Authonomy

I found a spot on Harper Collins (a publisher) that allows wanna be authors to send their work for people to read and critique. I put Winds of Fire, first 7 chapters, up. So far, I'm having good reviews! It's fun reading it. I didn't expect such a good response so quickly. I hope it keeps up!

Off to Washington! Wish us luck :)

This years end

Due to family bereavement, I probably won't get to blog again until sometime next week. I will be busy trying to find a way to get my MIL and daughter back home (they barely arrived) and packing up to go myself.


Have a Happy New Year!

Politically Correct

Now, I have friends of multiple religious persuasions and respect all of them. That being said, I love this poem I found today. Christmas is my favorite time of year, and that combined with a recent article in Times magazing that talked about helcopter parents and how we all hover over our children too much made this apropo for me this year. (I agree with the article. Parents are NUTS!)

‘Twas the night before Christmas and Santa’s a wreck…
How to live in a world that’s politically correct?
His workers no longer would answer to “Elves,”
“Vertically Challenged” they were calling themselves.


And labor conditions at the North Pole
Were alleged by the union to stifle the soul.
Four reindeer had vanished, without much propriety,
Released to the wilds by the Humane Society.


And equal employment had made it quite clear
That Santa had better not use just reindeer.
So Dancer and Donner, Comet and Cupid,
Were replaced with 4 pigs, and you know that looked stupid!


The runners had been removed from his sleigh;
The ruts were termed dangerous by the E.P.A.
And people had started to call for the cops
When they heard sled noises on their roof-tops.


Second-hand smoke from his pipe had his workers quite frightened.
His fur trimmed red suit was called “Unenlightened.”
And to show you the strangeness of life’s ebbs and flows,
Rudolf was suing over unauthorized use of his nose
And had gone on Geraldo, in front of the nation,
Demanding millions in over-due compensation.


So, half of the reindeer were gone; and his wife,
Who suddenly said she’d enough of this life,
Joined a self-help group, packed, and left in a whiz,
Demanding from now on her title was Ms.


And as for the gifts, why, he’d ne’er had a notion
That making a choice could cause so much commotion.
Nothing of leather, nothing of fur,
Which meant nothing for him. And nothing for her.


Nothing that might be construed to pollute.
Nothing to aim. Nothing to shoot.
Nothing that clamored or made lots of noise.
Nothing for just girls. Or just for the boys.


Nothing that claimed to be gender specific.
Nothing that’s warlike or non-pacific.
No candy or sweets…they were bad for the tooth.
Nothing that seemed to embellish a truth.


And fairy tales, while not yet forbidden,
Were like Ken and Barbie, better off hidden.
For they raised the hackles of those psychological
Who claimed the only good gift was one ecological.


No baseball, no football…someone could get hurt;
Besides, playing sports exposed kids to dirt.
Dolls were said to be sexist, and should be passe’;
And Nintendo would rot your entire brain away.


So Santa just stood there, disheveled, perplexed;
He just could not figure out what to do next.
He tried to be merry, tried to be gay,
But you’ve got to be careful with that word today.


His sack was quite empty, limp to the ground;
Nothing fully acceptable was to be found.
Something special was needed, a gift that he might
Give to all without angering the left or the right.


A gift that would satisfy, with no indecision,
Each group of people, every religion;
Every ethnicity, every hue,
Everyone, everywhere…even you.


So here is that gift, it’s price beyond worth…
“May you and your loved ones enjoy peace on earth.”


copyright Harvey Ehrlich, 1992
Notice: This poem is copyright 1992 by Harvey Ehrlich. It is free to distribute, without changes, as long as this notice remains intact.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or Yule or Hanukah, the lesson here can be seen.Think about it.

Merry Christmas!

Countdown to Christmas

It's December 21st, I think. I'm down to a tickle in my throat and being exhausted but getting better. We've finished wrapping our presents and if I didn't know we were moving, I'd be sad. Have to save the money for the move. Our van is acting up and we will be taking it in tomorrow. I'm sick of car trouble, that's for sure.

It needs to be working before we move and that's in less than two weeks! UGH. The week after Christmas is going to be hectic as my MIL and daughter will be here. I would prefer our van worked by then as we want to tour the missions here in San Antonio with them.

I'm fixing on finishing up a couple of stories, but between cleaning house after being sick, my appointment today and the van I'm ready to pull my hair out! I have a contest for Winds of Fire though so IT WILL BE DONE. I HAVE SPOKEN. **insert scary voice there. lmao

When I get all moved, I'm hoping to sponsor a contest and if it has arrived, I will be giving away a signed copy of a romantic comedy, and another book, sorry not signed of an historical romance. I haven't decided which will be first or the criteria yet, so I'll have to think about it. I just know I'm going to do the give away for all my LOYAL fans :)

Tis the season

Apparently, everyone goes on hiatus for the next two weeks. That means less blogs to read, which will help me get my packing done :P I am trying hard not to get too excited at the possible series, but I can't help it. I sent in a short story, so I asked them a question, and it went something like this: "As hope springs eternal, I'm outlying where I want the series to go. Do they all have to be shorts or will I get to do novel length as well." See, I sent in a novella originally.

Well, the reply was something to the effect of they are looking for novels under 80k :) Yeah me. So anyways, I'm starting with the original and beefing it up some. Only need to add like 40k. **insert a little tongue in cheek there**

Then I need to get an idea basis for at least two more right away. I've already got an idea for one of them. May set next one in some exotic locale. Have to see if there are any instant rejects on locale with this publisher. I'm thinking maybe Hawii. My MIL and people who work with my FIL have been there, and one person I know has a daughter living there, so I'll have lots of pics and info to work from.

Plus, I have to finish the thriller, Winds of Fire. I'm stuck in a part about Chicago. Not sure of the timeline I want to follow. However, thanks to an old classmate of mine, I have lots of good info on the area. I promised him a copy of the book if it ever got published. Of course, I'll also thanki him in the acknowledgements. There is a contest happening that this book would do well in, so I need to get it finished ASAP. Nothing like deadlines to get me going :D

Procrastinators Unite! Tomorrow. Anyone ever hear that phrase? lol

Well, it's off to packing and writing for me. Not to mention babies and boys to watch and manage. Wish me luck :)

Sick

So that earlier sickness I mentioned? Strep throat in the worst way. I've started to blog a few times since but couldn't sit up long enough to get through my email, buch less a posing of any lenght or quality. Although, with my high fever, it may have been interesting to see what I wrote!

I tried to work a bit, outlining a series, etc, but I didn't get very far. Did ask a few questions/comments and learn a few things but now real work got done.

I do believe that my short story may be turning into a novel so I'm going to get started now. Plus, outline the series better as my feverish brain only imagined it wrote things down. Of course, the way I felt, it may be written down in blood somewhere for all I know. I was in a real bad way. My kids alternated between taking full advantage of a mom who can't talk much less raise her voice (Yeah, quiet you in the peanut gallery)and looking pretty scared when they saw me. I was miserable and you could tell with barely a glance.

I am looking forward to Christmas. I did get a couple wrapped day before yesterday cuz I felt a little better, but I exhausted myself so did nothing yesterday. My son keeps asking to wrap a packing box, as he calls it, which is actually a wipies holder for the diaper bag :D I said when I'm done wrapping presents. Oh lordie, for a five year old its been an interminable wait. Finally, late yesterday, I told him if he asks again I was going to let Isaac (the baby) wrap it!

He looked at me in confusion and said, "But Isaac can't wrap!" and I said, "Exactly!" He gave me a look like I had lost my mind and fled to his room to ponder what I meant.

I'm tortuing my 16 yr old with it as he was with me when I bought his christmas present and he wrapped it himself and has spent the last two weeks bugging me to open it LOL I said NOPE. That's all you're getting. It's been funny. He's been very creative about it. Like, I could do the dishes faster if I could just use that ;;) I swear, it's been more fun than presents I've bought him in years LOL

Blah

I'm sick, but at least it's a different kind of sick then its been for the last four? five? months. However long its been since we've been in TX. My baby has kept me up the last five nights in a row and now I'm slammed with something that makes my throat hurt :( I'm taking lots of meds for it, but I still feel like crap and I have to work tonight. What's worst, is I'm doing a rehearsal which no one knew about, rather no one on the Crew knew about. So I'll be working from 12:30 to 9:30 in a place that gets up to ninety degrees without the doors open so the door all get open and one of them is next to my station. So I'll be going hot, cold, hot, cold, which may be what set me off in the first place. Plus being exposed to 50 odd people. UGH.

I won't get to write today in any way shape or form, well except for blogging:) because I've been called in early. I am missing out on my research hours :( oh well, such is the life of a struggling artist.

Hopefully the assorted meds will kick in and I will make it through the day with no mishaps. Hope everyone is enjoying snow that has it and that they are staying well :)

PS Congrats to my MIL on new house :)

Moving

I'm packing up to move, but I'm still going to write today. I realized I had a deadline so something has to be done :) When I move, I get rid of stuff. It's the only reason I'm not on the show "Hoarder" LOl. As I mentioned, I do all sorts of crafts making nearly impossible to get rid of stuff without the "OOH I could use that with XXX" or "who knows when I'll need that."

I might not get the book done in time for what I wanted it, but I can still send in a query, etc when it is ready. I don't want to stress myself out too much as I need to be as healthy as possible for the big move :)

I'm getting a new website soon, already have someone working on it ;) I'm so excited as it will have excerpts and all kinds of stuff. I'll be able to post my book signings and stuff on it as well. I'm looking at using some of my artwork for the design background and stuff, so I'm really excited :)

Kids are being troublesome as always but they are at least helping to get things cleaned up. Monday is a big clean up day for the part of the city I'm from so needed to get this done anyway or it won't happen again for six months. (Not that it matters to me!)

The oven doesn't work here and now the toilet is acting up GRRRR. That's okay, I will fix it. Just another day in the Bushman household :D

So, I won a contest for the new website and when I figure out the linking process (it's still not working for me!) I will link to their blog.
I had a lot of fun on the blog tour where I found them yesterday. I'm having a blast getting to know other authors of all types (genres and published). :)Have a good day and I hope your dreams that inspire will be fruitful.

