A Tag and a Mouse Tale

My friend, Erica had this fun tag on her blog. If anyone would like to try it, you can post your results here or on your blog.

The rules are simple.
Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
Find page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.

I won't tag anyone but I'll go ahead and post mine.

"The setting of a mystery locates the characters and the events of the story in both time and place. In the mystery genre's earliest days, it seemed almost to be a rule - mysteries had to be set in New York City, in California, or if the author was British, in England. Of course, this was never really true, and in recent decades, the "rule" as useless as a 30-year old train schedule."

From Writing Mysteries by Margaret Luke

The Mouse Tale involves the sweet black cat in the picture above. Mary was a Christmas cat about six years ago. The other night she proudly killed a very small mouse in my bedroom. I found it as I got out of bed--ICK! Because I was in a hurry, I stuffed it into a plastic trash bag and into the wastecan with the intention of taking it downstairs later. Somehow I never got around to doing it. So when I went to bed last night my first thought was sleeping in the same room as the corpse.

I thought it would be okay. While I was making my bed to get in bed (I never make my bed in the morning), I tossed my pillows on the comfy chair I read in. When I picked up the last pillow I saw---the mouse body on my chair!! I'm sure Mary's intentions were pure. She knows I sit there and had presented me with a gift. GAG! I had to strip the pillows and put on new pillow cases, sanitize the chair and turn the cushion over - after I removed the mouse back to the trash bag.

Mary usually sleeps with me and since I close the bedroom door at night, she has to pretty much stay in the room. About two thirty, I woke up and thought about the mouse. A couple of times in the night I'd heard Mary scrabbling at the plastic bag and the waste can. Figured she was trying to reclaim her prize.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought about her getting it OUT and bringing it into bed with me. While I'm not overly squeamish, the idea of waking up to find a deceased mouse sharing my bed is not my idea of fun. I got up, put on the light, took the plastic bag and tied it TIGHT. Stuffed it way down in the can and as I turned to walk back to bed--saw the mouse already laying beside my bed. Mary was walking up and down, giving little purrups of pleasure at how BRAVE she was, what a WONDERFUL cat. I was not amused.

I found a newspaper clipping and scooped the mouse back into the plastic bag. This time, I tied it and set it outside the bedroom door.

She has given me dark looks all day. I'm sure she's thinking, "Humans! Too dumb to appreciate such a lovely mouse."

Looks like we're in for a little snow tonight. I'm glad that I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow. As long as it clears by Wednesday when I have to take the boys to LOL, I'm fine. Maybe I can stay inside and get some writing done.

So far, I am doing good on my friend, Patty's, FEBO project. I have two contest entries OUT. I am about halfway through my editing of the WIP. I'm still 17K over and have figured out a plan. I'm going to aim for a book that finishes out at 60K. If that's too much and an editor wants to buy the dirty darned thing, they can help me cut. I'm going to be doing good cutting the last 7K. I've also printed and sent out a short story, "Girl vs. Grump," and about five queries to agents. If I can manage to keep my momentum, I'm going to do a few more queries to editors and agents until the end of February. So, I have some of my goals finished, a few in progress and a few still looming ahead.

One of my goals was to do a synopsis and prologue for an adult mystery. I worked on the prologue today. It's not awful but it's not terrific yet either. My main problem will be finding people to read it and tell me where it needs work. It's not a "pretty" story but I don't think it's too graphic either.

It has been bitterly cold here the past few days. I've snuggled up with the cats, books and some of my counted cross stitch. I'm making good progress with my state fair sampler. The cows are done, except for hooves and eyes. The little line of Mason jars filled with pickles are about a third done. Soon I'll be moving on to horses.

Thought I'd add a small picture of the Dionne Quints playing in the snow. Lately, I've been slowly selling off parts of my Quint collection on ebay. I'm trying to just keep what has the most meaning for me. Some of my memorabilia is unique and I wouldn't part with it for anything. On the other hand, some pieces aren't my favorites. Why take up room in my bins when I could sell them for cash?

Time to find some books and go read. I don't have to get up early tomorrow for anything. Sure hope I'm not too tired to stay up late!

Plodding along- - -

A rainy, rainy day. It's poured for hours so that the back fields, creek and driveways are flooded. Might be a good day to sit somewhere and read or sew. But, since I have the day "off", I feel honor bound to get some of my writing "chores" done.

