Season of Giving

Today feels like a Friday. Most likely because my oldest is out of school today, and my nephews are here to spend the night. Hubby will be getting off work early and will head home to help get the house ready for our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow.

This is my favorite time of year for many reasons. It always begins with the start of school to occupy the kiddos and college football. My Sooners are having a really bad, injury plagued year. I know we can't win them all, but this hasn't been a fun year to watch. The excitement continues on though with most of our family birthdays leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This year we will spend the first part of Thanksgiving day at my aunt's house with her family. Then we'll head home to have our own celebration with my brother and his kids. I have NEVER EVER wanted to torture myself with Black Friday and it wouldn't even be an option this year.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and good thoughts. I'm feeling much better and getting around pretty well. The rash on my face is still visible but just looks as if my face is a little flushed. The Rheumatologist has diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia and is testing for an underlying illness. While he believes that I have arthritis, he's feeling optimistic that it's not Rheumatoid Arthritis. I have an appointment today at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation for more tests for the Lupus.

Even if I wasn't dealing with illness, I have so much to be thankful for. My family is a huge source of comfort for me. My boys are well behaved and have become protective of me. My husband hates to leave me to go to work, and is willing to get up at 4am every morning and work his patootie off for us. They will be leaving next week to start the next tank in California, but we are so fortunate that he even has a job in this economy. My mother has had a few episodes with her health problems from battling cancer, but she is celebrating another year cancer free.

Yes, God has truly blessed us. We have a warm, safe home with a table full of good food. We were fortunate enough to buy food for three other families to make sure they are able to have the same meal we're having with leftovers to enjoy for another week. We will even prepare the meal for one of the families because she admitted to not knowing how to cook. Of course I'll have a plate ready for our homeless alley guy, Gary. He'll eat well this week for sure. Things are tough right now for so many families. I can only hope that we spread some of our good fortune as far as possible and it makes a difference somehow.

As for my writing? I'm trying to decide which story I'll submit to my chapter's contest for the members. I'm thinking it'll be my contemporary category romance, but lately I've been working a little on my historical. I have a couple of weeks to decide.

In the meantime...I hope you guys have a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Silence...

Awwww...the house is so quiet. Except for the dog's collar jingling when she scratches at those pesky fleas. Man. We have four dogs and having a really hard time getting rid of the fleas this year. We've never had a problem like this. We usually bathe the 3 little dogs in our utility sink and the lab mix outside. But Mom decided to graciously offer to take Possum to the groomer since I'm having health problems. Well...she came home with fleas. Not my Mom. Possum. ;)

Hubby started back to work after having his five day break, and man-child is headed off to school. Little man is still zonked out, snoring quietly. Isn't it amazing how peaceful and sweet they look when they're asleep? LOL. Give him another hour and we'll be dealing with breakfast and getting his schoolwork started.

Until then...I'll work on a beta read for a friend. As soon as we finish little man's homework, hopefully I can work on my chapter. Is everyone enjoying the change in the weather? Are the leaves beautiful where you live?

Have a productive day and happy writing!

Happy NaNo!

I know, I know. I'm a little late. NaNoWriMo officially began on November 1. I signed up, but my WIP is my first manuscript that I wrote during NaNo in 2007 and needs a complete rewrite. I have a chapter and a half revised and will use suggestions I received back from judges in the FAB contest to tweak a few issues before I move on. I found out that I came within 3 points of being a finalist. I had thought seriously that it was time to put this ms away for good...methinks it just earned itself another chance. Anyone else participating? What are you working on?

You guys would be proud of me...I've been able to get up and around the last two days and got out of the house. Hubby took me to dinner last night and I was actually brave enough to go grocery shopping with Mom at Walmart. Thank you so much for your encouragement, love, and support. I'm still hurting but can at least get out of bed and my recliner by myself. I absolutely HATE feeling so independent. I gave in last Thursday and went to the hospital. They gave me something to help ease my symptoms until my appointment on the 20th with the specialist. I've been a good girl and increased my daily water intake and decreased the amount of crap I usually inhale. As soon as the pain in my hips and back ease up, I'll slowly start exercising to a yoga DVD I have. We've decided to sell the building so the hot tub is on hold until we move. I checked with a gym I used to go to and they have water aerobics I can try.

Well...little man did better with his new glasses than we thought he would. The frames lasted a whole month before he found a way to break them. LOL. I talked with the doc office today and they may be under warranty. *sigh* It didn't come as a surprise but it's amazing how well behaved he has become with the loss of television and video games. So much so that we've decided this is a great time to set a higher limit. I take full credit for allowing him to pretty much have no limits. As long as he got his homeschool work finished, he was allowed to watch or play unlimited. Bad Mommy. He hasn't argued or given me a hard time the last two days so it has given me the incentive to set higher limits. We had fun today and started preparing our materials for planned Thanksgiving crafts. Hopefully we'll get dinner and shower over early tonight and keep the newly scheduled bedtime. If I can be strong and committed...I should have plenty of writing time tonight. Yay me.

Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend!!

Adversity

Well...hopefully all of you made it through Monday without a scratch. My day turned out to be pretty ok. Little man had Taekwondo practice and as much as I hated to drag myself out of my pj's, he needed the exercise and kiddo interaction. Hubby finally sold our extra 5th wheel hitch which means I'll get the charm necklace that I've been drooling over for my birthday. Yay me!! I'll have to take pictures and post on Thursday. And I actually cooked dinner last night. The boys were kind enough to let me know I'd slacked off lately and they were due for a homecooked meal. I made ranch style fried chicken, cheddar-garlic mashed potatoes with fresh parsley, and a salad. I'm sure I could've been more creative with the veggies but that's another story.

