...to the weekend. It's not just any weekend for me. It's conference weekend. My writing chapter is sponsoring a conference for writers. As president of my group, I feel like I have to be there, though I'm not officially attending the conference itself. I did go buy some new clothes, something business casual and nice and more professional looking than I anything I owned. I'm quite pleased.
But I'm spending the weekend with other writers and specifically my critique partners, sharing a room with one of them in particular. I can't wait. I have wine and snakcks and treats, though there's not going to be a whole lotta time for socializing. I'm packed as much as I can be at this point. Friday morning after I get up, I'll pack up the rest of the stuff (toiletries and electronics) I need and my CP will pick me up and off we'll go.
In other news...
The blue bonnets are blooming here in Texas. Spring is official I guess. The weather's been perfect for sleeping. I can sleep with the windows open and enjoy the coolness that happens only for a few weeks each year in the spring and fall.
Most importantly, one of my other CPs was offered a contract for her book. I don't want to go into more details right now, only because I don't the status at the moment. But it was very exciting and she was thrilled. Congrats, girl!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Almost a man, and yet...
...sometimes still a little boy.
My Sonshine turned sixteen last December. It's an interesting age. Anyway, I was collecting towels off the clothesline yesterday when I spotted a feather lying in the grass. It was almost an ordinary little feather, maybe three inches long and only a quarter inch at its widest, but it was yellow on the end. I have no idea what type of bird it might belong to.
So I picked it up and called to Sonshine. I showed him and he thought it was cool--for being a bird feather an all--and then he took it and went into his room and stashed in the container containing the rest of his feather collection. That really tickled me, both that he still has his collection and that he knew where it was.
I have I told you lately how much I love my Sonshine?
And it was beautiful weather this weekend. As mentioned, I utilized my clothes line. I love towels and sheets that have been line-dried. I even did a little writing outside, sitting in the sun, soaking up some vitamins D and E. I had to use pen and paper as it's too bright to see the laptop screen, but that's okay too. It was helpful to do that.
Speaking of writing, I barely eeked out last week's word goal, but I did make it with 32 extra words. Yesterday was the start of the new week, requiring a word count of 1K. But I didn't make it. I'm at the point in my manuscript where I have few new scenes left to write, a few decisions to make, and a lot of revising. I'm at 18.8K out of the 25 I'm shooting for.
That's still a lot of new words you say.
True. It is, but many of those words are going to be needed during the revision process where I'll be layering in emotions and internal narrative--the things I usually gloss over during the first pass. I've even begun cutting words and phrases that sound nice, but don't really add a lot to the story. Which means I'm now losing word count too. Argh!! But I'll need those words in the serious revision stage.
I wrote 1700+ words last week summarizing my story. It really was very helpful in pin-pointing a couple of problem areas and the turning points for my heroine. Now I have to get to those revisions, fixing the problems and smoothing out the rough edges. Culling the useless words, adding the important ones.
The next step, I think, is to print out the manuscript and read it hard copy. Mark the pages with notes--like where the heroine's turning points are and what they need to encompass. Reading hard copy also helps you find misspellings and missing words. When I read aloud, I can catch any flow issues.
I have my work cut out for me. Better get to it--
Have a good week.
My Sonshine turned sixteen last December. It's an interesting age. Anyway, I was collecting towels off the clothesline yesterday when I spotted a feather lying in the grass. It was almost an ordinary little feather, maybe three inches long and only a quarter inch at its widest, but it was yellow on the end. I have no idea what type of bird it might belong to.
So I picked it up and called to Sonshine. I showed him and he thought it was cool--for being a bird feather an all--and then he took it and went into his room and stashed in the container containing the rest of his feather collection. That really tickled me, both that he still has his collection and that he knew where it was.
I have I told you lately how much I love my Sonshine?
And it was beautiful weather this weekend. As mentioned, I utilized my clothes line. I love towels and sheets that have been line-dried. I even did a little writing outside, sitting in the sun, soaking up some vitamins D and E. I had to use pen and paper as it's too bright to see the laptop screen, but that's okay too. It was helpful to do that.
Speaking of writing, I barely eeked out last week's word goal, but I did make it with 32 extra words. Yesterday was the start of the new week, requiring a word count of 1K. But I didn't make it. I'm at the point in my manuscript where I have few new scenes left to write, a few decisions to make, and a lot of revising. I'm at 18.8K out of the 25 I'm shooting for.
That's still a lot of new words you say.
True. It is, but many of those words are going to be needed during the revision process where I'll be layering in emotions and internal narrative--the things I usually gloss over during the first pass. I've even begun cutting words and phrases that sound nice, but don't really add a lot to the story. Which means I'm now losing word count too. Argh!! But I'll need those words in the serious revision stage.
