Coming Out of the Drafting Cave

My head is spinning, my house is a disaster area and ready to be quarantined, Christmas is 17 days away and my head is still in early November. My mind is full and blank at the same time (how can that be?!? Weirdly, it's true, and I'll bet every mom/writer combo woman knows exactly what I'm talking about.)

Since I'm not sure my brain will spit out coherent words for a while, here is my last six weeks in pictures . . .

Road Trip to Louisiana with darling hubby! We got away from the kids and the house and mess and the babies (missed them dreadfully though!) and ran around like crazy and had SO MUCH FUN and didn't want to come home. It was like running away and yet a 5 year overdue vaca with my hubby and a research trip rolled into one.

I'm very good at multi-tasking.

Did you every doubt?




Highway 10 through 900 miles of Texas!



This is a very good likeness of us by the end of 1500 miles.




Cool gators on Lake Martin, Louisiana







Gorgeous hibiscus at Shadows-on-the Teche Mansion in New Iberia.



Back home and writing my first draft again of THE TRAITEUR'S DAUGHTER (Title to be changed now due to and editorial mini consultation via email. Something I suspected we would do so I am now on the "Great Title Hunt".






I was home for 7 writing days and managed to get from 43,000 words to 67,000 words. And unpack and repack and get ready to go again!







Off to Arizona for a full week of Book Trailer Production with music discussions and timing issues and personally creating more images for a trailer that needs very unusual pictures not found on istock or Getty. We managed to be very sneaky to get some of our shots - and not get caught! Or kicked out of a hospital and Hobby Lobby. . .



Then Turkey Day with both sides of the family and lots of back and forth and visiting and games and eating, eating, eating.






We ate about 17 pies that weekend! Personally, I think I managed two all by myself.




Back home to New Mexico again!



Back to drafting. My goal of Labor Day is long gone. My goal of Halloween, pfft. My goal of Thanksgiving lost in the dust. Why is this book taking SO long to draft? I'm now past my original estimation of 60,000 words. We're in the 70's and nearing 80. I must be really good at blah, blah, blah.



HELP! HELP! HELP!!!



This is where I got to in the dark tunnel of drafting, drafting and wondering if I'll ever be done with this book.



A light! Is it true? Dare I hope? Dare I dream? Am I on the last chapter??? Really???



Official announcement: I wrote THE END at 9:15 p.m. Saturday, December 5, 2009.

Word count clocked in at 77,706 words and 286 manuscript pages. I DID IT!



Today I do laundry, figure out my Christmas List, finish reading somebody ELSE'S novel, and start revisions!

Maybe I'll get in one of these:



La, La, La, La!!!!

November Issue of Spellbinders is here! It's all about TEEN/YA stuff! Printz Buzz!

Please join our mailing list and receive SPELLBINDERS automatically in your email each month so you don't miss out. We have some fabulous issues coming up. Having trouble viewing this? Click here

