The Write Stuff

This is my novel manuscript so far. Today at lunch I sat down to start to rewrite it from the third person perspective. I didn't even make it through the first two pages and decided that was just nuts. I like it like it is. I like my character's first person voice. I'm not rewriting it.

Tonight I started editing it instead. Like riding a bicycle, marking with a red pen came right back to my inner English teacher self. It's been a month since I really worked on it so now it's like reading someone ELSE's writing, which is pretty cool.

That was one of Stephen King's suggestions in On Writing. Let it sit, then read through as much as you can of your work in one sitting and with that distance from it, it will be like reading someone else's work. He is totally right. Well of course he is, he's Stephen King, duh.

It's easier to be critical of someone else's work and let the red ink flow. Sort of like grading one giant paper. But a lot more fun. With no pesky teenagers to interfere.

At the last ORA (Ozarks Romance Authors) meeting a published author showed us her editor's change requests letters for two of her novels. One had only about twenty changes. The other had over a hundred and twenty. I decided to try that with my own novel so I'm making notes with page numbers and notations in a spiral notebook as I go so I can go back and fix/add in the big stuff when I get through the whole manuscript.

Then when I have it as good as I can get it, I'll let a couple of people read it. Probably my two paranormal romance loving friends Dawn and Carla. After that, if I have the 75,000 words I need, I'll pitch it to Harlequin. I know, I know Harlequin sounds cheesy but if you haven't read a Harlequin romance lately, you don't know what you are missing.

Mine won't have a secret baby, or a Sheik so no worries there.

They have a line called Nocturne specifically for paranormal romance and they have some very noteworthy and respected authors. Seriously, you should check it out. It's not your mother's serial romance anymore.

I still think I can make it into a series if I can get away with doing the next book from one of the OTHER character's perspective, first person or third, I still haven't decided. That may be a big writing no no but I've made this bed and now I'm going to lie in it.

Speaking of bed ... time for some zzzzzzzzzzzzs.

Halloween Bonus Post - Day 31

This was Halloween 1972 for Mike and I. I'm pretty sure he was a clown. I think I was an old lady ... with a lot of junk in the trunk. You can't get more homemade costumes than these. I'm sure we got scads of candy. We never went door to door because for one we lived in the country. There is no door to door in the country. Secondly, someone might put a razor blade in your apple. Of course what self respecting trick or treater would EAT an apple when there's an entire pumpkin full of candy to eat. None that's who. No Halloween apple ever passed these lips.

My folks took us around to the same family rotation that we did for Christmas. All the grandparents. In 1972 we would have had both sets of grandparents living, and four sets of great grand parents still alive. Lowers, Hoods, Rices, Cacy's. That's a lot of candy my friend.

Tonight Bryon had to work late so I took Grace to the Marshfield Square after school, then to Trunk or Treat at two local churches, the Orchelin parking lot and finally Gary's apartment complex. It was quite a haul. I told her she could eat all she wanted tonight then to pick out one small zip lock full to keep and we would disseminate the rest between our workplaces and where ever else we could find to dump it.

If she kept it all, we would have candy until next Halloween and I'd have about the same amount of junk in my trunk as that 1972 costume. Not cool.

So now it's upstairs to watch some grownup Halloween television then off to bed.

Bring it on Thanksgiving.

The Completion of a Task, Scary! - Day 31 of 31 Days of Blogging

Wow, I can't believe I made it 31 days in a row of blogging. Sure, a couple of days were lame, but hey, it's done and the pressure is off. Of course, just last night I was thinking, hmmmm, what else could I do for a month as another little challenge (or big challenge).

Of course I thought writing, but I'm going to try to do that anyway. Then I thought exercising. That would probably have a real and visible payoff. I'm not sure if I could manage both. In the same month.

I read a book called Sleeping Naked is Green by Vanessa Farquharson last year. She found a new way to be green and save the planet each day for 356 days. It was a cumulative challenge. The green tasks added up quickly and nearly drove her nuts ... plus she blogged about them each day at Greenasathistle . Then she turned them into a book. She's obviously insane. That's way too many balls to juggle.

I feel like all of my tasks are already in a giant Bingo tumbler and being spewed forth at the speed of a World Series pitch. I'm not sure if setting a new challenge would be beneficial or self punishment. Maybe both.

I guess I'm going to have to decide before tomorrow if I'm going to start a new challenge.

Decisions, decisions...

Check - Day 30 of 31 Days of Blogging

We got a lot accomplished today in a short time.

See, just making that list yesterday was enough to inspire us to mark some of those things off.

• Pull up the rest of the garden plants and burn them 
• Prune back the dead mums and compost them
• Clean up the yard
• Order a load of top soil 
• Clean out the flower bed
• Fill the bird feeders
• Clean out the humming bird feeders  
• Finish staining the house
• Clean up all of the staining stuff
• Clean out the garage
• Take the weird non-recyclables to the dump

Plus Bryon bought a crazy new tripod tree stand and he picked it up and got it set out at his food plot.  I also took the bunny divider back out so they could have the whole cage. All I can say is those handicapped bunnies had sure better turn out to be boys like the vet said.

