our bed with hubby last night while I “slept” on the futon with oldest daughter who was all freaked out and worried that she’d have a seizure too. *sigh* Hubby and I didn’t sleep well at all for some strange reason.

Yeah, I want to be sleeping right now, but hubby’s dad and sister decided they needed to come down and see K today. I wanted hubby to tell them no, but he won’t because his father has health problems and hardly ever comes to see the kids. So, hubby ran off into town to finish up some work he didn’t get done yesterday, and I’m here waiting for his family to show up.

I hate yesterday’s Tuesday, and I’m beginning to hate today’s Wednesday.

On a happy note (if you can call it that), my copy of Mockingjay should arrive today . . . not that I’ll be able to read it because I’ll either be entertaining family or sleeping away some of my exhaustion.

Whine on!

I Resisted . . . .

2010-08-23T14:20:00.001-07:00

. . . and didn’t make the bookmarks, though I was sorely tempted to. I hoped to manage 5,000 words this weekend, but it didn’t happen. I did get a little more writing done after my post on Saturday, but the kids ended up wanting to play games and have some fun . . . so we played games, had fun, and went for ice cream.

My weekend word count ended up looking like this:

And do you see how the computer sticks its tongue out to mock me?

Anyway, I’m still pleased with the progress. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any writing done today because I gave in to another temptation.

Some of you may remember that I went to school full time in the spring. I decided it was too much and wasn’t going back in the fall . . . but I decided I had WAY too much fun in the ceramics classes so I signed up for the fall.

Classes started this morning. I made a vase today. I’m not sure what I’ll make tomorrow. Though this takes time away from my writing, the good news is, I’m not taking the classes for a grade this time so I don’t HAVE to go to class. I signed up for both Monday and Tuesday and figure I’ll be able to make it to one or the other each week, even if I can’t make it to both. The classes go from 8:30 to 2:30, but I can leave earlier if I want (like I did today).

I’m a bad girl, I know, but how can I resist being able to play with mud (cause that’s basically what the clay is)? Especially when I get to make things like this:

Yes, that bowl was from last semester, but I don’t have anything to post from this semester because it just started today.

So, I’m hoping to get some writing done today, but the kids will be home from school in a little while and then it will be time for homework . . . we’ll see what happens.

Create on!

Resistance is Futile . . . or is it?

2010-08-21T11:39:00.002-07:00

When I got the mail today, I had a package waiting for me from ChubbyChicoCharms. I’d ordered some charms for making bookmarks (a special order of some letters and some wolf themed). Now I’m trying to resist the temptation to make bookmarks because I really need to be writing.

On the other hand, the kids are home and keep bugging me so I can’t really concentrate on writing . . . maybe I ought to give up and make bookmarks.

But I really need to get some more writing done (though I did accomplish a bit this morning).

Here’s where I stand:

Anyway, I’m not sure what the day will bring. I’ll probably do more writing because I feel guilty and also because I’m at a great scene that should be easy to write.

But if I get stumped . . . then the bookmark making supplies might come out. =)

Edited to Add: Those of you who know me well, realize I'm a competetive person. Well, Kimberly over on The Reinvention of Me decided to set a goal of getting 5,000 words this weekend. Not to be outdone, I decided I'm going to try for 5,000 words this weekend as well.

Plus, it's a good compromise. If I get 5,000 words, then I can reward myself by using the new charms to make bookmarks for my Etsy shop! Ewww . . . flashback to high school Math and the whole "if . . . then" problems I hated. *shiver* Anyway, I'm off to . . .

Write on!

Here we go again . . .

2010-08-20T12:25:00.002-07:00

Though I’ve been working on my novel every day, it doesn’t seem like it when this is my current word count:

It looks like I haven’t done much at all, but in reality I have . . . honest! This word count doesn’t reflect the nearly 10,000 words I ended up cutting and all the revising I did in the first few chapters to incorporate a new aspect of the novel.

Though I love the new direction the novel is taking, it meant I had to do some major reworking/editing/cutting. Several scenes were reworked, and a few had to be cut out entirely! I’m not sure they’ll be able to be recycled. While this makes me sad for all the time I spent writing them, in the end, this new dimension will add more depth and is worth it!

So, while I’m not going to reach my goal of being done by the 23rd, (I’m still going to write like crazy and get as much done by then as I can), I’m happy with the progress I’ve made.

And, I’m setting a new goal of being finished by September 11th (one of my sister’s has a birthday then).

I’m actually hoping to be finished before then, but decided to give myself some leeway since I don’t often get much writing done over the weekends (needing to spend time with the kids and all that).

I’m still playing around with my scheduling and trying to find out what works best for me. Right now I write while my kids are in school (like now . . . but I’m on a lunch break). When they get home, we have homework, dinner, and then it’s time for bed when hubby likes to relax in front of the TV.

I’m not very good with writing while the TV is going so it ends up that what I write during the day is pretty much what I get written.

But, I’m thinking of changing things around and writing at night after the kids have gone to bed (going in the living room) because I get a lot of inspiration then and there aren’t as many distractions during those hours. Plus, I can try to sleep during the day when the kids are in school . . . right? ;-)

Anyway, my lunch break is over (I only give myself 1/2 hour), so I must get back to writing.

How are things going for all of you out there?

Write on!

Blogger or LJ Blog? A Write On Con Conundrum

2010-08-14T08:11:00.002-07:00

During the Write On Conference, there were suggestions on author branding that included making your online presence consistent with they type of author you are/type of books you write. This “theme” or “mood” should carry from one online endeavor to the next from websites, to blogs, to Twitter, etc. Basically anywhere you can customize, you should, but keep it consistent.

As you may have noticed, I took that to heart and have been working on customizing my blogs and twitter. The topic of creating an online presence came up often during live chats and I was amazed to learn there were industry professionals who declared they didn’t like LJ because it wasn’t as easy to customize and was restrictive. I’m not sure what they meant by this (though it’s not as easy, you can still sort of customize the look of your blog), but it got me thinking.

Are Blogger and other online blogging options better than LJ? Is LJ a moon being paled by the much brighter sons in the webosphere?

I happen to like LJ. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s the first blog site I joined and it’s like an old familiar security blanket, or if it’s because I get notifications of my friend’s posts in my email. Granted, I can get email notifications from some Blogger friends as well, but not as many offer this option. Besides, I have many more LJ friends than I do Blogger (or other journaling sites).

Yes, it’s easier to see the Blogger followers if a “follow” gadget is put on the blog so knowing the popularity of your blog is easier (though just because you have followers, doesn’t mean your blog is popular . . . the commenting is what counts), and I do have to agree that Blogger is much easier to customize (I was able to make my own background for Blogger and fairly easily put it up using the CSS feature, but I was also able to add a background to my LJ using the CSS, just not as easily and as completely as on Blogger).

Blogger also has a new Template feature for editing your blog which makes things a bit easier . . .

And yet, I still love my LJ and all the connections I have there (though I love the “look” of my Blogger more).

I’m wondering . . . how many of my LJ friends also have another blog they frequent . . . maybe even more than they do LJ?

What is your choice of platform for blogging?

Though I suppose it doesn’t matter what platform you use if you aren’t consistent with your postings and keep things interesting (this was mentioned quite a bit at the conference too). I’m going to work on the being more consistent thing . . . but I make no guarantees in the “interesting” category.

AND . . .There must be an easier way to keep in touch with my Blogger friends, so if someone out here can tell me how it’s done, I’d really appreciate it!

Blog on!

What’s Up?

2010-08-13T17:57:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I’ve been offline for a few days . . . okay, for several days. Things have been busy. I’ve been restructuring my WIP, plotting out a couple of new ideas, and setting writing goals. Then, I enjoyed Write On Con Tuesday thru Thursday!

If you didn’t attend, you missed out!! It’s the best conference I’ve ever been to . . . Okay, I admit, I’ve only been to one conference (SCBWIAZ Welcome to Our House). Still, I don’t think any conference could have been better. Instead of attending one or two presentations, I got to see them all (or read them, depending on what it was). The live chats were so much fun (I even got a few of my own questions put through) and informative too.

Everything was online, and available whenever I could get to it (except the live chats). That came in handy for those moments when I had to use the bathroom, eat something before I fainted, go pick up the kids from school, move because my butt fell asleep . . . you know, things like that.

Plus, it was FREE!

I’m definitely looking forward to it next year.

I’ll be posting some helpful hints about things I learned and sharing my thoughts over the next week or so (hey, it’s much needed fodder for the blog).

I’m also going to be madly typing if I hope to reach my goal of finishing my rewrite by the 23rd.

“The twenty third of August?” my inner author asks.

“Yes. The twenty third of August,” I say.

“Why do you set impossible goals for yourself?”

“Nothing is impossible,” I say.

My inner author doesn’t think I can do it. If you promise not to tell, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Do you promise? Okay. I’m not sure I can do it either, but I’ve got a new writing strategy so we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve decided to quit trying to write the book chronologically. I’m going to write scene by scene and then put it all together after I’m done.

I really think this will keep those staring-off-into-space-while-I-try-to-figure-out-how-I’m-going-to-get-from-point-A-to-point-B moments to a minimum. That’s the theory anyway. I really hope it works.

