Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Blogs and Blogging

I've done a little adding and deleting to the list of blogs I follow. There were a couple that I don't neccessarily dislike but they weren't updating regularly and/or I just wasn't clicking on them. I'd like to follow blogs that I really enjoy or I feel help me keep a pinky on the industry. I found a coupld of blogs that look interesting so I'm going to try them out and if I like them I'll add them to the list.
As for the blogging part, I hope to be more interesting than just making this an online journal. We'll see if that happens :)
As for that blog about being busy, well it's still true, but I'm making time by typing as fast as possible :) I've applied for a job and am desperately searching out a job. Why? Well quite unexpectedly we might be buying a house, if it works out. And if not? Well I still need a job so that we can save up to buy a house when we're ready. I love being a stay at home mom and having the time to write while baby naps, but real life needs to go on. For mine and my hubby's goals in life to happen, I need a job. So while being a stay at home mom is work, I'm ready for the type of work that pays in cash. Wish me luck!
Oh yeah, I have been putting time in on my WIP and I've made it up to 77 pages. Yay me!
Ok, I'm writing this last, but that doesn't make it any less important. In fact, I may post more about it tomorrow for your enjoyment. I found a website, www.elfwood.com that has lots of great scifi/fantasy artwork. Go lookie loo!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Quick Check In

Life is about to get very busy in a hurry...I hope. So I might not be posting or working on my WIP like I want to. But I hope I will! I still have my goal of the WIP being done by October and queried out to agents before 2011.
I took the time today to put the ink edits for chapter 6 into Word and I looked at chapter 7. So far I'm up to like 67 pages for D3, so I'm close to halfway!
I also have an "invention" idea that I'm working with my mother in law on. I'm gun ho and she's a little hesitant, but I need her help, so I'm dragging her into this, like it or not! :) Keep on keeping on!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Angry

I was furious with myself yesterday and as for today...I'm still mad, but embarrassment has surpassed my anger. I fell off my green broke mare, Rain, yesterday...TWICE! It should have never happened and it is all my fault, hence the fact I'm mad. Let's recap...
I did a five minute lunge session with Rain earlier in the week that went really good. Other than that short work out I haven't worked or rose her in several weeks. Yesterday I decided it was too gorgeous a day plus I really need to get her broke plus horses are good for my soul, anyways that was a side note...I decided to work Rain, with all intentions of riding her just a little bit. As I was lunging her she gave me a couple subtle clues that she was feeling something, may be frisky? I even recall asking her if she had a burr under her saddle. Uh, hello?! Anyone else see a big hint right there? But noooo, I ignored it because like I said, the clue was subtle(even though I did notice it!) She was doing so good for not having been seriously worked in a while that I decided to go ahead and ride her. In a normal situation I have enough caution(read fear of falling) that I would have either lunged her a lot more(although she is out of shape so this isn't much of an option) or I would have just not gotten on her. Yesterday was clearly not my best day for being normal. After riding her at a walk for a while and dealing with her wanting to keep going to the same spot in the round pen to be closer to Foster who was eating hay next to the round pen, I decided she was being so good(I was ignoring the fact that every time I cued her away from Foster I kept thinking, this could make her upset) I wanted to trot her. So I did. It took two strides of trot and there was the mounting block coming up and I could tell she wasn't sure which way to go and I hadn't told her which way to go(I've been trying to work more on stopping on command than steering). So she got antsy, taking a couple quick steps and I started bouncing and she started bucking(big crow hops, no kicking out the hind legs) and I lost my balance and fell. I got up as quickly as I could and got back on her. She was still upset from what happened and I once again ignored the warnings. We walked ten steps maybe and a horse fly landed on her shoulder. What did I do? Leaned forward(read put myself off center and out of balance on a tense horse) and smacked the horsefly. What did she do? Crow hopped forward and off I fell!
What should I have done. Never got on her in the first place. But since I did, I shouldn't have gotten back on her so quickly after the first fall. What did I do after the 2nd fall, ran her butt around the round pen and then had hubby lead me around on her for half a lap or so. By that time she was still nervous and breathing hard. I knew I had to get on her again and she needed lunged 'cause she was acting stupid after the 2nd fall, but I know that all of it should never have happened. It was a bad experience for us both and that makes me furious at myself. So make sure you follow your instincts people! If you know what you're doing, trust that! Don't ignore your gut.
Anyways, writing-wise I have a very basic and tentative outline started for the sequel to my current WIP. I also have a few scene ideas for it. Now the not so good news is that I still haven't wrote the scene I need to add in, although I have put ink to paper for the next chapter. I'm just not in the mood to write it plus while I have a tentative idea of what should happen, I'm not feeling it. I don't know if the idea is wrong or what. Ok, problem needs to be tackled head first. I'm stopping blogging right now and I'm going to write that scene even if it's slush. At least I can edit slush; it's hard to edit a blank page!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Late Night Last Night

