W-I-P Wednesday

Geez, here it is again! It's like it comes every week or something...




Saving Me
Word count: 56,020
Goal: in the ballpark of 75,000 
Genre: women's commerical fiction 


General Thoughts


 As you can see, I've added nearly 6k to my wordcount since last week. I'm pretty happy with that progress, but hope to be speeding it up even more. I have a deadline in sight and really want the first draft complete by July 15. What can I say? I love arbitrary goals. 


I'm really battling the inner editor/shitty draft police right now, but so far I'm winning. Let's just say there's going to be a lot of work to do come revision time... 


I'm reading Sue Monk Kidd's novel The Mermaid Chair. She's the author of The Secret Life of Bees and one of the better-known names in Southern women's fiction. I haven't read Bees, but Mermaid Chair isn't bad so far. 


Also, I'm reorganizing my bookshelves to be in alphabetical order. Before I had it ordered by size. Is that weird? I'm a visual artist too, so I liked the symmetry. Alas, one of the shelves on my Target bookcase is sagging quite alarmingly, and the stupid manufacturers decided that it didn't need to be finished on the bottom, so I can't really flip it over. I'm hoping hubby will add a little support to it one of these days...just needs a few more gentle reminders. 




I've acquired 2 new television shows: The Gates and Rookie Blue. Any others watching these? What do you think? 

Morning Diversion

I seem to be going through one of my sinusitis spells, where the entire right side of my body, head to shoulders, shuts down. I've always wondered why my sinus issues seem to affect me this way, but that's how it is and how it continues to be.

In the haze of pain and puffiness, I remembered that the deadline to claim a free proof copy of my '09 NaNoWriMo book is June 30! Way to procrastinate, huh?

Anyway, I set about CreateSpace to get my copy going.
Turned out to take me a lot longer than I'd expected. My main issue was figuring out how to convert my .doc file to a .pdf, but I finally just used an online converter. Thankfully nothing bad happened.

Then I got to design my pretty pretty book cover! It was uber-fun, let me tell you. Seeing your name and your book title in print (sorta), just like it'll look on the book...amazing! I didn't have anything special made, so I just tweaked one of their templates into something that matched my theme.

Everything's out for review with the CreateSpace folks right now, but I should be getting the green flag tomorrow!* Scooting in just under the clock, as always...

But it was great fun. I didn't touch a single modifier in the book, either. It's in all its original glory, all 70k+ words! My eyes will no doubt bleed when I read it, but hey--I didn't want to pass up the opportunity, you know? And if I ever decide to edit it into something decent, having a bound copy will be handy.

So with all this forward momentum, I'm really going to try and finish up my WIP soon, as in the next 2.5 weeks. That means I only have to write about 1300 words a day--not bad at all! And then I can look at that book in all its eye-bleeding glory! Yay!


ADDITIONAL:
  I just read the First Novels Club post this morning, and they're giving away a book that sounds amazing! A Blue So Dark is about a teenage girl dealing with her mother's growing schizophrenia. Some of the themes sound promising to echo my own novel, so I'm really excited to hear about it. Check it out!


*I'll definitely be sharing pictures when I get my proof copy. I loved looking at others' on the NaNo forums! 

We Survived (many photos)

Not that I was worried or anything.

In case you missed it, Evan and I drove up to Nashville, TN last Friday to visit his brother, who is teaching a summer film course with one of his old Vanderbilt buddies. We stayed with the Vandy buddy and his wife in their beautiful 1930's-era home in one of the city's historic districts.

The drive up would have been fine--we drove straight up through the 2 counties between us and the state line, dashed across a smidgen of North Carolina, then drove across south-eastern Tennessee to Chattanooga. We hit Chattanooga right at rush hour Friday evening, which of course we neglected to realize, as we forgot we were changing time zones. D'oh. We sat in Chattanooga rush hour for almost an hour, which put us arriving in Nashville at 8pm, CST.

Trip was short, but fun! It was my first time in Nashville, so Evan and I did a driving tour, including the downtown area and the Parthenon recreation. After that, we all mostly sat around and played video games--specifically, Left 4 Dead II (zombie game).

The best part of the trip (for me) was a visit to McKay's, a used book and movie/video game outlet. I know that buying used books can be frowned upon in the publishing/aspiring-to-publishing world, but sue me--we're poor and not getting rich any time soon. The place was amazing--tons of books (and movies and video games), many of which were fairly new releases. I could have stayed there for hours, but I was pushing everyone's patience at 40 minutes. I did manage to snag 8 books, which I'll picture later (and a DVD all for $17).

Didn't get as much writing done as I'd hoped, but I did get an entire new plot idea that I'm very excited about. Surprisingly, it was another women's Southern fiction. So I'm looking forward to finishing Saving Me and getting it querying so I can start on my SNI!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Let the pictures begin.

Blairsville, GA

This is what highways look like in the mountains. 

Tennessee 

One of the interesting things we saw while stuck in Chattanooga traffic. Any guesses what those ginormous tires are for? 

Broadway Street, Nashville 

More Western stores than you can shake a stick at! 

Why, hello. 

The Parthenon recreation. Pretty neat from a distance...

And then up close you realize they made it out of the same conglomerate they make libraries out of. I mean, really? Couldn't have done something more special for the Parthenon?? 

This is MacGyver, the awesomest dog ever! 

This is where we spent most of our time...

My book bounty! I've read some before, but don't own.

Anecdote, or How I Got My Blog Title

Have you ever wondered where my blog title came from? It's not as open-ended as one might think.
I've had my fair share of failed blogs, the last of which I called "Twentysomething." These were blogs that encompassed my life as a whole. When I made the New Year's resolution that led to this blog, I wanted it to be solidly about my writing (even though I incorporate plenty about my life).

The blog title came from Hemingway. That's one of the best places to get a blog title, I think.

As you probably know, Hemingway (or I could be pretentious and call him 'Papa') moved to Paris in 1921 and shortly thereafter met Gertrude Stein.

The advice actually comes from The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, which was Stein's self-portrait. In it, she wrote [addressing Hemingway]:

'There is a great deal of description in this,' she said, 'and not particularly good description. Begin over again and concentrate,' she said.


I'm no Hemingway, but I could use some of that concentration, and I'm sure you can too.

So thanks, Gertie. You were a weird one, but I like you nonetheless.

PS: You can argue that the blog title actually comes from Stein, but I'm going to go ahead and say it's Hemingway. He's my Papa, after all...

PPS: If you want a good example of too much bad description, check out my new pages! I just figured out how to do them. :-)

Goal: 6/24

Today I will write at least 2,000 words.
Today I will stop worrying about how long my book may or may not be.
Today I will stop wondering if that's the right metaphor, or if I should use this one instead...
Today I will remember how much I love my story, and how much I love writing it.

Today I will look at this picture to remind myself that I've done it before, and I can do it again:

also today I will eat more brownies. 

W-I-P Wednesday

Has it really already been a week?
Google Desktop doesn't lie (or does it?).


Saving Me
Word count: 50,855
Goal: in the ballpark of 75,000 
Genre: women's commerical fiction 


General Thoughts


I'm reaching that stage where I'm a bit terrified about where I'm going. I know from experience that it's pretty well downhill from 50k--thank goodness. However, the more I write, the more things are deviating from my [extremely loose] outline/plot guide. I'm already seeing the need for tons of scenes to be added earlier in the draft, freaking out about the heavy lean towards romance [though it's not a bad thing], and generally wondering how the hell I can communicate without their #$*@ eyes. 


In short, I'm making progress. 




----


Tonight will be Sigo's last night with Evan and me. We're going to Nashville this weekend, so we'll be taking Sigo to her new home a little earlier than expected. 


She had a fairly stressful weekend visiting the in-laws and their cats. 

Lots of toys lying about, though. 

Herbie just wanted to be friends, but he's a big boy & a wee bit intimidating (even though his legs are three inches long and he's declawed...) 

----

I"m reading my first Jodi Picoult book, Nineteen Minutes. I'll withhold judgment until I'm finished. 

In the meantime, I'm curious about your genres. 

