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I blogged over at Magical Musings today. Head on over if you’re interested in reading about writing a kick-ass heroine.

When did appliances get so demanding? Since I’ve moved into my house, I’ve had both my microwave and my dryer impatiently beeping and buzzing at me. Like last night. I was doing laundry and the dryer finished. It buzzed. Loudly. And scared the crap out of me. I think that buzzer could be heard at least 6 miles away. I was in the middle of something, though, so I didn’t jump right up and run for the thing even though it immediately shut off.

Then I hear it start up again, which surprised me because it was so unexpected. (I normally do head right for the dryer the instant it stops because I don’t want my clothes to get wrinkled.) But I thought, oh, good, it’ll run again for a little while and I can finish what I’m doing. Nope. In less than 30 seconds, it buzzed again and shut itself off.

This time I did head right for the utility room because I didn’t want to listen to this over and over. My old dryer used to buzz and keep running for a while, then buzz again. (And the funny thing is that I used to believe that buzzer was obnoxious, but that’s nothing compared to this one.) The old dryer gave me time between buzzes and it kept running to keep the clothes from settling. I think I miss my old one.

Then there’s the microwave. Sigh. It beeps three times to tell me something’s ready, which is normal and fine. But if I don’t open the door in the time it decides I should take, it beeps at me twice more and I swear these beeps are more demanding and shriller. Come on! Sometimes the instructions say to let the food sit for X number of minutes before taking it out. My new microwave doesn’t give me that option. Then, when I do open the door, a message scrolls across the clock/time area: “Enjoy your meal.”

Maybe it’s just me, maybe most people like being told to enjoy their meal, but it makes me think of that Pam Tillis song, Don’t Tell Me What To Do. Okay, I’m contrary, but seriously, I don’t need or want my appliances to “talk” to me.

Whew!

Okay, blinds are in and they’re fabulous! I love having privacy in my bedroom and the room-darkening feature works great. I was able to sleep in for a while longer than I would have if the windows were still bare. I did have to get up and shut my bathroom door since it was really bright in there, but that’s okay. I have the kind where the top goes down, which is especially great for the computer room since it’s on the front of the house and facing the street. Now all I need is my curtain hardware installed and all my curtains up and that will be another item I can tick off my list. Yea!

I haven’t turned the heat on in the house yet. I am cold, I even switched to long sleeved shirts and started wearing socks now, but when I check the thermostat, it says it’s 65 degrees in here. Since that’s about what I would set the heat at in September anyway, I haven’t given in to temptation yet, but this morning, despite being snuggled under the blankets, I was still cold. I’m not ready for winter! Wah!

Although, maybe I should start a pool to see if the phone company will ever switch my service over to the buried cable and get rid of the one lying in my yard. As long as that thing has been sitting there, I’m wondering if they’ll manage to get around to it before it snows. The biggest problem is my internet speeds are all over the map and I’m sure it’s because I’m on a temporary cable.

I didn’t get much done yesterday on my proposal. I’ll blame it on how tired I was, but part of it had to do with goofing around on My Space. Can anyone explain how to use this thing? And what’s with the friends deal? Do you just click and you’re someone’s friend and appear on their page? Do they reciprocate generally? I suppose I could read the FAQ, but I operate on the theory: If all else fails, read the instructions. BTW, you can find me at: Patti’s My Space Page. If you’re over there already, add yourself to my friends because I look pathetic with only “Tom” on there.

I got a call yesterday. They’re going to install my blinds today! Yea!!! Probably, they’re going to have to come back to install the hardware for the curtains, but I don’t care. It’s creeped me out to have a bare bedroom window. I’m still traumatized from a peeping tom incident when I was 7. I found out the next day it was the neighbor boys going around looking in everyone’s window, but at the time, I looked up at the window, saw this face mashed against it and totally freaked out. I’m sure that’s why I’m having such a huge problem with this naked window now even though I know it’s really difficult for anyone to see in.

Anyway, I have to put things away that I’d normally leave out–like my laptop–so I really need to move this morning. So what do I do? Oversleep. Sigh.

While I’m talking about my house, I just want to say that asking the electrician to install a light above the shower was brilliant. Maybe one of the smartest decisions I made. If I hadn’t, it would be pretty dim in there because of the position of the light fixture and the shower.

I hung my curtains that came in from Penney’s and they’re about an inch shorter than the ones I already have up. (I bought the extra panels because I liked the fuller look.) Sigh. How can two sets of 63″ panels be two different lengths? This just boggles my mind. It’s not like they have to guess how long to make the panels. I left them up for now, but I’ll no doubt have to return those.

