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Archive for November, 2009

Slow News Day

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Good news: The book that deadlines today is off to my editor!

Bad news: The proposal is NOT. Yet. *grumble*

Good news: The 6 pounds I lost before Thanksgiving…stayed off! In spite of, um, three pieces of pecan-chocolate pie.

Bad news: I’m back to my no sugar, no processed foods, no pecan pie diet.

Bad news: I have my annual physical this morning. Bleah.

Good news: We now have health insurance that will cover it.

Bad news: I have to fast for a blood test…9:45 doesn’t seem like so butt-crack of dawn early now…

Good news: We put our Christmas tree up yesterday.

Bad news: The cats have a new jungle gym.

Good news: I have more than half of my kids’ presents bought.

Bad news: I have no other gifts purchased and no idea what to get anyone. Come on, WISH LISTS, people!

Good news: Five days till Friday!

Your turn…got any good or bad news to let out?

Posted in Life, Writing | 9 Comments »

So many people take this week to list what they’re most thankful for and usually the list, like mine, includes family, friends, jobs, readers, critique partners, opportunities, etc. I’m thankful for all those…in particular, this year, my husband’s new job. However, they don’t make for unique blog copy. So today I made a list of the Top Ten Under-mentioned Things I’m Thankful For. (You may note some trends…)

10. Gas log fireplaces.

9. Milkshakes.

8. Big, comfy chairs in which to sit and write.

7. Silk long underwear.

6. Cats who don’t have to be let out at 6am to pee.

5. Firefighters. Heh.

4. UPS men (and women.)

3. Artificial Christmas trees that don’t require going out into the cold to chop down or pick out.

2. iPhones.

1. Pie with real whipped cream.

Your turn. Got anything to add to the list?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Posted in Life | 3 Comments »

Jake, Firefighters and Massages

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Hmmm, those three together….sign me up!!

Stephanie Tyler is a good friend of mine and fellow blogger at Writeminded. Even before I knew Steph well, though, I knew Jake. Jake is the hero of HARD to HOLD, Stephanie’s book that releases TODAY!!! Years ago, before Steph joined Writeminded, she used to post conversations between her and Jake on her personal blog. These were so real, so easy to picture, that Jake immediately became alive not only to Steph but to anyone who “saw” him on her blog. He’s a trash-talking Navy SEAL dripping with testosterone, and apparently in HARD TO HOLD, he falls hard for a woman. I am so all over that…I rarely make it to the store for anyone’s release day (not even my own) but I am heading to Borders after lunch. If you like romantic suspense and awesome sexy Navy SEALS at all, I highly suggest you do the same!

(For a blurb of the book, visit Writeminded. To drop in on an “interview” with Jake, his Navy SEAL brothers and Stephanie herself, go here. For more info on the series, FAQs etc, visit Stephanie’s website. Now…go buy the book.)

In other news, I received the official title of my firefighter series with Superromance: The Texas Firefighters. Book one, PLAYING WITH FIRE, will be released in July 2010. YAY! You’ll hear more about it soon right here, as I get the blurb and post an excerpt.

Finally, for anyone who’s been dying to know how the family massage business is doing, I’m happy to report that Super Massage and Massage VIP have now merged into Super Massage VIP and has co-owners. The best news? I taught them how to spell massage.

Posted in Books, Life, Writing | 5 Comments »

Proposing

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

I finished firefighter #3 for now (must address it one more time next weekend because, you know, it deadlines next Monday and we wouldn’t want to get done too early.) So now I’m working on two proposals. For anyone who doesn’t know, a proposal, for my editor, consists of the first three chapters of a book and a long synopsis (10-20 pages). For me, this is the biggest chunk of hell ever invented.

I have the first half of one synopsis written. I know the dark moment of the book and mostly how it’s resolved and vaguely how the book ends. (They get together. Duh. *g* But I do know a little more than that.) I tend to very loosely use the three act structure when I plot out a story, and so far I’ve got the first act (approximately the first third of the book) outlined in the synopsis. I have a general idea of the last third, though I haven’t written it yet. So that leaves…that middle damn third that ALWAYS GIVES ME FITS. Whether I’m writing the book itself or the proposal.

