So many memories of where we were when the towers fell. I had the honor of visiting the site a few years ago and can't wait to return and see the memorial. Such a sad day but a testiment that we are a strong country.

Excited to finish off the first week of school and now off to the first football game of the season. Only strange thing so far this year is a little boy wearing fingernail polish.

So I have spent my entire last day of summer on the internet. First registering my boys to take the SAT, they also need the ACT but I was too tired to fill out anymore paperwork. 2nd I had to see if my doctors were covered on my new insurance. 3rd I decided that the day before school starts is ideal for me to move all my files onto an external hard drive. Why am I procrastinating???? Argh.. kick myself in the rear and get working.

I put some steaks on the bbq tonight and cooked one of the last good meals my family will get until the school year gets started. Two more days of freedom and then back to the ole grind stone. The weather has gotten so hot here that I almost look forward to being in the air conditioning....almost.

SO to most it isn't actually the end of summer,but for a teacher it is. School started wednesday, or at least the never ending meetings did. However my brood decided that since I only had a half day yesterday we would do our annual float down the river. Usually we use tubes but this year we decided to use our kayaks. In my mind I felt it would be safer. I could steer to where I wanted to go and wouldn't be at the mercy of the current as with a tube. Besides the powers that know clearly stated that the river was low enough for tubing to begin, so there should be no worries. I was wrong.
Luckily we live near the river so we drove a bit up the road to put the boats in and about the time we got to the beach area where we live it was clear we needed to put the skirts on the boats. My hubby and my oldest son had kayaks full of water. So the boys ran back to the house and grabbed what we needed and we readjusted and off we went. It was a lot of fun. And then I got dumped. In fact we all got dumped, except for my youngest, whose idea this entire adventure was. The river is listed as class 5, that's the highest class of rapid. And even with the okay to tube...the rapids are still class 5. News to me. It was a scary but awesome experience. At one point I simply floated the river on the outside of my boat. Like a very wet roller coaster. But no worse for the wear we made it. Will I do it again, I am not sure. Ignorance was bliss and now I know what lies ahead I am not sure. What I do know was it was a great thing to do with two teenage boys and reminded me why we love eachother and how great it feels to laugh deep belly laughs with the boys.

I know how weird it seems that now that I am going back to work I actually have time to post.  For some reason I am better at time management when I am busy and not when I am lounging around on summer break.  I have been extremely bad about making time to write.  I have two romance books the longest is 24,000 wrds as of now.  Two YA romance in the works, one is working better than the other but niether are booming. I wonder if I have writers block?  But I think I'm just not ready to saw goodbye to Just a Whisper.  It's out there with a few agents but after one request for chapters things died down.  I got a good review for my query but I don't think it tells the essence of my story.  I also have a sequel of it that I am workng on since I'm not ready to say goodbye to Solomon yet.  Tomorrow is an early morning , xc and football start at 6 a.m. and meetings for the new school year.  We're off to the races.

Well at least for me, the kids have been out for a week already.  Spent a great day at the park with my class.  Some great 8 year old quotes: " Look at how short these are....that's why they are called shorts."   I really stink....my mom makes we wear deoderant"  

I have surfed the web and still not a lot on The RIght Factory.  However I feel bad that I am being asked for partial submission and then complaining that the agency responded too quickly.  I guess I am a suspicious person by nature.  Heading out for a second grade picnic at the park today so plan on keeping my mind otherwise occupied.

So I got my first request for a partial submission and now I am wondering who in the world this agency is.  I know I was the one that sent the query to them but it on;y took three days for them to get back to me.  Should I be worried.  Anyone ever heard of The Right Factory? 

Well life has been happening and I haven't been able to update my posts.  Some exciting news was that after A LOT of revising I finally got my query letter approved and sent on to the agent submissions on YALITCHAT.  But now the waiting begins. 

So I think I have successfully lost another Beta Reader.  I am getting desperate.  What is so difficult about reading the first 60 pages of a manuscript and making some suggestions.  Can it be that the piece is just crap and no one can get through it?  I am beginning to think it is totally my writing that is stopping the process and not the lame people I am choosing to read for me.  I am even paying the last Beta Reader, however I haven't paid because as of now my work is off in cyber land and I haven't received any feed back.  Why is this so hard?

