March Moanings

The entire month of February flew by and I didn't post once! Not that I didn't have anything to say mind you - but this is a public site after all! I come home absolutely drained mentally most days, but now that the days are getting longer and (hopefully!) spring is in the air, perhaps it will serve as a good tonic for this weary soul.

It's good to have Pam back at work, and even better to know that her vision is much improved...our eyesight is worth so much and to have it impaired doesn't bear thinking about...one of my greatest fears, so let's not go there right now!

Although I haven't been blogging, I have been chipping away at the fourth draft and am into the home stretch. We have decided on no more submissions until we have that polished draft printed and ready to send at a moment's notice! That way we can also more fully concentrate on Body Perfect, which I am missing very much and long to get back to. Ideally the time we have spent on revising Madelaine will serve as good experience when we finally get back to Paul and Dorothy, and may save us at least one draft revision.

Numerous lottery groups at work, and individual ticket purchases, have so far netted us $0 - the result being that we continue our daily trek to our desks and bide our time until we have publishing success.

My oldest grandson turned 6 last week! Seems like only yesterday I was anxiously pacing the hospital corridor with other family members waiting for Michael's arrival. And now Michael has a younger brother and two cousins. A joint birthday party is planned this Saturday for Michael & Noah as their birthdays are only days apart. It's always fun to see them altogether and hope the four of them will continue to grow up as close friends.

Well today is my one day a week late shift...that means working from 11 to 7 pm...which for me is unbelievably hard to adjust to. I have been an early riser for 30 years and so continue to wake at my usual time. By 4 pm I have no more mental energy left and wonder at the value I can really contribute during those last three L O N G hours. I'm not home till almost 8 pm, and in bed less than an hour later, only to be back at work within 12 hours. Wednesdays likewise are almost totally spent in a fog trying to recover from Tuesday's late hour!

This morning, just to add to the fun of the day, I have scheduled a regular dentist appointment. So after being picked, flossed, and polished I'll make my way down the highway to begin my day's work - and more than ready for a good cup of coffee!

So let the day begin - may you have a good one.

Cheers!

Liz

A Small Break Needed!

It’s only page six! Page six of Chapter One of Madelaine. I finally had time this evening to start typing up our revision efforts of the weekend past. Almost as slow going as the process of revision – I have to keep fighting the temptation to just keep reading, and miss all our little changes and notes!

Pam has already moved on a couple of chapters with changes she feels need to be made, so once I’ve got the first couple of chapters updated, I’ll need to see what she has reviewed. If in agreement, then that will go back to the keyboard as well.

Pam left work early today – not feeling well at all – and hopefully she got some medication into her and was able to rest. Work is always so busy and it’s a sad thing when you feel guilty about having to take time off due to illness!

And I’m so exhausted when I get home. Here it is not quite 7:30 pm and I’m ready for bed! I’ve had a twitch under one eye for the better part of two weeks and its driving me nuts – of course people keep wondering why I’m always winking at them!

Well this break is over and I would like to get a few more pages cleaned up, so guess I’d better get back to it.

Enjoy your evening – I hope to be soon in bed, and reading a few more pages of Louise Penny’s “Dead Cold” – she has just finished writing her 5th novel in the series – amazing!

Cheers
Liz

Of Words, Food, and Sunsets

...or how did that weekend go so fast!

Here is the sun setting over Lake Huron, taken on Saturday evening just past - only one of several beautiful photos we managed to capture. The weather was perfect, sunshine and blue skies - the temperatures may have been a bit cooler than our normal location, but didn't deter any walks down to the water's edge.

We arrived in Kincardine just before 6 on Friday - my car fully loaded as if we were bound for the other side of the country instead of just two nights away!

(We interupt this blog post for the following note on lessons learned! When doing laundry, make sure you check the pockets first! I wanted to get some of the clothes from the weekend washed to have on hand for the work week...just went down to move a load of whites from the washer to the dryer - my favourite white hooded sweatshirt is now dappled in pink - the culprit a business card picked up along the way on the weekend - beautiful purple it was. But now it and my sweatshirt are ruined....aaaaarrggh!)

We now return to our regular program -

After picking up a few items from the local grocery store, we made our way to the flat we were to borrow for the weekend. Loaded down with bedding, books, and clothes we faced our Mt Everest - 21 steep stairs, not including the 6 outside steps to get to the entry door. Huffing and puffing we arrived at the apartment door and let ourselves in....a very cute and cozy retreat for the weekend awaited.

Pam outside our retreat - the two windows above the "lighthouse" belonged to us.

After settling in, we did start a bit on our revising - and to me, it soon became apparent this was not going to be a fast exercise!

Exhausted after a day at work, the drive and getting up at 4 a.m., I was able to quickly fall asleep!

Out for breakfast the next day and a walk, we returned and were deep into the rhythm of the revision process by about 10:00 am....unbelieveably it was soon after 1 pm! and we had only completed Chapter One.....

By the time we called the day's work to a halt, we had completed only two chapters and were more than ready for a nice dinner. After dinner we wandered down by the beach, to view the sunset. Tourist season is not in full swing yet and the area was pleasantly deserted. Otherwise, this picture would likely not have been taken (me in the afore mentioned white sweatshirt)

Not sure if I would be brave enough to post a photo which describes how we spent part of the rest of Saturday evening - Pam has better photos than I of our colourful mode, so I may leave it to her to add something worth more than a 1000 words.

Today we left earlier than we had planned, Pam had received some health news about a good friend, and her mind was turned more to her. We did take a roundabout drive home, passing through Goderich and St Mary's, where we stopped for a coffee.

Peter, her husband, met us outside of Guelph, where Pam off-loaded her weekend bags and they returned to Oakville and I may my way back to Guelph.

Time to start preparing for Monday once again - and I have tried to do this post three times by now, so I am just more than a little frustrated and tired...so will say g'nite for now. (if there are glaring typos, grammatical errors, or other glitches you'll know why!)

Cheers.

Liz

Readin', Writin' and Revisin'

As Pam mentioned, we are gearing up for a weekend retreat to tackle the (first?) revision of our Madelaine.

So, I have spent a couple of days moving all our separate Chapter files into one document, re-formatting and checking for obvious format glitches. While we are this close to finishing, I need to focus on getting this first draft ready to have it printed so that we will have one working copy each for our weekend away. It will be easy enough to print out a few extra pages if need be by next week, and add to the draft.

Since our writing workshop last month, we have been getting acquainted formally with "point of view", and it may end up being our major focus on this first revision. To be honest, I was not consciously aware of the difference the point of view makes in the story, but now its like a proverbial "duh" moment! However, better to have become aware of it now, than after thinking we had a final draft ready to peddle.

In regards to the above, Pam had sent me her latest addition to Body Perfect and while the gist of what she had written was quite good, I was more aware of inconsistencies with this POV structure. We rehashed it over break and she did a re-write of the scene, and when completed it really did flow so much better!

On a more personal note, my young grandson Noah, who just turned one in March, has developed some potentially serious health problems - he has been diagnosed as a lazy breather, where his lips turn blue when sleeping. A near crisis occurred yesterday when he became unresponsive while sitting in his high chair, with blue lips and the same condition appearing on his little hands and arms, it was a fast trip to the hospital. Basic exams can find nothing wrong, but your instinct says otherwise. He is now booked to see a pediatric (neurosurgeon) early next month and will probably have to undergo more poking and prodding. Wanting to watch over him 24/7 is certainly not an easy thing, but we are praying all will be OK.

And now I should get back to the task at hand and see if I can get this document ready to send to the local print shop!

The weekend away is coming up fast, we will be heading out straight after work next Friday and the plan is to be as productive as possible. Stay tuned to see how that works!

Cheers
Liz

Sunday evening.....

....and for now the revision of Madelaine is up to date...all 16 Chapters!! As well I've managed to create a chapter summary which I think will be helpful as we move forward.

So this means I now get to be freshly creative once again! I have both Body Perfect and Pam has just sent me her latest addition to Madelaine. Just wonder which one I'll tackle first.

Today I managed to finish reading "The Cruellest Month" by Louise Penny - that's the second of her books I've read, and all I can say is that I wish I could move to Three Pines - murders notwithstanding! She manages to evoke the atmosphere of murder in a close knit village so reminiscent of murder mysteries I enjoyed growing up with!

And now another work week looms! Just how does Monday get back around here so quickly!

Pam and I have decided to attend another writing workshop in April, hosted by Brian Henry. This one should be very timely for us as it will focus on Writing and Revising.

Well, I feel the day saw some accomplishment and now with tired eyes and fatigued brain, I'm going to call it a day.

Cheers
Liz