Saturday, September 20, 2008

Writing, rugs and romance

Hi, Y'all. I can't believe it has been over three weeks since I posted. No, I am not dead.

Writing:
So. the last post was all about revising my thesis novel. OY! Such a LOT of work. However--- Cue drum roll-- I FINISHED my revision. I am so proud of myself. I cut 4000 words, split a chapter in two and changed tenses all over the place. I can honestly say I am happy with how things came out. Hey, I have to LOVE it before any one else does, and I LOVE it. I only wish I had been able to do it back in June before I turned it in as my thesis. SIGH.

Now to sell the story to someone who loves 16th Century Florence. (Is anyone out there?)

I have also started re-editing my second novel and when that is done, I will probably send THAT out too. Then I finish the book I started and put aside for school.So many novels, so little time.


Rugs:
Back in March, my husband and I bought wall-to-wall carpet for the house. The old stuff came with the house and we have been here for 15 years, so you can do the math. It needed to be replaced. So it came in in April, and has been residing in the carpet warehouse somewhere here on Long Island.

At the same time we have been working on our kitchen. I did minimal work but my husband has been killing himself on this. However, it is not finished. We still must do trim, some wainscoting, etc. But it looks nice and will be done SOON.

Of course, TODAY we had to pull up the carpet. It is being delivered next week. So we started working at 7:30am. I left for my LIRW meeting at 11:10am ( see below) and when I got home at 5:30pm, poor Paul (darling husband) was still pulling carpet off the stairs. I felt so guilty. :-(

Did you know the padding for wall-to-wall is held by staples? HUNDREDS of Staples? The Industrial-size staples that you get in Home Depot? Yup. And when you replace your carpet you have to pull them all up? What fun.

On the other hand, I know now why people go postal. They live in homes that are all torn up with construction and nothing is in the correct place.

We will work on it tomorrow. It will be better. It has to be better.

Romance:
Today I went to a LIRW meeting in East Northport, NY. Nice Library, but who set up the parking lot? There is only a side-street entrance. If you are not familar with the town or the library, you have to ask a resident to drop a trail of breadcrumbs for you to find the library parking lot.

The guest speakers were members of LIPI (Long Island Paranormal Investigators) They gave a great program and frankly some great fodder for stories. Some of the stuff was really creepy. But what do you expect?

I also volunteered to be the Member-at-Large for the next year. I hope that does not mean I have to gain back the 15 pounds I just lost. Maybe I will ask them to change the title to "Member-at-Not-As-Large-as-Before".

I hope to get back to this blogging thing on a more regular basis. Not that anyone reads it but me. :-)