I've been a bad, bad blogger

The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling. ~ Orison Marden

But I can explain. Really. I've spent the past few months with my nose to the grindstone, grinding away at revisions on An Invitation to Scandal.  Now, it is finally done and has been sent out to the editor and agent that requested it, and I am onto something new! Woo hoo!!! I've spent so much of the past 2.5 years doing revisions on previously written material I almost forget what it's like to write a brand new book. Even the new manuscripts I've written in the past few years have been NaNoWriMo books, which meant spewing it out in 30 days or less. To actually take my time (okay, 3 months as opposed to 1) will be a nice luxury.

The book that is up next is book 2 in the Brides of Fatal Bluff series, The Widow Bride, and a follow up to The Outlaw Bride. I'm looking forward to returning to the town of Fatal Bluff and see what is going on with the other two brides who were on the same train with Kate.

To help with my plotting and note taking, I'm using Microsoft Office's OneNote. I had been hearing about it from a few different people but hadn't had time to look at it. Then at our RWA Chapter meeting yesterday, Michelle Helliwell did a presentation, part of which was extolling the virtues of OneNote. After getting started with it this morning I can officially say I love it!  All my notes in one tidy little spot. Character pixs, plots, subfolders. It's enough to make a girl lose her mind. I'm big on organization, and I really haven't been keeping up my usual standard of late, so this will help big time.

In other news, I have become totally addicted to Pinterest. I expect I'm a few short weeks away from needing a 12-step program. On the plus side, I'm finding the visuals incredibly inspiring for writing and I'm creating little collage like boards for my books that have been a lot of fun. If you haven't tried Pinterest, I highly recommend. I've found plenty of character, setting and atmosphere type pictures. I've also found hoards of different recipes and workouts and humorous sayings. I've even built my own dream closet (that periodically makes me weep because it isn't my real closet).

So now that I have lifted my head up from revisions, I'm hoping life gets a little bit back to normal. Regular postings here. The website updated with new material. Back to regular workouts at the gym and training for the 10K race in May. I may even finally get my honeymoon pictures to Prague uploaded onto Facebook one of these days...

Who's The Fairest of Them All

I will admit, I am a sucker for a good fairy tale and Snow White and the Huntsman starring Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth looks awesome. The effects in the trailer were amazing and it follows the grittier original tale, not the Walt Disney-ized version. I will definitely be checking this one out.

What about you? Any fairy tale movies you love?

Did You Know...

Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast. ~Logan Pearsall Smith

So it turns out that for every pound of lean muscle mass I gain, I burn an extra 90 calories a day. Which is great, because according to my assessment, I am to gain approximately 7-8 pounds of said mass. All while getting rid of about an equal or so amount of, well, less than solid mass. I refer to it as goosh. You may call it chub, flab, or excess flesh.

The great thing about gaining the muscle mass is it will actually be a lot more helpful in keeping weight off and helping me look good (I'm all about the vanity). And since I'll be constantly burning about 630 extra calories a day, I won't have to worry quite so much about gaining said goosh/chub/flab/excess flesh going forward. The bad news is, in order to get this lean muscle mass I have to work out. Hard. We're talking heavy weights and fatigued muscles 3-4 times a week.

Now don't get me wrong - I actually love working out. If I had more time in my schedule I'd be at the gym every day of the week doing something. But the initial period of re-starting weight training is a huge OUCH. My muscles are revolting. I've broken my workouts down to segments that I do over 3 days: arms/shoulders, legs/abs, chest/back. Then I throw in 1-2 yoga workouts per week and hopefully a good ole cardio workout as well.

I've gone through one cycle of the weight workouts and holy crap! I'm pretty sure there isn't a muscle left in me that isn't sore. If this doesn't work, there's a good chance nothing will.

I'm also trying to eat clean - which means no processed foods, no sugar (outside of what's in fruit, etc), 6 meals day and protein with each meal. The clean eating will likely be a gradual shift. I need to meal plan and buy groceries.

On the plus side of my assessment, my fitness level was above average and my blood pressure was 96/60 and my resting pulse rate was 59. All good stuff. So all I really need to concentrate on is building the lean muscle mass and revamping the eating habits to make that an easier target to hit.

I'll keep you updated on my progress. Provided I can still use my arms.

