Words, Spiders and Sick Kids

I've been plugging away at the June challenge and despite having a day last week where 82 words was my only achievement i'm at 19708 for the challenge - only about 1k behind.

I'm not sure about the quality alas, but that surely can be helped in the edits. Am finding i picked a good story to try this with. Lucas and Gemma want to share their story with the world it seems. I've not been stuck too badly yet and i have ideas for the next scenes.

I had lots of distractions yesterday.

I have three sick kids (pretty sure it's not swine flu) and Princess nearly-Four is a puddle of woe wanting Mummy. She NEVER wants Mummy.

Then hubby casually mentioned there's a massive spider living somewhere in the car. Am I alone in being deathly afraid of spiders? The thing is, it was living on our gates and hubby refused to evict him from the property cos he wasn't harming anyone. (!)

AND he is still on the car cos hubby tried to 'shepherd' him away in peace. Not hero behaviour.

This is not time for peaceful negotiations!

So hubby is in the bad books and has been told it is time to find the spider and remove it. It's his 'save the cat' moment.

How i hope he comes through...

For the love of a good... Laptop

Over the last few days I've been reading about Anne McAllister's new love, Charley and it's got me thinking about my laptop, Ender, and how much I adore him. He was new last year when I complained that if i wanted to write in the evenings I had to hide away on the desktop (hidden from kiddy fingers).
Now, with the help of Ender, Hubby and I can sit side by side working on our laptops (he's in IT and has geek stuff to do most nights).
Ender is also banned from the internet which means i'm not distracted by email or facebook. It's with Ender's help I've managed 5000 words already off the 44k I've aimed to do in June. I'm hoping the trend continues!

50k in 30 days

Yup, I'm giving this a go.
Aiming for the 44k needed to finish His Dark Past.
I was going to try last year but all day morning sickness saw me wimp out. I shall be stronger this time, i hope.
To everyone else trying this, welcome to the insanity and GOOD LUCK!

Emmy

Had some great news this morning while changing Miss 5 month old's nappy (ah the glamour), I finalled in the RWAus Emerald award in the category section.

Will have all my fingers crossed.

Thanks to the lovely Rach for her last minute reading/critting when i made the second round. Mwah!!

=)

Harley forums

This week, in the name of research, I joined a Harley Davidson appreciation forum. 'The Read Between The Rides'. My hero recently had a terrible accident on his Harley and I was looking for what his experience might do to his love of his bike.

General concensus was he'd never give up his bike.

I'm not so sure. I guess i can write him however I like but it was interesting to hear the passion of these bikers.

I know Jackie went above and beyond to ride in a helicopter for her heroine. Anyone else done some interesting research recently?

Doubts

I have bucketloads. I've started something new since i'm not thinking about the mss with SSE and i have no idea whether the chapter i've just written works at all.

You'd think at some point little things like this would become a tad clearer.

When?

I have my best writing buddy lending her wise eye to it as i type but until I have her verdict I'll be questioning everything. The opening. The end chapter hook. Does it work that they don't actually speak until the end of the chapter.

Doubts, doubts, doubts.

Anyone else got some?

Karma and Writing

So, when it came time to send my manuscript snail mail to SSE I researched madly and questioned Rach (who'd had the same issue) about how to actually package it. Eventually it lead me to using 2 rubber bands and some card backing and popping the whole thing in an envelope.

BUT i had no rubber bands.

So off to the nearest shops (the only ones in walking distance which means they get a work out cos 3 kids are easier contained in some kind of pram device) I went. Found a bag of rubber bands. And some kid clothes. And a new book each. And a TVD... yup it's a dangerous place to go.
When i got home, with 3 fractious kids by that point, i discovered I DIDN'T PAY FOR THE RUBBER BANDS. A complete oversight but terrible nonetheless.

Now, i couldn't head back immediately (the trip having taken 2 hours) and they only cost 49 cents. But i kept thinking and thinking and thinking. Then I used 2 of them on my submission. What's the chance of a positive response if i didn't pay?

Not likely... at least in my paranoid head.

So this morning i finally got back to the shops, two weeks after I sent my manuscript, and paid for the rubber bands. Phew, at least that's one obstacle overcome.

Anyone else as superstitious as me?