Cross posting to clean_slates
I know that I'm late posting again but yesterday was hectic what with a vet checkup for Yoshi (He's doing better than expected YAY!!!) and two back to back medical appointments along with getting a haircut. Yup, I got sheared...my below the shoulder length hair is now about 4 inches all over. It's nort quite a shag cut but close and I feel 20 pounds lighter.
I’m afraid that last week was spent mostly outside getting all my spring chores taken care of. I still need to wash the outside of the windows but will wait for another warm 'Summer In April’ day before attaching the hose and playing in the water : )
My goals for this week are:
Writing:
1. Finish up the last of the April critiques and send them on their way
2. Finish revising TBLS
3. Go over HHBAT, TBLS, and HTFB and get them ready to submit for critique this coming week
4. If I have time make a serious attempt at writing the query letter for HHBAT
Fitness:
1. Continue to cut back on the cran-apple juice and increase my water intake
2.Go pick up the wood for the two boxes that will go on either side of the deck. Decide whether to buy strawberry plants for both boxes or go with tomatoes in one of them
3. Decide where to transplant the daylilies that I dig up to make room for the boxes.
4. Finish sending out my seed orders
Hope everyone has a very good week!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Clean Slates - BEACHMO - Results - Week Three
Cross posting to clean_slates
Sorry I’m late with this but I was at the vets all afternoon with Yoshi, who is now 20. Luckily it was nothing too serious but we did come home with meds… two of which he will have to be on for the rest of his life. It's hell growing older!
As for my writing for some reason I just couldn’t get into plunking my BIC for any length of time, but spent most of the time outside when it wasn’t raining, that is.
My goals for this week were:
Writing:
1. Continue trying to keep up with the critiques.
ONGOING - All the critiques for April are written and I just need to go over them before emailing them off
2. Revise HHBAT, TBLS, NTDLPT, and HTFB and submit them for critique this week
ONGOING – Revised HTFB and HHBAT. I'm part way through the revisions for TBLS
3. Revise the query letter for ANYA for the umpteenth time, and start writing the critiques for the manuscripts listed in #2, I hate, hate, HATE writing query letters!!
ONGOING – I revised the query letter for ANYA but haven’t written the others... just have a few notes scattered here and there on the sloppy copies
Fitness:
1. Continue cutting back on the cran-apple juice and once it’s gone … promise myself not to buy any more, but drink water instead.
ONGOING – I did cut back on my consumption, but ended up buying more juice, as well as a bag of sugar cookies from the bakery : (
2. Try walking down the hill to the garden plot and see how it goes, as last year it was difficult for me. The ground is uneven and I kept stubbing my foot on the lawn which would give my knee a very hard jolt… which was NOT fun!!If the walking proves to be too difficult, I could transplant the daylilies from around the deck and on the side opposite the stairs, plant tomatoes instead. I figure 3 plants should be more than enough. I’m almost tempted to dig up the strawberries and plant either beans (green and wax) or peas in the box.
ONGOING – The woman who comes to do my legs, works up at VINS and said that there is more than enough lumber that I can have for free, so we’ll be getting the material this coming week and building the boxes.
3. Sit down with all my seed catalogs and make up my mind what I’m going to do, then send the orders out.
ONGOING – went on Johnny’s and Vesey’s web sites and picked out the seeds I wanted, both vegetable and flower…but need to revise it as the total came to well over $300.00
Hope everyone has wonderful weekend and for those of you at the NESCBWI conference in Nashua have fun!! Wish I was joining you.
Sorry I’m late with this but I was at the vets all afternoon with Yoshi, who is now 20. Luckily it was nothing too serious but we did come home with meds… two of which he will have to be on for the rest of his life. It's hell growing older!
As for my writing for some reason I just couldn’t get into plunking my BIC for any length of time, but spent most of the time outside when it wasn’t raining, that is.
