The WIP is finished. I’m free, free, free!!!
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Archive for May, 2007
I’m Free!
Monday, May 21st, 2007Adventures in Lawn Sprinklers
Sunday, May 20th, 2007Yesterday, my dad decided to bring over the tractor lawn sprinkler for my yard. We haven’t had much rain all spring and my grass is looking pretty crunchy right now. I don’t know if y’all know what a tractor sprinkler is, but it looks like a miniature tractor and what it does is follow the hose so you don’t have to keep moving it. Very nice, but we couldn’t use it on my yard last year because it had just been sodded.
He arranged the hose over much of the south side of my yard and then couldn’t understand why it wasn’t moving. At one point, he hollers through the window into my house that it’s sitting in one place, but by the time I put down the laptop and got to the window, I couldn’t find him anywhere. I shrugged and went back to work.
A while later, I saw him and went outside to see what was going on and he’s still complaining that the sprinkler won’t move and he doesn’t understand why. He’s got the directions open and it’s talking about how to position the arms and he’s been fiddling with that. I asked, “what do you have it set on?” Normal, he tells me. Uh, Dad, there is no normal. It’s hi, lo or neutral which means it remains stationary. I turned to page 2 of the direction book and showed it to him.
Do I need to mention that he wasn’t the happiest person on planet Earth at that moment? He’d spent an hour messing with the arms, thinking that was the problem. At least part of my lawn got a good soaking, though. 
I also had to shoot another wasp yesterday. Good thing I keep the spray handy. I don’t know what it is about that one window on my south side, but this is like the third of fourth time I’ve sprayed out of it and I haven’t had to do it with any of my others. I guess this is a good thing because only the one window is streaked with crap, but it’s also a PITA because I don’t dare take the screen out to clean it. They can get in the gap between my house and the window edge, and with my luck, I’d end up with a wasp in the house. I’ve already been through that and I’m not doing it again. Gah!
And in writing news, I’m halfway through my final read through of the WIP and on track to mail this thing tomorrow as planned. Yea! Tomorrow morning I’ll be able to post my dancing Hobbes which signifies the end of the book! I can’t wait!
The End Is Near
Saturday, May 19th, 2007I’m through chapter 22 now with revisions–except for maybe half a dozen little spots (at least I hope they’re as little as I think!) that I needed to hit when I was more awake than I was during the work week. Part of me is still in disbelief that this book is nearly finished. Well, at least until my editor asks for changes. I was telling people at work that I thought I was going to have to put a stake through its heart to end the damn thing. I’m still hoping I can get everything finished and printed early enough on Sunday to get a decent night’s sleep.
I’ve been spending a lot of time dreaming about all the things I want/need to do after I mail this book in. First, is to clean off my breakfast bar. I’ve had papers covering it since the end of March. Then I want to buy dirt and plant my flowers, buy some furniture, and I have plans to get my hair cut next weekend. Is this how prisoners spend their last few days behind bars when they know their release in imminent? 
I’m also hoping that Bravo replays episodes of Shear Genius that I missed. Is anyone else watching this show? They’ve pitted hair stylists from around the country in a competition and each week they give them a different challenge. This week it was doing the hair styles for a bride, maid of honor, and the bride’s mother. One of my favorites was eliminated, but my other favorite is still in there. It’s kind of like when HGTV had their Design Star program going on. I loved that show, too, although I normally hate reality television.
Snags and Exhaustion
Friday, May 18th, 2007I knew things were going too smoothly with revisions. I hit some stuff in chapters 18-20 yesterday that slowed me down. Maybe I could have powered through them if I hadn’t been so tired, but I was, so I bookmarked them to come back to when I’m not going to make them worse by working on them. Three spots. 1 in 18 and 2 in 19. I’m also saving chapter 20 for when I’m more rested. It seems I had a thing for passive voice the day I was writing parts of that chapter because there sure is a lot of it. I fixed a couple of paragraphs, then decided to go to bed. Where I proceeded not to sleep, which means I’m even more tired today.
So the plan is to finish going through chapters 21-epilogue, make all the easy changes and save the tough stuff for Saturday when I’ll actually have some sleep. That’s going to cut into my polish time, but it can’t be helped.
I don’t think I have anything non-writing related to add today and probably won’t until this is finished. I guess I can report that the tree peony survived the 40 degree temperatures. But I think I might be the only one obsessed with its progress.
Ready, Set, Panic
Thursday, May 17th, 2007Revision work continues. I’m through chapter 15 now–just 9 more chapters and the epilogue to go. If things keep on going the way they have been, I’ll finish revisions on Friday night and have Saturday and Sunday to polish and print.
So last night I went to bed and I’m lying there thinking, wow, I’m really plowing through this. And that’s when the panic attack hit. My first thought was OMG, thinking that was the kiss of death and I’ll hit a huge problem in chapter 16 or something. My next thought was OMG, what if I’m missing something huge? Then I started worrying if there was enough suspense, enough action, if the romance was believable, etc.
I’ve only cut about 4 more pages in the last 10 chapters I’ve worked on and now I’m wondering if I should be pruning more. I’m just not seeing stuff that I feel needs to be cut, though, and I knew that the bulk of that work would be in the first five chapters–which it was.
I also worried about my peony tree. Granted, not for as long as I worried about the WIP, but still… The instructions said not to plant it until temperatures no longer dipped into the 30s and it was going to be cold here last night. I think the tree (all 2.5 inches of it) will be okay, though–it was 40 when I got up this morning.
Anyway, last night was basically a stress out night until I fell asleep. I guess it was a good thing that I was so exhausted that it didn’t take too long.
My reprinted bookmarks arrived yesterday, but I’d still like to know what happened to the missing box. I had an email yesterday telling me that Wednesday was the last day to proof an ad I was doing and did I have any changes? I’d faxed that back last week, so I quickly sent an email–and I think I got nailed online by my boss. 
I’m not positive it was him, but there was a hesitation in the stride of whomever walked by. And my green and pink purse arrived yesterday. I think I’m going to keep it even if it isn’t neutral and even if it is a little smaller than I expected.
Two-Fifths of the Way
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007I made it through chapter 10 last night. Not much cutting here, but I needed to punch up a section with some emotion and I’m not sure I managed it or not. I’m fried enough that I’m having a hard time working up any emotion of my own which I think makes it tough to write it. But I finished early enough last night to get to bed at a decent hour and caught 6 hours of sleep. Yea!
The plan is to get through chapter 15 tonight. The first scene in chapter 11 requires some thought. It starts in my bad guy’s POV and I need to foreshadow something that comes later, but I’m not sure it’s going to fit smoothly into this scene. The problem is that I hardly have any scenes in my demon’s POV and if I don’t foreshadow here, I’m pretty much in the thick of things the next time I’m in his head.
Non-writing stuff. Hmm. My missing bookmarks remain missing, so the printer had to redo them and they’re supposed to arrive today. I’m lucky my dad is willing to handle this stuff for me. Not only do I loathe the phone with a passion, I just don’t have time to talk to anyone right now.
My bamboo plant arrived yesterday, and of course, I didn’t have anything to put it in because I never found time to shop for a planter. My dad brought one of my mom’s small vases over for me, but it’s still too big and the plant is leaning on a diagonal. All I had to do, though, was put in a couple of inches of water and then add the plant, so about a 2 minute job.
I think my tree peony might maybe be looking a little better. When I went out to water it last night, I thought I saw some new growth. I’m still stymied on how much water to give it. I don’t want to over water it, but on the other hand, I want to make sure I give it enough. The instructions don’t address quantity. Don’t they know there are people like me out here who need that level of help???
Snip, Snip, Snip
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007I’ve cut 10 pages out of the first five chapters of the WIP. This isn’t a huge shock since I knew it needed a lot of trimming. Usually in the beginning, I’m still exploring my characters and getting to know them, so there’s extra stuff there. Also, sometimes I think I’m going to use a plot thread, but end up not. Like in this story, I thought Maia’s job and her coworkers were going to be a much bigger issue for her during the course of the book. It’s all set up to be a major focus, but it ended up not being the case. I do need some of the job stuff there, but not as much and that’s where the major cutting came.
Actually, I thought I was going to lose more pages in the chapters than I did, but there wasn’t quite as much to cut out of chapters 1-3 as I thought. Four took the brunt of it.
My goal on revisions is to finish 5 chapters a day. I didn’t quite make it last night, although I got the bulk done. I have a little tweaking left to do and I have a transition to make at the end of a chapter, but the heavy lifting should be done here.
I have half a gazillion emails backed up. The problem is they’re all email that require energy and brain power to answer and all of that is focused on the WIP right now. It has to be. So I wonder if I should send an email saying, “hey, I got your note, but I won’t have time to answer until next week” or not.
I watered my tree peony yesterday. Um, it’s looking a little sad. I don’t know if that means I’m giving it too much water or not enough. It hasn’t been raining here, so it’s not like it’s getting anything extra above what I’m giving it. Then I wonder if it’s the dirt. Maybe I should have bought black dirt to pack around it because my yard looks kind of clay-ey. Of course, it’s possible that the tree is just fine and I’m expecting too much from it. After all, I did just plant it last Thursday.
Almost There
Monday, May 14th, 2007A week from today, the WIP will be on it’s way to NYC. That gives me, in essence, six days to finish revising it. I was working on the computer, but yesterday afternoon before I went to my parents’ house for Mother’s Day, I printed the whole thing out. And holy cow, it really is a book! =8-O I don’t know why hard copy makes such a difference, but not only is it easier for me to see things on paper, the fact that the thing is basically done felt more real. I stood there, staring at the near-ream of paper on my dining room table and admiring it for a few minutes.
I haven’t done too much cutting yet, but today, I’ll start slicing and dicing at the first chapters. They’re slow and downright boring in places, but I was trying to get my feet under me with this story and I just kept going. My story right now is at 450 pages, so I have plenty of room to cut without worrying. Like I’ve said before, brevity is not one of my problems.
The peony tree is still alive and kicking. I’ve been going out every day to water it and make sure it’s okay. I have no clue if I’m giving it too much water or not enough, so I can only hope I’m doing all right with it. Still have 20 lily bulbs on my counter that I need to do something with.
Okay, just saw a commercial on TV about “free style” cruising. Been there, done that, and while it sounds good in theory, in reality it was terrible. I’ll never go on another NCL cruise because of it. We could never eat when we wanted to because there were never any tables available. The service from the wait staff was horrible, the worst I’ve ever seen on any cruise, and it’s because they never served the same people twice so they didn’t have to worry about their tips. BTW, the tips were automatically charged to our shipboard accounts and a certain percentage given to the wait staff and the stewards. Anyway, NCL was my fourth cruise line and it was by far the worst cruising experience I’ve ever had. JMO and that of all the experienced cruisers we talked to on the ship.
The Secret
Sunday, May 13th, 2007Yesterday, I watched The Secret. Maybe you’ve heard about this DVD because Oprah did a show about it and I think it was on some news show as well. Larry King, maybe? I can’t remember. Anyway, I highly recommend watching this DVD. It has fabulous information.
The Secret really doesn’t say anything I hadn’t heard before, but it was a fabulous reminder, and for people who haven’t been following a spiritual path, it might be the first time they hear this stuff. The gist of the movie is that we are the creators of our own realities and what we focus on, we get. The Law of Attraction. And if we put emotion behind the thought, it happens faster.
For an example, if we’re thinking “I don’t want to be late,” the universe doesn’t hear the don’t part and so will create circumstances that will make us late. So we don’t want to be “anti” anything, we want to be “pro.” “I have enough time to get done everything I need to get done without stress or worry.” See the difference? One is positive and the other negative.
It’s also easier said than done–I know it. I’m naturally a glass-half-empty kind of person, although not as bad as a lot of pessimists are, and retraining my brain to think differently has been a battle. That’s why watching this was so good for me–it reminded me that I’d slid into a negative place again.
