Thursday

Isn't that an AWESOME blog entry title???? I couldn't think of anything more creative. After my 3-day writing weekend, I've barely done 6 pages of revisions and 4 pages of new stuff on Broken Promises. I've been to the gym and taking care of myself so that's good. I've been reading Tracy Wolff's book and that's awesome. I just got out of an online party for my Celtic Hearts group. Tons o' fun! Saturday is the Austin Celtic Festival and I've got 12 students and 3 chaperones coming with me! I usually go with the kids for a few hours and then I go back on my own once the kids have all been picked up so that I can relax, enjoy the atmosphere, do some shopping, listen to the music and have a pint or two! I'll catch you later this weekend and let you know how it went!

3 Day Recap

Oh I had a WONDERFUL time as a full-time writer for the weekend! I ended up revising 27 pages on Danger. I wanted to get to an even 30, but my brain shut down and refused to work any more tonight. I'm amazed with how much more structure and detail I've been able to add and WOW what a difference!

As for the new manuscript, which is now called Broken Promises, I wrote 17 pages over the 3 days. I hadn't planned to spend so much time with the new one, but I figured as long as I was writing something then I was in good shape.

All in all, I'd say I had a VERY productive weekend!

Not So Bright, But Early Sunday

Got 5 pages written on the new manuscript and 12 pages revised on Danger! (Well, and I did watch the Texas Longhorns football game too.) Woohoo! I hope to do even better tomorrow...er, today...um, later Sunday. Keep your positive thoughts coming my way!

Later That Same Day...

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....
I know I can, I know I can!

Danger revisions are slow as far as page count, but the QUALITY is what matters and the pages I've been working on are shaping up BEAUTIFULLY!

I Am A Big Danger Slacker!

Been up since 8:30 and haven't touched Danger yet. I have written over 700 words on Borrowed Time though. Must run errands and then get into Danger! Come on! Guilt me into getting the Dangerous job done!

3 Day Weekend!

Woohoo! We had a fall festival at work tonight that went really well. We made a nice chunk o' cash for the school and we had a lot of fun. One of the games was to pay two tickets to put someone in detention. Then kids had to go find that person and escort them to detention. I was sent to detention a couple times, but I got them back! I spent a nice bit of cash sending people to detention!

BUT the best part of tonight? I came home, wrote my words for my writing challenge and now I'm officially off for the next 3 days! I took Monday off as a mental health day. My plan all weekend is to revise as much of Danger as I can. My goal is at least 3 more chapters. I'll let you know how it's going. Wish me luck!

Me Need Chocolate!

Another agent rejection today from someone I really like. I think I'll take an hour (but no more time!) to soothe my wounded soul. This calls for a fudge popsicle and some Jason Bourne. Later I'll get back to Danger.

Rollin' Along

I'm making slow progress on Danger's revisions. I'm just not ready to update the progress meter yet. But keep checkin' back! I think I'm on a roll, though, and I'm so excited about BOTH my stories right now. I put in a request to take next Monday off as a personal day so I can spend a whole 3-day weekend doing nothing but revisions...and some exercising, of course!

Got another rejection today from an agent I'd love to work with, but it was a GREAT rejection! She actually said she's not as familiar with Intrigue as she'd need to be to make a decision about my manuscript, BUT THEN she gave me the name of another agent and told me I could use her name when querying the new agent! As far as rejections go, that's been one of my best!

More Than Enough To Do

And of course, not enough time to do it all! Honestly, I don't know how those of you with families get any writing accomplished. I admire you all!

A crazy friend of mine (Hi, Monika!) challenged me to write 50,000 words by December 31st. We both knew we wouldn't be able to participate in NaNoWriMo, but we wanted to do something. Foolishly I said yes. So now we have to write an average of 650 new words a day between now and 12/31. Um, WHAT WAS I THINKING?????

But, I'm amazed with how much more writing time I'm finding in the day. I write for a 1/2 hour before school, which puts me in a great mood. Then during my lunch hour I write when I finish eating, which keeps me in a good mood or puts me back in one.

However, I really need to focus on Danger's revisions now. My CP, brilliant woman that she is, has been reminding me that I really need to take a glance at this whole situation from a business standpoint. I am no longer a hobby writer. I haven't called myself that in a long time, but now I've passed into another level I think. Danger is a good enough story to publish. I firmly believe that. Of course, I still need to finish revising it so someone will want to represent it AND someone else will want to buy it.

So, after tailgating for the UT/ Missouri football game today and watching the game tonight, I'll be jumping into my "new life" with both feet tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Shopping Treasures

Last night I'd planned on telling you what books I picked up at the bookstore. Finaling in the Finally A Bride Contest kinda gave me something else to think about.

So, here are the books I bought with my birthday gift card and the reasons behind the purchases:
Laura Iding (the blue book) and Emily McKay are two friends who happen to have books out this month, so naturally I'm supporting them and getting a great read too!


I loved Kerry Connor's 1st Intrigue so I wanted this one.

Jeff Abbott was our guest speaker at my Austin RWA meeting a couple of nights ago and I confess I actually bought this that night so I could have him sign it.

John Hart is new to me, but the cover caught my eye, the back cover blurb got me to open to the first page and the writing kept me interested. So I had to buy it.

Julie Miller's Intrigue had a great cover and the story sounded just right for me.

I'd already checked out and was at the front of the store waiting for my friend and I saw this Lisa Scottoline book. I've heard wonderful things about her writing, so I figured I'd check it out while waiting. Well, before I knew it I was giggling in the front of the store, so I got back in the check-out line and bought it!