So far today I have sent two queries online. This required putting the chapters into a certain format (and dirty darn, I just realized I left off the page numbers in one set!), rewriting short bits where I had crit marks and stopping umpteen times for interruptions. So all I can count on having done are my entry to The Sandy Contest, a query package to a new agent and two emails. Oh, and I guess a blog entry too. After that I'm going to try to type some new words on something.
Won't know if I can get any editing done today or not. We're having a surprise birthday party for my brother tonight.

Tomorrow, I plan to buy craft supplies for one of my favorite holidays--Valentine's Day. I should get in a few hours work on my Jenny sequel too. Maybe work on the mystery I hope to enter in the Daphne Contest in March.

Am feeling a little sluggish in the writing department. Yesterday I sent a query and got a rejection in FIVE MINUTES. It's a mite discouraging. On the other hand, I spent more than 45 minutes giving a writing workshop to five little girls at our church's homeschool club. They were very receptive to learning new ideas, asked lots of questions and were thrilled to tell me about their stories. They seem to have the same problem a lot of older writers have--beginning a story and not following through. We talked about the "sagging middle" and ways to remedy that. One little girl sent me two of her short stories for review. I loved seeing their eager and happiness in writing. Somehow I have to recapture that.

Or maybe it's the weather ---YAWN.

Off to do something else so it feels like I've done something!

Time to get back to the routine.

Vacation time is over and it's time to get back into the routine. The boys go back to Leaves tomorrow and I go back to slugging away on the manuscript of the moment, "Cattle Rustler." Need to finish the dirty darned thing and be done with it all. It's dragged on forever and ever. Longer than any other project I've ever worked on.

The good news of the day is that I mailed my contest entry to the East Texas Writer's Guild. Also printed out a short story and will mail that this week. Need to buy more brown envelopes before I do that. There are also a couple of agents on my list that want snail mail proposals. I'm hoping to attack that chore during my friend, Patty's FEBO.

The boys and I were getting back into our school routine today. Didn't get much accomplished other than school work, some cleaning. I managed to unpack all the stuff I brought back from Kalahari. Also read some more in "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. Some of her ideas are good. Some are ---hm---unusual?

My laptop is packed for tomorrow's working stint while the boys are at Leaves. I'll go to my regular library and plug in. The last time I was there, a nice librarian kept me in conversation for half an hour about writing. Her advice when I admitted to writing a book was, "Go for it." Ah, how easy non-writers think we have it.

Am trying to decide on a "next" project. I have a very short, chapter book mystery and a grown up mystery. I think by choice I'll be starting on "Snipped in the Bud" first. Somehow 10K sounds so much more appealing than 80K.

What can you do with some styrofoam? Jarrod made a whole warrior outfit above.

Home again, home again

I am too tired to go into details tonight but the Kalahari Resort is FANTASTIC! From the pull out clotheslines in the bathrooms to the fireplace in the sitting room of the suite, it was a super hotel. The waterpark was HUGE and the kids all loved it. They spent hours there each day. It was a bit surreal to look around and see people in swim suits, then look up at the windows to see snowflakes fluttering by. I imagine it's like those movies you see of the ski resorts at places like Lake Tahoe. Felt like Annette Funicello in a 60's movie! :) The only thing I didn't like was the overpowering scent of chlorine. It reeked. When I went to sleep at night, I could feel it burning my nose.

The waterpark area was humid and so warm, I swear they had the air conditioning on. The rest of the hotel was warm as the inside of a microwave. I kept shedding sweatshirts or sweaters.

Met some super new writing friends at the Writing Funshop on Wednesday night. I'm looking forward to many happy emails passing back and forth until we can get together at next year's UWWG. Unschoolers Winter Waterpark Gathering.

Time for FEBO! My friend, Patty, has decided to get back into the habit of writing. (Hooray!!) Since she didn't get to finish NANO, she came up with a neat solution---FEBO. Here is the link to get you started. http://febo-writenow.blogspot.com/

Patty's idea is to set writing goals for Feb. and to encourage one another to keep on track. The goals can be as easy or as hard as you like. I'm seriously thinking that mine will be to finish and fine tune "Cattle Rustler," enter the first Jenny book in THE SANDY contest and get out a short story. Those are my three main goals and I intend to post them at the FEBO site as soon as I finish this. If you think you need to get back on track with writing goals, join us!

We were delayed leaving for our mini-vacation by a day. Since my sister earns triple time for MLK day, it was too good an opportunity to miss a chance to work. My bil also got an extra day of work. Plus, it meant that the boys' cousin, Greg, could also come along on the trip AND it gave us time to help my friend, Maribeth, with some furniture moving.

