More

Weather: Snowing. The other day was a half-hearted attempt for an hour or so, bitsy flurries just to get an "I can't believe it's snowing already" reaction from us. Today I woke up to wet, slushy snow on the ground and weighing down the trees, and it hasn't stopped, all day. {SIGH}

I have not even had time to sit and write a blog post until this very minute. Running here, running there, doing a full-scale photo shoot, two scheduled meetings, more impromptu meetings, phone calls back and forth and back (and forth) with the governor's office...

WHEW. I am sitting down with a cup of tea and a handful of mini Reese's peanut butter cups, for a few minutes. Right now. There.

I did manage to get up over 1% on Book 3 at least, and tantalizingly close to my 1000-word goal for the week, if I hadn't had to wrap up my lunch and trudge out (in the snow) to a meeting. Finished the first scene to at least "it can live for now" status, so I can move on. I'm really looking forward to the Dead Robert bits, but those are not next. Next is Tony and still vague female friend.

See, I won't share snippets or actual details, but still can pretend to tantalize you with random character names dropped here and there. Sly of me, right? Dead Robert is sooooo my favorite, though. I think I will love Dead Robert.

Did I say I was looking forward to Surrey?

The weird thing is, regarding Surrey, that I'm actually looking forward to pitching. Most writers will probably think I'm insane for even thinking that. But I _think_ Jenna will be a really great match for the agent I'm meeting with--I think it's right up her alley and she'll like it. So I'm looking forward to introducing her to Jenna, so to speak, in the same way that you look forward to introducing two friends you really like.

Of course like introducing the two friends, I might be wrong and they might not like each other at all. They might despise each other from first look. But that's okay too. I have a list of potential agents as long as my arm I can introduce Jenna to, should this meeting not go as well as I hope. I'm not all wrapped up in this one chance; I just see it as a really good opportunity. That I can't wait to get to.

Is that weird of me? Or insanely arrogant? I wonder, but don't know. At any rate I figure it can't be a bad attitude to go into the pitch with, so I'll stick with it for now. Until I stand there quivering before her, my little red folder squashed tightly to my chest...

No, seriously. Just a chance for a chat. {s}

(I'm still liking this bleagh-spill-out-my-mind style of blogging better than the stale updates. You? It does make titling them more difficult.)

I decided that I'm bored with the "Whadjya eat" thingum, because how many times can I reasonably write "we had Mexican food again" without throat-slitting becoming necessary? So since I am taking a digital photography class, and since I've been taking all these photos of minerals for our calendar, I'm hereby instituting a "photo of the day" feature instead. Voila, it is done.

Photo of the Day (which I took this morning):

wow, that's a ramble you've got there

I have added 2 new blog links to my list: Melissa Marr and Libba Bray. I know, I know, I should stop reading other writer's blogs and just get to my own writing, but since I've been on this YA kick lately (writing YA, reading YA, thinking YA), I like to hear from other YA authors. It makes me feel, no matter how self-delusionally, that I'm tapped in.

Anyway. I haven't even read Libba Bray's books yet, but somebody mentioned her blog on the forum and I looked, and I read two entries and said "I must add this!" And I loved Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely so much that I actually wrote her a fan-girl letter last week. (I have not written a fan-girl letter in like, ever, so this is big. Melissa responded almost immediately with a very nice note. She is not only an excellent writer, she is good people.)

I apparently am writing my blog free-form today. Don't question. Ride along.

I meant to not start the word counter for the new book (er...Book 3, Natalie, or something) until I had at least 1000 words, and I should have listened to myself. I looked at that 0% this morning and felt sad. Must write more to get over 1000. I realized that I'm actually having a bit of difficulty transitioning to writing all-new, first draft material again. I'm so darned used to the revision mode that I feel like I want to polish and fix, even when I only have 150 words to work with. Must. Stop. This. SFD!

Hmmm, this free-form blogging thing might help. I think I must do a writing journal entry today.

In other news (I wonder how often I say that?) I am finally relatively well, hurrah, after a full week of first cold and then stomach virus. It feels almost odd to be well, but good. GOOD. And I get to leave early this afternoon to go take Child to her ballet/tap class, which should be fun.

My coffee cup is broken, as hubby dropped it spectacularly yesterday (picture fountains of coffee spewing all over the garage floor) and dented it. Who knew this would make the coffee not come out the top? Yay, good excuse to buy a new one.

I WILL BE AT SURREY TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY!!!

Yes, I will leave it there, for now.

Natalie

Okay, I got some 400 words today, and Natalie (Nat) feels right. So I'm going with that for now.

And though I won't share snips, I will share photos. This is what Natalie's hair looks like. {s}

Yeah, I know, you're fascinated.

Not Freddy

Hmph. Yesterday I contracted the "mild GI bug" that Child had over the weekend...which doesn't feel quite so mild in me. Argh. I'm feeling like it's karma just for saying that.

It's snowing, with a strong, cold wind. I am so staying inside.

That's the bad news. The good news is I started writing on Book 3 yesterday (yay). I quickly discovered, though, that the MC's name is NOT Freddy. It just doesn't fit. I'm looking for a new name, though "Natalie" keeps popping up (over and over and over), so maybe that one will stick. For now I guess I'll have to refer to it as Book 3 until I'm sure...

Will add more today!

The bleeping Padres closer blew the save and lost the bleeping game in the bottom of the 13th inning.

{rest of post censored for a huge string of nasty swear words}

Change in plans

Child had a mild GI bug over the weekend, AND it snowed, so we took it a little easier than planned. Meaning we skipped the homecoming parade and football game and went to a nice indoor volleyball game instead...though we still went to the activity-packed birthday party on Sunday. I was soooooooo tired last night. (why do birthday parties wear out parents more than kids?)

The bloody #@*The bloody #@*$& Padres lost 2 games this weekend when they only needed to win one, and so have to do a tie-breaker game tonight to try to make it in the playoffs. They better win tonight, or there will be mucho swearing in our household, at least half of it by me.
amp; Padres lost 2 games this weekend when they only needed to win one, and so have to do a tie-breaker game tonight to try to make it in the playoffs. They better win tonight, or there will be mucho swearing in our household, at least half of it by me.

I got feedback today from 2 out of 3 of my teen readers who have experienced epilepsy, and was really (really) happy with their responses, especially that they felt the epilepsy bits were spot-on. A big whew and yay.

And I brainstormed Freddy today. I now know what Freddy looks like, and am getting a sense of her. And I know where the first scene starts! I set a goal to get 5,000 words this month, and will start those this week, definitely. Hmmm, maybe 1000 this week.

Surrey is coming in only 17 days!

Whadjya eat? Steak, garlic bread, mushrooms fried with garlic and butter. I miscalculated and the steak was underdone, which made me sad. {sigh} Oh well, will know better next time!

the weekend, and a new book.

Yes!! I know what the next book is going to be about! (or rather who it's going to be about) And I love it! For discussions' sake, I shall call it Freddy.

Other things going on right now:

--still yucky icky cold. I can feel it descending into my chest, which sucks.
--have to attend a 2-hour groundbreaking ceremony in about 45 minutes for my agency's new building, which I have spent countless hours working on, since I'm on the lovely floor plan committee. Would be fine, if I didn't have a cold. {sigh}
--after ceremony, I get to attend lunch with a bunch of VIPs, including the governor.
--tomorrow is homecoming, so parade and football game (unless it snows, which it might!)
--Sunday I'm escorting Child to a birthday party

I'm rather tired just thinking about it, actually. Must think about coffee and new books instead.

(forgot again, added later) Whadjya eat? I found a cool pre-cooked carnitas pack. Heated that, served with tortillas, refried beans, fresh salsa, avocados and sour cream. YUM. And lots of leftovers.

Huh.

Yesterday was unexpected.

I got a call at 11 AM from Child's school that she threw up, and could I come and get her, please? I practically steamrolled over people racing across town, picturing my poor baby feverish, shivering, you know...ill.

Um, not really. Apparently she got sick for no reason (in the middle of circle time, eek) but was still perfectly fine. She wasn't exactly cheerful, but after we got home and watched a half hour of kid TV she was raring to play. She ate fine, had lots of energy, had no fever...parenting really is a mystery, I guess. As my boss said this morning, "sometimes kids just do that." {shrug}

I, on the other hand, have a nasty yucky head cold, and have already gone through half a box of Kleenex in spite of being dosed with daytime cold meds. Maybe it was good for me to stay home yesterday too. It got me out of a class. {g}

Whadjya eat? Sliced turkey with lingonberry sauce (YUM, better than cranberry), banana-nut muffins, fresh vegetables with ranch.

Ah-chooo

Revisions made to Jenna: check.
Jenna hook: check.
Jenna synopsis: check.

Whew. I still have a couple more teen readers out there, but otherwise I'm just about ready for Surrey.

Time to start on the next book, I think. {s}

I need to turn in my paper today, but it's mostly done. Yesterday I was all crazy productive and cranked a lot of stuff out. Then last night I came down with daughter's cold {sniff}, so am feeling anything but productive today. {SNEEZE}

Perhaps I will take it nice and easy today.

Ya know, I'm thinking this blog has become pretty boring lately. Sorry about that. Sometime soon maybe I'll get back to ranting and actual coherent discussion instead of just updates...

Whadjya eat? French toast, maple breakfast sausage, and peaches.

Yo ho ho

Another busy day! At work I'm putting the final touches on a publication to send it to the printer today. It was a rush-rush project, but we made it right on deadline, whew.