November, 2009 Feature Article "The Twilight Zone" by Carolee Dean Up the hill from the high school where I work sits a local hot spot that has been an attraction for teenagers for the past several years. Every day anywhere from fifty to seventy-five students make the trek after school to hang out with friends, meet to work on after school projects, or just crash until their parents pick them up. When you enter the building there is a beautiful gallery/lobby with a shining wooden floor and a glass door opening onto a patio with tables, umbrellas, and a beautiful view of the mesa. To the right of the gallery is a room with a stage for performances and directly ahead is the real attraction - a room called The Twilight Zone. The inside of the Twilight Zone looks like a cyber café with several computers set up on tables with bar stools where kids can check email, surf the internet, or research school projects. On Wii Wednesday video gamers take turns trying to beat each other at Mario Party 8 while budding poets construct lines of free verse on a huge magnetic poetry board displaying such phrases as -- Dream of happy, fuzzy little jellyfish. In the midst of everything you'll find teens playing board games or curled up in lounge chairs and couches enjoying the latest vampire series or sci-fi adventure, surrounded by magazines, DVD's, and stacks upon stacks of books. In fact, there are books everywhere! This is a library, after all. Not your typical library, though. This is the Loma Colorado Main Library in Rio Rancho, New Mexico with a highly active Teen Advisory Board comprised of thirty energetic adolescents actively planning such events as last spring's Twilight Ball complete with a live teen band, a costume contest, and food provided by the Friends of the Library. The library provides a budget, and Teen Services Librarian, Kimberly Femling, assists in the implementation, but she gives teens ownership of the group and the planning. Next month the Teen Advisory Board is planning a Medieval Masquerade Party where some of the festivities will include decorating masks. And, of course, there will be lots of food. Femling says food is very important to teens. She provides pizza for the monthly advisory meetings and you'll always find food at special events. Kids are encouraged to bring after school snacks and may eat in the gallery or on the outdoor patio. The only rule is-no food on the carpets. The primary objective of the Twilight Zone Teen Scene is just to get kids into the library. Once they are in Femling can advertise the library's services, let kids know what resources are available, and educate them about how to use those resources. She encourages teen-run clubs with the rule that anyone and everyone must be allowed to participate. She says it's important to coordinate with the local high school and not duplicate the types of clubs and activities they are doing or else everyone gets spread too thin. So far there has been an improv performance troupe, an anime club, and talk of a computer repair group. Femling, who also serves as the Innovative Systems Coordinator, says that just because you see a student listening to an MP3 player it doesn't mean they're zoning out on rap or hip hop. Students can check out devices known as Play Always. They look like MP3 players but each one is loaded with a different book that can be checked out from the circulation desk. The library also offers downloadable books that can go from a computer to an iPod or MP3 player. When asked what makes a successful teen program, Femling says that an effective librarian should specialize in teen lit and keep current with teen trends-what they are reading and what they need. She says the best way to do this is by listening to the suggestions of the Teen Advisory Board. For more information on the Twilight Zone Teen Scene contact the Teen Librarian at 505-891-5013 or visit the library's website at: www.ci.rio-rancho.nm.us/library. For information on teen literature visit Young Adult Library Services at www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/yalsa.cfm. YALSA is a rapidly growing division of the American Library Association. Be sure to mark your calendars for November 5-7, 2010 when the national YALSA conference will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Your friendly Spellbinders are all planning to be there. Join Our Mailing List! Who's Right/Whose Right? Lois Ruby It's dangerous to slink around in the library because you're likely to stumble upon a tome that rocks some of your deeply cherished biases. Today I found such a book called The Language Police, by Diane Ravitch (New York: Knopf, 2003). The subtitle says it all: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. After smugly sifting through the chapter on censorship from the right, my eyes strayed to the next chapter about censorship from the left. What's this??? Ravitch says, "The pressure groups of left and right have important points of convergence. Both right-wingers and left-wingers demand that publishers shield children from words and ideas that contain what they deem the 'wrong' models for living. Both assume that by limiting what children read, they can change society to reflect their worldview." So, what we refer to as political correctness, i.e., removing words construed as sexist or racist, for example, could be just as harmful as denying access to ideas some find offensive. Words ... ideas. Which have more power to persuade or corrupt or enlighten young readers? That's food for thought around the table in the breakroom. Here's something else to think about. This month the National Book Foundation will choose the winning book in the field of literature for young people. Among the short-list of five titles is one that's generating lots of smoke and flame. It's a graphic memoir called Stitches, by David Small. The poor guy had a horrifying childhood, and his recollections might be troubling to readers below the age of sixteen. In fact, the book wasn't meant to be for children or teens. Then an enterprising publisher realized that a graphic book might not hold up in the adult non-fiction category, so W.W. Norton submitted it for the National Book Award in the Literature for Young People division. Boom. It resounded with the five author/judges. Tune in November 18 when the winner is announced. Meanwhile, is Stitches a teen book? Should we shelter callow eyes and minds from such gut-wrenching revelations? Or, here's a thought: are our young people being used as pawns so a publisher can snag a major award, which comes with flashing dollar signs? Tomorrow's topic in the breakroom. And finally, that great, curly-haired, smiling grande dame of YA literature, Judy Blume, has been honored yet again for her outspoken heroism, this time by the National Coalition Against Censorship, at its sixtieth anniversary celebration. Enough said. www.loisruby.com CAROLEE DEAN TO PRESENT AT ASHA - November 21, 2009 Carolee will be offering a one-hour session for speech-language pathologists on Saturday, November 21 at 8:00a.m.at the National ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) Convention in New Orleans. The session title is "The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar" and attendees may be download handouts from the ASHA website. If you have SLPs