Saturday, December 30, 2006

The Tally Stands

One book complete.
One book completly through the third edit and needing to be lengthened.
New chapter for the above book is in the first writing.
Two chapters thought about with nothing on a computer or paper.
One book complete and one third through the fourth and final revision.
One outline, timeline and character bios finished,begun and in the works, repectively.
One book half finished and already into editing what is complete. Seriously considering abandonment of project.
One more day to write finished on all the above to complete my goal. Not even will I make it, but it is good enough for me.
"Load of Rocks" will be complete by the 15th of January 2007.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Who designs this product?

I purchased a product that seemed fine. I purchased it a month ago. I paid an enormous amount of money for me to get something well constructed and would last. Approximately immediately the keyboard will not work. The actual keyboard works well, therefore the fault must be the wire or the connection into the tower. Faulty design one, the connection is in the back of the tower, and unless I really want the tower set front to wall and have to reach behind it to push the start button, basic troubleshooting is screwed. I am beginning to believe there is a conspiracy between computer tower designers and computer station designers. What blooming bloody numb brain decided that the shelf holding the tower should be knee high to a four year old? Is the four year old going to do the troubleshooting? Not even, Mr. Designer, she is going to cry for her Mommy to fix the keyboard. How tall is Mommy? I'll wager Mum is tall enough that bending in half to look into the rear end of a tower is not a pleasant consumer experience. Should I ever meet Mr. or Ms. Designer I will suggest that they stick their head behind the tower while a four year old is screaming and perhaps they will consider what the ##### they were designing. How hard is it to design a tower self that is waist high to an adult female. You notice that I said female.? Do you have one of those kitchens designed by a 6'4" male where the cabinets are so high that a reasonably tall adult female can reach nothing?! Yeah, maybe he is related to the person who designed this piece of junque.
Okay, gripping about a problem without providing a reasonable solution is not something I encourage in myself. Here is the design in words. Workstations with enough room on both sides of what would be the logical place(middle) for the monitor that either right or left handed persons can work. Tower shelves (to reinterate) at waist height. The shelf to contain a lockdown device for holding the tower securely. The shelf will tilt forward on a spring to provide a secure way to view the rear of the tower, faciltating the repair of a poorly designed connection for the keyboard. How ding dong hard is that? The next time the furniture designer in the family does work stations, oh boy, Mom will give him such a good idea. The piece d' resistance, a work light on the back of the tower, with enough wattage that one can actually see something. The connections should be on the top of the tower, no other place that a reasonable person would put them, period.
Is that too much to ask?

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Scratch the Love Scene

I remembered a true incident about gold mining that I was going to put into Ms. Got Rocks, but it never got there. It will get to Load of Rocks and it will fit in nicely .
I was reading a Nevada Barr novel last night, and noticed that I had lost track of the story. I was thinking of something for Rocky, that had nothing to do with the Barr story. I "read" two pages and didn't get a thing. I think that bit in my head can be expanded into something really intriquing for Rocky. Has nothing to do with skin diving in the Dry Tortugas as the pages in the book were explaining. How close is it to what I was reading? Rocky will be cleaning out the attic of the cabin in Whiskey Gap California. See, really close to skin diving in the Gulf of Mexico, eh.

Hunkin' Guy Alert

If I were young and single again, I would live in Whole Foods store in Las Vegas. I have never seen so many absolutely gloriously yummy handsome young men grocery shopping as there yesterday. And the goodies they were buying? Raspberries,spiral cut hams, grapes and veggies I didn't even know what they were.
Yes, Ma'm I would live at that store.Ladies,listen up. Friday morning 10 to 11 AM, Charleston Blvd Store Las Vegas Nevada..worth the trip...oh my!
Get a piece of the artichoke pizza for your disguise.

Friday, December 22, 2006

What Do I Do Now?

The first edit is complete on "Load of Rocks." Remember me saying I added around 15 new pages. The little rascal is still too short. I planned for at least 75000 words. It stands at 62462. Agreed that is a lot of words. But it is too long for a short story, too short for a novel and novella production would mean that I would have to shorten Mrs. Got Rocks to make these a set of two. Mrs. Got Rocks is weighing in at a weensy over 75000.
I have to do the math...I need, rounded down, 12500 words. That equated to 51.65 pages at my word rate of 242 words per page. At 13 to 15 pages per chapter, shhhheeeessssh that is about 4 more chapters! I hate math and love words. Okay, I have to think up four more chapters and I have until the end of the year to do that, get them written, edited, and ready to go. No Prob...may I go be sick somewhere.
Write on...think on...invent a new adventure on..guess I'm going to force myself to write a really truly love scene, and I do mean a love scene, not a sex scene, tho' that can be an adventure also. I can probably make the part where Rocky had the realization in the room in Fairbanks, I could probably make that much more layered, I did want it to just be her sitting and discovering that what she has in her life, is sitting in a room talking to her dogs and how desperate that makes her feel, the deperation reflected in the sparsely worded and length of the scene. That may work to define that better. Some of this may be resolved when the guinea pig readers have finished and I have their input. Nevertheless, the little pony is too small to go to the big pony show.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Where was I?

My apparent lack of a grasp on English grammar never ceases to amaze me.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Emma Thompson and "Sense and Sensibility"

I ran out of writing juice yesterday and flipped into movie land with the adaption of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility ". The screenplay was written by the lovely actor Emma Thompson.
I was listening to the commentary in the production notes section and sat up and paid attention when Emma Thompson states that characters written today are one dimensional. I am paraphrasing here please note, she commented that women were either sexy or not, men were mean, not mean or there was a third "type" men could be that I cannot remember this morning. Love was sex with no layers of emotional involvement. Remember, she was talking about books and scripts, not reality.
I have been thinking about what she said in the hours since I listened. Stunning as I feel reality must be reflected in film and books, or is it not?
The characters in a 18th century English novel about money, may not be applicable to life in the 21st century. Not applicable other than we are still chasing money, tho' perhaps in a different way. Present day humans are more open, though not less manipulative than the Lucy character I would venture. I stand in any public place and in a moment can hear at the top decibel of the human vocal range, a woman telling her entire private business on a cellphone, without regard that total strangers can hear her. Our society must consider that no one within 100' has functional hearing. Unfortunately, I have not learned the Japanese art of not listening to the life functions of a stranger two feet from them.
I am still considering how this self applied lack of privacy or of mystery in person can be used in a modern day entertainment way. Perhaps we as viewers really are interested in viewing photos of Music Personalities lack of underpants. Where is the mystery in that? How do I write a female or for that matter a male character with layers and layers of emotions without creating someone that seems archaic, uncool, or not "with it" enough to attract a publisher of mass market appeal. Creating a lovely literary piece would fill my heart. Creating a lovely literary piece which (if sold at all )would not be read by thousands of people and the profit from it would not fill the truck's gas tank for a week. I do not forget that one object of writing books is to sell them. I have the same money goal in life as Eleanor in Sense and Sensibility.
I need to think on this.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

That Was Fast?

