There is an ice cream truck driving around my neighborhood right now. Instead of normal ice cream truck music it is playing Christmas music.
Currently it is on Silent Night.
...wtf

New: 5,790
Total: 28,547
Random bit of text: "Thomas will do what's right for his family."
"News flash, I am his family."
"Yes, sometimes people make mistakes that just won't go away."
Research: Electromagnetic phenomenon, Egyptian history/mythology, Website design

Reading: Urban Shaman - CE Murphy
Watching: nothing, my cable box sucks

40% plus my never-ending pile of pages to be typed. Damn me and my writing longhand.
I had a plot crisis this week. I couldn't stop waffling between whether my choices for the plot were contrite and convenient or if the were necessary for the story. After much whining to Oliver  talking it out with Oliver, I have decided it is necessary. Though I am still wracking my brain for another option to fulfill the necessary and be more...well, just more.

Last night I began coding a website for myself so that when I start querying agents I will have a site up for them to look at if they google me/read the first 10 pages on if they don't allow them to be included with the query. It looks pretty good for being coded by me, and is well over half done now. If nothing screws up horribly when I set up the hosting and get it posted I will be rather satisfied with it. At least as a placeholder until I sell my book someday and have one designed for me with my cover art. Now if only I could manage to convert the CSS to something usable for my blogs. Stupid lack of ability in CSS. Must fix that. Perhaps I'll save the Kim Harrison, CE Murphy, PC/Kristen Cast, and Caitlin Kittredge books I'm buying tomorrow  whenever I wake up today as a reward for learning enough CSS to fix the few site problems I'm having and setup the blog. Nah. I want to read them far too badly for that.

Yawn. Must go sleep now so I can wake up early and knock out my WIP pages for the day so I can do some work on the couple of short stories I'm writing/fixing up. I figured I might as well submit them to a couple of mags. Publishing credits/SFWA membership to tack onto the bottom of my query couldn't hurt, so it's worth giving it a try.

I lack the time for a real update so instead I shall update my 2008 Reading List.

1. Midnight Alley
2. Iron Kissed
3. To Hell and Back
4. Kitty Takes a Holiday
5. Kitty and the Silver Bullet
6. Heart of Stone
7. Dead Witch Walking
8. The Good, The Bad, and the Undead
9. Every Which Way but Dead
10. A Fistful of Charms
11. For A Few Demons More
12. The Outlaw Demon Wails
13. Marked
14. Betrayed
15.  Wizard’s First Rule
16. Stone of Tears
17. Blood of the Fold
18. Temple of the Winds
19. Soul of the Fire
20. Faith of the Fallen
21. Pillars of Creation
22. Naked Empire
23. Chainfire
24. Phantom
25. Confessor
26. Green Rider
27. First Rider’s Call
28. The High King’s Tomb
29. Princess on the Brink
30. Princess Mia
31. The Sweet Far Thing
32. Urban Shaman
33. Thunderbird Falls
34. Coyote Dreams
35. Hell’s Belles
36. The Road to Hell
37. Greywalker
38. Poltergeist
39. City of Bones
41. Wraith
42. Spectre
43. Enchanted, Inc.
44. Once Upon Stilettos
45. Damsel Under Stress
46. Don’t Hex With Texas
47. The Queen’s Bastard
48. City of Ashes
49. Underground
50. Ill Wind
51. Chill Factor
52. Heat Stroke
53. Fire Storm
54. Windfall
55. Thin Air
56. Gale Force
57. Feast of Fools
58. Storm Front
59. Fool Moon
60. Grave Peril
61. Summer Knight
62. Death Masks
63. Blood Rites
64. Dead Beat
65. Proven Guilty
66. White Knight
67. Night Life
68. One Foot in the Grave
69. Ink Exchange
70. Chosen
71. Divine By Mistake
72. Divine By Choice
73. Divine By Blood
74. Girl at Sea
75. Devilish
76. Suite Scarlett
77. The Keys to the Golden Firebird
78. Bermudez Triangle
79. The Becoming
80. Blood Drive
81. The Watcher
82. One Bitten Twice Shy
83. Another One Bites the Dust
84. Biting the Bullet
85. Bitten to Death
86. Happy Hour of the Damned
87. Touch the Dark
88. Claimed by Shadow
89. Embrace the Night
90. On the Prowl
91. Magic Burns
92. Rogue
93. The Touch of Twilight
94. Night Shift
95. Rites of Spring Break
96. Kushiel’s Mercy
97. Cry Wolf
98. Hotter Than Hell
99. The Devil You Know
100. The Host
101. House of Cards
102. Personal Demons
103. Frostbite

red= I already own a copy

Currently reading: Urban Shaman

Thought I'd do a quick reading/books update before I'm off to bed.

