Lifelines Returns

Hi Again!

It's been a while since I posted, but I plan to get this blogging thing going again.

I do have some news since I was last here. Lifelines, the poetry collection put together by my group The Poetic Muselings, is back in print and newly available in digital form.

Link to Lifelines print book.
Link to Lifelines for Kindle.

Here's our lovely new cover, photo by group member Michele Graf.

Lifelines New Cover

Suggest a Purchase

If you can't afford a book but still want to read it, remember to use your library. Library purchases still support authors. Most libraries have a way to request a purchase. Here's what the form looks like on the Salt Lake County Library site.

If you don't know how to request a purchase for your library, simply ask the librarian. They are there to help you. You can get info from the Amazon listing on the ISBN, publication date, publisher, etc. Support both your authors and your local library.

Tuesday Tally and family update

EotF Status

# of queries out: 7

# of fulls out: 0

additional querying on hold

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,034

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• submit poems to Strange Horizons – sent one, working on revisions for a second

 

Goals for this week:

• brainstorm and outline to take advantage of kid free writing time next week
• put up display shelf so I can unpack dragons (one of very few remaining boxes)

 

I wrote down the list of books we need to buy to fill out all our series: 104. That number may go down after we take another hard look at our collections. We have some where it’s only book 2, or we have a couple but the series is really long, and may decide to donate the books rather than buy the rest.

 

B will be in a full day kindergarten class. No more excuses not to write. It might be time to buy a watch again, since I’ll be walking B to and from school. At least my husband can pick up him some days, since work gets off before school. We met B’s teacher yesterday. She seems nice. B came away very excited about school. (Not that he hasn’t been excited prior to the visit…) Over the weekend we made a paper chain to represent how many days until school starts. Each morning after breakfast he cuts off a loop and we count how many are left. I’ve also been showing him on the calendar, so he can practice the days of the week.

 

B has been peeing his pants lately. Waiting until the very last second to run to the bathroom (and not always making it). Hopefully he’ll be back into good potty habits by Monday.

 

Nikki had twins on August 18. Both boys are doing well, but Nikki is not. She needs all the prayers and blessings you can send her way.

Late Tuesday Tally

Had full intentions to post this Tuesday. Don’t know what happened.

 

EotF Status

# of queries out: 4

# of fulls out: 0

 

T.C. Status

word count: 8,272

no change

 

FwM Status

word count: 3,983

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

wrote one on Steel

 

Previous goals:

• finish/revise fairy poem
• finish current chapter of TC and share with critique group – worked on this some, now on hold. see below
• highlight a few writing sites on blog – obviously didn’t happen. got the posts planned, starting writing them, and got interrupted every time. look for them this week. which now means the next few days.

Goals for this week:

• send out 4 more queries
• submit more poetry

 

I had all these plans to work on TC, then someone shared a link about the greek muses, and now I may make some changes. The article mentioned the original muses, three not nine: Melete (meditation), Mneme (memory), and Aoede (song). The Trinity Coven is currently influenced by the Triple Goddess, and each witch has their own elemental magic. Now I’m debating if I want to use the three muses instead. It would pull away from the oft used elemental magic (which EotF has with its fey). I’m only five chapters in, and not much of it would have to be rewritten. The change would come in my plotting. I could see the ending going a completely different direction. I don’t know if it’s better, just different. I could save the muse idea for a separate book, or I could combine it with Trinity Coven. Decisions, decisions.

 

On an awesomeness note, my poem has been accepted for Moon Drenched Fables! It will be in their September issue. I’ll announce when it’s up.

Complex Fire

As stated on the local Fox News:

A fire destroyed a Midvale apartment complex Saturday. The fire happened at 8 a.m. at Brighton Place Apartments. The Midvale fire department arrived at the scene quickly, but not fast enough to salvage the complex. Residents first heard an explosion then saw flames ignite from an empty unit. Not all of the units were damaged, but at least two dozen families were displaced because the building is no longer safe. There are no leads as to what caused the fire.

 

How can something like this happen in the same apartment complex, and I find out the news from my kid's bus driver? Then again, if it happened at 8 AM on a Saturday... high chances are I was sleeping. And it's a big apartment complex. Can't even see that building from where we are. We noticed a couple emergence vehicles that morning, but didn't know what happened. Today I saw a cop car and a news vehicle. The latter gave me the idea to check out the news online. Guess it's been a while since I turned on the news...

 

Apparently two teenager boys were the heroes here. They woke the rest of the building, making sure everyone got out. Could have been a lot worse.