Borrowed this from Leona's blog since I'm too lazy to write anything new today.
Thanks Leona!

The Childhood Survey
How far back can you remember your childhood (how old)?:
2 years old---I know this because the memory involves a little pink silk jacket I wore and I outgrew it at 3--also Mom used to tell people no one believed I was so young because I talked so well
Who would you say had the biggest part in raising you?: Mom, Dad traveled most of my childhood
Name 3 of your favorite childhood toys.: Dolls, a little plastic farm set and blocks
What was your favorite Disney movie?:
So many to choose but I adored, "101 Dalmations."
Favorite cartoon?: The Flintstones
Were your parents together for most of your childhood?:
yes
Were you an only child?:
nope
Where did you live at the age of 4? Cincinnati, Ohio--the inner city
Where were you born?:
Cincinnati, Ohio
Do you know how much you weighed at birth?: Six pounds and something
What was your first word?: Dada
How old were you when you took your first steps?: Early
Were you a mama or dady's girl/boy?: Mama's girl

Did you know all of your grandparents?: No, just Mom's
Ever get spanked?: Yes
What elementary school/schools did you attend?: Holy Family, Saint Anne's, Corpus Christi, Pleasant Run Jr. High
Did you ride the bus?: Sometimes

Did you take your lunch to school or eat cafeteria food?: Both
Who was your favorite elementary school teacher?: Mrs. Springer
What kind of names did you have for your grandparents This was always a source of embarrassment to me who wanted a normal grandparently name like Grandma or Grandpa. We called Mom's Dad, Hocty and Mom's Mom, Nin or as the little kids called her, Ninny. Isn't that awful? Grandma decided she was too young to a grandmother so came up with the name of Ninmother. Well, none of us kids could get out that mouthful and it was shortened. Grandpa's name was Hector Stephen and my grandma insisted we call him Hector. Most of the neighbors thought his name was Hoddy. I have no idea why.
How old were your parents when you were born?: 22 and 25
Were you named after anyone?: Yes, the Madonna and my grandmother, Alice
What was your favorite candy?: Good and Plenty
Favorite board/card game?: Clue, Monopoly, Life
Did you have an imaginary friend?: Just characters in my mind
Were you very close with your family, other than immediate?: Yes. Two of my aunts and the cousins were all close.
Who was your best childhood friend?: Kitty McCarthy, of course!
What kind of neighborhood did you live in?: City neighborhood until 2nd grade then in a subdivision in the works
Did you ever go to day care? No, we never heard the word
Ever go to summer camp?: Girl Scout Day camp
Are you still good friends with anyone you grew up with?: Kitty and I are still close.
What did you want to be when you grew up?: A writer
Would you say you were spoiled?:
Can I take the Fifth?
What were you scared of the most as a child?: Dark, night
What's your favorite childhood memory?: Hm, lots of those--moving into our new house and not having to rent, playing with my dolls, summer and being able to read as much as I wanted, finding the Little House books at the library, going for ice cream on summer nights and I guess my absolute favorite was on summer evenings when we'd go to the drive in to see a movie.

Or Maybe Not ----

Well, I thought spring had arrived but now I'm not sure. We actually had frost warnings the other night. Had to rush home and cover my pink and deep rose azaleas. The weather never dipped down low enough to kill or maim any plants, but I'm sure it gave the weatherman lots of exciting news to talk about.

The last few days have wavered between sun and warmth to cold and rainy. Today started out warm and cloudy, went to sun and then back to a cold, damp drizzle. A little while ago I looked out to a glorious sunset. Go figure.

This has been a topsy turvey day in more ways than one. The boys and I got a late start to Leaves this morning. We had to wait for the bank to open so we'd have money for gas. Got on our way in time for their second class, stopped for the gas and then----grrr, grrrr, grrrr. The car wouldn't start. This has been a long month for my current car. It's had the starter replaced twice, died too frequently in unexpected places and been towed home three times. Thankfully, my brother and nephew both own tow trucks. My brother in law happened to notice a part broken in the engine and I had great hopes it could be replaced. Now, we aren't sure. So I may be faced with having to find another used car. I had hoped to have this car last the last weeks of school so who knows? I'm tired of thinking about it tonight. As Scarlett O'Hara was found of saying, "After all, tomorrow is another day."

