Important Info Every Writer Should Read

Do you have a will? Does it address what happens to your books, your short stories, your works-in-progress, your unpublished manuscripts, poems, songs, etc.? If not, click the link above, download the .pdf file, and get it done!

Progress Update

Just need another 65 pages to get to the GH target length for this book, but it's looking like I'm going to have to settle for a little less. It's been a wild and exhausting 5 weeks, with many distractions and important things vying for my attention. But I want to enter, so I've spent many a late night/early morning working around the other things in my life. But I'm so excited about this book. It feels "right" you know? Like when you see that perfect guy and you suddenly know, without even being introduced, that he's "the one." That really happened to me when I first saw the dh. I knew he was the one I was going to marry. It never even occurred to me that he might be something other than what I saw--a good looking man with laughing blue eyes and an easy, little boy grin. We'll celebrate our 34th anniversary Dec. 7th.

And this book will sell. I know it will. But sending it off to the GH won't be the end. I need to expand it by another 30,000 words, expand and develop some scenes, add a subplot. That's my goal for December and maybe January (lots of other things that need to be done between now and Christmas.) But I'm going to go out on a limb and send out some agent queries when I get within 10,000 words of the end.

The remodeling job should be finished by the end of next week, so once that's behind me, it's full speed ahead on the writing. Can't wait!

What are you thankful for?

Too often we get caught up in our problems and woes and forget to give thanks for the good things in our lives. The last few months have been hard ones. Work has been slow and jobs few and far between, our oldest daughter is still battling the deep vein thrombosis problem caused by the birth control patch, one of our dogs was nearly killed by a pack of wild dogs, and my mother ended up in ICU with pneumococcal meningitis.

So what am I thankful for? The remodeling job that has provided a steady income for the last 4 weeks, that my daughter is still with us, as is the dog, and my mother improved rapidly once diagnosed and is now back home. I'm thankful I have four beautiful, smart, witty children, two beautiful and smart and loving grandsons, a husband who loves me--and who can do just about anything he sets his hand to--my four dogs who love so unconditionally, my friends who pick me up when I'm down, and most of all I'm thankful that God never gave up on me.

Happy Thanksgiving. Do a random act of kindness for someone you don't know this week, and don't tell anyone you did it.

Update on mom

Shortly after I posted about mom's car being repossessed, I got a call from my sister telling me that mom was in the hospital, in ICU. At first they thought she'd had a stroke, but it turned out she had meningitis. After 24 hours of touch and go, she's responding to the medication, can now say yes and no--but nothing else that makes any sense. She has pneumococal (sp?) meningitis, very dangerous, especially for the elderly. Started as an ear infection and progressed within a few hours to a life-threatening illness.

Hug your moms and check to see if she has a fever. If she does, take her to the doc!

Super Nitwits

My mother is 77 years old, living on social security and a small pension. She was one payment behind on her note to GMAC, with another soon to be due. As she was getting ready to leave for an overseas mission trip sponsored by her church, she called GMAC to explain the situation and tell them she was leaving a check with my sister (who she lives with) to be mailed when her social security check was auto-deposited to her bank account. GMAC assured her that was fine, and mom left on her missions trip thinking everything was taken care of.

She arrived back at my sister's house 10 days later to find that her car had been repossessed the day after she'd left.

There is more than one nitwit in this situation. By far the biggest is GMAC, who lied to an old lady and repossessed a car she'd faithfully made payments on for 2 years (in spite of the fact that she'd been totally taken advantage of by the car dealer and things were slipped into the contract that she'd specifically said she didn't want, like the extended warranty) and who used information she gave them (date of her trip) to sneak in like thieves to take the car away.

The second, and barely lesser nitwit, is my sister. Why didn't she just make the payment for our mother and let her repay her when she got home? The whole situation could have, and should have been avoided. I mean, geez, it's not like my mom never does anything for her. She sold her house and gave my sister $100,000 to finish building their new house. (bye-bye inheritance). Mom babysits my sister's grandkids so she doesn't have to. She helps out at the church my sister and her husband pastor, cooks, cleans. So my sister could have stepped out of her ingrained selfishness for once and helped out, don't you think?

Mom never even told me she was behind. I'd have sent her the money, even if it meant being temporarily behind on my own bills. I have no house note or car notes, so nothing would have been repossessed if I was late.

Now mom has to either come up with $13,000 to get her car back, pay the difference between the note and what they get for the car at auction (likely around $9000) and not get her car back, or she's going to have to declare bancruptcy. I can picture my dad up in heaven, pulling his hair out.

Someone should give GMAC a clue gun so they can shoot themselves. Which is better? Waiting a few days to get their payment, or now losing most of the money? Maybe being a little more humane would win them more customers at a time when Americans are lapping up foreign cars and turning their noses up at the Chevy gas hogs. Ya think?

Updates

Blue is much, much better, though his neck is swelling a bit again. Guess there's still some infection in there, so I'm starting him on another round of antibiotics and more rinsing with hydrogen peroxide (a risky proposition for the person applying the peroxide.) But he's back to playing Frisbee and barking at anything that moves.

As for writing, I'm on page 166 of the book I'm trying to finish in time to enter it in the GH. In spite of working 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, the last several weekends taken up by family or doggie responsibilities, I'm keeping to my 5 pages per day most days. I've crashed and burned a few nights and gone to bed without pages completed, but not too often. I've started taking my Alphasmart to work with me, writing 2 pages on the way there and another 2 on the way home. That way, at least, I only have to coax one page from my overtaxed brain.

And speaking of...I hear my bed calling.