How did I miss this? and other stuff

While catching up on my friends’ blogs today (I occasionally find time for it), I came across Cindy Pon’s awesome book giveaway. I’m not sure how I missed it, but since it doesn’t end until Sept. 3, I still have time to enter. She has some pretty cool books to give away so check it out!

I’m getting a bit more sleep now. K hasn’t had another seizure and we plan to send her back to school tomorrow even though I’m still nervous. But I can’t keep her home forever and watch her every second (well I could try, but it would drive both of us crazy).

My word count hasn’t improved by much (about 400 words), but I’m hoping this week will be seizure and car accident free so I can get some writing done!

Of course, I’ll be in ceramics class tomorrow and Tuesday (or maybe just tomorrow . . . or maybe just Tuesday) so I probably won’t get much writing done until Wednesday or Thursday (hubby is off Wednesday and he’s distracting so I may not get much done on Wed.) .

I’m still planning on being done by the 11th though so I’ve got to find some time to

Write on!

Thursday Things

Wednesday is over. I ended up leaving hubby to entertain on his own, and I hid away in my room to grab some sleep when the in-laws arrived. *evil grin*

K hasn’t had any further seizures. I called the neurologist’s office (the number the hospital gave us), but I had to leave a message because I guess they weren’t open yet. We’ll see if they call back. I think I might call our personal doctor and see if he has a recommendation for a neurologist too (always good to have choices).

All the kids are home from school again today. Oldest son is having back pain from his accident and it hurts him to sit in the chairs at school (he went for part of the day yesterday before he called me to come get him). We’re going to take him to get checked out.

Last night, K slept in our beg again. She shares a room with our oldest daughter, J, and J didn’t want to be in her room alone. So . . . I ended up sleeping on the futon/couch again while J and K slept in the bed with hubby.

The futon/couch isn’t very comfortable, and sleeping on it two nights in a row makes it even more uncomfortable. But that’s okay, I didn’t sleep much anyway. I’m too stressed out about K. I’ve been through so much with both my girls already, that I’m not sure I can do it again. Even being in the ER on Tuesday almost sent me into a panic attack.

All that kept running through my mind last night were the horrors of the previous troubles with the girls . . . the weeks in the hospital and the surgeries, the breathing machines, having to learn to insert a feeding tube, the way my little K looked all twisted and stiff during the seizure, her incoherence afterward . . . the stuff of nightmares, only I wasn’t asleep.

So, I’m tired today, but I’m pressing forward anyway. I guess I’m just panicking and will hopefully calm down as time goes by (hopefully with no further seizures), but, right now, I’m afraid to leave K alone.

She has an eye doctor appointment today (she’d been complaining of not being able to see the board at school). I thought about cancelling the appointment, but decided to go ahead and get it done. After the appointment, I’m hoping to get some writing done . . . but we’ll see if I can let go of my worries enough to dive into writing.

How are the rest of you doing out there? Hope your Thursday things are more fun than mine. ;-)

Live on.

I Hate Tuesday!

Okay, not all Tuesdays, but yesterday, for sure!

First, son got into a car accident. He turned off the highway onto a dirt pullout and, not being familiar with driving on dirt, couldn’t stop in time and hit a parked truck. No one was injured, though son is sore today. There was some damage, but we had full coverage so we’ll survive. In all honesty, I’m glad the truck was there for him to hit. He couldn’t stop and would have gone over the cliff!

Okay, so as if that wasn’t enough to stress a mother out, second daughter, K, came home from school with a 100.2 degree fever. At about 5:00, she had a massive seizure! We spent most of the night in the hospital while they ran tests, but everything came back normal (including the CAT scan). They have no idea why she seized, but gave us a pediatric neurologist’s number to follow up. They’re just calling it New Onset Seizure.

The doc said it isn’t uncommon for a child to have a seizure and then never have one again, but he also said if she’s susceptible to them, she’s more likely to have another one. The kicker is, we won’t know if she’s susceptible unless she has another one. Honestly, one was terrifying enough! It’s not like I’ve never witnessed a seizure before (I have a friend who has them), but it’s a whole new ballgame when it’s your own child! It’s horrifying!!

So, everyone is home from school today because we’re exhausted after the hospital and car accident excitement. We’re keeping a close eye on K. Other than not remembering what happened just before and just after the seizure, K seems back to normal. She slept in our bed with hubby last night while I “slept” on the futon with oldest daughter who was all freaked out and worried that she’d have a seizure too. *sigh* Hubby and I didn’t sleep well at all for some strange reason.

Yeah, I want to be sleeping right now, but hubby’s dad and sister decided they needed to come down and see K today. I wanted hubby to tell them no, but he won’t because his father has health problems and hardly ever comes to see the kids. So, hubby ran off into town to finish up some work he didn’t get done yesterday, and I’m here waiting for his family to show up.

