I am the kind of writer who has to write every day in order to stay ‘in’ my character’s heads, to keep my muse flowing. Any change to that schedule can put a big damper on my flow. And unfortunately, that’s the problem I’m dealing with right now.

With lofty goals to finish the WIP in 3 months, I am now looking at the thing thinking, ‘what the heck was I thinking?’ Due to some strange twist in the space-time continuum which I will never understand, I find myself (suprisingly) at the end of that three month mark and only halfway through the darn thing. Where did the time go? What did I do with it? It’s got to be a consipiracy. That’s all I can figure. I should be done with this manuscript by now. But I’m not. I’m not even close.

*sigh*

I can see the scenes, I can see the ending, I know how it’s all going to play out, but I just can’t get there. It’s not a lack in ability or even motivation. It’s not a block – at least not an internal one. It’s an external block that keeps getting in my way. Holidays, birthdays, guests, construction crews, sick kids, requests and revisions, and the biggest obstacle at this point – a computer that doesn’t want to cooperate. One that has been in the shop three times in the last three months and is (lucky me) gone yet again. Lump it all together and it means no writing on the WIP – or very little.

So, as a woman who doesn’t make New Year’s resolutions, and one who will someday be in big trouble when she has real deadlines, I’ve resolved to get this baby done by Spring Break (end of March), one way or the other. And hopefully I’ll get a jump start on the thing when I head to the beach for a writer’s retreat this weekend. So girls, if I lock myself in a room and simply write instead of chitchat, you’ll know why.

It’s Tuesday, and I just got home from the gym. I’m pooped, and the brain isn’t quite firing on all cylinders yet.

Must. Have. Coffee.

So, since I have nothing new to add today, I’m going to redirect you to some people who have lots of interesting things to say.

CAROL’s feeling chatty, and her brand new baby is adorable. Check him out. TERI’s singing the praises of the Seahawks (Are they really in the Superbowl? Wow . . . I just so don’t even follow pro sports.) and sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear from her agent. LIN’s celebrating the good stuff in life – always a nice thing to do and remember, and PATY’s kicking butt on her WIP. (Paty, can you come kick mine while you’re at it? Better yet, can you kick my obnoxious hero and heroine instead? These two are driving me looney.)

Surprisingly, there are a few people out there who have even less to say than I do. Don’t believe me? Check out THIS BLOG, and THIS ONE, too. Pa-the-tic. (And yes, girlies…I’m trying to guilt you into picking up the pace here.)

Enough rambling. Back to the WIP with my trusty carafe of steaming caffeine…

…for like an hour. There was blue sky. And sun. And LIGHT. And the world seemed right.

And then the clouds came. And the sky grew dark. And the rain returned once more.

*sigh*

But there was that one moment of clarity…

That’s me. The Handout Queen.

I presented tonight at my local RWA meeting. The topic was online critiquing. We had a good turn out, and I think (hope) everyone had a good time and learned something valuable. Attendees received handouts on how to set up and use Word to make writing easier, and comma handouts and descriptive word-lists from uber-English teacher CP. They also got to hear all about my wonderful critique partners….how we met and how they put up with me day after day.

It was good. And it kinda made me miss my teaching days.

Kinda.

(…because the three-year-old Gremlin has been oh-so close now that he’s not getting TV for a while.)

At the gas station:
The attendant takes my credit card, asks, “How much would you like, ma’am?”
Bryce laughs and snorts from the backseat. “He called you ma’am! Doesn’t he know your name is Mom! He’s so dumb.”

At church:
The priest says, “…through Christ our Lord, Amen.”
His head darts up from whatever mischief he was planning at that moment. “Hey. He just said through Bryce our Lord, Amen.” A twisted smile whips across his little face.

At the dentist:
The dentist peers into his mouth. “You have nice teeth.”
Bryce smiles that devilish grin of his. “I have shark teeth.”
The dentist lifts his brow. “You mean sharp teeth? Open up.” He leans close.
Bryce snaps his jaws shut and grins, narrowly missing the dentist’s fingers. “Nope. Shark teeth. See?”

At a girlfriend’s house, while he’s playing Lego’s with two fifth grade boys:
He stands, waves a hand. “Hold on guys. I just pooped. I gotta go get my mom to change me. I’ll be right back.”

