Snow again? Really?

Why must Mother Nature torture me so?  Why is there all this white stuff covering the ground, vehicles, porch?  This is nonsense!  Ugh!

Here in north Georgia we somehow accomplished a snow accumulation of around 2-3 inches (just going by what's on my front porch).  I don't know why, but I do know that I don't like it one little bit.  "I have plans," she screams skyward.  "I don't want anymore winter!"

Yes, yes, I've mentioned that snow is pretty.  And yes, I was probably excited about that first snow of the season, weeks and weeks ago.  But now, I'm downright, utterly, extremely sick and tired of all this cold, mushy, dreary weather.  Not only that, but this new batch of snow is really putting a kink in our plans to go out of town next week.

If this mess isn't all out of here by tomorrow we'll have to cancel our reservations at the camp ground.  :-(

On the upside, before the snow started yesterday we waved good-bye to my van as it was hauled away by a tow truck and taken to the mechanic.  Yay!  I can't wait to get her back.  The only thing I'll miss from driving Tim's car around are his huge speakers.  I can listen to my music the way it was intended to be listened to... LOUD!  Oh well, I'll trade thumping speakers for space and comfort any day.  :-)

Today, well, I don't know what I'll be doing today.  I had planned to do some camper cleaning and packing, but there's still a lot of snow out there.  Burrrr!  I do know that we'll go out to pick the kids up from my mom's around noon.  I have some errands to run, but don't know if we'll get to them in this mess.  Overall, it's a day of whatever happens happens. 

A little update on Time For Death:  There is this literary agency that's been my top pick for a while now.  I've been putting of submitting a query to them for a while.  No one likes rejection, but that's part of a writer's life.  Nonetheless, I put off submitting because of the fear of being rejected by my to choice... kind of like college choices.  However, I finally broke down and submitted to them.  You can't find success by sitting back in fear or uncertainty.  If you don't try, you'll never have the chance to succeed.

So I queried my favorite agency, hit the send button on that e-mail, jumped off a cliff in hopes of hitting water instead of concrete.  I told Tim, "There's no taking it back now."  And now I wait... 

Like I told someone the other day, "In this game, you wait for them.  They don't cater to you.  You'll hear from them when they get good and ready for you to hear from them."  We writers must be patient and try our hardest to resist the temptation to obsess.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Okay, that's it this morning.  I suppose I should go do something.  Bah, humbug to winter!  Try to stay warm if you're dealing with this nastiness too. 

Happy Monday Morning

Good morning ladies and gents! It's that time of the week again... the start of a new one.  What will you accomplish this week? What plans do you consider do-able? Will you end the week feeling like you've made the best of it?  I hope we all reach our weekly goals and come out unscathed.  :-)

This is another busy week around my house.  Of course, when isn't it a busy one around here?  LOL.  The girls have their routine dental cleaning this afternoon.  I have writing to do, phone calls to make, and Tim has a job interview to go to!!  Woohoo!  Fingers crossed that things go well for him.

I'm also making plans (and reservations) for a camping trip that we'll be taking th week of February 15th.  The kids will be out of school that week, so we figured we'd go away.  Luckily, my kind of camping is in a heated RV with all the amenities of home--bathroom, heat, a/c, running water, tv, stove, fridge, and Wi-Fi!  I don't camp any other way.  ;-)  I'm a hotel kind of girl, so you can forget about getting me to sleep in a tent.  No way, no how!

It's non-stop around here, but I wouldn't know what to do with myself if it wasn't.  As a side note, I post a lot throughout the week on my Facebook page.  It holds more details about my day-to-day life than anywhere else on the web.  If you aren't already a friend, feel free to pop on over and send me a request.  :-)

Yesterday I spent some time and got the February issue of my newsletter ready and scheduled.  It'll go out on Wednesday.  For those who don't know, my newsletter goes out once a month, the first Wednesday of the month, and the subscriber list is ONLY used for that purpose. If you're interested in becoming a subscriber, stop by and sign up.  If you sign up before Wednesday you'll receive this month's newsletter.

Tomorrow I'll be starting Excerpt Tuesday.  Over the next three weeks I'll be sharing an excerpt from each of my Alex & Fiona books.  Here is the schedule:

Feb. 2, 2010: A Midnight Infatuation
Feb. 9, 2010: A Birth at Dawn
Feb. 16, 2010: A Twilight Abduction

I hope you'll stop by and check it out.  For those of you that have read my books, feel free to share what your favorite scene was from any of the books.  I like hearing from readers and love knowing what parts they liked the best.  :-)

Okay, I'm out for today.  Time to go throw some laundry in the dryer and start another washer load.  Have a lovely day and welcome to February!

On our way to Charlotte, NC.

Good morning ladies & gents.  How is your weekend going?

