Fear, Stress, Worry

None of this pertains to writing directly. It is about the thing sthat my husband has going on with him health wise right now. We have been married 37 years and i so hope to go for the big 50 if God is willing. But right now we are staring at some serious illnesses. He has diabetes, high blood pressure, fast heart rate, blind in his left eye-cataract in right one-wobbles when he walks, peripherial artery disease (poor leg circulation due to blocked arteries), an abdominal aneurysm and last of all cancer of an unknown origin and type. All we know is it isn't the same as when they removed his left kidney in 1988. It isn't related to the urology department they ruled that out on Tuesday. Now we have more tests and more trips to San Antonio to look forward to in the future. He's a lot more upbeat about this than when they told him he had cancer in 2005. We both were devastated and when he couldn't get anybody to work with him at Fort Hood he sort of quit taking his meds and never went back. This spring he started having pain in his left eye and losing his vision. They think either glaucoma or a stroke caused by a piece of plaque from his neck arteries breaking loose and lodging in his eye. I am doing my best to trade days with coworkers and save my last day of vacation of 2009 for a day when I can't trade and need off. Thank goodness I have been at this job for 14 years and they know about all of this and are willing to work with me as much as possible. Still I'm holding onto God for all there is that he will do what is best for my husband and give me the strength to hang in there no matter what happens.

Odd Event

When we were at Fort Hood, TX on Monday they had an attempted baby kidnapping. Thankfully the baby is safe but no news if they caught the woman that attempted it or not. They locked that place down and at the entrance to every clinic on every floor someone was there checking ID's and making sure of who came and went. There was a picture taken of her from a security camera, I am assuming, posted to the news article I found online about it. Thanks to my niece, Laura, I was able to read the news report. They were having a press release or news conference when we were leaving after 5:00 pm. I was sleeping darn it in a chair and I almost missed it. I woke in time to hear the afterwards talk and search information. There were several comments made on the website where the news article was posted. This is scary because I have two great nieces almost a year old and how devastating it would have been to lose them. Now would be worse but as a newborn how harsh is that. As of Tuesday they had not located the woman I heard them say she kept changing clothes on them.Maybe at soem future date I can utilize some of this in writing. Right now would seem rude to the family even though they don't know me and I dont know them.

I got a release date!

Learning to Let Go will be available in epub format on November 20.

A little exciting and a lot overwhelming.

A perfect release date as that's the time of year the story takes place.

Catching up

I know I owe everyone a blog about DC - and I'll get to that, I promise! It was hectic, wonderful, hectic, exhauting, exhilarating.

And now it's over, sob!

I arrived home the day after my daughter got back from Australia. Two days later, we found out she'd been exposed to H1N1 on her trip.

My employer freaked and sent me home so I've been working remotely all week. Boring!

There are NO pigs flying at my house but any attempts to return to work were not well met. So I'll be back on Monday.

Meanwhile, I'll work on that "I survived DC" post!

Fear, Writing & Life

Recently I came across two posts that have been particularly enlightening and inspiring. The advice contained in these not only applies to writing, but all of life. So I wanted to share:

Have No Fear by Marjorie M. Liu


Faith In Your Writing by Jay Lake


Hopefully my linking worked...Enjoy! Maybe if it doesn't you can google the key words.

Blogging at the Roses of Houston

Is it lazy to cross-post your blogs?? ;)

I'm all excited about my trip to DC. Check it out here.

http://rosesofhouston.blogspot.com/2009/07/dc-or-bust.html

Different folks, different strokes.

I got score sheets back from two contest entries today. A third is a finalist in that contest. I skimmed through the sheets and read the comments, refusing to let myself be depressed.

I think one judge got all three of my entries, that's fine because at least she liked my stuff and gave me decent scores for each. A couple of the judges gave me fairly low scores and that's fine too.

What's always interesting is the comments on my h/h. I'll read about how someone can't bond with my hero at all, but love my heroine. Then next score sheet they love my hero but my heroine is bland. I'm sure many authors have the same problem, but is there a happy medium?

Or, should I be glad that readers have strong opinions one way or the other?