from your school who will be attending ASHA, please encourage them to come to the session. Join Our Mailing List! NOTE: Please feel free to reprint any of the articles you find in SPELLBINDERS, but do give credit to the author(s) and include a reference to our blog by giving the following information - written by (author) and reprinted with permission from SPELLBINDERS, Helping Librarians and Educators Create Lifelong Readers www.spellbindersbooknews.blogspot.com. Join Our Mailing List! The Secret Language of Stories Carolee Dean In October I gave a brief overview of my twelve-step story method called, "The Secret Language of Stories" (SLOS) and discussed the New World vs. the Old World as well as the impact of setting on character development. We began by discussing how most stories depict a main character in his ordinary world and then show the hero travelling to an unfamiliar world where he or she experiences growth and change. I have given workshops on this topic to teachers, librarians and SLPs and am excited to announce that I will be offering a one-hour session for speech-language pathologists on Saturday, November 21 at 8:00a.m. at the National ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) Convention in New Orleans. If you have SLPs from your school who will be attending ASHA, please encourage them to come to my session. This month I will be discussing THE CALL. This is the point in the story, typically before the actual journey to a new world occurs, where something alerts the main character that things are about to change. In Story Grammar language this is often referred to as the Initiating Event, though some have called it the kick off, the invitation, or the challenge. The main character may receive a threat, a challenge, or an invitation. This may arrive in a variety of ways-a letter, a phone call, a verbal confrontation. In olden times a king sent a herald with a bugle to call everyone to the town square to make important announcements such as letting the young men know they were being called to war, or to tell the young ladies that there would be a ball at the palace. Sometimes, but not always, the Call will be followed by a REFUSAL. Characters are often reluctant at first to leave their comfortable homes and the things that are familiar to them to journey into dangerous and unknown territory. They may be afraid, feel unprepared, or think they are unworthy. They may hide, run away, argue, or simply refuse to accept the challenge. Often a mentor or guide will appear at this point in the story to encourage the main character to accept the challenge and get going on the journey. In many myths and fairy tales the mentor gives the hero magical gifts such as glass slippers, protective shields, magic beans or invisibility cloaks, but the gift could be as simple as advice or encouragement. Examples of the CALL and the REFUSAL abound in children's literature. Harry Potter received his call in the form of letters from Hogwarts. Even the great boy wizard was reluctant at first to embark on the journey to Hogwarts, thinking that perhaps there had been a mistake. He simply didn't believe it was possible that he could be a wizard. It wasn't until his mentor, Hagrid, said, "Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?" that Harry had any belief that he was magical. Hagrid then proceeded to take him to Diagon Alley where Harry was bestowed with numerous magical gifts including a wand and a cauldron. Sometimes the CALL comes from inside a person in the form of an attraction, which is often the case in romances. In Twilight, Bella is interested in the porcelain white vampire guy in the cafeteria, but then decides he's a snob and tries to forget about him. Meanwhile, Edward tries to deny his growing attraction to Bella because he fears he won't be able to control his hunger for her blood. Think about books you've read or movies you've seen and I'm sure that examples of the CALL and the REFUSAL will abound. For a more complete discussion of this topic you may want to read The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler. For a fun game exploring the CALL see the November Random Writing Activity on the blog on my website at www.caroleedean.com. Kimberley's Book Buzz Kimberley Griffiths Little As promised - this month it's Michael L. Printz Award Book Buzz - given to the most outstanding Young Adult title of the year. Young Adult literature has exploded the past five years. More YA novels are being published than ever before, in every genre imaginable, and devoured by teens. For the first time in my own lifetime of obsessive reading and writing, I'm watching teens talking about books, buying books with dollars they earn from part-time jobs, discussing books with friends, and eagerly waiting for the next book by their favorite authors. Teens check out authors' web sites, My Space Pages, and friend them on Facebook. Authors are more accessible through on-line mediums than ever before, and the opportunities to interact and meet authors at schools, libraries, or bookstores are part of what makes reading even more exciting and personal. YA authors are the new "rock stars". Provocative and superbly written books are being published, so jump on and enjoy the ride! I'd love to tell you about 50 new titles I've read in the past year, but in the interest of space I'll give a brief synopsis of 5 titles that have received excellent reviews and are terrific books to point your teens toward. Marcelo in the Real World (Scholastic, Arthur Levine Books) by Francisco X. Stork Marcelo, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning spectrum of autism, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work in the mailroom for his father's law firm. If I Stay (Dutton) by Gayle Forman While in a coma following a car accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death. Wintergirls (Viking) by Laurie Halse Anderson Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder. Days of Little Texas (Knopf) by R. A. Nelson Haunted by the ghost of a dead girl he failed to cure by faith healing, teen evangelist, Ronald Earl Pettway becomes engaged in an epic battle between good and evil on the eve of a huge revival meeting at an old plantation. Funny How Things Change (FSG) by Melissa Wyatt After a visiting artist helps Remy realize what his family's home in a dying West Virginia mountain town means to him, the talented seventeen-year-old auto mechanic questions his decision to join his girlfriend when she starts college in Pennsylvania. In addition to the Printz hopefuls, there are dozens of other wonderful titles. YA books come in so many different styles, shapes and sizes that I couldn't resist listing a few novels within other teen genres that have had readers buzzing this year. Historical: A Sweet Disorder by Jacqueline Kolosov (a girl in Queen Elizabeth's court) Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith (a young woman pilot during WWII) Werewolf/Ghost/Zombie/Faerie: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog Romance: Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard Futuristic Thriller: Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins Enjoy a delicious new read! www.kimberleygriffithslittle.com Join Our Mailing List! Mass Email Services Provided By Peifer Computing Solutions

