LDS Storymakers 2013

The past three days have been nuts. I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to go to the 2013 LDS Storymakers Conference. Thank you so much to my neighbors and my in-laws who watched my kids! I wouldn't have been able to go without you. I'm still processing everything that happened. I can't form coherent thoughts very well right now, so you guys get a list.

Points of awesome:

Professional feedback on my work.

Seeing my critique group. Even though Julie wasn't able to be at the conference we saw her Thursday night when she performed at Listen To Your Mother. Her piece was the most hilarious, hands down.

The classes. I haven't learned so much new stuff since college. My brain has gotten fat and isn't sure what to do about all the exercise.

Anne Perry's keynote address. Holy cow. The world is less if someone didn't record that thing and post it online somewhere.

New friends! I've already learned so much from them. You guys were seriously the best thing that happened! I can't believe I didn't get a picture with you!

Also,  I kind of won.

YES I DID! I took first place in the Adult Speculative Fiction genre of the first chapter contest! Granted, I don't know exactly how many other stories there were in my group (probably only 10-20) and I didn't win overall, but I still got first in my genre! I don't think I've ever won a contest in my life.

Good thing the contest wasn't for photography.

This hasn't been my most articulate blog post, but my brain is too fried for anything else right now. I'll post again soon about Chaela's first t-ball game!

Spring 2013

A lot of my blogs lately have been about writing. Thanks for putting up with it, I know a lot of you guys are probably bored by that kind of thing.

Here's some other stuff we've been up to lately:

Easter.

I turned 28. There aren't any pictures of this. I'm pretty sure I spent most of the day taking an awesome nap. Ever since becoming a mom, I prefer a laid-back kind of celebration.

Joci turned three. She wanted a Brave party, so I made her a Merida dress, got some "tartan" fabric from JoAnn's so her friends could be from the four clans in the movie, made bows and arrows from dowel rods and PVC pipe, and made "wisp" cake pops. I'm all Pinterested out. Good think Kairi is only turning one in June and won't care if her party consists of a boxed cake mix and a can of frosting.

There was also some blue face paint. It was pretty fun.

The Brave party was the day before Joci's birthday. On the actual day, we had some family over and ate Joci's birthday dinner (she picked spaghetti) and had some cupcakes.

So that's what we've been up to lately. Will's back at work full time, which is, as always, an adjustment. I have two writing conferences, one this coming Saturday and one from May 9th-11th. I'm looking forward to both of them and I hope I can learn what I need to help me push my stories over the edge into 'good enough!'

Time to start the second draft

So I was in the shower this morning and all of the sudden, I knew.

It's time to start the second draft.

Mostly I'm posting this blog as a marker so I can see how long it takes me to do this. Unlike the first round, I'm not going to power through. I want to take my time and make it solid, so I'm interested to see how long it takes.

Here's my plan:

1. Read it and take notes without changing anything on the actual document, write down ideas for alternate scenes or ways a scene could happen.

2. Compile all of my notes and comments to myself as well as everything I've gotten from other people and organize them by chapter so I know exactly what needs to happen in each one.

3. Rewrite (possibly starting with the end, since it suffered from my being majorly burned out last time and I don't want that to happen again).

So that will be the second draft. I'm nervous, because doing this will bring me a solid step closer to needing to query agents and send this thing out into the world. I mean, that's the whole point, right? If I never submit it, I'll never have to hear a harsh professional opinion on my abilities as a writer, but I'll also never be published. Time to get over myself!

First Draft of Third Novel Complete!

I've been neglecting my blog lately. Sorry everyone! I just couldn't bring myself to write here when I was writing so much in my story this past month.

How much? Let me tell you. My manuscript is 226 word processor pages with 1 inch margins, 1.15 line spacing and 12-pt font that's comparable to Times New Roman. It includes 103,803 words. If it were a book, it would probably be between 400 and 440 pages, depending on the format.

Between February 24 and March 26, I wrote 69,869 words in my novel, plus outlining a new project. I'm sorry if I sound braggy, but this is my blog and I'm proud of myself, dangit!

Even though this is my third novel, I've never submitted anything for publication. This is the one. My hope is to have it polished and ready to submit to literary agents by sometime this summer.

I've really enjoyed doing this, but I'm definitely looking forward to a few weeks focused on other things, like my family and my house and sewing.

The Baby Guessing Game: Answers

Baby #1: Joci.
Baby #2: Kairi
Baby #3: Chaela

A lot of you did really well!  Sorry, I was going to do something cool where I posted then/now pictures, but laundry calls! Thanks for playing!

The Baby Guessing Game!

Hey everyone!  I've been doing a lot of things lately, but blogging isn't one of them.  My friend Z did something like this on her blog, so I thought it would be fun.  See if you can guess which of my kids is which!

If you want to see pictures of my girls as they are now, look to your right and they should be on the side.  I'll post the answers in a few days!

Baby 1

Baby 2

Baby 3

Buckling Down/My Kids are Awesome

Hey everyone.  My brain is a little broken right now, but I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd put something up here.

So the thing that's on my mind right now is that I've decided I'm going to bang out the rest of this first draft as fast as I can.  So the goal is 2,500-3,000+ words per day.  Today I did 2,930, so that's a decent start.

The other thing that's so cool lately is discovering how smart my kids are.  I downloaded an app to help Chaela learn to sight read, and she's really good at it.  She got a perfect score on the game!  I love all of the technology that's around to help kids learn.  I know a ton of screen time isn't good for them, but at least the screen time they have is well-spent!

Joci is learning her letters and their sounds like a pro and her language skills have been drastically improving lately (grammar and vocabulary-wise, but Chaela and I are still the only ones who consistently understand her).  

Kairi is my chunky little awesome.  She's not crawling yet, but she's making all sorts of sounds and is getting good at manipulating things with her hands.  She's also the most chill baby ever, which unquestionably makes my life 100% easier.

Anyways, I keep trying to think of things to say but I can't because my brain is broke.  But I blogged.  Yay!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Our duplex has sort of a crappy furnace.  It heats fine, but its 'time to turn off'/'time to turn on' decision-making process is pretty much arbitrary. On top of this, our second floor is always about fifteen degrees warmer than the first floor.  The result of this is that we spend a lot of time upstairs.  And because our kids follow us everywhere, they're spending a lot of time up here, too.  The master bedroom has become the new living room, and our bed is the couch.

This is one of those things I'll miss someday when (fingers crossed) we can afford a house that's a little less...quirky.

My Friend's Family is Hoping to Adopt!

Hey everyone!  I know I don't have a ton of readers, but I've got a friend who is hoping to adopt!  She is so awesome, extremely intelligent, and a great mom!  Here's their adoption website.  They truly are a wonderful family.  She is one of the most caring, selfless, involved mothers that I know, and I've known her for a long time.  Check it out and pass the word along!  You never know when you might be the bridge between people who need each other!

"Dear Lucky Agent" Contest

Hey guys!  I'm doing this.



Writer's Digest has a recurring competition where writers can submit the first 150-200 words of their books for a chance to win a critique from an agent and a free one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com.  This time they're accepting entries from YA or sci-fi novels, so I'm entering my NaNo novel!  This is contest #13.  That's lucky, right?

Click the picture for more information if you're interested!