The Tortured Quill

Was hoping to be done with the son situation by the end of the year. Looks like that was just a fantasy. Paperwork hitch has caused today's date to be continued to January 12th. Lawyer's fault or a hangup in processing procedure. Dunno. Trying to find out this week though.

So, so tired of this mess.

Did walk around kids area looking for ideas for granddaughter's Christmas and Birthday. Why didn't they have all these cool toys when we were young? I want some for myself! LOL

I need to update Murial's Story blog also, but that will have to wait. Perhaps tomorrow I'll put everything together and blog about it. I literally have no idea what I have for a wordcount right now.

It's been tough. Life has been kicking me in the butt and distracting me like crazy. I just keep writing without thinking of direction (in the sense I usually do) or how much I'm writing. I do have Murial keeping a journal as part of the book. It's helping to get into her head and journal during this life stress. So, when I can write a scene, I choose one from the cards that speaks to me and write it. When I can't get into it, I write journal posts for her. And then I have another note area for things that come to me while I'm working elsewhere.

I think I'm just going to keep writing a little longer and then gather them together and add up all the words...and then post that wordcount to Nano.

Wanted 20,000 for the weekend. Did I hit it? Not sure. Got close I believe if I didn't.

Why do I blog?  Seriously.

Unless I'm doing it for a client, I really don't blog as an outreach tool.  I don't have many friends, so I know very few people even read what I say...and even less comment on what I say.  Yet, I do it.  I blog here, at Better Fiction, the micro blogging, and a private board between two friends.  And I do it consistantly.

I should be blogging on my own business blogs, but they seem to get left out a lot.  Sort of the way my family used to run a seamless gutter business and for years our own gutters leaked. 

I think I blog because it seems "cleaner" somehow.  I used to journal in journal books.  I love them and I still collect them and drool over them in the stores.  But I don't use them.  The filled ones are forgotten in a box in the closet...the empty ones stack up, as if hoping their turn to be used come along.

Perhaps I blog because I talk to myself anyway.  Doing so in the digital world isn't much different than doing so in the real world.  Other than what you say stays as long as you don't delete it, and there's always a chance someone will stumble across it and actually hear what you have to say. 

I've met many people here who listen to the news...too much, if you ask me.  The media is censored to give us only part of the story - and only that part which the powers that be in government want us to hear.  The people I'm talking about are telling me and mine to stay off of the internet.  We're in danger of attracting a stalker and putting our family in danger. 

Um...hate to tell you, but that's always a danger.  The internet is just another tool for them to use.  My kids and I were stalked by an individual when we first moved here for months.  Eventually the police ran him out of town.  But that happened without the internet at all.  It was before I was doing much at all on the internet.

Around the same time, a friend of mine had her daughter kidnapped.  They got her back, Thank God.  But that happened in real life, with no connection to the internet or by the dirtbag using the internet at all.

We're in danger no matter what we do or where we are.  Different idiots use different tools, is all.

I know why I've journaled all my life, which has carried over to blogging.  To get the thoughts out.  Once they're out, I can leave them there and get on with something else.

Now why do I blog rather than using the journals I love?  I don't know for sure.  Perhaps I just like the way the words look on the screen.  Can't be the site.  I really don't like livejournal.  I do love working with wordpress.  I do love making new websites.  That probably has a lot to do with it.

My rambling for the morning on blogging is done now.  *grin*

First day I got 3500 words and I've stalled.  Not me, specifically, but life has stalled me.  This whole wedding coming up this weekend has me chasing my tails so much I can't get it all done.  Then my three helpers do not make it in, so I'm doing the running myself. 

We went with turkey for the meat.  So I went to WalMart to get their 88cent turkeys and find they've lowered them to 40 cents.  All good!  But they imposed a 2 per limit on them.  Not so good.  I need around 14 of those suckers.  Manager couldn't give me a deal.  Seems the headquarters has called off all deals, even for corporations.  He says he has a company who normally gets 300 from him this time of year and he can't fill that order.  WTF... 

