Fresh Year, Fresh Start

Last year, I spent most of my time concentrating on my health. It's not that I'm even remotely unhealthy; I've just been very conscious of my BMI and elevated triglycerides. I started 2008 with Tony Horton's Power 90 with fantastic results in the blood work department, but my already healthy frame didn't show any dramatic changes, which was fine. After Power 90, I moved on to P90X. Great workout, but I had a hard time forcing myself to carve out at least an hour everyday, and don't get me started on the hateful beast that is yoga.

Unfortunately, through all of my exercise and obsessing over nutrition labels, my writing fell by the wayside. I barely opened a Word file. I wrote perhaps thirty pages last year.

This year, will be my year of balance. I'm going back to school this month. I'm a general studies student now, but at this rate, I think I'll wind up as an English teacher in about ten years.

On January 1, I cracked open Tony Horton's 10-Minute Trainer. I'm sore as we speak, but it's a good pain. One that means my body is recovering from all the duff-sitting I've done for the last few months. I kid you not, I've gained ten pounds since I quit P90X. I think 10-Minute Trainer will be the right balance of Tony ass-kickery versus work and school scheduling. Now, if only I could figure out a way to make vegetables taste like brownies.

Yesterday, I curled up with my new HP Mini (the new love of my life, sorry hubby). I worked for a few hours in the morning, took a mid-afternoon nap, then hopped back on the keyboard until 12:30 last night. I managed to crank out 3,658 words. I just pray I won't turn around and declare them crap next week.

We shall see.

So, here's to the new year. May its fruits be as plentiful as its potential.

Balding

I'm pulling my hair out over this book. It's such a mess; I can barely bring myself to look at it. The more time I spend away from the limping, drooling, lobotomized, and beaten ugly-fest I call my book, the more I want to change it: adding in a trip to Earth, making bigger villains out of the gods the current deities banished, making grayer villains out of the mortals calling for the heroine's blood, and making grayer friends out of those she and I thought we could trust.

I've known that the blurring of lines between good and evil is a much needed necessity since I wrote 'The End' all the way back in November. The thought about a visit to Earth came about recently. It would add a transition between dimensions that opens up opportunities for ick to hit the fan. Unfortunately, I feel that it may add a major element of sci-fi where this is a fantasy story at heart.

I think I'm just going to have to start from scratch. AGAIN. But that's okay, each time through brings me closer to fully understanding my characters and lets me breathe more life into them. I just hope I have some hair left by the time we all come to an agreement.

NaNoWriMo

Well, since my blog has been revived. . . for now. I guess I should announce the completion of my first full draft of Blood & Crystals. I've been working on this story for about five years now, always getting just so far before scrapping my progress and starting over. Thanks to NaNoWriMo, I can finally settle into editing land. Okay, so it will be more like the abyss of editing hell, but at least it's editing.

I finished the draft at 9:07 AM on November 24th (Thanksgiving morning) with 63,403 words, and it is an unbelievable mess. I have loose ends flying around like an open barrel of monkeys in a clothes dryer. I need to sit down with some character sheets and further define my cast. I need to decide whether I'll leave the world as it is or alter it into the idea that has been tooling around my brain for the last week or so. Decisions, decisions. At least the story is on paper.

*does the gelatinous happy jig*

Tagged!

*blows dust off blog*

*nearly asphyxiates in the moldy cloud*

And this is why I almost never started a blog in the first place. I've never been much of a journal keeper. Whenever journals were assigned in school, I wouldn't touch them until the nights -- or classes -- before their due dates.

Anyhoo, Joely has taken the defibrillator to this site and tagged me.

1.) List five of your weirdest habits.

Hmm. . . Geeb, stop your snickering. I mean it. *evil monkey glare*

*First off, I don't eat processed meat. I don't care how lean it is, if flesh has been run through a grinder, it will not pass my lips. I attribute this to always being the only one at the table to find the hard thing in my hamburger. Talk about hitting the gag reflex. I also blame McDonald's chicken nuggets for the same reason. Now, if an animal has been tossed into a blender then handed to a kindergarten class with the instructions to mold it back into its original shape, I'm not eating it.

