We Got a Dog!

For the longest time now, my husband and I have only had the two cats, Rascal and Binx. I absolutely love my fluffy-butt and Rascally-Rabat (yeah I said it). We decided it was time to add a canine to the mix. The cats were looking a little too comfortable, and we like to keep them on their toes.

Corgi/Husky

For a long time now (since about college), I have really wanted a Corgi. My husband on the other hand, has really wanted a Husky since he was a kid. We live in Texas, so Husky's aren't as common, but I set out last week looking for a Corgi/Husky mix. A compromise as a friend said. I had seen pictures of them online and they are adorable (So fluffy I could DIE!). In the end, I gave up on finding a Corgi/Husky mix. But I did find Rita -- Margarita we decided -- A Corgi/Blue Healer mix.


So begins the journey. Friday, I was home sick. My husband picked me up around 4:00 to make the trip from Richmond, TX to Dayton, TX -- a 130 mile round trip... had we not gotten lost. Andy's GPS took him well past Dayton to some random FM road where the houses on that street had cows hanging out in their front yard. We had managed to drive 15 or 20 miles past the animal shelter. So we contacted the shelter, turned around and I used the Google Map's function in my phone and directed Andy to the woman's house from that. Again, we got lost. We were much closer at least, but the dot on Google Maps had us stop in front of a house about a mile short of our final destination.

We finally made it to the shelter/house. Meet Rita and decide immediately, she's coming home with us. Problem. The shelter, because it is a small shelter in a small town in Northeast Houston, was a cash only shelter. We didn't have any cash on us. So we got in the car, and left her behind.

Rita "Margarita"

Ha ha, no I'm just kidding. We turned around and drove another 5 miles to the nearest gas station to pull the money for Rita out of an ATM. Then we got lost again. No joke. We finally made it back to the shelter and pick Rita up. We didn't have a leash or anything to get her in my husband's 2-door Civic SI... so a pseudo leash was donated to us.

We made a stop at my Mom's house on the way home so she and my Dad could meet Rita. Their two dogs were only slightly interested in her, but Rita was more scared than anything. Who could blame her, she had just gone from a shelter in East By God Texas (thanks Grandpa) to a long car ride with strangers then stopped to meet two dogs, who she would not be living with. We apparently were trying to confuse her.

We got home and introduced her to our two cats, who immediately scattered when she entered the house. She made several circles. It was impossible to get a good photo of her to send a mass text to our friends. Then, she spent the evening stuck in our bathroom, because Rascal realized Rita was scared of him. So he placed himself between Rita and the exit to the bathroom.

She meet more dogs the next day at No Label brewery, a local kid and dog friendly brewery. It was like going to an adult dog park. There were dogs of all sizes and kinds, kids of all ages, Music, and of coarse BEER!

We had to leave Rita at my parents house last night (it was really hard) she was jumping at the back door trying to leave with us. Today, she is heading to Kingwood with a family friend who's a vet out there. She will get all of her shots and hopefully Diana can tell us why she's balding on her back.

The Infamous Query Letter

With NaNoWriMo behind me, tickling the back of my brain with it's eminent return in 323 days, I set off to work on my Query letter for HEADS WILL ROLL. Before NaNoWriMo, I was working on the query letter, but came closer to smashing my brains on the table and watching the pretty pink goo pool around my cheeks and drip to the floor, then coming up with something decent.

I return... So far, I've only had one urge to use my left eye socket as a pencil sharpener. Every website, book and contact has their own idea about how the stupid little foot-in-the-door is supposed to look. I am reminded of resume cover letters, which also gave me the urge to throw myself out the window.

(can you tell my feelings yet?)

Back to the point, I wrote. I rewrote. I scrapped and pulled at hair until I came up with something, finally. Then I sent it to friends who said I wrote a synopsis.

((commence the head smashing))

So I scrapped, tweaked and extracted, again. At least there was one good sentences to use in the query. I started thinking about the crappy unhelpful websites. Then my mind wondered to Janet Reid, who I follow on my Reeder.

She came to the Houston Writers Guild conference in October. After listening to one of the other agents, Pam van Hylckama Vlieg, talk about Janet in such high regard, I though maybe, just maybe Janet's standard is more of a guideline than the random blogs and self-help (full-of-crap) websites. If she is the great white shark swimming around in the minnow pond, as many agents have described, maybe other agents look to Janet for query standards.

Fingers crossed. I set out on a journey to searched out Janet Reid's query blog Query Shark.

As I sifted through the good, the bad and the ugly examples of query letters, I found myself laughing. Janet's tough "love" attitude reminds me so much of my family, especially my Aunt, I felt at home. And finally, I found decent references and wrote the damn query letter.

Now, it's floating in an imaginary envelope as it surfs the internet between HWG friends to make sure it looks okay.

I feel good about this one, but then I felt good about the last one...

Phiew!

I'm distracted by the pretty lights.

Phew! I just breezed through 445 blog posts in my Reeder thanks to NaNoWriMo. Geez. Can't any of you take a November break?