I wrote 1700+ words last week summarizing my story. It really was very helpful in pin-pointing a couple of problem areas and the turning points for my heroine. Now I have to get to those revisions, fixing the problems and smoothing out the rough edges. Culling the useless words, adding the important ones.
The next step, I think, is to print out the manuscript and read it hard copy. Mark the pages with notes--like where the heroine's turning points are and what they need to encompass. Reading hard copy also helps you find misspellings and missing words. When I read aloud, I can catch any flow issues.
I have my work cut out for me. Better get to it--
Have a good week.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Another birthday...
DD's birthday is Sunday. We're doing the birthday dinner and presents tonight, which means I'll be leaving work soon to go buy said presents. We really are terrible about waiting to the last minute, but what can I say? (We'll see how the change of date for *my* birthday goes. Moving it up by a month is going to throw some people for a loop.)
Plus I have to take the dog *back* to the vet. She had an aural hematoma on her right ear. Meaning basically, the little blood vessels in her ear broke and filled the layers of skin with blood. The vet drained as much as she could, but couldn't get all of it. Then Wednesday, I noticed that her poor little ear flap is like a balloon again. So back to the vet with the dog for another consult and some steroids. The vet said Monday she wasn't keen on surgery for anything as this dog is like a hundred years old. So we'll see what she recommends.
The rain has ceased for the time being and it's a bright sunny cheery morning. A great day to be running around, me thinks, rather than stuck in my office.
I have a few things to get done here and then I'm off! Have a great weekend.
Plus I have to take the dog *back* to the vet. She had an aural hematoma on her right ear. Meaning basically, the little blood vessels in her ear broke and filled the layers of skin with blood. The vet drained as much as she could, but couldn't get all of it. Then Wednesday, I noticed that her poor little ear flap is like a balloon again. So back to the vet with the dog for another consult and some steroids. The vet said Monday she wasn't keen on surgery for anything as this dog is like a hundred years old. So we'll see what she recommends.
The rain has ceased for the time being and it's a bright sunny cheery morning. A great day to be running around, me thinks, rather than stuck in my office.
I have a few things to get done here and then I'm off! Have a great weekend.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
I have a yard!
We severely neglected our backyard over the winter, and because it was such a mild one, the grass and weeds continued to grow rather than go dormant. Most of the yard was three feet high. So last week I decided to tackle it a section at a time. This also meant weed whacking since the grass--and I do use that term lightly--was so tall. Weed whack first, then mow over it to pickup what was whacked down and cut the rest. I've been using the bag, too, because that's just too much to leave lying on the lawn.
We've had a terrible habit of leaving the lawn and leaf bags (the paper kind) out and inevitably we forget to drag them to the curb and then it rains leaving them soggy on the bottom. Then they tear and we still have piles of yard waste. But not this time. Thank goodness--we hauled all the bags to the shed. And thank goodness we had the foresight. It rained for over 12 straight hours Monday night. And after all the rain we've had recently, our yard is saturated. Anyway--the point is our yard bags are still dry and intact for hauling to the curb this evening or tomorrow morning.
We actually have our patio back as well. It all still needs some work, but at least it looks like a yard should. The best part is that DH has taken over some of that work and I haven't had to carry the load on my own.
I also finally have new outlets with outlet covers in my writing room. Of course, my writing room may well become my Brown Eyed Girl's bedroom again, but that's okay. At least it's all fixed up and looks nice should she decide to come live at home for a while.
The quest for new words continues. But it's getting harder. I'm running out of story, which means the story's almost finished. Which means revisions. Which, actually, I don't mind all that much. As far as my writing incentive goes (the charm bracelet from my writing group) I have earned the bracelet and the first charm. This next month (from meeting to meeting) will be adding the last scenes and the rest of the words, and the month after that will be hard core revisions. After that, I don't know. Either another month of revisions, along with new words on the companion story, or submission time (along with new words on the next book).
Along with all of the above, is dealing with the issues of a recovering drug addict (my aforementioned Brown Eyed Girl). DH and I will be going to see her tonight to discuss her wants/needs/expectations about her living arrangements once she's released from the halfway house.
But we're halfway through the week and that's a very good thing. Hope your week is going well!
We've had a terrible habit of leaving the lawn and leaf bags (the paper kind) out and inevitably we forget to drag them to the curb and then it rains leaving them soggy on the bottom. Then they tear and we still have piles of yard waste. But not this time. Thank goodness--we hauled all the bags to the shed. And thank goodness we had the foresight. It rained for over 12 straight hours Monday night. And after all the rain we've had recently, our yard is saturated. Anyway--the point is our yard bags are still dry and intact for hauling to the curb this evening or tomorrow morning.
