A blustery day

March came in like a lion - blizzard conditions - and seems to be going out like one too. It's cold and windy today. The boys' major project of the past two days has been to make three octopus kites - entirely of their own design - one for each of them and Amelia. Very nice and they picked the right days to do them.

I started writing a long blog about writing and responsibility, but have decided it's too deep for today. I've been making progress on my next WIP and would rather concentrate on that.

So no more thoughts here, deep or otherwise, today. Turn off your computer and go out and have fun.

Productive days, at least for some things

After promising my kids for weeks that we would tap our sugar maples this year, I finally bought taps for our biggest tree - just in time for what is likely to be the last weekend of the sugaring season. Neither Bryan or I had ever tapped trees before and were amazed at how quickly the sap started flowing - pretty much right away. The kids got a kick out of it too, Amelia especially. The boys quickly decided that playing in the mounds of mud in the yard was much more fun. By nightfall we'd already gotten quite a bit collected, which is good, since 10 gallons boils down to about 1 quart of maple syrup. I feel like a true New Englander - my Puritan forefathers would be proud. (Or maybe not, since this is pure frivolity on our part.)

It's amazing to me how different the areas of our country are and how attached we become to our places. I had the pleasure of reading a writing friend's recently published novel yesterday - I started it and was enjoying myself so much that I wanted to finish it. It wasn't a page-turner, OMG-I-have-to-find-out-what-happens kind of book. More a slow, easy read with characters that feel like old friends by the end. I even got attached to the dog in the book.

The book is called When the Ocotillo Bloom (by Linda LaRoque, published by Wings ePress - check it out) and the reason I mention it as I think about our regional differences is that Linda writes - beautifully, I might add - about an area of the country that is about as different from mine as night is from day. I've never been much interested in Texas (sorry, Linda) or reading scenery, for that matter, so reading scenery about Texas you might think would immediately turn me off. Linda's ability to describe her home region, in vivid, precise terms, weaving it into the story and helping the story move forward through those descriptions was amazing to me.

Made me even want to visit Texas sometime. But not in the summer. I got a kick out of the description of a mild May evening as not even being ninety degrees (or something like that - I'm sure I'm butchering her words). Here in the Upper Connecticut river valley, ninety degrees doesn't qualify as anything but downright hot.

Linda's way with words is exceptional, I think. I've had the pleasure of reading her next book and can't wait till I see it in print. I don't want anyone to think I go around praising every book I read. I started one a few months ago and never finished it because the first chapter made me want to throw it across the room. Maybe it's just me, but the only historical novels I think should have the word "shag"- as used the way Austin Powers would use it - should involve time travel and Austin Powers. Unless books that take place in the 1960s now qualify as historicals. Although apparently in the language during the Regency period in England, it was a very low, vulgar word, only found in underground and privately printed books. I'm just not buying "shag" as an appropriate word for a Regency hero - even one who starts off as a rake.

The return of the laptop...

Finally, my laptop is back, minus my files, my family pictures, and my Mozilla bookmarks. Hard to decide which is more upsetting right now. I am under strict orders from my husband to not allow my children to even breathe in the general vicinity of the laptop and liquids are completely banned. I assume he means for the kids, because I'm not typing anything without my green tea or a cup of mocha handy.

So I'm trying to update my blog page here, adding pictures, links of friends/family/writing buddies' blogs, and discover I can't remember for the life of me my password. Who came up with this idea about passwords anyway? Conceptually it's sensible, until you realize that, with all the pages you log in to - the worst being, IMHO, the online shopping people who want you to have an account at every store - you'd need at least 75 passwords, if you intend to keep them distinct. I try to keep something I can remember and vary between a few, but with all the potential passwords I use, I never can log in to anything on the first try - except my email.

Obviously, I finally reset my password here and got in. Took too long.

Now I'm off to do what I set out to do here in the first place - add someone's blog. Then time to get back to my WIP - still in the prologue, but things are going well. It's been interesting writing it all out on paper. Since I can't edit as easily, words keep flowing more and I worry about editing later. While I write slower than I type, I think I've been more efficient with writing long-hand because I've turned off, to a large extent, my self-editor. We'll see.

Assorted weekend happenings

So many things, so little energy to write about them. Major story of our past week is illness - the boys and I have been coughing and run down since Wednesday. I think we're on the mend, but the house and other things have fallen by the wayside, so there's a lot of catching up to do now. The builder has broken through into the addition, so dust is everywhere - not good for the coughing, plus I don't really care enough to clean it up right now. And they're only going to create more dust before they're done, so why bother?

I used to try that excuse with my mother - I'm only going to sleep in my bed again tonight, so why make it? It never seemed to work. One of the beauties of being an adult - I can let myself get away with that now. Only now I'm conditioned to make my bed everyday - sigh.

Other exciting news - let's see. The boys rode the chair lift at the Skiway last weekend and skied down the big hill for the first time. Very fun. Oh, this one's good. Amelia held an election for the family to vote on who they'd choose as president, George W. Bush or Abraham Lincoln? Unsurprisingly, Abe won, 3-0. (Jamie chose not to exercise his right to vote and Amelia, as the election official, didn't want to seem biased, so she abstained as well.)

Time to get to my 74 emails. Then maybe some Advil.

Life is what happens...

I definitely made other plans for this week. Included in them was NOT having my laptop hard drive die due to an overdose of grape juice. Apparently, grape juice is contraindicated when you're a hard drive, but try telling a 4-year old that.

So, after panicking that I lost everything, I calmed down to realize that I'd backed up almost everything that was really important - my completed manuscript. What I didn't back up, which I want to cry about sometimes but am working through, is the latest pictures of the kids - since October 2005. We're trying to get access to the files on the hard drive, but it will be iffy. If anyone can do it, however, I fully believe Bryan can. Just one more thing to add to his work load.

The good thing that happened this week? My sister read my book and actually liked it. (See comment on last post.) I was expecting polite and tepid feedback, knowing she sets high standards for almost everything, so I'm really happy it didn't make her want to throw it across the room in disgust. As I told her, that would break her computer.

Now, if a publisher could like it too, that would be wonderful.

Too late for important thoughts...

but since I'm here, I'll write something anyway. I'm not sure why I started a blog since I don't actually have time to write what I should be writing. All these ideas in my head for novels, both important and mundane, and I'm writing stream of consciousness. Did I spell that right? I guess this is also known as procrastination.
But the weekend was good, for all that I'm not getting much done on the getting published end of things. Played Uno with Bryan and kids during our power outage on Friday and was very proud of my daughter Amelia, who lost without losing her composure or sense of humor. Went sledding with about 50 other people on Saturday afternoon/evening, including Bryan, kids and dogs, and we had a blast, going down a nice big fast hill on the west side of town. It's great to live in Lyme. The fire chief broke out the generator and large lights to allow the nighttime sledding, people brought hot chocolate and cookies, and a good time was had by all. Today the kids all had skiing lessons - they're doing wonderfully - and as a treat for the almost end of ski season, the whole family had lunch at the lodge. Expensive fast food in a crowded cafeteria, but the company at my table was great.
So I might not have accomplished much in one area, but I feel very lucky in another.