Fun Blog and Moving On

Well it's been a while, time to post again. First I'd like to share link to a blog that's pretty cool. Rick, a fellow reader of Agent Nathan Bransfords blog, started his own blog called the Public Query Slushpile, the link is http://openquery.blogspot.com/. I posted my query first, because no one else had, and I really wanted this thing to take off. I thought, if one person does, I'm sure others will follow. Well they did, after mine was shredded to bits, (sob, sob) but I loved it. It was nice to have other writers look at it and give me an unbiased opinion.

So, I've started yet another query, which can be re-posted on the above mentioned sight, and hopefully it will be better. Along those same lines, I read a post where a writer mentioned his first novel, which he loved dearly, calling it his precious, and it reminded me of...me. I have come to the conclusion that it's time to put my book (1and 2) on the proverbial shelf and move on. Let them marinate for a bit, things always taste better when they marinate right? After I finish this new query and see if I am at all any closer. Then, I move on. (sigh)

But, I have a new story in my mind, which gets the juices flowing again. I also think some of the problem is...I like to write romance. Not the hot steamy kind, but just a good ole fashioned love story. Fantasy was a bit...forced for me. So, I'll try out what feels natural and see. I may end up right back where I started, but it's the journey that makes it all worth while. So, I step aboard my latest ship of adventure, anxiously looking to the skyline to see where it'll take me.

Now, off to the basement I go. There is a full fledged Rock Band emergency.(thankfully no one called 911) The drums have stopped working (gasp) mid song!!! Squash is quite panicked about this. Battery change me thinks! Super mom to the rescue!

A Happier Story

As requested by Platelet girl, (my number one fan-whoop,whoop) a happy short story. This is another from the IWW group I'm in, the next in line as a matter of fact. The premise for this one was an opening paragraph; make it so good that the reader just has to read more. Of course, it has to be in 400 words or less. So, you tell me how did I do? As a side note, this is actually an opening paragraph for a WIP of mine that is on the back burner while I finish the other book. I am really itching to get this one started, actually, it's constantly playing out in the back of my mind! Soon, soon it will get to be clickity clackity out on word!

Looking back, there were probably a hundred different times I should have told him I couldn’t marry him than the one I had chosen. But I didn’t. As he lifted the veil from my face I just knew. It was at that moment that I discovered I had a backbone and my undying need to please others ceased to exist. What timing. It was then, for the first time in my life that I had done the unexpected, that I had actually done what I wanted.
I looked into his warm brown eyes and said, “I can’t marry you, I’m sorry.”
And then I left. Left the church, left the city, left that life.
I pushed my carry on bag into the overhead compartment on the airplane, buckled my seat belt, and let out a soft sigh. Unexpected; it had become a sort of mantra for me. First the wedding; then I had unexpectedly quit my job. Next I had sent an email to Maura, telling her I’d be there in a day. She had replied that this would be an ‘unexpected surprise’.
Finally I’d made an unexpected stop to mother’s house on my way to the airport to tell her goodbye and left her astonished that she had not been able to make me see her way.
“Margaret, this is so unlike you, you were always such a good girl. It isn’t like you not to listen to Me.” She had said.
I kissed her cheek and climbed back into the cab.
The plane lifted off from the runway. I watched the cars and buildings turn into ants as we climbed; soon only blue water stretched out below us. Next to me sat an unusual man. Not in a bad way, just not in my way.
Unexpected chanted in my head. I threw caution to the wind, tapped him on the shoulder and found my self looking into the darkest pair of eyes I had ever seen.
“Yeah?” he said.
“Hi, I’m Meg.” I said my voice shaking just to spite me.
“And?” he said.
“Umm, well I just wanted to, you know say hello and everything.” I stammered.
He broke into a grin, “Ah don’t go carryin’ on like that love. I’m just pushin’ yer buttons.” He held out his hand, “I’m Ian Meg; it’s a pleasure meetin’ ya.”

Next!

Ok, just a quick one today, menu's to plan and such. This is the next exercise we did. The premise, as usual, was in 400 words or less, show the down fall of a character due to the demons with in. (reader's digest description.) And so, here is mine, which I felt better about. I spent more time on it, (more than 10 minutes, which is always helpful) and let it sit, then edited it. I haven't made any of the suggested changes, which were really good, I was too busy writing other stuff, but it's still alright as is. Ok, anywho, here it is:

I pulled into the garage, shut the door behind me, and sat alone in the dark, dreading what waited for me when I went inside. Two weeks ago Chelle would’ve been inside getting dinner on the table. My son Drake would run screaming “Daddy!” and then fly into my arms. Lucy would be in her highchair munching on a cracker, smiling at me.
That was two weeks ago. I sighed, got out of the car and went into the house. It was dark and quiet, like a tomb. I turned the kitchen light on. Lucy’s empty high chair stared at me from across the room. A toy truck of Drakes, you know the little kind, sat on the counter, I pulled up a bar stool and sat down, pushing it back and forth. It wasn’t long before the tears streamed down my face; soon the sobs replaced the sound of the toy car.
What had I done? I knew it was wrong, with every fiber in my being I knew it was wrong, but still I kept looking. I had to. I couldn’t stop. Chelle had tried for a year to deal with it. At first she had even put pictures of the kids on the computer screen so I would have to look at them first before I looked at my porn. Like it mattered; I just had to get my fix. We had gone to counseling. I fooled her into thinking it was working, while I watched porn videos at work and got up in the middle of the night to look at more on the web. She had caught me doing that too, and still she had stayed. She put up with so much, until I crossed the final line.
She had left me with the kids to go to the store; golden opportunity I thought. I put Lucy to bed, Drake was playing with his trucks, and I was online, getting my fix. I didn’t even hear the garage open. I also didn’t hear Lucy screaming upstairs. Chelle did though when she walked back in to grab her cell phone. She took one look at me, went and got Lucy, took Drake by the hand and left. Even though I was begging her on my knees to stay promising it was the last time. Again. My wails echo in the empty house that was once my home.

IWW Exercises

While in the shower yesterday, (it's where I get all my best ideas!) I thought, I should stick a few of my IWW Practice Write exercises on here, just for the fun of it. So, I'm going to. Now, the majority of these are 'in 400 words or less' type deals, with a topic assigned. So, I'll start at the begining, my first one, which I don't love, so please don't judge me to harshly! I wrote it in ten minutes, then hit send. Not my favorite way to write, I like to let things sit for a bit, then look at them with somewhat fresher eyes. But I was excited to begin and nervouse. Anyway, (enough excuses already) this one was called Generation Gap, the premises being ,write an encounter with someone 70 or older and someone else who is a generation or more, younger. So...here it is, in all it's very unedited glory. (Drum roll please.....)

She heard the tractor running outside.
"What on earth is he plowing now?" She wondered. She wiped her hands on the towel in the kitchen and made her way outside to the yard. Sure enough, there he was sitting on top of the tractor plowing the fifteen rows of green beans he'd planted. Beans that were just now ready to begin picking.
She strode across the lawn and stood in front of the tractor where he could see her.
"Granddaddy what are you doing?" she asked in amazement.
"I don't know why I planted all these beans, no one's going to eat them anyway." he answered, pushing the straw hat back and brushing his silver hair back off his face.
"I would've eaten them, you would've eaten them...." She began, struggling to find the right words for this bizarre situation.
"To much work now to pick them sweetheart." he said smiling, his brown eyes twinkled as he smiled.
She was a sucker for that smile, always had been since she was a little girl. "Well, alright. Are you almost finished? Dinner's just about ready."
"Just about, I want to plow the empty field next to this one, weeds'll be out of hand if I don't get to it soon." he said, reaching to start the tractor back up.
She looked over at the field he reffered to, the one that had just been plowed yesterday. "Oh, well, don't be to long, it's almost time for your pills. You'll eat upstairs with us won't you granddaddy?" she asked.
"Yes lil' darlin', I wouldn't miss it." he said, turned the tractor on and put it in to gear. She had to move quick to get out of the way. He was laughing, it was a trick he'd played on all the kids for years. She watched him as he continued plowing row after row of green beans under. Some people would say it was crazy, but she knew it wasn't, she understood. And that's why she was here.

Chicken Little and Black Clouds

This post is right out of left field; but I think I may be Chicken Little, and the sky may be falling! Seriously, well alright, not literally, but it sure has seemed like it. My poor family, they are unraveling left and right! This has been one heckuva few months for us. But, if you have even the tiniest bit of a sense of humor, (which we all do, thankfully) you can laugh at it. And when it's all added up, then looked at, on one page mind you, it's just crazy. So...here is it 3 mos ago, dad lost his job, (who hasn't at this point), no worries though mom went back to work at a grocery store, not exactly her dream job, but it pays. Oh, I neglected to say that before that, sister Batgirl got a divorce. Then sister Platelet girl got this crazy disease where her body stops making platelets, which they discovered when she was in labor, really great timing there.

This was followed by brother Boy Wonder, losing his job, topped off by him breaking his thumb on one hand, and tearing all the ligaments in his elbow on the other arm. Nice. Pretty fun year so far right? Yeah really fun, but wait, it's not over yet! This week, sister Double H can no longer take her three week headache, as it has become debilitating, and has spent the last two nights in the ER, being testing for everything from strokes to MS. Nice. As for me? Well, sister Batgirl called last night, and said, "I've just got to ask you, to you feel like you've got a black cloud over your head?" I said, "Whatever do you mean sister dear?" (well not quite like that) and her reply was, "You're the last one standing, are you scared?" We both laughed our heads off. Well, I wasn't scared, but now, I'm looking up for black clouds! :)

And through all this, what has my beloved family done? We've circled the proverbial wagons. Meals were brought to those who couldn't prepare them, children were taken in by aunts when their parents had appointments, there were endless phone calls of concern, or the kind where you just listen as the other person unburden their selves. I have the most incredible family, our bonds are of super human strength. We don't pick each other apart, we pick each other up. And through all of this madness, we've laughed. Yep, laughed. Bill Cosby once said, "If you can laugh at it you can live through it." (or something along those lines.) How true that is. It may make us sound a bit unwell, but really if you can find humor in yourselves, the rest is cake. That, and surrounding yourself with those you love.


So, lets fix what was broken, Dad has a new job, Platelet girl is cured after a splenectomy, Batgirl remarried her ex, whew, I love happy endings; Boy Wonder....well he's still broken and unemployed, but I'm sure there's a silver lining in there somewhere, and Double H? They couldn't find anything wrong yet (hopefully ever), we're still waiting for test results on some of the uglier stuff, and she's gone to see a neurologist as I type. Fingers crossed, but with the Lords ever watchful eye, everything will work out, I know it. If not, we've got each other, and nothing else matters. And so it goes.

Keep on Keepin' On

Just another short post since it's been forever since I've posted. So, I'm still really enjoying IWW; I'm learning so much, and I think (hope) that it's helping my writing. For one thing it's defiantly making it tighter...I tend to babble. On the writing front, still plugging away on book 2, slowly but surely. It's been really fun developing this world a bit more, and dipping into a few others. When I'm done with this bit I have something on the back burner that I'm dying to get started. On the reading front, I haven't had much time, with all the writing that I've been doing.
:( That and the Wii, which is quite addicting have closed the book on that front for the moment.(pun intended) So that's about it for me right now. Off to start dinner for my herd!

IWW Update

Okay, so I've been participating in the IWW (the link I posted last time) for about a week now. I love it. You've got to try it. Especially the 'Practice Write' bit, which is really fun and has been so informative. My only complaint, is I hate to critique peoples work when it is...ummmm....less than great. I know how personal each everything that we write becomes and I feel terrible ripping them apart. I do it nicely though. On the flip side of that, I have appreciated every critique I've gotten. The bad ones are helping me to grow as a writer, and I'm learning so much from them.

So, give it a try. For me so far it's been really great. I love associating with other writers, it's fun to share a passion like this with other people.

Now, on the book front....still working, working, working, and having the best time. So, that's all that matters right? Right!