July 12, 2012

Last night I went out with friends to see Magic Mike, the "stripper" movie for women. It was totally awesome! The storyline was not well written, and there were a few times when I wanted to smack someone to try and improve their acting ability. But the movie was totally awesome!

Why, you ask? Ummm...have you seen the previews, or the movie posters, or stalked the internet looking for pics of these hotties? Yep. That's why!

Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum and the rest of the "male dance revue" were really easy on the eyes. Did I mention eye-candy? Yep. Definitely eye-candy.

Hmmm...it just got a little hot in here. *whew*

July 05, 2012

Vacation

Wow. It's been awhile since I posted. Been busy working & living life. My husband and I are on vacation this week. We drove up to Munfordville, KY to spend a little time with his dad & stepmom. She works for the county extension office and handles the county fair every year. So we helped out by judging a kid's pet contest (lots of fun), a fried pie contest (Yum!!) and working the concession stand (not really work). I enjoyed myself and always love spending time with them. We're back home now and getting ready to keep the grandkids for the weekend before we head back to work on Monday morning. This may not be everyone's idea of a vacation, but we've really enjoyed ourselves. What kinds of things do you do when you have a few days off work?

May 21, 2012

MCRW & the TNRenFest

Had a great weekend! Saturday I spent with the gang from MCRW listening to a great presentation from Melissa (Misa) Bourbon Ramirez, Director of Marketing at Entangled Publishing. Learned a lot of great stuff for branding myself & promoting my books (when I actually finish & eventually sell one...). I bought a copy of her book The Tricked-Out Toolkit so I'll have the information I need when I'm ready.
Sunday, my honey & I went to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival over in Triune, TN. We spent the entire day together and have a great time. I replaced an earring I lost and bought a new pair. And I found the most awesome Tweety Bird puzzle box. We watched the "Royal Joust" and laughed our heads off at the "Washing Well Wenches" show. I'm already looking forward to next year. :-) But now the weekend's over & it's time to get back to work. Happy Monday!

May 17, 2012

Working

It's been awhile since I posted. Been busy learning the new job and working on the 2nd draft of Rebel Union. It's going pretty good and the story is getting better. I'm learning more and more about my characters and about the writing process. I'm learning to see my mistakes (showing vs telling, passive voice, etc.) so hopefully the next story is better. Rebel Union may never see an Agent's desk, but it's been an awesome learning experience and will make everything after easier. What have you been up to?

April 18, 2012

Life Experience

I'm 43 years old and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

I've just accepted a new position within the company as a Project Manager on the Digital Marketing team. I'm excited to be starting a new "career" at this time of my life, but I'm also nervous. Almost every other member of the group is younger than I am. But I can bring a lot of "life experience" that they won't have for many more years. So it should even things out a bit. lol

I've been a Carhop with Sonic, an ER Clerk, a Waitress, a Secretary & a Classified Sales Rep. And probably a few more things in between that I've forgotten about. But now I'll be a Project Manager. No more working off commission, no more sitting & waiting. It's straight pay, more than I'm making now, and I'll be busy every day so I don't have to worry about being bored.

It's time to begin the next stage of life. Come on May 1st.

March 28, 2012

One Down, A Million More to Go.

Last night I did something I've never done before. I let another, more experienced, writer read my work; first scene of Rebel Union. Talk about terrifying. What if it really is crap? What if she tells me it really is crap?

Luckily she's not that kind of person. She really liked my opening and said the flow worked well. A few suggestions on form and a few questions with suggestions to help ground the reader in the story and I went home after to revise again. And she's completely right. It works much better this way.

Now on to Scene 2. *happy face*

March 19, 2012

Revising & Critiques

I pulled out Rebel Union again yesterday and started revisions. I've thrown out the first two chapters to be woven in as backstory later and will write a completely new Chapter 1 based on Chapters 3 & 4. Putting it aside for awhile was the right thing to do. Now I can start with a fresh perspective & hopefully get somewhere with it.

I had dinner last week with another member of MCRW who will hopefully be able to help me improve my skills as a writer. She's working on her 4th book in a series and she's already finaled in a couple of contests. She's farther along than I am so she'll be able to help me understand what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it. I'm not sure what she'll get from me, but hopefully we'll be able to help each other out.

I have a feeling it's going to help me a lot just to have someone who is not a friend or family member to be accountable to. She won't care if she hurts my feelings and she'll tell me exactly what she thinks. That's gonna be a good thing.

March 16, 2012

Writing

I had dinner last night with another writer from the MCRW group who lives in the same part of town I do. It was awesome having someone to talk to about writing who understood what I was talking about and whose eyes didn't glaze over when I was trying to explain something.

