Skipping/Stressing/Working/Crawling toward the Finish Line
So many people are counting on me this week. I feel like a zoo monkey cuz everyone’s watching to see if I’ll go into labor and leave things in Complete Chaos. (Not if I’ll fling poo at them between iron bars. Well, I don’t *think* I’ll do that anyway.)
Here’s the run-down of my Last Week Before Baby To-Do List:
*Monday-Wed-Thursday afternoons: Full dress-rehearsals for our spring musical play I wrote and co-directed. I’m the “main director” meaning the kids look to me for all things cue related. Plus, I yell the loudest.
*Saturday and Sunday: The performances where they are counting on me to provide comfort, cues and yelling.
*Wednesday morning: Hosting writers group at my house (why I offered? Um. Insanity?)
*Wednesday afternoon: In-laws arrive for pre-baby/during baby/post-baby help (hooray!)
*Tuesday/Thursday mornings: Keep revising SEA (nearly finished with the line-edits, due June 2, still have about 10 pages more to “trim.” Feel good about the state of SEA. Have been working hard this whole time.
*Friday: E’s buddy’s family over for a pool/pizza party that I planned (see insanity note)
*Clean car/install car-seat/figure out if co-sleeper crib (like a one-sided pack-n-play) is set-up-able
**Stress over how I’m going to pick up E-man at soccer camp at noon on hot summer days with the baby in the car (honestly, this is what I think about more than anything! The camp is only 1 mile away AND I’m carpooling, I just can’t seem to fathom the whole infant WITH a wild five-year old combo! Sends me into panic shivers!
a) what is she’s sleeping? b) what if she needs to eat? c) what if she needs her diaper changed? d) should I install her carseat in the middle (recommended) or the other side so there’s space between E’s booster and her? What about E’s carpool buddy? e) Must Buy a mini-van
When I was pregnant with E-man, I wouldn’t have even considered packing my pre-birth week like this. I was more like a Scarlet O’Hara impersonation—me lounging on the couch, reading baby-care books, sweet spouse bringing me drinks—now I’m running around like a loon. I know it’s the second baby thing and a Nice Try Now You Have a Huge Actual Life Thing, but still.
Oh, Rhett…please let me go into early labor so I don’t have to do any of the above…
BTW, just so this post makes sense, Miss Babycakes is due next Tuesday, which my fellow debut2009 Ninja Thug Sarah aka: mistful says is a Magic Day! Fingers crossed. =D
Protected: Wanna see some MORE Awesome Fake BOOK COVERS??
Thankful Thurs
1. Healthy karate-chopping baby is still hanging out where she’s supposed to be. Less than two weeks to go now!
2. Tonight. GREYS and LOST BRAND-NEW! ‘Nuff said.
3. Super E’s old Superfriend is in town and we’re meeting them at the park this morning. Yay old superfriends!
4. My agent *loved* the first few chapters of my WIP, Headgear Girl! She says it’s good to go and didn’t even give fix-it-up suggestions! We’ll submit to editor after my revisions are complete for Sea! Fingers crossed, toes crossed, eyes crossed. Well, maybe not the eyes.
5. Revisions are going v. well. I’m getting v. used to deleting large passages of my blood/sweat/tears. If I ever do a panel talk, that’s what I’m going to discuss: The Art of the Chainsaw and How It May Improve Thy Novel
6. The kids room is finished!!! Butterflies, fairies, pirates, and yellowy goodness. Extra props to Super E for digging the fairies and going with the flow. If he was a year older, I’m sure we couldn’t have pulled it off. =)
7. Did I mention brand new GREYS AND LOST???
Have a great day, everybody!
Parenting Rule #1,564
Parenting Rule #1,564: NEVER give your 5-year-old-whose-on-spring-break the “NO TV” consequence for doing a very-naughty-thing when you are nine and a half months pregnant. The only person you’ll be punishing is yourself. Because instead of snuggling up and watching The Water Horse as planned, you’ll be doing this:
Basically, he’ll be throwing balloons and you’ll BECOME The Water Horse.
