It wa 35 degrees outside at 6:30 am when hubby had to take B3 to her softball tournament.  Her first game was at 8 am. Brrrr! B4 had basketball practice at 8:30 which was cancelled at the last minute. B2 has ballroom dancing at 12 noon and B1 has a basketball tournament today.

B4 has to go with his football team to accept their award for sportsmanship.  Their team was chosen out of dozens of teams for this award. It wasn’t a division title win or anything, but I’m still having a proud parent moment!

I have a tentative title for my newest idea – THE GHOST OF GORDON WALLISH.  Whatcha think? I have the idea written (which is the start of my query!) so this weekend will be spent on the synopisis, character definitions, etc. Also on my agenda is laundry and grocery shopping.

Okay, I’m done thinking about Create A Space.  The concept, while innovative allows anyone to publish, which I knew before considering the site.  And, this would be fine if the authors would write, re-write, edit, send to beta readers, edit again and then publish their novels.  In other words, take pride in their work. But I studied some of the previews on the site and quite honestly, they resembled first drafts and some of them were just downright awful. My twelve-year-old has a better voice.  I clicked on about ten, but couldn’t find one that drew me in and only a couple that didn’t make me want to throw up.  Harsh I know, but someone needs to be unapologetically honest here.  People need to know that when they self-publish, their name, reputation and career is on the line and if they take short cuts, potential readers will know (and laugh at you). In other words, “hey dumbass, don’t publish a first draft . . . amateur.”

 I’m sure there are many of the self published books that are well written and the author did all the right things. But I’m not going to showcase my novels in a way that would reflect negatively just by the company they keep.  I have enough problems.  Perhaps an e-publisher . . . we’ll see. I still have two fulls out on one though, so fingers crossed!

I just dropped B2 off at a JV football game, B1 is at a school soccer game so it’s time to relax.

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Before I start, the latest issue of THE SCRUFFY DOG REVIEW is out.  I lurve the new look.  And . . . check out my book review in the latest issue.

I haven’t decided anything yet, but today, I got another “close, but I’m going to pass” rejection from a really nice and successful agent. That leaves two fulls still outstanding.

I’m thinking about self-publishing with Create A Space by Amazon.  Just one of my novels. I’ve googled, yahooed and binged and couldn’t find much information that is negative. Not like with some self-publishers that masquerade as traditional publishers.  I’ve also searched public writing forums (Man, I forgot what a pathetic cesspool Writers.net is) and could find nothing really negative.  My logic is simple:

Midlist Authors are finding it harder to get and maintain contracts with the big houses. See Salon article here.  KN, a highly successful agent and author of PubRants eludes to the current situation here.

The book I’m considering was received well during the query stage. The only consistent feedback was the market. Most agent rejections on this piece were encouraging. 

While publishing a book with Create-A-Space doesn’t get an author in brick and mortar stores, it does get the book listed at Amazon.com, without the high price tag that comes with LuLu or others. 

Most of the marketing work in today’s industry is done by the author or the author and their agent. See my Scruffy Dog Review blog about it here.  I’d planned to take the Buzz Your Book course that M.J. Rose offers anyway, if it ever happened.

What could a small publisher offer me that Amazon can’t? Even with a successful publisher like Brown Barn Books or Blooming Tree Press, the odds of getting into brick and mortar stores is high.  And once the book goes out of print, then what? No books, no link on the publishers website, no nothing.

I’ve put countless hours into my work. It’s good and I know I’m a good writer. That’s not enough anymore.  I’m not that lucky. The stars never align in my favor.  Nothing I have has ever been handed to me. If I want it, I know I’ll have to work for it.

I’m not saying I’m doing it, but it is definitely an option.  If I shouldn’t, please stop me.

Yeah, I’ll keep telling myself that. This weekend weather was dreadful – gray skies, misty rain, fog and a few downpours, and the same is forecasted for today. B4 and B3 didn’t even want to go trick or treating. B2 and B1 went with friends.  I told B1 that once the trick or treater becomes taller than the adult answering the door and giving out the candy, they need to stop trick or treating.  He laughed and walked out the door with his friends who were all wearing hoodies and ewok masks.  Creepy!

B4’s football season is officially over, wrapping it up with the end of season party yesterday.  It’s a good thing because he has basketball practice four days this week.  With both football and softball over (well not quite over for B3), I’ll have to make a special trip to the bookstore instead of just going there during practice.

B1’s first basketball game of the season is Friday and I signed B2 and B3 up for a winter volleyball league. It was a little (okay, it was very) expensive but it did save $25.00 each by enrolling them early.

Today I have outpatient oral laser surgery to repair some damage to my gums.  I’ve put this off for while now and since I have one of those Cadillac Health Insurance plans which will probably not be around in two years, I figured I’d better go get this done.  Thanks Harry and Nancy!

I will write this week! I will, I will, I will! Have a nice day everyone.

My plan today is to go to work, look busy and goof off all day. Just kidding . . . . . . maybe .

I have about 500 words of the newest project written but I need to rewrite it a few times before I’ll be happy.  I tend to rush through beginning, which makes them slow and not as appealing as they could be.  I’m slowing down this time. 

This weekend will be a little slower.  B4 has a football game, Saturday night is trick or treat and tonight B3 is going to a party.  This is one of these wonderful parties where the adults are all friends, so we’ll sit and drink a beer or two while the kids have a good time. 

I’m not certain what plans B2 and B1 have. But I’m sure there’s something going on and they’ll need money at the last minute.

