Sunday, April 24, 2005

I received my copy of Hyperion's latest catalogue and my book is featured. This is very exciting to see. Everything now gives me the feeling of doing it for the first time. It was just as exciting to get the Hyperion galleys last week and it's even more thrilling to see my book in their catalougue. Not that I didn't believe that I'm being published now, but seeing these little things makes it seem more real. It's like taking your greatest moments in life and being able to experience them for a second time. :-)

I'm getting further along on my novella and I'm feeling good about it. This is an exciting project and I can't wait until I'm finished! The other ladies are done with their stories and they've been submitted. Leave it to me to come bringing up the rear. But it's cool. This one's going so well that I know I'll have it completed very soon.

You know, alothough I grew up in church, I don't consider myself a religious person at all--I do consider myself to be spiritual, though. But I have been glued to the TV about the death of the Pope and the election of the new Pope. Even when I grew up in church, it was Pentecostal, and not Catholic. But I have been quite fascinated by the ceremonies, the history, the difference in teachings, the issues, etc. I'm sitting here right now watching Meet the Press and they are discussing the current issues of the teachings and women and leaders in the Catholic church. This is quite interesting, if I must say so myself.

This is one thing I've noticed since writing my first book. It's like my sense to learn more things has become heightened. I've always loved learning and reading. I love buying those "For Dummies" books on different subjects, just so I can learn about something different in layman's terms. Sometimes I use the knowledge, sometimes I don't, or I haven't as of yet. I'm watching more programs that are teaching me something. I'm looking out for more workshops around town that will teach me something I don't know. And yes, all the while I'm doing this, in the back of my mind I'm storing up knowledge that I hope to use in a story or a character one day. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. But either way, I enjoy learning new things and I enjoy what I'm doing.


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Thursday, April 21, 2005

I'm going in for my baseline mammogram this afternoon. Not that I feel depressed or anything, but this is the first thing that's making me feel middle aged. :-) I just remember being young and thinking mammograms were for old women! LOL Geez! I can remember back when I thought being 21 was an adult (a WISE adult); being 30 was old; and being 40+ was having one foot in the grave. LOL It's so funny how the older you get, you realize that when you were younger, you didn't know jack squat. But the thing is, when you were that bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, wet-behind-the-ear (and whatever other cliche you can think of) teenager, you would have bet the million dollars that you didn't have that you knew it all and were smarter than anybody, especially your parents.

So, I'm finally getting the message that while I feel like I'm wiser now, when I'm fifty, I'm going to laugh at myself for thinking 50 was older and how much I didn't know jack squat when I was in my 30's!

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Monday, April 18, 2005

Twenty-four out of forty-three must-do or die items finished. This is a lot tougher than working 9 -5 with set ending times and weekends. I'm discovering that with writing full-time, you have to consciously work in your quitting time and you're weekend. And you never get a full weekend really. It's like you're on call 24/7 because a story or a writing mood can hit you at anytime. My goal is to have my story finished by next Monday, before I go to Cleveland. I'm wrapping up some things there (still).

Also, I'm making a stop in Erlanger, KY where my orthodontist is and hope to get the braces off. Keeping my fingers crossed. With all that's gone on, this 18 month process has turned into 3 years so far. Due to missed appointments due to traveling and moving. The braces are becoming a part of my permanent identity and I don't like that. My editor sent me the wording for the back of my book with all the blurbs. I'm to correct it and send it back, along with the black and white photo that I want to have in the back of the book. Photos are such an ordeal for me. Yes, because of the braces. Also, because I feel fat and hate to take photos but I think that's an innate female issue. It's like you're born feeling fat and not wanting to take photos because they make you look even fatter than what you think you look like and you become even more disappointed with your image, even though you know you're supposed to be happy with your body the way it is. Yeah, right.

Then also, there's the black female issue of hair. No, I am NOT taking pictures with 2 1/2 month old braids. So, this week, I need to find a good braider (the last one sucked!), go buy some human hair, cut my existing braids, unbraid them (6 hours), wash, dry, and straighten my real hair, then go have a drink before spending another 6 - 8 hours getting my hair re-braided. I know, sounds like a lot, and it is. I have to block out a whole day and a half every time I get my hair re-braided. But I'd rather do that than spend 2 - 4 hours Weekly or bi-weekly in a salon and trying to figure out what in the heck I'm going to do with my hair on a daily basis, AND not being able to do anything with it after I do step aerobics and weight training, which is 4 - 6 days a week. So the luxury of just getting up and throwing my hair up in a ponytail or two each morning and going (5 minutes) is worth the day and a half to get it done every three months.

