It's Halloween week...

And my friend Brian is doing some themed photos. I love this one! Aren't the colors beautiful? I used to have an apartment that overlooked a graveyard on a hill, and as much as I don't like graveyard's (yes, I'm a mystery writer, but thoughts of death really freak me out), they can certainly be stunning.

I'm gearing up for the big day Wednesday. It's my busy day anyway (volunteering in the classroom, tennis for the red head, church for everyone - ack!) and on Wed each activity has it's own Halloween party. The one at school is technically a celebration of Reformation Day - so the kids go to school in Medeival costumes (which really means the girls are princesses and the boys are knights) and they're going to play at bobbing for apples, archery, sword fights and "pin the theses on the Wittenberg door". I kid you not.

I'm not even sure we'll have time to trick or treat at the end of all the festivities (oh shoot!).

In other news... I got two - yes, only TWO chapters typed in last night. This is going wayyyyy too slow. Must come up with a way to speed things up. ;)

typing typing click click click....

I'm typing in edits. Wow. This is tedious. This might make me rethink the whole "editing on paper" thing next time, as fun as it was.

I think I'll be posting an excerpt from the book - either chapter one, or the beginning of chapter one, and hard link to it from the sidebar. I'd like to have it up here for agents to look at if they want to (those that don't request pages) and of course, for all of you wonderful people! I really liked reading Sherry Thomas's excerpt when she put it up, so I think it's a fun idea.

Plus, motivation to keep typing. Clearly I'm procrastinating right here. Of course, now, when I WANT to procrastinate, none of the 46 blogs in my bloglines roll have updates and I have no e-mails. It's as if you people WANT me to get my edit's done!!!

OK... back to work...

I'm done!!!!

I did it! I'm done! Woo hoo!!! The paper edits have been completed, and only one day behind schedule! YAY!!!!!

My wonderful two year old went to sleep at 7:30 tonight and I've been working non-stop ever since with the World Series on in the background (Tivoed). And now I'm done!!!

I'm giving myself until Tuesday to type in the edits, because I want this out the door to the beta readers in October, and the 31st will be crazy busy.

This is such a good feeling!!!

OK, now not to rain on my own parade, but I will say that I did a touch more cutting and I'm worried about the word count. I have a couple of scenes waiting in the wings that I'll probably polish up and insert while typing in the edits - gotta keep the word count reasonable. That's the only thing really concerning me right now.

November will be all about querying. QUERYING! WOOO!!!!

Welll....

My goal was to be done with the paper edits yesterday. I'm not. I'm on chapter 30 out of 35, though, so within striking range. Just like writing the draft, it gets harder at the end, making sure every loose end is properly tied up and that I didn't leave any subplots hanging.

I'm close though, so close!

And I've had a blissful day with two - count them TWO periods of kid free time. Yes, it's true. DH took them BOTH to the donut shop for our Saturday morning tradition. (Usually the little monkey stays with me while they fetch the donuts, but today she had her clothes in her hand and wanted to go. Who was I to say no?) I can't even tell you how much fun it was to get myself ready in the morning ALL BY MYSELF! Now I know why it's the little monkey's favorite phrase. ;)

Then - he took the little one on some errands while the red head worked with her Grandpa for a while - I went to the library ALL BY MYSELF! I even got to use the catalog! I picked up a new mystery called Blue Moon (my favorite song, and something of a theme for me). The sleuth is a band leader and I can't wait to read it. I also determined that the next project won't involve a lot of research. I'm just not up to it. Now, where does that leave me... still thinking about it. I'll let you know!

Stay tuned for the I'm Finished post, coming in the next few days. ;)

Blog Spotlight

I love visual art and find tremendous inspiration in pictures and photographs, but I readily admit that I have ZERO talent whatsoever in this field. This is one of the reasons that I'm so impressed with those who do. ;)



Today I have a blog to share with you by a brilliant up and coming artist who talks about things like color theory (literary theory I get, color theory BLOWS MY MIND!) and shares her artwork, and even has a little store with handmade prints.



This is a watercolor painting inspired by A.S. Byatt's "The Thing in the Forest".


This has all of my favorite elements - retro women, a forest scene, and based on a piece by one of my favorite authors!

So, go check out Blaze's blog, and I'll permalink to her from the sidebar!

Enjoy!

Editing update - Tuesday night

Sadly, I only made it halfway to my goal today - largely because Knucklehead wouldn't fall asleep. (seriously, it's 11, and she just stopped fleeing her bed). I got the 2 1/2 chapters done during her naptime earlier today.

