Carol Moncado

Couple things made me cry the last couple days.

First, this video – security camera footage from inside the Joplin schools during the Joplin Tornado in May of this year.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAtN_ILP44k&sns=fb]

In Suburban Straightjacket, a tornado based on the Joplin Tornado [in the fictional town of Cooper, MO], plays a role in restoring some relationships. This storm system went less than 15 miles south of us and as it did, the news was saying there were still tornadoes on the ground.

Very. Scary. Night.

Thanking God, still, that school was out of session when this went through. It would have been… bad.

The other thing that made me cry earlier today was a stinkin’ Walmart commercial.

It won’t let me embed it here, but you can find it on Walmart’s Facebook Page. About a soldier coming home. You’ll need Kleenex. These commercials and music videos always make me cry.

And no, I’m not pregnant ;).

So as far as NaNo goes… today I’ve gotten some writing done. I’m at 672 words for the day and finally over 5K for the month. Gee, I’m not behind. Tomorrow should be a good day. Sis is taking the 4yo for a few hours so… Need to take advantage of that.

But the day’s not over! Goal for the day? 1K. Maybe more. We’ll see ;).

Edit: Would help if I remembered the “Na” in “NaNoWriMo”… /sigh/

First order of business!!!!

MozArks ACFW is pleased to announce that Tracey Bateman will be our very special guest speaker this month!!!

And now…

My very much less exciting update ;).

At least as far as NaNo is concerned. I’ve not written a word but…

This is Suburban Straightjacket as it gets ready to wing it’s way to wherever it goes for Golden Heart!!! This is a huge step for me – to think that I’m ready and then actually follow through!

God didn’t answer in the affirmative to the second fleece we laid out, but He did answer again, abundantly, to the first one. And a convo with a friend today confirmed that while God can do anything, the relatively arbitrary deadline I’d placed on something was, in fact, not grounded in the facts I thought it was.

I’m sure that makes tons of sense, but trust me when I say it really does :D.

So, I’m hoping to get some words in tonight and tomorrow I’m giving tests but will also be trying to finish reading the textbook since it’s a new one and I’m not done reading the next unit yet. But it’s the last unit so after that, I’m DONE with everything but grading papers as they come in ;).

Back to work!

Today is my birthday :).

Wasn’t a great day. Wasn’t horrible. Had many fabulous well wishes from friends and family on Facebook! Well over 100 posts which is really nice.

Still a bit melancholy though. Not for the first time.

And it’s not about getting older either.

Last year, Matt was at a funeral and my van was broken. Stressful at best. This year, he’s working [he always does on Tuesdays] so we had cake last night. Today, I went to work, taught a couple classes. Got a phone call from my BFF first thing. Went to lunch. By myself. I do that all the time at Panera. But this was different for some reason and I felt a bit melancholy [yeah, I used the word twice. It fits :D]. Went to Lambert’s Home of the Throwed Rolls. I should have had the ham. The pulled pork was fine but the ham is better. They do a $10 discount for your birthday with a free hubcap [monstrous cinnamon roll] so the whole thing cost like 2 bucks. It wasn’t a good place to work like I’d thought about doing so picked up the 4yo and came home.

Home is good but kids have been cranky all night. They’re finally in bed. So hopefully I can get some words pounded out.

Have been praying about whether or not to enter Romance Writer’s of America’s Golden Heart contest. If you do well, it’s huge. But it’s expensive since I’m not an RWA member and would be joining at the same time. One ‘fleece’ was the money – to get it from outside the family funds. The money has come in in the form of birthday money and gift cards that can be used for things like groceries while I use family cash for the entry fee.

The other fleece is still out there. Tonight is the deadline. I need to mail the package tomorrow at the latest so if the thing hasn’t happened by the time I get up in the morning the answer is no.

I’m really praying for a yes for a couple of reasons – because I’d like to enter the contest and do well but also because this particular answer would be a good thing anyway.

Okay – I’ve not written today but I need to. So off to do it!

Things are picking up a bit! Yesterday ended with 257 and today, so far, I’m at 556. Still not stellar but not horrible. After all…

Took 4 kids to the doc’s office this morning. Two for checkups [they’re great!] and all four for flu shots. Emily [age 6.5] is FINALLY over 40lbs!!!!! And she’s hanging on to a slim weight advantage over her little brother [38lbs]. That won’t last long – she’s only about 2.5″ taller at this point.

We didn’t get home until after 11:30, the 10yo didn’t go to school [woke up pretty wheezy about 6am] and the 4yo didn’t nap. Sis came over for my birthday [tomorrow] and hubby brought home cake since he won’t be home until after the kids are in bed tomorrow night. What a guy :D. Think I’ll keep him!

