I think that says it all. Friday, for those of us that work in corporate America (and get to wear jeans on said day), is nirvana. The day when traffic is better, more people are smiling, and the weekend looms ahead like a well-deserved decadent dessert.
Friday is the day that I don’t cook dinner – leftovers or pizza are on the menu. It’s the day the kids don’t have homework (they’re actually tracking out today from year round school). It’s the day I have a beer and relax after work.
I love Friday evenings, when the entire weekend is still in front of you. What will you do? Yard work? Go to the movies? Lay around and do nothing (my personal favorite)?
My parents are coming sometime late Saturday afternoon and staying until Sunday. Soooo, I must make sure everything is clean and tidy.
I also have about 50 pages of unwritten manuscript to write – I’m behind on my week long challenge.
Friday opens the gate to the unknown pleasures of the weekend. Anything can happen and everything is possible.
Enjoy.

I feel like I’m always rushing to catch up and I’m late posting to my blog again. Always a list of things to do that seems to never get any smaller. Part of it is my own fault – I say yes to a lot of things then don’t have time to do them.
Why can’t I say no? Is there a WELCOME sign printed on my forehead? I like to do things for other people, make something easier for them or just to make them feel good. Is it recognition I’m after? Everyone likes recognition, I suppose. That’s not it though. I just like to do things for othre people.
So what’s on the agenda for tonight? Finishing the update to my website, update a page on the BTM website, write 20 pages of my WIP, make dinner for my children, pick up the fundraiser stuff from school on the way home, spend some time with DH, spend some time with kids, and clone myself.
Wish me luck – this weekend my parents will be here :shock: but they’re taking the 13 YO back to their house for a week. Ah, blessed silence with no smarmy teenager. Not that I won’t miss him, but a week off is just what I need to lower my stress level for a bit.
I guess I should go back to work now (I mean the one that actually pays me).

In fact, I didn’t even write one bloomin’ word yesterday. So much for my commitment to 15 pages a day. I didn’t write 15 words.
So really I am going to write today – a lot. Perhaps not two days worth, but I need to jump back into it and simply write. I am adding characters as I go and the crazy thing is, although I have a synopsis, I do not have my standard scene by scene outline. :shock: Ergo, I am being a pantster – okay, half panstster. The plot is there, just not the details.
It’s a new experience for me and I feel like I’m driving down a dark road I don’t know with only my headlights to guide me.
Let’s just hope I keep my high beams on.

Quick blog today y’all. I’m going shopping today with my Mom.
We’re off to the outlet centers in Smithfield. I am going to enjoy myself and try not to think about anything but spending money.
I’ll write more tomorrow I promise.

Okay, it feels good to say that. The first draft is D-O-N-E! Woo-hoo!
I am going to leave it alone for a week or two and let it marinate. Why? I like to look at it with fresh eyes. I also need to make all the great edits from my cp, Sasha. Ray’s story is finally written. I know he’s grumbling and saying “About goddamn time, too.”
So, what’s next? The Education of Madeline. I’m going to do my best to try the Fast Draft method and get a full first draft in two weeks. :shock:
I know, I know, it’s going to be hard especially with a full-time job, kids, house, husband, etc. At least I don’t have a dog to worry about. (Trying to find the silver lining.)
Must update my website as the release date for The Reward comes closer (don’t hold me to any date, the “rough sketch” of the cover is “done” – still need color studies, final sketch, and then the painting – no, I’m not happy about it and yes, I’m feeling like the redheaded stepchild). Stay tuned for more info about Madeline and her lessons.

I’ve been in many a slush pile before. There are subs sitting out there on editors/agents desks with my name on it, gathering dust and being ignored.
But (she says with a big grin), there is one that is a true, blue sub! Yes, indeedy, folks. I e-queried an editor at a major NY publisher and she e-mailed me back nearly immediately and said she would “love” to see my proposal.
Eeek!
And (drumroll please) it’s for an erotic western. Yessiree folks, being true to who I am and looking for that editor to believe in my writing.
The very best part, y’all, is that she said I could submit the proposal via e-mail. Off went the first three chapters and my synopsis!
A bonafide submission that’s not on a slush pile somewhere.
I’m not going to divulge who and where yet until something actually happens, but in the meantime, must finish The Treasure draft this weekend. :shock: Yes, I am kicking my own ass to finish the last 10K. So far, so good, I’ve gotten some writing done and I plan on doing a lot more later and tomorrow.
Wish me luck, y’all!

Yes, I did get my 1500 words in yesterday on The Treasure, but somehow I’ve become very distracted although I am SOOOOO close to the end.
It’s like the little engine that could ran out of steam and couldn’t make it up the hill.
This weekend I’m going to staple my ass to the chair and get some serious writing done. I always get to the point near the end where I’m yelling “FINISH!!!” in my head. I think the problem this time is I need to do a little research on San Francisco in 1885. Not a big deal, but it’s like a hurdle in the road I don’t want to climb over.
Lazy, lazy, lazy.
I want to start on my next Loose Id story (On His Knees). I want to write my sexy historical to sub to NY (The Education of Madeline). I want, I want, I want… repetitive, aren’t I?
I’m hoping I can kick my own ass and get this book finished this weekend. I’ve got 47K written, with probably a dozen scenes left to write. I know what they are, just gotta get ‘em done.
My new motto o’ the day: “Get ‘er done”

I’m trying… Lord knows I’m trying to have patience. Life is stretching my patience really thin. I am a patient person – I’d have to be with one hyperactive 9 YO and a sassy-mouthed 13 YO. :shock:
Lately though, my patience for something (anything!) to happen with an agent or a print publisher is nonexistent. It’s like, c’mon let’s go! I’m ready, ready, ready to run!
I know it can take months for a response, but as my 38th birthday approaches (gasp, less than 2 months now), I feel like I’m hitting the halfway mark in the road. I wanted to be farther along in my publishing career by now.
Patience, patience, patience. It ain’t gonna be easy. It ain’t gonna be quick. So settle on down girl and git you a iced tea and sit a spell.
That’s southern talk, y’all, for don’t get your panties in a bunch.
I have so much I want to do that I need to slow down and enjoy things that I’ve been ignoring (like reading or my kids). Keep trying but don’t expect the world to come knocking at the door today.
Did you like my pep talk? I’m hoping it will work on me, too.

That’s not brains having sex, y’all. It’s the sex of your brain. Yesterday on the Loose Id Yahoo loop, someone posted a link to another test to determine the sex of your brain.
Veddy, veddy interesting results. I tried to answer as honestly as I could and I came out as 50% feminine, 50% masculine.
So what does that mean really? Um, that I am a hermaphrodite? Or that I can think like a man or a woman at any given point in the day?
Even stranger, some people that took the test had percentages missing… anywhere from 1% to 8%. So they would be 74% feminine and 25% masculine. Where did the extra percent of their brain go? The mysterious beyond?
I’m hoping my 50/50 means that I can write a sex scene from either point of view and it will be accurate. Any opinions on that? From anyone that has read my work anyway.
Take the test and tell me what your brain sex is…

I think that says it all. Not only is it Monday, but it’s getting down to the last month before daylight savings time ends (thank GAWD!) so it’s dark in the morning when I get up. It was no only dark this morning, it was pea soup foggy too. My 9 YO is looking outside, spooked out of his mind, telling me it was like “being in a horror movie” – and no, he has never seen a horror movie beyond Scooby Doo on Zombie Island.
I was at a training session on Friday so when I get to work on Monday, I’ve got two dozen e-mails from my boss asking me to do this and that and why and what and how. Blech. I need a sausage and egg biscuit from Bojangle’s. Bleary eyed and flat tailed I am.
For those of you who don’t know, Bojangle’s makes the absolute best biscuits on the planet. Yum…
I’m off to tackle the e-mails and drink a gallon o’ coffee (sorry Sasha babe but I need my coffee).