I'm a WINNER and Ashtons EYE!!!

Okay, since everyone is probably very sick of hearing about it... I finished NaNoWriMo *YEAH* The crowd goes wild!!! 50,000 words later... and Odd Fate is not done as it is plotted to be 90,000 words and nano is only 50k. Well. Um. Okay. But I finished 50K in a month!! Okay. Well. Erm. Okay. So, you say I wrote Odd Stuff in a month and it was 90K so not impressed? Well, shuddup. That is darned impressive! There are tons of people impressed by that word count. Okay. So I am a blabbermouth. And I probably SAY about that many words in a day. To type them is an entirely different thing and to do so with things like sentence structure and spelling and plot and research... okay, these things take mad skills. MAD skills. Get jiggy with me here. I am a cool writer girl this month and this is a big deal.

*blows party favor*

Okay, that said and much work left ahead of me, tonight, the night I had allotted for some mad (yes, mad is the word of the day as I feel a bit like the Mad Hatter... or a Mad Scientist... or at some random points, simply mad today) editing and writing and yes, the posting of my nano numbers so I could validate and get my nifty nano winner pic seen here. However, single mom, three kids.

And Ash has inherited my grace. I say mine due to the fact Ray seems to be one of those people who can make puking look somehow graceful. The man can flip a pizza behind his back and catch it. And look hot doin it. He is that darned cool. I am not. So it has to be my genetics that cause the poor boy to spend so much time in the ER. I will take full cred for it. ALL ME. That said, after the 'broken finger in gym because he was running too fast and crawling and managed to bend them backwards incident' we have evolved to todays fun.

Today, whilst I was off working and staring at the tan walls of my cubicle and trading banter with Noah, Ash was playing with the kids. It was something about throwing him onto a couch and him laughing uproariously. His arms, apparently, were flailing about madly (see? mad again.) which isn't altogether unusual for Ash. He is almost always yelling or flailing. They are two of his trademark moves. That and picking his nose with his tongue. But I digress.

So while flailing, he caught his own eye with his own finger and scratched the corner.

And began to scream. He screamed that it hurt and it burned and he was dying.

As Ash is a dramatic child, no one was sure if he was hurt or not. He had a tiny red mark next to his eye. When the eye was inspected, nada. However the howling began around noon. When I rescued the sitter at 4pm, it was still going on. He, at this point, was puffy.

She was looking a bit tired, drawn and her eyes were crossed.

I took my youngest to the ER to see if it was drama or trauma causing the bellowing.

After some eye drops (which is a tale too dark and twisted to be related... anyone who has tried to get eyedrops into a pained childs eyes knows the severity of this situation. If you haven't, pray you never have to.) that turned his eye an awesome glow in the dark green under ultraviolet light, a large spot was found on his cornea.

By large, I mean uber huge.

He had caught the cornea and scraped it off at the center. A chunk about the size of his pinky nail.

According to the friendly nurses (one was wearing the cutest lab coat... hunter green with a little black helicopter on the back...) a 55yr old man had been in earlier with a SMALLER hole in his cornea and had cried like a baby. They are excruciating. My son, apparently, was a tough cookie and was feeling like someone was shoving a knife in his eyeball. A burning knife. And he was valid with the screaming. So I get to give him eyedrops every 4hrs and he SOOO got China Buffet for dinner.

Poor dude. Just now he is crashed out and looking pathetic. He insists he is blind. He passed the vision screening and light hurts. He is clinging to me. I must admit, having Mr Independant clinging is nice. Wish it wasn't under such horrible circumstances. Wish I could make it not hurt. Wish I could make it all go away. Best I can do is wake him every 4hrs and torture him so he does not go blind....

Not really the most fun job. Not really fun for either of us. Less fun for Ash.

So, Nano done, son blind. Eyes tired. Butt sore. Oops. Forgot that one. Wiped out yesterday on Michelle's front steps and landed butt first on slate. So sitting hurts.

But not so bad as Ash who just woke screaming. Again.

*sigh*

Well.
Okay,he is asleep again.
Anyway, that's my day in a nutshell... or nut house.
Take your pick.

Driven

Eyeballs burning.

Brain leaking in a gelatinous ooze out my ears.

Fingers itching to tap on the keyboard but the tips are slightly numb.

Ah. The smell of procrastination mixed with National Novel Writing Month. Yes, this year I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo for the first time and it has been fun. Although I know I blast out a very nice number of words in a day when I sit down to write and although I know I can write a book in a short period of time, I had never sat down and tried to see how many precisely I write or could I write a given number if there was a goal looming over my head.

And I think it felt like homework.

I remember homework. It was that stuff I stalled doing until the deadline because-- pshaw-- I could blast through it in no time so why bother stressing over it now? I could do it later... and later.

And NaNoWriMo became that for me. If I missed one day, no big. I could write 2k tomorrow and play catch up. A couple days... yeah, well one 7k day and I am back, baby.

The flaw was that if you spend big portions of the month skipping around like that, you inevitably get behind. And now deadline looms. And I feel dumb. I look at my bar graph on the Nano site and wonder why there are so many days that flatline. It wasn't like I couldn't have written SOMETHING those days. Normally I would have had to write. Actually, I did write most of those days...

On non NaNo work so that it did not 'count' because I am only counting my words written on Odd Fate. Procrastination. I procrastinated and wrote other things so that the deadline would loom closer.

So tonight I was left blasting out a monumental... how many did I write?

Hang on.

7108words.

And that was a mix of a half an hour today and from 5pm on tonight.

Brain in a puddle. Probably all crap. Will have to reread tomorrow to see what I did because if I do tonight I will trim the good with the fat.

And then tomorrow after I clean that I need to blast out one final day of at least 3042 words to get my 50k for nano.

*rubs hand over face*

So if I can do that, why on earth am I doing it now rather than spreading it over a month?

Masochism. Sheer masochism. I am a sick, sick puppy.

And the worst part? Odd Fate is a 90k book or thereabouts. Once I finish Nano... so not done with the book... Nano will end with me mid climax.

And I can't not write once I am mid climax. Musey will allow some slacking. She will let me take days off if I allow her days where I sit and do nothing but blast out story. But once I get to climax the story rides me and I just hang on and try to tug the bit every now and again if the story gets too out of line.

I no longer will have the reins. So I will be thinking and dreaming and eating Odd Fate by the time this week is over....

Wait? It is Friday?

Something about shopping?

Huh.

Hey... yeah. I should put up a tree, too. *scratches head* Can't we just pencil one into Chapter seventeen????

Funny things kids say-Thanksgiving

Me- "So why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?"

Justice- "Because of the Mayflower."
David-"Uh, yeah a boat."

Me-"So we eat turkey because of a boat? Why don't we all ride boats instead?"

Justice-"No, Mom. The pilgrims came on a boat."
David-"Yeah, and when they got to the Americas they had a five day feast."

Me-"Why? Were they hungry from being on the boat, or what?"

Justice-Frustrated. "No, Mom. They did it because the Indians helped them."
David-"Yes, the Indians taught them to plant food and maize and to hunt and so they ate a lot of food." Nodding. This made sense.

Me-"So they got off the boat, ate a bunch of food, met some Indians and took up farming?"

David-"No they celebrated!" Now he is frustrated too. "They were eating because they were celebrating being free from religion."

Me, laughing- "Free from religion? So they had no religion, and were so happy they ate for five days and then met some Indians and took up farming?"

Both my kids glare at me. I am just quoting them, here. No reason to get annoyed. No reason at all. I think they have realized this is a quiz.

David- Lecturing. "They left England to get on a boat to get free to do what ever religion they wanted. They found America. They met some Indians who taught them how to hunt and farm and then they had a harvest and ate for five days."

Me-pondering- "If the Indians were here... Did the pilgrims 'find' America?"