Once that's done, I can think about my paper that's due next week, and maybe do an outline. I also get to do a fun work project and go take pictures of some pretty minerals for our annual calendar.

And tonight I get a massage my hubby bought me (yay) and go out to dinner. And then tomorrow hubby and I are leaving Child with Grandma for an overnight, and going out of town to a comedy/theatre performance. I'm really looking forward to that!

Jenna update: 3/5 readers have given me full feedback, one partial feedback. I'm extremely stoked at the responses so far. AND I was very excited today that another beta-reader agreed to take a look, someone who's experienced epilepsy herself. I really wanted to have some feedback from that quarter before I pitch. Today at lunch: work on synopsis and hook.

my mind is on vacation at least

Hey, y'all!

Since Jenna's out to readers, I'm taking a little vacation (well, if you can call doing classwork and presentations and real work and going to a curriculum meeting at the preschool tonight a vacation...ya know. I was going to work on my synopsis today, but I went out to lunch instead. That's vacation.).

I also took time over the weekend to read Scott Westerfield's UGLIES, and I highly recommend it. It's a wee bit heavy on the message in a few places, but that's far overwhelmed by the strength of the story and the characters, and the originality of the concept. I'll be reading the sequels.

RE the Jenna-out-to-readers thing, I must admit that I've had a few twinges over the past couple of days just thinking how odd it is that my characters and world are now also living in the minds of other people. Five other people max, but it's a start, right? It's a strange thing. These characters--people--were created in my brain, and now I can have actual discussions with others about Jenna and Joe and Dr. Ramsay. WEIRD. Think how Vicki and karen and all the rest of you published folks must feel on a daily basis. :)

Whadjya eat? Yesterday: pita pizzas, with salad. Child gets to make her own, which is fun. Sunday I did a real-cooking thing and made Spicy Garlic Cashew Chicken, and again it rocked. If you like to cook at all, try that recipe.

YAY!

Revisions over, and it's off to my beta-readers. WHEW.

(I should say this round of revisions over, because I know there will be more after readers, but whatevah. Done for now.)

To celebrate, I bought myself this:


Yep, a foam gargoyle with LED light-up eyes.
Those of you who are reading Jenna now will soon understand. It did get rather a "what the hell" from my husband, but I explained that to me it's like a leap of faith in my book. I saw it, thought "that's a perfect promotional item for Jenna signings" and, after dithering a bit, bought it. I realize that as of this moment no one has even read the book but me, much less agents, editors, or readers, but I believe. Someday I will need this for a signing.

{beam}

A heroine

This week I've greatly lamented the loss of one of my favorite authors of all time, and one of my primary inspirations: Madeleine L'Engle. I've done it privately. But today I saw on Jennifer Jackson's blog this poem:

At Tara in this fateful hour,
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness:
All these I place between myself and the powers of darkness!

I memorized this poem, when I was an early teen, and repeated it to myself whenever I had troubles. I read the book again as a young adult in college, and I renewed the memorization, checking myself every few days for a while to see if I had it still, because I wanted to keep it in my head. Because it, and those books, were so important to me. They still are. They always will be.

Not a rant

I could do a major rant today. I want to--it's boiling over in me, triggered by yet another snide comment from someone who loves to shoot others down out of pure jealousy.

But. September 11th does not seem like a suitable day to rant about piddly things. So I will focus on my work, and my book, instead, and put that energy to a more positive purpose.

Out.

Update (yes, I'm alive)

There. Plot revision done. I cut about 7500 words, and added about 5300 new ones back in. That's about 10-12% changeover, and hopefully all for the better. Yay!

Next up: language draft. I expect this one to be a lot easier for me than plot changes--it just will involve going through the whole thing (again) and polishing the language. Taking out repetition, changing up cliched or old phrases, making sure descriptions are clear and fit with the characters. This is the type of editing I usually do, so I'm more comfortable with it. Plot revisions are Not As Much Fun. I have 10 days to accomplish the language draft changes to make my goal of sending it to readers on September 20th. Then I plan to gnaw on my nails until I get comments. :)

We had an excellent weekend. First home football game of the season for the college we both work for, which is a big deal! Sadly we lost, but it was fun. Yesterday I alternated between playing Fish Day with Child (don't ask me, she announced that it was Fish Day and we were supposed to read fish books, play fish games, and dress up and act like fish...) and doing actual house and yard work.

Oh, I'm sorry. I should've given you a warning before I said something so shocking. :)

Anyway, I have to go to class in an hour and one of my authors just called, so must go work. Later!

Whadjya eat? Steak, scalloped potatoes, squash baked with butter and parmesan cheese. This week I've got to do something with the hundred or so apples we picked from our little tree...

Good and Bad

Hola! It's been a while, I know. I just haven't felt like blogging. Too many other things going on, and I've been living in my own little Jenna-revision-world anyway. People keep catching me staring at the walls or the ceiling for long periods of time.

There is too much. Let me sum up.

---------
Good: Last night, while lying in bed listening to the Angels/Mariners game on the radio, I solved my subplot problem. Yes! One thread has been giving me headaches since I started, never quite fitting, never being strong enough to balance everything else. Voila--if I move all the action one month later, I complicate Jenna's life tremendously and make everything more difficult, yet stronger. Perfect. Ha ha.

Bad: I couldn't sleep at all last night, tossing and turning while my mind worked on the implications of the above. Major ripples to deal with. {YAWN}
---------
Good: Child starts Kindergarten tomorrow. Same teacher as last year, so no stress there. And we all love her school.

Bad: Of her two best friends, one moved to another school for kindergarten and the other is in the other classroom. {sigh} AND she's five and so big and her childhood is zooming by...{sniff}
---------
Good: My grad school classes have started and are fun so far, especially digital photography. Yay!

Bad: My grad school classes have started.
--------
All good:
You MUST READ Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst. Yes, it's a middle-grade novel based on fairy tales. I don't care what grade it's for. It's inventive, captivating, funny, and intense. The concept is original and very well done. I read the whole thing in One Day. Go. Check it out. Trust me.

Other Stuff

Some things I haven't mentioned, while I was obsessed with Finishing:

--Child has been attending kid's drama camp all week, which she is LOVING. They get to do a performance of Where the Wild Things Are tomorrow. She plays a monster. :)

--Grad school starts next week. {sigh} Fortunately this term I'm taking catch-up required classes: Digital Imaging (photography and Photoshop) and Professional Presentations. Decided against taking Rhetoric, yay.

--It's been nasty here for about a week, socked in with smoke from all the forest fires in Montana and Idaho. The sky has been orange or yellow, and really icky to breathe. Yesterday it rained (thank God) and cleared a bunch of it up, though. Whew. I have my window open again.

--Last night I started reading Into the Wild, by Sarah Beth Durst, a fellow blogger. (Sarah's agent was one of those who read the full of TMT, so I found her blog while reading up) So far, I'm really enjoying it. Hooray for reading and movies during my self-imposed break!

YES!

Guess what, guys?

3300+ words later, I have finished the first draft of Jenna.

WoooooooooHooooooooooooooooooooo!

(yes, I'm all teary.)

Thanks so much for all your support. Mind, I'll need it again in a week or so when I'm editing, chopping, adding, and re-working, but for now? Thank you.

I know I've been pretty close-mouthed about what Jenna was even about, but since I'm pretty sure the main plot is not going to move around now, I'm going to post the hook (which, yes, I've already written) in celebration. Here 'tis. Gotta go post on the forum now!

The Weirdest Thing about Jenna
by Susan Adrian

Fifteen-year-old Jenna's life is…complicated. Her mom, a true-life columnist, has a new job on national radio—so now people across the country can share every little embarrassing moment. Jenna's been yanked from San Diego and dumped with her dad, in small-town Montana. Oh, and she sometimes abruptly disappears into an alternate world, where each kid has their own shade, one person who is their perfect balance. At least Joe always understands her.

But the other world starts falling apart at the same time as Jenna's real life. Joe and all the other shades are in danger, and Jenna has to help fix the balance to save him, and herself. But just when she's getting it, her dad sees her "disappear"…in what looks like a seizure. Now Jenna's caught up in a nightmare of doctors, tests, and needles, in a world where she has no control, and no one believes her. Are the doctors right, that Joe is just a hallucination of epilepsy? Or is he real, and waiting for her to save him?

Follow Jenna into a world of flying monkeys, cranky nurses, and a hot guy with problems of his own.

There!

{Huge grin}

Still not done, though. One more chapter at least.

Okay, enough about freaking Jenna, but no. Not enough.

98%. I think I'll reflect on that for a moment. 90-freaking-8 percent.

Though I think I will go over the wordcount some. Not much, but some. Which of course is perfectly fine. :)

I see the end, like an image in a microscope, coming sharper as I focus the knob.

Some of it is dorky as is. Yes, I admit this. Hopefully I will fix this dorkiness in the second draft, though it's also possible that some of it is just a reflection of my perfectly dorky imagination. We shall see. I plan on giving it to plenty of (diverse) readers when the second draft is done, so all remaining "oh my god this is lame" moments should be wiped out with that.

I am eating Pringle's Salt-n-Vinegar chips like there is no tomorrow. Must stop that.

From Jenna today: "Oh my God, what a headache. Seriously. The headaches I'd had before when I came back, splitting my skull and all? Machetes vs. pumpkin? Nothing compared to this."

Whadjya eat? Leftovers. :)

Monday report

There, got my minimum words in for the day (800), so now I can do a quick post before I get back to real work.

I had a great weekend. On Saturday we all went out to a sapphire-mining place, where you buy buckets of gravel, wash it in a trough, and pick through the piles hunting for sapphires. It's actually really fun, like finding treasure. And there are so many in this particular area that there are at least a few in every screen-full.

Sunday we hung out and went grocery shopping, and I got to spend some good time with Child. We did ballet together, which she LOVED (I was doing a barre routine with her, with plies in first position, second position, etc., and for once she was following, wide-eyed and smiling, instead of arguing with me that I wasn't doing it correctly. {g}). I did discover later that evening that I'd managed to strain my Achilles "showing off", but oh well. Worth it.

Unfortunately it was NOT a good weekend for writing. I got up early on Sunday to write, expecting about an hour and a half, and Child popped up 3 minutes later. {sigh} Best-laid plans. I scraped about 100 words from the scene in my head while she watched TV, but that was it. Though it was frustrating, it's okay. Real life takes precedence, and she's only little once. :)

Oh...last night hubby and I decided to watch the Masterpiece Theatre version of Phillip Pullman's "The Ruby in the Smoke", which I'd always wanted to read, since I like the other series so well. And it was really good, with funny lines and unexpected bits, intriguing, twisted--and then halfway through the PBS station crapped out and just went blank. By the time it came back up, the show was almost over, so we missed it. Bummer. Will have to track it down sometime.

Favorite line from Jenna writing today:
"But still I was stuck here. Pinned in this world like a beetle on a board."

Whadjya eat? Pork chops with a prepared Thai rub, tomato salad, artichokes with melted butter!

And on and on and on...and stop!

Self discovery: I get very cranky trying to hold scenes in my head all day. Occasionally I mutter them to myself, to make sure I remember them. This probably makes me look insane.

I may be to the end of the headlong rush of words (10,500 words in one week!), just because I'm to the bit where I don't know what happens, how to wrap up one of the plotlines. I had an idea this morning, but I don't know yet exactly how it will work, so I'm going to have to pause to brainstorm it out. I don't expect a very long pause, though. {g} I don't want to stop.

On the other hand, sometime soon I'm going to need to get some real sleep not interrupted by excited thoughts about Jenna. {YAWN}

Whadjya eat? I keep forgetting this. Last night: we ordered pizza. {s} The night before, I made Parmesan Turkey cutlets, which is basically thin turkey slices dipped in an egg/parmesan/basil batter and fried. Can't find the recipe at the moment...

Whoopee

Wow. I got up early this morning to get some writing in while everyone was asleep, and I got about 1000 words before I had to get them up and moving. (Child's getting dressed right now.) We have to do a trip to Bozeman today for a doctor's appointment, so I won't have any more writing time than that.

I could've written all day, if I had the time.

As it is, the next two scenes were already bouncing around in my head in the shower, so that I had to scribble some notes down as soon as I popped out. And OMG, dudes, I love it. It's all coming together, and it just fits perfectly.

{boing, boing, boing}

Yes, that was me bouncing around the room. Yes, I have probably had too much coffee. But that is just okay by me. I'm happy, yay yay yay, it's working and I love it and I can't wait to write it--

damn. gotta go. {g}

Go, go, go, go

Yay! Almost done, almost done! 55,000 by end of this week (that's 10k in 10 days, folks), and then I only have ~5,000 more to go!

{hopping up and down}

Better

Okay, I've been duly slapped, and I feel lots better.

Thanks, Vic. {ow}

Call to the cavalry

Okay. I need a bitch-slap, fast. Get your arms ready, girlfriends.

The writing is going well--you know this. I blather on about it every day. I'm less than 10k from the end, and it's fast and furious. I wrote another 1200 words or so yesterday; turned down lunch with hubby to spend more time with my girl today. Am drawn to her every minute. But.

Apparently my brain is not happy unless it's worrying about something. So in the past couple of days, even while I'm writing like a maniac, I've been obsessed with the following:

1. Is anyone going to want to read this book but me? I know, I know. Now is NOT the time to even think about this. But let's say this--Jenna will be a good book, I think. A compelling story. But it's not exactly fit-into-a-mold. {cough} There are things in there, fairly serious issues, that turned out to be bigger within the story than I thought. It's not lighthearted fantasy YA, at all. I'm picturing myself trying to pitch it, and panicking...

(Why do I care about this? Why am I even thinking about this? SLAP ME!)

2. Even worse. I'm freaking out about what I'm going to write next.

Dudes, I know! But I'd had the idea that I would be able to write, if not a sequel, then another book in the same world. I'm not absolutely positively sure, but I don't think so anymore. I think Jenna is a stand-alone, and anything else I tried to write about this situation/world would be repetitive or derivative. {sigh} This has just become clear. So now my little brain is spinning: if you're not going to write that next, what are you going to write? Huh? Huh? What's next, write your passion girl?

What if I only have one book that I'm this passionate about? What if I can't do this again? (What am I talking about, I haven't even done it once, I'm not done.) Eeeeeeeekk!

Welcome to my mind. Is this just fear of finishing? What the hell?

I'm gonna go read the last bit of Jenna and try to kick some sense back into myself, but any help would be appreciated.

Monday status

First:

Vicki Pettersson, who is quickly turning into my writing mentor, is a featured author at Barnes & Noble.com, with her own book club! This is the coolest thing ever--except maybe when she sold her first three books, or when she hit the USA Today list, or when she sold 3 more, or when... {g} Please go by and say hi.

Second:

My rush slowed down a tiny bit yesterday, but just because I had only an hour to write in the morning before Child got up, and there was no more time to squeeze. All told, I wrote 4,200 words since Friday--more than a week's worth of work at my regular pace--and am sitting at my goal for NEXT Monday. {huge g} I'm itching to write the next bit today. Last night I had to get up and scribble out some notes on What Happens Next. I still don't know all, but it's revealing itself pretty fast. I even have an inkling of the end. Not all of it, but half at least.

I also am starting to get a clear picture of what I'm going to have to prune out and plump up again. Some plotlines obviously aren't working or simply aren't needed, and others are muddled. Still, I can "see" it, how it should be.

I have no idea if anyone else is going to like, or even get, this book. It's a touch weird, I admit. But I love it. If nothing else I can just re-read it to myself over and over. :)

Whadjya eat? Yummmm! We bought a seasoning pack of spicy Thai peanut coating, slapped it on pork chops, and baked them. Served with Thai basil-garlic-coconut rice (from a box, by Taste of Thai) and fresh cherries and strawberries. Highly recommend, if you can find it, especially the rice!

Craziness

{GRIN} Yes, it worked. An hour and a half of writing, another 1000+ words. I've done more in the last two days than I usually do in a week.

I'm loving this, I admit it. (almost to 50k!)

But Child is up now, gotta go!!

And more!

Ahem. Hubby went out for an hour to a work thing. 2600+ words for the day. Dudes, I had to drag myself away.

I plan to try to get up early and write tomorrow, but we will see if it works...

More...

{Cough} 2200 words today. It won't leave me alone...I've already surpassed Tuesday's goal. Ha!

Possessed

Wow. That doesn't happen to me very often.

I was taken over by a scene in the shower this morning. It's not the next scene--it's two up--but it is crucial, a significant revelation and tough point in the book. Maybe the low point for Jenna. (sorry, Jenna!) And in the shower it just started coming to me, whole, complete, with dialogue and images and reactions and descriptions...I was muttering the conversation out loud to myself while I got ready, continuing it on the drive in. I had to hold it in my head until I could type it, and then it all dumped on the page.

1200 words. Not the next scene in the book, but there, down. Amazing and tortuous, dumped out whole. Wow.

I still feel like I'm shaking off a possession. And I'm all emotionally shaken. (sorry again, Jenna, really I am...)

This is not how I usually write. I'm grateful for it--I know it's a powerful scene--but honestly, if I did this all the time either people would think I was crazy or I would be... {g}

Shock

Well, with 3 posts yesterday, you'd think I could squeak one out today. Maybe a short one.

I've been in class all day learning how to do CPR and use an AED (automated external defibrillator). Yes, I can shock you now. Watch out! {pointing at each of you}

I told everyone back in my office that if anybody needed to have a heart attack now would be a good time, as I was prepared and fresh. But nobody stepped up. Chickens. Tomorrow, Red Cross First Aid. I also told them to hold off bleeding until tomorrow, please.

But I managed to squeeze my words in during my 35-minute lunch break even though I really didn't have time to eat or anything and had nothing but coffee to drink all day and had to sprint back to the place but hey I got my 500 words and...{breath}...that is all.

Whadjya eat? Black beans and rice. Another new recipe. Verdict: yum. Served with fresh pears and nectarines.

Imagination...

The Hat Trick post of the day!

I just had to record this conversation I had with Child yesterday. Hubby heard it from the other room and was just as boggled as I was.

We were coloring pictures of the Backyardigans together.

Child: What kind of animal is that one, anyway?

Me: I don't really think it's an animal. I think it's an alien. (see picture--the pink one.)

Child: Oh, no. She couldn't be an alien. She's nice. All aliens are mean.

Me: Hmmm. I don't think they're all mean. I think I've heard a story once or twice with nice aliens. (thinking fast: do I say they're not real? Do I?)

Child: No, they're all mean.

Me, after a while, nonchalantly: I'm not really sure aliens are real, anyway.

Child: No, they are. I've met aliens.

Me, sitting back on my heels: Really?

Child (still coloring): Yes, I met aliens before I was born. That's why you don't know about them, because you weren't with me.

At this point all those theories of children remembering past lives, heaven, etc. from before they were born are flashing through my mind, but I keep my voice even.

Me: Really? How very cool.

Child: Yeah. And did you know...(dramatic pause)...that there's a Disneyland in your belly?

Me: Um...

Child: There's a real Disneyland, inside your belly.

Me: Was that why you used to kick me so much?

Child: Yes! Because I wanted you to come to Disneyland with me.

{grin}

A nod

Oh...and I put this in the book yesterday. I couldn't help myself. It does fit with my audience.


From The Weirdest Thing about Jenna:

I swiped damp bangs out of my face. Though it was cold as freaking heck up here—the wind was blowing straight at us on this ledge—I was sweating. Nerves. "Wouldn't it be nice if we could just Apparate into the cave, and bring them back with us?"

Neil looked at me blankly. "What?"

"Harry Potter? Hello?" He shrugged, and I gave it up. Who hadn't read Harry Potter?

Let the brain work

The answer for how to get out of the last fix came to me in the shower this morning (and it builds on what I already had, yay!)--and I solved some other plot problems while mowing last night.

I've heard other writers talk about how "mindless" activities can help in plotting, and that's definitely true for me. I suspect it's the subconscious working it out for you, tying things together that you put in there without really understanding why. I love my subconscious. {g} Where do you get your best ideas, or solve your plot issues?

Whadjya eat? Tried a new recipe last night, to rave reviews. Hubby really really liked it. As usual, it's one of Elise's: Spicy Garlic Cashew chicken. You can control how spicy it is--I took out all but one or two jalapeno seeds, so it wasn't too much for Child. I made the marinade the night before and put it on the chicken in the morning, which worked fine. Served with a veggie salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocado and fresh pears. Yum.

Out of the fire...into the ?

Yes! I escaped the corner!

And put them immediately in a worse one. {cackles}

No, I don't know how to get out of this fix yet either, but I'm sure it will come to me--or rather to Jenna. Inventive little chickie, that one.

And...I finished Harry Potter today. {happy sigh}

NO SPOILERS please! E-mail me if you want to discuss...

Whadjya eat? Leftover Italian food. Added angel hair pasta as a side, and mushrooms fried in butter and garlic (and a tiny smidge of sweet white wine).

Painting yourself into a corner...and how to escape

Have you ever created a situation--for your characters, of course--so sticky, so impossible to get out of, that you drop into reader mode and think Wow! How are they ever going to get out of that?

And then reality slaps you hard in the face when it comes time to write the scene. You sit there, staring at the screen blankly. Thinking, Damn. How are they ever going to get out of that? And you don't know. You have no idea. Everything that comes to you seems like cheating, pulling a trick on the readers. You know better than to have a deus ex machina, because you wouldn't want to read one. You could back up a few steps and make it easier...but what would be the fun of that? Do you want your character's struggles to seem easy, meaningless? Of course not. You know very well that for a triumph to be important to the readers it has to be critical to the characters. It has to come through struggle and hardship and sacrifice.

So what do you do? As the writer/goddess, you do have the luxury of being able to go to earlier parts of the book and plant clues, if you need to, for something to help solve the current problem. And that might work--if you only could figure out what the best solution to the problem WAS.

This is where I am today. I set it up, so it's my own fault--and I must say the situation is pretty good. Darn near impossible to do what they need to do, and not succeeding just isn't an option. But now I've got to fix it, help them succeed in spite of the obstacles.

Fortunately I'm not worried, because this has happened to me lots of times before, and I know what I need to do. First chance I get I have a date with my writing journal, where I will throw out ALL aspects of the situation and all the options, sort through them, and start suggesting creative ideas. Most of them will be ridiculous, but one of them will stick. And then, fellow writers, will come that wonderful AHA moment, when every little piece falls into place as though you meant it to happen like that all along.

Because you did, right? Sure. You planned it that way. So did I. {cough}

Lessons picked up from other writers

I used to avoid reading for pleasure while I was writing, in the fear that (a) it would take too much time away from writing and (b) other author's styles would somehow seep into my own writing. (a) is not really an issue lately, since I write every day at lunch and just know that I can't read during that time. (b)? Not worried so much about that, since I started writing in my own kitchen-sink style.

So I've been reading. And I've discovered that there can be a wonderful symbiosis between reading and writing, when you're writing every day. Though I don't pick up author's styles, I do notice what's succeeding, and what's not, in their books, and I try to note those lessons for my own work. Here's what I've learned from the last 3 books I've read/am reading (yes, I'm still reading HP. About halfway through).

--From Trangressions, by Sarah Dunant: Don't answer the central question of the book two-thirds of the way through. I really didn't care if I ever picked it up at all after that point--the rest was just floppy plot, of no interest. And make sure that the story delivers on the promise implied by the book's jacket. I was (obviously) quite disappointed in this one.

--From Vicki Pettersson: Pay attention (probably on later drafts) to every word, every phrase, you put on the page. There probably is a fresher, more character-specific way of describing something than the first phrase you clunked down. Vicki is a master of original descriptions and turns of phrase, and I love that in her writing.

--From the latest Harry Potter: Complexity is okay. It's also okay to not explain everything for your readers; let them guess. Let them figure it out. Allude to things they don't really need to know about, but the characters do. All this makes for a detailed, real world. Also, let characters speak as they really would, with pauses and awkwardness and occasional swearing. (I did know this, but it's great to see it in print again.)

(forgot) Whadjya eat? Child and I were on our own, so she got to choose. Grilled cheese sandwiches, cantaloupe (her absolute favorite), and veggies with ranch dressing. :)

There!

Whew. That was not easy. But I'm happy with the new blue look. What do you think?

In the...

Yes, I'm trying out pink. I was bored with green, and must change colors regularly.

Don't know if I like it yet...tomorrow I may go blue instead. :)

Oh, and...um, fix my links. And my wordcounter. {gentle head-bang}

In praise of editors

Gary Kamiya has written a fabulous piece in today's Salon called "Let us now praise editors". Fellow editors, go get a day pass and read it, and revel in the unusual appreciation.

Writers, go read it twice. {s}

What I did for my weekend

I did not go to a midnight Harry Potter party on Friday.

Instead hubby, Child, and I went to an amazing dance performance in Helena. Artisan Dance is a cool ballet company that hosts professional dancers from all over the country every summer for a workshop, then puts on a performance at the end. We saw it last year, and knew we had to go back again. Wow. During some parts I was leaning forward in my chair, hands clasped, trying to just be closer to it, it was SO good. Ahhhh. Ballet bliss.

Not to worry, though, I had my Harry Potter waiting on the porch for me when we got back on Sunday. Of course I'm only about 100 pages in right now, so I'm going to have to studiously avoid all blogs, newspapers, TV, and radio for about a week until I finish. DO NOT TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS! :)

I just glanced at Google Reader this morning and saw about three people whose first lines were "So I just finished Harry Potter..." Yeah. So not going there. I would've brought the thing to work so I could read faster, but I have too many other things I'm supposed to be reading/writing here...

Hope y'all had a fabulous weekend!

Whadjya eat? Leftovers; haven't had a chance to go shopping yet. But on Saturday we had an awesome dinner. I had TWO margaritas (good thing the restaurant was right next to the hotel, eh?). We shared an appetizer plate with shrimp "purses", fried scallops, onion rings, and jalapeno poppers. Then I had a salad with bleu cheese dressing, bread, and my entree: pork chops cooked in peanut oil, topped with pineapple and coconut sauce, and baked potato. Dude. I couldn't even touch dessert.

The big reveal...um, sort of

I've seen a couple of rants lately about critique partners & groups, and how to deal with or give criticism. I've even talked about this subject myself, long ago in blog-land terms. I'm extremely interested in this topic, and I'm about to get more interested. Why?

In the fall, I will start research for my Master's thesis: "Online Critique of Creative Writing: Best Practices from OWLs to Blackboard"

That's right, folks. I'm gonna be researching YOU. The gist of the thesis is that I'm looking at how critiques of fiction writing are handled in different online venues: structured critique forums like Compuserve's Exercises, or the related book critique site; small, private critique groups; critique partners, usually two people who crit each other's work; and online writing labs. I'll be comparing how critiques are handled in these places with traditional methods of critique in the creative writing classroom, and try to apply my lessons learned to (a) help writers and (b) help teachers of online creative writing courses.

I'm just working on reviewing the current literature right now, but soon I'll start pegging sites for research, and beginning to set up studies and surveys. So all you authors in the crowd, please gear yourselves up to be tapped to help. :)

Oh, and keep those rants coming. I'm taking notes. {eg}

Whadjya eat? Leftover turkey slices, cornbread, corn-on-the-cob (me) and sliced tomatoes with dressing (them), and cottage cheese. A nice cool summer meal. Still baking in the 90-degree heat, up here...

Weird yesterday

Yesterday I came down with some sort of random stomach illness, and had to bolt home at noon. (I'm perfectly fine now.)

You'd think this would give me lots of alone time to write, right? Not really. I spent about 2 hours on the sofa watching Along Came Polly for the second time (my hubby asked why, and I said "because it was on." Yeah, I wasn't feeling well.). Then I took a nap for a while. Fortunately the nap helped, so I did manage to scrape out 428 words just before everybody got home. Still on schedule, with the bonus words I did this weekend.

Life, eh? Never what you expect.

Whadjya eat? Since I was all normal by dinnertime, I made my originally planned meal, one of our standards: vermicelli with roasted asparagus and tomatoes. Perfect for summer; I serve it cold. We had a fresh fruit salad (peaches, blueberries, and strawberries) with.

A bonus day!

I'm sitting here in Hastings, because it's 100-frigging degrees outside, and we don't have air conditioning. No one does here--we all just suffer through the few days a year when it's hot, because it's just not worth it. But so far we're baking this summer!

Anyway, Child is at her sleepover, and hubby agreed that we could go to a climate-controlled bookstore so we could have iced coffee and I could write. (On a weekend!!! luxury!!!) I added a new scene, about 500 words, and am very happy. Made my weekly goal, up over 37,000 words.

Can I say--oh, just one more time--that I love writing this book? I love this book. Happy happy yay yay.

Okay, enough euphoria. Soon we'll go back out into the 100 degrees, but we are going out to dinner tonight, and then to our play.

Life is sweet today. :)

Whadjya eat? Pizza out. Too hot to stay at our house. Tonight, dinner out again. As hubby said, maybe someday we'll feel like cooking and eating in our house again, but not tonight. {g}

Oh, I forgot...

Whadjya eat? Grilled chicken rubbed with ginger and garlic (and a teensy bit of light olive oil), packaged Asian salad with orange sesame dressing (my favorite), and fresh fruit. The chicken was a bit drier than it should have been, and didn't taste as strongly as I'd like. More fresh spices next time.

The night before we had quesadillas with leftover steak inside, and fresh-made guacamole. But now the fridge is getting into serious leftover mode. I'm thinking we might eat at the carnival tonight, and have leftovers tomorrow...

Kicking ass

YES! A kick-ass 1150 words today, which _almost_ catches me up completely for missing Tuesday. I could've kept going if I hadn't had to get back to work. :) It was a good scene too (I think), relationship-building/fight. I love writing arguments, for some reason. Fortunately Jenna has lots.

Other news:

--Child is back at Grandma's during the day, so we're in our routine again. Have I said how much grandmas rock?
--We're going to the carnival tonight. Wa-hoo!
--Child is doing HER first sleepover at her best friend's house this weekend, and hubby and I therefore get to go to a grown-up play together. Excitement all around.
--Apparently we purchased an evil, homicidal fish. I told you before about how our big gourami (privately nicknamed Psycho) killed our poor tiger barb, his tankmate. Well, Child picked out two lovely neon tetras on Monday as replacement. Ahem. Psycho chased, harassed, pecked, and then killed one the first day and the second the next day. I am no longer fond of Psycho.

A new experience

This morning Child is here at work with me for a couple of hours, and then we'll take off for home. She's sitting right next to me coloring at the moment. For some reason I thought this would mean she'd not be talking to me constantly, but I was wrong. {g}

It's okay. I like her talk. :)

It'll be a challenge to fit writing in today, though...I've got 700 words as my daily goal...

Whadjya eat? Napa Cabbage Salad. It was good for a summer evening--though not great. Child didn't like it much and made a scrunchy face. I served it with sourdough bread with homemade garlic butter (yum) and fresh nectarines and plums. Child liked those parts just fine. {g}

Next

Hokay. I finished the rewrite of the first half (yay) and wrote 500 new words today.

One thing I discovered in the rewrite, though--I'm, er, closing in on the climax much quicker than I thought. Like...soon. I think this book might not make it to 65,000 words. I'm guessing, from the way it's going right now, that this first draft might come in at around 50k. Around 140 typewritten pages.

I'll have to investigate a little and see if that's fair length for a YA book--it seems awfully short to me. And I could probably expand a little on second draft. But to keep it tight...well, I don't know. We shall see. For now I'm keeping focused on the story, and what the story needs, and we'll do a full wordcount at the end.

Interesting, though, eh? You learn something new every book. :)

The just do it, stupid talk

There have been a lot of inspirational posts in blogland lately.

Alison Kent started a challenge called "Seventy Days of Sweat" to help people push through their novels by September. Diana Peterfreund took up that challenge, and gave herself (and everybody else) a serious bitchslap talk today. Stephanie Tyler wrote about how you make time to write, no matter what.

I totally agree. I'm proud to say that even though I was home with my daughter Thursday and Friday, home for the 4th and home for the weekend--which negates my usual writing hour at lunch on workdays--I wrote every day. I got up an extra hour early to write for two of those days. (Unfortunately this particular strategy didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. Child popped up the second she heard me the first day, wanting to know why the heck I hadn't woken her. I told her why. The second day she let me write for 15 minutes before getting up. {g}) The other days I just told her that I needed some writing time, and she did "homework" while I did writing, and I wrote next to her while she watched TV in the morning. Yes, I CAN do it.

Unfortunately the word count isn't bounding up, but that's because I'm editing this week. I am adding new scenes to replace cut ones, but it's not fast. I'm on page 61 of 87 pages, though, and it should go fast from here, and then I'll get into the new stuff (yay).

I'm not participating in the challenge above just because it doesn't meet with my current goals. However, I am still sticking tight to my own personal challenge. At least 10,000 new words a month, finishing the draft in September. That counts this month too, even in spite of the editing, so I'll really have to push through to get to my 45,000. I do my own form of sweat. :)

I do very firmly believe in the sentiments of the other bloggers. If you want to write, you make time to write. Period. Yes, you may not be able to make as much time as you want to, and different people make different sacrifices that work for them. But you make goals for yourself, and you find the time somehow. If you want it. You know what? I want it.

What'djya eat? Last night it finally cooled off a bit, so we had warm food for the first time in a while. Mouth-watering turkey slices from a pre-cooked deep-fried turkey (OMG, yum. Child said "My tummy likes this so much that it's growling for more!"). I served that with Swedish lingonberries, which are rather like cranberry sauce. We also had peas and twice-baked potatoes (also pre-prepared, not by me. What? It's too hot to really cook.)

Slash!

I'm {cough} down another 2000 words in wordcount.

This is depressing because you know I want to keep that sidebar going up, making progress toward my goal of being DONE with the first draft by Surrey. However, I _knew_ that the stuff I cut out today had to go. It was weak, weak, weak. I didn't like it when I wrote it but I let it stand as a placeholder because I wasn't sure what else to do. Well, I think I've got a better line now, so out it comes. Fortunately tomorrow I get to add words, and try out the new subplot(s).

Eeep, except I'm not going to be at work for the next 3 days, so I don't have scheduled writing time. Guess I'm gonna have to make time some other way and get the word count back up!

A tag!

Renee tagged me--it's been so long since I've blogged regularly that I've very nearly forgotten what a tag is--so look! A post!

(In general, I've just been too life-occupied to post much lately. Summer is busy time, and add on re-working Jenna, reading a very engrossing book, and {ahem} ignoring my thesis work, and poof! No blog time. Oh, did I mention WORK? And holiday/vacation stuff?)

Anyway, on to the tag. 7 random facts about me.

{fingers lightly tapping the keyboard while I stare at the screen}

The problem is, what don't you already know? Hmmmm. {tap. tap.} Screw it, let's just go.

1. I like to swear (see above), and seriously had to clean up my mouth when I had a child. (ooops, my Dad reads this blog, but oh well. It's true. Sometimes swearing just makes you feel better.)

2. In college I wrote some mighty horrible poetry. Some day I will drag one of these out and make you all laugh. Or, more likely, not.

3. I walk like a duck, from many many years of ballet. I also turn my feet out when I stand, and sometimes idly point my toes or even stand on my toes without realizing I'm doing it.

4. I am a natural mimic, and cannot carry on a long conversation with someone with a different accent without starting to unconsciously imitate it. This has gotten me into serious trouble when people think I'm making fun of them.

5. I'm short-ish, and nearly all of my friends are tall. For some reason this surprises people when they meet me after knowing me online. (yes, you, Julie. And Kreekie. And Daryl. And...oh, all the rest of you.)

6. I have recently discovered that I really, truly like bellinis. And mojitos too.

7. When I started college I intended to be a comparative psychologist, and work with dolphins. Or maybe chimps; I hadn't decided. I quickly discovered that the Animal Science major at UC Davis is NOT about that at all. On the upside, I know my grades of beef and how to castrate a sheep, should that ever be necessary.

Done! I guess I'm supposed to tag 7 people, but that's an awful lot, especially since Renee already tagged several of the ones I know. {frown} Lessee:

Rose
Sara
Deb
and Jen.

That'll do. Guys?

The dreaded edit

Well, I started revising the first half yesterday. I'll admit I was scared. I spent almost half my lunchtime yesterday staring at the printout, working myself up to start it. Why?

Mostly just a basic fear of what I'd find, I suppose. That I'd read it and realize it was all horrible, or that I'd have to slash most of it out, and my carefully built-up word count would dissolve overnight.

Yesterday I only did 2 chapters (see above about half of lunch hour), but I ended up adding words. It was kinda fun after all. I just expanded some scenes, tweaked them, made them deeper. Today I hit the big slash, and had to take out about 1500 words where I've completely revised the plot. Fortunately I've added about 950 back in so far, and am in the midst of an all-new scene now.

I don't know if I'll make it to my original goal of 34,000 by the end of this month, but I'll be close. And I KNOW I'm making it better.

Sometime when I'm not writing and not catching up on work I'll do a blog on our Winnipeg trip. Not today. :)

Whooooppppeeeee!

Wow, and whew.

I wrote 1066 words today. I'm at 50%. {beam}

I also came up with a ton of what-I-think-are-good ideas last night for deepening the world, for tying it (loosely) into existing spiritual concepts, for strengthening the themes. For making the beginning, which is currently a bloody, confused mess, truly kick-ass.

And I'm going to Winnipeg tomorrow for a week, for vacation and for Julie's wedding. I'm thinking as I'm at the halfway mark, it might be a very smart time to pause on the forward momentum and go back and do all that stuff I want to do to the first half before I proceed wrong-footed. Straighten it out and get all those issues sorted.

But we shall see. I'm also currently reading an already kick-ass book, so I'm a tad busy. Vacation, wedding, excellent read, writing frenzy.

It's all good.

P.S. If I don't post again--and I probably won't--I'll see y'all when I get back from Winnipeg.

Conversation notes

Conversation I just had with Child at dinner:

Child: Do you know what my bread just said to me? It told me to have bad manners. That's why I'm talking with my mouth full. {giggle}

Me (blandly): I'm a little bit concerned that your bread is talking to you.

Child: Why? {giggle}

Me: It's pretty unusual for bread to talk to people.

Child: Well, Belle has a talking teapot.

Me (after a pause): Good point.

And now for something completely different...

Happy Friday, all! Today we have a special guest blogger, one you've all heard me talk about (over and over and over and…). She wants to see what all the fuss is about for herself. May I present…Generosity Rayburn!

{angry throat clearing sound}

Er…sorry. May I present…Jenna!
_____

{little wave} Heya. It's Jenna, not…that other name. First, let me say this wasn't my idea, like I’m clueless and need to learn about blogging. I'm on MySpace every day. I'm 15. Hello.

I think Susan just wanted to see what I'd talk about if she let me out. Bwa-ha-ha.

Aside: I cannot believe how long it's taking her to write about me. Seriously. If she'd just listen to me for more than an hour a day, we'd be done already. I feel like I'm on "pause" all the time, waiting for her to come back and let me move on. Doing stuff is fun. Talking is fun. Hanging out with Neil is fun. Waiting? Not fun.

Anyway, when I am allowed to move (thank you), she's got me hopping all over the place. Joe's World, Montana. Joe's World, Montana. Improv class, lunches, the movies. The hospital.

No, I don't want to talk about the hospital.

Lots of stuff. Which I'm glad about, actually. Because if I didn't have all this—um, stuff—going on, I'd be bored out of my mind.

(Did I mention Montana?)

So. I guess that's it for now. She's poking me again and telling me not to give away any spoilers, so I suppose that's my cue to go pause again. Until lunchtime, when I get to go cause trouble some more. Bwa-ha-ha. And maybe I'll come back again and guest blog another time. Like when I actually have something to talk about?

Peace.

-----

Oh, and a fish update. {sigh} Last night one of the fish (let's call him Psycho) started viciously attacking the other fish (aka Defenseless). It wasn't pretty, with Psycho head-butting little Defenseless's battered body around the tank. Yeah. Fortunately Child didn't witness much of that, though I was a little shocked. Who knew about fish? In any case, Defenseless went to watery heaven or wherever they go, so we have one fish for now. We may add more (a different kind) after vacation. {sigh}

Happy...sad...happy...sad

I cleaned up the good scene from yesterday, and am still happy with it. Today's isn't as strong, but I'm still not quite sure where it's going to go...so I'll play with it.

I just got a work publication back from the printer that I worked really hard on. And it looks PERFECT! {happy sigh} I am so relieved.

It's sunny out today, so maybe I can convince hubby to go for a walk with me around campus.

Oh, and the fish? Yeah. The tiger barb is looking like it's not long for this world. We've been fighting ich since we got it, and we're losing. This morning I couldn't find him, and Child finally spotted him INSIDE a little decorative jug on the bottom that he shouldn't even fit into. I guess a survival rate of one out of two isn't bad. {cough}

Whadjya eat? Ah, now you'll start to see my pattern. Usually I grocery shop on the weekend, and Sunday/Monday/Tuesday I try out new stuff or make the real recipes. On Wednesday or so we start to use leftovers, or just have all-out leftover or simple meals the rest of the week. I guess I run out of steam. {g} Last night we had spinach salad, a cooked ham slice, and leftover couscous. I did spruce up the couscous (plain) with toasted garlic and pine nuts, just to make it at least a tiny bit flavorful.

wow

And then that turned into one of the best, strongest scenes in a while. Perseverance pays off, as always.

And if you haven't read it today, check out Da Momma's post on parenting.com. {sniff}

Argh

Humph. Struggling with the writing today. I don't know what the problem is, but it's annoying.

Actually, I do know what the problem is, I guess. I changed locations/scenes, into a "rest" moment, and I'm not really good at writing those. I need and appreciate them when I'm reading, but give me the middle of high action to write any day. {sigh} Or dialogue. I love to write dialogue, at least in this book.

What's your favorite bit to write: dialogue? action? description (pardon me while I ugh)? introspection?

Whadjya eat? We needed a light meal, so I made vermicelli with roasted asparagus and tomatoes, which is actually a Mayo Clinic recipe (healthy!). It's one of our favorites for summer; the asparagus is soooo good this way. I served it with parmesan toasted bread. Actually I'm never sure whether Child will eat this one--sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't--and last night she wanted her own food. Which is fine. We have mac-n-cheese leftovers. {s}

Yaki-SOBA

I managed to squeeze some writing in yesterday even though it turned out to be a lunch-with-hubby day, so it's all good. Mexican food _and_ progress on Jenna.

Today I've got to get my usual 750 words. Hopefully won't be a problem. I get to start today's writing with a kiss scene, the first one in the book. The girl's been a bit too busy for romance so far.

Whadjya eat?
Last night I tried a new recipe, Chicken Yakisoba. It was a bit more labor-intensive than my usual work night recipes, but basically it's chicken stir-fried with Napa cabbage, carrots, onions, and Chinese soba noodles. The yummy light sauce has sake (I used plum sake), soy sauce, and fresh ginger in it. Hubby had seconds and Child actually ate quite a bit before she had to be rescued with cottage cheese. {g} I'd make it again, though probably not often. (But Child and I had lots of fun saying "chicken Yaki-SOBA" over and over and over...)

Not sleeping, writing, and cooking

Child's first sleepover was great...without much sleeping, but I did rather expect that. I did NOT expect them to bounce back up at 6:30 AM all bright and bouncy, but apparently Child's Best Friend is an early riser. Usually weekends are for sleeping in, at least until 8:30.

We took a nap yesterday afternoon to compensate. Yep, me too. {still yawning}

When we weren't running around buying trees/cleaning/having our portrait taken/playing/making cookies etc. this weekend, my brain was on Jenna. I keep having those moments--you writers know them, hopefully--where I am SO excited about what this book could be if only I get it right. I know it's far from that in this first draft, but there are glimmerings. I even sat down and wrote a whole paragraph while the girls were busy playing in the other room.

As I've been into cooking for the past few months, I've decided to copy Sara's "what's for supper" feature, now that she's not doing it that way anymore. {g} Except I have to post what we had for dinner the night before, since I'm never absolutely sure until I make it. I'll call the new feature a version of a famous Butte phrase:

Whadjya eat?: I don't have a recipe to link to, since last night's dinner was straightforward and simple. We had lamb chops with mint-apple jelly, couscous, sliced tomatoes with balsamic vinegar dressing, and fruit salad (fresh strawberries, apples, black plum, and grapes). Child loves lamb chops with mint jelly, so this one's an easy sell. :)

Yay

I was excited yesterday because JENNA is really starting to take off on its own, in a direction I hadn't quite expected. Still within the same general plot, but new branches are shooting off all over, and I love that. I had a brief moment of wanting to run through the halls shouting "THE BOOK'S ALIVE" like Frankenstein.

Thankfully, I stayed behind my shut office door and ate peanut butter cups in joy instead.

I can't wait to get cracking on it today, to see what is revealed. One of the characters is telling a story I don't know yet. {s}

In other news, my writer friends have books popping out all over. My great friend kc dyer's new YA book, Ms. Zephy'rs Notebook, debuted yesterday. I haven't had the chance to read it yet, but you know I will as soon as possible. Sarah Beth Durst's first book, Into the Wild, comes out in two weeks--and that's already on my must-buy list. And Diana Peterfreund's second Secret Society Girl book, Under the Rose, comes out the end of this month. An embarrassment of riches, eh?

And in other other news, my girl is hosting her best friend for their first-ever sleepover tomorrow night. I'm a teensy bit Mom-nervous, but mostly I'm just looking forward to it. I love Child's best friend, and she's always fun to have over. What's all night? :)

And the fish are still alive. Yay.

Miscellania

Things I've learned over the past week:

--Setting up a fish tank for the first time is rather a blur of filters, and conditioners, and correct plants, and correct heaters, and what to do when.

--When the instructions say "heater must be completely submersed before being plugged in", they mean it. Or the bloody thing doesn't work.

--Once I've broken a heater {ahem} I become instantly neurotic about the new one I bought to replace it, convinced that it's not working properly. I may even run home during the day to check that the fish aren't burning up.

--The little bubbly fountain I bought for my office is cool, and is indeed relaxing. It almost wipes out random thoughts about fried fish.

--I really am the mom of a big KID now. She'll be in kindergarten in the fall. As of today, I'm even a soccer mom. {gasp}

--Dead Witch Walking is a good, funny book. But I get way different looks reading that, or Vicki's books, than I did reading historicals. I love this, and this fact alone would make me want to read more.

--I can write 700 words a day steadily if I concentrate on it. I'm still on track for finishing the first draft at least of JENNA by Surrey, and pitching the sucker.

--My friends rock.

Whew

Note progress meter












----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

{big grin}

A...little...bit...further

Well, that was a scraper.

As is well known in writer's circles, you should write every day, even on weekends, to keep momentum going. As is probably known among my blog readers, I don't. With Life and all, I usually devote weekends entirely to family, and come back to the WIP on Monday. Mondays are subsequently a little harder to get into the routine. Apparently Tuesdays are worse! Sheesh. I spent most of my writing time staring at the thing, trying to pull at least 400 words from my brain. I finally got it, barely (well, 487, but who's counting {g}). This is an incredibly short writing week--tomorrow I have lunch with hubby, and Friday is Child's end-of-school picnic--so I only had today and Thursday to get to my 25,000 goal for May. I. will. do. it.

On other things, we had a fabulous all-weekend getaway to Missoula, including really fun things like shopping, playing at the Children's Museum, and throwing rocks into the river. I think the last was my favorite.

Sorry

Sorry for not blogging, but my head's been down with the writing, and I just haven't felt like it. My goal was 24,000 by the end of this week (almost 4,000 words in a week, which is fabulous for me), and I will easily make that.

I have been soaking up everyone else's blogs and emails and all, so keep it up. I'll get back to blogging eventually. For now, I'd rather stay focused on the writing. {s}

I wonder...

It hit me this morning, the perfect word about raising kids. In fact, I think this word was made to describe the experience of raising kids.

Wonder.

In that first moment, when you hold your first baby in your arms, wonder overwhelms you. Look at the little toes! The pink, squashed cheeks! The tiny swirl of hair! It is completely amazing that this...person...grew inside you, and is real.

And the sense of wonder really doesn't stop. You hang over her, entranced, as she sleeps. Breathing! Snoring! Then as she takes her first steps, toddling straight into your arms. As she says her first word. As she writes her own name. As she goes to school, as she learns to swim. If you're anything like me, you're constantly struck by how cool, how wondrous, all of these achievements are, day by day.

But there's the other kind of wonder too, and that's an equally huge part of being a parent.

I wonder what she'll be when she grows up?
I wonder if she'll like to read, like me?
I wonder what she's doing at school today?
I wonder how she can behave like that, when we've had this discussion before?
I wonder if I'm doing the right thing?

When I signed up for being a parent, I hadn't realized there'd be so much uncertainty, so much doubt. Sure, there are all the jokes about wishing they'd come with a manual, and the sober advice that they're all different, and you have to make up new rules for each one. But I had no idea that I'd constantly be wondering if I was making the right choices, doing enough, saying the right thing. Or worrying about her even when she's not with me (especially when she's not with me).

I'm not really looking forward to the teenage years, when my central worry might be "I wonder where she is right now?". Fortunately, I also expect there will still be some of that other kind of wonder--the amazement kind, at what an awesome kid I'm raising--to balance it out.

More

Yay, I made my goal for today! Over 20,000--30%. Must keep on at this pace tomorrow. I'm into the real meat of the story, so this part's pulling ME along.

Of course yesterday I also decided that I had to change a major plot thing, or rather cut it out--there's just too much going on. But it won't be too painful at this stage. {s}

Now for some tea!

Catching up

I just got my grades in: all As.

You're shocked, aren't you?

{listening}

Hmmm. Not hearing a lot of shock out there. You're all hiding it well. {g}

Better yet, I got in (for me) a passel of words today on Jenna, including the start at least of the most difficult scene so far. Poor girl. My goal was to get over 19,000 today, and I did that; tomorrow's goal is to get over 20,000. I'm not sure what will happen plot-wise from there, but overall is 25,000 at LEAST by the end of May. With mini-vacations and all factored in, I should be able to do that.

Yay.

Last weekend was great fun. We had two 5-year-olds over for a playdate on Saturday, which was amazing. I love watching them all play and squeal together. Then Sunday we did a Mother's Day brunch with my mom, and Child and I made pink-frosted sugar cookies together, shaped like butterflies, cats, ducks, flowers, and stars. Awesome.

Yesterday hubby and I went to a funeral which touched me deeply, and made me want to live a better life and help others, like this woman had. She was a lovely, caring woman, and taken too soon. Then I went and rolled in the grass with Child, which is the best medicine for anything.

Onward!

Done!

And may I have a big WHEW.

All done with grad school work for the term--turned in my 20-page + paper, finished my presentation, and we chose a candidate from my search committee. Next week should be back to sanity, Thank God.

Also it will be back to Jenna. I've managed to scrape a few words here and there, but starting Monday I'll get back to a regular schedule. I'm almost at a big scene, so it's good timing. And I made myself cry on a little scene I wrote today, which is always a good sign that I'm putting passion in. {s}

I'm so happy that I'm free! Woo-hoooo!

Update

Sorry no posts. There will likely be no new posts this week, until this craziness is over and I can lift my head above the whirlpool again. This week I will be:

--interviewing candidates for a faculty position
--sending a publication to the printer
--proofing another publication from another printer
--presenting my final thesis/paper proposal to my grad school department
--writing and turning in my final report/paper for my class (100% of my grade)
--dealing with the repair shop, where one of our cars is currently languishing
--other things as they come up, and they will.

Something must give, and it's blogging. So see ya later, chicas! :)

The Summit

This is what I'm doing today and tomorrow. Yep, hobnobbing with August Busch today, Robert Rubin and Ben Bernanke tomorrow...but right now I'm at my desk on a brief lunch break after volunteering as lunch support for the 2000 guests. Whew.

Pacing

You'll note that I've slowed down the writing pace considerably the past few days. I'm not giving up my goals, but I am taking a little bit of the pressure off myself--at least until this grad school term is over in 2 weeks. We have SO much going on right now, in all aspects of Life, that I was freaking myself out entirely. And when I started beating myself up on IM about not making my 10,000 words this month goal, a good friend pointed out that this book is not supposed to be about pressure, but about fun. So I lightened up a little for now. Still writing every day, just not pushing as hard. The overall goal is still to finish this draft by Surrey, and I still believe that will happen.

Back to the craziness...

Haiku

And my blog haiku, courtesy of this site:

opposite side of
what jenna looks like the life
still here just hiding

A pretty good summary of the theme. {g}

Princessing

Child has decided that each day this week she is going to attend preschool dressed up as a different Disney princess. Actually it started Sunday--she went to the store as Sleeping Beauty, complete with crown and bracelets. Yesterday was Cinderella (blue, of course).

Today she came out of her room in a yellow spaghetti-strap summer dress. In Montana. In April. For those who don't live in the North, that means it could be 60 degrees, or it could snow at any moment. ("But Mommy, I'm Belle! I have to Only Wear Yellow! See?" {shows me her Belle underwear, with Belle indeed only wearing yellow...a yellow off the shoulder evening gown and long gloves. Hmmm. It could be worse.})

We compromised. She wore a yellow short-sleeve shirt under the dress, and navy blue tights that she claims are invisible anyway, because--look--if she bends her knee you can see the skin through them, so no one can tell she's wearing tights. I love rationalization, don't you?

But she did get to wear the gloves.

I can't wait to see what we've got on tap for tomorrow...

Yuck

And a step back...

I had to cut out the whole bit of stuff I wrote on Friday--900 words. It was just awful, draggy, and horribly boring. I saved it in a file called "yuck.doc" in case I should ever want any of it...but I doubt it.

{sigh}

Keywords I hadn't thought of

Keywords people have used to land on this site recently:

--homemade tinkerbell cake
Sorry, my friend, you're not going to find that here. I buy from a bakery, all the way.
--getting to know you email
Yeah, that one traveled all over the place, didn't it?
--susan adrian, wi
Is there one in Wisconsin? I'll have to go check that myself.
--writer's tale
Yes, baby! Name recognition!
--booty blogspot
Or not.
--bunk saggy springs
??
--and one of my regulars: intercultural communication crash movie characters
Yes, I help other students with my informative {cough} comments. Who knew?

Note the little "25%" in the progress bar over there to the right. I'm just saying.

The end of TASTE

Approximate conversation in my household last night:

I'd finally gotten everything done, put Child to bed, and had been able to collapse on the sofa and dive into TASTE for about half an hour. Hubby had been at a work thing. Key rattles in the door.

Him: "Hi, honey, I'm home!" (Not actually. Something more along the lines of "Hey.")

Me, nose firmly in book: "Mmm. Mmm-hmm. Oh, hey."

Him: {conversation about function}

Me: "Wha?" {dragging eyes up from page for half-second} "That sounds fun."

He wanders around for a while. Him: "Where's the mail?"

Me: {pause, pause, pause, turn page} "Table."

About 5 minutes later. He trips over one of the many obstacles Child has kindly left out, and I have not picked up. Him: "What IS all this?"

Me: {waving a dismissive hand, still not looking up} "Toys."

He stares at me for a couple of minutes. Him: "What are you, a voracious reader?"

Me: {reverently, pinching the rest of the text with my thumb and finger} "Twenty pages left."

He sighs, looks at me again, then sighs again. Him: "I think I'm going to take a bath."

Me: "Yay! I mean...okay."

And...I finished. Yay.

Accomplishments

In the past few days I/we (hubby) have accomplished:

• Finished the final version of my thesis proposal (okay, I'm going to do one more spit/polish in the morning), including a lovely annotated bibliography with 27 articles
  
• Got up over 15,000 words on Jenna, with a goal toward 20,000 at the end of April
• Paid our taxes (whew)
• Bought new kitchen and bathroom sinks
• Bought and delivered $200 worth of snacks for our "snack week" of preschool
• Restrained myself from auditioning for a play, even though I wanted to, because it totally would mess with our schedule
• Booked a mini-getaway for hubby and I to Seattle in May to see a Padres/Mariners game
• Booked our vacation to Winnipeg in June for a certain person's wedding {g}
• Booked two overnight trips to Missoula in May, on different weekends, to see (a) a ballet performance and (b) the Lipizzaner stallions (can you see now why being in a play in May is not a reasonable thing?)
• Helped Child make and "bind" her own alphabet book
• Attended our semi-annual parent/teacher conference
  
• Managed to go shopping and buy new clothes for Child AND me (yay)

However, amidst all this I have not...quite...finished TASTE. Maybe tonight. I have a feeling it's gonna mess with me before it's all over, so it won't be easy reading. :)

Goals today:

--add 750 words, up to 15,250 (and break the 15,000 barrier!)
--finish my thesis proposal, which is due tomorrow for 50% of my seminar grade (ack)
--work stuff that must be done

I'll post later once I make these goals, and mark off some other accomplishments I've managed lately as well!

Feeling Green

I've been reading a book by a wonderful writer. The pace is excellent, drawing me through each chapter delicately but persistently, never letting go. The characters are deep, rounded, and passionate, as vivid as my husband sitting next to me. I can see each of them and understand them, without being able to predict what they'll do next. The word choice is clear but original, with metaphors that make me alternately nod my head with the perfection of the image and laugh along with the narrator. It's fabulous.

And it's given me a horrible case of Writer's Envy.

You know the saying about imitation? I think envy is really the sincerest form of flattery--if you can call something you never admit to sincere.

Because you don't want to admit to it, even to yourself, do you? You know, as a writer, that comparison is the quickest blood-sucker of confidence. Once you start envying, the shine comes off your own work and your own ideas. You start the whirlpool thought process: I can never write like that. Why even bother? I should just hang it up now, start a fan club, and be done with the whole farce. Down and down, around and around, until every word of your own writing sounds like crap and you're sucked down to the bottom, wallowing in self-pity and envy.

So you have to not do that--but I think every writer does, unless they have an ego the size of Alaska. Even the ones you idealize, and the ones I idealize, have felt just exactly that way when reading someone else's work. It's really that way with every endeavor. When I was dancing I used to feel the same kind of envious awe watching a great pirouette, or grand jete. So instead of avoiding it altogether you have to be able to recognize the whirlpool for what it is and drag yourself out in time, or get your friends to throw you a lifeline.

Me, I emailed the writer directly, told her I was going to fly down and kick her ass myself if she ever told me again that she was "lucky" to be published, because she was just That Good. And then I whined a little. But I don't recommend that in most cases. {s}

I do recommend that the next time you find yourself in the throes of Writer's Envy you read, and contemplate, her response to my whiny email: "That's bullshit. About you not being able to write like whatever. You'll write like you, which is great. So there."

So there.

And of course, the writer is Vicki Pettersson. And the book is TASTE OF NIGHT.

Who are the authors who make you feel green?

Kurt Vonnegut

A day of silence, today, for Kurt Vonnegut's passing. He was one of the great ones who inspired me to write--and he was a fabulous, crotchety, funny old guy besides.

Rest in peace, Kurt. Or better, for you, go have fun now, and keep 'em lively up there.

Progress and flying monkeys

Hmmm. Almost a week since I last posted here...sorry about that.

On the other hand, it does seem to be a pattern that I don't post much when the writing's going well, and it still is. So maybe I'm not sorry.

My goal is still to get 10,000 words a month on Jenna until it's done, and I'm doing that. I'll be at 15,000 by the end of this week, and keep on going. I've been having all sorts of convolutions with how I think the plot should go, my mind twisting this way and that way and back, but I think I have a handle on it now--I can actually see in a vague way all the way up to the climax. Have no idea what will happen with the climax, but I don't want to yet!

I'm also realizing that this is a "thin" first draft, and I'll have to go back and plump it up the second time around. I'm just so eager to find out what happens, I'm whipping through with very little description/development/worldbuilding. But I know enough to realize those things will need to be added, so I've just been making notes to myself in my writing journal and moving on. Momentum, ya know. I wonder how long this draft will actually turn out to be--likely shorter than 70,000! I may have to adjust my scale on the side as I go...(doesn't that seem like cheating?)

Oh, and since I'm not sharing text yet, I'll share another picture. Wanna see what the villains in Jenna look like?

[photo removed because of all the weird searches I get for this picture from Mattel...]

Okay, not really. They're worse than that. Gave you a shiver, though, didn't I?

Getting to Know You...

Which I'm supposed to email, but I'm going to do it as a meme instead. Though if anyone really wades all the way through my answers, I will be shocked. {g}

Welcome to the 2007 version of getting to know your friends. What you
Are supposed to do is copy (not forward) this entire email and paste
it onto a new email that you'll send. Change all the answers so they
apply to you, and then send this to a whole bunch of people including
the person who sent it to you. Put your name in the subject line. The
theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your
friends, if you did not know them already.


1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:03 am

2. Diamonds or Pearls? Diamonds!

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Music and Lyrics

4. What is your favorite TV show? The Good Night Show on PBS Sprout
(well, it's the only one I watch regularly)

5. What did you have for breakfast? Shared cereal with Child

6. What is your middle name? Adrian (Ha!)

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Mexican

8. What food do you dislike? Green peppers

9. Your favorite chip? Salt & Vinegar, totally

10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Um. I listen to Pandora
Radio and Yahoo Radio. Maybe 8 1/2 Souvenirs.

11. What kind of car do you drive? Honda CRV

12. Favorite Sandwich? BLT

13. What characteristics do you despise? Meanness

14. What are your favorite clothes? My hot pink cardigan and jeans

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation? Tahiti

16. What color are your eyes? Green. Okay, hazel

17. Favorite brand of clothing? Brand?

18. Where would you want to retire? Pacific Northwest, maybe. Or Hawaii.

19. Favorite time of day? Evening

20. Where were you born? Long Beach, CA

21. What is your favorite sport to watch? Baseball

22. Who do you think will not send this back? I have no idea!

23. Person you expect to send it back first? We'll see, won't we?

24. Pepsi or Coke? Don't drink soda

25. Cats or Dogs? Neither!

26. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Night owl.

27. Pedicure or manicure? Neither. My nails are never done, either set.

28. Do you prefer funny or mushy cards? Funny

29. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with everyone?
Nah, I brag enough already.

30. What did you want to be when you were little? A dancer

31. What do you have in your trunk right now? Trunk? Who the F has a
trunk?

32. What is your best childhood memory? Christmas mornings

33. What are all the different jobs you have had in your life? Geez,
how much time do you have? General categories: salesperson, pet
caretaker, cold caller, bookstore clerk, bookstore manager,
copyeditor, production editor, web manager, editor. Okay, I skipped
some.

34. What is your favorite Holiday? Christmas

35. What is your favorite dessert? Orange cake. No, chocolate. No,
ice cream. No, orange cake.

36. Favorite Get away? San Diego

37. Ever been to Africa ? No

38. Glasses or Contacts? Glasses now (it's too dry here for contacts)

39. Ever been toilet papering? Yes

40. Been in a car accident? Yes

41. Favorite day of the week? Sunday

42. Favorite restaurant? On the Queen Mary (yeah, I don't get to go
there a lot)

43. Favorite flower? Poppies

44. Favorite movies? 40s movies, esp. romantic comedy

45. Favorite Past time? Writing! Playing with Child. Reading.

46. Favorite ice cream? Pralines & Cream from Baskin Robbins

47. Favorite fast food restaurant? Don't eat fast food at all

49. From whom did you get your last email? Kreekie

50. Sandals or tennis shoes? Sandals

51. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
I wouldn't. (I know, I sound like a prig, but I AM when it comes to
money!)

52. If the speed limit is 60 what is the fastest you will drive? 80

53. What is your bedtime? 11 or so

54. Whose response to this are you most curious about? Everyone....

55. Last person you went to dinner with? My hubby

56. What are you listening to right now? "Let's Do It" by Ella Fitzgerald

57. What is your favorite color? Forest green

58. How many tattoos do you have? None

59. How many people are you sending this Email to? I'm blogging it, baby!

60. What time did you finish this email? 8:39 am

Word Choice

Transcript of actual conversation with Child last night. Remember that Child just turned 5 years old.

Child: "Look, Mommy, did you see that? I'm shaking my booty!"

Me: {boggling}

Child: {giggles} "Did you see? I'm shaking my booty, my booty! Do you know what a booty is?"

Me: {faintly} "Yes..."

Child: "Isn't that funny?"

Me, trying to think faster than the molasses pace I'm managing so far: "You know, 'booty' isn't really a nice word."

Child: "Like butt?"

Me, who has fought several battles over 'butt': "Exactly. It's not a word we should use outside the house. What's the word we should use for that with other people?"

Child: {giggles again} "Bottom!"

Me: "Right, good."

Child: "Booty, butt, bottom. Booty, butt, bottom. You know, they all sound the same! Booty! Butt! Bottom!"

At this point I bent over to pick something up off the floor.

Child: "Mommy, now YOU are shaking your booty!"

Me, giving up....

In which I am surrounded by famous people

Wow, very cool news is all around me:

--Vicki Pettersson's second book, The Taste of Night, popped onto the shelves at the end of last week. I haven't talked about it yet because I still haven't gotten my grubby hands on a copy (grrrr), but soon, my friends, soon. It promises to be truly kick-ass.

--Another forum friend, Jo Bourne, had her book accepted by Berkley a while back...and it's already on Amazon! I can't wait to read this one either.

Add these to the friends I saw performing in our Symphony this weekend, and the friends who are playing guitar and singing at our local coffeehouse on Friday, and I am overwhelmed by all the talent surrounding me.

I'd better get myself in gear too, eh? :)