Kids – Page 19 – Writing Wrongs

Tonight, we dine in … heck!

I originally saw this on Diana Peterfreund’sblog. The kids loved it so much I had to bring it over to my blog to spare Diana a freakish spike in hits on that particular entry.

And since I have exactly zero words at my command today (oh, you should see MacKenna–or not. I have completely lost the ability to write), I give you this instead.

Consider this the family friendly, rated G version of 300.

Speaking of heck, a while back, so he wouldn’t say “a swear” around Kyra, Andrew referred to “Hell’s Kitchen” (the reality TV show) as “Heck’s Kitchen.”

Tuesday Night Lights

As the web site for Andrew’s football league likes to remind me:

The Season is on!!!

This fact needs to be emphasized with three exclamation points.

So, as you can see, the season is on. (!!!) Sadly, the season isn’t always as sunny like in this picture. Last night, Andrew’s team played on the high school field. The thing about playing on the high school field (astroturf) is, as long as there isn’t any lightning, they can still play in rain.

Or torrential downpour.

Boys = soaked
Miss B. = soaked
Mom = soaked

Ah, but they won, 19 to 0, and Andrew recovered a fumble that led a to a touchdown two plays later. Kyra and I did about a mile’s worth of walking around the track before the game, and she danced in the rain during.

When we got home, everyone pulled on warm pajamas. We had a second hot hot dinner. Andrew started some homework. Five minutes later, he called out, “Mommy, Kyra’s asleep.”

She was, head down on the dining table. Mr. Gallant even carried her to her room. Not much later, Tuesday night lights were out … for all of us.

When I’m a mom, I’ll miss you

I’m blogging today over at The Wet Noodle Posse site, on word of mouth.

Last night, I was writing with Kyra on my lap (something I used to do with Andrew as well). She was busy picking out all the k’s I used, her favorite letter, for obvious reasons. Then, out of the blue, she said, “When I’m a mom, I’ll miss you.”

“Because we won’t live in the same house?” I asked.

She nodded.

“But we’ll visit,” I said.

Kyra agreed, making elaborate plans to live in the house we’re living in now. That way, I’ll always be able to find her.

“You’ll have to tell me how to get to your new house,” she said.

I promised I would.

“When I’m a mom,” she said, “will you be a grandma?”

“I will. And your kids will be my grandchildren.”

She nodded. I wrote and she placed her hands on mine, so we typed together, both thinking about that time when she will be a mom.

And how I’ll miss her.

In which I play catch up

Marianne announced big news this week. Her novel, Isn’t She Liv Leigh, has been accepted for publication with Samhain Publishing. Go on over and give her a belated congratulations if you haven’t already.My article Confessions Of A Contest Junkie: How To Survive-And Thrive-In The Literary Contest Circuit is making a return appearance over at the Long and the Short of It review site. It was originally published in T-Zero a couple of years ago. I’d forgotten they let me get away with such sub-headers as:

Is it cold in here, or is it just me?
Thank you, sir. May I have another?
Here comes the judge
Does Size Matter?

As you can probably tell, it’s an in-depth and serious look at the subject.

Yesterday was the Marvelous Miss B’s birthday. We bought a metric ton of Starbursts (on the approved food list) for her to bring in as a treat. I got an email from her teacher last night. She gave each child in her new kindergarten class exactly one (1) Starburst. Not one package of Starbursts, but one, solitary Starburst square.

I was wondering why there were so many left over. Next time, I’m going to have to send her to school with some specific instructions.

Andrew was chowing down on them last night while he did his homework. After a bit, he pushed them away with, “Man, I gotta stop eating those. When the hormones kick in, I’m going to have zits.”

He’s nothing if not astute.

Conversations with my kids

This past weekend, Andrew discovered Back to the Future. Yes, that Back to the Future with Michael J. Fox. Andrew was so enthralled, he watched the entire trilogy. He liked the first and third one the best. According to him, the second is “a little weird.” Very astute.

