Hospital Pillow, Dress Board and Writing

Man, I’ve been running around like crazy this week. I still need to finish making those napkins and get them in the mail by Saturday, which I will do. Mike and I decided that we where going to camping with my sister and her boyfriends family and friends. We barely had a tent (apparently it leaks like crazy), no sleeping bags and I’m worried that I won’t have enough food (really this does seem to be a constant worry for me).

I found a pair of sleeping bags, mummy style that are rated from 0 to +5°F and now I just need to set up the tent in order to make sure that we do have everything to assemble it. I’m really crossing my fingers at this point, mainly because Mike said, ‘I just threw everything into the trunk’. Let the fear unfold! He also stated that the tent rain jacket was not included (which I think it was). So hopefully I’ll find that today as well.

Aside from all this, one of my coworkers is going in on Tuesday to have part of his lung removed and I was running around work for the last week and a half, trying to get a good luck party started for him and trying not to step on any toes, particularly the two sets that are in his department. Well long story short, I really shouldn’t have worried about it as one didn’t show up to the party at all and the other only stopped in for maybe three minutes max. But it did go off well. He was really happy and is enjoying the pillow I made for him. Everyone signed it and he's bring it with him to the hospital. I thought it would be better then a card.

I really wished I had taken a picture of it after all the signatures had been placed. It was gorgeous and just the right size (about 8/12 x 9” stuffed). I wanted to have fun with it and have it give him joy at the hospital. I originally thought about making a pair of lungs and then having people sign that, aside from the fact that it would have been extremely labor intensive, I was afraid about the seeming to hold the two lungs together and didn’t want it to break apart.














As a side note, he’s actually getting the top portion of his lung removed and not the bottom, like I though he said. At least I got it on the correct side. HA!

I’m trying to work up a wedding invite themed as if it where a Johnny Cash CD cover. I’m really excited about it. I already have the invite about half done. It’ll be on black paper with thick white lettering and perhaps a stylized leaning cowboy on the RSVP and Thank You cards. What I really need to work on is drawing up location maps. That’s about the only think I haven’t tried yet.

I don’t know if you remember but I entered in a ‘Win an iPad’ contest and I’m proud to say that the first post after the winner was announced was mine! Yeay :) I hope that means she liked it. To view it on the post on the contest webpage please click here.

I also started writing a new book. I officially have one book I’ve finished (but is only in rough draft form) and several, probably about 20, storylines that I haven’t finished. I just keep telling myself that when I actually publish a book and I can’t seem to make the current novel work, I’ll have a bunch to fall back on. I’m hoping that this upcoming month I’ll enter a few contests.

Why would any sane person enter a contest? I do it mainly for the feedback. I’m already in a critique’s online group (lovestoryL) and they are a great help but it sometimes helps to get opinions from outside sources that haven’t previously seen any of your work and are looking at it from a selling point of view as opposed to a cohesive story. You can have an awesome storyline but the actual plot might not be of interest to a publishing house for what ever reason. It also gives more of a gut reaction to your initial story. You don’t have to agree with that reaction, but it still is one.

Contests can be a bit expensive especially if you aren’t member of the RWA (Romance Writers of America), which I’m not. It’s a hundred and ten big ones to join initially and then I think it’s only $85 a year for renewal (up $10 since the last time I looked). You get a writers magazine once a month and discounts on most contests. The magazines are filled with helpful writing types, what agents and publishers are looking for and ads, which you can’t ever really get away from.

This something that I should have joined a long time ago, but haven’t wanted to fork over the money for it. It’s a shame really, but I’ll probably do it this year sometime not around August, that’s when the USFA (fencing) membership is due for renewal ($60).

Well, I leave you to enjoy your weekend and will see you next week after I pour over the first 7 pages of my story in order to prep for the contest entry for the Greater Seattle RWA. Wish me luck!