2010 Catch Up

Memorial Day weekend? Already? Where has it all gone? I suppose if I were behing honest with myself, the answer would be simple. Time passes, even when you aren't paying attention. And I haven't been. Why? The list is actually quite long, but I won't bore you with the details.

The long and short of it is two fold: I've been writing a lot (actually sold my first story), and I'm working on designing an actual website to compliment the blog.

When it comes to either, I'm better at one than the other (hence the sold story and no website yet), but I'm working on it. I was going to hire someone to design the site, then I thought about the fees and maintence. Every time I wanted to change it, I'd have to go through them. No thank you. I'm much too much a control freak for that.

So I'm attempting to tackle Dreamweaver. I've had the program; just never been adventurous enough to try. I know Photoshop (enough to be danergous with it anyways), and InDesign, and a little of Illustrator. What's another Adobe product to learn? Wish me luck.

As for the writing, I've been trying to get at least an hour of that in every day. And like I said earlier, it's paid off. My first submission ever to an anthology was accepted. Within 24 hours of my submission, I had made the short list and 24 hours later, it was accepted. The book is being published this weekend. I'm not sure of the sale date yet, but it will be soon.

I'm going to make an effort to blog more, but this also means that some of these posts will be about writing. Hell, they might be some of my stories. Who knows where the whims of fancy will take me. They've carried me through five months of no posting so far, maybe now its time for the opposite.

How bout a quick photo recap?

Our New Years party (besides being fraught with my husband gutting a road kill deer he had struck with his Jeep hanging from the porch in our backyard 30 minutes before all our guests arrived) was a little hard on John. But it was the best night of pictionary and catch phrase ever.

John: What you want your wife to do.

My husband: Die. Get a job.

Me? I just shook my head. I can't even remember the real answer they were looking for. The game disolved into hysterics after that.

February brought snow. Lots of it. More snow than we've seen probably in the last three years combined. Yes, we live in PA and yes, PA gets snow. But we're 8 miles from the MD border and in the center of the state. We don't usually get much. My reps in Syracuse laughed at us because they deal with this from like October to April. Us? It didn't stop my husband and I, but it brought everything around us to a screaching halt. I guess that's what four feet of snow in five days will do to you. I love the snow. Still do. But that was a lot.


March brought...

Huh. Don't remember much from March. Must not have been all that important. Now April brought girls' weekend in the mountains.

Three girls. Three photographers.

Three cameras. Lots of fun.

Oh...and Bear! Bear! Bear!

May brought a few things. Five days in Mexico. Some time in NJ with my brother, his family, and my BFF Toni. And severe baby cravings. My brother has the most adorable little girl and boy. And a BBQ of Toni's neighbors, I got to spend a lot of time with another little boy. Being surrounded by all the babies just made me want one of my own horribly. I have three wonderful (sometimes) step children that I've been with for the last almost nine years. They might as well be my own. I do look at them like that. But there's something about having your own. I want one. Which means I guess its time to go see a specialist at Hershey. Hell, if they can give John & Kate eight of them, they should be able to give me one, right?

May also brought the short story sale.

Whoo hoo! (That's for Sofy!)

My story is entitled Uninvited. The name of the anthology its going to be in Silver Moon, Bloody Bullets: An Anthology of Werewolf Tails. It's the story of Lucas, a character in my series who will be introduced in the second book, and how he came to be where we find him. There's no spoilers in the short for the series. It's just his backstory.

There was also my husband's parents 50th (yes 50th!) Wedding Anniversary. Some pics from that:

Lee & Shirely

Lee, Shirley and all the brothers (my husband's top right).

Some of the grandkids having fun with me and my camera.

I guess you can say I've been busy. Hopefully that's a good thing. And hopefully this means I'll be blogging more. Maybe my friends at the OWG will remind me with the weekly blog party post. And maybe I'll have a website soon. Hopefully. Maybe.