I was tired but I couldn't fall asleep. So what did I do? I did a little research on a niggling little idea. I really like looking at pictures for information so most of my time was spent looking at Google images. Unfortunately I couldn't find the picture I was looking for. I don't even remember when I saw it, or the title and so I can't find it. Drove me nuts! I also did some regular research which in turn was useful for sparking that niggling little idea while I had some alone time driving today. I'm still not sure where the idea will go or if I'll even run with it, but for now...
I worked a little on editing my current WIP, putting ink to paper today.
I also spent some relaxing time picking out the tails and manes of two of my horses. Any horse people agree with me about how much fun that can be? Of course I had a little show sheen which is what made it actually relaxing and not frustrating. Lol :)
Family portraits tomorrow, can't wait! Now I'm off to...well I'll research some and maybe put some ink to paper but...I get caught up in the research, what else can I say?!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Red Ink to the Word

Between yesterday and today I have managed to edit c.2 of D2 making it into c.4 and c.5 of D3. That's 52 pages and counting folks! Also I had the idea at the end of c.5(and also found it in my journal during phase D2) that I need to add in a scene here. Adding this scene fits the book to a T. There's just one problem...I haven't written that scene yet :o I am actually dreading it for the simple fact that I dread switching hats back and forth. It isn't that bad, really, just me being finicky. I'm not quite sure when I'll do it, either today or tomorrow, but I do know that I have to do it now. Otherwise I'll keep putting it off and forget it, kind of like I did while making D2 ;)
On to other news. I gave baby Benedryl yesterday to help with his rash and it didn't :( So today I took him to see a nurse practitioniar who said that since he's so fair skinned, he'll be the first to get a rash and the last to have the rash. He said the rash should be gone in about/as long as 3 weeks. Yes, I said THREE WEEKS! But it's not bothering baby, so I'm going to work on not letting it bother me.
Last night I did a quick, as in five minutes, work out with Rain and she of course did wonderful. I also took the time to hand graze both her and the old man, aka Foster.
I watched my dvr'd recording of Degrassi and I am stoked about the final week of Degrassi, The Boiling Point.
Hmmmm....ok, can't think of anything else to bore you with. Keep on writing!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Weekend

I had a busy weekend. I spent Friday getting ready to go camp and then me, hubby, baby and a couple friends went camping. Baby has had it bad lately :( He had a fever Friday, which did go away. He ate over easy eggs Saturday and still has the rash! Sunday was ok, it was just busy for him. We did have a good time camping, hubby rode a jet ski, baby and I played on the play grounds a lot, we all went swimming and we had some awesome steaks, potatoes and pork 'n beans for dinner. Sunday morning, we got up at 6 and hardly anyone else was awake in the park! So we took our time packing up and then headed home. We spent the rest of the day with some of hubby's family and that night with my family. It was great!
I haven't worked on my book since Thursday. That is next on my agenda. I've red inked 35 pages and applied the changes to Word. Now I'd like to read through those 35 pages and see if there's anything else I can catch before moving on to red ink some more! I hope you all are still trudging through! By the way, if you have any extra motivation laying around to get all that needs done, done, I'd love some!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Aching Muscles

Putting red ink and highlighter to paper equals aching muscles, seriously. I find myself scrunched over and clenching my pen as I squint at D2. It really is a lot easier for me to spot mistakes on paper but on the flip side if something needs a lot of rewording I find it easier to be pounding away at the keys. Oh well, best of both worlds, right?
Anyways, last night I red inked the new 2nd chapter(aka the middle third of the old chapter 1) and then this afternoon I red inked the new 3rd chapter(aka the last third of the old chapter 1). Let's hope I can keep it up!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Red Ink

Ok, so yesterday I managed to red ink and highlight all over a total of 12 pages. This concludes the new end of chapter 1(I desperately need to rearrange chapters :)
Today I'll have to work on rewriting the first half of chapter one, yet again(third draft, third write).
Also today I walked about a mile to go to the post office and back :) Baby steps :) lol, sad considering how much I was working out before, but oh well. I'm lazy and I admit it.
Good luck on whatever goals you have!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

A Little Sorry

Ok, a lot sorry, because I know that my blogging generally reflects how much I've been working on my WIP. Obviously it hasn't been much. I finished reading D2 yesterday and am going to start reading it again, but this time with a red pen and highlighters handy. Yes, I decided to print out D2 and I'll probably be printing out D3 too. I'm sorry to the trees. I don't much like the beginning, particularly the first couple chapters of my book. They were ROUGH. Of course, I remembered in the middle of the book that I rewrote quite a bit in the beginning which would explain why it was so rough. I do believe I will once again be rewriting the beginning. *Sigh*
I have also slacked off on working with Rain and that may continue. I hate asking others to watch baby and hubby is starting off the fall/end of summer with a bang of activities.
I need a job, a real job, until writing starts paying me and I admit that at this rate it's gonna be awhile before writing pays. *Sigh*
I know, what a depressing first post in 2 weeks. I'm in a funk and I just read a couple posts at Deadline Dames which crushed any hopes I might have of having success in the next 20 years at writing. Oh well, onward onward. Seriously, you too, get to it!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Excuses

It's funny how I always have them for why I don't blog enough! LOL. Anyways, this past week and a half I've been enjoying season 2 of True Blood thanks to Blockbuster. I still have the problem of making comparison's to the books, but still yet, True Blood has managed to get better and better. I'm extremely glad they cut back on Jason's sexual exploits and yet they exchanged it for all town orgies. Ugggg...just not my thing. But as for the rest of it, I'm addicted.
In writing news I've printed out draft 2 and plan on reading it straight threw in the next few days. After the first read, I'll probably read through again making marks on it and creating D3 on the computer. As I complete D3 I plan on sending it out to a few beta/find all my mistakes readers :)
In horsey news, after over a month, my two appaloosas are finally starting to explore my brother in laws. At home I'm trying to fatten up my old man :)

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Heylo, Heylo

Well for the past week I've been completely vegging out. Ok, well the first few days I had the problem of couldn't get my mind off my book. In fact I was working on researching for the book, and how to query and agents I'd like to query. Lucky for me, Blockbuster combined with TB season 2 has allowed me to chill out. I want to be able to come at the 3rd draft fresh and I feel like now I'll be able to do that. However, I do face a problem right now that I'm feeling ready to take on D3. I feel like I need to read my book on paper straight through but I feel horrible about wasting paper/trees on such an unfinished book! Not to mention, my plan for my beta and editing readers is to pass on draft 3 chapter by finished chapter and some of those readers prefer a paper draft. That means printing off both D2 and D3(multiple times). What do you all think?
On a side note I have a few confessions. This is my public, errrr, punishment for slacking off. I have not worked Rain in a week and I haven't worked out since Monday. I am a slacker and I am mostly ashamed. Especially as I zip up shorts that I am paranoid about being snug. I know, superficial but it's my downfall. Everyone worries about how they look, right? Even though many of us shouldn't. Ok, enough blathering. Have a nice day!