So, all in all, I’m happy with 556. I got two book reviews written [one posted earlier today] and have one more to write before I’m caught up with books read. Working on 1 of 3 books sitting here that I promised to read/influence for if I like them well enough :).

And now… rather than trying to get my hero and heroine into a smoochable situation [they were in one earlier, but the timing wasn’t right story wise], I’m going to read some poli sci because I have to do that for work… 😀

The Rancher’s Courtship by Laurie Kingery

From the Back Cover:

Though Caroline Wallace can’t have a family, she can still have a purpose. Becoming Simpson Creek’s new schoolmarm helps heal the heartache of losing Pete, her fiancé, to influenza. Then Pete’s brother arrives, trailing a herd of cattle and twin six-year-old girls.

Jack Collier expected Pete and his bride to care for his daughters until he was settled in Montana. But bad weather and worse news strand Jack in Texas until spring. It’s little wonder Caroline grows fond of Abby and Amelia. But could such a refined, warmhearted woman fall for a gruff rancher…before the time comes for him to leave again?

This is the 3^rd or 4^th book in Ms. Kingery’s series about the Spinster’s Club. A group of women seeking husbands in the post-Civil War era put out advertisements. The responses come in and several women have already married by the time this book opens.

The heroine, Caroline Wallace, was engaged to one of the men who’d answered their ad, but an influenza epidemic had left her a near-widow. Still in mourning, she’s unprepared for her should-have-been brother-in-law to arrive, with his twin girls in tow.

Jack is caught off-guard by the news that his brother is no longer living. Struggling with what to do next, he lets the girls stay with Caroline and her family. She’s the area teacher and takes the girls to school with her daily.

The cast of characters brings their own problems to our couple. From nosy bosses [who, in the modern world, would be slapped with lawsuits so fast it would make your head spin] to former cowpokes to a troubled student who’s acting out in class is only the beginning of his problems. They’re met with and supported by many others – the sheriff, the other women in the Spinsters Club – both present and former, Caroline’s parents, and Jack’s right hand man, even the other man vying for Caroline’s affections.

Ms. Kingery weaves a wonderful tapestry and brings it all to a satisfactory conclusion!

Plus the twin girls’ names are Abigail and Amelia. Just like the geese in Aristocats which my kids watched the same day ;).

Thanks to Ms. Kingery for a reviewer copy of the book.

Overall: 8 out of 10 stars

Yet another goose egg… but my house is cleaner and my office is starting to take shape :D. That’s something.

In a semi-related note… my 10yo is at almost 1900 words. She’s way past me, at least percentage wise. She’s nearly 40% done. I’m… 5%. Maybe. Not quite.

But I do still have a living room to clean… /sigh/ Best get to it. Would rather be writing. H/h are wanting to smooch sometime soon…

Still no progress though my house is looking better ;). And my back is much better after my doc adjusted it for me. She did mention a possibility of a dreaded A word. Arthritis. I’m still a bit young but having four kids did a number on my lower back. We’ll see how long before I need to go back. I’ve been going every 6-8 mos but by the time I actually go I’m about 6-8 weeks past when I SHOULD have gone :D. Need to get better about that.

Yesterday, the high was in the low-mid 40s. Today, we played outside until dusk and long sleeves was enough for two of the kids. Not for me :D.

Going to clean a bit more then try to get some words written using a prompt from Jan’s Wake Up Your Muse [uh, if I can find my book – otherwise I’ll hit the website] because I have got to get moving on this thing. I’m not crazy about writing out of order, but may have to in order to get jump started…

Stuck at 2829 isn’t gonna cut it…

Hey! Look at that! Posting a book review on Wednesday! 😉

AND it’s Erica Vetsch’s book too! Have I mentioned I <3 Erica? She’s so way cool! And my favorite orange panda rhombus too! [Yeah, most of you won’t get that. A few of you might ;).]

Anyway… I picked up A Bride’s Portrait of Dodge City, Kansas while at the ACFW Conference. And since Erica is our guest blogger over on the Pentalk blog today, I thought I’d post a review to go with it [I also hope to post about NaNoWriMo later today but we’ll see…]

So…

From the Back Cover:

Hoping to leave the shadows of her shady yesteryears behind, Adeline Reid is focusing on her photography career. But when her ex-boyfriend’s compatriot in crime shows up in Dodge City her entire past is threatened by exposure. Can Addie keep her secrets while helping to catch a killer? Deputy Miles Carr’s investigation into a shopkeeper’s murder leads him to Addie’s door. Will his attraction to this female photographer keep him from catching the true culprit? Or will Addie lead him off course in more ways than one?

