Friday Favorites, Fantasy Art & A Funny...

It's Friday!! And I get to do inventory. Woo. Hoo. Just kidding, I don't mind. Gives me a chance to get to hang out with my co-workers and get to know them a little better.

So on with the favorites!

Favorite authors/books:

One of my favorite books, one I really should read again, is "Watership Down". I have to encourage my daughter to read it as well. Whenever we drive home from town or go into town, we always pass by this storage place that has a very large lawn near the road. There are lots of bunnies there. Now, these are not your typical Alaskan bunny mind you. These are bunnies that someone had as pets, then something happened and the bunnies were let out into the area. So they're all sorts of colors. And darn cute!

Favorite movie:

When I did the top ten WORST movies ever in Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog hop, I had listed all the sequels done to "Highlander". However, "Highlander" the original is one of my favorite movies. Granted it was cheesy and there never really was any explanation as to how they became immortals, but I liked the movie itself. No idea why.

Favorite music:

Concrete Blonde. Good group. As Halloween nears, I keep thinking of their song, "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)". When we first moved to Alaska, my daughter was in middle school and had been dying to take guitar lessons. Well, she ended up with a built in teacher with my brother-in-law. She learned the bass guitar first and that song was one of the first ones she picked up. She then moved on to the six string and we now call her the capo queen. She likes to use the capo quite a bit in her recent works.

Fantasy art:

John Howe's "A Hobbit Dwelling". I love the hobbit houses, I want to live in one. Hehe!



And the Funny (Felt it was appropriate):

I Want This...

I used to have a yoga mat, but it slipped a little and then deteriorated. By becoming the cat's new chew toy. I certainly didn't want them chewing on something that could be potentially toxic, but this one is made with biodegradable rubber and uses a non toxic softening process.

Yoga is good for you, this mat is good for the environment. So yeah, I want one!

More Musings...

Yesterday, when I posted, I was just beat. True, the chaotic mess that I call my life won't last forever, thank goodness. But it is beating me up, physically, emotionally, mentally. I can still feel the effects from my surgery and know that I am not completely, 100% myself just yet. But I can function and now have to get used to being on my feet while working. Good thing is, there are stools to sit on when it is slow. Woot!

It also didn't stop me from going over my book and doing a little more editing. I know that 62K words is a little short for a fantasy novel, but how do I lengthen it without giving away what should go into book two?

And make sure it doesn't sound like the filler that it is.

Tough call. But I know I will figure something out. I'm also revising my query, working on the synopsis, waiting to hear back from a couple of people. I'm still excited about it, even if I am so freakin' tired I can't keep my eyes open...

Again, I'll get used to the new routine. Have a great rest of the week and see you all soon!

Chaos...

Well. As of today, this will officially be my 4th day of work. One of my co-workers is on vacation and will be back next week so at the moment, my schedule is hell. It's all right, I need to get used to being on my feet for over 8 hours a day again. That is something that doesn't take me long to do as long as I have the right shoes. Which of course... I don't. But, no worries.

The only other thing going on is my mom was supposed to leave here and return home on Sunday. Unfortunately, she ended up in the hospital and they won't let her travel just yet. I keep telling her she really didn't want to go home anyway. Hehe! Nothing super serious, but it is keeping me hoppin'. I have to rearrange her flight reservations, bring her stuff she needs, work, pick up my daughter from work, come home, make dinner.... oh, was I supposed to write something? :Snorts:

No matter what, I am going to keep my writing/blogging schedule as best I can. Even if I have to schedule blogs two weeks in advance and just catch up on reading blogs when I am home. I don't want to take a super long hiatus like I did last year. It was very difficult to get back into the writing and blogging routine I had been keeping. The only time I will really take a break is when I move, which has been put on hold.

Other than that, I am enjoying my job! Hope you all are having a fantastic week!

Work...

Woot! I got a job and will be working part time evenings. Which is good for me, I'm a little night owl. As long as if I ever have to work a day shift I don't work late the previous night. Eh, it's all good. I can sleep when I'm dead, right?

Also, I got EXCELLENT feedback on my query. Thanks to everyone who was over at Matthew's blog and posted their comments and gave their support. MUCH appreciated!!