Yesterday turned out to be a great day.  I had absolutely no plans for the day, and yet it turned out to be a busy day.  Tim and I spent the morning together and had a "nap" while the 4 year old enjoyed a showing of Dora & Diego.  LOL.

Afterwards I had a shower and then we went out for lunch.  Tim and the youngest wanted to hit the lunch buffet at Pizza Hut.  Luckily, they had a buy 1, get 1 free deal on it because I never come close to eating enough to justify the cost of a buffet.  I had a salad & 2 slices of pizza with a glass of ice water.  LOL.  Definitely not enough food to justify it.  I think the 4 year old ate more than I did... and her's was child's price.  LOL!

Oh, and I got bombarded by questions about my books.  This was the first time that I've been eating and had someone come to my table to ask me about my work.  I was chewing on a carrot stick from my salad at the time.  Not too sure I liked that, but at least an entire restaurant of people were introduced to me when the manager shouted to her employees that she was right and, "She IS an author!"  I seriously hope that I don't have to start going out in full make-up all the time now.  LOL!

I gave her my card and wrote the titles to my Alex & Fiona books on the back for her.  You never know when you'll discover a new reader (or when they discover you!).  ;-)

After that we went to a feed store to pick up cedar chips for the dog's house, since cooler temps are on the way for this weekend.  We also picked up a new chew bone for her.  That dog loves her chew bones.

The rest of yesterday went fairly routine:  pick-up time, dinner, laundry, packing for today!

In about an hour we'll be on the road and heading north to Charlotte, NC.  Tim wanted to go up yesterday, but that wasn't possible.  He wished the week, days, nights away until we finally arrived to this morning.  We'll be on the road for 6 hours, then we'll check into our hotel, rest for about half an hour, and then head to the track for all the pre-race stuff, shops, attractions, etc.

I won't be taking the laptop with me this trip, so I'll "see" you wonderful blog readers on Monday.  We'll be home Sunday evening (just in time to feed, bath, and send the kids off to bed), but I won't be posting a new entry until Monday.

For my Facebook friends, I'll turn my phone notifications back on for the weekend, so you'll be able to get in touch with me if you need to.  :-)

Oh, one last thing before I go:  I've heard from two out of my five beta readers and the response has been great!  So far Time for Death is a hit (on this small level, LOL).  It makes me so happy that they're enjoying the story.  I'm looking forward to starting the next story on November 1st, and going more in-depth into the life and times of Liz Baker.  :-)

Okay, I'm out.  I need to feed the brats a quick breakfast and get everyone loaded into the van before Tim goes into cardiac arrest because we haven't left yet.  LOL.  Poor boy.

Have a great weekend!



*Image: Taken by me; October 2007; Our first trip to Charlotte.*

Sunday Morning

Morning everyone.  How has your weekend been?  It's been gorgeous here in north Georgia, but it's cloudy this morning.

Yesterday Tim & I got to sleep late since the kids went to Mom's Friday night.  We got up at 9:30, but I probably could've gone back to sleep for at least another hour.  I really needed the rest it seems.  I did wake up quite refreshed though.  :-)

When the girls came home we spent several hours outside cleaning up around the house and enjoying the sunshine.  We cleared out the pool and put it away.  Straightened up the outside furniture and focused them around the rock firepit Tim & I built a few years ago.  We don't use it much during the summer but it gets used a lot in the autumn.  Then we confisgated the dog's stick collection.  That dog picks them up all over the year and piles them in one spot.  It gets bad if we don't clear them out from time to time.  LOL.

After that we spent the evening just hanging out and enjoying our time.  Tim watched some Nascar and football.  The kids played games together.  I watched some missed shows on the dvr & Hulu.  Just stuff like that.

Ooohh, I did find out that I finally reached 1 million pageviews on Associated Content on Friday.  Woohoo!!  It was actually 1,000,006 pageviews.  ;-)  A big thank you to all of you who have read my articles from time to time!  It makes me happy.  :-)

In about an hour we'll be going to visit the in-laws.  After that we'll come home, I'll do laundry, Tim'll watch Nascar, the kids will play outside, and then I'll lock myself away to finish up my chapter writing.  It has to be done today as tomorrow and Tuesday will be dedicated to article writing.  I'm planning to make enough $$$ from the article writing over the next 2 weeks to cover all the expenses for our race trip on the 17th.  It won't be too difficult, but it does take 2 full days per week of article writing focus.

It'll be a fun trip though.  And it makes my man happy.  That's what matters in the end.  :-)

Okay, time for me to get going.  I need to go change clothes and make sure the kids are dressed.  Have a fabulous Sunday.  Go out and enjoy the sunshine, if you have some. 


*Image: Another lovely tag from my friend Mis*

And we're off... again!

Morning all! We're packing and getting ready to hit the road for the last time this summer. Thought I'd post a blog entry before shutting down and packing up the laptop to bring along with me. I never leave home on a trip without my laptop... even if where we're going has absolutely no internet access. Gotta have my baby with me. LOL.

