Toilet cleaning and synopsis writing

I’ve covered this before, but I REALLY hate writing a synopsis. Cleaning toilets is right up there, too, with things on my list of things to avoid. But they have to be done. Unfortunately.

Yeah, maybe one day we’ll have self cleaning bathrooms but let’s face it, we can’t take the human part out of writing a synopsis. There needs to be the author element added to the synopsis and query. Which makes them soooo hard to write. But when you can pull it off without losing someone in the story, it feels great.

Not that I’d know. Still…I can dream.

Take your child to work day

Uh-huh. Evidentially that was today. The girl started harping on it yesterday. “You know, Mom, you work really hard and I think I should stay home with you. I can take notes—”

“No.”

“But, Mom.”

“No.”

“But the teacher says I can stay home.”

“No.”

“But I can practice my saxophone.”

“You can practice AFTER you get home from school.”

Defeated, she went to school. Give her an “A” for effort.

Writing wise: Grady’s round of revisions are finished. I always feel good after I finish a round. Wish I could find a way to bottle the feeling accomplishment. Yeah…and now that I finished Grady, I can fully concentrate on Mia’s revisions.

Snickering.

You all thought I had a glamorous life, didn’t you?

A quick note

Yesterday we had a spring storm. Snow and rain. By me it was more like slush falling from the sky. Delightful. And what would a storm be like without a power outage? Timing was incredible. I had Grady open, reading…then blink. ARGH!

Thankfully Word did an auto save. Whew.

So while I was keeping an eye on school delays this morning, the news had a story on school violence and how several teens have been arrested for supposedly making threats over the last week. I’m torn on this issue.

Yeah, there are fights in school. There have always been problems with weapons. While a lot of folks are screaming about more laws have to be put in place and these kids have to be prosecuted, I’m seeing the system being abused. Things that should’ve been taken care of in school are now being tossed to the sheriff deputies for prosecution.

Two seven year olds pushing each other on the playground is not grounds for assault and battery charge. Sorry, it’s called school discipline and getting the parents involved.

I do think there are times police intervention is needed. I’ve come across one extreme nut job that stalked me and my son. That fun lasted for years. But that is rare. So yeah, sometimes law enforcement needs to be asked for. The thing that irks me is that laws are now trying to be enforced, replacing the common sense needed to evaluate each situation.

Good news on a Monday

Actually it’s not my good news but I don’t think my hubby will be annoyed with me for sharing. He won second place in a screenwriting contest. A lot of great prizes goes along with it. What’s neat is that while I was critiquing it I got that sensation of “oh wow,” when I read it. For those that have critiqued something that went on to sell, you know what I mean.

I’m so proud of him.

As for me this morning, I’m trying to top out my coffee fix needed to start working on editing chapter six.

When all news is bad news

Over the last few months I feel like I’m being buried under bad news. It’s not only things happening to me personally, but so many folks are being tested with the loss of family, health issues, financial problems and career woes. This week alone I’ve had to send condolences to two friends and sent prayers out to another.

The news love playing up the life of the shooter from a tragedy instead of sharing the joys and dreams of the victims that were cut short. We hear all about bombers in Iraq but we don’t hear about the positive things. Politicians scream about the soldiers dying for nothing, but they don’t have a problem cutting off the valuable funds to support the troops to keep them from dying.

There are times nothing in world sounds right. But this is life. Things are never what we hoped them to be or what we plan for. They just are. Lately I’ve been focused on the bad and not seeing the good, in same way the media has been playing up the name of the shooter instead of the name of Liviu Librescu. The hero professor, and holocaust survivor, that kept the shooter out of the classroom so his students could escape.

I say enough. There are good things in the world and if you can’t find them, make them happen. I sponsor two kids in foreign countries. I’ve volunteered in schools for fundraisers. I volunteer as a moderator on a writing site. I make time to play games with my family. I donate money to homeless shelters in other people’s names as Christmas gifts.