We actually have our patio back as well. It all still needs some work, but at least it looks like a yard should. The best part is that DH has taken over some of that work and I haven't had to carry the load on my own.
I also finally have new outlets with outlet covers in my writing room. Of course, my writing room may well become my Brown Eyed Girl's bedroom again, but that's okay. At least it's all fixed up and looks nice should she decide to come live at home for a while.
The quest for new words continues. But it's getting harder. I'm running out of story, which means the story's almost finished. Which means revisions. Which, actually, I don't mind all that much. As far as my writing incentive goes (the charm bracelet from my writing group) I have earned the bracelet and the first charm. This next month (from meeting to meeting) will be adding the last scenes and the rest of the words, and the month after that will be hard core revisions. After that, I don't know. Either another month of revisions, along with new words on the companion story, or submission time (along with new words on the next book).
Along with all of the above, is dealing with the issues of a recovering drug addict (my aforementioned Brown Eyed Girl). DH and I will be going to see her tonight to discuss her wants/needs/expectations about her living arrangements once she's released from the halfway house.
But we're halfway through the week and that's a very good thing. Hope your week is going well!
Monday, March 19, 2012
What's new, pussycat?
Well, the week's new. But that's about it.
The weather's odd, but that's not unusual for this time a year, although it's a wee bit early. Normally, we see this stuff in April, rather than March, but I think our whole weather pattern has shifted by a month or so. *shrugs* I dunno. --It just rained! And now it's done.--
We had our office A/C worked on last Friday and it seems to have finally worked. Last year we have three or four different A/C people come out, poke around, and give us song and dance about this that or the other. But none of them fixed it. We made it through the summer by the skin of our teeth. Since summer may come upon us sooner than usual, we decided to call back the company that had helped us out when the heat wasn't working.
One of the previous A/C people had *unhooked* the heater wires thinking that was the problem. *guh*. The tech who came out said to monitor the differential (that's A/C jargon for something) and call them back if things get worse again. We'd gone from a four degree differential to a ten. Higher is better. He also said, due to the age of our system, the max we'd probably see would be 12 to 15. Another contributing factor is that our ducts are full of gaps, so we're going to have someone fix those up. After that, I'm hoping we'll be good to go for this summer. I think they're expecting temperatures just as hot, though I certainly hope not for 80 straight days. :(
Sonshine got his glasses last week. They said 7 to 10 business days, but he got them in like 2 or 3. But that was fortuitous because then he had all the rest of spring break to let his eyes adjust to wearing them. And he looks quite good in them, too.
My Saturday went well. The regular chapter meeting was awesome as was my confab with my CPs afterwards. Everyone has reported back that are feeling rejuvenated or inspired, so YAY! As for me, I'm feeling the same--doubting my abilities to pull of this thing called writing. But I shall...
Keep calm and carry on!
Have a good week.
The weather's odd, but that's not unusual for this time a year, although it's a wee bit early. Normally, we see this stuff in April, rather than March, but I think our whole weather pattern has shifted by a month or so. *shrugs* I dunno. --It just rained! And now it's done.--
We had our office A/C worked on last Friday and it seems to have finally worked. Last year we have three or four different A/C people come out, poke around, and give us song and dance about this that or the other. But none of them fixed it. We made it through the summer by the skin of our teeth. Since summer may come upon us sooner than usual, we decided to call back the company that had helped us out when the heat wasn't working.
One of the previous A/C people had *unhooked* the heater wires thinking that was the problem. *guh*. The tech who came out said to monitor the differential (that's A/C jargon for something) and call them back if things get worse again. We'd gone from a four degree differential to a ten. Higher is better. He also said, due to the age of our system, the max we'd probably see would be 12 to 15. Another contributing factor is that our ducts are full of gaps, so we're going to have someone fix those up. After that, I'm hoping we'll be good to go for this summer. I think they're expecting temperatures just as hot, though I certainly hope not for 80 straight days. :(
Sonshine got his glasses last week. They said 7 to 10 business days, but he got them in like 2 or 3. But that was fortuitous because then he had all the rest of spring break to let his eyes adjust to wearing them. And he looks quite good in them, too.
My Saturday went well. The regular chapter meeting was awesome as was my confab with my CPs afterwards. Everyone has reported back that are feeling rejuvenated or inspired, so YAY! As for me, I'm feeling the same--doubting my abilities to pull of this thing called writing. But I shall...
Keep calm and carry on!
Have a good week.
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