I’ve made a list of the major scenes I need and another list of the subplot things I need to happen. I figured out how to combine some of them, and the ones that are left standing off stage I’m hoping will be the glue that puts the major scenes together.

Yeah, so that’s my plan.

What’s up with you guys since I’ve been gone?

Write on.

Help . . . if you can . . .

2010-08-06T16:21:00.001-07:00

I think I’m losing my mind. In an effort to help regain some of my sanity, I’m reaching out to my friends. Help me if you can!

Okay, here’s the thing:

In speaking with my third grade daughter’s teacher this afternoon, she showed me they are working on doing Illuminations (they’re reading Igraine the Brave and doing a whole medieval section). I mentioned how I loved illuminations and had seen some at the Getty Museum when I went a few years ago (for work, but we took time to see the sights).

Then it happened . . . a little something in my brain said, “didn’t you just see some sort of blog post or something that mentioned someone’s picture book being illustrated with illuminations? Didn’t you even mention in a comment that you loved illuminations and had seen them at the Getty?”

I have wracked my brain, searched through my friend list, but I can’t find the post.

Maybe I’m completely insane. Maybe I saw it on a link on someone’s blog and clicked which took me to another blog and clicked which took me to another and it wasn’t even one of my friends.

Maybe it was on Facebook . . . maybe it was on Verla Kay’s . . . I just don’t know!

But if you know what I’m talking about, please, please, please let me know. It’s driving me crazy, and I need to concentrate on writing instead of this!

Maybe I’ve lost my mind and it never happened . . . if you find my mind, please help send it back.

Help on!

Word count Wednesday

2010-08-04T17:50:00.001-07:00

So, I obviously didn’t reach my goal of finishing my rewrite by the end of July. Life happened.

Still, I’m back in the swing of things now that the kids are in school, and I managed to get some writing done today. Yay! That was with an appointment this afternoon and my husband home early from work (not feeling well)!

I’d like to do more writing tonight, but I’ve got to get dinner done and get some sleep (I was up until after midnight because I couldn’t sleep).

I’m hoping to get more writing done tomorrow before I have to go to the PTO meeting followed by the school’s open house.

Oh, and remember how I was determined not to read LINGER until after I reached the 30,000 mark? Yeah, that didn’t happen. I gave in and read it a few nights ago. I’m a horrible person. I know.

I’m still debating whether to take ceramics classes at the college this semester (I won’t take any other classes right now though), but if I do, class starts on the 23rd.

So, my new goal is to finish this rewrite by August 23! I CAN DO THIS!!

Write on!

How to Procrastinate

2010-08-03T11:55:00.001-07:00

I think I’m an expert by now. It’s not that I don’t WANT to write, it’s just that things conspire against me.

Today, it’s the squirrel’s fault.

Let me explain.

I purchased this bracelet from artistq’s (Laura Hamor) Etsy shop back in November and have worn it pretty much every day since (though I do take it off to shower). After months of daily abuse, the cord had worn through and the last threads holding it together broke today.

I tried to figure out how to tie another cord, but I’m knot challenged and failed miserably (it’s some sort of horribly complicated slip knot so it adjusts . . . you probably all know how to tie a slip knot like this, but I couldn’t figure it out).

Instead of putting it away and contacting Laura to see about a repair, I decided I’d use my creativity (which should have been working on my novel) and fix it myself.

I used black and white so it would pretty much match everything. It’s now back around my wrist, and I’ve discovered this new style has an added benefit. As I type, it knocks against the laptop and reminds me I need to be writing (I’m feeling guilty even now).

But . . . in true procrastinator fashion, as I was sorting through my endless boxes of beads to pick just the right ones for the bracelet, I was inspired to also make this:

It’s a bee bookmark for my own Etsy Shop (though I’ll resist the temptation to procrastinate further and list it on there today).

So how is it the squirrel’s fault?

The stupid squirrel came into my yard and made my dogs bark. If my dogs hadn’t been barking, I wouldn’t have had to go bring them in to keep the neighbor from complaining. If I hadn’t needed to bring them in, I wouldn’t have caught my bracelet on the fence which is what broke the last threads holding the bracelet together.

Now it’s 11:53 AZ time and the kids will be out of school in three more hours! Still, I’m taking the time to post this here instead of diving right in to my writing.

This, my friends, is how you procrastinate . . . or at least how I’ve managed to procrastinate today.

*sigh*

Now I’m going to see if I can use my remaining time to do some writing . . . although, it’s pretty close to lunch time, and I’m pretty hungry. Maybe I’ll get something to eat first and then start writing . . . unless I find something else to distract me.

Procrastinate on! =0

I Won A Contest . . . and Other Weekend Stuff!

2010-08-02T07:39:00.001-07:00

I’m thrilled to have had the chance to enter Julie Jordan’s Alphabet Stories Contest and even more thrilled to have won! I’m not sure what my prize is (I’ll be getting a surprise in the mail), but it was a blast to write the story. =)

What was it all about? Entrants had to write a story of 26 sentences (one for each letter of the alphabet, but it began with G instead of A). It was so much fun to try to make it be engaging and not be obvious that I was starting each sentence with the next letter of the alphabet. I went with a strange story using Hel, Loki’s half dead half alive daughter from Norse mythology, as my inspiration. Anyway, if you go here, you can read my winning entry.

In other weekend news, I have sick kids again (it’s so much fun). This time, it’s the oldest boy. He’s trying to go to school anyway, but we’ll see how it goes. Hubby was also sick over the weekend. He’s still not feeling well (it’s a stomach thing), but he’s off to work anyway. I didn’t get much sleep last night, but I’m going to struggle through my day anyway. I’m spending a few hours at the school to work on some paperwork for the PTO this morning, but I’m hoping to get some writing done this afternoon . . . we’ll see how it goes.

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend making new bookmarks. I haven’t gotten them up on the Etsy store yet, but I’ll get to it sometime . . .

The most fun thing that happened this weekend?

We had a baby gecko hatch out of one of our gecko eggs!!!

We’ve been trying to hatch geckos for quite a while, but the eggs always died. This time, it worked (I added moisture to the container to keep the eggs from drying out even though the instructions for the hatching material said I didn’t need to).

I have five more eggs waiting to hatch, though I’m not sure they’re all fertile. Four of the eggs were laid on Saturday (same day the baby hatched) and I’m not sure they’re fertile yet (will check them by “candling” later today).

So that was my weekend. How was yours?

Write on.

Novel Novel Review and contest reminder

2010-07-26T11:04:00.001-07:00

It's that time again!

Here's a quick reminder of my rating system

A+--I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this book. In most cases, I passed it on to my child/teen.

A--I enjoyed this book and I might pass it on to my child/teen.

B--I liked this book, but probably won't pass it on to my child/teen.

C--I thought it was okay, but I won't pass it on to my child/teen.

D--I didn't like this book, and won't allow my child/teen to read it.

F--I hope I never have to go here. =D

I will give reasons for my rating in my review, but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. If you find your book here, don't panic if I rate it below an A. These are my personal preferences and I'm only one small person in a large market. =D

On to the review!

THE HEALING SPELL by Kimberley Griffiths Little

Rating A+ (and a few more +s)

Category: Middle Grade contemporary

Livie has a frightening secret; her mother is in a coma and she's responsible for it. She's terrified her mother might die, and even more terrified her family will hate her if they find out her secret. She already feels so alone that losing their love would be unbearable.

Burdened with the truth, Livie tries to come to terms with her guilt, but guilt isn't the only weight on her eleven-year-old shoulders. She's trying to find her own place in the world. Unfortunately, her world is changing and she's not sure which way to turn.

Her older sister is supposed to be getting married and leaving, her little sister cries at everything, and her father quit his job to care for his wife. Circumstances are forcing Livie to adapt, and she isn't very good at it.

After deciding her best hope at redemption is to heal her mother, Livie visits Miz Allemond, a traiteur, and gets a healing spell. The spell isn't full of magic words and instant results. Instead, it forces Livie to take a closer look at the world and people around her, including herself.

I loved THE HEALING SPELL! Though not my usual fare of fantasy or paranormal, this book captured me from the start. It was easy for me to feel connected with Livie as she struggled to find her place in her family and the world around her.

Livie reminded me what it was like to be eleven; that in-between age where you're no longer a child, but not a teen either. Her loneliness and longing reached through the pages of the book and grabbed the lonely, longing child within me. With a firm hold on my inner child, Livie took me on an adventure of self-discovery.

I shed more tears while reading this book than I have in a long time and felt better for the catharsis. Through Livie, I rediscovered my eleven-year-old self and gained a stronger understanding of the woman I am today. THE HEALING SPELL is more than a book; it's a salve for the soul, a balm for the burdened, and an enjoyable read for everyone.

THE HEALING SPELL does more than heal the characters, it heals the reader!

I was thrilled to meet with Kimberley on Saturday. I should have taken my camera, but I don’t like having my picture taken so it’s not something I thought to bring. Anyway, Kimberley and I had some great conversations about life and writing and the life of writing. She’s so gracious and easy to talk to. If you ever get a chance to go to one of her book signings, don’t miss it!