Both kids stare blankly. This was not covered at school. But they can make really nice pilgrim hats and got cookies.

Apparently Jordan thought the Indians fed the Amish.

Ashton's turn.

Me- "Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?"

Ash-"Because the pilgrims went to America and we give thanks because the Indians helped them and it really gave thanks because all the, pretty much, when the Indians and pilgrims died... the pilgrims said from now on, in the fall, we harvest food and it will be a new holiday called Thanksgiving. The pilgrims had run from London and cuz they wanted to be free from people telling them what to do."

Me- "An Indian died?"

Ash- "A pilgrim died?"

Me-"What pilgram? What are you talking about?"

Ash- "The one they voted for. The management dude."

Me-"Huh?"

Ash- "When he died they said they can't give up and he said every fall they should harvest and celebrate Thanksgiving in the month of November."

Me- blank stare. "The pilgrim manager"

Ash- "I forgot his name."

Me- "Who discovered America?"

Justice inturrupts- "The puritans!"

Me glares. Puritans.

Ash- "This is my turn Justice. The pilgrims and Indians."

Me-"Who first?"

Ash-"Indians. They worked together and pretty much all they did was the Indians helped them and the Pilgrims made it their world and that was that piece of America. Can I go now?"

Me-"Yup. Nuff said."

Happy Thanksgiving.

Education Rant

Random tidbit off http://www.arachnoid.com/reader_exchanges/autism_is_real.html
It is an article called autism is real but this question and response really meant something to me so thought I would use bloggie here to share:

Mother-"My fear is that neither one of them will be educated to their full potential in any type of school."

Answer-" That's a virtual certainty, because (1) schools only teach us how to teach ourselves, and (2) education never ends. For a "full potential" education, one must be willing to learn new things perpetually."

Due to my Aspergers/ADD/ADHD kiddos I was reading the article but this particular bit seemed to kind of sum up my problems with education nicely. Maybe that is why I am so frustrated with the public schools lately. It just doesn't seem like they are trying to teach my kids to LOVE learning. If they don't LOVE learning, well, why keep doing it? If they are made to feel stupid, unsatisfactory, unable to compete on a level with the other kids due to disabilities LISTED on their IEP's then how are they going to want to further themselves? If every nominal thing is berated, shunned... every independent thought squashed like a bug, why have them, why try? My kids learned the phrase, "I can't" at Jefferson. I hate that phrase. Rock Creek and I went round when Jus was in kindergarten due to a teacher (one who apparently since has retired) telling me in a conference that she could NOT LEARN.

I flipped out and stormed the principals office. The same principal who is currently in administration and apparently has forgotten this incident if present circumstances are any suggestion of memory retention. My speech to him involved Helen Keller. I blasted him with, "If Helen Keller, deaf, dumb and blind could learn and go on to do all that she accomplished as a person in her lifetime, which she did, then do not TELL me that my daughter, currently in possession of all of those abilities CANNOT learn. If we have to go about it in a different manner to get through to Justice, show me the way. You people went to school for education-- This is supposed to be your area of expertise. But to say a child, any child cannot learn is both arrogant and ignorant. And actually, while I am throwing out adjectives, laziness on the part of the educator." Or something along those lines. I was mad.

I can't say as I was a favorite that year. Possibly, that is why my kids are trotting through the school with bullseyes painted on their foreheads currently. Maybe he does remember...

Regardless, that is the point of education. It is supposed to be the basic building blocks for a lifetime love of learning. I learn something new everyday-- because I love it! I have always loved it. Then again at their age I, when asked, did not want to grow up to be a firefighter or a supermodel. I wanted, and I quote, to be "someone who never stops growing."

And at the end of the day that is what I want. Three kids who want to learn. Three kids with the basic building blocks so that they can go on and do what they dream and KEEP learning.

Is it too much to ask?

Apparently. My kids go to school largely because that is where you go. My daughter, who last year Loved school and thought that someday perhaps she would like to be a veterinarian, hates school and does not want to do any work at all EVER. Puberty. They are blaming it on puberty. Or something. I am not certain. They keep asking me if it is normal. I keep saying, as a matter of fact NO. She just started this year. At your school. After school started. After about a month or two. Suggesting something here is bugging her. What are they doing?

She is passive aggressive, they say. Let's skip her a grade. Get her with kids her age.

???

Get her out of your school you mean? Because you have no clue how to deal with a kid like her?

Ok. Because that is not going to create a BLACK HOLE in her education. Maybe socially great. Maybe a train wreck. She has never been around kids her AGE. Because of this school system.

Us?

YES YOU! Rock Creek messed up kindergarten so I repeated it homeschool. Then she completed first and I put her back in public at Jefferson, all nice and diagnosed as aspergers thinking you guys could help me and you said... well, lets put her back in first for a week or two and see how she does. Again, I had asked and you said it was a trial period. The trial period went a year and then you promoted her to second. When she was supposed to go to third. So Jefferson Area Schools did both of her grade "adjustments."

Hmm. Well, perhaps...

I scream and pull at my hair and continue to watch my daughter fall behind... Yeah, right through that NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND crock. My kid always gets left behind. And I am standing there yelling at the school and they then call me and ask me things like:

"Three boys were on the playground making fun of Justice because of a boy she liked. She then said to one of them, 'I am going to wring your neck.' Mrs. Nelson, do you feel this was appropriate and how should we handle this."

Me- Um.... thinking. "Did she wring anyone's neck?"

"No, but we do not condone that sort of talk. (or something like that) She should have gone to a teacher to handle the situation."

Me- Nod. "True and she knows better than to threaten violence. Years of counseling and psychiatry have taught her better conflict resolution than violence."

I stare and do not comment further.

"The three boys were good kids and I know, Mrs Nelson."

Me- Mentally screaming because if I get called MRS one more time, heads are rolling. "My kids are good kids. And three boys harass my daughter on the playground and all she does is threaten violence and you are asking me what I want to do to handle the situation? Where were the teachers when my daughter was being ganged up on by boys and wow, she really showed patience only threatening when being ganged up on by three BOYS. My little daughter. I am not going to teach my daughter to accept that or to stand and allow it to happen if the administration that is supposed to be protecting her so obviously failed."

"They were good kids and they came to the office because they wanted to let me know about this situation." states administration, cheerfully oblivious to the fact he is WRONG.

Me-Thinking that they came to the office to get my kid in trouble and because she took their abuse and only retaliated with one measly, halfhearted threat, she is in trouble and he wants me to punish her for getting bullied??? "I see your position."

Yeah. LOVING THIS SCHOOL.

That is one of many instances. The one that made me so mad that I could spit fire and wring necks myself. That is not the long list of calls I have received. The multitude of calls. "Justice said" which she states was a rumor started by a girl in her class. "Ashton said a bad word at school today." Gasp! An eight year old boy says a bad word? I am sure that my eight year old boy is the first in history to try out a bad word. And that surely is cause for a principal to call.

A note home? Sure. A phone call? Seems drastic. I like the attention. I wonder though if they are giving me this kind of "attention" how much "attention" my kids are getting at school? And how much of it is positive. *laughs* Positive reinforcement... yeah, oh. Funny. Where do I come up with these REVOLUTIONARY ideas?

Okay, this turned into a rant. Shutting up now.

Quietly goes off to not sign more assignment books and continue to self-educate failing children. Feebly hopes this year gets better... it has to get better... right???????????

Thanksgiving...

So it is that time of year again. It is time to give thanks for the things we should be grateful for each and every day and yet we are too bogged down by the ordinaryness of life to see. The three things I am most grateful for are pictured here... They are also the three things that motivate most of my choices. Not bad motivations. Pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.

Last night the tooth fairy forgot to come. We think it was a combination of factors. David and I had a serious discussion this morning as to the possible reasons she totally missed the house. For one, we aren't home. House sitting. That alone is enough to throw off a fairy. Then he lost it really late. Like later than he should have been up on a school night late. So probably the work order wasn't on her desk when she went out on her runs. Then on top of all that he put it on the coffee table. Everyone, and I mean everyone knows, the acceptable placement for a lost tooth is beneath your pillow.

When given these logical, and quickly determined on a coffeeless brain, reasons, my exceptionally logical son nodded briefly and said, "I knew it was something. Knew you would have figured it out. Thanks, Mom."

Disaster averted. And another cool moment in David history. David is the guy that at the age of four looked at his little hand and asked me what the wrinkles were. When I came up with they were creases and where his hand bent, this wasn't good enough for David. He then nodded to himself and said, "Nevermind. I know. It is where God stitched me up when he was done making me." He is the kid in the backseat of my car discussing half-sibling-ness with his half brother and determining they have two different dads. Before I could intervene with a "You are raised together" speech, David said, "The other half is friend."

He is the kid who reads his math homework and if the story problem reads, "Jack had 8 lures and four slots in his tackle box. How can he divide the lures and put them in the holes evenly." David looks at me and says this problem makes no sense. I ask why. Seems pretty cut and dry to me. He shakes his head. "No, if he puts more than one in each slot, he is gonna get a hook in his finger, Mom."

But to David, the toothfairy reasoning made sense.

Children are magic. Children are more magic than I can write. A child has an unlimited capacity for love and creation and they take in all that you give and give so much more in return than you could ever ask. I am so thankful for my kids.

I am thankful, also, that they are weird little ducks. Not many kids ask what mom is reading and then tell her, "That scene drags... could there be more blood?"

Huh... well, yeah. There could be more blood.

And they are right. And not many kids make coffee because their mom is chasing a dream and they like her stories enough that whether or not she makes a dime on them... they wanna know what happens next. And if she doesn't burn the dinner... they may never know. Also, not many kids remind you to feed them... or feed you. Because they state... "Well, you shouldn't have to do it every night."

Actually, I should.

But sometimes, not all the time because they are kids and they have an XBOX and other distractions, sometimes though they look at me and just do things like that. I guess I did something at some point that made them think that was how you were supposed to treat others. So I am proud I got that bit right. I am not sure how or when I did, but they got that. And picking their noses with their tongues, but I did not teach them that trick.

So I am grateful this Thanksgiving for the three greatest, funniest, most patient... even though they argue all the time and NO SHE IS NOT TOUCHING YOU kids in the world.. Justice, David and Ashton. I love you guys. I hope all your dreams come true and that your stories have happy endings...

I will continue to do my best to give you a happy today.

New Moon Review--Midnight Premiere

So the kids earned the midnight premiere of the sparkling vampires. I admit it. I liked the Twilight Saga. I read all the books... in reverse. If I had not read Breaking Dawn first, however, I would have gotten mad at Bella and never made it through. But I am not ten or twelve, my kids are, so their devotion is not tainted by adult perspective and frustration.

The movies, however, are twice the fun for me. Not only do I get to enjoy something I enjoyed in print on a big screen... I get to enjoy seeing my kids and seeing it through their less critical eyes.

Then again, at some points, they were more critical than I was.

All in all, the directors and actors and everyone involved did a truly fantastic job bringing Meyer's world to the big screen. I was laughing out loud at some lines. "Sure, when you put the dog out," quipped Alice and I was rolling. One of the werewolves fights had my daughter cringing, my son breathless and me grinning. Edward said quite charmingly at one point, "Bella, I will protect you from anything and everything..." In the background you hear Alice calling them. "Except my sister." I roared.

Other bits were disappointing. Victoria had zero lines. I could have sworn she had SOME. I love Victoria. Okay, I love Jane, too. I just love sparkly bloodsucking vampires. So much cooler than vegetarian vamps. Jane was awesome, by the way. But then again, as I have raised a beautiful little blond girl and realized a long time ago the true creepy potential in a blond sweet girl and always thought Dakota was missing her calling, I knew she was MADE for this role. She nailed it by the way.

Oh, and Aro? Yeah, creepy buggar. Other than the fact that his and Dakota's makeup looked a bit gooped on and with modern photoshopping I was sure we could have made them pale without using an inch of putty (couldn't we have?) he was wonderful. Three fave characters stayed the same as the book... Alice, Jasper and Jane with Victoria running a silent but red, banner of hair flowing third.

And my daughters one true love, JACOB?? Yes, my kid is a team Jacob. Actually, my whole brood are team Jacob (how did a vamper raise three shifter kids?) and he was great. Sharkboy has come a long way. I think he looks... A lot like little Carl. Really. And I mentioned that to Justice. She glared at me. Okay, that said, don't really get the tattoos other than great marketing idea, pretty and I still do not remember a darn thing in the book about shifter tats. Anybody? Tats?

*crickets*

Okay, that said, they were awesome looking and well done and those were really big MUFFINS. WTF. They were the size of Bella's HEAD. When you see the movie, watch for the werewolf muffins. Just saying.

Moving onward and upward, lovely cliffhanger ending to which I advised my kids they will have to READ ECLIPSE to find out what happens next *snark*

Actually, as it cuts off, I believe a ch or two into Moon, they may have to read a bit of that *chuckle*

But only if they want to know what happens next in a timely manner...
*Smiles sweetly*

Not that I planned that or anything when being a cool mom and bribing them with this movie... Nah. I am totally not that devious.

*Goes off to plot next 'way to get kids to read' plot*

The Monsoon season

If I were a body of land, I would liken myself to the Sahara. The Sahara is most famous for being a desert, dry and barren. I have three kids, so some of you may be lost already.

But let me explain some more about this interesting place. Let me also mention that my kids and I love things like Discovery Channel and Science Channel and I am a big dork who enjoys research, hence my literary choices and enjoyment of writing. Also, pictures are from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Many creatures depend on the Sahara for survival, some of them rare and unique and only found due to the distinct ecoregions that take place in this fasinating place. However, sometimes it rains. When it rains, it pours.

The rain is generally a good thing, bringing a spurt of life and water and refreshing the desert. But it pours.

It is pouring just now. After a few years of drought it is pouring. The water is washing over me and my unique inhabitants and we are blinking and wondering where all of this has been for the past eight or so years when we were so desperatly searching for water.

And now I am going to flip-flop analogys mid blog and go, where is Snuffleupagus? My imaginary friend, called this due to the of late nearly onesided nature and near invisibility of him, would be darned handy in a monsoon. Advice from Snuffy is not coming as Snuffy has chosen now, again, to go non-corporeal. *Shrugs* Why not? Perfect timing.

So I am standing mid-monsoon, blinking in the rain, thinking if I just wait it out, this too shall pass. This is an unusual storm. Usually if we just stand around doing nothing long enough, the rain passes on its own. Or if the Sahara pushes back, being such a big and overwhelming land mass, the rain moves along.

More rain keeps coming in offshore.

Blink. Blink. Blink.

Hmm.

Perhaps I should buy an umbrella.

When it rains...

My body and I have a love/hate relationship. I love it because it is conveniently attached to my brain which I love. <3 I hate it because it is an uncooperative lump that generally fails me when I most would like it to function properly.

Case in point: When in the USAF basic, having ones kneecap snap is bloody inconvenient.

Case in point: When one is closing on a dream house, losing time at work due to strokes is bloody inconvenient.

Case in point: When writing a book, editing another, working full time and having three exceptionally active kids, having it go wonky is bloody inconvenient.

Here it is, putzing out on me again. I have been plagued by gray dotted headaches and nausea for DAYS. I can hear doc pirate. Blah blah blah eat right. Blah blah blah lack of stress. He never says, "blah blah." He usually looks at me kindly and offers suggestions that probably are wise and would cause longevity and other frustrating things that I have little interest in. My brain hears them and automatically substitutes the 'blahs' when he says something I have neither the time nor the patience for.

Just now I am feeling impatient and snappish and have put the phone in the car as if I talk to anyone I would probably snark off their heads. As headless friends and family members are frowned on, phone gone.

My brain is still rattling along, cooperative as ever. As a matter of fact, it loooooves when my body goes into revolt. My page counts soar if I can stay propped up at the computer and see it clearly enough to type. The ideas are fantastic. I think of Van Gogh and his mental issues causing the pretty colors to be brighter and wonder... Hmm. Regardless, the story is fantastic. There is a scene I just wrote that involved a were robbing a drive thru and it was hilarious. Right on the outline money and going swimmingly.

Edits are going fantastic. No longer frustrated by them, instead viewing them as the educational experience they are meant to be, I am having a blast shredding Odd Stuff. Probably I am shredding more than planned. But having a blast doing so.

Now, the thing that is going to the wayside is my gainful employment as I am forced to call off due to partial inability to see straight out of one eye and nausea and all. Fun stuff. Normal me stuff, but still not terribly conducive to the whole, hop in the car and drive an hour then sit in my cubicle day. Tomorrow I am going back but for today I am annoyed that I am, yet again, missing out on whatever my day would have held, had I not fallen ill, and then fallen victim to my own bodies irksome inability to snap out of it.

*Flicks innocent computer screen in frustration*

So, that said and rant ranted, off to do some more NaNoWriMo or perhaps flesh out a bit more Odd Stuff before I get too poor me and try to do something else that my body will not like and will rebel against by shoving me into the bathroom to gaze at my now pristine facilities. I have been home so much, my house has never been so clean. Because, you know, even though I am off work, I cannot just sit around and do NOTHING. *gasp*

That would be, like, *shudders* wrong.

NaNo Nanoo... Am I the only one with the Mork Lines?

So, NaNoWriMo is going well. It will go better if I, well, write today. Since I still feel like a Mack truck has taken up residence between my ears, page count will be nominal, however... I will make every effort to go above goal because I am back into the interesting stuff, having rehashed all that needed rehashed. That is the one great flaw when writing a series. I have to write an interesting beginning, yes, while reintroducing all pertinent information just in case you have not read the prior stories. For me... rehash the entire series in a nutshell, reintroduce my characters in a fun way and feel like I am slogging through mud.

Having slogged through that primordial muck and now feeling like I have made it interesting enough that my new readers will not realize they have heard a recitation of prior books and introduced my plot line to them while at the same time introduced new readers to everything for the first time I can finally get down to telling everyone the story. Ah. We are all on the same hypothetical page. New story telling always writes easier for me. So, ill or not, I can now blast through pages. If I can blast through this icky, headachy, fevery, dry, chapped lipped feeling. I so hope this is not swine flu.

I have no symptoms other than I have a horrendous headache and feel as if I may have a fever and my lips are cracking. I want to crawl in a cave and die. The headache has caused the nausea, the nausea caused the dizziness and the dizziness caused the crabbiness.

Altogether, not the most creative combination.

Edits are going well. After initial frustration (how does it make her feel? She is a fly-by the seat of her pants kind of gal... she doesn't stop to think things through or else she wouldn't do fill-in-the-blank. How can I make her think things through here, then be oblivious to the fact she should be thinking them through here?) I realized I was over thinking it all and stepped back from the process and really looked at it. I then realized I was wrong and touchy and a moody author (No! Not me! Never a moody artistic type! I am an even tempered, calm... okay. No I am not.) and that the edits were right and I needed to shut up and get to work.

I got down to it and am half way done. I am so happy with my editor as she is brilliant. And deserving of a raise. If the editorial gods are listening to me, perhaps she will get one. And kind. She was not as harsh as she had to be when correcting one particular error repeatedly in my work. Probably after the tenth time, she had a burning need to find me and staple to my forehead a post-it advising me of one particular correction for future reference. As I have no post-it on my forehead... well, she is more patient than a certain author I know.

On the kid front, Justice has continued to survive the week and her love of a certian composer named boy has waned since speaking with his parent... who is actually pretty darn cool. Since David and he are friends, that is handy. The boys may get together.

Oh, and I may add one more pot to the ever increasing list of things I have going...

I may attempt a social life.

Cheese, wine and conversation. One would think I can handle that. Hmm.

Odd and Odder

I find that the more time passes, the more things I toss onto my plate. It is like this never ending buffet and I am just driven to try that one thing over there... it might be good so we will put just a little on the plate. And my plate gets heavier and heavier and I just add more onto it. Just one more tasty tidbit won't hurt.

Yeah.

*Chuckles*

So, aside from being a single mother of three kids working a full time job and juggling a home life and all of the normal things that a mom who has a full time job and three kids juggles (envision balls flopping and bouncing with wild abandon all over the place, few being caught by the juggler, who is left looking mildly confused)... and aside from the fact that said children all have a mix of ADD, ADHD or Aspergers which leave even the most normal and well adjusted parents looking confused and a bit frazzled (and everyone knows I am not going for medals in either of those categories)...

Well, aside from my normal *outright laughs* noble feats, I decided that my writing, which I do prolifically whether I was trying to publish it or not, was going to come out of the proverbial closet. So I became WRITER. And I began the exhaustive process of learning how one goes from dabbler to writer. Time and undisclosed rejection letters later and I have a contract and quite a few finished manuscripts laying about.

While contracted on the one book, I went ahead and wrote the second book to that series. Because, well, you know, I have so much extra time on my hands.

And an insane workaholic streak.

And a story digging its way out my eyeballs and fingertips.

That story done, I heard about something called NaNoWriMo. Funny name, that. National Novel Writing Month is where a bunch of people, myself included, all get the idea that they can write a 50,000 word novel in a month.

I signed on. It sounded like fun. And with book two done, book three was waiting to be written. November seemed like a great time to write it.

The thing I am not mentioning is that book one is still floating out there, contracted and in edits. This means that at any given point in time it is going to come back from edits and I will then be expected to edit it. As I have no personal assistant... that leaves me. But what are the chances it will come back if I agree to NaNoWriMo...

Odd Stuff's edits came back on day two of NaNoWriMo.

Hmmm. Well.

Right about this time, Justice decided to go insane.

Justice, my angel, the love of my life, my daughter, my princess... has flipped her bloody lid. She has decided in her infinite wisdom that she is no longer going to participate in school. In gym, she lets them beam her with balls in four square. In class, she puts her head on her desk. They are calling it "passive aggressive."

I am calling it brilliant. I mean, come on. At twelve, I had not figured out that although they can make you go to school, they really have no way to make you do anything while you are there.

And they call her retarded.

Yeah. She is not. She is brilliant. She is an evil genius. She is grounded for the rest of her life. She is back to participating (thank you, Stephanie Meyer and the producers of New Moon for timing the release of the movie with my daughters rebellion in mind so that I could use it as leverage) and is no longer "angry."

I am shaking my head and smiling at the school. No, I have no idea where she came up with the plan. *scratching my head wondering... do I? Have I somehow given her a rebellious spirit or a streak of antifoursquare behaviours? Not sure.*

So back to edits and the writing.

Odd Stuff took place... two books ago. I am editing it and at the same time writing the book two books later. One hour I am discussing something that happened a long time ago, then I am talking about "now."

It is sort of like running into someone you knew from college at work today. My worlds are colliding. I am running between them and trying not to influence the prior world with what I know now and at the same time trying to write the new world while not forgetting what has happened since that first book ended... remember a whole book place in between.

*Spins faster and faster like a top*

Sleepy.

So, that is why less blogs lately.

I hardly have had had time to write my name... sorry I have been late on this!