A Time For Everything

No that's not a typo or a brain fart. The rain is gone and it's hot here once again.

I'm referring to the words. They poured out of me yesterday afternoon while waiting for my oil change and again this morning during my usual writing time.

Oh, what a feeling. It's awesome.

They're not awful words, certainly not great (yet), but now that they're on the page they can be fleshed out, tweaked, edited. Made better.

My synopsis for the next anthology was "approved" the other day and the notification came along with some comments and suggestions. I'm not generally one to be contrary, and when working on a project like this or, say, writing for an official publisher, an author generally does what the editor says unless he or she feels really strongly about an issue and can logically refute the change. It is the author's story after all and s/he should have some control/say so even when it's being published by someone else.

Okay, so it's a Valentine's Day anthology, coming out--you guessed it--next Valentine's Day. Now, the original V-Day anthology had to be postponed because not enough people made the deadlines and that was before I came aboard for the second anthology, so I have no idea what parameters were originally set forth.

This time the info was basic, timelines and deadlines and such, but for newcomers like me, the requirement of the big moment happening on Valentine's Day would have been helpful to know going into the project. It might seem like an obvious thing to some, but not to me. I'm feeling a bit disgruntled about the whole thing, but making that happen--aside from the fact that hockey games are played on Feb 14th and one of my heroes is a hockey player--won't take much work.

The other won't take much work either but coincidences do happen, right?? But when two people point it out, you have to stop and reconsider. I ended up giving both my heroes type one diabetes. Originally, just the hockey player had it--

Don't forget  it's an anthology featuring heroes and heroines who deal with some sort of disability in their life.

--but then the other guy had it too. When a friend commented on it and then the coordinator commented on it, well. I could dismiss one person's concern, but two people's and one of them the coordinator? A little harder to brush off.

So now I have to ponder the logistics change. It's doable. Fairly easy even, but ugh. I don't want to.

Oh, well. Suck it up buttercup, right??

Anyway, have a great weekend!!

I'm experiencing conflict right now!! I want to write book 7 and I'm struggling. UGH UGH UGH!!

About a month ago, I mentioned a class I'd taken last June and how I wanted to take it again... Well, I tried to contact the instructor, but I had her email wrong, so it bounced back and I was really bummed. But then an announcement for that very class came through me email and--yay--I'm currently knee deep in the middle of it.

I'm enjoying it as much as I did last time, but it's also challenging and frustrating in equal parts as I struggle through the psychology of my characters wounds, beliefs, and coping mechanisms.

Building conflict is a thing I really need to wrap my head around to tell effective stories. The instructor did say it took her years to get a handle on it herself, but she also has part of a psychology degree under her belt. So, yeah... I have a big learning curve when I get a lot of info thrown at me. It takes me a while to parse things. I feel like an idiot sometimes, needing everything spelled out for me, and that's frustrating because I'm not a stupid person. Not a rocket scientist, to be sure, but not stupid.

I really need to pinpoint my best learning style.

So, anyway, I'll persevere and study and try, try again. I may also take the class when she offers it again in the fall, but I don't think, in the grand scheme of things, this is the strict method for me. Many instructors say, "take what works/resonates and leave the rest." There are definitely things I'm learning, that I'll take away and apply, but as far as starting where she starts... I don't know.


Another class just came through my email that sounds right up alley, so I'm considering it despite the cost. But I really want to grasp this concept and how to make it work for me.

Well, happy Hump Day! See you Friday.

On June 2, I ordered yet another Pittsburgh Penguins t-shirt. I received an email on June 10th that it had been shipped with an estimated arrival date of June 13th. I originally thought the 12th, but I might have mis-read the email hoping for a gift actually on my birthday. :0)

I finally received my t-shirt on Monday June 19th--seventeen days after I ordered it, six days after it was originally supposed to have arrived.



Why????

No reason that I can understand except I realize it's a low priority package. I get that. Had they charged me TWO more measly dollars, they could have put it in a priority mail envelope at a US post office and I could have gotten it in about three days. How happy of a camper would I have been???

Instead, the company I bought the t-shirt from is using some sort of combination of shipping--USPS and DHL--I imagine to get much cheaper rates. I've experienced that before on something else I bought, but packages then take a meandering route to where they're supposed to go.

If they'd correctly identified the day of delivery, I wouldn't be quite as upset, but when my package sits twenty miles down the road for three days for no apparent reason, I have a problem. It's seriously ridiculous that a package coming from Denver took nine days to be delivered.

I get making a profit on the item, but charge appropriate shipping and get a product into the hands of the consumer even if all the shipping funds are used up. I doubt I will ever order something from this company again.

Has anyone had similar frustrations?

Changes have been taking place within the umbrella organization of my writers group. I've been on the leadership loop for several months now and after the usual hail and farewells that accompany the new year and the changing of officers that each chapter experiences, the discussion has returned to the changes.

Chapters were forced to adopt standard bylaws with few options for us to choose from. The number and types of board positions the individual chapters could utilize has been given--we no longer get to choose what we need or what best suits us and our offerings. The requirements for service have been mandated and they are not small-chapter friendly. Several chapters have folded for various reasons, several others are in danger.

Many chapter leaders are frustrated because they don't understand the reasoning behind the changes. They seem harsh and unnecessary. There are other changes going on that aren't related to bylaws but that are just as frustrating and threatening and many chapters are losing members as a result as well.

With respect to the changes in the publishing industry, authors, especially the successful, selling ones have more on their plates in terms of writing and promotion, leaving less time to devote to chapter leadership.

So with the loss of members and less time for discretionary activities, how do chapters survive? In the old paradigm, there just weren't that many published authors and the rest of the aspiring chapter peons were willing to handle the running of the chapter.

But the organization is, has always been, and always will be focused on the career romance writer--even if she's working a day job to pay the bills. Those who write more as a hobby will soon be force into a different membership status--and unable to serve in board positions.

In the new paradigm, even medium to large sized chapters are finding it difficult to operate within the rules and regulations set down by the parent organization. We've assigned our board members oversight and then any member can serve and do the day-to-day work of the chapter, but it's still hard to find members willing to serve at all.

After biting off almost more than I can chew with our chapter's new contest I'm this ( ) close to being burnt out and I *like* volunteering and serving the groups I'm a part of.

People no longer need the organization like they once did. They're feeling pushed out and disenfranchised.

The parent organization currently has over 10K members, which is really fantastic. But I'm wondering, when the dust settles, how many members will remain and/or for how long?

First Yahoo, now Google.

A couple of weeks ago, I went into Yahoo to manage messages for one of the groups I'm on. And they'd completely changed it. I couldn't find anything and they took away some features.  It took me too long to figure out how to do what I needed to. You know, can't they roll these things out in increments?? Though, I suppose since I'm not a regular user, it wouldn't matter much...

Then yesterday, I'm on Google...click the mail link and go looking for the drop down menu to choose my secondary email account--the one I use for the proofreading. Oh, but I can't find it. So I have to click my way around My Google (or whatever they're calling it), which is looking suspiciously like Facebook, and find my settings. From there I see the little drop down menu and get into my other account. Ugh, so now FIVE clicks instead of TWO. Sheesh.

What a pain in the patoot.

I'm sorely tempted to change e-mail providers. I really really am.

On the bright side, it's been raining in my neck of the woods, I have new cross stitch projects in the works, *and* it's Friday and tomorrow is writers group day, so I'm gonna hang with my writer peeps.

Have a great weekend!