One of the ideas that was in the DVD and that I think will be helpful is the “gratitude rock.” This man would carry a rock in his pocket, and every time he touched it, he’d think of something he was grateful for. I’m going to try this, but with my jump drive. I always have that with me anyway, but from now on, whenever I touch it, I’m going to remember to give thanks for something in my life.
Do I think The Secret works? I know it does. Let me tell the story about selling my first book. Being a published author has been my dream since I was a fourteen-year-old kid. I spent a lot of years not writing, but while part of me regrets that wasted time, a bigger part of me knows that I spent that time becoming a fuller, richer human being and that makes my stories better.
Anyway, I was working on Ravyn’s Flight in 2001 and I just knew I was going to sell it and have a book out before the end of 2002. Now my logical, rational side said there was no possible way that was going to happen. The world of publishing creeps along with all the speed of a glacier and I knew this. But I refused to worry about the hows; I just trusted that it would happen. Besides what could I do? I have no control over the speed with which any editor reads my work, I could only focus on my story.
So anyway, I started entering the revised opening chapters of Ravyn’s Flight in contests in August while I continued to work on fixing the rest of the book. I finished it in early December 2001 and within a week/week and a half of this, I received a letter from the contest coordinator of the very first contest I’d entered back in August. I’d won and I should contact the final editor judge about sending my full manuscript to her.
I did. The editorial assistant suggested I wait till after the holidays and I mailed it December 30th. It arrived at the publisher that Friday, and 10 days later I left for Hawaii. At one point, I thought, wow, I forgot to leave an away message on my work telephone, maybe I should call from here and add one? Then I thought, well, I don’t get many work related calls and the people who would call me know I’m on vacation. That first little voice said, yeah, but maybe the editor who has your story will call. The logical voice said, you know how slowly things move, do you really think you’re going to get a call before you get back from Hawaii? The answer, of course, was no, so I didn’t leave an away message.
I came back from Hawaii and discovered I had two voice mails and an email from this editor. I called her back the next day and sold my book. It was out in Nov 2002.
What I’m trying to demonstrate here is that we shouldn’t worry about the hows or what our logical mind says is possible. Sometimes we just have to trust and believe. I used to do it all the time and I still manage it in certain areas, but this movie reminded me to take it out into all areas of my life and that’s what I’m going to try to do.
Another of the men on the DVD talked about making a “vision board.” You cut out pictures of what you want, paste it to this board and look at it every day, sending energy to what you want. I’m going to try this, too. I think it’s a really great idea.
The other thing is that when an opportunity is presented, you have to take it. To use my book as an example, winning the contest wouldn’t have done anything much for me if I hadn’t 1) had the book finished and ready to mail off 2) I hadn’t contacted the editor and arranged to send it 3) actually put it in the mail.
Action is most definitely required, but not just logical brain, this-is-what-I-should-do action. It’s going with your gut even if your gut is kind of giving you signals that your logical brain is scoffing at.
Anyway, I highly recommend watching The Secret. Yes, there will be times your logical mind goes, “yeah, right” and I thought a couple of the speakers were slightly on the smarmy side, which made them difficult for me to listen to, but it helped that this was a message I’ve heard many times on my journey. I’m definitely glad I took the time to watch it (Netflix has it available to rent) because it was a message I definitely needed to hear right now.
Nine and Counting (Including Today)
Saturday, May 12th, 2007My peony tree is growing already. I had to go out yesterday afternoon and water it, so I made a check on it’s progress. It’s also kind of tipping toward the west. I don’t know how that happened because I could swear it was straight on Thursday when we planted it and the dirt is packed solidly around it.
My dad and I also had a conversation yesterday about doing a tree ring with retaining wall stone. He’d gone to the store and come back with the information on it. After discussion, I think we’re going to try to find someone who won’t charge an arm and a leg to build it for us. My dad keeps talking about throwing together something with wood, but I wouldn’t like it, so I’m thinking it might be worth it to just get what I want to begin with. We’ll see. I might be putting my lily bulbs in containers or something.
Counting today, I have nine days to finish my book. It’s going to be pedal to the metal from here on out. Of course, I have been pedal to the metal for a while now. What’s beyond pedal to the metal?
