Saturday, October 30, 2010

Busy

1. Moving bil 2. Trick or Treating 3. WIP 4. Life 5. Gift buying 6. Yard saleling(ok, I only went to one, but still) 7. Taking care of baby 8. Shopping for paint 9. Laundry
See, I have been(or in the case of 8 and 2 will be) busy this weekend and it's only 1:35 p.m on Saturday. Last night I helped move bil(ok, I chased baby around while hubby helped) and today hubby helped finish(mostly) moving bil(brother in law). So it's official, our "new house" is now empty and we can paint, clean and move in! Let's see, what else???
Oh yeah, I've made it to chapters 19, 20, and 21(final) and have done my first read through. I'm waiting on edits from bil to finish those chapters up. I've also been reading through my synopsis, which I need to send to bil to have him edit and make suggestions. After that I need to do the third and final read through of D4 and then it's time to query! My query letter is only missing a few things: final page count, final word count, the word complete :), and just before I send it out, I need to personally address it to each agent. Woopee! I'm sooooooo close I can taste it and yet I still feel so far away. I almost want to drag this out because last night I was thinking about how comfortable it was to be in the story as compared to the new story I will soon be drowning in. But no, my goal is to get this book published so that other people can read it and hopefully enjoy it :) Ok, I'm back to the synopsis. Have a great weekend and Halloween!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Work of a Different Sort

So today makes the second day I'm not substituting this week. And Friday the kids have off school and tomorrow is a 1/2 day soooo... The good news is I"m getting work of a different sort done.
I"m up to chapter 16 on D4! Baby went with his Papa to get his hair cut (I didn't want to take him because he screams blood murder). That gave me an hour this morning and now I've been working on it during his afternoon nap. Yay progress! The negative side effect is that staring at the computer makes my eyes tired and so I miss some mistakes that luckily my beta reader caught. I'm wondering if I should be doing my third read through out loud?? Something to think about :) Keep on keeping on!
P.s. Sorry this isn't exciting, I'm just taking a quick breather from editing and can't get myself into a creative mode, there fore, the boring post :)

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Quick


I finished Alpha by Rachel Vincent. One word (that in no way lives up to describing the book), AWESOME. I will be doing a review of this book too and posting it, ummm...sometime :)



Oh, I've made it to c12 of D4 and I've skipped several chapters doing a third read through. I think I'm going to save the 3rd read through for the rest of the chapters until I finish with c21. And then I query!!!!!!!!!!! And wait............And write my next book!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yipppee

I made it through chapter 10 yesterday and started chapter 11. I was also substituting. I'm so grateful I had great students. However, my husband pointed out I should check with a teacher friend to see if it's ok for me to work on my WIP while substituting. My response was, well it's ok to read a book, so why not? But just in case, I will be checking. Otherwise I will stick to just working on my WIP during my planning period and may be lunch.
Now, the bad news...I worked diligently on my WIP but not on transferring my handwritten blogs. Hmmm....I guess that means...well I don't know what, because when it comes down to it, my WIP needs to come first. Ok, that's all I got's for now! :) Have a great day! ( I know I will because I didn't get called in! )

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Oh My

It has been a while since I've blogged and I've been busy almost every minute! I substituted Thurs. and Fri., we closed on our new house Thurs., went to a housewarming party Fri. night, hubby and I spent almost all day Sat. together just me and him, and we went to church and out to eat this morning. Plus in between I've been taking care of baby and trying to stay somewhat up on house work.
So I"ve got a plan to help keep up with blogging. While I sub I've been writing in a notebook and what I"ve been writing is blogs! Yay! So that just means I need to take the time to put all those on the computer and then copy and paste! Also, I've been slacking on D4 because hubby has felt neglected. So I've also come up with another idea to take care of possibly blogging, but way more importantly, my writing. Every teacher has a planning hour, which means I have an hour that I have nothing to do. I will be taking my laptop to work with me and editing during that hour. But still...between work, baby, hubby, moving my bil(brother in law), moving ourselves and working on our new house I will be very busy for the next, oh couple of months at the very least!
I'm kind of sad because I am coming to terms with the fact that all this busy-ness is going to ruin my plans for NaNoWriMo. It is vitally important to me that I get my current WIP queried out before I actually start writing a new book. That's life though :(
Ok, I"m sure all of you are crazy busy but I implore you, keep that goal front and paramount. Even if you only get a couple hundred words in a day or only 1 page edited a day, that is one more than if you cleaned your house, or went for a walk, or sat and watched t.v.
One last thing, I've edited chapter 9 now!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

