Questions Answered!

It's frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask you the questions. ~Author Unknown

To answer a few questions from yesterday:

Allie, "Kitchen Matches" is a short story of about 18,000 words. My previous editor mentioned that Samhain, as a whole, was a bit frustrated that they weren't getting many less-than-novel-length submissions, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Dru, most contracts specify the longest period of time you'll have to wait to have your piece published. For instance, The Wild Rose Press contract states they will have you pubbed no later than one year from contract. Really, it depends on the amount of editing necessary on a piece. My previous editor, Eve, was thrilled because "Liv" was relatively clean and needed little editing. My time from contract to publication was amazingly short. I'd like to hope the same will be true of "Kitchen Matches".

Chris, it took Dakota a while to figure out that she had to carry the stick in the middle... watching her get it jammed into the lawn when she had it from one end or the other was amusing, as was watching her try to get up on the deck with it in her mouth, because it is longer than the opening was wide. Ha....

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I had a bit of shock yesterday. I decided I was going to buy the movie "Phantom of the Opera" finally. My library's copy was destroyed, and they have another on order, but I wanted it NOW (it was the Andrew Lloyd Webber theme on American Idol that got me going, I think).

So, I went to WalMart first. Looked, but didn't see it. Went to the guy who worked there to ask him if he knew whether it existed in the store or not. This guy was probably about 20 y.o., and going to town with a feather duster.

Anyway... I said, "Do you have the movie 'Phantom of the Opera'?"

He looked at me blankly. And silently.

I said, "You know, with Gerard Butler."

He shook his head. "Never heard of it."

WHAT?? How can you live in the commercial world and not have heard of this show? I saw "Phantom" numerous times on the stage before I saw the movie. I love this show. I couldn't begin to believe someone hadn't at least heard of it. After all, besides being a huge Broadway hit, and a much touted movie, its music was on the hugely commercial hit TV show, American Idol (of course, Jason hadn't heard of "Cats", either. Clearly, we're raising out children wrong).

Color me shocked.

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What Your Front Door Says

You have simple tastes. You like the classic basics, especially when they're done well. Lots of space in your life is very important. You don't like physical or mental clutter.

The Front Door Test

But see... here's the problem with this test: they didn't have my first two choices. ::shrugs:: Oh well!

Ranting and Rambling...

Childhood is the most beautiful of all life's seasons. ~Author Unknown

Or, at least it should be.

So... my DD and I have been watching "Shaq's Big Challenge" the past few weeks. It breaks my heart. Last week, when they talked to this (huge) teen about his weight and how people treat him, and he said that at ten y.o. (TEN!!) he'd considered suicide, my heart shattered. No ten y.o. should be in that position, ever.

Anyway...

I'm a little confused about something, and hopefully someone out there can answer my question. When Shaq and Doc and Shaq's former coach met with that principle about bringing back P.E. and she said there wasn't enough time in the day (money issues aside...), I was puzzled.

When I was in school (and, yeah, it was a while ago), we had P.E. every day. And, yet, somehow I managed to learn all that other stuff as well. You know, like reading and math and history and science and health and...

We also had band and drama DURING SCHOOL HOURS. I was also in basketball, volleyball and track after school and still made it home by 5:00 p.m. AFTER practice.

What class(es) have taken the place of P.E. and electives? I'm talking about elementary grades, not high school (that's a completely different ball of wax). If there is not enough "time" for mandatory P.E., and there used to be, then what was popped into that time slot?

How is it that they were able to teach everything twenty-five (*ahem*) years ago, including the fun stuff, and now they can't? What's more important than keeping our kids healthy and happy and not considering suicide at TEN YEARS-OLD?

Anyone know?

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I'd like to say my dog is back to normal. But I can't. She is better, personality-wise, though she still startles easily. BUT, last night she got up to go to the bathroom TWICE. Once at midnight and once at three a.m. UGH. I love her to pieces, but she's making me crazy. I truly hope she never, ever has to go through surgery again.

Poor puppy.

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I wrote a ton on my 1953 story-that-needs-a-title yesterday. Then, while I was showering before bed I had this movie play out in my brain of the next scene. I considered waiting until morning, but didn't dare risk my faulty memory. My computer was all shut down, so I grabbed a spiral notepad and wrote. And wrote. And wrote. And wrote.

All told, I got about seven more pages to transcribe this morning. I could have done more, but I was so tired I had to close one eye to see the paper. I wrote some notes to myself to remember where I was headed and went to bed.

But, finally, this story is taking shape in my mind. When I started, I had the setting and one little scene but no characters or conflict (who needs those?). Just a little something my mom said about what she did when she was young at that time that intrigued me.

I'm feeling good and excited now! Yay! Love it when things start to fall into place. Even better, the DH and DD are going out on the boat today and I'll have the day to myself to work.

If only I take the time to write instead of working on LASR like I have been. We're having a wonderful time with reviews, and my roster of guest reviewers is growing like mad -- though we can probably use a couple more if things work out the way I suspect they will. The ladies I have now are fantastic! *waves* If you haven't checked out the site lately, you should.

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You Are Somewhat Machiavellian

You're not going to mow over everyone to get ahead... But you're also powerful enough to make things happen for yourself. You understand how the world works, even when it's an ugly place. You just don't get ugly yourself - unless you have to!

How Machiavellian Are You?