Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 137

Weekend Roundup

It was a busy weekend! First, no sign of our Gopher! It looks like after a week of an intense battle, Wizard may have won!

Saturday we had a great time going to lunch and wine tasting. It’s beautiful out there in the Temecula Wine Country. We came home with three bottles of wine that we’ll admire but be too cheap to actually drink unless there’s a super special occasion

Sunday was a mixed bag. I had a good writing day and made really solid progress on the novella revision. I feel pretty positive right now (but wait ten minutes, that could change, LOL). In between writing, I made these donuts:

The donuts were baked not fried, and came out a little dry. I can adjust the recipe and baking temp and time to compensate for that. And next time, instead of the glaze and crumb topping, I think I’ll use a chocolate ganache. The crumb topping just adds dryness, so it works better on a fried donut.

The minor blip on the weekend was Sunday morning when I decided to make a quick trip to Target and the driver’s side mirror on my car broke. As I made a left turn, the darn thing just snapped and started swiveling back and forth at will. What’s even more frustrating is this happened on the passenger side of the car two months ago, on the very morning we were leaving for the RWA Conference in San Diego. So I know EXACTLY how much it’s going to cost to fix and it’s not cheap. At that time, we didn’t have time to mess with it, so we just dropped it off at our trusted repair place to fix while we were gone.

This time, Wizard may attempt to repair it himself using YouTube Experts as a guide. Fingers crossed that it works! But I can’t really complain too much, the car is seven years old and stuff breaks.

So how was your weekend?

Happy Friday!

No news on the Wizard vs. Gopher battle today. Hopefully I’ll have an update on Monday and things will swing in Wizard’s favor. Even I’m getting tired of the destruction.

I’m making progress on the novella revision but it’s slow, partly from home repair issues have demanded attention. It’s just life laughing at my plans I’ll get this done in another week or so. In good news, last night, I got the revisions back on Savaged Dreams and my editor loves where I’m taking the story now, so that’s awesome. There’s more work to do on it, but I’m excited to tackle that once I finish revising this novella.

Tomorrow Wizard and I are taking the day off and going to have lunch out and visit some wineries. We just want to get out and spend the day together away from pressure and gophers

What are you plans?

Cheers! Have a great weekend!

 

Wednesday Worthy

The battle rages on between Wizard and Gopher! Wizard has expressly forbidden me from revealing his battle tactics for fear that his mortal enemy, herein referred to as (Expletive Deleted) Gopher, is online and spying on him.

Umm…okay. Wizard might have lost his mind just a little bit

Anyway, every single morning a new one to these (see picture below) appears on the hill that is now the “Theater of War” between the (Expletive Deleted) Gopher and Wizard:

So right now, Wizard appears to be losing, LOLOL!! Waited, did Wizard hear me laughing???? And yeah, now the (Expletive Deleted) Gopher isn’t even covering up his holes. He’s actually taunting Wizard. How can I not laugh????

Come on,  you’re laughing too!

All right let’s move on to to Wednesday Worthy. Today’s candidate is making me so jealous of his abs. I once had abs, now I just drink wine and eat chocolate in their memory

So what do you think? Is he worthy? And okay I just have to ask: Are you laughing about the Wizard vs. Gopher war too? Come on, this is funny!

Wizard Vs. The Gopher

The Gopher is winning! LOL! For over a week now Wizard’s been trying to get rid of this gopher.

Every single more there’s a fresh pile of dirt.

The battle is EPIC people. Wizard is totally on the warpath, and the gopher is laughing his rodent ass off. I don’t know what’s going to happen…stay tuned…

Otherwise the weekend was good. Saturday was wild, wet and fun It was the last pool party of the season with CPA Boy, Special K and four of their nieces and nephews. We had a blast.

Sunday I was back to work on the novella revisions. I conquered Chapter One on Friday so I’m now ripping apart Chapter Two and once I get this fixed up, it should all flow much better.

How was your weekend?

Happy Friday

I’m binge reading “A neighbor from Hell” series by R.L. Mathewson. It’s so much fun. The characters, especially the guys, are conceited jerks, and sometimes the writing can be slightly confusing (to me anyway) but I don’t care. The characters are a hoot and I’m enjoying it. A great break from working!

So what’s making you happy today?

Hope you have a great weekend!

Wednesday Worthy

Youngest son and his new fiance came out on Monday. Her ring is super pretty and we talked about wedding plans. They haven’t set a date yet, but it was so much fun just to chat and pitch out ideas To celebrate their engagement and her birthday, I made this insane Flourless Chocolate Kahlua Cake. It’s like eating very dark fudge. Not sure I’d make it again as it’s just too rich (I know, shocking to hear that from me, a dedicated chocoholic!). But it was a fun challenge and I managed to get it to the silky smooth texture.

