Castle in the Clouds

Thirteen books you can find on my desk that relate to writing in one way or another: 1. Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Zuckerman 2. Writing the Breakout Novel by Maass 3. Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Maass 4. Elements of Fiction Writing: Characters & Viewpoint by Card 5. Elements of Fiction Writing: Plot by Dibell 6. 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them by Tobias 7. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Card 8. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Source Book 9. 2006 Writer's Market Deluxe Edition 10. 75,000 Baby Names for the 21st Century 11. The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Jones 12. On Writing by King 13. Holly Lisle's Create a Plot Clinic

Yesterday I found out that my dad's ex-girlfriend (ex by about a week) had lost her grand-daughter. The little girl was 12-years-old. She was shot by her younger sister and died instantly at a family friend's home. My heart bleeds for this family. It's one of those senseless tragedies that make no sense. It's also every parent's worst nightmare come true. If you're inclined, please keep this family in your prayers. They are going to need God's strength to get through this. Pray especially hard for the younger sister, who I believe is 10- or 11-years-old; she is not doing well.

Well, we went to the family doctor and had two more x-rays done. Apparently the ones taken at the Clinic weren't very helpful and our Doc needed a better view of the little guy's elbow. Even though the nurse was very gentle the manipulation hurt and he ended up crying again. The doctor waited until the tears were done to come back into the room, something I'm certain he did on purpose. He doesn't like the kids associating him with any pain they may experience while in his office. He's told me before he doesn't want them afraid of him. His methods seem to work because my boys aren't afraid of him at all. After reveiwing the new films, the doctor still wasn't able to identify the problem. He did have a couple of theories, though. It could be either "pulled elbow" or a bad sprain, both of which use the same treatment. Since he didn't see any breaks, dislocations, or buckling, he put a soft cast on the boy and kept him in the sling. P.S. Did yo...

My poor little guy. He had a rough day yesterday, which is why I failed to post my Thursday 13. Well, that and the fact that my Internet provider was experiencing some technical difficulties following a wicked thunderstorm. But let's get back to the boy, shall we? When the hubby and I got to the daycare to pick him up we found out one of his daycare playmates had attempted to strangle him. It had taken his big brother's interference to set him free. Big brother lost his m&m over the incident because there is no fighting at daycare. However, mom and dad both gave him " atta boys" because that's what brothers are supposed to do: stand up for and protect each other. So that was strike one for the little fella. Strike two occurred at home while playing basketball with his brother. This hurt didn't last very long, but it got them both in trouble. Ten minutes later they were at it again. This time they were wrestling in the living room (a huge no-no) while I...

That's about all I wanted to report. I got my words tonight. More than a thousand actually, but I'm too lazy to do the math again. WIP Total Word Count: 60,008 words Tonight's progress gave me a good start on Chapter 13. My heroine has just met the hero's ex. I thought the fireworks would be instantaneous, but so far they're more concerned with other things. I'm thinking the tension will appear a little later in the chapter when the ex has had time to process everything.

I must admit I was spectacularly lazy this weekend. I watched movies, read one and a half books, and that was about it. I might have managed to throw in two loads of laundry and drag myself to the sink to do dishes once. I don't know what got into me. I lacked motivation of ANY kind. I didn't want to write. I didn't want to scrapbook. I most assuredly did not want to clean the house. No, a near-vegetative state seemed to be about all I could summon. Wait! I did get off my lazy butt! I went to an hour-long kickboxing aerobics class on Saturday and it totally destroyed me. My muscles are still aching. I could hardly walk yesterday, which is why the husband asked me if I had a corn cob stuck up my... You get the idea. I don't know why I thought I could survive an hour's worth of cardiovascular and light weights. I haven't seriously exercised in ages. It's a miracle I didn't have a heart attack. I know I certainly felt as I were in mortal danger a few times ...

Thirteen Things that can be found on my desk today: 1. A coffee cup, even though I don't drink coffee. 2. Trail Mix (Fruit and Nut variety) because I skipped breakfast. 3. Lotion. Right now I have two..cucumber melon and mango mandarin. 4. Cumumber melon hand sanitizer. (I need to replace this soon as its almost empty). 5. Business cards with the wrong street address on them. 6. Burt's Bees strawberry lip gloss. 7. Tropicana grape juice..see #2 for explanation. 8. Office keys, easily identifiable when shoved into my purse or backpack by the long pink lanyard. 9. Paper towel. 10. One of the original First Generation IPods. It's big and clunky but it still works! 11. My flashdrive, also easily identifiable by a long teal-colored lanyard. 12. Kleenez because its one of life's necessities. 13. WORK!!! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyon...