Good News!

After a wonderful evening buying books with a birthday gift card, I came home to an e-mail that I finaled in the Finally A Bride Contest!!! I got 2 perfect scores, wonderful comments, and a chance to revise before it goes off to the final editor judges. AND, one of the final editors just gave Danger 4th place in the Heart of the West. The Heart of the West entry was written and sent months ago. Danger's had a face lift since then. I'm excited to see what she thinks of the latest revised version of my opening.

Withdrawal

It's been WEEKS since I watched one of the Bourne movies. I hadn't even been playing the soundtracks until today. I got out of work earlier today than I thought, so while I'm working on Danger (yes, you read that right!) I might have to watch a few scenes of Jason Bourne. Or maybe it's Matt Damon. Or both.

Another Stab

It's Sunday night and I've spent a huge chunk o' the day on school stuff. I sort of did it to myself because after I left work on Friday, I decided to write instead of doing any day job work. Then yesterday I worked at school for an hour and then went to my brother's house for a party, which lasted for me for about 12 hours. I stayed at my brother's and fell asleep watching the Boston Red Sox. By the time I got home today, I wrote my 1oo words for the day and then dove right into school stuff. It feels good to get so much accomplished, but of course I've still got tons more.

Tomorrow though, I'm going to try to take my life back again. I've got parent conferences all day, but once I leave school in the afternoon, I'm not bringing papers home. I intend to go back to the gym and FINALLY get back to Danger. I have to put Danger back on the top of my priority list. If I don't get much accomplished this week on my manuscript, I'll definitely be taking a day off just to work on the book. My writing is too important for me to neglect it, especially now that I feel I'm closer to publishing than ever before.

Later That Day...

Woohoo! What a day! I started with a serenade from an Australian relative who called me early this morning. Then I opened my gifts from my mom & stepdad and my grandfather. $$$$ and jewelry, and a girl can't complain!

When I got to school, the kids kept yelling happy birthday to me and one of my sweet 6th grade girls gave me a beautiful picture frame and a beaded journal. I wish I had a digital camera so I could post the picture and show you.

Some more kids drew me pictures, which I promptly taped to my board for everyone to see. My co-workers gave me a cake during lunch and a card they're still signing. :)

Then one of my sweet 5th grade girls gave me the most wonderful card that almost brought me to tears (one she made herself) and a bag with presents: a stuffed pig that I'm going to name Allie after one of the characters in my next book, a plastic Mardi Gras type necklace she said I should wear so I feel like a queen, and a copy of Tom Sawyer.

Then when I got home, I talked to my grandfather, opened my mail (more cards and money!), went out to eat (had dessert and a few adult beverages), and then talked to my big brother who keeps trying to convince me there's only 4 years between us and I'm really 2 years older than I am.

OH! And I got another agent request for part of Danger, which I promptly e-mailed. What an awesome present, huh?

Now I'm off to write my 100 words for the day, have a cup of tea and think about going to bed.

THE BIG 3-7!!!!

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!

I still get excited, although 40 is scaring me a bit already. (Don't know why. 30 wasn't a big deal.) I scheduled easy lessons for my classes, I'm having a "party" with my homeroom during study hall, my mom & stepdad came into town and I'll be going out to eat. I'm trying not to have to do ANY school work tonight and I just might put it off until Sunday. Oh and Saturday I'll get together with some other family too in order to celebrate! I pretty much celebrate for a straight week. And why not? I'm happy (for the most part), healthy (almost to my goal weight) and I have so much to be thankful for. Oh, and 30 years ago last month (That's September 1978, people) I had open heart surgery and I've been very fortunate since. I truly am lucky to be alive!

Coming Up For Air

The Austin RWA retreat was FABULOUS. I read, relaxed and wrote a lot. I plotted the new story. It's a loose plotting, but enough to get me going and give me a map of where to go.

Heart of the West-Danger and I got 4th place in the Romantic Suspense category. The good news is a lot of the comments from the final editor were things I'd already addressed in my latest round of revisions. (The contest entry was sent about 4 months ago.) But my friend Jessica Dawson won FIRST PLACE in the same category! AND she got a phone call from a different editor a couple days later. Congratulations, Jess!

Day job is kicking my butt again. I'm having trouble getting my life back, but I LOVE teaching. The next few days are a bit hectic too, but I'm really hoping to pull myself back together (and my writing life) by Sunday.

But I will find time tomorrow to post because it'll be my birthday!

For now...back to grades and other day job work...

Celebrate the Weekend!

Wheeee! My local RWA group, Austin RWA, has their annual retreat this weekend. I'm SOOO ready to ditch the day job and focus only on my writing and reading. I'm going to work on Danger revisions and I plan to brainstorm/plot Borrowed Time. I'm trying to get my school work done tonight, or mostly done, so I can skip out early and head to the retreat location. I'm also bringing a couple of books with me. The plan is to relax, have fun and concentrate on my 2nd job for a while.

Saturday the winners of the Heart of the West Contest will be announced. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Of course, I won't find out anything until I get home Sunday because we don't have Internet at the retreat location. I'll let you know as soon as I can.

Finally, this week has been better than last week. I managed to get to the gym 3 times, I've been limiting my school work and I've been focusing on more things that make me happy. We're still overworked at my school, but taking control over my life again has made a huge difference in my attitude and my sanity this week.

Have a great weekend whatever you do and I'll share the highlights of my writing retreat with you when I get back!