I’m not saying these things to brag. I’ve done these things for years and I never expect a thanks. But I think some of us are forgetting there is good as well as bad in the world. One person can make a difference.

Things go slowly forward

Yeah, there’s progress. Slow...progress…

And that annoys me. I’d prefer getting this done quick like. You know, something along the lines of pulling off a band-aid speed, but I realize I can’t do that. Moving fast does not work for me when it comes to revisions.

Anyway, today is my kid’s birthday. So out to buy gifts. Nope, I can’t buy them early because both of them snoop. And where could hide a bike that she wouldn’t see it? Her skateboard, yes, bike…

Have fun writing all!

A few days missing…

Yeah, I’m bad. I admit it. Blogs are expected to be kept up. I try. I had a couple of rough drafts for posts typed up but they never made it past that. Hangs head in shame.

This week I spent a good deal of time on projects I didn’t mean to. Um…Grady should be waiting but no. I wrote up his synopsis and query. I’m forever poking at it trying to make clean enough to send it off for others to review. Yeah, that sounds weird, huh? Clean enough to send for critiques. Also started reading chapters again for any typos I might’ve added.

And then there’s Mia. So far I have chapter one red marked. But hey, that’s progress, right?

The Monday after…

I hope you all had a great weekend—especially a nice Easter. We had the traditional egg hunt, ate chocolate and a pleasant dinner. Overall—I had fun.

Writing side of things:

The big changes on Mia are done. Finished. Had a couple of ah-hah moments. Now I just need to get some cleaning done on the prose. Oh I know a few are thinking “some cleaning done on the prose?” Yeah, yeah…a lot of cleaning. Happy?

Updating

Okay, so for some reason music stores are closing down here. I can’t imagine why. We’re only a city. I had to travel into downtown Denver and that was a nightmare. Bought out their supply of alto saxophone reeds, came home and discovered I could’ve bought them online. Amazon even sells them. Grrr….

Mia: As of this afternoon I’ve gone through 3 chapters out of 25. Not bad. It took me forever to catch Adlai’s voice. I kept re-reading my first glimpse of Mia because that exercise was written from his PoV. Once I got his voice and thoughts down, it was a little easier.

Grady: I have a query letter written. Made some notes that’ll go into the synopsis. Eventually…

And the kiddies are back at school

That doesn’t sound too happy, does it? It’s a good thing that they’re back at school and getting an education. Really…and for the next eight weeks there are no days off. Unless there’s a snow day. Yes, we can still have blizzards this late in the year. It happens.

Friday I went on the hunt for a place to lay out my scene index cards for Mia’s story. Finding such a place was tricky. Floor was out. My dogs love the taste of index cards. Money, too. I think my oldest dog has eaten close to a hundred by now.

Okay, so my next thought was the kitchen table. Nope. Not quite long enough. Grr…

Ah, my bed will do but my husband was working a night shift. And my hubby is the type that needs the sleep or he’s cranky. He came home from his shift and saw my predicament. He volunteered to sleep on the couch and let me have the bedroom to work in.

Ain’t he sweet?

Armed with my cards, post-it notes, dry erase board, plot points and of course my ipod, I headed off to seclusion for about 3-4 hours in the bedroom. I think it was more like 4 plus hours but who’s really counting? Seven new scenes, a whole mess of rearrangements and about three deleted scenes later…I have a new outline. This will work.

As soon as I emerged with my new cards, my son begged me to help him with a quest on World of Warcraft. I love when my kids use the guilt card, “But you did it for Nic the other day.” There’s a big difference. Her quest was a level 11. His is in the 20’s. Uh-huh…corpse recovery. But I died brilliantly the last time and took the quest character with me. Ha!

Snickering….

You know those pesky spammers from foreign countries that try to scam you into taking a cashier check? We’ve all gotten them. Doesn’t it just irk you? Don’t you want just a little fun at their expense? Here’s one guy’s idea on getting even.

It seemed fitting for an April Fool’s day joke.