Today

two days in a row of little or no writing GRRR. I'll get more done tomorrow. Right now, I'm catching up on blogs and stuff. Plus entering contests to win lots of books. Soon, I will be having a giveaway, sometime in January, to give away books I have extras of because I won two or bought one then won one :)I think introducing people to new authors is a fabulous past time and I intend to give away lots of people's books, not just my own :)

I'm not feeling well and not focusing well due to lack of sleep too many nights in a row. Here's to sleep and focus!

Pins & Needles

I'm a writer, but I'm also an artist/crafter. I do many things, and yes, when I choose to, I do them well. Until recently, I thought that was normal. I mean, doesn't everyone decide they want to tat, go pick up the tools and learn to tat while eating their lunch at Taco Bell? That's pretty much what I did, although I lost the tool right away (it's so danged small!)and will now have to relearn as I didn't practice :(

I crochet, I hate knitting, but I'm capable of it. I had been taught the basics 20 yrs ago and never picked it up again until my recent appearance in Antigone. I was the queen. Now, if you haven't read the play, you might think that's exciting right? Well, it's not. The queen only shows up in the beginning, with no lines (a first for me LOL) and knits. So I got the little pack that teaches knitting and learned to knit, and I had to do it without my glasses as well.

Results? I'll probably try to keep up the skill for making socks, but that's about it. I still prefer crochet! Although, I did find that the continental version wasn't as frustrating for me so that's the route I'll keep I think.

I can make friendly plastic jewelry. It's not so popular anymore, but it was a lot of fun. It's a rubbery plastic that changes color a bit as it is heated and maneuvered. you learn how to cut the pieces the right size, etc. It's one of those skills that is getting lost in today's society.

I can cross stitch, although it is time consuming and exacting. I have made two heirloom Christmas stockings to date. Let me tell you, they are intricate and beautiful. Most people who meet me don't think I have the patience nor the skill to do something like it, but I do. It's the time that kills me :P

I like to quilt, although there are parts of it I still need to learn for doing the top stitching. I need a better machine for it, is the first problem. Anyway, I definitely don't get enough time for this with my young kids. I have to focus when piecing or I cut all the wrong sizes/shapes and I am too poor to be running about spending money on more fabric simply because I mess up.

And speaking of Fabric, (really the capitalized "fabric" is how I think of fabric) I sew costumes. I am involved in so many plays through community theatre that I have taught myself how to make costumes. I have had pointers from friends along the way, but mostly it has been trial and error for me.

Like Fabric, I'm also into paper. I taught myself to scrapbook, with friends of course, so I could do my wedding album. My wedding album came out beautifully and I have a whole array of paper and tools to play with. I combined it with my stamping (as many people have) and have enjoyed myself immensely.

Then, if I haven't missed any, there is my art. I came into it late in the game and I have found the thing that makes me happiest. Painting, oil paints in particular, help to soothe my mind and release my stress. I've changed my major from political science to art because of a chance 2 credit oil pastel class I happened to take. (They only offered it 1 or 2 quarters at the community college). It's impacted my life unbelievably. I can paint in almost any style I choose to. I am best at impressionism but I tend to through in how I feel about my subject which gives it an expressionist edge.

This lead to confidence. Confidence that I can finish hard things and learn more. Which lead to me being comfortable picking up my writing again when I lost my job. I feel the need to create in all the ways set forth here. When a particular 'mood' strikes me it is best if I follow that lead. If I try to force something else out, I usually end up with something ugh. If I don't listen to my mood or can't because of life, then I get frustrated and my stress level increases ten fold.

I've decided to make writing a career, which means I have to do it almost everyday. I have to keep learning and growing. It's more than a whim or a mood. There are days when I wish I could do all of the things I love. However, for me, if I could write and paint everyday I would get my creative edge appeased as well as the right brain satisfied.

There is so much that goes into writing that isn't about the creative process. More so than most people think. The same is true for all of the arts I listed. Most of the ones listed takes math, precision, planning and goals. You may be an artist and very good at any of the hundreds of crafts available to you, but remember, there is more to the craft, and therefore more to you, than creative moodiness :D

new story

I was reading contests etc., as I usually do, and all of the sudden, I had an idea for a new story/series :) I love it when that happens. I never thought I would be stalled with so many eggs in my basket, but I was. I can only research for so long, you know before my creative side wants a turn. Research definitely does not use the creative side of my brain. Maybe it should, IDK, but it makes me feel slow and sluggish.

It's going to be an attempt at a comedy, but, at this point in time, that is not my strong suit. I will give it the old college try :P

I have like 2 months before I'm likely to hear back on the resubmit, but I anxiously check my mail ten times a day as if I can hurry the process along by keeping my mailbox cleaned out. I so need to laugh at myself. Maybe I'll hear back sooner and really laugh at myself. who knows.

Making a stove top casserole for dinner as I have work at OLLU thiry auditorium tonight. I'm working a pageant with young skinny girls. I need to learn to laugh at myself soon as I am not skinny or young :( I wish I wasn't as big as I am, but I sure don't want to be model thin though, so I'll keep that in mind tonight.

I miss the easy title days

I miss the easy title days of NaNoWrimo. Maybe I'll use it anyway, unless I have something special to report LOl. I made my goal yesterday and had the resubmission done quickly and easily ;;) **snort NOT it took all day and the baby was good! It was just things like feeding him, reading and rereading a passage. (If I had to reread it, I rewrote it.) Getting caught up on all the blogs I follow and some more house cleaning, again figuratively and literally. It took most of the day for me, ending with laundry mat for three hours!

I'm gearing up to start the research for my next book(s) and loving the freedom at this stage. Hubby has finished finals so will probably beat him over the head to help with the WIPs awaiting his assistance!

I'm excited for this Christmas. I will probably harp on it a bit LOL I went cheesy and finally gave in to the temptation to buy the coke bottles shaped like ornaments. I have them under our fiberoptic tree LOL Wrapping presents for my daughter who will be here two days after to open them. I'm so excited.

Today I WILL

get those rewrites turned into the publisher. It may be midnight as I also have to go to the laundry mat, but it shall be done. I swear it. LOL Yep, that's the goal for today. Tentatively, it is called Jolene's Desire, but publishers have a way of changing the titles, so don't hold me to it.

I'm going to sketch as a reward now that I don't have to worry about not getting the charcoal or oil pastels out from under my fingernails! First, I had the play. Then I did do some sketching. Then, I was doing Nanowrimo as anyone following knows. Then all last week I had to ignore the itch to sketch because I had a book signing yesterday and I don't like having dirty nails for that.

Speaking of the book signing, it went well for a relatively non-publicisized, only in store ad as far as I know. I'm a new author without exposure. I will be setting up a new website as soon as I have a book deal under my belt.

What's funny is my mind wants to go in three directions. I want to write, paint/sketch, and do paper crafts. I think I'm going through withdrawals. All of my stuff is in Washington, and I'm in Texas! I have a few odd ball things I got to make presents with but they were very person specific and hard to make into something random. **sigh That's okay. It won't be long before I'm reunited with my stuff.

Time to go as I have to read the paper copy of my story for editing purposes. Wish me luck!

whew

I've been trying to take a day off, but my writing calls me. Yesterday, I did it! sort of. I'm reading to help me get the feel of the romance before resubmitting the rewrite. But I didn't write. My poor brain said enough. It wants to paint but I can't right now. Maybe I'll sketch today.

fixed my van AGAIN. UGH needs more work, but the van is worth it. Not monetarily, but for our purposes it's perfect. It's an old chevy conversion van with a v8 truck engine. We can pull trailers for camping and fit our kids and enough room left over for the months grocery shopping LOL

Baby was up last night and both of our noses are all stuffy. Not sure what that's about as it was very cold here. Maybe that's why. This house is drafty and cold. I have heat up to eight and I can barely feel my toes. If you stand under a vent, you can feel the heat so the heats working. It's not very well insulated as it's an old house and that is the problem. Glad I'm not staying in it for the whole of the winter! Although, we are sorely disappointed the snow didn't make it our way. Apparaently it snowed a mile down the road from us :(

VAN

so you know the lovely van that I got back yesterday? When I tried to drive it the power steering wouldn't work. When we were on the way home we realized the power was draining from the battery AND we had no heat on the coldest day in Texas since we arrived GRRR.

So we pull into the walmart on our way home and guess what? Aside form replacing a leaking battery, WE HAVE NO SERPENTINE BELT! I left a very polite message at the mechanics and will be taking it in for a replacement!

We got home AFTER MIDNIGHT sometime as it was midnight fifteen while we were changing the battery (and trying to find the right one was a joke as our van is so old they don't make one exactly like the one we have anymore!) We have replaced the transmission, the engine, the alternator, belts, (now another one lol) and the battery. Soon, it will be all new under the hood! It is a huge conversion van that can pull trailers and the like and hold my whole family, so its worth it.

I'm taking a little time for myself and looking at beautiful things for awhile to get away form the ugliness because as I said in an earlier post - I'm not going to let anything get in my way this week.

What I didn't say is it's a time of preparation, as in to war, if need be and I will deal with the crap in my life by shoveling it out unless they clean themselves up. I am getting ready for the rest of my life. Watch out, here I come.

Today

has been pretty good :) We got our van back!!!! Yeah!!!! It feels so good to be in my own vehicle. Nate got paid a little more and just in time as the van people called and said the alternator was bad too another 200 bucks (inc the belt!) so easy come easy go. ***sigh** at least he got paid so we could get our van back. Sitting enjoying our evening with new friends in San Antonio.

Nate almost done with finals one more week of work and school. Found some seriously obvious mistakes on my rewrite (obvious because they were underlined in RED LOL although to be fair, as I write paranormal and fantasy, lots of words are red) plus others that I had just written too fast on. Hi instead of he for example. About halfway through it on computer yet I know I missed some that I had caught on paper. Oh well, I'm waiting until Nate finished with paper and then I'll correct them all at once.

Catching up on blogs today and guess what? I won an ebook :) Christmas came early for me LOL That makes three free books for me. Thank goodness because thats going to be the bulk of my Christmas and I can't think of a better Christmas unless it was to hear that they sold a thousand of my books!