So back to the revising board with the query. Then continue to work on the other stuff.

I just wanted to post up here and let you all know that if my blogs become a little sporadic, I've got lots going on. However, I am going to do my absolute best to maintain things here and do what I can, when I can.

Have an awesome rest of the weekend!

Foregoing The Usual Friday...

Wow! Can I just say I feel the love. Bloggy love! I needed some of that right now.

If you have not already seen it, my Query was posted up at Matthew's place. The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment (say that five times fast!). You can see it using the link. He is posting up the critique of it today.

I'm trying not to chew my nails.

Okay! So let's just get off that subject for a moment. I wanted to look back at the long, rough, winding road this poor story has taken. You all saw my post on my personal horror story. If not, you can see it here. Don't let the title fool you.

Now here I am, polishing it up, using Beta Readers ( I LOVE YOU GUYS by the way...), writing a query (gasp!) and a long synopsis (double gasp!). These are things that at one point, I didn't think I would ever be doing. I never thought I would have a blog, meet such cool, supportive people or even be asking my awesome artist buddy to do me up some artwork for this tale.

But I also have to give credit to my characters. Boy... does that sound weird. But seriously, their voices clamored in my head until I gave in and rewrote the story and didn't give it up. Do you know what its like to wake up at 3 a.m. to a whiny assassin? She usually isn't whiny. That's what woke me up.

I can't thank the people I dragged into all of this enough. The Betas, the friends and family and yes, even you blogger buddies of mine. All of you authors and writers and reviewers and critique-rs.... All of the advice, support and patience in dealing with the questions of "How do I get there?".

For every single blog I follow I have garnered some shiny tidbit of advice that I have utilized. I may not have commented or said thank you, but I did try to let you know that I listened. So thanks! Thanks to you all.

Now to just get published. Ha!

We Interupt Your Daily Musings...

So, I sort of have to get this all off my chest before I explode.

Sometimes, Facebook really should not ask what is "On my mind?". First, let me rant a bit about Facebook and the changes. Even the media has articles out about the overnight changes and how much people are hating it. Personally I feel as if I am being forced back to MySpace and the high school angst it provided just to keep things simple.

Really, Facebook? Did you have to go and change YET again? Go find something to do, go outside and play. Read a book... do SOMETHING!

Ahem.

My rant prior to that had been about this generation of kids and how all they know how to do is get what they want and consume resources like mad without a thought to their consequences. However, if the children are this way, most of the parents are to blame.

Generation "I Deserve!" has parents that "Give You What You Want So You'll Leave Me Alone, OMG Why Did I Have Children?!" or the also popular, "Give You What You Want Because God Forbid I End Up Like My Parents!".

My facebook status simply stated: To all children of the I Deserve generation... all you really deserve is a good, swift kick in the rear.

Stop begging and pleading for what you want and do what everyone before you ever existed did. Work for it. EARN it. Become a contributing member of society, not a pain the... yeah.

If you are not old enough to work, do your chores, do your homework and basically behave. THAT is your job. Don't call up your mother at work and practically scream into the phone about how your cell phone bill hasn't gotten paid yet.

Review: The Emerald Talisman by Brenda Pandos

Hey guys! You know I do book reviews on this blog as well as rant about writing stuff. I've decided that since I do reviews over at My Chaotic Ramblings anyway, I would just start posting said reviews over there.

So here is the link to this Review! Show some bloggerly loves!

Reject Me, Please...

Wow, just saw that this will be my 299th post. Awesome!

I just have to share that this past week or so, I've been feeling more and more like a "grown up" writer. I've been researching publishing companies, I've been looking on Absolute Write's: Writer's beware section. This is the place where people can give you their personal feedback and experiences with companies and or agents.

I've written my query letter. I'm working on my synopsis. My betas are reading my revisions. And the only thing I have panicked about is my query letter. But that's okay, it is going to be reviewed and critiqued. But I'm a big girl, I can handle the rejections that come my way now. A few years ago, if someone had said a bad word about my writing I would have crumbled. But now? I have quite a thick skin.

I feel like I can now validate any sort of writing advice I put up here. Things I can tell you what worked, what didn't. It is a bit of a strange feeling. An the oddest part is, I'm sort of looking forward to getting some rejections.