I was telling him how I first saw the original in the movie theater. At the end, the DeLorean lifts into the air and Doc Brown says, “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” Then zoom! Bright headlights and fade to black. I told Andrew the theater erupted into spontaneous applause.

He gave me a funny for real? look.

“It was the 80s,” I said. “We did stuff like that.”

A few days later, after his second viewing of the first movie, he said to me. “You know what, Mommy? I should’ve clapped.”

In my pursuit of all things Geek Girl’s Guide revision-related, I spent sometime on the Scrabble website. (Ha. Did you even know there was a Scrabble website?) Through a murky path I can’t quite recall, I ended up on a Hasbro sponsored site that happens to have something I can only refer to as “Fashion Girl” stuff (mainly because I don’t know what it is).

Guess who discovered this site with me? Yes, America’s next top model, Miss B. We gave our “best friend” a makeover. Then, we made our own fashion magazine. Kyra called it: Fashion Designs, with the tagline: best fashions in the world by Kyra.

She had trouble thinking up a name for the cover model, so we called her “Fashion Girl.” And when you think of it, if we could refer to all fashion models this way, life would be so much simpler.

Then we filled in Fashion Girl’s Q&A:

Pet? Fashion Girl owns a pet rat named Igloo.
Favorite colors? Pink, Purple, Blue
Favorite Author?

Kyra asked, “What’s an author?”

“That’s someone who writes books. So, who is Fashion Girl’s favorite book writer?”

Kyra shifted on my lap and smiled up at me. “You.”

Ah, it’s true. Admired by rat-loving fashion models everywhere.

More revision brain

Ah, I love the smell of revisions in the morning. Smells like coffee and a brand new scene from Darcy in my inbox. Okay, so maybe it was closer to the noon smell of revisions.

Darcy and I chatted yesterday and that really helps, hashing out what it is we need to do and how we’re going to do it. Of course, sometimes we get stymied, like when we search for the perfect song that would cause a geek girl cheerleader some embarrassment to dance to. We had “the stripper song,” which most people know, if you hum a few bars.

Problem is, you can’t hum a few bars in a manuscript. So we considered:

Hot in Herre, by Nelly, and yes it’s spelled that way.
I’m Too Sexy (for My Shirt), by Right Said Fred, and yes, that’s a real band. They’re British.
Baby Got Back, by Sir Mix-a-Lot, popular, has staying power, but controversial (you don’t say!)

We went with I’m Too Sexy (for My Shirt), since even Andrew knows that one (it’s in one of the Shrek movies). But we’re open to suggestions.

Today, Kyra helped out around the house. She cleaned the bathroom (with a washcloth and water–I don’t give her toxic cleaning supplies). She folded laundry. Sort of. It’s difficult when some of the laundry is bigger than you are. And she gave me a makeover:

You only wished you looked this good and had a little smiley friend in your hair.I’m thinking of using this if/when I need an author photo.

This is my brain on revisions

Your Personality Cluster is Introverted Intuition

You are: Multilayered and complexInspired and driven to achieve your goals

A visionary with a complete life plan

Intuitive enough to understand difficult problems, ideas, and people

What’s Your Personality Cluster?

Revisions are … happening. Sorry for the delay between postings, but I don’t have a lot to say. I mean, what can you say when your day consists of: well, I stared at this scene for a while, then I deleted the word even. Then I put it back in.

You get the idea. Andrew was up early with me this morning. Actually, he woke up at four! He has a stuffy nose and couldn’t get back to sleep. So he’s on his computer, and in my internet, sucking up bandwidth.

I hope to be back later this weekend with some “witty junk” (to quote one of Darcy’s characters) to say. In the meantime, I will reflect on how multilayered and complex I am.

More Birthdays and Bolers

Kyra had her “friends” birthay party yesterday. (Her birthday isn’t until September.) She wanted it at the same place Andrew had his (the indoor inflatible, super jump/slides place), but with a different cake:

No one does ostentaious birthday cakes like Disney

Then, after the party, I drove the kids out to the campsite where Bob had the Boler set up on its maiden voyage.

