Soccer, Bronze medals and more importantly friends.

Indoor soccer is officially over. This weekend we participated in Provincials. Three games in two days. My poor body is covered in bruises. All the games were close and we were one goal away from a silver medal but managed to come away with a bronze.

It’s been a hard season and not just on the soccer pitch. There have been a lot of trials. The year started with three dads suddenly passing away. Then our coach announced that his wife was dying of cancer. Shortly after that another teammates mother was diagnosed with cancer.

Last Tuesday our coaches’ wife passed away. We were at practice and before the night was through $120 had been donated towards a care package for the family. I am amazed by the generosity that exists on my team. Then came the idea for a memorial soccer game with the proceeds going to my coaches’ daughter for her education.

Even though a bronze medal is nice and will hang nicely on my dresser it is nothing compared to the friendship I have with these ladies. I know that if anything were to happen to me or my family they would be there with a plate of cookies and a listening ear.

What would we do without friends.

Dancing Daughter

So last night the boys were watching a basketball game on TV and my daughter was in her room playing so I thought I’d take another look at my query letter. (Yes I’m still working on that). Anyway I was about five minutes in when my daughter came downstairs. She changed the song on my Ipod to a High School Musical 3 song then proceeded to stand behind me on my chair dancing and singing along to her favourite song. For those familiar with the songs it was "I want it all"

So I saved what changes I had made and closed the document.

I've decided that you know you're having a hard time editing when you opt to work on your query letter.

On a happier note:
Last month I was lucky enough to win an ARC copy of Aprilynne Pike’s Wings. I received it a week and a half ago and finished it in three days. It’s got great romance, mystery, mythology and action. If you loved Twilight you’ll love Wings.

Already looking forward to the second book.

Names

I've been reading on a few blogs about how to choose names for characters. I have to admit that I love picking names. I love searching baby name books and websites. For the book I'm working on now I tried to give everyone an Icelandic name. For my other WIP I've gone with old English names.

I've told this story before but when I was fourteen I spent a summer writing a book and collected both first and last names by going through the phone book.

Today I went looking for that old notebook in my Writing Project of Days Past bin. I found it so enthralled by the story I wrote when I was 14, that I spent a couple of hours reading it. Anyway at the back of this particular yellow coil binder was my collection so I'd thought I'd post what were some of my favourite names more than twenty years ago. Ouch it hurt to say that.

Kids

The euphoria you get from your own accomplishments almost pales in comparison to what I see my kids achieving.

This weekend we were quite busy with both sons playing in the provincial basketball tournament, which means all the best teams from the top two divisions compete to see who is the best.

Both boys had stellar Friday night games. Oldest son, won his game by 50, had 26 points and 11 assists, which is huge. Youngest son, Jake won first game by 6 and second game by 40.

The next day oldest son lost his first game but won his second and played for the bronze, which they ended up losing and finishing in 4th. It is still a major accomplishment as the town I live in only has 13,000 people and their competing against big cities.

The youngest son on the other hand won on Saturday and found himself in the gold medal game against a team they had already played twice in the regular season and lost. The game was close. No team ever led by more than 3 points. In the end we won the gold medal by one point.

Early in the week my soccer team won a game which put us in first place in our division and allows us to go to provincials but this was better. I was more way more excited for him.

It was a wonderful weekend all around, although not much writing got done. Back to it tonight.

I wanna be a writer

When I was close to graduating from high school my dad sat me down and asked me what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

Here’s how the conversation went:

“I want to be a writer.”

“Okay now what do you really want to be.”

I’ve always remembered this conversation. In fact it steered me away from following my dream. I don’t blame my dad (he was just trying to be realistic) but I didn’t have much confidence back then so I just assumed that I wouldn’t be able to do it.

I thought my dad had forgotten all about this talk we had but on Sunday at a family dinner we were talking about my book and my dad recounted our conversation verbatim. I asked my husband later why he thought my dad would bring it up now. He said that either he thinks it’s funny or he regrets it (he’s read my book). I hope it’s the latter.

It’s hard not to get down especially when you realize the chances of being published are so slim. I just read a post on Kirsten Nelson’s blog about timing which has me wondering what the future holds. I guess that’s why they say you should really love writing because it’s such a hard business.

So here are my five reasons why I love writing:

1. I love creating a story that I would like to read.
2. I love it when someone likes what I’ve written. It’s even better when they’ve chosen to read your book over sleeping.
3. I love that feeling you get when it clicks or when something comes to me just out of thin air.
4. I love getting so excited about a new story that I can’t stop thinking about it.
5. I love writing the words “The end” even though it never is.