I hate yesterday’s Tuesday, and I’m beginning to hate today’s Wednesday.

On a happy note (if you can call it that), my copy of Mockingjay should arrive today . . . not that I’ll be able to read it because I’ll either be entertaining family or sleeping away some of my exhaustion.

Whine on!

I Resisted . . . .

. . . and didn’t make the bookmarks, though I was sorely tempted to. I hoped to manage 5,000 words this weekend, but it didn’t happen. I did get a little more writing done after my post on Saturday, but the kids ended up wanting to play games and have some fun . . . so we played games, had fun, and went for ice cream.

My weekend word count ended up looking like this:

And do you see how the computer sticks its tongue out to mock me?

Anyway, I’m still pleased with the progress. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any writing done today because I gave in to another temptation.

Some of you may remember that I went to school full time in the spring. I decided it was too much and wasn’t going back in the fall . . . but I decided I had WAY too much fun in the ceramics classes so I signed up for the fall.

Classes started this morning. I made a vase today. I’m not sure what I’ll make tomorrow. Though this takes time away from my writing, the good news is, I’m not taking the classes for a grade this time so I don’t HAVE to go to class. I signed up for both Monday and Tuesday and figure I’ll be able to make it to one or the other each week, even if I can’t make it to both. The classes go from 8:30 to 2:30, but I can leave earlier if I want (like I did today).

I’m a bad girl, I know, but how can I resist being able to play with mud (cause that’s basically what the clay is)? Especially when I get to make things like this:

Yes, that bowl was from last semester, but I don’t have anything to post from this semester because it just started today.

So, I’m hoping to get some writing done today, but the kids will be home from school in a little while and then it will be time for homework . . . we’ll see what happens.

Create on!

Resistance is Futile . . . or is it?

When I got the mail today, I had a package waiting for me from ChubbyChicoCharms. I’d ordered some charms for making bookmarks (a special order of some letters and some wolf themed). Now I’m trying to resist the temptation to make bookmarks because I really need to be writing.

On the other hand, the kids are home and keep bugging me so I can’t really concentrate on writing . . . maybe I ought to give up and make bookmarks.

But I really need to get some more writing done (though I did accomplish a bit this morning).

Here’s where I stand:

Anyway, I’m not sure what the day will bring. I’ll probably do more writing because I feel guilty and also because I’m at a great scene that should be easy to write.

But if I get stumped . . . then the bookmark making supplies  might come out. =)

Write on!

Here we go again . . .

Though I’ve been working on my novel every day, it doesn’t seem like it when this is my current word count:

It looks like I haven’t done much at all, but in reality I have . . . honest! This word count doesn’t reflect the nearly 10,000 words I ended up cutting and all the revising I did in the first few chapters to incorporate a new aspect of the novel.

Though I love the new direction the novel is taking, it meant I had to do some major reworking/editing/cutting. Several scenes were reworked, and a few had to be cut out entirely! I’m not sure they’ll be able to be recycled. While this makes me sad for all the time I spent writing them, in the end, this new dimension will add more depth and is worth it!

So, while I’m not going to reach my goal of being done by the 23rd, (I’m still going to write like crazy and get as much done by then as I can), I’m happy with the progress I’ve made.

And, I’m setting a new goal of being finished by September 11th (one of my sister’s has a birthday then).

I’m actually hoping to be finished before then, but decided to give myself some leeway since I don’t often get much writing done over the weekends (needing to spend time with the kids and all that).

I’m still playing around with my scheduling and trying to find out what works best for me. Right now I write while my kids are in school (like now . . . but I’m on a lunch break). When they get home, we have homework, dinner, and then it’s time for bed when hubby likes to relax in front of the TV.

I’m not very good with writing while the TV is going so it ends up that what I write during the day is pretty much what I get written.

But, I’m thinking of changing things around and writing at night after the kids have gone to bed (going in the living room) because I get a lot of inspiration then and there aren’t as many distractions during those hours. Plus, I can try to sleep during the day when the kids are in school . . . right? ;-)

Anyway, my lunch break is over (I only give myself 1/2 hour), so I must get back to writing.

How are things going for all of you out there?

Write on!

Blogger or LJ Blog? A Write On Con Conundrum

During the Write On Conference, there were suggestions on author branding that included making your online presence consistent with they type of author you are/type of books you write. This “theme” or “mood” should carry from one online endeavor to the next from websites, to blogs, to Twitter, etc. Basically anywhere you can customize, you should, but keep it consistent.

As you may have noticed, I took that to heart and have been working on customizing my blogs and twitter. The topic of creating an online presence came up often during live chats and I was amazed to learn there were industry professionals who declared they didn’t like LJ because it wasn’t as easy to customize and was restrictive. I’m not sure what they meant by this (though it’s not as easy, you can still sort of customize the look of your blog), but it got me thinking.

