Monday Update

Today is a new day for me!
My crit partner Paula has directed me to screenwriting expert Michael Hauge's worksheets.
I'm hoping they'll help me figure out my GMC's for my new manuscript, The Perfect Wife.

I also got a rejection from an agent today. Racking those up. One of these days, I keep telling myself, they'll come asking for *me!*

Then I received my scores from the national romance writing contest, the Golden Heart. Soulmates didn't do all that well. Bottom 50%. Well, I only had a rough draft of it when I entered. Now I feel much more content with the first 1/3 of it that has been rewritten. But still, it needs work and thought. I stopped on it to pursue this new idea. Daddy Issue, on the other hand, scored in the top 25%. I'm happy with that! That's pretty darned good, and shows my writing is competitive.

On the non-writing end, I'm very sore today from gardening for 7 straight hours. I went to aerobics, did a kick and almost landed on the floor, it hurt so bad! I wish I was in my 30's again. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just turn the clock around?

I'm watching Dr. Phil now. The guests are a man and wife who are haveing marital issues. The husband hasn't worn his ring in two years because he says the marriage isn't the way it should be, feelings-wise, for him. He's a country singer. His wife gets mad at him for having girls flirt w/him in the bars, and she slaps him! Nice relationship. He says he knew at the altar that he'd made a mistake, but afterwards, he'd never felt so in love. These people are confused! Dr. Phil is telling them the wife's jealousy is a power thing. Well, duh! Of course she's trying to control him. Dr. Phil: "If he's gonna cheat on you and leave you, he'll do it." How true. He says you can't keep a fence and keep him in. Right. It's LOVE that keeps the jealousy out of the relationship. Love and mutual respect. I wonder if they'll get it right or if they'll keep fighting and end up divorced, with a two-year-old to split their time with. I'm thinking it might be the latter. Too bad. Marriage takes work...lots of it!

Well, off to make a meal for my hubby. Why is he ALWAYS hungry?!! The way to a man's heart really IS his stomach around this house.

What It's Like to Be Me

First of all, to be me, you have to be sleepy most of the time. I drink a lot of coffee to combat the drowsies. I don't know why I'm sleepy a lot, because I'm usually out like a lightbulb and dreaming each night. I think I should go to bed earlier. Getting up at 7 doesn't cut it, either.

It's almost time for Body Pump, which is a class where you lift weights to some good music. In other words, it's choreographed weightlifting. I've been doing it twice a week for about 10 years.

I just discovered, though, by taking my sister's boot camp in Boca, that I need to do more cardio. Writing involves a lot of sitting. So does needlework, which I really enjoy. So it's important to get out and stretch the legs pretty often.

Tonight I teach Disciple Bible study, which is a program for reading the Bible, developed by the Methodists. It's very good and the workbooks and discussions push you to think beyond the obvious. It's also very time-consuming, requiring reading, taking notes and in my case, teaching from 7 to 9pm on Tuesdays. We will finish up in about 5 more weeks, and WOO HOO, I'll be glad for the break.

This is a typical day for me. Frank is out of town again, this time M-W in Orlando, to meet with advertising customers Disney and Harcourt.

Seems lately we're either on the road together w/the kids, or he's on the road alone. I'd like for things to settle into something of a routine around here!

Better run! Time to make the lunches for the kids and then get ready for Body Pump.

Trying to Post Photo

Hi, again,
Trying to figure out how to post a photo on here. May take a minute!

Yea! It worked. Here I am with my hubby about two summers ago. I tried to upload another photo, but it didn't work. Will do one more recent the next time. I like this photo, though.

Back from Florida Sunshine

I'm back from the sunshine and heat of Florida and ready to get back to my writing. The only good thing about the 14-hour trip home was that I had plenty of time to work on the skeleton of my new manuscript. Gonna hit the keyboard soon and tap out Ch1, since I now know where I'm headed and with whom!

I'm waiting to hear how Soulmates fared in the San Antonio Romance Authors' Merritt Contest. I finaled in it, and now Johanna Raisanen of Superromance has judged it and given it a placement. Eek! She rejected a sub in November, so I'm really interested to see how she liked Soulmates. I've stopped on that ms at Ch5 because I was concerned that it wasn't an emotional enough story for Super. Anxious to get busy with this new idea, which a Super author pal helped me brainstorm. She felt I needed more of a sense of desperation in my setups, which would make it more emotional. That was just the advice I needed, and I ran with it for creating the new ms idea, tentatively titled "Ain't That Lonely Yet."

The title comes from my latest fave Ipod download, Dwight Yoakum's song by the same title. Great angsty ex-lover song. Great lyrics.

Also waiting to hear from Premium Press America on The Daddy Issue. I hope they like it! They got it on 3/28, and said it takes 4 to 6 weeks to review. Cross your fingers for me. : )

Okay. Off to write.