So, somehow, I gotta find a new outfit (I HATE shopping), hopefully get my braces removed so I can smile for the first time, get my hair re-braided, and get photos taken by May 1st. LOL Yeah, right! LOL


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Friday, April 15, 2005

Okay, I got the correction done and sent off for Counting Raindrops. I have confidence that she's not coming back. "She's gon-na make it af-ter allllll!!!!" LOL And the good news is that I've gotten through 17 items of the original 30 items on my to-do list. The bad news is that the list increased daily (as I remember things) and the total list is up to 58 things to do. However, I did break this list into "Must Do or Die" and "Need to do ASAP." So, of the MUST DO list, I've completed 17 of 30, so I'm more than halfway done. Might be able finish up this weekend!

One thing I don't have to worry about today is taxes. Today's the deadline, but I had my tax guy to file an extension on my behalf. I haven't even gotten to the box that has all my receipts yet, so I can't even begin to organize for taxes. I gave up doing my own taxes last year. It was just getting to be too much. Before that, I filed EZ for years! But then with the addition of the condo I owned for a short period of time before moving for the 6th time (I don't know why I bought anything with the way I move), then the business, I had to turn it over to someone else. Last thing I need is to get audited then hit with back taxes for erroneous deductions. And now, moving to Missouri where they got a whole new set of tax laws...I mean! Counting your CAR as personal property and paying tax on it?! If there were decent high rises right across the river in Illinois, I would have moved there instead! So, as it is, taxes are on the top of the Must Do ASAP list. The longer I put if off, the longer it will take me to do it.


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Monday, April 11, 2005

All my life I've had the strangest dreams. They're usually very kooky. There's been quite a few times where I will literally laugh myself awake. And most of the time, they're just plain weird and I get strange looks from people when I tell them about them. I keep saying I'm going to record my dreams, and I never do. And a lot of times, I lose the dream after I've been up for an hour or so. Then there are those that I remember generally, even if I forget some of the details. I don't think I'll ever make a story out of my dreams. Not unless I decide to enter into the Sci-Fi genre. LOL

Last night I dreamed that the world was coming to an end. But not like the second coming of the Lord. More like an invasion of another species from out of space and they were called Androids (wasn't that in a movie or a cartoon or something?). First, I was sitting in something like a congregation or a large lecture hall or something. All of a sudden, you could feel the world spinning. It felt like going down a rollercoaster. Then it changed directions and you could feel the world spinning backwards. Don't ask me how we felt it, but everybody in the dream did. Then, I remember being directed outside in mass droves. The Androids were taking over. They had bullhorns and were directing us. We had to form lines. At a certain point in the line, you passed an Android that was handing out paper. I remember looking at the paper and it was a test. Differential Equations. My heart started beating faster. But lo and behold, a few paces up, there was a human being passing out cheat sheets. So, I got a cheat sheet that had all the answers to the Android's Diff-EQ test! No lie! LOL So, we're being directed inside this big hall in order to take the test, but we have to pass the front table, where we pick up a number 2 pencil. Also at the table, there was one Android checking to make sure the humans didn't have cheat sheets. Problem was, we were passing the table in mass amounts and it couldn't check everybody. I was with my old highschool friend, Sherron. She didn't have a cheat sheet and she got through. She was rushing me and I picked up my #2 pencil and told her that I needed to try to sneak past with my cheat sheet. She looked at me like I was crazy. She told me I should go back there (she pointed somewhere in the crowd) and have a chip implanted or embedded. She told me that this chip had all the answers. So I guess there was a human in the crowd implanting a chip in people that gave them answers to the test. LOL Then I woke up. Laughing.

Now, don't ask me what happened if we passed or failed the test. And although people say dreams have meaning, I have no idea what this dream could mean. But this is typical of all my dreams. Could it mean that the world will be taken over by a highly intelligent species? Could it mean that all that math I took in college did find use in my life after all? Or could it be subconscious guilt coming to the surface and haunting me since I did employ the use of a cheat sheet or two in college? But who in the heck dreams about math equations anyway? See, that's why we were called nerds in engineering school! LOL


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Saturday, April 09, 2005

Sometimes I just don't get it. I could spend a day hardly doing anything strenuous or doing very little of anything and the next day I have the hardest time getting out of bed. Other times, like yesterday and this morning, I could be going all day long and stay out late, but then be up to watch the sunrise. Go figure. But then again, on days like this, I'm likely to be sleep from 2 to 5 pm or so! But it was a beautiful morning this morning. I watched Starting Over. I kinda like that program. Then a couple of travel shows that went to Germany and Sicily. Interesting. Then I got up and blog hopped to the rising sun. Unfortunately, my apartment faces northwest, so I could really see the sun rising, however, it was a beautiful view overlooking the Mississippi river anyway.