Anyway, so I was a "repeat" customer three times yesterday.  Last time hubby helped me and we have 8 of the turkeys now.  Going to make one last trip.  Hoping I can get someone to go with me so I can get four and then just buy two at regular price.  Otherwise, I'll get two and buy four at regular price.  Then tomorrow is non-stop running to get everything...without my helper.

Should find everything though with no problem.  The Schwan man didn't have the sherbert we need for the punch, so he's making a special delivery with it tomorrow too.

The rest of the time is cooking and cleaning and decorating.  Since helpers didn't come hubby didn't have a choice and had to take Friday off to start the cooking.  Hope it doesn't hurt him later.

I'll be ever so glad when this is done and life is back to normal...

I think daughter will too.  LOL

Have to make sure I do certain things BEFORE sitting down to write, and remind myself to do things while writing...

Say your prayers
Make sure dog doesn't need out.
Make sure cat is fed and watered.
Set phone to silent.
Make breakfast smoothie.
Make sure coffee is ready.
Make sure there's plenty of filtered water and orange juice.
Turn up Pandora.
Set story notes within reach, laptop and paper.

Make sure to take a drink of liquid every ten minutes.
Get up and dance every five songs to keep blood circulation going.
Hot baths for keeping muscles limber and plot thinking.

Usually at this time of the year, I'm putting together a staff-produced Halloween issue and posting about stupid stuff like a thousand flying monkeys.

This year, there is no Halloween issue.  In fact, I spent all day emailing author notices.  Almost all rejections.  Always stresses me out.  It's the part of the job I don't like.  Didn't help that it was a migraine day.

Life wise, there's no plans.  Our kids are out of the house, we have no party plans, and we're swamped with life stress and planning for our daughter's wedding.  I did tell hubby that we're going to plan ahead next year though.  We're going to have costumes and we're going to go to a Halloween party.  I've never been to one and with next year being our first year to ourselves, it seems like the right move to make.

Daughter is bringing the daybed over today, so we may see granddaughter in her costume.  Perhaps they'll stay here and put her in this parade instead of going back.  That will be something.

Not sure about our two week house guests.  Car problems, so they may have lost their transportation.  Feel kind of sad.  I haven't seen them in forever.  Even for a recluse like me, it was something I was looking forward to in many respects.

Then there's the wedding stuff...I was going to wrangle three of them to help me.  Looks like I might have to handle all the food alone, with hubby helping in between work.  He's not taking time off for it.  Me...preparing a meal for 400 alone.  Could be interesting...

I've spent the last few days getting all my documents and webpages created for www.performingresumes.com and the website is done.  Yay!

As a copywriter, going further and getting the training for resume writing was natural.  You need good copywriting skills to write an effective resume.  I'm so thankful I learned copywriting first before learning resume writing.

I'd like to make this the main part of my business and do the copywriting mainly for my own sites and products.

Cramming to get as much done now so I have a light workload for myself throughout November and save the bulk of the time for clients and family when I'm not Nanowrimo writing.

It's sunny day, temp's up to almost sixty today.  I have to walk down and take care of a cell phone number transfer for daughter.  Think I'll also visit a few businesses and spend some work time at Hannah B's.  I have so much that needs doing.  Just have to decide what.  LOL

And to make what I work on count.  But to whom?  That is a writer's world.  What we do...what we put on paper counts to someone.  Whether it entertains, informs, produces sales, or just reports...it satisfies someone, somewhere, in some way.  Sometimes it only satisfies ourselves.  

And when we're asked what we do, nothing we say truly expresses our accomplishment.  Well, not unless it's been made into a popular movie and people have the visualization to go with it.  Then they want to know what's next.

AWAI posted a good article titled Nine Pages about this topic by Dan Kennedy...it speaks to all types of writers.

http://www.awaionline.com/2009/10/nine-pages/

Now, who's "9 pages" am I going to work on today?....

