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April 30, 2005
I’m feeling pretty weepy this morning…and I’m not even pms-ing. Today I’m going to one of my very dearest friend’s college graduation. Working a full-time job that requires travel and with two kids both still in elementary school, she went back to school and is graduating today, magna cum laude, with a business degree. And she’s still managed to be involved with her kids and a great mom–she’s insane enough that she was in charge of the cookie distribution for her daughter’s girl scout troop this year. I am so incredibly proud of her and what she’s accomplished it brings me to tears.
Forget movie stars and pop divas, we need to look in our own back yards to find true role models for our children and ourselves.
Ellen Marie Gallagher, I applaud you.
April 29, 2005
We had a great time on the fieldtrip yesterday! Well, outside of the bus ride from Hell. Anytime you are on a bus with fifty fourth graders, it’s Hell. We went to the Ferbank Science museum, which had this really, really cool exhibit on frogs. They even had an Ecudorian blow dart gun and the darts on display. I had five girls in my group. I made them all read how the natives get the poison from the frogs for the darts before I’d let them leave the exhibit. One kid said, “That makes me sick.” (They roast them while they’re alive so they’ll sweat.) BWAHAHA. There was also a fabulous shell display. And the IMAX movie was on the sea with Sting doing all the music. Very cool. There was some incredible footage of surfers riding the waves. Makes me wish I had an ounce of co-ordination because I think surfing would be such an awesome experience. Alas, not in this lifetime. :(
On the endurance test afterwards (more commonly known as the bus ride back to school), I turned on my brain, put on my earphones, and read. I was so into my book, I hated to look up and realize we were back at school. This is one of the perks of being a writer and having friends who are writers–sometimes you get advance book copies. I’m readng Rita Herron’s A Breath Away, a romantic suspense. Put it on your MUST BUY/MUST READ list now. It’s great! I am using all my willpower not to give into temptation and read it instead of working.
Hmmm. Okay. My reward for hitting my page count today–instead of sneaking off and reading–is a manicure/pedicure and then some serious reading time. Yahoo! If I have to stay up all night tonight, I WILL find out what happens in this book.
Jen
April 28, 2005
Today I’m playing hooky from writing and going on a field trip with my daughter’s class. It should be fun and a welcome change from sitting at my computer. For the most part, I like the kids in her class and I really like her teacher, so other than the heinous bus ride across Atlanta with screaming kids :crazy:, it should be a good time.
BTW, I HATE the way they’re handling the whole elimination announcement on American Idol. Hate that they line them up in the top half and lower half and then make a couple of people put themselves in one group or another then pull a couple out as the lowest. And there’s no way in hell I could stand there and sing a song when they told me I had to go home. Ack. I think it’s cruel.
Jen
April 26, 2005
If you need to laugh…and you do…we all do…run, don’t walk, to your nearest video rental and check out Meet The Fockers. OMG, it was so funny. At a couple of points, I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t speak. My dh missed a line, and I couldn’t tell him because I couldn’t stop laughing. Definitely good medicene for whatever ails you…except for when it was time to get up at 5:30 this morning and I’d stayed up too late watching a movie. :rolleyes:
I’m really afraid I’m cursing myself but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I’m having too much fun writing this book now, Nick’s story. And yeah, that’s the working title girl genius here has slapped on it– Nick’s Story. It’s a wrong bed story and there’s this mistaken identity thing going on and a blow-up doll named Sheila….
It’s a rainy day and although I can’t take too many of these in a row (that lack’o light depression thing), I like it today. There’s an intimacy in sitting on my office on a rainy day–just me and my story…and those three cats and three dogs. Off to work now.
