Amazing and wondering

Amazing was that Canada vs USA hockey game. Two great teams.

Amazing is that Canada won 14 gold medals. A record for any country at the winter games.

Amazing is that USA won 37. A record for any nation.

Amazing is that I'm not even jealous of that fact because we won 14 gold.

Amazing is that we had our own gold experience, with my son winning the city championship in basketball.

Amazing is that I played my first game of soccer in five months and scored the winning goal (and the only goal)

Amazing would be to find another girl who liked sports as much as me. That would be a kindred spirit indeed.

Amazing is that after reworking my book more times than I can remember, I've just figured out that it needs a new ending.

Wondering why it took so long to figure that out.

Wondering why I always get sick on my days off work.

Wondering if this week will finally be the week I finish painting.

Wondering if I can finish my rewritten ending by tomorrow.

Wondering if I can stop coughing long enough to sleep 8 hours straight.

Wondering if I can handle another Monday, especially now that the Olympics are over.

Wondering if I'll ever get to 100 followers.

Wondering if this post is getting a little annoying.

I think it might be.

Tell don't show

I know what you're thinking. I've gone completely mad. I'm about to talk about breaking one of the most fundamental rules of writing. You always show don't tell, or do you??

Back in my university days as a English major, I took a Shakespeare class, which I absolutely loved. My professor was big into dramatic plays, Henry the V, Lear, Hamlet etc. I on the other hand loved the comedies, especially The Taming of the Shrew. I remember for one essay question we had to take one play and compare different adaptations. I watched the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton movie then I watched a stage production that someone had taped.

There were lots of differences, but one that has continually stuck out in my mind, is the wedding scene. In the movie they show Richard Burton arriving late to wed Ms. Taylor and in outlandish clothes. They show him acting badly during the ceremony. He pretends to fall asleep, has a coughing attack, and basically acts like a major louse.

In the play this all happens off stage. An actor comes in and recounts the events of the wedding to his companion. He describes Pertruchio's attire, and retells his horrible behavior. I have to say the actor who played, I think the character's name is Gremio, was fantastic. He had me laughing so hard I almost wept.

I know this is comparing movies to plays, which is something completely different than writing a novel, but do you think that there is ever a time when it is more advantageous to tell and not show.

What do you think? Or is this just one rule you should never break?

Heart Rate Monitor

Last Christmas my husband gave me a heart rate monitor for a gift. It took me a while to figure out how to use it. Actually, it took my husband setting it all up before I even put it on, but once I did, wow! Now I never exercise without it. I love being able to see how high my heart rate is. I can no longer say I think I'm working hard enough. I know just by looking at my watch whether I'm in my heart rate zone.

I love after I'm done being able to review my top heart rate, my low, and my average, but most of all I love seeing how many calories I've burned.

Today after I exercised I kept the watch on while I cleaned the house for 30 minutes and I burned an extra 200 calories. Tonight I played soccer for one hour and burned 1000 calories. (see why I missed it - easy way to stay in shape).

It's such a great motivator and it's easy to see my progress, now if I can just lay off the chocolate and danishes.

Last post I said how I thought I had improved in my writing. Words are coming a little bit easier, scenes are flowing better, and my idea seems to be working. Not to say that there isn't struggles. In fact, I'm in the middle right now and we all now how hard the middle can be.

Although it would be nice to have a watch that tells you how many sentences are awesome, how many scenes are great, and It would be nice to have an actual watch that determined your progress.

What do you do to gauge your progress?

I'm back and I hate to brag but..

I'm not sure I can say I got a lot accomplished last week, seeing as my kids were home, I worked two days and we had five basketball games on the weekend, but I didn't do too bad.

I wrote 4000 words on my current project bringing the grade total to 33,000 words. I almost have my basement painted and I even managed to color the grey out of my hair. Yes I'm going grey, as my daughter so loudly pointed out to everyone at the basketball games two weeks ago.

Now for the bragging part. I really believe that the first draft of my current project is way better than the first draft of my completed project, which could only mean one thing. I'm getting better. I no longer use adverbs at will. I try to stay away from the passive voice. I watch my dialogue tags by using more action than he said, she said. All in all it's been a good start. That's not to say that I still have to work on the story. I made a list of all the things I need to figure out before starting the draft. I take notes in between games. But all in all, I'm feeling really good about this new book.

In other good news, I've been given the go ahead to play soccer. The last doctor I went to didn't think the injury was as severe, so I went to practice last week. The knee was okay, but the rest of my body sure hurt.

Anyway it's good to be back, and I look forward to catching up with everyone.

We interrupt this unplugged week...

for an important contest. Go check out Elana Johnson's blog for all the details. Major query critiques available.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's would have been great this year. My husband had planned for us to go out for dinner on Saturday night, but I felt so sick that all we ended up doing was laying on the couch watching lame dunks in the All Star NBA weekend.

In fact I felt sick all weekend and didn't get much writing, painting or sleeping done. Thanks for everyone's advice on the type of floor to put in. I'm still afraid of tile, but have ruled out laminate. Now I'm looking into cork.

Tomorrow in Alberta Canada is family day. The Premier created the holiday around ten years ago and I think it's totally awesome. One day a year is put aside to spend with your family. Plus my kids are off school for the week, so I'm going to do something I've never done. I'm unplugging for the week.

I'll be lurking around, but I probably won't be posting until next week. I say probably because I'm kind of addicted.

Hope everyone has a good week.

PS: For a great signed book contest go pay Heidi a visit or just say hello because she's been housebound for 11 days.

I need some advice and randomness

So here's the problem. We're replacing our kitchen floor and we don't know what to put down. My husband wants tile, I'm leaning toward laminate.

My question is this: What kind of flooring do you have in your house and do you like it?

Now for the randomness:

There seems to be a lot of agents running contests. Do you ever enter these contests and what do you think of them?

Do you ever get so overwhelmed by all the advice out there that you just want to stop reading it?

Do you find that things sound a lot funnier in your head?

Don't you hate when the perfect word comes to you on like your tenth revision, making you wonder why you couldn't think of that word the first time?

Do ever get on a treadmill only to get off two minutes later because your so tired?

For the first time since Christmas none of our kids have games this weekend, and to be honest with you I'm a little disappointed. I guess I'll paint, write and sleep. That seems to be an ongoing theme for me. Maybe we'll go out on Saturday since it is the 19th anniversary of when me and my husband started dating.

I know it's not Friday, but since I usually don't post on Fridays, I hope you all have a good weekend.