1. CK Go Places 2. Megansgot47

3. Gabriel 4. Amanda

5. Games-Video 6. You're next!

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The longest day known to Man! That was yesterday. Wasn’t it? The freaking LONGEST day of the year. Gosh, it seemed that way.

Work was just work. Nothing unusual to report at this time.

I came home to a very large box on my front porch. I had ordered a force action lightsaber on FRIDAY from Target.Com and - TADA - it arrived today. Man. That’s some super fast shipping! I couldn’t believe it already showed up. Especially since it wasn’t due to arrive until 12/24.

Thankfully, the Sweetie Boy wasn’t the least bit interested in the box. He was too busy making up goofy songs to notice.

He had me cracking up in the car on the way home. He made up this silly song about Batman in the hall and Robin in the kitchen, and all the bad guys in the bathroom. I was laughing at him. He got to giggling too and we were both cracking up by the time we hit the house.

My child has a sense of humor that astounds me sometimes. I had dragged him out to run some errands on Sunday. As we were leaving Office Depot, he was walking next to me holding my hand. Except he wasn’t really walking. More like hoping, skipping and jumping and just acting silly. I said, “Can you walk normal, please?” And so you know what he did? He walked sideways and looked up at me with the biggest grin ever. He knew he was being funny.

Sometimes, you just have to laugh.

On the writing front, I’ve been thinking about the MAGIC book a lot. I agree 100 percent, Devon. It’s an exploding market. It makes me scratch my head a little at the response. But tis okay. I have other plans for the book. I’m going to make some changes to it and then try again. I’m not giving up yet!

My goal for 2008 is to complete five - YES, you read that right FIVE - manuscripts. Now, let’s see if I can acomplish that.

Here’s the list:

• Coffee Tea or Me - comtemporary
• The Magic Within - fantasy
• Dragon Fyre - fantasy
• The Magic Untouched - fantasy (sequel to first MAGIC book)
• the as-yet unnamed Roman book

Whew. That’s a lot. I may not make the goal, but I’m sure as heck going to try. Some of the above named are already works in progress that need to be finished and submitted. The others are completely new material from scratch.

Over this last year, I’ve learned what really works for me and what doesn’t as far as writing goes. I am not a plotter. No matter how much I try, I’m just not. I can go by a very rough synopsis. But I just can’t do detailed plotting. And I certainly can’t write to a detailed plot, even if I make it up. I know I know. It’s supposed to help and make you write faster. But for me, it makes me feel boxed in and it’s like there’s no mystery and I can’t write the story that way. I need for the characters to reveal to me their story as I write it. Weird, I guess. But that’s definitely what works for me.

Another thing I want to do in 2008 is set those deadlines and stick to them. I really want to make myself finish these projects this next year. Working under deadline pressure works for me, too. I work better under stress. I know, another weird thing. But it works for me. It forces me to do what I have to do and I don’t think about it. I just do it. Kind of like Nike. Just do it!

So. For me the mantra of 2008 is that - Just Do It!

And it’s your job out there to kick my ass when I’m not doing it.

I haven’t blogged since Thursday? What’s wrong with me?

I’m a tired woman, that’s what.

This weekend FLEW by. Had lots of errands to run on Saturday with the kiddo. There were a few last minute things I needed to get for him for school. I’m officially out of money this week. Which sucks, since pay day until after Christmas. I suppose I’ll survive, though. The bills are paid and I have food in the fridge. And wine. And coffee. I couldn’t live without my coffee.

Church was good on Sunday. I plan to attend the candlelight service on Christmas Eve with my mom. Then she’s going to spend the night with me. And then my niece will be spending the three days after Christmas with my and the kiddo.

Speaking of the kiddo… he’s been counting down the days until Christmas. “Mom, only nine more days.”

He’s not excited or anything. I did break down and order him a force action lightsaber. Okay, so it was only $14 and I got it through Target.Com and they are delivering it right to my door. I hope it makes it here by Christmas… the expected delivery dayte is 12/24. I’m holding my breath.

I had somewhat of a cat litter debacle. I bought the wrong size liners - too small - which is a bad deal. I also bought the wrong kind of litter. The cat let me know about it too by pooping outside the box. Nice. So I had to rectify that Sunday.

By the way… NEVER EVER go to the “big” Wal-Mart (what my kid calls it) OR the pet store ten days before Christmas. What a nightmare!

Anyway, I bought the correct size liners (jumbo - another $10 sheesh) and got the cat all fixed up. He’s much happier with me. So happy in fact, he decided it was play time while I was on the phone with Mom. He kept jumping up and grabbing my arm. Goofy cat.

In other news… a rejection arrived in my inbox Saturday for the MAGIC book. I’m really not surprised and it wasn’t a bad rejection. The agent was gracious and told me placing the book would be difficult. I guess there’s just not a huge market for fantasy with romantic elements. I have another place I can sub it to, though. The only question is…continue with the rewrite? Or sub the previous final version? I haven’t decided yet.

It’s turned cold here. It was very windy on Saturday. After running around town, we came home and had hot chocolate, popcorn, a movie, and a fire in the fireplace. It was great. Plus I got some nice quality time with my kiddo.

And now it’s back to work. This is the last week of work for me before Christmas. I have the entire next week off. YAY! I’m totally looking forward to it.

Hey ya’ll - I’m giving away a $15 gift card to Starbucks over at the Chicas blog today. Check it out!

So. The other morning started out like usual. The alarm went off and I hit the snooze button. But them I went back to sleep. Hard enough to start dreaming in those short nine minutes between snoozes. The dream I had sparked something when the alarm went off again - a great idea for a new full-length novel!