What genre do you write? 

Sometimes Blogger seems inundated with YA authors--not that there's anything wrong with that. Just wondering where some of the other genres are! 

Recipe

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Father's Day weekend or just plain weekend. Evan, Sigo, and I packed up Saturday afternoon and headed down to stay with Evan's parents. I was hoping Sigo and their Munchkin cat Herbie would hit it off, but they were a bit shy all weekend...

Had my last visit with my wrist surgeon this morning. He's discharging me as a patient after I get a Functional Capacity Evaluation, which will determine my percentage of disability. We talked to an attorney a little bit this afternoon; he said wrist injuries don't really rank up there on the settlement scale. Last time I checked, our wrists are pretty important, huh?

But I digress...

Writing has been slow-going, so please don't mock me too heartily on W-I-P Wednesday. I'm hoping to have surpassed 52k by then, but who knows?

I've gained quite a few new followers recently--hi! Welcome! Hopefully I'll be entertaining enough for you to stick around. I'm in a bit of a slump lately, but I'm trying to pull myself out of it, promise. :-)

~

A while ago, a few of you expressed interest in some recipe-sharing when I'm having particularly dull blog days. I think this counts, and last night I made this the 2nd time and thought I should share...

Black Bean and Couscous Salad

(I made up this recipe, so the proportions may need adjustment.)

For two:

1 c. couscous, prepared as per instructions
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed clean
1-2 stalks of celery, diced
Crumbled feta cheese to taste
(there's room for a lot of variation, but here are some ideas that I've done)
black olives, sliced
1/4 jar marinated artichoke hearts
tomato, diced
chicken breast sliced thin and sauteed in olive oil and garlic

Basically all you do is cook the couscous and prepare all the fixin's...
Then stir it all together.
Garnish with the feta.
Dress with lemon juice/olive oil mixture to taste.
I ate mine on a bed of baby romaine, but you don't have to do that either.

Eat.
Enjoy.
Repeat.

W-I-P Wednesday

We bloggers love our alliterative blog schedules, don't we? Since I love alliteration as much as the next person, I henceforth declare Wednesdays as the day in which I talk about my WIP and ask you awkward and random questions about your own works-in-progress, writing process, etc.

Saving Me
Word count: 46, 503
Goal: in the ballpark of 75,000 
Genre: women's commerical (Southern) fiction 
Terrible one-line summary without spoilers for my CPs: A graduate student with a troubled past must choose between herself and her family when an unexpected event throws everything she's worked towards into chaos. [Could that have been worse? Probably not. In fact, I don't even think that's what the story's about, but the spoiler is pivotal to the plot.]


General Thoughts
As always, work on SM is slow-going, or at least it feels that way to me. I'm trying to write around a thousand words a day, and so far I've stuck pretty well to that. Trouble is, a thousand words doesn't get me very far, story-wise, hence the feelings of sloth.

I've crossed 2 important plot bridges now, and am about to get to a third, which is all very exciting. New ideas are falling into place every time I sit down to write. I really love this story and its telling, but the urge for it to just be done grows stronger every day! 


Also, my ability to channel "shitty first draft" energy is shorting in and out. Help me, Anne Lamott, you're my only hope!


Short Excerpt (spoiler-free for CPs)

     Time to move on.
     And I would be moving along, in exactly...I checked my watch. One hour. One hour, and Georgia would be nothing but a faint, humid memory.
     But I would miss Julie.
     I'd been battling with feelings of selfishness ever since I decided to go after the fellowship. Julie had never asked for her lot in life, two siblings with mental illness and her own substance addiction. And when an angry, recalcitrant eight-year-old had been dropped in her lap, she'd never once complained or resented me or tried to pawn me off on any of my father's distant relatives.
     Julie taught me about unconditional love, but here I was, leaving her in the dust first chance I got. Not much Christian charity, that, but I'd never been a good Christian.
     She wanted me to go, or at least she said she did. More than anything, she said, she wanted me to get out of Clarkston and make something of myself. Not to turn out sick like my mother, or haunted like my uncle, or just plain motionless. Like her.
     She'd never said so much, but I knew.
     I finished my latte and left the coffee shop, found my gate and leaned against one of the picture windows.        Atlanta was not a pretty city, inside or out, but I'd known beauty here.


