My sisters, their families, and a few friends are on vacation in Belize, which was part of the area struck by a 7.1 earthquake yesterday, and seventeen aftershocks all above magnitude 4.  Naturally, I haven't heard from them.  Power seems to still be out in the region, and cell towers aren't working, apparently.  I'm sure they were NOT killed, but the lack of information is disconcerting.  Are they injured?  Trapped?  Trapped by the pool with no choice but to continue sipping drinks with umbrellas?  The suspense is killing me.

I think if they plan on taking any more trips together, I may put in my vote to nix that.  If anything were to happen, I'd lose both of my sisters in one event.  I don't THINK so!

I'm also feeling rather odd.  I wrote a story, published by Hadley Rille Books in 2008 (Barren Worlds) called "Tiger's Eye View".  Basically, I blew up the planet volcanically (is that a word?).  This morning while perusing the news, I found an article at foxnews.com about a volcanic event 260 million years ago that may have resulted in a massive worldwide extinction.  According to the article, scientists at Britain's University of Leeds published an article in Friday's issue of the journal Science that talks about a volcano in what is now China that blew, sending lava into a shallow ocean that caused an enormous steam cloud to form over the earth and create acid rain, killing a great deal of animal and marine life.  Pretty bizarre.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,522691,00.html

Hope that address works.  I will let others read the article.  I think I've been watching Discovery Channel way too much, which is where I got the idea for the story in the first place!

Well, I'm off to paint, do grocery shopping, finish laundry, all the mommy stuff before kids get home from school.  I go back to work on Monday.  Work is going to be tough.  We're essentially down two people, and I'm going to be working a lot of hours, away from my family and baby.  I think I need coffee.  I need to keep busy, stay out of my head, if you get my drift.  Have a great day, everyone!

I bragged that the baby slept six hours in one night.  Oops.  The next night, he only slept three, and that was only because I was holding him!  But last night he only woke up once.  I have the strangest kids.

In catching up with Eric Reynolds of Hadley Rille Books, I have discovered that the reading in Seattle is kind of an exclusive event, so I won't be able to read from my story there.  Lancer Kind is setting up the event, and it should be checked out!  There is a chance to do another reading at a later date.  If that becomes a reality, I will let everyone know.  If we go to Seattle that weekend in May anyway, I may go to the reading just to meet more Hadley Rille authors and get some signatures.  Good vacation time, no matter what.

Now, off to fold laundry.  Yippee.

Well, and 'I'.  Pickles, popcorn, and ice cream.  This baby is so weird.  But I think I'm starting to be able to tell the difference between the baby's movement, and the hunger pangs, and gas.  Before, it all felt the same.

Munchkin started soccer today.  He loved it!  I hesitate to say he loved it more than baseball, but that may apparently be the case.  Sigh.  At least he's having fun.  And speaking of my precious, innocent, darling child:  Yesterday we were talking about which of his friends he wanted to practice his soccer with.  I suggested one friend, and my son replied, "I can't, he'll kick me in the balls!"

Did I mention he's six?  I don't think he was referring to soccer balls, either.  He saw the look on my face and quickly amended his statement:  "I mean nuts." 

He's six, people.

And I've had to give up my jewelry.  Now I know that sounds like a very vain statement.  You need to understand something.  Any jewelry I wear is not for vanity's sake.  I had to give up the necklaces my husband and son gave me, because I was so busy with morning sickness that anything around my neck made me very sensitive.  And now, I've had to give up my wedding  ring, and a graduation present ring my sister gave me.  Swelling fingers.

There is silver lining, though.  This Saturday, Ken McConnell and I will be attending a book signing  for Barren Worlds at the local independent bookstore in my home town!   Yeah!!  Friends have been putting out the word for me, and I have some posters to distribute. 

I could go on all night with all the anecdotes and funny things that have happened this week, but tomorrow is a rather busy day.  My thoughts and prayers to everyone affected by Hurricane Ike, as well as the current financial crisis.  How long has it been since we've had major natural disasters and financial collapses all in the same week that were independent of each other?  I forget.

