Friday, June 30, 2006

Standing Still

I didn't get a single word written yesterday, and I wouldn't be surprised if today is as useless. I've been going to work an hour early every day this week because of the workload we have is just horrid. I can't complain though, I go in early voluntarily, but all that data entry just makes my eyes cross and head spin. What a sight that is.

After work DH wants us all to take my son to his doc appt (last one for his elbow) and then go out to dinner. As long as he's paying... I'm all tapped out.

I did a bad last night. My youngest DD wanted her hair streaked. So I got the kit and we did it last night. She has dark brown hair. Well, she used to... its now got blonde blotches at the top. Oy!!!!!!!!!!! What was I thinking???? We did this to her once before. Of course she wants it all blonde, but that ain't happening. I'm thinking that we'll have to do some intervention. Next time gotta use a cap despite the pain and agony.

So, got an hour before I need to be outa here. Was sposed to take a walk when I got up, but honestly, I'm nervous about going alone, even in this tiny little town. Silly, but I got reasons.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Day is done....

Well, its nearly 9pm. I didn't get nearly as much done as I'd hoped. The kids are going stir crazy already and school hasn't been out for even a week yet. We took a walk to the library where two of the ducklings won prizes in the summer reading program there. Then it was a stop for ice cream (ah, that was the fatal mistake). Then off to do a load of laundry and grocery shopping. By the time I got home and got dinner ready it was late and the kids were energized. They're just now going off to bed.

So, here I am, starting YET ANOTHER WIP!! Okay so I had a scathingly brilliant idea (well, maybe not scathingly brilliant, but derned good) for a new story using a bit of something I wrote a few months ago. I'm pretty psyched about it. Its a tad different than my usual. I hope it works out.

Tomorrow is going to be a brutal day. I went in at 7:30am this morning because we had over $100k worth of magazine orders come in and I had to prepare them. Well, tried to anyway until I was relieved by the old boss who came in to help out. But there's still about $150K worth of orders to enter. So I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow. And Thursday. And Friday. But that's okay. Keeps me off the phones.

Okay, time to retire, with notebook, to the living room. Got me some plotting to do.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Another one on its merry little way

I just sent off Where One Road Leads to Samhain. Now I can sit back, bite my nails for a bit, and get on with the other wips that I have. I was actually putting more thought into Wild Sage (temp title) instead of the fantasy. I tell ya, I'm as fickle as they come!! But I guess I have to go where the creative flow takes me.

I posted my cover on my website. I'm so pleased with it (thanks Nancy so so much!! Your work is wonderful).

Well, its getting late and I think I have to turn this puter off and go and get an ice pack. My neck is hurting again. Bed time soon. Tomorrow is Saturday and its my long day at work. With luck I'll either be on data entry duty or the phones will be quiet. SO PLEASE, ANYONE WHO MAY WANT TO CALL CRICKET MAGAZINE GROUP TOMORROW DON'T!! WE'RE SHORT STAFFED ON SATURDAYS AND WE NEED THE BREAK. Speaking of work, one of the women I work with typed up a wonderful letter to the owner of the company, the guy who is far above our CEO's head on the food chain, telling him what was going on, and our displeasure with our treatment. She sent it out certified/registered etc to him, his father, the CEO, the human resources manager and one more person. The gloves have been thrown down. I'd love to be a fly on the wall of our CEO's office when he gets that letter. Seems like we all signed it, so I hope there's safety in numbers.

SO PLEASE KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED THAT WE WON'T FIND OUR JOBS ELIMINATED OVER THIS. Well, it'll give me more writing time while I'm on unemployment and looking for more work. :(

Thursday, June 22, 2006

First Full Day of Summer

Its kind of nice not having to get the kids ready for school. Of course I'll pay for this luxury later when younger DD goes to middle school and has to be ready to go before 7am. She's like me, a procrastinator. I fear for the both of us.

I've seen the adjustments on my cover and I absolutely love it!!! So its off to be approved and then I can get it posted. I wish I didn't have to wait a whole year, but I'll probably appreciate the time when I get down to edits and promotions. Until I'll bask in the knowledge that I have a cover to go along with my book.

More bad news at work. The CEO has said flat out NO RAISES. He's under the illusion that we're doing the same job that we were hired to do 3+ years ago, although thats a load of horse blllllleeeeeeeeeeeppppppp. The company closed its mail center and guess where all the work went. Yes, to us. And he says we make as much as we should make doing what we're doing. A woman went to a website that gives us an idea of what the average pay is for our position in our area and the LOW END OF THE SCALE FOR ENTRY LEVEL CALL CENTER REPS is a dollar MORE an hour than I make now after being there for 3+ years. And I make more than my coworker who's been here longer!!! I have a feeling she's preparing to walk. And I don't blame her. She has a sucky job. They better not pawn it off on me. I'm not going to do it.

