So Gustav paid us a visit Monday, September 1, 2008. It was an experience everyone in this area will remember for a long time. Records indicate this is the strongest hurricane to hit the Greater Baton Rouge area ever. The damage is devastating.

A tornado touched down in our yard and we lost six oak trees each between 75-80 feet high. However, we were VERY LUCKY and VERY BLESSED. One of our oaks was twisted off by the tornado and a perfect V split down one side and the rear of my mother’s trailer that is located at the back of our property. Our neighbor’s huge live oak up-rooted and landed on one of our tractor implements – not our house. Unfortunately one and a half of our oaks landed on our other neighbors roof, doing both exterior and interior (two rooms) damage, however they were not harmed and we have all let out a sigh of relief. Several homes in our immediate vicinity were completely destroyed, but again, no one was injured. We have a generator, so we were lucky, but gas was very hard to find until Wednesday (and of course it cost a small fortune). We, like our neighbors have started clean up, though for us it will be a long process. We did manage to clear enough in the past three days so we could get my mom’s car out today, which was our fist goal.

We got power a couple of hours ago and are enjoying it completely. I just found out we have cable and internet too. I was so stressed, tired, hot and unsettled I couldn’t read a thing. I finally pulled out a book I’d recently finished and re-read it, because it was all I could manage to concentrate on. The three year old was about to go stir crazy after so many ‘stay home’ days! The eleven year old was stir crazy ‘cause cell service and landline phones have been out for most of the time.

All is much better at our house tonight, I just pray it gets that way for our friends and neighbors and the entire community before long.

I’m including a few pictures below. Glad to be back to civilizationJ

View from under my carport

Backyard looking towards neighbors house.

Same direction, just more towards my mom's place.

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From street, you can see the blue tarp on neighbor's house and my mom's trailer still can't be seen (behind truck).

From the street view - tree that fell next door into our driveway.

After some cutting (okay, lots of cutting :) you can see how close it was to my mom's house.

Made the decision, took our chances and headed out Friday around noon. Went to New Orleans for the Heather Graham Writers for New Orleans Conference. Got evacuated from the hotel Saturday around noon. The events that took place were great, it was a very small, very nice conference. It would be been wonderful without the threat of Gustav. Oh well. Hey I have a pitch written that I didn't before :)

I had fun, meet a lot of great people. I felt horrible about driving home when so many people had to stay at the airport and wait for their flights, most for more than 24 hours. The airport was closing at 6 pm today and anyone who didn’t already get a flight out was being bused to nearby airports. I hope everyone with the conference made it out and home safely.

Looks like it’s a good thing we came home when we did. We are basically ready at a moments notice, but we did spend part of today moving stuff (that could go flying around). It looks like we are going to be on the east side of the eye and have some pretty strong sustained wind and a lot of rain. Hoping we stay safe and don’t get too much damage. Will check back in when I can.

Below is a picture of me with Jospehine Templeton (a friend from HeartLA who braved Gustave with me:) and the wonderful Cynthia Eden. I met many other wonderful people and you can see some of them scrambling around in the background, since we snapped this picture just after the announcement the hotel was being closed. Barbara Vey has some reports from the confrence at her blog.

While wonderful is a complex thing, speaking of nature and the way the wind blows or in the case of south Louisiana, hurricanes. Yes I was here and lived through Katrina. I know more than I care to know about it in many respects. The repercussions still affect my life daily. My house and my family are as prepared as you can be for hurricane season. We pretty much live that way with the exception of a few extra gallons of gas (check) and a little extra water (check) and a little extra stuff (check).

Gustav is out there, not even in the Gulf as of yet. The Heather Graham Writers for New Orleans Conference is this weekend. It’s a way to get people back to New Orleans and spending money. It was started after Katrina. I’m all for it. I was in New Orleans the weekend or so before Katrina hit and have been back many, many times since. It’s a place I’ve spent a good deal of time, being a native of south Louisiana, I love New Orleans.

I think the fact that our state is better prepared is wonderful. I think the fact the general public is in a better position than it was three years ago facing Katrina is wonderful. Do I think being prepared is frightening a lot of people, in a word yes.

But, do I want the weather to ruin my weekend? Heck no, it’s something I have been looking forward to for months. I mean months! Just getting back into the writing grove a little over year ago was something I didn’t take lightly. It’s something I want. It’s something I truly enjoy. It’s something I love. So despite the thought of contra-flow traffic nightmares (maybeJ) I think I’ll do a little packing later, maybe print a few notes and take the advice of one of the greatest women in publishing… and Gustav – don’t even think about it!

Maybe. Maybe not.

Have pitch. Got it done. Feel good about it. Still have a few loose ends I’d like to put on paper as a ‘just in case’ cheat sheet to help flip a switch in my memory if needed.

I can write a book. Yet to be determined if I can write a sellable book, yes I am in a self-pitying mood today, but whatever.

But a pitch? A short what’s the book about 2-3 lines. Yeah right. Okay I KNOW I have it me, but it’s like pulling teeth to get it out. It requires focus. Not sure I’m up to that, but alas I must if I intend to have a pitch (oh or three) ready for this weekend.

Yeah, lame, but that’s about how I feel today. I signed up for Twitter uh, a month ago picked one person to follow, because she was the easiest to find <g> and more than likely had blogged about Twitter. Well I never set up the texts and promptly forgot about it, yes, slacker than I can be… won that round.

