Yes, I'm up

I've been trying to force myself to wake up earlier on the weekends. When I sleep until noon I feel like I've wasted so much of the day. Especially with everything I have to do, the last thing I need to be doing is wasting time sleeping. And now the weekends are so much more important for getting stuff done since the evenings are trash for doing anything much. When it gets dark out at five, you really don't have the energy to do anything. It's a struggle to stay up past nine right now, since my body is still adjusting to it getting dark so early. Hopefully it adjusts soon. Sigh.

Today I plan on finishing edits on Rockstar and sending that off and then I'll be getting some stuff around the house done. Oh, and grocery shopping. The cats have no wet food left and they are making it known that they are NOT very happy about that whatsoever. I swear, when we give them dry food, they sniff at it and then turn their noses away. They only eat it when they realize they're not going to be getting anything else. =P Yes, they're very spoiled. But hey, when you don't have any kids yet, your pets are your kids.

Another thing I'll be doing today is looking through my recipes for casseroles. I can make a 9 x 11 pan of something and Myles and I can eat it four 3 or four days. Make a second one and switch them off and we eat for a whole week. With the prices at the grocery store, this has become even more important. It sucks when you pay $70 bucks for only a few things.

Anyone have any good casserole recipes your family enjoys? And keep in mind, Myles won't eat vegetables...or they have to be big enough for him to pick them all out. =)

I know I know

I've sucked at blogging. I sit down to write one and I have a great idea, but then something distracts me. A submission I'm reading, or edits to do, or someone talking to me. Something, anything, pulls me away from the task at hand. And for those of you that know me, you know that's not hard to do to me. I'm a distractable procrastinator. Yes, I'll admit it.

But this week, I've been working hard to complete all those little things I've been putting off. I've been an asbsolute machine when it comes to editing and reading submissions, but other than that, I don't have much to be proud of this week. =P I'll be spending the weekend doing a lot of catch up stuff around the house and hopefully I can persuade the Myles to hang some curtains with me, but we'll see how it goes. I'm sure he'll spend a lot of time on with his new toy, the lawn vac, sucking up every stray leaf he sees. lol He's even told the neighbors not to rake. =)

So, yeah, that's about all in my life now, but I've been going through a lot of writing and grammar stuff, so be prepared for posts related to the subjects in the very near future, since I've been slacking from sharing the editor side of me lately. And I know how you all love it when I talk grammar and the like!

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

When I heard another Chuck P book was being made into a movie, I immediately had to go out and get it. I love his writing and his books do lend themselves to being made into movies. For those of you who don't know, the movie Fight Club was based on Chuck's book Fight Club.

Choke is written in very much the same style. I could actually picture Edward Norton soeaking the main character, Vince Mancini's, lines and thoughts will I was reading. That should give you a pretty good idea as to the tone of the book. As for the whole choking in restaurants thing, I can understand it for the attention, but as for the people who "save" him sending him checks and cards and such, I think that's a bit fartfetched. But hey, it's a fictional story. If that's the way Chuck wants it, that's the way it will be.

I'm anxious to see the movie now to see how it compares to the book. There's a lot of stuff in there that I'm wondering if the movie will portray or not. I mean, a book from the POV of a male sex-addict has some pretty interesting narrative and situations in it. LOL Plus, the whole situation with his mother and...well, let's just say you've got to read it. Keep in mind, Chuck P's books aren't for everyone. You'll either love them or you'll hate them. There is no in between.

Query letters

I haven't done a post on writing/editing in a while, and since I'm sitting here doing nothing, I figured now would be as good a time as any. I know I've probably posted on this before, but since the query letters aren't getting any better, I'm going to post on it again.

First off, in your query letter, don't tell us you're the next Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele, or God forbid, Stephen King. Believe it or not, Stephen King is the most prevalent name I think we all see. You are not Stephen King. You never will be. And when you compare yourself to him, we pretty much immediately know that when we start reading your manuscript, it's probably no good.

And secondly, proofread your query letter. I mean, seriously. Don't use "your" in the place of "you're". It doesn't look good for your mauscript if you can't even get your query letter right. I have seen query letters where authors even misspelled their own name. Yes, I know that sounds a bit out there, but I'm not lying. I've seen it before.

Also, don't tell me that you've submitted your manuscript to lots of other publishers. That doesn't tell me anything good about you or your manuscript. Trust me on that one. All it does is tell me that you've been rejected by lots of other publishers and you're pretty much going down the line and submitting it everywhere, hoping/waiting for someone to pick it up. And I'm sure there is a publisher out there that might just do that, but that's not us/me. With the amount of submissions we get, we don't need to accept second or third rate material just to bump up or output like some publishers do. That is NOT Samhain.