More Random Thoughts

Mmmm Hmmm, that's right, I'm working! *dance* Sidetrack: The nice thing about *dancing* on the internet is that it doesn't matter I actually have no rhythm; the thing that matters is I can type "dance" with *'s surrounding it and you guys can get the picture without the horror(or embarrassment) of actually seeing me dance ;)
Ok, lets set this up again. I got called in to sub for a HS Science teacher an hour before I had to be there(which actually gave me plenty of time.)
---1st hour: -cologne(big difference between hs and ms boys, lol)- sleeping kid= my heart rocketing - quiet(12 kids) - some days(or every day?) you, as in the student, just don't care
---2nd hour: - paper rattling - 12 kids
---3rd hour: - groan - complain - 21 kids - long sleeves - so far not as (obviously) sneaky as MS kids - old friend at a glance
---4th hour: - Rowdy :) - openly sneaky - 25 kids - green ink not hot - again rowdy - sophomores
---Lunch: - chat - nerves but at least I had food!
---5th hour: - Recognition - Oliver a teenager, Impossible - talked about - rotten in a completely nice way
---6th: - 9 kids - food makes my random thoughts list much shorter, but I really don't mind!

I had a great day at school and I've been productive at home. I managed to finish up chapter 8 my edits and bil's edits, but I still need to read it through again :( But I did spend 30 minutes on it :) Also, I've blogged and come up with the brilliant idea of prewriting blogs while substitute teaching(I need something to do that will be ok if my flow/creativity is stopped in its tracks as I actually do my job, he, he).

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Random Thoughts


Here's a list of random thoughts during my first day substitute teaching. Let me set this up by saying I subbed for a middle school, with a mixture of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students; also I forgot about breakfast(I got called in at 7:50 a.m.) and didn't have cash for lunch--lucky for me I just barely had $1.50 for a soda.

3rd period: 1. Is everybody sick? Lots of sniffing! 2. Headache 3. Starving 4. Rotten kids! 5. Funny and yet not funny, that you can read a kid so stinking quick(dramatic, frustrated, impatient, bored, and possibly obnoxious) 6. Need to work on seeing the good in point # 5. 7. Countdown 8. Sneaky whispering escalates. 8. Cursive s's look funny
LUNCH- 1. None 2. Mtn Dew Yum! 3. Still have headache.
4th period: 1. Balance. 2. Is this okay?
5th period: 1. Surprise, it's a sub! 2. Suspicion. 3. What is it with piling stuff on your desk while doing your work?
6th period: 1. QUIET(one student).
7th period: 1. Four minutes is not enough time for a kid to go to their locker, go to the bathroom, wash their hands and get to class on time in 3 story building. I barely had time to go down 2 flights of stairs, go to the bathroom, wash my hands and walk back up two flights of stairs! 2. HEADACHE 3. Stinking kids! 4. Needy 5. Pep talk needed. 6. Reading can backfire 7. HEADACHE

Ok, I realize it's not very exciting, but it pays!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Substitute

Yup, I said substitute; that's what I did to day and I"ve got a few more days scheduled :) Yay work!
I've finished c6 of D4, another Yay! Ok, I know it's short and sweet, but that's all I've got. Keep on writing!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Sunshine

Yes, it's pretty here, but just wait until you see it in person! I saw this in Borders yesterday and couldn't resist picking it up. I must admit that the story didn't yank me in the first couple pages; which isn't to say it wasn't good, but I thought the story would yank me in as quick as the cover did. Really, the truth is I needed any excuse I could find because I can't spend a lot of money right now. Here's the blurb and honestly, this is going on my tbb(to be bought) list.



There hadn't been any trouble out at the lake in years. Sunshine just needed a spot where she could be alone with her thoughts for a minute. But then the vampires found her . . . Now, chained and imprisoned in a once-beautiful decaying mansion, alone but for the vampire, Constantine, shackled next to her, Sunshine realizes that she must call on her own hidden strength if she is to survive. But Constantine is not what she expected of a vampire, and soon Sunshine discovers that it is he who needs her, more than either of them know.Originally published as an adult novel, but now in YA for the first time, Sunshine is an alluring and captivating vampire story; one that will ensnare fans of paranormals everywhere.


P.s. I've completed c5 in my quest to finish D4

Friday, October 15, 2010

Draft 4 so far

OK, I've almost completed editing c4 of D4. So far I've been reading through each chapter and fixing any punctuation, wording, etc.(mostly little stuff) and then I look through each chapter with the corrections my bil(brother in law) sent me and fix all that I agree with(which are most of them, but not all :) Then I try to do one last read through of each chapter before I move on to the next. Let me tell, you, that 3rd read through is the hardest. I feel like by then I'm not catching much. In fact I"m considering leaving that 3rd read through until I'm completely done with the book. Right now I need to do that 3rd read-through on c4 before moving on to c5.
So mostly I've changed some punctuation here and there(I'm not that great with commas) and I"ve rearranged the wording of some sentences, but I have made one major change although I've done it subtly enough(IMO) that I didn't really have to do any major reconstruction. Basically, all of my beta readers(even the 2 who puttered out after a few chapters) have agreed that I wasn't detailed enough in the explanation of how the family of my leading lady works. After my beta readers finish the book, I'm going to send them a "new" chapter 1 to see if they think the changes I made were enough.
Other than adding a bit more detail to the inner workings of the family, I feel like there's not much I want to change about my book...so far :) I do have 17 more chapters to go. I"m shoot for having draft 4 done by the end of October, D4 being the final draft before querying, and having my beta readers take a look at my query and synopsis, then querying my WIP out. So hopefully by October 31 my WIP will be out of my hands. I'm wishing you productive writing, or riding, or whatever your passion may be!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Draft 4

Ok, I'm going to start with what's difficult in life. I mentioned yesterday that baby no longer gets a binky and now he has a cold--as in coughing, sneezing, green snot-- this is proving to be a terrible time to have taken "it" away. I will persevere though!
I have started on Draft 4 today. Yay me! No I mean seriously YAY me! I have been very reluctant to do this, for multiple reasons, but last night I really decided and felt the urge to just do it! Of course, being the procrastinator that I am, I didn't actually do it until today :) I did however send an email to one of my beta readers who hasn't sent me any feedback other than "more please." LOL. Her response was that we need to have a "book club" meeting or a long phone call. Lets face it, meetings are far easier than phone calls for me because of horrible cell service at my house and a 16 month old, so a meeting it is! For now though I will start with just myself and my one other beta reader. I had 3/4 and now I have 2. My m-i-l got bored, she's busy with work and paranormal ain't her thing, and my mom likes to read off and on which isn't fast enough for me to edit. So I'm down to my bil(brother-in-law), who isn't necessarily into paranormal but has still been great, and my cousin("more please.") Oh yeah, and... ME! Let's face it (he, he) it is my book and therefore my opinion is important!
So I've started with chapter one, I read through it and made a few changes here and there. Then I read through bil's edits and comments and added/changed what I agreed with. Now I need to do one more read through but my eyes were getting tired. So instead, I came here to blog! Ha, ha, I seriously crack myself up. But none the less in one hour I have almost completed c1 of D4.
I've got a main goal that I've been working towards and baby steps have helped me along the way. I actually failed part of my main goal, but I'm mostly ok with that. I failed at finishing the whole book in one year from the day I first started racking up the word count. That date was October 4th, but again, I'm ok with that because: 1. I have a draft3 synopsis, 2. I have a query letter I'm pretty darn happy with 3. I want my book to be as close to perfect as I can get before querying it out and 4. I still haven't failed the second half of my main goal, which is to have the book queried out to agents before the start of 2011. I have kind of switched the order of things getting done around in that I've done some preparation to query(letter and synopsis and list of agents) before the manuscript is COMPLETE, but that was because I needed a break from the grind of editing. And I feel good about where I'm at for the most part. What was that? You want to know about the for the most part? Well I have a shiny, 2 month old idea that is going to be my next wip and I'd like to be working on it come November and so...I must finish my current WIP before I start on my next wip.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Monday Blues

Well I finally managed to work on my synopsis and tweak my query letter. What was holding me back? Well, this weekend, I decided that for my son, the Binky would exist no more. All in all, this weekend went ok. Nap time today? Not so good. He woke up after only an hour, sobbing and took forever to calm down and then go back to sleep. By forever, I mean like hour. Talk about exhausting.
But I have managed to go all the way through my synopsis again and shorten it to...12 pages instead of 13. Lol, I am so glad that the agents so far that I'm planning on querying that want a synopsis didn't give a page limit! All right, I don't have much else to say. Oh, yeah, came up with a great scene for my next wip on Friday. Now I think I need to crack down and start on D4 of my current WIP. I kind of dread this because I think it will be the hardest yet. Each draft is like going through layers of rock to sand. Big, easy to sort through rocks at first, but they finally get to tiny grains of sand that you have to comb through to find the pieces that don't fit. Picture that, pieces of sand that don't fit in with all the other tiny pieces of sand. It ain't easy I tell you! Ok, now for real, I'm done. Keep on writing!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Name That Character

Let’s start with my main chick. So far I’ve been lucky in that my current WIP and my next WIP main chick’s name came to me right off. I just knew the names were right. Naming everyone else was a little harder. I had a list of who would be in the book and an idea of how old they were. From that point, I searched up girl and boy names from the year those characters would have been born. Now, I don’t just pick a top ten names, or even always top 100 names, but I think a lot of the names from my current WIP came from the top 100 names of the round about birth year for my characters. Some names I picked just because (these are for characters who don’t play as big a role) and some names I picked because they “felt” right. That’s the point right now that I’m at for my next WIP. I’ve got a list of names, which I’ll probably add to, for all the characters that I know are going to show up. It’s not always easy to pick a name though. I’ve got two guys who are matching up to a name I really like, so for now I’m waiting to find another “right” name that will hopefully help me pick which name belongs to each guy.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The beginnings of...

a query letter...I managed to piece together a blurb from three other starter blurbs and also chose a hook sentence that I like. Yay! I"ve got the beginnings of a query letter. I also worked on my synopsis and have managed to achieve a 13 page, double spaced rough synopsis. I'm on my way! I wasn't able to work much more on my synopsis because not only did baby go down for a nap late, he woke up at his normal time. And...he didn't really go to bed tonight very early. *shrugs* That's life for ya. Ok, off into the oblivion of reading blogs and then may be enjoying a new book I've borrowed. :)

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Let's talk about...

me :) Reminder here, this is my blog. Anywho, to start with, writing. I've dry bonesed(made up word ;) all of my WIP for a synopsis and I've got a paragraph made up for each chapter up to 18. I've been trying a new tactic today with my writing work. I work on each chapter/chunk until it's complete and then I give myself 10 minutes to play on the internet. *music/vibrating* = my phone timer went off, so lets go to commercial here...
Ok, I'm back now. I'd like to change that 18 earlier into a 19 now :) I don't know if I'm actually more productive or not using this technique, but I certainly feel like it. Now, just because I'm about to mention what I'm about to mention, does not mean it will happen. I am flirting with the idea of participating in NaNo WriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month. Now I don't intend to sign up for it, just to do it on my own. The whole concept is to write a 50,000 word novel(or start of a novel) in one month. That's a big goal, but lots of people obtain it. Hmmm...perhaps I should try WEED instead? No I'm not talking about pot, I"m talking about Write Each & Every Day. We shall see...
In baby news, my baby is now officially two, even though he's only 16 months old. Yes, I"m sure the terrible two's hit early. The real problem? The world is frustrating when you can't communicate. Just imagine living in France unable to speak French and no one speaks any English. You get the picture!
Lets see, what else? Well my cat Jackie will probably need to go to the vet soon, read I'm all ready stressing again about money, because I think she has a uti. Ugggg!
I've slacked off again on the horse aspect of life, so I'm going to try really hard to work with Rain for just a bit today and all three of the able bodied horses tomorrow. Any other goals? Oh yeah, get a job! I'm trying really hard to look for a job and wait on what God wants at the same. Let me tell you, this is a difficult task. Ok, I wish you luck and true and optimistic consideration of NaNoWriMo or at the very least, WEED :)

Monday, October 4, 2010

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Love, love, love this cover. Did a little digging and while this book was written after the author's debut novel(Graceling) it is set in the same world, only many years before Graceling. It sounds interesting and will go somewhere in the middle of my TBR pile.


...here's the blurb :)


It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her. She is the last of her kind . . .

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Another one bites the dust...

Hubby is watching Iron Man 2 and that is some of the music I've heard. I couldn't really get into the movie and so in the spirit of being a serious writer, I sat down to work on my synopsis, dry bonesing(made that word up all by myself :) 3 more chapters. This week I've really enjoyed reading two books which I plan on giving my style of review later on this week. I read Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris and Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata.
I've been having a good but uneventful weekend, how 'bout you? And now realizing I don't really have that much to say, I'm going to check out :) Enjoy yourselves and keep working towards your goal, even if it is one step at a time!