I'm so looking forward to the summer when I don't have to go anywhere on a regular schedule. (Well, there are always some things but not as regular as school.) The last few months have played havoc with my writing schedule or lack therof. When I look back, I can't point to many things that I've been able to finish completely. That has to change because I have several deadlines coming up.

The student newspaper my Scribes group is sponsoring is nearing the finish line. Tonight I took some of the student's papers and cut out excerpts of reviews for the class play. Helped Miah write his short article on the Knights' club and typed up a review of a field trip. We will have a meeting on Sunday to co-ordinate with the wonderful lady who is going to do all the layout, etc. Two more articles came in by email tonight so it really is coming together. On Sunday I'll have to scurry around to pin down a couple of adults who also promised to write short tidbits for the paper. Next year---the students do their own paper!

With a deadline fast approaching for the Delacorte contest, I need to finish my mid-grade mystery. I'm taking votes on which would be the better title. You can chose from Snipped in the Bud or Summer Snow. This is a gardening mystery for kids and involves the theft of roses. The theme is getting along with someone you really don't like.
I had the idea to maybe do a series (although it's just in the planning stages) called "A Garden of Mysteries," using gardening as a theme to tie in each book.

It also looks like I will be working more on the ms. that finaled in the Genesis contest. Am not allowed to share the title, so please refrain from mentioning it if you comment. It's in the rules that it shouldn't be mentioned in a public formum. Am not sure how public this blog can be---but I want to stay within the rules! :)

Had the thought tonight that quite a few things haven't gone well in my life lately. None that I care to write about. Everyone has problems, some worse than mine. But this evening two of my little great nieces came by (while my nephew towed the car for the third time) and we sat out on the porch. It was windy, drizzly, etc. but their smiles were so sweet. We looked out at the tulips and Stephi asked me who planted them. Before I could answer she said, "I guess God planted them for you. He likes to do stuff like that."

You know, she's right. I know who planted the tulips, but I also know who CREATED tulips. As long as I have God in my corner, it doesn't matter what happens around me. Just the thought is like wrapping up in a warm, cozy quilt. Quite a nice thing to imagine tonight. Hope you have similar assurances of His love tonight.

Spring --- It's Official!

This afternoon I took the plastic off my windows. It is now officially spring. This house is so old and drafty that once cold weather sets in, I have to cover the bedroom windows with plastic. Layers and layers of heavy, gloomy plastic that keeps out the cold. It also keeps out the light. Although I'm tempted to rip it off once the crocus' start to bloom, I know better. A few nights with the frigid air of winter's return stealing in the cracks around the windows taught me well. Now I keep it on until I'm sure the temps won't go below 50. Most of the time. We do have freak snowstorms and blizzards. But, today, I choose to be optimistic and rip off the plastic. I also folded up the kid's sleeping bags I use to ram under the closet doors. Since both the closet roof's are THE roof and let in a lot of cold air, I have to use plastic and sleeping bags to block out the cold. Once spring arrives, I gain back the space in both closets.

This morning, the nephews and I participated in our church's second annual Jogathon. The boys each got five sponsors this year. (Each sponsor paid a pre-determined amount per lap.) Miah earned almost thirty dollars for the boy's club and Jarrod came in close at twenty-five. Even I managed to walk---slowly---around the track seven full laps. Probably could have done more but I hurt my back earlier this week and walking was a little painful. Thankfully, it did me good. My knees and back aren't as sore. We went back to the church later for a pizza party.

Several of my many projects are slowly coming together. Our group at church, Scribes, is helping to put together a student newspaper. After weeks of talking and figuring out, finding students to write articles, etc. we are going to have a final meeting on May 4th. By then we should have all the articles, pictures, etc. turned in. So hopefully, that issue should come out sometime in May. HOORAY! This has been a lengthy and often confusing project. My hopes are that once we launch this baby, the students will take over the job next year.

Writing continues on my current mid-grade book, Snipped in the Bud. I'm hoping to get it in final form to send off to the Delacorte Contest for Mid-Grade Books. After that, who knows? I have so many possible books to work on, I'm like the little girl with too many cookie choices. Which to pick? I will probably take part of the summer to revise both my Jenny books. Have had some different critiques done recently (including some very confusing scores in two contests) and feel that I need to re-write parts. Having come this far with Jenny, a character I will always love, I want to make sure I stick with the projects until they sell.

