So Long Til Next Year

Thanks everyone for your prayers and commiserations. The old house has become a much bigger sucker-upper of my time than I would have imagined. They haven't finished gutting all of the downstairs yet. We're still trying to get the upstairs floors dry with dehumidifiers and these huge fans that are like giant hair dryers on steriods. There's like ten in each room. You can barely get around them. And yet the floor's still wet.

Considering my plate was already fuller than I like it, the Great Flood of '06 just sent it crashing to the floor. So when I read that one blogger agent was taking the rest of the year off--from agenting and blogging--I liked that idea a lot. While I love blogging as a way of keeping in touch will all my cyberspace friend, I just don't have the brain cells to think of anything to blog about, other than whining about the sorry state of both my houses. I don't even enjoy that so I'm sure you all wouldn't either.

So I'm taking a Christmas break from blogging: my gift to myself. I'll see you all back here in the new year. And it's kind of a gift to you too: one less blog to check each day. :)

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope yours is wonderful.

If your smoke detector catches on fire . . .

. . . it’s a good thing the water leaking through the ceiling puts it out.

Sunday we drove up to our old house, the one that’s for sale, to find water running out the garage door. I thought, “Oh, crap. The water heater broke.” But nothing was in the garage that could be too damaged by water. It would be a pain to clean up and replace, but doable.

Until we lifted the garage door.

And water was pouring off it.

And off the garage ceiling.

A burst pipe?

We run inside to find this.

It’s raining inside our house. But not outside.


What I want to know is, if it’s raining, where’s the rainbow?

A river runs through it.

Can’t wait to see our water bill this month.

Apparently (and I’m going to use passive voice here since the perpetrator is unknown) the master bathtub was stopped up and the faucet turned on full blast sometime twelve or eighteen hours previously.

Okay, I’ve said before my life is fodder for my blog. And then the other day I was saying I had nothing to blog about. But really, God, I could have done with something far less dramatic. Or something that was good news . . . like a book contract.


Can’t wait to see what our water bill is this month.

Oh, and I guess the house is off the market.

Someone Else's Adventure

Go check out my dear friend and crit partner, Jenny Cary's blog. I think hanging out with me is rubbing off on her. And maybe not for the better. Her adventure sounds eerily like something that would happen to me.

The Sound of Silence

What’s that? Can you hear it? Nope? That’s because there’s nothing to hear. Unless it’s the slight crackle as the fizzle goes out of my Nano efforts. Sigh. Didn’t come close to finishing 50,000 words. I got just over halfway there.

It’s a hard time of year to do Nano with the holidays. Plus, we’re coming off a big move. I still don’t have a desk or an office or a routine, which makes it very hard for me to write. And then the kids got sick. As usual, life interrupts writing.

However, I’m not too bummed. I’m 25,000 words farther in my story than I was a month ago. I didn’t expect to hit 50,000 words, I just wanted to get myself back into the groove of writing. And it did help to some extent. I can now see the end of my book, though I’m not sure I’ll type those magic words, The End, before this year does. But I’m thinking about my characters and where they’re going. I have some ideas of things I want to layer in on the next round of revisions. So over all it was a great experience. I still might even get some chocolate out of it . . .

It's Carnival Time Again

I'm over at the Carnival of Christian Writers today, swinging on the merry-go-round. Well, not too much because I'll get sick. Anyhow, there are a lot of good articles over there today so go check it out.

Not Sure What This Says About Us . . .

While we were making the five-plus-hour trek to Palm Springs (that's five hours each way, in one day) to spend Thanksgiving with Peter’s family, I happened to notice something interesting. Three of the four people in the car had headphones/ear buds on. Peter was listening to his real estate classes on an MP3 player in preparation for taking his licensing test. I was pounding away on my Mac (sans earphones, but I had a pair in my bag). My daughter was listening to her CD player and singing along. And Calvin was watching Cars on the portable DVD player (courtesy of Grandma) while looking at the Black Friday toy ads.

Not sure what this says about us, but we have gadgets and we’re not afraid to use them to keep ourselves occupied on a long car ride. Beats singing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” or the Christian version that we sang on youth group outings “99 Bottles of Coke.”

But their is cool side of technology too. We took my laptop inside and Peter was able to share with his father a video from YouTube. It was a documentary on famous Hungarian soccer player, Ferenc Puskas. His dad was really impressed.

. . .

Two things I hate about using my computer in the car. One, the glare. I end up squinting because I can’t wear my sunglasses and see the screen. Also the screen is just plain hard to see anytime you use it outside (I have this same problem when I take it outside to work while the kids play). Sometimes, though, that’s a good thing. It keeps you typing away on your WIP without really looking at the words and editing.

