Library Fail

    Today I loaded up my two-year old and 2-month old and we drove 20 mins to the nearest library. It was also pouring rain which I was all about because coming from the desert, there is nothing more exciting than a booming downpour to shake up the weather.
 
  So we're soaking wet by the time I get them loaded into the car and then out of the car and into the library. But it's worth it because there's a little cafe off the front foyer that I'm dying to go back to and write in, and a flat screen tv behind the information desk with advertisements for tots' reading time, adult book club in the fireplace room etc. I'm standing there with a big grin on my face because I love libraries and this one is sweet.

   Then I get up to the counter dripping water everywhere and present my change of address form to get a card. I totally get REJECTED. Because it didn't have my first name, only my last on the page. I tried to tell the kindly lady that my license has my former address printed on it which is also printed on the change of address form but it was a no-go. I seriously got all teary and it was embarrassing and I hope the lady didn't notice and I wheeled us back out to the rain.

 Maybe it's hormones. Maybe it's my still-newborn-stage-lack-of-sleep. Or maybe it was the feeling that heaven's doors were closed before me after I had tried to live a worthy life. Anyway, it was horrible. The library is in my top three favorite places to be in the entire world and all of that goodness was closed to me and my little'ins. So, back out into the pouring rain which had somehow (or maybe it was just me) seemed to be pouring even harder and colder. Suck.

 So now we're home eating lunch. In my new "I love to clean. I'm all about cleaning" mantra I'm trying hard to embrace, I have of course thrown out every envelope that might possibly, probably had my name on it. Then I found a receipt from when I signed up for electricity. Does that count? Has my full name on it..it's a receipt for payment for turning on electricity and my address right there under my name. I am going to call and see. I'm determined to get in there. They can't shut me out! haha.

 That said, I'm slightly lagging behind on my ms. I've gotten it into my head to build most of the furniture we are needing. Such as bookshelves, a tv console, a dresser etc.. I just can't find what I like on the market and am unwilling to pay $400 for a cheap dresser glued together and glazed. So I'm really psyched about it but there goes most of my free time when I was already trying to claw out as much time for writing. I've decided to set some concrete goals:

   End of Nov (and Nanowrimo) MS complete
   End of Dec: Round 1 Crit partners finished
   Jan: Proffessionl edit and personal edits from Crit partners, cover design an formatting, scrounging up advertising/marketing.
   Feb: Marketing, ARCs, release info, reviewers selected.
   Mar: Book release, home-town book release party.

 I hope that's plausible. I've been working and re-working this story for over a year now. I've found that I need a few days of just planning the next set of scenes without any writing. Then, I take a week of great writing until I get to the end of my planning. Then it's back to the drawing board. It makes for slow work but I believe that's the best way I work. At least for this story.

  I do feel a little anxious trying to get all of this done. I mean, we don't have ANY furniture in our house. (Well, the girls have their cribs and I have our old queen size bed and we have a tiny kitchen set that's falling apart. But we need a king size bed and a new kitchen set so not sure I count it!) And when I was talking about how to prioritize everything meaning, "do I put my book on the back burner until we're more settled in?" Or, "do I put building furniture on the back burner until my book is done?" To me, they are both needs. I go crazy if I don't write. And, frankly, I'm a little nervous that the elements that make up my book will go out of style and a new wave will come in and all this work will be passe. Dystopian. Paranormal. Magic. Those have been around for a bit and sniffing the wind, I wonder if they are starting to fade? Agents are looking for epic fantasies and sci-fi these days. So maybe I'm still good.

Well, better go. More later!

Back in the Saddle

 
 
     Ah it's good to be back. ::Leans back in buttery leather chair, sips tea and commences to write:: Having a baby and a cross country move have really shook life upside-down but it's all been good things. I'm loving the midwest atmosphere..it's chilly, the moon lights up everything in an eery blue-ish light and there is the scent of fall slowing creeping in. A perfect atmosphere for writing.

   Work on my story is going really well. A lot of the times when I'm up pacing the floor with the babus, I get time to plot. The hard part is, that the writing itself suffers for lack of time. But, just last night I conversed with the Husband and we have come up with a tentative schedule to allow me more time to write.

   I was looking up PW articles online yesterday (why is an annual subscription $240!? Why!?) and my heart burned with excitement. I love the publishing industry. I love the writing world. I belong in it. There is a high I get whenever I read interesting articles about anything on these topics. In fact, yesterday also bore great news that had me passed out on the bed with excitement. My good friend Veronica had an agent request a full of her latest manuscript. And she's had her ms out there for only a few days! It's going to get picked up. I've read it and it's fantastic. Really well done. So of course I practically pass out from excitement.

         For some history, Veronica and I used to work at a hospital together and every Friday we'd meet up for lunch and discuss our WIPs and our dreams of publishing. That was just over three years ago. Now, it looks like she'll be published. I feel like it is my own manuscript that has been requested. We're part of a super-secret club of closeted novelists and she's the first to "go beyond". I really thought I was sick..my stomach as all excited and I was jittery ha! Imagine what will happen when I publish! haha I don't know if I'll be able to handle it!

   Anyway, there's the good news and it feels so good to be writing and blogging again. More to come!