Books read so far in 2008:

1. Iron Kissed- Patricia Briggs
2. Midnight Alley-Rachel Caine
3. To Hell and Back- Lilith Saintcrow
4. Kitty Takes A Holiday- Carrie Vaughn
5. Kitty and the Silver Bullet- Carrie Vaughn
6. Heart of Stone- CE Murphy
7. Dead Witch Walking- Kim Harrison
8. The Good, the Bad, and the Undead- Kim Harrison

 
Currently Reading: Every Which Way But Dead- Kim Harrison

Recently Purchased and To Be Read:

• A Fistful of Charms- Kim Harrison
• For Few Demons More- Kim Harrison
• Marked- PC Cast & Kristen Cast
• Betrayed- PC Cast & Kristen Cast
• City of Bones- Cassandra Clare
• Greywalker- Kat Richardson
  
• Poltergeist- Kat Richardson
  
• The Sweet Far Thing- Libba Bray
• Hell's Belles- Jackie Kessler
• The Road to Hell- Jackie Kessler
• Thunderbird Falls- CE Murphy
• Coyote Dreams- CE Murphy
• Black Magic Woman- Justin Gustainis

Books to Be Purchased:

• Urban Shaman- CE Murphy
• The Dresden Files series- Jim Butcher
• The Weather Warden series- Rachel Caine
• The Anna Strong Chronicles series- Jeanne Stein
• a whole ton of books that haven't come out yet but are marked on my calendar

If you can't tell by the recently purchased, I had $125 in gift certificates to spend on Amazon. :D I should have enough to read for. oh, about 2-4 weeks. I'm usually limited in the amount I read by how much I have to spend,/how many books I have to read, not by my time to read them.    
My goal for the year was supposed to be 75, but as I'm already over 10% and have recently taken a look at my to be read list, I'm thinking I may aim for 100.

( Tentative 2008 Reading List )

1. Midnight Alley
2. Iron Kissed
3. To Hell and Back
4. Kitty Takes a Holiday
5. Kitty and the Silver Bullet
6. Heart of Stone
7. Dead Witch Walking
8. The Good, The Bad, and the Undead
9. Wizard’s First Rule
10. Stone of Tears
11. Blood of the Fold
12. Temple of the Winds
13. Soul of the Fire
14. Faith of the Fallen
15. Pillars of Creation
16. Naked Empire
17. Chainfire
18. Phantom
19. Confessor
20. Green Rider
21. First Rider’s Call
22. The High King’s Tomb
23. Princess on the Brink
24. Princess Mia
25. The Sweet Far Thing
26. Every Which Way but Dead
27. A Fistful of Charms
28. For A Few Demons More
29. The Outlaw Demon Wails
30. Urban Shaman
31. Thunderbird Falls
32. Coyote Dreams
33. Hell’s Belles
34. The Road to Hell
35. Greywalker
36. Poltergeist
37. City of Bones
38. Marked
39. Betrayed
40. Wraith
41. Spectre
42. Enchanted, Inc.
43. Once Upon Stilettos
44. Damsel Under Stress
45. Don’t Hex With Texas
46. The Queen’s Bastard
47. City of Ashes
48. Underground
49. Ill Wind
50. Chill Factor
51. Heat Stroke
52. Fire Storm
53. Windfall
54. Thin Air
55. Gale Force
56. Feast of Fools
57. Storm Front
58. Fool Moon
59. Grave Peril
60. Summer Knight
61. Death Masks
62. Blood Rites
63. Dead Beat
64. Proven Guilty
65. White Knight
66. Night Life
67. One Foot in the Grave
68. Ink Exchange
69. Chosen
70. Divine By Mistake
71. Divine By Choice
72. Divine By Blood
73. Girl at Sea
74. Devilish
75. Suite Scarlett
76. The Keys to the Golden Firebird
77. Bermudez Triangle
78. The Becoming
79. Blood Drive
80. The Watcher
81. One Bitten Twice Shy
82. Another One Bites the Dust
83. Biting the Bullet
84. Bitten to Death
85. Happy Hour of the Damned
86. Touch the Dark
87. Claimed by Shadow
88. Embrace the Night
89. On the Prowl
90. Magic Burns
91. Rogue
92. The Touch of Twilight
93. Night Shift
94. Rites of Spring Break
95. Kushiel’s Mercy
96. Cry Wolf
97. Hotter Than Hell
98. The Devil You Know
99. The Host
100. House of Cards
101. Personal Demons
102. Frostbite