Are Blogger and other online blogging options better than LJ? Is LJ a moon being paled by the much brighter sons in the webosphere?

I happen to like LJ. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s the first blog site I joined and it’s like an old familiar security blanket, or if it’s because I get notifications of my friend’s posts in my email. Granted, I can get email notifications from some Blogger friends as well, but not as many offer this option. Besides, I have many more LJ friends than I do Blogger (or other journaling sites).

Yes, it’s easier to see the Blogger followers if a “follow” gadget is put on the blog so knowing the popularity of your blog is easier (though just because you have followers, doesn’t mean your blog is popular . . . the commenting is what counts), and I do have to agree that Blogger is much easier to customize (I was able to make my own background for Blogger and fairly easily put it up using the CSS feature, but I was also able to add a background to my LJ using the CSS, just not as easily and as completely as on Blogger).

Blogger also has a new Template feature for editing your blog which makes things a bit easier . . .

And yet, I still love my LJ and all the connections I have there (though I love the “look” of my Blogger more).

I’m wondering . . . how many of my LJ friends also have another blog they frequent . . . maybe even more than they do LJ?

What is your choice of platform for blogging?

Though I suppose it doesn’t matter what platform you use if you aren’t consistent with your postings and keep things interesting (this was mentioned quite a bit at the conference too). I’m going to work on the being more consistent thing . . . but I make no guarantees in the “interesting” category.

AND . . .There must be an easier way to keep in touch with my Blogger friends, so if someone out here can tell me how it’s done, I’d really appreciate it!

Blog on!

What’s Up?

Okay, so I’ve been offline for a few days . . . okay, for several days. Things have been busy. I’ve been restructuring my WIP, plotting out a couple of new ideas, and setting writing goals. Then, I enjoyed Write On Con Tuesday thru Thursday!

If you didn’t attend, you missed out!! It’s the best conference I’ve ever been to . . . Okay, I admit, I’ve only been to one conference (SCBWIAZ Welcome to Our House). Still, I don’t think any conference could have been better. Instead of attending one or two presentations, I got to see them all (or read them, depending on what it was). The live chats were so much fun (I even got a few of my own questions put through) and informative too.

Everything was online, and available whenever I could get to it (except the live chats). That came in handy for those moments when I had to use the bathroom, eat something before I fainted, go pick up the kids from school, move because my butt fell asleep . . . you know, things like that.

Plus, it was FREE!

I’m definitely looking forward to it next year.

I’ll be posting some helpful hints about things I learned and sharing my thoughts over the next week or so (hey, it’s much needed fodder for the blog).

I’m also going to be madly typing if I hope to reach my goal of finishing my rewrite by the 23rd.

“The twenty third of August?” my inner author asks.

“Yes. The twenty third of August,” I say.

“Why do you set impossible goals for yourself?”

“Nothing is impossible,” I say.

My inner author doesn’t think I can do it. If you promise not to tell, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Do you promise? Okay. I’m not sure I can do it either, but I’ve got a new writing strategy so we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve decided to quit trying to write the book chronologically. I’m going to write scene by scene and then put it all together after I’m done.

I really think this will keep those staring-off-into-space-while-I-try-to-figure-out-how-I’m-going-to-get-from-point-A-to-point-B moments to a minimum. That’s the theory anyway. I really hope it works.

I’ve made a list of the major scenes I need and another list of the subplot things I need to happen. I figured out how to combine some of them, and the ones that are left standing off stage I’m hoping will be the glue that puts the major scenes together.

Yeah, so that’s my plan.

What’s up with you guys since I’ve been gone?

 

Write on.

Help . . . if you can . . .

I think I’m losing my mind. In an effort to help regain some of my sanity, I’m reaching out to my friends. Help me if you can!

Okay, here’s the thing:

In speaking with my third grade daughter’s teacher this afternoon, she showed me they are working on doing Illuminations (they’re reading Igraine the Brave and doing a whole medieval section). I mentioned how I loved illuminations and had seen some at the Getty Museum when I went a few years ago (for work, but we took time to see the sights).

Then it happened . . . a little something in my brain said, “didn’t you just see some sort of blog post or something that mentioned someone’s picture book being illustrated with illuminations? Didn’t you even mention in a comment that you loved illuminations and had seen them at the Getty?”

I have wracked my brain, searched through my friend list, but I can’t find the post.

Maybe I’m completely insane. Maybe I saw it on a link on someone’s blog and clicked which took me to another blog and clicked which took me to another and it wasn’t even one of my friends.

Maybe it was on Facebook . . . maybe it was on Verla Kay’s . . . I just don’t know!

But if you know what I’m talking about, please, please, please let me know. It’s driving me crazy, and I need to concentrate on writing instead of this!

Maybe I’ve lost my mind and it never happened . . . if you find my mind, please help send it back.