Last night I finished the first major edit on "Load of Rocks". It seems to me that I ran through the edit lickety split. I faithfully read other writer's blogs and particuliarly pay attention when they are in the edit rewrite stag. Either I'm not doing this part correctly or I spend more time daily doing it. I'm not going to get myself all anxious about this..not much anyway.
The story still has a notation on what I orginally planned to write in one section. I planned to write that part and then got bored or side tracked with a better idea that I needed to put the metal to the metal and get into the story before I forgot it. I'm thinking since I'm not blazing away writing that part that it could be deleted. If it was not important enough to me for the first writing, well you know.
At this time I still like Rocky the main character, but I'm anxious to move along. The next story is driving me nuts trying to get out of my imagination. Between today and the first of the year, I want to do run through/rewrites on all three of the completed manuscripts. I have earned so many new and better writing skills this past six months that I want to work again on Blackberry Project and Mrs. Got Rocks. I need to finish these and get the spy mystery that I'm co-authoring that is sitting doing nothing, off the blocks and back into the race. Only then can I start writing the new adventure story. I have two single spaced note pages and the time line working. I told the plot line to my sister yesterday and she just went "Wow". Who knows, she sounded more stunned than interested.
Anyway off to edit land I go..
Have a wonderful happy Sunday.

Monday, December 11, 2006

That really adds up.

I picked and fussed all weekend on the expanision of the chapter. I'm done for the day, turning over the computer to the telecommuter. I counted the new pages, hoping for a little pat on the back for myself. There are seventeen new pages. "Surprised and pleased, am I."said the little writer.
The next section involves the Lucky Longhorn Ranch. Numbero Uno option is to delete a whole mucho whopper of these pages as boring, not moving the story and who gives a peanut anyway.
So that's it for the day, back to the regular routine of dishwasher,and bathtub scrubbing.
Have a wonderful week. Write on.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Brick by Brick, My Citzens

and in my case, line by line..Hadrian go build your walls. 7069 lines in the story and each one is being scrutinised. I have added on to the section I talked about previously. I deleted so much of another chapter that I'm even more in the hole than when I started this edit three days ago.
That doesn't really matter, the point is the story is stronger and better.
I've wrung my story telling ability out to nothing today, I've stopped doing lines and re-writes for the day.
Monday I hope to get two more copies into the mail for the guinea pig readers. Now I wish that I had waited a week, and sent out this new improved Hadrian's Wall.

Friday, December 08, 2006

The perfect writer. She is not moi.

This is a bit of all right. I went back into the story and started the first big edit. This is past the spell check, lazy words and dumb writing errors edit. I need this story to be longer. The section is the part about the Lost Dutchman Mine, somewhere around Chapter Three. I have about 2500 new words into it and there is another 500 floating about in my head. It is so much better. My hyper-critical self asks why the flip couldn't I do that the first time around? I will forever demand that I write the story correctly the first time and then never,ever,have to do the editing or rewriting.
DS2 suggests getting famous and hiring a word processing assistant who passed third grade grammar. What a concept, to be trite. Great idea.
His theory: those writers who can produce three books a year, write them all right but they employ people who do the spell checks, the formating, the page numbering, the communication with agents and publishers and all the other stuff that goes into making a manuscript a book. The author writes eight or more hours a day, seven days a week.
My theory: those authors actually learned grammar, they type fast (me too) and they just do the whole process correctly the first time. They also work 8 hours a day, and probably seven days a week, with time out to run to the grocery store.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Heart and Soul, I Fell in Love with You

The music has been running through my head for about 18 hours. I was "listening" to the latest Superman flick. The melody stuck. It lasted through my sleep and I found that I was humming it as I brushed my teeth. I think this is the best Superman movie made, however I only have to see this genre once. Son has viewed it at least three times, so I removed myself (very Victorian) to my room and tried not to listen, but that durn song. It is similar to watching "You've Got Mail." without singing the opening song all day.
The Heart and Soul of the manuscript is not long enough. I figured I'm about 18K words short of a dime. For two days I have been going through the manuscript in my head looking for sections that could be expanded or places where another whole adventure could be inserted without rewriting the entire story. Two logical spots for expansion just fell in place. The first is the one that I did leave short, honestly I truly did that. I sound like the "dog ate it." That is the Chapter on the Lost Dutchman Mine. When I was writing it I thought it would work much better than I think it stands. For the past months writing this I have been debating within my head to just cut that section of the story out. But and it has a big bad but, it explains so much about one of the characters, who, what, where and very importantly the biggie WHY. So it has managed to stay in the story, limping along being too short. I think I lost my concentration on the Lost Dutchman Mine at the wrong stage of writing.
Listening to Heart and Soul I Fell in Love With You, I did get a blast of wind driven sand into my brain and came up with some more action that will fit in that chapter.
The second area of expansion is in the first date scene. I got it to one point and just stopped it with a joke. DS2 writing partner read it and laughed out loud. Then he wanted to know if Rocky got nekked. Such is the Heart and Soul of man!?? Does Dr. Scarpetta get nekked, indeed not.Well, on occason she has, but with that Wesley guy, who I think would be like having two glaciers bumping, but P. Cornwell's books do not need Dr. Scarpetta to be bed hopping. Maybe the author just feels that she can't write sex scenes well. Tho' she does a wonderful job with that aspect of the victims of the crimes. And while we are on the subject, why oh why did she never allow Kay Scarpetta to finally fall in love with the big goofy detective? She let him go all to pieces. It didn't take too much to see that the spark in Scarpetta could have been ignited beautifully and readily, but no she sticks her with that ice cube Wesley. Oh well, I still wait on the book truck for the latest Scarpetta and Heart and Soul will forever sing for them.
So back to my measely little book and Patricia Cornwell can deliver her latest to the store and I'll be thrilled.
Back to topic. I can expand the date scene, though I really like it just the silly way it turned out. I may have to expand, because I'm also thinking of a section that I want to remove, and it isn't a little bitty three paragraph jobbie either, it goes on and on and on and on. Which is exactly why I'm thinking that the section needs to go bye bye.
Write on, have a wonderful day.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Completed, Done, Finished.

