Home from the holidays

We arrived home yesterday. I jumped right in to making phone calls to all my family I didn't get to see (my side). Then I jumped into a critique I'm working on for a member of my group (see, I didn't forget, Meg).

I have some errands to run before I can jump into house cleaning, but I hope to get back to the critique later today. It all depends on how long the cleaning takes.

In other news, I've set some writing goals. I'm giving myself until April or May 2009 to have some good writing news to share. Not much time, I know, but I think I can do it. If not, I'll set new goals then. *grin* But I'm going to try.

I go back to work Monday, but I will only be working Monday thru Wednesday so I'll have two kid-free afternoons to work on my submission materials and get things out there. Hopefully I'll reach my goal.

Okay, maybe I should change it to June or July 2009 instead . . . *wink*

Now I'm off to run errands and do my chores.

Write on.

Happy Thanksgiving

I will be at the in-laws tomorrow and won't have access to the net so I thought I'd do my Thanksgiving post today.

First of all, I want to wish all my readers a Happy Thanksgiving. You all make my life a bit better and inspire me with your examples. So thank you all.

I made my own pie crust this year and it turned out to be the best pie crust I have ever done. I took a recipe and modified it a bit so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I'm now going to write it down so I don't forget because it is flaky, light and delicious. I know this because I made pie crust cookies with the left over crust and they were so yummy. The kids gobbled them up and last year they ignored them. *grin*

Right now, the pumpkin pies are in the oven. In about an hour (the pumpkin pies take forever to bake) they will be finished and cooling. I'm debating whether or not to make a lemon meringue pie. I do have more pie crust dough but I'm not sure if I want to mess with it at this late hour. Besides, my pie always gets watery under the meringue. If anyone knows how to prevent this, I'd be forever grateful. I've tried cooling the pie completely before adding the meringue, not cooling before adding the meringue, cooling the pie completely before refrigerating . . . and so far I've only had one pie with no water . . . and I'm not sure why.

Anyway, things I am thankful for (in no particular order):

yummy pie crust, my family,   my writing friends, my pets, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, my non-writing friends, turkey and stuffing, a home to live in, happy phone calls, my fingers to type with (they do other things, too *grin*), my imagination and the freedom to express it through writing, rainy weather, happy children (don't much care for the unhappy ones *wink*), a free country to live in, my brother in the Navy and all the other men and women who defend my freedom, my new sister-in-law (welcome to the family, Jessica), money to spend (though I wish I had more), and the list could go on and on.

Write on.

Revising

The revisions are going well. I've deleted some and added some more. My word count is now 50,072 but I'm about to dive in to more revising. The sad thing is, I'm only on page four of the manuscript. But that's okay, my revising time has been in spurts and odd moments but Monday will bring child and husband free time in which I can concentrate on the novel.

I'm liking how things are so far . . . but as I said, I'm only on page four. *grin* I've begun hunting for an agent for my other novel . . . we'll see how it goes.

Write on.

I was so beautiful to him . . .

After my elation of finishing my Nano novel, hubby and I went to pick the children up from school. We greeted them as they climbed into the van and scrambled for their seat belts (I was driving). As we pulled out of the school, we asked the usual question, "So, how was your day?" and the children usually respond with, "Fine. I had *insert PE, Music, Library depending on the day of the week*" and continue with any exciting or interesting things that may have happened (including what was on the menu for lunch).

But yesterday was different. Yesterday our kindergartner, Jaykeb, had a substitute. So, when we asked how the day went, the following conversation occured:

"It was a great day," Jaykeb gushed. "I had a substitute and she was SOOOO beautiful!"

"Really?" I asked. "What was her name?"

"I don't remember," Jaykeb said. "But she was SOOO beautiful. And she had a tattoo on her ankle and it was so beautiful."

"Well, tattoos aren't beautiful," Daddy said. "We don't get tattoos on our bodies because we don't think they are beautiful."

"Well she had one and it was so beautiful," Jaykeb said. "It had a tree and flowers and stuff and it really looked beautiful to me."

