The Full Moon Rises Update

To keep you up to date on what I am working on, I thought I’d take a moment to tell you all that my draft manuscript, The Full Moon Rises, which is Book Two in the Howl in the Night Series, is finally, sent off to my publisher as of late last week.  Will they like it?  Will they hate it?  The jury is still out, but my part for the moment is done.  Yay!

So what now?  This week I am catching up on some reading.  I have about 3 books going at the moment, which I thought I would finish up.  Then next week I will get back to writing.  Something.  No sure what at the moment, but between now and then I am sure I can come up with an idea.  

I haven’t done any small work lately; maybe I should take a few weeks and put out a few short stories to anthologies or maybe a few magazines.  I don’t know.  I will take the time I have this week to think it over.

18 days until spring.  Just saying…

Winter is never going to end…

In October everyone is excited to pull out the jackets and hoodies.  They start talking about bonfires and Halloween.  Then it’s the holiday season with turkey and a red suited fat man.  Everyone wants a white Christmas.  They complain if there isn’t snow.  They love the winter and all it brings.  The snowmen, and the ice skating, the snow ball fights and the angels.  The warm toasty fires and nights spent at home celebrating with family. 

Not me.  I hate winter.  I don’t say that lightly.  I Hate winter, which a capital H! 

I see the leaves on the trees begin to change and I get sad.  I mean actually sad, on the inside.  Then they fall to the ground in heaps and piles, which I have to rake and bag and cart away by the truck load.  The garden freezes over and the sweet potatoes are dug up.  That is the last of the fresh produce I will get for months and months.  The grass and then the windows on the car begin to frost over in the mornings, which means I will have to go out to start it early to warm up. The snow and the ice arrive with a vengeance in Ohio and it stays and stays. 

The days are dark and grey.  The nights are blustery and cold.  The wind is brutal.  It weasels its way under coats and sweaters and bites at the skin.  Eyes water and noses run and the winter is still ever present.  It’s January and the snow comes in droves of white.  Ice crusts over everything including power lines and walkways.  I have been in boots for months.  I miss my pretty peep-toe heels, my wedges and my espadrilles, even my flip-flops. Everything is dead, brown and grey. 

February has arrived and the ice has taken me as a casualty time and time again as I slip, slide, and fall my way through the days and days of winter.  My skin is itchy and dry no matter how much moisture I rub into it.  Snow comes again and again and again.  It’s pushed into piles as high as the house and some higher than that.  Salt granules find there way inside my shoes and my car and my home.  Everywhere I turn I find the sharp little crystals from hell as they stab into my cold feet and toes. 

March is almost here.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but I don’t see it yet.  I’m melancholy today with the cold and the winter that is never going to let go of us.  I need the warmth of the sun.  I miss it terribly. 

Come on spring, where are you?

Reading to my Children

I read to my babies.  I read to them, all the time.  It didn’t matter if they were two months old or ten years old.  I read to them.  I was chatting with a new mom the other day.  Her baby was the cutest little girl of about four months old.  I asked her if she was reading to her?  She told me no, that there wasn’t a point at that age as they didn’t understand.

Now, I am not, or at least I try not to be, that person that believes they know everything about everything.  I have learned a lot of thing, but I don’t believe that I know everything, or that I have learned everything.  I learn new things every single day.  However, in this instance, I decided to share what I had learned about reading to babies.   

1.  Babies may not understand the words in the beginning, but they understand the tone you are using.  They hear you.   They listen. 

2.  Babies can see.  Whether unfocused or not, they can see the colors and the shapes.  They can see the words, even if they don’t understand them.  They learn from every single moment of the day. 

3.  Reading time is a time to cuddle and bond and enjoy a quiet moment together.  It’s a chance to sit on mom or dad’s lap and soak in the warmth and the love. 

4.  This one I think is very important.  It’s one that I realized early and put to good use as soon as I could.  Reading is a moment to sit still.  It’s a moment of learning how to sit and be quiet, and be silent for a period of time.  It’s a time to listen.  This is a moment in a parent’s life where you can teach a necessary social manner to a little one, in an easy pain free way that also has an element of enjoyment.  Those children at the restaurants that are running around like wild animals, they may be entertaining for a moment, but in reality, they need to be taught how to sit and good.  Those children in church that the harassed mother has to take out of the service, because they can’t sit quietly, haven’t learned the lesson yet.  It can all start with a simple moment of reading time.  I know it sounds silly, but teaching a child how to sit still and quiet while another is talking will be invaluable to the child.  No it doesn’t start easy.  Babies don’t understand.  You aren’t going to be reading for hours on end and torturing the child to be still for that long.  But starting at a board book that takes a moment or two and progressing through to long and longer periods, will slowly and surely teach more than just reading to a child. 

So, there you have it.  I read to my babies.  As long as they would tolerate it, I would read to them.  My youngest (teenager) would probably love for me to still do it, but with her dance schedule, there simply isn’t time with the books she likes to read.  I do read most of the books that she reads in order for us to talk about them and discuss, but sadly, I don’t physically read to her anymore.  

