Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Goblins and Ghosts and Ghouls...

Oh my, it's that day, folks. Good old Halloween. I used to live in a historic neighborhood and we only had one or two trick or treaters each year. But three years ago, we moved to a newer neighborhood and we have TONS of kids. I mean TONS. And we really enjoy handing out candy. So we've been having a ball tonight.

I hope you all have a really terrific Halloween too.

Things have been so nuts, I haven't been able to blog post or more importantly blog hop :(. Talk about sad. So I'm hoping to catch up on my blog reading by the weekend. I feel isolated without it. I also haven't written a single word on my ms. Argh!

What do you all do for Halloween? Anything?

April

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Today I'm Flirting...

Join me over at Wordflirts today!

April

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Collecting People

Suetagged me with a new phenomenon... collecting people. The idea is that you tag five people and they list some of their life experiences and then you keep that info on file so that when/if you need it for your writing later on, you have the resource. Sounds like a great idea, right?

So here's my list of five things everyone may or may not know about me:

1. I have a degree in Advertising and Public Relations.

2. I've been a real estate broker for eleven years.

3. I'm an avid do-it-myselfer. In case you couldn't tell from the hole in the bathroom wall story a few posts ago. The hole has now been fixed and a new fixture is up by the way...

4. For three years, I toured part time with a regional rock band (I didn't play, I did publicity and sales for them). Lots of really interesting experiences there. Even better, got to meet a lot of really great people.

5. My mother used to build and install radar systems from scratch in military planes. That's not me, but pretty neat considering most people see her as a little five foot, two inch grandma type :-).

Now I'm tagging Cole, Mary Beth, Bosey, Julie, & Sarah.

Message from Sharon:

"PLEASE LEAVE THE FOLLOWING IN ALL "PEOPLE COLLECTION" POSTS:

Remember that it isn't always the sensational stuff that writers are looking for, it can just as easily be something that you take for granted like having raised twins or knowing how to grow beetroot. Mind you, if you know how to fly a helicopter or have worked as a film extra, do feel free to let the rest of us know about it :-)"

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Blogger Bogs...

The last couple of days I have had a really hard time accessing blogger. Which sucked even more than usual because I haven't been a really active blogger and I really wanted to blog FINALLY and couldn't.

But now I can and I have no clue what to say... So maybe you should take this as a warning that this will probably be a VERY boring blog post.

I have gotten 4500 words done recently. Which surprised me, because I thought I hadn't gotten much of anything done. And by some measures, that still isn't a ton, but for me it's A LOT!

This time of year is supposed to mean my day-work is slow. But it hasn't been cooperating. And I shouldn't complain because the money is a welcome addition. But I was so hoping to have more time to write.

So I guess I'll do some juggling and see what happens. In the mean time, my cp is flying on her wip and I'm the one benefiting because I have some excellent reading. So I'm off to read...

How about you? Too many things getting in the way of your writing or are you cruising along?

April

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Targeting Target...

A fellow writer just sent me an email stating that Target has decided to stop carrying Harlequin and Silhoutte books in their stores. I have no idea for their reasoning. I would find it hard to believe the sales are low, since the stores account for a good deal of HQ sales.

You can click here to send them an email if you would like. Maybe if enough people send emails, they will reconsider their decision.

Edited to add: I was given the news by Nina Bruhns, Intimate Moments & Nocturn author. She's a member of my local chapter and passed along the news...

April

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Surprise Makeover...

This weekend I knew I would be busy. Hubby had warned me that he wanted to clean on Saturday. But he didn't get around to starting until late and ended up just cleaning out all of our kitchen cabinets. Forget all of the vacuuming, dusting, and moping that needed to get done!

Friday night I did some necessary shopping. And I picked up some new towel bars for our master bath. So I decided to install of them on Saturday. There were three towel holders and the toilet paper holder. Not a really BIG project, but a little work.

Then last night we decided to go to Lowe's and look for new light fixtures for our bathroom. It's been in SERIOUS need of new fixtures for a while. This was the hundredth time we looked at bathroom light fixtures. We have textured walls, but the light over the mirror is one of those bars with the bulbs sticking out like movie makeup tables. We had hoped to find a light that would fit the space, so we wouldn't have to patch the texture on the walls, but we gave in and decided we would just get the light we wanted and patch the wall, because we couldn't find anything that had a 3ft wide base.

