Rose City Reader's luncheon

Was fabulous. Really a blast. I met Serena Robar, who was practically out of her mind with excitement because the Border's people were selling copies of her book at the luncheon. The book isn't out till next week, so she wasn't expecting it. Either that or she's always out of her mind.

I also met the lovely Shannon McKeldon and her daughter, Jess, who knows as much about romance and books as anyone I have ever met. What a treasure that girl! My son is my reader but he's not much into romance novels. Shannon was as sweet and funny as I thought she would be and I want to live next door to her. Not only is she like the perfect friend, but she has hundreds of books. (I cull mine all the time due to space restraints) The food was, well, eh, but what can you do with a buffet? Besides, by the time we got food we were gnashing our teeth as most of us had starbucks for breakfast. We would have eaten anything. But our goodies bags held chocolate and that kept us from attcking the tartlets in the gift basket at our table. Which Shannon won. Lucky gal, though Serena was an ultra lucky one, winning three raffle baskets full of goodies. Shanon won two. I got nada. I did win a door prize with a couple of books in it. But I really wanted a basket... oh well, between Serena, Shannon, and the goodie bag, I now have a ton of new books for my TBR pile and I even was gifted with a sweetly scented candle and a bottle of wine. (thanks chickies!)

Elizabeth Boyle was a wonderful speaker. Had me truly laughing and wanted to come home and write. And Oregon Literacy got to take home some money. YAY!

I hope my new peeps had as fun a time as I did. they are welcome to hang out with our chapter and me anytime!

Plus Serena said something to me that was so profound I think I am going to have an epiphany from it. Will write on that later.

What a difference a few years can make

I picked up a new market yesterday. I hadn't really planned on looking for any new clients, but what you plan on and what happens are often two different things. It's been a while since I truly researched new markets. I kind of miss the hunt. The excitment when one comes through. If I had nothing else to do but write, I would probably do it a lot more. But as it is... I'm in the car a bit much. I can't really write full time. Especially full uninterupted time!

But what was really cool about this, is that the turn around was so quick. He love my resume. I remember several years ago I had to work to make it sound good. When I first started... yeah. It was bad. Now, it looks pretty darn good. And I can also add: My fiction work is currently being represented by Trident Media Group. Pretty darn cool.

I am done with nonfiction for the month. Get to concentrate entirely on my fiction which is nice. I just finished reading my CP's book. Is wonderful! Except I was so involved I didn't crit it. Now I have to go back with the red pen. Must get to that as well. I put that under fiction. Oh and I have a bunch of club stuff to get to, as well.

No one answered my question on character arcs... must find a list to ask.

Have a Big Readers Luncheon to go to tomorrow. Going to meet the fabulous Shannon Mckeldon and the talented Serena Robar! Woohoo. I really should figure out where this place is! The weather is going to be absolutely gorgeous!
Can't wait!

Scene Arcs

Well, maybe I should call this chapter Arc. I just finished writing a love scene yesterday. My agent asked for hotter so I gave her hotter. But after I wrote it. I got all paranoid. Is it too hot? I mean, we are talking teens here. Sent to CP Shannon and got a big NO! Whew.

But am having trouble with the chapter as a whole. I think this is one of the problems with rewriting a book. The uber talented Jaci had to do it with Demon Island. When you get given a wonderful idea that changes so much of the book you are both "Yay" and "*&%$" cause it means rewriting a good portion of the book. Not just revising and editing. Rewriting. Changing the focus, the plot and character. I have found that isn't too difficult in the first half of the book, because of the way books start off building to the climax, but now that I am on chapter seven, I am realizing that more and more is going to have to be rewritten. Which is fine, but that also means slashing scenes and subplots that I adored.

In the original chapter seven, the boy and girl have a fight that helps explain some of the boy's inexpliciable behavior in the first six chapters. Well, since I added the very hot love scene, I needed to get to the fight from a different angle. But now I have the love scene and then the fight and the orginal seven ended up with them having a real date. I think it's too much to ask from one chapter. It seems rushed. So... what now, what now? Slash date. They can sorta make up. But no date.

Okay on to chapter arcs. How many people plot their chapter point by point? How do you make an arc? What the hell is an arc anyway? Cause I have a slam dunk synopsis, but it's time to start the serious rewriting and make the book more like the new synopsis. I need to understand this concept. What about Character Arcs? I think I get what it means on an intuitive basis, but for the purpose of improving my craft, I need more.

Thank you people. Oh, and if the above post seems a bit scattered, it's because I was up sick all night. With an unmentionable (only because I hate the word. It's creepy sounding, not gross.) milady.

A Tuesday To Do

Okay, was far too busy doing yesterday to make out to do. So here it is a day late.

Make out new member packet for skate club.
Make out hotel list for skate club.
Finish editing chapter seven and eight in LIPS
Flesh out new idea/write synopsis
Query editors for May work
Write Sperm article (This one just keeps hanging over my head!)
Research a few new markets.
Get ready for San Jose writer's conference. (shopping baby!)
Crit CP's last two chapters.

Okay, that's it for this week. I think that's enough seeings how it is already Tuesday.

Oregonians and weather

It's been a sunny weekend. Probably the first sunny weekend since November and that didn't count because it was freezing.

Pacific Northwesterners love them some sunny weekends. Don't get me wrong, we love the rain too or else we wouldn't live there. After a hot summer, that first mist is amazing. We actually head outdoors and drink our coffee on the deck soaking up the moisture. There's a great commercial for the University of Oregon that depicts a graduation in the pouring rain. A girl walks up to get her diploma with an umbrella over her and proceedings come to a dead stop. She looks around and then drops her umbrella and everyone cheers. She's one of us now.

But after several months of rain, that first sunny weekend is like Mardi Gras, Christmas and Cinco De Mayo all rolled together. Perhaps it's a reminder of why we live here. The softness of the breeze, the color of the sky when cleared of clouds and the fresh, sweet scent of growth. But I think it's the greens. Not just one green, but so many shades of green it boggles the eyes. Greens so bright it almost hurts to look at them.

As I was driving around yesterday, marveling at the greens, I noticed how many people were out. Families walking to the park, little leaguers playing ball, and men and women mowing, weeding, planting. Walkers with dogs, joggers with ipods. Kids on bikes. Neighbors were chatting. Nursery parkinglots were over flowing and the barkdust people were hauling chips by the loads. You'd have thought it was a national holiday. Okay, so it was Earth Day. But here it was a sunny Saturday, so fresh and clean it might have been washed by God. Well, it sort of was... washed in three months of rain.

Sure does wonders for the blues:)

The cure...

for da blues, iSh apple martinis. Like big liquid jolly ranchers with a serioush kick. Screw the gh;-)

Oh... and the shun came back out.

Cheers!

I got the blues

How am I blue? Let me count the ways:

1. For one thing, I'm pmsing. Oh, Lord, why did you design me to be at the mercy of hormones? I know you are Lord of all things, but why did You, the Being that created the heavens and the earth, the cells and the platipus for crying out loud, design me to be at the beck and call of hormones running from a gland at the back of my head to my ovaries and then all through my body? I wanna know.
2. For another, it started to rain again after two days of loveliness. Not long enough. It's like a giant cosmic tease to show us exactly why we live in the Pacific Northwest and then take it away again. March was one of the rainiest months ever and April has been no better. We get two breathtaking days of sun and then it's gone in a puff of mist. An author once said, "People in the Pacific Northwest have as many names for rain as the Inuits do snow." I believe it.
3. Cigarettes are bad for you. Why God, why? Enough said.
4. My book hasn't sold and may never sell. The RWA GH scores were absymal. I have one of the best agents in the business and it still hasn't sold. It seems as if everyone is selling except me. Why??? I wanna know.
5. Why do fifteen year olds suddenly believe that their parents, who have lived rich, full and eventful lives, are stupid? Don't know squat. I say wait a couple days before you do anything rash and she waits exactly 10 minutes. We say don't use your cell phone anymore the bill is gonna be big. A dozen times we say this. Then we get the bill. $736 dollars. Then she throws a fit the next day when we tell her she has to help clean the garage. Why, God, why? I wanna know.
6. My mother is back in the same state as I am. Why God, whyyyyyyyyyyyyy??????
7. Cigarettes are bad for you. Oh wait, I already put that. Oh well, it's worth repeating.

Can you tell I want a cigarette? I got de blues baby.

Heros

Diana had a post on her blog regarding heros. Specifically, Narnia heros. I was thinking about who did it for me both in books and movies. Here's a short list.

Ponyboy Curtis
Sodapop Curtis
Dally Curtis (I loved me some Curtis boys!)
Gilbert Blythe
The dark haired guy from Alias Smith and Jones.
Will from The Lords of Discipline
The Princes of Troy (Both of them, so romantic and tragic. Not to mention gorgeous. They did it for me way more than Brad's butt. Sorry Gena!)
Colin Firth in Bridget Jones Diary.
Chris in the Morning from Nothern Exposure. Loved him on Sex in the City and my Big Fat Greek Wedding too, so maybe it's just him.

I could probably think of more, but I have to get to work and thinking of gorgeous men this early in the morning is a little distracting. Which fictional characters do it for you?

Lalalalalalala

So far so good. Sent in my LIPS proposal. Some of the finest writing I have ever done. I sent in the revised synopsis and the first five chapters. Am busy rewriting the rest of the book. Am having a bit of trouble with six and seven. I had to kill a favorite scene in order to make the new version move faster. More dirt, less awwww! Better pacing too. So fun, so fun.

I have other ideas I want to get started on. One is about a couple of soon to be step sisters who are deadly enemies at school. I have a funny idea for pretend magic that was generously given to me by one of my talented Cp's. The other one I am toying with is called Homeschool Chick. A girl who has been homeschooled all her life starts in a regualr public highschool. I have a lot of funny ideas for the happenings at school, but I need something more. A hook of some kind. A plot would be good. Snort. Plus I am not sure whether she leaves school at the end or stays in. I think I would probably offend a lot of people by having her value the freedom she had as a homeschooler and decide to walk out.

Nonfiction is going better. I spent the last two days gathering sources and getting interview questions written. I have four articles to finish before the end of the month, but I think everything will pan out just fine. Still have a lot of work to do, but I don't feel so overwhelmed.

So Lalalalalalala!

Oooops

Um, I did something. The other day when I tried to put that link in? I did soemthing I don't think I was supposed to and now I have no links at all to the right. I need to be able to get to my blogs.

Can someone fix for me? I have tried a lot of different things, but can't find them. Does someone know a smattering of html, or at least can recogonize something that would clue them in on what I did? Jill, Rachel?

Sob. I can't visit anyone!

Update: Diana told me how to fix it, but I took the cowards way out and just deleted the post. I am off to visit everyone!
Teri

All Jumbled up

I am not awake yet so I am going to just jot down the things I have to do this week even if they are not writing related. I usually make two lists.

Call in prescriptions for my medications and husbands.
Get sources for So long to Soy.
Send out questions for Sperm article(I lost everything in the email program crash)
Find Sources for FOlic Acid peice
Find Sources for Pregnancy and Anti Depressents.
Finish Revising Chapter five in Lips.
Get at least three chapters critted for CP.
Work out, what three times?
Cook three dinners this week.
Light a candle for OTE. (Sucker needs it!)
Check out Calendar and see how many trips to the rink I can consolidate.
Stop capitalizing completely random letters in a sentence! GRRRR!
Um Mail Taxes (Need to put that one at the top of the list, eh?)
PUt together new member packet for Skate club
Call hotels and see which ones will give us discounts for competition.

Okay... I am outta here. this is sort of depressing. Oh, I have the greatest picture as my background. It's a lovely picture of an Aruban beach. Palm trees, tiki huts filled with booze or something. And two chubby tourist, a man and a woman, laying in lounge chairs soaking up the sun. My son was like, "What's the fat people doing there?" That's when I told him, "Don't laugh, that's me and your dad in ten years!"

Still dreaming of the beach:)

Overbooked

I am frantically overbooked today. Drive the kids to the rink, come home meet with the people who are buying the truck. Take money to the bank. Get kids at noon and bring them home. Try to get a hold of a source so I can finish an article and send it in. Take Son up to the zoo so he can meet a girl I don't like and don't trust. Rush back home. Check over Meggy's school work. Finish article and go over the synopsis notes from my agent. Rush back to the zoo in rush hour. Come home. Make and eat dinner. Rush back to the rink because dd has club and ds has to work again. Rush dd over to her boyfriends hockey game. Come home relax or collapse for an hour until I have to go back to pick Ethan up at the rink.

Can we say major anxiety attack here? Especially since Dh woke me up at 5 am. I am going to feel like crap for the rest of the day. It is going to suck. Is this really a life?

Okay. Breathing deep here. I could use a drink... even if it is 7am. Thing is, I can't drink today at all. Too much driving to do.

Whimper.

What's for Dinner

I have a confession to make. I am really tired of cooking dinner for my family. Now, remember, I homeschool and my hubby has always been on wonkey shifts so when the kids were younger, I might have to make six seperate meals a day. Yeah, six. As they grew I became so busy with driving, writing and homeschooling that I couldn't cook that much. So when my kids came of age, I created the make it yourself meal plan. Also known in my family as the FEED YOURSELF!!! diet.

Fortunately, my children do feed themselves. Unfortunately, they don't feed themselves well. My son likes carbs. My daughter likes pepsi and chocolate poptarts and I will eat anything that is fast and can be eaten with a book. Since I did away with the kitchen table to make some room for my office in the diningroom, I almost completely killed family meal times. I think we've all put on weight except my daughter who skates a couple of hours a day six days a week.

It's not like the husband doesn't help. He cooks several nights a week for us on his days off. But I am really going to have to get it together. So I am resolving to try to make the dinners a week. Then maybe I can make a couple of breakfast. Maybe. I don't want to take on too much.

Tonight we are having ribs marinaded and grilled on the bbq, pasta and grilled red pepers. A real meal.

hey, don't judge, my kids are 15 and 16... and they both know how to cook. Sorta.

Recovering

I'm still trying to recover from the weekend. The guys went fishing and it's just the ice princess and I so it has been pretty nice, though I did have to go collect boyfriend. They walked down to the shopping center to hang out while I tried to get some work done. Not going well. I need my synopsis to be approved so I can carry on.Am having trouble in my nonfiction world as well.

In fact nothing new to report, after all.

WOWZA

Dear son and friend had fab time at Fall Out Boy/All American Rejects concert. We didn't get back till midnight. Went to bed a little after one am. Got up at six. Drove to Vancouver about an hour of freeways from here. Freeways, people. I can't even tell you what driving on freeways does to me. Can we say pass the xanax?

Daughter competes in spins. Does a fantastic job. Gets third. Competes in jumps. Places fourth out of five. Not so good. We have about five hours till she ocmpetes again. Then the conversation with dh.

Him: "What do you mean your not coming to get Ethan and taking him to work?"
Me: "It would take you thirty minutes to take him to work."
Him: I worked a twelve hour shift! I have to work another one. What if I can't get back to sleep?"
Me: "You'll get back to sleep. It'll take me an hour and a half round trip at best."
Him: What are you talking about? It's nine miles! You just don't want to drive. You're being selfish. I have to sleep."
Me: (So pissed off I don't even catch the nine miles comment) Fine, whatever! I'll drive it!"
Him: Fine!

So I drive back on the freeways in pouring rain. An hour to get home to take my son to our home rink to work. Another hour to get back.

Another conversation four hours later after dh talks to daughter.

Him: "Oh my God, why didn't you tell me you were in Vancouver!?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Him: I thought you were at **** (The home rink) Do you know how much it cost us in gas for you to run all the way home and take him to work?
Me: "Go suck monkey butt."

Actually he apologised his arse off for making me drive like 150 miles to do what he could have done in 25 minutes.

I went out to lunch with ice princess and charged multiple cosmopolitins. Take that.