The Big Game

Hello people of the blog.  Last week I was noticeably absent.  The tiny dancer and myself were down with the stomach flu from hell.  It would not go away.  It was like the flu only centered in the tummy area.  You’d feel a little better and talk yourself into eating something, and WHAM down you’d go again.  I really wasn’t certain we were going to make it.  We did, after about 6 days.  It really lasted last long. 

As I was so sick last week I didn’t work on anything writing’wise.  I didn’t even read.  I tried, but it was like getting motion sick trying to read.  No thanks.  So, The Full Moon Rises is not done as I really wanted it to be.  I will do my best to catch back up this week and get it finished.

So what do I have on my mind?  The big game of course!

1.  Half-Time:  I’m not a Katy Perry fan. I don’t NOT like her and there a few songs I enjoy but that’s about it.  Now, that being said, when she came out at Half Time riding that giant mechanical lion, I was stupefied.  That was the most fantastic thing I have seen in a long while. I loved it.  I want one!  Seriously, did you see it?  All in all her show was very entertaining.  I was impressed.  I wanted more Lenny, but who didn’t?  Sorry Missy Elliot, you were not exciting and did you actually even sing?  Come on now.  The stage was very cool with its effects and lights and movement.  Yes, I really enjoyed it.  I am shocked, but I did.  Katy Perry, well done. 

2.  Commercials:  As usual, some were good, some were bad, some were stupid, and some annoyed me.  The good:  The Budweiser Ponies and Puppy.  Yes, proof positive I am a girl.  I enjoyed the Dove daddy commercial, until the very last second when I realized it was for Dove Men.  I was not expecting that.  It was Hallmark’esq and then DOVE…weird.  The Viagra/Fiat commercial I felt was stupid and a bit TMI.  The Nationwide one, why?  Yes, it made a point, but why?  Do we always have to make things morbid?  I think after that commercial I stopped watching them.  It ruined it for me.  They are supposed to be fun and silly and you bring in the death of children?  Yeah, didn’t need to see that.  Someone always has to ruin the fun, thanks Nationwide.

3.  The Game:  The whole point of the night.  I tried to read and watched some of the game. Most of the game was well done.  A few bum moments.  A few bad plays.  I’m not a fan of either team, we’re a Pittsburg household, however, I was rooting for the Patriots, because I think the Seahawks are bad sportsman.  Ha!  That sounds funny considering “deflatgate”.  Regardless, I find them to be Ugly people.  I don’t mean by looks either, I mean on the inside.  Not all of them, obviously, but a good handful of them and that tends to ruin the whole team for me.  Then the very last 20 seconds of the game, the Seahawks proved my stance by swinging and throwing punches due to their own stupidity.  Served them right for loosing.  Show some class boys.  Maybe you can win one. 

Today I am working hard on re-re-re-editing Full Moon Rises.  Then I will be making changes and finishing it up to send out to beta readers.  Hopefully, I can get it submitted in the next week or so.  I’ll keep you posted. 

Have a great week! 

Snapping Hip/Sleeping Foot Update

Snapping turtle what?  - Snapping Hip Syndrome is as good as it’s going to get for my tiny dancer.  She will for the rest of her dance life, struggle and fight with the annoyance and sometimes pain of her hip issues.  She has been cleared from Physical Therapy with a list of exercises/stretches to attend to in order to help alleviate the issue, but it is still an issue.  This brings me to my question of:  What the Hell was the point of the PT then?  Why not just give her the exercises and tell her Good Luck.  Oh no.  Instead we spend $300 PER SESSION (that is after my insurance covered a whole $28) for them to tell me, that’s it.  She’s good to go. Yes, it still snaps and grinds and is an issue, but she’s done all the same.  Frustrated?  Oh ho, that is not even close to how I am feeling.  However, I’m glad we are done with the PT.  She has learned some good stretching and strengthening techniques that will be of use to her for the rest of her life.  We met several people that are having way worse issues than we are and it gave us some perspective that maybe we should be joyous in a small way even through her own pain.  Am I happy with the resolution:  No.  Am I happy to have it behind us all the same:  Yes.

Drop Foot – This is another one of those WTH things that I am at a loss as to what to do about it.  The foot is getting better, in that it is no longer asleep or tingly.  She is gaining strength in it, albeit slower than molasses on an icicle, but it is getting better.  She has gone through xrays, where they found nothing, to a movement eliminating boot.  She has gone through no dance for almost 4 weeks (of which I thought was going to kill us both).  She has gone through PT (no, just don’t ask).  She has now gone through an MRI, of which came back perfect and normal and no problems they can see in the spine or the brain stem.  So, now they want to do an EMG.  I kind of want to just say screw it all.  My dancer is going through test after test and pain after pain, and they have no idea what is going on or why.  Yet, it’s getting better, all by itself.  WTH.  I understand that it is the practice of medicine, but can they practice on someone else for a while? 