So tomorrow I have a book signing. I’ll be at the Mall of America, Bloomington, MN at 7pm. Sears Court on the first level. Question and answer session (gulp), followed by the actual signing. Along with me will be Jennifer Crusie, Bob Mayer, Barbara Samuel, Kathleen Eagle, Michele Hauf, Judy Baer, and so many other authors my brain can’t remember all their names. Especially at 4:53 in the morning. But there will be a lot of Minnesota authors there so come on out if you’re in the area.

In honor of the book signing, the MN Dept of Transportation has decided to close the freeway that I need to take to the mall. I’m trying to figure out an alternate route.

Today should be a truly fabulous day! I hope I’m right and I hope everyone else has a day as good as the one I plan on having!

Ravyn’s Flight is currently available new at BN.com. How long this will last is anyone’s guess since they’ve periodically had the book available, sold out of it, and have gone back to no copies. So if you want it, I wouldn’t wait. I want to hope that this time they’ll keep it in stock, but who knows?

That’s your most recent RF report.

Before I get started, a couple asides from last night that I forgot to mention. As they’re talking about my dad and all the wonderful things he’s done, one of the themes that came up over and over was that if they need something done, they call him and it’s taken care of right away. I’m sitting there thinking, my God, I have two bar stools at my counter that still rock and have rocked since March. I’ve got a magnifying mirror that needs to be installed in my bathroom and has been collecting dust since like July 2nd, then there’s the shower rod for the guest bathroom and the paintings sitting behind a chair in my great room and– Well, you get the idea.

The other thing I found funny last night was these old men were making jokes with the young princesses running around serving dinner. What was so hilarious was that these girls would give this obviously fake laugh and I would bet anything that they wanted to roll their eyes. So I was sitting there, laughing at these girls’ reactions and everyone thought I found the jokes funny. Not. Sometimes these girls didn’t even get the joke, like the guy who asked for Irish coffee. From the blank look on this kid’s face, I’m pretty sure she had no clue what Irish coffee is.

I’m posting to you from an internet connect of a blazing 26.6. Sigh. Dial up isn’t usually this bad, but apparently all that phone cable lying on my lawn is temporary. My permanent cable was buried on Tuesday, but I haven’t been cut over yet, so I’m still running on the temp stuff. I’m hopeful that the permanent connection will speed up my internet connections because I’m going to lose my mind. The phone company, I’ve learned, moves at it’s own speed and it’s about as slow as my internet connection this morning.

I do plan to get cable internet. Eventually. Before I do that, I want to network my house because I like to move around with the laptop. Before I can network, I need to get the computer room unpacked and things put away. I can’t move some of the furniture until the blinds are installed or they’ll never reach the window and I still haven’t heard from the store this week.

The bare window in my bedroom is starting to bother me more and more. I know it would be really difficult for anyone to see in because of the height of my house and the position of the windows and the fact that I don’t have a neighbor behind me, but I feel exposed. Plus there’s all that glare on the laptop screen.

My other annoyance is all the cardboard my dad put down on the floor. For people who don’t know the story, I have fake wood floors and to protect them, he put down cardboard last week. The builder was coming in and doing some touch-ups on things I’d found, the blind store called and they were supposed to come out this week and he didn’t want my floor to get scuffed. But I’m damn tired of cardboard. It makes my house look messy and it makes it feel cold or temporary or something. I don’t know how to describe it. So I don’t want to take the laptop into the great room because I don’t want to look at cardboard, but writing in my bedroom is a challenge because of the window and the glare on the computer screen.

To close out this morning’s post on a positive note, Penney’s called and the curtains I ordered are in! Hurrah! My mom and dad are going to pick them up today while I’m at work and by this afternoon, I’ll have them up. Once the blinds and the rest of the curtains are up, I’ll probably take pictures and post them. If I can find my digital camera and get it charged up again. You see, I packed it in this box….

So you’re all riveted to your seats, waiting for the next installment of the Ravyn’s Flight distribution saga, right? Good news on that front. Ingram has copies on order. It’s a little late and I’m sure I lost a bunch of potential sales, but when that gets into stock, bookstores will be able to order RF again and readers will be able to get it. Yea!

So at about 5pm last night, I went oops, guess I better get ready for my dad’s party or ceremony or whatever they call it. Okay, so social hour stared at 5pm–I didn’t know anyone there to be social with–and I made it a little after 5:30 which ended up being plenty early enough.

I guess I should say that my dad was hugely excited by this whole thing and I guess it’s a huge honor and all, but I have a problem with this whole lodge concept and I have since I was a teenager. But then my dad doesn’t understand some of the things I enjoy, so when he starts talking lodge, I basically tune it out and go into uh-huh mode. Last night, though, I was up close and personal with something I find to be, well, amusing and a bit surreal.

Dinner was served by a group of teenage girls and their mothers. They’re daughters of members from another lodge. Some of them were wearing tiaras. I kid you not. I’m looking at this, and if there weren’t a bunch a people within earshot, I would have asked my mom what was with the crown deal. Later on, when it was clear, I did ask and apparently they’re like princesses within the org or something. O-kay. I can’t see wearing a tiara to serve food, but hey, they’re kids. Whatever.

Speaking of wearing something inappropriate to wait tables, one of these girls (who looked like she was around 13 or 14) was wearing leather (or faux leather) pants. Fairly tight. And heels higher than anything I’ve worn in years. Heck, maybe since I was in my teens. Once I hit college, comfort became more important than wearing shoes with 4 inch heels. Towards the end, she was getting a little snippy and you couldn’t help but wonder if it was because her feet hurt.

Just before dinner was served, this dude with a ponytail that went to the small of his back sat down at our table. I was like whoa. A lodge guy with a ponytail? He was probably in his 40s and had so much lodge logo jewelry on he looked kind of like a used car salesman. I was never introduced to him, but apparently he’s some big shot in the main lodge. He didn’t talk to anyone at our end of the table (it was a short table), just ate and then bolted from the table, then he showed up in the meeting room upstairs right before the ceremony began.

The only comment I’ll make on the food is that the salad was like coated in dressing. Heavily coated. Every single piece. I haven’t seen that much dressing on lettuce since I was a kid. Holy crap! And it wasn’t like you could ask for plain salad with the dressing on the side.

So we go upstairs to the meeting room area and the presentation started–fifteen minutes late. Gah! We all have to stand to say the pledge of allegiance. I honest-to-God wasn’t sure I’d remember the words since I haven’t recited that since grade school. Then the grand poobah of my dad’s lodge introduces every other grand poobah there from every lodge and there were like a gazillion of them from all around the Twin Cities. I was like, okay, everyone here is a grand poobah, can we move on? Nope. And they were calling them like “worshipful master.” Um, yeah. O0000-kay.

Next, they had people stand up and tell nice things about my dad. Which was great, except this went on and on too. Someone told me they hadn’t had this big a turn out at the lodge in 30 years.

While this whole presentation thing was gruesomely long, I also found it hilarious at points. There were a couple of times I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud and I know I was the only one who found this thing funny. Although I can say, the grand poobah of my dad’s lodge is hilarious. Whether it was intentional or if he’s always that way, I don’t know, but it was like watching Walter Mattheau in Grumpy Old Men.

Anyway, I have to wrap this up since I’ve got to get ready for the EDJ (Evil Day Job (thank you Joely!)). I don’t think I can recount much more anyway, since I was like hurry up and let’s get out of here mode. It dragged on and on and then my dad got to speak. I love my dad, but God can that man talk. And talk. And talk.

Finally, finally I was able to make my escape and go home. My social obligation is fulfilled, and since this is a once in a lifetime award, I should never have to do this again.

The Twins clinched a playoff spot behind Boof Bonser. See Boof Bonser Is My Hero for why I’m posting this. From Sportsline:

Joe Mauer, Jason Tyner and Nick Punto hit RBI singles in support of Bonser, who is 4-0 with a 2.20 ERA in his last five starts — probably cementing his spot in the playoff rotation.

“Hopefully this is just the start of what we can do,” said Bonser, who gave up a just-barely homer to Angel Berroa over the left-field wall in the sixth and a leadoff double to Emil Brown in the fifth, striking out five and walking two over 6 2/3 innings.

Bonser left to a loud serenade, “Booooof!” as Dennys Reyes took over for the last out of the seventh.

“Everything is finally coming through,” Bonser said. “I can’t say it’s just me, because it’s the guys behind me. They’re hitting the ball and playing defense. That’s it right there. It’s all about the Twins. It’s not just one guy. It’s everybody.”

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any busier, galleys for “Dark Awakening” arrived yesterday. At least it’s a novella, so I don’t have to comb through an entire book for mistakes, but I couldn’t stop myself from reading through it once real quickly last night. I found a few things already that need to be fixed, but overall, it didn’t look too bad. I hope that first impression is right.

And tonight, I have a social obligation. My dad’s lodge is giving him an award. I’m happy for him since he’s all excited about this, but not happy for me because I’m obligated to attend this event. I seriously do not have time to do this, but of course, I have to go. The thing starts at 5pm. FIVE! Gah! So I’ll lose the entire day of writing because as soon as I get home from work, I’ll have to start getting ready and by the time I get home, I’ll be ready for bed. That means the only work I’ll get done today is what I manage on my lunch time. Living out of state is looking pretty good right now.

The timing on this party could only be worse if it were the final month of a book deadline, so this is pretty damn inconvenient. The thing is that there really is no convenient time for anything any longer. I’m busy almost all the time. The only stretch where I have some spare time is right after I turn a book in. Of course, then I’m in recovery from the push I had to make to meet my deadline.

Guess I should stop complaining about how much I have to do. Sometimes, though, when I think about it too much, I just get overwhelmed. And when I feel like I’m drowning, I tend to go into avoidance, which means I fall farther behind because I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Like yesterday. Instead of reading the galley, I should have been writing. I’d had a really productive lunch hour and things were going well. I should have picked right up where I left off. Of course, by the time I finished the galley, I didn’t want to do any work at all.

I’ll have to make a To Do List today. That always helps me focus and I feel better when I cross items off. So that’s my goal for the day. And about all I have time to write.

Late post today, I know. Somehow the time got changed on my alarm clock, so even though I hit the snooze less than usual, and thought I had plenty of time, I really didn’t.

Anyway, I’ll be guest blogging on September 30th at Magical Musings. My topic is writing the kick-ass heroine. There’s also a really nice review of Eternal Nights posted on the blog.

My theme song for the day (despite the title of this post) is Get Over It by the Eagles. It became the song of choice after I heard Mister Congeniality whining about a change that had happened at NWA five years ago. Five years. I know it’s been that long since I was in New Orleans at the RWA conference when it happened and that was 2001, the last conference before I sold my first book. So of course, the lyrics started flowing through my head and I finally dragged out the MP3 player to listen to Don Henley sing it. He does a much better job than I do. The added benefit is that I have noise cancelling headphones so it mostly blocked the whining.

I finally heard from the store I ordered my blinds from on Friday afternoon. They’re waiting for my curtain rods to come in, but if they’re not here by this week, they’ll install everything else. So of course, my dad covers my floors with cardboard so that they don’t get scuffed up. I have the fake wood stuff. He’s so funny! Anyway, the house looks horrible with cardboard everywhere. Especially after I worked so hard and hung my new curtains and all. I figure, though, that cardboard on the floor is better than some of his other schemes. I did mention his plan to dig a trench in my backyard to improve water drainage, right?

I think that’s about all I have to say. I did work on my proposal yesterday. I believe I made some progress, but I won’t know for sure till I reread the pages today and decide whether or not I keep them or trash them. Again.

Before I get started, I apologize for not posting yesterday or replying to comments yet. From the time I left work on Friday afternoon until late last night, all I did was unpack boxes and try to figure out where to put things. I’ve been complaining for a while that I’m tired of being surrounded by boxes and I finally decided enough was enough. I wish I could say I finished, but I haven’t. I did, however, make a sizeable and noticeable dent. My bedroom and the closet look fab now! I still have about 4 or 5 boxes in the walk-in that I need to go through, but at least I can get to my clothes–especially the fall/winter collection. Of course, the computer room and spare bedroom are still awful and I can’t find some of the things I was searching for because I didn’t label anything. I know, stupid.

Along with the major house unpacking push, I also ran around Saturday morning. I exchanged the white shower rod my parents picked up for me for one in brushed nickel, ran over to Michaels since it was in the same strip mall and picked up my two big orange flowers that I wanted for my vase. My plan was to go with brightly colored sunflowers, but all the colors for those were really muted and, well, boring. I found what I was looking for in the exotic flower aisle, but I have no clue what it is. Also, to my great disappointment, while the orange looks cool against my blue and light walls, it washes out the pink of the vase. Now I have to think up Plan B.

And the last stop on my quick excursion was Penney’s. I decided I liked the curtains I bought, but that I needed a second panel on each window to make them fuller. I went with an ivory 63″ length and ordered it from the catalog. Because I wanted to get everything done that I could, I thought instead of waiting for an order to come in, I’ll just pop over to the store and buy it there. It was a neutral, classic style–they had to have it in stock, right? Wrong. So I had to have them order 2 more panels for me.

