CRAZY BUSY!

I know, it's been over two weeks since I've said a word.  There's a reason for that.

First of all, DragonCon was awesome.  It was everything I hoped it could be.  I have tons of pictures of people in interesting costumes, a few pictures of celebrities (though admittedly not many in comparison), and I saw some really awesome panels.  I got to see a question and answer session with various stars of Lord of the Rings, a question and answer session with Burt Ward and Adam West, and a very awesome panel of voice actors from various cartoons that I love.  My husband and I dressed in steampunk regalia for one day and that was fun as well.  We also got to visit my mother and father in law.  They seem to have settled into their new house in Georgia.  It was nice seeing them.

The writing workshop was very, very useful.  I found out that my dialogue style leaves something to be desired, so I'm going to have to rework several sections of Blood Rain before I send it to anyone.  Also, I discovered that my main character doesn't come across as sympathetic enough in the first chapter, so I've reworked that chapter as well.  From my test readers, I found out that the end of the book kind of fizzles, so I'm currently reworking that section.  I hope to have my revisions done by the end of the month so I can send it back to my test readers and then start sending out query letters.  I still have a good feeling about this book.  Jody Lynn Nye's review of my work was very insightful.

It was very inspirational meeting Jody Lynn Nye and Todd McCaffrey.  (Todd McCaffrey rescued me by showing me to my class.  I was hopelessly lost as usual.  He's a very nice guy.)  The other two guest speakers also had useful information.  They helped me realize that I really need to work on my synopsis.  An editor from Bane books explained that a synopsis is basically what sells your book to the publisher.  I've always had trouble writing a good synopsis, but I'm going to try to change that for Blood Rain.  I'm going to trim and rework the entire synopsis before I send it out.  That could take me a few weeks in and of itself.

When I got home from DragonCon, I was exhausted and had lots of laundry and housework to catch up on.  Still, as soon as I was done, it was time to babysit my niece and nephew for over four days.  I had a lot of fun spending time with them.  We should do that more often.  We swam in the pool, watched lots of movies they hadn't seen yet, and it gave me a small taste of what parenting will be like.  Still, I was also exhausted (again) when I got back home and had just as much laundry and house work to catch up on.  I was going to see Neil Gaiman speak this weekend, but my husband got sick and I wasn't feeling too good myself, so I didn't get to go.  Long story short, I desperately need a break, but I'm not going to get it anytime soon.

Currently, we're getting the house ready for renovations.  We're getting new carpet, new linoleum for the bathroom, a double vanity, and painting the bathroom as well as probably part of the front porch.  We're going to have a deck built in the back yard and the front porch screened in, hopefully before the Halloween Party.  This involves reducing the clutter in the house--enough said.  I am going to try my best not to go insane.

And, that catches us up to today.  If I seem quiet, now you know why.  I hope to have more to tell you about renovations, revisions, and (hopefully) relaxation in the future.   Until then, keep reading and writing.

Oh, and I might have an amusing review for you in the near future about a certain trilogy of books that have gained a lot of popularity recently.  50 shades of popularity in fact...