So we'll be on the road in a couple of hours (unless Tim gets overly excited and wants to leave sooner) and will reach the hotel in Pigeon Forge, TN about 3 hours later. We were last up there in April for our anniversary.

It's funny because when we were first married (and 17 years old) we could get there in 2 hours. However, over the years our times have increased. I'm guessing we drove a lot faster when we were stupid teenagers with no kids to worry about. Hahaha!

I called yesterday to make our dinner reservations at Dixie Stampede for tomorrow at 6pm. We're all set!

Today we're just going to make it up there and hang out and enjoy the pool with the kids. Everyone is excited though. Hell, Tim was begging me to go yesterday, but I set my foot down with a resounding "NO" when I saw that the hotel price for Saturday was $80 and we're only paying $50 a night for Sunday and Monday. "Nope. You're jobless, remember?" LOL! Poor guy.

So anyway, we're leaving in a bit and will be home on Tuesday. I will still have internet access so feel free to email me if you need/want to. I'll only be checking them in the late evenings, so don't expect a speedy response.

Time to shut this down now. Have a great Sunday! <3

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It's Saturday? Wow, that was fast!

Good afternoon all. It's been a busy day around here. We're still out of town, and we certainly kept busy all day. It's fifteen miutes before 5pm and this is the first moment I've had to get on here to post

We started out the morning at 7am. Everyone got ready and we went downstairs for the breakfast buffet here in the hotel. Then we headed out to a nature trail that is just gorgeous. Tim and I had been there a few times over the years, but the last time was when the oldest was little. Soooo, we took the girls and everyone loved it. Unfortunately, with us being up in the mountains, my hair went frizzy and flat as soon as the cloudy mist started falling. Every sprinkle of dried hairspray simply dissolved in a matter of minutes. LOL!

We went early because I figured we'd be able to see more deer... and I was right! We saw about four dozen over the course of our drive. Not to mention wild geese and turkeys. We were so close to a few of the deer that Tim was taking pics with his camera phone. LOL! Here's one from my digital camera though.....

We walked through several old houses, a country store, a mill that grinds cornmeal, and loads of landscape with a flowing river and waterfalls. It was nice. Here's a good view that I caught....

It was a lot of fun and the girls were amazed by it all.

After we got back to civilization, we had lunch out, came back to the hotel, and then hit the pool. LOL. We spent 3 hours in the pool before I finally had to drag them all back to the room.

Yesterday we did some shopping in the next town over. One shop was having a heck of a sale and Tim & I picked up a beautiful candle holder set that will match perfectly with our red and black bedroom. It was a $30 set, marked down to only $8! I couldn't pass it up.

Here's a shot of the girls during our shopping...

Well, I promised you pictures today, and I gave you pictures today. LOL! We've had a great time for our anniversary. Granted, it would have been nicer to have Tim all to myself for four days so that I can have my way with him anytime, but it has been a nice family trip with a lot less fussing from the children than we usually endure when we take these trips. LOL!

In the morning we will have breakfast here and then head back toward home. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive, so it's not bad. We'll be home by lunchtime. Then I have four days of laundry to do. Blah! Laundry never ends, does it?

I hope you're all having a good weekend. :-)

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Back to work!

Well, my two week "vacation" between books is now over. It's time for me to get back to work and start on the next one. For the next couple of weeks, I'll be working on character development and trying to organize my thoughts, writing snippets, ideas, etc. all into a more manageable jumble. I have to get everything in order before I can sit down and start writing the actual book. I need to "get to know" my main character, her life, her friends, her job, her likes and dislikes, before I can write her story.

Since this isn't an Alex & Fiona story, it's like meeting a complete stranger. You have to go slowly, feel out who they are and what they think about. You can't rush the feeling of knowing someone forever. It has to come slowly, carefully, until you're so "tight" with them that it seems like they've been your best friend all your life. You have to build a relationship with your characters in order for them to feel comfortable enough to tell you their story.

Sound insane? Probably is! LOL!



On a side note: The hubby and I will be out of town this coming weekend. We are heading up to Charlotte, NC for a Nascar race. We'll be leaving early, early Saturday morning and coming back Sunday evening. The kids are staying the weekend with my mom. YAY!

I don't care for the races, but it's so much fun being away from home without the kids. LOL! I'll be guaranteed some fun times with the hubby. ;-)

If you're interested in my take on this race... from our trip last year... check out my article, 10 Things to Expect at a Nascar Race in Charlotte, NC. Ignore any misprints or wrong words, as I think I wrote it the very next day, and was so exhausted I didn't notice how badly it was written. LOL! Nevertheless, it's a good read if you've never been, or even if you have been. :-)

Okay, that's it for today. I'm off to make some lunch and spend some time with the 3 yr old. Spongebob has been entertaining her while mommy works, so now it's my turn! :-)

Have a great week!

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