That's right! I just finished writing the sequel to "Mrs. Got Rocks". The sequel right now is titled "Load of Rocks." There are some little pieces yet to be written. Things that I find boring to write, so I skip over them. Like saying goodbyes at airports, so maybe a whole page of dialogue like that. It is times like that I wish it were kosher to write a paragraph and reuse it every time that situation occurs.
"Load of Rocks" will be done by next Monday, and then it goes into sit,stay mode to gel and then into rewrite. While that is happening I will re-work some spots on Mrs. Got Rocks and start the new adventure book, tentatively titled Joanne Dark.
Joanne Dark is going to take time to write, because I will have to have the writing partner write large sections of it, and I'm going to have to do some research on locations to take the story.
I can't get the book rights to the other story from my family to do that book that was supposed to be next. The one about my Uncle and Aunt in Burma pre and World War II. Good romance and adventure story. They were incredible people, and the story is just itching to be told. And such a movie it would make, oh my! I will be happy with what I have, it is a good tale, so far in my head and a little on paper. Writing partner was fairly interested in the story line.
Joanne Dark probably will take an entire year to write, at least that is the time line I see.
Hooray, the Rocky series is done!!!! It is was blast and a headache to write.

Friday, November 17, 2006

That Was the Funniest Thing I've Written.

This morning I am in the midst of writing a fairly depressing,morose,sad portion of the story. I'm feeling good about doing this, having some closure at the end of the story is a good thing. Then out of the blue the characters are saying the darnest, funniest things and for two pages I can not get these three to shut up and get back on track. Am I leaving it in..oh yeah, I am leaving those two pages in. I laughed out loud.
The mirror image of sorrow is merriment, happiness. I would not go so far as to say the characters were happy, but maybe comforted by their humor and their friendship.
Certainly an interesting development when writing sad, depression to have the characters force to the surface the basic human feeling of joy. I wish I could express that better.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

She said, He said

I wrote the final three paragraphs of the second Mrs. Got Rocks book. I could not wait for my writing partner to read them. After all, what I did to the main character was his idea. When I asked him to read it and told him what I did, I was horrendously surprised at his reaction.
"You didn't." he said.
"Yeah, I did." she said.
"How could you?" he asked.
"You told me to!" she explained.

There is plenty to write between where the story is now, and the end that I have written. I'm about 90 pages from goal length.

Did writing partner like what I had written? I do not think so, I think he was so stunned at what happened to poor Got Rocks, that he felt nothing else. Or maybe, it was just a piece of bad writing.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Scream if it doesn't work!!

I broke down and bought a new computer tower. Wed. I booted up old faithful and I kept getting memory errors, one error after another. After having some sort of sinus headache thing going for a week, this was not what I was ready,willing, or able to tolerate. Let's say that the whole purchasing process was funny when I look back on it. I overbought memory and got plenty of buss speed, I also got stuck with MS Media for brainpower and I'm unhappy with that. I know how many salespersons told me how wonderful it was, how I would totally be in love with it's ability to handle all my digital camera needs. Well, let me tell you, I really wanted XP Professional Edition, but I'm not going to Dell to get it. So anyway for the last two days I have been trying to get everything set up and shifted from there to here and working.
The scanner just totally refuses to even speak in a pleasant tone of voice to the new machine, okay, so I can live with that. However, then the printer decided it too must be a butthead, if everyone was going to be a butthead. I screamed at it for several hours yesterday afternoon trying to get it to work. It had worked for a little while on Wednesday, so I knew that it could work. I screamed in frustration and said I will figure it out in the morning, like this morning. I worked on it for another hour, running all those diagnostic things, and back and forth. I decided that was enough, that I would delete all of it from the hard drive and re-install, that was the only thing I could see left to do, other than throwing the printer in the dumpster and taking the tower back to CompUSA. So since my airplane background says check all the wires first, in case something is broken, I started there on my way to uninstalled and re-installed. Yup, the thing wasn't even connected to the tower. Okay it is connected and lo and behold it prints. Amazing, and who didn't connect the USB to the tower, well, I tell you, it weren't me. He was born in Sept 1968. I may even allow him to live through the night. Good thing that he isn't here for at least another 3 hours.
Was it easy for me to do the USB, well after all the other stuff, yeah, I was sorta afraid of getting shocked, but I sure as hell wasn't unplugging the tower at that point. I like the new keyboard and Word is pretty cool to watch it correct a misspelled word all on it's own. I'm misspelling words, just to watch it correct them.
Next stop on the train..an external hardrive to get all the books off of the other hard drive and into the new harddrive. Haven't used the CD and DVD burner,ripper,slasher yet, but that was a must have for me, so once I get all these screamers down I will try my hand at that.
Have a great day and evening. I may get to write somethng here in the next day or so.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

I've Got Connections!

The story is now in one piece, connected. The scanner takes longer to fuss with than just sitting and re-typing into the computer..I can do three pages to it's one . The scanner doesn't edit and re-write as it puts the text back onto the computer. It makes me feel very smart,talented,multi-taskable, and also worn out just having to re-do the whole thing.
Onward and upward back to the story. Re-typing is going for the gold of three pages a day. What do you mean that will take forty-one point six days? What the hexx else do I have to do?
Going to build coffee in the new maker and start writing new words.
Your Friend Jackie

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Promontory, Utah

I feel like I have control of the two railroads about to meet in Utah to join West and East. Well, not quite, talk about arrogant! But I worked into the night and I'm within inches, not pages but lines of having the story back into one piece.
The rest of the day I'm going to try to talk the scanner into scanning 125 pages of text back onto the word processor. If it is it's usual stubborn self, then I'm retyping it in over the next week.
Hee hee..and hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go!
Sincerely,
Your Friend, Dopey the Dwarf

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The blazing coffee maker

I just counted. I have 187 pages of the story complete. The two sides are not as yet connected, but there is not such a big gap between them. There is alot more story to what would be the recovered pieces. I'm actually past what I lost in page count, but the story is not together though much more extensive that the first go round. Like this is the second revision before the first.
Still haven't found the computer that will do the job for us...but I did find a most important writing tool. A new coffee maker. The old one was taking 45 minutes to make three cups, this one makes 11 cups in less than 5 minutes. Maybe that is why I got so much written this past weekend and blazed through the pages this AM.The old lady who writes is grinning.

Friday, October 13, 2006

The Knuckles are Dragging.