She signed my copy of her book and also signed the copy for the contest (pictured below)!

She even gave me a bunch of The Healing Spell bookmarks to help spread the word:

There are more than three bookmarks, but these three are up for grabs. I’ll be including them as prizes for the contest. If you haven’t entered, there’s still time. However, the contest ends on July 30th (that’s Friday) so don’t wait too long and miss your chance to win a signed copy of The Healing Spell (and the gator bookmark I made to go with it) or one of the three bookmarks!

Now I must go mow the lawn and do some laundry. At some point today I also have to put my two new bookmarks in my Etsy shop.

Hopefully I’ll find time to do some writing today too.

Write on?

I’m back online!

2010-07-19T09:55:00.001-07:00

Did you miss me? You probably didn’t even notice I was gone. ;-)

My internet connection has been down. I got it back on Friday, but I was so busy trying to prepare for my kids’ birthday bash (we had a party for the three youngest on Saturday) that I didn’t have a chance to get online.

Saturday was crazy. It began by waking at 3:00 a.m. to get ready to go to my mom’s house. We had to arrive by 5:00 a.m. to participate in the highway clean up (we adopted a mile of highway in Snowflake in memory of my brother and sister-in-law). After the clean up, we ate breakfast. After breakfast my sisters, mother, and I had a Ladies Day (we get together every other month and do something together) where we planted herbs (I planted rosemary, thyme, basil, sage, mint, and oregano) and harvested from the garden (squash, zucchini, and peas). With the planting and harvesting done, we ate lunch and visited until the party started at 3:00 pm. We had cake, ice cream, presents, and lots of fun with the cousins. The two girls went home with the in-laws so we packed the boys in the car and came home. We arrived at 7:00 pm and all I wanted to do was fall into bed . . . so I did.

Yesterday was our 12th anniversary. We didn’t have a lot of money after throwing the birthday bash and buying birthday presents (two youngest kids each wanted a DSi and games). Hubby bought me a card and I made him a card in Publisher. ;-) We went out to dinner last night (as inexpensive as we could without doing fast food). It was simple and sweet. =)

Anyway, with my internet being down, you’d think I’d have finished my rewrite, but I didn’t. I did get some writing done and am hoping to get more done today (but youngest son is home with no one to entertain him . . . oh, how I tried to convince him to go with the in-laws, but they don’t have a Wii and he also got a Wii game for his birthday so he wanted to play it).

Here’s my progress:

I also spent some time reading during my internet free days/nights! I finished all the books I needed to review for TeensReadToo.com (Other, Clockwork Angel, Trackers, Frozen in Time, but I still need to write up the reviews) and Saturday I was happy to receive The Healing Spell in the mail (one of the two copies I ended up ordering). I was too tired to read it on Saturday, but, after I made the anniversary card, I spent some time reading it on Sunday (while hubby was working). When hubby went off to work this morning at 6:30, I started reading and finished it by 8:30. I LOVED IT!!

I’m expecting the second copy and also Linger hopefully today (I’m off to check the mail after I write this because I have to take youngest son to spend his birthday money so he’ll leave me alone to write LOL).

So, I’ll be posting a Double Trouble Contest within the next couple of days for someone to win the extra copy of The Healing Spell.

Now, I must be off to roam the store with youngest son as he tries to decide what to buy with his $20 birthday money.

Write on!

This is the life

2010-07-10T11:57:00.001-07:00

Well, daughter is still sick! We took her to the doctor on Wednesday. They did a strep swab and it came back negative. They couldn’t find anything else to indicate otherwise so it was diagnosed as a virus.

Wednesday night, daughter broke out in a rash. It isn’t itchy or anything, but she was still having fevers. I left a message for the doctor Thursday to update them. I missed the nurse calling back because I was outside watering the plants, but doctor said daughter’s fever had probably broken and the virus would run it’s course. I called back (but it was after hours by then) and left another message to tell them her fever had not broken before the rash developed and that she was still having fever spikes. Our doctor doesn’t work on Friday, but his office called back that morning while we were out (I had packed up daughter to go buy milk . . . I know she was sick and all, but I had no milk and couldn’t leave her home alone). They had reviewed the case with another doctor in the office who decided to treat with antibiotics and had faxed a prescription to the pharmacy.

First of all, you have to understand that I’m not a fan of treating viruses with antibiotics and creating super viruses. Second, I trust our personal doctor, but not some of the others in the office. So, hubby and I debated about whether or not to pick up the prescription (the pharmacy is open until 9:00 pm so we had time). If it had been any of my other children, I probably would have made them tough it out until our personal doctor returned to the office on Monday, but, with daughter’s past medical history (she’s the one who got RSV, almost died, had heart surgery to repair two holes in her heart, and now has a leaky aortic valve), we decided we better have the prescription over the weekend, just in case.

So, I went to pick up the prescription last night at about 8:30.

Not being our regular doctor, the other physician had called in a prescription for pills. My daughter will NOT swallow a pill.

It’s probably for the best since it’s likely a virus anyway, but daughter is still having fevers today (though not above 100.4 so far) so we’re kind of stressed and trying not to freak out too bad . . . but we always freak out when it comes to her.

Still, I managed to get a bit of writing done Thursday and yesterday as she lay in my bed and watched TV (the TV is distracting enough, but she kept asking questions and making comments about the programs she watched).

My MIL will be bringing the other two kidlets home this afternoon, so I have to take some time to straighten up the house before she gets here. I’m hoping to write more after MIL leaves, but I’m sure kidlets will want to tell me all about what fun they had so I doubt my writing will happen.

That being said, I’m still determined to finish this rewrite before the end of the month (yeah, time is running out)!

Write on . . . well, unless you have cleaning or kids or something else you have to do first. ;-)

The best laid plans . . .

2010-07-06T18:56:00.001-07:00

Well, things never work out like I plan them. We took the kids to the in-laws over the weekend. They’re supposed to be staying for a week so I’ve been looking forward to a week of writing.

It hasn’t happened.

My mother called yesterday and begged me to drive down and help her with the garden. I took my oldest son (he was off work yesterday) with me and we picked peas and zucchini and pulled weeds. It was fun, but it meant no writing time yesterday.

After I got home last night, my mother-in-law called to inform me that oldest daughter was running a fever (102). They gave her some children’s ibuprofen and kept an eye on her today, but her fever went back up (103) so I left at 4:20 pm and drove an hour (almost half way) to meet them in Clint’s Wells and bring daughter home. The other two kids didn’t want to come home so they’re staying until Saturday or Sunday.

I was able to call and get daughter an appointment with her doctor tomorrow so we’ll see what’s going on . . . I hope.

I did manage to get a bit of writing done this morning. I only wish it could have been more. Still, considering everything that’s been happening, I’m glad I even got this much done!

14% down and 86% to go. =)

At least oldest daughter isn’t demanding when she’s sick. She usually lays around on the couch with her drinks on a side table and watches TV or something. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get some writing done tomorrow . . . but we’ll see if it happens.

Since the other kids aren’t here, she may want to lay in here on my bed and watch TV which will mean too much distraction for me to write.

But that’s okay, she’s my little girl and I’m willing to sacrifice writing time if it helps her to feel a bit better. That’s what moms are for, and I’m a mom before I’m a writer . . . dang it. ;-)

Mom on!

Still here . . . sort of . . .

2010-06-29T09:24:00.001-07:00

I’ve been avoiding the internet for the most part. I’ve read a few blog posts (but didn’t comment much), checked email, and distracted myself with a few Facebook moments, but other than that, I’ve been absent . . .

. . . and I’m not even sorry. =p

Well, I suppose I am a little sorry I’ve neglected you all. ;-)

Anyway, I’ve been taking care of family stuff, reading, and even doing a bit of writing. Yesterday I did a whole lot of house cleaning (it sure needed it), and I’m getting ready to dive into an almost full day of writing (have to take son’s iPod touch back to Wal-Mart at some point . . . we bought him the thing yesterday and it won’t turn on).

Before I give you my updated word count (not much, but it’s there), let me excuse myself by saying I’ve been revising my rewrite (even though I’m not finished with the rewrite yet). So, I’ve been doing a lot of work on the thing, but the word count doesn’t reflect it because I cut some stuff. =)

Oh, and also before I give you my updated word count, let me direct you to Kimberley Little’s blog where you can watch her very cool book trailer for The Healing Spell (releasing July 1)! Or, click on it below and THEN go to her blog (she’s having a contest).

Okay, now here’s my updated word count:

Now I'm going to catch up on a few blogs and get back to work on the novel.

Write on!

Thursday Things

2010-06-17T13:33:00.001-07:00

Well, I’ve been working on writing reviews for the eight books I had read for TeensReadToo.com since this morning. I just sent them off and it’s 1:15. Whew! Now I’m caught up on reviews, but I still have three unread books I need to do for TRT, so I’m afraid I’ll have to postpone reading THE MAGIC THIEF FOUND. This makes me sad as I’ve loved the series and want to finish it!

Oh well, it will still be there (along with the rest of my “want to read” pile) when I’m finished with the TRT books. On a good note, my name was drawn as the lucky reviewer for TRT who gets to read and review this:

YAY!! I love it when my “want to read” and “read to review” piles can combine like this. =) The book is on it’s way to me and I’m super excited!! (can you tell by the exclamation points?)