Oh, and the ice princess got third in her short program even after not having the right cut of music and having her boyfriend there watching. So proud of her for pulling it together. She fell 4 times in warm up and her boyfriend was really nervous. So cute!

I have more OTE news. An editor really liked my writing and the premise but had soem problems with the plot. She said she would be happy to look at the story again if I revised it. Since she is the only editor who had thos eproblems we are going to wait before doing anything.

Oh well.

This and That

I slept for four hours today. Of course, since I stayed up until after one last night and got up at six to go to the rink this morning, I really needed it. Now my whole day is off and the article due today is still only half finished. Gah.

I finished Jill Monroe's book, Sharing the Darkness, last night. She is a fab writer.Great tightly written story too.

Ummm what else. In a fevered pitch to get ready for competition on Sat. Tomorrow she will practice from 7 to 11 and then we will run to the bank so she can cash her check and get all the glitter stuff she needs. Then I drop her back off the rink for a little R&R with her friends and BF and will drive my son and a friend of his to a concert. (about an hour south of us) Will hang out at the inlaws who live right down the street from the concert hall. Will wait for call pick them up and take them home. The next morning, I get up and have to have my dd to the competition by eight am. (About an hour north of us.) Will be there ALL day. From 8am to 5:15. UGH! Will find a restaurant with many drinkies.

Sunday I rest. Sorta.

Am looking for another book to read. Going to hit the bookstore sometime this weekend for some good YA. Any ideas? I want to get Twilight. What else?

I got news!

Not the news I wanted cause it is both good and bad. But, I will just concentrate on the good. Berkly passed on ON THE EDGE. They said it was too young for them. (I really thought the editor would go for it because she's a big skate fan, but no. I think it's too sweet. More on that in a minute.)

Aladdin/Simon and Schuster passed... because it was too old for them. But the editor for Aladdin loved it so much she mentioned it to an editor at Simon pulse who called the agent and requested it. The editor told my agent, and this is a direct quote... " I thought it was compulsively readable, and that Teri did a nice job of weaving behind-the-scenes of skating life with a juicy, soapy story."

That will keep me going through the next round of rejections!

On to the sweet thing. Skate girls are sweet. Not that they can't be competitive bitches, they can and I show that. But they are a bit slow on the growing up side of things because they don't have the time. The skating community is filled with late bloomers, coaches who were late bloomers and helicopter parents. My daughter, at fifteen, is the first one of her crowd to have a boyfriend... when she showed up with a small hicky, you would have thought that she was turning tricks on Broadway from the reaction she got from the her two coaches and a couple of the other girls. She's already shown it to me in that proud, but embarassed way that you have when first love is blossoming, and I had to do major damage control between her and her coaches. GAWD! I didn't think it was that big of a deal. And this is my main audience. Yes, I will be reaching teens who dream of skating, but in order to depict these girls honestly and not offend the intended audience, I have to write them sweet. Parents will be buying these books for their girls.

I can write edgy and don't have a problem with that, though I doubt I will ever have teens having rampant sex. But this particular book is about 15-17 year old late bloomers. So, I might have a really hard time finding a publisher who understands that.

Okay, off to read the quote some more and get some work done!

Losers

They couldn't get my missing files back. Gah! The Geek found them, but they were corrupted so he is going to run some stuff at home and then try to open them here again... and he is going to help out.

I need my files back!!!

Ahem.

Other than that no news on nothing. Bah. Everyone else has news. A sale here, a final there. But I have none. Just a stinky computer that ate my files. Time for chocolate.

Outlook Express?

My Outlook express weirded out on me during a compacting thing and swallowed some very important files. Like my invoice files. And several files containing interviews for due articles. I have the geek squad coming on Monday to try to recover them.

Can we say depressed? I really needed those files. I mean my invoices are all sent and I have them marked in my books, but I don't have the actual files so I can forward to my clients if they don't pay me and say, "See, I told you I sent it!"

I am bummed! Too busy for this, let alone can't really afford it! But just one of those files is worth the money for geek squad.

Sigh. I should go write on something, but haven't been in the mood.