In other news CPA Boy and Special K are back from the trip of a lifetime to Alaska. They had a fabulous time, including kayaking a couple miles into an ice cave then hiking in it. Their pictures are stunning!

And then there’s me working myself into a frenzy over revisions–nothing new there so we won’t talk about it I’m sick of myself at this point.

So…while I was wrestling with my characters, this guy volunteered to be our Wednesday Worthy Candidate, How could I say no? I mean he looks clean, and clean is very important, right?

What do you think, is he worthy?

Happy Labor Day!

It’s Labor Day in the U.S. and these guys came out to show us a little bit about hard labor

Whether you’re celebrating Labor Day or not, I hope you all have a great day!

Happy Friday!

When I say something like, “Oh this revision will be easy.” That is your cue to

Seriously. I’ve fought with this blasted opening scene for DAYS. I have figured out a lot of the rest of the revisions, but this opening scene, and the first two chapters overall, are sucktastic drek. However, today I will go to the gym, then come home and kick the suck right out of that first scene and make it freaking shine. Or I’ll clean the bathrooms and make them shine. But one way or another something’s gonna shine!

On the upside of things, I emailed my editor with a question about a plot thread in this novella, and she emailed back with “Before I answer this, I wanted to let you know that I’m 20% of the way through edits on Savaged Dreams, and WOW, I love what you’ve done. The opening is soooooo much stronger. I was hooked immediately. You really brought it.”  I did a happy dance!  And that reassures me that all this frustration when I’m revising really does pay off into a stronger book and that’s what I want for my readers. It’s truly worth it.

It’s Labor Day weekend here in the states, which means a three day weekend for some. I’m hoping to see youngest son and his fiance, but we haven’t firmed up those plans yet. What about you–what are your weekend plans? Whatever you’re day, be safe and have a great weekend!

Wednesday Worthy and Chatter

I’m hearing wedding bells! Youngest son–most of you know him as BLB–proposed to his girlfriend over the weekend. They went to Las Vegas on a much needed vacation for her birthday and he surprised the heck out of her (and us–a great surprise) and proposed! We’re all very happy. They’ve dated nine years I think, and she was there through his serious injury a few years ago. That girl showed her true strength during his freak accident, surgeries, long recovery and altering his career path. I know it wasn’t easy for her, she’s had to adapt almost as much as he has.

Now they are both very happy and celebrating their engagement. On the phone, BLB told me, “I picked out the ring out all by myself.” I kind of melted in a puddle of mom-pride in him at that moment. That’s exactly how youngest son is, he wanted to make sure he chose the ring for his future wife.

In other news, my Furniture Hunt goes on. I dragged Wizard out with me yesterday to another big store and we found some possible choices. Then we ended up at another new housing track where we looked at two sets of models…not sure how that happened, LOL! We really aren’t considering moving just yet, but looking at models is always fun anyway.

After than I came home and dove into my revisions and sure enough, I ended up rewriting the first scene instead of just fixing it. I swore I was only going to rewrite the last two scenes, but we all know I can’t help myself. I just had to try another version of the opening to scene to see if it works better.  I’ll see today which one I think works the best.

And finally for Wednesday Worthy, I’m not sure what you guys will think of our candidate. Here he is:

Do you think he’s worthy?

Weekend Roundup!

Don’t you hate it when you have good news and you can’t share yet???? I’ll tell you guy on Wednesday. FYI, it’s not book news, but more personal

It’s been a good weekend for me! I sent off Savaged Dreams to my editor on Friday and took some time off. The only work things I did was a little bookkeeping, and I read over all my editorial revision letter and manuscript notes for Savaged Surrender–and the good news there is the while it needs work, all the revising is pretty much within the framework of the novella that I  already have. That makes it so much easier than the revision I just finished. My editor has a ton of really good notes that will help me stay on task too.  It will go pretty fast, no more than two weeks tops. I’ll start on that today after I go to the gym.

Wizard and I went to look at a grand opening of a new community this weekend. There were three new tracts of houses and every house was a two-story, instead of the single level we’d like to move into eventually. That seems to be a pattern in our area. If we do finally decide to downsize and move, finding a one-story house is going to be a challenge. Our price range is also a challenge, but that’s the reality for most people, I think.

Since I had a little break from work, I started furniture shopping for my smallish family room. That was pretty frustrating since I don’t want a huge and heavy sectional couch or recliner. That store was a bust for me. While I can find couches I like online, I’d like to see it in person before buying–am I the only one? I mean I love online shopping as much as anyone, but if I’m sitting on it everyday, shouldn’t I get a chance to make sure it’s comfortable?

So how was your weekend?