Fall-ing in Love

There's something about this time of year that puts a spring in my step, a twinkle in my eye, and a tingle in my heart. Some people might equate the sensations I get with falling in love. In a sense, it is a love affair I have every October-I go head over heels in love with Fall. And just like real love, it celebrates the good things, while not glossing over the irritating habits your partner may have. Fall's annoying habit of getting really warm and bringing out the yellow jackets and post-summer sweat is forgivable, as long as I get the crystalline days that bring chilled cheeks and the breath of fallen leaves. Coffee tastes so much better on days like that, and has me in the kitchen (not like I'm in there every day anyway ;-} ) baking and stewing like I'm preparing a feast for an arriving prince. Then come the grey rainy days where I feel almost like it is a requirement to spend the day in it's entirety inside, either under a blanket or madly typing plotline, oblivious to the world around me. I'm cosseted in the thick woolen blanket of greyness, and the sharp edges of the outside world are muted and distant, unable to poke me in the eye for the day. Today was a day like that, excepting the sick, home from school son. He's a trooper though, watching movies, eating ice cream, and playing Xbox. At 15, he's pretty well able to take care of himself, but I follow him around when he gets up, snatching things out of reach and telling him to "stop touching things!" Despite patrolling the house, I got the rewrites done on the first two chapters this morning. I am good, really good with the progress so far, and now comes what I think is the easier rewrites, the main body of the book. The first two chapters are the set up for the rest of the book, introducing my main character, and it's set in a different place entirely than where the rest of the book takes place. It's somewhat bifurcated from the rest of the story, so it had a short, fast groove that I had problems getting into. Groove was gotten, changes were made, all is good in the drizzly grey Virginia countryside.

Deux and Redo

Whoof. I think that's the sound I'm looking for. Taking the sage advice of seasoned writers, I dismantled my first chapter and rewrote it. I ended up with something so amazing, so different from the stilted construction that comprised my first attempt at a chapter, that it was unrecognizable. I was even asked if it was the same book. Unfortunately, I'm finding that I absolutely hate doing rewrites. Passionately. I'm ok once I get rolling, but facing that blinking cursor on a new document is harder than I had anticipated. It's not that I hesitate to rip the already written chapter apart, it's more of a "aw man, haven't we already done this???" discouragement. The results are worth it, though. I'm impressed, my proof reader is impressed, so I soldier on. Already working on chapter two, fixing problems with plot flow I created with the editing of the first chapter. Every day, into the trenches boys!
Next step is to submit the new material, and hope that an agent is impressed.....More on the various turns life has taken in the past month later, now I have to turn over the internet for the sake of the children. Homework. Glad I assign my own nowadays!

Dirt Farming

No matter how grandiose my landscaping plans might start out, I always seem to be doing more rock moving, limb trimming, or dirt moving than anything else. No wonder I hate gardening. I thought it was more weeding, watering, light clipping....no, that's for people who plan out their garden! I'm just keeping ahead of the virginia creeper and filling in holes from where I've been slowly dismantling the disaster of a garden that was left behind by the previous owner of my land. At least I had the joy of eating a bunch of just ripened, warm tomatoes off the vine (and I mean off the vine-most of them didn't make it in the house) this year. That was definitely worth it, even though I kind of cheated by planting them above ground in planters this time. My plans for next year are somewhat nebulous right now, but I've already warned my hubby that he either needs to dig around the foundation for "repairs" (he thinks there's leaks) early next spring or it's off limits. I want flowers or something nice around the foundation next summer, dang it. It needs some finishing. It all needs some finishing, but there's only so much I can do with a tight budget. Maybe a book advance can pay for a new driveway and deck.....Hint hint, publishers!!!!!

The Road To Rejection

Is not, and will not be paved with dejection. I know the odds of getting a manuscript accepted in the first couple of submissions, and I'm not holding my breath just yet. What I am doing, however, is starting the next book. Waiting around for an answer on the first book before starting the next is career suicide in my book. (hah! I do a funny!) If I want to be a writer, I have to write. At this stage, I must write. It's gotten to something deep down in my soul, and a day without pages is a day without breath. Some days life rears it's ugly head and book-blocks me, but that is unavoidable with three munchkins and a leadership role in the household. I will concede on one thing, though. Root canal trumps book every time. Something about the taste of Novocaine that puts me off the words......

Paper Chasing

I love office stuff. I mean really love it. I can take 20 minutes to pick out the perfect stack of sticky notes. Truly smooth writing pens can send me into an ecstatic gushing of praise. Firm, unopened packs of printer paper are so perfect as to be put on a shrine. But they all confounded me today. I have such a migraine from shuffling, printing, sorting, hole-punching, stapling, clipping, new cartridge loading, and other magic stuff that I give for today. It's not that the supplies have done anything wrong, per se. I have been such a twit that everything seems to flummox me today. Every time I think I was so done with a job, I realized I forgot to a)save a critical change, b)put it into the correct format, or c)print it in the desired font, you get the idea. Then in my formatting research, I just found out that this weekend we might get a tropical system swinging by. Ooops, I used to be so on top of that weather stuff. That's kind of an important thing to know, with the OCD kind of person I am. Ah, it must mean I'm happy and busy, too busy to be bogged down with details.
Uh Huh. Riiiiiight.
No, I just am losing the crushing grip I used to have on my life. Not that it made much of a difference on the outcome-my hands were just tired at the end of the day! Ok, time to shut it all down and watch Warehouse 13 before the kids get home and distract me!

Inconveniently, it seems that with the rest of the nation, my muse has gone on vacation. I think she got tired of the jumble of mundane rushing about, and took off for quieter climes. I don't blame her-it's getting rather cluttered in my head, what with school starting next week and all the assorted and sundry rushing about that it involves. I tried writing the first chapter of the sequel, and have brooded over it for a few days now, picking at a word here and there, writing then deleting a sentence, until it was so overwhelmingly depressing that I just saved the file and opened a new one. I won't delete it, but I realized that I hated it. No deleting because I never know when the idea might come in handy, but not right now. I'll start with another scene, and hopefully I'll fall in love with it. If not, I'll try again. I got some very good advise this morning about scene writing-if you don't love it, and are just trudging through it to finish it and move on to something much cooler, then your readers will sense it. Love it or delete it. Passion makes for better writing than a sensible collection of scene-movers. I cant seem to dredge up enough passion right now for a scene I love, so I may have to back-burner it and take care of the nitnoid details of life, at least for today. We're going to the mall! (collective groan)

Crazy Is As Crazy Does

I seem to be losing something in the last few weeks, I'm pretty sure it's my mind, but I'll have to get back to you on that. Reality is taking a hard fast chunk out of me lately, with the oncoming school year and all it's assorted and sundry things that must be accomplished in the next two weeks. Fees to be paid, books to gather, supplies to be fetched, doctor and dentist visits to attend to; the list winds its way along like some tortured Mobius strip. Add onto the merry-go-round the everyday nitnoid b.s. and my dentistry debacles, and I've got a platter full of fun here. I know that at the end of the month most of the ruckus will end with a thump, and the crickets will be audible again. Not much help now, but it's something to look forward to!
The good news is that I've kept my head in the game enough to sketch out the main plot points for the next book I'm writing, a sequel to the previously mentioned one. And to start the wheels turning in the back of my mind for another idea for a book that I had sketched out months ago. No spoilers on that one, it's too tenuous right now. I've some time tomorrow morning blocked off for writing, so I'm hoping to get at least a first chapter out of the sequel by lunchtime. Poor Erika, she really can pick 'em.......