The other annoying thing is the trackpad. When the car bounces, even slightly just from normal road stuff, my hand hits the trackpad and all of the sudden I’m typing in another document or a different part of the same documents. And because of the screen glare, I don’t always notice it right away. I can’t always figure out where the cursor is either.

When I had my PC laptop, I would get frustrated at night. The glare was gone, but I couldn’t see the black keyboard. So, when I got my Mac, I specifically got one with a lighted keyboard. That is very cool. Of course I have this odd bluish glow on my face that occasionally gets me strange looks from passing cars.

I still tend to be pretty productive in the car. I’ll never forget finishing my first novel just as we were approaching Phoenix on the way back from California. The scenery between Phoenix and Palm Springs is nothing special. I’m bored, so I might as well write, and I have no Internet connection to distract me. However, if I even get a broadband connection, that might change.

He Wrote, She Wrote . . . You Could Learn Something

Bob Mayer and Jenny Crusie co-wrote a romantic adventure Don't Look Down that released last April. Last January they started a blog, He Wrote, She Wrote, detailing the adventures of writing with a partner, the writing business, and Living the Dream. They're pretty hysterical to read, plus they share great advice on the craft of writing.

Starting in January 2007, their blog is going to be dedicated to the craft of writing. Basically, it'll be a free on-line class where you can ask questions in the comment section. I've listened to both of them teach on CDs from RWA conferences and they are both very good at it. It's going to be a great resource, one I plan to take advantage of. Plus, it's free. You can't beat that.

Nano update: As you can see, I finally cracked 20K. Not even half way to the goal. I'm not going to make it. At this point, I'm hoping to make 35K, which is a good pace for me normally if I make my daily writing word count.

And, I'm still beating all my buddies . . . someone owes me chocolate.

Is Your Book Addiction Ruining Your Financial Future?

This tongue-in-check article from The New Yorker playfully considers how our addiction to books could be robbing us of a secure financial future. Those of us who would seriously consider blowing the grocery budget on a shopping spree at a bookstore will find it particularly amusing.

(credit to Lisa Samson, though I'm so far behind on blogs, y'all probably have read it by now)

Lessons from Nano

I think I lost a week while Nano has been kicking my butt. About 8000 words short of where I’d like to be, and I don’t think I’ll hit 50,000 words, but still I’m making progress. I’ve been doing some brainstorming . . . and I’m quite happy with some ideas I want to go back and layer in after I’ve finished this crappy rough draft. So that is inspiring me to push on.

It’s been interesting doing this project while I’m in the middle of the book. The middles are the hardest for me, where I want to most give up, where I think none of this is ever going to come together, where I threaten to kill off my main characters because they’ve grown independent of me, gotten an attitude and aren’t doing what I tell them to do. So forcing myself to push on without giving much thought to character arcs, plot threads, etc. has been freeing. I’ve come up with some good stuff, probably a lot of crappy stuff, but overall it’s been a good experience. It also doesn’t hurt that I’m still ahead of everyone on my buddy list . . .

On two other nonwriting related notes. . . the back yard is done, all but for some stucco painting. So when that’s done, I’ll post the final pictures. Sorry, Chris, the ferris wheels didn’t make the final cut.

And my son did this one day. That was the salt shaker. I thought it was an interesting statement. Feel free to analyze in the comments.

NaNoWriMo

Yes, it's that time of year. November is National Novel Writing Month. I've never participated in NaNoWriMo before. Usually I'm furiously trying to finish a book, not start one. But this year, due to things like painting and selling a house, major rewrites on last year's book, and general procrastinating, I only have half a book done. And since I'd hate to go a whole year without finishing a book, I decided NaNo would be a perfect way to shove my perfectionism in a closet and help me write a, um, crappy rough draft.

Technically with NaNo, you're supposed to be writing a new book. So I'm not doing it the official way. What else is new? But I do hope to get 50,000 words written this month. It's not too bad, actually. It works out to 2000 words a day, six days a week. I don't write on Sundays. Not legalistic, it's just that I could so easily be a workaholic when it comes to writing that taking a day off is my gift to God . . . and my family. But I generally write about 1500 words a day when I'm in my writing groove. And, if I get to the 50,000 word goal, my book will be mostly done by the end of the month, well on the way to my goal of having it done by the end of the year.

But it's Day Three of NaNo and I'm already behind. I spent the first two days rereading what I'd written up to this point. However, today I hit my daily goal, as evidenced by the neat little tracking widget under the NaNo icon on the sidebar to the right. Since I'm putting my goal out there, feel free to encourage, harass, mock . . . whatever. And if you're doing NaNo, leave your user name in the comments and we can add each other to the buddy lists.