I couldn’t stop thinking about it the entire time I was getting ready for work. In fact, as soon as I got to my desk, I wrote out a three-page synopsis. I sent it to my Best Good Friend. Her response was: “OMG THIS BOOK IS GOING TO MAKE YOU FAMOUS”.

I think I blushed when I read that email response.

When I talked to her later about it, she said she was immediately engrossed in the story and couldn’t wait for me to get it written. I told my new man about it, too. He thought it was a cool idea (he reads everything from Dan Brown to Tom Clancy to Raymond Khoury - he likes those kind of books). He told me the next day that I needed to “get on that”.

Just the positive response alone from the synopsis is making me all fired up about the book. Best Good Friend has a book about Roman armor (did I mention it’s set in the Roman Empire?) she’s going to loan me.

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the story either. I had a particular scene in my head, too, so I wrote it out (5 pages worth). Oh, and the working title is Til Death Do Us Part. And yes, it’s a romance but there is lots of action, conspiracies, assassins… it’s great fun.

I’ve made a commitment to myself to finish Take Me I’m Yours this month. Pretty sure I can do it if I can just focus.

Anyway - I want 2008 to be a much better writing year than 2007. I sold NOTHING this year. Next year, I want to change that. I can do it. I will do it.

And on that note -Happy Thursday, ya’ll! I’m off to work.

 

1. jenny 2. patois

3. Carmi - Written Inc. 4. Games-Video 5. You're next!

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You know…I love those days at work where everything is sort of low key. I got stuff done in the aftermath of the banquet but I didn’t have to kill myself to get it done. So it’s all good.

And I have hockey tickets! I’ve already decided I’m taking my Best Good Friend. We’re going to have a girl’s night out. And drool over hockey boys. And drink beer. And park for free! It totally rocks. I can’t wait. It’s the February 20 game against Calgary. WOO!

In other news… I will be getting back to writing. The Zokoutu Word Meter is back and I put back up my tallies. My goal is to finish Take Me I’m Yours this month. I have three weeks and I should be able to get ‘er done. I want to get it polished up and submitted to Samhain by the first of the year.

And then I want to work on the Magic book and then the dragon book and then I have another contemporary I want to get written (working title is Coffee, Tea or Me).

It’s never too soon to make resolutions to mine this year is to write more! Sell more! Get more done! Make a marketing plan. And write more! Sell more!

See a pattern? I thought so.

And in case you’re interested, the Chicas are giving away stuff this week so stop by if you can. And MOI will be giving away a $15 giftcard to Starbucks for all you java deprived souls. That’s on Thursday.

Anyway. I must dash. It’s that time of morning where the work hour begins. Am I writing today? YOU BET!

As Lara says… Go me!

Colleene Gleason is doing a great thing. She’s challenging all of us to Pay It Forward this year. And she’s giving away stuff for the effort!

All you have to do is one unexpected, kind thing for the person of your choice through December 19. She’ll do a drawing on December 20 for the winner.

And that’s all you have to do. Cool, huh?

The banquet is behind me for another year. The Christmas party is done… and I am one tired gal.

But it was all good. There were a few hitches on the banquet, but it went rather smoothly for the most part. We raised over $1000 and received nearly 300 toys for our Toys For Tots drive. Very generous. 

And the best part… I won tickets to a February hockey game! WOOHOO!!

Yeah. I’m totally happy. PLUS - we had celebrity cut-outs and I got my picture with John Wayne. I’ll post them soon.

Now I’m off to have a relaxing day. I’m not doing anything more strenuous than laundry today. LOL

Today is the big day. And boy am I glad it’s going to be all over with. I’m tired. Exhausted, actually. Mentally, emotionally and physically. I’m ready to sit down and put my feet up and just do NOTHING for a while.

Unfortuantely, that’s not gonna happen.

Thursday was a very hectic day for me. And very unstable on an emotional level. Lots happening and I think everything just hit me at once and I finally had a mini-breakdown. Ever have one of those days where all you want to do is sit and cry? Yep, that was me. Stupid. Totally stupid. I have to pull myself together.

The nice thing is - everything was taken to the hotel on Thursday and unloaded. So, it’s nice to think that everything is there. I hope to hell I didn’t forget anything.

All the prizes have been put together and are ready for winning.

All the table decorations are ready for placement.

All the directionals and posters have been printed and mounted.

All the name tags and certificates have been printed and distributed.

Everything should be in place.

So. Hopefully we can pull this off without any major SNAFUs.

More later.

SO.

It’s banquest week - as you all probably know from previous posts. And I’ve been a mad woman trying to get everything finished.

On Tuesday when I had my Great Printer Debacle, I finally started to print the name tags for the entire company - about 550 of them. We havet this movie theme going for the banquet this year, so the name tags were going to say “Now Starring.” Clever, eh?

So, I’m printing along thinking I’m getting it all done when I suddenly notice (after printing about 100+) that is says… Now Staring instead of Now Starring. And of course, spell check wouldn’t pick this up because it is a proper word.

Can you imagine the string of expletives I delivered? Most of them under my breath since I do work in an office where folks could get offended by F-Bombs going off. Thankfully, I had enough labels to print the remaining name tags - but just barely. At least I had room for error. But I was totally sweating.

Especially after having to reprint 463 certificates that had the wrong year on them. Go me!

Ah well. Tomorrow is the big day. I’m sure it’ll go off without a hitch.

But as for me… I’m Now Staring.

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