Questions for YOU


1. How do you format your first draft? For instance, I keep mine single-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font. My draft is currently 90 pages long at 46.5k words. I think it's more exciting to double-space in the end.

2. What would you say is your #1 character physical tic? Mine is nodding. Nodding and shoving hands in pockets. #headdesk

Just For You

Sigo's new favorite pastime:

Evidently my mouse cursor is the ultimate prey. 

Also, I watched the season 3 premiere of True Blood last night, as well as finally started Dead in the Family.

You're welcome.

Terminated

Last Friday I got a call from my boss at the animal shelter. It was a short call--no more than 45 seconds. He asked me to come in to the office on Monday morning so we could have a "sit-down talk." Being the nervous Nelly that I am, I suffered from cold sweats and palpitations for about an hour before I got distracted enough to  turn my mind to other things over the weekend.

This morning I went in.

When my shelter split from the county animal control, they lost three-quarters of a million dollars a year in basic rent, not to mention a per diem amount for each animal over capacity. $750,000 is a lot of money, especially to a non-profit. As a result, they've been cutting back where they could, trimming the edges and being prudent for future monetary droughts.

Because of this, my boss said, they were very sad to inform me that as of June 30, my position would be terminated.

He went on to assure me that this termination would have no impact on my worker's comp status, and that I should continue receiving wages and eventually a settlement.

So really, nothing is changing.

But I still feel suddenly weightless.

I didn't particularly like the job. I didn't particularly want to go back.

But it was there.

And now it's not.

I've been in a holding pattern for almost a year, ever since I got injured on August 15, 2009. Being on WC, I couldn't look for another job, couldn't do anything else because of the injury--basically just waiting.

Now my future is open again.

I don't know yet what I'm going to do--I can't start my nursing program until fall 2011. Do I get a job? Maybe. I could go to the school where my husband works and earn an MBA in the meantime. But what do I need an MBA for? Not much.

I have an appointment with my surgeon next Monday, June 21. I'm sure I'll know a lot more after that. I hope so, anyway.

What I do know is this: I'm finishing this novel, dammit. And then I'm going to make it the best damn novel I've ever read. And then I'm going to query. And then I'm going to find an agent.

And when I do all that, at least I'll know that the holding pattern wasn't for naught.

I'm going to try and figure out a blogging schedule for myself soon, topic-wise. As I'm wandering aimlessly these next few weeks, I'm going to need some structure, so I'm going to try and figure out a daily writing plan, as well as critiquing, reading, and all the other stuff I do.

Terminated.

What a word.


PS: On a lighter note, we're almost done with LOST. We pulled another epic weekend and watched 12 episodes of season 6 yesterday :-)

2 Basic How-To's in Layman's Terms

Last night, I got a brand new shiny toy... A 24-inch, HD LCD widescreen monitor. I mean, wow. Considering my old monitor was from 2002, this thing is...beautiful. It's actually a television with a VGA output, so we got two birds with one stone! Lemme tell ya, LOST looks amazing.

I've been meaning to address this for a while, but the new monitor has inspired me, so in lieu of my usual scintillating *ahem* post, I thought I'd do a drier, though hopefully helpful, addressing of two blogger-related topics.

1. Comment Reply

   I've seen a good many people wondering how one directly replies to a follower's comment, rather than doing a cumbersome @@@ reply in your own comment box. This answer is actually very simple, but it depends on one HUGE detail:
   Having your email address enabled in your public profile. If Blogger doesn't have access to your email, then the address that the comment will show is this: noreply-comment@blogger.com
    In order to enable your email address, just take the following steps:

   1. Go to Edit Profile on your Dashboard (beside your photo)
   2. Under Identity, make sure there's an email address entered.
   3. At the top of the Profile, under Privacy, check the "Show my email address" box.

 If you follow all these steps, then whenever you leave a comment on someone's blog, they will be able to reply directly to your email!
  And the way to do this is as simple as can be--just hit "Reply" on the email with the comment, like you would with any regular email.