Hello to my family in their various locations.  To family in Florida and the midwest, I hope Ike didn't kick your ass too much!

In checking out some of the blogs of my friends Will Couvillier, Kelly Green, Eric Reynolds, and Camille Alexa (sorry I can't do the links right now), everyone did a great job describing the reading event for all the Hadley Rille books in Reno on July 2nd.  So rather than go into a similar rant about how the night went and how fun it was, I'd like to give my take on the wonderful people I met.

First off, I didn't get enough time with them.  We met for dinner at the El Dorado, and had a wonderful time.  My husband was even able to jump in the conversations from time to time.  My only complaint about the whole night is that I didn't get enough time with anyone.  I would have loved to have one on one time with each person, compare writing lives and styles, what makes us tick, etc.  We were a rather eclectic bunch, I think, and yet we all got along brilliantly.  Will (the guy who set up the whole thing)  was a wonderful host.  Despite his nerves about the whole thing, he did great, and his experience had much to offer a newbie like me.  Thank you, Will!.

The impression I got from Kelly Green was that of the calm pro.  She had done this sort of thing before, and knew Will and Camille.  While listening to them talk at dinner, I desperately wished for a notepad, or a recorder, because they were throwing names around of people in the writing business or names of magazines or other writing markets that I had never heard of!  Her writing style and sense of humor were wonderful, and she is another one to learn from.

I didn't get to speak with Floyd Edwards much, but I did hear him say to my husband he was a Korean War vet.  My husband also is a vet, so they compared notes.  I loved his poem, which was a companion to his story in Desolate Places.

Camille Alexa...what to say about her.  Blue caffeine on wheels!  She was so energetic and vibrant, and shared that energy with anyone in range.  She and I did have lunch on Friday the 4th, and it was a good visit.  It was still cut short before we got a chance to get to the writing parts of the conversation (my hubby needed the car).  Although we had only met, we talked like old friends.

We also spoke with the publisher, Eric Reynolds, on the phone during the initial dinner on Wednesday.  Oh my!  I leaned over to Camille and whispered, "Oh my God, the publisher!  What do I say?"  She gave me this funny look and said, "Try 'Hello' ".  Just before his call, I had mentioned to the group about questions I wanted to ask him.  When I was on the phone with him, I got nervous and intimidated and kept the call short!  :P

The signing was great.  I think I signed more copies of Barren Worlds for my fellow authors than for audience members.  Which was fine,  except somehow I kept wanting to revert to high school days of signing annuals:  "Stay cool!  See ya next year!"

The rest of my weekend was pretty good.  The signing was Wednesday.   Thursday my family went to the Farmer's Market.  My son and I bungee jumped!  It was this huge contraption in the middle of the road, with stations for four jumpers.  We were attached to harnesses, and one guy pulled on a pulley rope, and we went flying!  My son had an excellent time, but I, though not usually prone to height issues, had to cut my jump experience a bit short.  I had a blast, don't get me wrong.  You can only scream and laugh so much before you stop breathing!  Friday I had lunch with Camille, visited with family, and saw the fireworks in Sparks.  Saturday we hung out with family, drank a goodish quantity of alcohol, and celebrated several family achievements.  We left Sunday.

Monday I found out I am pregnant. 

We got home the evening of the 6th from the big Reno trip.  I've just been catching up on my friend's blogs (please check them out), before I start one of my own.  In reading everyone else's blogs, I realized just how tired I am.  That, and the fact that it's 12:20 AM by my computer clock, so I really should hit the hay.  I will blog more about the big trip tomorrow.

I have, in the past, purchased Hadley Rille books from  Amazon.com.  Today, I got a wonderful notice from Amazon.com, advising that since I was interested in those books, perhaps I would like...

BARREN WORLDS, edited by Eric T. Reynolds.

IT'S OUT,  IT"S OUT!!!

