Castle in the Clouds

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My oldest son is in first grade, which means he's eligible to play basketball this year. The program is offered through the Church of God in our hometown and is open to kids between 1st and 8th grade. The church is huge and has a basketball court built into it's design. Very cool. Whoever thought of it and designed it did an excellent thing. My only complaint about my son's partcipation is the fact I (or my husband) have to have him to the Church by 8:00 am on Saturday mornings. The last couple of weeks I had been spoiled; hubby was taking him back and forth, allowing me to sleep in or at least lounge around in my jammies until mid-morning. This weekend my luck ran out. Hubby went ice fishing up north with friends. So I set the alarm clock last night and forced myself to go to bed at a decent hour. We were still ten minutes late. I have no idea how I manage to be consistently late for everything. It's very odd and, if you ask my husband, annoying. ...

I love connecting with people who share similiar interests, especially if those interests happen to be of the artistic bent. While the internet may make it seem as if everyone wants to be a writer, real life tends to prove otherwise. I know very few writers/artists in the flesh. Well, we just hired a new girl in my office. She's fresh out of college and this is her first job. If we don't scare her off, I can see us becoming pretty chummy. She's an artist. She does sculpture and is interested in doing showings. We chatted about this a couple times this week. Today I decided to ask the big question--well, big for me--I asked if her she wrote. She blushed a bit and admitted she had aspirations of writing a novel. Very cool! All of a sudden she couldn't shut me up. I told her all about my writing, including my total bafflement on revising. Not editing. Editing I can do--grammar, dialogue and the like don't bother me. Revising is a completely diff...

What a long week. The stress showed today, too. I did the bare essentials at work and not much else. Of course, it didn't help that I was almost immediately pissed off by an email as soon as I sat down this morning. I'm tired of covering for people, even people I like. My irritation is so great that I don't even feel guilty about the email I sent out in response. Do not tell me I'm not communicating well when I'm up-to-date on my correspondence and the other person is several weeks behind. Tends to irritate me. Especially first thing in the morning. Have I ever mentioned I'm not a morning person? Can you say "bitch"? But, seriously, I don't like being talked down to like I'm incompetent. I'm damn good at my job. If not for me, I guarantee this major project would be a disaster worthy of the scrap heap. And you have no idea how I'd like to go into excrutiating detail about what's been going on. But I need this...

I'm participating in a BN class with some online writer friends--we each take one or two of our strengths and weaknesses and teach to them on our assigned weeks. Tonight we're discussing premises. The following link was provided by one of my pals. Plotting Reading through the structure section of the article resulted in a light bulb going off for me. I'm going to print it off and hang it on the wall next to my monitor, with a few hand-written notes to remind me of my insights. I hope you find it helpful, too!

You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist. Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)

Instead of reading Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, I have done the following in the last hour: -read several blogs -learned a new plotting method . -Called my sister -Called my sister-in-law -Instant Messaged another sister-in-law -Put the kids to bed What can I say? Lord Jim is a terrible read. The author should have been slapped. The narration is enough to make me crazy. I don't want to read it. If I didn't have to, I promise I wouldn't.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator. What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

It started snowing during the night. It's really quite pretty, all white and fluffy, clinging to branches and pine needles. Mid-sized flakes buffeted by gusts of wind obscure the landscape. Very pretty. Also a pain in the ass. I'm supposed to be carting the kidlets off to a birthday party within the hour but, because of the snow, I've called and cancelled. Hubby doesn't want me driving in it and, to be honest, I'm not real keen on the idea myself. Not unless I'm driving a snowmobile. That I could do. So, I guess this means I'll have time to catch up on the laundry.

Ok, I'm an egomaniac. I admit it. Now that that's out of the way, I can get on with the story and not worry about what terrible things you may think of me. We'll both know I'm hopeless and likely in need of a reality check. I had to return my husband's new swim trunks last night. After doing my wifely duty, I decided to indulge a little. I went to the bookstore. Now, this may not sound like much of an indulgence to you but I would have to disgree. I had no children. No curfew. No hubby waiting impatiently for me to make up my mind and just pick a book--any book! I could browse to my heart's content. The first surprise was the crowd. I couldn't believe how many people were there on a Tuesday night. I parked, walked into the store and went straight to the cafe. Ordered myself a Chai. Yet another indulgence. Soon enough I discovered why a crowd had gathered on a Tuesday night. Yep, you guessed it. The local writer's group had ...

Flowers from my hubby.  

Please read this. If you live in Virginia, please find out what you can do to prevent this bill from passing into law. To threaten a mother who has just miscarried with legal prosecution should she fail to report the incident within 24 hours is a gross misuse of our legal system. Something so emotionally devasting should be treated with the respect and consideration it deserves. I've never lost a baby and I thank God for that every day. Both of my pregnancies resulted in beautiful, healthy babies. But not every woman is so lucky. Miscarriages are common and they hurt the heart in ways unimaginable to any but those who have suffered through one. Please, if you're able, take action to prevent this bill from passing.

Well, not completely but I've made a good dent in it. I need to make one more post and do a small assignment on geography (Due Friday). So far so good. There's one really smart fella in my group. I'm glad he's there. I can tell I'm going to learn a lot from him. My guess is..he's an English major and into literature. :)

Your a wind Dragon! Hey, you, the smartest dragon of the branch. You love reading and writing, but are quite shy. Your IQ is probably sky-high and your stories can win trophies. Your not very good in sports, or maybe you are, and just not inrested.. You are very wise, smart, and kind. What elemental dragon are you? brought to you by Quizilla

I made a lot of progress tonight. I sat down and the words just came. Easily. I'm afraid to go to bed because who knows if the words will be there tomorrow. Yet I can hardly read what I'm posting because my eyes have about had it. I've retitled the paranormal romance. It's now called Redeeming Angels . I like it. Hopefully I'll still like it a week from now. I started chapter four tonight. My heroine is about to bare her fangs and the hero is about to get lucky. Too bad he's not going to be thanking her for it! Mahahaha Ok. Off to bed.

What a long week. I'm glad it's over. I plan on chilling out for the rest of the night, probably right here in front of the computer. The kids and hubby are playing the PS2 in the front room. The kidlets love that thing! Santa did good. On the writing front I'm determined to finish this chapter. I think I figured out how to get his arm out of her supernatural grip. It's also going to up the hero's tension to a new level. Yay! Did I mention I'm writing this one blind? No outline, no net? This usually works pretty well for me. The planned stories seem to give me all sorts of problems.

I know I should be in bed. I'll be swatting at the snooze button in the morning, too exhausted to move. I know why I'm not in bed. Going to bed means getting up for work and work sucks. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. I know it'll get better but at the moment it's just one huge pain in the ass. I can't catch up and the work just keeps piling up. If I knew how to clone myself, I would. Of course, I'd have to leave that Krista chained in the office, doomed to a life without friends or family. Can't have someone cutting in on the good stuff! I thought I would write tonight but that didn't happen. CSI and Without a Trace distracted me from my nightly goal. I know. Shame on me for letting them. I just love them, though! Also did the dishes. Nothing like loading the dishwasher at 11:00 p.m. Probably should do another load of laundry but I don't feel like going downstairs to do it. Trust me. The piles are going nowhere. The heaps ...

Kids were in bed by 8:30 because it's a school night and the hubby is watching football. This left me with a few options, some of which were more appealing than others. Let's see, I could have done the dishes (they're still in the sink), scrapbooked, read, folded laundry or washed some for that matter, or write. I decided to open the WIP and get busy. Unbelievably, it worked! Over the last hour I have managed to revise the last chapter I had written. It's still incomplete but it's so much better than it was. Very happy. Of course, I'll likely do at least one more read through to see if it really works but it seems much better than what I originally had down. I'm running into an odd challenge with this book. My heroine is physically stronger than my hero. She's a vampire, he's a human. Writing confrontational scenes between them requires more awareness of his limitations than I would normally give a male character. I usually tak...

The kids are watching a movie before bed, which means they're quiet and relatively still. The hubby is watching Fear Factor (a show I detest). The cat is curled up on my lap and purring ever so gently against my belly. Perfect time to write. Too bad I'm feeling incapable of coherent thought.

A return to routine should be more relaxing. I mean, really. I do the same thing day after day, week after week, and you'd think it'd almost be a relief to go back to work. Ha! Work was hell. I swear the people who email or call me think they're the only ones who do. Heaven forbid it take me more than a half-hour to complete whatever inane task they've set for me. Bathroom breaks are not allowed and who heard of lunch? Me, that's who! If I don't get a chance to relieve my bladder and fill my belly, don't expect a pleasant "hello" when I answer the phone, people.

Did I mention we received a phone call from my son's reading recovery teacher before the holiday? He's tested out of the program and will no longer require special instruction! So very, very happy about this. Sorry if I'm repeating myself but it's so nice to share good news!

Well, tonight ends our Christmas vacation. I'll be setting in the alarm clock in a few hours, getting the kids school clothes laid out, and trying to psyche myself up for a return to the beginning of another crazy semester. Oh, yippee. I must admit, though I dread the first few weeks of each semester, I'm grateful to have a job. My mom's husband (he's not my dad, if you were curious) was laid off from his job last Thursday. The company is "down-sizing" and he's one of several casualties. I can't imagine how anxious this must make them. Mom doesn't work outside the home and their only source of income will now be the money they receive to house and feed four of the state's wards. Please say a prayer that something beneficial comes their way soon. Jobs are such funny things. Most people dread getting out of bed and trudging off to a place where they feel unappreciated and overworked. Thoughts of all the wonderful things they cou...