Productivity or Random Stupidity

Holy Productiveness Batman
I lost most of the evening yesterday because I had fallen asleep before the kids' storytime, but at 11pm I woke up and started working on my never ending "to do" list.

So instead of going to bed like a normal person, I decided to get some stuff done. First, I worked on revising my resume since I'm applying for a professor position at a local community college. Yay me! I believe I have the resume the way I'd like it. I still need to do some more tweaking on the teaching philosophy statement, though.

I fought with my scanner for a couple of hours while it wheezed and protested. I think it's dying. Mid-scan it would freak out and make clicking and buzzing noises. After a while, I found out that it was much happier on a completely flat surface instead of a pile of papers. Who would have known?

I did a little shopping. It wasn't the fun fun type. My older son's class is behind, so I went online to buy one of his textbooks and a few workbooks. Since I was on the education kick, I looked online for more resources for boy #1 and emailed the links to another parent of a 4th grader in a class that is lagging.

Then, I realized boy #2 has a spelling test that he hasn't studied for and frantically searched the house for his word wall words. One hour later (with all the kids papers sorted), I've only found weeks one through ten. I can't imagine they're only on week ten, so I'm hoping this week's words are easy.


Here's the stupidity:
I stayed up all night. I'm more awake than if I had actually slept eight hours, but I'm going to pay for it later.

Oh well...
Since I'm up, I cleaned in the kitchen a bit, ran the dishwasher, and started making picky boy's lunch (that's boy #2). He's getting a burrito and a carrot. Boy #1 is buying (not a picky boy and basically a bottomless pit when it comes to food).

Writerly stuff...
I'm dissecting one of my finished novels... again. .

Blogmania

It seems like almost everyone has a blog, and a lot of people post regularly. I’ve been, um, posting something like once a month. I guess I’m not on the blogmania bandwagon.

I do like to read certain blogs though, but it's difficult to keep up with it all. Here are my favorites for certain topics:

Editor and Agent Advice
Nathan Bransford has lots of great information regarding the submission process, publication, and writing in general.

Jill Corcoran Books has submission advice in addition to industry news.

Tracy Marchini has a lot of great information on her blog too regarding submission and the writing process.

Cheryl Klein not only has great information on her blog, she also has a wealth of information on her website: Talking Books.

Writer Blogs
Writing for Kids While Raising Them

Haunting the Broken Tree

NaNo What?

Well NaNoWriMo was a bust, but there’s always next year, right? Seriously, I don’t work well that way. I still haven’t gotten last year’s NaNo novel in readable shape, though I do believe the story has promise.

What I want to know, is who thought November was a good novel writing month? You have Thanksgiving and other pre-winter holiday activities.

NaNoWriMo

Okay, so my friends talked me into doing NaNoWriMo again, and I’m miserably behind in the word count. I’ve decided that I just don’t work well in the NaNoWriMo state of mine. I can’t regurgitate words that will be tossed aside once the NaNo-insanity is over. I’m one of those “revise as you go” kind of gals.

All isn’t lost though. I have started another science fiction / mystery novel, and I’m hashing out the plot. If I can get a general framework of the book’s direction, maybe the writing and revising following NaNoWriMo will go smoothly.

55,000 words of dreck in a month – I don’t think so. But I'll be insanely happy if I can cough up 35K.

NaNoWriMo

Am I a glutton for punishment. Seriously. I signed on as a NaNoWriMo participant, and I'm behind already. My brain just doesn't work that way.

On the brighter side... my house is a little cleaner.

Kids, kids, Kids...
Tonight's reading selections:
a Magic Tree House Book
Geronimo Stilton
Axle Annie and the Speed Grump

My Time

A Writing We Will Go...
In the past weeks, I've been crazy busy with doctor appointments, volunteer stuff at the school, and Cub Scouts. I have done some new writing, but mostly I've been revising my YA dystopian WIP. I just hope dystopian is still in by the time I'm finished polishing it.

Scouts, Scouts, Scouts...
During the first couple weeks of school, Scouting programs really start up. I don't know about other packs, but we have a great program for the boys.

Back to the Grind

I’m a Newsletter Editor!

I now am the newsletter editor for RACWI Reports, the newsletter for the Rochester Area Children’s Writers & Illustrators. Some of my friends think I’m crazy for taking on yet another responsibility, but I’ve done this before.

Yes. I used write and edit a newsletter for the MOMS Club for a couple years before my children aged out of the activities, and our schedules no longer meshed.

Doing the Happy Dance

Don’t get me wrong. I love my children, but they really, really needed to get back to school. It wasn’t until the end of summer that I realized just how dependent on routine they are.

Now, I push the kids out the door as soon as we hear the school bus round the bend. Time to write and draw!