A Little Blah-Blah-Blah

Going to my first AYSO board meeting tonight. Dinner - paid for! Woot!

Took the fam shopping today - Dropped the guys at Home Depot, took the girls shopping for party stuff. Cannot find a mini-tea set anywhere! Argh!

David had an eye appointment today - increased prescription, ordered glasses. Two to three weeks and they'll be in.

Party planning driving me insane. Why did I volunteer for this again? Eeeeeek! She wanted a nice easy sleepover. lol OK, when the sleepover sounds BETTER? then I know I'm insane.

Watched Galaxy Quest for the first time this week. Very funny! Laughed and laughed. David found it extremely amusing too. On my second disc of NCIS Season 1. We like it. Remember I was looking for a current TV show to watch on DVD? Think I've found it.

Just something I wanna say - Whining drives me batty. For some reason, and I'm sure it's not present company, this has come to the forefront of my mind.

No house painting has happened yet. Monday it rained. Yesterday Bob realized he had no masking tape. Bought some today. So maybe now we can begin. Oh wait, yeah, PARTY on Friday. @@ and it's supposed to rain tomorrow. It was supposed to rain today too, but it didn't. It better not rain on Friday.

Both the queries I sent on Monday got rejections the same night. Dang, those agents are fast! Edited some yesterday. Maybe I can edit a little more before I have to head out. I've been working on the laptop, since it isn't hooked to the internet. Then I don't get as distracted. lol

OK, I'm off! You feel free to hang out and do your thing.

Today's Writing.

I am going to start a writing blog (yes, another blog, lol) as soon as I can think of a good name. That way, you don't have to read it if you're not interested, plus readers of my future published books can read it without me having to open up this personal blog to all of them.

Today I wrote 3 more query letters. It's not the writing that takes so long; it's finding the agents to query. I'll wax poetic about that process some other day.

I also typed 1247 words of my new novel, the one set in the 40's. I have about the same amount written that still needs to be typed. I am aiming for this one to be more like 75,000 words (rather than the 50,000 of my NaNoNovel).

I did some research on nicknames and names of people born around 1910-1916.

Take this job and ......

I quit my job today.

Yep. No longer employed. No longer collecting unemployment.

I am now self-employed! Quite soon I will announce my new business with fanfare.

This week, I am writing query letters (yes, more) and working on my novel. I also hope to get a couple of non-profit writing projects done as samples.

Prayers for my writing are appreciated!

Also, Bob's disability hearing is next Tuesday.

Nearly Empty Schedule, but Full To-Do List

Moving this up to the top position here......

Since I don't have to work this week and there are no scheduled homeschool group activities, I've got a calendar with not much scheduled. But that's never a problem here! lol

I've created another to-do list. Bear with me! I find I get SO MUCH MORE done whenever I have a list, and even more when I know other people are watching my list.

Since we'll be camping next week, I do have a lot to accomplish. I also have promised a couple of friends to spend time with them this week, since I haven't been able to do much of that over the past year.

Also, I need to get crackin' on the writing.