Isaac has been fussy so not getting a lot of what I want done but I'm still plodding away. Thank you Nanowrimo for helping me develop those skills. I'm sure my word count will be less as I'm packing to move, but at least i will be writing everyday.

I'm cleaning house as I hate moving crap and I love the feeling of freedom its giving me. Just a few odd ball things to take care of and I'll be free :P

Can't wait for the family to visit right after Christmas for the winter break. I'm so excited. I wish they could be here for the book signing. I'm having a hard time imagining them not being there:( I miss them. Oh well, I will hold ones they can attend later.

sunday 2:00, Dec 6, Barnes & Nobles off the 410 next to the Ingram Park mall. Come and have fun! I'll be there till 4ish or until my books sell out :)

Christmas

Today, I will skim my rough draft and jot down info I can research. I will be running short on actual word counts for awhile as I have beaucoup edits to do on all of my stories. Edits mean adding LOTS of words but it also means cutting LOTS of words. Typically, for every 15k in words, you could average my cut rate at 2.5k and addition rate of 4.5k+. I end up with only 2k more words, but there is a large portion of those words that are new!

I got a little bit of Christmas done last night. My husband surprised me and we got a little fake tree. It's very cute and works well in our little house here. Next year I will have a big one from Washington where we grow trees for fun. For now, I'm glad to have anything Christmas as I thought the only Christmas I was going to get was wrapping paper on the wall or something. Like I said, it's a good week:)

My husband held up manfully as I squealed halfway through the store when I found out we were getting an addition to the groceries. He had told me earlier, on that very day, that he wasn't romantic! Pshaw, I told him. You are one of the most romantic men when you choose to be. then he did that :) Christmas is my favorite time of year, full of hope and love and faith. With all that's going wrong in my life right now, Christmas is the perfect antidote.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas Season. I'm sure I'll post again on it. Like I said, favorite season :P

Book signing

In cas you all have forgotten. Book signing for Rebellion on Piza 7 at Barnes and Nobles Sunday, Dec 6, at 2:00. It's in San Antonio, near the Ingram Park mall off the 410 loop. Lord knows I can't give you directions but the previous post on the subject has the addy if you want it. I will be there with bells on, so to speak :)

Ugh, may have to get new jeans to wear as I've gained weight since moving here, LOL we shall see, though. This sickness streak has helped keep the weight down despite the lack of exercise recently. (With baby sick and kids sick and me sick, when was I going to go for that walk? Oh yeah, I didn't :)

Anyways, it should be fun as their is supposed to be like five authors their so it will definitely be worth your while to show up. Any family members that come can stay at my house LOL.

Days 29 and 30

Not so many as I wanted As I was sick AGAIN egg burp flu this time which I thought was better last night but wasn't (only for few hours until I tried to eat again), and my husband is going into the weeks of finals and last papers, corrected portfolios, etc. I lost a lot of computer time :( Yeah, poor me LOL. I finished the nanowrimo as a winner the first time out and I'm very proud considering the hellashish month I have had.

I also finished my rewrite few days ago, which started at 15k+ words, I cut first 2 chapters, and still ended with 19k+ words. A very big month for word count for me and I'm quite proud of myself. Drum roll please tatatata........

64009 For The Quest for Riverhand I have a LOT of detail to make up and a few things to research and a few chants to make up (part of what I need research for) but I finished the novel in a month for the rough draft. WOW WOW WOW

Still in shock in case you can't tell!!!


Everyone have a happy week, because I'm not going to let anyone or anything (ie rumors, sickness) spoil my fun LOL

day 28

I did about 1300 words> I had left my glasses somewhere and I wore my eyes out Friday not using them, giving myself headaches:( Oh well, I have them now, LOL May finish today, depending on how good baby is :) would be cool though to hit so high my first nanowrimo :P

so I started this blog 3 hours earlier and I will finish it now, LOL

I was woken up by my hubby's phone announcing that he had a text message... he got called into work. Yeah!!! Nice boost to our pay for december as they have added like five nights of work! Sememster ends the tenth so it was looking pretty bleak for a while. Now, its all good :)

PS Baby is being fussy. I hope he goes down for a nap SOON!

Day 27

I finished my rewrites and have sent them off to my family editing team :) My NanoWrimo got another 3500 words and I managed to do some cleaning on the house. I'm tired and having trouble, and I'm thinking I have a different flu bug. I'm under so much stress that if someone writes on-line that has something I swear it carries the virus right to me. That's all right because my van will be fixed soon and about a big chunk of my daily stress will be taken care of :) I miss my big old conversion van.

Well, back to the Quest for Riverhand and to trying to calm my stomache!

Anyone do the Black Friday shopping idiocy, er, I mean shopping :)

Day 26

I did nearly 1k on the rewrite and then left to go to friends house for Thanksgiving. He (Joe) was gracious enough to let us use his oven as ours doesn't work. I sent an email to the landlords asking them if there was a trick to it a few weeks back and they never replied. Oh well. It turned out well for us. The kids got to play on the game systems because Joe keeps them all upstairs and away from the kitchen/livingroom. Nate lept a bunch after eating, and I got to visit with adults :) It was nice. First time we used a precooked turkey and it went well. Lots less cooking and babysitting time :) My husband prepared the dinner. I hadn't put a lot of thought into Thanksgiving other than where we would cook the turkey and making sure we picked one up.

When we needed to go to store and figure out what we need my mind went blank on food and kept trying to write the last few scenes on my NaNoWriMo book, The Quest for Riverhand. It was rather funny to me. I ended going with him so I could look at the food and decide I wanted it.

I have to deal with SSI today, UGH. They are still showing us living where we havent lived in two months and countint the income from them! It shorted us big time in NOvember, even though the most recent paperwork I got had said they wouldn't. I have to (AGAIN) give them the copy of our lease and hopefully they will fix stuff. Having the money extra in December would be nice.

I'm going to be sure and carry my notebook with me and write my scenes while waiting! I like writing by hand, it's just slower, but who cares about slower when waiting for hours! Hopefully, I will have good numbers for today and tomorrow. Sunday, I will be kicking butt on numbers, which will roll right into Monday:)

Day 25

Was fantastic! I'm at 13,971 for the rewrite and 54,530 for my NaNoWriMo fantasy novel. which is somewhere in the realm of 6000 words.I'm going to finish rewrites today (I think!) and help my husband retype papers that were lost when his jump drive was stolen from the college. I'm not happy with the stolen drive as it had partials of winds of fire and blood traitors. Thankfully they weren't finished. But that's okay, I don't mind helping him retype it so he can put the required portfolio together. I'm a much quicker typer and I'll be able to have my computer back for my stories that much quicker!

don't forget about the book signing on the 6th of December at the Barnes and Nobles near Ingram Park Mall. I will be signing Rebellion on Piza 7 for those who don't remember the title :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

days 23,24,

I didt it! I hit 50k! I'm so excited. I didn't have time to write a full blog, so I did a quick widget that shows me as winner. I have another one to add when I am stuck or need a typing break :) Im at 51168 by Word's word count on the NaNoWriMo project, which I now have a winning title to - It is Quest for Riverhand book 1 of course as its on ongoing adventure full of magic, dragons, and other creatures of lore.

My rewrite is at 10916! I'm very happy at the numbers, but I think I haven't made up enough to cover the large portion that was cut... Plus, I'm thinking of a couple more ideas that may require another full rewrite. We'll see. I'm going to finish this one and pass it on to MIL and hubby to read to make sure there are no glaring mistakes. While they're doing that I'll do my own read through and see how it feels.

I've already found quite a few der mistakes just by retyping passages rather than copying and pasting. Plus, I've found more places to insert bits of dialogue and action.

There was a comment on another blog that I follow. I made a coment and posted that I had 49k. The editor that runs the blog said she was waiting to see if I finished my rough draft in such a way that it was a challenge - a dare if you will - so I'm going to be pushing very hard. I will take the day off tomorrow, only to help my husband edit his portfolio while he edits my works! I'm looking forward to it though because we have discovered he has a nice touch on writing essays. I actually like to read his essays.

So off I go and it will probably be Saturday before I can blog again as tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Friday I'll be sitting my arse down at SSI to fix the glaring mistakes they made. It will probably take me 4+ hours...

so, with no more ado, Happy Thanksgiving!

day 21 and 22

Went well. I didn't quite break 50k last night like I was aiming too, but it was time to spend a happy hour or two with my family. I'm at the slowest part of the book as I lay the trail leading to the climax and I'm trying not to skim through as is my want and be more detail oriented. This is not a short story, LOL As of this post I have 48099 by Microsoft Word's count. Sooooo close.

On the rewrite, I think I'm still at just under 7k as all my writing on that one was done by hand and hasn't been translated to the computer yet. I'm still in the new scene that isn't new. I'd started putting this scene in before but it was lost in the nether regions and I'm not sure how. I hadn't finished the scene before so I'm flying by the seat of my pants, you might say.

All in all it's been a good writing week despite the flu demons visiting us. I'm looking to make this one a good one as well. Maybe I can drop the kids off somewhere and write until they make it home LOL. Seriously, they have a WHOLE WEEK OFF for Thanksgiving and I'm thinking I might need to do a write in all by myself tomorrow. thinking I may have to go to Barnes and Nobles so I can see the sign that says book signing. You know, the one with my name on it so I can keep the motivation alive, :)

May the Force be with us on our endeavors today...

you might be a writer if...

This is a repost courtesy of my friends at withcy chicks! http://witchychicks.blogspot.com

You’re listening to a Green Day song and exclaim, “Wow! I love that metaphor!”

You shrug at the teenager who shoots you a weird look at the abovementioned exclamation and say, “Well, I do."

You love having nightmares, because they give you great story ideas.

Your idea of the perfect shopping spree includes a trip to the office supply store for paper, toner and an iTunes card; a stop at Starbucks for a venti latte and a month’s supply of coffee beans; a swing into the bookstore to reload your already teetering To Be Read pile; and the miraculous discovery of an extremely comfy sweater and the perfect pair of slippers.

You talk about imaginary people like they’re real – and you know them personally.

You have a notebook in your purse, your backpack, your laptop case, your glove compartment and every single room of your house – maybe even the bathroom.

You ask yourself questions out loud, then answer them. Because, hey. The cats are asleep and who else will talk to you?

