Kamikaze Squirrels

They are out there waiting, waiting for YOU. Those little rodents with fluffy tails and an amazing sense of timing. They pick a potential killer, wait for it . . . NOW.

They dig in with tiny back feet, dart across the path of oncoming trucks who's wheels, miraculously miss the little creatures by millimeter. Don't slow down, don't flinch, don't miss a beat, they are at full throttle. You catch a movement in the corner of your eye, and before you can react with more than a curse word, THUMP and BUMP, their dead.

Where I'm from, they have laws. You can not molest a black squirrel. Squirrel molesters may, however, have a field day with the brown ones. I was fortunate the one who killed himself using my car as a weapon was a brown squirrel (wipes sweat beads from forehead).

Be warned, participating is this ritual, even unwittingly, will ruin your day.

BEWARE THE KAMIKAZE RABBITS.

Happy Mother's Day

It feels weird being an orphan on Mother's Day. Actually, I'm not sure how it feels, but I'm not going to dwell on it. Wish your mom a happy Mother's Day from me to her, my mother would appreciate that.

Thank you.

It's Physical

My book is no longer virtual or cyber. It's neither imaginary nor false, but in printed form it just became physical. Holding all that paper in my hands got me to thinking, not for the first time, what would have happened if I had lost it.

I went through three computers in the time it took me to write it, it's on every external storage device I own in one form or another, so there was little chance of it being completed blown away, yet I cringed at losing even one sentence. Funny since I eliminated 10,000 words, but that was deliberate.

Of all the things I have to lose, the one thing I would have saved in an emergency evacuation was my zippy drive. Seriously, how demented is that?

Well, last night I finally finished printing it. Now I could touch it. I don't know, it just felt like there should have been a drum roll.

Good Monday to ya

It's Monday morning again. I'm trying to feel numb, it's the best way to get through. I particularly dislike the first of the month because at work statements have to be be prepared. We're a small business, so it has to be done by hand. Since I get all the junk jobs, guess who has to do them. Ugh.

I'm not writing because I'm still formatting. Man, it takes a long time to prepare my MS for printing. I had to buy two reams of paper and two inc cartridges. Hoping that will be enough. I'm also waiting for an order from Amazon, so I can start researching my next book. Talk about winging it. I don't really know my subject matter, but I think it's going to be an important, got that, important book. Yeah.

Just wanted to touch base with my cyber buds. Take care and God bless.

What to do next

So, now what? I took out my old dusty WIP I thought was so well written back in the day. I read through the prologue and realized, though well written (pats herself on the back)it was written in narrative. I personally love narrative mode, both to read and to write, and I find it hard to keep from slipping back into it. I think one reason is because I write character driven novels and like to get deep into their thoughts. It also flows nicely for me. But that's not the point. The point is, if I rewrite the book, I've got some work to do. Well bring it on.

I've got this idea for a futuristic, kind of science fiction book, though I don't think there's going to be much science involved. So I went to Amazon and found a couple novels on the subject. Really, you should read the kinds of novels you want to write. I'm excited about it, but I want to do it right this time. I've already started an outline and I'm going to take my time. Now if you believe that, you don't know me. I'm a jump in with both feet kind of girl.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday.

Formatting Woes

We, my husband and I, went out and bought some paper. I figure, I'll be printing my MP (masterpiece) at least three times. Once for my husband to read and mark up, once to get it proofed by my computer illiterate teacher friend to mark up, and again for a contest I'm going to enter it in.

At the moment, I'm in the process of formatting it in Microsoft Word for printing. If any of you have used that program, you know how dang stubborn it can be. I'd turn the formatting off, except Its benefits far outweigh its frustrating ticks. But once I get it there and leave it alone, I shouldn't have to touch it again.

Wrong. When all those marked up copies come back, I'll have to go in and tinker with it, which will surely shift everything.

That's for the hard copies. Some submission rules for online submissions are quite specific about formatting or in some cases, no formatting, no tabs, and no space bar spacing for paragraph beginnings, yet they want the beginning of the paragraphs indented.

So I'm asking you, what have some of you done to achieve some of the strict submission rules? Let me know what your experiences are. I want to learn from your mistakes. Ain't I sweet.

Book Trailer

I put this trailer together months ago, more like a year ago, when I was just messing around. Since I'm in the middle of composing a query letter and a synopsis, I thought about this trailer and realized I had already summarized the book without realizing it. It's a simplified version, I admit, but it was fairly painless to do, and, in fact, kind of fun So even though the book is not published, or even queried, I thought I'd share the trailer. Let me know what you think, keeping in mind, the book is not available and the cover and possibly the title may change, though I'm quite fond of the title. That's down below.

On another note there is a fiction novel contest sponsored by the New American Press Click here Submit 100-400 pages of, it sounds like, anything. You have to send a hard copy via snail mail and it cost $20.00 to join. Multiple submissions are encouraged. It'll cost you $20.00 for each. Submissions close May 15, 2010.

I'm seriously thinking of submitting my finished MS. I doubt I'll be able to get it fully proofed by then, but it should be fun. I don't expect to win, anyway, but don't tell them that.

Right now my hubby is reading it. Bless his heart, he says he likes it. What else would he say, but he's pretty honest, albeit a bit biased.

Well, it was great talking with you. I'm thankful for your comments and I welcome all my new peeps. The more the merrier, I love you all.

God bless.