When it All Clicks

I'm going to have to tear up a bunch of what I wrote but I now know what needs to happen. I know what was missing from my draft. I'm so happy. I thought I would fear having to discard so many painstakingly written words. But, maybe that was the problem. They were each torn from me. The words didn't flow and now I see the way...

Life Lessons from a Stray Cat

I was just settling myself in for a writing session when the phone rang... my old boss. They may be able to hire me back!!!! I need to chill because it's not 100% approved and I should know next week but I'm so elated.

This is when yoga or tai chi would really come in handy. Too bad I dropped those classes at the beginning stages!

Now my concentration is shot. I just want to eat cake and watch TV.

I need to chill out like the stray cat who's stealing a nap on my deck. Now there's a dude who knows a thing or two about taking it easy and our lives are eerily similar. We're both jobless. Our next meals are in question... but do you see it worrying him?

Good Times in My TBR Pile

Like many folks, I've but the brakes on discretionary spending. This has affected everything from vacations to gasp ... book purchases! So I'm taking time out to read the items that I purchased in the past year. And I'm having a pretty good time of it. What I'm reading and how I've liked those selections are posted on Good Reads.

It's a pretty cool site that lets you organize and display your "bookshelf" on the web for all your friends to see. You can write reviews, see who's reading what and just generally be geeked out by books. I love it. And, I now have my TBR pile all accounted for and in front of me so I can see if I really need to buy more books. Not likely!!

I also reacquainted myself with the local library. They have a rather large selection of romance novels. I was really surprised to see this. The building looks like a dingy 70's special but it's so inviting inside. I was instantly comfortable... except that I've totally forgotten how to find anything on the shelves. the whole dewey decimal system is just an empty phrase to me. I will try to channel my 5th grade library skills or humble myself and ask for assistance because I have a feeling this is going to be my home away from home for a while.

Ok ~ I am going to slog through my stupid edits on my hated WIP. It's actually the process that I'm hating and the fact that I still have nothing but a pile of paper to show for my efforts. I think that my Sig Other has totally abandoned faith that this will ever lead to anything concrete. I'm losing faith too but I refuse to admit defeat.

My Crazy Summer

A LOT has happened this summer. Mostly of the not-so-good variety of happenings. The kind of stuff you don't want to blog about as it's going on but can list out objectively, without the pain of being so close up on it anymore.

Lost My Day Job for the second time this year. I should see this as a freeing experience but I'm so preoccupied with replacing that income stream that it's been hard to enjoy anything about this time off. I need to take advantage of all this time for my writing. I want to have something concrete to show for this time off. But I feel catatonic, listless.

Dad Has a Brain Tumor and is majorly depressed. He had a major seizure and when he was hospitalized, the doctors discovered the tumor. The question now is whether he should have surgery or follow a wait-and-see approach. Wait to see if it turns aggressive. Wait to see if it turns malignant. It's been a grueling ordeal for him and the family.

Health Issues of My Own. I have had my own health scare and hospitalization this summer. And coupled with the job loss, I soon won't have health insurance. I'm not so much worried about the state of my health moving forward. My doctor was fantastic. I'm just going through some residual head trauma.

And there are the edits to my WIP. I am sooo hating my work right now. I just want to throw it out and start on something new.

Edit Hell

I'm editing my MS and it's weirdly enjoyable. It's like I'm back in grade school and been gifted with the teacher's red pen. Yes, I always tried to be the teacher's pet.

I am getting to some scary sections that really need to be rewritten. But I knew this was coming. I needed to have thrown whole scenes out months ago bit I was a coward. I didn't want to waste a single word but bad writing is not worth keeping ~ even when it inflates one's word count and ego.

I guess that's a newbie mistake ~ clinging to writing that is no good.

Well ~ as soon as the day job let's out for the day, I'm back over to the red pen!

First Time for Everything!

I printed out a my complete WIP today ~ all 278 pages! That's amazing to me. I can hardly believe it. Now ~ it's not that I'm done but rather, I need to get my hands on the pages to actually do some editing. Yikes ~ the pages are coming out and I realized that I don't have numbers at the bottom. Crap. I gotta keep this thing in order or at least hand number.

That's the quick check-in. I've been dreading this moment for a long time but I really need to edit!

When Insults Had Class...

I received one of those pesky forwarded messages but this one was very "writerly" so I decided to share. And if, like me, you have a finely tuned sense of schadenfreude, you should enjoy these...

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, "If you were my
husband I'd give you poison," and he said, "If you were my wife, I'd
drink it."

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the
gallows or of some unspeakable disease." "That depends, Sir," said
Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." -
Winston Churchill

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about." - Winston
Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great
pleasure." Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the
dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
- Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time
reading it." - Moses Hadas

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I
know." - Abraham Lincoln

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I
approved of it." - Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar
Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a
friend.... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill


"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is
one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." -
Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."
- Irvin S. Cobb


"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." -
Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." Jack E.
Leonard

"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt." - Robert Redford

"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human
knowledge." - Thomas Brackett Reed

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." -
Charles, Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on
it?" - Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West


"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." -
Oscar Wilde

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support
rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho
Marx