Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Out of work early and about to start on all the cooking and cleaning, then enjoying the holidays.

I've got the holiday tunes cranked up and am relishing the last days of non-stop Christmas music on the stations. There are so many fun songs and beautiful songs. I won't lie, there are also a few annoying ones.
My favorite Christmas song is Merry Little Christmas, originally performed by Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. That song has actually been through a lot of rewrites. However, the one she performed was not the original lyrics. They were a bit depressing so they had to be changed. Then, Frank Sinatra wanted to preform it and he still thought some of the lyrics were depressing so once again they were changed.
Ah, the process of writing a classic and just another example of how a piece of work is never perfect, never finished and can never please everyone.

I have always preferred the Judy Garland version. Yes, Christmas is a happy time but there is just a little bit of sadness in even the happiest of holidays as I look back and think of the ones I used to share them with that are no longer here.

"Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow. Until then we'll just have to muddle through somehow."

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The Storm

I cannot believe that I have not posted since Halloween! Oh, wait. I guess I can. It has been so crazy. Aside from working my regular job, I got a second holiday job. Also, I happened across 300 books that I needed to list on half.com, plus ship them once they sell. I have a wedding to plan. Oh and then there's the holidays. I think we are all aware of the work and enjoyment that goes into those such as shopping, wrapping, concerts, dinners, cooking, baking, decorating and Waffle Ugly Sweater Parties.
So needless to say blogging has been on my list but has yet to make it to the top. And I really shouldn't have had time to do it today. The plan was to be shopping and then writing group. But Michigan doesn't always allow such things. A snow storm has me stuck in the house.

I'm bummed to miss writing group but not everyone had work or new work and risking your life for writing group isn't really a great idea. But I will be happy to get back to it soon.
Last month I didn't take anything to writing group. This month I was going to take a story I wrote and rewrote long ago, but with the weather and the holidays we have postponed until next month.
I really had wanted to take the first half of my comedy/sci-fi story that I've been working on for almost a year now. (Slow and steady!) But I didn't get time to type it up. One of the few down falls of writing long hand. I guess now I will have time to type it and take it next month.

My second job is almost done and so are the holidays. Lets hope I have a little more free time in the near future.
In case I don't make it back in time... Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween, also known as NaNoWriMo Eve. I'm pretty sure I'm not a logical person. I currently have two jobs and will spend the first three days of NaNoWriMo in Indianapolis, also known as away from my home, my family and my computer.
The first two I will miss a lot. The third one I can do without but it will make starting NaNoWriMo tricky and any hope of doing NaBloPoMo impossible. That's okay I wasn't really planning on the NaBloPoMo and as I mentioned before I'm not going into NaNoWriMo with the expectation that I will actually do 50,000 words but my hope is to get a really good start and to write more than I have been.
I really do wish that NaNoWriMo was in February or March. There is so much going on October-December that it's just not a good place for me. Maybe I'll do a NaNoWriMo in January. A while back I wrote a post about other months devoted to creative things. January would be after all the holidays and second jobs but before the wedding plans start getting into super serious mode.
Until then, despite all the madness, I will participate in NaNoWriMo and who knows, I might surprise myself.

Good luck to all those participating!

Bitten by the writing bug

So what to do about NaNoWriMo? Well, at writing group we discussed whether or not to join in. And I think we all kind of decided that even if it gets us started on something but we don't make the official goal (none of us did last year), well it's better to do something than nothing at all.
Yes, I'm in but clearly I must be insane. Why? Because I just took a seasonal holiday position at a department store so that I could make some extra cash for various reasons. I know. What the heck was I thinking?

In other news, I started a new story today. Yes, I have the comedy/sci-fi story I want to finish but I haven't felt super motivated in regards to it. Maybe because I started it months ago, or because I have no idea where it's going/how to end it, or because I don't feel confident that there's anywhere that would publish it when it's done.
Anyway, I just started this new story. I've had the idea for a few and today the writing bug just bit me. That last line was a pun regarding the story and that's the only info I'm giving for now. I'll share more about it later on.

Until next time...

Back to writing group

I know my next post was suppose to be about Faith In The Moonlight and how that story came to be. But it's an in depth story and I just don't have the time to do it justice right now. Today is my only day off of work this week so I've tried to pack in a lot of stuff and unfortunately, a long blog post is not one of those things that made it into the final cut.

However, writing group was one of those things I did manage to fit in. We didn't meet last month due to crazy schedules so it was nice to get back in the swing of things. I brought another scene from Incognito, my former comic book script turned prose.
The last time we met I brought the final scene from my first "arc," which is really about as far as I had gotten in the comic book script besides jotting down a few ideas. So today's piece was all new writing for characters that I had not written original material for in about five years. Very weird to try and pick up where I left off, but having been converting the story from script to prose over the past year did help keep me in touch with the characters.

It was a good meeting. We also touched on the subject of NaNoWriMo, but highlights of that discussion will have to wait for another post.

The Desk

I wanted to write a little bit about the story that I just got the acceptance letter for, “Faith In The Moonlight.”
But before I can write about what inspired the characters I have to give some back story about the amazing guy I am marrying, the awesome family I will gain and one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received.

In the past years I’ve posted repeatedly about the awful gift giving that happens with my family. Also, I’ve posted a few times that my family are not very supportive with my artistic endeavors. So when I started to learn more about my future husband and his family, I was shocked by a lot of things but one of the major ones is gift giving.
They don’t worrying about keeping things even when it comes to gift giving, instead they worry about whether or not you’ll like it. In my family, if I get a crappy t-shirt, my sister is getting a crappy t-shirt too. In his family, they think of something you would like and they get it for you even if cost $5 more than what your sibling is receiving. Also, my family believes if I buy you something for $20 you better buy me something for $20. And don’t even think about a used gift, that’s just ridiculous! And who cares if you even like your gift? It’s the thought that counts.

Anyway, I have mentioned to them a few times that I write, but I don’t get into a lot of detail because I haven’t really been that successful with it. But last fall we moved into our new rental house and the future in-laws noticed that my office was pretty empty. I mentioned that I’d like to get a writing desk. (Yes, I have a computer desk but why I prefer the writing desk is another post itself.)

Three months later future husband and I go to their house to get a Christmas tree and the future in-laws are acting really suspicious but we never figured out why. A few weeks later, on Christmas day, I go to their house and noticed a large mass covered with a sheet
Later that day I was given a chair with a bow and was escorted to the large, sheet covered object. Then I was presented with my Christmas present, a vintage writing desk.
I was floored. It’s a beautiful desk and the thought behind the gift was unreal to me. A gift picked just for me and to encourage me to follow my dreams. I haven’t had a lot of gifts like that and I was amazed!

I would come to find out later that a few months back their neighbor had died and the week we came for the Christmas tree was the week they were having an estate sale at the neighbors house. They went to the sale because they really liked their neighbor and they just wanted something to remember her by. (Apparently, she was quite a spunky gal.) They saw the desk but it was priced more than they could afford. But a few hours before we came for the tree a man pulled into their sales lot and needed to buy a tree. They weren’t open yet so they were going to turn him away, but they are way too nice to ever do that. And this guy started talking about how he was at the estate sale and they had slashed the prices on everything. They ran down the road and got the desk into the house minutes before we got there.
They insisted that luck was on their side when it came to getting that desk and I believe them.

Next post: The inspiration for “Faith In the Moonlight”

...and the sign says?

...well it was more like an e-mail and not an actual sign. It went a little something like this

"Faith In The Moonlight is scheduled for publication in the July 2011 issue of CONCEIT MAGAZINE."

That's right! I'm getting a short story published. If that's not sign to keep going I don't know what is!

Sorry to keep everyone waiting. I'm a writer. I need to build suspense! I debated about punking everyone by saying that the sign was that I was pregnant and that it meant I should give up writing to focus on my family. But some things should just not be joked about.

Anyway, the story is not getting published until next year but I'm asking everyone to considering supporting CONCEIT MAGAZINE now. They had faith in me and my story. They've helped me realize that I still want to write and that it's worth the effort because someone out there is reading.

CONCEIT MAGAZINE is on myspace and on facebook. Stop by and check them out. Consider ordering an issue to support writers and literary magazines!

The sign...

When I last wrote, I mentioned all the major changes currently going on in my life and all of the things I thought might be occurring in the near future. I've spent the last month or so contemplating on whether or not writing fit into that plan.
I'm a crazy person who believes in fate. I also believe if you want something bad enough you can make it yours because it is your destiny. And if you had asked me five years ago, when I first started this blog, I would have told you that being a writer was my destiny. I wanted it bad. I blogged on a regular basis about writing for the school paper, taking writing classes, writing comic reviews, writing freelance fiction articles, starting a novel with my best friend, writing comic book scripts, writing short stories, completing my first novel, going to my first (and only) writing convention, the countless submissions, the hundreds (literally) of rejection letters and getting my first piece of fiction published.
It's been amazing but over the past few years priorities changed for me. And while my personal life has gone from depressing to blissful, writing has fallen to the side.
And I've went back and forth about whether it was time to just let go.
Yet, I held on for some reason. And yes, while I believe in fate and destiny, I also believe in signs. I kept looking for one but nothing.
So I made a deal with myself to put this internal writing struggle to an end. I would make my own sign. Jenni had sent me a link a while back to a writing contest with a December deadline. The deal I made was that I would write something new or take something old, whatever I thought was my best piece of work, and I will send it. If it makes it, I will continue to write. If not, then I am retiring.

But before I could even get that far the sign came...

I could care less that you say "I could care less."

Here's a little yahoo article I saw that I thought was pretty interesting. People that say "I could care less" is one of my biggest pet peeves. Enjoy!

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/24-things-you-might-be-saying-wrong-2338028/

Back at it

I'm still thinking about what I am going to do. The cool weather with the cloudy skies has me thinking Fall and that time of year always puts me in a writing mood.
I did some writing today. I did a little work on a story I had started a while ago, back when I was trying to write a funny science fiction story. Although, I never found a strong market for funny sci-fi, I do think it would work in just sci-fi.
Of course, I haven't found a lot of markets for just humorous short stories, which sucks because it's the direction I always felt pulled in.
Anyway, the short story is about a guy who can't figure out where six weeks of his life went and the only person he has to help him figure it out is his not too intelligent best friend. They compile a list of possible explanations of what could have happened and try to rule out the possibilities one by one.
I don't have strong feelings about this story. I don't love it but I don't hate it. It just feels good to be writing again. I think it's a good place to start off.
Lets see if I can keep up the pace this time.

A Choice

I've been thinking a lot lately. I know that's unusual for me. And I've been thinking a lot about writing. I keep coming up with excuses of why I don't write much anymore. It's always time.
I constantly say I never have enough time.
Yet, I think back to when I was writing the most and it was when my life was full of taking care of people. I had so little spare time then but I still found time to write.
So what is really different now? Well I'm happy. And to be honest I really felt more motivated to write when my life was full of depressing things.
Is my happiness a reason not to write anymore? No, I still like to write. I still wake up with crazy story ideas. I love talking with people about writing. I just don't write as much as I need to.
And there is always going to be excuses. Sure there's the wedding planning right now but after that. Who knows? And there are so many people who juggle full-time jobs and families but they still find time to write.
I guess I'm at a cross roads now. Do I write for a living or do I write as a hobby? I think it's time for me to decide.
If I decide that I want to make being a professional writer my goal, then I need to commit. Otherwise, I need to find some profession that I can actually see myself doing for the rest of my life. Because the only thing in my life that I'm not happy with is my career. I have a job. I want more than that. I want something that makes me feel like I've actually done something with myself.
Now I just have to figure out what that is.

Too long

It's been way too long since I've posted. A lot has happened in the last few months.
I'm engaged, which is super exciting. Since then the wedding planning has been overwhelming. It almost feels like having a second job some days.

Speaking of jobs, I got a new one of those. Yes, that's four different positions with three different companies so far this year. I'm tired. Maybe it's because I didn't take a break from one job to the next or that the last few weeks at my old job kicked my butt.
I think the real truth is that I'm starting to realize that I keep going from job to job and I have yet to find a job I love. I know it's work and I'm not suppose to love it, but I think that's a lie. I've had jobs that I loved. I just need to find one again.
Don't get me wrong. I'm thankful to have a job and I don't hate the job I have. I just think that I really need to start figuring out what it is that I really want to do and find ways to achieve that.

And one final awesome thing, we got a new dog!

Currently reading: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

What's new?

I had writing group last week. We changed our day from Sunday to Saturday. I usually use the Saturday before writing group to cram in my last bits of writing or editing so needless to say I was a little off schedule on Friday. I hurried up and wrote a short scene on my lunch. Normally, I hand write it in a notebook, especially when I'm at work, but time was short. However, I didn't want to save it on the work computer because those IT guys can be pretty crafty and I'm not getting in trouble just because I'm a creative soul. Anyway, I ended up typing it into an e-mail so when I did come home and copy/paste it into a Word document, the format looked a little crazy.
As if that wasn't enough of an issue, we were suppose to meet at 11am and by midnight I hadn't received the other group members stories, which almost had me assuming that we would not meet...so I overslept a little.
Of course, I woke up to find they had sent me work. I hurried to print it and realized I was out of paper. I ended up printing the stories out on the back side of scrap paper. It turned out to be an added bonus because the other writing group members could spend their time registering for charity walks and doing their taxes while I tried to read their work.
I should have already read their stuff before I got there but as I mentioned I was late. And I might have accidentally printed one person's story twice leaving me with no copy of the other person's story.
All madness aside, we managed to have a productive meeting. One of the members is going out of state for a week long writing retreat. Hopefully, he'll have lots of good information and stories to share at the next meeting.

That's what happened last weekend. This weekend I sent out a few submissions for my warrior nun story.
And I still need to type in what I have so far of my humorous sci-fi story and send it to my writing pal. I was suppose to send it at the end of May and still haven't done it. I guess I better get to it.

Blog slacking...again.

Okay, I suck as a blogger. I haven't posted in a while and really I have no excuse for that. I would write a big update on what's been going on but the truth is that nothing noteworthy has happened these past few weeks. I've just been living life and enjoying it for the most part.

This weekend my boyfriend and I went to see Rob Schneider and that was a pretty funny show. His humor was actually pretty intelligent and not just 45 minutes of him yelling "you can do it!" The crowd, however, was a different story.

My hope had been to go to Penguincon at least one day this weekend but money kept me away. Since I've switched jobs and bought a new car, I'm trying to get used to less money and getting paid different days. So right now the budget is tight.

I had writing group today. So I worked on turning another section of comic script into prose and met with my writing group. A lot of the writing this week was humorous and once again I find myself drifting toward writing humor.
And that reminds me that I'm still working on my humor/sci-fi story that I was suppose to have done months ago.

Other than that not much is going on. A few weeks ago I did finally get around to reading Dune. I still couldn't believe I had yet to read it. At least I can now scratch that off my list. Now I'm reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

Until next time...( and I make no promises about when that will be)

The Short Version

Okay, aside from meeting with writing group once and writing a few paragraphs of my monthly short story (I'm still working on February's and I don't think it will be done in time for March, yikes!) I haven't done much writing this month.
There's never any excuse not to write but I feel like my life has been crazy the last month. So here's a quick version of what's happened since the end of February.

Last week of February: I applied for a promotion at my job, had surgery on my foot, and sat at home doing absolutely nothing do to combination of crutches, ice outside, pain killers and discomfort.
First week of March: Still sitting at home, getting second hand stories from people at work about how the retail managers are arguing with the processing managers about why I should or should not get the promotion. Apparently, I'm so awesome at my job, everybody wants me!
Mid-way through the first week I am finally able to move around!!! And find out at the end of the week that I got the promotion.
Second week of March: I get the all clear to go back to work but I have to wear an air cast. The company will keep me at my old job until I'm off restriction. The next day the transmission in my car dies. It's blue book value with working transmission=$900. Cost to fix transmission=$1600. All of this adds up to buying a new car. After some rejection and drama from the loan department, I get a 2001 Ford Focus with only 62,000 miles. Previously owned by a little old lady who hardly drove it!
Mid-way through this week I go back to work and they already have my replacement, who was filling in for me while I was on leave, so there's basically nothing for me to do except listen to everybody make me feel bad for wanting to leave.
Third week of March: Working at old job, not as manager but as regular staff. I get assigned to put away all the product, which has me walking 15,000 steps a day (about 6 miles) on a foot that has just been pinned back together. So I spent most of my time coming home and not moving...at all.
Mid-way through this week, I go to a meeting at my new job and find out my cousin works there. I tell my supervisor and they almost don't let me have the promotion. Finally, they work it out and say I can still go. Then I get a phone call from a friend about a job...a good job.
Fourth week of March: I start my new job and even though I'm suppose to be the manager, I am being trained in stuff I've already been doing by the staff. Not by my boss or the person I'm replacing, I'm being trained by the staff, which I think is the worst position you can put a manager in. So the new position starts off really bad. Oh, and did I mention the half hour we spent in a meeting going over how everyone has to wear a bra to work?! The next day, I go to the doctor and can now wear Brooks walking shoes (bye $100)! I go back to work to do more of the same.
Mid-way through the week: I'm still training on hanging clothes and the staff member training me tells me I'm not good at it! Maybe I'm not good at it because I don't want to be. If they knew I was good at it, they would bump me down to minimum wage and make me a full-time hanger!
And that brings us to yesterday, when I found out I for sure got the new job! They want me to start as soon as possible so there wasn't a lot of reason for me to stay two weeks at my other job. What's the point in spending two weeks training me only for me to leave.
I am done and next Monday, I start my new job. Hopefully, a job I will like much better. I guess time will tell.

Post-op update

I had my surgery on Tuesday and it went well. I'm not in any pain and I hope that it stays that way. I'll be out of work until at least the 5th of March and my plan is to get a lot of stuff done in regards to writing. Of course, that plan isn't going incredibly well yet. My mixture of pain killers and anti-biotics is making me nauseous. So I have not been feeling super productive but I guess we'll see how the next few days go.

Hopefully, before I'm back at work I will have sent my recent rejects to some more magazines and will have finished my short story for the month of February that has been bumped to March.

The Three R's

I'm taking a break from working on the list because all it is doing is making my head hurt.
First off, I'm not doing that bad on getting my scene for writing group done. Of course, it's mostly translating from comic script to prose, so really is shouldn't be that hard. I'm confident it will be at least done in long hand before the night is done.
I haven't even begun to find a place for my rejected short story. I've been too busy trying to find a humor literary magazine. I've had no luck, I think that's mostly because it doesn't exist.
As for the rewrite of the First Line story, I'm stuck. I've given it to others to read. I've gotten advice but I don't like the way the story has to change. I have this image in my head of this character and I feel like anything that I do makes her not the person she is. I'm crazy, I know.

I might take a break and read for a few. Right now, I'm currently in the middle of reading Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned. I just recently read the Vampire Lestat and long ago I read the Tale of the Body Thief. Even longer ago I read the Interview with the Vampire. I know I'm reading out of order, but everything still makes sense to me. Anyway, I like Anne Rice but her books can be too descriptive sometimes. It feels like it takes me forever to read them.
When I was on vacation I read Tuesdays With Morrie. That was a great book. It was really short and to the point. And the point was amazing. Live and Love.
After that I read Brian Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius. The book definitely started off strong. I couldn't help but feel awful for the author, but later on his sense of entitlement kind of annoyed me. In my experience personal tragedy never entitles anyone to anything but having to work harder.
The last book I read was a YA book called Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marrs. It's about faeries and it was pretty good. The story was quick moving and an interesting subject. I haven't really read a lot of fiction that deals with fey but the stuff that I have read I like. I've got the next two of the series on hold at the library.

Now I'm off to work on Writing, Reading and Researching submissions.

Where did the time go?

Ah the start of vacation, it seems so long ago. It was the last time I posted. I would like to say that I got everything done that I wanted to but I didn't. It just wasn't long enough. However, I did get some of the stuff done that I wanted to so it wasn't a complete failure.
What's been going on since vacation? Work. There are lots of changes happening at work and most of them involve me having more work to do and not getting compensated for it. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
What else is going on? Two doctors appointments. Don't worry I'm not sick. It's just that after walking up to 13,000 steps everyday I work (yes, I wear a pedometer), I can't step down on my left foot without crying out in pain. Why? Well I have bunions on both sides of both feet and on the outside of the left foot my deformed bone is causing a giant blister inside my foot. I have a shot of cortisone in there right now, which is helping but it's a temporary fix. The only permanent solution is surgery. They want to straighten the bone. Sounds delightful! The only bright side is that I'll get medical leave from work if I do end up having surgery.

I have the next two days off and I have a To Do List for those days.
-Finish editing my story for First Line. I'm struggling with this real bad and I'm not sure what to do.
-Finish my scene for writing group next week.
-Find a humor literary magazine that is currently accepting open submissions and preferably pays.
-Find somewhere else to submit my story that got rejected from Apex Magazine

I guess I better get started.

Vacation

Now that the busy season is over and done with at work, I have decided to take a break. Do I wish I was somewhere warm and sunny right now? Heck yes but I'm not. Instead I'm just taking a vacation from my stressful and time consuming job.
I don't have any definite plans for this week other than catching up with a few people. Aside from that, I plan to just get stuff done. I need to finish taking down the Christmas decorations, clean the house and work on posting more books on half.com and eBay.
What I really want to get done is lots of writing. I have to work on the story that I need to send to The First Line by the end of the month and I have a few other things to work on, like my next section of story for my writing group. We just met last night and normally wouldn't meet again until the first Sunday in February but due to birthdays, the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day, we wouldn't be able to meet at least until the 3rd Sunday so instead we're aiming for January 31st.
I also hope to get some reading done. I started the year out with Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which was good but long and slow moving, thus making it the only book I've read this year. If I'm trying to keep on schedule for 50 books a year, I'll need to read two books this week to catch up. A book a week is my usual goal. So now I need something short and light to read. Maybe my week off will include a trip to the library.