A Time For Everything

Well, she's knee deep in writing group business. The beginning of the year means the changing of the guard--out with the previous board members, in with the newly elected. Sometimes it's just a shuffle from one position to the next. We lose one or two, gain one or two and everyone else just trades hats.

I love serving my writing group, I really do. I love going to meetings and hanging out with my writer peeps. Writing group day is my one day when I let all my other cares go. I'm gone the whole day, first to meeting, then to hang out with critique partners and other invited friends. I ride with a friend so we have extra time to visit.

This past Saturday was the changing of the guard meeting. My friend, chapter mate, and faithful blog reader Lara was kind enough to open her home to us gaggle of women to get our group on the road to 2014 success. (Thanks, Lara!)

In other news, the yard is frozen. It hasn't had any work done to it in a good month and it needs a pick-me-up pretty bad. On the other hand, it's not the worst it's ever been, so I'm not fretting it too much. There's just been something going on for the last several weeks and when there wasn't, it was just too dang cold to go out.

I spent a couple of weeks on hubby alert. He got a bad case of that flu going around and was laid up at home for a few days. Then, from all the coughing, he ended up with a level three tear in his abdominal wall. If it had been any worse, he'd have had to have surgery to re-attach stuff. Yikes. Until this past Friday, he hasn't driven since when he has to cough, he likes to hunch over to cause the least amount of tug on his belly muscles.

My schedule's been wonky because of DH being sick, and on top of that, the water pump on DD's truck bit the big one, so we were out a vehicle for two weeks. It took a bit longer because we had DD's friend fix it rather than pay a dealership the thousand dollars they quotes us. Instead, we shelled out about $150 in parts and adopted a dog.

This is Rayna...




Her daddy (the friend that fixed DD's truck) lives at home with his parents, as does his sister who has a toddler and a new baby. His parents have been after him to get rid of her because they're worried that she might hurt one or the other of the little ones--not out of aggression, but because she's protective. So we agreed to take her. We babysat her last week and it's going to be a tough adjustment for her. She loves her daddy. I'm thinking she's gonna have to bond with Sonshine. Also, I think I'm going to have to take her to work with me. I don't know that leaving her in a strange house by herself right off the bat is a good idea either. I'll keep you posted.

And last but not least is my continued lack of weight loss. I'm back up around 140lbs, though I haven't gone over but a blip and only once. All the sickies and injuries and crazy schedules and just stuff have conspired to keep me off kilter and seeking comfort in not-so-great food choices. Okay, they're not super bad, it's just that I think I'm eating more that I should be and not drinking enough water. That's gonna end very soon. DH is ready to make healthier choices too.

Well, I think I've gabbed your ear (or eyes?) off enough for today, so I'll sign off.

Hope things are cruising along much better in your neighborhood.

This past Saturday, my writers group celebrated its 30th anniversary. Yep, back in 1983 a group of women, all pursuing the dream of writing romance novels, came together and formed a local chapter of Romance Writers of America, founded three years earlier.

Of the dozen or so women who formed our group, two remain members, one whose health prevents her from attending and the other who rarely misses a meeting and continues to write, submit, attends classes and conferences, and even teaches classes herself.

Carolyn has served our organization in just about every way and we're so grateful. She's a dedicated member and writer. She was a special guest speaker and talked a bit about the formation of group. And after thirty or more years of pursuing publication, Carolyn announced the sale of her first book to Noble Publishing.

As a way to honor Carolyn and her perseverance, the board voted to name the new published author contest after her. She was quite surprised, as you can imagine, as were the rest of those in attendance.

We were given goodie bags and had extra door prize drawing gifts as well as cake to celebrate.

Overall it was a really awesome day.

Sue Grimshaw, Editor-at-Large at Random House was the speaker at my writer's group this past Saturday. On Friday night, there was an open invite to the whole chapter for dinner with Sue. Ten of us made it. It was awesome to get a chance to welcome Sue to the great state of Texas and to get to talk to her on a more intimate level.


Saturday, Sue talked about Random House and the return of the Loveswept romance line. I really wish I wrote longer books because working with Sue and Random House would be fantastic. She didn't mention royalty rates, but the second most important thing on every author's mind is promotion and Sue and RH have it going on. Maybe someday.

Unfortunately, Sonshine's school had a game Saturday night which meant I had to cut my writer's day short. The football team won and the band sounded great to me although Sonshine said they had an off night.

Sonshine has taken up the bass drum for the Battle of the Bands, a district competition. He's having a lot of fun with it.

Today, I was hoping to have a relaxing day, but no such luck. DH wanted to clean out the garage, so I dutifully began going through the stacks and piles. And by the end of the day, my garage looked like this. I wish I'd thought to take a before picture.

 
The washer and dryer you see in the upper left corner used to be in the middle of that empty floor, along with a dis-assembled work-out machine, a TV, and a couple of boxes of Christmas stuff. There was a lot of other stuff in there too, but I won't bore you with details. At some point, that garage will be a family/entertainment room OR it'll be my office/craft/exercise room. :)


Despite all the work, I did get my word count for the day done, so YAY me.

And the last thing I want to share is the double rainbow that appeared last evening after a day of dreary drizzle. Amazing!!



The second rainbow is hard to see, but it is there, just a bit above the main one.

My weekend was crazy busy, but productive and fun. How was your weekend??

...YAY...

And it starts early. Our guest speaker is from out of town and is a big name in the publishing world. So tonight, we're wining and dining her at a local restaurant. As prez of the group, I need to go. So my good friend/CP/prez-elect is meeting me at my house at 5and we're off.

The road work on my block is done! So starting Monday morning, I'll be a walking again.

Even after a disappointing weigh-in on Wednesday night--where I didn't achieve my last 2lbs. in 2wks. goal--I was down .4lbs. last night even after a really expensive (calorie-wise) dinner at Jack in the Box. I needed dinner for me and the kids fast, so...but I'm thinking that because it was a hectic afternoon and my adrenaline was running, that offset all the calories. Or my body just needed a reset or a treat. However you want to look at it. Plus I didn't weigh in right after I ate. :)

And just to share a random image...


Pretty cool huh?

Not much, really...

Our server crashed at the office so I have been without e-mail since Friday. It's been sort of odd to be without e-mail because I am in it and communicate via e-mail for just about all aspects of my life. It's more the lack of contacts and userids and passwords that's been the bigger hassle, as I keep all that information in Outlook. :( We may get it back, we may not. *fingers crossed*

I've started a re-read/discussion of the Harry Potter books with some online friends. Deadline for finishing book one is this coming Sunday. I finished reading it the other day and have begun re-reading it. Since I am the coordinator of said re-read, I'm responsible for coming up with the discussion questions (with a little help from Google).

Band Booster prezzing is going okay. Not great, as the band director is pretty busy and it's difficult to get things done--certain things she supposedly needs to handle. I'm not sure. I might just have to test the waters and explain my position and if she does indeed need to be involved, then how much can I do? If she doesn't, then I proceed. On a happy side note, the band director decided we weren't working the event at Cowboys Stadium this weekend. Instead she's running a car wash.

Writing Chapter is going okay as well. The elected president-elect resigned a month or so ago and it's been a challenge to find someone qualified to step into that position. I resisted at first, but eventually decided to accept the call. So this weekend my appointment as president-elect should be ratified. My biggest gripe is that no one wants to step up and volunteer. The chapter can't run magically by itself. And while I could probably pull off president, newsletter editor, and website director by myself--I shouldn't have to.

I've also been taking a online class on sexual tension and how to get it on the page. I aced the first homework assignment. Though I didn't do the second or third assignment (that's about the time my e-mail went bye-bye). It's been quite interesting with interviews from big name authors and examples from published books as well.

I have a bit of an epiphany . . . I've always lamented that my love (read: sex) scenes tend to run more to the porn end of the spectrum (more physical descriptions) than the true LOVE scene (the more emotion-packed scene) . . . and while reading comments from the class instructor on others' homework, it finally clicked - - and now it seems like a *DUH* moment -- But I struggle to write or should I say *show* (rather than tell) what those emotions are. But how do you show love or lust? What are the physiological responses? I guess there's a fine line between the truly physical and the physiological... I don't know... I'm confusing myself again.

All right, well, I'm done. That's what's going with me...