In with the New

I'm not ending this year's blog with the sad story of my youngest child's burn. Suffice it to say, it may be apro pos for how the rest of the year went, but you know what??



NEXT YEAR IS GOING TO ROCK!



I have my executed contract for Ulfric's Mate, already rolling on the promotion thing. Have finished over half the numbers on my "preedit" list from my editor. Will be going to Seatlle with son to burn unit, and I'm going to take advantage of my MILs navagation to go to a bookstore and get my Chicago Manual of Style so I can do the all important part~it's number one on the list LOL



I'm currently reading it out loud as instructed in my email from my awesome editor. It's SLOW GOING. Not exactly reading material for my kids lol Which reminds me, this is NOT for kids :D Someone asked me if it was good for their 13 yo. My answer was (and is) a definitive no. It's adult only. I'll be doing a huge post, probably with lots of CAPS like next week or the week after. In the mean time, here's some facts:



I'm being published (YAY!) by Breathless Press. It's a paranormal romance over 55k and rising as I'm finding stuff while reading it out loud LOL, it's my first time working with a professional editor, I'm nervous AND EXCITED, and it's due out this summer. More on that later :)



Thanks to all my writer friends, edittorent blog and its erstwhile editors, and my MIL and very specific friends who encouraged me. I did this one with very little outside opinion, only my CP got to weigh in. I did this rewrite with all the knowledge I'd learned and tried to stay true to my voice. I'm so very glad it worked. LOL



Have a good, safe, holiday, whether you celebrate or not. This year is going to be a good one. I feel it.

shall we try this again?

I had a lovely post written on Thursday. Beautiful, word perfect, and it's lost! Well I exaggerate. It wasn't word perfect, but it was from the heart. Those are usually my best ones. But sigh. It is gone to never-never-was land. And that night? I ended up taking a ride with my 3yo in an ambulance, over the pass, to the burn unit in Seattle. (I live in central/eastern Washington) Was not the best night of my life.

I was making homemade Ravioli's, I had pot of sauce on one burner, boiling water on the other. I turned to get the freshly filled ravioli's and felt this heat hit my legs about the same time my kid screamed. I picked him up, took off his shirt, calling for my 10yo to turn on the cold water in the tub as I wiped the marinara sauce of my kids face. I splashed water into his eyes and got all the sauce off and splashed water into his eyes and everywhere on his burns, until his shivering was as harsh as his screams. My poor 7 yo was crying because of the 3yo's pain. it was heart breaking. I did not have a phone. I finally was able to load FB chat & saw my husband was on way home, so I contacted my MIL & told her Nate would probably be bringing the older boys by.

Turned out she came to hospital, and their aunt came & took the boys to grandpa. Anyways,  the ER doc at the burn center said my quick action in taking off the sauce covered shirt saved his chest from getting burns, and possibly the eye as I flushed it so well, and had him underwater immediately. I'm glad because I still cannot believe he got that serving spoon. It was about six inches above his known reachability. I mean, he can figure out how to make things fall off shelves, but I've never seen him get anything that high without climbing. He's VERY short/small for his age. Part of the Down Syndrome. I'm still going over in my head how he got there so fast. When I turned, he'd been in the kitchen doorway.

Mostly, I'm relieved he didn't burn his hands!! I still can't believe how that happened! but the main glob landed on his forehead. It was a harrowing night, but the burn center let us go home the next day. Both my husband and I have been EMTs and neither one of us had any problems with wound care.

And once again, Breathless Press proved to be my silverlining while waiting. I found the contract in my email in the morning when we'd finally settled into a room, about 4 am. So grateful to them. It helped to have something to read when my mind didn't want to settle.

So, YAY!!  I have a contract! and I'll be getting my phones soon! Hope your holidays went well! Isaac's healing nicely. And we're all relieved.

Mostly I'm

Happy Christmas!!

So, how have you all been these past few weeks? I've been up and down. But last night about this time I was screaming for joy :D I had a small press offer me a contract on a submission I'd sent them. For those who follow my blog, this is the story that was originally 12k+ that I had turned in. I got a detailed rejection that I understood to mean, fix and resend (probably cuz that's pretty much what it said! ;) and so I got to work.

The notice came at the tail end of my daughter's brain surgery recovery, and I had to put it off a bit. But I was able to finish the rough draft by mid June (looking at my blogs/FB messages) sent it off to critique partner, who got it back to me about a week after I got a job. Figures, right?

Anyway, I finished it up, finally, adding a few scenes, etc., ending up over 55k+ on the word count before sending it off. Well, they liked the changes and I'm now dizzy with relief and excitement. I'd been going through one of those writing funks that makes me doubt, for a moment, my ability to write. It lasted for a week. One of my longest ever! Needless to say, the offer brought me straight out of it :D

I'm ready to tackle the other half of my Fantasy story for Splintered lands, or maybe write up a couple shorts, or maybe all of the above :) Have to get it done! lol I know I can do it, and my belief in myself is back, which is what I need to get things accomplished in a timely manner!

Happy Christmas to me! lol And to all of you, may everyone have a dream come true!

Bad News Good News

So this is kind of a good news bad news kind of post. Bad news, I've been laid off, good news more time for writing. Bad new, I've had stress related pain that presented like heart attack and spiked my blood pressure to 182/96. Good news, I've been laid off stressful job.

Bad news, I got edits back from beta and verbal slap about other books out. Good news he still wants to read it again when finished. Bad news, I pulled most of my books out of the selling market. Good news, they'll be back :) minor fixes, formatting, etc. But I'll wait until after the holiday. Bad news, I quite writing everyday during Nano cuz of stuff that came up. Good news, I did so much writing early on still finished with over 52k :)

Bad news, I haven't painted in two weeks. Good news, finished the last painting commission and it's at it's new home. Bad news, 10yo severe sass negative sarcasm session at parent (me) last night. Good news, I get extra chores done for next two weeks :)

Now that I've been laid off officially and am abel to go back to focusing on my writing and other arts, I'll be posting more again (I hope) as I won't have to choose between writing and blog time.And I'll hopefully be able to look at my writing with fresh eyes.

How've you all been while I've been roller coasting around with work, art, and writing??