New blog address

I have a new blog! I'll keep this one around for a little while in case anyone is interested in looking at the archives, but I'll be making all posts on the new one from now on.

This is just wrong

Bus Driver Accused of Stranding 6-Year-Old

I can't believe someone would even consider doing that, but sadly enough this isn't the first time it's happened. This part really steamed me: "Gilbraith said the boy was upset, but it didn't affect her decision because "6-year-olds get upset if a leaf falls."" Her statements in her defense mean nothing, IMO. There's no defense for leaving a small child to fend for himself.

Something funny

This made me laugh like crazy--as much from the comentary as the menu items... NOT for kids, though.

Personal Victory

I haven't mentioned this here before, so as not to bore anyone to tears, but for the first time in 12 years I'm back in school. Yep, I'm now officially a college student...again, but that's a whole different story. I took my first exam today and I got 100%. Phew. Now I'm off to do some more studying before I sit down to do some more work on OZ.

New contest

Morning, everyone. Just a few quick things for now. This month's contest is posted on my website, so be sure and take a look. Also, the latest issue of my newsletter is available at my newsletter Yahoo group.

Goals and a little news

If anyone's been watching the meter in the sidebar, you've noticed the red line is getting a little longer--but only half as fast as I've been shooting for. Have I reached my goals any day this week? No. But that's okay. It's been a busy week for me, and I managed to add almost 100 pages to OZ. The big goal is looking less and less possible, though, after missing the little goals all week. 90k by next Friday. Think I can do it? I suppose it depends on how much sleep I want to get. *g* And for the news: I just signed contracts on 4 new books for Samhain Publishing. They're all connected to Reality Check, so I'm pretty excited to get started with writing them. :) I'm going to be doing website updates this week, so I'll try to get some blurbs up on the coming soon page.

The writer's journey

On Monday I took a short trip to my hometown, about an hour's drive from where I live now, and it got me thinking. There were so many things that had changed in the past seven years since I've lived there. More buildings had been added downtown, and some others had been updated with more modern exteriors. Roads had been expanded. New parking lots had been put in. But for everything that had changed, there were things that stayed the same. The historic landmarks remain unchanged. The bakery where we used to get our bread on Sunday mornings still sits at the end of Main Street, unchanged in the midst of all the new growth. The harbor looks exactly as it did seven years ago, when I used to sit out on my porch with the kids so they could watch the boats coming and going across the street. So though the town has been modernizing, the foundation of it remains the same. As writers, we go through a similar process. At the start of our writing, we discover the core foundation of our unique talents--our voice. As the years pass, we learn and grow. We read articles, we find critique partners, we take advise from rejection letters, and go to meetings and conferences. We take a little bit from each of these things and apply them to our writing, so our writing grows consistently smoother and tighter, and gets better and better. But even with the new growth, the foundation remains the same. The writer's voice is still there, even through all the tweaking and honing. The essence of your uniqueness doesn't change. This journey is an endless one. There will always be new ways to learn and grow, but don't grow so much that you lose your voice. Use them to make your voice stronger.

Contest Winners...

The Bath and Body Works prize goes to Lauren, the Yankee Candle prize goes to Charlene, and the download of Same Time Next Year goes to Maxine! Congrats, Ladies! Emails have been sent to the winners. This month's contest info will be posted in the next few days, so make sure to check back here and check my website.

Contest winner announcement coming soon

The winners of February's contest have been drawn, and they'll be announced soon. I'm headed out the door to pick up the kids from the bus stop and then it's off to the dance studio for a few hours, but once I get home I'll be making the announcement. I'll have a real blog post *g* a little later tonight, too, and my newsletter (which has had a few technical difficulties) will be going out in text form this week.

A quickie

Snagged this from Sharon's blog. I have a slightly more meaningful, writing-related post I'm planning to do a little later, but this morning I have to re-register my car and get an inspection sticker, and anyone who lives in the states knows how long that fun process takes.

You Are Thai Food

Trendy yet complex. People seek you out - though they're not sure why.

What Kind of Food Are You?

No writing today...

I generally take Sundays off since the kids and I go to my parents' house for Sunday dinner. Tomorrow, I'll be very busy, though. I have edits to do on Betrayal, among a few other things. No phone calls today. Hopefully the silence will continue.

Annoying phone calls

I should be writing today (I did get a lot done earlier this morning) but I've spent the past few hours online trying to figure out how to get these people to stop calling my cell phone. For the past week, I've been getting calls from an 800 number, and when I answer they say nothing. I called the number back and got a recorded message saying I'd reached the company (can't understand the company's name due to the woman's accent). She goes on to say that if I'm calling to have my name removed from their list (well, duh) I should stay on the line and speak to a representative, or leave my name and number and they'll remove me from the list. So I hang on the line, listen to the same recorded message a few times, and finally get another one telling me to leave my name and number after the beep. Only, there's no beep. I've waited as long as 5 minutes one time to see if a so-called representative would come on the line, but all I get is silence. Sigh. Has anyone dealt with something like this before? I filed a complaint with the FCC and emailed my cell phone company about this, but beyond that I don't know what more I can do. The calls come about 10 times a day, every day. I don't know how they got a hold of my number--only the SO, the kids and their schools, and my parents have it. I've only had the phone for a few months, so maybe they're calling for the person who had the number before me. Don't know...I just know it's driving me crazy. Any advice?

Quiet day

I've been sick on the couch for most of the day, so not much has been going on. This has been coming for a few days, and I hope it passes quickly since I really have no room in my schedule for sick days. lol I've been working on setting up a site at MySpace. Check it out if you get a chance. There's not much there now, but within a few weeks I'm hoping to have it all organized.

Five Guilty Pleasures

I've been tagged by Karen. Guilty Pleasures (not necessarily in order of guilt/pleasure ratio): 1. Food. Not just any food, but really, really good food. I love to cook, spend most of my precious little TV time watching Food Network, and reading cookbooks. My oldest son jokes that his comfort foods are chicken marsala and macadamia-encrusted pork. 2. Senseo flavored coffees--especially the Vienna blend. There's something about hazelnut and mocha together that I just love. 3. Malcolm in the Middle. I love this show. Nothing else on TV makes me laugh so hard. I know, definitely not a show based in reality, but I live reality 24/7. I don't want to watch it on TV, too. 4. Video games. I love epic fantasy and roll playing games. My current obsession right now is the Geneforge series. I don't have a lot of time for this sort of thing, but every once in a while I take a day off to veg out in front of the computer screen. 5. Alternative rock ringtones for my cell phone. I've had a few strange looks at the kids' dance studio when Fallout Boy starts playing from the side pocket of my purse. Tagging: Sharon and Maria.

On Rejection...

Diana Peterfreund has an awesome post on the subject. Definitely worth a read. I've been thinking a lot about rejections lately. I'm in the process of submitting to agents right now, and I've had six rejections in the past two weeks alone. With the exception of one, I didn't let them bother me. This is a tough business and the only way to get by is to keep moving forward. To keep submitting, keep writing, and keep believing that it will eventually happen. When agents and editors reject, they aren't rejecting the writer, just the manuscript.

Some great links for writers

Allison Brennan's post on professionalism is really worth a read. Here's an interview with agents Elaine English, Donald Maass, Evan Marshall, and Anne Rittenberg. Morgan Hawke's blog has excellent advice for writers of erotica--and for everyone else, too. Michelle Pillow has a great page of research links on her website. Robert Gregory Browne's post on whether or not we should like our own writing is a cool one to read. Here's a list of unusual professions used in romance books. Paperback Writer's blog is a good one to read for industry information. Two agent blogs: Miss Snark and Kristin Nelson This last one has nothing to do with writing, but if you're looking for a good laugh--or a few--every day, this is the place to find it.

Quick post

I hadn't realized there was a problem viewing the new layout correctly with Internet Explorer until this morning. I need to remember to start checking on both Firefox and IE. It should be fixed now. If anyone has trouble viewing it, let me know and I'll make a few more adjustments. Thanks!

Fear

Jordan Summers has an interesting post about the subject. I usually avoid writing about my personal fears and phobias in my books, but I've been editing Lost in Suburbia and came across a scene I'd forgotten was in there. A spider falls from the ceiling into the heroine's hair. One of my biggest fears is of spiders, second only to heights, (yeah, ridiculous, I know *g*) and the spider incident is something that actually happened to me. It's been years since it happened, and though I can laugh at the comical scene in the book, it still gives me the creeps just a little. Fear of heights is probably something I won't ever touch on in a book, since I can't really deal with it all that well myself. Just ask my family what I'm like on a plane. *bg* They get a kick out of it since my dad's an FAA inspector. Okay, more than enough about me. When you're reading, does it bother you if characters have fears similar to yours? Does it help you relate to them more? If you write, do you give your characters fears similar to your own or do you avoid doing so?

The best of intentions

It's 11:15 here and I have yet to write a single word. I'd planned on coming home from the bus stop and sitting right down to write, but things didn't work out that way. My oldest son lost his contact down the school bathroom drain and I had to run to the school to bring him another one. When I got there, he told me he was having a bad day and just wanted to come home. lol That might have worked...when he was in kindergarten, but since he's in middle school now I had to tell him to tough it out. They're on vacation next week. I think he can handle a few hours. The middle child, lately known as You're Grounded, is home sick today. He's not exactly sick, but he's tired. He snuck the video game upstairs last night and spent the_entire night_playing Animal Crossing. I'd wanted to send him to school tired to show him that he can't do things like that and still function at full capacity (anyone who's pulled an all-nighter writing or working knows what I mean), but when he started to doze off in his oatmeal I sent him back to bed.

Another reason not to...

Eat at fast food restaurants.