Pacific Coast Rest-Stop

[Sparrow]

Somehow I can't think of anything out of the box for grocery and that's unusual for me. But I guess I have enough stuff to work on.

And of course I'm not ashamed of you guys! Silly. Besides, Pup's aliens would come and get me if I didn't say anything.

I don't think I did mention FW to Jesse, but I mention it often to other writers, so I'm sure it'll come up if I ever hear from him again. He probably looked at my website and found all the stuff about my disease (I need to update it with my new diagnoses) and ran the other way as fast as he could.

Yesterday I had a big interpreting job and then visited a friend so didn't have energy to write, but I hope to get back to Voices today.

[Shann]

by the way Shann, you make me want to mix and match my socks and underwear with my outfit just to bug you... the thing is you never know when I'm doing it so you just have to think i always am

AUGH you little brat! (and I use the term brat in the most loving way!) All I can say if we ever meet in person watch out... (Insert evil maniacal laugh)

[Shann]

Hi, Shann. On the grocery thing...I went to bed last night, 11:19. Thought I was falling asleep...then a scenario started flooding my mind. I got up, wrote it. It is a 'lyrical' prose type of thing. Went back to bed. five minutes later had to get up to write two sentences on an index card. back to sleep at 1:xx somethin'.

This morning I've been too 'fraid to look at it. Probably later.

Am I the only one who finds themselves writing two or three different things for the topics? Sometimes the rejects make their way to my regular articles, when I feel like semi-editing them, often not.

Cool I'm glad you found something. I usually come up with a whole bunch of different ideas but am to lazy to write them out. I usually think of the first 3 or 4 things that pop into my head then forget them because that's what everyone else is thinking. I try to be out of the box though often i end up out of the room! Oh and Joanne meet Amy AKA Sparrow I do believe you two live in the same neck of the woods.

Barb, did i tell you Q just moved to Durham NC to go to school at Duke? Where in NC is your niece moving? It would be cool if it were near Q cuz then we would have the NY thing and the NC thing to connect us!

Shelley are you out there? It seems like forever since you popped in

[Rebecky]

SO my friend and I were witnesses of a hit and run. Kind of I guess.

We were driving to the water and there's parking spaces and a car backing out hit my friends car on my side. It was just a tap but it left a little red mark on her car and my friend went to park and the other car took off. One of her cop friends told her they couldn't do anything though because we didn't get a license plate and there was no damage to her car and we weren't hurt.

So yeah.

[violin4jesus]

Sorry to hear that, Becky. The last "tap" I got I thought was my fault but it was a lady backing out who didn't pay attention to the fact that there was a car behind her. There was barely any damage to either of our cars and neither of us wanted to bother with police and insurance, so we agreed to leave it. Not quite the same as running away.

I didn't write anything for Banquet, Shann. I did help a beginner with serious editing, though, and it's a pretty well-received piece that I keep checking on to see how it's doing. I have been working quite a bit extra the last few weeks and I keep coming up short on ideas, but I might have a fragment of an idea for Groceries. I only have tonight to write it because I'm back to the grind tomorrow. After I edit the beginner's piece.

Had a second massage today, and I'm surprisingly loose compared to last week. That's seriously a first for me; usually the pain and tightness is the same from week to week. I wonder if I'm just less stressed in general, or if she just has the touch, or if her praying for me after the massage makes a difference. She's only the second therapist I've had who's a Christian, and the first one to pray over me after every session. Anyway, I'm glad I feel better, and maybe I'm on my way to better health. I should probably focus on getting some exercise in this week to continue the process.

We bought our tickets for Seattle tonight; hopefully my boss will not try to schedule me. I already picked out my schedule around those days, and put in a vacation request just to secure it. Kylie's getting dedicated, and we were also planning a jaunt over to Spokane, so it'll be a busy trip. My mom took time off too just to make sure she has time to spend with us. We found a pretty good price and I didn't want to wait any longer due to the way ticket prices jump the closer you get to the time.

Amy, how soon will you know about your manuscripts? Will you have a ton of writing to do to get them ready if they're approved? You're living the dream of every writer!

I'm considering doing my novel idea for NaNoWriMo this year. Is anyone else participating? There's got to be a bunch of novice writers here in L.A. A few of my coworkers are encouraging me to go ahead with it. Wait, didn't I say I wanted to join an orchestra too? There's just not enough time in the day....

Night night all.

[KennAllan]

Hiya, Leah.

Keep in mind anything you write for NaNoWriMo can be formatted into an eBook. The results from that event used to be considered practice, but now they can actually be published.

See ya.

- Kenn

[deejay]

The little vacuum cleaner I brought with me into the house finally gave up the ghost the other day, so when cleaning day came around, we were using a broom and dustpan. Last night, my roommate Kristina went to Walmart and got essentially the same kind of vacuum I'd had, except it converts to a dustbuster seperate from the handle. So this monrning the old vacuum went into the trash. Now we can get the house a bit cleaner than before.

[jaybird]

Amy, if that nice guy runs from you, then he'll miss a really nice girl, who loves The Lord, is interesting, creative and an excellent writer.

[Rebecky]

My grandparents just got home from a trip to Maine with my Aunt. My grandmother got to visit with her sister who is about to have a hip replacement in September or October and her husband is in a nursing home. He has MS and he can't move, he's kind of now scrunched up in a ball pretty much and he can barely speak.

