I'm two oppressed minorites!!

At least according to this...

Massachusetts wants rights for people who are short and fat

I am being spoiled rotten...

As I type this, I am sitting in a fabulous room in the Embassy Suites Hotel in the Seattle area. I'm here to attend a novel workshop which starts this evening and goes through Sunday.

The rooms are HUGE. I have a sitting area and a bedroom all to myself. The furniture is dark wood, very nice. When I got here they called the room to see if everything was okay.

I had breakfast (complimentary with the room). I got a cooked to order omelet with mushrooms, tomatoes, ham, onions and cheese. While there I was asked - again - if everything was okay. The staff is very attentive.

I am feeling very spoiled. When I travel, I usually stay at places like La Quinta or Days Inn, which are decent places more often than not, but not like this.

It's nice for now. I'll enjoy it while I can.

Happy Day after Mother's Day!

Hope your Mother's Day was nice!

Mine was sweet. We went through a drive thru after church and got lunch. Then Don and I watched "Deja Vu" on DVD. (Not the best movie in the world but interesting).

John wrote me an extension of a poem he started two Christmases ago. I got lovely cards from James and Don. And I was permitted to bring forbidden food into the house - a chocolate fudge torte.

All in all, a nice day. :-)

Useless but fun bit of information for today...

At three minutes and four seconds after 2 AM on the 6th of May this year, the time and date will be

02:03:04****05/06/07****

This will never happen again.

Whoops...forgot to mention...

Sometime the week before last I wrote my 100,000th word for the year 2007.

I now have 23 short stories making the rounds of different publications.

I am still working on a novel I started back in January. Trying to market another novel to publishers.

And a third one will be critiqued by fellow writers later this month.

So far, no new sales or encouraging words. Welcome to the writer's life. :-)

Yet another way to waste time on the Internet...

www.nationstates.net lets you create your own nation and direct or abuse it as you choose.
Check out my 2 nations:

http://www.nationstates.net/mothers_of_squirrels
http://www.nationstates.net/bookaholics

Miss Snark, the literary agent: Yea, this works

This is absolutely too funny - and if you're a writer, you will love it!

Miss Snark, the literary agent: Yea, this works

The Virginia Tech Massacre

I just made myself turn off the news coverage. Words like "tragic" don't even begin to describe it.

Today I called my college kid, knowing he was okay, just to hear his voice. Bless him, he understood and kept his smart remarks to a minimum.

Pray for the familes and friends of those poor victims

A thought on perseverance

I was thinking about this from a post on Dean Wesley Smith's page, about a writer who kept submitting and then gave up just before he might have broken through.

It reminded me of a poem, "Don't Quit." I submit it to you as food for thought:

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will.

When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill.

When funds are low and the debts are high.

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.

When care is pressing you down a bit.

Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns

.As everyone of us sometimes learns.

And many a failure turns about.

When he might have won had he stuck it out:

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow –

You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out –

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt

And you never can tell how close you are.

It may be near when it seems so far:

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

Too Late to Learn?

I am a nerd. I have built computers. I play computer games. As a writer, Microsoft Word is probably the program I use most often. (World of Warcraft once held that distinction, but that's another story...)

Anyway, I am now facing a task that is driving me nuts. I was hoping to avoid it, but as luck would have it I am probably going to have to bite the bullet.

What is this fear-inspiring chore I have set up for myself?

Learning Microsoft Excel.

If you never hear from me again, you know what happened...

More pet food recalled

http://www.hillspet.com/menu_foods/Menu_Foods_03302007_en_US.htm

Hills Pet Nutrition, Inc. Voluntarily Recalls Single Product, Prescription Diet™ m/d™ Feline Dry Food, Only Product Containing Wheat GlutenTopeka, KS (March 30, 2007) - In accordance with its over-riding commitment to pet health and well-being, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc. is voluntarily recalling Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food from the market. Hill's is taking this precautionary action because during a two-month period in early 2007, wheat gluten for this product was provided by a company that also supplied wheat gluten to Menu Foods. U.S. Food and Drug Administration tests of wheat gluten samples from this period show the presence of a small amount of melamine. Prescription Diet m/d Feline Dry represents less than one half of one percent of all Hill's products.

Dobson vs. Thompson

Let me start this post by saying I like Dr. James Dobson. His books on marriage and raising kids are usually first rate. I remember buying "Parenting Isn't for Cowards" simply because I loved the title.

But Dr. Dobson was wrong, in my opinion, when he first implied that former Senator Fred Thompson wasn't a Christian, and on finding that he was a believer, then said pretty much he wasn't "evangelical" enough for most Christians.

Dobson's recent public remarks seem to show him leaning towards Newt Gingrich, though as far as I know Newt isn't an evangelical Christian either.

I understand that as head of Focus on the Family Dr. Dobson carries a lot of weight with people. And there are those who would say he has the pulse of the "evangelical Christians."

I have to disagree on this. I think Dr. Dobson stepped over a line when he publically suggested that the wrong kind of Christian (i.e., not a James Dobson kind of Christian) would fail to get Christian's votes.

I wish I could vote for someone who totally shared by beliefs. Sadly, no one like that ever seems to be running. So I try to vote for the person who I think will do the best job.

In my opinion, Dr. Dobson owes Fred Thompson a public apology. It would be the Christian thing to do.

Donatella Versace's daughter.

Donatella Versace is a fashion designer. She creates styles that women like me are supposed to want to wear (I say supposed to but I'm not a huge fashion maven - anyone who's seen my wardrobe will testify to this).

Anyway, it turns out that her daughter has been diagnosed is undergoing treatment for anorexia.

It gets my attention because so many fashion models that are used by designers like Versace are little more than skin and bones. I mean, people are talking about having to create sub-zero sizes now! And it is truly unrealistic to expect women to maintain their health and these terribly low weights.

Will the fashion industry take Versace's daughter's condition as a warning?

Writing - week 12

Total words for the week: 6,220

Total words for the year: 84,458

Still working on the novel I started in January. Started a short story last week, but it's longer than I expected so I didn't finish it yet. :-)

Oh yeah, if you want to know what I look like...

http://www.shore-leave.com/guests/laura_ware.htm

John Edwards, his wife, cancer, and running for President

Today John Edwards announced that his wife Elizabeth's cancer had returned. (You may remember that Mrs. Edwards was diagnosed with cancer around the end of the 2004 presidential election). He also announced that he would continue his run for President.

I'm sure he's going to catch flak for this. He should make his wife the priority, etc. etc.. Some might even see his decision as cold.

I probably won't vote for Edwards. But I don't think he's a monster for continuing what he is doing.

What is he supposed to do? Bring his life to a screeching halt? I get the impression his wife doesn't want him to do that. She wants him to continue his avocation. And she will support him as much as he is able.

He stated that he will be with her when he needs to be. It seems to me he will put her before the campaign. That is right. But it doesn't mean he must abandon it entirely.

John Edwards will probably get criticized by me at some point. But not for this.

My prayers are with the Edwards family.

And you thought the interstate was dangerous!

Man gets run over while in bed

Catchup on the writing status...

It's been a while, but I've been really tired and trying to catch up on my sleep.

Anyway, while in Oregon I did write 30, 547 words. That was 2 short stories and a lot done on my current novel. All in all a successful time.

This past week I wrote only 2,425 words. But I was tired, in and out of town, and college kid came home for Spring Break, so it's understandable. I did make a massive push to get stuff out in the mail.

This week I need to get some more queries out on my novels and try to get caught up on paperwork.

And the blog. I promise.

Are you a conspiracy buff?

Here's a chance to make your own!

Write your own conspiracy theory

Back in town...

Was out in Oregon from the third until today for a writers retreat. At the moment I'm exhausted, tired, jet-lagged, whatever you want to call it.

Will spend the next day or two catching up on the home front, including this blog.