As ‘lil q gets older, she’s understanding more of what goes on around her. Right now Christmas isn’t anything to her, but as witnessed by her getting her classmates to sing happy birthday to her six weeks after her birthday, she obviously has the ability to comprehend holidays and special occasions.
I wanted to do something to celebrate the holiday on my site, but rather than put up 25 holiday posts from me, I’ve asked a group of people to contribute something instead. The only common theme for all of these posts will be they all come from parents. Not gay parents or parents of gay children, just parents. They’re will be gay parents, straight parents, parents with gay kids and straight kids, some with transgendered and some from grandparents. Some are Christians, some Jewish, some pagan and something none of the above. My hope was to get a diverse group of people to contribute.
I’ve not seen most of the posts yet, so I’m anxious to see what I get. As the end of each post, I’ll let you know who’s next. I’ve asked people if they have a favorite holiday song to include with a link.
Since this was my idea, I’ll start the event tomorrow.
I’m not usually the overly sentiment type, but as I sat at breakfast with ‘lil q I realized what a great year it had been. Aside from watching ‘lil q grow up and amaze me almost every day, I have a lot to be thankful for. Not necessarily in chronological order: Continue reading What I’m Thankful For
So yeah, I’m a bit behind, but hey, better late than never. The DC Metro Area M/M Romance Readers met on November 16. Mike was able to come this time so we made it a family outing. Thanks to Joyfully Jay for being our fearless leader and to Treva Harte of Loose Id Publishing for hosting the event.
NaNoWriMo has been interesting. Much like a lot of things, November started with a surge – the first 12 days I averaged almost 2000 words a day. The last five I’ve done less than 800 a day. That said, I’m hoping to get to that 50K mark by the end of the month. Not sure it will be done at 50k – doubtful really – but at least I can say I made the 50K threshold. If I do make it, I’ll have written almost double the number of words in one month that I managed in the six prior, so no matter what the result, it will have been a good exercise. I’ve got an updater on the right side of this page so check it out for my current progress.
The hard part of course will be to keep the ball rolling. With the holidays that will be impossible. Maybe NaNoWriMo can move to Feb or March so that once you get in the grove, you don’t let the holiday’s break the habit. I think it’s safe to say that once I get the rough draft of Harp Strings done, I’ll need to go back and do some major work on it, but I’ll still be glad to getter done.
As some know, I’m part of the Wednesday Briefs Flash Fiction group. We’re trying something new – our own website to help better cross promote each other’s work. For those interested, here’s the site.:
http://wedbriefsfic.com
As part of the group effort we’re planning to post new releases from the authors involves so if you get a chance, click over and follow the site to get updates as they happen.
The weather in DC is beautiful today. Mike took took this video of ‘lil q and Emma while they were out for a walk today. This is more proof that the expression – a girl and her dog – is every bit as true!
This is my blog’s 200th post. I wish I had something stupendous to announce, or wildly entertaining. Instead I figured I’d use it to do what I had planned to do today all along – post an update. Boring? Perhaps, but I try to make it mildly interesting if I can.
When I started this site/blog, it was meant to promote my first book and the others that would hopefully follow. I had no idea what that really meant – even if at the time I thought I had it all figured out. In the 199 posts that preceded this one, I learned a few things that I hope will make the next 200 better.
I’ve almost finished Book Two of Champions – well the rough draft. I hope to have this finished by mid December and submit it and see what happens. Hopefully by next month’s update I’ll know for sure when I plan to submit it.
Right now it’s NaNoWriMo and I’m taking a stab at successfully doing it. I’m writing a story I’ve titled Harp Strings. This is a contemporary story so it’s a bit of a new genre for me. Although I wrote Second Shot and Bettor To Lose, neither of those were submitted for publication. This one will be – hopefully it will get picked up. I’ve posted the rough draft of the first chapter if anyone wants to take a peek and let me know their thoughts.
Also, because this is post 200 and I promised something mildly interesting, I’ve also posted the first chapter of two other stories I’ve started – typically if I have a new idea that needs to be written, I’ll take a break from what I’m doing and write as much as I can of the new story. Some get more than others. But here are two that I’ve started:
I’m quite sure how much to write about the plot – I don’t want to give too much away so I’d want to think about it a bit more before writing too much. The basis of this is there are Angels living among us and we don’t know. The story revolves around Nick Fenton who is not all that lucky at love. He blames part of it on having a totally hot best friend/roommate who always seems to be the center of attention. But things are never as they seem including Nick’s lack of a love life.
I’ll be honest, in some ways, this is the story I most want to write. But it is also another series and I really need to finish Champions before I start a new one. Dlgen get’s it name from the warriors graced by the gods with special talent. There are 5 levels of Dlgen, and I planned to have 5 books each one following Harlan as he progresses through the ranks.
Harlan is 18 when the book starts, his father – Telg is the only living Dlgen of the fifth order. Telg adopts Harlan after he comes upon Harlan being attacked by the other boys in his village. Harlan has been disowned by his family and cast out. But Telg saw something special in Harlan and claimed him as his own son.
Harlan is indeed special. The gods have chosen Harlan and Stefrem, a prince of Gillum, as the ones to protect the world from a return on an ancient evil. But first these two need to figure out that they don’t hate each other.
My plan is to finish NaNoWriMo and then finish Champions – book two. The rest of Champions is written – in rough draft form – so I hope to get all those books out in rapid succession after book two. Once that is over, I have to decide what to focus on next.
So here’s a quick Poll – what should I focus on after I finish The Eye And The Arm; Book Two of Champion of the Gods? Please vote and leave comments if you like.
As some know, I’m the cook in the family. But this year is my first time doing NaNoWriMo so I felt I needed a little help in the kitchen. ‘lil q volunteered to help and she told her daddy how she was going to make the pizza for dinner.
Took ‘lil q to her friend ‘lil a’s b-day bash. Hard to believe they are two already. It feels like just a few weeks ago we were taking pictures in the pool at swim class but that was more than a year ago. Here are the pictures – feel free to comment if you like.
Yeah, I know it’s ‘lil A’s birthday, but I can play with his toys.
Some day – I’ll have my own house.
I’m queen of all I see!
Are they having cake in there?
‘lil a and his mom.
This is how to throw a party – cake and ice cream!
‘lil A and his grandpa making sure ‘lil q doesn’t eat all the cake.
Today is Day Two of the Fall Apart Blog Tour and I’m really pleased to be the host. Please take some time to read the guest post from S. E. Culpepper and learn more about her new book, Fall Apart, book #4 in her Liaisons series. Be sure to enter the contest at the end for a chance to win one of the books in the Liaisons series. Continue reading Fall Apart Blog Tour – Guest Author – S.E. Culpepper
