Where does the time go?

Not only has it been two months (ok, 2 days shy...) since I've posted on here, but it's already almost the SEVENTH month of 2009!! I can't believe how quickly time has FLOWN.

I still have a gazillion things to do before winter hits. Namely, finish the Christmas stockings, teach Austin to ride a bike, work my ass off in school so I only have 3 classes left by the time 2010 starts, lose some weight, and get a job. That's a lot of big things, and I can't do a lot of the little things on my list until some of the bigger ones are taken care of. So, I guess I'd better get crackin'.

A couple other MUCHO IMPORTANTE things to add to my list: finish the 2nd draft/total revision of IE!!!! Finish the first draft of Vaampyr/A&G. Finish the first draft of Sawyer (untitled works tend to take on the heroine's name, in this case, Sawyer Jackson, Ph.D.).

Speaking of Sawyer, SuNoMriMos is not going too well. School is CraZy and I only have about 6K done so far; my goal is 60K by July 31. This could get ugly. Luckily, finals are tomorrow (woot!) so I will have almost 3 whole weeks of peace, where I'll only have one online class to deal with. I plan on getting LOTS of writing done, LOTS of working out in, and even working on my Christmas stockings ☺ Then, July 20, I'm going to be in class M-F from 1:30-5:45pm. Could be worse, but 4 hours a day sucks big-time. Oh, well. I'll get the class over with and be ready to apply for graduation!!

In other news.... no, that's about it. Life is dull. I'm watching my high school classmates post pictures from around the world, where they're living the single life or having a blast with their spouses, many of them having children, most of them loving their jobs (or at least having one)... and I feel left out. Gotta get on that, but not quite sure how. My bro is in jail, so I haven't been able to see Lillie in a while, which makes me SOOOOOO sad. I miss her so much :( She's getting huge, walking, and her hair is so curly it makes me want to just play with it all day. Hopefully I'll get to spend more time with her soon. That alone would make up for the left-out-edness.

That's it. Life is boring. Not much to say. If I get around to it, I may post an excerpt or two from my revisions. That could be fun.

Stupid Computers!

So I just wrote a post to check in real quick... then there was an error and it wouldn't take. Now I have to write it all over again. In a nutshell, here it was:

There are 8 writing days left until the end of NaNo, and I'm 4 days behind schedule. Blame it on cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family, sans Lillie and her mom and dad, last night, and the two days of preparation for it. The dinner went well, although the stupid turkey took over 4 hours to cook when it usually only takes about 2-3, so it wasn't done til everything else was eaten. But I made a kick-ass pumpkin cheesecake. Mmmm....

As far as my book goes, it's coming along. I just haven't had time to sit and write cuz I've been cooking and cleaning and running errands. I've gotten about 50 words in the last couple days. But I've been jotting notes down like crazy, so when I sit down to write tonight and tomorrow I know I can get caught up.

I'm sad that I haven't seen Lillie in a week, and her parents are being idiots so I probably won't get to see her for a while. :( I still don't have a job, which makes the holidays really depressing. And I've had to dip into my money for school next semester/summer so now I don't know if I'll be able to go, since the money I had wasn't quite enough in the first place.... Yay, stress!!!

That's it for now. In the next couple days, Internet-willing, I'll post some more updates, including an excerpt or two! :)

Just Checking In...

Nano, Day 11.

Word Goal at the end of today, in order to stay on pace (1,667 per day) = 18,337.

My total Word Count (wc) as of right now = 16,895.

Somehow, I got behind. But that's OK. I wrote 3,867 today, which is a lot better than the 92 I wrote yesterday, or the 403 I wrote the day before that.


Life has been crazy the last few days. I've had my 6-month-old niece who I ADORE since October 29. She just went home last night :( And we've also babysat my 13-month-old nephew Keegan several of those days. So, 2 babies + a wc goal of 1,667/day... doesn't always happen.

I've been writing and playing online since 10am. It's now almost 6pm. I'm going to sign off for the day and hopefully write 3,106 words tomorrow so be on pace at 20,004. It's been a rough day so I don't have anything special to say, really. Maybe tomorrow...

Thanks for checking in!

What It's Like to Be Me

Here's what it sounds like to be me right now:


Me, to the 6-month-old in the walker who's covered in squash and peas -- Lillie. Lillie. Eat your squash, baby girl. Turn around. Lillie...
Mike (Hubby), to the 13-month-old standing on the back of the walker trying to play with Lillie -- Keegan. Keegan, leave Lillie alone. Let Lillie eat.
Me -- Lillie, don’t grab Keegan's ear.
Mike -- Keegan, that’s the doggie’s bone. Give Chesney back his bone! ... Chesney, get your bone....
Me, to the kitten trying to stick his snout into the jar of baby food -- Charlie, that’s Lillie's.
Me -- Lillie, don't grab the kitty's ear. Be nice. Lillie, eat your squash. Keegan, don’t hit Lillie on the head with the doggie toy.
Mike -- No, Ches, that’s monkey. Get your bone. Keegan has it. Keegan, don’t hit the baby on the head. Give Chesney his bone.

**Keep in mind that all this is pretty much at the same time**
(A few minutes later)

Mike -- Smile Lillie. Where’s that pretty smile? Aww, Keegan’s giving you hugs. Can you smile for the camera? --
Me -- Lillie, eat your peas. Ignore the camera. --
Mike -- Honey, move your arm. She smiled but I missed it cuz your arm was in the way. Lillie. Baby girl. Aww, you gave Keegan kisses. Darn, camera’s too slow. Give him more kisses. --
Me -- Keegan, don’t lay on top of the walker, you’ll get stuck. Charlie, get off Lilile’s head! Lillie, eat your peas!

**This was about an hour out of our day.**


Aaaanyhow....

Writing-wise, I'm sitting at 10,321 words. It's Day 6 of NaNo, which means to be "on track," I should be at 10,002. So, I'm on track! The last couple of days were kind of slumping; I only wrote around 400 words each. Luckily I had gotten ahead on Days 1 and 2 so I never actually got behind.

I'm a little worried, because usually the slumps don't start happening until Week 2, I'm told. But, these weren't writing slumps. They were just life-got-in-the-way slumps. So I think I'll be OK.

Alright. I told myself I'd put up excerpts only after I'd gotten a bit under way. Well, I'm officially 20% toward reaching my goal, and I think reaching the 10K mark is a good enough time to post a short excerpt. So, without further ado.... here is the first look at my fantasy vaampyr novel. I apologize for the formatting issue, but I can't seem to make any indents and the block quote feature makes the lines all wiggy. So, you'll just have to make do if you want to read ---

I stare at the woman on the ground, her red hair cascading around her pasty face like a fan. Her eyes are closed, but I know from memory what color they are -- clear, like running water. Except last night, when I found her at the mercy of the younglings, they were a misty gray color, almost like my grandfather’s.

A ripple of hunger washes over me and I growl at her still body. The Purest. What a joke. She fell so easily, and didn’t put up a fight. I run my hands over the cold skin of her shoulder, pausing just before her sheer sleeve began to cover her arm. Her skin feels different when I touch it with my human skin instead of my wolf skin.

The hunger is pain now, and a moan escapes my lips. Though it’s daytime and I'm in human form, my fangs bare as I snarl at my enemy. Hunched over her like I am, I feel like an animal. I am an animal. I touch the bare skin below her neck, running my fingers through a valley of cleavage and over the hardened material of her corset. The laces tickle my fingertips as I make my way to her stomach, palming it in wonder.

They say she will bear children. She’ll be the first of her kind to reproduce the human way; the vaampyr race will continue until the end of time. She has none of the human sicknesses that have plagued her kind for centuries as the Vaampyr essence mixed with the primitive humans’ -- she is pure.

I laugh, letting the sound reverborate in my chest for a moment before it escapes. "That’ll never happen." I stand, one foot on each side of her, and stare at my psosession. My destiny is fulfilled -- I have found her.

That's all I have for today. I have no real words of wisdom about writing or any profound lessons to teach you. Other than the fact that writing without editing as I go is really working, and I recommend any writer to try it. Whether you can quit cold turkey or you have to ease yourself out of the line editing by only letting yourself edit after you finish xx word count... or whatever... I'm finding that my inhibitions are really let down and I actually LIKE my work. So, give it a try!

For my non-writer readers... maybe I'll have more non-writing related news tomorrow. Later and thanks for reading!!