red= I already own a copy
italics=I've already read

New: 1,491
Total: 22,757
Random bit of text: I discreetly snapped a picture with my cellphone and tried not to smile as I admired my handiwork, a hideous green hue to her once golden locks. "Oh my."
Research: The best way to stuff sardines in the heating vents of someone's car and other such horrible revenge.

Reading: Every Which Way But Dead - Kim Harrison
Watching: Venture Brothers, random On Demand episodes

I had been hoping to start the year off with a bang but in January I did almost no writing. It was a bad month. There were family issues, there were personal issues. There were just issues.
We lost a great-nephew. His name was Isaiah. That hit both of us a lot harder than we could have ever expected. Afterwards his work tried to write him up for leaving early the day of the funeral because they would let him take the vacation time he's earned. We fought it, and I put my writing skills to use writing a nice long letter  for him to his supervisor, department leader, and the human resources department. It made no difference other than to give us a scare where we thought he might get fired for it. He hasn't been, but he was transfered to a different team, presumably because of the problems it caused with his supervisor. That's a good thing though, his new supervisor treats him like a human being.
I feel like after everything that's happened already this year I'm starting to get my footing again. Which is nice. I think it's helped that the weekend before last we spent our 3-day weekend with my brother, his girlfriend, and a friend, just vegging out and having  fun. It was relaxing. I felt more like me afterwards. And then, this past weekend, a bunch of friends came over and I cooked for everyone. Good times. Afterwards I got some writing done. See above. I think I'm getting back into the swing of things now. We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

I reached 20,000 words today. It's a weird feeling, having so much left to go but having a definite chunk of something there. I'm technically further along than my 20k, but the rest is hand-written and I prefer to let it sit for a little bit before I type it up. My general pattern has been to write it longhand, let it sit for a while, then type it and revise while I'm at it. Not to the point of full on editing, but little things. Sentence structure, word choice, anything that stands out to me when I read over it.

I'm farther behind than I had hoped to be, but I was terribly ill for almost two weeks and had sinus problems that left me with horrible headaches and an inability to look at the computer screen for any length of time. As of yesterday my headaches seem to have finally subsided so now it's back to work and plugging away at this project. I'm looking forward to finishing it, I'm really curious what my CP's will think of it (not to mention curious what type of response it will get from agents *crosses fingers and hopes for at least a couple requests for partials*). I sent everflame the first 30 pages, just to see what she thought/if it was working, Other than one obvious flaw that I didn't see until she pointed it out it seemed to be a good response. She thought the voice was good, which is great because that's the thing I was terrified of getting wrong. So, yays.

The significant other is working mega overtime this week so I have plenty of time to write at night without being interrupted to help him determine which piece of gear is better in World of Warcraft, but it's lonely and I can't turn to someone and ask them their opinion on a word/sentence/idea. *Sigh*

Well, off to write some more.

With less than an hour left of this year I figured now was probably an appropriate time for a post reflecting on the year and listing my resolutions for 2008.


2007 was an interesting year. 2006 ended/2007 began with a blowout roommate wise and one of our worst roommates ever leaving. We began the year with her replacement, who was also pretty bad, but not quite as bad. He lived with us for only a couple months because he lost his job and OD'ed the night before rent was due. We had to call an ambulance for the first time, but he  His replacement turned out to be pretty great. Today is an especially fine time to reflect upon that roommate as today was his last day living with us. This afternoon he got on a plane and moved to Washington. In the last two and a half years with have lived with a lot of people (that tends to happen when you rent a 5-6 bedroom house); one family member, three friends, three acquaintances, and a handful of random people we found on Craig'sList. Of all the random people we've lived with I never expected to find someone like Sean. We have parted ways with most our roommates amicably, living with 5 or 6 other people is not everyone's ideal situation, and while cheaper people do tend to get tired of it over time. We have parted ways with a few in fights that were loud and quite unpleasant. Sean is the first we are truly sad to see go. He went from being just some guy living down the hall to being close friends with most of us. He will be greatly missed. I hope that, despite the distance, he remains a friend.

