Time......

I am teaching a class on making little folding photobooks. TONIGHT! I really should be cutting foam core board so I can make the class easier than it would be. But I am here blogging. Time has never been my friend, I never have enough of it. I had good intentions of doing the BIAM challenge this month and life happened and the thing that steals time did. I dont know where an entire month has gone. Oh well i am not behind on anything but my library books so that is good. :)

4 more posts!!!!!!!!!!! Are you getting excited?

Back to school

I have it in my hands, the audio tape and worksheets, so I can relearn the grammar needed to write better. It has turned out to be a good day. :) I have recieved two really good crits and am still working on the suggestions that Mike has given me. And I had an awesome scene play through my head this morning. So inspite of my poor DD being sick, some stomach flu thingie. Life is good.

5 more posts!!!!!

I am back in black!

It arrived this afternoon. My new lap top! Whoo hoo! I am psyched, it is everything I want and more. My DH kept telling me he'd give me his old walmart special and he'd take mine but I said no way! This is my Dell and you can have the other one. Too bad I get it with just one more day in BIAM. Oh well theres allways next time. :)

So later today I'll be back to my life in a new laptop!!!

I'm not normally outgoing....

I couldn’t sleep last night. Today I am hosting a youth writing workshop for my daughter and her friends. Then I am having the first meeting of our new writers group at my house. AAAAA!!!!!!! I should be cleaning. But I’m bloging. Oh well everything will pull itself together in the end right? It always does. So… Wish me luck ehe?

7 more posts!!!!!

Okay I screwed up...

I have been posting for a while now about the process that I am taking to go from a writer to a published author. In that process I have had alot of help and as Mike/muta has reminded me I havnt thanked any of you so here goes.

Thank you goes to:

Mike Muta for reading it and giving a guys perspective.
Janice LeFevre reader, crit.
Cathy Witbeck reader
Connie S Hall reader
Gary Hansen for my magic sentence nudge.
Those at AI who put up with stupid questions.
Those on Hatrack who did too.
Clarissa and her hubby for a punct edit and another guys perspective.
Marilyn for an enthusiastic reader and bended ear. (And for rooting for Mathilde)
Kellie Shepherd for being my FIRST reader and my techie consult.
Weston Elliot for my line and content edit and for being honest and nice at the same time. (SCRaWL)
Shanna Blythe for grammar help and content edit and the honest and nice comments and discussions. "
Jewell Punzallan reader and comments. "
Karen, Shari, and other SCRaWL members for tollerating my madness. (and friendship)
James Dashner who nudged me to submit it.
Tristi Pinkston who gave me a crit,and two BIAM challenges.
All those who have read my blog and comented.
For my family and Shannon who has led me to my first real submit.
My hubby who in his own round about way has supported me and has warmed up to the idea that my dream might actually come to life.
My boys who tollerate hours at the computer.
My daughter who has read everything and is my personal cheerleader.

And Paulette, my best friend and sister. Without who I would NEVER let anyone see my MS let alone give me any advise. And who through good and bad has stayed by my side, who had allowed me and Noble a place in her heart.

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU. I WOULDNT BE WHERE I AM W/O YOU!!!!!!

Much Love, Michelle

An accidental or reluctant romance author????

So today, I was talking to my best friend on the phone. Last week I mentioned to her that an idea for a romance was brewing in the back of my head. She laughed and mentioned that some people she had talked about my book with, had wondered why I don't write romance. I laughed and told her that I am a Sci-fi/fantasy writer. NOT a romance writer. Today the subject came up again, I laughed about it. I dont write romance I told her. You do she insisted, every writing exercise we have done, every alternate storyline...all these ideas deal with the "affairs of the heart" You are a romance writer, your romances just occur in the future with awesome action. I of course, was still denying it, but I have thought about it since then. Perhaps I write future romance intead of soft S-F. I dont know. I'll give it more thought as I wait for my lap top to arrive.


Meanwhile, I have asked a male sci-fi reader to look at my MS and he has come back with tons of suggestions. Some of it I will ignore (Dodge Prowlers are deep purple, see above pic.). Some of it I am paying attention to and Dominion Day 1 is back in queue for a rewrite. I mind of course, especially when I felt like it was almost ready, but I promised myself and Noble that I would give dominion day the best I could and so I am mulling it over in my head again.

My life in a desktop or.... divine intervention

MY lap top is dying. The fan isn't working and it not only sounds horrible but it is soooo slow. So I am relegated to the desk top once again, Sigh! The lap top is much easier. So as I put it away I was bemoaning the loss of my personal computer. We could replace it but after taxes, so I would have to wait.

Later that night my bilogocial mom called saying that her father was in the hospital and not expected to live through the night. After we talked about her father I asked her for my half brothers cell # he is a Dell tech. I asked him about the fan and found out that it is apart of the motherboard and not easily replacable or cheap. He told me of a special on Dell.com where I could get a loaded lap top for a small price. So my DEAR husband ordered one for me! I am so happy it should be here in 3-5 days!

You never know when God is going to intervene in your life and in what form.

10 more posts!!!

Seven things about me...

I was tagged with this a long time ago but only now have remembered to post on it.

These are seven things I bet most of you don’t know about me.

1) I am adopted.

2) I am part Gypsy. My biological mother was born in a gypsy wagon in a potato field in Idaho.

3) I hate country music.

4) I am not musical but I own a lap harp and a chanter.

5) I love paper crafting, but not scrapbooking. My focus in HS in art was paper cutting. I had a lot of fun.

6) I own an insane amount of rubber stamps.

7) I am addicted to Dove chocolate caramels.

11 more posts!!!!!

Where'd that come from?

So… I have lived in my house for almost three months now and finally decided to put the pictures up in the livingroom. With a sudden burst of energy I hung them this morning while my kids got ready for school. I decided to wait to hang the baby pictures until I can go to the store and get matching frames. It looks so much better in there. And the box that had the pictures in it can get tossed now. I brought up all of my records and placed them by my new record player, the one I got for Christmas. And took the Christmas books downstairs. Then fed the baby and straightened the kitchen and my room. Now I am clean and sitting in front of the computer… forgive me if I pass out! I love energy bursts but the after effects?

12 posts to go!

Okay, it is decided...

Okay, since my anniversary is in February, and valentines and my favorite color is pink and my blog is pink. I have decided that the prize for my hundreth blog will be a cute little valentines present.

Soooo... the rules you ask?

Simply, post a comment on my hundreth post on my blog and I'll draw one name from the comments and mail them their present when I get their snail mail addy.

See? I told you this was going to be fun!

WOW! 85 posts.

I just realized that I am at 85 posts (now 86) I am almost to a hundred. I guess I have a lot to say. I have seen some celebrate their 100th post with a drawing or something. I'll do something, I love to celebrate. So keep watching through the next 14 posts. This is going to be fun!

The adventure continues.

Tonight I took two of my children to the post office and then to the store. My Ds had birthday money to spend. While I went in to the post office I noticed what looked like a small white dog on the dash of a car with the interior light on and the engine running. My children noticed it also. As I came back to my car the kids asked me what it was because with further cinsideration it appeared to be the white hair of an elderly woman. I stood there and watched the car for a minute. Sure enough it was an elderly woman. She was slumped against the dash of her car. At this point in time I began to panic so I jumped into my car and drove to the gas station across the street and went inside and called 911. After the call I pulled just up the street from the post office and watched the car while I waited for the Sheriffs dept. to come. It seemed to take forever. After the police were there I left I didn't want to be in the way, but I wonder if she's all right. She appeared alive as the sheriff's attended her so I am somewhat relieved. Whew!

My Saturday Adventure.

When we had a little extra money I allowed my DH to buy a plane, it is a small one seater ultralight. Even though my DH is a geologist by trade, he is a pilot by heart. When we started school we didn’t know there were pilot programs or he’d be a commercial pilot now instead of a mine geologist. This little plane gives him the excuse to get in the air and relieve stress. Which is a good thing. However, we were storing the plane at an airport whose hangar rentals were almost 100. A month, and over 3 hours from our home. My DH found a hangar that was not only just an hour away but only 40.00.