Today I gotta work on those edits (you know, the prodigal manuscript), then I want to knock off items on my to-do list. I put together a list last week because it seemed like I was just super busy all the time, but like not much was getting done. So, I had to actually put a list together and mark things off so I could see the progress I'm making. So far, I've knocked 5 things off my list of 30. But it does seem like each day that I knock things off, something else is added. So that's probably why it seemed like I was always working, but never accomplishing anything. The question is, will there ever be a day when I have absolutely nothing on my to-do list? A day where I can just devote the whole day to reading and writing? I keep believing so and I keep plugging away at my list. But it seems like I'm digging in a bottom-less pit.


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Friday, April 08, 2005

I can't stress enough how great it is to have editors. Well, I did get the final edit finished and submitted by the due date. Once again, feeling relieved that I could finally put that baby to rest for now, and focus on finishing my novella and second book. But wait! She came back! Well, at least a little part of her. Seems my copyeditor caught an inconsistency within the story. And when my editor emailed me about it, without even going back to the story to look at it, I knew it was true and that it needed to be fixed. I could see the problem, and thank goodness, the solution that would need to be applied. It's going to take some minor re-writing. But it's like again, she just won't leave the house! She needs to get out there on her own and let me tend to the other chilluns. LOL


I'm going to the Cardinals pep rally at Kiener plaza in a bit. I'm going to LOVE living here in downtown St. Louis. I have a beautiful view of the riverfront and Laclede's Landing, and I'm about equi-distant away from both Busch Stadium (old Cardinals stadium) and the Edward Jones Dome (Rams stadium). So, whether I go to the game or not....TAILGATE and pre-game parties!!!! This is going to be awesome. People drinking. Can you imagine all the good stuff I'm going to eavesdrop on this summer! LOL I'm excited.


I had a friend over and we went over the list of things to do. Gotta go to a few Cardinals games because this is the last season in the old stadium. The new stadium is being built right next door and will open for the 2006 season. I gotta get pics of the old stadium, especially when the knock it down. Then, my friend agreed to share with me some of the other things on my list. He's going teach me to swim. No problem. But he says he's going to also go skydiving with me. I'm finally going to do that this year I think. Been dying to do it forever. But I thought I was going to have to do it alone because I've come to find out that I have very few friends who want to share in my joy on that one. LOL But, when I do, I'll be sure to have pics taken so I can post them. And finally, we're looking into getting our motorcycle license together. Looking into a motorcycle safety class and I'm looking to buy my first bike right after. Hopefully by May. My first choice is a Suzuki GSXR-600. Second is a Kawasaki Ninja 600. I've been watching eBay for a Gixxer in Yellow, Red, or Blue. I'll post pics of this too!

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Sunday, April 03, 2005

GO FIGHTING ILLINI!!!!

Okay, so I'm walking the streets of downtown St. Louis, just out and about, walking to work whatever. I'm smiling and saying hello to all these fine, good looking men (thank goodness I look 10 years younger than I actually am!--LOL). And I feel a pain in the back of my neck. Just a slight, tightness. A slight soreness, if you will. I rub the back of my neck and say hello to another fine stranger. As I bring my neck back down to normal position, it hits me. I look around, all around. What's wrong with my neck is what's wrong with this picture. This is NOT the NCAA Final Four Weekend here in St. Louis. This is the 1st Annual Tall People's Convention! It's the invasion of the Skywalkers. These people are TALL!!!! I'm in awe. I have never seen so many tall people in my life. At 4'11 as many of you know, no wonder my neck is getting stiff! LOL At the hotel of my assignment, we have the box to one of the players sneakers. Let's just say I can fit 2 PAIR of my shoes in his shoe box, plus have room for socks!

Anyway, it's been a great weekend. But I must say, all I've been able to do get out for only a minute or so before I go to work. This is no fun and I've already vowed never again to take an assignment during a major event where I'm working in the evening. I'm missing everything in the evening and I'm sleeping through the day. This isn't fun. Okay, I got about 4 hours before I have to get ready to go to work so I'm about to grab my camera and see what I can see.


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