Wednesday, August 31, 2005

No Words...

No words can express the sadness I feel for the victims of the recent hurricane. Like many other Americans, my heart is breaking for Katrina's victims. Our news is plastered with pictures that look like they came from a war zone. I never thought I'd hear the term "refugee" used in reference to people living within the U.S. But, that's what the millions of people devestated by the hurrican are.

Stories of people who have been unable to locate loved ones have flooded message loops, television shows, and radio shows. Even more upsetting is the thought of the thousands of people who are stranded in Mississippi and New Orleans without a roof to cover their heads, a car to take them away, food to eat, water to drink, a bathroom to use, or any form of telephone to use so that they can find help and tell their family that they are still alive.

My prayers go out to everyone who has been effected by Katrina and they also go out to the heroic men and women who are risking their lives to find and rescue all of those who have found themselves stranded by the disaster.

If you would like to find out how you can help, I'm posting a link to the Red Cross Disaster Relief web site below.

American Red Cross Disaster Relief

Also, Network for Goood is a resource for charities and organizations that provide relief during disasters such as Katrina. This is a link to their site:

Network For Good

Do what you can to help, but please remember that prayers won't cost you a penny and there are a lot of people who need them right now.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

You've Got Mail

What a wonderful weekend I am having. The Goo Lord saw fit to reward me for my excellent display of patience... okay, decent display of patience, with not only a response (of a sort) from my dearly desired agent, but also with a DSL connection at home. Yippee!!

Now I can surf all I want! Actually, I'm really tired, so I thought I'd share a bit of fun and then relax. Here's a short personality test I found, that just may surpirse you!




Have a great weekend!

Friday, August 26, 2005

Getting a connection...

I have no internet connection at home right now. This makes me very sad. Our DSL went out this past Monday and they assured us it would be up and going by Thursday (which seemed like a long time to me, patience is such a problem). Then, last night they said they'd come out on Saturday afternoon and see what they could do.

So, I figure I'll hope to have DSL back up and running by NEXT weekend and that way I won't be disappointed when it's not fixed tommorrow.

In the meantime, I've been staying late at work to get all of my stuff done. But since I won't have internet over the weekend, I won't be able to keep up with the happenings on the message boards or in my writing group loop (sounds like something Toucan Sam would say). Although the group has a meeting on Sat, so I won't miss much there.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Maybe I should learn a lesson here: maybe God's trying to teach me some patience. I hope He doesn't feel the need to push the lessons too far!

BTW: I had queried the agent who has my complete ms, to ask if my entering a contest would be a violation of her "term of exclusivity" and I heard back from her today that it wasn't and that she thought it would be a good idea for me to enter. So, now I'm off to get my entry ready by the end of the weekend!!

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Flirting...

I had a discussion with a good friend, today, about what flirting is. A lot of people think that they don't know how to flirt, but I say that is phoey. I think that there is overt flirting, which is when someone tries to be really obvious about it and then there is covert flirting. When someone is covert, they often won't even realize they are flirting.

Afterall, what is flirting? It's showing someone you like, that you are intereseted in them. So, anything you do or say that indicates an interest, could be considered flirting.

For example, If you get really discombobulated when a certain someone is around and then you tell them, "I don't know why I'm being so clumsy," (or whatever) then you are indicating to this person that you care what they think and although you nor they may realize it conciously, it stands to reason that if you care what they think, then you like them, or are interested in them. Since you are coveying that message, no matter how blatant, this would mean that you are flirting.

Now there are obvious exceptions. Everyone cares whether their boss thinks they are clumsy, but that doesn't mean they're flirting.

Covert flirting is less direct, so the signals aren't always picked up on conciously. But, it's my belief that they are picked up on. Even if your subconcious is the only thing realizing what is going on.

So, don't automatically assume you don't know how to flirt. Some people are just less capable of being contrived, which is often a requirement of overt flirting, so they flirt more covertly. Neither one is better than the other because some people appreciate the blatant nature of overt flirting, while some appreciate the honest and innocent nature of covert flirting.

So, go forth and flirt!