Well low and behold I get an email that Jaci is following me (so what that I’m one of millions, no not really, lol) but it did kick me in the rear and push me into gear and well I guess I’ll be a twittering. And even though as I type this I’m thinking I really don’t need one more thing to keep up with I know that I am wrong there. It is the wrong attitude about Twitter. I value my writer friends too much and it is a valuable tool to stay in touch. So there… I’m twittering

Oh and trying to decided if I’m happy excited about this weekend or nervous excited oh or terrified. Not sure which will win, right now it’s a tie.

This is week disappeared. Too many fires to put out to stop for long, but a peaceful although busy, busy, busy weekend should smooth things out. Luncheon stuff Saturday, but tonight and tomorrow evening I’m free to take care of preparing for the upcoming event. Of course now I'm just focusing on getting done with has to be done. I feel like I did a pretty good job on my list of things and now it’s just down to the nitty gritty. Ack.

Sometimes it’s the littlest things that make us happy. I had a very productive writing day over the weekend. I’m still fixing my sins as a pantser, but I can say it’s coming along nicely and a much better book than the first draft. Yes, I know second looks and second drafts usually are, but getting past this stage is always a hurtle for me. I do much better once I’ve had a little time/distance away from the first draft. So I’m doing my own little happy dance that it’s going along at a decent pace and I plan to be done by the weekend.

I have felt horrible all week. I got nothing done writing wise to speak of, other than a few things straight in my brain. We have a new schedule in our house, which while I like it, it takes some getting used to, especially with a three year old who does not sleep much at all. Middle school is off to a good start, which brings me to my topic. The oldest is a good reader, but she doesn’t love to read. She’s in gifted for both English and Reading as it is the only subjects her school currently has gifted programs for. She’s new to public schools, but we have been very pleased and she said she thinks English and Reading might offer her some challenge this year, which would be first.

Things for the Heartla Luncheon are pretty much under control on my end, the frantic stuff will hit in the last couple of weeks before the event.

Preparing for the Heather Graham Writers for New Orleans is happening, even if it’s slower than I hoped. I should be ready. Now the whole costume thing? Not so sure on… still debating. But I am really starting to look forward to it – even if I have to sleep with ghost, it will be a break I seriously need. If I live through the whole pitch thing, which omg I hate to think how long it’s been since I’ve done that.

And the past two weeks have been pretty much insane at our house, tons of changes. Most for the better even if that wasn’t the first impression. The new early schedule is promising. Now if I could just get it together. I’m seriously out of sync, there’s no other way to explain it. I’ve just been going in too many directions. I know I need to focus. I think if nothing else a weekend in New Orleans with writing friends will be just what the doctor ordered. At least a girl can hope.

The oldest started middle school today. She insisted she had to ride the bus, well because, uh, my brining her would be sooo un-cool. So she’s off. The one thing I really, really, really like is the early start to the day. I figure over the next week or so I can work out a new morning schedule for myself and hopefully fit some writing time in early in the morning. I love to write in the morning and I love to write when it’s quite and there aren’t so many interruptions. Since dh’s new schedule is early and now the school schedule is early I plan to make it all work in my favor!

Can hit you any place, really.

Saturday, before below haircut, we went dress shopping. Five woman, varying ages, in a bridal shop on a Saturday without a clue as to what we were looking for – interesting? Yeah and went fine. Of course not one of the three bridesmaids made it but, stuff was accomplished – and their dresses pretty much picked for them <g>. Beyond beautiful wedding dress is currently being hemmed, so that can be checked off the list too. Have much better idea of what littlest needs, but it just wasn’t a good day to stress her anymore. The hair did enough.

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Query, synopsis, pitches, oh my. I’m up to my eyeballs in all the fun stuff. Actually I’m enjoying the process this go around. I don’t know why but something just feels okay about it. I can’t explain it but things are falling into sync a little easier.

All of this is good, since the rest of my life is pretty much insane right now. We did middle school orientation this week and jeez is about all I can say there. Still stressing over that, unfortunately almost as much as if I was the one going, lol. She’s a good girl, she can deal, and I just keep telling myself this. Actually, she’s much more like her father is - extroverted, uh, where me – not so much.

I’ve tried just about every bit of plotting advice out there. Sure they work, but not for me.

I have to KNOW my characters. They have to KNOW themselves before I get the groove with a new wip. By that time I might stop and do a timeline, but not really plot. Not really. Not ever. Sure I know where it’s going (sort of) and how it has to get there (sort of again). But sometimes characters just don’t like to clue me in for a bit. This happened with the ST I recently finished.

Sometimes a really dark character drops into a story where he is not needed. I like him, CP likes him, but alas he will be reserved for a later story. Sometimes elements are put in place for one reason or another and well they just aren’t needed no matter how much I like them…

Alas the sins of a panster, yes J I will be spending the next week paying the price, but in the overall scheme of things it works for me.

I chatted with my mother who paints. We rarely discuss my writing but after a really productive phone call with CP I was in the character chatty mood and well, mom got the low down. I was explaining why I have to correct some issues –  being a panster is the basic reason for most of the ‘issues’.

What I said to my mother was – “I can’t plot, because then it’s not fun to write the book.” And never realized until I verbalized that is IT!

Mom in her infinite wisdom explains it’s the same way for her. She can not draw something exact then go back and layer and layer on the paints. She has her ‘way’ and her way works for her and comes out beautifully. There’s nothing wrong with the way other’s do it, it just doesn’t work for her.

The end of August I will be attending the Heather Graham Writers for New Orleans Workshop. I sent out a list of stuff I need/want to accomplish before then to my critique group giving them free rein to badger me until I do it. I’m finding the older I get (did I just say that? I mean really, eyes a rollin’) the more I find having a clear plan/goal makes accomplishing it much easier. I have an editor pitch appointment and I want to be ready.