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Home From Louisiana!

We just got home late last night and it was FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hubby and I had such a great time we didn't want to come back. (It's been years since we've had a trip for just the two of us and our home life has been pretty crazy chaos the past two years.)

We went dancing with Miss Olive and Mister Elward Stephens on Front Street in Morgan City - a couple in their 80s that I met last April who are absolutely awesome, practically live off the bayou and swamp right out their back door, and act about 30 years younger. Aren't they cute?



We ate barbecue at Gros Marina eight miles down Four Mile Bayou (a local joke), went to an outdoor Cajun boucharie (pig roast complete with cracklin's being cooked over an open fire in a black cauldron) and hubby was offered moonshine to drink!!! We also ate tons of shrimp, crabs, gumbo, and jambalaya.

We rowed a canoe for 3 hours in the bayous where A FISH LITERALLY JUMPED INTO OUR BOAT!!!! A mullet flopped and danced in the bottom of our boat until we could scoop him out. It was wild. And we saw tons of turtles and birds and gators. We were the only ones out there and it was so peaceful I didn't want it to end. Mullets jumped all over the place. We could see them everywhere as the afternoon deepened. They jump about three feet in the air. Amazing. The weather was perfect all week, too. Sunshine every day and 75 degrees.

We met SO MANY PEOPLE and talked about traiteurs and their personal experiences with traiteurs and my upcoming books, and I have a whole new *fan* base, ha ha!

Hope y'all are well - not sure I'm going to have a chance to read back through 10 days of journals. Not when I gotta finish my first draft by Thanksgiving . . . but I'm waving and sending love!

Halloween pics and stories

I haven't dressed up in years, but I needed to pay homage to King Tut and Queen Ankhesenamun from my latest WIP.

I really need to grow out my hair and get permanent curls . . . isn't that wig HOT?!? And that guy - ooh, la la! Well, he needs to ditch the glasses . . .




Private Belly Dance Party later . . . in the Middle Eastern Room.



Two of my five guys! I have lots of men in my life . . . Gangsta coolness and piratey mahem. My other boys were AWOL around the country.



The littlest Little family with Sera as a mermaid and Adam's wife as a Gothic Geisha Girl.



She sewed this all week long and I have the evidence all over my house.


Coolness, especially the braids and boots.

Hope you all had a fun weekend and aren't too gorged from sugar.

Me, I am out of here for the next 9 days. Going to Louisiana with hubby to do research and swamp tours and stay in historic B&B on the Bayou Teche! See you next week! Be good while I'm gone and will someone please sweep up the candy wrappers . . .



Adam liked that cigar a little *too* much.

Halloween Spookiness!

I have been a very good girl - I haven't eaten any Halloween candy this week - yet!

Of course, that means *nothing* as I'm sure I'll be inhaling it over the weekend and applying it directly to my thighs and stomach.




Go read this very Spooky Story by mguibord : The Rustling of Dead Things

Go Watch lindsey_leavitt's spooky Halloween video about the ghost story she wrote and illustrated when she was only 10! Delivering the Spook I wrote one when I was 10 and made it into a book, but I don't have it, unfortunately, and I have no idea what happened to it. Maybe a spirit spirited it away . . .

Go here to enter a very spooky contest by lisa_schroeder
Trick or Treat!