I just checked the website, and they advise they are "temporarily out of stock".  But the book is out!!  Available!!  Get your copy now!!
I'm swinging between excited and panicked.  Tomorrow we fly to Reno to visit my family, and to do a book signing at the Sundance Book Store at 6:30 PM.  I've been trying to practice reading, and because I'm so excited, I'm short of breath, and I sound like I'm having a heart attack as I read!  I just need to put it all in perspective, and follow the examples of those who are better at this sort of thing than I am.

I'm looking forward to seeing the other authors I will be meeting.  I'm also looking forward to seeing my family.  One of my sisters keeps calling me a "famous author", which is hilarious.  If I were ever going to be famous, she'd make a fortune selling stories to the tabs about how she would put me in the corner for not eating my supper when I was a kid!  :P

Well, I must go.  The family is getting ready to go out, and I'm going to try to tag along before the overflowing laundry overloads my sanity!  Have a great 4th, everyone.  And buy the book!

Just got my pdf proof of BARREN WORLDS.  How exciting!  Frankly, I had avoided the story for so long, it was like reading it afresh.  But I am NOT cheating!  I won't look at the other stories until the print version comes out.  As tempted as I am to give some of my fellow HR/LJ authors early raves, I have decided to be good. (Whoda thunk?)

That, and the fact that I'm still trying to get things done before the big trip tomorrow.

Catch everyone Sunday!  Good night!

I think my Return to Luna story is finished.  Hard to tell.  It came in a 2046 words, when the range is 2000-6000.  It's meant to be a prequel to my story being published by Hadley Rille Books in Barren Worlds.  Of course, that story is 5k words, and probably makes a bit more sense.  I'll have to think about it a bit more to see if it really is done.  I have until midnight tomorrow to be sure.  I'm tossing around the question of how much do I really need to share about a certain character's death?  It's my hook, in a way, but to be honest, I don't even know how the character bit the dust!  He went out alive, came back dead, story line continues.  Including the death inquiry also seemed a bit dry and long in the tooth, so I didn't bother with it.

Today has been a rough day.  One of those days where I get home from work, and the fight begins.  My son and I are apparently cut from the same cloth (certain family members are currently dying from laughter at this late observation).  All we did all day was bicker and argue, which drove my husband insane!  I get that there's this six-going-on-sixteen thing going on, and I need to respect the growing independence.  However, when I'm in a certain mood, when I ask for something to be done, it should be done with no arguing.  Every request or statement I made today was met with a contradiction.  So I drew a few more lines in the sand than I probably should have, and 'someone' is really going to have to kiss up to me a little bit before he gets to watch cartoons again!

And I'm starting to clue in to the fact that my vacation starts in five days. That's not very much time, for the things I need to accomplish between now and then.  Finish another story and get it sent off, get some dog care set up, laundry laundry laundry, get over the guilt of not calling a friend of mine before she left for France for the summer (not entirely for fun, trust me).  The list grows.

So unfortunately, I'm feeling rather picky right now.  Strangely, the hubby knew I was working on a story, and went to bed early.  He's on his summer break now, so he could have stayed up.  But it is nice to have the house to myself.  I have to be quiet, but I think I need the time to breathe a bit.  We did have a blast today, between arguments.  We took the Jeep and went "muddin'"  That's when you take a four wheel drive vehicle and find the biggest, messiest mud holes in the county, and drive through them at top speed with the windows rolled down.

I just looked over what I typed, and boy, do I have a goodly amount of adverbs in there!  Hope I'll be forgiven for dumping them all here, instead of my manuscripts!  (She wished hopefully.)  Goodnight, everyone.

Congratulations to Eric T. Reynolds, his crew, and all the authors who were recently released in the latest Hadley Rille collection, Ruins Metropolis. I understand many of the authors are LiveJournal users.  You are going to be hearing from me once I get it read.  Way to go!

My hubby had his 40th birthday last week.  I loved his presents, although they were a bit premature:  a fake book titled "Growing Old Gracefully and Other Fairy Tales", and the compartment inside the 'book' contained a bottle of Geritol and a magnifying glass.  He also got a bbq tool kit.  We had a great time during the party.  Family and just a few friends, enough to eat the food and keep the kids busy!

Last night was my usual writing group night.  As the mediator wasn't there, I just sent an email to everyone, telling them where I was going to be, and they could join me for a session of uninterrupted writing, which happens very rarely in my group!  We didn't use prompts that night, just wrote.  There were some interruptions, but not like what I usually get at home:  "Moooommm..."  Only two other people showed up, but it was still a good session.  A small group of ladies creating a small pocket of concentration that I swear could be felt on a cellular level.  At least, I did.

I was going to complain about the snow we had yesterday morning, but seeing the other weather woes in the world, having an abnormal appearance of snow in June is the least of them.  Of course, I told my sister, whom I forgot was vacationing in Cabo.  Figures.  She got back in time to do laundry, and that branch of the family is off again to Michigan for a wedding.  When she gets back, she will have a very small reprieve, until my family invades in July for a visit (insert evil laugh here).

We had a small scare this week.  Isn't it funny how certain bug bites look like chicken pox?  I had a mild case in junior high, so I'm still at risk, or so I'm told.  My son has never had it.  But his cousin came down with all these spots and welts, and was in hell from all the itching.  His dad never had chicken pox, so he made himself scarce.  But the doctor called them bug bites, so the little guys is relieved that we will spend time with him now.  We all went to the movies tonight.  Happy ending, but itchy for the cousin!

Got a couple of funny emails today. One was from Will, who sent a string of emails of back and forth between him and the Sundance bookstore in Reno, planning a signing event. I got the biggest hoot out of one in the thread. The Sundance rep was setting this up, and talks to Will about the "other author, what's her name?" I loved it! Now, I only need to get famous enough to have it fade quickly, so people can ask me, "Didn't you used to be..." ;P

The other funny email was from Eric, the Hadley Rille publisher, mentioning the signing to some other authors, and he states, "The Idado author has already committed." Hee Hee Hee! Never heard of that place! There's no doubt I should be committed, if you catch my drift! But hopefully it will be a mental hospital in IDAHO. (You know I'm just giving you a hard time, Eric. Don't ask me any geography questions about your neck of the woods, though!) :)

Yesterday was so nice, my DH decided to take the Jeep for a drive. Four hours, hot sun, no top on the Jeep. He looks like a lobster with a goatee! He said the worst places are his forehead, and the insides of his arms at the elbow. Yeah, air hurts right now for him. So all day today, he's been whistling "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and other holiday faves. Of course, the lyrics got changed a bit: "Rudolph with your nose so bright, WHERE DID YOU HIDE THE FREAKIN' SUNBLOCK LOTION?"

May everyone have a great night. And to my writing buddies out there: May you become willing prisoners to inspiration, and let the words flow.

Anyone wonder why I used "poop"?  'Cause this blog is "E for Everyone", folks.  Heh heh.

The local economy of my town is so strange.  I've seen glimpses of rumblings in the local paper about it, which I usually pass over for the comics.  I am not blessed with an overabundance of social consciousness.  I don't go to city council or school board meetings.  My focus is narrow enough to worry only if I can afford whatever I intend to buy, and where to get it.  I don't have my thumb on the pulse of city politics and their decisions on economic growth.

That being said, I'm about to go off on my little undeducated rant, and just wonder what the HELL our city 'leaders' are thinking?  I posted some time back about a local hotel being demolished and replaced with a drug store.  There doesn't seem to be any plans to get another hotel in town.  Stupid!  I live in a university town.  Our population swells exponentially on home football games, parents' weekends, and graduation.  We need more hotels, not less.  We also need more restaurants, as you might also remember me saying.

My town has basically only one mall, and a Wal-Mart.  So our shopping is somewhat limited, in my opinion.  We have several restaurants in town, but being a university town, we could always use more, with more variety.  Our local mall, however, doesn't see it that way.  They decided not to renew the lease of Lefty's, probably one of the last family owned businesses in the mall.  My family knows the owners, they are a great bunch.  We see them in church on Sunday.  They've worked very hard to make the restaurant successful.  But the mall managers don't want family businesses, they want big chain names.  So they are kicking this restaurant out.

