Seems like the blog has turned into a counter thread for now. But I guess that’s not such a bad thing. I’m focused on my WIP completely. I really like where it’s going and where it’s been. I’m having fun with this one, letting the characters have their way – for now.

My friend Shannon posted a question that basically boiled down to give an original, one line piece of writing advice.

Mine was… Finish what you start and fix what you finish. I guess that pretty much sums up where I am writing wise right now J

You can find the other’s words of wisdom here.

A reminder to Thank all those who serve, have served and will serve our country.

Another note... Sven, I made it through day one (with 5 pages) and even wrote one page this morning. Oh and uh, I've chosen to take the whole sweating thing literally and started back on an exercise routine yesterday too. I figure I'll need the extra strength to make my word count :)

1)      S&M In the Morning

2)      Shepard Stein, Radio DJ

3)      Lucy, Bakery Owner

4)      New Orleans

5)      90-95K – need 65K

Today I'm doing a little prep work getting ready for daily writing again I'm going for 5 pages a day which should get me the 65K in the 77 days! Keeping my fingers crossed and putting my faith in this WIP through the end of the year. I want it finished. At that point, I will make up my mind where to put my focus. Once this is finshed I can take some time and polish up it and my last WIP and get back to the very serious business of queries and submissions.

Making list, staying focused and reaching goals. It’s already November. It’s so hard to believe how fast time seems to fly at different periods of your life. Lately I find it amazing how much the little one now knows. Sure we read to her and she goes to a daycare that has a fantastic pre-school program, but it seems she’s all of a sudden a font of information. And at time a very opinioned font… like with her Christmas list.

Make list is about the only way I can stay focused on what needs to be done, and when. I have lots of goals to reach before the end of 2008. I think I’ll be doing the 77 days of sweat with Sven even though I haven’t actually registered, hey I have until 11/10 to do that. I chose not to do http://www.nanowrimo.org/ because I need more focus and plan to do some editing along the way besides, I’ve never done nano and it just doesn’t seem like the right fit for me right now. I want to finish my current WIP because I believe it is something I could successfully query and I want it ready to go for the beginning of the year.

Other list… well my brother is getting married at the end of December. Weddings take some planning and well my SIL to be is a full-time student and works and is currently applying to pharmacy school on top of that. And her mother speaks very little English and is out of town. My brother works full time and well, he’s a guy. So I think I sort of volunteered to help over the weekend and of course I’m happy to do what I can since I’m very excited for both of them and look forward to having a new member in our family. The wedding is December 28 and that is really close. It’s taking place at a local (okay not exactly local, 1 ½ hour away) castle where lots of the little details are being handled by the venue, so that certainly helps.

Happy Monday. Happy November!

This is the little one this morning for pre-school, she was very excited about being a "RED BAT" at least that's what she's calling it... I gave her the choice between princess, angel or uh, red ummmm.... bat :)

She was very excited because she LET me take her picture... below is what usually happens when I TRY to take her picture:

The oldest plans to be her "Pops" (my FIL) for Halloween, but we won't see her as an old man until tonight - but since little bit let me take her picture I had to share :0

Happy Halloween!

Me, The Male Model (sorry, don't remember his name, Jason maybe? seriously, who would?) My friend Jo, and the ever lovely Cynthia Eden 

This was taken at Muriel's, it was part of Heather Graham's Writers for New Orleans Conference (that Gustav interrupted!). It was the Friday night event hosted by Helen Rosburg. It was a super fun event... and okay a little on the spooky side. I mean there was a table set up when you walk in for their resident ghost and umm... this picture was taken in the séance room (really good thing I didn't know this until after ;P We just got the picture a couple of a days ago and I figured it would make a nice pre-Halloween post and besides I just posted about Cynthia's Spellbound from Everlasting Bad Boys - you've got to love a bad boy!

We are well into the forth quarter of the year. I tend to break the year down into quarters because when my husband was in business for himself I did his bookwork. I have keep up the habit but now it’s more a way to look back each quarter and see what I accomplished. In January I said 2008 was going to be my year of determination writing wise. It’s been a whole lot harder than I ever thought to remain focused, but I feel like I’m doing pretty okay. Honestly I needed the focus this year, it’s been good for me. And I do feel like I have made some headway. I might not be where I want to be – yet, but at least I know what I have done and what I have not done to help accomplish that goal.

