Monday, November 27, 2006

Another Week

Wow!! There wasn't a day last week that I didn't have to get in my car and go somewhere, except Saturday. For someone who relishes staying home the last nine months have been foreign to me. At least most of the days last week were enjoyable outings. I'm still checking all my calendars and racking my brain to make sure we have no appointments this week. I can't remember the last time we had an empty week. Of course the greys are out of cookies and the cats need food and litter, we opened our last loaf of bread so a trip to the store is looming in my near future. That is so much better than those dreaded doctor appointments. We have another of those coming up the following week. But one week at a time.

Hopefully I will be able to get back to working on my novel, The Looking Glass, this week before the next week brings my writer's group work to the top of my list.

Last night I watched two of the recent episodes of Vanished on myspace.com, since they have pulled the show from television. My tv schedule is getting smaller and smaller with the cancelations of Smith, Kidnapped, Vanished, Runaway and I chose to drop Ugly Betty. At least that gives me more time to devote to catching up reading. Well I need to get back to work.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Thanksgiving Day

I just had one of the best Thanksgiving celebrations yesterday. One of my friends from our writer's group was in Pennsylvania yesterday for business reasons and she and her husband stopped by my parents house to share our Thanksgiving dinner. It was so wonderful!! Our group is a snail mail/e-mail group stretched across the country. We currently have 10 members and I have been lucky enough to meet two of them this year. KC and her husband Brad are from Texas and it was great to meet them both and share the holiday together. We were all ready great friends and now that we have met in person with our husbands and my parents I feel so much closer to them both. KC and Brad will be great friends to me and Alan for life. Thanks for taking the time to stop and share Thanksgiving with us. Hope to see you again someday in Texas.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Special Sunday

I try to keep Sunday open for a 'me' day and this week I was successful. No tv, no computer, only a nice pot of Irish Breakfast tea and my stack of reading. My only distraction was the usual taking care of the greyhounds, but they were well behaved yesterday and took a lot of naps. Spending a day in this manner gets me ready for the week ahead. I took notes on ideas that came about from my reading, I even received an idea for the short story I'm working on from a dream I had the night before. It's important to take a day now and then to slow your thoughts and enjoy reading. The benefits are numerous.

Unfortunately, my writing week will not be very productive because of family dinners, dr appts and the Thanksgiving holiday. I will get in what I can and plan to work harder next week.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Thanksgiving

I am so looking forward to this Thanksgiving because I get to celebrate with my family, (at least most of it) and a dear friend that I have not met in person. It is funny how things work out sometimes. One event leads to another and then makes it possible for another to happen in a way that you would not have expected. I never would have imagined I would have the opportunity to meet not one but two of my pen friends this year, how great is that.

The Critic

Being a critic is hard work. Especially when you are reading a genre that is unfamiliar. I don't consider myself worldly enough to tell someone what they are writing is bad. I prefer to critique more as a reader and what feels and sounds good to me. Does someone you call a friend want to hear you tell them they need to go back and start from scratch? Whose to say I know what I'm talking about if I haven't read much in the genre? I know I want to hear the hard truth and that is why I send my stuff to others to read. But turning around and giving someone else that same hard truth does not come easy. Finding that balance between friend and critic is hard but can be very rewarding.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Organization

Well I am forever trying to come up with a new way to stay more organized. With a husband who works swing shift it is impossible to keep a normal day to day schedule. My Domestic Goddess duties are constantly interfering with my Writing Life so I have worked out a new way to try and balance them. Usually my house is either nice and clean, with no writing done or scary dirty and lots of writing done. For my new plan, I divided my house into 6 areas, each day I spend 1 hour working in a different area, except Sunday. I have been doing this for 7 days so far and have only missed one day, yesterday, with doctor appts and shopping. My house is cleaner since I am spending more time in each area than I would if I tried to clean the entire house in one day. I feel better about the state of my living space which allows me to write without that inner battle raging between the Domestic Goddess and the Struggling Writer. Let's see how long I manage to keep this schedule going.