Quote of the Moment

"What's Past Is Prologue." - William Shakespeare

Monday, September 26, 2005

Supposed to be....

I was supposed to be in New Orleans this week. :p Well, the husband still has the whole week off, so I am counting the week still as a vacation week. I might write some, but I mostly plan to allow myself the time to relax with no pressure. I think that's one of my problems - I never let myself have fun. Yes, I do fun stuff, but I give myself a guilt trip the entire time, which in the end makes things stressful. So, no guilt trip this weekend. If I get some writing sone, I get some writing done. If I don't, I don't. I actually was thinking of trying to write one the scenes with one of my characters by hand for my novella. Deyrdre = typed first, Maeve = handwritten first. Call it an experiment. :)

With that said, the husband and I are off to a Bed and Breakfast today for a couple days. Some time to get away from the computers (not taking my laptop, even though there is wireless internet connection). Oh, and I received an e-rejection today from one of the agents I had recently sent a query to. Oh well. Not worrying about queries at all until next week.

Short blog. I have so much to do around the house and we leave in an hour and a half! Happy writing. :)

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Odds and Ends - Have I Used This Title Before?

To answer my own question, I think I have, but I think the title fits the post because my mind has been all over the last couple days, and so likely will be this post/rant/whatever-the-heck-you-want-to-call-it.

Well, I'm back to querying. My partial was rejected rather quickly. Guess the sooner the better, but I think it would have been nice to live in wonder for another two weeks. :D So, three more queries went out yesterday, and probably another three more in two weeks. This Friday was supposed to be the start of that vacation with my husband in New Orleans, so I don't want to deal with Queasy Queries next week. I think spacing them out every other week is a good plan anyhow.

On another topic - see my word count bar actually has something in it this week? Yay. No, I am not working on the short story I've been working on (that I know I just need to finish, so I can send it out for critiquing). I started something else. Bad me, right, I know. The problem is, I had this idea for an anthology that's currently accepting submissions. I needed to start it at least, especially since it might end up being novella length. Not sure. But I do know I will have at least two main POV characters. I'll finish that short story eventually, really I will. I should write at least 2.5k a week though on that novella though, just so I pace myself and make sure I get it done in time to be critiqued and revised before the submissions deadline.

So, when I updated my word meter today, they had a link with something to do with NaNoWriMo. This made me remember how close November is approaching. I really want to do it again this year, and I want to win! Okay, but I have some issues. First, I have SO many projects started that I need to finish. Daina novel, short story, novella, second Mind novel, revising some stories so I can actually submit them somewhere. This means I'm going to feel guilty as hell doing NaNo, since I need to start fresh. Then I think, what AM I going to do for NaNo? I could work on Shepherd of Dreams. Although, I already have a chapter of that written - I'd have to cheat a little and just start from where I ended (no, I wouldn't count the word count on what I already have written - it was a short chapter anyway, maybe only 2k words). Yet, I feel driven to work on my other things. I'm only 14k into the second Mind novel, and I know I have 50k more in me for that, but that would be just stupid doing the same novel two years in a row. I don't think I have a fresh 50k left in Daina. See my dilemma? And if I don't want to "cheat" a bit with Shepherd, then I'm not sure what else I should do. Yes, I have other novel ideas (most have a chapter or scene written already), but do I really want to do another full rough draft of an idea that isn't fully formulated yet when I have more formulated ideas that need to be completed first? Oy, what a mouthful. I'm not sure what to do for NaNoWriMo right now. I guess that's what all this blather comes down to. Although, I'm very excited about it (that didn't come through in all that, did it? I am really excited!).

And what if I get a full-time day job? Yikes. NaNo might be a dream then. Well, Judi is planning on doing it, and I guess if she can do it when she has to work 40+ hours a week (heavy on the plus), then I guess so can I if I'm working...and give up Everquest for the entire month of November. :p

I guess I should stop complaining and start working on things on my weekly list. I need to make a Writing List, too. Been intending to do that for ages. Then maybe I'll at least feel more organized if I can look at a list and say, okay, this is where I am in the process with this idea. Lists are my life - heh.

As I said, scattered post. Odds and ends - mostly just odd, but anyone who has read my blog for a while and continues to read it knows that I am far from normal. Happy writing!

Friday, September 09, 2005

Mind - Lost In Space

The title of this post should be expalatory enough. I feel like my brain has been hijacked, and I'm only running on the energy that's left over (soon to be gone). So, who's interested in knowing what's been going on with me? No one. Tough, I'm telling it anyway. :D

Last week, along with the week before, was mostly taken up by house hunting ventures. We actually put an offer down on a house, but then refused the counter-offer after looking at the house again and deciding it wouldn't accommodate (sp?) any of our exsisting furniture.

So, to pile on the stress, New Orleans is under loads of water (I do hope the person I know down there got out okay along with her family). Have I mentioned in my blogging efforts before that my husband and I were supposed to finally have our honeymoon, four years in the waiting? Well, it was supposed to happen at the end of this month. Guess where? Yup, New Orleans. No, we didn't want to go anywhere else - no other options, for those who say, well you could fly elsewhere. New Orleans or bust is our motto. So, we will have no honeymoon this year. Who knows when we'll get a chance again.

Well, the stress was mounting with the house stuff, the vacation cancellations, and other numerous little things. Low and behold mid-week last week I received one of my tell-tale SASEs back in the mail. My thoughts: "Just what I need right now - another rejection." I assumed it was for a short story. Opening it up though, I discovered it was from the agent I had still been waiting to hear from (and no, I hadn't sent out any other queries recently). And he requested a partial. Needless to say, with it being the day where my stress was the highest for the week, and being confronted with some good news that I couldn't be happy about at that moment, I burst into tears. My husband says I'm over-emotional. He might be right. :p Okay, so I am thrilled that I've been given this chance (and I guess it's a good thing I haven't sent out any other queries for a while). After letting my nerves settle from the rollercoaster that was last week, I worked on my detailed synopsis this week, and I just sent out that and my partial to the agent today. :) Now I don’t have to worry about queries for a while.

Argh, I just tried to publish this post, then it wouldn’t publish, so I hit recover post and I lost the end of what I wrote! Now, I’m typing this in Word Perfect so I don’t lose it. Maybe it wouln’t work because I’m using Firefox now? Who knows. Do I remember what else I had? Remember, my mind is gone... Something about Moira being a smartass and me loving her. Oh, yes - the marquee! I changed it. It’s a quote from the short story I’m working on (that I want to continue, but have to finish a crit first). And I think I begged for people to send my brain home if they see it. Finally, happy writing!

Okay, just learned Blogger went down for maintenance right when I was in the middle of my post... How nice of them. So, it’s their fault I lost stuff, and that this is being posted hours AFTER I wrote it.