I'm Being Assessed

A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise. ~A.A. Milne

I have to go to the gym after work and get my annual fitness assessment done. This consists of 90 minutes of being weighed, measured, and told how much body fat you're carting around and how far that percentage is from where you should actually be. Then we go over my nutrition and what I'm doing workout wise. Then they will suggest I invest in personal training sessions, likely 3 times a week at the cost of a kidney in order to reach my fitness goals. That's all well and good. Quite frankly, if I could afford a personal trainer I would throw the money at them and tell them to get to work. But alas, my bank account tells me that lowering said body fat percentage is going to be all up to me.

The worst of it is, I know the assessment I get this evening is going to be worse than the one I had last year at this time. Mostly due to the fact that this time last year I was just ending my previous employment where my office was strategically located in the same building as the gym and my boss didn't care if I spent 1.5 hrs there over lunch. My work was done, he was happy. Sadly our office was shut down and with it my extended lunch hours spent at the gym.

I managed to stay on top of the workouts until May while I was training for the 10K, but once the race was run I took a little time off. When I went to go back my TI bands screeched in protest and alas my running fell by the wayside because, well I don't know if you've ever had a TI band screech at you, but it hurts and I'm not generally partial to courting pain if I can avoid it.

I kept walking and made it to the gym here and there on the weekends but things were going soft. Gelatinous really. I know people said this happens as you get older, but I have to confess I thought I would be exempt. Apparently not.

So off I go, burying my head in shame and already cringing at the knowledge the assessment will not be pretty. On the plus side, it will undoubtedly be a motivating factor. Why, just the idea of going to the assessment made me give my schedule a good hard look and determine where I can fit in my gym-time to make sure I get to a couple of BodyPump classes, at least 1 yoga class and an RPM class per week. If that doesn't help whip my butt back into shape, then I don't know what will - aside from thrice weekly personal trainer sessions that require me to give up a kidney.

By the way, the coffee consumption has been reduced. I suck back a mouthful in the morning to stave off the inevitable caffeine withdrawal headache. Except for the weekends. On the weekend I have a cup from the french press my lovely critique partner, Pam Callow, gave us as a wedding gift. And the chocolate has been reduced to one chocolate covered cereal bar per day.

The writing is an ongoing process. I got stuck on something last week but I'm over that and have moved on. I really want this manuscript out by end of December so I can jump into January writing the follow up to The Outlaw Bride.

When Chocolate Goes Bad

Time is what prevents everything from happening at once. ~ John Archibald
Wheeler, The American Journal of Physics, 1978

I would totally disagree with Mr. Wheeler on that point. I'm pretty sure everything has been happening at once around here because I've spent the last month scrambling like a madwoman trying to get it all done. Don't ask me how I'm doing on that...

One thing I have been successful at, however, is eating about 10 lbs of chocolate a day. I'd like to blame it on Halloween, but I actually started the process about a week previous...okay, maybe two. Either way, by the time the kids showed up at the door trick or treating, I was in a full blown milk chocolate addictive meltdown. By the way, did you know chocolate can irritate the bejesus out of heartburn. I do. Now.

Needless to say, I am on a no chocolate hiatus. Just to add insult to injury, I'm also cutting out my one cup of coffee a day and adding 7 days of workouts to my schedule. Some days are just walking, which the dog will appreciate, but there's about 3 days of strength-training and 3 days of internal training and another 3 days of 30 min moderate/high cardio. Which, for those of you who are good at the whole math thing, equals more days than there are in a week, but I'm doubling up. And hoping to do a spin class and yoga class on top of that. I've noticed a softness creeping up where muscle used to be. Then I heard on the radio a week after my wedding that marriage makes people gain weight. I considered an annulment, but I kinda like this guy I married so figured maybe working out was a better option.

On top of that, I need to develop a solid marketing plan for my writing to boost my profile, sales, etc, as well as a workable writing plan for maximum output of manuscripts over the next 18 months.

All on no coffee and minimal amounts of chocolate.

Please have the rubber room standing by...

This is me exploring the gardens on Petrin Hill in Prague. I'm still trying to get my pixs up on Facebook.

Which reminds me...stay tuned on Facebook. Next week I'm looking at doing a book giveaway and visit to a blog where they're asking me lots of fun questions.