I haven’t had a chance to put more bookmarks in my Etsy store but I’m hoping to get to that tomorrow (or maybe later today). Here’s one of the new bookmarks I need to get listed.

A piano!! If only I had room in my house for a real piano . . . someday . . .

My sister and I also came up with a new packaging system/display for the bookmarks and I’m really excited about it!

Anyway, after spending the morning typing up reviews, my hands hurt. I think I’ll have to take a break and do some reading. Maybe I’ll get to do writing this evening. If not, there’s always tomorrow . . . oh wait, no there isn’t. I’ll be busy getting things ready for a road trip. We’ve got to take a puppy to a couple from Denver (we’re meeting them in Gallup NM tomorrow evening). *sigh*

Okay, Saturday is for sure going to be a writing day! =)

Write on.

Words on Wednesday

2010-06-16T18:20:00.001-07:00

I managed to get a bit of writing done today. It wasn’t much, but it’s progress.

Now I’m going to watch some “Ghost Hunter’s Academy” and later some “America’s Got Talent.”

I managed to get some more bookmarks posted in my Etsy store. I still have more I haven’t posted, but I spent most of my day reading. I have some book reviews I need to write up and some more books I need to read for reviewing (for TeensReadToo.com), but I set it all aside and did some reading from my “books I’m dying to read that have been sitting here forever” pile. ;-)

I read BALLAD by Maggie Stiefvater (finally). I loved it! I’ve also been reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I’m on book four, but I set it aside for BALLAD. I’m also tempted to read THE MAGIC THIEF: FOUND from my huge “books I want to read . . .” pile, but I think I’ll use it as a reward and force myself wait until I’ve written up the reviews for the books I’ve already read (for TRT.com). I’m way behind on my reviews. I’ve read the books so I just need to do the writing.

But for now, I’m going to watch mindless TV, eat dinner, watch more mindless TV, and I’ll start out my writing day with some reviewing tomorrow. When my writing day is done, maybe I’ll post more bookmarks to my Etsy Store and then dive in to reward myself with reading FOUND. ;-)

Write on.

I have an Etsy shop!

2010-06-14T17:56:00.001-07:00

It’s true. I have given in and opened an Etsy shop. I’m selling beaded bookmarks with my sisters. We only have a few listed at this time, but we have a whole lot more to list . . . when I get around to it. ;-)

Here is a link if you want to check it out. Feel free to purchase a bookmark.

Here’s a sample of what the bookmarks look like:

I haven’t done much writing today since I spent all my time setting up the shop, but I’m hoping to write more tomorrow or later this evening.

Write on . . . or shop on.

End of the Day Report

2010-06-10T20:14:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I’ve done more writing since I posted my last update so I thought I’d report my final word count (I’m done for the day).

Hopefully there'll be another day of writing tomorrow!

Write on.

Tessa the Awesome

2010-06-10T16:21:00.001-07:00

Visit her at tessagratton.com!

She’s having a contest so be sure to check it out!

For an extra entry into her contest, I drew a Tessa the Awesome picture of my own (and, to honor her tradition, I drew it on the back of an old MS page).

Write (or draw) on!

Still Counting

2010-06-10T14:38:00.001-07:00

I’m glad to be back after all the stress and emotions of the last few weeks. The death of my grandmother ended up hitting me harder than I thought it would, but now that the funeral is over, I have some closure and am ready to get back to writing. Today is the first day I’ve done any writing since my last update, and it took a while to get back in to the swing of things. I’ve opened the word document several times, but just couldn’t bring myself to write.

I did a lot of talking with family and watched a lot of television (mostly “Charmed” DVDs that my sister loaned to me . . . I’d never watched the series before). The last few days I spent talking to my sister about the book we’re co-writing. We had some pretty good brainstorming sessions and after we tied up a few loose ends yesterday, I felt ready to get back to my own work. But when I opened Word yesterday, I didn’t feel so inspired. I watched more “Charmed” instead. *sigh*

However, today when I opened my document in Word, I forced myself to do something. I didn’t feel inspired to write at first, but instead of closing the file and setting my computer aside, I went back to the beginning of the novel and began some editing. After about an hour of that, I was back. I scrolled to where I left off and set to work.

I think I’m done for the day, but plan to take it up again tomorrow!

I’ll try to catch up on blogs over the next couple of days to see what you guys have been up to (be patient with me as I’m WAY behind). How’s the writing coming along for you all?

Write on.

The End

2010-05-27T06:47:00.001-07:00

Thank you all for your kind words, prayers, and support. I just wanted to let you know that Grandma passed away at 1:30 this morning.

Her last chapter has been written, published in the hearts and minds of those who knew her, and now her book covers are closed.

She will be missed, but is at peace in a better place.

We’re all doing okay.

Mayday MayDay and Update

2010-05-26T14:59:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I’ve been so busy writing today that I forgot to post the final Mayday MayDay Wednesday check in. Hey, at least I remembered before Thursday! =)

So, how are you all coming on your goals?

It’s been a tough few months for me writing wise with school, kids, etc., but things are finally starting to kick into place. I had an epiphany at about 2:30 am (why is it that epiphanies can’t wait for a decent hour?) and jumped out of bed to write it all down.

I tried to go back to sleep afterward, but I couldn’t. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any writing done either since hubby was trying to sleep and the tap, tap, tap, of the keys wakes him up. So, I waited until the decent hour of 6:30 am (time to wake up the kids) and then started writing (after I woke up the kids).

I would like to have written more, but oldest son had a half-day of school because of finals (this will happen tomorrow too) so I had to stop writing to bring him home and get him something to eat.

Anyway, I’m not done writing for the day (at least I hope not . . . but the kids are home from school now so concentration will be a challenge), but here is my word meter so far:

Hope you are all having a great writing Wednesday!

Write on.

A Few Words

2010-05-25T18:58:00.001-07:00

My mother told me earlier this afternoon that Grandma is no longer responsive. She’s still breathing on her own, but won’t wake up. It probably won’t be long now.

I didn’t get much written yesterday since I was doing a beta read for someone and then this morning, I worked on some critiques I needed to get done. I did get a little writing done today though.

I’m hoping for more writing time tomorrow, but we’ll see how it goes. The kids get out of school on Friday, but oldest son (in high school) is turning his books in tomorrow so he doesn’t have to go on Friday. My first and second graders have awards assemblies Friday morning from 8:30 to 9:30 and then my fourth grader has her assembly from 9:30 to 10:30. After the assemblies, the kids can come home. Like that ever happens. They end up going around the school for the next hour or so getting autographs on their shirts (every year I buy them a shirt and permanent/fabric markers). *sigh* I don’t know why I ever started that tradition. =)

Anyway, that’s my updated life.

Oh, and coming soon to this blog . . . The Road To Publication series continues . . .

Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!

Write on.

And So It Goes

2010-05-24T11:34:00.001-07:00

First of all, Grandma is still with us (I told you she was stubborn). I hope this doesn’t go on for too much longer though. My dad thinks she’ll pass on his birthday (tomorrow) and my sister’s anniversary is on May 31st and she’s worried grandma will pass then (sis’s birthday is Sept 11th so she doesn’t want a sad memory for her anniversary too).

Okay, so on to writing news. I’m finding myself able to get some writing done (and it helps keep the worries at bay). As of the end of yesterday, my word count looks like this.

I was tempted to go type four more words before posting this so it could be 4,444, but I resisted.

Now I’m going to write and we’ll see how much I can get done today . . . but I’m craving a pimento and cheese sandwich so I might have to take a break soon and run to the store for pimentos. =)

Write on.

Update on stuff

2010-05-23T15:01:00.001-07:00

Thank you to all my wonderful friends for the words of comfort and support. I can’t tell you how much your thoughts and feelings moved and comforted me.

Grandma is still hanging on. As I said, she’s stubborn. Maybe I get my perseverance from her. ;-)

Since she’s not eating or drinking, they doubt she’ll last long. She’s still in the assisted living facility since that’s the way she wanted it. My aunt is staying with her constantly, and the uncles and my mom have been to see her.

After my good cry yesterday, I went to Snowflake to visit with my mother. Talking with her really helped me be more at peace with everything. Though I could have visited Grandma yesterday, I decided not to. It was hard enough to see her at her 90th birthday party in October because she didn’t know who any of us were. I’m comfortable with this decision and will remember her like she was; the grandma from before the Alzheimer’s.

I went to a special church meeting today and am even further comforted. I know family is forever and I’ll get to see Grandma again someday . . . and she’ll remember me then.

After the meeting, I felt like writing again, so I’ve been doing it. I’ll post my progress later. This post is just to update you and say thank you to everyone for their love and support.