HATE. THE. MIDDLE.

Tonight my husband was helping me brainstorm and dealing with my intermittent meltdowns and declarations that I can’t do this. He informed me that he could get some paper and graph out my emotional writing arc — the same one for each of the seven books I’ve written and for all the proposals I’ve done as well. He claims I go through the same thing every time. The initial excitement of an idea. The frustration. The dread. The frustration. The swearing. The “I can’t do it” declaration. The despair. The buckle down and get the damn thing done stage. The end, at which point my emotional arc apparently shoots way up. *g*

Whatever. Doesn’t matter if I do the same thing every single time. I MEAN IT every single time. Including the part when I say I can’t do it.

I’m hoping the buckle down and finish stage hits, oh, NOW or so because I have a deadline.

Posted in Writing | 7 Comments »

This and That

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Randomness from me today…

* Firefighter Book #3 is almost done! Hope to finish it tonight or tomorrow. Eyes crossing from edits.

* Tonight is Mom night for the younger son because Dad and brother are going on a Cub Scout sleepover. Younger son actually got out of bed last night to tell me he’s worried he’s going to be bored being home with me. (Side note: He’s a total Daddy’s Boy and would think watching the grass grow with daddy is fun.) So…I’m taking him to Famous Dave’s for dinner (he loves) and then…indoor mini golfing! And…they have an arcade. I will have rock star status…until Daddy returns home.

* I started a new medical diet this week. The strictest one I’ve been on yet. Some features of it: no processed foods, no sugar or artificial sweeteners, no caffeine, very low carb. Today is Day 4…in my experience the worst day for sugar cravings when going without. Say a prayer for me and HIDE YOUR CANDY.

* Thanksgiving is next week. WTF?

* Must Christmas-shop. No idea what to get anyone, incluing my boys, 8 and 9, who have outgrown a lot of toys, love video games, and I don’t want to give them a bunch of video games that they’ll want to play 24/7. What do you get boys this age???? (I should add, they have everything they could ever want…more LEGOs than should be legal, transformers, Star Wars, Nerf…gah.)

* If you’re a Twilight/New Moon lover or hater, hop over to Writeminded to weigh in.

That is all. Got any of your own randomness to report?

Happy weekend!

Posted in Life | 6 Comments »

If you can’t beat em, invite em to join you

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Did I say I’d be MIA? That’ll start tomorrow. Sometimes good blog material presents itself and you just need to…blog it.

A few months ago, our 2 sons, ages 8 and 9, started a home business together, and I mean that in the literal sense. Their company was called MassageCo and they offered massages for a penny. Mom and Dad were their two customers but hey, I thought it worked okay.

Well, tonight, the 9yo came upstairs toting this:

massageVIP In case you can’t read it (handwriting=not our strong point) it says Masaj (Massage) VIP
5 cents=1 masaj
SALE
was 10 cents

Okay, so apparently he’s opened this new “business” because MassageCo wasn’t making enough money. I’m always game for a massage so I was his first client. Not bad for a 9yo.

While he was massaging, the 8yo wandered up and demanded to know what had happened to MassageCo.

“It wasn’t making enough money. This is a way we can make more money, because MassageCo only charged one penny for a massage.”

The younger one looked at him defiantly and lectured him: “We are kids and just beginners and we have to build up slowly.”

Older one maintained this was the way to riches and told the younger one he could join him in MassageVIP but younger one didn’t bite.

Massage ended (way too short), I paid my son and tipped him about 400% and he was happy.

Welllll, ten minutes later, we were in the kitchen and here comes the younger son with a piece of paper. He smugly presents his new sign to me:

supermassagers

To translate:

Souper
Massagers
5 c Small
10 c Medium
25 c Big
50 c Souper

I had to support both boys equally so I asked for a Big (souper wasn’t in the budget). He gave me a massage that was…about the same as the competitor’s. I paid him a quarter plus a 20 cent tip and went on my way.

Then next thing I know, the older son approaches younger with this:

jobap

It says:

Job ap

Do you want the job

YES
NO

So far, much to older son’s frustration, younger son has not surrendered. So now we have competing entrepreneurs and until they work things out, I guess I’ll just have to continue to get massages from both companies. Rough life, right?

(If you’re in need of a quality, affordable massage, email me. I’ll set you up.)

Posted in Life | 5 Comments »

MIAness

Monday, November 16th, 2009

I have a sore throat and a sick kid and three projects deadlining in 2 weeks…which translates to I might be a little scarce for the next few days. Or…I might use the blog as a way of procrastinating and be here anyway. *g* But today I’ve got nothing but stress…anyone else out there want to share your misery? Mine’s here, waiting for company.

Posted in Writing | 6 Comments »

TGIF

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Today’s post is at Writeminded…talking about romance.

Have a great weekend!

Posted in Life | Comments Off

Revise this…

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

I received revision notes from my editor this week on the second firefighter story in the trilogy (can’t wait to have actual titles so I can quit referring to them by number!)

Ummmm, let’s just say I’ll be rewriting the WHOLE DAMN THING. Okay, I’ll stop exaggerating…I’ll only have to rewrite the first 200-220 pages or so.

Am I complaining? Hmmm. No, not really. My editor was right on a lot of her points. (Not ALL. Unless you are Victoria reading this, in which case, you absolutely WERE right on every single thing and I bow down. *g*) Fixing the issues she mentioned will make it a stronger, better story.

Am I frustrated? Yessssssssssssss beyond all belief. (Can’t tell you how much restraint it took not to swear as part of that response.) This is the point where I ask myself WHY I can’t see these issues before I turn the book in. Why I can’t write a story without the issues in the first place. In short, why can’t I just get it “right” the first time?

Unfortunately, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how to fix some of the structural problems for a few days now. Still haven’t figured it out. I was explaining the problems to my husband tonight and he pretty much nailed the revision process with a computer metaphor. It’s like writing a computer program and you get done and figure out one part of it doesn’t quite work right. So you go in and try to separate out that thread of the program, but taking it out affects 6 things before it and 8 things after it. So you go backwards, trying to smooth things out and fix things so they work without the old elements and those affect 3 other things, and then you go the other direction, fixing, bandaiding, rewriting, smoothing, rewriting again and that causes another 14 things to self-destruct.

In short, it’s like an intricate domino maze that’s crashing in five different directions from the center and you have to get them to stop falling before the chain reaction gets to the very end dominos, for fear of losing everything and having to start over from scratch.

Although…come to think of it, starting over from scratch might be easier at this point.

Please send tequila, chocolate, and sanity if you have any to spare. If not, banana laffy taffy might suffice.

Posted in Writing | 7 Comments »

My Work Here Is…

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Well, not done. Never done when it comes to raising chilluns, but I had one of those rare gratifying moments the other day where I thought, hmm, maybe they will be all right.

It’d been about a week since I’d been to the bookstore, so I was having withdrawal anyway. After dinner I checked my email and what do you know, a Borders coupon showed up. Suddenly all my need-to-go-buy-some-books-NOW instincts took hold and I decided to take the boys to Borders. One had finished one of the Wimpy Kids books and the other had read the last book we bought him from start to finish, after I told him I wasn’t buying him more books until he started READING them. (What a concept, right?)

So we pile in the car, head to Borders, older son picks up next Wimpy Kid, younger son finally settles on a book about football, I get what I “need” and we rush home. It was a school night. We got hom 10 minutes before bedtime.

Those little monsters that usually take a full half hour to get ready for bed zipped through the process. I went upstairs to take care of something and came back down a few minutes later to find my husband, in his office next to the boys’ room, with his mouth gaping. He pointed to their room, so I looked in.

The boys were completely ready for bed, donning fuzzy footie pajamas. One stretched out on the couch in their room reading Wimpy Kid. The other was on the chair reading about football. They were quiet. They weren’t fighting. Most importantly, they were DEVOURING their new books! *proud moment*

So maybe the husband and I can’t take active credit for them reading. Maybe it’s something in the genes (if you saw my parents’ bookshelves….and shelves…and more shelves…you might agree.) But whatever it is that gave them the “book fever” as the 9yo calls it, I’m likin’ it. And I’ll gladly go out and buy more books if it means having a repeat of that cozy little scene of them in their room, reading away.

Posted in Books, Life | 3 Comments »

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