Sorry if I follow you, because I just skimmed what everyone wrote. I read 2 full posts and looked at the pretty photos from all of you book reviewer's. But now, the Reader has been cleared, so bring on the next post!

So unless your name is Ilona Andrews, and you wrote about your Kid freaking her parents out, then not answering the phone, or you wrote about how to enhance your social media connection... then I just looked at the pretty photos.

Sorry.

Last day of NaNoWriMo

It's the last day of NaNoWriMo, and I am nowhere near done. Yes, I will make my 50,000 deadline today, but I think the book is going to be more of an 80,000 word novel, like Heads Will Roll. Since we are on the last day, I wanted to give you my assessment (as a first time participant) of NaNoWriMo, for any of you who may consider it next year,


Pro's:

• You are forced to write 1,666 words a day. - forced to work hard at writing a novel
• There's a neat word tracker that shows you how good... or bad you're doing.
• There's a huge community you can connect with to help motivate you (I didn't utilize this function)
• You feel really good when you step back and look at how much you have accomplished in a short time.

Con's:

• You are forced to write 1,666 words a day. - you write a lot of crap just to get to your word count
• You spend more time checking your word-count than writing at times.
• There was no written-in break for cook-like-a-crazy-person day, unless you worked one in yourself.
• I drank a lot of late night coffee. 
• My friends and family haven't seen me all month (they think I'm a figment of their imagination as of late.)

As I wipe the sweat off my forehead, I know there will be a lot of things that I will get from this experience. I will probably continue with a daily word goal (though not 1,666, because I have a real job, and a second start-up business on top of writing). I will also create my own word-count graph, it makes me happy to see the growing bars of progress.

Will I do this again next year?-Maybe? It depends on where I am in a year.

NaNoWriMo - Day 4

Star-Date 004: (day 4 for NaNoWriMo) I began my morning to Andy shaking me awake at 6:00am telling me we slept in. we quickly dressed and gathered supplies for the day to come – SCCA race day in Baytown. Andy signed up for the SCCA monthly race. Where drivers race the clock. A track, which is just several orange cones strategically placed,  is set up in a parking lot. You lose time if you knock over a cone. Disqualified if you go outside the track (drive on the wrong side of a “pointer” cone).

I set out with my fully charged laptop to write while racers skidded and spun on the rain-slick track. It was a little bit of a noisy writing location, but it worked. No Internet to distract me. My writing spot was actually very close to the track so every now and then, when I heard excessive tire squealing, I would clutch my computer to me and find the out-of-control car. As I type this, (I am writing this while the race is still going. Again, no Internet Had to wait to publish) one of the drivers spun out at the finish and, as the announcer stated it, had a Ricky Bobby finish… he reversed past the timer camera to get off the track.

I would like to go out on a limb and say this might be a top contender for strangest writing locations. See my video below. 

 

Below is one of Andy's runs.

NaNoWriMo - Take 1

Because I am fairly new to the writing world, I am trying all I can learn more and more. I read writing blogs, follow writers and agents. Upon reading one of the new blogs I follow via Reeder, I learned of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which begins in November. I've never heard of this, but I think it's a great idea -- Right up there with No Shave November. I however, do not participate in No Shave November... hairy legs and armpits are probably not what the men in my life want to see/touch. Besides, its supposed to be "Men changing the face of cancer," not women. So back to the challenge at hand.

www.NaNoWriMo.org

NaNoWriMo Challenge:


Write 50,000 words
Start: November 1, 2012 (that's this Thursday)
Deadline: November 30, 2012 (at midnight)




I feel a little anxious just thinking about it. So I have a plan, write. Now I need to settle on the idea of the writing. Should I write:

1. Part 2 of Heads Will Roll
2. Dystopian Pregnancy novel idea
3. Fairy f-ing up her wings and getting trapped on earth with the humans

I should consider starting part 2 of Heads Will Roll, but I hear conflicting theories on that. Some people say 'don't start the sequel unless you have written other novels to present agents', while others say 'complete the series, agents are more willing to purchase both'. 

According to Pam van Hylckama Vlieg at the HWG conference a few weeks ago, dystopian is dead, for now. That was the next idea I had, a dystopian novel about pregnancy. I'm thinking, maybe leave that idea on the back-burner. But I really love the idea and want to put it to paper.

Last idea, the fantasy about a fairy f-ing up her wings and landing among the scary humans. This idea intrigues me (as it should), but I only started developing it last week. Do I have enough to sit down and write it?

What do you think?... Bueller... Bueller?

Holy Vanilla Batman!

You didn't need to see my messy desk,
so I Photoshopped it out. Mue haha ha ha.

Holy Carp! Look at this bottle of Mexican vanilla my friend dropped off for me today. That might be the largest bottle I have ever seen, and there are two of them.

O_O

What in the world can I use all of that for? Hmmm.... Vanilla pork-chops... yuck maybe not. I have a diabetic husband, so I can only make so many cookies (my favorite dessert) and what not. I guess I'll just have to get creative.