Speaking of windows (and yeah, I’ll get to the goals part of this post in a minute), I heard from the blind store. They’re still waiting for my curtain rods, but everything else is in and ready to roll. If they don’t have those rods by next week, they’re going to come out and install the rest of it anyway. Cool! Every window–except my bedroom–has some kind of curtain or drape over it, even if it’s an ugly, temporary measure. Because of the position of the house, no one can see in my windows, but it’s interesting. In a way, it reminds me of this cabin we used to go to in Wisconsin. The bedroom I slept in had windows high up in the lofted ceiling that had no covering, and in the mornings, this weak, early sun would come in. Since I loved going to this cabin and the memories are good, I semi-enjoy waking up with the weak sunshine creeping in my room. However, it’s kind of a bitch too, because I like to sit in bed and surf the web in the mornings and my windows face east, so I have to move if I want to see the screen.

Geez, I didn’t mean to talk so much about the house. Although, in a way, it kind of does lead into goals. My goal for Saturday (and Friday night) was to get as many boxes unpacked as possible.

I like goals. Not that I always meet them since I tend to be overly ambitious with how much I can get done in the time allotted to me, but it still gives me something to shoot for. I don’t like nebulous goals, but concrete ones, although I generally leave the particulars up to the universe to take care of for me. No point in tying my angels’ hands by telling them how to do their job, right? Because, at its heart, that’s what I believe a goal is–I’m stating my intentions to the universe and saying “Make it so.”

Here’s an example of what I mean. My goal is to have enough money to quit my day job. It’s a concrete goal, but there are no steps in there. Now if my goal was to win the lottery so I could have enough money to quit my day job, I’d be tying my angels’ hands. What if they could get me the money by finding oil underneath my house? (I know, it isn’t going to happen. See? So by keeping the how to do it part unimagined, I’m open to reaching my goal however it happens.

As important as I believe goals are in the rest of my life, I believe setting goals on writing is critical. I have a variety of goals here, both big and small. I have a page goal for each day so that I can make my deadlines. Before I start a scene or chapter, I’ll sit down and work out goals that will move the story forward. I don’t consider this plotting, although some people do. Then you add the characters. They have goals too. I have to incorporate what they want into my scene/chapter goals too. Although what they want might change during the course of the book. Hey, torture them before they can torture me, that’s the Patti O’Shea motto!

I also have career goals. At one point, that was to get published and to do it within a certain time frame. Wait, you just said no stipulations, so what’s with the time frame thing? (At least I’m hoping that’s your question. I think it’s fine to give a deadline, but it has to be a realistic one. I didn’t say, I want to be published by next week. My window was close to five years.

And let me tell you, spirit worked a miracle on this one. I honestly didn’t believe there was a chance that they could pull this off. I finished Ravyn’s Flight in Dec 2001 and that only gave them 2 years to have the book on shelves. My target publisher was Dorchester and I’d heard stories about people who’d waited years to hear anything. Even when I had my full manuscript requested off a contest, I didn’t think I’d hear quickly, let alone have the book released in time.

I was wrong. I sold RF in three weeks. (It would have been two weeks, but I was in Hawaii and the editor couldn’t get a hold of me.) Eleven months later, it was released. I’d made my goal with 13 months to spare.

There are some people who believe you need to write the goal down to give the request power. I don’t think that, although it doesn’t hurt. My belief is that if you state your goal firmly at least a few times a week, you’re continually sending energy to it and reinforcing its power.

Goals alone, though, aren’t enough. A person has to work to make them come true. Saying I wanted to be published within five years would have been ridiculous if I wasn’t pursuing it. I was writing regularly, producing pages, entering contests, etc. In other words, I can wish all I want, but until I took action to show the universe I was serious about meeting my goal, it would have meant nothing. So if you’re someone who’s dreamed of being published, but you don’t write regularly, don’t finish stories, etc, then it’s time to sit down and assess what you want. Do you really want to be published? Then work. Don’t wait for inspiration to strike. If I waited for that, I’d never finish a book.

Okay, I think I’m done now. I’m not sure if I was as clear as I’d hoped to be, but it’s late enough in the morning that I need to get moving. You see, my goal for the day is to write a scene, and since it’s been giving me fits for more than a week now, I need all the time to work on it that I can get.