I am all packed, except for my toothbrush and LYSOL. Have a bag of way too many books, but I never like to travel without a few in case I have time to read. Also packed my cross stitch supplies in hopes of working uninterrupted on a state fair sampler. To my absolute DISGUST, I found out that Walmart has discontinuted their embroidery thread kiosk. Since there is nowhere else in town to buy it, I'll have to wait until we arrive at Sandusky and see if I can't find a thread friendly store. Should have gone to Joann's Fabrics on Friday but thought I'd save it for another day. Next time, I'll know better.

I've had several emails from people coming to the midwinter gathering who like to write. We are hoping to get together to talk and share ideas. A funshop/discussion group is also planned for Wednesday night, right before the family dance in the GRAND Ballroom. Never having been in any kind of a ballroom--grand or otherwise--I'm looking forward to the experience.

I have books, paper, several first drafts printed up to take along so when I'm not talking, I'll have plenty to keep me busy! See you in a week or so.

Light at the end of the tunnel - - -

Well, it looks like I might be seeing a glimmer of hope where the ms. is concerned. I've got it whittled down to 59,000 words. This is good and bad. The good news is that it's only 10K over at this point. That's not horrible, although it might mean taking out some of my favorite scenes. The bad news is that I still have to write an ending chapter tying up all the loose ends AND add in a crucial scene or two. One will depend on the other.

My thoughts at this point are that I could go 60K and hope for the best. Many children's books are sailing past the 50K mark. But, I'm not sure how many of them are getting published. Will keep on whittling. I think I've pared the first ten chapters down as much as they can go. There are two iffy chapters that I could possibly cut whole. Another I can cut if I carve out some crucial information and put it into another chapter. Time will tell.

I had thought to take the laptop along on our midwinter vacation this week, but decided against it. There will be too many boys in the truck to insure its safety. Also, I will be out of the suite too much to guard it. Better to leave it safe at home and work on some printed projects. (As if I will get to do much writing! I always drag something along in great hopes.)

Supposidly, I'm supposed to be part of a writer's discussion/round table forum. Am trying to figure out what to take along. An editor from Home Education Magazine is going to make an appearance and it just so happens I have this article I wrote - - - GRIN!

As a nod to January and the fact that I should be organizing my goals for the year, I bought a planner. I'm going to take it along and list all my projects, finished work, work to be recycled and try to make a schedule to get some things sent out.

Finished the Scribes bulletin page today. This was a project for my writing group at church. We've been given permission to have a page on a semi-monthly basis. It looks good even though I know nothing about using a publishing program.

Also finished (a January girl) my short story, "Girl vs. Grump." Am planning to send that out by the end of January. After that, it's time for two contests! Need to get my entries ready.

If it doesn't snow, I'm joining a friend for lunch. After that, I need to do some shopping for the upcoming trip. We had to move our departure time to Tuesday and the S work is being whispered on the news. Sure hope we get out of here and the snow moves on to New England where it belongs! :)

Time for a New Year



Looks like it's time for a New Year! Christmas went by so fast this year. Seems like it was just yesterday that we got out of school with the whole two weeks looming before us. How short they were!
We started back last Friday and are working ourselves back into the routine.

Most of my time in the week between Christmas and New Year's went to polishing work on my current book, The Cattle Rustling Catastrophe. I found to my absolute HORROR that I'd gone over 40,000 words from my goal. Knew that because of my "unique" filing system (sounds better than total chaotic jumble), I would be able to cut some wordage when I cleaned up my double chapters. I did. But, I still ended up with over 17,000 words OVER. This is not good. Even 10K is doable. I cleaned up over 20,000 out of the mystery. (Hey, I did! So, okay, maybe 17K isn't so awful.) I need to keep reminding myself when I'm in the middle of the mess.


So, with every spare second I had this week, I cleaned up as much as I could of weasel words--that's, buts, aw, well. Anytime a character used another character's name when there were only two people speaking, I slashed. Still isn't enough. So, I'm faced with a gigantic hurdle. Tonight I realized that I'm going to have to cut one of the subplots and hope it makes the word count nearer my goal. Now that I've faced the inevitable, it doesn't hurt so bad. As a backup plan, I've printed out the first three chapters. Tomorrow I plan to slash and rearrange them into one or two smaller chapters.

Even though it feels like a huge amount of work, I know quitting isn't an option. I truly love this book. At the beginning, I got sidetracked for awhile, but I knew inside that I could stick with this until the end. This is a fun book and it's good. It has a great moral built in and teaches a lesson in an exciting way. I plan to rework it as much as necessary which presents two more problems.


One is that when I slash the subplot, I have to find another way to provide motivation for Jenny to keep going. Kind of like her author, she needs a reason to get to that last chapter. Had an idea tonight which might turn into a possibility.

My other problem is the fact that I'm planning to cut and paste chapters that have gotten good "reviews." The first three chapters did well in the SANDY contest and got good scores. The first 20 pages won an Honorable Mention in The Smartwriter's WIN contest. So, should I go with my instincts and change them? Or leave them alone because well respected judges and authors liked them? I feel the fact that the book hasn't sold yet might be an answer. (And I can always change the chapters back if I decide I'd rather. :))

So--until this book is finished, I feel like I'm in suspended animation. Everything hinges on the time I can spend working out this muddle. Kind of like having a jigsaw spread on the dining room table---every time I pass by I have to stop and work a few pieces into place.

I'm hoping to finish before leaving for the Midwinter Unschooler's gathering on the 21st. By then, I'll need a vacation!

Checking my list

Seems like I spend more time checking my list of "to do" projects than checking them off. I still have some things to finish up and mail, all the decorating to do and some shopping. I try to congradulate myself that I'm way ahead of where I usually am during this busy season. Last year, I ended up sending out several gifts after Christmas. While my friends didn't seem to mind, I did. It's like I didn't care enough to mail things in time which was not the case at all. More a case of too much to do in too little time. Happily, I already have some things mailed off and hope to get everything else out by this weekend. Sometimes, I amaze myself!

With all the Christmas prep, something has to go and it seems to be my writing. Most of it anyway. I've done very little in December and I'm starting to feel it. I managed to get my article done for the January, "Cookies and Milk" and also a short article for a Christmas Tradition type book. Don't know if it will be accepted, but it was a goal I was determined to meet. I'd love to write a short piece for Cup of Comfort and have until the 31st for that one.

Got some super good news on Monday. Five unit studies that I wrote this summer were accepted by a publisher! They were preschool lesson plans to be included in a giant encyclopedia of lesson plans. It's a great credit, will be a super big check AND they will use me again in other projects now that I have a foot in the door.

This month I have an article in the last issue of Fandangle online magazine, also a short story, "The Cling Thing," in Stories for Children. (This story has been moved to the November archives. Click on Stories for Children Magazine, Archives and then the download for November. They did a great illustration this time.)

The picture on top is a pointsetta someone gave my sister last Christmas. She gave it to me and I kept it alive all summer. It spent the warm months outside in my garden. When it got cold, I brought the ungrateful wretch inside and gave it a place of honor. I knew that to have red blooms for Christmas, I needed to put it in a dark place so many hours a day. Sadly, I didn't check how many days in time. Should have begun it's routine in September. Now I think there must be two plants in the pot, one part has died but the other is still going strong.

I've been going a little plant "mad" lately. Our local supermarket has been having $1.00 sales and I have a huge golden mum and a waxy leaved plant with pinkish flowers from Canada. Also still have the gigantic Boston ferns and a large pot of rosemary still blooming. I'll see if I can keep them through the winter. Like I need another challenge in my life----

Time for Snowmen.

We got some of the white stuff this week. Enough to give us two hours delays for school. We hadn't planned to go to school on Wednesday anyway. It was time for the HolidayFest at The Beach. In the summer this is filled with waterparks, water slides and lots of tanning bodies. In the winter, they freeze over the large pool and make toboggan slides out of the water slides. They have horse drawn (or tractor) carriage rides, lots of Christmas lights, carols and hot chocolate. Every year, we go with the homeschoolers at CATCH to get the discount price.

This year, since some schools were closed, my brother, sister in law and two of their granddaughters got to come along. Not many people were brave (or dumb) enough to venture out in the snow and cold. We did. (No comments please on our mental capabilities. We did it for the kids--works as an excuse for me.)

After a day of ice skating and drinking hot chocolate, we arrived at school just in time to clean. We had a great crew and with all the help were done in record time.

On Friday, we didn't make it to school at all, even with the two hour delay. The car froze up and I ended up with a free day since the boys stayed home with their dad and grandpa. Managed to do some shopping, some crafting and even an hour of writing.

Today's rain has melted all the snow. The weathermen are predicting rain for the next five days. Yippee. Sounds like a good time to stay inside and finish getting all my Christmas gifts ready to be mailed out. I'm not feeling as stressed as usual for this time of year. I've dropped off a lot of what I "can't do" and am concentrating on doing things one by one. The season is meant to be enjoyed, not endured. I'm trying to keep that in mind.