When writing your letter, tell me about your story. Don't give me the whole synopsis, give me a mini-blurb about it. Hook me, get me interested. Then, tell me about yourself. Don't tell me you started writing to get over the pain of your husband leaving you, your cat dying, or your children growing up and leaving the house so you needed something to fill the void. Tell me what makes you such a good writer that I should offer you a contract, and no, any of the above-listed don't count!

And in your query, don't just say "Dear Editor, This is my book. I hope you like it." Yes, I have seen MANY query letters that say simply that.

I know...

I've been horrible at this this past week. And before that too. I keep getting sidetracked every time I try to sit down and blog. Or to do anything else for that matter.

Last Wednesday was my birthday and I had a good day. =) Myles cooked dinner all by himself, and David, Misty and the kids were over. Had a great laugh over Kevin, so that was actually a great gift. =) And even with Misty being there, Myles cooked all by himself. I told Misty she wasn't allowed to step into the kitchen. She cooks for me--and everyone else--all the time.

Saturday we ended up tailgating and the Purdue homegame from the time we woke up and then went to the bars with that whole gang afterward. And I'm so proud of myself...I was in bars and I was drinking all day, and I only bummed one smoke from someone. That's amazing. Seriously, for me, that's a miracle.

The quitting smoking thing is going pretty good. The cravings and rough times are less and less now, so that's always good. I miss it, but I'm thinking about it less now. We didn't quit because we wanted to, per se, but we quit because it's just so freaking expensive. Over four bucks a pack and they're talking about imposing another tax on it. Yeah, it's just not worth it.

This week is for getting thank you notes done, cleaning the house, and getting through all of my submissions before Friday, that way I can spend Friday sitting out on the porch with my Misty and a glass of wine and handing out candy to Trick-or-Treaters without having to worry about what I have to get done. Plus, I'd like to be able to get some organizing done this weekend in the kitchen and in my office without having to worry about cleaning anything. That'd be really nice. Ooh, and hang curtains. =)

What are your plans for the last week of October?

Getting caught up....

Can be a big pain in the butt. That's what I'm working on doing right now. Editing, submissions, housework, laundry. lol Not to mention writing all the Thank Yous for the wedding. Yeah, it's a lot, but I'm not as busy as I was before the wedding, which is really nice. It's nice to have things back to normal, or at least to as normal as I ever am. =) I enjoy editing, and even when we were on our honeymoon, I kept wishing I had my computer so I could work. But the deal from the very conception of the honeymoon and where we went was that it was no phones and no computers. I did end up having to buy some word puzzle books, though, because just sitting there and watching TV and movies was getting boring for me.

Tomorrow I go back to work, which I'm so-so on. As much as I love being home, I need to get back into the swing of things. I'd love to be able to stay home all the time and have no evil day job, but that won't be happening for quite a while. =P Not until babies come...and no Misty, you're still gonna have to wait two or three years, so don't go looking at maternity clothes to dress a pregnant Barbie. I'm sure I'll have a bunch of stuff to do when I get there tomorrow, but most of my work was being covered while I was gone, so it won't be almost two weeks of stuff piled up, which is okay. Believe it or not, I hate it when I have nothing to do. I prefer it when I'm crazy busy, since it keeps me, well, busy and because it makes the day go by faster. =P

The Wedding!

Me on my way to the church after hair and makeup.
My dad and I right before the ceremony.


My flower girl on the left. Me dancing and making weird faces on the right.
My MOH and her husband, a groomsman.

Myles and Dawn, one of my BFFs and bridesmaid.

Okay, well, it's all over with. =( That's the sad part. But the good part is that Myles and I had an absolutely AWESOME wedding. And everyone else says so, too, so it's not just us. lol There were no gliches or hiccups or anything. No disasters, no problems. It was amazing. I don't have a whole bunch of the pictures in yet, but I do have some, so I'll post some of the good ones I have on here.

One Thursday, everyone started coming in, so admidst getting all of the final stuff done, I had a ton of people there. But it was all good, since I loved getting to spend time with them. Friday Mom and Misty and I all got manis and pedis, Mom's treat to her "two" daughters. =) Doug and his girlfriend came in on Friday morning and oh man was I sooooo happy to see him. Turns out, I used to hang out with his girlfriend way back in middle school. LOL That's some funny stuff right there. But she's awesome, so it's all good. The rehearsal went well on Friday as did the dinner.