Friends are the best and I’m glad I have so many who care. =)

Life . . . and death

2010-05-22T09:11:00.001-07:00

Okay, I’ve been trying not to dwell on this and have been pushing it aside since yesterday afternoon when my sister called. The call itself isn’t unusual and I don’t mind since I often get calls from one of my sisters (some more than others). Unfortunately, she wasn’t calling with good news and this is the real reason I wanted to veg out in front of the TV instead of write yesterday. =(

My grandmother (on my mother’s side). . . the only grandparent I have left . . . had a sudden decline in health yesterday. She’s ninety and suffering from Alzheimer's so it’s not a huge surprise, but it doesn’t make it any easier. She’s not expected to make it through the weekend. =(

I was going to Snowflake later today to take a puppy to its new owner, but now I worry I won’t get there before Grandma passes. I can’t leave early because hubby and son are out working and we were all going to go together.

Times like this remind me how fleeting this life is. Ninety years is a long time, but it seems like only yesterday we were little kids running through grandma’s huge garden (the corn fields were our favorite) and having her yell at us to get out before we ruined the corn. LOL She’d let us run through them after the harvest, but it was so hard to wait. ;-)

Grandma taught me how to grow a garden (even though I’m not as good at it as she was), can fruits and vegetables, pickle cucumbers, make jams and jellies, freeze corn, and appreciate the beauty of nature. Thoughts of her have been particularly strong lately as my mother has decided to grow a garden this year, and I’ve been helping when I can. Granted, Mom’s garden isn’t as huge as Grandma’s was, but still, it brings back memories. =)

Those memories will never die even when Grandma does. I know I shouldn’t let it hit me so hard. With the Alzheimer’s, she’s no longer the grandma I used to know anyway, and this passing will be a blessing to her.

Her mind went a long time ago and it’s only her physical body left. But, as long as her physical body held out, she was still here, you know? Then again, Grandma is stubborn and she might fight through and hold on for a few more days . . . who knows? But it would really be better if she didn’t have to suffer long.

Anyway, I’m not sure how much writing I’ll be able to do today. I’ve been trying, and I want to, but the worry about Grandma keeps intruding. I’ve been trying to use my writing to distract myself until hubby and son come home from work . . . but maybe I’ll just go soak in the tub and cry for a while instead.

Slowly But Surely

2010-05-21T19:54:00.001-07:00

I’m plugging along with my rewriting. I really hope I get a good writing day soon. Things always seem to pile up when I WANT to write.

Anyway, here’s my word count update:

Yes, I’m quitting for the day and going to watch some TV. I’m horrible, I know, but I’m just done and can’t go any further today. I’ll have a fresh mind and spirit in the morning . . . right?

Write on.

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2010-05-20T10:01:00.001-07:00

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Okay, so CRASH doesn’t exist, but I can certainly send you the list of websites from the WPTB. ;-)

Since I was busy with life stuff yesterday (no I wasn’t wasting time online), I didn’t get much rewriting done. My word count looks like this:

What does your progress look like?

In other news, Lisa Schroeder is having an ARC giveaway on her blog. Go check it out and enter for your chance to win some amazing ARCs!

Now I must close my WPTB and go back to writing!

Write on.

Mayday May Day Check in

2010-05-19T09:10:00.001-07:00

Good Wednesday everyone! It’s time to check in on our progress since last week (though I technically didn’t post the check in until Thursday). I didn’t get much writing done yesterday because I spent most of the day doing research. Still, that was time spent on my novel so I’m okay with it. =)

My word count is:

I’ll probably not get much more writing done today because I have a field trip to attend and more research to do, but we’ll see what happens.

How are you all doing with your writing goals so far?

Write on!

Not Enough Words

2010-05-17T10:49:00.001-07:00

I wasn’t feeling well yesterday, but I did manage to get a few words rewritten. I’m going to write a whole bunch more (I hope) today so I’ll be back to update this later (unless I don’t make it back, and then I’ll update tomorrow).

How is everyone doing on their own writing progress? Do you have a goal for this week?

Write on!

Being Accountable

2010-05-15T17:08:00.001-07:00

Well, I ended up cleaning house and going to see Ironman II this afternoon so I didn’t get much writing done. Still, I did a little bit.

I’ll come back and update if I get a chance to do more later today, but right now we’re taking the kids to the park and then out to dinner.

By the way, the 70000 word count is a rough estimate. I may not make that many words or I may go over. We’ll see. Anyway, here’s my progress for the day.

Write on.

How Do I Write Thee?

2010-05-14T21:57:00.001-07:00

Let me count the words.

Okay, so I’ve decided to do a rewrite of Wolfsbane at Midnight. Yes, I’m insane. Okay, not really. Trust me when I say this is a good thing!

I’ve had some feedback that has given me ideas for improving the MS. I’m super excited about all the changes . . . but there are many changes and this will mean a rewrite of the novel. I’m sure there will be some moments I can tweak and still use, and the premise is the same. For the most part, I’m shaking up the beginning, not killing some people off so soon, killing others off sooner, and generally messing my MC’s life up as much as possible.

Hey, it’s for her own good!

Oh, and since I’m rewriting anyway, I decided to change the POV from third to first person.

I kind of like the “old fashioned” feel of the third person, which works well for the whole fairy tale thing, but I just started the rewrite today so I need to give the first person POV a chance to work. I think it can, I just have to figure it out.

Anyway, I’ve decided to keep myself accountable by using a word count widget. I found this one on Writertopia.com. It looks like it will be fun because you can change the mood of the little dude at the computer. I’ll let him watch TV right now.

And then I'll let him sleep

Good times! Anyway, my word count today is lame, but at least it’s a start! =)

I’ll be writing as much as I can this weekend though I’m sure I’ll have to occasionally stop and feed the family and all that. I’m hoping to at least reach 1000 words tomorrow! Yeah, that seems like a reachable goal. I’m sure I can find a few minutes to write the 68 words I’ll need. ;-)

Hey, it’s all about realistic goals, people. =p

Hope you all have a great weekend! What are your plans?

Write on!

Mayday May Day . . . My Bad . . .

2010-05-13T06:48:00.001-07:00

I was so busy studying for my final and finishing up my research paper yesterday that I forgot to post a check in for Mayday May Day.

Sorry!

How are all of you doing on your goals? Now that I’m finished with my schooling for the semester, I’m looking forward to getting some writing done!

I think I’m going to do some revising, but I may change my mind and work on the new WIP. It’s 6:47 a.m. and I’m not quite awake enough to make a decision. ;-)

No matter what I decide to do, I’m just thrilled that I’ll be writing again. Yay!

Write on.

Linger-ing

2010-05-10T10:13:00.001-07:00

I know I posted a link to Maggie’s amazing Linger trailer in my last blog post, but I’m imbedding it here to make it easier to view (I hope):

Seriously, it is cool stuff!

Now onto other lingering things. I’ve had lingering doubts about going back to school in the fall. Part of me really wants to, but another part of me wants to spend more time on my writing. At this point, I’m not sure what to do. My intention was to go back 1/2 time in the fall, but I had so much fun in the ceramics classes that I really want to take them again. If I do, that would put me at full time (ceramics is two different days and 3 credit hours per day), but I’d only be getting credit for 1/2 time (because I don’t see them giving me credit for the ceramics classes again).

I may have to break down and not take the ceramics classes. This makes me sad. I’ve had more fun doing ceramics than anything I’ve done in a long time. It made me happy and I realized I kind of need the creative outlet. I’m not saying writing isn’t a creative outlet, it is, but the written word on the page isn’t the same thing as holding one of these in my hands (these are some of my final pieces from the class):

Those of you who know me well, know I do a bit of sketching (not professional by any means), so I suppose I could go back to sketching to satisfy the artist in me. But something in me is drawn to ceramics process. I’m fascinated with molding a hunk of clay into a bowl (as you can tell, I like bowls LOL), a vase, a plate, a whatever! Then after it dries, it’s fun to put it in the kiln for firing and hoping it doesn’t crack. When it comes out of the kiln, there’s the fun of glazing it. I really enjoy experimenting with the glazes. After it’s glazed, there’s anticipation of wondering how it will come out after it’s re-fired. Will the colors work? Will it crack? Will I like it?

And the really fun thing is that all these pieces are usable! They’re dishwasher and microwave safe (there’s no lead in the glazes)!

I use the big bowls (grapes, butterfly, flowers) for salad bowls. I haven’t used the smaller bowls (the first two pictures . . . I did them on the pottery wheel, and I’m not a master potter yet). They’re kind of too small to do anything with (hey, it was my first few times on the wheel). I’m not sure I like the coloring of the vase. I want to make a new one and paint the glaze on instead of dipping it in one color (can’t you just see it with yellow flowers on a blue background?). I also want to make more pasta plates (the big square thing with the grapes) because I have another version with 3D grapes (I’ll get the 3D grape plate back on May 14th because he had to re-fire it).

I was also thinking of trying my hand at making some mugs. I do have left-over clay and the instructor said I could make things over the summer and bring them back in the fall for firing and everything, but I’d have to be signed up for the class.

*sigh* Oh the lingering agony of having to make a decision. =(

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll figure it out. For the time being, I guess I better get of the internet and get busy on finishing up my research paper and studying for my English 102 final (tomorrow night) and my Cultural Diversity in Education final (Wednesday night). Hopefully, I’ll still have some time today to do some work on rewriting one of my WIPs.

Write on.

The Road to Publication: Mechanics

2010-05-08T09:53:00.001-07:00

I’m feeling a bit better today, but I’m thinking it might not be allergies since I ended up having a bit of a fever. I’m still stuffed up and coughing up a lung, but I don’t feel like I’m going to pass out every time I try to stand up. That’s good.

