FRIDAY STIR FRY - Yep I'm Crazy

I'm in. And yes, son, I'm crazy. Every year my son asks me why I want to put myself through this. And honestly, I don't know. It's crazy. 50,000 words in one month. 1667 a day, every day. And, every year I find myself getting behind. I've spent many a Thanksgiving at my son's house typing away, trying to catch up on my word count, while everybody else visits. And although everyone gave me encouragement, I could tell there wasn't a single soul who understood my insanity.

What drives me into this mess? I wouldn't have a finished novel under my belt if it weren't for NaNo. And I wouldn't have three others started. That's why I do it. It's hard for me to get the writing muse to cooperate and generate new material. I'm much more interested in revisions. But, without that start of 50,000 words, I would have nothing to revise. So, I need NaNo. My plan this year is to finish one of those unfinished stories. Fifty thousand words should about do it.

I admit the last couple of years, I failed miserably. I'm going to blame it on laziness, my constant companion. These last few months, I've had some health set backs and maybe that's why I'm determined to succeed. I need something positive.

I've added a word count widget to my blog to help keep me accountable.

Who's with me!!!!

FRIDAY STIR FRY - Whatever



This started off as a pity party post. Here's part of it. "What a frustrating month. First, I fall and go boom. Now, I have the mother of all colds. And to top it off, it's looking like I didn't make it to the top 50 of SYTYCW contest. And now my desktop computer is acting up."  I deleted a lot, believe me.

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Somebody get me a little cheese with that whine would you? I prefer Colby.

Life is full of shitty days. One thing I really try to remember is - This too shall pass. And I know it all will be a distant memory someday. But, I must say of all the trials and tribulations of this past month, the one that hurts the most is the writing contest failure. Because, dammit, this is a good story.

All writers believe their babies are the cutest, the best, the top in their class. We gave birth to this story. It's a part of us. When it's rejected over and over it hurts. Everyone knows this is part of the traditional publishing business. I'm up to 10 rejections including this contest. I've heard all the stories of famous author's books and their many rejections. You know what, it doesn't help.

So, pass the cheese and then tell me how you deal with rejection.

FRIDAY STIR FRY - Better Late Than Never

I know, I know it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. No excuses. Well actually a couple of excuses.

Experienced both ups and downs a couple of weekends ago. It was our much anticipated Ozarks Romance Authors Convention (ORACON). See pictures here. https://www.facebook.com/OzarksRomanceAuthors/photos_stream

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As secretary I was in charge of name tags for over a 100 people. So, being the procrastinator I am, I worked most of Friday afternoon on them. I was sorry to miss the book signing of our talented presenters at B&N. But, I wasn't going to miss the fancy dinner at Flame Steak House for our volunteers and speakers.

All was well until I went to the bathroom. Being a bit unsure on my feet, (and no I wasn't drunk), I tripped over the threshold going into the one seater. Landed on my bad knee of course. And, because of my bad knees and, well, my weight, I had a hard time getting up. I wasn't about to ask for help and spoil every one's fun. Anyway, I did something really bad to my foot.

So, the day of the conference, I could barely walk. But, I had to be there because I had all the name tags. Thanks to some awesome pain meds and even more awesome friends Allison Merritt, Lisa Medley and Sara Jordan in particular, who waited on me hand and foot (get it?), I made it through the day. Even managed to pitch my novel to Holly Atkinson with Samhain publishing. And, although my head was a little groggy and I'm sure my pitch wandered off course a bit, she asked to see the manuscript. Yeah!

Several x-rays later, nothing was broken. Still bruised and hurting though. It's been hard to concentrate on anything. Ah, the trials of getting old. But, as they say, it's better than the alternative.

So, let me know - have you ever injured yourself being clumsy?