Another Busy Day

Yesterday was a very full day, and I got a lot accomplished. I miss writing, but I'll get my fix on Sunday, when I have my personal 10K Day. I may make Monday a day of drawing. It all depends on how things work out with weeding out and everything. Other, more urgent things may come up.

I have to admit to no small amount of discouragement. I really, really want to move back to New England. I've wanted this for a long time, but we keep putting it off because of other things. I'm tired of putting my dreams on hold because of this or that! Will I ever get to see my dreams come true, or am I doomed to live in "Tornado Alley" until I die (which could be sooner than I think with all the tornadoes that come through the middle of the country)? I know we'll all die sometime, but I don't want to go until I at least get to live in New England again. :(


I only have four things on my To Do List for today:

1. Go through guest room closet (with Jeff)
2. Call S. in Vermont
3. Edit more photos (ongoing until they're done)
4. Draw

I'll be calling S. as soon as I finish up online. I'm hoping she'll be home, and not working, but I guess that's what answering machines are for.

Jeff and I went to the library yesterday and got the books I had on hold. I also got an extra graphic novel while we were there.

Then we went to Coffee & A Good Book and exchanged several books for two new paperback novels. The credit I had left, I put toward a large Chai Latte. :)

We also mailed out a rebate form with proofs of purchase, and two thank you cards. I'm hoping to take some new photos today or tomorrow to print and send out to my grandma.

I signed up for a Library2Go account and downloaded my first audio book. I'll have to start doing that from the coffee shop, though. They use up a ton of bandwidth!

Well, I'd better hurry up so I can call S.

Have an awesome day!

Lois

 

I'm Making Today A Planning/ Writing Day

As you can see, I ended up not having to go in for jury duty today. ;) The next date is this coming Monday, the 19th.

Yesterday was an okay day. Not great, but not bad, either. It started out great with the phone call from Milli. After that, I just got really tired. But I caught up online, and that was good. :)

Today, I plan to work on my screenplay for about two hours. I'll also work on editing two of my short stories. But before I start on those, I need to start working on a plan for becoming a certified Course Presenter.

Jeff and I watched Lost Colony last night. It wasn't an awesome movie, but it was good, and entertaining...and it starred Adrian Paul (always a plus, in my book). I've liked him ever since War of the Worlds (the series) and Highlander: The Series. I wish he'd take on more roles like the one of Duncan McLeod. He was great in that role.

Hope your Thursday is a good one!

Lois

Well, It Was A Productive Morning, At Least

I've gotten a late start on here today, I know. Well, not entirely, as I posted my dailies and other devos earlier. Then I had to take my laptop back to the studio and get it set up for a Skype call with Milli (from Fear of Writing) about my CP training. It went well, and now I need to come up with a game plan so I can give it my best.

Then I took a shower and had lunch.

And I've been catching up on e-mail and other things.

Now, I only have time to catch up on here, then I'll have to start fixing dinner.

I've been kind of tired all afternoon. I'm thinking maybe I didn't get as much quality sleep last night as I thought. Hopefully, tonight will be better.

I'm taking a break from my screenplay for today, but I may read some from my self-editing and revision book, then maybe some from something else. I really need to read more than I have been.

I'm supposed to have jury duty tomorrow. I'll find out for sure when I call the courthouse after five.

As usual, this is a very boring post. I really need to find a better, more exciting way to blog! O_o

Hope you're all having a great day!

Lois

And My Busy April Begins...

Yesterday was a good day. It didn't really feel like Easter, since I was home all day, but it was good, anyway.

The screenwriting went better than I thought it would. I could have written more, but I decided to do other things I needed to do (color my hair, walk the dog, etc.). Still, 16 pages in one day is pretty good (it was more like 14 pages, actually), so I'm happy.

Jeff and I had lasagna, salad and multi-grain boule (bread) for dinner last night. My dad and step-mom called as we were sitting down to eat, and we had a nice chat. :)

I checked my LJ F-List after dinner, then we walked Niki. After that, we watched an episode of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. As always, it was a lot of fun! Corey Evertson was in it. I haven't seen her in years.

Then we walked the dog one last time before heading to bed.

