Merry Christmas!

And another one, because the only thing better than Casting Crowns singing is Casting Crowns singing an old favorite.

My House: A Reality TV Sandwich - Part Two

My next-door neighbor/cousin-in-law will be on TV tonight at 9pm Eastern.

http://abc.go.com/specials/rediscovered/index

Check your local listings.

Retooning the Nativity

Our Children's Pastor showed this to the kids last night.

Who knew?

What Can I Say?

Opps.

Does it count that when I first named my two main characters they were Alexia and Lukas? Lexy as a nickname came later.

Learn From Me

Keep only one master copy of your WIP on your hard drive.

When you get requests for partials and fulls, go to that copy and save the first three chapters, fifty or seventy-five pages. Bad, bad idea to create separate files with the WIP already split into three chapters, fifty, and seventy-five pages.

Know why?

Because you’ll be in your master copy and you’ll find a little typo. Let’s say you used the word “vice” instead of “vise.” So you correct the little typo, but you’ll forget to update your three other files (trust me, you will forget) and when Super Agent asks for your first fifty pages, you won’t be thinking straight and you’ll send them the file with “vice.”

Then you’ll be sitting at your computer the next day thinking to yourself, “I know I did not just send in a partial with that ridiculous typo.” And you’ll be so freaked out you’ll be afraid to look.

And it goes without saying that you back up your WIP everyday on a disk or thumb drive. ‘Cause the only thing worse than sending Super Agent a partial with a typo is your system crashing and not being able to send anything.

Feels Like Christmas

I know, I know. I’m silent for two weeks and then I post twice in one day. I’m as shocked as you are.

Recently, my sister gave me a late birthday present – a gift card to Barnes and Noble. I spent hours searching the website trying to decide what books I wanted (no B&N within a short driving distance).

I finally decided and today UPS delivered a big ‘ole box of books to me. I’m so excited I don’t know what to read first.

Hummm....

I think I’ll start with Carol A. Spradling’s COST OF FREEDOM.

Where I've Been

I’ve been lurking around, I promise. Life has just been a bit busy lately. And I know it’s that way with everyone.

A local women’s magazine has asked me to write a short story for them. I’ve been working on that and trying to get the first few parts settled. My deadline for part one is December 15th and I’m slowly, but surely getting there.

My big goal for 2008 was to query PRINCESS. And I’ve been spending a lot of my writing time polishing up the manuscript. And on the off times I’ve been dabbling in PEASANT. Okay, that’s a bold face lie, I haven’t had any off times.

I promise I’ve been around. I’m active on M:A and I’ve been reading all my favorite blogs on Google Reader. I still lurk over on the Forum, even though I’m way behind on responding to posts on my query and commenting on the others who have posted.

But if you really want to know where I’ve been, I’ve been refreshing my inbox EVERY THIRTY SECONDS.

So I’m here, I’m alive, and here’s hoping I’ll be back more regularly soon.