Midway through January one of the close friends we live with moved away for several months, needing some time away. He returned to us in the summer, and we are glad to have him back home. Shortly after he moved back or lease was up and we had to begin looking for a new home. Originally we planned to move out of the house we were in and find something with just the significant other, good friend, and I. Soon after we realized how hard it was to find a place for just the three of us that we liked and wasn't insanely expensive. Luckily our landlord showed us four or five other houses and while it lacked the central air we had grown accustomed to in the last house, we fell in love with our current house. It's a beautiful brick house that was previously a parsonage. The selling point? A large library with built in bookcases with beautiful glass doors. That was all we needed to see. We have lived here happily for over 5 months, and it was the right choice, I'm sure.

Our collection of books, which before was sprawling and could not be contained in our measly shelves looked tiny in our library, filling not even a quarter of it. This is until my grandparents decided to move about four months ago, and all my aunt's books that were boxed up in their attic needed a home. Fifteen boxes of books later I would say our library is now 80-90% full. It's a beautiful, glorious thing. Which brings me to my next book point.

In 2007 it was my goal to read 50 books. I know to a lot of avid readers it seems like not that much, but from the age of about 8 or 9 to 14 or 15 I didn't read. I loved to read, but had trouble finishing books. I hadn't found what I loved yet and would get to the middle of each book and lose interest. This all changed when Oliver handed me my first fantasy book, and I've been horribly addicted since then. Each book I've read since then seems like an accomplishment to me, even if a small one. So, without further ado, the books I read in 2007:
*=my first time reading that particular author

1.) *Coraline - Neil Gaiman 01/03/2007
2.) Party Princess (Princess Diaries 7) - Meg Cabot 01/03/2007
3.) Shadowland (The Mediator 1) - Meg Cabot 01/04/2007
4.) Ninth Key (The Mediator 2) - Meg Cabot 01/04/2007
5.) Reunion (The Mediator 3) - Meg Cabot 01/04/2007
6.) Darkest Hour (The Mediator 4) - Meg Cabot 01/11/2007
7.) Haunted (The Mediator 5) - Meg Cabot 01/24/2007
8.) Twilight (The Mediator 6) - Meg Cabot 01/24/2007
9.) Queen of Babble - Meg Cabot 01/25/2007
10.) Size 12 Is Not Fat - Meg Cabot 01/27/2007
11.) Size 14 IS Not Fat Either - Meg Cabot 01/30/2007
12.) Project Princess - Meg Cabot 01/03/2007
13.) *I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You - Ally Carter 02/13/2007
14.) *Twilight - Stephenie Meyer 02/17/2007
15.) New Moon - Stephenie Meyer 02/25/2007
16.) *13 Little Blue Envelopes - Maureen Johnson 03/12/2007
17.) *Goodnight Nobody - Jennifer Weiner 03/25/2007
18.) *She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders - Jennifer Finney Boylan 04/07/2007
20.) *Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel - Diana Peterfreund 05/06/2007
21.) *A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray 05/27/2007
22.) *Don’t Look Down - Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer 05/29/2007
23.) *One for the Money (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 05/31/2007
24.) When Lightning Strikes (1-800-Where-R-You) - Meg Cabot 06/01/2007
25.) Two for the Dough (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/03/2007
26.) Kushiel’s Justice - Jacqueline Carey 06/08/2007
27.) Three to Get Deadly (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/13/2007
28.) *Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr 06/17/2007
29.) Four to Score (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/18/2007
30.) High Five (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/19/2007
31.) Hot Six (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/19/2007
32.) *Stray - Rachel Vincent 06/20/2007
33.) Seven Up (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/21/2007
34.) Hard Eight (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/26/2007
35.) To the Nines (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/26/2007
36.) Under the Rose - Diana Peterfreund 06/27/2007
37.) Magic or Madness - Justine Larbelestier 07/03/2007
38.) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - JK Rowling 07/08/2007 (reread it)
39.) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling 07/22/2007
40.) Queen of Babble in the Big City - Meg Cabot 07/24/2007
41.) *Moon Called - Patricia Briggs 07/30/2007
42.) Blood Bound - Patricia Briggs 07/31/2007
43.) Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer 08/07/2007
44.) Rebel Angels - Libba Bray 08/19/2007
45.) *Working for the Devil (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 08/25/2007
46.) Ten Big Ones (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 08/27/2007
47.) Dead Man Rising (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 08/27/2007
48.) Eleven on Top (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 08/28/2007
49.) Twelve Sharp (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 08/29/2007
50.) *The Silver Kiss - Annette Curtis Klause 09/02/2007
51.) *If Angels Burn - Lynn Viehl 09/02/2007
52.) *Succubus Blues - Richelle Mead 09/07/2007
53.) The Devil's Right Hand (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 09/08/2007
54.) Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead 09/09/2007
55.) *Magic Bites - Ilona Andrews 09/13/2007
56.) *Kitty and the Midnight Hour - Carrie Vaughn 09/16/2007
57.) *Tithe - Holly Black 09/18/2007
58.) Valiant - Holly Black 09/27/2007
59.) Kitty Goes to Washington - Carrie Vaughn 10/02/2007
60.) Ironside - Holly Black 10/09/2007
61.) *Glass Houses - Rachel Caine 10/17/2007
62.) Dead Girls' Dance - Rachel Caine 10/20/2007
63.) *Vampire Kisses - Ellen Schreiber 10/26/2007
64.) Saint City Sinners (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 11/10/2007
65.) *Halfway to the Grave - Jeaniene Frost 11/11/2007
66.) Big Boned - Meg Cabot 11/30/2007
67.) *The Scent of Shadows - Vicki Pettersson 12/03/2007
68.) The Taste of Night - Vicki Pettersson 12/22/2007
69.) Succubus on Top - Richelle Mead 12/24/2007
70.) *The Devil Inside -  Jenna Black 12/26/2007