"What color hair did she have," I asked, attempting to divert the tattoo battle Daddy was willing to fight to the death.

"She had long beautiful blonde hair," Jaykeb said.

"Was she more beautiful than Ms. Daniels," I asked. Ms. Daniels is his teacher this year.

"Well, Ms. Daniels is old," Jaykeb said. "And the substitute was young and she was so beautiful."

"Is she more beautiful than me?" I asked, knowing how attached he is to me and knowing he has always declared no one to be more beautiful than his mommy.

"Well, she doesn't have polka dots on her like you do," Jaykeb said. "So she's more beautiful than you."

"Oh," I said, rather shocked. "Okay. But they're called freckles, not polka dots."

"Whatever," Jaykeb said. "She still didn't have any and she is so beautiful and she will be there again tomorrow."

I think he could tell his comments may have stung a bit for he said, "But you're still my favorite even if she's more beautiful."

Yeah . . . I'm no longer the most beautiful woman in his eyes. I knew this day would come . . . I just hoped it would be much later . . .

So, I determined I needed to see this substitute for myself since I hadn't paid particular attention to her when I dropped him off yesterday. I walked him into the classroom and smiled as I watched him try to act all grown up and important. Ms. Beautiful (I still don't know her name) said hello to him and he tried to act all nonchalant about it. He said, "Hey," like it was no big deal. Then he went to his table and talked with some of his friends.

I approached the table where the teacher was sitting and told her how Jaykeb gushed about her the previous evening. She blushed laughed and I could tell I'd totally embarrassed her. She told me that during recess the previous day, Jaykeb had decided not to play but to sit by her and tell her all about fireflies.

LOL

My baby has a teacher crush . . . I just hope he's not too crushed when Ms. Daniels comes back . . . and I hope he doesn't say anything to Ms. Daniels about liking Ms. Beautiful better.

Now, I'm going to jump on the revision wagon and start whipping Wolfsbane At Midnight into shape.

Write on.

I did it! I did it! I did it, hooray!

Yes, my friends, it is true. I challenged the Nano beast and I won! I reached the 50,000 mark today (50,015 to be exact). My novel is finished . . . well except for the revising, submission material writing, researching, submitting, submitting, submitting, and submitting . . .

But for now it is a good feeling to have reached the goal of getting the first draft out of the way.

In the beginning I questioned whether it would be easier to write with an outline. I can officially say it was (for me, anyway). And perhaps outline is too general a term. This was more like a chapter by chapter synopsis (hereinafter referred to as CBCS). Did I stick to the plan? No, but I like the direction the story took so I'll probably keep it the way it is now. But I do have the CBCS to refer back to if I decide to change my mind.

There are some holes I'll need to fill in, some scenes to flesh out, and some details to check when I go back and begin revising, but it is such a good feeling to have a small sense of completion.

I think I'll jump right in and use the rest of the day to begin my revisions. Of course I'll have to save my revisions as a separate document so I can use my current version to verify my word count with Nano . . . you know, in case my revisions take the book back below the 50,000 word mark.

I think this is the first time I've been really excited to jump in to revisions . . . maybe that's a bad thing. I probably ought to take my happy moment and sense of accomplishment and call it a day. But the revision bug is itching . . . I've got to do something . . .

Write on.

Almost there!

As of this moment, I'm 45,404 words into my Nano novel! Hopefully by this time tomorrow, I'll be finished . . . but I'm not sure I'll get time to write tomorrow . . . it's hubby's day off and for some silly reason he wants to spend time with me on his days off. But I'll definitely be done by this time on Thursday! *grin*

Then I can start revising. Hooray! Okay, I'm not actually looking forward to the revising part so much, but I am looking forward to going back to read what I've written. I refrained from going back as I went along other than a few sentences to get back into the story from where I left of the day before. So I'm interested to see if it's as good a story as I think it is. *wink*

Here's hoping to see all my Nano buddies in the winner's circle!

Write on.

