First Snow

Why is that every year on the first snow of the year you oversleep. You are already going to be pushing it to make it to work on time and then you go out to your car and the doors are frozen shut and you have a thick layer of ice on the windshield. This was my story this morning.

I never get up early. I'm usually pushing it to make it to work on time but usually I arrive at least 5 or 10 minutes early. Not today. Today I get up at 7:20 (I have to be at work at 8); I eat breakfast and get dressed. I go out to my car at a quarter till 8 to heat it up and turn on the defroster. Oh what do you know, the door won't open. It's frozen tight.

Well, lucky for me my big, buff boyfriend is still asleep in my bed so I wake him up, make him get dressed and come out and help me (poor guy). So he comes out in the freezing cold weather and spends 30 minutes helping me get in my car and scrape my windows.

My mom's advice? You need DeIcer to unfreeze the doors. Yes, mom, I am well aware of that at this point but guess what...I don't have any and my doors are frozen shut so I can't drive and get any. Next suggestion? Okay hot water...thanks (word of advice: make sure the hot water does not hit your windows because it could cause them to crack).

Anyway so I finally get in my car, get the windows scraped and to work only 15 minutes late. Hey that isn't bad! Only to find out that hardly any one else in the office went through the trouble of coming to work. What crap! So here I am sulking that I am at work instead of at home in my jammies...

I'm a novelist

Well, it's official - I am now an accomplished novelist. Okay, so I don't know how "accomplished" I am but I did finish my NaNoWriMo novel. 50,551 words. At times it was exhilarating; at times it was exhausting; at times it way trying; at times it was triumphing - whatever it was, it's now finished.

So what is my prize you might ask? Self glorification, satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment. I wrote a novel - a whole stinking novel. How many people can say that?

Where do I go from here? That's a question I've been asking myself. I considered self-publication through the likes of lulu.com but because I desire to be a New York Times Bestselling Author, I decided that's not for me. Instead I am going to do something crazy and totally unoriginal - I am going to query agents and publishing houses to see if they are interested in my book.

Of course I'm not quite there yet. I still have to complete vigorous editing and rewriting and more editing before my manuscript is worthy of being read by those much higher up than me.

If you have any suggestions for me on how to go about getting a book published, I could really use them so send them my way!

Thanks for standing by while I finished my novel. I know it wasn't easy.

Full Speed Ahead

I should be putting these words toward my novel but here goes anyways. Sorry for neglecting my blog but if you read my last post you should be well aware that I am in the midst of writing a novel (50,000 words in 30 days). For all you non-mathmeticians out there thats over 1500 words per day. Plus I have a full-time job that occupies most of my days. So needless, to say I am very very busy lady.

I appreciate all your support for my novel and it is going really great. I am now at 32,000 words in only 12 days which means I have 18 days to write the remaining 18,000 - I believe that's 1,000 words per day which is very manageable. Right now I am averaging about 2,000 words a day so I'm right on track.

I'm liking the direction of my novel so far. It is sort of an autobiography embellished quite a bit. The title is The Quest for the Holy Diamond and it is a story of a girl desperately trying to get her boyfriend to propose to her all the while driving him and everyone else around her crazy. Will she get the guy and the diamond she has been asking for or will she get the boot?

For all of you who are interested, below is a snippet of my novel so far. I will eventually publish it (even if I have to self-publish) and for those of you who are interested, I will tell you how to purchase it (if it ever makes it that far). For now, you can read parts on here. Hope you enjoy!

I got up later than I had planned the next morning so I hurriedly got ready. The phone rang just as I was headed out the door. I debated not answering it but since I didn’t have caller ID on my house phone it would drive me crazy wondering who was calling. I picked up on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Good morning baby.”
It was Ryan. I was surprised to hear from he. He didn’t usually call in the mornings.
“Hey. To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“I missed you. I hated sleeping last night without you, Em.”
“I miss you too.”
“I have a surprise for you when I get back.”
“A diamond ring?”
“You know I already ordered that, baby.”
“Yeah right.”
“I did. It’s on its way from Aboo Dobi.”
“Uh huh. That’s what you said three weeks ago and it still hasn’t arrived.”
“It takes awhile to get here from Aboo Dobi. Plus they are sending it pony express.”
“Pony express? What happened to snail mail?”
“All the snails are extinct in Aboo Dobi. They use ponies.”
“Well, when did you order it?”
“A few weeks ago.”
“I would think the pony would be here by now.”
“Well, it would have been but they ran into a problem.” “A problem? What problem?”
“The pony fell and broke his leg.” “So tell them to call another pony.”
“I did but they said it was their last pony.” “Their last pony? That’s not even possible.” “I know, that’s what I said. I told them I needed that ring right away and asked if there was anything I could do to get it here faster.”
“And what’d they say?” “They said there was one thing I could do.”
“So do it. I need that ring, Ryan. I need that ring right now and I won’t take no for an answer! What did they tell you to do.”
“They had to put it on a camel to send it the rest of the way.”
“Really. A camel? Do they even have camels in Aboo Dobi? What is it a desert or something?” “They have tons of camels. In fact, they are camel farmers there.”
“Well, I hope they gave you a discount and it was one of those speedy camels because we’re on a deadline here. We’re getting married in 10 months.”
“Oh it’ll be here. The camel is trotting along just as fast as a camel can possibly move which if you ask me isn’t that much faster than a snail and a snail probably would have been cheaper than a camel. Yes, a snail would have definitely been cheaper. I’m going to go with snail mail.”
“Sure, honey. Thanks. Sorry to run but I am supposed to be meeting Tessa in 10 minutes and I’m going to be late. Thanks for calling. I love you.”
“Love you too. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I had to admit it was a creative story. It very creatively pissed me off. Ryan and me had been dating for over two years. Much longer that Tessa had been dating Johnny – in fact it was one year and nine months longer than Tessa had been dating Johnny. Yet I felt like Ryan wasn’t any closer to popping the question that he was when we first started dating. Not that I was surprised really. Ryan didn’t get around to anything in a timely manner. At this pace, I would probably be engaged by my 50th birthday. Of course then it would be another 15 years before I got Ryan down the aisle.

To be continued...