We are the champions, my friends!

campnano

I did it!  I crossed the 50k line tonight!  Well, I probably actually crossed it sometime this noon, but I typed across the 50k line tonight and validated everything tonight and holy crap, you guys!  Fifty thousand words is a lot of freaking words!

Okay, so that’s my excitement for the night then.  I know I can write another 50k because I’ve done it before (The Lokana Chronicles is roughly 100k) and that it will probably take that many more before my story is all done, but I’m just trying to focus on one thing at a time right now, especially since I was hoping to have this story nearing completion by this point in time.  I can’t believe I’ve been working on it for almost a year now and I’m only half done.  I had hoped to be so much further along than this!  But I suppose that’s just the way it goes, huh?  That that’s all part of being a mother/wife/friend/office drone/writer.  There are only so many hours in the day and I only get one of them, sometimes two, to write.

But I’m greedy – I want more.

Luckily, my work schedule is about to get a lot less hectic, so that should help.  Naptime will once again be writing time!  And with school starting back up in just a few short weeks, perhaps homework time can be writing time, too?  I guess we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m going to celebrate my Camp Nano win by going to bed early tonight.  I could definitely use the sleep.  How has everyone else done with their Nano goals?  If you haven’t done Nano, why not try it come November?

(c) 2013.  All rights reserved.

 

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Things I love

  • Look at that sky! It just makes you feel good to be alive, doesn't it? :)

    Look at that sky! It just makes you feel good to be alive, doesn’t it? 🙂

    The sound of laughter in the morning.

  • Long talks with old friends.
  • Cuddle time.
  • Sunshine streaming through my window.
  • Bright blue skies dotted with fluffy clouds.
  • Crisp fall air.
  • Lazy weekends.
  • The smiles elicited by a bedtime story.
  • Impending visits with distant friends. 😀

Speaking of impending visits, I am beyond excited for August 8!  One of my oldest friends will be flying out from sunny Californ-I-A to visit dear old Mom and Dad and guess who’s couch she’ll be crashing on?  That’s right, mine! 🙂

All sorts of fun things are in the works for that weekend.  Of course, fun for me would be staying up all night with a boatload of pop and watching movies till dawn.  But I’m sure other things will be involved, too.  Some major catching up is in order.

But for now…to the writing cave!  My boys (all of them) are down for naps and I’ve got a word count to hit.  Enjoy your Sunday, my lovelies!  How will you be spending it?

(c) 2013.  All rights reserved.

Campfire tales

So, after my last post, how about something a little lighter?  I’ve been camping three times in the last month and I don’t think I’ve recounted any of our grand adventures!  How the heck did that happen?!

Okay.  Enough exclamation marks.  Maybe. 🙂

So in June, we had planned to visit the (I assume, having never been there myself) lovely Volga Lake.  Thanks to Mother Nature, we were forced to change our plans and we wound up visiting scenic Pine Lake instead, right smack in our own backyard.  It was such a nice park that we decided to return in July, which turned out to be perfect because I got called into work (our camping trips straddled the week-weekend divide).  So in June the weather was lovely, the river was perfect for tubing, the hiking trails were excellent, and we had a great time.

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But our first trip in July was a little more eventful…

Down for the count: My reaction to the recent authonomy kerfuffle

That’s right, I’m feeling a bit let down tonight.  See, I’ve taken my work down from authonomy.  The fit hit the shan late this afternoon (or at least that’s when it hit my attention, anyway) and after much reading and much soul-searching, I decided that this was the right thing for me to do.

What could have prompted such a decision?  The story of Carl Ashmore, author of The Time Hunters.  The book was up on authonomy a few years ago and reached the Editor’s Desk (if you’re unfamiliar with authonomy, the top five books each month make the desk and receive a review from a HarperCollins editor).  The review was good, stating that the book had “…terrific potential.

You can read all about it here and here.  Suffice it to say, Mr. Ashmore published his novel and it began to sell well and now all of a sudden, there’s a new series called Time Hunters being released by HarperCollins that is eerily similar to Mr. Ashmore’s work.   Anyway, check out the links above for the full scoop.

Sneak peek Thursday

I’ve been hard at work on Remnants again lately for Camp Nano. I have a small word count goal – just 5,000 words, give or take – and I have no idea how close I am to hitting it. But I inadvertantly skipped over a major portion of the story during a writing spree a few months ago, and now I have to go back and fix it, so if I can at least get that accomplished, then I’ll consider camp a success.

Meanwhile, here’s a little taste of what all that fixing has wrought…

The post of many feels

I found a lump in my breast.

It could be nothing – Dear God, I hope it’s nothing.  Please let it be nothing! – but it could be something.  And if it’s something, then it will be my very worst fear come true.

My mother died of breast cancer at the age of 31, just one year after diagnosis.  Hers was an advanced and aggressive cancer; her doctors offered her little hope.  But she took what little they offered her and fought bravely for a year for us, for my dad, my sister, and me.  She battled hair loss and weight gain and nausea and everything else that goes with being a cancer patient, and when she finally succumbed to death, she was smiling.

I am not as brave as my mother.

Finding a lump in my breast – and worse, finding I had cancer – has always been my deepest fear.

Tuesday already?

Hi, everybody! Thank you all for stopping by. I know it’s been a bit quiet here lately and unfortunately, I think that trend may continue for a while longer. Between the upcoming holiday, my impending camping trips, the new job, recovering from Saturday’s successful garage sale, and something else that I’m not quite ready to discuss in detail (though I did vaguely mention it on Twitter yesterday), I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment and something’s gotta give. Sadly, I think my writing is it.

So, I’ll try to pop in here as often as I can. I’ll try to do the same for Facebook, even though I know my presence there lately probably isn’t what it ought to be. And Twitter? I’m still searching for a mobile app to replace my beloved Tweetdeck. If anyone has any suggestions for apps they love, I’m all ears (though for the record, I’ve tried HootSuite and I just don’t like it as well). Let me know in the comments! Maybe then I’ll at least be able to keep up there.

Until next time, folks, have a happy Fourth and stay safe.

(c) 2013. All rights reserved.