It's going to be a bright, bright sunshiny day

Okay I just watched Don’t Forget the Lyrics and that was one of the songs.

But it applies because last week I was a little down in the dumps. Besides having some family issues, I was having some trouble with my book. I’d sit down to edit and found myself getting tired and easily distracted. I knew that everything was there but something wasn’t quite right.

On Friday I met with a friend who had some great advice. She’d gone over my first chapter and pointed out how I could make things better. It really opened my eyes. I now have renewed energy to finish the book. Home stretch here I come.

My plan is to edit the book again but take more time instead of rushing through it and think about the flow of every chapter.

Now I have to brag. My son won his school championship basketball game. They also went undefeated for the season. I have to admit I was so nervous for him I actually thought I was going to be sick.

Change

I haven't decided whether I like change or not.

What I do know is that I like to change things around in my house. I'm constantly re-arranging furniture. Hence the change in colors on the blog.

Now that's a small change. Big changes I'm not so sure I like. Right now we're having issues with my oldest son and what school he's going to go to next year. What happens in the next week might facilitate a huge change for our family and I feel a deep sense of dread. As the change will either mean moving or driving to the city everyday to take my son to school there. So I'm really hoping that everything works out and we get to stay where we are.

Because I like small changes but big changes, not so much.

Marring

Striving to better, oft we mar what's well - Shakespeare

This is how I often feel about editing. Sometimes when I’ve been working on a rewrite and read it back I feel like I’ve made it worse.

Which brings me to my question for the day. When editing do you rewrite the whole section or try to intermingle new sentences with a few darling sentences?

Shadow Stabbing

Over on Katie Alender’s blog, (whose book Bad Girls Don’t Die comes out in April), she had a list of questions that you’re suppose to answer with song titles of one artist. Since I love Cake, I decided to use them.

1. Are you male or female? Short Skirt Long Jacket
2. Describe yourself. Open Book
3. How do you feel about yourself? Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps
4. Describe where you currently live? Never There
5. If you could go anywhere, where would you go? Italian Leather Sofa
6.Your best friend is? Friend is a Four Letter Word
7. Your favorite color? Haze of Love
8. You know that? Sheep Go to Heaven
9. What’s the weather like? It’s Coming Down
10. If your life was a TV show, what would it be called? Love You Madly
11. What is life like to you? Long Line of Cars
12. What is the best advice you have to give? Walk on By
13. If you could change your name what would it be? Ruby Sees All
14. Your favorite food is? Nugget

Random Thoughts

I wish I could attach a computer to my head, especially at night. It seems ideas are so organized in my brain but when I go to write them down they get lost in translation.

Is the second book in a series harder to write? I think it might be.

I had fun writing the first book because I didn’t know what was going to happen. I didn’t do an outline. I had a basic plot and that was it. Some of my best ideas just popped into my head. Although my first version barely resembles my current.

For the second book I actually have to have an outline and I’m finding that it’s not as much fun writing what you know is going to happen. That’s why right now my second book only has two chapters.

I have a new WIP that I'm excited about and unlike my first book I have a title for this one.

I saw this on the FFF site and it made me laugh. The blog was on some reasons why agents might turn down your book.

The quote was from a writer who had received a “it’s great, but not for me” rejection. He likened it to being told that “you’ve won the lottery, but I think someone else should be the one to give you millions of dollars.”

Finally there's a great post on Nathan Bransford blog. The Ten Commandments for a Happy Writer. I think I'll print it out and have it by my computer.

I've been tagged

I’ve been tagged to do a meme by Dara at In the Write Mind. I really can’t believe I’m saying those words. Three weeks ago I didn’t even know what that meant. I’m way behind on all this blogger/internet/whatever else you could call it, lingo.

This morning on my way to work I listened to an interview that talked about Twitter. I'd never even heard of this phenomenon. I looked on line and it appears to be is a social networking or micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets).

Do we really need to know this much about each other?

On that note I’ll answer this meme but I’m not sure who to pass it on to, so I’ll leave that part until later.

1. I’ve moved 15 times
2. Toast with peanut butter and honey is my favourite food. I could eat it for every meal
3. I like mountain biking, rock climbing and hiking but nothing to do with water.
4. I don't like salmon or those spinny rides at amusement parks.
5. I have 28 nieces and nephews (1 in-law niece and 1 in-law nephew)
6. I secretly love tv shows like Roswell, Buffy and Angel. I say secretly because nobody else I know shares my love so I keep it to myself. One of my favourite TV series is Firefly - Anyone notice that most of them are created by Joss Whedon. I also love Lost.
7. I play on a Classics Premier soccer team – yes I’ll admit that I’m over 35