My goals for this week were:
Writing:
1. Continue trying to keep up with the critiques.
ONGOING - All the critiques for April are written and I just need to go over them before emailing them off
2. Revise HHBAT, TBLS, NTDLPT, and HTFB and submit them for critique this week
ONGOING – Revised HTFB and HHBAT. I'm part way through the revisions for TBLS
3. Revise the query letter for ANYA for the umpteenth time, and start writing the critiques for the manuscripts listed in #2, I hate, hate, HATE writing query letters!!
ONGOING – I revised the query letter for ANYA but haven’t written the others... just have a few notes scattered here and there on the sloppy copies
Fitness:
1. Continue cutting back on the cran-apple juice and once it’s gone … promise myself not to buy any more, but drink water instead.
ONGOING – I did cut back on my consumption, but ended up buying more juice, as well as a bag of sugar cookies from the bakery : (
2. Try walking down the hill to the garden plot and see how it goes, as last year it was difficult for me. The ground is uneven and I kept stubbing my foot on the lawn which would give my knee a very hard jolt… which was NOT fun!!If the walking proves to be too difficult, I could transplant the daylilies from around the deck and on the side opposite the stairs, plant tomatoes instead. I figure 3 plants should be more than enough. I’m almost tempted to dig up the strawberries and plant either beans (green and wax) or peas in the box.
ONGOING – The woman who comes to do my legs, works up at VINS and said that there is more than enough lumber that I can have for free, so we’ll be getting the material this coming week and building the boxes.
3. Sit down with all my seed catalogs and make up my mind what I’m going to do, then send the orders out.
ONGOING – went on Johnny’s and Vesey’s web sites and picked out the seeds I wanted, both vegetable and flower…but need to revise it as the total came to well over $300.00
Hope everyone has wonderful weekend and for those of you at the NESCBWI conference in Nashua have fun!! Wish I was joining you.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Clean Slates – BEACHMO - Monday Goals - Week Three
Cross-posting to clean_slates
I know this is going to sound weird, but I hope that the weather this week goes back to normal for April. It was sooo summerlike last week (temps up into the high 60’s) that I spent most of it outside working around the place, and now I'm paying the price... as I’m very lame. Not so much the legs, but the back. I should have known better than to drag the old picnic table and benches up the hill to the driveway so that the guys could come and haul it off to the dump. I had thought about having a new one built, but as I said on Friday, the price was enough to choke a horse.
My goals for this week are:
Writing:
1. Continue trying to keep up with the critiques.
2. Revise HHBAT, TBLS, NTDLPT, and HTFB and submit them for critique this week
3. Revise the query letter for ANYA for the umpteenth time, and start writing the critiques for the manuscripts listed in #2. I hate, hate, HATE writing query letters!!
Fitness:
1. Continue cutting back on the cran-apple juice and once it’s gone … promise myself not to buy any more, but drink water instead.
2. Try walking down the hill to the garden plot and see how it goes, as last year it was very difficult for me. The ground is uneven and I kept stubbing my foot on the lawn, which would give my knee a very hard jolt...which was NOT fun! If the walking proves to be too difficult, I could transplant the daylilies from around the deck and on the side opposite the stairs, plant tomatoes instead. I figure 3 plants should be more than enough. I’m almost tempted to dig up the strawberries and plant either beans (green and wax) or peas in the box.
3. Sit down with all my seed catalogs and make up my mind what I’m going to do, then send the orders out.
Hope everyone has a very good week!
I know this is going to sound weird, but I hope that the weather this week goes back to normal for April. It was sooo summerlike last week (temps up into the high 60’s) that I spent most of it outside working around the place, and now I'm paying the price... as I’m very lame. Not so much the legs, but the back. I should have known better than to drag the old picnic table and benches up the hill to the driveway so that the guys could come and haul it off to the dump. I had thought about having a new one built, but as I said on Friday, the price was enough to choke a horse.
My goals for this week are:
Writing:
1. Continue trying to keep up with the critiques.
2. Revise HHBAT, TBLS, NTDLPT, and HTFB and submit them for critique this week
3. Revise the query letter for ANYA for the umpteenth time, and start writing the critiques for the manuscripts listed in #2. I hate, hate, HATE writing query letters!!
Fitness:
1. Continue cutting back on the cran-apple juice and once it’s gone … promise myself not to buy any more, but drink water instead.
2. Try walking down the hill to the garden plot and see how it goes, as last year it was very difficult for me. The ground is uneven and I kept stubbing my foot on the lawn, which would give my knee a very hard jolt...which was NOT fun! If the walking proves to be too difficult, I could transplant the daylilies from around the deck and on the side opposite the stairs, plant tomatoes instead. I figure 3 plants should be more than enough. I’m almost tempted to dig up the strawberries and plant either beans (green and wax) or peas in the box.
3. Sit down with all my seed catalogs and make up my mind what I’m going to do, then send the orders out.
Hope everyone has a very good week!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Clean Slates - BEACHMO - Results - Week 2
Cross posting to clean_slates
All in all, this has been a pretty good week, not so much on the writing end of things, but on the BOOC (Butt Out Of Chair) end. The weather was soooo nice this week that I spent most of it working around outside and sprucing things up. And by my being outside, my stress level has gone down to where I'm still concerned, but am not {{STRESSING OUT}} over my son's medical problems ... Que Sera Sera.
My goals for this week were:
Writing
1. Write a one line hook for ANYA and submit it to the Querytracker.net contest
DONE!
2. Finish writing the critique for DB and email it out
DONE!
3. Write the critiques for SR and SW and email them out before the weekend
WORK IN PROGRESS - I hope to have them all finished and out by Sunday afternoon
4. Revise ANYA, adding more layers and depth
WORKING ON IT – I fiddled around writing a new beginning but liked the old one better, so went back to it and have been adding more meat to the first couple of scenes.
Fitness
1. Drink more water and cut back on the cran-apple juice.
TRYING – I’m down to between 2-3 cups of cran-apple juice a day, and have upped my water intake to around 16 ounces
2. Get BOOC (Butt Out Of Chair) and check on the strawberries.
DONE! I had hoped to build two new raised beds for my strawberries as the old bookcases that I have been using are rotting away ... but the price of lumber is enough to choke a horse. I had wanted a picnic table with benches that are not attached and the two boxes made, but $400.00 is more than what I’m willing to spend.
3. Rake the leaves off my flower beds
DONE! I also raked the whole lawn, front and back, as well as dug a ditch along the bottom of the retaining wall to try and get rid of all the water that ends up coming off the hill and making my back lawn a soggy mess. I’d really like to be able to mow it before the middle of August.The storm winows are down and all the windows are washed except for the outside of the sliding glass doors which I plan on doing tomorrow.
4. See about transplanting the day lilies over toward the large boulder at end of the driveway
STILL IN THE THINKING ABOUT IT STAGE – I’m not sure if I want to transplant them and buy Gladiola bulbs to put there, or just buy different colored day lilies. I’d like something for the hummingbirds, and I do love Glads.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
All in all, this has been a pretty good week, not so much on the writing end of things, but on the BOOC (Butt Out Of Chair) end. The weather was soooo nice this week that I spent most of it working around outside and sprucing things up. And by my being outside, my stress level has gone down to where I'm still concerned, but am not {{STRESSING OUT}} over my son's medical problems ... Que Sera Sera.
My goals for this week were:
Writing
1. Write a one line hook for ANYA and submit it to the Querytracker.net contest
DONE!
2. Finish writing the critique for DB and email it out
DONE!
3. Write the critiques for SR and SW and email them out before the weekend
WORK IN PROGRESS - I hope to have them all finished and out by Sunday afternoon
4. Revise ANYA, adding more layers and depth
WORKING ON IT – I fiddled around writing a new beginning but liked the old one better, so went back to it and have been adding more meat to the first couple of scenes.
Fitness
1. Drink more water and cut back on the cran-apple juice.
TRYING – I’m down to between 2-3 cups of cran-apple juice a day, and have upped my water intake to around 16 ounces
2. Get BOOC (Butt Out Of Chair) and check on the strawberries.
DONE! I had hoped to build two new raised beds for my strawberries as the old bookcases that I have been using are rotting away ... but the price of lumber is enough to choke a horse. I had wanted a picnic table with benches that are not attached and the two boxes made, but $400.00 is more than what I’m willing to spend.
3. Rake the leaves off my flower beds
DONE! I also raked the whole lawn, front and back, as well as dug a ditch along the bottom of the retaining wall to try and get rid of all the water that ends up coming off the hill and making my back lawn a soggy mess. I’d really like to be able to mow it before the middle of August.The storm winows are down and all the windows are washed except for the outside of the sliding glass doors which I plan on doing tomorrow.
4. See about transplanting the day lilies over toward the large boulder at end of the driveway
STILL IN THE THINKING ABOUT IT STAGE – I’m not sure if I want to transplant them and buy Gladiola bulbs to put there, or just buy different colored day lilies. I’d like something for the hummingbirds, and I do love Glads.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Help! I Need A Cure For Spring Fever
Anyone know a good cure for Spring Fever, besides making up a batch of awful tasting Spring Tonic? I've got Spring Fever big time!!
All I want to do is curl up in the sun and listen to the peepers peeping, the birds singing, the turkeys gobbling, and the geese honking. It’s all I can do to keep up with getting my critiques out on time.
As for my own writing... don’t ask! I’ve maybe written 1,000 words in the past three weeks. Arrrgh!!!
All I want to do is curl up in the sun and listen to the peepers peeping, the birds singing, the turkeys gobbling, and the geese honking. It’s all I can do to keep up with getting my critiques out on time.
As for my own writing... don’t ask! I’ve maybe written 1,000 words in the past three weeks. Arrrgh!!!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Clean Slates - BEACHMO - Monday Goals - Week Two
Cross-posting to clean_slates
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter/Passover. Mine was quiet, which would have been great if I had managed to do any writing, but I ended up just dubbing around. Made a stab at writing a few critiques, but I gave up halfway through the morning and just hung out... I didn’t even do much reading. I need to make some Spring Tonic and get my blood moving, I am such a lump on a log lately.
My Goals for this week are:
Writing
1. Write a one line hook for ANYA and submit it to the Querytracket.net contest
2. Finish writing the critique for DB and email it out
3. Write the critiques for SR and SW and email them out before the weekend
4. Revise ANYA, adding more layers and depth
Fitness
1. Drink more water and cut back on the cran-apple juice.
2. Get BOOC (Butt Out Of Chair) and check on the strawberries.
3. Rake the leaves off my flower beds
4. See about transplanting the day lilies over toward the large boulder at end of the driveway.
Hope everyone has a good week with their writing!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter/Passover. Mine was quiet, which would have been great if I had managed to do any writing, but I ended up just dubbing around. Made a stab at writing a few critiques, but I gave up halfway through the morning and just hung out... I didn’t even do much reading. I need to make some Spring Tonic and get my blood moving, I am such a lump on a log lately.
My Goals for this week are:
Writing
1. Write a one line hook for ANYA and submit it to the Querytracket.net contest
2. Finish writing the critique for DB and email it out
3. Write the critiques for SR and SW and email them out before the weekend
4. Revise ANYA, adding more layers and depth
Fitness
1. Drink more water and cut back on the cran-apple juice.
2. Get BOOC (Butt Out Of Chair) and check on the strawberries.
3. Rake the leaves off my flower beds
4. See about transplanting the day lilies over toward the large boulder at end of the driveway.
Hope everyone has a good week with their writing!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Clean Slates - BEACHMO Goals - Results - Week One
Cross-posting to clean_slates
I took an early virtual walk on the beach this morning looking for sand dollars and wishing the weather would warm up. Anybody else out enjoying the BEACHMO beach?