You collect whiteboards, dry-erase pens, binders and bulletin boards instead of shoes.

Your family doesn’t ask what CD you’re playing in the car. They ask, “Which book is this playlist for?”

You give yourself an hour or so to be pissed, sad or frustrated when another rejection, bad review or hateful, whiney e-mail comes your way. Then you get over it and get back to work.

You pass up social engagements, video games, TV shows and sometimes sleep to write. Because writers don’t talk about writing – they do it.

You might be a writer if…
you quit reading blogs and get to it. *grins*

One of the many blogs that keep me inspired and help to continue on even on days things aren't going so well. Kudos and Thanks!

Day 20

was very good day. :)I posted after 1100 words on nanowrimo project and 4300 on rewrite! That doesn't count the stuff written by hand. that will go on today's count though. I had a real doozy of a scene to add to the rewrite. I really like what it adds to the story.

Last night I had an emotional catalyst and will have more over the next few months I'm sure. I'm tired of being blamed for things I didn't do, judged (above and beyond the others) for the things I did do, and being made to feel like I can't talk about them. I'm also tired of all the lies and behind the scene bullshit. the only good thing I can say is that with each out pouring that I have, my writing gets better and the creativity is released. I have over 20 years of build up with my adoptive and birth family to work through as I've decided I'm not hiding anymore. I'll probably write 10 books in the coming months! LOL

I'm waiting for an IRS check to fix my van. I'll feel much better when I have my van back and will start cleaning house then. I have a lot to do before the end of the year, including write! I'll be glad to not be in such dire straits when we get it. We won't have any savings left after taking care of our vehicle situation and other bills (remind me to read the small print when your bank says you can 'use' three hundred dollars! We are five hundred in the hole now UGH)but at least these things will be taken care of!

Cross fingers and toes, so far today no one is sick. Maybe Texas is losing sight of us? All in all, I look forward to getting a lot of writing done, whether on computer or on paper, hasta.

Day 19

Day 19 went well! I wrote 2k more on my nanowrimo project and 2k on my rewrites. that's four thousand words for the day. As long as I can keep doing the 2k+ for the nanowrimo, I will get my rough, rough draft finished. For me that's the first big step. I love to edit (sounds terrible, but I just realized it myself) and polishing my stories has become an endeavor of love and peace for me. It's an accomplishment. I finished something and I'm proud of it whether anyone besides my family ever sees it. The problem happens when I get too stuck on self editing that I don't continue the story and lose momentum.

Having this rewrite pop up yesterday was actually fortuitous. How? you might ask when I'm in the middle of a race with the train wreck called NaNoWriMo? Well, if you remember, I tend to do better with two stories at once anyway. Plus, I get to edit the rewrite which satisfies my editing need and keeps me away from the temptation of going back through the myriad comments I've posted and fixing them NOW NOW NOW. LOL

So here's to Day 20 which has gotten off to a good start.

Live Long and Prosper...

Days 17 and 18

Dear blog followers,

I got very sick the night before last and still feel achey. I did the dreaded thing. I blithely said to my husband, "I'm fighting this off better than the rest of you." And yep, you guessed it, I was slammed hard.Not sure how spending 18 hours getting thrown up on made me believe I wouldn't have it, but, I really didn't think I was gonna get it. Some of the side effects are too personal even for me to talk about (and I get pretty personal here) but one thing I will say. I actually threw up. A rare occurrence for me unless I've had food poisoning or I am pregnant.

Usually it translates elsewhere. I actually threw my hip into crazy spasms while making excorcist scenes look tame. Not sure if it was out, but it wasn't until I laid on my side with the baby draped across me that it quit feeling like something scraped everytime I walked.

I'm still feeling weak and a bit queasy but I felt up to writing. I did 400 words yesterday. (I know, I'm a sucker, but the days prior had been low word count and I wanted to catch up) Today, I have done 7600 so far! Helps that my husband went to work on time, that's for sure. It throws my whole day off when he doesn't!

I think today is my red letter day for the month. So slap a big red A on my day and I'm going to keep on writing. The story is going very well at this point and I don't want to lose momentum.

day 14,15,16

Not much to say but OUCH! We got slammed with the flu here. the baby was up all night Saturday and he's too young to come close to understanding what's wrong. My 16 yr old woke up at 530 with hives all over his body. Gave him benadryl and sent him to the shower while we looked up area hospitals in case the benadryl didn't work. While printing directions/map to hospital, not only does the printer start having fits, but the internet quits working! About 8 or so, maybe 9, my eight year old gets up and throws up. Repeatedly. Right about 11, the 5 yr old gets in on the action. We had our closing show at 2, which patrick was in, until he threw up all over the stage, poor guy. Yesterday spend an hour talking to a bunch of idiots in billing until they finally let me talk to tech support. The first one was rude enough I reported her, which I usually don't do.

Finally, about 4 yesterday, I have internet and it's time to get the oldest. I had both younger boys home from school, one coughing to beat the band and the other keeping tune with his throw up. I'm sorry if you're at the gross factor at this point. If you are don't continue reading this post.

I'm next. I haven't felt well last couple days and we had the coup de grace last night with hangovers this morning. I'm so NOT feeling well. But hopefully, the worst is over and I can get back to writing!

I wrote about 1500 words (I think, through all of this, most of it Saturday morning. Course, I didn't check my previous word count. We can start again. As of now, I have 32,207. Still ahead of the game for Nanowrimo so hang on to your hats, while I try to remember where I'm at, where I was going, and how I need to get there... And no, I don't need any suggestions from the peanut gallery!

Repeat after me...

Never give up
Never give up
Never give up

day 13

was a typical friday the 13th Is there such thing? My son woke up with his tooth bothering him bad. Can't seem to find help UGH. We're discussing options, including tying string to car and taking off with it. Baby antsy and needy and husband having more school work:( that's okay though, at least he's in school.

I'm not feeling so hot and spending way too much time in bathroom to accomplish much. I'm right around 1400 words for yesterday (finished up this morning) and I'm not finished with scene so may be able to crank out words despite having everybody and their brother here.

I'm lagging. **TIME FOR CAFFEINE** I didn't get my quota yesterday, tried to dring water since not feeling well. I gave in and drank some last night though LOL>

Back to the writing board...

Day 12

So day twelve did not go so well. I'm at 30123, and I haven't finished transcribing my chicken scratch to computer yet. Wrote some on paper while husband had the computer locked down. The rest will go on todays numbers. Nearly 1500 words, but I'm glad I got that far!! My husband has big paper due in today and my computer time was slow, slow, slow :( I printed out my story and did a sort of edit and wrote on the pages and added things. I was stuck on moving forward and couldn't have the computer anyway.

Usually, for NaNoWriMO, you don't stop to edit, but that's for people who have umpteen computers, wireless internet, and no sick kids or housework to take care of. At least I'm working on my writing when not on the computer. That's how I have to look at it. I'm just happy I passed the 30k mark as I knew that in itself was a huge marker. I only have twenty thousand words to go and if I do over a thousand on bad days, I'll make the 50k and then some. If I have days like day 11 where I do 4k, then I'm going to blow the 50 and make my 75k goal. yeah me. LOL

I wish I could count all the blogging and twitter stuff, I would have passed the 50 k mark last week!!

Okay, off to another day of sick kids, housework, and appointments. And somewhere, I will find the time to write. (I think TX hates us. :( Someone is sick almost everyday. Maybe we will finally get to put a stop to it after this last bout of flu runs its course!)

11th day

What started out as a dismal day of words, turned into a dazzling scene that, when edited, will be great :) I posted my words at 830 pm and they show up for day 12 :( That's okay though, because it will show up today's count with it and it'll look like I wammied today LOL Yesterday's totals came in at slightly over 4k woot woot!

Baby's still fussy, hopefully he'll feel better soon. Josh came home sick from school yesterday. He was so sick, the teacher had the nurse come to him! I haven't seen him that pale since his bad asthma attacks when he ended up in hospital 8 years ago. thankfully, he's easy to take care of. Hardest part is geting him to take medication.

Wish me luck on today's word count. Schedule is not looking so hot. I will endeavor to pass 30k today though :) Word count for yesterday's end is 28660. yippy for a day that had less than a thousand around 2? I think it was. Today, I have to get my people to the main city. I'm tired of bad things happening to them on the trail. :) The bad guys aren't having any problems. They're just waiting for the mage to get rid of the berserker LOL

For all you new writers, the best thing I can tell you is to never give up. If you believe in your writing then keep writing and searching until you find someone who believes in it as much as you do. In this business persistence (continuously writing, learning, networking, etc) wins out in the end.

tenth day

Well, 2k seems to be my lucky word count. I'm starting a trend and I don't like it. It's as if my brain says "Oh, you have 2500 words? You have enough for contest so get up and do something." Ugh. I wish I could keep writing. Today, I will move to paper if that happens. Actual word count for day 10 is just under 2400. I'm still way above the daily goal I needed to be on pace. I'm at 24565 words out of the 50k. I've finished only one third of time and I'm almost through one half of words.

However, I wanted a minimum of 75K so I'm barely on target for that goal. Must work faster. I thought about cutting my blogs down, but they seem to be helping in two ways. One, I'm holding myself accountable. And two, they've become part of a morning ritual that wakes my brain up. So, for now, I will keep updating my blog during Nanowrimo.

*yawn** time to wake up. Has anyone seen the caffeine. I know it's around here somewhere. *signs off muttering*

ninth day

Okay, ninth day is over, whew! Managed 3k words despite everything. My husband's schedule is different this week than it has been and it's throwing me off. Plus I lost a whole scen yesterday becasue the kids wouldn't quit fighting/yelling/rough housing. I finally told them to go play dominos and sent my oldest to referee. There was instant fighting because 8 yr old insisted 16 yr old had to play with them. It would have been nice. It took me half an hour to settle them down and I had lost the scene. Can we say livid? I explained to all of them if it happens again there will be dire consequences. tonight is supposed to be game night, and I'm tempted to cancel it because of last night's debacle.