That's ok, though, I'm confident I'll make them up over the week and still finish Friday night. And I am still pretty excited to be more than halfway done this final pass. WOO! It's going much more easily than I thought.

OK, it's late, signing off.

Top Ten List

These are the top ten most frequently said lines by my two year old.

10) I run super fast!
9) This is fun! (usually said while doing something she isn't supposed to do - ie escaping from her car seat or scaling the refrigerator.)
8) I come too.
7) Catch me if you can!
6) See you later, alligator
5) Mama all gone. I cry.
4) No daddy - Mama!
3) I go to Starbucks. Strawberry Creme!
2) Popsicle!

and the most frequently line said by Little Miss Trouble:

1) I do it all by myself!

This could be why I'm tired.

Editing Update - Monday Night

Yesterday I didn't quite make my goal - I only got through 3 1/2 chapters, but today I made up for it and got halfway through chapter 16, so I'm 1/2 a chapter ahead! YAY! I'd have finished, but I'm at a sticky point and think I need to sleep on it.

So, all is going according to plan. The edits should be done by Friday night, giving me the weekend to type them in. I can hardly wait to start working on my query letter!!

Thank you for all the encouragement, everyone!!!

In other news - I really appreciate all the suggestions for books - I'm definately picking up the Ramona books, that's brilliant! Narnia is my all time favorite series, too, but I read those to her last year, so I don't know if they'd count. But it does make me wonder if she's ready for The Hobbit. I'll have to try that. I think she'd like Amelia Bedelia, too. She's also supposed to be reading *to me*, so those would be perfect for that part of it.

I'm feeling less victorious in my quest to identify the Bon Jovi song that Garth is singing with different words. ;) After listening to a bunch of them on You Tube, I've concluded that:

A) It's possible that a lot of Bon Jovi songs sound the same - shocking! I know!!
B) I remember how much I love Bon Jovi. I know, he's cheesey, but so cute.
C) I think it might be These Days - but I'm not 100% sure and now I can't really separate any of them out in my head, or remember the Garth Brooks song very well. So I'm gonna have to dig out my cd's and play the songs side by side the GB song.
D) I clearly have obsessive compulsive tendencies.

Editing Update and other business

I've got a goal of five chapters per day - that will take me exactly a week to do. (Hmm, was I so smart while writing it that I purposely decided on 35 chapters in order to make my editing week go so smoothly?! Probably not...)

So, I'll be updating my progress daily. Yesterday I did SIX chapters! WOOO!!!

Today I'm currently at zero, but DH is on the road, and Little Miss Trouble didn't nap (so should sleep at a decent time) and I'm confident I'll knock them out tonight. This is all very exciting!!!

I have two more orders of business for the blog world:

1) My six year old is in a 100 day reading challenge for school: read 100 books in 100 days. Longer books count as more than one. I'm to the point where I'm randomly grabbing things off the library shelf. Any ideas? So far, her favorites have been: The Babysitters Club Mysteries, Goosebumps, Nate the Great, Geronimo Stilton, and Nancy Drew. I'd like to steer her away from only reading series, though. I picked up Neil Gaiman's Coraline (big hit!) and she loves it. She's also managed the first two Harry Potter's, but the third was a little scary for her still.

Anything kinda spooky, but not too spooky, or about Egypt would be a huge hit. She's got 60 books to go, folks!

2) So, you all know I'm now a country music fan... one of my new favorite songs is the Garth Brooks song, More than a Memory. BUT, it's so nearly identical to a Bon Jovi song I used to listen to, that sometimes I even mix the words up if I'm singing along (I know, by now, you all think I'm sooo cool that you're dying to be me - Bon Jovi, country, and singing with the radio, but I digress).

All my Bon Jovi cd's (see, I keep getting cooler, I have a collection) are in storage and I can't figure out what the song is and it's DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!! I think it's off the These Days cd, but it could be from Keep the Faith or Crossroads. If anyone comes up with it, I'll send you a prize, I promise. Maybe a book. Maybe chocolate. You tell me. But I must figure this out!!

The Next American Band

Is my new show. YAY! I so needed one!!!!

My favorites, so far, are The Clark Brothers and Six Wire - because I'm a country fan, now. ;) But Six Wire is gonna have to give Sawyer back when Lost starts up in January. ;)

I love the spirit of the girl band, but I just didn't think they were that good.

Also, I think the 12 year olds need to put shirts on.