 

Help on!

Word count Wednesday

So, I obviously didn’t reach my goal of finishing my rewrite by the end of July. Life happened.

Still, I’m back in the swing of things now that the kids are in school, and I managed to get some writing done today. Yay! That was with an appointment this afternoon and my husband home early from work (not feeling well)!

I’d like to do more writing tonight, but I’ve got to get dinner done and get some sleep (I was up until after midnight because I couldn’t sleep).

I’m hoping to get more writing done tomorrow before I have to go to the PTO meeting followed by the school’s open house.

Oh, and remember how I was determined not to read LINGER until after I reached the 30,000 mark? Yeah, that didn’t happen. I gave in and read it a few nights ago. I’m a horrible person. I know.

I’m still debating whether to take ceramics classes at the college this semester (I won’t take any other classes right now though), but if I do, class starts on the 23rd.

So, my new goal is to finish this rewrite by August 23! I CAN DO THIS!!

Write on!

How to Procrastinate

I think I’m an expert by now. It’s not that I don’t WANT to write, it’s just that things conspire against me.

Today, it’s the squirrel’s fault.

Let me explain.

I purchased this bracelet from artistq’s (Laura Hamor) Etsy shop back in November and have worn it pretty much every day since (though I do take it off to shower). After months of daily abuse, the cord had worn through and the last threads holding it together broke today.

I tried to figure out how to tie another cord, but I’m knot challenged and failed miserably (it’s some sort of horribly complicated slip knot so it adjusts . . . you probably all know how to tie a slip knot like this, but I couldn’t figure it out).

Instead of putting it away and contacting Laura to see about a repair, I decided I’d use my creativity (which should have been working on my novel) and fix it myself.

I used black and white so it would pretty much match everything. It’s now back around my wrist, and I’ve discovered this new style has an added benefit. As I type, it knocks against the laptop and reminds me I need to be writing (I’m feeling guilty even now).

But . . . in true procrastinator fashion, as I was sorting through my endless boxes of beads to pick just the right ones for the bracelet, I was inspired to also make this:

It’s a bee bookmark for my own Etsy Shop (though I’ll resist the temptation to procrastinate further and list it on there today).

So how is it the squirrel’s fault?

The stupid squirrel came into my yard and made my dogs bark. If my dogs hadn’t been barking, I wouldn’t have had to go bring them in to keep the neighbor from complaining. If I hadn’t needed to bring them in, I wouldn’t have caught my bracelet on the fence which is what broke the last threads holding the bracelet together.

Now it’s 11:53 AZ time and the kids will be out of school in three more hours! Still, I’m taking the time to post this here instead of diving right in to my writing.

This, my friends, is how you procrastinate . . . or at least how I’ve managed to procrastinate today.

*sigh*

Now I’m going to see if I can use my remaining time to do some writing . . . although, it’s pretty close to lunch time, and I’m pretty hungry. Maybe I’ll get something to eat first and then start writing . . . unless I find something else to distract me.

Procrastinate on! =0

I Won A Contest . . . and Other Weekend Stuff!

I’m thrilled to have had the chance to enter Julie Jordan’s Alphabet Stories Contest and even more thrilled to have won! I’m not sure what my prize is (I’ll be getting a surprise in the mail), but it was a blast to write the story. =)

What was it all about? Entrants had to write a story of 26 sentences (one for each letter of the alphabet, but it began with G instead of A). It was so much fun to try to make it be engaging and not be obvious that I was starting each sentence with the next letter of the alphabet. I went with a strange story using Hel, Loki’s half dead half alive daughter from Norse mythology, as my inspiration. Anyway, if you go here, you can read my winning entry.

In other weekend news, I have sick kids again (it’s so much fun). This time, it’s the oldest boy. He’s trying to go to school anyway, but we’ll see how it goes. Hubby was also sick over the weekend. He’s still not feeling well (it’s a stomach thing), but he’s off to work anyway. I didn’t get much sleep last night, but I’m going to struggle through my day anyway. I’m spending a few hours at the school to work on some paperwork for the PTO this morning, but I’m hoping to get some writing done this afternoon . . . we’ll see how it goes.

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend making new bookmarks. I haven’t gotten them up on the Etsy store yet, but I’ll get to it sometime . . .

The most fun thing that happened this weekend?

We had a baby gecko hatch out of one of our gecko eggs!!!

We’ve been trying to hatch geckos for quite a while, but the eggs always died. This time, it worked (I added moisture to the container to keep the eggs from drying out even though the instructions for the hatching material said I didn’t need to).

I have five more eggs waiting to hatch, though I’m not sure they’re all fertile. Four of the eggs were laid on Saturday (same day the baby hatched) and I’m not sure they’re fertile yet (will check them by “candling” later today).

So that was my weekend. How was yours?

 

Write on.