All in all, it was a good day. :)

Today will be a very busy day. I have feedback to write and FoW CP training to work on. Also, the Mini-Workshop, Story Structure for Romance Writers,  taught by Larry Brooks, starts today. Generally, I'm not a romance writer, but this workshop is supposed to be great for writers of any genre. I'm looking forward to starting it this afternoon. :)

The F2K Creative Writing Course begins on Wednesday. This month promises to be very busy. Once I'm done writing the feedback for my students (by the 13th, if all goes well), some of my time will be freed up to concentrate on my training, the workshop and the F2K course. Until then, I'll have to be creative with my time.

Anyway, have an awesome day!

Lois

Quick Update

I wrote two feedbacks yesterday, but never got to my assignment for the FoW CP training. Milli suggested that I concentrate on two feedbacks a day, then I'll have Thursday and Friday free to work on the assignment, so that's what I'm going to do.

And, hopefully, I can go to Sweet Bay tonight. It'll depend on how Jeff and I feel.

We got a call from my mom yesterday. She said Lyle (my brother-in-law) wanted me to call and talk to Kathy (my sister) about when we'd like to have my mom come to visit. I told her I'd call back, but I haven't been able to get a hold of Kathy yet. I'm thinking anytime after April will be fine, and Jeff agrees. I'm going to send her an e-mail, as well as still trying to call her. One way or another, I'll get a hold of her.

Also, Eric and Chelsey are planning a birthday party for Josiah. They're going to have it here. I need to invite a few people, too.

Well, I need to hurry up and get to work on today's feedbacks.

Have a great one!

Lois

Late Nights Make for Late Mornings

We didn't get to bed until around midnight last night. I had two phone calls. Let's hear it for Skype! :D I got to talk to Milli last night (from Fear of Writing) and one of my students (an Indian living in Japan). Then I talked to my friend, Yumi, who lives in Tokyo with her American husband. Jeff even got to participate in that second call. *g* I love technology! :)

Then Eric and Chelsey went to the emergency room to get something for her toothache. We kept an eye on Josiah while they were gone.

I have feedback to revise, but I'm waiting until tomorrow to work on it. I'll likely have to rewrite both of them...completely...so I need to do it when I'm most creative and when my mind is freshest. Feedback is very difficult. If I do it in the afternoon, it's not nearly good enough.

I may or may not get some writing of my own done today. The main thing I need to do today is figure out how to manage my time. Online things have been taking away from feedback and my writing, so I need to figure out some way to either organize things better or cut some things out.

Jeff and I need to go out and do our grocery shopping, too. And we might celebrate Valentine's Day today, since he has to work tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

Lois

Beautiful, Sunny Day Here Today!

Our New Year's was great! The lasagna turned out excellent, and so did the garlic bread. :) We heard from my sister and my dad and step-mom. While my mom was on the phone with my dad and step-mom, Jeff and I looked out the window and watched some distant fireworks. I guess they had some going on in Fort Smith. We could see them from our house, so that was pretty awesome! :D

We watched Cold Mountain, which was good (but would have been a lot better without the nudity).

I wrote a character journal yesterday. It was over 2k words, but I'm not sure of the exact word count. I'd like to write more later today, but first Jeff and I are planning on doing a little shopping. I need a couple of new outfits.

I'd like to do some more reading, too.

Tomorrow we'll do our grocery shopping. I may not get to do any "real" writing until Sunday. :(

Anyway, I hope all of you have a great New Year's Day! :D

Lois

I'm A Mess, But I'm A Good Mess

I missed the conference call again last night. My bad coughing fits start in the late afternoon/ evening and I don't feel like trying to take notes and holding the mute button down while I hold the phone and cough. It's disappointing, because I really wanted to join in. :(

Well, anyway, I finished jotting down changes I want to make to the novel. Today, I want to start looking through the Mi'kmaq stories I've got and see if any of them will be a good fit for the novel. If I have time, I also want to start writing the changes I made note of.

And, as you likely know, I posted Fox Redman's "Mysteries" story (on LiveJournal under lock and key).

I also started reading something I swore I would never read...mainly because I like to read what I want to read, not what the masses dictate. I began reading Twilight last night. What prompted the change of heart was that I loved the first movie and want badly to see the second (can anyone say "WOLF!"), but Jeff and I have pretty much decided to wait until it's out on DVD (I want both movies on DVD, and I've made that point obvious to him). So, I began reading it in my Kindle software and I was surprised by how humorous it is! And if I could have, I would have kept reading through the night. It was that good. I know it's a "kids' book," but I am really enjoying it a lot!

