Wednesday Warbling

Missed yesterday. Sorry. I won't go on about craziness, just know it exists in my world.

DD is loving school. She loves everything: the kids, the teachers, the classes, lunch, having a locker .... yesterday she was SO happy (having had an especially good day) that she would NOT be quiet. She talked a mile a minute about anything that crossed her mind, and even if she had nothing to say she hummed or spouted nonsense words or just giggled maniacally. It about drove me crazy. But it's hard to get angry when someone is just so darn happy.

They're having a field trip on Thursday and she wanted me to drive (mostly so she could ride with her new best friend). It's ALL DAY and my schedule is already nuts, but I told her if they couldn't find enough people I would. Thankfully, they found enough people.

I know, I know ... I should participate, but Oy.

She's doing pretty well, grade-wise, too. All 90s except English where she first forgot to do the homework on time( so 10% off) and then did it sloppy and partly wrong. She got a 57%. AND she had to redo it correctly.

I check on her homework assignments, and I nag a bit, but she's old enough that she knows what to do and is competitive enough she won't want to fail. Hopefully.

I tried taking pix of the stairs last night, but they didn't come out. Will take more today in natural light. They look nice enough, but I just know come winter with me running up and down in my socks that I'm going to slip. And fall. I'm not the most graceful person when it comes to stairs and fall down (and up) most sets of stairs I use at least once.

I did take pictures of the magnets my mom cross-stitched and that I'll be putting up on DistinctivelyDD soon. Aren't they adorable?





I also located a crafters store where you can rent space for your stuff. It's not in a great spot and I don't know how much traffic it gets, but I'm going to look into it and see what I think.

Yanno... in my spare time.

On a side note -- going through the slush pile again at Samhain Publishing kinda sucks. The wait is 3 - 4 MONTHS... *sigh*. I'm antsy. And I can't help but think about submitting it somewhere else at the same time. I'd love for the sequel to be at the same publisher, but there's no guarantee they'll take it and if I wait to submit elsewhere, it's just going to make the time before it sees the light of day that much longer.

Decisions, decisions...

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Your Next Car Should Be an Audi

You are pretty conventional when it comes down to it. You have mainstream tastes and interests. You value quality and craftsmanship. You rather have a few nice things than many low quality possessions. You are very focused and responsible. You take your duties seriously, no matter what they are. You are patient and trusting. You know that the best things in life don't come overnight.

What Should Your Next Car Be?

About 80% right, but I don't like Audis.

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This and That Thursday

Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans. ~Marcelene Cox

First, let me address a couple questions / comments from yesterday.

Angelina, I used the word "fired" from Samhain for lack of a better one. Basically, any author who hadn't been contracted by them in two years was told that they had to go through the slush pile again. I suspect this one an effort to free up their editors a little. Don't know -- I do know that a BUNCH of authors were affected. They aren't saying I can't ever go there again, they're just saying I can't go through my editor. Truthfully, I'm not that concerned. The editor they had me with had never actually edited for me before... I went through a bunch of editors there as mine kept leaving and I was reassigned. This might be a blessing, truly, as my previously assigned editor kept saying she was looking for GLBT erotica most, and that is certainly not what I'm writing. Maybe I'll find a better match this way.

Brandy and Dru, I might submit other places besides Samhain. I'd like to keep the series together but they might not want the story. I have a few other publishers in mind as well, which is always a good thing, but I'll go to Samhain first. I have another story I'm working on that isn't part of that series that I may submit elsewhere first.

In other news, my manuscript went off to two people yesterday. This is always the hard part, especially since I really hadn't sent this out in pieces first. Way back when I actually was part of an organized crit group, I'd usually have had the story critiqued in chapterlong bites first, so doing it this way is a little nervewracking.