(No…he just doesn’t get it.)

Winter sucks.

It has rained here 23 out of the last 24 days. Can you say, dark and dreary? Ugh. The ten-day forecast shows … what do you think?….more rain. Every stinkin’ day. No wonder my characters frolic in warm tropical locals like Tahiti and Jamaica. Heck, I even sent one lovely couple to Chicago in the winter. I figure sun and snow has GOT to be better than this liquid sunshine we have here.

On the homefront…the Gremlins are all sick. Every last one of them. Fevers, coughs, generally ickiness. They’re whiney, clingy messes without tylenol, bouncing off the walls when the meds kick in. It’s enough to drive a mother looney. The baby has the worst ear infection you ever saw and he’s a big crying mess. I love him dearly, and I feel awful for him, but there’s only so much I can take. Needless to say, I need a vacation. Someplace where no one is crying and clinging to me every two seconds.

In addition to that, we decided to get tough with Gremlin #2 (he’ll be four in April) and cut off the TV until he learns to use the toilet. Oh. My. God. What was a great idea to start is turning into punishment for Mom. How the hell did people live without TV??????

(Can ya tell I didn’t get to the gym today? I need my hour away!)

There is good news though. Got my revisions completed (Thanks to Joan and Lin for reading so fast. You girls are da bomb!). Printed and mailed today, as well. Woohoo! The book is now out of my hands and at the mercy of the editors at SIM. The waiting begins. Gonna try not to think about it. (Oh, hell, who am I kidding? I’m gonna obsess for the next three months!)

Staring at my box of GH entries that I need to judge. Do I want to judge, or go read something from my TBR pile, or work on my presentation for my RWA group next week, or try to dive back into the wip????

Decisions, decisions.

If only the gremlins would give me five minutes to think in peace….

Winter sucks.

I get the worst mother of the year award.

Gremlin #1 (she’s 6) lost tooth #5 yesterday. Actually, she pulled it out herself, which I find very strange, but that’s a whole other topic. She was quite excited, stuck the tooth in a plastic baggie and slipped it under her pillow. In my mother-stupidity, however, I forgot about the blessed event when I went to bed last night. Needless to say, she awoke this morning very upset to learn the tooth fairy had not visited and that her tooth was still under her pillow.

I’m wracked with guilt.

Dumfounded, DH and I scrambled for answers. Luckily, the bright girl gave us an out when she announced she’d been awake every hour last night waiting to see the tooth fairy.

Voila! That’s why she didn’t come! Because you were awake every time she tried to take your tooth!

Not sure she’s buying it. Good ol’ mom already screwed up Christmas when Santa used the same wrapping paper that we do (uh…gotta be smarter next year), AND put toys in gremlin #2’s stocking that gremlin #1 helped Daddy pick out for the boy.

I’m in big trouble. And now I have to go read her a few chapters of Prince Caspian to make up for my utter stupidity.

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday. I’m thankful it’s over. The house is now back to normal – well, messy, but normal – and I’m looking forward to school starting up again tomorrow. (My, how my view has changed from my teaching days when I dreaded the start of school.)

I’ve been slack. I will admit it. Aside from the hectic beat of the holidays, I was knee-deep in revisions and, wouldn’t you know it, doing those revisions on the ancient laptop with limited internet access while my laptop was in the shop…yet again. (Don’t even get me started on that one!)

However…I finally finished the revisions on MB. Yippie! Giving the thing one last read through before sending to the critique partners. (Oh, they’re so thrilled to be getting this…again).

And…I finished my contest final entry and submitted it with a whole day to spare. (Yes, I am a procrastinator.) Looking forward to getting back to the wip. I really like this story and these characters.

Oh, and my laptop is back, although I’m not convinced its fixed completely. Still having a few issues, but I’m not taking it back in right now.

I’m not one for resolutions…I’m smart enough to know I’ll never stick to them…but I do believe in putting your best foot forward and giving it your all. I have an obsessive personality (gee, bet you never knew that, huh?) so I’ll keep plugging away until I meet my personal goals, be that this year or next. (Although sooner would be better rather than later.)

Will try to post more often once life settles down again (read…kids are back in school).

Happy 2006!