Update & Getting Organized

Maybe. I haven't updated in a while, and having decided to take on the NaNoWriMo challenge again this year, I thought I'd better get to it:



ST -

87,500 / 100,000 (87.5%)

FP -

35,750 / 50,000 (71.5%)

Okay, so about the getting organized part, well, it's more like figuring out how much time I what to spend on writing down the stories in my head. This month, I was challenged to write a 70K, but I had to alter it to 50K because the story is working out like it wants to be logically finished at 200 pages, which is perfectly okay by me. This week I'm taking 2 online workshops that promise to be very helpful and informative (Candy Havens' Revision Hell, and Terry Spears' Feeling Rejected??). I'm looking forward to both. :-)

In Nov. for NaNoWriMo (Natl. Novel Writer's Month - check out their website), I've plotted out a contemporary paranormal romance story about an average everyday witch living in the motral world who doesn't want to fall in love with the king of the werewolves. And in December, I have 2-3 short stories planned just to give myself a break from the long stuff.

For the holidays, I'm going to break out the baking stuff (of course!) and have fun. My family always begs for fudge and cookies and pecan pie and candies, so I have them collecting nuts from the 4 pecan trees on our property. They shell 'em, and I bake with 'em. That's the deal, and it works like a charm every time.

That's about it right now.



CURRENT MOOD = okay

PAGES WRITTEN TODAY = 4 pages detailed outline for DBWB

MUSIC = silence is golden

AFFIRMATION = I think I can, I think I can, I think I can . . . That's right, I'll just keep telling myself that. ;-)

ACTIVITIES = walked 1 mile, biked 8 miles, got scared by 1 spook at the gym (actually was funny because a friend sneaked up behind me), step aerobics = 45 minutes, weight training = 15 minutes, abs = taking the day off.

DINNER = baked chicken and potatoes with steamed veggies


~A

Early Retro

CURRENT MOOD: Annoyed

PAGES WRITTEN: 0

CURRENT MUSIC: none

DAILY AFFIRMATION: I'm learning to manage my time wisely.

DAILY ACTIVITY: Walked son to school and back total = 1/2 mile (30 minutes). At the gym: 5 miles on the bike (25 min), Tai Chi (30 min), Pilates (45 min), Step Aerobics and free-weights (60 min), stretching (15 min).

To Do List: Rush order at work and to post office = 2-1/2 hours.



Mercury goes retrograde on Oct 22, which means trouble with communication and transportation of any sort. And I've already seen the beginning effects, which can start up to a week early. Yesterday at the fabric store, I was standing in the checkout line and gazing at all those cute "can't live without" items on the stand.

Well, I happened to remember my 5-yo had what looked like a black ink spot on his white shirt, and I picked up a little bottle of interesting spot remover and decided to buy it. The folks in front of me tried to complete their checkout, but the computerized register system hung up. After about five minutes, the cashier (nice and smart lady I've dealt with many times over the past several years) called the manager and moved to the second register to check me out. I had a debit card, which also hung up.

Another ten minutes passed, and the first register finally cleared itself and a new cashier found she was able to accept cash, then checked several more people from the growing line. But, she also got hung up when she tried to run a check.

In the mean time, I still had a RUSH order at work to get back to and complete and get into the mail by Priority TODAY. I told myself to be calm, and that things would work out. The "help" desk for the register system was on the phone to the manager and offered no help, just thinly veiled accusasions the cashiers weren't doing their jobs right. Arrgh!!

Then the first register cleared, and the cashier was able to again accept cash payments. I didn't have enough cash for my purchase, which is why I wanted to use my debit card. It dawned on me that if I didn't have Granny's spot remover, I could make my purchase by cash. I told my cashier this, and she moved to yet a third register and got me checked out quickly with a cash sale.

Fate tends to work in mysterious ways, I've found, for our best interest (though we might not see it as such right away). Maybe I didn't need the spot remover, and by the computer system malfunctioning plus my not having enough cash, I was kept from a frivoulous impulse purchase. I have two other spot removers at home already, I just meed to dig them out and see if either will work on the ink spot.

