All 3 kids are back in school and they didn't even have a snow delay today! Methinks Mr. B was milking it a bit towards the end of his sick leave, but how can you prove it? I try to make their stay at Green Girl's Home for Convalescing Youth as uncomfortable as possible--no video games, for example, limited movie viewing, lots of silent time to sleep or reflect on their choice to skip school for the day. Eventually their bodies heal or their brains melt from sheer boredom and they decide it's time to return to school. As part of my celebrations today I'm getting a hair cut. I'm going to get in the Momvan, drive across town alone and chat it up with Kristy about grown up things while she works her magic on my hair. So. Excited.
I'm back into my YA manuscript, tweaking it chapter by chapter now. Adding in the little details, changing the occasional character name, ramping up the foreshadowing--it's amazing what a well-placed line can do for the big picture. The other picky-picky bit is checking the first line of every chapter. I have a lot of short chapters--should I be condensing them? Are they good or bad for pacing? I'm confident about the dialogue and plot, but fear I'm too attached to bits. I axed some great sentences because I couldn't write my way out of them. I have self-imposed deadline of Feb. 28th when I want to hand the work over to a teen reader for feedback.
Publishing Whipped, Not Beaten on Kindle has informed my use of "Insert Page Break." I'm mindful of the potential of publishing this new book the same way, so I'm trying to format effectively as I work through this book and make life easier down the road. Speaking of Whipped, Not Beaten, I can really use some more reader reviews on the Amazon site. If you've read the book and have an Amazon account, you can post a review. Please, don't make me beg. If a girlfriend opened a restaurant, you'd bring your family in to eat a meal. If a girlfriend opened a clothing store, you'd buy a sweater or a scarf to support her business. If a girlfriend invited you to a home party (see a theme emerging?), you'd spend some obligatory amount. It stands to reason that if a girlfriend published a book (on which she'll make $3.70 of every $5 ebook sold), you'd help spread the word. This girlfriend isn't going to get her money back for the time she spent writing and revising this book, but gosh, it would be nice to cover a quarter of the cost of a plane ticket to Virginia. Thank you.
I realized yesterday that I haven't seen the concrete surface of our driveway in almost two weeks. Our garbage dumpster is drifted in and won't get pushed to the road anytime soon, so it's a good thing I don't fill it very often. I'm headed back to the driveway to shovel again and I'm thinking of all my east coast friends. Hope you're safe, hope the power doesn't go out, hope you get out of town, hope your back doesn't break under the weight of all that snow. I know how awful it can hurt when you have to shovel out.
Mr. G's back on the wrestling mat this weekend, I'm hoping to head back in the woods on my skis and I'll run Mr. B and Mr. T back and forth to their activities. Throughout it all, I'll have great hair and no one will need a spoonful of medicine to stop the coughing. And a few branches I hacked off a forsythia earlier this week will be blooming on the mantel which is nice because we need a little springtime here.
Spill it, reader. How are you forcing yourself through the last leg of winter?
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