Protected: Gotta Love You Tube
Let’s Talk About Sex…In YA
Today’s my turn over at my beloved debut2009 to post a public discussion topic. I picked a lively (and IMHO) a very important one…sex in YA. How much is too much? How much is too little? Is it okay to leave things vague and up to the reader’s imagination? Okay, no more spoilers…you’ll just have to check it out for yourselves! The Debs came up with great answers, which of course invited more discussion…
http://community.livejournal.com/debut2009/63967.html
=D
Protected: thankful that…
City of…Update!
1. Just in from a great Cassandra Clare notyourmothers event at Books Inc. She read from her third book, CITY OF GLASS, and unintentionally gave away some spoilers from the first two books (I haven’t even finished book one)
BUT…one of her pieces of advice was to “read outside your genre,” which I thought was quite cool because that’s what I’m doing with her book! She suggested cross-pollination–mix it up a bit–and I agree. I didn’t stay for a book signing cuz the big wee one was there showing off his cartwheels and somersaults to literaticat and besides, I thought it would freak them all out if I went into labor. Speaking of…
2. …OB said today that baby is measuring a centimeter ahead of her due date…which means three more weeks instead of four…which means I’m more like 37 weeks than 36…
3. …which means I’m SOOO very glad I spent the weekend and most of the morning revising SEA and that the room is painted and that I have NB baby clothes ready to go.
Novels Thus Far…
Inspired by sarah_prineas and melissa_writing I’m doing the “Books-I’ve-Sort of-or-Have-All-the-Way-Written meme.
1989-1990: Junior/Senior year of high school–melodramatic action adventure romance novel about a group of teens escaping WWIII by hiding out on a desert island. DO NOT STEAL THIS PLOT. =D I actually still love this novel and concept, and the hormone-raging writing–there’s nothing like an actual teenager writing a book. It’s raw and a mess, unfinished and a total grammatical disaster. Anyone want to publish it?
1990-1994: College: Short-story and screenplay stage. Short-story published, no novels attempted.
1994-1998: Play writing phase. Produced/directed a bunch of plays–some original, most adaptations. All fun.
1998: Middle-grade novel attempt. Novels are different than short-stories one realizes. Told from 3pov’s, 1st person. Scholastic or Harper (can’t remember) asked for a rewrite, then another…then I gave up. One big house (also can’t remember) said they loved the voice and offered me a chance to ghost write a horse series…but I didn’t…(me=lame) fast forward to…
1999-2001: My MFA in Writing for Children. I still had a bunch to learn and figured if we were getting all in debt from D’s med school I should add to the educational debt-ness pot. I wrote an upper-grade novel ORANGE POPSICLE DAZE (still love that title–use reference in SEA), which I submitted (drum-role) ONCE and never submitted again…(me=lame) fast forward to…
2003: MY GRAY STORY–love this creepy book about emotional abuse. Wasn’t finished but almost landed me an agent. This was when I thought it was okay to submit books that weren’t finished or revised. (me=lame)
2005-2007: Wrote SEA. Finally figuring out the whole writing-as-a-career-thing. Totally focused. Wrote SEA to sell. Done with practice novels. Committed to not starting a new project until this sold. Commitment worked.
2007: Agent in June (July? Can’t remember) Sold to Putnam in August.
2007-now: Revising
2007-Started WIP HEADGEAR GIRL. Will finish it. And it will not be too long and I will not overwrite. (Promise? Uh. I’ll try).
Like everyone I’m learning as I go…
(me+learning from bumps and bruises along the way=not as lame as i once was).
Delightful Daffodil!
The kids’ room (I love saying that!) is being painted right now! I researched non-toxic environmentally okay paint for kids room. The goal is to look for Zero VOC’s (whatever that means). I guess high VOC’s are bad. Anyway, I found this brand and sweet hubby picked it up after work yesterday.
http://www.thefreshairechoicepaint.com
They sell it at Home Depot.
I’m so excited to decorate! =D
BTW, Delightful Daffodil is pale yellow…and for anyone whose seen JUNO will remember Jason Bateman’s comment about painting the nursery yellow, “Why does anyone think yellow is gender neutral? Have you ever seen a man with a yellow bedroom?”
BUT…yellow is Super E’s favorite color and when two kids have to share the same 11 by 11 foot space…you gotta go for it.
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