Blog Archives

Tony was supposed to make it home tonight, but he’s stranded in Chicago. They canceled his flight and he may or may not make it on to the 9 o’clock one (since everyone from his flight is trying to get on that one). The next possible is tomorrow morning.

Sucks.

I’d drive to Chicago, but it’s at least a 4 or 5 hour drive to somewhere I’ve never been, and by the time I got there and we got back, he’d have been here already on a plane. Sigh. I was so looking forward to him coming home tonight.

I did get some good news earlier today. Sarah Mlynowski kindly read the first bit of my novel (she wrote the funny and witty Bras & Broomsticks) and liked it and is going to refer me to her agent. So I need to get it all together and send her agent my MS next week. That’s a good thing. Haven’t heard anything from the other two agents I sent to (even though it’s pretty much creeping up on the time “limit” they post as their usual response time. But that’s all relative, since I did send off the info during the holidays.)

Things I need to remember to write about: King Henry’s enormous codpiece, things I learned in London, and time.

I just did something I shouldn’t have. I added up the income and expenses for the YA website last year. Yikes. I’m still in a hole as far as the site is concerned. WAY in the hole. Not counting the last payments from Google and Amazon (which’ll only be a bit over $100 anyway), I’m negative $784 for the year (So negative really somewhere around $650, since the last hosting charge also wasn’t in my spreadsheet). Ouch.

Sigh.

At least it is making some money now. I don’t even want to know what the year before was like (but then, it might not have been as bad since I wasn’t mailing as many books out then). I just need to figure out some other ways for it to produce income so I can keep going with it. It’s a catch-22 — the more time you put into it, the better it does…the more time I put into it, the less writing of my own I can do. Ah, well. Life.

Postage is the killer. $530.54 in postage fees. But I don’t see any way around that. One of the biggest draws of the site is the giving away of books. And you can’t give something away and then charge postage. It’s just not right. And I do love to give books away. All the kids love that.

Well, I’ll start some new advertising things this year and see how things go. And my husband and a friend of ours (who’s a lawyer) has convinced me I really need to incorporate or I could be in trouble if anyone ever wants to sue the site for some reason. I have no idea why, but who knows? Agh. Another expense.

So, hey, if you’re reading this and you visit my website, click on an ad or two, willya?

I’m still sick. Bleck. And just plain tired all the time. If I get anything done, I feel like cheering, except that would take too much effort.

I have been getting a lot of reading done, though. That’s one thing that doesn’t take a lot of energy. And I did a lot of site planning.

Oh, and the winners of the Eldest contest have finally been announced (I was waiting until I got all the books in). Glad to have that done.

I’m not sure if I’ll do a big giveaway-a-day thing at the end of this year. It was a lot of work and everyone was so frantic if I didn’t post who the winners were first thing every day. And then I had computer trouble at the end of it…ugh.

I finally have my laptop back now and it is behaving. The pain is that they decided to reinstall the original software/operating system even though the problem was only hardware related — JUST IN CASE. Just in case there might be any kind of software conflict. UGH. Which means I’ve been re-installing everything, which takes FOREVER. Thanks, Gateway. Next time, I’ll not be checking the box to give them free reign over my PC. The buggers.

Right now, I think I’ll be grabbing something to eat and then taking a nap…and then hopefully I’ll get some more done tonight. Tony is in Toronto, so it’s just me and the kitties.

Second try….first I posted this to the wrong blog! Agh! Oh, yes, come to the YABC blog to learn about books and my inner mucus monster. Sheesh.

I think I’m coming down with something. I’m all stuffed up (but not like allergy stuffed up, more like a mucus (sp?) monster has invaded my head) and just really, really tired. More tired than normal medicine-tired. Bleck. Figures it would come on right after the kid’s visit…

I’ve come to believe that kids are simply mobile germ units.

So I have no get up and go at the moment. I’m drinking tea. And about to settle down to write my Christmas thank-you’s and maybe finally finish knitting that darn scarf for Auntie that is now really, really late.

On a bright note, I got a new camera from Tony for Christmas. It was my big gift (and, as always, he spent way too much). It’s a Kodak P850 or something like that with a 12X zoom, which is awesome. Now I just have to figure out how to use all the macro features. It’s 5.1 megapixels though, so now I can print up to an 11 x 17 if I want to. Maybe I’ll post some pictures later. I really really really need to on the other blog.

Well, I don’t have quite as many review books as I thought. I counted and came up with 453. And I think I’m going to go through and pull out the latest kid books from Scholastic (I’ve officially emailed them to please, please, send the kid’s books to one of my kid’s book reviewers) and some of the really, really old ones and put them in the Prize Bucket.

But it is still quite a few.

Especially since I usually only manage between 4 – 10 books a month. Hmmm, let’s see… 453 / 12 = 37.75. Nope, I’m not going to manage to review that many a month. And that would only work if the number stayed static, but lately I’ve been receiveing upwards of 20 or 30 new books a month. Sometimes more.

Sigh. So many books. So little time.

I’ve always been a night person. It’s like my brain switches on sometime around midnight and doesn’t want to shut up. “Go to sleep,” I tell it. “We have to get up in the morning, for heaven’s sake. And where’ve you been all day, anyway?” And my brain doesn’t just sit down and shut up and go to sleep like a nice brain. Noooo, it has to think about everything from quantum mechanics, to things I need to update on the site, to wondering how bread was discovered, to…well, you get the idea.

Sleep, sleep, damn brain! Perchance to dream.

I’m mixing my Shakespeare there, but what the hey.

If I wasn’t married, I’d probably stay up all night and sleep all morning. I’m always sleepy in the morning, even right after I wake up. Part of that is the medication, but part of it is just because my brain wants to sleep in the A.M.

Bright light! Must. close. eyes. Oh! Blessed Sleep!

Sigh. I should just work on something, but I don’t want to actually encourage my blasted mind to stay awake. I did update the website some — added additional info to the YABC Teen Reviewer application page. I’m not sure if it is a good idea or not, but I thought it would be fun. I mean, how crazy could they be? Heh. Don’t answer that.

No, really, I have a lot of fun with the kids who frequent the site. So hopefully this will work out. And it’s a kind of sneaky way to dip into my to-be-reviewed stack. This year has been an explosion of books. Everyone is sending them and I really can’t keep up. I think there are over 500 on my to-review shelves.

You know what, I’m going to count and see. Maybe that will be brain numbing enough for me to go to sleep.

I got quite a bit done today. Erin came over and did the hard stuff (mopping, etc.) and I washed clothes, swept up stuff, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned the oven (really, it cleaned itself, but I did push the little button), did some computer stuff, and all kinds of little piddley household tasks. Got one drawer of my filing cabinet done and I’m about to tackle the rest now.

I’m not handy.

But, if I get it done, I can actually file things again! Yippeee!

I really shouldn’t be so excited about getting filing done, eh?

Got a box of books from Scholastic and various other sources. I need to find a contact at Scholastic that will listen to me…they keep sending kid’s books and I don’t have time to review them. They do send some YA, but mostly kid’s stuff. And then I either have to re-mail it to Kim P. or Terry. It’s a pain. I have 2 entire shelves of Scholastic books for review. And 3 from all the various imprints of Random House. I’m getting buried. I have been reviewing more, and I’ve got a stack right now I need to post reviews on, but I can’t keep up with all the ones I get. Not sure what to do. Esp. with all the new ones I’m getting from SCBWI authors. Maybe I’ll have to add another YA reviewer. Dunno. I’d need them to be local though. Postage is breaking me! At least I can deduct it as a business expense, but still.

Anyway, in writing news…hooked up with a TN writer to do a manuscript swap. I want to go through another round of revisions. Thought of some other things I want to add to the book. That’ll be January. Then off to more agents and start work on another book.

I did hear back from Rosemary S. She gave me a very nice rejection — said it has a great comic voice, but she’s more of the dark, gothicy vampire tale lover. My book is definitely not that. Haven’t heard anything from the other two yet — at least, I don’t think so. My cell phone has been acting bi-polar.

I’m running out of time. Too many things to do! I’ve got so much on my list, I’m not sure what to tackle first. But tomorrow is cleaning day (Erin is coming), so at least I know what I’m doing tomorrow. Today I think I need to find something else for Steve and Ryan. And that’s it. I think. Not even close. *sigh*

Well, Serious McElvoy keeps visiting me at night until I have to get up and jot some words down. I keep planning to work on my chick-lit romance (it’s funny, trust me — we’re talking deep Southern fried and the opportunity to use the line “You keep your hands offa my daddy’s bras!”), but Serious keeps popping up. First it was just his name. And then, that he was dead. Squashed. Now, he wants to go and have conversations with God.