Using Amazon.com and Renlearn.com as well as estimating on a handful of books it looks like I've read approximately 5,730,286 words this year. Seems like a huge number. Makes me smile. :D  I most certainly met my 50 book goal. Lots of YA. Lots of Urban Fantasy. My goal this year is 75, and to diversify my reading a bit more.

I feel like I've taken huge strides in my writing this year. I know I have a lot more to learn, but it feels more refined. I learned to write a query letter this year. I tried my hand at a hook for the first time in December 2006 with Miss Snark's Crapometer. In the following year I tried my hand at it  several more times, writing 3 more practice letters and refining each. The latest is for my current WIP. I think it's the letter I will end up using when the time comes. I wrote 55,632 words that I've typed and probably 20,000 written longhand sitting in various folders for future projects. I can't help myself, when I came up with each idea this year if I had a piece of it in my head I wrote it so I wouldn't lose it.

I didn't finish writing any books in 2007, but I am going to change that this year. I spent the first 9 months of 2007 working on my practice book. I knew it wasn't *the* book, but I thought writing it would be good practice so I wouldn't waste any great ideas on books I wasn't good enough to write yet. The problem with continuing to write a book that is flawed and my heart wasn't in is it dragged horribly and I just couldn't make it work, since, you know, it was fatally flawed. In the end of September or October I realized that forcing myself to trudge away at it wasn't doing me any good and I let myself quit and begin work on a new book, with an idea and characters I loved and a story that I was sure I could make work if I just kept at it. The first draft of Queen of Freaks is now approximately 25% complete (ignore my meter on the side, it doesn't like me and doesn't want to update) and I'm loving it. This book will be finished. Assuming this whole being sick thing resolves itself soon (what a great way to begin the new year, huh) I hope to be finished by Jan. 27th. It will be great to finish my first book.

In the last month or so I began something new, cutting out pictures that remind me of characters or scenes from my books and posting them over my desk. Since I started doing this everything in my stories seems so much more vivid. I spent hours at length searching for pictures that suited my characters. Being able to look up at them when I look away from the screen is such a comforting thing. When I get the chance I may post a picture of my wall.

So, writing goals for the year to come...

• Write 520,000 words. I'm aiming for 2,000 each day with weekends off to spend with the significant other.
  
• Finish first drafts of four books.
• Write a proposal for each series I intend to pursue eventually so I have a proposal for each  on file.
• Query aggressively once I am ready.
• Do not let myself query before the book is well and truly ready.

Other goals for 2008:

• Walk at least 366 miles.
• Eat healthier.
• Cook more instead of going out so much.
• Create my placeholder website for my domain. Nothing complicated, just a clean cut, simple (but nice looking) page with my contact information, a little about myself, and the first three chapters of Queen of Freaks.
• Keep my house cleaner (though this is excruciatingly difficult when 7 people live in your house)

Well, I think that's it for my long-ass post. Happy New Year all.

