Oh the waiting game!

People who know me will tell you that waiting has never been one of my strongest attributes. In fact, I hate it. There's something to be said for excitement and anticipation, but mostly even that just irritates me. But here are the things I'm currently waiting for... 

• This week of teaching to be over because the children know it's their last week and have suddenly become possessed by evil spirits whose only purpose in life is to make me crazy
• My response from the Departement de Poitiers telling me I can come and teach their children
• My next paycheck so that I can payoff my credit cards
• The weekend to be over so that I don't have to have any more bonding time with family members than necessary 
• My birthday to come and go so that we can treat it like any other day and move on with the rest of the week 
• A response from an agent (any agent really, I'm not that picky - okay that's a complete and utter lie, I'm extremely picky) 
• A day where I can have more than ten consecutive minutes to WRITE 
• My new job to begin 

And other general life stuff.

So, I ask you all, what are you waiting for??????? 

Taking it Bird By Bird (and Goal Updates- finally)

So, unfortunately, I did not reach all of my goals within my 12 day time frame. But here's what I did accomplish that was on my list: 

• I cleaned & organized, made a bed-full of stuff to donate - Christmas decorations, clothes, books, and a bunch of other stuff
• Finished the first draft of a current WIP - Los Diablos 
• Finished a project that the kids and I started 
• Had Easter with the family 
• Some of the Jaded Hope revisions
• A shopping day with Mom 

I did not send out any more queries, finish the Jaded Hope revisions or write three weeks of lesson plans. I also did not write my Romance Paper during my week off, but have since done so. 

I also planned an extensive trip to Ireland and France that I will take with my mom in September. I've turned in paperwork to get the next step of going to France done... waiting on the French government now... I'm betting that I hear back from 5 agents before I hear back from them! For those of you writers out there, you'll understand how huge of a deal that is! 

So I'm wrapping up one job (with my second graders). Our last day together is Friday. And I'm kind of sad about that. The fam is headed off to Mass this weekend to take my Aunt's ashes out. I'm starting another job on Tuesday (working with 2-5 year olds), working on polishing Jaded Hope in the "hope" than an agent will request the full soon, need to start writing some more queries and get those out, need to write ten pages of something new, hoping to plot the sequel to Jaded Hope soon, and generally running around like a.... yup you guessed it, Chicken with her head cut off!!!!!!!! 

So in the words of Annie Lammott, I am taking everything Bird by Bird (one step at a time for those of you who haven't read her book... and you should). 

That's it for now, I'll post more soon. 

Loafty goals

So I have the next consecutive 11 days off from work. And my TO DO list in enormous!!!
I've set some incredibly high goals to accomplish, starting with cleaning, organizing, and bringing in a bunch of stuff to donate, writing three weeks worth of lesson plans and getting all of the stuff together to actually make the lessons and finishing up a project the kids started, and spending time with family members, doing Easter dinner and all of that, and finishing my draft of Los Diablos and my revisions on Jaded Hope, researching more agents and sending out another batch of queries! Also, there's a shopping day in there somewhere with my mom, a romance paper to write, and menial things like eating and sleeping.

Since I couldn't participate in this month's BIAW challenge for my local CNYRW, I will be using my facebook as a daily goal updater to help keep me motivated! Check it out and PLEASE encourage my processes, so I can stay motivated! This is going to be a seriously long week! :-) But I'm super-excited

France Beckons!

As some of you may be able to tell by the Eiffel Tower design of my blog and the Bonjour & Bienvenue on my website, that I am quite a francophile. I have just accepted a position to go and teach English in the French department of Poitiers. I am not sure yet what level I will be teaching or at how many schools. It can be up to three schools within the district, but no more than 12 hours per week in the classroom. 
There are many more steps in this process: 

• Buying copious amounts of plane tickets between NY, Dublin, Paris, Pittsburg, Paris, & NY. 
• Signing job contracts 
• Finding housing
• Getting a work VISA 
• Opening a new bank account 

 And probably quite a few other things that I either am forgetting or don't know about yet! :-) 
But the important thing is that I will be in FRANCE. Writing my query letters, e-mailing with my agent (hopefully), drafting new books, revising current WIPs, keeping up with my Graduate Studies, and generally loving the French life!  
Anyone want to come visit? 

Plotting BLISS

Thank you so much to all of the input I got on my plotting blog from fellow writers and authors. A super special thanks to Kari for introducing me to the plotting board. 

I plotted my current WIP in seven hours over the course of two days and then I started writing. I had had three chapters done before I plotted, and wasn't sure where I was going and then suddenly BAM - middle, full ending, and tons of new scenes. And then I started writing. Hit 25,000 words within two weeks. 

I veered off my index cards a bit, added two scenes in the beginning that weren't on the plot board, but they fit and when I thought - oh crap, what happens next? I could LOOK. Because I already knew! It was like magic. Since it took me almost two years of sporadic writing to get even 100 pages of a draft done, to be able to do so in total in just under three months is absolutely astounding. 

I took techniques from a few different places. I had Sokoloff's plotting board method via Kari Townsend, and then the color-coding with highlighters from Gayle Callen (AKA Julia Latham). I used one for my hero, one for my heroine, one for the romance, one for the antagonist, one for action subplot, one for mystery clues/main plot points, and one for minor characters. And I can look at the whole board all at once and see what I need more of where. 

So far so good! 

I've been bribing my muse with late quiet nights all to ourselves, caffeine, snacks, a new book, new craft techniques, and the constant need to update my Facebook status with my word count!