Decisions, decisions

I got my revisions for The Eternal Rose in the mail today, a big, fat, huge package that I then hauled around the park in my morning constitutional (aka walk) before hiking up the little baby hill to home. Good thing I got more of my walk in today before I picked up the mail--that sucker is really heavy. (I had to take the car to get the oil changed, so I dropped it off, swung by the library, a block and a half from there, to leave some books and computer CDs I was donating, then the block and a half to the post office, then... Have I mentioned I live close to downtown in a very small town?)

So I have those revisions to work on this week. Which is a good thing, because once I finish them up, I have no idea what to attempt next.

This can be a big deal to some of us on occasion. When one is working on contract, it's usually obvious what needs to be written next. However, I have finished up (mostly) my current Luna contract, and have already sent the proposal for the option book to the agent. I have also sent a fantasy romance manuscript. Now what?

This is going to require some thought. What of my current ideas has the best shot at actually making a sale? (Remember those goals of mine?) Maybe I need to make up something new to target to a new opportunity. Maybe I need to try something completely different, without any fantasy/paranormally elements. What if all of the things I have out circulating suddenly sell? Will I have time to write them all? Is that a problem I will mind having? Will I make myself crazy before I finally decide what to work on?

Well, yes, probably...

The New Desk

The desk has arrived. It is beautiful. The computer is moved to its new location. Now I have to work on getting the rest of the stuff stashed.

I have a big box of paper that will probably go into the L-corner. I have a square basket-with-lid that holds a lot of the other types of paper that I need to empty. I thinned out my crate of CDs and can move some of those. I no longer have a place to put my hunky fireman calendar though... Don't know where the guys will go. Maybe I can find a really strong magnet with a hook that can hold it on the side of my file cabinet... And I need a new, longer telephone cord.

I'm just so good at fooling around on the computer rather than straightening things up. I'd rather do almost anything than organize stuff. Ah well.

At least the fella did not find the camera (it was right behind him, but he didn't look) while I was sprawled across the desk on my stomach with my feet kicking in midair trying to get the surge protector plugged into the corner behind the desk. And yes, when I get round to downloading the picture of the desk, I'll post it. Somewhere. Those round to-its are sometimes hard to find...

Spread the word!

I can't believe I've been doing it wrong all these Years...

We Must Get the Word Out!!!

A friend sent this, and I thought it was cute, particularly because several friends on a loop and I are encouraging each other in our weight loss efforts. I'm working very slowly at it, but it's working. Very slowly.

Monday things

I got an e-mail from the daughter with a link to her LiveJournal where she put up a little picture dictionary of her 3-year-old's vocabulary. We are very excited he has a vocabulary--he didn't even babble when he was 2. Anyway, it's very cute, and you are invited to go visit.

And I got a call from the older son today, that he'd gone into a bookstore, and was looking round for my book because he thought it was out now (which it is--The Barbed Rose is), but when he asked at the service desk, they'd sold out and re-ordered five more copies. We both thought that was pretty cool.

I have not yet moved any plants, but I have pulled ten books out from under the table and put them in their stacks. (Of course, I have probably 20 more under there.) (Or more.)

I also mailed my Luna option book to the agent, and started the re-write on the dragon story. So it's been a somewhat productive day. And I can still move plants. Probably ought to water them first, huh...

Rain, Lovely Rain!!!

Yes, it's raining! Our first decent rain in six months. It rained very lightly and softly yesterday--more of a mist, really--and softened the ground up so that today's slightly harder rain can really soak in. It's not enough to make up for the drought conditions, not yet. But it's a start, and it put out the remaining fires...

In other news, I'm getting a new desk!

I'm all excited about it. We shopped and shopped, until my feet were killing me, and finally found a really pretty wood L-shaped desk with storage and everything. I can't get a hutch-bookcase, because it has to fit in the corner in front of the windows--there's a window on each wall, low enough that the desk will cover up the lowest row of panes. So whichever way I turn to work, I get to look out a window.

This means, however, that I have to find a new home for most of the houseplants that live in that corner, and move out the plant stand. Then I have to clean off the current work table and find a place for all the stuff under and on top of it. (Okay, the lamp and the printer and the box of Puffs will go on the new desk...) And then move the table out. It's not too awful... Wish me luck!

The Week The Panhandle Burned

I know, it's been a while. I know, I post in spurts. Lots of good things were happening, and then the whole area caught fire.

I live in the Texas Panhandle. And it seems the whole place has been burning all week. The biggest fires are between thirty-minutes and an hour's drive from my town--the ones that are still burning.

The high winds Sunday knocked down a lot of power lines and started fires from Childress in the southeast corner of the Panhandle to Dalhart in the northwest corner, near Oklahoma and New Mexico. They shut down the major highway that runs through town at the east city limits all the way to the next little town 14 miles away, because of fires on either side. Fortunately, those fires ran up against plowed fields and didn't spread like the ones near I-40 a similar distance to the north. Even more fortunately, those winds were out of the south and blew the fire the other way.
Because of the south winds, I don't catch a whiff of the smoke except when there's a little shift, but you know the fires are there. They've been so bad because we haven't had more than a spit of rain since last September. Stepping on the grass turns it to dust. The heat of a car engine pulled off the road onto the grass is enough to catch it on fire.

A friend is a volunteer with the McLean fire department, where fire threatened to consume the whole town. He's worked as many hours fighting fires as they'll let him, so now he's home again, telling stories. Besides ordinary windblown sparks, the fires have been so hard to contain because the cow chips catch fire and the wind would blow them like burning frisbees. And rabbits come out of their burrows already burning and run madly around catching everything on fire. The firefighters would try to put the poor bunnies out, but they were so fast...

The state of wildlife and livestock is pitiful. Everything they had to eat is gone--even the hay the ranchers managed to gather up (since there's been no rain, hay is pretty scarce too). Many of the animals who survived are in worse state than those who died--too awful to share. They don't really know how many made it, because the fences are burned and the cows are scattered to the winds.

The acreage burned is pretty much as if the entire state of Connecticut had burned. Almost a million acres... The grass will come back, they're telling us. If we get some rain...

Anyway, I've actually been spending more time trying not to think about this--but it's hard. We're down to two fires still burning. Any thoughts and prayers you might have lying around will be welcomed.