My own ghostly experience in a cemetery in Natchez Mississippi! Click the link to see the pics and read the caption stories in which I spill all!

If you have a Halloween story please share in the comments with a link so we can all feel deliciously tingly!

Not a woman in sight

Publisher's Weekly names their 10 best books for 2009. NOT A SINGLE FEMALE AUTHOR MADE THE LIST! What's up with that?1?

Nonfiction
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, by Richard Holmes
Cheever: A Life, by Blake Bailey
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon, by Neil Sheehan
Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small
Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Matthew Crawford
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann

Fiction
Await Your Reply, by Dan Chaon
Big Machine, by Victor LaValle
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, by Geoff Dyer
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, by Daniyal Mueenuddin

Good reads and Synopsis Dilemma

I joined GoodReads and have friended a bunch of people, but my numbers sure look a lot lonelier than other people's just because I plain don't have the time lately to do all the adding I want to. I really love getting the email updates on what everybody is reading and seeing how y'all rank each book as well as reading the comments/reviews. Kate Messner writes some darn good reviews. I love reading them. Keep up the good work, Kate!

Does anybody besides me have a crazy hard time keeping up with email and all the social online networking and school visit paperwork and research and yet still be able to WRITE. And keeping family and household going all without going nuts? I must be SO disorganized or something. Everything always takes HOURS longer to do than I think it's going to. Whine, whine, whine.

So first I'm here to BEG you all to please, please, pretty please add THE HEALING SPELL to your reading list on Goodreads! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

And second, I need your help!

Back in August my Gorgeous Editor sent the flap copy for THE HEALING SPELL to me and I thought she did a lovely job with it. She said it was probably her most favorite flap copy she'd ever done. Which is totally cool to hear! I had a few questions about why she left out mention of some things (like the mysterious swamp traiteur) and she thought it would be confusing to young readers who will have no clue what/who that is. She also thought that less is more and it was better not to have a majorly long synopsis that makes the eyes glaze over on the jacket flap. Good points.

About this same time I was writing the script for the book trailer (it's going to have an amazing voice-over!) and I came up with my own synopsis. As I look at them both I think that the publisher's flap copy is geared more to younger readers and keeping it shorter and simpler is better for that, but I think the synopsis I wrote is actually more suspenseful. And maybe it's more geared toward adults.

Maybe I'm totally wrong about everything! I can't get far enough away to be unbiased. Opinions appreciated!

Here is the publishers flap copy:

"Eleven-year-old Livie is keeping a secret and it’s crushing her. She knows she is responsible for her mother’s coma, but she can’t tell anyone. And it’s up to her to find a way to wake her mamma before anyone uncovers the truth of what really happened.

Added to the list of Livie’s problems is being stuck in the middle of three sisters, trying to hide a forbidden pet alligator, and possibly disappointing her daddy, whom she loves more than anyone else. Livie feels like an outsider and prefers the solitude of the lush bayou to her ever-crowded home. But she can’t run away from her troubles, and as she struggles to find her place within her family, Livie learns a lot about the powers of faith and redemption. Is her heart big enough to heal her mamma and bring her family back together?

Kimberley Griffiths Little’s beautiful, vivid writing brings Livie’s lush world on the bayou to brilliant life, and depicts Livie’s journey with a sensitivity and wisdom that’s sure to resonate with readers of all ages."

Here is my synopsis from Goodreads:

"Deep in the Louisiana bayou country, Livie Mouton’s mother arrives home from the hospital in a coma. Daddy is determined she will only get better surrounded by the people who love her best, but Livie is terrified of her mother’s lifeless condition and desperately hiding the biggest secret of her life—but some sins are so dangerous they’re better left hidden.

Summoning her courage, Livie travels into the forbidden recesses of the swamp to seek out the mysterious traiteur, hoping that if she buys a healing spell, she can bring her mother back to life.

Making the healing spell will prove to be the hardest thing she’s ever done, but can Livie do it in time, before Mamma never wakes up again?

Then Livie discovers that her mamma is hiding a secret of her own . . ."

Waterlogged Wednesday

It started raining yesterday. Then it started HAILING yesterday - and the sound pounded the roof and the yard and the cars in the driveway.

Then the power went out all evening. I was in the middle of posting comments to my entry yesterday and lost everything. Anyway, time to move on. It's a new day!

The rain is still raining. Steadily and hard all night.

Time to curl up with my manuscript and get some words pounded out.

A book would be more cozy. And a cup of hot cocoa.

