New computer, new organization

I got a new laptop yesterday (this image is a bit misleading). So I had to spend some time fiddling with it.

It's got the newest Windows operating system, which will take some getting used to. I also bought some software to easily transfer files from Old Computer to New Computer. I hooked it all up and got a message: "This may take hours, please plug in your computer so it can remain fully charged."

Hours? No no no. I just needed a few files here and there transferred. Hemingway (the New Computer) will not be used for Internet use or pictures or any other stuff. It's just for Writing.

I went back to the tried & true method: SneakerNet. I copied things on a memory stick, then copied them over to Hemingway.

Sometimes the Old Ways are the Good Ways.

Juggling can be fun!

While swimming on Sunday (my normal exercise option for the weekend), I get a lot of thinking done. Last Sunday while paddling in the pool I mapped out my strategy for my upcoming submissions.

I have X number of books currently drafted, most in 3rd person format. But I prefer working in 1st person. So .. which can I re-task? Then I had a stroke of ... no, not genius but perhaps ephiphany (spelling? you get the idea).

One book that I wasn't sure what to do with (3rd person? 1st?) is really a prequel to another book that's already done and polished. That book is 1st person.

Voila (or walla, to give it the American spelling), that prequel book must be re-tasked to 1st person.

So I started nipping at it and ran into problems. Doubt, waver, question: should I re-task it?

Yes! I must. It's a match to another 1st person book.

Go back to work, grumbling, and LIGHT BULB GOES OFF. I know how to do it.

I just LOVE it when inspriation strikes.

Another rejection, another day

Got a rejection from the agent I submitted to (the one I pitched to at National Conference).

I'll tell you, it bothered me so much it took me 10 minutes to send a query out to someone else.

I'm getting jaded, I guess, but it just didn't faze me (or is that 'phase'?). I've been itching to send that manuscript to my editor at Wild Rose, and I was just waiting for the agent to give me the thumbs up or thumbs down.

Thumbs down = SEND THAT PUPPY OUT!

So now I'm waiting on the editor and her decision.

Fingers crossed!

Happy happy rewrite!

Yea! I finished it. And it's pretty darn good if I do say so myself (and I do).

It meant that I had to really think outside the box -- or, rather, outside the plot. I nuked the ending, eliminating 3 chapters (which I will use in the follow-on book), I introduced a new character who plays a major role at the end (and will play a role in the 2nd book), and I reworked the hero/heroine so they're more believable and consistent.

I hope.

See, that's the problem with writing -- you won't know if you succeeded until the agent or editor reads it.

I'm going to let it sit for a few days, go back and read it for egregious errors, then send that bad boy off.

Fingers crossed .... again.

In a rather sad note, tomorrow is the anniversary of my first contract offer ... with a publisher no longer in business. But on a happy note: I can still sell that book elsewhere!

I fought the tree ....

and I won!

Okay, not me alone. We had planned to have a Tree Guy come out and take away the offending marauder, but they had to use a crane to lift it up and over the house at a rather $$$ price.

This tree is 10' in circumference. Go ahead. I'll wait while you get a tape measure and sketch it out.

Are you back? Okay. That's a BIGGGGGG tree.

So my husband goes over to talk to the neighbors (it's their tree, after all), and they volunteer to take away the big pieces. That left the more manegeable chunks for us.

So on Wednesday afternoon I got out there with my pruning saw and Jim got out there with our little chainsaw and we whacked away. Four hours later, we had done what we could.

On Thursday and Friday, the neighbors tussled with the rest. The result?

Big tree over the hillside (I live in the woods, thankfully) and LARGE piles of brush that need to be dragged down to the river.

AND NO TREE!!! Just crushed flowers and fence. And as I told a friend, crushed flowers=a chance to go to the nursery next year and re-do that part of the landscape.

Not exactly win-win, but better than lose-lose.

So on to the next challenge in my life: finishing this #*(@ rewrite (which is really going beautifully), update my web site and maybe relax a bit because I've already had MY Labor Day on Wednesday.