I managed to write over 1000 words tonight. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't terrible either. I'm actually looking forward to writing this next little bit. Here's the numbers: Last Night: 54,847 Tonight: 56,118 That's a total of 1, 271 new words. Not bad for a couple hours worth of "butt in the chair", especially when you consider I took time out to tuck the kidlets into bed. Now I'm off to do another load of laundry. Once I get that done, I'm going to read for a bit before heading off to bed. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

I'm in the process of setting up a rescue, but things are pretty slow going. I think I'm still trying to recover from the weekend. My brain feels a bit foggy. Slow. Tired. I only wrote a few paragraphs tonight before wimping out. So, new word count is now up to 54,847.

This weekend we had our second annual boat trip. This was an adult only trip, no kids and no pets. We shipped our boys and the four-legged daughter (aka "the dog") off to the grandparents for a few nights. While they fished and swam, saw a movie, and made messes, we enjoyed some adult conversation and many relaxing hours on the water. Here are a few pictures from our long weekend. The hubby and my B-I-L, Troy Kenny after he attempted to use the wake board Us Girls (Terri, Ronnie, and myself) Kenny water skiing As you can see we had a lot of fun. The first day we spent almost 11 hours on the in-land waterway. We buzzed across two lakes and meandered through two rivers. We played on a sandbar and ate lunch in the back of the boat. We also applied layer upon layer of sunscreen. Of course, Terri and I got burned anyhow, but that's not unusual. The next day our boat trip only took four hours. We went through a lock - 16 foot drop - and out into Lake Huron. Unfortunately, th...

I'm up to 54,331 words. My hero has just had sex with a succubus, something neither of us expected. He's been marked for death, but, right now, he's too drugged to realize it. Oh, how the guilt is going to eat at him! Don't worry though, I think I know how to save him. At least, I'm hoping my heroine knows how to save him. Of course, his sexual relations with another woman at this point in the story is going to cause havoc with their relationship. She's going to be PISSED.

Last week I got my hair cut. I wasn't thrilled when I left the salon, but I thought things might turn out okay once I'd washed and styled it myself. For a week I tried to convince my hair to do SOMETHING. I try not to be too uptight about my hair, but some bad haircuts are just beyond my coping skills. This happened to be one of those cuts. So tonight while the little man met with the tutor, I went back to the salon. The girl who ended up fixing my hair (she cut off 2 inches!) wouldn't even take a tip. She felt that bad. Of course I would have insisted on tipping if I had had any cash on me. (Who in the hell goes to get their hair cut without cash to tip their stylist? Apparently, I do because I am a dumb ass.) The short story here is that I got my hair cut off. It's short, but not too short. It's much better. Really. Maybe when I'm feeling a little more energetic I'll post a picture of the new do. Of course, it didn't take the entire hour and a half to ...

Today is my brother's...31st birthday. Can that be right? Damn, I think it is! This means I'm getting old, people. I'm going to go pout in the corner for awhile.

Last night the hubby and I got a sitter for the kidlets and went out on a date. At least, that's what I'm calling it. I figure anytime we get to go out to eat and, eventually, spend some time alone together, it's a date. Who cares if the first part of the evening was spent at a restaurant with friends? After we left there, we were alone. Just the two of us. And that's a date! There was a reason for our date night, though. My god-father was celebrating his birthday and had asked us to join him at Hooters . I'm pretty sure the choice of venue had more to do with the skimpy..er..uniforms worn by the waitresses than the chicken wings, but who really cares? As long as the drinks and food were good, so was I! It was really nice spending some time with the birthday boy and his family. I haven't seen his children in ages. They are so grown up! I guess that happens, especially after you attend their high school open houses. His daughter is married, but has no desire to...

If you don't read PBW's blog , I thought I'd post a link to her latest entry . It appears there are several contests running right now. I think I'm going to enter the Writer's Digest. Might take some work, but I'm pretty sure I can write a complete story in less than 1500 words. Sure I can. It's slightly longer than flash fiction after all and I've been forced to write flash fiction in at least one creative writing class. Now I just need to come up with some solid ideas. I think I'll try some visual inspiration first. If that doesn't work, I'll just have to trust the ole brain to come up with something.

A couple years ago my husband and I worked very hard to put in a number of flowerbeds around our house. We hauled rock. We hauled dirt. Eventually the little gardens came together and I could begin planting. I started with hostas. Added some irises and mums. Rose bushes. Lilies. Glads. You would never know it. The flower beds are barren this year. I'd like to blame it on the summer drought, but the truth is I haven't paid very much attention to my gardens. The only things that seems to have survived are the two rose bushes..and they're not doing well. Close up the roses look okay. But let's take a more distant look, shall we? Don't they look horrid? The only thing growing (other than the two rose bushes) are weeds. The pretty purple flowers that covered the beds in early spring have dried up and turned to straw. You can faintly see them as the brown crispies among the vividly green weeds. I think I'm going to avoid this next year by investing in a soaker hose ...