Finally!

I found about 40 minutes to write yesterday, and I got an entire chapter worked out and some reworking of the first 2 chapters! Amelia, Amelia, Amelia...you're paranoia and quirky habits are so much fun to write! Now I must find time to write more tonight! (If I make it 3 nights in a row, then I know I'm on a roll!)

We're healthy again

Finally, I think we've eradicated all the germs in our house, and we're all healthy...I hope that doesn't jinx us!

I wonder if other writers have as many projects in their minds as I do? It's hard, sometimes, to focus on one when I have so many thoughts going through my mind!

Anyway, for now I am concentrating on my wonderfully intelligent, but woefully paranoid Amelia in her adult suspense novel. Her backstory is emerging as the novel progresses, and the reasons for her extreme fears and the ways she deals with her fears are more clear. She's a fun person to work with right now!

The synopsis and query letter for Josiah is also coming right along, but no where near good enough to send out yet.

J.T.'s stories are going to be on hold until I receive my letter from the Delacorte contest. It's almost October so there's just a little over a month left for hearing from them. (The longer it takes to hear from them, the better! Keep your fingers crossed that I don't hear from them for another month and 3 days!)

Profile Pic

I just looked closely at the profile picture. It was taken last year at Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska, and it's woefully out of touch with reality. Our eldest son is no longer shorter than me...he towers over me by almost 3 inches. Our middle child has about 6 inches to go to match my height, and our daughter has short hair that has aged her at least 2 years. (She's NOT in middle school, but looks like she should be!) I guess it's time to find another picture to use!

And so it goes...

I'm thankful. Really. I am. We just received added money in our budget at school. More library books can be bought. TVs that are dying can be replaced. Overheads will have bulbs. It's great. Really. It is.

I don't sound excited, because it's my job to purchase everything. The process is tedious and time-consuming, and I don't have a planning period or much time available each day. Plus, I've been given one week to get everything spent in case the state retracts the money they just gave to us. GRRRRR.

However, I've decided to redirect my efforts at home to three things. (I'm making a list in order to make sure I do them all!)

1. The Curse of Josiah's Orchard is going to find a home. The synopsis will get written. The query letter will be perfected. (Ok. That's reaching pretty high. Maybe it'll just be really, really good.)

2. The trolls are staying put. I've decided they are not the priority for me. Instead, I am going to return to Abigail and her paranoia and have some fun with the kidnapping. (Got ya curious, don't I?!?) :-)

3. The book that's been in my head for the last 2 years will get outlined and put aside. Hopefully that will quiet those voices in my head. (THE CHARACTERS' VOICES. That's what I'm talking about. Really. I promise. ---Shhh! Don't say that too loud!---)

4. I will remember to charge my laptop every Monday and Wednesday night to ensure battery life for Tuesday and Thursday soccer practices.

Notice house cleaning and keeping up with laundry are no where to be found on this list? They get done each week with the help of the Rouskateers...at least the healthy ones. I just have two to count on this weekend unless they succumb to.

Encouragement, discouragement, and emotions

Well, between being sick for two weeks and then having work, soccer, scouts, and life to work around, I've not gotten much done in the way of writing. The trolls are going to have to wait, J.T. is stuck in Roanoke with the not-so-lost colonists, Josiah is not yet on his way to a publisher (synopsis needs work!), and the issues plaguing my paranoid Abigail have been solved only in my head!

For work, I'm reading books that might be considered for the 2010 Newbery. This is for a fifth grade project we conduct every year. Anyway, there are 35 titles to preview. I read some, and I feel encouraged because I can see the strength of my own writing in comparison. (I know, it sounds rather egotistical to think I'm better than them, but my writing seems better IMHO.) Others encourage me because I feel the writing is equal to my own so I truly see the worth of my hard work and ambition. When I read books like Lisa Graff's Umbrella Summer and Suzanne LeFluer's Love, Aubrey, however, I get discouraged. My genre is different, my style is different, yet I see how absolutely breath-takingly superior these books are to anything I've ever imagined. Both books made me cry with the way they addressed death of siblings and parents and how their characters grew and changed.

I'm just trying to remind myself that my books shouldn't be compared to these, but it's hard!