Tomorrow is the last Knight's meeting until January. The boy's club is having a party. I'm going to start mentoring some of the girls in the girl's club. They want to know what it takes to be a writer. I'm excited and a little worried at the same time. Do I even know what it takes to be a writer?

Can only give it my best try -

Thanksgiving Part 3

No Thanksgiving is complete around here without the Holiday Parade on Saturday. We have a "standing" place to sit so that anyone in the family who comes know where to meet us. This year, the parade committee decided to have the parade at 5pm. instead of it's usual time of 2 in the afternoon. The reasoning was so they could use Christmas lights and give the parade a new "dimension."

We usually sit at the beginning of the parade route. They start in the High School Parking lot, come up a small hill by the Great Scot grocery store and make a turn in front of Webster School. We always sit in front of the elementary school by the Stop Sign. At 5, it wasn't too dark so the lights didn't make much of an impression on any of us. I had to wonder about the people viewing the parade at the end of the route. If it was dark enough to see the lights on the floats, could they see anything else? Our small town has some street lights, but I'm not sure it was enough to light up the elegant costumes or cute, smiling children on the floats. I suppose one must give up something for "progress" even in a parade. You could see the lights or the floats.

This year one of my nieces came along with her three boys. Austin, Cody and Brayden had never been to a parade. They were thrilled with the band (singular---it's a small town, what can I say?) They also loved the fact that everyone tossed out candy to the children along the curbs. Free candy and all you had to do was look small and smile.

About halfway through the parade, my great-nephew, Austin, turned to me and asked, "Is this all you do at a parade?" I'm not sure what he expected.

Austin is in the middle of the picture between his brother, Cody in the red and Miah in black. As you can tell, it was a cold day!

On the same day as the parade, I got another part time job. My cousin called to tell me that one of the cleaners at the boy's school had quit. Did I want Wed. and Fridays? I'd often thought it might be the perfect job. We were already there. It didn't take up any of my writing time. Plus, I'd have helpers.

I get paid and the boys get money taken off their tuition. It works out well--almost like "multi-tasking" character building. I told them they get to help their parents, work for the privledge of going to school there, make the school a clean place for all their friends and teachers and they are doing a community service too.

This was our first week as school cleaners. It went surprisingly well. The first day was rough. We had to wait for a knitting class to finish before I could mop or vacumn and we didn't get out until dark. When you are working in an old barn next to a 500 acre nature preserve in the middle of nowhere--well, every horror story you've ever seen comes back to haunt you as you struggle to lock the door on the way out. Our goal for this week is to get out before dark. Now that we are getting into the routine, it will go better.

So, that's the end of the Thanksgiving posts. I had to add the new job because I'm giving thanks for having it. Especially since I lost my church cleaning job a few months ago.

Thanksgiving Part 1

Figured that the last few days have been too busy for one post so I am doing parts. That way I can write less at a time. (Maybe :) )

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Mine was busy, hectic, and every other adjective of that vein - but it turned out well. We ended up not having to do much of the cooking. My brother did the turkey and several of the side dishes. Most everyone brought something so we had plenty. One of my nieces said as we set out the food, "This is too much. There's no way we can eat all this." Oh, her of little faith - LOL!

I'm always filled with awe at people who actually have leftovers for DAYS. DAYS! We are doing good if we have leftovers to send home with the different families and a small amount for lunch the next day. Had a good laugh after surfing though some blogs the other day. One lady said she had frozen SEVERAL meals from leftovers for those busy December nights. I remember thinking - HOW?

The photo above is a sampling of this year's Thanksgiving crowd. I didn't realize until later that not everyone was out of the house at the right moment. We had three cameras and mine was first. The second camera caught a few more and then the third got everyone.

It was cold and no one wanted to go outside for the group shot. We did manage to get the dog in the picture this year - although he stopped for a scratch. I'm the one holding the little girl in pink, Samantha. We had about ten more that made it out for the next photo op.

Thanksgiving Part 2

As you can see by the cool icon on this post, I did manage to finish my NANO entry this year. It's my first time to do this and
I'm thrilled with the outcome. Managed to log in with
52, 388 words on Tuesday - a good few days before the
finish.

The book is far from over. In fact, I didn't even write the
last scene where the villian is uncovered and all the loose
ends are tied up. Once I hit what I thought were 50K, I was done.
Eventually, I'll take this ms. out, dust it off and do something
with it. Had an idea today to maybe enter it in a few
contests early next year. The Daphne and the St. Martin's Press Mystery Contest are coming up.

