Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Uh oh

I entered a blog contest. No big deal, right? For this one, I just gave my name, email, and elevator pitch for my WIP. Then I moved on to the second entry form and realized that the first one was for completed manuscripts. Uh...

I've got until the 31st for the drawing. Maybe I can finish by then? I'm just wrapping the first chapter.

*falls over laughing*. Okay. Let's just
hope I don't win this one.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Random stuff in my purse

I was digging around in my purse tonight, and I realized that there's an almost alarming quantity of odd stuff in there. But then again, maybe it's not that odd.
- glasses
- three Post-It pads
- a vial of Satsuma/Vanilla perfume oil (in a Baggie to prevent leaking)
- a pack of gum
- two pairs of earphones
- a tin of Badger Headache Soother
- a ball of yarn attached to an in-progress armwarmer (with four knitting needles)
- a packet of stitch markers
- my inhaler
- lip gloss in a koozy (or coozie? Cozy?)
- a notebook and purple pen
- a stuffed lemur
- ten 12" pieces of ribbon

Oh, and my wallet and phone usually live in there, too.

Is any of that in your purse/briefcase/man bag/back pocket?

Monday, March 19, 2012

Look! A plot wall!

Early stages, but still! This is more plotting than I've ever attempted before! (and apparently, I'm excited - Check out all my exclamation points!)

Friday, March 16, 2012

The disadvantages of being short

There are actually many disadvantages to being short, but I'm just going to talk about one today:

When you're short, it's really, really hard to see the instructions printed on the top side of a smoke detector that is wired into the electrical system of your house.

About three weeks ago, my kitchen smoke detector started beeping. It wasn't going off (it blares and yells, "Fire! Fire!"). It would just beep once, then be quiet for a few minutes, then beep again. The first time it happened, my dog totally flipped out. Barking, jumping, howling, running in circles, the works. Clearly, the beep is not a pleasant noise.

I dragged over a chair and looked up at the detector. It had some instructions printed on it, including "Test Weekly." Hmm. I have not tested it since moving in six months ago. So I held down the button to test it, and it did the whole blaring and yelling thing (which made my dog freak out even more), but it didn't beep any more. Yay!

A few days later, the power went out. When it came back on, the smoke detector beeped again (setting off the dog). 'Aha!' I thought. 'I know how to fix this!' So I pressed the test button, and my dog freaked out, and it stopped beeping.

And then it started again. This time, in the middle of the night. I didn't hear the first beep, but my dog certainly did! Cue the barking and jumping and howling and running in circles, which confused my still-mostly-asleep brain until the smoke detector beeped again. I stumbled to the kitchen, poked the test button (cue unhappy dog), the stumbled back to bed.

And then it happened again. And again. And again. And again. Almost always in the middle of the night. So I called the company that installed it, and the guy told me to check the battery.

I'm not a total idiot. I thought to check the battery. But I couldn't find a battery. When I twisted off the bottom bit of the smoke detector, it was still wired to the ceiling, and I couldn't manage to see the top part. I saw a little notch-y thing, but I couldn't open it easily, and I was quite certain that if I broke the smoke detector, it would probably make all of the other smoke detectors (which are wired together so that all three go off when any one of them detects smoke or gets tested). Given that my dog still flips out at the sound, I REALLY didn't want to take that chance.

Finally, a tall friend came to visit. She climbed up on the same chair and could see the top side of the detachable bit, and read the instructions: unplug the smoke detector from the house, then open the little battery door that was blocked by the wires.

So she unplugged it, handed it down to me, I opened the little battery door, changed the battery, gave it back to her, and she plugged it back in. And that made it blare and test itself, which made my dog flip out.

On the bright side, if I ever go deaf, I don't need to worry, because my dog will freak out if the smoke detector goes off.

So what was my point? If you're too short to read instructions, call a tall friend. You may get mocked for your lack of height, but you'll get to sleep through the night instead of being woken up by a smoke detector's dying-battery beeps.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Yes, I am alive

I always have the best of intentions when it comes to blogging. I firmly believe that I will be able to stick to my plan, and I'm always surprised and disappointed when I don't manage to post when I said I would. You'd think I'd know myself better by now...

I've been writing again, and I'm happy with my WIP so far. It's not something I would have ever thought I would write - a first-person YA novel. I've always expected to be writing third-person sci-fi, fantasy, or romance, because that's what I tend to read. But Gabi popped into my head and won't leave, so I'm writing her story.

It's nice to be working on something again. As much as I love Happily Ever After (my princess story), I finally realized that, for now at least, I can't find a way to change it to get it to fit as either a Romance or a YA novel. Jane is too old to be YA, but not mature enough to be a standard romance heroine. For now, she'll live on my hard drive (and my flash drive, just in case). Maybe time will give me more perspective.

Partners is giving me fits, still, because I revamped the ending to make it the middle, but now I can't figure out the real ending. So it, too, is being retired for now. I'm sure that someday I'm going to wake up and know what I need to do, but until then... I'm working on Gabi's story.

In unrelatedness, my head is a barometer. When it's grey and dismal outside, I get a headache. The worse the weather is, the more it pounds. Who needs a window or a weatherman?? If I've got a headache, grab an umbrella!

Wait. I also get headaches from muscle tension, and from eating foods with preservatives, and from allergies, and from stress, and from being tired, and from sleeping too much... Okay, don't count on me for your umbrella predictions, unless you know my eating, sleeping, and stress patterns REALLY well.