I live!!!

Hello, hello all you wonderful people in Internet Land. How have all of you been? Me? I've been busy. And, as you can tell from the date of my last post, very absent. Sorry about that.

Or maybe no one noticed. *looks around* *shrugs*

In any case, here I am! *jazz hands*

So, since I have been extremely long winded in my posts in the past, I'm going to try and keep my posts from now on a little shorter. The plan (at the moment) is to do a post every week called the Thursday Three, letting you all know three things I've been up to or thinking about or reading or whatever. That way it's less stressful for me, less time consuming for you, and everyone wins and we all get to chat. Sounds excellent, yes? 

So, even though it is Friday, and not Thursday, (yesterday was Dude's birthday, so I was a bit busy) I thought I would give you the scoop on three things that have happened since the last time I posted.

1. We moved. Yep, we finally found a house in February that we loved in a good neighborhood and in March we moved. The kids did much better than we expected and even though we're constantly finding new things that need to be fixed or we want to change/update, it's a great house and it's been AWESOME having so much room for everyone. We're very excited to be in a home we know we can stay in long term.

2. I've discovered I hate revising. I finished Secret Story in May and was super excited to get to work editing and revising so it made sense. (It's BY FAR the messiest first draft I've ever written. Makes no sense to anyone else reading it right now.) So I printed it out and got to work with my red pen and post it notes. But by the time I finished there was SO MUCH red ink and notes EVERYWHERE that my confidence was feeling very, very small. So what could I possibly do to get my confidence back? Ditch it for a new story, of course! So right now I'm working on Shiny Idea. It's fun and makes me feel like I'm not a fool for loving to write. I am definitely going to get back to Secret Story, but I'm letting it rest for right now while Aubrey and Andrea finish reading it. Once I have their thoughts and notes, I'll get back to it. But for right now, Shiny Idea is my main squeeze. (I know, we did this with Bound in Ink, but I am determined to follow through with Secret Story. It's different and deserves to be fixed up.)

3. I've cut WAY back on reading. It's tangled into a lot of reasons, but mostly it was throwing my life way out of balance. By the time 2011 was over, I had read around 150 books in that year alone. (My goodreads shelf says otherwise, but I don't count rereads on there.) That's A LOT of books in a single year. And it was a problem. So now I try to read no more than 2 books a week. (You think that's a lot, but during the Library Madness of Winter 2011, I was reading about 5 books a week. Yeah.) It's hard, because I still want to read ALL THE BOOKS and I want to read them RIGHT NOW, but it's finally clicked that they will all still be there later. And it's been helpful to my writing, because as I've taken more time with my books, I'm noticing things I like/don't like in the writing and have applied those same principles to my own stories. It's been good for me I think. 

(*stops and examines post* Man, that got long anyway, didn't it. *headdesk* Sorry about that. I really will try working on that in the future.)

So, until we meet again next week, tell me, what have all of you been up to?

Radio Silence

Actually, I probably won't be that silent, but it was a good title so I'm leaving it.

Hey there world! Oh, you all look so lovely. I missed your faces. I've been so busy lately, I haven't had a chance to talk to you at all. What have I been up to? I'll tell you.

 - Buying a house. Yes. You heard me correctly. Our offer has been accepted on an adorable little home just a few minutes from where we live now. This is the main reason why you won't see much of me here for the next couple months. I have to pack up our place, clean it, clean the new house, and move our stuff into it, and then unpack it. This process makes me want to curl up in a ball and weep uncontrollably. You think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. I love moving to a new place, but I hate the actual process of moving. So. Much. Work. And we've been here for almost 5 years, so we have a lot of...stuff, everywhere. My family has already been warned that a mighty purging will be taking place alongside the packing. I am not moving things simply because it's in my home. (If you do happen to see me here, it will be to rant and rage about how much packing sucks. Prepare yourselves.) We should be in our new place by Christmas (or New Year's if we're slow), so that's our present to our family. Merry Christmas, you get a house! Not a bad deal.

- Writing. Secret Story is really becoming a unique experience. Usually when I write I have specific scenes floating around, and definitely an ending in mind that I work around and build towards. When I started Secret Story, it was VERY different from what it is now. And it's evolving even as I write it. I can already tell the beginning is going to need some rewrites to make what I'm working on now make sense. Also, I don't really have a plan for this story anymore. It's just kind of coming out as I write, which is both exciting and extremely terrifying. I don't have an ending! I don't know what happens next! Each time I sit down, my characters pull something that completely takes me by surprise. I'm almost to 25k, with the girls currently in possession of the first 12k. So far they like it, which is good because it's very dark and different from what I've written in the past. I'm excited to send them more - when they're ready, of course!