The RUSH job was completed and mailed on time, but again, not without incident. My printer said it was out of ink, but it printed my mailing label anyway. Not a great print, but still readable. I had a bad feeling about it. Since this was an important order, I stood in line at the post office for an extra 20 minutes (typical, but not too bad) to get my package checked in. I got the counter, but the label wouldn't scan. It wouldn't acknowledge the manually keyed number code either.

The gal knows me and also knew from my label I had paid for my shipping online, so she kept at it. About the dozenth time, the system accepted the number, and she added her little coded label to show she had already seen it at our end. I walked out of the post office after thirty-five minutes, or what usual would've taken me two minutes to drop the package on the check-in counter and get back out to my car.

Mercury's at it again. The Retro in March '06 was more frustrating then problematic for me, and this summer in July '06, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been, with mostly only delays. Since in Astrology my Sun is in Gemini (ruled by Mercury), I learned very early in life to duck and cover during these times so I could avoid as many problems as possible. Three times per year for three weeks I don't force issues and try to go with the flow more than usual, which sort of gives me a bit of a rest anyway.

Starting on Oct 28 to Nov 18, watch out for communication and transportation problems. Arrange a little extra time for things to save you headaches.

~A

Early Retro

CURRENT MOOD: Annoyed

PAGES WRITTEN: 0

CURRENT MUSIC: none

DAILY AFFIRMATION: I'm learning to manage my time wisely.

DAILY ACTIVITY: Walked son to school and back total = 1/2 mile (30 minutes). At the gym: 5 miles on the bike (25 min), Tai Chi (30 min), Pilates (45 min), Step Aerobics and free-weights (60 min), stretching (15 min).

To Do List: Rush order at work and to post office = 2-1/2 hours.



Mercury goes retrograde on Oct 22, which means trouble with communication and transportation of any sort. And I've already seen the beginning effects, which can start up to a week early. Yesterday at the fabric store, I was standing in the checkout line and gazing at all those cute "can't live without" items on the stand.

Well, I happened to remember my 5-yo had what looked like a black ink spot on his white shirt, and I picked up a little bottle of interesting spot remover and decided to buy it. The folks in front of me tried to complete their checkout, but the computerized register system hung up. After about five minutes, the cashier (nice and smart lady I've dealt with many times over the past several years) called the manager and moved to the second register to check me out. I had a debit card, which also hung up.

Another ten minutes passed, and the first register finally cleared itself and a new cashier found she was able to accept cash, then checked several more people from the growing line. But, she also got hung up when she tried to run a check.

In the mean time, I still had a RUSH order at work to get back to and complete and get into the mail by Priority TODAY. I told myself to be calm, and that things would work out. The "help" desk for the register system was on the phone to the manager and offered no help, just thinly veiled accusasions the cashiers weren't doing their jobs right. Arrgh!!

Then the first register cleared, and the cashier was able to again accept cash payments. I didn't have enough cash for my purchase, which is why I wanted to use my debit card. It dawned on me that if I didn't have Granny's spot remover, I could make my purchase by cash. I told my cashier this, and she moved to yet a third register and got me checked out quickly with a cash sale.

Fate tends to work in mysterious ways, I've found, for our best interest (though we might not see it as such right away). Maybe I didn't need the spot remover, and by the computer system malfunctioning plus my not having enough cash, I was kept from a frivoulous impulse purchase. I have two other spot removers at home already, I just meed to dig them out and see if either will work on the ink spot.

The RUSH job was completed and mailed on time, but again, not without incident. My printer said it was out of ink, but it printed my mailing label anyway. Not a great print, but still readable. I had a bad feeling about it. Since this was an important order, I stood in line at the post office for an extra 20 minutes (typical, but not too bad) to get my package checked in. I got the counter, but the label wouldn't scan. It wouldn't acknowledge the manually keyed number code either.