Anyway, before I move into the whole Road to Publication thing, I wanted to direct your attention to the amazing Maggie Stiefvater and her magical LINGER book trailer. If you haven’t seen it, you must go and watch. The things that girl can do with music (which she composed herself), paper cut-outs (which she made herself), and stop-motion camera work (she did that herself too) is absolutely breathtaking.

Okay, let’s get back on the road.

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at mechanics. These are the wonderful people/books/other resources that help keep us running. Let’s face it, everyone has a break-down at some point. The key is to get that car fixed and get it back on the road.

You need a mechanic.

A mechanic will tell you how to fix your car, they will guide you during the process, but the actual fixing of your car is up to you. Seems like a raw deal, I know, but no one knows your car better than you. There are many different mechanics, and not every mechanic is right for every car. It may take a few tries before you find the mechanic you love. You may find more than one mechanic, and that’s okay too. You may like the way one mechanic handles the spark plugs, but another mechanic is a whiz with the engine. It’s okay to have more than one.

Where can you find them?

Conferences/Workshops

Often, you can learn how to fix your car by attending a conference or workshop. There are many available and likely some near enough for you to attend. Yes, these cost money, but good mechanics often do. Conferences and workshops are invaluable to any writer on the road. They are inspiring and teach us what we need to do to keep our cars running. Visit as many of these mechanics as you can afford because they offer new information all the time. You will always learn something that will make spending the money worthwhile.

Writing books

There are hundreds of books about writing that will teach you “how to” write. These also cost money unless you have a library that stocks them. Just like conferences and workshops, there are so many available that you’ll always be able to find some new technique to get your car running.

I have quite a collection of writing books, and I’m sure I’ll acquire more as time goes on.

A few of my favorite writing books are:

Finding Your Voice by Les Edgerton

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass (and the companion workbook)

The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass

Fiction First Aid: Instant Remedies for Novels, Stories, and Scripts by Raymond Obstfeld

I could go on and on because there are many great ones out there, but these are the ones that came to mind without having to consult my bookshelf. Feel free to comment with your own favorites.

Agent/Editor/Writer blogs

These can be some of the most helpful mechanics available to you. And, they’re free! Not only do you get to find out more about the agent/editor/writer you are ~~stalking~~ researching, but you get valuable tips on writing that can give your manuscript a tune-up.

Some of my favorite Agent/Editor blogs:

Kidlit.com (Mary Kole from Andrea Brown Literary Agency)

Crowe’s Nest (Sara Crowe with Harvey Klinger, Inc.)

Guide to Literary Agents (Chuck Sambuchino Editor for Writer’s Digest Books)

Alan Rinzler blog

Query Shark

Nathan Bransford

Brooklyn Arden (Cheryl Klein with Arthur A. Levine)

There are many other agent/editor blogs out there as well. Feel free to post links to your favorites in the comments. I also have many helpful author blogs I visit, but since this post is already longer than I anticipated (I need to get to writing at some point today), I’ll forego posting them. Feel free to comment with links to your favorite author blogs.

Writing Websites/Forums

Having a place to go where others share some of your same experiences can be invaluable. Not only can you learn ways to keep your car running, but you can benefit from the camaraderie of other authors and professionals in the business.

A couple of my favorite sites:

SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators)

Children’s Writers and Illustrators Message Board (Verla Kay’s)

Anyway, those are a few suggestions for finding the mechanic(s) who will keep your car in good running condition so you can continue on the Road to Publication.

Write on.

‘Tis the season

2010-05-06T08:46:00.001-07:00

Not to be jolly ‘cause Christmas is too far away, people. No, ‘tis the allergy season I’m talking about. I hear the wetter than normal winter had something to do with making all the allergy inducing things grow more abundantly this year. Whatever the reason, I’m dying! Not literally, of course. I don’t think I can die from watery eyes, runny/stuffy nose, and sneezing . . . unless I banged my head when I sneezed or the watery eyes blind my vision and make me wreck . . . okay, I guess I could die, but I doubt I will. =)

I don’t like the symptoms though. I’m going to have to look into some kind of medication, I suppose. I usually depend on Sudafed when I get a cold, but I’m not sure how it will work for allergies. Anyone out there have any good over-the-counter allergy med recommendations? It can’t be anything super powerful though cause I react strangely to medication. The non-drowsy Sudafed even knocks me out (I’m strange, I know).

The really fun part about all this is I’m a chaperone for D2’s field trip today (leaving in two hours). Guess what we’re doing?

Walking to the Forest Ranger Station . . . and then going into the forest. *sigh* I’m packing a box of tissues. I’m also taking a hat to protect me from the sun, but I’m not sure my stuffy head will fit inside it. Maybe I ought to take one of hubby’s hats . . . his head is bigger than mine. ;-)

Luckily, it will only be a 2 1/2 hour field trip (we’re walking from the school to the station and back . . . about 1/2 a mile round trip).

In writing news, after I’m done posting this, I’ll spend a bit of time getting started on a rewrite of a manuscript. My goal for May is to get at least half of it rewritten.

We’ll see if I can reach the goal what with all the last minute field trips, volunteer celebrations, school volunteering, allergies, and my own schooling to finish up (next Wednesday is my last class YAY!!!). Why do they try to cram a whole bunch of stuff into the end of the year?

Anyway, will you be suffering with allergies and doing last minute school stuff like me or do you have better plans for your month of May?

Write on.

Mayday Mayday check in

2010-05-05T09:30:00.001-07:00

Here’s the check in point for all you out there who are joining us in May. We’re holding ourselves accountable for our writing and working on our goals, feel free to join in if you haven’t already.

What’s your writing goal today?

I probably won’t get much writing done since I’m off to my mom’s house to work in the family garden, but I wish all of you luck today!

Write on!

Monday Mumblings

2010-05-03T13:07:00.001-07:00

I’ve been fighting a flu bug or something, so I hope you’ll forgive my lack of posting and responding on your blog posts. I didn’t want to spread my germs. ;-) I’m no longer praying to the porcelain god, but now I’m coming down with a sore throat and cough. I’m not sure if these are new symptoms or left over from whatever bizarre bug I had in the first place. Still, I have much more energy than I did. Though the cough and sore throat are annoying, they’re better than the flu-like symptoms I’ve been dealing with for over a week.

Anyway, I have two kids home sick today with the same garbage I had. Unfortunately, my six year old is one of them. He has a problem making it to the trash can or toilet so I’ve been having to clean up after him. *sigh* The joys of motherhood. =)

In other (less nauseating) news, I only have two more weeks of school left for the semester. I’ll be glad when it’s over, but I’ll miss the fun of the ceramics class. Tomorrow will be my last ceramics class (not sure why he’s ending a week early). I’ll get around to posting pictures of my latest pieces eventually. I’m thrilled with some of them and not so thrilled with others. I plan to take the ceramics class again in the fall. I’ll only take one other class in the fall. Full time was too much for me this semester. I think half time or three quarter time will be plenty of work for me. Especially if I take the math or history class I need.

During my illness, I managed to get a little bit of writing done on my new-ish YA novel (but not much). Mostly I spent my time reading. I managed to read quite a few novels, but I still have several more on my books-to-review-for-TeensReadToo.com-list. I didn’t get the reviews written; that will have to wait until after the semester ends because I have some papers I have to finish.

By the way, Ingrid Sundberg has an awesome post about how to wow an editor on her blog. It’s full of some great information so be sure to check it out!

Well, those are my Monday mumblings. I’m off to eat some lunch and see if I can get some writing done before I have to go get the other two kids from school.

Write on.

Final Wednesday Fools of April Check In

2010-04-28T07:19:00.001-07:00

Can you believe this is the final Wednesday of April? It’s been sharing the motivation and encouragement with all of you. I didn’t quite reach my goals since school assignments got in the way, but I did get quite a bit of writing done. I’m much further along in my new WIP than I would be if I hadn’t done Fools of April.

I’m hoping to finish the MS and begin revising by June. I think it’s an achievable goal since school will be out in a couple of weeks and I’ll have much more time to concentrate on my writing. YAY!

Not that education isn’t important, but I’ll be glad when the semester is over. I think full time is too much for my busy life right now. In the fall, I’ll be going part time, and I believe it will work out better for my writing and family.

Anyway, how have you done on your goals this April? Did you accomplish all you wanted to? Don’t be discouraged if you didn’t reach your goal, because as long as you worked toward it and did some writing, you rock!

Write on.

The Road to Publication; GPS

2010-04-24T10:35:00.001-07:00

In my previous post about the road to publication, Nathree commented (on my LJ blog) about how she tends to stop and stare at the roadmap for hours on end and that she’s insecure of where she’s going. I suggested she needed a GPS and thought I’d elaborate a bit on that today.

What is a GPS?

In the analogy of The Road, a GPS is a good critique group and/or feedback on your novel. Bogwitch64 has a great post about getting some harsh feedback. Though it’s not ideal to be run off the road like that, sometimes we need to have someone grab the wheel to keep us from wrecking our manuscripts.