My grandfather missed almost a whole weeks worth of medication. He kept forgetting to take it we think. It's really sad because my grandmother's sister actually said to her, "your husband is worse than mine", meaning that her husband is being taken care of perfessionally so he's kind of more better and healthier I suppose. This is making my grandmother want to call social services and see if someone can come help take care of grandpa.

[jostrick]

Hi-ya, Amy...cool nickname, sparrow. Hear you live in Vancouver too.

About Nanowrimo
I did nano in '08 and, kinda, '09...long story but life interferred...haven't 'won' yet (hit 50000 mark in the month of November). At the time I was in Centralia, WA and they have a great group of Nano writers there. I went to one of the meetings here last year, just didn't make the same connection...but will try again one of these years. This year's participation is up in the air as all my attention is on my need for work.

I have a job interview tomorrow at 10...if you would be kind...prayers are welcome (18 months, around 200 applications, only 5-6 interviews, yes, the economy is...sad, but God has, is, and continues to be faithful and my Jehovah Jireh!)

Well, I just submitted for 'Groceries'. Kind of an unusual entry, hope it is enough on topic . Usually, I'm editing until the wee hours of Thursday a.m., but the hard part was getting up repeatedly the other night. Today was interesting--facing the results of my sleep fog. It wasn't perfectly edited when I submitted, but I need to go scout out my interview locations.

Talk to ya'll later!
Joanna

[lauralnm]

Somehow I can't think of anything out of the box for grocery and that's unusual for me. But I guess I have enough stuff to work on.

.

I'm with you, Amy, although I've taken the time to start about six entries, none of which I think are worth submitting. I hate that! blessings... laura

[Sparrow]

Hiya, Leah.

Keep in mind anything you write for NaNoWriMo can be formatted into an eBook. The results from that event used to be considered practice, but now they can actually be published.

See ya.

- Kenn

Not just practice or self publishing. Both novels the big-name publishers are interested in of mine were NaNo books. If you're willing to do a lot of work on the rough draft, then anything can come of it! I'm not planning to do NaNo this year because I'll probably be in the middle of Voices still, but if I happen to be done with it and ready to start the second one in that series then I might think about it. NaNo did the trick for me and got me to finish a book, so I feel like I don't need it as much now that I'm working on them anyway. But I might do some word wars and such if I'm in a place needing new writing.

And Leah, Reaching Sky is completely done now and ready to be seen by publishers (unless the agent asks for some changes) but Voices of the Dark is in pretty bad shape and I revised the storyline quite a bit, so I'm pretty much rewriting it and just using bits and pieces of what I can from the NaNo draft. No idea how long it'll take the agent to respond. I'm hoping it's right away but realistically I guess it could be months.

I haven't been feeling very good, but got a little done on the book today.

We decided to postpone my birthday party from this Saturday to Sept 8th because Mom still has shingles and is contagious to those who haven't had chicken pox yet. But several of my close friends couldn't come on the 25th and will be able to come on the 8th anyway, so it'll work out. Hopefully no one will miss the change and show up anyway or not be able to come to the new date. Maybe I will have recovered more from the conference and be feeling a little better by then too.

Jay, thanks for the kind words.

Joanna, I wonder if I met you at one of the NaNo gatherings in Vancouver last year? That would be funny. I went to the kick off at the pizza place... trying to remember what else I went to... Two years ago I went to a few more events. Can't remember what I did last year. We were in the middle of a move and I was working some and kinda sick, so it didn't go great.

Praying for your interview! Let us know how it goes. What kind of job are you looking for?

Becky, sorry your great-aunt is being difficult, but maybe it would help if your Grandpa did get some extra help. Hope he gets back on his meds and starts doing better. And last week someone tapped my car when my sister and I were in it, too. He was trying to get out of a parallel parking spot and backed up a little too far, but it didn't even dent my car, so I didn't do anything. Not sure he even noticed it happened.

DeeJay, I really miss our vacuum system we had in the old house. Here we have a regular vacuum but it's too heavy for me to use or even lift out of the cupboard, and we have a little Roomba robot (named Herbie) that is great, but I want a hand-held little one just to clean up small spills or whatnot.

[Sparrow]

Someone asked a while ago about how Lauren (Wren/ b24bomb) was doing and why she hasn't been here in so long. I knew, but felt like I couldn't say without gossiping. However, I just discovered she's been blogging once in a while and was brave enough to be open and share her story and her struggles. Here's her first post explaining things, and then if you click in the side column or on the name of the blog you can find more recent posts. http://b24bomb.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-life.html I'm sure she'd love your support through commenting. I don't think she can get online very often, but hopefully will see our comments eventually.

She actually lived with my family--well, out in our studio apartment above the shop at our old house--for a few months as we tried to offer support. Sounds like this location has much better tools for help and that it's an awesome place.

[JesusPuppy]

Sept. 8th...... I might be able to work that. I will have to check and see if they willlet me go for a weekend. That or I could just quit.

And I am with Jay, any guy that meets you and then runs off, just ain't right in the head.

[Kalnozoli Kate]

I wish I could join another great Sept. gathering but last year's will have to do.

Amy, I keep intending to ask you, was Jane Kirkpatrick at the Oregon conference?