So with kids at home and baby in tow, we drove to Cedar Fort to get the plane. DH dressed like an Eskimo (it is an open cockpit) got in and flew it to Nephi. With me driving like a mad woman to get there before the sun started to set. So in Nephi he refueled and headed to Mount Pleasant. Where, when he landed, the fuel tank slipped off the straps and sat on my DH’s legs. It took us a few minuets to get my DH out of the plane and fix the tank straps so it wouldn’t happen again. We stopped at a great little buffet and ate dinner before going home.

I sat in the truck as he readied the plane in Cedar Fort and had some cool ideas for my book watching him do a preflight check and pull the plane from the hangar etc. I have a too active an imagination to be normal.

But that wasn’t the Caveat of the day. As I was feeding the baby I saw a bird swoop past the truck and towards the plane. Needless to say the bird hit the propeller and was killed instantly. I was sick to the point of throwing up. It was awful. I am a bird owner and lover. It was a scene that rolled over and over in my head the whole day. Sadly I was looking for a opening scene for a book I am working on. I think this is it. It will be hard to write but it seems perfect. Sometimes inspiration doesn’t come from the greatest of situations.

Funny Phrases

Dh and I went to a game night with our church group on Friday. It was alot of fun. Although we only stayed for one round of games. Our babysitter is grumpy with a broken foot. :( Poor thing, I have been giving her the RX meds after school but it makes her really loopy so we have been doing just motrin during the day. Anyway the object of the post is we played a game called boxers or briefs. It is alot like apples to apples. One of the quotes was:

I wish the voices in my head would tell me something usefull.

We had a good laugh, but I thought it was especially appropriate for those of us who are writers.

Fortune cookies,

700blankpages' blog was about fortune cookies and it reminded me of the one I got last friday. The food was so-so and the service terrible, but the fortune was astounding.

You will soon be awarded a great honor.

Okay, I am not superstisious, but I belive that for me fortune cookies have definate meaning. Ask Paulette she can confirm that. :) I am entered in two writing contests in February and March and this fortune makes me feel optimistic.

An Apostrophe!

Okay it was an epithany but I like the mispronounciation. (inside writers joke?) I was sitting in my sons 5th grade class room last night for parent teacher conference. We had finished talking about my son and I felt the prompting to ask them about my grammar problems. At least where to go or look for help. She was exited and gave me a worksheet and told me to come back for more next week. They have tapes and worksheets to go alog with them. I was inspired! I know it! So instead of looking for some high school teacher that I don't know and would probably feel intimidated by. I have my sons gentle and sweet teacher for help. It has really paid off for me to learn to stick my neck out a bit.

I am, sort of, going back to school and I am excited.

I wish my 15yo DS would understand the privlidge of having a "free" education. I wish I could do it again and commit to memory the rules and work hard to become a good writer back then.

My Learning Process

I have found that rejection doesnt hurt as much as I feared it would. :(

Okay, so I need a little work on punctuation, I can deal with that. Really the solution is to read the entire 300+ pages out loud, and place the commas where they need to be. That will only take a half a life time. *Sigh*

I have ran into a problem. While I am writing in the ed tense,(instead of ing.). I am writing in passive voice and I can't seem to wrap my brain around how to fix it. I can tell you that passiveis "The ball was thrown by Jon." and active is "Jon threw the ball". But, I have hit a wall in regards to changing the passive to active with out allways saying: subject action object.

The virtual editor I used, that has shown me where all of my passive voice phrases in my MS are, says I only use it 7% of the time. That is ALOT in a 106,000 word text tho'. I really want to go back to school but in a small town it isnt going to be easy. The High School English teacher tutor is looking better all the time. :)

My DD the Klutz....

Friday, she tripped at school for the third time that DAY, falling off the bleachers. They x-rayed it and confirmed a severe sprain. Today they called me and said it was broken, the radiologist at the hospital said there is a fracture. So today following Fridays adventure, I was back at the clinic with my DD for a boot instead of a splint. At this rate I'll never get intercession done. *Sigh*

Another Reason I'd Like to Write by a Pseudoneme

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 26 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I wish I knew less...

Okay the big emotional snafu was for naught, I had a moment of name mistake and thought this critique was from someone I had met earlier and looked up to as a published author. Silly me. But I realized that I do live literally next door to a high school so I am going to see if an English teacher will help my “issues” in grammar and punct. I will get it figured out.

Any ways on to my topic. She brought up something that did make me think. She said I needed to give her more reason to like the characters. I didn’t panic about this but thought deeply…

Do I know Noble too well to write him effectively?

Think about it he has been in my head for almost 20 years in one form or another. I will blog about his evolution from David to Noble sometime.

The question still stands.
Do I know nobles favorite breakfast cereal? Yes Frosted flakes.
Favorite color? Green.
Favorite band? at the moment it is Fall Out Boy.
Favorite attire? Jeans black pointy toe cowboy boots and old rock band t shirts. But he wears white shirts and plaid over shirts for Lyris.
Favorite car? His prowler still but he likes his yellow 1932 Ford roadster too.

Case in point… I know too much about Noble to write him effectively for readers. I assume that you know him as well as I do. With my other main characters I write more internal dialogue and description and other things to give the reader an idea of who they are dealing with.

Not that I mind having him in my head. In fact… I love it. But for my reader, I wish I knew less.

Oh and By The Way... His favorite pajamas? Pink flannel with red hearts a gift from his best friend…

Update on my MS

I recieved a e-mail from my bilogical mother. She says the publisher is reading it and likes it. This is good news as I have recieved a crit that said my punctuation needs work. Sigh. The STUPID gramar rules are what I strugle with the most. I know I attended english classes in High School I even got almost all A's my junior year. I just dont remember what I learned. I want to go back to school so badly. There is a USU extension right here in town and I need grammar classes.

So... to off set the depression of the bad Crit, with the good news that the publisher likes my MS.

Never send a man to do a woman's job

My Dh stopped at the grocery store on the way home from taking the kids to a museum saturday. I had told him the fridge looked bare that morning. So he goes to the store and comes back with day old doughnuts, 2 pkgs of steaks, a turkey, a ham, ice cream, 2 pkgs of bacon, 3 dips, 2 bags of chips, cake mixes, bananas, carrots and cabbage, toy guns for the kids, and NO milk! AND he rented a 2 tape war movie SIGH!

This is why I go shopping, or go with him.

I love my DH!

Writing School...

My brain is whirling at the moment. I have set goals to continue writing through out the year. Yet I am the mother of six and a home. My free time is scattered and writing time is rare.

I discussed this with Shanna one of my writing friends back in November. I wish there was just a writing school. Where my day was structured and I had to do my assignments because I was recieving a grade of sorts. (I guess publishing is the final grade right?) You see I work very well with structure just not deadlines. :)

My ideal would be 3-4 hrs writing, 1 hr editing, 1 hr research if needed, 1 hr publishing persual, and a cosy lunch with my writer friends for support. (of course blogs and web surfing would be my homework.)

It could work. I could go to writers school half time on days I needed to, and call in sick too.

Soooo.... How about it? Any one up to going to school with me? What is your ideal of a Writers School?

Happy New Year...

It IS the begining of a new year. I suppose that I should have some resolutions to motivate me. However, if I call them resolutions I am bound by fate, to blow them out of the water by the end of January. So a goal sounds more appropriate, and I have a few.

One, I will continue to look for a home for my Dominion Day series, I believe the story needs to be told.
Two, I will finish the vampire story I have begun. Intercession deserves to be finished.
Three, I will try to be more organized time and home wise.
Four, I will continue to Write because I love writing not to publish or for money, although it would be nice.... :)
Five and most important, Be nice to myself all the time.

I'm back,

I've been gone a few days. First a surprise visit from my best friend had me busy for days. I love surprises. Then my kids got sick. So it has been a busy week.

I did change the side bar of this blog even if I didn't post. I am counting down till the final round of the Amazon/Penguin contest, added a submission post and updated my Book in a Month challenge. Hope you like the TINY changes. :)