Several of you mentioned struggling with your chosen path. That was the reason for my post. I think we're all faced at some point, or on a regular basis, with doubts or roadblocks. While my first instinct and reaction is to pray, I eventually have to make a decision to move on. The reason I'm so nostaligic recently is because I've been faced with some difficult choices and my path is changing because of possible roadblocks.

I've openly shared with you guys my passion to bulldoze forward with our family dream to own a restaurant. We've started and stopped in the past for various reasons but I really thought this was the time to move forward. I've put alot of time and energy lately into the business planning and building a solid foundation so we wouldn't be faced with problems later down the line. The website for my bath & body shop is ready for product pictures and descriptions. I've been so busy that I've had to put my publishing dreams on hold.

Until now. I think the decision has been made for me. I finally have a name for my health issues. Recently my body has been telling me to slow down and I prayed that I could find the strength to keep pushing and would slow down once we could hire people to step in and help. Wrong. My lab tests came back positive and the diagnosis is Rheumatoid Arthritis. I have an appointment with a specialist to begin my treatment plan to stop the progression, but my doctor believes I also have Lupus with possible lung and kidney involvement. Which really sucks because I'll have to start taking pills on a daily basis.

My doc says that RA and Lupus affects everyone differently but because of my symptoms and apparent progression, I need to forget the restaurant plans. He believes that once they begin the treatment I'll have some pain relief, but the stress and physical demands of owning a restaurant will be too much. They'll send me to occupational/physical therapy to help with the pain in my joints and muscles. My son's Taekwondo instructor says he'll add Yoga and Tai-Chi to his classes and that will help with my fatigue. And we'll have an excuse to get a hot tub. Darn it. ;)

Chosen path? What about roadblocks? Methinks my writing has sabotaged the restaurant. It looks as if my writing will take center stage again. I'll deal with rejections and editing just like I have in the past. If it doesn't work...find a way to fix it or move on. God answers prayers in mysterious ways. ;)

Chosen Path

Good Monday morning! I hope ya'll had a spectactular weekend...or at least didn't hurt yourselves?! ;) I began my Monday morning with a sick teen man/child and a dog who couldn't wait to be let out. *sigh* Lovely. I want to be grouchy, but I just read a post from one of my blog friends and feel uplifted for some odd reason.

Have you ever wondered how some people manage to work through adversity? Whether you're working full-time outside of the home and go home exhausted only to start your second job as mom in charge, or you're a stay-at-home mom trying to find time to write between children wanting, fighting or whining. I'm a stay-at-home mom and I don't know how I ever worked two jobs as a single parent. You just do it. You could have 10 children or none at all. You may have a simple cold or life altering disease. Maybe it is/was a rejection on a manuscript you absolutely feel is a best-seller. We all have our conflicts, internal and external roadblocks.

Isn't that what we torture our characters with? It's our job to create substantial conflict to sustain it through to the end. Have you had a professional, a reader or crit partner question the character's motive or strength of conflict? What may be enough to some, may not be worthy to another.

You may not even be a writer, but I think most of us have a chosen path. It may change tomorrow for whatever reason, choices come with consequences. Good or bad. I think it's all about how we roll with the punches. Good or bad. Is it fate or a higher power that changes the path for us or helps us keep our feet planted firmly along the journey? Have faith and confidence in your choices. Have faith in your path and it'll shine through to those chosen to be a part of that path.

Self-Publishing

One of my crit partners posted an interesting link the other day and I thought I'd run it past you guys. I've never known anyone who went the self-publishing route, that I know of anyways, and I hadn't really looked in to it. It is definitely a dream of mine to be published, but not if I have to fork out the money to do it.

Author J.A. (Joe) Konrath has an interesting blog that I check out often. When I followed the link my crit partner posted, I wasn't surprised to see where it took me. I found this particular post interesting because I hadn't heard about self-publishing directly through Kindle or any of the digital readers. It's something I'd like to check into further to see if there are any hidden snags we should be aware of. One thing I wonder about is if there is a contract involved that would tie up my rights in case I get an offer through a print publisher. The only cost involved seems to be for the cover art. You'd have to be serious about marketing yourself and getting your name out there, but I believe it could be something worth considering.

See what ya think...

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

AHA!!

I came across a post on one of my favorite blogs that I have to share. I've talked before about layering character emotions but I had an "aha" moment after reading this post...

Method to the madness - How Acting Can Make You a Better Writer

I've mentioned before that I'm a huge Bob Mayer fan and love to visit the Warriorwriter's Blog to see what industry tips I can pick up that might help me on my writing journey to pubbed land. Warriorwarrior's Blog is a publishing industry blog presenting the main principles from NY TIMES Best-Selling Author Bob Mayer's, "Who Dares Wins: Special Operations Tactics for Success." The contributing author of the blog is professional editor Kristen Lamb.

As I read the blog post, I began to think about the western historical I've been working on. I've been stuck on the plot and the internal conflict for my hero. So I came at it from a different angle. I usually interview my characters but this time I tried to look at it strictly from his POV. But it still seemed lacking something for me. I think I'll go ahead and interview him and then try the role play. I'll put myself in the hero POV in a scene instead of working from the dialogue reactions.

Hope ya'll have a great weekend! My Sooners are playing Texas. BOOMER SOONERS!!