friday recap

I went to bed last night with a headache and woke this morning with the same darn pounding in my noggin. This will be short.

Had a great time with my buddy, Kim.
I did get a bit of writing related work done this week. Some edits, some new words and the start of an article on how libraries order books.
Oldest kid won her first high school soccer game. Middle kid lost her first game with her new team.
Started reading Lilith Saintcrow's latest Jill Kismet book. I just really enjoy her writing.

I'm looking forward to the long weekend. Hope you are too.

returns

Last night marked my brief, thank God, return to high school. Yep, I got to experience a small taste of my daughter's daily life as I traveled the halls through her schedule. Wow. Boy am I glad to be done with all of that. She has class in three rooms that don't even have windows! Where do you look to daydream and plot the next chapter in your book? I guess the back of the kid's head who sits in front of you.

A steady stream of customers ventured into the store yesterday. Still quite a few moms out looking for required reading titles. "Johnny Tremain" was the most requested book during my shift.

Today I'm off to lunch with Kim, yeah. Maybe a trip to B&N after lunch, yeah. Then home to get ready for the soccer field. The oldest has her first game this afternoon.

Hope to plant butt back in chair once the day is truly underway and get a few more words polished and down.

just a few showers

After I picked up the oldest from practice I hustled home, grabbed an umbrella and started up to the grade school to get the youngest. As soon as I stepped onto school property the heavens opened and buckets of rain poured down. By the time I made it to the door, I was soaked. The rain was coming sideways! Unreal. And the wind, I tell you, I was almost the modern version of Mary Poppins.

That was the exciting conclusion to a very good day. I cleaned my house. I did laundry. I edited four more chapters and wrote a whole page of new stuff.

Today I'm off to the bookstore to work my shift. I have a trainee with me today, so no doodling in my notebook.

Back at the wips tomorrow.

diving in one paragraph at a time

Have you even watched an adult get into a pool? They are either jumpers or they are waders. Some folks stand on the edge and without sticking even a big toe in to judge the water temperature, just jump in and start swimming. Other folks first dip in a toe, then sit and put their legs in, splash the water onto themselves for a while and then finally ease into the shallow end. Maybe a half hour later they are swimming.

I am such a wader.

I went back and worked on Lani some more last week. I wrote a new scene that may or may not work at the beginning. I'm pretty convinced that what I had previously written needs to come a bit later in the story. This is a weird story. It is unfolding in my head with all the ease and smoothness of a piece of sandpaper.

Some time was also spend editing Maddy Blue. The goal for today, after I clean the house, is to edit four more chapters.

Also up this week is lunch with Kim. Can't wait to see ya, girl. I have two season opener soccer games to attend. Woot! And of course, I have to get ready for Labor Day. When we moved here five years ago, our first party was on Labor Day. We hosted a cookout and had the neighbors over. It is now a tradition. Setting the menu is a major deal and we always have enough food to feed way more than two families. I think my contributions this year are going to be Robert Redford dessert sometimes known as 'sex in a pan,' a BLT appetizer dip and seven layer salad. The neighbor is hosting and I think is going to smoke some chicken for our main course.

Darn, my mouth is watering!

I also finished reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" over the weekend. What an interesting book. I almost put it down about a fourth of the way through it, but I trudged on and was rewarded for my efforts with an amazing story, told in such a fresh voice and in an enchanting way.

two in a row

A few weeks back I blogged about reading a very good historical novel based on the real Lady MacBeth. I picked another historical novel winner while at the library earlier in the week. This time the heroine is Louise de la Valliere,mistress to Louis XIV, the Sun King.

"Mistress of the Sun" by Sandra Gulland swept me away to the Sun King's court but not until I had totally fallen in love with Louise. The story begins when Louise is just a small child enamored with horses. Gulland uses Louise's relationship with a true white horse, Diablo, to develop key elements in her character that thread through the entire story. Louise comes to life as an extraordinary horsewoman, a scholar and a deeply loving woman.

The story concludes with an wonderfully done epilogue told by Louise and Louis' only surviving child, a daughter. Gulland then includes a nice author's note at the end outlining the fictional aspects of the story.

Well done, from start to finish.

when the words won't come

I opened the YA wip I started last year and began to edit. I hoped that through a few tweaks, nips and tucks I could get the words flowing. Good plan, but it didn't work. I didn't come up with much new stuff to write and in fact, I got so stuck I sat and stared at the blinking cursor for more than a few minutes.

I've hit a wall with the Lani story in only 40 short pages. Last night I decided the story is starting in the wrong place. When I return to work on this piece, I will write a new beginning and see if that doesn't jump start my efforts.

I didn't anticipate this. Ick.

how bad is that

I opened up the Maddy wip yesterday and the file marker noting the last time it was 'touched' said April. APRIL!!

Good grief. I couldn't believe it. How bad is that?

Needless to say, I got down to work and edited, tweaked and wrote my way through the first four chapters. Today I'm opening up the Lani wip and am prepared to wince yet again at the date listed after the file name.

I can't do anything about what I haven't done except to start doing something. Which I am.