At the library tonight I saw another book to use in
research. I've forgotten the whole title but it's
something about "The Most Famous Two Minutes" and is
a cool history of the Kentucky Derby with all the
winner's pictures. My ms. takes place the year Ben Brush won
the roses.

The Lull before the Storm--of Thanksgiving. It's semi-quiet and peaceful right not. I've worked on the house most of the day. Still have to get the rest of the couch covers out of the dryer and put on the couch and love seat. Also need to scrub the bathroom sink, chop celery and onions for dressing and later make cole slaw.

This year, I got off fairly easy with cooking. My brother is doing the turkey and stuffing. Several nieces and nephews are bringing most of the rest of the meal, including paper plates and cups. We don't do china here on the holidays (although it might be nice sometime.) I have to buy a spiral cut ham tonight, the makings of cole slaw and do another pan of stuffing. Tomorrow I might open some cans of veggies. It sure is nice to not do it all anymore.

Jarrod and I made a fast trip to return library books. It's close to the last date to sign up for "Merry Money" too. Jarrod wanted to make sure he got all his paper dollars. In another week, the library has a nice "store" where the kids can buy things with their hard earned dollars. They get a dollar for every 30 minutes of reading. The boys were already plotting their assault on the "shopping rooms" having realized that last year the best stuff was upstairs. Miah's observation was, "Let's look at everything first and then go back." Last year he spent unwisely downstairs and then didn't have enough money for the room upstairs.

My NANO word count is up to 37K. I managed somehow to write 3000 words yesterday in between cleaning and shuffling clutter spots. Every holiday we have clutter spots that have to be shuffled to somewhere else in the house. My room is a MESS because it's become a catchall for overflow.

Time to chop celery. Hope everyone has a super Thanksgiving. It got up to 66 degrees today! The roses are still blooming at Sister #2's house.

Saw this fun quiz on Cj's blog- The Compost Heap. I'd love to do a link to her but am not sure how to do this yet without blacking out the entire eastern seaboard.

Two names you go by: Donna and Donna

Two things you are wearing right now: Clothes and shoes :)

Two of your favorite things to do: scrapbooking and reading

Two things you want very badly at the moment: To finish several writing projects and to have Christmas shopping done

Two favorite pets you have/had: Two of my current cats are Scrawny Bob, an orange shorthair and Mary, a black Christmas kitten I've had about five years. She's the longest cat I've ever seen and when she stretches to scratch people think she's a very skinny, short dog.

Two people who will fill this out: I haven't a clue.

Two people you last talked to: Jenny about a puzzle she wanted to work on the kitchen table and Jarrod who wanted printer paper. By phone, my friend, Sherry and my friend, Maribeth, about meeting for dinner.

Two longest trips: By Greyhound bus to California, by car to Washington state and up into Canada.

Two favorite holidays: Christmas because I love the whole season and Valentine's Day.

Two favorite beverages: Unsweetened iced tea and organic coffee.

Feel free to play along. Just let me know so I can read your answers.Have fun !

No picture today because I'm blogging at the library. Today turned out to be a glorious, fall day. It's actually warm enough to go without a coat. I'm getting ready to do my half hour of walking. Thought I'd try a new route and walk through Loveland.





My NANO project is screaming scenes at me but I didn't bring the laptop today. My experiment to use the Loveland Library to type ended under the category of "Nice try." The plug I used is on a nice table right in the floor to ceiling windows of the entrance. It's also right next to the door. This meant I felt the cold and heard everyone who came through. Since Wednesday is pre-school, toddler storytime, I heard every little squeal, cry, squabble and parental command to "BE QUIET!" as they came inside. Later, I heard all the songs and frequent admonishions of "Sit down. Sit DOWN. SIT DOWN." I managed to type some words but I worked for everyone. Although I'm almost used to writing in a noisy environment, it's not always right in your face noise. As the body count kept rising, I felt myself tensing up and almost willing the time to race by so I could quit. Guess I should think seriously about earning enough to buy extra battery power for the laptop. It has to be cheaper than gas to go over to the other branch where I can type in relative peace.



Am not sure I'll try this again. It's almost better to write long hand and try to add it into the laptop later. Today I'm working on a Christmas memory story for Cup of Comfort, a synopsis and some notes. They can all be done longhand.



My December article is ready for the paper - Circus in a Box. It's a short history of animal crackers. And here's a fact to keep you awake at night--what animals replaced the dog and jaguar?