So, the Twilight Saga has another fan! :P

Anyway, my plans for today are to work on my novel, do some brainstorming for some short stories and, if I'm lucky and I can find the time, do some drawing and sketching. And, of course, I plan to do some more reading.

Another busy day, it seems. :)

Have a great day!

Lois

Christmas Is Coming!

Yesterday morning, I bought X Christmas, a Christmas CD by the artists from Tooth And Nail Records. Thousand Foot Krutch, Seventh Day Slumber, Jars Of Clay, Capital Lights, Project 86, Hawk Nelson, The Almost, Anberlin, Kutless, FM Static, Sanctus Real, August Burns Red, Kj-52, Jaymes Reunion, Corey Crowder, David Crowder Band and Switchfoot all have Christmas songs on this CD. I actually found it accidentally. I was searching for a video by Spoken, also from Tooth And Nail Records (but sadly not on this CD) and I happened to find the video advertising the CD. I found I had to check Amazon Digital Downloads to see if they had it and they did, so I bought and downloaded it! And I have to say that I really, really love it! My favorite song at the moment is "His Favorite Christmas Story," by Capital Lights. It's a sad song with a catchy tune. Air 1 has been playing it a lot, but Jeff keeps missing it, so I'm going to play it for him later. :)

Anyway, that was my "big purchase" yesterday, and now I'm going to be careful about downloading more music. I don't want to use up all my money and bandwidth. ;)

I was actually able to sleep most of the night last night. I didn't keep waking up with coughing fits like I did the night before. Thank God for that!

I never attended the screenwriting conference call last night, but they're having it again tonight, so I'm hoping to join in tonight.

I finished going through my novel and writing down all the scenes and important points for each one. I also added more chapter breaks, bringing the current total to 31 mostly smaller chapters. I'll be adding a few more, of course, but at least I'm working on it. It was great to reconnect with Zane and Xander Greywolf. I even made a small, but important, change...and this change ensures that there will be at least one sequel. I love how things work out sometimes! :D

For today, I plan on working on the novel some more...figuring out which scenes I want to add and then looking through the Mi'kmaq stories I've got and seeing if any of them will fit into the story. I may just need to search for more stories, but I'd prefer to work with what I've already got. I have two books that are full of Mi'kmaq stories, plus others I've found online. Hopefully, those will be enough!

Speaking of my novel, once I took the original ending out, my word count went from 71K+ to about 59,593. That's actually higher than I thought it would be, so I'm okay with that. And once I add the new scenes, Mi'kmaq stories and other changes, it will be a bit more than that. I should easily be able to bring my word count up around 80K or more. I'm excited! :D

I never did any sketching yesterday. I'm not going to push it, though. When I find time, I'll sketch. I don't want to make it a chore. And I am still looking forward to picking up the pencil and sketchbook again. :)

I found out the TGIO Party is on Saturday. We're having pizza and Jeff is more than welcome to come, so that'll be fun! :D

I'm thinking about adding a character journal entry on here (LiveJournal). It will be F-locked, because I don't want just anyone having access to it. It's a Fox Redman entry and I wrote it for Halloween. It's loosely based on the verse(s) from the Bible about "inasmuch as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto Me," and if you're looking for it, you'll definitely see it. It's really a short story told from Fox's point of view in the way only he can tell it. So be watching for a Fox Redman short entitled "Mysteries." ;)

And now I need to hurry up and finish on here so I can get to work on the novel. It's so good to be working again, even if I haven't resumed the actual writing. Who knows? I may actually do a little of that today, too! :)

Have a great day!

Lois

Busy, Busy, Busy Once Again!

So far today, I have no feedback to write. I plan on working some more on going over the scenes in my novel so I can figure out what new scenes I want to put in.

Tonight, I'll be participating in a conference call about screenwriting. That'll be awesome! I plan on taking lots of notes, if I can.

I'm still feeling pretty good today, but the coughing is driving me nuts. I'm not coughing as much as I was, but I woke up several times during the night to coughing fits. I wish this stuff would just go away! >:(

I never did find out what's happening with the TGIO Party on Saturday. I logged in to YIM, but no one was on there, save for M. and P. So I chatted with them for a while until dinner was ready. It was fun. I hadn't done it since I first got sick. I'm wondering if L. and S. might have been on Google Wave, instead. I didn't even think of that until just now! :P

Anyway, my plans for today are to work on my novel (jotting down notes about the scenes), some feedback for jakflak, and maybe doing some sketching, then the conference call tonight at eight. Those four things, while not being physically demanding, should keep me nice and busy. Yay! It's nice to be busy again! :D

Have an awesome day!

Lois

Saturday! :D

Today will be a day much like yesterday, only with a few differences. We have to run to the store to pick up a few things I forgot, otherwise our shopping trip went very well yesterday...except that the microphone I bought for a conference call doesn't work. I don't know if it's a Vista thing or if it's the laptop, but the computer just won't read it. :/

So, I have to figure out another way to join in on the call...

I have a few other things I need to do, too, but it should be a pretty good day. I don't have my To Do List in front of me, but I have to add "Leave a testimonial (comment) for Patricia Rushing's Maggie In Paradise" to the list. :)

The sun is shining! :D It actually came out yesterday, too, but it was back and forth. It's still pretty muggy and hazy here, but the sun is shining. All the clouds and rain were starting to get me down. I needed a break from them.

And here's something to brighten your day:

Click to view larger...

Well, that's my day as it looks right now.

Have a great Saturday! :D

Lois

Just A "Whatever" Day

Today, I have two things on my "To Do List."

* Clean and organize my studio.
* Cancel DirecTV.

I doubt I'll do any writing, but I may work on editing the short little story I wrote yesterday.

I have the beginnings of a headache, so I've got to go fix myself some Tension Tamer tea and take Tylenol or something.

This promises to be either a very boring or a very annoying day. :/

Have a good one!

Lois

A Day for Relaxing?

I don't have much planned for today. At some point, we've got to return some of my books to the library.

The phone call yesterday went well. It was only supposed to take about fifteen minutes, but it ended up taking a little over an hour. It was worth it though. :)

I'll be getting another phone call today. This one's supposed to take a while.

I'd like to work on my outlines and maybe do some brainstorming. If I can, I'd also like to do a little reading and writing.

And that's all I've got going on for today.

Have a good one!

Lois

Today Is More of A Heinz 57 Day

It's been stormy here this morning, but I think it's supposed to clear at some point. I sure hope it does. It's too dark and wet outside!

Anyway, today I'm going to start by working on the project I'm working on with Patti. That's my top priority right now. Then I'll either work on some outlining / brainstorming or do some reading.

I have two important phone calls to take over the next couple of days, too. Tomorrow's call will take a bit of time, so I want to make sure I get some things done that I need to do before then so my time is free.

Eric hurt his toe pretty bad last night. He and Chelsey went to the emergency room. They gave him some painkillers and a butterfly bandage and told him to stay off his feet for a few days. That means he can't work. That means Chelsey and I get the "pleasure of his company." Oh, joy! A bored Eric is not an Eric you want to be around for too long. ;)

Anyway, I need to check my account at the Library real quick, order some more stamps and upload my novels to Box.net, then I'll get started on that project.

Have a great day! :D

Lois

Writing and Shopping, Shopping and Writing...and Marriage:

Today is going to be a writing day. I plan to work on at least two of my novels. I'm going to use a timer so I can limit how long I spend on each one. That should keep me from spending too much time on the computer, too. ;) I'm thinking an hour on Cottage, two hours on From the Ashes and two hours on Phoenix Rising should just about do it.

Tomorrow will be a reading day, I think.

Oh, and Eric and Chelsey are getting married on Friday! :D Jeff mentioned that maybe we can take them out to dinner...at the Cajun Cafe. I've never eaten there, but I've been wanting to try it out. We'll see... Jeff and I will have Josiah for a day or so. I am not looking forward to changing diapers. :/

I also need to call a plumber today or tomorrow and I'll be ordering three tins of decaf and herbal tea from Stash Tea. I've already had it okayed by the man of the house. :) I'll be getting Mango Passionfruit, Red Tea (Rooibos) and Decaf Chai Spice.

Well, the kids are up...all three of them. ;) I'd better hurry up and finish what I need to do on here so I can give them the device and get to work on my novels. :)

Have a great day! :D

Lois