Category: This & That

Thursday Tidbits

Yesterday I enjoyed a “turn-around day” where I basically caught up on stuff so that today I can begin to dig into my revisions on SEX, PIs & PACKING TAPE. Thought I’d get to them way before now, but summer intruded. Also, the news I didn’t announce yesterday intruded, and I wasn’t gonna complain.

I don’t know if anyone remembers, and I’m too lazy to check back through my posts and provide a link, but awhile back we were talking about how agents could help alleviate author stress, specifically the stress created when an electronic query or submission floats off into the stratosphere and we never hear from the agent again. I mentioned email auto-responders. To me, it seems like such a simple solution. Set up the query/submission email to automatically let the writer know her/his submission or query has been received, give an estimated time frame for your response and ask that the writer not bug you during that time frame. Well, the other night, I submitted a story electronically for Penny, and, wow, how nice to receive an auto-responder in a matter of minutes. Makes me feel bad that I put a return-receipt indicator on the email. Now, this was a publisher that deals in ebooks, so manbe that’s why they’re so on the ball. But the auto-responder works so well it still makes me wonder why more agents who take email queries and submissions don’t make use of one.

Another tidbit…I went to see Julie & Julia the other night. Anyone seen it? What did you think? I loved it. Heartily recommended.

Fire in the Sky

Refer to my Smoke on the Water post from last week.

This weekend, My Liege and I went away for some lake cottage R&R. Unfortunately, that fire I mentioned last week that filled our neighborhood sky with smoke? It came back with a vengeance. Just a few days ago, the people who’d been evacuated from their homes were allowed to move back in. On Saturday night, however, after a peaceful but very hot day on the lake, the fire blazed up anew. A second evacuation alert went into effect, and the road was closed. We weren’t in danger, but watched the following spectacle from the dock. These photos were taken over about an hour, two at the outside (I wasn’t counting, but as the night grew darker the shutter took longer and longer to click).

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 That’s all she wrote.

Writer in Absentia

I’m a very bad blogger. I should be smacked. I can’t help it, though. I’m way too busy right now to blog. Will be working on My Liege’s massive website update the entire week. Now that I’ve accepted that, I know I can’t expect to get to the revisions on my cindypk ST until next week. But that’s okay. I need to do what I need to do, need to be where I need to be.

How are you dealing with summer writing? Summer blogging?

By the way, my next guest blogger is Elisabeth Naughton, July 28th. I’m looking forward to her picking up the slack.

I’ll drop in as time permits. Otherwise, my July is jam-packed. Please keep checking in, though. I’ll return to my regular blogging schedule (3-4 times a week) as soon as time permits.

Post-Conference Yawning

How is it that I didn’t attend conference and yet I feel as exhausted as if I had? I realized this while trying to catch the RITA announcements via Twitter Saturday evening. Despite that I didn’t travel to the other side of the continent, despite that I didn’t spend my days tromping from workshop to workshop, from appointment to appointment, from party to party, by Saturday night I was toast.

It’s been a busy week.

On Monday I discovered the fate of my 2007 Golden Heart finalist manuscript. As I’d feared, following the departure of the requesting editor, the manu went…somewhere. My thanks to the assistant editor who looked into the lost manuscript for me and gave me the opportunity to resubmit via email. I spent Monday re-editing the manuscript, trimming/tightening by  another 850 words, then emailed it off on Tuesday.

Tuesday to Thursday, I continued writing and revising Penny’s new short. It’s done! Still needs some editing, which I will accomplish this week. I have two sequels planned, so I need to write teensy blurbs for those, then brainstorm a series title. I hope to send off the whole package in a couple of weeks. As usual, I want to let the short story sit before I look at it again.

Friday was town errands, a doctor appointment, then visiting Sandorf Verster in the sun. A great time (the visit, that is). All weekend (and I do mean all) I took pictures for a major website update (not one of my sites, but another one I designed and maintain). Plus, I worked on scheduling and piccies for my group blog.

Oh, Eldest Son discovered Friday that he didn’t get into residence for this fall. He’s like #400 on the waiting list. So I’ve been scouring off-campus listings, and he’s done likewise with Craigslist. Cross your fingers—we might have found him a place. Just waiting for an email from the landlord before we send off the deposit.

I’d intended to start revisions on my cindypk ST this week. Not sure yet if I’ll meet that goal. It might be more realistic to say I’ll start by Wednesday. I need to catch up on my didn’t-attend-conference sleep. And there’s that website update calling my name…

Oh, cripes, how did I forget? Saturday morning, Youngest Son and I washed the house. The vinyl siding. No wonder I’m exhausted!

Summer Breeze…

I’m going on blogiday! With the RWA National conference in Washington, D.C. occurring this week, it’s the perfect time for me to take a break. I’m not attending the conference, so theoretically I could still blog. But it’s summer, my BFF just moved home for six months and I want to catch up with her, I’m still recovering from the parties and BBQs I attended on the weekend, plus I can use the time to catch up on writing goals I didn’t quite make last week.

Penny has drafted the entirety of her new erotica short. My goal is to get it revised this week. I’m also judging a contest that requires written critiques rather than filling out score sheets, so that’s always a bit more work. I need to do some management work on the Nobody Writes It Better group blog, and I need to revamp some aspects of my own blog (the style sheet, etc., stuff I’ve been meaning to do for months but never seem to get around to). I doubt I’ll get to my own blog fixes this week. If I update WordPress, I’ll be happy.

What else do I have on schedule? Oh, yeah, following up on a manuscript I fear has been misplaced. Then, next week, if Penny’s done her revisions, it’ll be time for me to get back to work on SEX, PIs & PACKING TAPE. It’s revision time for that manuscript. Working on the short for Penny, plus catching up on household tasks, has provided me several weeks “time off” from this manu. I’m looking forward to brainstorming and applying the revisions.

Have fun while I’m gone, everyone! If anything truly amazing occurs over the next week, I’ll check in. Otherwise, the summer breeze is making me feel fine….

Family Birthdays

I won’t name names (I’m guessing I’ll get in trouble posting this picture as it is…if they find out), but let’s just say I’m related to the two people below. Let’s just say I’m older than both of them, so tormenting them is my right. Let’s add on that they are both cuter than spit in this picture! Let’s not quibble that spit ain’t that cute.

Let’s say I’m taking the shorter one to lunch today, because it’s her birthday. Happy birthday, LP!

Let’s say I’m attending a big family party tomorrow, because that’s the taller one’s birthday. Happy birthday, TB!

Every year we have a big family party on the double birthday. LP has never celebrated a birthday without her older brother, I don’t think.

Note the wonderful pineapple upside-down cake, courtesy of our esteemed mother:

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