The Boler in its natural environment

Kyra on the steps, wearing Andrew’s Naruto sleeping cap and playing with her new Island Princess Barbie–two camping essentials

Andrew steals a little reading time

Beef — It’s what’s for dinner

Marshmallows — It’s what’s for dessert

Synchronized Tag

I think it’s safe to say a good time was had by all.

On my mind

Concerts:

Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers are coming to town. Not to be confused with Santa Claus coming to town, although both events could cause the same amount of frenzy around here.

Andrew likes the Jonas Brothers. Kyra likes/loves/reveres Hannah Montana/Mylie Cyrus (yes, the offspring of Billy Ray Cyrus for those of you not up on your pop princess factoids–and honestly, I don’t blame you).

I’m not worried about content. I know this will be a kid-friendly venue. I took Andrew to the American Idols concert a few years back (the Carrie Underwood/Bo Bice year) and he had fun. It was good, clean fun.

The problem: it is also good, clean, LOUD fun. Kyra has very sensitive hearing, which I don’t want to damage. But I did a massive Google search on earplugs and that might be the answer. For all of us, since I’m not wild about the whole head ringing, slightly punch-drunk feeling I have after concerts.

Clearly, this is an all or nothing deal. I either take them both, or we don’t go at all. Besides, Kyra already has a concert outfit: “rock star” jeans, a Hannah Montana t-shirt, and hot pink cowboy boots.

Revisions:

These are definitely on my mind. Saturday I was, quite honestly, a little scared. It was silly really, because if we make a change and it doesn’t work, we can change it back or do something different.

Darcy and I chatted (via IM) on Sunday and that helped. Well, when we weren’t chatting about other things and I wasn’t fielding questions from Kyra (who spent part of that time on my lap–yay wireless keyboard), such as:

Do raccoons pee? (Yes.)
Does Darcy have a baby in her tummy? (No.)

We went to the dentist yesterday, so Darcy can anticipate questions related to her dental hygiene. (D., you’ve been warned.)

One thing I’ve really been thinking about is back story and the when, where, why, how of it. If you’ve read any fiction writing books, spent time near any fiction writing workshop, you’ve heard the conventional wisdom: delete/delay back story.

Conventional wisdom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Our (!) agent has asked us to not only move some back story closer to the start (!) of the novel, but add some in as well. I know. Color me surprised. But I’m starting to see the real possibilities in this. Anyway, by Sunday evening I was in that writing mode where you rub your hands together and cackle gleefully in delight. Kind of scary for those around you, but them’s the breaks.

Revision Weekend

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write, will you take a look? ~Lennon and McCartney

We have perfect revision weather here. Rain, sprinkles, drizzle for the past twenty four hours or so. The kids have been pretty understanding about the whole Mommy working on her book thing.

Kyra played with a beading set for a while. She’d remove a bead, set it on the table, and a moment later, the bead would roll off the table. Then I’d get up (not that I was looking for an excuse to procrastinate) and get the bead. At last I told her to set the beads in the lid, which has a little lip around it.

“Oh, Mommy,” she said. “You’re a genie-us!”

Acknowledged at last.

Andrew’s been a roller coaster tycoon. He finally lost the distinction for “most disappointing amusement park” and earned instead “most beautiful” park. He was crushed there for a while. We also have a deal going that involves room cleaning, but we haven’t made much progress on that.

I’m working in Vista and Word 2007, which adds an extra layer of excitement to the process. I admit to liking the gadget sidebar. I’m not wild about some of the things Windows insists on doing for me that I used to do on my own. Or renaming well-known functions. Add software? Now it’s “hidden” under “Programs and Features.”

Word 2007 has a completely different look. I’m still undecided about it. But there is one thing I like. The status bar now displays your word count, like so: