Editing is for May :)

So, I had to get a WP ID in order to make the stats function on my website work. Instead of just getting an ID I got a blog so I could follow some of the WP peeps I've been wanting to follow and can't through google feed anymore. Well, I was unable to. But, I have the blog, it's the same addy as this one, but instead of blogspot.com it's wordpress.com and I'll be doing duplicate blogs on both. I really dislike WordPress, but since Blogger changed, I really dislike it as well. So might as well join up, eh?

I'm very excited about all that's happening in my writer life. I'm feeling so much better after rereading a couple of books. One thing, I'm waiting for editor friend of mine to post her head hopping versus omniscient POV post then I'm going to link the shit crap out of it.

I get frustrated when I see head hopping comments because sometimes, I KNOW it's an omniscient POV book. That makes it hard as a writer. It's like the passive voice thing. Yeah, we want to avoid 'was' but 'was' is not passive verb in a lot of cases. It's context you have to look at for passive voice. Same with omniscient and head hopping. just cuz you can see more than one person's thoughts, doesn't mean they're head hopping. They're telling a full story!

Grrr. I keep running into that as I'm writing cuz of my own omniscient one I'm editing right now. I started trying to fix the back and forth when I realized I'd sent it to an editor and head hopping was not an issue, ie it is omniscient. So, at least until I finish this, I'm going to be angry about all the head hopping comments/blogs etc that I read that made it hard for me to remember the difference between that and omniscient.  A lot of well off, bestseller writers, write omniscient. (Kay Hooper for example)

Also, did I mention that my "secret" project was accepted J It's a short, partially inspired by my friend Branli on twitter and a drunken night w/ him and his friend Jon, via twitter! I love my twitter friends!! They really do inspire me more than many people can understand.

On the mother front, had a wonderful time watching my son at baseball practice last night, even if it was across a soccer field. He's improved so much! That was only his fourth practice and he's hitting it really far!! Like to the fences J Now if I could get him to work on his school work as hard…

Edward had a blast walking all over with his dad while they went camping J So I think both boys had a good time the last couple of days. Makes it harder to get them moving on to school though. That's what's happening right now. They've done home ec (a lesson on making tomato soup out of paste and how to whip butter) and had grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch. But now comes the boring work…

Isaac is on a terror this AM. He's getting into EVERYTHING so I think he and I will have to do a round of Old McDonald's Farm and work on his animal recognition. Wish me luck as this is a new song I introduced to him during baseball practice last night.

I have felt icky when waking up these last few mornings, but I still ran on Monday with the boys (they did 1.1, I did 2.0)  and today. I'm so glad I went today. I did a personal best of 2.5 miles!! I'm so excited. When I started the couch to 5k (approx 3 miles) I didn't even think I could run a mile, but I did 1.2 miles the first day! Now, I'm consistently 2 or over, so I don't think that going for 5 miles by end of summer is out of the question. I've lost weight, although I have no idea how much, and inches. I know it's inches cuz I can't wear some clothes without them falling off. It was rather distracting this morning, trying to hold my britches up. :P

Yesterday, I had a very productive day on the writing front, editing the short story that's out on Smashwords, then getting it out on kindle with the grammar issues fixed. I also edited 70 pages on another story I'm getting ready for submission. I'm trying to get all these loose ends done so I can concentrate on my novel for Splintered Lands. May do the NaNoWriMo camp in June. That'll help me focus on words again. Anyways, with all I've learned editing The Ulfric's Mate, and Barely There, I've been on a major editing kick. Works great if you have things to edit like I do, but makes it hard for word count as my internal editor is a lot harder to turn off.

I have lots to edit, so I'm kind of making May my edit month here. I'll rerelease Cerisa's Quest (Fantasy) and The Winds of Fire (militaristic romance thriller) by end of June, I think. Hoping to have Cerisa's Quest in next two weeks. It needs the least amount of work. I'm going to go through The Winds of Fire. I'd intended on it being omniscient limited and someone said I was head hopping, so I changed things. Now have to do a little more research into the limited aspect and reread a really good blog, then edit it how I'd intended it to be. Have to find that blog first :P LOL So off to work I go! Hi ho, hi ho…

Explain

Some of you who follow me on twitter may have noticed that I've put out more buy from me type tweets. Well, that's because I now have two jobs (besides being a mother and wife, I mean) of being a writer and an artist. I'm not making a lot of money on my art, but the 10-20 dollars for my ACEOs and other small products have sure come in handy. So, it's a job. And besides the job, I have this dream of being a writer. A paid writer :) So, that's what I'm doing. I'm putting out a bunch of my books that I've been writing over the last few years (mostly the ones written/finished in the last year) some shorts and some full length and choosing the ones I want to go to agents/publishers. The "special" ones that I think will hit the mass market in a favorable way. Most of my other writing is niche writing, and those I will do ebook versions of so people within that niche can buy.

As for my art, I'm trying to get commissions and sale my artwork. I can't afford to go to work. That may sound funny but lets look at the costs...

1) I homeschool. Some might say, well you can put your kids back in school. I could, but let's look at the stats. Why did I start homeschool in the first place? My son was having asthma attacks 3-5 days a week, with his brother following a close second. He was also throwing up 3-5 days a week because he was so stressed out about school. He was 9 yo old at the time. If I'm working, I'd have to call in to work in order to stay home and give my son his treatments except on days my husband has off. How long would I keep my job?

2) I have a 2yo. So would need daycare. As most daycares won't take a kid and let you pay for only 3 days a week, I'd have to pay for five days a week. For children with no special needs daycare is 500+ a month. For special needs children, which my son is since he has Down Syndrome, that starts at 700+ a month.