I also threatened my eldest son and husband with all they hold dear that if that happens again, they will not see the light of day. LOL seriously, though, I said if I can't write because they won't play with the kids or take care of the issues, I'm not getting off the computer until I've met my PERSONAL goals, not the itty bitty one set by nanowrimo,but MY goal. My goal for nanowrimo is 3k but my personal goal has always been 5k and I've succeded when life hasn't interfered. Now, I'm pushing back on life and using nanowrimo to help set my habits back up. I've written as much as 8k a day. I'm a fast typist and I have a quick mind (when its working).

No more Mr. Nice Guy .... Stay tuned for our next episode of Life in the Bushman Hilton

ninth day

Finally pulled myself up by the bootstraps and got more than 100 words done in less than an hour blah!! LOL I almost had 1k before taking hubby. I was talking to him and realized the problem. I'm only working on one story. You may laugh, but I've gotten 3k on bad day and 8k on good when writing more than one story at once.

When I get stuck on one (character's aren't behaving or plot point not going where it's supposed to) I move to the other one while the first problem perculates in the back of my mind. I talked to Morgan Anderson (friend on facebook from school) and had said maybe I should do more than one, but I didn't. Try to write the 50k plus whatever I wrote on second story? I'm craazy but not that crazy. Or so I thought. I'm going to be reworking another story while doing nanowrimo. Let's see if it helps the numbers go up.

Onward and upward :)

eighth day

Only did the minimum to stay on pace, about 1600+ words. ugh I thought it would be easier with Nate and Josh home to help. Noooo just more people wanting time on the computer LOL I will have to choose other days for my big wammo on word counts to make sure the fantasy gets finished. A fantasy book is approximately twice as long as the nanowrimo requirements. I want the rough draft finished by the end of the month. GRRR.

We had afternoon show yesterday. Cut my writing day in half. :( yeah yeah bitch bitch. Okay, today is a new day. I want to get 3500 plus done today. Wish me luck. and hope I don't have to pick my son up again. He's still having a little tightness if he gets too worked up.

May the force be with us....

seventh day

Well seventh day was short by 3000+words for my personal goal. I was four words short of 2k :( I had an epiphany about how to handle the about face I took in the book (yeah, the military jargon of the state is rubbing off).

I was a the store after dropping my kid off at Saturday school (honest he has school on sat). I was walking down the aisles looking for the lunchmeat when bam... Irealized that since I was writing in omnisicient POV I really should let the reader know a bit more about what's going on behind enemy lines. I even had an idea about how I wanted the two scenes go. do you think I had a pen? NOPE and the handheld taperecorder I bought for just such an occassion? In WA somewhere. At least I hope it is. Groan.

By the time I got home I remembered a few key points but forgot the flow/order. All I could write was Kyle and Lord McCallum talk about this or that. Or Bad happened she not killed LOL

I write out of sequence all the time. I usually write like I'm doing for NaNoWriMo, if I make myself, that is. I wrote Rebellion on Piza 7 in a month although it took about three months of editing to polish it up. I took out one plot line and inserted another. and added information where I had skipped over it.

I have a real bad habit of doing that. What does that mean for my story? It means I have to go back and write scenes I skimmed or skipped because my mind was on a different one. For instance, in Blood Traitors, sequel to Piza 7, I have the main characters looking at a body that has been murdered and the face disfigured by a futuristic weapon using lasers and stones (as in gems :P).

I originally said something like. He saw she was dead and was upset. I took one whole paragraph to say it. I think there were two sentences. My husband, the erstwhile editor, was like. "A dead body is interesting you don't describe it." or something. He said more but that's what it boiled down to.

If you read my inscription to Rebellion on Piza 7 then you know, he's the one who said MORE. He's right. So what happens in the current story? I forget to put the plot points along the way, think about them later, then write the scenes. I do not write by an outline. I have characters in my head and their story floating about, and if they live past the two hour idea thing my brain has going on, then they will harass me until their story is written.
]
Victoria and Erica (Winds of Fire, Winds of Ice) just chimed in to say, yeah, where's the rest of their story. I point at the folder with the pages printed out and say, see they are waiting for the man who says "more" to edit. That quiets them down for the moment. I've barely thought out Winds of Ice, but Winds of Fire only needs 15-25k words to be finished. Depends on how much my More editor finds to nail me on....

I made up a couple of chants last night during show. They need so much work. But you have to have chants/spells when writing about magic. Now the question is do I learn to speak Gaelic, so I know if the words actually rhyme, or do I make up my own language? I've started both to see how it feels in the story... Anybody speak Gealic?

San Antonio Book signing

It's been confirmed. Book signing at Barnes and Noble. Dec 6.

December 6th from 2pm to 4pm for a Book signing of “Rebellion on Piza 7”.


The store address is:



Barnes & Noble Booksellers

6065 N.W. Loop 410 Suite #185

San Antonio, Tx 78238

210-522-1340

This is the one near Michaels and Ingram Park Mall. Please RSVP how many books that you may want to buy. I've said about four so far, but may end up ordering them sooner for the people from the play.

I love having a book signing during the Christmas Season.

sixth day

15579+ yeah! that's over 3k for day. I think it was 3300 total :)

Cleaned up excerpt a little bit. I have about an hour during show to sit, so I edit. Between editing done Wed rehearsal and Thurs show, I added around 2k :) and I got to feed the right brains need to critique. I also did research on languages. Right now, I'm using irish/gaelic. (Yes, I have a fascination for the language. I wish I could learn to speak it. Rebellion on Piza 7 has the bulk of foreign words in Irish. :)So I played a little on one of my breaks. I almost feel guilty about how many breaks I'm taking, but it's working.

My family gets time on computer, I get time with family, and I get research done. All that while producing approx 2x the required amount for nanowrimo. I'm proud of myself, but we are heading in to the dreaded 2nd week. Any support is helpful... chocolate, pepsi, gift cards to food places, (I HATE to cook in middle of projects. I don't like it anyother time! LOL) you know, keep the fires burning!

Thanks for the tips on the excerpt. As stated, I did get some outside of the blog as well. It's helped me watch for things as I write or edit. I found quite a few Jared's (Of 24 single spaced pages I had 5 or 6)so that was a big help. Jaren is not a word for Word, but Jared is so it is not highlighted or redlined so I have to look very closely at it.

Speaking of MILs, mine is coming after Christmas and bringing my daughter :) :D :P I'm so happy. I can't wait to see them. They are both big supporters of my writing and helpers with editing and continuity. My Mommy in law and I get along just fine, thank you. She's my biggest fan with the exception of my duaghter! Maybe they're tied, IDK but I do know that I'm very grateful and thankful. She is on my Thankful Thursday list that's for sure.

Okay, I'm off to finish my morning ritual and then its off to the races for me!

BTW my buddies are all doing great! WE'd all killed the 10k mark by Thursday! Theoretically, 10 k didn't need to be broken until end of day yesterday. Keep you posted.

fifth day

Yesterday was starting out to be a rough day for the writer in me. Lack of sleep combined with stress stalled my genius. I did some blog reading on other author's that I usually save for rewards and found a title contest. Helping her look for a title helped to get my juices flowing. If only I could get a good title for mine. Cerisa and her Dragon just isn't going to cut it. (It's the working title on NaNoWriMO which I have to change very soon as I don't want it to win with that title)

However, after 600 words, I stopped. I couldn't think. I'd found a whole new line to put in (a very good one as I needed more conflict) and still couldn't keep going. My boys were squabbling (sick kids are soooo fun NOT) the baby crying, and my internet was playing peek-a-boo with me. I finally gave up at 2 and laid down with baby. Baby and I slept for and hour, I put him to play and rested until 4. From 430 to 530 I wrote enough words that I ended up with 2k I'm over 12k for the five days!!!

I so needed that sleep. Last night during the show, I edited pages I'd printed out from Days 1-4. WOW some paragraphs were so bad that I only wrote REWORK! Other's have lots of ink around the edges and filling up the back. However, the story over all is good and remained interesting to me throughout. For me that's the hardest part. If I get bored with it, I'm sure the reader will too. I want to write books that people read and reread and never get tired of. So the fact that I've read it doesn't wash with me...

Well, back to the drawing board... or typewriter... rather the keyboard.

Oh and have two more new readers/bookowners because I took Rebellion on Piza 7 to show. SWEET

Okay, finally got it to paste. Took me an hour and I had to go to edit html or something. Not sure what the heck is wrong.

If you see any glaring errors, or think somethings wrong, feel free to tell me. Remember, rough draft :)

Jaren shaded his eyes as he scanned the thick forest surrounding his home. Cerisa, his daughter, would be home, her dragon with her. He looked over at Kyle. Kyle may have donated his genes, but it was Jaren who had loved her and raised her. Kyle would kill her as soon as look at her. Jaren couldn’t allow her to walk into the den of murderers the clearing had turned into. Despite the training he had given her and her magic, she wasn’t ready for a fight of this magnitude.

He had to finish it before she returned. He could not allow Cerisa to go through the same trauma her mother had suffered. He lifted his sword holding it straight up and close to his body. He respired as he focused on his enemy.

“I am ready to die.”

He ran forward on the right side of the horse, slicing at Kyle’s neck. He missed. Kyle thrust his sword down through Jared’s left shoulder, pushing deep as Jared looked up at him.

“Your daughter will take the throne and you will die by her hand. Then all of Riverhand will be free.” Jaren’s words rasped at Kyle. Kyle looked stunned and fearful for the last moment of Jaren’s death. Then he dismissed the words of the dying man, signaled to his men. He turned his horse and they left in a thunder of hooves and metal.

foruth day

So yesterday was as busy as ever, but I'm starting to train myself to write write write! Even if its one sentence. Yesterday I got in 4k words!!!! I have over 10k total on my manuscript.

I've been reading agent blogs since I got serious about writing. One of the topics I noticed was the curiousity of the rush of queries in January. I have solved the problem.

Drum Roll please.

It is NaNoWriMo! Every year, for over ten years now, People have been writing rough drafts of novels in November. December they polish and edit. They get their query letters and synopsis ready. come January, they start rolling them out. Everyone edits at different speeds, so from January to March there is an influx of writers who finished that wonderful novel :P

This story threatens to be either my biggest accomplishment or my biggest disappointment. I've never written a fantasy novel before. They are intimidating in length. I'm excited about it though, which means I chose the right one to work on for National Novel Writing Month.