We put the new freezer in the garage and now that it's out of the mud room there is so much more space. It's awesome. Luxuriously clean and roomy now. I love having an empty space.

My friend Leslie is so organized she had an entire drawer in her kitchen empty the last time I was there. That's what I want. More empty spaces.

Sometimes that's easier said than done, but it's something to aspire to.

This site might be a good way to spend 31 days ... 31 Days to an Organized Home .

Noted - Day 29 of 31 Days of Blogging

This is what the dash of my car looks like most of the time. If it's not on a sticky note, it doesn't happen. I pretty much have to capture the thought so I can transfer it to my calendar or to do list or it just flies away.

Of course I have no idea how fast I'm going or how much gas I have, but I know what I need to do.

I have a lot of lists. Work lists, home lists, grocery lists, long term things to do lists. Once it's on a note, I don't have to worry about it until I'm ready to act on it. My phone is full of lists too ... about 50 of them. Sometimes I combine my lists to neaten things up. It also makes it very satisfying to mark things off.

I need to have a winter list already but I'm behind. I should start it now. It needs to include:

• Pull up the rest of the garden plants and burn them 
• Prune back the dead mums and compost them
• Clean up the yard
• Order a load of top soil 
• Clean out the flower bed
• Fill the bird feeders
• Clean out the humming bird feeders  
• Finish staining the house
• Clean up all of the staining stuff
• Clean out the garage
• Take the weird non-recyclables to the dump

See how easy it is to get a list going.

Soon it will be time to start making a spring list too.

Then there are book lists. I have several of those. My paranormal library list, books to read list, Dawn's books to search for list, books I've read list, books for Bryon to read list. It really never ends. There's a list for every topic.

 If you like making lists, capturing and organizing information as much as I do, then you might dig Evernote . You can get it on your iPhone and your computer and it syncs up. It's awesome.


Of course none of THESE things in these pictures are in Evernote. I need lots of different ways to collect and organize. One size definitely does not fit all.

I'll bet Art Fry had lots of things floating around in his head too because he's credited with inventing the Post-it_note . Boy am I glad. Otherwise, my life would be a big mess.

Storytelling - Day 28 of 31 Days of Blogging

I am not a good oral storyteller. I am a much better written storyteller. Relating a story to someone orally is a lot more difficult than writing it down for me. Bryon is a much better oral storyteller. He can take the slightest event and turn it into a twenty minute detailed narrative. He's especially good at relaying hunting stories.

He would have been an extremely valuable member of society back in the days before writing when oral tradition was the only way histories, laws, folk tales and literature were relayed. Think The Illiad or The Odyssey but much shorter . He's such a Homer.

He can spin a yarn or tell a story in a way that's both engrossing and interesting. Of course, sometimes he uses his power for evil and not good and tricks me with elaborate fairy tales and when I finally ask, "Really??? You're kidding!"

He says, "Yeah, I'm kidding."Aaaarrrrrgggg!

He used to get me all the time that way.

I'm still not immune to his ruses but I do still like to hear his stories. He fishes me in every time. And trust me, in the past 25 years, he's had a LOT of stories.

 I'm a much better written storyteller. I have to see the words appear before me and then rearrange them like puzzle pieces until they are just right. When I TELL a story, I don't have that luxury and under pressure, the story loses it's cohesion and impact. Sometimes I hear myself talking when I'm trying to tell a story and think, what the hell am I even saying? This story makes no sense.

It makes perfect sense in my brain. Somehow it between my brain and my mouth it loses it's potency.

The great thing about writing is that until the very last minute you can edit it, rearrange it and dress it up in different clothes until it's just right. Then, if you still aren't happy with it, there's always the rewrite.

I haven't worked on my novel much this past few weeks because I know that is what the next step is: the rewrite. I have ideas for at least two more books so I can make it a trilogy. Trilogies are very hot right now. But I can't do that in the first person, which is the point of view I've used for the first 50,000 words.

The good news is that when I do finally sit down to rewrite, it should blow up as I am able to expand the vision of the characters and flesh them out more making it pretty easy to reach my 75,000 word target. The bad news is that it's going to take some extensive time and uninterrupted concentration to do it.

I had really considered trying to participate in NaNoWriMo in November where you write a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days but I think I will be better served to concentrate on working on the one I already have in progress than starting another one. So I'm punting NaNoWriMo and hope to work on the rewrite instead.

Maybe if I can spend the next 30 days working on the rewrite, I'll have a brand spanking baby New Year book by 2012.

Write on.