At least I got my son's college paperwork we were working on finished. Sort of. Still more to do. There is always more to do. :-)

And I printed up the "Letters of Agreement" for the school visits coming up this winter and spring before the computers in the house all went down. We haven't had a power outage in years. I was telling my youngest son that when I brought him home from the hospital as a baby we had no power. I had two toddlers and a newborn and no power, lights, heat, etc. No fun - but we survived!

Fridays and Books!

Don't miss out on fabulousfrock ARC Giveaway!!!

Jaclyn Dolamore's is holding a contest giving away an ARC of her upcoming December book MAGIC UNDER GLASS! I ADORE the cover and I already have teens I know talking about it.

It's easy to enter: go to Jackie's new website and find out what she dressed up as for Halloween when she was fourteen. Easy peasy.

MAGIC UNDER GLASS was chosen for the Junior Library Guild!!! And it's getting great reviews already! A perfect Christmas gift since it will pub on December 22! So pre-order her book after you enter the contest!



Speaking of books . . .

I've recently read ETERNAL by CYNTHIA LEITICH SMITH - one of my favorite writer friends. LOVED IT!!! It's creepy and delicious and the ending was perfect.



A few days ago I read this in one big gulp - Barbara O'Connor is an incredible talent. Her books are small but AMAZING.




Just this minute I finished reading:



LOVE HIM!!! And I can't wait to read his new A SEASON OF GIFTS!

I was probably one of the first people to hear Richard Peck share pieces of this book to a group of live people way back in 1991 when I first met him in Santa Fe, New Mexico at a small and intimate writer's conference.

Enjoy your weekend and take time to read a book. I have stacks waiting for me . . . Can. Never. Catch. Up.

Subject: Our Marketing Plan

• This article from The New Yorker is absolutely hilarious and you'll find yourself giggling and snorting and wiping away the tears.
  

"Subject: Our Marketing Plan" written by Ellis Weiner - as he shares a letter from his book publicist.

Ah, there are days when it truly feels like that.

And the mention of "Jason" throughout the article/email is priceless.

Wednesday Wanderings

I'm sitting here eating a bowl of strawberries, watermelon and grapes and thinking that it's probably the last of the fresh fruit for awhile. At least the yummy summer fruit. It's always sort of sad. I ADORE fresh summer fruit!

I joined JoNoWriMo this year for the first time and in the last three weeks I've written 20,000 words. Yes, you heard right - 20,000 FREAKING WORDS!!! A happy sigh here since it's taken me three months to get going on this novel. This novel that is due in 4-5 months to my Gorgeous Editor whom I love and adore, too. More than my lovely fruit! ;-D I need to draft and revise at least three times before I'll let Gorgeous Editor even take a peek. This book *cannot* take 5 years to figure out how to get it right.

I'm also going Halloween costume shopping this afternoon, although there's a truly *divine* medieval dress I've been drooling over out of a catalog for about three years. Do I just take the plunge and buy it? I'm thinking that with some beautiful elf ears I could go live inside the Lord of the Rings movie along with Arwen and Eowyn and all those other gorgeous girl elfs.

Isn't she lovely?



Too scrumptious!



So where can I get me that crown - and that guy???

Update on the ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh post!

Last we left our heroine, she was weeping with excitement, jumping up and down around her bedroom "office" when she learned that the Demi-God Author of Children's Literature had asked her gorgeous editor to read her novel for potential endorsement . . . and editor immediately had said novel printed, bound and messengered to the DGA of Children's Lit.

Last week Gorgeous Editor gets a letter from Demi-God Author. He read the book! He loves the book! He's blurbing the book!!! It's true, it's REAL!!!!

Gorgeous Editor starts jumping up and down, calls heroine/writer at dinnertime who thinks it's an anonymous salesperson calling for $ or a survey and ignores the phone and continues stirring her spaghetti sauce and setting the table. Two hours later heroine listens to voice mail . . . and starts crying again. And bouncing off walls.

Gorgeous Editor says that she's been running around showing off the beautiful blurb to all her fellow editors who begin jumping up and down.

She shows it to the publicity dept who begins jumping up and down.

The blurb comes *in the nick of time* to be lovingly placed on the cover on its way out the door to becoming an ARC!!!!

Heroine's novel THE HEALING SPELL is blessed by the Demi-God and Demi-Goddess of Literature.

Heroine is off to make an offering of chocolate to the Gods . . .