Tingly fingers . . . a Nano update

So, I've been busy writing my Nano novel and have sadly neglected to update my blog. I won't write much today as my fingers are tingly.

Why are they tingly?

Well, I've accomplished an amazing task. I hit the 40,000-word mark in my Nano novel today! While this is an accomplishment in and of itself, it does not entirely explain my tingling fingers.

I am nearing the ending of my novel where a lot of exciting things happen. I began writing at 9:40 (ish) a.m. (after reading and posting on friend's blogs) and finished writing at 12:45 p.m. This is a span of about three hours. Three hours of writing time is great but the best part is:

My word count before I began was 36,017 words. My ending for today (unless I write more) is 40,444 words. So if I've done the math correctly (and I used a calculator so I'm 99.9% sure I did), I managed to write  4,427 words in about three hours!

Yeah, this is the reason for my tingly fingers. I think I may be done for the day, but we'll see. If my hands feel better later, I may do some more typing on my novel.

 

Write on.

A new week a new word count

A new week has begun. I didn't get much writing done on my NaNoWriMo project over the weekend, and thanks to my newest ailment (Husbanus Interuptus) I didn't get much done today either.

Still, my new word count is 26,883 so I'm on track to reach 50,000 words before November ends . . . and maybe within the next week or so. *grin*

I hope to get back to writing later this evening, but with children, housework, dinner, and homework time, I'm not sure I'll be able to. Tomorrow, being Veteran's Day, the children will be home from school so my chances of getting some good writing done on the morrow are slim to none . . . though they could surprise me and let me write. Yeah, it could happen. *wink*

In other news, it rained pretty good last night and we even got a tiny bit of snow! It has been cloudy and cold today, but no precipitation has reached the ground. We'll see what tonight brings. The kids want snow, of course, and while I wouldn't mind a bit of the white stuff myself, I'm not ready for the extremely cold temperatures required to produce it.

And now to steer my readers to a fellow blogger. robinellen of Live Journal has some great posts about the agent search. You should check them out! Thought on the world of publishing, Robin's tips on the agent-hunt. Thanks to Robin for sharing these with her fellow writers.

Write on.

Eight days later . . .

Here I am eight days into Nano and already I've written more words this year than I did last year . . . or the year before for that matter. I'm completely amazed and thrilled that things are going so well for me (now I probably jinxed myself) this time around.

I've managed to write on six out of the eight days of Nano and my word count today ended at 24,374! While I haven't met my personal goal of 5,000 words a day, I'm only 15,626 words behind where I would be had I reached this goal. But, had I written 5,000 words on the six out of eight days I DID write I would be at 30,000 words so I'm really only 5,626 words behind. *grin*

Still, I'm pleased with my progress. If I can reach my 5,000 words a day goal from here on, I'll reach 50,000 in about five more days! Then I can start revising (assuming my novel is complete at 50,000 words).

The good thing is, I believe 95% of the words I'm writing are quite good and I may end up not needing a whole lot of revising, unlike the MASSIVE revisions I've had to do on my first novel. I've learned so much in the last five years of writing.

And now I'm off to bed. I'm not feeling well (thus my pathetic word count for the day).

 

Write on.

Nano update

After spending time talking on the phone this morning, I still managed to add an additional 4,571 words to my Nano novel!

I did get a few more words in yesterday so my ending total was 17,293.

So my total so far today (I say so far because I intend to write more) is 21,864.

I'm at an exciting scene and only stopped because I had to go get my kids from school. I really want to keep going, but the kids are begging for snacks and attention so I can't concentrate. I WILL get back to it once they settle down and start their "free time". Then while they are doing chores (I did mine as I talked on the phone this morning) I can finish making up the new chore chart we will be implementing next week. *sigh*

Tomorrow will be a massive house cleaning effort as it was last Saturday so I doubt I will get any writing done tomorrow.

Still, I'm moving right along. Okay, kids, I'm coming!!!

Write on.

Score!

I've been kicking the Nano ball down the field and finally I made it into my goal! I wrote a total of 5,759 words today. This brings my total for Nano to 16,472 words!