I’m afraid this week has been sort of slow on both the writing and fitness fronts. I need to get back into the swing of things.
Writing
No major revising/critiquing done as most of the week was spent wearing my moderator’s hat. This is the second time in 2 months that members in two oof my groups have left at the same time. So I spent most of the week posting notices, reading the bios and writing samples that came in... then making the hard decision of who would be in which group. And to be fair to everyone, I wrote the names on slips of paper, put them in a hat and drew out 4 names. But I'm afraid that my choice ticked off one writer who felt that they should have been chosen. Hey, I was as fair as I could be, and they had a 50% chance of being chosen.
Fitness
Started cutting back on the cran-apple juice and drinking more water but yesterday a mother of a DB member sent me a large surprise package in the mail. When I opened it up I discovered that the box was crammed full of homemade chocolate Easter eggs, bunnies, and chickens, along with pink peeps all nestled in pink Easter grass... there went my diet all too h*** But the dark and milk chocolates were sooo good!!! Thank you, Florence!!
I took an early virtual walk on the beach this morning looking for sand dollars and wishing the weather would warm up. Anybody else out enjoying the BEACHMO beach?
I’m afraid this week has been sort of slow on both the writing and fitness fronts. I need to get back into the swing of things.
Writing
No major revising/critiquing done as most of the week was spent wearing my moderator’s hat. This is the second time in 2 months that members in two oof my groups have left at the same time. So I spent most of the week posting notices, reading the bios and writing samples that came in... then making the hard decision of who would be in which group. And to be fair to everyone, I wrote the names on slips of paper, put them in a hat and drew out 4 names. But I'm afraid that my choice ticked off one writer who felt that they should have been chosen. Hey, I was as fair as I could be, and they had a 50% chance of being chosen.
Fitness
Started cutting back on the cran-apple juice and drinking more water but yesterday a mother of a DB member sent me a large surprise package in the mail. When I opened it up I discovered that the box was crammed full of homemade chocolate Easter eggs, bunnies, and chickens, along with pink peeps all nestled in pink Easter grass... there went my diet all too h*** But the dark and milk chocolates were sooo good!!! Thank you, Florence!!
Friday, April 3, 2009
Established Critique Group Has Openings
The Story Weavers (SW) Critique Group has two openings. We are a small critique group which has been in operation since 2004. SW is a combination of picture book, chapter book, MG and YA writers, both published and pre-published. Submissions have also included poetry and nonfiction, as all forms of children's literature are welcome. The members of SW pride themselves on their honest, yet helpful critiques.
If you are a dedicated writer and this sounds like it might be the group for you, please tell me a little something about yourself:
1. How long have you been writing for children?
2 Would you consider yourself to be a beginner, intermediate, or advanced writer?
3. Do you have experience being in a critique group, either online or face-to-face?
4. What special skills/experience will you be bringing to the group?
5. Do you have conference/workshop experience? Which ones have you attended?
6. Are you published? If so, in what genre?
Please send your answers to the above questions, along with a writing sample to: whiskersink at yahoo dot com. Please put Critique Group Opening-Blogger in the subject line.
Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon,
S A Putnam, Moderator
If you are a dedicated writer and this sounds like it might be the group for you, please tell me a little something about yourself:
1. How long have you been writing for children?
2 Would you consider yourself to be a beginner, intermediate, or advanced writer?
3. Do you have experience being in a critique group, either online or face-to-face?
4. What special skills/experience will you be bringing to the group?
5. Do you have conference/workshop experience? Which ones have you attended?
6. Are you published? If so, in what genre?
Please send your answers to the above questions, along with a writing sample to: whiskersink at yahoo dot com. Please put Critique Group Opening-Blogger in the subject line.
Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon,
S A Putnam, Moderator
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