Monday, May 30, 2011

Sadness

My grandmother died this weekend. We knew it was coming, her battle with lung cancer has been a long and hard one on her. I'm grateful her suffering is over, but I will miss her every day and love her more than I got a chance to tell her. I know she's better off. I know she is at peace, but my heart aches every time I think about the millions of good memories I have of her.

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers. I would appreciate that a bunch.

I won't be here. Her visitation is Monday and funeral Tuesday, so please understand my absence. 

Find time to tell your family you love them. Find time to share life with them and make memories where you can.

See you all next week!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Stranger Thor Fatty Weekend

This weekend was nice. Too fast, as usual, but nice! On my way home from work Thursday I stopped at Hardees to try it out (I haven't always been a huge fan, and haven't eaten it in years).

Thursday was also the first day in uniform for the office that I work in. Apparently, if you show up in scrubs you get free small fries and drinks! (Small being a normal persons medium, btw) Hazzah! It was pretty good for fast food too! (having half free didn't hurt either)

Saturday night was steak grilled out on the bbq and a fresh tomato. MMMMMMMMMMM MMMM. Also, had a super fun crit meeting with the gals. Love those gals. I haven't laughed that much in a while. Even if my villain turned into a fountain and a deflating inflatable arm flailing tube man at one point in the conversation ;)

Sunday mom and I couldn't decide which movie to see, Thor or the new Pirates. So we picked both! Thor was way better than I expected, but I really would have paid 6.50 just to see sexy Chris Hemsworth mud wrestle in the rain any day so it was a total, unexpected win. Also pretty randomly funny.

Pirates of the Caribbean was a surprise too. I expected very little and was given a lot! Johnny Depp rocked my world AGAIN. So, all in a all a movie going success!! (don't waste money on 3D for Pirates, though. We had to upgrade because of Thor letting out late and missed the opening to the non-3D one, and it was a waste of 6 bucks. Not cool enough to warrant the $) 

Oh man...I hope I have dreams of Johnny Depp mud wrestling Chris Hemsworth in the rain...Prize for the winner? Muah! Prize for the loser? Oh that's right. Me again! Bring it dream land.

Lastly, I have been in a funk lately with my MS. I need to finish up some work on it, and have put off finishing my synopsis as long as my bratty attitude can. So this week I am knucklin' down and just doing that shiz. No excuses!

What's new with you guys? See anything/do anything fun this weekend?

Monday, May 16, 2011

Word Verification Gets Tricky






Did everyone shut off their word verifications lately or what!? This was a difficult list to compile, a couple donated by the lovely Abby Minard herself. Ah well, not complaining. Easier to comment without them, harder to make the game without them. Kinda balances out in the end ;)

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Fear Itself

Anyone watched that? Fear Itself? It's pretty good! Pretty weird! Just started on it last night, just curious.

Anyway!!

This week marks the beginning of the hunt for that dream agent. I'm grateful I never tried with my first novel and decided to give another one a try before approaching anyone. I've learned a lot since starting out. That's the beauty of this whole gig. Ever day you write you learn more.

But this is very new. It's terrifying. It's exciting. And every time I think about submitting my little novel to a professional I want to vomit and jump for joy at the same time. (what a mess that would be...)

I run and check my query every half hour. I double check...triple check my agent list. I scour their website/blog and am on the verge of stalking the ones on twitter(Gimme a little credit, I have some restraint...right now...)

And all the while think "Oh God, what am I doing!?" while another thought, an excited thought that sparks unwanted hope pops in-"I can do this."

But mostly I know: whatever will be, will be!


General Updates:
  • Almost broke my right elbow Saturday mowing the grass. Weird? I'm accident prone that way. The weird way.

  • Buffy marathon this weekend rocked. Only halfway through season 2, which is awesome. I savor Buffy. Is that weird? It's all for Spike, though. Mmmmmm Spike...

  • A friend lent me 16 Stephanie Plum novels. They. Are. Bitching! My mom has been hassling me since they came out to read them, but I have always blown her off. She totally got a ridiculous "I told you so" moment on Sunday. There. Happy Mothers Day, you were right! ;) 
What's new with you guys?

Happy Monday!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Thursdays Are For Doing

Back again for day 2 at The QQQE with Matthew MacNish!

Thanks to everyone for their sweet words and kindness over there yesterday! And thanks in advance for anything you have to add in today! 

See you all Monday!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Not there, There! No, over THERE.

So, today I'm not here. I am disabling comments because I am literally not HERE to respond or reciprocate.

And, anyway, this is just a heads-up.

I...lost my ever lovin' mind, or grew some serious nads (not sure which I like better...) and asked Matthew MacNish to crit my query. *Cringe* So that is up on The QQQE today!

So, man balls, or insane, I am up on his blog today and tomorrow.

Will be keeping an eye on comments there, not here, after work. As this is the first(ish) glimpse of something I have written and my novel, I hope you will enjoy it!

Moved the possible query release to agent date to Monday, to accommodate any changes I need to make, as well as finish up my list of desired agents.

Happy Wednesday!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Am I Tan Yet?

Okay, so the blogcation wasn't really on a beach in the sun somewhere tropical. Maybe in my head. That counts, right?...right...?

HELLO! Glad to be back! Missed you guys!!! Hope you had a great month! Welcome my new followers! So pleased to have you!

I accomplished the great query write of 2011. The novel is looking pretty shiny thanks to my awesome crit gals, and no, I didn't write the synopsis. I'm holding out hope that I wont really need it. Don't rain on my parade. Denial is a real process. Be cool, guys. Be cool.

The query wasn't as hellish as I expected. Maybe to the gals it was. (3-5 emails from me a day with minor tweeks "IS THIS BETTER!?" while I do the peepee-dance of anticipation and hope to GOD they don't boot me out of the group for being a major pain in the ass.) But truthfully, it wasn't as hard as I expected. Picking out the necessities and leaving out the stuff that isn't NEED TO KNOW is probably the hardest part.

If you're there plugging away at a query or about to, I suggest getting badass crit partners who you can bounce different versions of queries off of (yes, need more than one) and ask yourself at every sentence "do they need to know that to get the story?". I'm no expert. This is the first query I have ever finished, but without the gals and the debate, the query would still be in pieces in my writing folder. Not ready to send off!

Got some balls together and asked the awesomely fantabulous Matthew MacNish to give me a hand too. So that may be up this week at some point on his blog!! SCARY! Will let you know if/when that goes up.

Either way, by Thursday I hope to begin the query process.

Lastly, this time off from blogging has made me realize something very important that is ultimately going to lead to changes around here. I miss writing. I had not realized how much time I devoted to blogging, and don't get me wrong, I love you guys and blogging, but the reason behind it all is for writing. Which I neglected...seriously neglected. SO the changes to come, I will be cutting from 3 days a week to 1-2 a week.

Still on the fence about whether or not Funny Fridays will be axed. But Mondays will not be.

I need to refocus on the dream. Ya know? THE dream. Which has taken a back seat for too long. Rededication. Yes, indeedy.

So all in all, this April I made some good progress, watched some great TV/Movies, went on a diet, lost 5lb, gave up diet cause I have no real willpower, started an exercise regiment that is pretty frikkin awesome, and had a really wonderful time getting even closer with the crit gals. So, I would say HUGE success!

Since I missed so much in April, feel free to tell me some great news you got, any news I might have missed, or anything about yourself in general. I am anxious to know what you all have been up to! 

Hazzah! And Happy Monday!