Making Progress . . .

The back yard when we bought the house. Well, two-thirds of the yard anyway.

The back yard three days ago. The center thing is the built-in barbeque. The other two are raised planters.

The back yard yesterday. I have plants! I was amazed at how quickly these guys worked. It took about six guys and a cool machine one day to do what took me about a month by myself in a yard half this size. I'm so glad they were doing all the work. According to the foreman, I should have my yard done by the end of the week. I'll be glad not to have dirt and mud tracked into the house constantly by the dog and kids.

The Carnival of Christian Writers

You can catch me over there today, along with a lot of other cool writer types. So . . . what are you waiting for?

Calvin as a Photog?

I went to download pictures off my digital camera the other day in preparation for the trip to see the Blue Angels. I wanted to make sure I had as much space as possible. I really need to get a memory card for that thing. Anyhow, I was surprised to find 17 pictures on it since I only remembered taking a few. It was still sitting in the dock, recharging.

I pressed the button to transfer the pictures. And was quite surprised to find these.

Somehow “Calvin” figured out how to 1) take the camera off the dock, 2) turn it on, and 3) take pictures with it. Pretty good for a five year old. A lot of adults can’t get that far.

Given the unique composition and his approach to the subject matter, I’m thinking he might have a future as a photojournalist. Certainly this looks like an abstract painting, the colors bold and slightly out of focus, yet not hiding the power of the dinosaur. And the material is unique, showing his out-of-the box creativity: it's one of his shirts.



Here I think he's saying something about scale. Buzz is a space ranger, so clearly his powers exceed that of a mere helicopter.





And this one. Certainly he's making a statement about his desire to learn to read so the "light" will go on. Or maybe we've sung "This Little Light of Mine" one too many times. Or maybe he just likes anything that looks like fire.



Again with the perspective. Maybe he wants to feel bigger than a car?

Of course all of this presupposes he lives to see six. He and his sister were trying to lower each other over the wall from the loft to the stairwell using a jump rope. Luckily, they were trying to pull UP and neither was strong enough. However, there are now rope burns on the wall. So, maybe a rappelling photo journalist?

One other thing. If you’re curious about what kind of purses different writers would carry, check out Jenny’s blog. Can you guess the genre by the purse?

Back yard update: The work has begun, so more on that later.

Leslie and Russell at Scenes and Beans

If you’re a Russell Fink fan (and, really, who isn’t?) hop over to Scenes and Beans, and see how he and Leslie meet up. Leave a comment if you’re so inclined.

The fun thing about this post was that Mike and I actually got to write it together in Dallas instead of e-mailing copies back and forth. It’s always interesting writing with a partner. Everyone has his or her own way of coming up with ideas and putting them down on paper, so even though we’ve been crit partners for a year, I wasn’t sure how that would translate into actually writing together.

I should have known. We only disagreed on one point (which I let him win) and had way too much fun writing together . . . and honestly, I had no idea what to expect when he e-mailed me the final file after I got home. We were getting pretty silly at the end. But it turned out so much better than anything we would have written separately.

And guess what? Apparently you can say dog poop in the CBA.

. . .

Blue Angels and Balloons

We went to see the Blue Angels Friday. They haven’t been in the Valley since 2001. We’ve seen the Thunderbirds twice out at Luke AFB since we’ve been here, but the Blue Angels always feel a little bit like home. In Orange County we lived near the now-shuttered El Toro MCAS and the Blue Angels would come to the air show there every year. For three days we could stand on our back patio and watch the whole show.

I haven’t seen the Blue Angels in nearly ten years, but earlier this year on the Military Channel, they did a documentary on them, following them through their training and show circuit. What always amazes me is the small or nonexistent margin for error. You space out for a second or have an off day and you can take yourself and your fellow pilots into eternity in an instant. Not exactly like writing where you get multiple chances to get it right.

The great thing about this air show was that it was a smaller, private airfield. We went on Friday, the practice day, so it wasn’t crowded at all, and we were close to the centerline on the airfield. Which meant that, at points, they were only 50 feet above our heads.

When I watch them, for just a minute, I forget there’s such a thing as gravity.

The other cool thing was the after-dark show. A plane danced across the sky with pyrotechnics coming off the wings and shooting flares. I’ve never seen anything like it. Then the hot air balloons lined up on the flight line, and began inflating. It was cool to see that happen, these giant balloons swaying in the evening breeze like giant Japanese lanterns.

Not Really News

I'm sure this isn't news to any of you, and I am woefully late getting it posted, but I still wanted to take the opportunity to brag on my awesome friend and crit partner, Mike Snyder. In case a few of you hadn't heard the news yet. Mike was selected as the editor's choice in fiction for the new literary journal, Relief for his short story "All Healed Up". I've read the story, and it's my personal favorite . . .