Saturday I drove with my writing friend, Jo, to the SOLA meeting (Southern Louisiana Chapter of RWA, New Orleans group). Jo was scheduled to speak. Like me she works full time, she works for an accounting office, group of CPAs to be exact. So she’s the queen of spreadsheets and she’s devised a spreadsheet plotting system, so that was her topic. She did a good presentation and made it into a hands on workshop – my favorite kind J

I’m not a plotter. I’m write by the seat of my pants for the most part, but the more I write the more I’ve come to realize I plot, it’s just by the seat of my pants too. I gleamed a few things from Jo’s workshop, as did everyone in attendance. It’s was a very nice way to spend my Saturday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Happy Monday!  

Wide range topics yes, but things that have been on my mind a lot lately as I worked on my current WIP while something older and totally different from what I tend to work on writing regularly stirs in the recesses of my mind. I’m sure I will be posting more on each of these as I continue to ponder, but for now I just wanted to say…

In my opinion voice can pull a reader out of their reading comfort zone and draw them into a genre the might not have considered before – or into a different spectrum of a genre they never have thought they would enjoy. And on that cryptic note I will add I am currently reading about a blue-haired dragon shifter, not anything I would have picked up to read on my own, although I read paranormals.

It happens to be in the same anthology Everlasting Bad Boys - as the lovely Cynthia Eden’s rockin’ “Spellbound” – which I highly recommend and will post a review for the book once I finish the other two stories J I have to say I discovered Cynthia’s unique style/voice while reading a Secret’s Volume. One more reason I always read all the stories within an anthology. You can find wonderful new voices and genres and expand your comfort zone all at the same time.

You know it’s been too long since you’ve had a date with your spouse sans kids when a quick lunch and a trip to Walmart hits date status. But that was our date this weekend. Considering I had to shop (I HATE to shop) it was nice to have just him along and we flew through the isles, even got a chance to discuss some Christmas stuff J

I’ve had the mother of all headaches (reading hurts, it’s really bad) for a week or so, plus the little one woke up demanding a stay-home day at all cost Saturday and considering how I felt we skipped a friend’s child’s birthday party even though I didn’t want too, but it turned out to be a good idea, since the little one promptly got sick.

Today I am celebrating my dad. I thought these were a few neat pictures. My oldest daughter and I pulled pictures and created a memorial photo arrangement. It started as a way for her to get through the emotional turmoil during the days leading up to the funeral, but it turned out very therapeutic for her and me and for everyone who looked had a chance to see the pictures. As we pulled photos I found it interesting that my dad tended to have the same pose with me as a baby and then again with each of my girls.

With me 1970ish <g>

With my oldest 1997

With the little one 2008

It’s been a year and I miss him dearly. I find myself reaching for the phone to call and tell him something that going on or to just hear his voice. Then it hits me that I can’t do that anymore. But I know he is a good place and I’m the one who’s dealing missing him. I love you, Daddy.

Recently I was reading a book (surprise) I’ll call it Book A. Depending on what is going on around me I’m a pretty fast reader, I had been reading this book on and off for maybe two days. I was about 300 pages into it. Well I got another book (Book B) during the work day that was I very anxious to read so I pretty much decided I would go home, do what needed to be done and settle in to finish Book A so I could jump right into Book B.

Well I’m happily reading a long page 320 and there is a pretty major plot point, joy, happiness, excitement (yeah, feel good stuff). Next page discussing the funeral of joy, happiness, feel good stuff moment. POV had changed, there were 3 in the story so I had no reason to question it until the joy from the previous page was shattered. I look up, start flipping pages and generally freak out. Right page 320, Left page 353. OMG. I was devastated. I’d just invested 320 pages into a book and had no clue what HAPPENED! Maybe it had only been a couple of hours of my life but again, it didn’t matter I was devastated. Completely utterly horrified.

I got the book new from Sam’s Club, it’s a HQN copyright is 2006. My TBR mountainous range is huge, I don’t know when I bought it, only know it had a Sam’s sticker on it. Returning it for exchange was not an option. If you read this blog (and I sometimes wonder if anyone does) you know I have issues with ebooks. I buy the ones I must have (friends, favorite authors – who are sometimes one in the same) otherwise I am a complete ebook dork. So I go look for the ebook so I can finish this book. Well I did, but I personally couldn’t find it – ebook dork again, but a wonderful person on a readers loop I am on (because I freaked out and had to complain vocally and immediately before I imploded when this happened) found it in e-book format online and gave me a direct link – which is the ONLY way I would have been able to get to it, because my efforts only came up with a Kindle version – which Kindle’s are looking better everyday to me.

