Writing News
I have heard horror stories about writers who spend years on their manuscript and then just slap together an insanely horrid query and send it out in a rush. This has always seemed foolish to me and I was sure that such a temptation would never even touch my mind. Now I understand! All of this last minute fiddling is driving me insane! I want to just click “send” and launch my queries into the world regardless of whether the sample chapter on my website is just right, or if there are comma issues with my query, or abominable grammatical errors on my home page. My best friend/grammar Nazi assures me that all of the above is true. And so this week has drug by with what appears to be very little progress, yet it is this work that will prevent my submission from being sub par. So, what did I do? I made changes to my first chapter (the sample chapter) according to the feedback of three different people: A teen girl, my cousin who is a martial artist, and the hunky hubby. I put the afore mentioned sample chapter up on my website. I sent my queries to my grammar Nazi friend, made the many many changes that were required, finally found someone who offered webmail with spellcheck, and spent a bunch of time researching online to find out what the Akkadian word for solar eclipse was. During the last five years, I studied 35 written sources about Assyria and could not find this information and in the end after a long frustrating morning, I found it right there on Wikpedia! So it appears that I didn’t do much, but I guess this infuriating detail work is what supposedly will make my query stand out from all the rest of the slush. I hope.
What I’m Reading:
I have been reading a good many young adult novels in the last 5 years and since I’ve only gotten through 2 or 3 of the classics I determined to educate myself just a wee bit. In that effort I completed Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and most recently Pride and Prejudice. Shakespeare is excellent writing but quite difficult to understand and it has a good deal of coarse humor. I think that Pride and Prejudice is my new favorite book. The language is so delightfully snobbish and funny and beautiful. The characters so real, the dialogue witty. I found myself laughing out loud in many parts. I loved it. I’m having vast quantities of fun.
Breaking News
In our household this week we have been potty training. Now we tried this a month ago and all I got were 6 soggy pairs of undies and 6 puddles on the floor with no puddles in the toilette. But since that attempt my sweet boy #2 has been eagerly reading our “Big Boy Potty Book” poring over the pictures and text with much interest and begging to wear big boy undies. And upon the renewal of our pottying attempts he is doing marvelously! He even woke me up at 3:30am to go and pee. I am much happier about cleaning up the puddles after seeing all of the successes that bring that huge grin to his face, and make him sprint around the house in his birthday suit screaming “I peed, I peed”.
Harrowing/Heartwarming
Parent Moment of the Week
Sweet boy #3 is 10 months old and has begun to climb everything. He climbs up the coffee table and onto the couch, up the beanbag and into the windowsill, he clings to the bookshelf (which is properly anchored to the wall thank goodness) and attempts little baby chin ups. Well, the big boys have a bunk bed, and sweet boy #1 was on the top bunk and I heard some alarming words coming from his direction. “You can do it__________. Just climb on up. Put your foot up. Come on up.” As I peaked into their lair, I spied my eldest son attempting to coax the baby into climbing up the treacherous ladder onto the top bunk! At least they love playing together, right?