Jen
April 25, 2005
Today I’m going to try something different in an attempt to be more organized and a little more disciplined regarding my schedule. Instead of constantly facing the temptations of e-mail, IM, and general Internet surfing, I’m posting and answering e-mails now and then disconnecting…that’s right…signing off!  And I’m not taking any phone calls before lunch time unless it’s my mother, my editor, or my daughter’s school. I like to read and I like to talk, so between the Internet and the phone, I can really while away some serious time. Have I mentioned that little Internet addiction I have and my need to talk….I’ll let you know how it goes. :blush:
Jen…who’s about to sign off now…really…I am…I swear it
April 24, 2005
Music is one of the essentials of living, right up there with books. It’s probably one of the most overt emotional manipulators I can think of. I turned on the radio after dropping my daughter at school the other morning. I wasn’t particularly down or upset about anything, but when Spriral Staircase singing More Today Than Yesterday came on–how can you NOT turn it up really loud and smile? It’s an instant mood booster that brings back memories of shagging with my daughter at a beach restaurant on Tybee Island and keg parties on Friday afternoons at UGA. :hehe:
I used to require absolute quiet to write but in the last year or so, I’ve gotten to the point that I really need the music on when I’m writing. I know some writers put together sound tracks for particular books. I don’t do that, but there always seems to be a selection of cd’s that wind up staying in my cd player for the duration of a book. The down side to that is there are certain songs that just make you want to get up and dance– Sting’s Brand New Day, Steve Winwood’s Spanish Dancer, DMB’s Crash Into Me. Fun for me–pretty frightening for my neighbors. :O
Embarrasing to admit that I got an MP3 player for Christmas and have only managed to download one cd onto it. The instructions that came with it are lousy and I’m lousy at following instructions–not a stellar combination. So, I run to the same cd every time I go out. I have a Pavolovian response now to DMB’s Listener Supported, cd one. I hear it, I think I need to break into a run.  Luckily, I have no pride and admitted my technological ineptness at the soccer fields yesterday. The 12-year old brother of one of my daughter’s team mates is going to teach me how to use it at the next practice. Humiliating? Only a tad, but as I said, it’s a good thing I have no pride. :doze:
April 21, 2005
The other evening another writer and I were discussing internal versus external conflict and the evolution of conflict throughout a book. I thought I’d share my take on discerning internal versus external: If resolving the conflict doesn’t result in an irrevocable emotional change, you have external conflict. It’s simplified and the digest version, but I think this is one of the most difficult concepts for many beginning, and sometimes veteran, writers to wrap their head around.
On a totally different note, a Scarlet Tanager visited my garden pond yesterday! He was stunning and I haven’t seen him since, but I’m glad he stopped by.
Okay, so I’m off to work on finishing this chapter today.
Jen
April 20, 2005
My life is shot to hell. I voted last night in American Idol. I couldn’t help myself. After the retinue of disco renditions, Bo Bice taking on Vehicle drove me to the phone. Wow! So, now I’ve officially participated in the world’s biggest popularity contest. :rolleyes:
How do we wind up with weird quirks? I seroiusly hate to unpack a suitcase. That road trip my daughter and I took two weeks ago over Spring Break–suitcase is still in the closet to be unpacked–uh, I did pull out the dirty clothes, but the clean ones are still waiting to be unpacked and put away. The overnight bag I took to the retreat? Sitting in the closet next to the Spring Break bag. One year I didn’t unpack my bag from National Conference (end of July) until October. It just sat on the guest room bed for three months. Really I don’t have a daily need for business suits or an evening gown, so it sat there. Maybe it’s that I hate that the fun trip is over and unpacking represents a return to the mundane. Or maybe it’s that I’m just lazy…. :hehe:
Jen
April 19, 2005
I am an office supply geek. There, I’ve said it. I feel better. The high point of my day yesterday was shopping office supplies at Sam’s Wholesale Club! I bought printer cardridges and little notebooks to keep in my purse and in my car in case inspiration strikes. I finally treated myself to a reversible corkboard/magnetic whiteboard so that I can keep my writing calendar up and I want to start an ongoing collage that relates to my WIP. I splurged on a 14-piece dry erase set–the colors are lovely! And the piece de resistance…a shredder. It fits right beneath my printer in my office and I can even feed disc and credit cards in there, but no hands, ties, or screwdrivers.
Off to work on Nick’s story. When I hit my page count today, I get to put up my whiteboard.  But I think I’m going to have to find something to shred before I do that….
Jen
April 18, 2005
For everyone who asked for it, you’ve got it. Nick O’Malley, the brother in Really Hot! has his own story! I started it this morning and it’s going to be so much fun to write because Nick is such a…well, such a guy. I know that sounds sort of crazy because all the heroes are guys :rolleyes: but Nick is fun and flirty and sexy. Ya know, the kind of guy you think would be fun to date but bad news to fall for. :hehe:
Jen
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