Job thoughts

What to do? What to do?

Recently, my wife and I decided to move to Central California. There are some job opportunities there for us, a better schooling system for the children and for the first time in almost 20 years, I would be near my family.
I can't really take time from my current job to look, though.

There are a few negatives about this job and only a couple positives.
The positives;

1. It's slow and there is time to do my own thing.
2. The work hours are 7-3:30 (which is really 3:15)
3. Transportation. I pay for a seat on a van to get out here, saves on gas and I can sleep on the way in.

The negatives

1. Hazardous environment. I do sit at my desk all day, but any given time I'll need to go into the plant for measurements. This means the possibility of exposure to chlorine gas, acid or chemical drips, and walking on very rusty scaffolding. They are in deep trouble with the EPA.

2. Personal Time Off is called UNEXCUSED Absence. Last year I used 10 when we're only allowed 4 a year. I'm on probation because of that and so I can't have any family emergencies unless I want to use vacation for it. I was told by the HR person that "It's hard but you can do it". Yeah, right. My wife has bouts of sickness, Three of my children are special needs and I can do it? Shyeeah.

3.No communication. No cell phone coverage out here and the work phone is loud.

4. No tardies allowed. It doesn't matter if the highway i shut down for extreme weather, or the weather makes it too hard to get to work on time or even if your car breaks down on the way out here. It's a tardy and therefor an absence and not tolerated.

I know here's another negative but it's escaping my mind.
Anyway, I'm set up with Monsterjobs so that I can look into California. Well, about four local employment agencies all told me the job market is great. They want me to leave this place and interview for them.
I'm set up for an interview tomorrow. I've been taking lots of vacation time and the boss just eyes me when I do come in. Two weeks ago I took Thurs and Fri. Last week it was Wed and Fri. This week it will be yesterday (Mon), tomorrow (Wed) and Fri (that's the day I finally speak to the class. YAY!).

I don't think they're going to fire me so I might need to just give my two weeks. I've lost any desire for this place. It's not horrible like my previous job, but it's not great either.

So it's decision time.

Holy Heck! Heroes Shocker

I really love this show. The writing is fresh and the show keeps up a good pace.

I want to mention that even though I suspected that SPOILER was Clarie's dad, it was still a shock to see it happen. I would say the name but I don't want to spoil it.

Fun show.

1st ever Speaking Engagement

Next Friday I speak in front of Jeff's 5th grade class. He's been reading them my novel ever since October of last year. They've been enjoying it and that's very encouraging to me.

So Jeff and I set up next Friday as the day for me to come in and speak to the class.

I'm scared and excited all at the same time!

Harry Potter Book 7 comes out July 21st!

It was announced!




Read here.


And here.

I week after Movie 5!

What a month that will be. :)

Doctor Who Curse of Fatal Death Pt 1 & 2

Check these out! Both Willard and Ian told me these existed. Here they are thanks to Youtube!

Parodyverse Moments #1, There Came A Composite, Part 1

The Parodyverse...



...is really hoping lately. Several people are posting stories, some of our old friends (Lisa!!!!! and Messenger!) have returned with new stories and we have a couple newbies writing too.

So, since my novel writing duties have shrunk a bit, I've written a story for the board.

Come see!

Done!

I just finished reading the manuscript to my girls. They loved it. I found more sentences that read wrong and fixed them.

I kept my goal! Now it's all finished and ready for a couple of people to read through it. Once they're done, and I make any corrections from that, then it will be submission time!

Today I improved my query letter as well. Now I need to make a special letter for Rachael Vater, and another for those agents who requested pages. The edits were extensive enough that any of these agents might be interested again (at least I hope so).

So the mood is happy tonight. :)

What's happening?

Almost finished... again.

One more chapter to silently read through. I'll be done with that this afternoon. Three more chapters to read to the kids. That should be it, then.

Now, I do realise it will need more work. I can guarantee there must be some telling still and a couple punctuation problems too.

Then there is the evil demon in my head. A previous beta reader who told me it wont sell because it should either be all little children bat stuff or all teen romance. That voice keeps echoing in my head: "You can't have it both ways. I thought I was the exception, too but I was wrong."
I don't know. I made a very big change and lots of little ones. I show Ann and Roland as they are at the end, then the book shows them growing into that. Becoming that.

I'm full of self doubt. Beta voices echo but no agents have actually SEEN the new version. I'm afraid to show them.

Doctor Who season 2 outakes!

