May 22, 2009 - Blast you, plumbing!

Life -

My mother's hot water situation continues to be a threat to my already tenuous sanity. I think I may have figured out where I went wrong. With the bottom element useless, we had merely taped off the wires that previously led to the element, assuming it would be needed to prevent any kind of fire situation, but now, I think there's a possibility that the upper element is failing because the lower is still connected, but where it hooks to the element, there isn't a completed circuit. Either that or I blew the element. If that's the case, I can switch it. This morning I tried out the element wrench I bought for my previously mangled lower one and it worked like a charm. The element started unscrewing with a minimum of effort. Of course, in my early morning haze, I neglected to remember that the water heater was still pressurized and filled with water.... While I soaked myself, Lindsay rifled through the slightly creepy collection of preserves that my grandparents stored in the crawlspace/cellar. She eventually found one with a date: 1964.

I had to work tonight too, an odd day in the middle of my days off because we're still short managers. We had an excellent dude in today that I can only describe as a 55 year old hillbilly Matthew Mcconaughey. He was wandering aimlessly around the store until my cashier asked the gentleman if she could help him. He explained that he'd been locked in the car while his mother shopped, but he wasn't a dog, and he could leave if he wanted, dammit! Then he saw his mom and said that he'd better get back in the car before she saw him. My favorite parts were his leather vest and his laid back vibes, man.

Writing -

I have a sudden and looming deadline for my novel. After checking out a pretty good pile of YA and 3-6 grade novels from the library, I decided that I should start looking into publishers. As I browsed, I stumbled across a yearly contest from a fairly large publishing company for a Young Adult/Children's novel publishing contract.

The prize is $1500 and a $7500 advance against royalties as well as a standard publishing contract for both a hardcover and softback novel. The main criteria is that it is written for a 3-6 grade reading level and that it falls between 96 and 160 pages double spaced.

Now, I don't really have any illusions that I'll win the contest; most of the previous winners have been more traditional and they've largely contained an ethnic element, such as an African American boy growing a garden in an inner city community garden, not a bookworm boy being haunted by ghosts in a spooky northwest fishing village, but entering in the contest will do one major thing for me. It will force me to write with a certain goal in mind, not just randomly when I feel like it. The other definite upside is that while they wont provide feedback, at least there's a pretty high likelihood of my manuscript being read, and they have chosen honorable mentions in the past to print as well.

Of course, my main hurdles at this point are time and consistency. I currently have around 27,400 words written, and I estimate the total book at 45,000 so I'm progressing well, but I have 39 days to complete a first draft, make at least two full edits and draw a few of the accompanying illustrations, as well as work at my graves job full time.... could be tight! I'm also worried that as I read it back after I finish that the tone and writing of the book will vary between a children's fiction, one meant for an older crowd, like high school age, and an adult novel. I've found that I pick up influences from what I read quite strongly.

I completed 733 words on Wednesday, 3637 on Thursday, and 1379 today. I'm off the next three, so I hope to really bust out the chapters. Besides, I'm at the fun part to write, the dramatic part!

At any rate, wish me luck, I'm really going to need it!

The Last Sentence -

He missed his parents terribly.

From "The Whispering Ferns - A Moonstone Bay Mystery"

May 18, 2009 - Michelle Obama owes me an apology.

I have been pretty bad at updating anything lately, been too busy to really be online much, and our connection has been spotty the last few days, which usually just ends up annoying me enough that I give up. (I think the recent winds may have blown our internet receiver on the roof askew or something...) At any rate, here's an update on our lives and eventually I'll have to find time to comment on the 6 or so books I've read since my last reviews.

LIFE -

I've spent the last few days fighting with plumbing, yet again, but this time on my mom's end. We decided to try and milk the last few bits of luck we had and exchange her currently dead and over a decade old hot water heater with my half dead one that we just replaced, rather than buying a new one for a house that she will likely be in for less than 3 months (Hopefully) Of course, that meant we still had to get the old one off, and moved, with it 5/6 full of water, in a crawlspace with dirt (or more accurately mud) floors and 5' ceilings. This was not a fun task, but with my brother and I slowly sinking into the ground beneath the house, we got it shifted 3 feet over, and with a minimal amount of effort installed my old one instead.... Only to have nothing happen. I don't know what's wrong, its hooked up, filled with water, and there's power to the thermostat and element, but its not heating. I didn't have time to fiddle with it at the time, but now I'm wondering if it could have something to do with us just taping off the bottom element's wires rather than hooking up the old, busted element... could that make the upper one non-functional? Of course, there's the possibility that the other element is dead now too, it was in the rain for 2 days before my mom's died and I thought about switching them, maybe it crapped out... Grr. I'll say it again, I hate plumbing.

