Friday Five for Feburary 8, 2013

1. What a week! I learned how to format ebooks. It was intimidating at first, but it's really not that horrible. Tedious, yes, but just like uploading your book to purchase sites, once you get a hang of it, it feels a lot easier. Thank you so much for your help, Cherie! (She's brilliant, you know!)

2. I loaded my newly formatted files of The Dragonslayer to the purchase sites. Everything looked beautiful. What a relief! Smashwords and Amazon already have theirs up. It feels good to have those done. I also have everything ready for the big blog tour next week from the 13th - 17th. Lots of fun posts and a big giveaway! Then The Harbinger cover reveal on the 18th.

3. I'm 25% done with the next book in the 13th Floor series. It's very different than the other books. The action is more verbal than physical. I hope to be halfway done by the end of the weekend and then finish the rest next week. Yes, I'm a fast writer, and I'm aiming for 20,000 words, give or take a few thousand.

4. My little guy is sick this week. Poor fellow. He made it through school yesterday, and when I arrived to pick him up, he threw up. Well, at least the teacher didn't have to deal with the ickiness. I'd feel bad if she did.

5. Don't forget the next W4WS event is on the 18th. We'll be featuring Melissa Bradley and Gwen Gardner this month. Sign up on the linky list and help out your fellow writers. It's fast and simple. A tweet, a RT, or share a link on Facebook.

Have a great weekend!

Mutant immune system

There's my little guy intensely concentrating on a Curious George counting game. He can count to twenty and that's his favorite number right now. He's occupied most of my week because he's sick again. I swear, I think he's going for a record for most viruses caught in one winter. I've been puked on every day for two weeks. I must have a mutant immune system, because I don't even have a sniffle. *knocks on wood* Took him to the doctor today and the prognosis: ear infection and possible chest cold. My son is very particular about his ears and has not been a happy boy these past few days. He hasn't been taking any naps and he's been waking up in the middle of the night. That's something that hasn't happened since he was an infant. So no writing time for Mama. I did manage to get the stories for today's writers' group meeting critiqued, though. At least I did something productive.

Take a deep breath

Sometimes all we can do is take a deep breath and push on.

I had a bad weekend. We all have our not-so-great moments. Yet I'm trying very hard to focus on the good.

I revised my newest short story and sent it in to my writers' group to be critiqued.

I braved the crowd at the post office with a sick toddler and husband, and we processed my son's passport application without a fuss.

I received two more of our new switchplates in the mail. Doing little things around the house really helps to make it our own.

My son now sings, "Na-na-na-na-na-na-na, Batman." And he adds in his own words in place of Batman. His favorite today being milk.

Now it's Monday. Everyone take a deep breath and sing: "Na-na-na-na-na-na-na, milk!"

Pink stains and supernatural crime

A good and not so good start to the new year. My son has been sick. Once again, I'm thankful for our new rug steam cleaner. Just so you know, watermelon stains carpets and nothing gets out that faint pink splotch. Poor little guy has such a sensitive stomach.

He didn't sleep much at all yesterday, but today he made up for it. I have over 3000 words done on my first short story of the year. A supernatural crime story. My writers' group is meeting a week early this month, so I have to have it done by Sunday to send it in on time to be critiqued. It won't be over 6000 words. I think I can do it if my son does two more good naps this week.

I've been fussing with a blurb for one of my novels too. It's a blurb the wonderful Nicole Zoltack has critiqued for me. She mentioned something in it and totally opened up a big hole in my plot. I sat for a long while thinking about why I never thought of it. Then I realized why it never happened. It was something my protagonist would refuse to do. Whew. So while it did make sense to me, and I was thinking too much like myself at that moment, it didn't make sense in terms of the way my protagonist thinks. Making this blurb the best blurb it can be has me one step closer querying.

i can has cute kitty and donuts?

A nice quiet Christmas

It was a quiet Christmas for us this year, but very nice. Our son opened two presents, grew bored, and demanded we clean up. He loves the easel we bought him and the LeapPad from his Gramma. He's such a gadget freak like his father!

It was such a mild day, we spent the afternoon at one of the local parks. We had so much fun, we didn't leave until the sun had set. Surprisingly, the park was pretty busy. Lots of people enjoying the day out with their families.

Today we ran a bunch of errands and picked out glasses for our son. He looks adorable!

We have some snow now. Maybe we can take the sled out to the backyard and go down the little hill.

I hope everyone had a great holiday. Don't forget to stop by tomorrow when I interview short story writer and poet, James Dorr.

Chunks

Sound asleep. The sweet little guy. He's so adorable. Then when he was awake today, EWWWWWW! My son has a rotavirus. I won't describe it. You can click on the link and that will be enough said. I'm happy we got a carpet steam cleaner as an early Christmas present.

Aside from all my cleaning and comforting today, I managed to get a nice chunk of writing done. I'm that much closer to the big climax of my current novel. I won't get it done before Christmas like I hoped, but maybe the end of December. *knocks on wood*