I’m reading Night Shift by Stephen King.  The last book I read by Stephen King was The Green Mile. Been awhile huh?  I normally gravitate to his more suspenseful, less blood and gore novels such as The Green Mile and Dolores Claiborne. He has written so much and I haven’t read a 10th of his work.

Pet Sematary scared the hell out of me.  I think King’s appeal is that his stories could actually happen . . . like Cujo, but now not only would the car have to die, but so would the cell phone.

Anyway, I haven’t read Night Shift in ages and in fact, I mis-placed my first paperback copy years ago. (And I do mean years ago.) If you haven’t read this collection of stories, I highly recommend it.

Have a wonderful weekend and good luck to Lara and Michelle who are participating in NANO this year.  May you write the next best seller and be the next S.M. or J.K. R. (Funny how SM, JKR and SK all ended up in this post. I really didn’t plan it.)

STOP THE PRESSES! I got a brilliant idea for a new book. All other projects are on hold until I flesh this one out.

I spent this evening doing reseach because it begins in a castle in England. I love research. This stuff is pretty gruesome though, but isn’t that what’s selling these days. 

I’d love to write this for NANO and it’s probably what I need to do, but I’m afraid of commitment, failure and all that other crap I probably need therapy for.  Well, off for more search.

A TIME FOR CHOOSING

A Speech by Ronald Reagan 1964 courtesy of Modern History Sourcebook.

I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no apology for this.

It’s time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, “We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government.”

This idea? that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream-the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, “The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.”

The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, “What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.” But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.

Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we’re denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we’re always “against,” never “for” anything.

We are for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment by reason of old age, and to that end we have accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the problem. However, we are against those entrusted with this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings, when they charge that any criticism of the program means that we want to end payments….

We are for aiding our allies by sharing our material blessings with nations which share our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world.

We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward I restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him…. But we can not have such reform while our tax policy is engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure….

Have we the courage and the will to face up to the immorality and discrimination of the progressive tax, and demand a return to traditional proportionate taxation? . . . Today in our country the tax collector’s share is 37 cents of -very dollar earned. Freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp.

Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor’s fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can’t socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he’ll eat you last.

If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what’s at stake. We are faced with the most evil enemy mankind has known in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation.

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. Winston Churchill said that “the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits-not animals.” And he said, “There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.

B4’s last football practice got canceled after I drove 20 minutes through the pouring rain to get him there. Oh sure there was a text message sent . . . to hubby’s phone! But where is hubby’s phone?  With hubby in another freakin’ state! Oh well, at least I have tonight off.

Saturday is B4’s last football game and when (da da da! insert trumpets here) we get to toss his stinky cleats into the garbage. I swear those cleats are beyond stink. We can’t even keep them in the basement with the other cleats.  They have to be housed in the garage and then the smell still manages to permeate the drywall and get into the house. I get nauseated just driving him to practice. If anyone remembers the TV show Seinfield, it resembles the BO in Jerry’s car that he couldn’t get rid of.  Of course B4 finds this hilarious. Boys!

I’m eating way to much chocolate. WAY TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE! It doesn’t help that with Halloween, it’s everywhere.  Coupled with buy one get one free ice cream (chocolate of course) and Little Debbie Swiss Cakes are 4 for $5.00 at the local grocery store, it’s hell I tell ya. And Little Debbie is the DEVIL! It’s over! Tomorrow, I will not eat chocolate! I mean it! Not one bite! Not me . . . ever.

I’m really excited about the next issue of The Scruffy Dog Review.  You can see the new look here.

I sent out three more queries today and moved two queries into the “no response section of my tracker. Here’s hoping . . .

I have tomorrow evening off, so I hope to get some writing done.  But for now, I think I’ll go watch a little television. Time to relax.

What a weekend! Saturday I was with B2 at a softball tournament in Podunk City USA while hubby stayed behind and took B4 to his basketball practice and his football game.  After that he had to hightail it out to Podunk City #2 to watch B3 play softball. B1 drove himself to the mall and hung out with friends.

Today, hubby took B2 back to Podunk City to finish her tournament while I stayed behind to drive to Podunk City #2 to watch B3 play one more game before losing and having to come home.  She went home with a teammate, so I hurried home - more to do.

B1 followed me to the local sporting good store (I had coupons!) where I purchase him two new ankle braces and got B4 his new basketball shoes. I promised him a new pair if he made the basketball team. The ones he picked out were way over my budget so he owes me $40.00.  Normally I owe the kids and in fact I just paid up – $80 to B2, $65 to B3, $25 to B1 and $25 to B4.  That’s some tab huh? I suppose you’re wondering why I owe them so much.  Well, they tend to leave money in my purse when we go somewhere together.  And then, I spend it. Except for $40 of B3’s.  I was getting B2’s dress ordered for the quinceannera and I had to put $40 down.  Well, I planned to put it on the visa, but B1 had my visa to get gas. So, no cash, no check and no visa. B3 just happened to have $40. God love her! 

I received another query rejection. Two rejections, four requests and 4 no answers.  I’ll “write off” the no answers this week and query ten more.

This is the last week of football. I have mixed feelings about this. While I don’t think B4’s body can take much more, I hate colder temperatures.  Only the boys are playing basketball this season and I think I’m going to sign the girls up for a winter volleyball league. I’ll have to check out the website first.

Sorry . . . short post . . . I’ve got to run.

This might be my Christmas list.