A Time For Everything

Lookie what I got this weekend! As I mentioned Friday, I had writers group on Saturday. After close to a dozen years, I'm finally a published author and, as per our little incentive program, I received a jumbo pencil with each book's info written on it. I took four home because those were birthed last year. Book 5's pencil stays in the boots until next December. It's sort of a visual as the year goes on to see how prolific the group is a whole. Here are my pencils!!

It really was a very good weekend...

I already shared my stickers and my friend Molly's book, so now...the rest of the story.

I know, Paul Harvey I'm not!

So, Saturday, Rita Award winning author Cindy Dees spoke at my writers group. It was an awesome presentation about Big Characters and Big Scenes. Cindy was able to query over 40 editors on what they look for and this was the result. And she's nice and she's funny and she's a member of my chapter. Cindy writes Romantic Suspense for Harlequin.

On top of that, I earned another charm for last month's editing. And as I mentioned yesterday, I had a charm I gave myself for finishing Snowball and submitting it. (No, I still haven't heard back.)

So the horseshoe is from the chapter, the key from myself to go with the lock...




Oh, wait--I've gotten ahead of myself...on Friday, DD was also working on a surprise for me:

Yes, that's a wand. It's also a pen.


I'm sorry, I just can't help myself. :)

And when I got home DD had yet another surprise waiting for me:

So yesterday I got leave the office behind and go on a short road trip, though it was enough for me. I had to pick up a hard drive from the Tarrant County D.A.'s office and run it south to DH. It was a lovely afternoon for a drive, and even though the temps were supposed to have been in the 90s, it was actually quite nice driving with the window down. Here was my view most of the way down:



When I got there I saw the new toy the boys bought. DH is planning on showing fireworks videos while there are customers in the store. When not showing off cool fireworks displays, the younger boys, Sonshine and his friend, whom I will refer to as Board Boy (skateboard reference), will get to enjoy playing Xbox games on the shiny. If only I had one of those suckers at home to watch my favorite shows. (Maybe for our anniversary this year. Hmm....)


Last Saturday was writing meeting day and I picked up my new charm. There's two new from the last picture you saw--the boot and the small oval-shaped disk on the left. It reads: Aspire.


Speaking of writing, I'm at the place now where I usually quit working on one story and begin something else. Why? Because I'm at the hard part now--layering in the emotions without telling and being repetitious. Maybe I should just tell and then go back through and re-write to show. For example, "She was pissed." versus "Her fists clenched and she saw red. Heat suffused her fast and she checked the urge to deck the son of a gun." Big difference. It looks easy doesn't it? Not always so.

But I was thinking this morning as I was walking (up to 2 times around the building now), and as I told my encouragement partner, "how about just 125 words instead". Makes little sense to you without details, but what that means for me is to focus on a paragraph at a time, instead of thinking of the whole manuscript and feeling overwhelmed. One paragraph, then the next and the next until I'm at the end. Sounds like a plan.


And now, the Twelve Days of Jen

New ear buds and new headphones so I can listen to my iPod or watch TV shows or movies on my iPad without bothering anyone and also so I can hear over all the other noise in the house. We ended up buying DH his own set of headphones for Father's Day because he also watches videos and TV shows on his iPad and is going deaf.


And that's it for today! Have a great rest of the week. See you Friday.

Mars and Venus were both visible to the naked eye from where I live last night. I hadn't realized Mars *could* be seen with the naked eye, but DD pointed it out. A quick look at my Star Chart app on the iPad confirmed it. How cool is that? Of course, Venus can be seen quite often and, in fact, has been hanging around in the same general vicinity for at least a month or so. And with the help of the star chart app I also saw the star Regulus just to the right of Mars. Only a point of excitement to me because of J.K. Rowling--one of her main cast of characters in her Harry Potter books, the Black family, names all their children after stars, and one was indeed named Regulus.

And just FYI, Pluto is no longer a planet because its orbit is apparently not on the same plane as the rest of them...hmmm.

Writing charms--i haz them. I know I've mentioned the Book in a Year program that my writing chapter is offering and that I am participating in. Basically, the goal is to write 6250 words a month or more, if you so choose to raise the bar for yourself. I probably could, but decided not to for personal reasons.

Officially, the program, i.e. the word counting started with our March 2012 meeting. But the coordinator offered to let all words written from the time you signed up count toward that first charm. I signed up March 10th. And between March 10th and March 17th (meeting day) I earned my first charm. That meant that any and all words I wrote between 03.17 and 04.21 (the next meeting), all 8100+ of them, were superfluous as far as the incentive was concerned.

That was unacceptable to me. So I decided to buy myself a charm to celebrate those words as well as the fact that I started truly revising that first book. Something I'd never done before.

So here is my charm bracelet. The hat is from the chapter and the heart-shaped lock is from me. It came with a key, but I haven't earned that one yet.

The reason I chose them was because they were the only ones that really jumped out me. It came as a set, otherwise I would just have bought one. But as I was contemplating them, I realized they chose me...

I've always struggled with really and truly finishing a manuscript. I get close and then I start something new.

A writer friend of mine is constantly telling me: Just write the beginning, the middle, and the end. And then do it again. And again.

So the lock and key symbolizes the key to unlocking the publishing lock is just to write: the beginning, the middle and the end. And then do it again.

I'm thinking that I'll give myself that key when book one, Always Ready, is finished and polished and has been submitted to a publisher.

Aside from all that, it feels good to be writing again. I've got good goals for the weekend and I'm ready to write.

The beginning.

The middle.

The end.

Have a good one!