It was a long weekend. My sister got engaged last night. So congrats to her. It meant the significant other and I got to dogsit for their two dogs while they were in Chicago. Sweet dogs, but I swear they're crazy. One broke out of her kennel while I was still in bed and ate a pack of ramen noodles, broke a beer bottle (by, as far as we can tell, holding it in her mouth and shaking it which resulting in it coming loose and flying across the room to smash on the basement floor, joy), and ate a roommate's book. Destructive little thing she is. A girl after my own heart. :)
Then I spent a nice long time tonight trying to figure out how to get two of my roommates home after one of their cars broke down on the way home from a trip to Minnesota. They were still about two hours south of here and there's no way with the problems my car has it was up for a four hour trip. Too much of a risk of us sitting on the side of the road in Gary, Indiana with two broken down cars. Couldn't find a car to take down there so I eventually called in the little brother and future-sister-in-law to borrow future-sister-in-law's parent's car and drive down there for them. Since that's how we know that particular roommate (he and the brother have been best friends for some time) brother obliged. Crisis averted.
Which allowed me to return to reading. Which was great. I was supposed to wait until the paycheck on Friday to pick up the new books but I couldn't resist, and significant other can't resist my pouting, so I came away from Barnes and Noble Friday night with two new books. Saint City Sinners and Halfway to the Grave. I liked SCS. Not quite as much as the previous Dante Valentine books, but love the characters, so it was still quite enjoyable. Halfway to the Grave was great. I can't sing frost_light's praises enough. Amazing characters, amazing plot, amazing...well everything. Including some pretty hot sex scenes. If you prefer yours open door and like urban/contemporary fantasy, this may be the book for you.
So the best thing about good books is I' now feeling totally recharged and ready to write some more. I've been lagging lately, struggling every time I sit down to write. Now I think it's just because I was drained. I'm not one to be intimidated and not want to write after reading a good book, it usually just inspires me and makes me want to right that much more. So my thanks to Lilith Saintcrow and especially Jeanine Frost for giving me the kick in the pants I needed.

    It's been more than 2 months since I updated. Since then I have given up on the first Seventy Days of Sweat, turned 23, had my house start to fall apart (yay for renting and to fix *all* of it myself) and had my family fall apart (medically). I am still 23, my house is still falling apart but on it's way to being fixed, and my family s no longer falling apart. Yay for recovering from medical ailments and serious surgeries. It's a whole lot less stressful when everyone's healthy. More recently I have committed myself to Seventy Days of Sweat: Round Two & NaNoWriMo, made a couple writing breakthroughs, and written the most amazing recipe ever (at least that's what I like to tell myself).

    So, first, 70 Days of Sweat/NaNoWriMo. I decided after getting caught up during the first one and failing miserably that I would try again this time since I have scrapped the book I was working on and started something viable and with marketability. I'm glad I have. I think having something I know has marketability is helping me to write it. Before, with the old book, I knew it wasn't and I kept plugging away at it as practice. I thought I could bring myself to finish it even though I knew it would go nowhere. I was wrong. I think I need the hope of knowing this could be the book that gets me my first contract in order to keep writing it. Problem solved, just had to move on to the next thing.
    As far as NaNoWriMo goes, Rachel asked me to do it. I've already committed to 70 Days of Sweat, so I may as well, just count my word count towards each. I had trouble deciding which book to work on, because it is considered highly against the rules to work on something you've already written stuff for and just write 50,000 more words. Rachel and I decided the rules don't apply to me however, because I have way more free time than most people doing it and the whole point is to get me writing more (or that should be the point, otherwise it's just to churn out unusable slush) so I should write whatever is best for me. Which is Queen of Freaks. It was titled Queen of the Freaks, but I think I like it better without 'the'. It's more playing-card-esque.
    About the book and writing in general: YAY!!!! Going great. I mean, *really* great. Switching to the new project was definitely the right choice because it's infusing my work with a life Sticks and Stones never had, even 40,000 words in. I love the new story, the characters, and best of all...I MANAGED TO WRITE MY QUERY LETTER!!!! I can't possibly describe how great that is. I've struggled and struggled and while my efforts have come out just fine they hadn't been good enough. Then a week or two ago I wrote a new draft of the letter. It was getting there, I could tell I had something, but the hooks alone was around 450 words. Way too long. So I cut a bunch out and reworked every word with the significant other last night. What we ended up with was pretty good, but still the hook was around 350 words. Long, but still easily met the 1 page query letter standard since I don't have much in the way of bio. I liked it, I felt it was close to capturing my voice well enough in a professional sounding letter, but all the successful queries I'd read were short. Like 200 word hooks or less. I was getting ready to climb into bed and then it hit me. I sat down and wrote a hook, and a letter coming in at less than 350 words total. My entire letter is now less than the previous hook. There's so much more I could put in, but I think this is it. With a little tightening and a few word changes I think this is the letter I will end up sending out, and *crosses fingers* I think I might even get a few requests for partials. I hope, anyway.
    It's such a great feeling to know it's written. I have confidence in the book I'm writing, in my words to carry the weight, it's just so nerve-wracking to know that one stupid piece of paper and trying to perfectly hook my novel in just a paragraph or two while being professional and still letting my voice to shine through determines whether or not my work will even be seen. I understand why it has to be that way, it's just...well, nerve wracking and damn hard. My hat is off to anyone who writes query letters well and with little effort. If someone had a knack for it I bet they could make a killing reading people's manuscripts and writing their queries for them. It's a pain and something I bet a lot of aspiring authors would invest money in to have done for them and done well. I might consider it if I weren't dirt broke and needing a new car, lol. But yeah, there's just a general bliss that it's done. I feel free to work on the book with little hindrance now. Except that not having a synopsis written is bugging me. ;)

So, onto my last update: my recipe. We went out to Denny's late one night last weekend and there was discussion of a theoretical dish called bacon pie, something that sounds disgusting to me, but it sparked an idea. While we were there I jotted down a few ideas for a breakfast dish similar to quiche, but, in the end, is not quiche. Sunday I got up and headed to the store, bought a bunch of things I needed to make it, and went for it. It turned out really well. I made another one Wednesday night implementing a few tweaks, and that one came out even better. I now have a recipe that I wrote completely on my own. That is the most amazing thing. It's such a different high than writing a novel. The next chance to enter a recipe in the Pillsbury Bake-Off won't be until 2009 for the 2010 contest, but look out Pillsbury, because in 2010 I'll be winning that million dollars.  :D

Okay, now that my long ass update is done I'm off to write more because my brain is still in overdrive from the high of finishing a good query letter. I'll try not to make it another 2 months next time.

After a long very long week things just couldn't go right on Friday. There were paycheck problems, car problems, roommate problems. Just problems. But we were able to go out to dinner with my aunt and then to see Stardust, which made things better. It was great, and arguably one of the best Robert Deniro roles ever. I couldn't help but grin through most of the movie. It just worked very well for me. There was one scene that the boyfriend and I argued about. He felt that it would have been an interesting twist on what you typically see if it had played out a certain way. While this is true, it's not usually done, I think it would have gone against the character and been unsatisfying to most viewers, myself included. Regardless of this debate, we both agree it was one of the most enjoyable movies we've seen in some time. We both walked out grinning like idiots.

Saturday was better because car and paycheck issues had been resolved and our lovely roommate Claire made a really great dinner for us, Lemon Rosemary Chicken with brown rice. Very nummy.

Sunday was a day for grocery shopping and finding the things I needed to cook for everyone on Monday. It was ended with one of the best meals I've had in quite awhile. Our dear friend Ben, who also lives with us (there are 8 people total living in our house, we have what seems like an infinite list of roommates, at least it seems infinite when you all share one shower lol) made us dinner. It was some really great Greek pasta with chicken, bacon, some really good olives, and lots of feta. We had bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip it in and some pitas and hummus. Also some nice Australian red wine. We sat and ate/talked for several hours. It was something I really needed. Though there was a downer to the day. I started working on some prep for my meal on Monday only to realize I had several missed calls on my phone. Two of them were from a good friend who I have known most of my life and I cannot remember calling me twice in a half hour ever. Needless to say, when I couldn't get ahold of him I was very worried. Unfortunately he lives several hours away so going to check on him was not something easily done. I didn't sleep well Sunday night. I never do when I'm worried about something. Very vivid dreams involving him, and though nothing bad happened to him in my dreams I couldn't help but still be worried. He finally called me back Monday afternoon. It turns out he was just really excited to tell me he got great tickets to a concert that was nearly sold out. Yippy. I love him dearly, but I was very tempted to tell him I almost drove the three hours up to see him just to assure myself he was okay so that I could follow it up with kicking his ass. ;)

Anyway, after I finished talking to him I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening cooking and we sat down to a taco/burrito feast around 7. It was very good, if I do say so myself (and I do).   :D    Everyone enjoyed it and my pico de gallo and refried bean dip were both a hit. Leftovers are still being consumed by all.