For the ups, I kind of figured out what I'm wearing to the wedding.  It's western theme and I should wear western pants.  I have a good pair of blue jeans that I've lost enough to get into again, but the top part of the outfit doesn't go well with it...not as well as a brown pair would.  So, I might still be looking for pants.

SHOULD lose another 1/2 size before then.  I say should because hubby still can't eat solid foods after his dental surgery over a week ago, and he's having some good cravings.  Only he can't eat what he's craving, so he goes buy it or cooks it and then gives it to me to eat for him.  I told him that I can't be doing that any more.  LOL

Another up is a future business deal going through.  Not sure when this deal will become public knowledge yet.

Downs are that mother-in-law can't make it to wedding.  Trying to figure out a way to get her here.  She's having a really rough go of it.  One client's account is not processing well.  Gotta figure out what extra step their service is demanding.  Waiting on another's situation.  And may have to leave one place of employment.  Something I don't want on my record, but the boss either can't or won't do his job and that will ruin my reputation right along with his if I don't get out. 

Today's the day.  If something positive happens today from boss, I can hang on.  If not, I'll have to give my 30 day notice.  So sucks.

I finished the remembrance page and posted it to the friend's boards in case anyone wants to send me items or thoughts to add to it.

http://dragynspice.com/rememberinggandhar.html

Gandhar, one of my dear URU/Myst gaming friends has passed away.  His daughter posted for us on our bevin board today.  She said he passed last night.  That shocked me because he also posted last night that he would see us in one of the new shards now. 

Gandhar created the graphics for my rpg novel I wrote last year.

Hard to believe he's gone.  Been all teary-eyed since seeing that.  Now I have another rpg storyline to write for him...

Hubby's extractions went well, and he had just the bottom two and not all four.  Hopefully, he won't have to take out the uppers.  The surgeon was great and we were out of there in a few hours...not bad at all. 

Instead of being all work motivated, I felt "ugh".  So I took the laptop to Church to use the wireless for updates.  Ended up sitting with Pastor Jeff for awhile...and sorting some of the books out.  I think we both had tons of work to do, but felt too relaxed.  Not that he didn't work while I was there...he is a master multi-tasker at times.

It had to be the weather...our blustery cold days were broken with a warm, sunny, 60-ish day.  Beautiful!  Yet, change is coming...snow arrives tonight, early morning for us.  Betting more slush than snow, but still darn cold.  30 degrees below normal. 

I think this is a lazy fiction writing night with my PBS shows thrown in.  I'll get more done tomorrow when the weather has me holed up...with my hubby who has a jaw too sore to talk back to me.  :-)  Maybe I should take advantage of that...

Way too much!

LOL Actually, not enough because the weather's gone goofy and I'm tired of it, there's been too much personal stuff going on, and just when I think I have a good grip on my schedule...someone goes and wants something else.  Often I say no because I have to.  But the fact that someone wanted something and that I had to say no stays with me and stops me from accomplishing more things.  I let things bother me way too much.

Today is payday running.  Yuk.  Especially yuk because many bills were moved up...hubby gets his wisdom teeth pulled in morning and we have to pay the balance that insurance doesn't cover all at once, up front.  Could set aside and do it later, but he's feeling pressure from them - and he needs them done as soon as possible.  If things go south at work, he needs to be able to apply for other jobs and take them right away.

Today is also Thursday...which means seeing the son.  Part of me wants to.  It is a nice drive, and will be today - even with the crappy, wet weather out there.   But I'd rather go grocery shopping.  I know that's terrible of a mother to say.  But I have been starting to find myself again since having a few days off from dealing with the situation...another week would really help me.  But a parent's work is never done, and in this situation, this is the only way we get information.  And I need to go...just in case hubby has a hard time recovering and cannot make his visit time on Monday night.

Working on a website for food too.  Hope to have something to show on it, and on my resume writing site next week.  Going to get ads out for the resume writing.  Wish me luck!

Frank Kern is an internet marketer and one my mentors for the last few years. He's just posted on the FTC guidelines and how it affects internet marketers. Something us copywriters and marketers alike need to be aware of. He actually did talk to his FTC lawyer about the guidelines, even though he does keep the disclaimer that he is not a lawyer.

http://masscontrolsite.com/blog/?p=59

From a book reviewer blogger standpoint, what he says doesn't hurt me much. I'm only blogging on my opinion and not "typical results".

As a sales/marketing director of a press, this does concern me. Since they are looking at book reviews now, they will also look at how publishers use them. This tells me that it's very important that we use all the reviews that come in, good and bad, and that we don't give statements that imply everyone loves the book at times when some did not. For instance, if we have six reviews and 4 are good and the other 2 are bad, we should state in some fashion that result.

Seems I'm going to have to keep better track of Lilley Press reviews than I have been.

Ellen Datlow's recent post about FTC's ignorance has kept me busy this morning.  I've known that the time was coming that even a basic book review would be subject to scrutiny and laws.  That time is coming down fast with the new ruling...it applies to book reviews on your blogs - and it even goes out to the social sites.

I have a lot of websites to maintain.  I'm now adding disclaimers to all about my reviews.  And from now on, each review will have a disclaimer on it.

I've also been contacting Lilley Press book reviewers to let them know that they probably would want to add a disclaimer to their reviews. 

This ruling is absolutely stupid and assinine...but it will stay...been coming for way too long.

And affiliates...better be safe and add disclaimers that your links are affiliate links.  That ruling has been in a long time coming...might be here already if I've missed it.  I know the pay per click ads are super picky about it now, and constantly getting worse.  It's one reason I don't use them.  Don't want the headaches associated with them.  I have enough going on as it is now.

For more information read Ellen's post:  http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/221907.html

She talks about this article:  http://www.edrants.com/interview-with-the-ftcs-richard-cleland/

And there's also this article for information:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10368064-36.html#


Nice to know where our tax dollars are being spent isn't it?

Through the hand injury, which is healing nicely, I managed to get both magazine issues up.

Whispering Spirits Digital Magazine

Whispering Dragons Digital Magazine


Would like to get three books done this weekend for reviews.  Trouble is there's a gunshow this weekend that hubby would like to kill time at.  IF he doesn't have to work to finish up inventory duties.

Writing mainly non-fiction articles right now.  Updating my membership website and working on articles for two other sites.

Still...hope to get a few pages of fiction done too.

I am working on the mags.  I’m going it alone right now but it will take some time.  Just had kitchen accident and I’m down to one hand for a few days.

Just when I have deadlines and a twitter chat to run tomorrow.

I've posted the official announcement at the publications blog, listing all five winning stories to our flash fiction contest.

http://dchdesign.wordpress.com/


Waiting on one more reply and then Whispering Spirits Digital Magazine's issue will be ready to announce and post also.

I should be working on income producing work, but I'm pretty much working on the publishing all day.  Between correspondence for the two magazines and for the authors at Lilley Press, I'm pretty tired. 

I am glad I got to keep the magazines going though.  That's something that means a lot to me. 

Did get my site started for the resume writing.  Using wordpress as a site until I decide how I want to permanently handle the website for it.

The magazines will be able to post this week now.  So relieved!

Seems some of the free email services have been having issues lately.  Mine haven't, but that doesn't mean they haven't elsewhere.  And that seems to be the case.

I'm happily preparing the issues and pages for the flash fiction issues.  Whispering Spirits emails must go out.  Will try to get through all of them today and tonight yet, but I will be babysitting the 9 mos old granddaughter while hubby and daughter go visit son.  Probably won't get any done then...unless my recipients can understand "baby type".  She loves keyboards.  LOL

Cross posted to DCH Design and Publications blog too.