Make the Camping Week schedule
Plan VBS lesson for Wednesday night (I am subbing.)
Make camping menu
Pack for camping (starting Thursday!)
Grocery shop for camping (Sat)
Attend a soccer coach training (decided to skip it)
Make Dentist appt, preferably for this week (nope, not happening!)
Visit Friend A (Sorry Friend A! Maybe in a couple weeks?)
Visit Friend B (Friday) THANKS FRIEND B! (Or should I say Friend 'M.Y.'?)
See Nim's Island at the theatre (cheap matinee, prob Friday with Friend B)
Return the Twilight books I borrowed
order Angel Food
WRITE THAT QUERY LETTER!!!!! I DID IT! IT IS WRITTEN!
SEND THAT QUERY LETTER!!!! I queried 3 agents today. I will look for more later on this week.
Plan the Cinderella class (that might not happen this week)
Type in the parts of my new novel that I have already written
Pop the new camper and put our stuff in it (starting on Thursday!)
Make sure Bob gets the hitch on the van
Get in a schedule of going to bed earlier and getting up earlier (doing ok with getting up, lol)
ADDING MORE STUFF - I like to add stuff and CROSS it off if I did it and it wasn't on my list originally! lol
Complete Safe Haven Training for soccer (online training)
Figure out where my paycheck went and why I don't have it yet
Make my unemployment claim (Tues 5-6pm, dang! I missed it! Makeup time is Thurs/Fri.)
TEACH the VBS Lesson (Wed night)
Buy some copy paper & envelopes
Figure out how to get music onto my phone without buying the music kit (I ordered a mini USB card reader thingie that should work. When it arrives, I'll try it.)
File the DBA paperwork This was to register my business name.
Dye my hair (bought the dye! That's step 1! lol)
Order business cards
Transfer title for camper and buy a plate for it
Add my query letter/novel info to my business website
Wrote letter for new soccer players and addressed envelopes
Wrote parent information sheet for soccer team
Call work to see if I am still laid off
Buy a new camera

The list just keeps getting longer! lol

My boys want to see Clone Wars which comes out this Friday in theatres. (Yes, it's all new, according to the ads.) Maybe that'll happen on a rainy camping week day, if there is one.

Querying

I got mad earlier today and then I used that passion to get the query letter done. (Yeah, yeah, don't give me any of that stuff about Bella. lol) I am pretty pleased with how it turned out, but I guess we'll see if the agents like it.

I sent the letter to three agents via email. One agent routinely asks for the first 10 pages of the novel and a synopsis along with the query letter, so that went out as well, to that one. I found the agents on agentquery.com.

Tons more agents remain to be queried, but I'll do a few at a time to allow them some time to peruse my query. It often takes weeks or months to get a response.

PLAY vs. Work

I haven't accomplished a lot this week. We've PLAYED a lot, but not a lot of work got done. Let's see.

Visited family Sunday & Monday - PLAY
Drove home 2-1/2 hours - Work.
Took kids to dentist - Work.
Took David to pick up new glasses - Work.
Supported homeschool group at DQ fundraiser - PLAY.
Played homeschool kickball game - PLAY.
Went to local fair - PLAY.
Read Eclipse and Breaking Dawn - PLAY.
Went grocery shopping - Work.
Set up new cell phone - PLAY.
Looked for campers on craigslist - PLAY.
Looked at one camper, made offer on it, and agreed to purchase - PLAY (sort of!)
Tried to write query letter and was stumped - Work.
Took the kids to the beach - PLAY
Went to co-op registration - registered kids, attended teacher meeting, and connected with friends - some PLAY.
Worked on my LOTR Gift app on facebook - PLAY.

A lot more play than work on that accomplishment list!

The only things I had left over from last week's to-do list were ironing and writing the query letter. Neither is done. :::exhales in frustration:::: I better get that ironing done tonight. I have a couple movies I could watch.

And the query letter....

I like to write.

Editing update - I have the whole book edited on the second go-through. It's 123 pages long and 49307 words. Now I have to write a synopsis (about 4-5 pages) so I can begin to query publishers and agents.

However, I realized I am missing a key scene - important information that will inevitably cause a conflict. Where I THOUGHT I could put it isn't going to work. At least I don't think so. So, now I have to figure out where to put this scene. The scene is mostly written - it just needs the specifics to make it fit in the proper place.

A friend told me I should keep writing because I like it, not because it might make me some money. I resisted that idea at first. I didn't really think I was doing this because I like it. I got the idea because I love a well-crafted challenge, and because I thought it would jump-start my non-fiction writing career by getting me in the habit of writing.

However, I realized just today, when I woke UP thinking about the previously-mentioned key scene, that my friend was right. I DO like writing. The creation of characters that seem to come alive on paper. The effectiveness of the precise word choices in creating a mood. The ability to move scenes around to better fit the plot! The power of the thesaurus!

So, yes, I do enjoy writing! I will keep doing it. I hope I am effective at it and can sell my writing. But I think I'll keep doing it regardless.