I do hope to get more written tonight, but doubt it will happen with the kids, chores, homework, dinner, and TV shows I want to watch (hey, I earned some down time today! *wink*). I'm so proud of myself but know I have a long way to go. I want to get as much written as I can because I know towards the end of the month I won't have as much time to write.

The kids are having "free time" right now so I have about fifteen minutes in which I may be able to get a few more words written before we get started on the chores and homework . . .

 

Write on.

The end is here . . .

Hopefully only in the sense that election day has come and gone. *wink*

A new President of these United States will take office in January. I did not vote for Obama, and I'm not necessarily pleased he was elected. I have nothing against him, personally, I just don't agree with some of what he has planned for the country.

Still, he has been elected and will be my President. I will support those things I agree with and try to ignore the things I don't. I hope he will be good for the U.S.A. and not the let down I suspected he would be. I understand the Democrats feel they would do a better job running the country, but in spite of how some feel and what has been said, I do not believe the state of the nation is ALL due to G.W. Bush.

I'm not saying he's been perfect, no one is perfect. We are all human and make mistakes, it's how we learn. Nor do I feel that if things do not improve it will ALL be Obama's fault. The country is a mess and I'm not sure ANYONE can fix it any time soon. I only hope the Democratic White House can live up to all that has been promised . . . with the exception of taxing the rich to feed the poor.

Okay, so that's not exactly the plan, but I don't agree with raising the taxes for those who make more money. I'm not among those who make more money so I'm thinking it may not affect me much, but I don't agree with making those who have earned more, pay for the deficit in the government. Besides, maybe one day I will be among those who earn more than $250,000 a year (or what ever the number decreased to over the course of the campaign) and then it would affect me.

Anyway, election = over. Nano = still going. *grin*

My ending word count for yesterday was 10,713 words. I don't anticipate getting any time to write today (will be busy all day with appointments) so my starting word count for tomorrow will likely still be 10,713 words.

Write on.

What's your Nano fuel?

Okay, to start my day off right, first I took my kids to school, then I VOTED (if you haven't done so yet, go do it!), fed the dogs (cause they need to eat, too), and now I'm sitting down to eat breakfast. We writers need fuel for our brains and we all know "breakfast is the most important meal of the day", right? So what is my choice for Nano fuel?

I had my mind set on a nice bowl of shredded wheat (with sugar on top) but upon opening the refrigerator, I discovered my darling children had used all the milk and not bothered to tell me so I could get more for MY breakfast. I debated about going into town and purchasing more milk, but knew this would delay my writing (and therefore my word count for the day). I decided I would find something else to eat. What did I settle on?

A nice hot bowl of chili! Yes, I realize it's not the usual choice for breakfast, but it was there and I was there and I needed to eat something (dog food wasn't looking too appetizing). And besides, it has meat, beans, tomato sauce and I'm eating crackers with it so it's sort of healthy . . . *grin* I may eat it for lunch, too. It's my very own recipe so it's not too spicy and won't give me terrible heart burn.

Anyway, enough justifying of my choice of Nano fuel, I want to know:

 

What's your fuel of choice for Nano energy (besides chocolate because that's a given)?

 

Write on.

Nano is here!

It's the moment I've been waiting for! Nano day is finally here. So did I spend the day writing? Oh how I wish! I did manage to get 1,814 words written in the little time I had available today. I'm not sure if I'll do much better tomorrow.

Today I spent un-decorating my house from Halloween and then heading into the room of my two boys (15 and 5) where my husband, 15 year old, and I did a deep cleaning. Hubby and son worked on the room while I took down the decorations and we worked for four hours after I got in there. Unfortunately, we only got it about half done (I'm talking deep dark, behind the dresser, cleaning out every drawer and shelf in the room). We may be continuing tomorrow in spite of it being Sunday and a day for church and rest.

So even though I didn't reach my goal of 5,000 words, I'm glad I managed to get some writing today. I'm hoping I can get at least as many words written tomorrow, but we'll see.

How did my fellow Nanoers do today?

Write on.