That sounds all Christian fiction-y, but it isn’t. Which is my one worry. I’m really not a religous person, but I’m also not one to make fun of someone’s beliefs. Would Serious come across as sketchy? Hopefully not. He’s going to be an angel, fifth class. Or maybe something more like tenth class. Not sure yet how many classes there are.

Anyway, it’s stuff like this:

“Interesting choice,” said God.

“What choice?” asked Serious, not even considering that God might consider this to be his One Question (but don’t worry, he didn’t. After all, he is God. He knows better).

God pointed to himself. “Everyone sees God differently. To some people, I appear as just a bright white light. To others, I am an old man in white robes with a flowing beard. Still others see me as a young woman, dressed all in green. But, no matter what, to most people I appear as quite an impressive sight.”

Serious took a closer look. It seemed that his vision of God looked a lot like his Grandfather Jackson.

And I’m not going to be making any kind of philosophical pronouncements or anything like that. It’ll probably be more like Serious “earning his wings” (too cliched, but something along those lines). Maybe discovering that bullies have their own problems. Or that being a super-genius doesn’t mean much when you’re dead. I dunno. Something funny.

By the way, that up above is VERY draft. But don’t steal it. I’ll hunt you down and force you to eat your own eyeballs. Well, ok, maybe I’ll just poke you in the eye. But still. I mean it. Not that I think you could do much with a little snippet like that. But it’s the thought. The danger of the Internet. I’m always advising people to not post their unpublished work anywhere, but here I go, posting something in my own blog. But it isn’t the whole thing, just a couple of sentences. Urk, whatever. I’m sharing.

Anyway.

So, if the tone is like that, do you think I’ll have issues? Or do I care? I’m a writer, dammit! Who cares what the public thinks! (heh. What was it Mark Twain said? Or shoot, Heinlein.)

Alright, I’ve got Serious out of my head for now (I hope), so I’m going back to bed.

The laptop, of course, is still behaving spotlessly after a week of fuzzy purpleness. Argh.

What craziness. And the desktop, which has been having no issues at all, has slowed to a crawl since I installed Norton Utilities on it. It’s enough to make a girl scream.

I need to wrap a bunch of stuff and get things ready to mail. Lots of prize books to get out too. This giveaway-a-day thing is fun, but I’m glad I don’t do it every month. Lots of work. I need to update and announce yesterday’s winners too, but between computer issues and a guy here to clean the furnace, I haven’t had a chance yet.

I guess I’ll go do that now. And tomorrow will be a big trip to the post office to mail stuff.

So, hm. My laptop has been acting up (purple screen, fuzziness, etc.) and I’ve been going back and forth with Gateway via e-mail on what to do. It’s my first incident with Gateway support and I’m not that happy with it.

A) the rep can barely type English. I have no idea how she sounds, but she sure can’t use correct grammar, B) her first response was basically: “Oh, you let your laptop get too cold, so your warranty is voided” (I had e-mailed asking if cold from a window could affect it — we went back and forth over this until I got her to understand that I wasn’t using the laptop IN a window, but near one — in fact, over a foot and a half away. I even had to take a picture and send it to her to prove that I hadn’t “willfully damaged the computer” — just as a customer service thing, I don’t think that the first response to any question should be “you’ve voided your warranty”, not if they ever want me to buy another Gateway) and C) half the time, she can’t seem to answer the actual question that I ask, but instead produces some garbled half-answer that doesn’t make sense. It’s very annoying.

And then, to make it even more annoying, I have to shell out $44 to buy a box from them to ship the computer back to them in, even though it is all under warranty (I’ve only had the thing for 6 months). Shouldn’t they have to pay for that?

And then….to really frost the cake…today, it’s acting just fine. No fuzziness. No purple. After I’ve spent an entire morning moving all e-mail and backing up everything to my old desktop computer.

Grrrrrr. Sometimes, I think computers are sentient and they are out to get us. They aren’t to Terminator levels yet, but they’re trying, damn the little buggers.

In good news, Tony is home from Toronto and L.A., none the worse for wear, though a bit tired. And I sent off two additional agent queries (Rebecca S. and Nadia C.). Wish me luck. Or heck, e-mail them and tell them how awesome I am (Kidding. Really.)