You like me. You really like me. - Day 27 of 31 Days of Blogging

Today, my blog hit a big milestone. Today, I exceeded 7,000 all time page hits since I started on June 7, 2007. The exact total as of this minute is 7,016 page views. I think that is pretty awesome. This post is number 438 and in the past 30 days I've had 600 page views. I guess more blogging equals more readers.

Thank you for reading my ramblings.

I can't really ever tell specifically who is reading unless someone comments or likes it on Facebook. I just know there have been page views. So if you DO read it, I'd like to know. I know that's a little needy but hey, it's nice to know once in a while YOU are out there. It's easy to comment. Just click where it says "comments" below and you can post your comment. Even if it's just an "I read you" that would be cool. You can post as "anonymous" of tell me who you are. I'd like to know.

Or if you are reading this on Facebook and just want to "Like" it that's cool too. You don't have to do it every post (unless you want to) but if you are EVER going to comment, please do it for this post. Then I won't bug you about it again. Promise.

Sometimes it's like my blog is a Voyager Golden Record, sent out into cyberspace to say HELLO in every earthly language just in case there is intelligent life out there. One interesting stat that Blogger provides is AUDIENCE. It doesn't give any specific information but tells what country the page views come from. Here is where my readers have been reading from since 2007.

Can you believe that? Twenty nine people in Iran have read my blog? That sure makes the world seem smaller to me. I haven't been anywhere to have my passport stamped, but my words, pages and my family has ... through this blog.

Another cool statistic is how many page views each post gets. And no, it doesn't count MY page views so I can't stack the ballot box and vote for myself. Here are the most viewed posts of all time. If you want to read any of them just use the search box at the top right of the blog and put in the title, it should pop right up.

Who knew that post about Grace saving money for her slug bug would have so many hits!

My mom is staying tonight and the next few days. Of course she reads the blog a lot. She asked if I was going to keep blogging every day after my 31 days are up. She gets up every morning and reads it like some people read the New York Times. My blog is cheaper though.

I told her I don't know. Blogging every day is hard work. Bryon would say I never run out of things to say, but seriously it takes an effort to come up with something blog worthy every day. When I was dating I used to wonder what in the world married people talked about. After a while you would think there just wouldn't be anything else to say. But of course there is. Maybe that's true with blogging too. Every day is a winding road that leads to somewhere right?

I guess I'll just work on documenting the journey.

Shiner - Day 26 of 31 Days of Blogging

Not sure if this is her Zoolander pose or what but notice the little red blip on beside her nose. Bryon, his dad and Grace were shooting guns when I got home yesterday. Bryon bought Grace a gun when she was still in my belly. She's finally big enough to shoot it.

It has interchangeable barrels and can be a .22, a 243 and a 20 gauge. He's wanting to take her deer hunting next weekend and she's up for it too. I'm just going to have to buy a lot more snacks for her to take before then.

He bought a special new sight for her gun, sighted it all in and then lined her up on the gun bench to shoot it. She aimed and pulled the trigger before he could remind her to get it snugged up against her shoulder and it kicked back and bonked her in the cheek.

Welcome to the world of recoil my friend.

She didn't want to shoot anymore after that. He's hoping she won't be gun shy now and plans to get her back on the horse that smacked her soon. We put an ice pack on it and thankfully it didn't turn into a black eye.

Once in high school, I went shooting down at the river with Bryon. He had several guns. I liked shooting them. Mostly I liked impressing Bryon. He gave me one giant gun that weighed about 30 pounds and told me to pull both triggers when I shot it. Yeah, it was a double barrel shotgun, which I didn't figure out until I pulled both triggers. It knocked me back into the tree. I only shot that one once.

I still like shooting and I think Grace will too.

Next time I'll bet she remembers to snug it up
.

Creeping Up On Halloween - Day 25 of 31 Days of Blogging

Bryon and Grace carved a jack o' lantern tonight. Grace drew on the face and Bryon carved it out. I did have two eyeballs but one got poked out. Just made it even better I think. They are good pumpkin carvers.

I think it turned out pretty good. I love the teeth.

I also had to make a creepy concoction for the church fellowship Halloween dinner tomorrow night so I found this idea for Tapeworm Sandwiches .

They were super easy to make. Here's my tray full ready to go...

Gotta love hotdogs and ketchup. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Honey - Day 24 of 31 Days of Blogging

Short post today.

I wanted to show you the honey I got this year from my bees. I did absolutely nothing for them this year. They were completely and utterly unmedicated and unmolested. I did feed them some sugar water when I remembered to in the spring but that was it.

I plan to hoard this honey because I don't know when I'll get more. I eeked two more little jars after I let it strain for a few more days. I ended up with 240 ounces of honey. Almost two gallons from one super. I bought a 46 oz jar of honey at the feed store in the spring for $10. If I'm doing my math right that would be 22 cents an ounce so that means I have $52.80 worth of honey here on my counter. I paid $90 for the bees last year.

I'm pretty sure I'm losing money on this adventure.

But it sure is sweet.