I've had a lot of ups and downs with the Jenny books, but I'm determined to get them into shape. Each book has a good moral theme and I think Jenny learns a lot about life through each title. I even have a third book in mind but no time to begin it. Guess I slowed down some this past fall when I realized that I had almost rewritten the first book over. The endings of the two were too similar. It took weeks of thought before one of the "Cookies and Milk" ladies gave me an idea that prompted what finally worked. So had to rewrite the ending. Twice. Now that I've had very contradictory scores in The Sandy writing contest, I can see where I need to also revise the beginning. This will make about the fifth time. SIGH. . . .

Ah, well, spring is here which means I will be spending lots of time outdoors. Plenty of time to plan revisions as I dig, sow and reap the rewards of my flower garden.

Playing Catch up

It's been so long since I've written anything on this blog that I find myself dreading the idea. There were plenty of opportunities and stories I should have blogged but didn't. I somehow got out of sync with my writing and everything when I took a week off before Easter. My goal then was to clean the house, eliminate clutter and get everything organized so that I could go back to my routine with ease. Instead, I ended up doing the bare minimum of cleaning while eating yogurt to settle tummy troubles. Everything seemed to spin out of control when my brother invited us to eat at Ryan's buffet on Palm Sunday. I think I got some kind of food poisoning or some disgusting something. Thankfully, I never got really ill. Between the cleaning I did a lot of cross stitching and some reading.

Since the holiday, I've been slowly working myself back into a routine. My writing has gone downhill and I'm having to force myself into my old work ethic. It's been hard to feel motivated. But, I'm happy to say I'm getting the flow back.

Today, I actually took the laptop to the library for the first time in over a month. My plan was to work through the whole completed file of "Cattle Rustler." I'd see what worked, what didn't, and ease in the crits from friends. The plan worked fine to a point. I sat down in my hidden cubby, frowned at a teenager who kept coming to see if I'd left (apparently, others like the hidden space too) and set my sights on reading through as much of the ms. as I could in my allotted time. Breezing along, I got through three chapters when I realized that I'd gone as far as I could go. Apparently, I'd copied the smaller file onto my disk instead of the whole book. Darn! Foiled again.

Guess now I've got my Saturday work cut out for me. I'm determined that by the end of April I will have this book in one file and will have written the last chapter. It will go in a completed file and on a disk.

And somehow, despite my best intentions, I've signed up to help judge another writing contest. It's not that I'm bored or anything. I don't have time to be bored. There must be another reason that I keep adding on things before I've finished other things. There's probably a word for that but I'm too tired to look it up.

I'm back! Feels like I've been away from this blog for months even though it hasn't been that long. Most of February flew by with doing FEBO and trying to get several contest entries ready to mail. Then, as if I didn't have enough to do, I volunteered to judge a writing contest. That turned out to be an education in itself. Thankfully, I sent off my last judged entry yesterday. FREE AT LAST!

Now I'm deep into writing unit studies to submit to the BIG BOOK FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS. These will go to the same publisher who accepted some of my ideas in December. The deadline is April 28th, so I'm hoping to submit quite a few before then. I've written ten so far but only submitted two. Each lesson has to have a list of related library books for children so I need to do more research before sending those off.

It's been raining all day. The yard, the creek, the back fields are swamps or flooded. My shoes sink into mud everytime I venture outside. Even though itdoesn't look as if spring has arrived, I heard the peepers last night. Spring is coming.

Last week, we had enough sun (in between an ice storm and a blizzard) to make the cats imagine spring had sprung. Smokey and Gray Girl take up their favorite places on the back porch. I can't wait until it's warm enough for me to sit out in the swing and watch them.

To celebrate finishing up all my contest entries and the entries to be judged, I made a white cake with chocolate icing. Even went to the bother of separating the egg whites from the yolks. Most of the time I just toss them all in together and end up with a pale yellowish cake instead. Then, since I was thoroughly tired of writing, I went back to my state fair sampler.

I'm up to the pigs. Well, almost. I discovered when I started the pigs that I hadn't finished the little row of mason jars. Somewhere I'd miscounted and needed to ADD three extra rows of red tiles. So, I am adding red tiles, doing pigs and moving down a line to the row of ice cream cones. The reason I have to move down to the ice cream cones is because I'm out of black and white DMC thread right now. Wal-Mart has decided they will no longer carry embroidery thread. (My protest letter is in the mail!) Will have to wait until I can drive the sixty miles to a fabric store to buy more. I can sew the ice cream cones because I still have red and brown.

So now I can mark off another goal on my to do list from today. I blogged.

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 !