So, something is going to happen. Next month we're having our yearly benefits meeting with Mr. CEO Who Has A Beautiful Horse Farm in VT And Drives A Volvo and he's going to hear it from us, as a group. Maybe I'll hvae to start writing for a living. *gulp*

And speaking of work, time to go and deal with the horrendously slow computer system and a bunch of data entry. Ugh and double ugh!!!!!!!

But I have my cover and that takes the edge off. :)

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

A Good Day

It was a busy one, but a good day yesterday. I took it off from work so I could attend my daughter's 4th grade graduation. She looked so grown up and I still can't believe that she's going to the middle school this fall. Doesn't seem possible. She got all weepy when she got home.

Then it was on to my oldest daughter's 8th grade graduation. Another hot and crowded event, but she was really having a great time. She won an award for community service-she put in more service hours than anyone else in her class. They all have to put in a minimum of 20 hours. She put in 172!!! It was hard to drag her away from the crowd afterwards and she was very upset that she wouldn't be going to school today.

And another really cool thing happened. I was contacted by the artist assigned to do my cover art for Finally Home. She actually had it done!! I've asked for one adjustment, but otherwise I'm really liking it! And the book isn't due out for another year! Woo-hoo!!!!!

And now its time to wake up the kids for their last day of school.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Missing Girl Found

I'm very happy to say that the missing girl has been located safe and sound. Phew!! What a relief. I can't even imagine what her parents went through.

Its sweltering hot here in NH. Had a nice little t-storm yesterday that cooled things off a bit and we may get more of the same today. Its going to be one of those hectic days when there's no time to sit and breathe. Definitely no time to write. I'm 2700 words into my new wip and its very strange to rewrite something I wrote so long ago. I had over 100 handwritten pages before, but I've learned so much about writing since then that its not worth it to try to fix everything wrong in the original. Much better to start from scratch with the ideas I have for it. I still wouldn't mind working on the other one I started, but I want to concentrate on on wip at a time.

I think its time, though, to write a query for WORL and send it out. I don't think I'm going to be able to add the extra words, so I'll stick with what I have and go eeny meeny miney mo and pick either WCP or Samhain to send it to.

Off I go. One of my chores today is laundry (much moaning and groaning and gnashing of teeth)

Monday, June 19, 2006

NOT A HOAX

I've been following this on a fellow writers blog, from a friend of hers. Please take a look at this website
Pass it along if you can.

Thank you!!!

Friday, June 16, 2006

Disposal of Books

I have 2 laundry baskets full of books we no longer want. Some of them are in good shape, some aren't. What in the heck am I supposed to do with them? The writer in me is horrified at the thought of throwing them into the dumpster. How could I be so heartless??? But they aren't in any condition to be donated anywhere, I can't get them to my local recycling center for a while and they're just in the way.

What do people do with their old books???

Survived poetry night. It was very cute. My 9 yr old did really well. Like me, she's very shy around strangers, but she got through all her poems without forgetting her lines (too much). It was very cute.

That leaves Dinner Dance tonite for my oldest (who is thrilled, it'll be her first school dance). Her "date" is her aide who seems just as excited to go LOL. Her aide, who's been with her for 4 years, happens to be a woman who I graduated with from high school many moons ago. We were acquaintences, had friends in common. It's funny how fate brings our lives together again. She's been wonderful with my daughter and they've developed such a tight bond over the years. The aide full expects my daughter to be a frequent visitor at her house now they're parting ways at school as my DD moves on to high school. In fact the aide is forgoing her neices graduation to see my DD graduate. I'm going to be sad to see them seperate.

Okay, I'm babbling and I've got oodles to do.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Too much to do

Laundry... house cleaning... writing... poetry night... painting... ice cream social... 2 graduations... 10 yr old girl sleepover...

Writing will no doubt take a back seat to it all. I'll be happy to breathe a sigh of relief when its all done.

But for now I have to deal with 2 kids who want to eat artichokes, and get them out of the house in a half an hour. Wish me luck.

Some Progress

I sat at my parents house yesterday and did laundry. In between loads I got lots of writing done. Of course now I have to put it into my puter, but I'm pretty pleased with the progress. It was the last of my peaceful evenings for a while. And now my daughter wants a friend over Saturday night. Could be the timing be any worse?? Oy.

