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Monday, April 14, 2014

Perfectly Positive Monday #6

In the spirit of positivity, I will try (and sometimes fail) to post something positive and true on Mondays. Because Monday is the day you need positivity the most. 

The last two weeks have been gorgeous! So there is that. I don't care that it's cold right now and it's supposed to snow. I'm clinging to the memory of how beautiful it was and will be.

What I'm most excited to tell you about was our mini-vacation to see a show in Saginaw. When my hubs and I met we found we shared two fairly obscure loves: Alton Brown and The Red Green Show.

Alton was the host of many Food Network shows. He's funny and smart and teaches you the basics of cooking. Most people compare him to Bill Nye the Science Guy. Love him. The Red Green Show was a Canadian cable access show that came to PBS. I'll let Wikipedia describe it:
The Red Green Show is essentially a cross between a sitcom and a sketch comedy series, and is a parody of home improvement, do-it-yourself, fishing, and other outdoors shows (particularly The Red Fisher Show).
It was hilarious and I never met another person who watched it until my husband. So a friend got us tickets to see the actor who played Red Green on his How to Fix Everything Tour. We made day of it since it was two weeks before our wedding anniversary and stayed the night at a Ramada Inn that was pretty nice considering it was in the ghetto. It was next to a Family Dollar if that tells you anything. But we had a jacuzzi tub and that was awesome. Of course like every time we stay at a hotel, hubs got tired and went to sleep and I  soaked in the jacuzzi by my onesie. He's not a night owl. Whatevs, I put on my Pandora station of saddish-music and soaked and thought about my novel. It was so relaxing. I actually got up early the next day and got some writing done.

Whee!

Novel is a bit stuck but mostly because I've been editing some previous stuff to make sense of whats to come. Still fighting my characters and their mean case of the sluts. It's a complicated disease. In an effort to keep me writing, I attended the Rally of Writers last weekend. Which is a writing conference. It was great. However, I missed the first session as I was running late. So I was sulking and irritable and not in the moment at all. They had a table full of tea, coffee and goodies so while I stewed, I grabbed a chocolate chunk cookie and some tea. Sometimes the universe delivers a  ridiculously happy moment and that was one of them as the tea ended up being the most delicious I've ever had (and the cookie was pretty good too). I kept the wrapper so I could remember the name and I absolutely did NOT pocket an extra tea bag for later. Ahem.

Moving on.

I met Beverly Jenkins at the conference. She was so funny and cool. I wanna be like her when I grow up (which should happen any day now).


How about you? Any challenges or successes to share with me? Leave comments. I eat them up like chocolate chunk cookies and Constant Companion tea. 




PS here is my all-time favorite Red Green moment. Skip to the 7 minute mark. The best part is watching him puree the fruit.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

IWSG: Though My Characters Be Slutty, My novel Be Progressing

IWSG
The last month was a challenge for me. The good kind of challenge.

My new computer arrived and it's incredible. I've named it The Beast and I'm now in a polygamous relationship with my husband and my computer. I recieved a wonderful and helpful ten page manuscript review from a professional editor, Teresa Crumpton, and then I was randomly selected to receive a twenty page manuscript critique from Kristen Lamb. Squeeee!

About chapter nine, the chapter that wouldn't end... Ordinarily my chapters are pretty short(about 2800 words), but I wrote 5,600 words and the chapter wouldn't stop. Part of the problem was tension and pacing. I'm trying to draw out the reunion of two old friends, but they are being SLUTS. They want to kiss and bone and they want to do it now.

I've pretty much been fighting them since chapter eight on this. I made it through nine and I'm still fighting them. I've finally given them an almost kiss but they wanted to go all the way with it. I'm telling you, their loins are AFLAME.

With lust. Aflame with lust. Not with a sexually transmitted diseases. Just thought I'd clarify.

Also, HOLY HELL I'M ON CHAPTER TWELVE!

In other news, I purchased two writing book and I'm really enjoying them both. Scene and Structure by Jack Bickham and Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World by Kristen Lamb.

So yeah, I'm feeling really good about my writing life. Fingers crossed that I finish this novel by the end of July.


Sluts.