So we brought them home and then today after we got through with church and family, I installed the ceiling light in the middle of the bath and began work on installing the one over the sink.

Only I discovered there's no junction box. Just a whole in the sheet rock with wires sticking out. Which means I didn't have anything other than sheet rock to anchor my light to. And it's HEAVY. Which means I would get it hung and it would just fall out of the wall. Which would NOT be good.

So now, we have a big gaping spot above the mirror in our bathroom and their are wires sticking out (not live). And it'll stay like this until I get to Lowe's to get the supplies I need to put a junction box in and the patch stuff. Argh!

But just with the changes we made, the bathroom looks totally different and I'm happy about that! Even if I hadn't planned to do any of that this weekend. It seems most of our home renovation plans work out like that. We just decide to go to the home improvement store and do it. That's with smaller projects usually, at least.

What about you? Do you have to plan way ahead for home improvement projects, or do they catch you at the spur of the moment?

April

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Check Me Out

Wednesday was my day at The Word Flirts So come on over and check out the steamy post...

April

Monday, October 09, 2006

Eeeeeeeee...



My hubby had to use my computer the other day and I was sitting by watching tv while he did. I noticed he had stopped typing and I looked over and saw he was searching my keyboard.

I asked, "What ya looking for?"

"The E," he responded.

I leaned over and noticed that the little letter on my E key had worn nearly completely off. "It's the only missing letter."

"There are a couple getting close," he responded as he went back to work.

I looked over again and noticed he was right. Then the next day at work, I noticed that the E key on that keyboard is nearly gone too.

I guess I use E's a lot. But you would think those little letters would hold up better. Apparently I use S and N a lot too, because those look like the next to go. Which is ok, because I type from feel most of the time anyway. But still... It was really funny to see him searching my keyboard. His Mac isn't THAT different. I guess he just doesn't type as much when he's doing his graphic designing :-)

What letters are the most worn off on your keyboard?

April

Friday, October 06, 2006

Moving On...

I'm now 8,000 words into my rewrite of my wip. Not as impressive as the 25,000 I had, but not too bad for just under a week's worth of writing. I decided to call it rewrite, so it didn't feel so much like I was just tossing it out :-).

I decided to let the ms(Picture Me) that was rejected by ModX just sit. Maybe forever, but I'm not making any commitments. Since it's only around 60,000 words, it's not really the right length for any other publishers I know of. So I'd need to do some major work to make it right for somewhere else. And it's just not what I want to do right now. This story is the one calling, so I'm answering :-).

It feels like a waste to not at least try subbing Picture Me more, but I guess I don't see the use right now. So oh well...

I've decided I'm moving on and I'm terribly happy with the decision so I suppose it's the right one.

How's your writing going?

April

Monday, October 02, 2006

Shameless Promotion

I try not to shamelessly promote stuff. Really, I do. Since taking over as co-coordinator of my RWA chapter's online classes, I've added a section on my sidebar with a listing of our upcoming courses. But for the most part, that has been it.

Until now. In November we're having two classes and both of them are going to be terrific! First up is an 8-day class headed up by Intimate Moments and Nocturne author, Nina Bruhns, along with several of her Harlequin cohorts. It focuses on the differences in the lines, and the nuances which aren't really relayed by the "guidelines" you see on the site. Along with secrets to breaking into the lines, including secrets of MIRA.

We're also having Amy Knupp's husband, Justin Knupp as a guest instructor. He's giving a class on websites. He'll be talking about EVERYTHING you need to know. From design, to planning, to hosting. He'll also talk about programs for you to do your own design and what to look for in a designer. It's a class not to be missed.

And since they're two really stellar classes, I couldn't resist blogging about them. If you want more info, you can visit the Lowcountry RWA online classes web page or email our coordinators (yes, that would be me and my pal Dorothy).

I've asked before, but I'll ask again... Are there any online classes you've taken or someone you know has that was just great?

April