Have An Awesome Weekend!

I hope you all have a great weekend! I'm off to a writer's retreat with pals Roxanne St. Claire and Lara Santiago. The retreat is sponsored by the TARA (Tampa area) chapter of RWA (which we're also members of) and features special guest, screenwriter Michael Hauge.

I've never heard him speak, but everyone who has says he's really good, so I'm hoping to come away from the weekend with a few lightbulb moments and some great ideas on how to make my stories better. I'll try to share a few things when I get back.

Considering my roommates, I'm sure there will be a few fun stories to tell as well.

What are you doing this weekend?

Monday To Do's

Ahh, Monday.

All I can say is I'm glad the weekend is over. Friday, as you all know, I cleaned until my digits were bloody stumps. The house looked spectacular, though. It's all ready begun the downhill slide towards needing to be cleaned again unfortunately. Thanks to everyone who commiserated with me.

Saturday was my chapter meeting featuring the fabulous C.L. Wilson and her take on worldbuilding. I was also elected Vice President again.

Sunday, I was recovering from a massive allergy attack and didn't get out of bed until after 12. Once I did get out of bed, Lara Santiago and I headed over to our chapter contest coordinator's for a massive Discrepancy Judging-a-Thon. About six of us dj'ed more than 30 entries. It was a long day. I'm glad Lara does math, because all that adding of scores made my head hurt.

So today is a fresh start on a new week that ends in fabulous meal that I (YAY!) don't have to cook or host or clean up after. I do have a few goals this week that I'm hoping to accomplish before that happens. Such as:

1. Some crits for my CP's.
2. Some final polishing on something of my own.
3. Some polishing/updating on a potential article for the RWR.
4. Laundry.
5. Trip to the post office.

What's on your list?

Deep Thoughts

Just a few random things:

* Recently found a new artist (new to me), Eddi Reader. She's got kind of a Celtic, folksy sound. Very easy to listen to. Check out my myspace page to hear one of her songs, Bell, Book and Candle. If you go and listen to it, I'd love to hear what you think. Oh and friend me while you're there, if you haven't already.

* I've decided that great books, keeper books, shall now be referred to as a DMV. Delicious Mind Vacation. Feel free to use that. (Ex. C.L. Wilson's Lord of the Fading Lands - definite DMV, the recently read Peeps by Scott Westerfeld, not so much.)

* Blog and ye shall receive. I am ECSTATIC to tell you that there is an ARC of C. L. Wilson's Lady of Light and Shadows on its way to me. Sometimes, it pays to express one's self. I'm also thrilled to tell you that C.L. Wilson will be our Author of the Month at Romance Divas this coming October! Woohoo!

* Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'm going to see Annie tomorrow! Myself, Lara Santiago, my sis-in-law and the niece are off for a girl's night of the Cheesecake Factory and Annie. Can't wait! It's a hard knock life, but somebody's got to live it.

Child-free and Loving It!

Our 5-year-old niece just left after a 2 1/2 day visit.

I'm officially exhausted. We went to the beach yesterday instead of Monday as planned, and it was really nice. Very few other people out there and just a beautiful day. Unfortunately, I was so busy putting sunblock on Hotrod and the Child that I forgot myself. I'm a bit toasted. Hopefully it will turn into a nice tan.

Fortunately for my sanity, Hotrod is gone for a few days on a business trip as well. That means I'll get to clean the house and have some alone time. And by alone time, I mean time to write!

Two more things:

1. My article on attending conference is in June's RWR - read it!

2. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lara Santiago! 29 again!

Great Balls of Fire!

I've been forcibly constrained onto a bowling league. Granted, I'm just a fill-in member, but still. I've never bowled on a league and now, thanks to Lara Santiago and her evil husband, tonight will be my first night.

I'm a decent bowler. My grandfather was an exceptional bowler and actually built bowling lanes for a living. He went on to manage a large bowling alley in PA when I was growing up. My brother and I spent a lot of time there, bowling granny-style before we could actually heft the balls properly. Some of my fondest memories are bowling with my grandparents.

Part of me wants to do them proud tonight. The other part of me hopes no one recognizes me. Of course, there's the third part of me who will spend a better part of the day trying to figure out what to wear...

Keepin' It Real

I wrote seven pages yesterday, thanks to Lara Santiago yelling at me. She threatened to come to my house and cause me bodily harm if I didn't sit down and write.

I think I shall now call her the Mistress of the Whip. Or should that be WIP?

Either way, I'm happy with that word count for the day. Especially since I was feeling kind of icky yesterday and took some allergy meds that knocked me out for a bit.

In other news, I'm hiring a cleaning woman. Not sure if it's going to be a regular thing or just an occasional thing, yet - that will depend on the job she does. She used to be a translator for Disney and speaks six languages! Anyone need a translation for the book they're writing?

Everything's Bigger In Texas

Even the soup.

Is that not the biggest bowl of soup you've ever seen as a single serving? Oddly enough, the waitress felt compelled to tell us it was heavy when she handed it over. Ya think?

According to Lara Santiago, the orderer and eater of this soup, it was tasty and delicous. But not by any means the small bowl she anticipated. She ordered it because she wasn't that hungry! And it came with that huge pile of rice!

I had tamales that night - one of my favorite things - and thanks to Deidre Knight, another chica at dinner with us that night, my foot somehow ended up on the table. I know you're going to ask so let me just say I was demonstrating my big toe's mouse-clicking technique.

Monday, Monday...

Today is the calm before the storm. This is going to be one of the busiest weeks ever. I leave for the Romantic Times Convention next Monday and between now and then I have MUCH to do.

To Do:
* Finish first draft of Date With The Devil
* Get hair highlighted
* Get spray tan (don't worry, I plan to blog about this)
* Sew fairy costume
* Finalize vampire cowboy costume & Moulin Rouge costume (which may be nothing more than a fancy hat)
* Prepare brief handouts for the topics I'll be talking about at RT (Dialogue, Plotting & Rejection)
* Pack for RT
* Prepare some frozen meals for Hotrod so he doesn't eat Steak-n-Shake seven nights in a row while I'm gone
* Send out last batch of review books to the Romance Divas reviewers
* Attend the Volusia County Romance Writer's one day conference on Saturday (I'm a glutton for punishment, aren't I? I'm going because my super marvelous agent, Elaine Spencer is speaking.)

I'm sure there's more, but those are the highlights. It's enough, don't you think? On a rather triumphant personal note, I wrote 21 1/2 pages on DWTD yesterday! That's an all time personal best, my previous record being 18 pages in one day. Considering I had a cold over the weekend and was doped up on meds, this is even more impressive. Clap for me. After all those pages, I realized there is still more story to be told. So, once again I've extended my estimate on the final word count, this time to 98k words. Will it be done then? I don't know. DWTD may go to 100k. I'll know when I type The End.

Shout Out: My fabulous friend, Lara Santiago has had a book final in the Passionate Plume - The Lawman's Wife!

So...what do you have planned for the week?

And The Winner Is...

"What box? I'm not sitting in a box." by Lara Santiago

More than anything, this caption captures Scooter's true attitude. Granted, Lara actually knows Scooter so she probably had a bit of an advantage. Therefore, she will NOT be eligible for the next caption contest, although I will still force her to enter it. (Next caption contest will be Monday, the 23rd as I will be headed to the Romantic Times Convention.)

Congrats, Lara, you big cheat! lol