I have put off the EMG for a few weeks.  If my girl is better by the time the appointment comes up, I’m not having her go through it.  Who wants needles and electricity coursing through their legs if there is not an issue anymore?  I’m lost and don’t know what to do.  Thankfully I have about 3 weeks to wait and see what happens.

Calgon…take me away….

Sia - Elastic Heart

Have you heard of this song?  Have you seen the video?  Apparently the video is making quite the wave of hate on the Internet.  So much so that Sia has issues an apology. 

I am a fan of Sia.  I am also aware of young Maddie from Dance Moms that made a smash hit of the Chandelier song, which featured her in the video.  I watched it and loved it.  I admit it.  It’s a great video and Maddie does a great job whether you like her or not.  So when the new video came out with Shia LeBeouf and Maddie, I went out and gave it a look-see. 

It’s…strange.  It’s a bit off putting.  It’s very weird.  I didn’t hate it.  I didn’t love it. It did however get me thinking about it.  Maddie is a whole 12 years old.  Shia is 28.  There is a bit of…something…not love, not romance, or desire, but maybe…wanting.  I pushed it off as one that I wasn’t going to be in love with and moved on.  Then I saw post after post and hate after hate about the pedophilia nature of the video and I stopped and thought, wait, what did I miss. 

I have now watched it several times as I wanted to make a real, time spent opinion of it.  So what do I think?  I don’t believe that Maddie is supposed to be a girl in the video. I almost think of her as a wild animal.  Not a girl. She changes throughout and becomes less wild and more human’esq, but still that wild beast of the first part, rings true.  Is she a shifter?  Is she a beast that changes to human?  That I couldn’t say, but wild creature she is.  Shia spends the video angry at times running and shouting and swinging fists.  Then others he spends trying to tame the beast.  He is stuck within the cage (physical and metaphysical I think) and can’t get out.  Maddie is able to leave and does so, which at first infuriates Shia and then leaves him broken and sad and maybe dead or dying.  I didn’t find it pornographic or pedophilic and I am a bit of a prude.  Maybe it's an innocent/evil thing.  She is an innocent (then why the wildness???) and he is evil, a monster trying to take or hold onto it.  

Again, I have to say, it’s weird.  It’s very strange.  Not thinking it gets to the point of calling it child porn or pedophilia though.  I think it stays well within the range of artistic insanity.  I still don’t really like it.  However, Shia does an awesome job in it all the same.  It surprised the holy heck out of me.

That’s my personal take on the video.  You can have a different one.  This is mine. 

 Video - Sia - Elastic Heart Utube

Apology - RollingStone Article

Happy New Year - 2015

Welcome to the year 2015.  We made it through 2014. I am not really into resolutions anymore.  I was when I was younger but now I simply don’t have time.  Last year was a very hard year for me, although rewarding in some areas as well.   

So, what did I learn last year?  What do I want to do better this year? 

1.  One thing I would like to do better in the coming years is to take a breath more often for myself.  I spend a lot of time and energy on everyone but myself.  I will wear myself out for everyone and then have nothing left for me.  Not even half an hour for a read.  I put everyone ahead.  Even people that are not family and a few simply acquaintances, will be put ahead of myself.  I spent most of last year utterly exhausted.  I will be trying very hard to say no.  It’s not in my nature, but I am going to work on it. 

2.  I am a grandmother.  Did you know that?  I have a wonderful, full of life, one-year-old Grandson.  When I was a new mother, I would get so much un-needed and un-wanted advice from everywhere I turned.  I hated it.  I have tried very hard not to be that person, to wait until I am asked before giving my opinion.  I cannot tell you how freaking hard that is.  Watching, knowing you could help, knowing you have good information that could be utilized.  Failing miserably at not being that overbearing opinionated person.  It’s very hard on the outside to sit quietly when a baby is crying or getting into trouble or learning something the hard way or sick or whatever.  I hope even with all my failures at keeping my mouth shut that I am not THAT person I so loathed as a new mother.  I will continue to work on this.  I promise. 

3.  I always feel very energized during NANO.  Yes a little stressed and overwhelmed, but I feel good about the writing.  It’s the deadline and the schedule that I seem to thrive under.  I want to continue to feel that energy during the year.  Not just during the month of November.  I tried to keep it going during December, but the holidays crushed any imagination I may have had.  However, I am back up and running and moving forward.  For those that are interested, I finished the first draft of Howl 2, now to be known as:  The Full Moon Rises.  I have already begun my first round of edits and I plan on kicking butt throughout this month to get it done and sent off to my publisher. 

Those are the main ideas for my year.  Maybe to some they are resolutions, but to me, they are life changes that I want to make in myself forever, not just for the new year.   So with that being said, I am off to continue with my edit and hope to have draft 2 done in a few days, if I can find the time to myself.  We all know how I am with that…Happy New Year everyone!