The gal knows me and also knew from my label I had paid for my shipping online, so she kept at it. About the dozenth time, the system accepted the number, and she added her little coded label to show she had already seen it at our end. I walked out of the post office after thirty-five minutes, or what usual would've taken me two minutes to drop the package on the check-in counter and get back out to my car.

Mercury's at it again. The Retro in March '06 was more frustrating then problematic for me, and this summer in July '06, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been, with mostly only delays. Since in Astrology my Sun is in Gemini (ruled by Mercury), I learned very early in life to duck and cover during these times so I could avoid as many problems as possible. Three times per year for three weeks I don't force issues and try to go with the flow more than usual, which sort of gives me a bit of a rest anyway.

Starting on Oct 28 to Nov 18, watch out for communication and transportation problems. Arrange a little extra time for things to save you headaches.

~A

FP

I slowed down a little . . .

33,250 / 70,000 (47.5%)

. . . but I'm still writing. :-)

~A

Back to Work . . . Tomorrow

I'm having too much fun today playing online and not writing, a hold-over from this past weekend at my family reunion. But, in all fairness, it is Columbus Day, and just about everyone I know is off work. Today is also the first day of the monthly BIAW I do with one of my online RWA chapters, and I did do a little writing this morning, plus I plan on doing more this afternoon. Since working at home means I don't usually get days off, I decided to putz around for awhile. Take a look at what I came up with:







So, as I digress into fantasyland, I feel pretty good about being compared to some of these ladies with my no-makeup pic that taken at our local Renaissance Faire this past spring. And now that I'm feeling pretty good, I'll go write something profound from my heroine's point of view.

~A

MLE -- Out Again

MLE is offically out the door to another publisher who wanted to read the full. Now I get to play the waiting game again. But I still have ST to finish editing for the other requested full for a different publisher.

I also sort of slacked off the past few days on FP due to my day-job demands. I'm about halfway completed with the first draft, and I'll be hitting it hard this week to get all the juicy story tidbits out of my brain and into my computer, and hopefully finished. ;-)

~A

ST & FP

ST =

85,500 / 100,000 (85.5%)

FP =

32,000 / 70,000 (45.7%)

~A

Progress - ST & FP

ST -

71,750 / 100,000 (71.8%)

FP -

23,500 / 70,000 (33.6%)

Still going strong. :-)

~A

ST & FP and More

ST -

64,500 / 100,000 (64.5%)

FP -

15,000 / 70,000 (21.4%)

And one of my favorite procrastination subjects . . . naked men --


http://perseph2hades.livejournal.com/116088.html


The perfect guy for my hero, Ransom Masters, in "Forbidden Pleasures" is the 8th picture down, right after the gorgeous ass shot. (LOVE his muscular thighs, OMG yummy!) I'd let this hunk tie my hands any day--oops--I mean, I'd watch him tie his hands any day, LOL.



~A

(I'm finally breathing normally again . . . well, sort of. But what an inspiration to WRITE about! ;-))

A Request for MLE & Progress on ST

Sometimes the Universe acts in mysterious ways. Today I got a request for a full (MLE) from NCP. I still have a few days until my crit group gets the chapters back to me before I panic and send it on the editor. But, hey, I can look at it like this: I'm 50/50 with one "R" and one full request on only two queries.

I dun good. :-)

And, over the next two weeks I'm also participating in Fast Draft (by Candy Havens), and this is day one. So far, I've written 8 pages out of my required daily 20, and my goal is a 70K first draft mss I can then expand upon in edits. I'm still not sure about a title yet, but I'm leaning towards "Forbidden Pleasures," which I like very much for the characters (hint: the heroine is a feisty support character in MLE). So I'll be working double-time on both stories. Here's my total for FP:

2,000 / 70,000 (2.9%)

And about my progress on ST . . .

53,500 / 100,000 (53.5%)

He faced her, his tone cold. "Pleasure and pain are two facets of the same gemstone. My business is to know each to it's greatest intimate effect."


Okay, back to work now. ;-)

~A