It's enough to piss off the Pope.  Another tidbit is that my sister in Reno told me they are telling them to get ready for the "big one", stock up on everything a disaster survivor needs.  Then the insurance companies freeze the sale of any more earthquake insurance!  Why do insurance companies exist?  If they aren't going to fork over insurance money in times of need (like Katrina and others), why freaking bother!  See, pissed off Pontiff.

Of course, the other side of the coin in my life is that my DH got me two Hadley Rille books for my birthday:  Ruins Terra and Desolate Places.  I am SO enjoying these stories.  I enjoy checking out the authors, and finding some of them on LiveJournal.  I just want to add them all to my friends list!  At work last night, one of my co-workers saw me with one of these books and asked "Is that 'your' book?" meaning was that the book my story was in.  I informed him no, that Barren Places would be out in a few months.  But it made me smile, knowing that in a short while, my first published story will be out, and that some of my friends will be referring to it as "your book".  A slight misnomer, but still.

Happy as a pig in poop!

I'm feeling heavy.  No, water retention or the caramel milkshake I had at dinner doesn't help.  But I've had another rough week.  Unfortunately, I can't vent.  Sworn to secrecy.  So my thoughts, love, and prayers go to all who need them.  I share your burdens.  You are not alone.  You are loved.

Hmm.  Looking over those last three sentences, I have to remember they apply to me as well.  I'm stretching, searching for my faith again.

Congratulations to Eric Reynolds and the new batch of contributing authors for the next Hadley Rille release, Global Warming.  Way to go!

Despite all the drama going on in my life lately, I was able to push it aside and have a good writing group yesterday.  I was even told that one of my free-writes might make a good article!  That makes tomorrow an interesting day.  Putting the final touches on my Tribe of the Moon story so I can send it off, write more on my Moon story, my Ghost story, and start thinking about a query for an article.  I think I'm up to maybe five or six projects going at once!  When the hell did that happen?

Ah, well.  In seven days, I switch to day shift, for the first time in maybe four years.  It will be rather odd, getting up at 4 AM, when I'm used to coming home from work at 6 AM!!  I hope it doesn't shake up my family's routine too much!

A fellow Hadley Rille author, Will Couvillier, has sent out the call for other Hadley Rille authors to get together for a book signing in July in Reno, Nevada. I am SO in! I would love to meet fellow HR authors and get to know them better. ( I just hope they want to get to know me, too!) I was already chomping at the bit for July, because my family desperately needs to get out of town.

If there are any other Hadley Rille authors reading this, and are interested in Will's invitation, please let him know.

On the writing front, I was finally able to get started on my "Ghost in the Machine" story. When I can crank out 1800 words in less than two hours, I think I've got something. I'm not close to being done, and already I've been warned I have a lot of rewriting to do. My story has some military aspects in it. Despite the fact I'm married to an Army vet, I am the daughter of an Army vet, and am related to Navy and Marine and Army personnel, I know very little about military stuff. Honestly, I have, on occassion, asked my DH to tell me about his Army days when I have trouble sleeping.

So naturally when I told my DH the premise for my story, you could actually see the blood pressure points begin to rise. When I tried to argue that MY military is in a situation that takes place many, many years into the future, and the little factoid that this was a fiction story, his face turned red. He then took a breath, and very calmly explained to me why certain "elements" of my story were way off base, and why.

Bless him.

He explained how the elements of my story would only be acceptable under certain conditions, which I can work in to the story line. Sometimes, I get so wrapped up in my fiction, that I occassionally forget that some realism makes the fiction much easier to swallow. Just ask Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code. That is one whopper of a fish tale, and people are still making a big deal out of it.

Well, time to go. The story calls. And the laundry, and the dirty dishes...

Okay, not so good for some long ago Shakespearean characters, but hey.  It's snowing in my part of the world, if you can believe it.  Well, Idaho, but it's still March!  Wind, not snow, people!  Sheesh!