Time for Fall---It's gotten colder here. In just a few short days the leaves have put on a colorful display. I went outside today to take a few pictures of the boys raking leaves. Also some shots of the house with the trees still showing some autumn color. Thought at first I wouldn't be able to take any pictures. The camera kept telling me "Memory Card Locked." I had no idea how to LOCK a memory card in the first place. Unlocking it was beyond me. Figured I'd have to go look in the camera manual in the well thumbed "Troubleshooter's" section.

Thinking maybe I'd done something to the card accidentally, I took it out of the camera. To my surprise there is a little plastic thingie on the side of the card, an arrow and the word, Lock. The plastic thinie was pushed into lock position. When I pushed it back, it worked perfectly. Technology---grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Managed to get some nice pictures. The one above is from the porch looking toward the field where our neighbor keeps horses - Lady and Bay. The grey building is their barn.

Since I had a free day, I also got in some writing. It's day 8 in NANO and I'm up to 19,000 words. Happily, I still have ideas for another chapters ahead so I'm not panicing about the dreaded "middle of the book." There are a couple of sections I'm not certain about. When I begin edits I know I'm going to have to erase some coincidences or do some convoluting of characters. I also know I have lots of research to make this into a real book. Came up with several questions today about pocketwatches. Somewhere, I have a reproduction Sears Roebuck Catalog that I think fits my timeframe. If not, there is always the internet. :) Amazing what you can find when you look.

Miah and I went to storytime tonight at the library. We loaded up on Christmas DVD's to watch this weekend. It's never to early to get in the mood!

NANO Day Two---

I really can't believe I'm doing this even though I talked about it all through October. A plot is coming to life that didn't exist in it's present form until I sat down to write it. Maybe that's what I truly like about writing. You sit down and have a blank page or pc screen--then suddenly, like magic--people are moving and talking and coming to life. Sometimes, it's a bit scary. Like today --- things happened that I never dreamed this morning. There are more characters than I anticipated and they sure aren't turning out like I expected.

Today I didn't get a good start until after five. Once I started though, I got through a lot of words and hit a total two day count of 6333. I'd just hoped to make it to 4000 which would give me a 2000 word a day count since I only write five days a week. I think I ended up with two chapters. My main character is such a hunky guy I could easily fall in love with him. Too bad he's already married to his young bride, Clementine. Today, Ben--that's the main character--spoke to the old stablehand, Jack, and got some news about his father's disappearance two years ago. Jack doesn't actually know anything but his brother--a hand on another plantation (this is Kentucky, after all)---has hinted he might know something.

Tomorrow, Ben will head for Cincinnati on the Belle of Louisville--or maybe he'll take the train. No, his wife is going on the steamboat.... I'll figure it out. All my suppositions add wordage---LOL. My first drafts are strictly figure it out missions. You could read it, but it wouldn't make much sense. Unlike my friend, Kathi, who writes and outline so detailed it could BE a book, my first draft is an outline in the making.

I'm glad tomorrow is Saturday. Don't have to get up early and go anywhere. We were running late today in getting to school. First we had to wait for Miah to find his shoes. (This is usually a ten minute hunt.) Then we ended up behind a huge green combine or something. It puttered along for miles until I got up enough nerve to pass it. Then we ended up behind a dump truck that never went past 20MPH. After we cheered at him getting out of the way, we ended up behind a little barn on the back of a trailer and a long "OVERSIZED LOAD" banner. It slowed us down for twenty miles or so. We did not arrive at school on time. On the way home we got behind a piece of farm equiptment I could never identify. It sat WAY UP above the road. Jarrod thought I should drive under it. I didn't.

NANO Day Three tomorrow---I managed to get my little icon on my blog so am proud of myself. Maybe tomorrow I can figure out the Regions tab on the NANO sight. Looked today and there is no one in my town.

Let's Play 30 Questions!

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night? My niece, Jenny. She makes such funny faces and does all kinds of silly dances.

2. What were you doing at 0800? At 8AM, I was thinking, "I have to get up in an hour." At 8PM, I was watching "Joel Osteen."

.3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Reading emails.

4. What happened to you in 2006? Got an emailing saying I'd sold a book--that's about the biggest thing.

5. What was the last thing you said out loud? "Night" to my Dad.

6. How many beverages did you have today? 2 cups of hot tea before church and after, then 2 large iced teas with lunch, a cup of water, another cup of hot tea, a cup of hot tea at Maribeth's and 2 later.

7. What color is your hairbrush? Which one?

8. What was the last thing you paid for? Gas and a jug of distilled water

.9. Where were you last night? Home with the kids. Read awhile and they played cards.

10. What color is your front door? Bright blue.

11. Where do you keep your change? In my purse, the ashtray of the car, under the car seats, dropped all over my desk and in a Folger's coffee can as an incentive to save. Most of my change I "keep" at JoAnn Fabrics buying scrapebook paper.

12. What’s the weather like today? Sunny, bright but with a chilly nip. Covered my plants tonight.

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor? United Dairy Farmer's Cherry Cordial.

14. What excites you? Lots of things--finishing a project, writing, buying new scrapbook supplies, finding a book I really, really, really want to read, cole slaw.

15. Do you want to cut your hair? Nope.

16. Are you over the age of 25? Yes.

17. Do you talk a lot? Yes, usually when I shouldn't.

18. Do you watch the O.C.? What is it?

19. Do you know anyone named Steven? Yes, my grandpa, my cousin and several other people at church.

20. Do you make up your own words? Sometimes.

21. Are you a jealous person? Sometimes.

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’. Aimee.

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’. Kathy.

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list? Maribeth.

25.What does the last text message you received say? I don't text message since it runs up the phone cost.

26. Do you chew on your straw? No.

27. Do you have curly hair? If I curl it.

28.Where’s the next place you’re going to? Bed tonight, Knights tomorrow.

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life? Hm, I'll have to think on that one.

30.What was the last thing you ate? Kettle corn popcorn.

31. Will you get married in the future? Sure hope to.

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks? Does Perry Mason count?
33. Is there anyone you like right now? I like lots of people--some more than others depending on the time of day. :)

34. When was the last time you did the dishes? Yesterday afternoon.

35. Are you currently depressed? Not right this minute.

36. Did you cry today? No.

37. Why did you answer and post this? I'm a copycat and two of my friends did it.

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey. I don't know 5 people with blogs--but if anyone wants to post answers here, I'm game.

Looks like fall has finally arrived. We are the beautiful fall colors and some much needed rain. The rain makes everything look like an impressionistic painting. Nice to look at if one doesn't have to drive. So many drivers seem to think they can go the same spreed in rainy weather as they do in dry.

It's been a long week. Lots of ups and downs.

"Let's Write 3" began on Monday. Lots of new faces and a great class, as always. I'm really excited that we are all going to get more personal attention from our moderator. She offered to look at some of our work. Only trouble is, I can't decide which project to let her critique!

My cousin in the nursing home had a bad spell on Tuesday night. It didn't look like she would make it through the night. Since it was a "dark and stormy night" literally--we weren't able to make the hour and a half drive. A call before we went to bed let us know she'd taken a turn for the better. That was good news.

On Wednesday, my usual school day routine got turned upside down. I had blankets to wash at the Loveland Laundromat. Didn't see my old friend from last year. There were lots of changes, new paint, new signs and new dryers. The black lacquered bathroom was the same though. Only this year they had a sliver of soap. After washing the blankets, I planned to write. Instead, I met Mom and Sister #2 so that we could go to the nursing home and visit my cousin.

Had a funny moment there. One of the nurses' aids said someone had said to her, "I didn't know there were any black Catholics." She replied in all seriousness, "Oh, yes, I'm full blooded." I'm using that someday.

Thursday I'm not sure what I did! We did schoolwork during the morning, cooked dinner. I did go to the library to print some research pictures. Got into an interesting conversation with one of the librarians. We had spoken before about growing up in the same areas of Cincinnati. That night, we also got into a discussion of high schools, neighborhoods and streets. Turns out our paths had crossed umpteen times through the years.

Then we started to talk about where we lived now. She mentioned her road. I said, "Oh, the only person I ever knew who lived there was Mr. B." Shocked, she said, "We live in his house." From there we were OFF to the amusement of the few library patrons. She'd always wanted to meet someone who knew him. I told her all I knew about the house (built in the 1890's) and the man. Sure makes the cliche' "it's a small world" seem true.

Friday turned out to be a golden, autumn day. It got HOT! I took a walk through the Grailville retreat center and went down several new paths. Guess several of the downs to the week happened on Friday. Got booted off a Yahoo group (no great loss since every time I opened my emails my stomach clenched.) Still, I'd have liked to slam the door on my way out. They didn't even print my letter telling why I decided to leave.

Earlier in the week, I'd also had another jolt from someone I met on that group. That's all I care to say in print, but I feel a deep sense of loss.

Time to move on to next week. I'm looking forward to beginning the NANO novel writing month on Wednesday. That should keep me busy! I'll have to pound out 2000 words a day to meet the 50,000 word deadline. Maybe later I'll have to remind myself why I'm doing this. Okay, I heard that remark----