The Weekly Wrap-Up

There are no pressing matters festering in my cranium today so I thought I would just do a wrap up of the week. Seems an easy enough task since I’m operating on barely zero sleep thanks to my dog.

I went to bed last night at the usual time and Cooper just wouldn’t settle down. A sure sign there would be some thunder and lightening coming our way. No problem. I love thunder and lightening. So long as it doesn’t hit me, I think of it as a wonderful light show with sound effects included. Cooper, on the other hand, does not share my enthusiasm. Oddly enough, it isn’t the thunder that bothers her, it’s the lightening.

So at 2:30 AM it starts. Does my dog cower under the bed in fear? Bark at the flashes of light? Whine? Oh no. She burrows. And not under the blankets either, but into me until there is no space left between us. And then she tries to burrow closer. This might be cute if she were one of those 2 lb Chihuahuas that could fit in your coffee mug with room left over. But Coop is a solid 45 pounds of muscle and the more she burrows into me, the closer I get shoved to the edge of the bed, a bed that is 3 ½ feet off the ground. This went on for most of the night. I would get to the edge, then crawl over her to the other side to prevent me from taking a header onto the floor. Then she would burrow until I reached the other edge. I love my dog, she’s the best thing in the world, but some time around 5:21 AM I was considering smothering her with my pillow. I could have sent her out of the room, but somehow I just didn’t have the heart to tell her to bugger off when she was scared and quite pathetic. So needless to say, I’m operating on a few hours of sleep and several cups of java this morning.

The outline for Desire & Brimstone is still motoring along. I filled out all the scene capsules for the book using the summary outline and story evolution sheets and now I’m working on filling in the detail such as setting, what the characters are wearing, how they’re affected by the surroundings, using the five senses. All that good stuff. The further I get into the process of using First Draft in 30 Days, the more I can see it working and how much easier it is going to make things for me. Already the story is fleshing itself out and scenes and dialogue are starting to dance through my head. Tap dance mostly, although there was some tango going on there late last night.

I remembered to fill in my Fact Sheets for my editor and agent appointments for the conference and fax them off yesterday. I was wrestling with whether to indicate D&B as being completed or not and ended up opting to put down a ‘No’ and qualifying that with a “rough draft done” in parentheses after it, since it appears I will have a rough draft / detailed outline completed come appointment time. I decided to pitch The Outlaw Bride even though I have a request from HQN to look at it.

Yesterday after work I decided to swing by and watch my brother coach my nephew and a gaggle of other 3-year olds play soccer. Or at least the 3-year old kid version of soccer. I don’t recall anyone giving me rocket pops after my games back in high school. It was hilarious to watch however, although I’m not sure what was funnier, watching my brother try to wrangle and corral the gaggle of kids, or the kids themselves kicking the balls around. Or rolling over top of them as my nephew seemed to like to do. It was definitely an entertaining way to spend an hour.

Days left before I hit the air and head for Reno: 10