*This one may make some of you scream, "Too much information!" Hehehe. Anytime I go to the bathroom, I have to take off my wedding ring and sit it on the sink or bathtub edge. I just have this horrible feeling that if one of the prongs holding my sapphire in place is going to break, it will be my luck for it to happen over the toilet. That is the last place I want to go fishing for my rock.

*I can't read a book more than once. I can watch some movies time and time again, but when it comes to books, I guess I'm just not patient enough to sit through them twice. I don't care how much I love the story.

*If I spill salt, I can't resist throwing some of it over my shoulder. I feel like I have a demon crawling up my neck if I don't.

*I love listening to Ace of Base, that Swedish band that had two or three hits when I was in junior high. Some of the lyrics may be stupid or make no sense, but they're so much fun to belt in the shower.

*And as a bonus habit, the weirdest of them all: I hang out with Geeb. I know. I can't believe it either. *fruity giggle*

2.) Tag five.

O_o I don't know five bloggers that haven't been listed. Let's see what I can pull out of the air.

Prongs Rini
Becca Stareyes
dxgirly
Sisi
Koujis Wolf

Okay, so they're all livejournal folks. They probably don't even know I have this blog, but I do consider them friends, so the list is here for them to stumble across.

3.) Copy the list (and its links) below and post it with the TOP name/link removed and your blog/link added to the BOTTOM.

4.) Track back here to let me know you've done the dirty deed.

5.) Pass the whole schmeer on, including these lil guidelines.

I'm Just a Girl
third world county
Soliloquy -- Nancy Bond
Joely Sue Burkhart
Pesh's Nikra Wood

Mmm...fooood...

Ever since I became a housewife, sorry, domestic engineer (who comes up with this stuff?), I've felt like Donna Reed. I actually get off my butt a few times a week and run the vacuum, fold laundry, and find homes for our piles o' clutter-- I've even started doing dishes like an obsessed maniac. (Shut it, Geeb.) Heheh.

Yesterday, I found out just how bad I have the 50's housewife syndrome. I went to bed early on a Saturday night so I could get up at 7:00 AM to peel potatoes and carrots for a roast for five people. I also baked two dozen Texas-style rolls--frozen, but I brushed them with butter--and yes, that's fancy for me. I even baked cookies. Thank goodness, Geeb/Molly was there to help me fight the humidity that kept caramelizing the dough.

So now I'm sitting here, my muscles still burning from my morning Pilate's, eating chocolate chip cookies and milk, and wishing Grandma still made dinner once a week like she used to.

That woman puts Betty Crocker to shame. Her chicken and noodles could start a duel to the death for the last bowl. Her bran muffins are exquisite fresh from the oven with butter and jelly or honey, and they're excellent after a stop in the microwave and devoured without toppings. Her scrambled eggs are always fluffy, and practically vanish from the table. Her fried chicken makes any heart-blockage well worth it, and the mashed potatoes and gravy she makes to go with it...I can't even begin to describe.

I miss the 50's housewife--the woman who broke her back everyday with a smile to make home a place to be longed for after it is gone. Childhood antics and those precious few memories that are never forgotten are wondrous things, but women like my grandmother created a backdrop for those memories that warms the soul like none other.

I need another cookie.

Denied!

Well, I heard back from my first ever submission.

"Dear Betsy:

Thank you for submitting "Misguided" to ---- ----- -----. However, your story--while it has many merits--doesn't quite fit what we are seeking to include in the ---- ----- --- anthology. Your story is too blatantly moralistic.

May you have success in placing your work elsewhere.

Best regards,

Et cetera..."

I don't think I could ask for a better first rejection. It wasn't what he was looking for, but it seems to cast a vote of confidence in that someone else will want it.

I can live with that.

Umm...

*crickets chirping*

...

...

I knew I wouldn't be able to think of anything witty to slap up here. Heh.

I guess an introduction is in order. I write. I'd say I'm a "writer" except I've yet to land a paycheck. (I'm hoping this is because I've only ever submitted one thing to an editor and have yet to hear back from him.)

This blog will be my little hole in the web for me to rant and rave about blocks, characters revolting, plots twisting around my neck and squeezing, and all the other joys that come with trying to write a novel.

So, yeah, I guess that's an intro, and I guess that'll do for today.