April

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Getting Some Steam

Finally, it looks like I'm actually getting some where on my wip. I've just completed my third chapter (34 pages) and that's what I've gotten done this week. I might have been able to be a little more productive, but I've been distracted... See previous blogs.


My productivity may be attributed to some new inspiration I have found. Yup, that's it to your right. He's British rugby star, Michael Owen. Although he's happily married to his childhood sweetheart, as am I, he certainly provides some really good inspiration. In truth, he doesn't match the description for my current hero, but he's still inspiring!

April

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Drink lots of water, walk slow, and don't get excited

Those are the words of my dear dad. He used to say them anytime I got over excited or lost my patience. Which happened more often than not. He was a really smart man, of course I'm pretty biased. Of course, I shouldn't take any credit away from my mom who is equally brilliant herself!

It's just that my dad's words seem to be replaying in my head, over and over these days. I lost DSL service at home yesterday and it won't be back up for a few days. Then my laptop blitzed and my dear husband performed some maintenance on it that, to me at least, seemed to take entirely too long. He was right though, the maintenance was running properly and it did solve my problem. Yippy! Now I don't have a good reason to procrastinate. When I go home tonight, I won't be able to surf the web or message boards, I'll just have my computer and that mean I'll just write, which hopefully will mean I'm more productive.

My last post was so poopy. Sorry. I had a "moment". I'm better now. Nervous as heck about the review being done on my full manuscript by my most desired agent, but happy at least. There's lots of good stuff; such as the fact that she hasn't shoved it back at me and told me my writing stinks. Yet. Oops, I slipped into no-no-land again.

I rest assured in the thought that what is meant to be is meant to be and God is the only person who knows what that is. So, if this is the agent I'm meant to be represented by, then it'll happen. If not, it's only because God has something better in store for me.

Well, I'm off to my home and dear husband now and I'm going to do my best to follow dear old dad's advice: "drink lots of water, walk slow, and don't get excited..."

April

Saturday, August 20, 2005

It's Only A Day!

Today is only a day, just like any other day. Except, I got a rejection today. Yup. I saw it coming, so it shouldn't bother me, but you know what? It does.

I originally sent out queries to 3 agents. One sent back a quick form rejection. The second requested a partial along with a synopisis and market analysis and then after 1 week, requeted a full ms. She still has it. Then, today I received a form rejection from the third agent.

What's even dumber about my morose feeling is that the second agent who is actually reviewing my full ms is the one I felt most comfortable with and held out the most hope for. So, I should be satisfied with the fact that I got a positive response so far from her. And I am, but that little greedy, naughty person in me needs the fullfillment of knowing that more people would like to review my work.

I guess God knows what he's doing and I should give up the glum feelings and be thankful that He's answered my prayers by at least giving me a positive response from the one I most wanted it from. Hmmm....

Alright, I'm over it. Sort of.

Friday, August 19, 2005

It's A First

Well, this is a first for me. I decided to start a blog after my dear and brilliant husband told me I should. To be honest, I'm a little unsure of what to write. I mean there's a lot of dribble in my head and I don't want to make anyone dumber for having read it. But, from what I've been told, getting the dribble out is half the point. So... here goes nothing, or something, depending on how you look at it.

Side Note: in setting up this blog, I couldn't help but notice that Sand Dollar is a choice of templates, but there aren't any sand dollars on the templates. Hmm...

I guess an introduction is in order. I'm April, a would-be novelist who currently has one manuscript (ms) complete and under review with a very nice and friendly literary agent. I really like her, so I've been saying my prayers! I expect a response from her anytime between now and oh, say, maybe next month. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I'm not good with the patience thing, which makes one wonder why I'd enter a field that can test patience so much.

I also have submitted that ms to a writing contest and am waiting to find out who the finalists are. The contest is running a little behind and so my ever-not-present patience is being tested, but I'm handling it well. I only check my email once every, oh say 30 minutes, which is a big change from having it open all the time. My husband doesn't even attempt to race me to the mail box anymore.

Alright, I think that's enough dribble for today. I'll do my best to post often and do as little damage tothe intellegence of anyone reading as possible!

Now, the quesiton is: what button do I hit to publish this. Watch, I bet I hit Publish and all of my little thoughts posted here will get erased. There's only one way to find out...