I am kind of giving up on my Beta Reader Kathleen.  So I decided to enlist the help of my Niece.  She will be the first family member to read my novel.  Okay, so I did have to offer her some incentive...provide her with some gas money, but I am still excited that I may be able to get this whole thing moving forward!  Yeah

So I am suppose to spend the next couple of weeks teaching second graders the importance of using similies in their writing.  Really?!  How many books do we seriously read that use similes?  Did Edward "run as fast as a cheetah"?  In Twilight.  Is this really a teaching point that I should be doing when 8 year olds have difficulty telling a story in sequenctal order?   I have to wonder who this person is that wrote this curriculum? 

Read a great article in this magazine about an author and how she implemented a plan to get her book self published and number one on the Amazon book list.  It was an incredible journey.  A similar article was in this months Writers Digest.

So my computer caught a virus.  Okay it caught six viruses.  So hubby took it in to clean it up and 149.00$ later!  It's clean. 
I spent most of the day procrastinating, since I couldn't write (computer was at the doctor), but then I decided to organize the writing I have done for my National Boards renewal.  And sadly discovered that I needed another entry.  Three more pages of reflection on my teaching.  Ugh!  I need to finish this so i can move on to the things I really enjoy writing, which is almost anything but this!

Vacation ended with one speeding ticket, one lost ski boot (off the back of the truck), and four relaxed and happy individuals.

Posted 14 chapters on this sight this morning.  It is hosted by HarperCollins and Amazon.com.  Hopeful I can get some feedback.

I am riding a cloud
in the middle of the sky
making idle conversation
while the birds happen by.
I'm uncertain how I got here,
but surely I don't care.
I'm enchanted in the air.

I may try to catch a rainbow
with my rainbow-catching mitt,
build imaginary castles,
or nothing else but sit.

by Jack Prelutsky

Vacation is awesome!

Happily arrived at our beach destination with little to no bickering in the car, a Krispy Kreme donut that looks like a giant hostess cupcake, and one speeding ticket!
Excited to head to Tokeland tomorrow to gain more inspiration for my novel from the Shoalwater reservation.  Although it is less than a square mile in area it does has the ability to fill me with ideas.

It seems like I lead two lives and I am constantly trying to intertwine them. The life with my family and work....and the life of someone who has so many stories in her head, she just has to write.  I have gotten to where i carry a spiral notebook everywhere so I can write down my thoughts before they disappear, which is a very common happening this day.  As the holidays approach I feel torn between sitting with my computer by the fire writing, and getting out and shopping.  I am very excited, though, because the family will be heading to the ocean for a week!  The inspiration for my book.  Hoping to get some time to write as I sit in a warm cabin watching the winter storms blow through.
Found an interesting web site today:  authonomy.com   A book called The Sacred Oath is on it. I can't find it at amazon or any other bookstore sites so I am thinking it has been published only on the web.  But I also know it is being made into a movie so looking into how that site works.

So I put my finished, but need or revision, novel aside.  Then I put my two partial manuscripts away.  Then I sat down and forced myself to work on my four entries for renewing my National Boards for teaching.  Then what happens?! Our governor comes out last night and says she needs to cut all bonus pay attached to the National Boards.  Seems like a lot of effort to write scholarly text, instead of YA romance, for no monetary gain.

Have the day off tomorrow!  Hope to hear from my Beta reader, edit my writing for my national boards, and revise my work in progress!  So I expect something momentus to happen that will interfer with best made plans.

Still wondering why some books get published and others don't.  I have read such a variety of books and some just have no heart. 

Although today was productive at work, I didn't get much time for writing.  We did get the Christmas tree decorated, right before I got a kidney stone.  So I decided that writing while drugged up on codine may not be that great of an idea.  Or maybe it could make for some interesting reading.  :)

read a great blog by Jane Friedman on writing query letters.  Also took a class last year from her about the same thing.  It always amazes me that she can cut up the example letters like she does.  I struggle with the question as to why I am able to write a 90,000 page novel but can't whip out a query letter that explains what the story is about.  One my second novel I actually wrote the query first thinking it might help keep the hook and main points in order, but it didn't help.  Check it out for good tips.
http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules