Monday, July 30, 2007

author interiew

Remember I blogged on wanting to do an author interview?

Well, someone contacted me about doing one. On August 21st. Ha!

Sunday, July 29, 2007

One day, 19 hours, 33 minutes of internet left

I'm at a very nice hotel in San Jose with wireless internet for my fairly new MacBook. Everytime I log on, I get this little message box tellng me exactly how long I have until I lose access to the hotel's service. It's somewhat anxiety provoking because I won't have wireless on the next leg of the journey which involves a raft and the American River. So, the little message box is my personal ticking clock. I wonder what its real purpose is?

I've brought a hard copy of my manuscript. It's been ages since I've looked at any of it "off screen" and I figured I'd better read the entire thing through now that the revisions are done. I am hugely in debt to my critique partners who scrambled to read chunks of revisions and email me their comments. While I still have internet access (tick tock). Thank you (in alpha order) Kathy, Kelly and Sandy.

And three cheers for Child#2 and Child#3 who are particpating in Boys' Water Polo Junior Olympics!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

I have turned into a Roving Writer!

As previously blogged, I'm writing during the day at HB's house. While there, I adjust the chemicals in her pool, spray for ants (we're having hot weather and there's been quite an infestation!) and water a few plants. Mostly I camp out at her kitchen table with my MacBook and a cup of tea. Each morning, I fill a recycled cream cheese container with milk for my tea and carry it to HB's house. Yesterday, I took an actual container of cream cheese by mistake and left the milk in my fridge. Let's just say I need more sleep.

Writing at HB's will come to an end on Friday when she and her family return from their vacation.

Today, another mother offered me her house for next week while she and her family are out of town. Thank you CJ! I will switch gears from pool sitting to cat sitting. Hopefully, there won't be ants. And, of course, I'll be camping out at her kitchen table with my MacBook and tea. I may switch to a clear container for my milk though.

Off to take Child #2 to the orthodonist. Then I'll head to HB's kitchen table. I'm anxious to see how the edits go today. Also, I dumped a bunch of algicide in her pool yesterday and want to check on that.

People are so kind and generous.
Type rest of the post here

Monday, July 9, 2007

Breaking tasks down into small steps

I'm a HUGE fan of breaking tasks down into small steps.

I love lists (shopping lists, to-do lists, summer goals for children lists). And breakng down tasks seems like a refined, sopisticated version of list making.

So, I have the manuscript revision divided up on a calendar with what needs to be accomplished each day (how many new scenes, how many revised scenes, etc.). This is to help me meet the deadline. Now, the revision seems so much more manageable. And doable.

I practiSed (I just can't let go of Canadian spelling!) the whole breaking-tasks-down thing during my previous life as a speech pathologist. If you have a kid with a crummy "s", you go from tongue placement to "s" + vowel and vowel + "s" in syllables to single syllable words with "s" in various positions (sun, bus) to polysyllabic "s" words to "s" phrases to "s" sentences to generalized speech. It works.

It should be an interesting few weeks. Writing-wise, that is. I'll be able to tell if I'm ahead/behind/on target. Unfortunately, I didn't budget time for cooking and laundry, etc. So...

And I didn't budget tme for this blog. Which means I must get off it immediately and finish today's writing goals. :)

Anyone else divide tasks into small steps?