And then Saturday came. The big day.

The day started at 5:30, getting up and getting showered. We made a Starbucks stop and then we were on our way to the salon so Jesse could do our hair...we had to be there at 6:30 so that he could get all of us and my makeup done by noon. We were there a long time, but it didn't feel like it. Just us girls gabbing and having fun and joking around. The girls' hair was great, all in French twists with some mini calla lillies and pearls, but each one done differently.

After Jesse finished my makeup it was time to head back to my house to get our dresses and accessories and head over to the church to get ready for the pictures we were doing before the wedding to cut down on the time spent on them after the ceremony. The dress zipped out without a hitch, which was great, and then I just sat there. And sat there some more until Ed, our photographer, was ready to do pictures with my and my maids and family.

Everyone kept asking if I was nervous, and the answer was no. I was just anxious. I was sick of sitting there and I wanted to get the show on the road, so to speak. Mom and Dad were getting a little emotional, but I remained calm. Until I was lined up to walk down the aisle with my dad. Then it hit me. I was fighting back tears when my dad lifted my veil and kissed me on the cheek, and when Myles took my arm to walk me to the minister, I was having a hard time, but he ust kept looking at me and smiling and it really helped calm me down. Hell, I don't even remember what the minister said and what we said. Myles and I were whispering to each other the whole time, and at one point Misty and I caught the giggles. Her son was the ringbearer and he was sitting on a chair behind the guys, but right in view of Misty and I and he started doing this heavy breathing/hyperventilating thing, using his whole body and stuff. Oh God it was hilarious. Luckily, one of the guys saw what was happening and moved him so we couldn't see him anymore. =P

I know I messed up a line, but I don't even remember what it was. =P And then it was done. We were married. =) Then everyone blew the bubbles at us and then Myles and I took off in Doug's Mustang, and then we came back and took pictures. And then we went to the reception site and took some more pictures. LOL

And then we finally got announced and got to start the best part of all of it...the party. =) Eating and drinking and all that good stuff. The one thing that was really hard was getting around to talk to everyone. I still feel like I missed people. After the first dance, most of the people pretty much cut out, but those that were left were our close family and friends and we all had a blast. And I mean a freaking blast. Dancing and drinking and laughing and just having fun. I walked out onto the dance floor with my champagne and Misty promptly came out, took my glass and gave me the bottle of champagne. LOL So there was Tera, walking around with a bottle of champagne. =P Eh, oh well, it was my day. =)

After the reception was over, a bunch of us headed to a bar downtown, within walkign distance. I change but kept my veil on, since there was no way I was traipsing around in that huge ass dress and letting everyone walk all over it, since one of the bustle things broke and it didn't hold it up right. The bar was a great time. At one point, Myles came up to me and told me we had to talk to some people. I was like, um okay. I followed him, and he walked to the front of the bar to the front booths, stopping at each one and saying hi and asking if they got their shot and telling them we had just gotten married. Yeah, he bought a round for the ENTIRE BAR. *shaking my head and laughing*. That's my Myles. You should have seen my brother's face when he found out what Myles did...since at the beginning of the night he told the waitress that Myles and I were on his tab. Hahahah.

After a few more drinks and being bought a couple more shots, Myles and I decided to head out, at like 1:30. Once we got back to our hotel room, Myles decided he wanted one more beer. So he calls up the best man, who has the cooler full of beer in his room and who was also still at the bar. And voila, Kevin, Dawn and or friend Fulk show up at our room with the cooler and stay there until a little after 4. lol Yeah, it was a LONG day. But it was so much fun.

Sunday was all about sleeping and only waking up for short amounts of time when we absolutely had to. LOL Here's some pictures: Okay, well, my Blogger is being a pain in the butt, so I'm leaving 'em up top. LOL

You know it's...

Going to be a good day when you start it off by hearing Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" on the radio on the way to work. =) Yeah, definitely a good day.

So last night, Myles went out and got us a home gym. Rock on! I've been wanting one since forever. I hate cardio with a passion, but I have no problem sticking some music on and working out on that for 20-30 minutes when I get home from work. So, to the big black trash bag in my closet of my skinny clothes, I'm sorry you've sat there for so long, but you will be worn again. I promise. It'll be like getting a whole new wardrobe. Seriously. All of my favorite clothes are in that bag...including my favorite jeans ever. My size 5 Tommy Hilfiger jeans that fit like a glove. lol And they're soooo comfy. And all my favorite sweaters and shirts, too. I can't wait. For serious.