Deputy Miles Carr has his hands full trying to keep the peace in Dodge City and find a local shopkeeper’s killer. When his inquiries lead him to the door of Addie Reid’s photography studio, he finds himself more than a little distracted. Does this beauty hold the clue to the killer’s identity? 

This is the fifth or sixth book of Erica’s I’ve read [no… wait… I read a series of 3 Heartsongs, then a 3-in-1 of Heartsongs [does that count as 1 or 3?] and then another Heartsong… so can someone else do the math?!?! ;)]. I’ve enjoyed all of them but I loved that this one was trade length rather than category*. I became more attached to the characters and felt they were somewhat better developed than in the Heartsongs books**.

There are really four main characters. Addie and her best friend, Fran. Deputies Miles and Jonas. Addie and Miles take the stage front and center and are “more main” than Fran and Jonas, but we see plenty from Fran and Jonas’ points-of-view [POV] to know what they’re seeing, thinking and feeling about any number of things – including each other.

I loved that! So often in a romance Addie and Miles would be the only POV characters*** but having Fran and Jonas in there too was like a bonus mini-romance book in there :D.

Ms. Vetsch Erica weaves in so many details about how the world worked in the days not long after the Civil War, particularly about photography in it’s infancy. [Have I mentioned recently how much I love my digital camera?!^]

Both Addie and Miles have things in their past that need to be dealt with and Erica does that well.

This one is a keeper [even if it wasn’t personally signed ;)] and rereader [even if the TBR pile continues to grow].

Plus the epilogue is swoon worthy. /big deep happy waffy sigh/

Overall: 9.5 out of 10 stars

*Category is books like Barbour’s Heartsongs Presents or Harlequin’s Love Inspired lines; typically they’re 25-30% or so shorter, sometimes more depending on the books, than trade length or ‘regular’ books.

**That isn’t meant to disparage Erica’s other books at all! I loved them and I loved the characters! I just tend not to get as invested in shorter books because I usually read them very quickly and there’s just not enough time [pages or word count] to become as invested with them as there is in the longer works!

***Yes, I’m guilty of that too! But in my defense… I write mostly in first person! Keeping track of two first people is hard enough!

^I do miss having actual prints too though :D.

 

Morning!!!!

Okay – it’s not morning. But it is day 1 of National Novel Writing Month. This year I’m also attempting National Blog Writing Month which simply means new blog posts.

Every.

Day.

Yeah, we all know what trouble I’ve had with that lately :p. So my plan is to blog my way through NaNoWriMo by posting about it daily. Tips and tricks days. Tired barely managed to get word count posted days. Words of encouragement days. Flash Fiction Fridays. Plus some book reviews tossed in for good measure [these probably won’t be the actual official post of the day].

I’m REALLY hoping to review Erica Vetsch’s A Bride’s Portrait of Dodge City, KS tomorrow but, alas, I’m not done with it yet :(. Hope to be by tomorrow but it’s my reward for a. finishing my daily word count [today’s goal: 3500] and b. getting the rest of the summer clothes put into the appropriate container.

If I get those two things done, then I can read. Plus there’s a dentist visit in the morning. As much as I think I should take my laptop with me to write, I think I’ll take Erica’s book instead and finish it if I don’t manage it tonight then write tomorrow afternoon.

So far today, I’ve written 1064 words.

The 4yo was up until 11:48 last night. I hadn’t planned to do an opening night write-in but by then I figured I may as well.

That netted 509 words in about 12 minutes [more on that another time].

This afternoon at school I whipped out another 559. Took longer though ;).

Off to get the kids settled and work on that other 2436. Update coming tomorrow :D.

Okay – it’s been more than a year since I first claimed my theme song. It’s That’s What Faith Can Do by Kutless.

I was over on Erynn Mangum’s blog last night [question of the day: What’s Your Theme Song? – and can I just say that Erynn is cute as a button? And so is her kiddo.] I couldn’t remember for sure the name of the Kutless song, so I hopped back to my blog and found the post.

Then looked at the date.

So so so much has happened since I first posted Kutless as my theme song. In fact, a year, to the day after that post, I was sitting at an ACFW conference with a request for a proposal from one agent and had lunch with the editor of a major [major!] publishing house who said she was interested in the story I’d pitched.

Last night, I sat back and thought, “Wow!” God has a sense of humor. Or timing. Or something. Because I have come so very far in the last year.

The manuscript I was pitching at conference?

Not even a glimmer of anything when I made that post.

Now? Shiny and polished and pitching to agents and editors.

I’ve made so many new friends and made so many connections and come so far in my journey as a writer and as a person since I chose a theme song [or it chose me].

Just goes to show you… That’s What Faith Can Do! 😀