Good morning rainclouds

Current mood=

Woke up this morning to the sound of rain on our window and to the little guy pleading to use his computer. Yep he's three years old and Daddy has already made him his own computer. He has two games on it that he loves to play. A crayola coloring book game and his "Blue takes you to school game." We told him he could play as long as he kept the speakers turned down and didn't go asking for help all the time. He did wake me up three times asking for help (Mostly it was "Mommy I need help clickin on this." or "Mommy I need help clicking on that.") but he did pretty good. He's pretty creative. Yesterday he drew a picuture of a pink dinasour on the art easel in his Blue takes you to school game. Oh and he craked me up yesterday afternoon. When we were playing in the pool, I came up with idea to go his bath toys (a bath finger puppet fish, turtle, and shark.) and go fishing in the pool for them. Then he said he wanted to make an animal soup with them. He put all the bathtoys back in the pool, stirred the water up with a stick, and we both preteneded to eat the animal soup. It's times like these when I wish he could stay three years old for a little longer :-).

I had a good b-day. I did my cards when the hubby came home from work. He ordered me my all-time favorite movie musical, Singing in the Rain, on DVD too but it didn't get here in time for my b-day. That movie cracks me up. No one could dance like Fred Astaire but my favorite part is at the end when the movie diva gets her commeuppance and they pull back the curtain on her. It never ceases to make me ROFL :-). Oh and my mom & dad surprised me up at Penney's and brought me a birthday cookie. Wasn't that nice of them ;-)?

Writing wise, Anne sent me a most excellent crit of Captive Hearts for my b-day so I worked on revising my story a little when I got home for work. I love the way it's comming along. Anne's a true sweetie. Her comments have always been very helpful and the compliments she gives have helped my confidence soar. Well I'd better get dressed and ready for the day. Hope everyone has a great day :-)

Happy Birthday to Moi :-).

Of course I do have to work tonight though *Yuck* I'm a little disappointed though. PJ slept in today and by the time we both woke up, it was already 8 am & the hubby had left for work. I expected him to leave me a card or something but when I walked downstairs, there was nada :-(. I know he said the movie he ordered me isn't here yet and he did let me download Cornelia's most excellent e-book, Danger is Sweet, from Awe-struck last night but I still would've liked a card :-(. The only thing I could think of is that he said he wanted to have PJ sign his card to me and hadn't had a chance to do that yet so maybe that's why.

I plan on putting PJ's pool out today. What better way is there than to spend my 31st by lounging around in the kiddy pool? It's filling up while I'm writing this now. And I am not cooking tonight. Maybe I'll give the hubby a call later and see if he wants me to order some Chinese. I don't know why but I'm in the mood for Chinese tonight and they do have an excellent carry-out place just down the street from us.
I'm also waiting on some critiques of my Short Story. Anne promised she'd get one back to me today. Rita was planning on it but her computer is broken and she can't access her crits. Oh and I just checked the mail & saw that my grandma sent me a card. She always remembers every year :-). I'll have to give her a call later and thank her. We'll be celebrating with the rest of my family on Sunday because I'll only have to work a half day. My in-laws want to take me out to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Red Robin (they have the yummiest hamburger's there) and then we'll be going over my Mom & Dad's house for dinner. So even if I can't really celebrate today, at least I'll get to celebrate on Sunday :-).

Rejection #2 but this one I'm not too let down about.

Harlequin sent me a form letter today. I was sorta expecting as much from them. You know what, it doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. At one point in time, Harlequin was my ideal publisher but I took out out a few of their historicals from the library and saw that they were weren't really open to any settings beyond the typical western or regencies. Plus I wasn't happy when I learned that they were switching markets. What if a family member of friend wanted to purchase my book? Would they have to subscribe too the whole dang series or hunt for it on Amazon because it wouldn't be available in an American store? Sorry, not what I would want for my friends and family. When I heard they were switching markets, I knew Harlequin Historicals was not the line for me. But I had already sent out the query letter and synopsis so it was too late to get it back.

Right now I'm concentrating on my short stories. The way that I see it is if I at least a few publishing credits under my belt, maybe a publisher will look at me differently than they would if I didn't have any publishing credits on my query letter. Captive Hearts shows the most promise right now. After I'm done with those, then maybe I'll take another look at TLD and see what I can do to make it stronger.