I seem to have hit a small snag in my writing.  I have one story coming out in Barren Worlds, by Hadley Rille books.  I'm attempting to write a prequel for the Return to Luna writing contest.  But this story is starting to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger.  A friend once read the first small story I had written for Barren Worlds, and mentioned that it could be a book.  I kind of blew her off at the time, because I was still sweating over the effort it took to write that one short story.  I thought to myself, no, it's a short story, and a short story it will stay.

I think I'm starting to see what she means.  Stephen King had a great quote (that I'm not using in the Writer's Block):  "I write like fat ladies diet."  I believe that was in Skeleton Crew.  I can see the analogy, as long as I ignore the reflection in the mirror!

So I guess it's a good problem, in that the story is still coming along, but it's just difficult to find a stopping place.  I have that wonderful habit of asking that cursed question all readers ask:  And THEN what happened?  So I make stuff up to answer that question.    Still learning to let go.

And there was a 5.9 earthquake off the coast of Oregon today.  No tsunami alert.  Small quakes in Reno, and Indonesia and Chile are getting in on the shakin' action.  Keep your emergency disaster kits ready, people! (And the stray thought interrupts:  cartoon dodos marching to a cadance, shouting "Prepare for the Ice Age!  Protect the Dodo Way of Life!")

I really need to quit watching my son's movies!

Have a good day, everyone!

Finally got done with a 24-hour marathon babysitting gig.  I was officially on the clock for only about 14 of those hours, but we were at their house for a sleepover the previous night.  Whew!  Great kids, but now I know what happens when you combine TNT with DNA!  Of course, to score points as the favorite babysitter, I just HAD to sugar them up as well!

My DH is shooting a commercial.  Well, not really a commercial.  It's for a class project.  So he's turned a spare bedroom and the kitchen into "studios".  Bright lights and microphones everywhere!  So if I don't make it big as a writer, I can always get my fifteen seconds of fame on YouTube!

Eric Reynolds has posted the Table of Contents (TOC) on his LJ account for Barren Worlds!  How exciting!  I dragged all the kids to the local indie bookstore to try to give the owner some business and special order Desolate Places.  Yeah, they didn't need me today.  One clerk on duty, during lunch rush, and the line was about five deep when we got there.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any writing done.  Between the TNT and the sugar, you can see where finding a quiet moment to think would be difficult!  Hee Hee!  I do have a great idea though.  A friend of mine shared with me what a horrible day he had at work.  I think I can use it, if he'll let me.  I promise to change the names to protect the stupid-I mean, innocent!

May everyone have pleasant dreams and good, productive days!

It's spring break in my little burg.  Thank God we decided not to leave town on an extended trip!  A friend called, needing me to help babysit (gladly, her kids are pretty cool), and another friend called requesting advice about the school my DS attends.  So we're meeting for coffee and to share education horror stories.  You'd think, that as kindergartners, there wouldn't BE any horror stories.  Ah, but these are the times in which we live.  Before, it didn't matter if there were pros or cons to a school, you just went.  Now you have choices, and some are more expensive (financially AND emotionally) than others.

We have (maybe) one day off, and then traveling to Spokane, WA to hang with some friends.  It's not an extensive trip, just a short jaunt, really.  but someone else gets to clean the bathtub, so I'm good with it.

But this also means I'm probably going to miss writer's group again.  Damn!  And then at the end of the week, it's the beginning of my work week.  And I really need to do wifey things, like clean the house.  ICK!  And then there's Easter coming, and birthdays, and ....the list goes on.  It's March.  When did this happen?  I could have sworn that just last week I was fretting over Christmas presents!

But I can take the hectic with a grain of...something.  Not salt, unless it's on the rim of a tequila shot!  Hee Hee!  There is good news coming, let's just put it that way.  But of course I can't spill until later.  So you will all have to deal with THAT teaser until later.  Sorry.

Hope everyone has a great night/day, whatever.