- Reading. The library book madness continues. Honestly, I will finish the stack on my  bookshelf, take them back, pull out a book I bought months ago to finally read it, and I get a call that at least 3 new books are on waiting for me. Gah! Once upon a time this wouldn't be such a problem, I could read those in a week and move on, but I've been reading things slower lately so I'm making less progress in the TBR pile. And silly as it may be, those books sitting there stress me out. I can't read my own books when I have library books in my possession. I know. I'm a nerd.

- Random family stuff. Dude has started occupational therapy for his sensory issues. Getting him to eat is a constant battle and now we're finally able to get him some help. Cross your fingers for us, because this is a big deal. Babies are popping up all over - with my newest niece being born last night, and I've been going through my own kids old clothing and toys and such to send to the appropriate people for their new babies. Sharing is caring you know. And we've been getting ready for the holidays and Diva's birthday next week, so all the crazy stressful things going on have a festive feel to them as well. 

Like I said, it's been busy around here. So, for the time being I'm putting anything and everything I can on the backburner so I don't completely lose my mind during this move. Hopefully around February my new house will be mostly unpacked and in decent order and I can come talk to you all again. Wish me luck in the meantime - I'm going to need it!

Do any of you have major things going on right now? And just because I'm curious, who's braving the madness and going shopping next Friday?

Goodbye Summer

Good morning everyone! Are we all having a wonderful week so far? Eh, mine's ok. We're still adjusting to having Dude in school and I'm figuring out how to best use those hours to my advantage. He's in school all day - which we are all loving. He absolutely adores going to school and the routine has made him a much happier boy. Diva is loving having the house and toys to herself without any fights or sneaking or protecting what she's playing with, so she's been quite pleasant lately. And me, well, let's just say that after a month and a half of my kids being sick of each other and fighting constantly, I'm VERY happy that they are happy. Plus, with Diva's naptime, I pretty much get 2-4 hours to myself 5 days a week. It's delicious.



So, while we've been adjusting, I've been thinking about my writing. And I'll be honest guys, I'm a little burned out. I pushed really hard to get Bound in Ink finished by the end of the summer - and finishing it early fried my brain a tad. After having my freakout/panic attack, I was able to simmer down a bit and lose myself in books. And it's been fabulous. I've discovered the heartbreaking amazingness that is Sarah Dessen - I'm now in the process of working my way through her books at my library. And I'm catching up on the books I've purchased over the last 6 months that I haven't had a chance to read yet. And on a particularly lazy day last week, I watched Anne of Green Gables, remembering how much I loved it and deciding to read the books, since I've never read them before. It's been incredibly refreshing, letting myself soak in the incredible writing of others to help get my own creative juices flowing a bit.

Which has led me to the decision I made last night. I'm taking a break from Bound in Ink. I think I've gotten way too obsessed with it to the point that the story isn't fun - it's stressful. I need to write something fun again and then come back to Bound in Ink with fresh eyes and motivation. Because if I'm not having fun and enjoying the story, it will show in my writing, and I don't want that. So, I've had a shiny and intriguing new idea floating around in my head the last week, and I think I'm going to toy around with it for a while, see where it takes me. Already I can feel the stress leaking away and the excitement coming back. And it will be an excellent distraction for me and give my poor wonderful friends a break from my impatience as they read Bound in Ink. ;) Those poor girls, I don't think we realized what a pain I would end up being.

As well as reading and writing something new, I promised Sparky now that Dude is in school and I have more kid-free time, I would work on sprucing up our place. Right now we live in a cute townhouse and since I've always convinced myself it was temporary, it is in quite sad shape. I won't lie - I will use pretty much any excuse to get out of housework. But he wants me to try and do better, since it looks like we'll be here a while longer. So he made me a deal. One new book for each room I get back under control. (Basically, it's my major spring cleaning at the beginning of fall. I'm such a procrastinator.) Since I'm never one to turn down new books, and I promised I wouldn't buy new ones until I read all the unread ones in my possession, this is a good deal.



Well, that's what's up with me now that summer is drawing to a close. School, cleaning, reading, and writing. How about you guys? Anyone going back to school? Working on a new project? And is any0ne besides me suddenly really excited for all the holidays now that it's pretty much September? (I'm already looking at Christmas gifts and watching Halloween movies. Yeah, I know.)