I'm such a hermit, hate entertaining. LOL Yah, I'm mean.

Okay, here's a question for parents... do you have a hard time throwing out your kids artwork, cards, every scrap that they've created over the course of their entire life? I do. When is it acceptable to let these things go? When they graduate from high school? I hate throwing things out. Makes me feel guilty, like I don't care. LOL I've got to get over this sentimentality just a bit.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Oh how fickle I am

Not even 6 pages into my story and I've already shoved it heartlessly aside to work on something else. How cold.... How unfeeling.

I've wanted to try my hand at a fantasy forever (well, not forever, but since I was in my early 20s). I have one storyline in mind, but its very undeveloped. So here I am... developing it. If I could pull it off... step beyond my comfort zone of contemporary romances, this would be an achievement of a lifetime I think. But this one would take plotting and so much footwork and research. I don't know if Im up to it, but I'm sure willing to find out.

*deep gulp*

Disturbed Sleep

I had a hard time falling asleep last night. Just when I'd finally dozed off I started hearing sirens..... and then honking.... and then yelling.....

We live on a main road in our little town. I got up and looked out the window in time to see a parade of about 30 cars come by, flashing lights and yelling out windows. Our high school baseball team won the state championships last night. GO COUGARS! But, man, did ya have to be so loud???

I did okay on the writing yesterday. One of the reasons I didn't fall asleep so quickly was because I was thinking of the story and where I want it to go and how to introduce the hero into the story much faster than I was planning on.

That being said I think I'll have to get some done this morning.

Monday, June 12, 2006

What's Big?

I make it a habit of checking out what's selling these days. I find that werewolf/vampire/erotica are big sellers. I don't write any of them. I have no interest in the first two as a reader or a writer and I sometimes feel uncomfortable writing erotica. Now I can write a steamy scene, but I've found that the last two wips have been pretty tame on the sex, which is fine with me. But does it sell?

The wip I just started will be much the same. Tame. Two of my characters are children and for some reason I get all prudish when there are children involved in the plot.

Now I have two other wips on hold that are pretty steamy. Maybe I should go for those instead of this one if thats what sells.

But then again, I really want to write how I want to write.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

CALL OUT FOR OPINIONS

In a romance is it okay to have 3 POV's? If all three are integral to the plot? Besides my H & h I want to add the POV of a 15 year old girl who has just lost her mother and is sent to live with the heroine who she doesn't know and really doesn't want to live with. I'd really like to have part of the story from her eyes.

THANKS!!!

Did I say I wasn't going to plot?

I think I said I wasn't going to plot. I believe those were my words (more or less) just hours ago.

So maybe I'm not exactly plotting (yet), I'm just writing down my character information so I can get straight on who's who, names and relationships etc. I haven't delved into actual plotting at this time. Of course that may happen very soon. We'll see.

I'm going for the eccentric heroine who suddenly finds herself the guardian of the two children of her deceased best friend.

I have to figure out how my hero is going to fit into this story. Hmmm...

Hey, wait a minute..... It sounds like I'm plotting.

Well, whadayaknow

It's raining... again. Is it EVER going to stop? Maybe for a few days, but later next week we may get dumped on again.

So, I've been sitting here the past few days, beating my head against my keyboard trying to come up with something new to work on. Even the wips I have in my folders, waiting patiently for me, are doing nothing. I start thinking about them and then I get the icky feeling that I won't be able to get enough out of them to make a full length manuscript. So I leave them alone.

I think I have an idea and I'm trying VERY hard not to plot it out. Yeah, I know, that sounds insane, but I just want to start writing it and see where it takes me. It means creating a heroine who is a bit quirky, and maybe a little flakey, but she might be fun.

Yeah, I think I'll do it. Just have to figure out my hero. I've been so stuck in the local guy thing instead of Mr. Alpha Male. But is that a bad thing? Maybe I can make him a Big Fish In Little Pond. Hey, I like small town New Hampshire. Sue me.

Time to get ready for my long day at work. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get some writing done, but I'm not holding my breath.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

So Thaaats why!

I've been looking over 3 wips I have in storage now that WORL editing is done. I really like both stories, but now, looking over it, I know why I put them aside.

Siren Song-I think it would be a great Blaze, but maybe its a little too steamy right out of the gate. I mean, my hero and heroine have sex within the first few pages, and they're basically strangers, its just a one night stand. Now that may not be such a problem, but there head hopping definitely is a problem. It was like I was writing on a pogo stick there was so much hopping. So I think that, while the storyline is workable, I have to scrap the whole beginning, sex scene included (though I'll put that in a folder and save for another part of the story-it is quite good. One large problem I'm facing is that my hero is a lawyer in Washington DC. I don't know enough about DC. I guess I can work around it, but its going to take some research. I'm definitely taking the story up to a NH setting at some point though.

Going Going Gone-I love this storyline too, and I think I have a really strong beginning, but then it just sort of flattens on me and I'm not sure how to revive it. I've got to throw some other things at my hero/heroine if I'm going to stretch it to 70k. I can see the required 57k for a Desire, but my hero isn't a Desire type, he's a small town fire chief/woodworker.

The Staying Kind (I don't know if I'd keep the title with this story-but I just love it)-this could be some kind of mystery/crime somethingorother. Got the wounded heroine trying to hide away from the world after her daughter is killed and her high society husband takes off with their baby because he's convinced her that she's an unfit mother. My hero is a small town guy with a daughter who is intrigued by the heroine. It's all about the heroine opening herself up to the hero and his daughter. And getting her other child back. the other child isn't written in stone.

All this leads to the question... why are my heros nearly always small town regular guys? With the exception of a very few, I stick to Mr. Niceguy, big fish in a little pond kind of man. I guess that's the type I'm attracted to so its who I prefer to write about.

Okay, time to stop pondering and time to get ready for work.

Monday, June 05, 2006

I'm So Happy

(said with the voice of Long Duck Dong in Sixteen Candles)

I have finished my edits of Where One Road Leads. I brought it up to 64k words. I can take the evening off, let my laptop cool down. Oh and have some dinner (it's past 7:30 and I worked right through dinner).

Now I have to write the oogie q & s and then I'll be able to sub this somewhere. I'm bummed that it's too short for a Harlequin, but thats okay. I'll either send it to Whiskey Creek or Samhain since I've got a relationship with both of them. Hmmm... how do you decide where it should go?

Well, I've got a day or so to mull it over.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

The End Is Near

Yeah! I have less than 40 pages left to edit on WORL. I got lots done today. I have to add one more love scene in for my hero and heroine, but I can't really write that here at work. Maybe when I get home, if the kidlets leave me be (ya, like THAT'S going to happen). I am so so psyched about this manuscript! I think thus far its my favorite. I hope some publisher out there agrees with me. It'll go easily past 63,000 words, possibly 64k.

And its raining today. All day. I can't believe the amounts we've gotten. It's relentless!! PLEASE SOMEONE, SEND SOME OF THIS RAIN DOWN TO MY BROTHER'S PLACE IN TEXAS! THEY NEED IT, WE DON'T. And I have to good fortune of having to walk home in the stuff. ugh.

Okay, I have 15 minutes left of my work day. Maybe I can start on the nookie scene.

Friday, June 02, 2006

When God Closes A Door...

Yesterday when I got home from work I had an unexpected rejection letter waiting for me from Woman's World. I guess I'm always rather surprised to get rejections from them because I think the stories I sub to them are every bit as good (if not better) than the ones they publish. This R came with a personal note from one of the fiction editor's underlings giving me an A for originality but didn't like the story at all. RASBERRIES TO YOU UNDERLING! I really liked the story. Will I continue to sub to them? Probably. They pay well.

Then, later that evening I got an email from Samhain. THEY OFFERED ME A CONTRACT ON SWEET FOREVER!!!!!!

I couldn't be more pleased! This is what counts to me, this story is much more important to me then the stories I send to WW.

So, just have to sign, seal and deliver the contract and I'll have another book on the market. I'm so excited!!!

And scared. The thought of marketing really skeers me. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it because I've accomplished what I only dreamed of by having not one, but two of my babies on the road to being published. What more can I ask?

Thursday, June 01, 2006

What would you do...

If you were set up on a blind date (which you hate, BTW) and are told that your date will be wearing red. And when you get to the meeting place someone walks up to you, and ask if you're "So and So"? He's wearing red alright.... a lobster costume.

Would you shake his claw and go in and have a nice lobster lunch with him/it? Or would you say 'no, my name isn't So and So and run like hell back to your car?

I'm just curious.

The Ghosts of WIPs Past

My daughter just brought me a notebook she borrowed. It's full of old stories that I wrote loooooooooooooooooooooooong ago. Its fun to read them, though I'm worried that I may strain my eyeball muscles with all the eye rolling I'm doing.

I think for yuks I may have to post some of them here.

I've come a long way baby.