   The upside to this method is that you can often make a longer, more personalized response to the commentator, and sometimes they'll respond and you have a nice little dialogue! Yay, friendliness!
   The downside is that the folks who don't have this enabled may think that you are stuck-up and unfriendly for not replying to your followers' faithful comments.
   Catch-22! I'm just telling you how to do it; I'll leave the moral dilemma up to you.

-------------

2. Customizing a Blog Header! 

   This is pure vanity, but if you've been following me for any period of time, you know that I change my layout about as often as I change my contacts. I'm an artist and a writer, so visual interest is important to me. 

  As you may or may not know, Blogger recently introduced Blogger in Draft, which gives you the ability to further customize your blog design past the Minima Dark or Minima Blue variety. B-I-D is pretty fun, but still somewhat limiting, unless you're really HTML-savvy. 

 Personally, I think that headers are what make blogs stand out from each other. I know 4 blogs that have the exact same design, but each heading is different, and that makes all the difference. 

  Making a customized header is about as easy as anything you could hope to do, and you can do it with the simplest of Windows-included software: PAINT! 

  The first thing you want to do is find a picture that's to your liking, whether something from the public domain or something from your own photo files. 

  

   Size: an image width of 660 pixels will perfectly fill the header space; height is really for your own discretion. I like pictures in the height range around 400 pixels, personally. 

  Now that you've selected the picture that you want, it's time to gussy it up with your blog name, your name, and anything else that you'd like. 

   In Paint: open the picture. In your Toolbar, select the text tool, then make sure you choose the transparent text box option--it's the bottom one. Next, simple drag the size box you think you might need, then type in everything you want. Be sure that you have it as you want before you click anywhere outside the text box--otherwise, you'll have to start all over again, as there's no going back in to edit the box. It takes some experimentation with font size, colors, etc, especially if you're using a highly-colored picture. 

    Note: fonts are really where it's at, if you ask me. And since this is my blog, I'm going to assume that you are indeed asking me. There are plenty of websites where you can safely download all kinds of crazy fonts that might be perfect for a blog header (and nothing else). Just Google Free Fonts and go crazy! FYI: the font name in my current header is Pad Thai. Fun! If you need help figuring out how to implement your newly downloaded fonts, feel free to email me! 

  Now that you have a beautiful header image, head back to your Blogger Dashboard. 

  First and foremost, if your Template is "Classic," you need to change it, preferably to a "Minima" style. This will allow you greater flexibility in editing. 

  Next, click on the Layout tab. 

  Click "Edit" on your header box. 

  Choose a File from your computer, then find the picture you just beautified and select it. 

  Under Placement, select "Instead of Title and Description" 

  I don't select "Shrink to Fit," but you can experiment with that, if you'd like. 

  Finally, Save! 

  Then view your blog and its lovely new header. 

  Note: If you don't want to be that complicated, you can just find a pretty, simple picture that's right around 660px wide/ 200px tall and when you go to the Header tab in your Layout, choose "Behind Title and Description." You'll have to use the Fonts and Colors to edit your blog title until its readable. 

I actually use Picasa to edit my pictures--you can rotate the font on a complete 360 axis, which is a bit more fun. Picasa is extremely intuitive, and it's a great place to store all your photos and keep them organized.


Anywho, hope this wasn't too boring...
Hopefully the weekend + my shiny new monitor will restore some of my mojo, so next week I'll have some hi-lariously good posts.

Happy weekend! 

Books

I started thinking about the books I've read this year and realized that my usual voracious appetite has been...dieting...this year. Not sure what the difference is: blogging, maybe, or all the surgery and physical therapy stuff, plus (and this is the biggest one) writing my own stuff. Whatever the reason, after seeing my abysmal list, I am ashamed of myself!