3) We only have one vehicle. Add in the extra cost to gas for the extra trips and money given to others if they pick us up (we live five miles from nowhere. Seriously.) wear and tear on tires, etc.

4) extra clothes. The jobs I'm most qualified for and MIGHT pay me enough to cover the costs of 2&3 would require a whole new wardrobe as I have no clothes that would work. And once I have a wardrobe, there's the upkeep, nylons, shoes, dry cleaning, etc.

5) And my Down Syndrom son, who is high functioning, largely due to the fact that his family treats him as we would any other family member, would lose out. My homeschooling has helped him more than expected.

Even going to school, I've had to take these things into account. I have night class, with only one day class (one hour) and can get help for that hour. I'll be home for kids and still able to get husband from work. And my paint stained jeans are just fine for classes. But I had to choose my classes with all the aforementioned problems in mind. W/o financial aid to help with the gas, I couldn't do it. So, please forgive me if it seems like I'm spamming your timeline...I'm tyring not to! :D But also keep me in mind when looking to purchase artsy products!

PS blogger being a booger again to me. I cannot get it to work whenever I want it to!

Here Come Summer

MY muse and my mojo are back, but I'm stunting my way through the word count. It's there, but just under 1k the days I write. Sundays have turned into semi forced days off...but that's okay. AS I've said previously, you have to take time off or your body will do it for you.

I started to do a new blog Sat, Sun, Mon and it didn't happen for a variety of reasons. So this morning I woke up and said I'm going to Borders to get some time in. I'm drinking a Mint Chocolate Javakula and eating a browning. *pauses while jealousy infuses your mind*

My house is superbly rearranged and we may have solved an issue with our woodstove. Now just need to figure out where to keep it for the summer. I love the way the house is arranged with it out of the house though. We'll see what happens there. I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the future, which has been a rare commodity of late. I had a commission for artwork, bookmarks sold, and someone else who's thinking of commissioning artwork. I have writing that's wanted, a check, albeit a small one, coming sometime in the future for a short in an anthology, and another small one coming in the fall for another contribution to an anthology. Small things but it all helps me to feel good about myself.

I'm about at 22k on the sort that used to be 12,600 so I'm getting somewhere with my little bits, but want to go faster. Tomorrow, if it's not windy, I'm going to be burning and weeding, but as of Thursday, I think I need to have another NANO :D With the way the house is gettting organized, it might even be possible. Just the thought of doing that makes me feel good :D

So I think I'll call up my partner and start up another writing thing for the two of us since the last one was short circuited by life. My kids have been given their instructions for summer school. Because of my daughters stuff, we got a little behind (not too far as I'm not afraid to make them work later or on weekends when emergencies happen) so I've given them their insturctions for what they have to get done if they want a month off for the summer. Yep, I'm mean. Only giving them a month off... partly because of the family upset that happened. Plus, their are more ways of teaching than sitting in a classroom and they're more fun in the summer :D

I'm working with the boys on art but my older one wants something different, so Nate's teaching him beading techniques (which I know enough of to backhim up) and I'm going to work with both of them on design and compostition. Shhhhh....they don't know that's part of the schooling :D I told them we could set up a lemonade stand at the end of our drive and they can sell their art stuff as well. Course this is happening on their month "off" lol I know, devious I am, but it's a lot easier to get their cooperation and a lot more fun for them if they don't know it's happening as part of school.

Also, I'm going to be starting a medeival section for the boys. Think it'll roll right into the next school year. We can do everything from music (which I need to bone up on) to sewing, history, geography, politics, and for breaks? Math by way of monolpoly...

Anyway, my summer looks to be full and exciting. With the school stuff, writing and hopefully camping/day trips to mountains, I plan on giving my boys a fun summer, even if they learn something along the way. Hope you all have summer plans that work for you.

BTW, I plan on blogging all through the summer as well. So if you need some company because it seems everyone and their brother is off on wonderful momnth long summer trips, come see me and we can have our own fun together :D

Wednesday

Wednesday is here :) I took yesterday off. I snuck in a little tiny bit of writing but, not any word count to speak of. I'm back at it today.

Well, working around Homeschooling schedule. Homeschooling is looking to be a bigger pain to get started. Flipping bureaucratic BS. I can't wait until it's finished. In the meantime, kids are truant. My kids are so stressed at school, they have asthma attacks nearly every morning and my 9 yo was throwing up nearly every morning. So they missed 1-3 days every week. It's not a viable option to try and keep them at the school until all the BS paperwork is finished. So lots of issues there.

But good news is my kids have quite having asthma attacks (not a single one since Jan 10th when I told them I'd homeschool. And the only time my 9 yo has thrown up was while taking medicine with a fever. Yeah. NO. My kids aren't going back. That is way off the scale to be coincidence. In the meantime, I get to fight the damn system and do my own stuff working from where their teachers left off.

As to my writing, I'm actually getting more sleep, the editing process whisked out and I sent the previously mentioned Manuscript to beta readers, male and female, and am rocking through the new one.

My boys have to start each day journaling. Three days writing, one day drawing. It's been very cool. My 9 yo has decided he wants to write a story and asked for more writing time :) I like to think it's my good influence!

My writing and creativity is flowing and I can't wait to write again whenever I'm away from the computer. I was at a friend's house and had to bite my tongue more than once not to beg him to download dropbox so I could work on it :)

Hope your mid-week is going better than #zombiesurvivalcrew member @RCMurphy's is... If you know her, go give her hugs...

Off to do more supervising :)