We had a gorgeous, sunny -- though incredibly windy and cold -- day yesterday, and it looks like we're having another one today. Maybe I'll have a chance to get outside soon and clear out all the leaves and such from my gardens. I did it a little bit in the places I know I have daffodils, so they could grow (they're about 6" tall and have buds now, yay!), but there's a lot more work to be done. It's also about time to plant seeds for my annuals and my veggies. I should be able to put in my "cold" crops like peas and spinach in the next couple of weeks, and then mid-to-end of May I can put in everything else.

I love warm weather. I really with DH wasn't so attached to snowy winters...

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You Are Reflective

You don't expect perfection. You accept yourself, flaws and all. You are good enough! You are proud of what you know how to do. And you know that you're improving every day. You tend to keep good news to yourself... or only share it with a few very close to you. You are self-sufficient and don't need many friends to live a happy life. You are very private.

The Skirt Test

Mostly right.

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Brrr... part deux

Never take a job where winter winds can blow up your pants. - Geraldo Rivera

It's cold today. I have a love/hate relationship with this nearly record-breaking cold. On the one hand, when I have to go out in it, every breath I take makes my lungs feel as though they are freezing from the inside out. It's literally cold enough to take my breath away. And, poor Dakota... she has to get her business done in record time because if she lollygags, her tooties get so cold she can't walk. Yesterday she stood on two feet, the other two feet up in the air and cried. I had to go fetch her inside and give her feet a good rub.

On the other hand (and I wish I knew where this phrase originated... I may have to Google it), the sheer force of this particular weather system has worked to keep the snow that was expected to hit us today, away.

So... bitter cold and clear. Warmer and snow. Rock. Hard place.

Sunday will warm up to 24 degrees. We'll all be running around in our shorts and T-shirts! Actually, by the week following, they are predicting highs in the high 30s. Dear heavens, I actually feel a little faint contemplating it.

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I did a search for the etymology of "on the other hand" (though I'm not sure if that's the correct word for the origin of a phrase... let me check. Okay, probably not: the study of historical linguistic change, esp. as manifested in individual words. -- but, too bad, I'm using it anyway) and found nothing. Anyone know?

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I submitted my romance/mystery yesterday to Resplendence Publishing. I feel a little ill. Why doesn't it ever get easier? Maybe because I have the same number of rejections as I do contracts? LOL... in any case, it's out of my hands now. Their estimated time of response is 6 - 12 weeks. So, for now I wait.

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You Are "tab"

Some people might try to say that you're always spaced out. You do tend to be a dreamer, but you're also a great multitasker. You work quickly and efficiently. So it's no problem if you goof off a little while you're working. And if people want to think you're flaky, that's fine. You're getting more done than they are.

What Keyboard Key Are You?

Hmmm... mostly that works. I don't *think* I'm flaky, but wonder if that's like thinking you're crazy. If you don't, you are? :-)

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Stuck with ME

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. ~Voltaire

No guest blogger today... y'all are stuck with me.

I spent the day, yesterday, doing brainless but necessary work for LASR and contemplating a short story I had begun quite some time ago. In it, I have a heroine who has a mysterious something that demands her attention after work everyday and ... when I started writing it, I had no idea what that was. Yesterday, I sat and wondered what had happened to Millie and Paul from "Miles From You" -- they've been on my brain because Womans World still has my "Perilous Love" story and the last time they had once this long, it had gotten all the way to Johnene Granger before being rejected (with handwritten comments, which I treasured, lol). That story eventually became "Miles From You".

The brain is a funny thing, isn't it?

In any case, and for whatever reason my very odd brain smooshed both thought together and now I know what my heroine from the short story does every afternoon -- it involves her parents, Millie and Paul! LOL...

Now, to find the time to finish writing it. I really like the hero in the story -- he's sweet, but geeky and unsure. I can't recall writing a sweet, geeky and unsure hero before.

So... one more to add to JaNoWriMo?

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Hey, folks... yesterday Ceri asked a question in the LASR Yahoo group that didn't get an answer, and I thought I'd ask it here, because I'd like to know, too!