I think we're going to try to get together a couple of times a month to exchange scenes or chapters and write. I'm excited to have someone who may be able to help me become a better writer by telling me in a constructive way what's wrong and how to fix it. I'm not sure what I'll be able to give her in return except maybe a different perspective. She's already so much farther along than I am. But I have a feeling we'll get along just fine.

Tomorrow's the MCRW monthly meeting. I missed the retreat last month so I'm looking forward to hanging out with these talented women. It makes me feel like I might actually have a chance with this whole writing thing.

March 01, 2012

Wow!

What a busy two months, but it's winding down now.

I went to Phoenix last week to finish up the project I've been working on. Well, Scottsdale actually. Phillip from AtTask was there to help and we made it through with everything intact. Whew! I wondered there for a bit, but thankfully things smoothed out and we were able to finish on time.

Scottsdale is a beautiful place. But it was a bit confusing in places. A road on one side of town is also on the other side of town, but you can't get from one end to the other by staying on that road. The GPS kept telling me to turn and turn and turn just to get to the end of that street. It didn't make sense, but it got me where I needed to go.

And stopping at the end of a ramp before continuing onto the interstate was a little disconcerting. Red lights for both lanes, you stop until yours turns green then you go. When the other light turns green that lane goes. It's supposed to help with congestion by regulating the amount of traffic coming onto the interstate. It makes sense, but it was weird to stop then pull out onto the interstate.

The mountains look like someone took a bucket and poured out a big pile of dirt on the horizon. No green and very few trees. They were pretty, but brown & prickly. I can't imagine anyone wanting to go hiking up there. There's nothing to see on the trails.

I really enjoyed my first (and probably only) foray into business travel. And I've really loved working on this project. With any luck a new job will come of it. Now that people know who I am and what I'm capable of. I'm more than just a call center rep. We'll see how it goes.

February 08, 2012

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow. What a busy 3.5 weeks it's been. I've been on loan to a different section of our department for a major project at work and have been busy, busy, busy. I love it!

The first week was training via conference call & Adobe Connect. The 2nd & 3rd weeks were filled with configuration, creating, testing & group training. And this week will be used to finish up any outstanding tasks.

But the best news is that within the first week I was asked to fly out to Phoenix this month and work the same project for the paper out there. How exciting! So, I head to Arizona on the 20th & will stay for a week to help implement the same project management system there. A week away from work for work. I'll definitely be enjoying that!

Of course, once I get back from Phoenix I'll go back to my normal, boring job, but at least there'll be another notch on my resume.

January 19, 2012

I'm a Loaner

I've been loaned out. Yep, that's right. My manager has loaned me to another department. For the next few weeks I'll be learning a new system, configuring that new system with the information the department will need to run smoothly, then I'll be testing & implementing the new system & training the employees who will use it.

This is a big project and I'm proud that my name came up in the discussion on who would best be able to help. But I'm also a little nervous. I'm not an IT person and I'm not a systems person. What if I screw this up somehow? I don't know the first thing about configuration or systems administration.

But hey. What the heck? I know I can do it because I can do anything I set my mind to. And this will be one more thing to add to my resume if I should need it anytime soon. Let's just hope I don't need it anytime soon!

January 13, 2012

Join the Fun!

I joined the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood's Winter Writing Festival this year. I'm hoping having others to account to for my writing will help boost it along. I usually only write in fits and spurts so having a goal to get so many words per day is going to be a challenge. But I'm up for it. Surely I can handle the paltry goals I've set for myself during this thing.

Write 500 new words per day
OR
Brainstorm for 30 minutes per day
OR
Edit/Revise 1 scene per day (either current WIP or last MS)
OR
Keep Butt in Chair Hands on Keyboard (BICHOK) 1 hour per day

That last one will be the hardest for me to do. It always is. But I plan to give it a try. And with any luck I'll win this thing and have 25,000 new words by the end of February.

There's still time to join. Head over to www.rsswwf.com and get started.

January 06, 2012

New Year. New Novel.

I've started writing a new novel. And this one seems to be going much faster and better than the last. I'm not sure yet what genre it will fall into, but there is a bit of contemporary, sci-fi, paranormal & maybe a little historical. I'm writing this one in first person because it seems to flow that way. Not sure yet if I'll change to third after the first draft or not, but so far so good.

Have you started anything new yet in 2012?

January 03, 2012

Welcome to 2012

Well, it's a whole new year again. Welcome to 2012. I've decided I'm not doing resolutions this year since I usually break them all in the first week anyway. Instead I'm going to try new things & see where it gets me.

Vacation was great. I relaxed, I read, I wrote, I shopped. And now I'm back at work. I can't wait until next vacation. Maybe June for a week? Maybe I'll take my birthday off just for me. Hmmm...now there's an idea.

How about you? Already looking forward to another vacation?