My knuckles and fingers are kind of sore, I've typed so much today and I still have not got the two parts of the story connected. I've typed so much today, I'm wondering why I'm typing now. A cool down from exercise period, maybe?
What I did to the Callaghan character today!! Whoo whee..is he in big trouble. Sometime over the weekend, I'm going to somehow rescue his wonderful body, though I'm not sure Rocky will let me wriggle him out of this.
I tried to buy a computer today. Admittedly I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, but I can't figure out that Dell website. I know what I want and I just can't seem to find it. Do I dare call and ask to speak to a human being.? I think I really need to just go get a 'puter in a box that is all put together and pay and go. I can just order a Dell key board separately, I think, maybe sort of. DS2 is ready to start his own design business on the side until it gets big enough he can do it full time. And I'm tired to death of battling this wonderful old faithful for every word, every log on every day. I lose one more page of writing and I will probably sit down and cry.

Don't shut down the brain.

Getting there, today I finally am at the point that connects the old part of the book that I'm recovering and the new part of the book that I'm winging on. This transitional part should be about three pages long and is something that I actually saw. It should not take any time at all to write. This part ties in and locks down the part that I've already written about it in the 20 pages of new stuff. Confused?? I know what you mean! To make my brain even wilder and unable to focus on the task, I came up with this intriguing idea for the next book. I've been trying to write a historical novel for three books now, some day I will get the damn thing out of my head. In the meantime, was working through scenes on the Rocky's story and this idea pops into my head. Is it a historical, somewhat romantic novel? Not even. The thing looks like it is going to be another adventure story with a very current political angle. Though the main character is a historical figure that the modern day character may channel or something I haven't worked out yet.. The book will be what Brian calls Superman vs Godzilla. Maybe I can write the historical romantic novel on the blog, and get rid of it. Brian wants to write Superman vs Godzilla one day. I've got enough problems without taking on Godzilla, whom I love.
Have a wonderful weekend. Write ON!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

That is so much better.

The recovery writing is going as good as I can reconstruct. Even as I write that, I feel that writing a book backwards,sideways,front, back and middle wise may not be the way that "real" writers do this job. Makes me kind of crazy in a put down sort of way. I make this jigsaw puzzle and then work it together. I felt this way until yesterday evening, when I visited Diana Gabaldon's webpage, to see how soon her next book is expected. Well, I was working my way thru her fax, and found that she works in pieces and bits and then blends them into her wonderous, huge, yummy, adventure historical novels. I feel so much better. I would feel infinately so much better, if I could physically write a 900 page anything,but that is why there are the Gabaldons to keep me reading. I love historical novels, since the first one I read in elementary school. "The Silver Chalice" by Thomas B. Costain. My mother thought it was a religous tract, so I was allowed to enjoy in peace. Speaking of what I read. When I was a Sophmore in high school, I tried to read "Peyton Place", by Grace Metalious, somehow my Mother knew what that one was about and I didn't even get to read the "good" parts. I was forced to give it back to my buddy Adrienne. I digressed, what I'm supposed to be writing is a historical novel, but this Rocky person keeps butting in and I keep writing this adventure thing. I have only written two pages this morning on the adventure thing. I need to make a meat loaf for dinner and make words. Write on!!

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Rollin,Rollin, Rolling...

Twenty pages..ten of new story, ten of reconstructed old story. Two files being switched back and forth between old and new. It is harder to reconstruct the old, than writing the new.
I was laughing at myself this morning, by writing the ending while I'm writing the middle,maybe I will finish before the middle is complete. That makes no sense at all, must be one of those thing that think perfectly nice at four AM, and are totally fruit loops at a quarter to eight.
I had to calm myself down I was so upset at the loss of the book, so I've been working really hard getting a wool hat knit for Craig for Christmas. It is the swatch hat, two hats in one, which will be nice since it is in wool. He will use it this January up in the mountains. I will try to refrain from reminding him not to loan it out, give it away, sell it or send it sailing down the Klamath River on the way to the Pacific Ocean. It is a medium forest green and on one cap of the reversible I have just put a couple of rows of garter stitch on the plain knit. One the other hat side I put a varigated green,brown,blue,cream three rows of "lice" and then two rows of purl garter stitch. The cap even got an unsolicited good comment from the other son. I'm back centered emotionally and writing away.
This week the data goes to the agent on the mystery story that I finished before the Got Rocks series.
Rollin,rollin,rolling...theme from "Rawhide"...you aren't old enough to remember that TV series.
Back in the saddle again.
Write on.

.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Screwed, Blued and Tattoo'd

I really did it this time. Last night I deleted the whole book. Yuppers, all 180 pages, every living, breathing 43000+- words. I don't even know how I did it. I was writing along and I had reached for the shift key with my right hand. I missed and I think I mashed the keys to the right of the space bar. Whatever...the screen kinda did a burp, and I just happened to look at the toolbar, and I had about 420 kb's logged and then there was .9kb on the toolbar. It went from 1.5 spacing to single spacing. I type each day with a different color and after the burp I was in black instead of Saturday's teal blue. I'm sick, sick, sick.
I had 125 hard copy pages printed, so I only have to recover around 55 pages. That is a lot of words, even if I already know what happens.
55 x 240 words per page = 13,200 words to redo.
Excuse me while I go throw up.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

I've Got It, By Gad.

I was so stiff and sore after my walk yesterday, and sunburned, after dinner I was just dragging. I hauled myself into a full tub of hot water and a new bar of Green Apple Soap, and I soaked. I soaked and woke myself up with someone snoring with the sound reverberating off the tiled walls of the bathroom. DS2 says I'm going to drown one day falling asleep in the tub, be that as it may, this old babe has never taken a sleeping pill in her life. Anyway, it and a long sleep in a bed fixed the sore muscles. As I was just at the spot between awake and asleep, you know the one, I got the ending for the book. I have written what, three books and a screenplay now, and each of them has been plotted out on paper well ahead of time, with characters all tidy in a row. Not this sequel to Mrs. Got Rocks, the ideas just seem to be coming into place when I need them, I hadn't even begun to worry yet about how to close the thing. I have nearly 150 good pages out of what I want to be 350. This whole ending scenario is going to be long and involved and I can see it being around 75 to 100 pages. I'm going to have to plot it out on paper, otherwise I know I will forget something. Today is going to be get a dentist appointment day and plot out the ending day. And somehow over the weekend every surface in the apartment got covered with stuff. That will have to go somewhere, or I will be having a snit by the end of the day.
Tomorrow, I want to make a batch of Honey Butter Soap, I need to get some made for DS2 to take with him to India, they are proposing leaving in December. I don't know how long they will be gone, so I'm doing the 18 bar mold for him. I doubt that he will need to take that many, so the rest will be for us.
I also need to make some peppermint soap or some Creamy HoneyedMint Soap. I searched through the whole soap stash last night and there is not one bar of minty soap. I think tomorrow and Friday are going to be writing and soaping days. I can't ask for anything more. Well I suppose I could, but why be greedy.
Have a wonderful day.