I will start posting excerpts. In fact, I will post one today, just remember, it is the first draft! Just want to give you a taste of what's coming...


PS My son is still reading Rebellion on Piza &. Says it would be an awesome movie LOL

third day results

just under 2400 words... could have been worst. I'm still shy of my personal goal, but I just couldn't write anymore.

What did yesterday bring? Husband not going to work on regular schedule, baby teething like a mad boy, and my oldest going to school hour and half early and staying two hours over Lord knew it was going to be a crazy day. Just when I though I might get some peace, My kindergartener comes home with the wrost asthma attack he's had since RSV as an infant. He isn't diagnosed so no meds at school. Great. (insert sarcasm here) I pick him up and give him treatment, make sure his flow meter improves. It does. whew! I don't have medical insurance down here and after my husbands recent illnes, I don't have any spare change either! He thre up about 530 this morning because of the harshness of his cough. Baby had fever and teething issues. Finally got him comfortable about 2 sleep by 230. Hours of sleep 3. Time writing not enough. time sleeping not enough. time going crazy too much.

On a happier note I won a signed copy of an author I've been following recently. I also won a book that hasn't been released yet last week. Those are good things!

The best thing that happened yesterday (besides Edward breathing that is!) is I got a copy of my book in the mail from Barnes and Noble. It was an incredible feeling. The pub copy I had was lost/misplaced in move to texas so it's been three months since I've held my book. It is a beautiful cover. I got my 16 yr old son to start reading it last night and he kept reading it til he fell asleep. My son hates to read (he was found in a cappage patch. I love to read! Actually, I blame his dad. His dad hates to read and makes fun of those who do. Harold, not Nathan) It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)

Considering yesterdays many pitfalls, I think it went rather well. Oh, and did I mention, a good portion of my husbands homework is online? yep. You got it. And although he's supportive of my writing, homework deadlines trump my personal writing goals. Today's going to be hard as I delve into the unknown. I generally write by the seat of my pants. With the lack of sleep, I'm afraid I won't be writing much in the way of coherent thoughts...

May the force be with you and me today.

second day end

I ended the second day with 3967 almost 2700 words! yeah. considering how busy life is, I'm very pleased. I came home from rehearsal too tired to do more than upload the words already typed. I wrote more longhand while at the laundry mat, but they will work for today. Besides, I have to decipher them, LOL That could take days, weeks, months, you know. :)

The fantasy is coming along nicely. Most of those words are first chapter and the words I'm adding will mostly be to the first chapter. Setting up the all important conflict. Will have to work on the synopsis of the work! For now its called Cerisa and Her Dragon, but I will have to think up a better title as I roll along :)

second day is

pretty good so far. I've helped put up set for the show my son and I are in anbd hubby's stage managing. I've washed dishes, fixed eggs for me n baby, checked my email, and wrote a few. And guess what? I got a response already:) My tentative date for book signing at Barnes and Noble at Ingram Park Mall in San Antonio, TX is Dec 6th at 2. She will know for sure by Friday!

OH and I've managed to write 450 words already! and I'm currentlt multi-tasking baby and writing this blog!
Wish me luck for rest of day:)

first day went...

Not bad. I ended with 1270 after the very rocky start and a birthday party for my now 1 year old. Not bad. And my hubby says its a little rough but if a story started out that way, he'd want to read more. :) Nice to hear, that's for sure. Since this is a first draft, I'd be uber surprised if it was anything but rough! So that's not an issue.

Hopefully, today will go well. :) Wish me luck. I've got an adventure to go on with many pitfalls and evil people to cause me to stumble.

first day so far

Not an auspicious beginnning. UGH spent more time writing on facebook than my story. Not because I'm procrastinating. I wrote and then erased everything but one line. I'm not feeling well, finally caught a cold, due no doubt to the stress I'm under with the family. I think I'll take some meds, play with my kids, the youngest of which turns one today :)

Then, maybe, I'll be able to write. I'm not usually this way. My problem is I write too fast. Not today. I think I want my old problem back lol.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. Back to the drawing board for me. I am not giving up!

Happy Halloween

This is one of my favorite holidays :) However, it doesn't hold a candle for Christmas. I love this time of year. All the holidays makes even Wal-Mart smell good for about four months straight LOL I haven't done much as we are trying to get settled.

Things keep changing around here, and not always for the better. However, that's how I got to be so tough, so I suppose I should appreciate matters the way they are.

I'm trying out a few ideas by writing a few lines on them, but I think I'm going with a fantasy book. I have another one that's a new idea. We'll see where we are.

Happy Halloween and BE SAFE

NaNoWriMo contest

Okay, had another idea last night for NaNoWriMo. It's pretty personal and would be very emotional if I write it right. Not sure if I'm ready for it. I'm trying different ideas on. What has the most meat? Which one has the characters that I can see the best?

I'm totally revved for NaNoWriMo and yet I don't have a gear. My nerves are going to be shot before it even starts lol

Baby very POd at mommy today. Last week he turned his days and nights around. IM FIXING THAT. LOL

Yeah I've got a buddy :)

So I've got a buddy for next month's writing excursion and it's someone from one of the blogs I follow :) You can have more, but I'm happy I even got one zippidy do dah zippidy day. **music** la la

So now I just have to decide on a story. I really want to write. I can feel it. Just have to make up my mind. Having too many ideas can be as bad as not having any. I could do the sequel to Winds of Fire as I have that story pretty much worked out. I have over 42k words on Winds of Fire (I cut over 1000 in recent times and then had to rewrite, if you remember, I think I blogged about it) I finally surpassed the other and then didn't do much more writing because I was busy editing. I'd take out as much as I'd rewrite. phew. Now it's time for the paper edit. Always a gruesome process. Red Ink all over the place....

But as it's close to getting finished - tow more major scenes and possibly love scene and tie ups. so I could feasably do a rough draft of the sequel. (Not telling the title until I have to nana)

thinking, thinking, thinking,

NaNoWriMo contest

Well, although I've not seen much in the way of posts, I have heard that my husband isn't the only one who finds familiarity in my horror story. So that will have to be done later. Maybe in a novel filled with 3 short horror stories :) I've had the idea swimming in my head in one way or another for five years. I even have a charcoal that shows the guy at his desk. :)

So that takes it down to the other two unless someone who's heard me talking about story ideas remembers one I told them that I haven't written. OH! That reminds me, I do have an historical short I was thinking of making a novel. Hmmm.... choices choices. Feel free to express your opinion. Those who know me, know I will do as I feel is right. At this point, I'm too full of ideas and I'm looking for direction.

I am getting everything ready for my husband to edit whats done so far on Blood Traitors and Winds of Fire as soon as Antigone is done :) yeah, I'm stuck on Blood traitors until its done. I really need to buy another copy of my book as well for continuity issues LOL.

On the home front, my daughter's tests came back negative for Mono. So I'm a very relieved mother. Although I did get a few jobes in about who she's been kissing
***insert big grin here****

I have fantasy, sci-fi, and horror plots running around. I'm still working on the other novels, but they don't qualify for the writing contest I'm doing, so....


hmmm.... I wrote a short story about a woman and a dragon that needs to be a full story. It would be an epic adventure. Her birth father kills the only father she's ever known and wants to kill her if she won't fall under his rule. She is a mage by birthright through her mother and a warrior by instincts and training. It's quite an interesting premis, but may be harder to write than starting from scratch. I posted it on Fan story last year and had some good feed back. Many wanted to hear more.

The sci fi is something that started as a dream, much like Rebellion on Piza 7. People disappearing, foreign animals, worm holes to Earth guarded by reptilian sentries, political intrigue are the basis here. Lots of meat for this one.

My horror story is a little different, although my husband says it sounds similar to a book he's read. A man, a writer, buys an antique desk for his work, he usually works pencil to paper for first draft before using laptop. One day his wife is frustrating him and he tells her to get lost, and she's never seen again. It takes him a long time to figure out she's missing.

The police look at him but don't seriously consider him a suspect until other people around him start going missing and others are wounded or killed that he has altercations with. We have, romance, guilt, violence, mind bends, mystery, rags to riches, and a touch of the fantastical. Lots of meat on all three of my books. No wonder I can't decide which should be the one to write for November. And, of course, I'll be writing on my other books as I'm stumped on the one I'm writing for this contest. at 3k a day thats 90k for the month and I need 50k+ for the contest. I can do it! :D

Have a good day!

back on the internet

Wow, finally back on the internet. I am living in San Antonio. Today is a grey day. I was taking my baby to the pumpkin patch but I literally have six inches of water in my carport. I am from Washington, but not the westside. The east side of the mountains are MUCH drier. This is discombobulating (I have no idea if I spelled that right!) not to mention depressing.

Since my last post we have found housing and are living about 15 minutes from nates school/work. I have pretty much set up housing as best we can with having 90 percent of our things back in Yakima. We are going without a TV but I think the consensus is we ARE getting a microwave. Anyone ever try to make hot pockets on the stove top. The crust is yummy but the insides aren't quite cooked.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo. The catch is I can't use a previous story I'm working on. So I'll be getting out a couple of my stories I've had swimming around in the mass of jelly we call brains, dust it off, and hope to finish it in one month. Yep, that's write, the goal is to write a novel of at least 50k in one month. I know I can do this, but it means getting down to brass tacks...

Hmmm, fantasy, or another sci-fi. Maybe I can get both ideas out and have people's input?

Glad to be back and hope to hear from everyone soon :) (Yes I would like comments, especially on excerpts, even if you have a problem. Believe me, the editing process is grueling and the earlier I catch mistakes, the less problematic they are!)

Excerpt

Chapter 1

Private airfield near Toppenish, WA

“My mom told me never to trust anyone who looked too good to be true. I should have listened.” Victoria Cunningham’s voice was loud to be heard over the wind, gunfire and plane noise. Her fiery red hair whipped around her face as it escaped its confines she had relegated it to. Her muscular body moved with grace and power as she fought off her attackers.

Her green eyes snapped her anger at not only the man firing his weapons at her while giving orders for others to do so, but at herself. Erica’s blue eyes were snapping their own fire only slightly less volatile then Victoria’s fury.

Victoria and Erica had been fast friends ever since they’d gone to the same boot camp right out of high school. Their friendly rivalry had kept both of them at the top of their game and caught the eye of a special recruiter visiting their base.

In looks alone the two of them turned heads. Victoria had the height to be a model, five eight, but Erica was only five six. Erica’s blonde hair made the perfect foil to Victoria’s red and together they looked as all American as an Army poster. They were also deadly accurate as many Army commanders could ask for.

Victoria knew Erica watched her closely and that her comment wouldn’t go unchallenged. She calmly reloaded her Glock as shots rang out around her.

She and Erica had hit it off as best friends in and out of the army. After their recruitment for special ops, they had learned how to recognize lies and deceptive behavior using body language and verbal cues. They’d also learned to control their own idiosyncrasies and be believable undercover. Erica knew this and she would also know that their training caused Victoria to take Kurt’s defection and lies very personally. Victoria shot at the plane, trying to incapacitate the plane before takeoff and keep Kurt ducking and away from his getaway plane.

Winds of Fire

Damn. It's been way too long. I have tried to post at least twice a week. None have gone through! So you can imagine the kinds of weeks I've been having. Everyone in the house has been sick at least once, including my baby and myself.

I've been able to get a minimal amount of editing done. Problem is, I'm cutting out so much, it's hard to make up from the last huge editing I did. I'm still 200 words shy of where I was when I started the major editing. The book is only half done, so I'm scared to think of what I've done to my story. LOL

Here is the promised excerpt from Winds of Fire.

Posting by twitter

There is a romance writer that is posting tweets to "publish" a story. Sounds like something fun for one of my short stories. Will have ot think about that.

Lack of sleep has kept me from being able to write like I want to. Today, the ideas are simmering, which is a marked improvement over yesterday.

If you haven't bought Rebellion on Piza 7, do so and encourage your friends to do do so. Yes this is a shameless attempt at selling my book.! I want to stay home with my baby. I don't mind working, but he needs me. The more I sell the less likely it will be that I have to work full time.

Plus, it will help inspire me to finish Blood Traitors if I get feedback on the characters. I'm at a deciding point - who should go and why and who should stay. I have the mainline for the story throughout the three books pretty much figured. However, I need a couple of Martilians to die, and I need to introduce the mastermind from the home planet. HMMM. Any ideas?

My thriller is being ruthlessly edited by moi. The novel-to-be is going from great to excellent. Mostly from what I'm learning about writing from my lovely blogs on my follow list.

Friday, I will post an excerpt from my thriller, Winds of Fire.

Writer's Block

I'm having a bit of writer's block. Need to print my stories on paper so I can look at them better. It's just not the same on computer screen. It's much harder for me to see mistakes. Plus, I have an easier time finding the flow. All the wonderful ideas I had yesterday have gone with the wind. I couldn't get to the part they needed to happen with enough time to integrate the fabulous new ideas. :( Maybe I'll find them in the re-read.

I'm ready to finish the thriller and my sequel to Rebellion on Piza 7. Blood Traitors will be wonderful as soon as it's finished.

Here's an excerpt from Blood Traitors:

Eagerness and gladness warred with hopelessness and sadness. She couldn’t identify it all. When she tried to delve deeper, the scene shifted. She saw the lights of planets and stars whirling past as if she were in a roller coaster at night. She only had given impressions until she felt Daniel-Jirel’s angry outburst.
“Who would dare! This is The Martilian Royal Ship Marathon. Identify yourself immediately and stand down!” His tone held authority and power but it was lost on whoever was attacking the ship.
He was concentrating on keeping the ship from going into a tail spin from the last blast. The only answer the other ship gave was another blast. This time Savannah saw it on the obsidian screen. He maneuvered the ship and the blast missed.
He again tried to contact the attacking ship. “My readings indicate your ship and crew are from my home world and therefore know the consequences of firing on any royal ship. You will be sentenced to death if you continue as I have clearly identified myself. STAND DOWN!”

Saturday

It's Saturday. Still looking for housing. I've made a couple of art contacts, which makes me feel good. I have an interview for an online internship for a writer's agent. Wish me luck! It will teach me the ins and the outs of writing a query letter and what agents are really looking for. This agent is a real sweetheart. My only complaint has been she doesn't write her blog very often. I know it's because she doesn't have time to do that but I like her refreshing attitude. Maybe, if I get the job, she'll be able to spend a little more time on her encouraging blog writing.

I can't even began to measure the value of the experience of working with an agent. Yippee!

I need my own home soon so I can get on with things. Right now, watching the kids so my friend who has graciously let us stay in her home could get a break. She's in Houston to see the terra-cotta warriors. A much needed break, I'm sure.

Well, it's back to work for me. I'll be posting passages from my works in progress onto my website very soon. I was going to do it earlier but obviously, life interfered. I will let everyone know when I get it to go.

Thriller

I'm pleased with my thriller so far, although I will always feel like I've missed an error or something. It's superb. Hopefully, all the changes will make it stronger and I will end with a bang.

A lot of my time and energy has been taken up with house hunting. In the last couple years, all the work I'd done to build up credit has been undone by loss of jobs - again. It is making it hard to find a job. Very boring and very frustrating.

On top of that, my Isaac has been sick. I think he overheated. He seems better today. Fortunately, I've still been able to do some writing. I'm determined to have an agent for my thriller by the end of the year which means I had better get my *** in gear. I'm about 42k words into this so, half way there.

edits

I sent in one small paragraph from Winds of Fire for editing re commas, etc. I also said that I know theres a problem with it so feel free to comment. Boy, did I get comments! It's great! I knew it wasn't right and having constructive criticism really helps. It's pretty fantastic. :) i like it much better now, and I'm going through the rest of the manuscript to apply the comments to the rest of the WIP.

I'm so jazzed to have my laptop back! I need to print out the WIPs I'm working on now and do a paper edit to make sure there are no other problems/inconsistencies and other grammar issues. I'm putting together the art CD. Wish me luck there as well :)

I'm on a roll, but my word count is in the negatives :( I erased over 800 words yesterday and I've only made up a few hundred in the edit corrections. major bummer. But, the story is better and that is the most important. can I get a whoo-hoo!

catching up

Sorry its been so long! I've been searching for housing, but the biggest thing is my laptops AC cord went kupooie. i finally set up my other computer, but its in a section of house that has lots of kids or no kids. With lots of kids, I can hardly think. With no kids, I have to worry about where they are. Now that school's started, I have had more time, but its been spent looking on craigs list and driving around looking at apartments.

So here we are! I've sent in a submission on my books and I've an invitation to submit a portfolio for my painting work. I'm excited. The submission is why I have my laptop back (an editor asks you to resubmit something, you do it!) and now I'll have a little more freedom.

Also, my laptop went out right after I'd gotten together some research I needed to finish the romantic thriller I'm working on. Now, I'll have to go back through it and try and remember where I was going. This time, I'll make notes! Or something.

I've also been gathering information to peddle my wares regarding Rebellion on Piza 7 here in Texas. I lost my copy of my book, so I need to order another one, then I'll go to more places. I was able to get the distributers phone number that handles places like Wal Mart. Yeah! As soon as I have a place to live here in San Antonio, I will be ordering that book. In the meantime, I'm going to keep on writing.

Writing, of course

With my handy dandy laptop out of commission, I'm seriously thinking of starting a new WIP. The fantasy adventure is a short story that I'm inserting stuff to, which is much harder than free flow writing for me. I do have a couple of short film stories to write once I've done a bit more research. I'm procastinating severly cuz I'm sure I have some good pages I've saved on my laptop that would be helpful but I can't remember the name of to look up again.

Thinking Science fiction again, but I really, really want to get my hands into a juicy mystery. Maybe something along the lines of JD ROBB's futuristic mysteries? Hmmm, something to definietly consider....

Nate has a work study and another flat fee for a second job that takes the pressure off of me to have a full time job. Had a thought to go get part time job at a Farmers agents place as a CSR so I can have more time to write and paint :)

Everyone have a good day, and look to your dreams.

May the force be with you.

I got a comp working

although I can't work on my current hot projects, I do have material on this computer to work on. It's definitely fantasy as it has dragons, warriors mages, mages, warriors, general magic and adventure. It started as a short story which got good reviews from lots of people, but it has a lot of passive voice that slows down the story. It is a good story with a good premise, so It's worth the fix. :) I'm also applying like mad to all kinds of places.

I did an oil pastel Sunday night. It's my niece from my brother Isaac. It's his first girl and I was inspired by the pic I got. It's pretty cool. One day I'll figure out how to get post pics on this. For now, I'm trying to figure out how to get pics off my camera. I don't seem to have the proper cord. And the adapter for my itty bitty disk is packed - SOMEWHERE. Maybe my friend will have one.

The kids are all doing OK, except Isaac (my baby with Downs) has a cold or something. It's a little worrisome but so far he seems okay. School will start soon, and with the advent of school, I'm hoping for more writing time. Yeah!

oh yeah

So, I got my inspiration, was finishing up some research points and my laptop quit working. Its something to do with the cord and/or connection. But that is where my story is. I have others on another computer and it's turning into a joke at this point. I managed to get here with all the cords (including power strips) except the ones that power the pc and monitor. I have my speakers, printer, printer power, Usb extender, wireless connections, etc. My friend found a cord, so we are on a roll. Hopefully we will get somewhere, soon. I have brilliant ideas whenever I can't write, so hopefully they will still be good later :)

Keep your fingers crossed that I get a job and that I sell a story. My family can really use the leg up right now.

May the force be with you all. :)

Inspiration

I need inspiration for a scene in Winds of Fire, just outside of Chicago. I have an aquaintance that has been there, so maybe I'll ask him for some info. I'm also needing a good scriptwriter program, but that'll have to wait until I can afford some extras that aren't really needed. I have to finish the stories I'm working on and start sending out the queries. Sigh. Maybe I'm avoiding finishing them so I don't have to write query letters? They are the bane of many a writers existence. If you don't do it just right, you may kill your book before you've ever started.

I can't remember if I said this yesterday, but I don't think so. We went to go on our first excursion in our own vehicle, alone, and guess what? Our tire was flat. I could hardly believe it. It was very flat - as in you do not get to drive it to Les Schwaab's or anywhere else. You have to take the tire in, in another vehicle, or drive on your spare, if it's not flat, too!

On Blood Traitors, I need a copy of my book. Ironic, huh? In the move my book got lost/misplaced or something. I tried to order, but my card wouldn't go through. I hate that card. It's a master card, but it only works at selected locations. UGH.

Oh well, back to square one.

Texas

So we arrived safely about midnight of the fifth. Spent yesterday cleaning and trying to assimilate the fact that I'm 2k miles away from family and friends (sans the one I'm living with :) My kids are doing great. Edward said this is the best house he's ever been in. Not looking forward to when he has to live in the house WE can afford. You know, the one with one game station and very limited games, no tv to play the games on, and no play room. Oh well, in the meantime, the boys are loving the time with others around their age.

I've already started taking my paintings around to show and I've seen the scene for the one act I'm writing for blunt force productions. I've also talked to Donna about getting my hands on one of her anatomy books that I need for a bloody scene in my romantic thriller, Winds of Fire, as I have packed my book and put it in storage. I'vealso managed to leave MY book at home so can't look up what I need for Blood Traitors. Tried to use my credit card but it is notorious for not working.

Getting ready to apply for jobs and hopefully that will leave to get out of my friends hair in a relatively short period of time.

wish me luck in getting back to regular writing.

Today is it, I hope

The car is slated to be finished today! can we say yeah....

I'm so excited to be moving to our new life. I'm missing a few things left behind, and still have things that have to be dealt with, but for the most part, things are for the better. Even my husband and I seem to be changing. Our attitudes and stresses are not the same as they were. Don't get me wrong, there are a few things that haven't changed, but we both are bringing new outlooks to the table. This has been good, and in some ways, I believe it's helping me deal a little more with my grief over my brother's death.

I'm not getting a lot of support from my family, partially due to my sister pushing me out. But largely due to the fact that "Leona's dealing with it better than anyone else." People close to me are like, "duh, she's had to deal with a lot more than the rest of you." My family seems to think it means I don't need any help or support in dealing with my grief. My husband and I went through a rough patch at that time, so I've felt very alone until recently. I've started reaching out to my husband and talking about it a little more.

Mostly, I've just been announcing it, like a news feed. Maybe, I'll be able to start moving along with my healing processes. My grief comes and goes and some days are harder than others. If I can write and immerse myself into my stories, or paint and focus on the paintings, I'll have better days. Lately, however, those days have been few and far between and the grief is welling to the surface more and more with less activities to help channel it. It's almost a set back to closer to the time he died. It's been three months, but sometimes, it feels like yesterday.

I know he'd be thrilled for our move, and I catch myself wishing I could get on facebook and tell him stuff. When we made the final decision to leave, I listed him in the people to contact page. I almost cried right there in Costco!

Wish me luck in finding time to channel that emotion into writing and painting. I do some of my best work at those times.

Off to clean the hotel room. Watch out TEXAS, here we come!

Let's try again, shall we

Okay, yesterday I did two fabulous posts that didn't post. Try extreme frustration here.

Okay, many of you know and have been part of the solution, but we are stranded in Roswell for the time being. Our tranny went out a few miles out of town. We limped back to Roswell and are now awaiting the fix of our vehicle.

We are all having a good time, although I'm starting to get bored and antsy. Without a vehicle, there isn't much to do. With the baby, my swim/spa time is limited. Hence the boredom. The boys are loving the swim time. They must have swam for 8 hours yesterday.

Yesterday's blog was so much better as boredom hadn't hit yet, LOL

The broken down vehicle hasn't stressed me as much as usual and Nate and I are patiently waiting to continue on to Texas. I most likely will be working at michaels in some capacity. I'll probably sign on in some capacity for theatre work as I do have 10 years experience.

test

test - written two full length posts that have disappeared. My friend and publicist went on and la-di-da it worked ugh

we are leaving

Finally, we are leaving for Texas. I'm leaving my daughter and many friends behind. I'm also leaving lots of my special things behind. I'm really afraid and going out on a limb, but we are chasing a dream...

Hope to be back regularly soon. Thanks to all who helped make this possible!!

Wish us luck :) Keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I deal with a myriad of emotions that comes from leaving your things behind...

Moving is a pain

Whether you're moving across town or across the country there are some basic pain in the butts involved and we've had a few extra thrown in.

I haven't been able to write on any of my stories since last Friday. Monday night I stared at the screen for half an hour but had writers block. So much is going on.

We opened our show Monday night, which runs through next Wed. That pesky old thermostat problem turned into blown headgasket, the same day we bought the thermostat (MON). Of course it blew on the way home, so it took two hours to get home. So no vehicle, packing like crazy, and have to find a way to get to parts store to fix one of our cars. (we're looking for parts to fix the car whose problem isn't mechanical at this point)

My sister is being an issue again. Plus, my older kids dad and his extended family decided to call my 16 year old names for coming with me to texas. I had a little talk with him, although I had to wait over a day before my temper cooled off. He came over when he knew I was gone to my show to do this. Got that one fixed.

All in all, my week has been hectic, fraught with emotional chaos, and physically tiring. The best thing I've been able to accomplish is a painting for the play. I started it sunday night/monday morning. One of my best portraits, and I did it in one and half hours with a palette knife and bits of brush for details.

I'm kind of stuck on my stories because I'm at the research stage for a tangent I took on each of them and I haven't had time to research. I do have other ideas could work on so may have to go that route. Wish me luck in getting to write more the next few days.

The news

It's time for my scary and exciting news.

We are moving to Texas! I don't know the exact date because something keeps going wrong. We have no real prospects where we are at in our chosen professions (although I can write anywhere, I also have art) Theatre and Oil paintings. I have a friend in Texas (Donna who has commented here) and she is going to help us get started. The San Antonio (Yes that's where we are going!) theatres are union, so he will get more money for less hours and to top it off there are more theatres!

We will miss people here, but we will be making a better life for our family. My youngest with Down Syndrome will have a lot more oppurtunities for work and other schooling opportunities in the meantime. My oldest son will have more options in the field he is looking for (construction) than up north here.

We are getting everything together, but our car started overheating today. We are theorizing the thermostat isn't working right, or something, we shall see. One more thing to do before we leave. GRRRRR.

It's been awhile

Finished this weeks dress rehearsals and prepping to move has made this week absolutely crazy. I've missed my thousand one day, but not sure how much I got because I wrote early the next morning. So I'm counting it all on one day and non on the other :( On the other hand, I've been working on getting a job, and still managing to write for the most part, so I'm glad.

Today, I have to paint a commissioned painting, then pack my paint so I can get to it if I find something I don't like before I move :) Knowing me, i'll see something I want to fix before I've finished packing the paints LOL

Stay tuned because next Monday, I have big news. I'm crazy excited about it, but extremely nervous.

I started a blog three times this week and didn't get it finished for one reason or the other. Go ahead and berate me in the comment section. I'm stalled on Blood Traitors for now as I have revisions to do...

BTW my website is down due to technical difficulties. My friend is trying to fix things. :) When I dig up my direct links again I'll post them.

I'm still here :)

I'm still here, dealing with "other" stuff has kept me from doing my full amount of blogging, marketing and networking. Here's a quick update.

I'm particiapating in a 1k word a day contest, and I'm very glad I did! Somedays I can write 4k thousand words no sweat, but because of schedules and all the other life stuff, it's been work to keep up the 1k a day, but it has helped.

The best news? I won the first week with over 8400 words! Woot woot. I've written like five so far tonight, but I have a half an hour left. All kinds of things can happen to my characters within a half an hour (evil laugh)

Hope everyon'es weekend is going well, and please give me any feedback on my book after you have read it! It is my first novel so I'm way open to opinions and suggestions. Also, let me know who your favorite characters are. PS My edits are going well, hopefully by Thursday will have excerpts from Blood Traitors, next in series after Rebellion on Piza 7, on my web page,

My webpages have links to my publisher site to buy the book and my twitter and my kindle. Also, feel free to email me at leona.bushman@gmail.com for questions, insights, and suggestions, or any constructive criticism :)

Market Place Deli

I'm doing well in writing despite the craziness of my life and my allergies. Plus, I'm managing to plug my book and get more sold. Of course, I won't see the results of anything sold now, until October, but the momentum is starting to roll :)

The Market Place Deli is holding a book signing. The date to be determined when we have the books ETA. She ordered fifteen, but we will probably order more as they sell :) She is also going to put some in her other espresso shop, Tomtoms uptown. I'll get the address for that when they are placed.

The Market Place Deli is on Yakima Ave, across from old Yakima Mall and next to Cheshire Used Books. The back entrance is in the alley next to Capitol Theatre. She makes the bes frappaccinos.

As I had no volunteers for being my task master, I've surprised myself at the amount of words I've been able to write this last week. Between allergies, baby, other kids, looking for work, driving my kids looking for work, driving my husband to his work (last week of work before unemployment), rehearsals and general life stuff, I'm surprised I've gotten anything done!

I also took my daughter to doctor. I went twice to pharmacy because of insurance stuff (still didn't get any meds UGH). However, I did see someone who had been at borders when I did my book signing, although he hadn't seen me.

I said, "Hey, you were at Borders Saturday. I was there signing books. I couldn't remember how I knew you until you'd left."

"Yeah, I was there. Wait, did you say you were signing books?"

"Yes, I did."

"Cool, what kind of book. I have always wanted to write. I've written some but, you know." Back to clicking in the computer entering our insurance stuff.

"It's a science fiction adventure."

"Awesome! I love science fiction. I'm reading E**** (sorry can't remember name. I want to say Eric something though) right now. The stuff I'm doing is more like comic book stuff, but I can't draw."

"I'll draw them for you, at least I can try."

"You're an artist too?"

"Yeah, I've never done comic book stuff, but I can see what happens."

"Wow." blah blah insurance stuff.... then, "I'll definitely get your book. My boss loves to read, too. In fact, I'll call Borders and have them save me a copy."

"okay, if you have it when I come back, I'll sign it."

"I'll do that! Okay see you soon."

I have to go back and get meds, but at least someone else is going to buy my book. who knew that having to go to the pharmacy all the time would eventually help my writing career?