Back to writing...

I'm giving it another shot. A wonderful friend of mine (who writes under the name Sarah McCarty... you really should read her stuff) told me that Harlequin opened a new line called Spice Briefs. Short erotic, romantic interludes. I've already sent them one submission. A short historical I wrote a while back. I wrote this as a short follow-up to a submission I'd sent to Ellora's Cave, who has yet to respond even though I submitted to them over two years ago. I wanted to be able to send something quickly, but, of course, they never responded.

Not good business practice. Oh sure, they acknowledged receiving my submission. But they never got back to me. Trust me, I understand overworked and underpaid, but to never get back at all? Definitely poor business practice.

So I sent off my historical to Harlequin's email address. Now, them I expect to take time to get back to me.

In the meantime, I've got a contemporary done. I sent it off to a friend to read just to check the ending. I'm not sure. Seems a bit contrite and way too neat to me. But if she likes it, I can deal with it. I have several different ways that I can write the end, so that can be adjusted, though the end result is always the same.

Lastly, I'm working on a short paranormal. Not sure they're going to like this one, though. It's not romantic at all. Erotic and need driven is more like it. Lots of lust. Lots of sex driving the whole story. Hard part is that, to stay true to the idea, one of the characters has to die in the end.

The good thing is I want to show them that I can be versatile. They've already got a historical (and I have at least one other idea for another) and then I've got a contemporary and a paranormal in the works. Basically, I can write just about any genre or time frame. Tell me what you need and I'll write to specification. I used to do that way back in the days when I wrote for Penthouse. (Yup, another dirty little secret... ) Had a couple features and quite a few letters. Paid really well, too. It just got old really fast. I wanted to write more than just sex. I like a little story to go with it.

Anyway... what else is new? Graduations are over. At least for the university. Still have my daughter's high school graduation to get through, but that won't be until next month. Prom was last week and both girls looked absolutely gorgeous!

I've started to work on my gardens. One down and eight more to go... See if I can get another done today. My arms are killing me. Had to get out the manual hedge clippers and trim back a few bushes. They were attempting a coup on the whole yard, so I had to nip them back and put them in their place. My arms are screaming at me now. Telling me that they're used to knitting and typing. What's up with this clipping cr@p?!? >

Monday is Memorial Day. Can't believe it's already here. Mark has informed me that he doesn't want a picnic this year. I don't blame him. He wants a quiet simple day at home with no pressure. No jobs. No list of things to do. Frankly, I don't blame him. We'll have a picnic later in June. Invite everyone over ... er, just because. But now just give him a day of rest where he can do what he wants or nothing at all if that's what he wants.

So I'm just going to make pasta with good fresh bread and invite a few (very few) people over to sit on the deck and relax.

Hence the reason to get the yard in shape. So it's off to work...

Have a terrific day!!!

Forever and Ever...

Since I updated this poor thing. Course, the job is the reason I haven't been around. Had to get through May Weekend. It's that last weekend before college students get into studying for finals and, let's face it, they try to see how much liquid they can contain... Trust me, they end up losing a lot of it through Olympic hurling (no, not curling, but hurling). They drink lots. They throw up. They replace all the liquid they lost and the cycle continues... LOL!

So why would that affect a woman who's old enough to be their Mom? Easy. I get to work 12-hour shifts. I got through it. 99% of all students survive. And most don't get arrested either. We won't discuss the kid who got into a fight so he was told to leave campus. Where does he go? He comes over to the off-campus dorms where I work. Hmm.... not his most brilliant idea since the university owns it and that makes it university property. What happened? Second arrest in the span of about five hours.

How some of these kids actually make it into college amazes me.... ;-)

Anyway... long hours.

Add to that all the high school stuff for my girls. Oldest is a senior, so we're into the prom stuff which means shopping -- dress, shoes, accessories, all that girl stuff. And what do we add to the mix? A friend of hers asks her sister. Now I've got two doing prom stuff... Yikes!

How are we going to top this, I ask you? My youngest went to the junior prom as a freshman. This year, attending the senior prom as a sophomore. Can we somehow find a way to top this for next year? With my luck, she'll take a weekend and visit her sister on campus next year and meet some junior in college...

What can I say? Popular. That was always her goal, so I guess she's achieved it.... LOL!

Did the hair thing for the oldest today. Just a trim and a few suggestions how to arrange her hair to best advantage. She's easy. Tomorrow is prom night and I get to take the youngest at 3:30 for the hair thing. I just know she's not going to be that easy. She'll want it straight. I'm hoping for some curly-type thing....

In the meantime, I did finish my End Zone socks from Gypsy Girl. They're spectacular. Have to get a pic of those and add to the site. (BTW, thanks so much for the tip on how to put it where I want it! I'm already braindead because I read the tip about 3 mins ago and I've forgotten the lovely woman's name already. I'll just bang my head against the wall a few times when I'm done and pray that she accepts that as an apology.... )

Poor Ava, my spinning wheel. She's SO forlorn and lonely in her corner of the living room. She's neglected and feeling totally like an outcast. My fault entirely. I hope to make it up to her starting next week. I have lots of fiber waiting to be spun. I just haven't had time to do much more than come home and drop into bed. Now that the school year is almost done (one more graduation to go and then I'm done for the summer), I can't wait to sit and fondle her. I figure it would be nice to make friends again first before I ask her to create her miracles for me. Lord knows she does more for my spinning than I do... LOL!

Let's see... what else? Business has dropped off the face of the Earth for the moment. Again, haven't had time. Another thing I have to get back to. My commission checks show my lack of commitment right now... Yikes! But I have no one to blame except myself.

House? We won't even discuss that. Trashed. Just a quick example of how much help my wonderful daughters have been. Came home today and saw that the youngest had made herself a sandwich. She polished off the cheese and left the wrapper and ziploc bag just sitting in the middle of the table. She was done with it, so she walked away. Yup. Story of my life lately.

Cut my finger the other night on a tin can. Stupid mistake, but it was good enough that it took me 20 mins to stop the bleeding. I yelled for help because dinner was in final preparations. Oldest daughter came in and helped me get dinner on the table. I commented before I got up that doing dishes wasn't exactly in my future. Not unless they wanted blood all over everything. I think the same dishes are still in the sink...

So I've invested in tons of garbage bags. I figure I'm going to take maybe a half hour every day from now on and simply take one room at a time and toss everything that gets in my way. (I sure hope the cats move fast... )

Okay, that's enough for now. I have to get back into the habit of writing more often. I'd make shorter entries and they'd be a lot more timely... LOL!