Subscribe to Relief to get Mike's story and all the other selections of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Also, Relief is looking for submissions, so if you have something to submit, send it in. And go check out Relief's website. Mike's bio is the most entertaining.

Also, Robin Cynclair has good news. Her romantic suspense, Bayou Burning was contracted by Steeple Hill. Yay Robin!

Anyone else have any writing news to share?

Blog Tour with Alison Strobel

Between here and the past, there lies a place……a place of longing for what has been rather than hoping for what could be.

A true artist, Violette is passionate and emotional. Climbing back into life after suffering a loss, she teeters on the precipice of a new relationship with Christian, a psychologist who not only understands her struggles but offers safety and his heart. As Violette and Christian begin to feel something they both thought impossible, tragedy strikes again. Violette becomes trapped in a place of past memories–and she finds that she may not want to come back.

What would it be like to choose a place between the past and the present?

This is the dilemma facing Violette in Violette Between, Alison Strobel's latest book that is on blog tour this week.

I really enjoyed this book. If you like Lisa Samson and Susan Meissner, there's a good chance you'll like Alison Strobel. Her use of language and her ability to look at honest emotions in nontypical ways make this book refreshing. And if I weren't so tired, I could probably say something even more descriptive about it.

And here's an interesting fact: Alison and I also lived in the same condo complex in Orange County at the same time for about a year. Although we didn't know it at the time. So, if that's not reason enough to go out and buy the book, I don't know what is.

Our House

We're officially in our new house now. It's been an interesting experience. First of all, my poor cat, Duchess, has been through more moves than she has lives. Poor thing. One time when Peter and I moved into married student housing at UCI we couldn't find her for the longest time. Until I opened up the kitchen drawer. It stuck. I pulled harder. It opened to reveal black striped fur. I screamed and jumped back before I realized it was her. She had climbed up inside it from a cupboard and was hiding. At least is wasn't a giant mouse. We had plenty of the little ones there, which kept Duchess busy.

I'd like to think that after all the moves she's adapted. But this time around, we moved with a dog, something she hadn't experienced before. She got to ride in the middle seat between the kids in her carrier while Charlie was in the back drooling on her. She stayed very quiet the whole trip instead of meowing pitieously as usual.

Here, almost everyone is in one of the building trades, plus there's a sheriff's deputy and a Navy guy. And about 15 kids on our cul-de-sac. Should be great for the kids.

But one of the best things for me was driving out here among the sheep and the cows and seeing the stars. We can see stars. Now we could see stars at our old house. Never could in California. But here, there's zero light pollution. Very, very cool.

And I've included a few pictures of our new neighbors.

















































And last, but not least, Arizona snow, AKA cotton.

I'll Be Back Soon . . . Promise

I know I need to blog about something, and I have some ideas, but I'm a little distracted right now with moving and other things . . .

But later this week I'll have an interview with Alison Strobel, author of Violette Between and Worlds Collide. She and I have an interesting connection, but you'll have to read the interview to find out.

So until then, feel free to make up random comments. Probably will be more interesting than anything I could come up with right now anyway.

Our New Backyard

We got the drawings from the landscape designer this week for the backyard on our new house. I was pretty amazed. Considering Peter and I designed and put in the whole landscaping at our current house, it was such a relief to have someone else do all the heavy lifting of the design work and physical labor. The fact that the builder was throwing this package in was a major factor in selling us on the house. The backyard is a quarter of an acre, about twice the size of what we have right now, and I can't imagine doing all that work myself.

Unlike the first landscaper we worked with (and subsequently got fired), this guy was amazing. It was so much fun to sit down with him with the prelimary sketch I'd made and have him refine it and make suggestions that made the backyard exactly what I wanted. Reminded me a lot of the critique/editing process in writing. Two large grass areas and a play area surround the central patio with a built-in barbeque and bar. The trees are situated to block the neighbors' houses but not our view of the mountains. And the plants were specificially chosen to be rolling palette of color.

It may seem like I'm putting a lot of importance on the backyard. One of the reasons we moved to Arizona was to have a yard. In California, we never would have been able to afford a house with an actual yard. But with two kids who have a LOT of energy and gorgeous weather nine months out of the year here, the backyard is an extension of our house. It's where we'll spend most of our time. And if the kids are happy out there running around, I can sit on my porch swing and get some writing done. Of course as Malia will probably tell you, Charlie, the dumb dog, thinks he belongs on the porch swing. I really don't like dog hair in my laptop.

Come Thanksgiving, the whole yard should be done. I can't wait.