And have I mentioned lately how wonderful Myles is? He knows I've been wanting to exercise and stuff, so he surprised me with an MP3 player to motivate me. =) Because taking walks by yourself in absolute silence is freaking boring.

On the wedding front, man, it's coming up. I keep getting busier and busier. Tonight I have nothing to do but work out and work on cleaning the house, though, so that's nice. Tomorrow we're going to see Robin Williams, so that evening is gone, and Friday Dawn will be in town and her, Misty and I are going to spend the day together and the evening before my bachelorette party on Saturday. And on Wednesday, everyone starts converging in Lafayette and most likely my house from all over the country. Literally. =) Dawn and Kevin and the kids are out here from Washington state, Stephanie is in from Hawaii, and all Myles's family from out east will start filtering in on Thursday. So yeah, business business. Not to mention getting the favors ready next week, which is gonna take FOREVER. =P But it's all good. I'm excited.

So if no one hears from me, that's why. I'll try and post blogs when I have downtown, but we'll see how much downtime there is. =P

The Presidential Debate

Myles and I couldn't watch them on Friday so we set them to tape on the DVR and watched them last night. David and Misty were over last night for Myles birthday, so we watched it with them, and we all came to the same conclusion: it was one bug cluster you-know-what. We didn't really see that either of them really answer the questions, and the moderator even picked up on that and made some comments regarding it, too. They both kept saying what needed to be done, but neither ever said HOW they were going to do it, which is the most important part.

I'm not going to tell you who I'm going to vote for, because, well, I don't know who I'm going to vote for. I really don't like either one. I will admit, Obama did better in the debates by far. That still doesn't make me like him any better, though.

I mean, McCain...he's old, he's been pro-Bush's ideas (which I hate), he wants to keep us in the war...the list goes on.

And Obama. Ugh. He has absolutely zero patriotism, which I hate. He won't even put his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is playing or the Pledge of Allegiance is being said. And, straight from my brother who's in Iraq, was there when Obama went to visit Iraq. Obama refused to go into the hospitals and visit wounded soldiers because the cameras couldn't follow him in there. I do like how he wants to get us out of this stupid war and put or soldiers where they really should be, in Afghanistan searching Bin Laden out.

Like I said, I'm not big on either one, so I guess I'm just going to have to keep watching and decide who the lesser of the two evils is. Either way, I think this country is pretty much screwed.

Oh, and what's all this crap they were talking about that we're winning the war in a Iraq and we'll be the victors, blah blah blah. Can someone please tell me what the hell we're winning? Seriously. McCain kept talking about how the Iraqis look at us as liberators...um, no they don't. My brother said they hate us and want us to get the hell out of their country.

And here's a way to save money, stop giving it away to people like Georgia and Africa. I think it's time our governemt stopped trying to be everyone's big brother and aiding all these other countries and start paying attention to their own country for once. Start letting other countries deal with their own problems.

Can anyone tell I'm really annoyed by the whole entire election? Sigh.

I've been...

A bad, bad blogger lately. And the sad thing is, I haven't been all that crazy busy, so I really have no excuse. =P I'm just a crappy blogger lately.

I'll probably start to get busier in the next few days, since as of right now, the wedding is only16 days away. This weekend is the trip up to my parents' to pick up my dress from the alterations, next week is my two-day bachelorette party extravaganza, and then on Weds 10-8, family and friends start arriving from all over the country, including Hawaii. So yeah, I'm thinking I will continue to be a crappy blooger for a little while, though I will do my absolute bestest to remember. =) I just can't make any promises since I'm not sure I can keep them. lol

In the category of "Tera's Latest Obsessions" today, we have the Vampires Game on MySpace. Don't ask, because I have no freaking clue how I got into it. I think Misty sent me the invite and it's been downhill ever since. I sat in front of the TV last night, clicking over to my MySpace page every few minutes to refresh and see how much Energy and Rage I had. Yes, I know. It's sick. Completed depraved, but it's got me hooked. And with my OCD, once I'm hooked on something, it becomes a crazy obsession. Sigh. So if you need me, that's where I'll probably be, with my nose pressed into my laptop and my fingers frozen in place over the keyboard, playing Vampires. Yes, it's that bad. But hey, the more distracted I get, the less I think about things like food, so maybe it'll be a valuable weight-loss tool. (Shhh. Let me try and spin this into something positive.)