The Joys of Renovation - or - the hurricane continues

Sometime in a previous life (or perhaps last year), I had the joy of surviving Hurricane Ike. Which, I suppose, is a lot better than the alternative!

FINALLY we're on stage two of the repairs (stage one being a new roof), which means my torn and otherwise disgusting carpet is being replaced with tile. Yay!

And aaarrgghh!!

Right now all my downstairs possessions are in the garage, master bedroom, or small corner of the living room. Supposed to take three or four days - let's add a week to that. At least we've only spent one night in a motel (the rest have been spent sleeping on recliners) and my two "youngest" kids cleaned their upstairs bathrooms so hubby and I could use them without shuddering. Replacing the master shower is stage three. It's all torn out but I guess a new one will be put in eventually.

Problem is - when it's all done I'm not going to want to move the junk back in! And boy, do we have a lot of junk. At least we can unpack at a slower pace and throw a lot of it away.

We now have a new stage four - removing the baseboards pretty much trashed the paint and wallpaper. Time to redecorate!

My writing time has been very meager this week and the dust and mold that the workers uncovered have given me a nice cough. All good fodder for my hurricane WIP though!

I'm still waiting for the signed contract to arrive from WRP, I have a feeling that will perk me right up and get me motivated!

Plus - I found three contests I can enter - happiness!!

I'm a 'Tweenie

It's hitting home I have a contract (or will when it shows up in the mail, anyway) and have shuffled a very small step from the pre-published to the almost-published!

But - right now - I'm in between published and unpublished.

For me that means - NO CONTESTS! And I am, after all, a contest junkie.

Yes - there are a few that accept entries from published authors (or us 'tweenies), but not many.

Never mind - I'm going to have plenty of work (and edits) to keep me busy.

Now - what to do with all that money I'll save? Hmmm.

More conferences!

Excellent blog on STORY

A friend passed this along to me. The sort of thing you have to read three or four times and each time you get hit by the WOW factor! Read the whole thing, he really gets into some interesting stuff.

http://ericswanson.blogspot.com/2007/08/story-by-robert-mckee.html

The "Call"

Or in my case - the e-mail!

After being lucky enough to place first in the East Texas RWA's Southern Heat contest with LEARNING TO LET GO, I got a request for a full from The Wild Rose Press! Mostly thanks to the persistence of the contest coordinator, Carol Braswell!

I polished it to pieces - still wasn't happy but couldn't stand to work on it any longer so sent it in at the beginning of February. I got a nice note from Elizabeth West, telling me I'd hear from her no later than May 5th.

Meanwhile - TWRP spun off it's White Rose or Christian Romance line into its own division - White Rose Publishing. I was thrilled to read about it and secretly crossed fingers and toes they'd like my stuff.

March 18th. I see an e-mail from Elizabeth West. Well, phooey. Everyone says rejections come quicker than acceptances. I took a deep breath. Got up. Walked around. Had another look at the list of unread e-mails. Still there.

Another deep breath and another walk. Telling myself it was okay. I'll learn to let go of this rejection and move on. I'm okay. You're okay. Doesn't mean I can't write. All is well.

Sat down and opened the e-mail.

And FREAKED!

Still can't believe it. I'm a coordinator for the Daphne contest so am swamped in entries - trying to get them out to judges - trying to do everything right (having some issues with that part) AND trying to come up with a bio for myself and a back cover for my book.

WRP sent me a whole sheet to fill out so they can do a nice front cover. They asked things like h/h eye color and I had to go look it up! I've been immersed in another WIP and LTLG had GONE out of my head.

So this weekend I'm going to print it and read it. In between packing up the ground floor of my home because they're coming to lay tile on Monday (finally getting fixed after Ike damage in September) AND getting out the rest of my entries.

A thrilling ride!