Monday, October 02, 2006

I'm easing into it.

Good Monday morning, I'm easing into things. I wrote ten pages yesterday and last night. I wanted to get a bit ahead because this morning I have to take a hike into the wilds of the streets of Las Vegas to go to the Post Office to mail a package. First given: I don't drive. Second given: the Post Office has the least customer friendly hours of almost any company in the world. I love the new automatic scale do it yourself powered by credit card machine. I hate how Americans love to dismantle them to see what makes them go. Loves them so much that the post office has to lock them up after 6pm at night. Just the time those machines would be the most useful is when they are not available. Yeah, I'm not dumb enough to think "they who destroy" just want to learn how they work.
My little printer who works his little butt off for me, failed the postal office test for printing the "quality" of label for the at home do-it-yourself. I did not have the heart to tell that to little Epson. So hi ho hi ho it is off to hike I go. Have I ever mentioned trying to take a bus to the Post Office, oh my dear! This Post Office is about 2.5 straight miles away. To take the bus I have to change buses twice, and the buses run once an hour, so last time, I had a three hour one way, I walked home. The bus does not run down the straight shot street from the strip to the post office, like twenty miles you can see straight shot street..swoop. No, not, don't even think. The bus runs in the other direction, so it is half mile walk to the first stop, then change bus, another two mile ride, change bus then another two mile ride.hen another half mile walk to the post office. So I'm walking, even these old legs will make it faster than that.
So I'm easing into it, and will try to get back here before it is scorching hot out.
The result of course, is all Epsons fault for not making a printer even a cheapee, that will print the Post Office spec. postage. So I'm easing into it. Have a great day..write lots.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Jeez, it is Friday again.

Remember yesterday ,about selling my antique bed. The lady backed out, she was supposed to pick it up today. Better she back out then give me a bum check. I'm still going to have money to go to the dentist, my sister is sending me some of my inheritance money. For now I still resemble the Beverly Hill Billies, and I'm glad I did not go to the dentist first...but the money should be here maybe Monday or Tuesday..and then I will call the dentist. The bed still needs to be sold. So, the antique dealer will probably look at it over the weekend or early next week. The monster bed will cost between six and seven hundred dollars to ship between where it is in Cali and here in Vegas. It is worth in the area of 1500 or more bux. The closest I can date it is between 1870 and 1900. Any bidders?
Yesterday, was a fun writing day, I wrote five pages just like they were flowing through my fingers. Good funny stuff, I laughed out loud. Kind of a section where the character says, "There take that!!" So by the time I wrote myself out I had about 10 pages finished. The story is around 150-175 pages now. Overall I think it is good, a little more humor in it than the first one with the Rocky persona.
I could not get the damn pictures to load on the blog. All was not lost, I finally got the photos to email feature to work. I spent many too many hours yesterday trying to do the impossible dream with Mr. Clunker Computer.
Happy Friday, write lots, and just try smiling with your mouth closed.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

This and That/Soaping and Antiques

I promised when I started blogging there would not be pictures on my Blog. The big reason is that my Digital Camera did not appear after the move to Las Vegas. The small reason is that the blog is about writing an adventure story. What shall I photograph today, my hands typing or me looking for inspiration on the ceiling?
Today, I am going to attempt to post some pictures of my soapmaking. Good thing I'm a better soapstress than a blog photo tech. I'm willing to try anyway.
I need to make a batch of peppermint soap, I am down to almost no peppermint soap. I make two peppermint soaps, the one I want to make is the Creamy Honey Mint. A mixture of three mint essential oils,honey and yogurt. If I have whipping cream in the freezer I'll use that instead of yogurt. Lovely soap,refreshing with the mints,smells so good and clean. The moisturizing of the honey and cream does not leave the skin gooey like slathering on the moisturizer or body lotion after the bath.
I sold my antique bed. My older than the prairie, been in the family for a lots of years bed. Cast iron, weighed a ton,the conciever of children,comforter of mothers,well earned rest stop for husbands,refuge for reading under the covers kind of kids old bed. Why did I sell that bed? I broke my @#$%^ eyetooth off at almost the gum line, and the bed will pay for the dentist. Am I angry? #$%^& do bears sleep in the forest? Wouldn't it have been nice to sell my old bed and take a cruise or better yet buy the new computer I really need.Did I mention that I was angry?
I have procrastinated long enough, the coffee is almost ready and I can not think of another excuse to wiggle out of posting pictures. Please do not hold your breath.I will not take responsibility for any holding breath deaths.
Have a wonderful day. Write lots.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

I'm from Grizzly Country

The weather is turning nice again, and I decided that I had no excuse for not getting back into the walking routine. I hitched a ride over to the neaest big casino, early, and planned to play video poker for awhile, have coffee and walk back.
I have a favorite machine to play, actually I have several, but I like this machine the best, though the love for the most part is not returned. When this machine pays, it pays. But getting it to that point is a pain in the butt and expensive pain. Like a colonoscopy. So I settle in with my coffee and drop in my limit. You have all ready finished the sentence. Yes, she just wanted to play nice yesterday morning. Every three of a kind, she seems to follow with a full house, and then ditto, ditto. Every time the score was racked up, the machine would let out this little growl,snarl,hum noise.Finally, after being growled at for about fifteen minutes, and also not being intimadated by most machines, I let it know that I felt it was being quite rude. This machines are supposed to flash lights, make music, jangle bells when they payoff, not this growly thingee ma doosy. Next time it did that, on three of a kind, I bent down and whispered into the area that was grumpily humming. I whispered, "I'm from Grizzly country, missy, you don't scare me. The next hand I got four kings,paid 150.00 and the machine did not growl at me.
I walked home with 200.00 bucks, breakfast,two coffees, and a diet Pepsi. The machine was still growling when I left. I was not pressing my luck.
So this morning I am back to writing. I have not written since last Friday morning, I have pooped around with some maintenance and editing but nothing new on the board.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Pulled Up Them Socks

That is what I did yesterday, I pulled up my socks, rearranged my flip flops and told self, that any more Drek outta my fingers was not getting the bacon earned. I mean I chewed a new path through ego, work ethic,talent and any other thing I could chew on. The result almost 5000 decent storytelling, plot advancing,edited,spellchecked and revised words. I know that is not a lot of word production. Hah, that was three quarters of what I had produced the five days before. To speak nothing of the words being usable. I guess I'm back in the writing flip-flops and as soon as I finish my salad snack I'm back working on this new technique that I learned. I was reading a famous mystery novelist latest book for the second time, I really like the way she writes, when out of the blue I saw the composition of her book, how she wove that character around. Wow, I went to Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman and Tom Clancy and somewhere in each of those books they used that same technique. I had never noticed it before.I tried it and shoot, that works really good.
Technically the manscript is one third written to the first draft stage, but I'm probably going to throw out at least ten pages and/or rewrite them .So let's just say that by the end of business today, I will be one third through the sequel to Mrs. Got Rocks.

Friday, September 15, 2006

It is Friday

It is Friday and I'm glad, and I do not know why. This morning's production includes one load of laundry, not even put away, one man's shirt ironed, and 1330 new words written. The laundry is cleaned, but still not trained to fold and put itself away. The shirt is all ready out the door covering the youngest son, and each and every one of the words is drek,crap,junk and I'm going to puke boring.
Then while producing that junk it occurred to me that I cannot spell the easiest darn words. I can spell some extremely darn words that no one uses in every day life, but not something as easy as the word "difficult". Paradigm, I can spell. Have you ever, ever heard anyone in normal everyday conversation say paradigm. Me either, I rest my case. Thank God, it is Friday.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Coffee is dripping.

Yesterday the Yarn Harlot gave her blog the news that her lap top had failed over the weekend. Her manuscript with a deadline two weeks away was on the laptop. The new bookette was not lost because Stephanie Pearl McPhee had run a backup the week before she went on tour. Well, I'm here to tell you that there was smoke coming out of my feet as I raced into the supply desk for a ream of paper and did a print out of my new manuscript.
One might ask, why I didn't just do a backup disc or all those other wonderful ways to save data. 'Cause little old Hewlitt Packard is pushing ten and he don't do backup discs no more..well, he does but they are unreadable, when he is finished. He writes backup discs in a language from another galaxy. So I printed out my seventy-seven pages of new stuff and breathed a sigh of relief.
The sun is almost up and the coffeemaker has stopped singing "Pufferbellies", so I can go to work.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Write Lots of Ideas on Bits of Paper

The air conditioning is repaired, life is returning to as normal as it ever gets here. I have a half page of closely hand written adventures to put into the Rocky II story. I was watching a DVD with a horrendous navel battle and suddenly I got this whole scene for Rocky to do just reeling through my head like another private DVD. I did not wait, ran for paper and pencil and got the idea down. By the time the naval battle DVD was done, I had ideas for six chapters on the paper and ready for filling out or writing today and tomorrow.
That is so much more classy way to get ideas than my usual answer, when someone asks me "how do you know what to write?" or "where do you get your ideas?" My answer is usually a sheepish, "they just fall out of my fingers." Now I can hold up my head and say, "Watch Tora,Tora,Tora and you will get the idea for a baking biscuits chapter" LOL
Have to get the fam- dam-ily up and on to job, and then to my job of getting this stuff onto the word processor before I forget the details.
Have a wonderful week, write lots.

Friday, September 08, 2006

The Air Conditioning is Broken.

No air conditioning, we are suffering for 1.5 days now. Repair is scheduled for today between noon and 4 this afternoon. Got no writing done, got nothing done more than going to the big neighborhood casino for breakfast and hang out for awhile in the a/c, then sat surrounded by fans for hours. Read,battled migrane,and thought up some cool stuff for the main character to do.
DS2 finished the first edit of Mrs. Got Rocks last night. Now there is stick to activity. Editing your mothers book in the 85F heat inside and with lots of humidity. Overall he liked the story, made some really good suggestions regarding Callaghan that are going to go into the next book. He found no major rewrite sections. He liked the all ready re-written ending. He liked Deputy Tony Dixon,Rocky and Margie. He is not totally as gaga about Devlin as I am. He thought Callaghan was a supreme jerk, who Rocky should have shot while she had a chance when he was claim jumping. He is now likeing Callaghan better when I explained the long range plan for him, he likes him better as a character, but as a person he doesn't like Callaghan. I haven't told him what is going to happen to poor Deputy Tony Dixon, other than he has been renamed in the re-write.
We sat in my room, (which for some reason is the coolest in the apartment) and talked for a long time about weaving the characters more intricately together.
He also guessed that Callaghan stole Mom's chairs.
I now have all the hard copy of Mrs. Got Rocks and that means it is my turn to sit down and read her again as a "book" and then start the rewrite. I am not doing that until the gosh damn air conditioning is working and the apartment is anywhere in the temp range of 75 or cooler.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

If This is Wednesday, I Must Be in Las Vegas

Book word count 22000, actual count 12579. I'm crowning myself the Queen of Excuses. I hardly wrote anything yesterday. What I wrote yesterday was really cool. Excuse one: Two emails from Family=Migrane, that I finally have almost on the edge of control. Wish it were that easy to control the family emails. Excuse two=spent time tracing down oldest son, who is in "will of the whisp" phase and I'm always one stop behind where he was day before yesterday. Caught him yesterday. We had a good talk and he is doing okay. If you know me fairly well, you may remember that the eldest son was supposed to be going to India for the gem mining company, this was about 3 years ago. The Indian company pulled out of the deal at the last minute, after the company Craig worked with built this gem mining dredge that was big as a very large houseboat. Anyway, they said that they lost their financing and they ended up stiffing the company for fifteen grand that they still owed on the dredge and stiffed Craig personally out of about 4 grand in wages. Well, last week their check for 15 grand cleared the bank and the India project is back in the works. Craig hasn't seen his 4 grand yet, but the head honcho will be there for a meeting on Thursday or Friday. Craig will be back on the payroll to finish the last minute stuff on the dredge and see that the big beastie gets on the ship to India from Portland, Oregon around the end of Oct. Anyway, I hope that they come through with his back pay, and I hope that he does get a chance to go to India. He will be teaching the Indian mining people, underwater dredgeing. The mining claim or business in on some river in Southern India (Madras River?) that I can't think of right now, anyway some of the best gem mining in the world is there. Especially nice colored diamonds. Craig not only will get paid(?) he gets a cut of anything(gems and the by product of gold) that the miners get. If he wants to, he can putz around on his on down there and get his own gems.
So anyway, after talking for a long time about that, and the house he is trying to buy, I still had the migrane, but happy to talk to him.
Then DS2 Brian got a promotion, he is going to be a straight out designer, not a CAD person. Much less tension and stress, use a lot of more of his talent, and bigger bucks. So I'm extremely proud of him. He has come a long way in the past two years, Vegas has been very good for him.
But all this good and bad stuff didn't get the writing done.
DS2 is reading the Mrs Got Rocks in parts..he finished the amputated finger part last night..I think that I actually impressed him. He did have a suggestion for one line and I will work that into the second re-write. He is so much better at dialogue than I am.
Since I had about 3 hours sleep last night, I might be able to nap this morning, if the headache monster stays further back in my head. I will not write anything today that will be worth a hoot. But if I can sit still that long, I will write something. I'm thinking a rain storm might be a good thing, since Rocky just got the new roof on the cabin. Yes, she did, a bright blue roof. She didn't hurt herself, fall off the roof, step on a nail, or bash her finger or drop a shingle on someones head. Need a good rainstorm to roll some gold down into Rocky's claim.
I'm hungry, ohh, that is a good sign, going to toast a waffle. Have a great day.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Uncle,Uncle!