Here is my pathetic reading list for 2010 (excluding re-reads and probably not all-inclusive, but close):

1. Talk of the Town by Lisa Wingate
2. Covet by J.R. Ward
3. My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent
4. Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk
5. Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning
6. Frostbite by Richelle Mead
7. Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
8. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
9. The Devouring by Simon Holt
10. Midnight’s Daughter by Karen Chance
11. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
12. Wolf Signs by Vivien Arend
13. Lover Mine by J.R. Ward
14. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
15. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
16. Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
17. Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding
18. The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
19. The Apothecary’s Daughter by Julie Klassen
20. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
21. Speed Dating by Nancy Warren
22. Dancing in the Moonlight by RaeAnne Thayne
23. Old School by Tobias Wolff 
24. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

And quite a few of those were the short, free ebooks I got from the Kindle. Sad, I tell you, sad! 

Before you try to tell me that it's not that bad, you must understand that when I say I have a voracious reading appetite, I mean it! Most average-length paperbacks take me one sitting. I guess I just haven't been spending any time sitting lately... 

Anyway, my current/on-going reads:

1. Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
2. A Place to Come To by Robert Penn Warren
3. Solstice by Simon Holt
4. Regina in the Sun by R.G. Alexander 
5. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy 

And as soon as Amazon sends them to me:

1. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
2. Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

I want suggestions! As you can see, I have quite the varied taste, so I'm open to just about anything.

NOTE: I will not start any on-going series, like The Hunger Games, until they are complete. I've learned my lesson the hard way too many time. 

Recommendations?  

Say What Again!

Today's post is a random mix-up of life and writing and one of my all-time favorite movie clips...which has to do with writing. In a way.

1. I'm 98% sure that I'm going to be returning to work after what will be 11 long months on worker's comp. This should be happening in July, so keep your fingers crossed for me. If it all works out, you'll soon be regaled by stories of puppies, kittens, and incompetent buffoons (aka my coworkers).

2. Sigo Amigo seemed to be feeling better yesterday, so I took her down to the shelter where I work (see above) to get her Feline Leukemia/ Feline Immunodeficiency Virus combo test. I held my breath for 10 long minutes, but she was negative! Yay! So then we gave her her first round of booster shots and the whole flea/tick/hookworm/roundworm/tapeworm song-and-dance. She also had her first interaction with another kitten, and it was pretty amusing. But the best news of all is that my parents are going to take her :-)
    PSA: Did you know that cats can also get heartworms? As of now, heartworms in cats is untreatable, so if you have an outdoor kitty, do him/her a favor and give them heartworm protection. 


3. I had some great breakthroughs in my WIP yesterday. I know where I was heading, but the clouds opened up and a voice that sounded suspiciously like Samuel L. Jackson started talking to me about the story. So I diligently transcribed his words on my whiteboard, and today I'll be trying to write, even though lately all my writing attempts have felt pretty much like this:

      Note: This is from Pulp Fiction, so it's full of hilarious swears. Watch at your own discretion. 
    Jules is my novel, Marsellus Wallace is my plot, and I am the poor dude in the chair: 


  I can't embed, but please follow the link and watch with my heading in mind. :-)


Ever felt like this? :-)

Sequence

As you can see, I changed my layout again. I know I have a problem, but what can I say? I do really like this one, though, so I might keep it for a while... :-)

Over the weekend, E and I made significant progress on our LOST binging. As of today, we're on episode 8 of season 5. As those who've watched know, a lot has happened.

But this post isn't about that!

One of the techniques that the LOST creators employ to add suspense is presenting events out of sequence. It's effective in visual form, and it's something that we writers use often to present information when we want the reader to experience it, usually via flashbacks or maybe dream sequences that turn out to be the future, etc.

But my real question about sequence is this:

Do you write your novel out sequence? For instance, does the idea come to you in a vision of one scene, and with that scene you start writing and branch forward and backward as the plot unveils? Or do you figure out your entire plot, then start at the beginning and work your way towards that epiphanous scene?

Personally, it boggles my brain to try and write out of sequence. I can do it if I absolutely have to (like a most severe case of writer's block), but if I have my druthers, I like to write sequentially. From what I've seen/read/heard, a lot of writers skip around and weave their scenes together later. Again, mind-boggling for me.


So, just curious: do you write in sequence, or do you bounce all over the continuum? 