She asked:

On their guidelines page they list what to send (cover letter, synopsis, first three chapters) but further down the page it says that we can send an email query to the proper editor.

Which is the best way to submit? I didn't seen any addresses to physically mail anything, so I'm wondering if the email is the preferred method.

Does anyone know?

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We did "quirky things" yesterday in the LASR group and it got me to watching stuff around me. Dakota is VERY quirky... lol. Her biggest quirk is this: She always takes the first mouthful of food away from the dish to eat it. She'll go over, fill her mouth up and run to the stairs, spit it out and eat it one piece at a time. Then, and only then, will she go back and eat the entire thing.

And my cat's feet are ticklish, so I love to go and stick a finger in the middle of her pads and wiggle... her entire foot flexes. She'll let me do that once or twice before smacking me in annoyance, lol. I'm the only one who can do it even that many times, though.

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Isn't it amazing how warm 40 degrees feels in the winter? I have my screen door open!! LOL...

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You Should Be a Puppeteer

You are an entertainer - pure and simple. You know how to engage an audience. You are a natural storyteller. You are naturally dramatic, even when life doesn't call for drama. Luckily though, you save most of your drama for your stellar performances.

What Circus Act Should You Perform?

And, DD got her "drama queen"-ness from me! *G*

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Wood, Woodstoves, Waiting and Wants

Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach. ~George Sheehan

So... I had a nice stack o' wood in my driveway -- DD and I worked like dogs (not my dog, but...) and got one done. It was also a matter of avoiding all the yellow-jackets which, for some unknown reason, are behaving in a strange manner this year. Even my neighbor has commented on it. They are VERY active, and oddly friendly... even going as far as to land on you -- but NOT stinging! And they are everywhere. The wasps, too. I've lived her almost ten years now, and don't remember this happening EVER. They are particularly fascinated by the wood.

Anyway... back to our stack...

DH came home and was suitably impressed by all of our hard work and, jokingly grabbed a huge log and said, "Here, I'll help." and slammed it down against the end. And, yep you guessed it, the end toppled over and the pile fell.

***sigh***

Now, to answer some of your questions:

Melissa asked: ...how do you keep it burning all night long. Won't it get cold at night?

Melissa, we pack it full to the brim and then "bank it" but shutting down all the dampers until they are nearly closed. The fire will burn almost all night that way. DH goes to bed late, and I get up early so we almost never let the fire die at all through the entire winter. It gets a little cooler at night, but to be honest that's almost a relief -- there are days it gets to be in the mid-80s inside with the stove cranking!

Jen asked: What kind of stove do you have?

We have a Vermont Castings brand... I can't remember the model. It's a little bitty thing, though. When we got it, DH's dad said there was no way it would have the power to heat our house. BOY, was he ever wrong. Once it gets going, it heats the WHOLE house, including the upstairs.

Amy said: I...smelled someone's wood burning fire and nearly wept.

It's funny you mentioned that. I bumped into my across the street neighbor today and she said she was so excited to see the wood in our driveway, because she LOVES the smell of our stove. During the winter, she'll stand outside and just... sniff. LOL.

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I now have two things out on submission: "Return to Stiller Creek" with Samhain, and "Perilous Love" with Womans World.

I hate waiting.

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DD just finished reading the first book in a new series by Warrior's author, Erin Hunter. The series is called "Seekers" and the first book is "The Quest Begins". She LOVED the book (as she loves the Warriors series -- she's so wrapped up in that set of books, you'd think they were real. She even has a notebook full of herbal remedies that are mentioned through the stories).

Yesterday at the library she asked me to find the second book. I said, "It's not out yet."

She was quite disgruntled. "Don't they know I read fast?"

Now, DD knows about being an author, as she's watched me. She knows how hard I work at writing, and how long it takes. So, I brought that up. "An author can't write 60,000 words overnight. I'm sure she's doing the best she can."

But, in the famous words of Veruca Salt, she said, "I want it NOW."



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So, I'll be stacking wood this weekend. What plans do YOU have?

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