In the race between myself and, well, myself...one of me is not doing well. My competative person says that I should have 15400 completed words in the manuscript. The person, doing the thinking and typing has racked up an paltry 11326. One of us is just going to have to concede and cry Uncle,Uncle.
Today or tomorrow I will begin the second and hopefully final draft of Mrs. Got Rocks. I have already rewritten the icky ending so I'm in good shape there. What happens is that I read the entire story in print version and start making it better if I can. I walk around hollering "Icky Poo."as I read. This can take months or not. The Blackberry Project took several weeks and that story was much more complex than Mrs. Got Rocks.
So if it takes doubling the time for the Rocky sequel, I guess I can live with that.
Put on the coffee, I'm off to write a couple thousand words then, and start re-reading.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Did I Do the Math Correctly?

I wrote my brains out yesterday, plus I edited over 200 pages of Rocky I. I think I'm still behind. Did I screw up the math? As of right now I should have a word count of 8800 words. The actual count is 8442. Hummmm,that means the score is still Jackie minus 358. Shoot, I was only minus 400 yesterday. That math is too depressing.
Perhaps I should have added a quality bonus round. Extra points for having a person reading it as you write it and they laugh or snort in the right places.
Having cut myself a big piece of pie to complete today, I better get to it. This is housecleaning day, so I am going to have to put the pedal to the metal to be able to do both.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Reached the top of the mountain yesterday.

The goal is a first draft manuscript in 5 weeks. Yesterday at this time, I was 1000 words behind in the race. Yesterday, I achievd my goal writing and another 400 words before I fell exhausted onto the couch. Just kidding about the "fell exhausted" part; but not the 400 part.
This morning the score is minus 600 for me.
Today, I should have no difficulty making my extra words and the goal. I have a new human character to introduce and three new animal characters.
Cannot spend any time dawdling however, as DS2 is taking me out to breakfast.
Have a great day, I'm going to do my best to do that.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Chasing the Lead Dog

If I have to do anything; I need a goal to accomplish the task. I'm always competing with myself. Life says that I'm always second dog on the team, but that doesn't preclude me from running over the rear hocks of the lead dog now and then. In addition to that, you know what they say: If you aren't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.
As of right now, I'm about a thousand words back from goal for the past four days. The goal is that in 5 weeks I can write a full manscript and it can't just be a bunch of crap either...75000 and's, but's ,and the's do not work around here.
So let's lay on the excuses: yesterday I didn't feel good, the weather is changing and I woke with a snarling sinus cavity, the dog ate the computer, what do you mean I can not use that one, just because I don't have a dog. I ran spell and grammar checks as I went. I can't think of anymore. If I divide the missing 1000 words over the time until 8pm Sunday night, that comes out to an extra 200 words per day. I can probably do that. But the race results right now look like 5 weeks and 1.5 days. Manuscript 1, Jackie 0.
Have a great day...Hi ho, hi ho,off to write I go..

Monday, August 28, 2006

Just Apply Pressure

I calculated last night that if I wrote consistently every day for 5 weeks, I could have the next book written to the second draft stage.
I did not take into account mornings like this, when I have had coffee, and the only thing I have written is what I'm writing now.
The only excuse is that I slept in and I was looking at the Sisters in Crime webpage and the Sisters in Crime Guppies Chapters page.Then somehow that transpired into reading all the Stabenow newletters back to 2004. Am I crazy? I have writing to do, not reading someone elses writing.
I think I'll have another coffee warm up. Looks like 5 weeks and one day.
I discovered that Bless His Heart Old Computer can and still does have the grammar check feature. Ran through about 100 pages yesterday, until my eyeballs were about to drop out. Had a refresher for the eyeballs watching a DVD from the Horatio Hornblower TV miniseries.
All right ,I will fill up the coffee and write my own stuff.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

I'm writing again.

Last night I made three pages of the opening for the new story of Rocky, what is probably going to have to be series.
This morning I did a total rework of the ending of Mrs. Got Rocks. Much, much better this time. But dang his hide I still cannot get Deputy Bashful to grab Rocky and do what is in his head.
Maybe I will have better luck in A Pile of Rocks, or a Bag of Rocks or a Load of Rocks..whatever it is..Deputy Dixon is in the second book and he is going to be working his buns off. So far the dogs and Thumper are back. I like Thumper alot, so she is going to be doing some cute things, that I have written down just for her. There is a new character introduced on the first pages.
Yesterday, I made soup in the crockpot, it turned out fairly good, but I think I put in too much chili powder and cumino. A south of the border type Yankee vegetable soup.DS2 liked it.
Back to the story, break is over.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Rocky round two-no promises

Apparently, I have not finished everything I was going to say about Rocky S. Clancy(Mrs. Got Rocks). While researching for the projected next story, I was sitting quietly doing a timeline on the action scenes. I kept writing sidebars that were chapter headings that had nothing to do with the planned novel. They were suspiciously like the situations that Rocky would get into.
Then I went out for breakfast ,while waiting for my yummy mushroom and spinach omelet, the main situation popped into my head. Must have been my brain waiting for fuel, the synapes all snapping their little syn-fingers.
Now with two timelines to work, the next year should prove busy and interesting. There is also a plot note sitting in the Projects file. This takes place right here in Las Vegas and puts us right back into the mystery/crime genre. When I mentioned it to the writing partner he did get a big grin. I think I do not have the brain power to have three storys writing all once. If I did try it, I would have to put in 8 hours or more daily to make it work and that is a lot of sitting. I have a problem with three hours.
This morning I'm going back and write a new do on the ending of Mrs. Got Rocks. I will log onto the computer all the chapter headings in the new Mrs. Got Rocks, so I don't lose them. I will have to check a couple of things out for what can be done with some of the situations. I will log into the Vegas library and see what I can find. I also decided what kind of airplane that Rocky owns, I skirted around the whole issue in the manuscript just because I did not want to get too techno..but now I think I should put it in and describe that better. She has a Twin Otter...the Alaskan workhorse.
Working title: A Pile of Rocks...well, probably not permanently, but that may be it for right now.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

They Did What to Pluto?

Poor, poor Pluto. That darling little planet sitting out there with just three moons or is it two moons to keep him company. All these eons of time, just sitting knowing he is a planet, a small ,taking care of business,erratic obit, debris sweeping kinda guy. So what do Those Who Decide Planets do to poor little Pluto. They make him a dwarf planet! Like being a Great Dane one moment and the next you are a weinie dog. Someday years from now, they will change their minds and you dear sweet 9th planet,Ceres,Cheron and that lovely Xena will be renamed to your rightful place.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

That was Sticker Shock!!

I did what I tasked myself yesterday. Around the seven loads of laundry,dishwasher and the other mundane junk. I went online and looked at three university online education programs. Deleted two because there was not a course offering I wanted to take. Then, I did find an interestng course and went to the bottom line knitty-gritty. I almost croaked, the cost was very close to an entire months pay, fer pete's sake.
There will not be an MFA degree in the future of this old lady.
Well, I may revise that.I'm checking out U of Nevada Las Vegas regular courses. If there is a huge difference in cost, I could almost take a taxi to class and still come out ahead. Too far away to take a bus..would be about a six hour round trip. Now that would be stupid.
Editing Mrs. Got Rocks...no, of course I am not finished with yapping about it. I got this brainstorm about the time the second load of jeans came out of the dryer. I don't like some of the characters names, next week, Justin is going to be something else,Justin just sounds to nice and probably Deputy Dixon will have a more Dudley DoRight first name. Margie,Devlin.Rocky,Talltree,Doc Martin are fine. Next week the ending will be rewritten, not changed in content of Rocky and Tony riding off into the sunset, but I do not like the way I said it. I can do better.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Mrs. Got Rock is Finished

Whew, I did it. I finished it at 7am Pacific time. My goal to finish was today at 8am. Hee hee..talk about your anal writer.Actually the goal was the end of September ,so I'm really ahead.
There are some hours of houskeeping things to do, such as page numbers and chapter breaks. Actually, make that chapter breaks, then page numbering. It finished out at 78890 words, 339 pages. As I wrote yesterday, I'm tired of it. So, the Rocks is getting to sleep for awhile. Now is the time for the writer to become businesswoman and start in on the long nasty process of getting someone to publish it. Then I can stop calling it a manuscript and call it a book.
I have three of my A list publishers to start with. My sister has a friend who started his own publishing company to get his book printed, and of course, she wants me to send him a copy. I will send his publishing company a letter this week. I googled the name and got no hits.
Well, I'm going to go celebrate the completion of my second novel by loading the dishwasher and mopping the kitchen floor.

Other book news, I got a chance yesterday to go to my local used book store(and also the closest bookstore) where I found a signed copy of one of Dana Stabenow's book. Cost me an arm and leg, but I got it anyway. Small world squared, the owner of the bookstore is a personal friend of hers. Isn't that peculair since we are in Vegas, and she lives and writes in Anchorage, Alaska.
I'm looking into the Harvard University Online Education program. This is a program I believe that Harvard started last year. I would like to work on an MFA, but getting around is getting more difficult for me. An online program would be a real life answer. U C San Diego has a MFA also, I might hop over there today, and check out the online courses.
Just too much to do, I think I will need another lifetime to squeeze it all in.

Monday, August 21, 2006

I Love this Monday Morning

Why? There are only 35 pages of Mrs. Got Rocks left to edit...yay. I'm taking a Pepsi break and then back at it. My goal is 8AM, tomorrow morning.
I have an interesting book by Barbara Tuchman on General Joe Stilwell to read. I do not usually read books on military history but it counts as background for the next manuscript.Tuchman also wrote Guns of August so I know that this book will be interesting.
I'm not going to get Mikey's hooded sweater knit before they move. Dang it. I'll will finish it and give it to Paige. She is almost as old as Mikey, and the color will be cute for a little girl in jeans.
Have a wonderful week, everyone, I'm back to my search for the run on sentence.

Friday, August 18, 2006

What am I going to do now.

This is an interesting afternoon. Mrs. Got Rocks is all finished posting to the blog, and I deeply appreciate all of you who took the time to read it. Your comments thrilled me to pieces. Really, they did.
I have about 100 more pages of the first edit and rewrite of Rocky to complete. It is now at 326 pages, getting closer to the goal of 350. I have several hundreds of new words written, more deleted and/or rewritten. I think it is coming along being tighter and still the warm fuzzy story I wanted to tell. I still like the concept, though quite frankly at this point, I'm sick of reading it. I will finish the first edit task this weekend. Then Rocky will take at least a week of rest and then I will sit down and read the story through. I will begin the second edit and rewrite any thing that is too nasty. Like I already am not thrilled with that weak butted ending paragraph, even though when I wrote it a year ago, I thought it was pretty durned good. That is what is up with Rocky. Then if it is looking good, I will send out her letter asking an agent to present her to a publisher.
I have already begun the task of research of my next big project. This will be another adventure novel based on a true story chronicled by one of my uncles about another of my uncles.
But since that research will take about a year and then another year to write the book, I need something to write along with that.
I would like to do a series of essays and those I will probably post as blogs, which many blogs are essays, though the writers would go eehew, if they were known as essayists.
I have an idea for a soapmaking how to book concept that I want to present to Storey Publishers.
I am planning to take DS2 spy novel and get it back on track, he just doesn't have the time to devote to writing that I do, and his job provides him with the creative outlet he needs. There is no impearative there to write, as there is with me.
I guess I'll figure it out.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

I'm Homesick for Alaska

I have been reading a series of mysteries by Dana Stabenow. She was born,raised and still lives in Anchorage, Alaska. Not only does she write well, I think, but she gives a realistic modern telling of what it is really like to live in Alaska. This week I devoured three of her books. One is just a short story, but it is so well done I was not disappointed.Her descriptions of places in Anchorage is like going on a tour of the city. Not a tour bus tour, but as if I took you in my car and we sooped around town.
I have never seen these books in a bookstore or in hardbound, my local library in Vegas has them. Can you believe??? Love Vegas' library system.
Anyway, the three this week are: A Fatal Thaw...: Blood Will Tell and the last one A Fine and Bitter Snow.
If you can find them--and are the least bit interested in the Alaskan lifestyle grab them and hold them close.
I cried though a lot of A Fatal Thaw, it made me so home sick.
Tomorrow, Friday morning, I will put up the next piece of Mrs. Got Rocks.