Enjoy!

Frustrated.

Rant to follow.

Beware.

GGGAAAAHHHH!

I've put two chapters on AW for review. There is always crap I've got to fix. Yeah, I know. That's how it works. But every time I fix something and repost, there's not much change. I thought I got rid of all the tell and focused on the show, but there is painful info dumps.

Crap. It was hard to read to the kids tonight. All I saw in Chapter 29 was crap but they loved it. What the hell do they know, right? They're just kids. Everyone who's read it and liked it? Morons. Because only morons would like this tripe.

Can I say "tripe"? Has it been invented yet?

Aprilynne said I could just write stories for my family and friends, but to sell it I have to make changes.

I'm really trying to. But after a month of straight reading (twice) and fixing, I'm losing steam.

Maybe all these changes are worthless? Who the Hell are these people? But 25 rejections says somethings wrong.

I'm just so tired. Will I EVER get published?

Oh wait, I shouldn't capitalise too many words. I shouldn't use too many exclamation points either.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There. Still want to read this?
Actually, no one's reading this stupid blog so who cares?

Too much telling, info dumps, words that don't belong in that period. What the heck was I thinking?

AAAHH! Zombies are real! Zombie Orville Redenbacher is going to use our brains for popcorn!

Trimble in fear!

Wrote a new couple of scenes...

As I got to the halfway point in the novel, tightening the POV and showing more, I finally reached the changes I recently did with Annabelle.
At the beginning of Chapter 20 (the Hawke chapter) I wrote two new scenes where we experience Annabelle's awkward advancement from a 10 year old body to a 14 year old body. Then I wrote a couple of telling paragraphs on Roland's age advancement.

Well, once I reached that chapter in my personal read through, I discovered just how much it suffers from the telling of Roland's advancement.
So last night I broke the whole age change scenes into their own chapter. A new chapter 20 where I show Ann's change, the consequences and Roland's change, with some brief consequences. Roland has to be brief (all show, no tell, don't worry) because one of my rules is it's a birthday event and so that means it leads right into the Hawke chapter.
It worked out great because the chapter ends with Roland getting shot by Hawke. Cliffhanger!
I can't wait to read it to the kids in a couple of days.

"Justice" was fun!

I enjoyed last night's Smallville.
This is a rare thing for me. See, while I'm a big super hero 'geek' I normally can't stand the show. I do watch it, because I want to see how this dying show limps itself into a corner.

But last night was very enjoyable for me. Yes, I know it was corny, with all the tips of the hat to the Justice League comic, but that was what made it fun for me.
Sure, hard core DC fans would argue that Cyborg should never be the same age as Clark (I said that during the Cyborg episode)but that didn't bother me this time.
I suppose I was just swept up in the entire Justice League tribute.
And Bart got the name he should have! And a costume!
Aquaman didn't do a whole lot but that's always a problem with the character.
They made Cyborg closer to his comic self. Jet Jackson did a great job with him, again.
This was a wonderful way to send off Green Arrow.
I hope we see these guys again.

Still busy

Still busy working on the Manuscript. I'm ahead of schedule. I'm finding all of the POV problems and other things that need changing and fixing them.
At night I read it out loud to the kids. I'm catching sentences that don't read as well as they should and I'm fixing them.

So that's where I've been. Sorry for the dry blog spell.
Be back soon.

Still going strong

Despite sickness, and trying to get a handle on a new project at work, I'm still editing my novel.

That's why I haven't posted much. I'll be back to regular posting once this novel is ready!

update

After some stress brought on by a friend's opinion, and then some advise from another friend (plus some other help in general) I've decided on some more changes to the manuscript.

In some ways it's frustrating to be back at the writing/editing stage, but I still feel very good about this and I have a good plan of action.

All I can do is have faith ion myself and the future.

Guess we'll see.

Back to editing...

more editing

... still editing the manuscript... having fun but busy, busy, busy!

All out Space Show battle

Wow this was cool looking! Congrads to Johan Alm for a fun bit!

writing

...busy fixing novel. Be back later...

A solution!

I know what to do!

In my world vampires CAN age! Well, up to a certain point (20 maybe), but they can age.

The beginning of the book will be child vampires (Ann 10 and Roland 12).

The middle on up they will age just a bit (Ann 14 and Roland 16).
I'm going to work it out into the book.

It's frustrating being back i the edit stage, but now that I know why it gets rejected I can do something about it!