My question is how far would you go? I bought the book once. I could have ordered it from Amazon or Eharlequin and gotten it in a few days for about the same price I’ve paid for it once. Or I could have ordered the ebook for even more than I paid originally. Or I did find it on paperbackswap.com – which signed up for a long time ago and have used exactly once. Or I could see if the library has it. What would you do???

I went the library route because one I pass daily happened to have it on the shelf and sorry but I’ve vested time and energy into the story and I had to know the rest of the story! Oh and I did email the author because, again if you read this blog, you know I hope to be published one day and well I KNOW it is not her fault, but I was really enjoying the book and wham, bam my joy got squashed. If and when I am published I would really want to know if a reader came across a misprinted book, sure there is nothing she can do or that I expect her to do but I would want to know. Would you???

I recently read a blog post from an agent about the stages agents go through. She broke it down in a way that made a light bulb click in my mind. I’ve queried about fifteen agents within the past six months. I have gotten a fair number of requests out of the queries and the response I have gotten has been positive, but no offers of representation, yet - must keep that positive note there. The resounding comment I have gotten from agents is they just don’t think they could sell what I’m querying in this ‘full market’. In some ways I could pass this off as a nice form of rejection, but since I had a conversation with a NY editor recently who basically told me the same thing I tend to believe what they are saying. Also after reading the blog post it is very clear to me, that I have been targeting mid to late career agents, so in some little way her post actually makes me feel a little better about the ‘passes’. Why? I’m not completely sure. Maybe it has to do with the fact I have gotten so many that say the same thing, good/great voice, competent author, etc. A couple had writing compliments but just didn’t ‘love’ or ‘fall in love with’ the plot for my query project. I’m branching out… I have found a beta reader, who’s general reading opinion I value, so I am taking a step to see what might make the plot stronger, of course, there is always the next project J

The question in my mind has become, what do I do now? Or what do I do next? I think for now I choose to stew on this, I still have some queries/request out. I have a beta reader for a general opinion and I have a wip that I could work on, but for now I started something completely and totally different, something I have wanted to so for a very long time, so I plan to focus on it for the next month and see what happens next.

The little one took pictures at pre-school on Tuesday. The amazing thing is she actually let them take her picture, course they aren’t exactly ‘happy’ pictures, but I plan to buy them since they are the first semi-professional (school pics!) pictures that have been made of her since she was six months olds. At least you can see her face in these, the ones in between consist of tears, hands covering the face, tears, or a blur – as she exits the backdrop. Mostly I want proof when she older of WHY there are no pictures of her at certain ages! The oldest took school pictures Wednesday. She got up an hour early to straighten each gorgeous curl out of her hair and otherwise made herself ready for the said picture event. Those I’m sure will be just as beautiful as the others.

Picture day for the little one started with her three-year-old self-trying to skip school because she just knew those picture-taking people were going to be there. I got up early and took her to school earlier than normal – because leaving her after those picture taking people where there would have been nearly impossible. Picture day for the oldest started with excitement, oldest has always been a picture-taking princess. Little one, not so much, ever.

Picture taking attitudes are only the tip of the differences between my two girls. They are night and day, light and dark, and so on and so forth. One is a blue-eyed blonde, one a brown-eyed brunette. One has a few freckles, one has an olive completion. One sleeps, one does not. One eats, one does not (okay, just really picky!). One is agreeable, one is not. And on and on. My pregnancies could not have been more different. One was easy, one was hell. Births, ditto, both c-sections, but night and day difference in recovery, etc.

We have been blessed by both girls, but each day is an adventure. Friends of the oldest say our house/family is better than cable, and considering our lack of TV viewing most days I’d have to agree.

Ever feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall? If so, welcome to my world <g>.

I used to hate the saying two steps forward, one step back, oh yeah I still hate it. But I feel like I’m living in an alternate universe and that’s the game I’m currently playing. Not even Mother May I or Simon Says. Right now I really feel like a good old fashion game of Red Rover… but I guess that’s un-PC these days, too bad, it would fit my current state of mind… off to see if I can break the cycle.

Ever have that feeling – of I’m really glad it’s over? Well that’s where I am right now. I truly enjoyed the HeartLA Readers Luncheon, but am really glad it’s over. The event was Saturday. It was very nice, went very smooth and was an overall success.

Due to extenuating circumstances I wasn’t able to attend the first annual event, last year. I had participated in planning of the event, but bailed out near the end for very good reasons. And quite honestly I had not planned to be very involved this year for other reasons. But I’m a sucker when it comes to helping out and well I can become militant in organizing and motivating and moving things along and apparently that doesn’t offend everyone. So… I paid my dues to my local RWA chapter and did what was asked.