All in all a very good weekend. Very relaxing. I feel ready to get back to my book now. So off I go to get some work done before bed.

I took the boyfriend to work today (he had to be there by 9) then drove straight to Barnes and Noble. I was there by 9:15, impatient to find they had not yet stocked the book, stole one from their little cart of books, and headed for the register, employees laughing at me. Was home by 9:40, started reading immediately. I snapped at anyone interrupting me and was horrified to realize I had about 50 pages left and I had to go pick up the boyfriend from work/find something for dinner/and take him to vote, in total distracting me from the end for about an hour or two. I came home, hid from my roommates in my room, and finished the book. That was about an hour ago. I'm still beaming.

I know some people say her books are not good enough to merit the attention they've gotten/she doesn't offer anything new/etc. I've heard all the complaints about them. I don't care. They enthrall me each time. I start reading them and my life basically stops for 7 or 8 hours until I am done. I put them off for a long time, refusing to read anything so popular that sounded as silly as "girl falls in love with a vampire". I told myself that people were weird and they couldn't be any good. But I kept hearing great things and they covers, they just called to me each time I saw them. They are truly great as far as marketing goes, very simple and yet incredibly compelling. So I bought the first one. I started reading when I got home and did not move until it was done. I barely registered people talking to me while I read. When I was done I was amazed to find I had been sucked into a different world from 7 whole hours, unaware of anything going on around me (much to boyfriend's rumbling stomache's chagrin). I must proclaim it publically I <3 STEPHENIE MEYER. I ADORE BELLA SWAN. I LOVE EDWARD CULLEN AND JACOB BLACK. Give me book 4, NOW!!!!!



So Twilight series rant aside, I am thrilled by other things. fangs_fur_fey  has made me ecstatic. melissa_writing  made a post there about critique partners so that those of us looking for one could post a little about ourselves and find someone to work with. I picked out someone I thought I would work particularly well with and sent her an email. ladyhedgehog  has been gracious enough to agree to work with me, and I look forward to it greatly. I think we will get along great if our reading/writing interests say anything. :)
This is not the end of the good news, however. I received not just a response from LadyHedgehog about being partners, but had 3, yes 3, emails from people interested in working with me. My luck must have been pretty good that day because not only did I have 3 more potential CP's, but they *all* seemed to be great matches. So now I will be working with everflame  geishawhite  and ladyeclectic79  as well. My luck has run rampant this week! :D
I am ecstatic about working with each of them and hope things go well. Not only will it be nice to find people I can trust for solid feedback, but to make friends going through what I am and at/near the same step of the journey towards being published that I am. The support from the boyfriend is amazing and unfaltering, but it will be great to make actual writer friends who go through the same things, not just deal with watching their significant other go through it. Though, that in and of itself can't be easy. Maybe I should suggest to the boyfriend that he start a writer's spouse/significant other support group. I get the feeling that as a whole we are a neurotic/crazy/hard to deal with group of people. Heh.

Anyway, I am off to get actual writing done now instead of emails and journal entries.

Just switched over from the old journal to this new one.

So I haven't gotten much writing done in the last month or so. Life is finally starting to settle down after my many family obligations in the last several weeks and our crazy move to the new house. Everything is now done and I can settle in and get some writing done. I tried last week to put the book on hold to work on a contest entry, but everything I tried to write for the contest felt wrong. I have decided not to enter and will be back to the book starting today. I'm hoping to get the rest of the draft done in the next month or two.

On another note, my new house has a library and it's amazing. It will be very conducive to writing. Also having read some really great books lately has certainly helped recharge the writing batteries. Also I can't wait for Eclipse on Tuesday. I got boyfriend to start reading Twilight this week. He's loving it. It' not often he reads the books I pick out for myself. Usually the only books we both reads are the ones he picks out. Perhaps this will change. He's very upset that I don't actually own New Moon, so it looks like we will be buying both Eclipse and New Moon on Tuesday so he can keep reading. Heh.

Off to bed now.