We've been pretty slack on the dog walking front as well, sadly, they've gone walk-less for 3 days, though we've been exercising them. . . Mowed the lawn for the first time this season, shocked that my mower started on the third pull rather than the 30th. It's been hot the last couple of days, around 90, which makes it hard to sleep during the day... summer could be a long season.

Work has been odd, we're currently in the process of buying out a few Rite Aid drug stores in the area, and with it, hiring some of the employees, which is great; we need them, we're currently pretty darn short handed, unfortunately, the thing was supposed to be done 2 months ago, and we just finished the first of 4 yesterday, which means we've been running with half the usual managers, making everything a little more difficult. I've worked the last few nights with only myself and a pharmacist on duty, which leaves me with this conflicting choice between trying to get things done between customers and not, but at least I tried, and not doing anything all night and using it as an excuse. Naturally, the customers are crazy as usual. I had a customer call and complain that we had the incorrect spelling of the word Stationery on the sign above our aisle. Sure, we do have it spelled Stationary, and I was aware of that, but its also been there for over 5 years like that. She told me that she was horribly offended, and she was calling corporate because we needed to fix it immediately. I fought the urge to explain to her that it meant the aisle didn't move. She also told me that she had written a letter to Michelle Obama, chastising her for using I instead of ME in a speech, and that she was expecting a letter of apology. I too! Me want apology!

Then, last night, I had a customer that made it ALL worth while, I had a 5 foot tall leprechaun come in. Either that, or a really odd 60 year old cross dresser. He was wearing a blackish-green fedora with a little rose pin in it, had long wavy gray hair to his shoulders, wore a cream colored button up blouse with a flowery lace design down the front, some generic slacks, and shiny black shoes with a sensible inch high square heel, topped off by delicate gold buckles. And while he didn't pay with gold, he did pay all in dimes and nickels... I was very tempted to try and capture him, but he looked like he'd had a rough night.

The good news is that Lindsay is currently in discussions to work a comparable overnight rotation at her job, which would mean we'd see a lot more of each other and have the same days off.

WRITING -

Well, unfortunately, not a lot of progress here. I wrote a rough plot summary for a humorous book I had an idea for, around 800 words there, and last night I managed to get in around two thousand words, bringing my total on my YA novel to 19,754 words, which is just under halfway... I think I may go longer than 50,000 words though... we'll see.

THE LAST SENTENCE -
Can they cure his curse, so that they can be together forever, or will her wicked stepfather and his evil hordes find them first?
(Untitled romantic pirate/zombie/werewolf/vampire novel)

April 23, 2009

Just a quick update. I hope to get back to the Motel search posts ASAP, but I need to edit the photos for the next part, and every time I sit down to do that, I decide that I should be working on my Sister-In-Law's wedding photos instead, but I'll get back to it. In the meantime, Linz and I are gradually becoming acclimated and resigned to giving up the search in an active fashion for the time being. Since we got home from our vacation, we've started getting the yard ready for summer, trimming the bushes, raking the yard, realizing that we'd dumped the boxes of yard sale stuff on top of all of my yard work supplies like the mower, buying a couple of shrubberies for the weird L in the back by the RV parking, trying to decide how to best create a little private patio area... Most of the work is in its infancy now, but once we do more than talk about it, I'll have to take some pictures. We have quite a few plans, all geared towards enjoying our time here more.

I've also been trying unsuccessfully for the last two days to drain and replace the element in our water heater. Turns out it's a bit more work than I'd anticipated, and the element itself is being extremely stubborn. For some reason, plumbing and I do not get along. The last one I attempted, replacing the spout on the tub, resulted in my tearing the entire pipe out of the setting, creating a huge mess, and had to beg a friend's husband to bail me out. If I can't manage to unscrew this damn element, I may have to do the same again. Maybe there's a trick I'm missing.

Bah to plumbing. Nice to have, crap to do.