The Fireland's Bride is still on hold. It's cloudy and a bit rainy here today so I'm not going to take my research trip. I keep putting the trip off but deep down inside I think the pacing is off on the story so I'm using my research as an excuse as to why I'm not going forward with it. I love the characters and the setting but I think the story is going to stay on hold as well until after I submit Captive Hearts. I just don't have time or energy to do both my short story and my full length ms. But the good news is that once PJ starts preschool, I'll now have 5 hours a week of my own time to write, revise so working on both could be possible then :-)

Yeah it's done :-)

Current mood=

Okay CH has been revised and uploaded. I downloaded I few chapters to critique while I'm waiting. I'm glad got it finished before my goal of my b-day on Friday :-). So that will give me the rest of the week to relax. Maybe I'll take that trip to Vermilion tomorrow or maybe I'll just be lazy and set up PJ's pool in the backyard. Anyway I'm tired so I'm gonna hit the sack. Night :-).

Another 8 pages done- 4 more to go

current mood=

Little by Little the second draft of CH is comming along. I should easily have it ready to upload by tomorrow or Friday. The more I read through it, the more I love it. It is a good story. At first I wasn't sure about the premise of it when I learned that the Wyandots kept very few prisoners but I have read accounts of other indian woman adopting prisoners as their own sons so it could've been possible that Ezra was adopted by Little Fox. My sentiments about historical fiction is that as long as there's a possiblity that it could've happened, just go with it. Historical Fiction is fiction afterall but with a historical basis. As for Rachel goign to Ohio to learn the whereabouts of her father, that definately could have happened. Fort Sandusky was destroyed by two indians and you can read about them both here

I also heard from a classmate who wanted to join the yahoo group for my graduating class. It got me to thinking that I haven't done much with the class site lately so I did a few updates. It's a shame we couldn't get it together to do something for our ten year reunion. I had to drop out of the planning because I had to make a chosice between that or my writing. No matter what, My writing comes first. It took me 29 years to figure out what I want to do with my life so I'm not about to give up my dream of becomming published even if I do have to let some projects fall by the wayside. With every MS or short story I write, I feel like my writing is improving. Practice makes perfect, everyone says and I believe them. Everytime I loose faith I just look back and think of how far I've come in my journey to get published and I know in my heart it's just a matter of time before I see my words in print.

Tonights Chick Chat

Here we go :-)
1. Do you see the Dr. right away when you feel icky?: Not unless I'm really sick or it lasts awhile.
2. Does the world revolve around you until you feel better?: I have too much crap to do for the world to revolve around me :-)
3. Favorite "Feel Better" Food?: Chicken Soup
4. Did your mom do something special when you were sick as a child?: LEt me watch cartoons in bed
5. Are you a whiner?: not usually

Got 6 pages of CH done.

Okay I know it's not much but at least it's a start. I plan on having the entire thing done by Friday, which is my b-day by the way :-), and ready to upload to my critique group. Cornelia gave me an excellent compliment, she said I had excellent characters and a great conflict. Personally I like Captive Hearts even more than I did my first Short Story, Mojave Rose. Well I gotta run, I have screaming child who needs a nap and dishes to do.

Okay no more foolin' round back to work starting tomorrow.

current mood=

Dear sweet Cornelia came trhough with a critique for Captive Hearts. Yippee! Now I have to get back to work but I still have another game I wanted to add to my haunted game room and I'd still like to add a few more virtual haunted homes to my Spooky Street. It's another project that I decided to add to my haunted house & I've had a blast looking at all the haunted homes on the web. But I promise I will get back to work on revising Captive Hearts because I like the story & I'm eager to see what the editor at A hint of seduction will think of it.

One of the houses I found while searching for virtual haunted homes is really haunted . It was never completed and haunted by the spirit of a the kind and passionate soul, Ginkgo, who created it. I visited her beautiful moonlight manor and e-mailed to ask permission to add it to my street and when I noticed it hadn't been worked on since 1999, I asked when it will be completed. I recieved a letter back from her husband, Mark who informed me it was created by his late wife and while it was okay if I left it on my street just to know it will never be completed. So I left it on my Spooky Street and added a note that it will never be finished and why. I was curious about the woman who created such a beautifully spooky house so I peeked into her journals I giggled at some of the entries and admired her beautiful photography. She seemed like a beautiful, creative woman. Then I cried when I read the last entry from her obviously devoted husband. Why, I wondered, would such a creative bold sprit give up hope and take her own life? It seems like such a tragic waste. I only hope that she's found the peace she could not find here on earth. I will keep her virtual home on Spooky Street because it's the only virtual haunted house I could find that truly is haunted.