Of course, we often fight having other hands on our wheel. After all, this is our car, and we don’t want someone steering us wrong. However, if we recognize the hands as trying to help us, we’re more likely to allow them to guide us back onto the road.

That’s not to say we should always allow other hands to steer our car. Our hands should be firmly planted on the steering wheel, but we should allow other hands to guide us when we’ve gone astray. This is one reason it’s important to have a GPS you trust.

Where do I get a GPS?

Agent Mary Kole has some great advice about what makes a great critique group/partner on her blog. She even has a Critique Connection where those seeking critique partners can post information and seek out others who are also searching for some GPS guidance (yes, I posted there).

You can put the word out on other sites as well. Verla Kay’s Blue Boards has a section where writers can request critiques and get help with query letters.

Those are only a couple of options. Feel free to link to more in the comments.

How will the GPS guide me?

The important thing to remember is that in order to have a GPS to guide you, you have to be able to be a GPS for someone else. Those just starting out on the road may not be as advanced in the area of being a GPS, but their guidance can still be helpful. Mary says you need varying levels of experience for a GPS to guide efficiently.

We’re all learning, but we all learn at our own pace. Therefore, some GPS capability may be further advanced than our own, but this doesn’t mean we should allow them to steer us completely.

Advice and suggestions are great, but this is still our car. We don’t want to incorporate every turn and direction a GPS might give us. Even in the “real” world, I sometimes ignore my GPS’s advice. If I know the road and where I want to go, I’ll go my own way. The same is true with a GPS on the road to publication. If you know where you are going, ignore the advice your GPS gives you. Keep your hands on the wheel and steer on past. Like my real GPS, your road to publication GPS might say, “recalculating,” and that’s okay.

If you take every bit of advice and incorporate it into your manuscript, it is no longer your manuscript. I’ve made that mistake. It isn’t pretty.

Finding the right GPS

If your GPS is upset when you don’t take the advice, it may be time for a new GPS.

Understand, there are many different GPS available and not every one is right for you. The only way you’ll know is to get one and “test” it. This can be done by exchanging a few pages or a chapter at a time. If you both like what you see, you can take it from there.

There’s also the issue of “out growing” your GPS. Sometimes our journey on the road takes us further away from our current GPS and makes it necessary to seek out new guidance. I think this is why many critique groups/partners don’t last through the years. Since we all move on the road at different paces, we may gravitate more toward those who are at the same place on the road as we are or reach for those further along to learn how to advance.

While I think it’s important to have varied experience levels in a critique group, I’m not sure where the “correct” levels of experience should be. Is it important to have someone just starting out in your group? Should you surround yourself with GPS guidance only from those above or close to your own level?

I think it depends on the individual and their patience.

Being “Updated”

Sometimes dealing with a less “updated” GPS can be frustrating. They don’t know the new roads and can’t help guide you along them. There is a solution!

With my real GPS, I plug it into the computer and download updates. This keeps the GPS guiding me with the proper information.

While you can’t literally plug yourself into the computer, you can keep yourself updated. Read novels published in your genre(s), study books on writing, read blogs about writing, attend conferences, seek advice from those further along the path. All these things help you learn and grow. Being a good critique partner can also help you grow.

Some of the most profound lessons I’ve learned came from critiquing other people’s work.

Get the car in shape for the journey

No one will get far along the road if their car keeps breaking down. When I look at my car, I don’t see how the paint is chipping on the top. I don’t examine the undercarriage for grime that needs cleaned away, but I have no problem seeing these things on someone else’s car. Once I’ve seen them on another car, I’m much more likely to take a closer look at my own vehicle. I’m able to spot some of the defects, but not all. I need a good tune-up mechanic . . . but that’s fodder for another post.

Write on!

Check in for Fools of April

2010-04-21T12:40:00.001-07:00

I’m late in getting this posted (again this week . . .what’s up with that?).

I’m still plugging along, but I’ve changed goal. Instead of revising, I’m working on a different WIP. This is a piece I’ve worked on off and on since November. The idea has been there for quite some time, but I hadn’t done anything with it. I started writing it for Nano last year, but didn’t finish it. Now I’m working on finishing it up and then I’ll start revising it.

How are things going for you all out there? Are you meeting your goals? Have your goals changed since the beginning of the month?

Write on.

The Road to Publication

2010-04-20T15:51:00.001-07:00

Some quick thoughts on the road to publication before I go off to class.

First the good news. The road to publication is mostly paved. There may be a few routes left unpaved or only chip sealed, but the majority of the way has been laid by those who have gone before (other authors who have struggled to make it).

The bad news is, there are parts of the road less maintained than others. This means there will be holes to fall into. Some of the holes are small and will just be a passing bump, others will be huge things that blow a tire.

What’s interesting is everyone sees the bumps and holes differently. While someone who gets a rejection may look at it as a huge hole that blows a tire, another person who gets a rejection may only see it as a small bump.

This got me thinking. Why do some rejections seem like huge holes and others only small bumps?

I think it depends on the attitude of the author and how much they are invested in the answer. I’ve had some rejections that really hurt. I’m talking tire blown out hurt. Sometimes it took me a while to find the spare, get the tire changed, and get back on the road.

I’ve also had rejections that were only small bumps in the road. I think this is partly due to the thick skin I’ve developed over the years. My tires are becoming stronger. Rejections at the beginning of my journey seemed to give me more flat tires than do the current ones.

On the other hand, I also seem to develop more slow leaks. Like a nail in the tire. The nail gets stuck in there, and I go along without even knowing I’ve got a leak. Before I know it, I’ve got a flat. I’m not sure when I picked up the nail (and sometimes I’m not even sure why), but sure enough, the tire’s flat.

These little leaks seem to come from a comment that doesn’t bother me at the time, but stays with me. Or from little things in every day life that seem to add up until the tire pressure falls, and I’m deflated. These slow flat tires are more damaging to me than a full blow out. I can usually get a new tire and keep going after a blow out, but the slow leak takes longer to fix. Sometimes I can pull out the spare and get it taken care of, but I don’t always have a spare.

So, why does it take me longer to fix the flat in these cases? I think it’s because I never saw it coming. The leak sort of snuck up on me, and I wasn’t prepared for it.

Still, whether quick or slow, the tire eventually gets fixed and before long, I’m back on the road ready to face the potholes and bumps on the road to publication.

Remember, just as with any road trip, we all need to stop now and then. Sometimes we need to refuel, sometimes a snack, and other times we need a hotel and a long rest. I seem to need a stop more often when I’m flat from a slow leak than when I have a blow out.

I’m curious, does a slow leak cause you to stop more often than a blow out?

Write on.

Breaking Up With A Novel

2010-04-17T10:05:00.001-07:00

You know when it’s time. If you don’t, go check out Five Signs It’s Time to Step Away From Your WIP on annastan’s blog.

I’ve been with a particular novel for seven years. I admit I’ve cheated on this novel during those seven years, in fact, I’m cheating now. The bad part is, I’m completely in love with a new WIP.

This new WIP is shiny and beautiful and exciting. I think that’s the main problem. My old novel is . . . well, old. It still thrills me, but I know it so well that there are no surprises. No spontaneity.

When we first started out there were surprises and excitement. With each revision, there were new levels to explore and our bond deepened. The novel changed over the last seven years. I forced it to change whether it wanted to or not (I’m demanding that way). Most of those changes are for the better, but some of them might not be.

Still, I always seem to come back to the old novel. Even while involved with a new WIP, I continued to visit the old novel. The old novel knew I was cheating. How could it not? But it also knew I came back. Because I loved it. I still love it. I always will love it, but the first blush of love is over.

And now a shiny new WIP is demanding more of my attention. Shiny new WIP wants to be exclusive, and I kind of want to be exclusive right now too. The passion I have for new WIP is much stronger than the pull of old novel.

This isn’t to say I won’t ever go back to old novel. I’m sure we’ll visit again sometime. But I think it will be more like old friends.

Old novel’s file will sit on my computer, but I won’t open it. I may wave at it as I click on new WIPs file, but I won’t open old novel’s file. Not now, and not for a long, long time.

It’s time to break up and move on. I have another couple of novels I need to break up with too so I can devote my time to new WIP . . . at least for a while. I’ll still see more of the other WIPs than I do of old novel (they still have some changing to do), but I’ll be seeing much less of them than I have been so far.

New WIP is calling and I must answer.

Write on.

Is there anyone out there?

2010-04-16T13:20:00.001-07:00

The weather forecast is saying there’s a chance of rain later today and through the weekend. Because of this, I have men on my roof working madly to get the shingles on. I’m wishing hubby were home right now to deal with it, but he’s out working to earn money to pay for the roof. I’ve been trying to work on revisions, but the banging is aggravating, and I can’t concentrate.

I’m even having trouble concentrating enough to blog.

Anyway, I’ve been wondering what makes a good critique group. I’ve belonged to a few over the years, but for some reason, they never seem to work out for me. Lately it’s been a time issue, but with school winding down, I’m thinking there might be more time in the near future and I’d really like to find a group that works for me.

But what works for me? I’ve enjoyed the critique groups I’ve been in, but I’m not sure I’ve found the right fit. Most of the groups had six or more members. I’ve come to realize six or more is too much for me. I end up spending more time critiquing than I do writing.

This tells me I’m the type of person who needs a small group maybe limited to four at the most, but three might be ideal.

Another problem is the level of writing. I’m not saying I have a problem helping others with their writing, because I don’t. I love critiquing other people’s work, but I don’t like having to hold someone’s hand and “teach” them how to write. I want a group of writers who know the basics and are well on their way to publication.

This tells me I need other writers at or above my own level of writing (not that I’m perfect by any means).

I also prefer novels to short stories or magazine pieces. I’m game for an occasional PB manuscript, but I guess I’m a short MS snob. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy reading them or even writing them, just not critiquing them.

This tells me I need a group of writers who focus mostly on novels with occasional PB manuscripts.

I write and read mostly fantasy/paranormal/mystery/fairytale novels so I’d need other writers who are into the same genres. I also read other genres and enjoy them, but they aren’t my “specialty.”

I’m pretty picky and not afraid to tell someone if I don’t like something. Let’s be honest. How can our writing ever improve if all we ever hear is how wonderful it is? It’s not wonderful or it would already be published. It’s okay to point out the good things, but the critique should focus on what to improve.

This tells me I need writers who are able to give tough love and aren’t afraid to take it in return.

I guess I want a critique group that is sort of like the agent/author relationship. One that is there for the duration. Good times, bad times . . . the whole career and not the one book deal.

This tells me I need a group that will last.

When it’s all added up, I need a group of writers who:

Are accepting new members

Like small groups

Know the basics and are well on their way down the publication path (or already published)

Write mostly novels with occasional PBs

Write and read the same genres I do

Can give and take an honest critique

Will stick together

Where can I find such a group? Most groups are already established and aren’t accepting new members. Those who are accepting members are too large. I’ve advertised on Verla Kay and the SCBWI boards and tried starting my own group in the past, but it fell through and the members drifted away (too many members and not enough commitment). I do have some wonderful friends who occasionally look at my work and I look at theirs, but I need a consistent group that won’t fall apart.

Am I living in a fantasy world or can this kind of critique group actually exist? Okay, I know it can exist, but as I said before, it’s members have been together for years and they aren’t seeking new members. (why is it that I keep spelling members as “memebers” today?)

*sigh*

Is there anyone out there who knows of a group that fits the above criteria?

*bigger sigh*

Is there anyone out there who would like to start/be a part of such a group?

*biggest sigh*

So, people are banging on my roof, and I can’t find a critique group. That’s my life today.

Write on.

Check in for Fools of April

2010-04-14T10:14:00.001-07:00

I’m a little late posting this, sorry. It’s a crazy day and not likely to get any less crazy. We’re trying to fix our leaky roof so I’ve been helping take shingles off.

I’m almost finished with my initial read through of my MS and will hopefully dive into revising by the weekend. Things are moving slower than I’d like, but at least they’re moving.

How are your goals coming?

Write on.

How Do You Learn to Write?

2010-04-12T09:11:00.001-07:00

Jody Hedlund had an excellent blog post discussing if “putting in the time” really matters. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. Among other things, she reminds writers that everyone’s journey is different. It may take one writer years to get published and another may take a much shorter time, but the main thing is to keep learning the craft. This got me thinking (yes, I occasionally do this).

I do think it’s important to learn the craft of writing and one excellent way (as we’ve all heard) is to read lots of books. I agree about the importance of this, because we need to know what works.

However, I also believe we need to read what doesn’t work. Crit groups are a good way to do this since most work when it starts out doesn’t work. We get to see the process of taking something that doesn’t work and watching it blossom into something that does (hopefully). It’s hard to do this with our own work because we are too close to it. We know what it is supposed to say and think it says or conveys what we want it to, but this isn’t always the case. Having an objective viewpoint can help us see the errors in our work, but seeing the errors in other people’s work is often valuable as well. By learning to critique work, we learn to improve our own.

It is for this reason that I’ve often wished I could intern with an agent/editor and read through the slush. Though I’ve never experienced this, I feel it would be an amazing opportunity to learn about not only what works, but also what doesn’t work. Of course everyone has different tastes so what I like, someone else might not, but it’s the same way with agents/editors out there now; though one may not like your work, another may fall in love with it.

So, while I’ve been plugging away at this writing gig for more years than I care to count . . . who am I kidding, I’ve counted many times and it all adds up to seven long years of learning . . . I’m still going at it because I love it. Have I learned all there is to learn in these last seven years? Heck no! I’m not sure the learning ever stops. Even published writers are still learning.

The craft of writing will always have something new to teach us if we are open to learning. I believe the continued learning is an important part of being a writer. There’s always room for improvement . . . sometimes even after the novel is published. I’m not sure there is such a thing as a “perfect manuscript.” However, I do believe there is such a thing as a perfect attempt at a manuscript. We can do our best, and that’s all we can do.

The important thing is to keep raising the bar on what our best is. This can only be accomplished through continued learning.

So, if any agent or editor out there is looking for someone to read through the slush, I’m game!

What is your process of learning to write?

Learn on.

Six on Saturday

2010-04-10T08:51:00.002-07:00

1. Today will be a clean up day. The kids aren’t too thrilled with the prospect, but I promised them Lunchables if they can get the living room, kitchen, and hall cleaned up before lunch (they have four hours so I think they’ll make it) so that helped make things a bit better.

I’m not sure why they love Lunchables so much, but they do, and I’m grateful for it because it’s a great bribery tool and somewhat healthy (hey, I said somewhat).

2. The puppies are six weeks old today so it’s time to introduce them to solid food . . . well solid food soaked in water. They can’t crunch it up just yet so we have to start slow.

3. Hubby and I might get a chance to go to the movies this afternoon. I’m thinking we’ll see “Clash of the Titans.” I admit to liking the older version when I was growing up, but I had no desire to see this one. However, one of my sisters saw it and said she liked it and thought I would too so I’m going to take her word for it and give it a shot.

4. My oldest nephew will be 18 on Monday. This boggles my mind because it reminds me that my oldest will be 17 in June! I think I’m getting old.

5. Sometime today I’d like to find time to finish up the read through of one of my MS (the first step in the revision process). I’m not sure the time will present itself, but I’m hoping.

6. I’m also hoping to find some reading time (probably tonight while hubby watches TV) so I can keep working through my TBR pile.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Write on (or clean on, or read on, or whatever you are doing).

Ceramics and contests

2010-04-08T12:56:00.001-07:00

No, I’m not giving away any of the ceramics I’ve made (you wouldn’t want them anyway). I’ve been promising pictures of the stuff I’m doing in class and will fulfill that promise in a moment, but first, here are a couple of cool contests for you to enter.

Jackson Pearce is having a contest for Sisters Red. You can check out her LJ blog to watch Space Dog tell you about it.

Next, Kimberley Little is having a contest for ARCs of The Healing Spell so go enter on her blog!

Now, on to some ceramics. As you know, I’m taking a ceramics class at the community college. I’m completely enjoying it (so much that I may purchase my own kiln). I’m not very good at it, but I’m getting there. My very first attempts at creating in clay have finally come through the firing and glazing process and here are some pictures for you to laugh at.

This is a heart shaped container (we use it for a candy dish) and a heart trivet (we call it a hot pot plate at our house). I made the trivet because I messed up when making the heart container. The container had to be done in three pieces; the bottom first followed by the two sides. On my first attempt, I didn’t leave enough room to attach the sides (which must be attached on top of the bottom, not around the sides of the bottom piece) so I turned it into a trivet. Thus the little white “feet” on the underside.

The underside that touches the kiln shelf can’t be glazed or it will fuse with the shelf and break (both the shelf and the piece).

This is a picture of the decorations on the side of the candy dish.

Now this next thing is my first attempt at a larger piece. It’s a big plate thing, and I’m not sure what I’ll ever use it for, but it was fun to make. ;-) The glazing didn’t work out like I’d hoped so you can’t see the designs I made very well. I’m including a picture on the right taken without the flash so you can see the designs a bit better. I won’t use that color glaze again if I’ve etched a design. =(

And these next things were kind of fun.

This first one was my mistake. I tried to make a “mold” or “stamp” to use but the etching wasn’t deep enough so I punched holes in the wet clay (I’ll loop ribbon through the holes and hang it on the wall).

The second one is the mold I use (thus the date and my mark are reversed), and the purple one is the finished product (my youngest daughter wanted purple but I’m not too fond of the color . . . unfortunately I’ve already dipped a vase I made in the purple glaze so we’ll see what it looks like when it comes out).

As I mentioned above, I have a vase I made that is glazed and waiting for the final firing. I also have a few bowls. I’m hoping they’ll be finished next week. One of them is a small bowl I did on the pottery wheel. It’s a lot harder than it seems! I managed to make the bowl after only four hours at the wheel (which I’m told is pretty good considering the instructor usually makes students sit at the wheel for six hours learning to center the clay).

I suppose these works aren’t horrible for a beginner (according to my instructor and classmates, they’re pretty good), but I’m having fun and that’s all that matters. It’s so relaxing to work with the clay and see some finished products.

Now I’m off to do some revising on a WIP before I have to get the kiddies from school!

Write on.