I haz a hot dog

Look- its really HARD to be a Wombat

He wanted me to remind you, this is not easy.




And sometimes you have to build a fort of pillows on the spare bed and lay in it, just to find some zen. (I did not assist in the creation of this fort. Wombat is a DIY kind of pup.)



It always feels like, somebody's watchin meee.... This is me at my desk, and Wombat in his pillow fort. Sometimes when he's antsy for attention, he'll lay there and oink at me, mooing till I turn and look. Then he wags and looks pleased with himself. Until I go back to my work, and the oinks need to be louder.





And here we have the view from Wombat's pillow fort.




But now its time for a nap.

Nothing to do with writing at all.

I'm wearing these today. Because sometimes you have to bust out the pretty earrings, put on a pair of heels, and remember that you're alive.

A dear friend of mine from the Donut Factory passed away unexpectedly yesterday. It was a hellofa shock, and she will be missed. But work goes one, Donuts must be manufactured and sold.

Sail on Janet, I hope you and Buddy Dawg are playing some ball right now. I'll see you around the way.

And Old Chap, you take care of yourself. Life is short.

Last night I had a bottle Of Ranga Ranga Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc wine - it was under $10, a clean, crisp taste. Reminded me of green peppers, cut grass. The tasting notes mention Kiwi, but I didn't catch that. It was very fresh and herbal tasting, very little aftertaste.

Not a bad wine, but not an All day, more of a palate cleanser.

You are making me Blush!

Thanks for all your support and good thoughts yesterday, Old Chap. I really appreciate the encouragement!

Don't worry, I'm not going to give up on this, I'll see it through to the end. In fact, today I'm filling out the paperwork for the Golden Heart

And last night, I had a fantastic dream where I saw a snippet of my next story. It's a great feeling to see that, to have these characters introduce themselves and spark my curiosity on who they are, why they were in that laundry room and why they need to work so hard to be together.

I have a question - to all the writers who work on more then one project at a time, editing this, proofing that, writing this, pitching that, and promoting this other one here, how do you keep it all straight?

I had some trouble flipping from my current Work in Progress (The effervescent Alice gets a Bunion) and my previous novel (the Brewmaster and her Barista.) Not that I had trouble keeping my hero/ heroine's strait, but their names.
I kept wanting to put Alice instead of Bonnie.













I'm a pretty linear writer, I think.
Its hard to make these grand proclamations, since I've only written three books so far. But I write them start to finish, I don't jump around, I don't write a scene, then a scene at the end of the book, and somehow string them together through other scenes I've created all willy nilly style. I write front to back. Willy Nilly writing makes me feel kind of itchy and nervous.

But - the first two I just pantsed my way through it. Now with the third, I plotted, and it feels much more productive and clear to me.
So even while I THOUGHT I was a pantser, it turns out I just didn't know enough yet. What I'm saying is, maybe somewhere along the way I'll realize I'm scene jumping, and it'll feel right, and then that's how I'll write from then on.
Who knows.

There's something defective with me.

See - I set myself these goals. Submitting my full to a publisher and entering the Golden Heart Contest (deadline 11/16 - but I'm filling out my forms today.)

I hit a speed bump in my goals that sent me flying for a bit. See - there is a word limit for the genres I'm working towards - 65,000 words.
I fudged it a little when I wrote my first draft and pitched it to an editor. On my first draft, I was at about 72,000 words, and I figured there was a lot of fluff up in there, it would be a piece of cake to cut.

I finished the book, submitted the first three chapts to the publisher, and put aside the draft, working happily on my New Shiny Book. When I got the request for the full, and Golden Hearts came around at the same time, I realized NOW is the time to buckle back into that old book and tidy it all up. (It's also good to step away from a project for a bit, to get some perspective.)

So I go into my edits, keeping in mind I need to cut out a bunch of words, and solidify plot, and nail in emotions.

I come out on the back end - 88,000 words. Holy hell. This was my speed bump. Trust me, there was much wailing, hand wringing and Cheese Nip Eating.

But I didn't quit. I buckled up, and dove back in to cut chop and slice out unnecessary words, sentences, scenes. (Oh the Soccer scene I cut, it was a thing of beauty. It made me a little weepy to chop it all out. But it had to go, it didn't move the plot forward. But OOOOoooh it was pretty)

On Sunday I finished, and word count was at 63,674. I forced myself to relax, and realize I DID IT. I made my goal. I sat down with a bottle of wine and a Nora Roberts book. And tried to relax.

Here's where the defective part comes in. I couldn't relax. Its not good enough. In the back of my mind, I keep thinking I should have worked harder, been at this point sooner, in fact, how did I let this happen in the first place?

My shoulders are aching, my back hurts, and I still am forcing myself to stay up too late, and work hard.
But I'm not working smart.
I KNOW there's a certain point when my focus has run off. Where I'm just going through the motions and not making smart decisions. So why do I force myself to keep working?

Because I am defective. Because underneath thus fluffy layer of Eazy Laid Back chick (that's how you all see me, right?) there's a type A girl who can't stop pushing herself for MORE.

And when it all comes down to it, Old Chap, deep in my heart I know this is NOT the book that will be picked up. There are flaws. Things that I don't like. So why am I forcing this? because there's the chance, and because I am defective.

And because I have the need to follow this through.

Weekend Review

Friday night we went to our friend's house for Game Night. To break the ice we played a game of Apples to Apples, and one of the cards was Richard Simmons.

Our chums were going on and on about how hilarious R.S. was on this episode of Who's Line is it Anyway? They were right - I couldn't stop giggling. Its a bit long, but I promise, the hilarity doesn't stop.



Then on Saturday I got lots of great work done on the Book, and we helped pull off a successful Surprise Party for our friend B.
Sunday - clean the house (boo hiss) and more work on the book. Around 6 I did manage to trim my word count down enough, and I took a break to relax for the rest of the night.

Not a wild weekend, but a productive one.
Happy Monday, Old Chap. I hope this week brings both of us much success.

I haz hot dog