PS: Sigo is doing really well! She's putting on weight and responding well to the antibiotic treatment I'm giving her. Hoping to have all her feline leukemia and FIV tests done this week. :-) 

Sigo Amigo

Bonjour. 

Admire my flexibility. 

Do not be swayed by my cute kitteh face. I have claws of death. 

Right now my skills mainly include sleeping and eating...

...then more sleeping. 

Just wait until I get my strength back!

But for now, you're safe...

For now. 

Uh Oh.

I found a kitten in the Walmart parking lot this morning.
Updates to follow.

Okay, updates, as promised:

I talked to my landlord, and he agreed that we could nurse the kitteh back to health while I try to find it a good home. She's really dehydrated and malnourished, but otherwise seems to be in good health. 

E came home at lunch and met her...He's a sucker for whiney cats, and she's whiney to beat all, so she had him wrapped around her little claw immediately. 

I figure we'll keep her around for a few weeks and once I get some meat on her, I'll take her to my shelter and run the FeLV/FIV test and give her her first round of FVRCP boosters. Best case scenario is that my in-laws decide that they really do need an outside cat to keep the rabbits out of the garden. Worst case scenario is that I take her to my shelter and she finds a good home there. 

No name yet...but we're thinking. :-)

Well, Whaddya Know?

Perhaps my wah-wah feel-sorry-for-me post yesterday was premature. Then again, maybe it all happened for a reason.

Yesterday was my inaugural visit to the gym with my shiny new membership. I'd had a meeting with a trainer last week, who showed me how to use all the fancy equipment and gave me a workout plan.

I was there for about an hour, at peak time (11am) with the elderly folk.

While I was secretly racing on the elliptical with the man next to me (I tots won, by the way), I was trying over and over to concentrate on my novel. What happens next? Where am I going? I know my destination, but how am I going to get there?

But my tunes were so sweet, I kept losing focus on my novel, and once I was done with my cardio and moved on to the weights, I pretty much forgot everything but the screaming pain in my girly muscles. Heck, even the 78-year-old lady before me was using like twice as much weight as I (but she was also grimacing really badly).

Anyway, I came home and showered, then I played video games with my brother for like, three hours. And then we got Chinese takeout for dinner. And then we had a friend come over (shock, I know--we do have friends) and play more video games...

And then around 11pm, my husband decided he wanted to watch the latest subbed Bleach episode. So I pulled up my Word document. And I looked at my scene.

And friends, hell if I didn't write like 550 words in 20 minutes and figure out what my bold next move is. I'd had this idea floating around forever, but I couldn't figure out a way to get my MC to it...and last night, it all fell into place. 


Yay. 


So today, after my PT and quick Walmart run, I will be chained to my computer. For reals. 

Le Sigh

Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday weekend. Georgia was trying to masquerade as a sub-tropical state over the last few days, raining on and off with no warning and great gusto all day long. While it may have ruined plans for some, it provided the perfect backdrop for me and E to do what we do best: sit on our butts and watch the show-of-the-moment, which of course right now is Lost. After about 13 episodes yesterday, we're up to episode 10 in Season Four.

You know you've been watching too much Lost when you dream that you're both yourself and Jack Shepard the same night that your husband dreams he's Locke. (And don't ask why I was Jack instead of one of the women...I have gender-bending dreams a lot.)

After such a productive week last week, I had the mid-manuscript slumps hit me, right around 4pm on Friday. It's not writer's block, per se...

It's more of a feeling of ennui about my writing.
To help myself feel better, as I'm reading A Place to Come To, by Robert Penn Warren (who is admittedly a genius of literature), I'm dissecting the novel with a contemporary editorial eye. I would cut a lot of those paragraphs, Robbie. Just sayin'. But the novel is a Southern bildungsroman like I like to think mine is, so I'm hoping it's going to make me feel inspired.

Maybe this afternoon I'll watch A Love Song for Bobby Long and drink amaretto sours. (Seriously, you should watch that movie. It's amazing.)

Help me fall back into like with my novel! (It doesn't have to be love--it could even be flirtation or just lust!)
Otherwise this happens: