Tomorrow I head to Jacksonville to The Southern Lights Writers Conference. I'm very excited to be teaching a workshop with friends and crit partner, Terry Odell. I'm also participating in a book signing there and attending many of the other workshops. I've been running around like a whirling dervish trying to pack all the things I need in the way of clothes, items for the workshop, for the signing, etc. I keep having this unsettling feeling that I'm forgetting something. Don't you hate that? I'm not sure if that feeling is a product of age or just the neurotic brain wiring of a compulsive organizer! Either way, it's unsettling.
On a completely different subject, I got a very nice note today from a local book group informing me that they had picked The Kitten Club as their selection of the month. They asked if I'd come to their meeting and speak to the club. This just tickled me pink!
So, if I'm absent for a few days from the Blogosphere, you'll know why. Have a great weekend.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Crunch Time
Is it just me, or has the world started spinning a little faster? Suddenly, there are not enough hours in the day to do everything I have to. I knew March and April would be busy, but it seems like more and more things to do are being thrown on the heap every day.
Right now I'm working on a presentation I am doing with Terry Odell at the Southern Lights Writers' Conference in Jacksonville on March 30. Two days after I return from that conference, I head up to Clermont, FL to sit on a writers' panel at the Lake County Festival of Reading. After that, I host a Passover Seder for 24 at my house. Sometime in between, I'm trying to edit a novel and a novella, and - oh, yeah - write!!! Throw in a few events with DH, DD and DS's birthday celebration and you have my life. Don't get me wrong -- I love my life. I just wish I could space events out into perfectly proportioned bytes. A little warm up time before, a debriefing period after... ah - if only. So if I'm scarce here, please forgive me - I'm here in spirit!
Right now I'm working on a presentation I am doing with Terry Odell at the Southern Lights Writers' Conference in Jacksonville on March 30. Two days after I return from that conference, I head up to Clermont, FL to sit on a writers' panel at the Lake County Festival of Reading. After that, I host a Passover Seder for 24 at my house. Sometime in between, I'm trying to edit a novel and a novella, and - oh, yeah - write!!! Throw in a few events with DH, DD and DS's birthday celebration and you have my life. Don't get me wrong -- I love my life. I just wish I could space events out into perfectly proportioned bytes. A little warm up time before, a debriefing period after... ah - if only. So if I'm scarce here, please forgive me - I'm here in spirit!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Have You Hugged Your Editor Today?
Yeah, I know - most everyone works via the Internet these days. Many of us have never even met our editors. But they can be as important to our work life as our closest friends are to our personal lives. I've had several editors, some better than others.
Two great ones stand out. A fantastic editor will do several things for you - first, they'll polish your work and make it shine even brighter. Second, they'll be straight with you and tell you when something sucks and when it's brilliant. But the most important thing they do for you is to make you a better writer. The things I've learned and continue to learn from them have made me a stronger self-editor, thus making their job easier on the next manuscript of mine they work on. That's something I'll take with me always.
No one likes to see a ton of changes on their manuscript, but I welcome the ideas. After all, the goal is to make the work stand out. All this and they rarely get much of a pat on the back. If I ever meet them, the first thing I'm going to do is to give them a heartfelt hug.
Two great ones stand out. A fantastic editor will do several things for you - first, they'll polish your work and make it shine even brighter. Second, they'll be straight with you and tell you when something sucks and when it's brilliant. But the most important thing they do for you is to make you a better writer. The things I've learned and continue to learn from them have made me a stronger self-editor, thus making their job easier on the next manuscript of mine they work on. That's something I'll take with me always.
No one likes to see a ton of changes on their manuscript, but I welcome the ideas. After all, the goal is to make the work stand out. All this and they rarely get much of a pat on the back. If I ever meet them, the first thing I'm going to do is to give them a heartfelt hug.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Tagged!
Katie Reus has tagged me to list 10 weird, random facts or habits about myself. Then choose 10 people to tag. So, if you're reading this and you haven't been tagged yet, consider yourself tagged!
1. I frame each of my book covers and hang them over my desk for encouragement and inspiration.
2. I love the combination of blue and green, especially mixed patterns, like florals with a stripe or plaid.
3. I used to straighten my hair (which is naturally very curly). I even went so far as to iron it with a clothes iron when I was a teenager. Desperation - what can I say?
4. You can spell all 4 of my family's names with only 5 letters - a, d, i, n and r. We didn't realize that until our youngest was learning to read.
5. My real mother died when I was a baby. Everyone thinks my step-mother is my birth mother, but she's not, although she raised me from a toddler.
6. I have a brown thumb - I can't even keep silk plants looking good!
7. I can't stand the sight of blood and guts, although my grandfather was a surgeon.
8. I learned to snow ski before I started kindergarten. Living in the sub-tropics, I don't ski anymore.
9. I'm a coupon junkie. DH calls me the Shopping Ninja!
10. I'm a sucker for a foot massage. I can't stay mad at DH if he offers me one;-)
Your turn!
1. I frame each of my book covers and hang them over my desk for encouragement and inspiration.
2. I love the combination of blue and green, especially mixed patterns, like florals with a stripe or plaid.
3. I used to straighten my hair (which is naturally very curly). I even went so far as to iron it with a clothes iron when I was a teenager. Desperation - what can I say?
4. You can spell all 4 of my family's names with only 5 letters - a, d, i, n and r. We didn't realize that until our youngest was learning to read.
5. My real mother died when I was a baby. Everyone thinks my step-mother is my birth mother, but she's not, although she raised me from a toddler.
6. I have a brown thumb - I can't even keep silk plants looking good!
7. I can't stand the sight of blood and guts, although my grandfather was a surgeon.
8. I learned to snow ski before I started kindergarten. Living in the sub-tropics, I don't ski anymore.
9. I'm a coupon junkie. DH calls me the Shopping Ninja!
10. I'm a sucker for a foot massage. I can't stay mad at DH if he offers me one;-)
Your turn!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
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