Joely Sue Burkhart's Blog, page 57

Golden Artwork

I'm so thankful I met Soleil years ago.  Well, "met" on the internet – we've never met in person.  After reviewing some of my early work, she also began helping me as a beta reader.  She gets my voice and she shares her reaction to my work with me, so I can tell where I need to work a bit more or if I'm getting the responses I want.

A few months ago we were brainstorming in a private chat, and she suggested I run some kind of fan art contest.  At the time, I wasn't sure when Return to Shanhasson would be available (GREGAR), so I didn't take action, although I thought it was a great idea.  I would absolutely LOVE to commission some artwork.  Someday.

Well, the someday came very quickly when I couldn't find the right stock photos for Golden.  I wanted something special, and if you haven't tried to find an attractive Asian man 1). NOT holding a cell phone and 2). NOT dressed in a suit or as a ninja, then you can't imagine how frustrating my hunt was.

Then it dawned on me.  This was my chance to commission artwork for Golden — that I could use for Romance Trading Cards.  And naturally, the first person I thought of, was Soleil.

She worked for weeks on these images, adding the small touches to make these images so much more special than anything I would have been able to find online.  I can't wait to have these made into character cards!

 

RBW Week 5

I'm inching closer to 50 lbs lost this year with another -1.2 today.  More and more people are noticing and commenting, which makes me grin from ear to ear.  I'm feeling really good (well, in spite of pneumonia!), but I can't wait to get to my next goal (not my final goal weight which is still a ways to go).

Right after I had our first monster (who will be 13 in Jan), I did WW at work and lost to the lowest I can remember in many years.  Right after that, we made a major move to another state, I started working from home full time, and we had two more monsters.  I tried all sorts of fad/craze diets and would lose 40-45 pounds, but I couldn't get past that milestone before I realized I couldn't live that way forever.

I never made it back to that low weight.

I've already passed that 40-45 lb milestone on WW and I know I can live this way.  Although I admit to getting a little anxious when I lose another daily point (lost another one today! ack!).  I rarely eat ALL my points anyway, at least on a daily basis.  About 1-2 times per week I eat the full points and go over a little into my weeklies, typically Friday or Saturday.  But in general, I eat less than I'm allowed (although I always try to get my healthy guidelines in–and I do splurge occasionally), so I don't know why it freaks me out a little. 

I guess I'm worried that when I do finally get to goal that I won't have anything left to eat.  Irrational I know.

So much of weight loss is a mind game.  I mean, in theory, all I have to do is eat less and move more.  In time, the weight will come off.  In reality, though, there are all sorts of stressors and mind games I play with myself.  Losing a point is only one of them.  Worrying about how far I still have to go is another.  That stress I start to put on myself — worrying about how long, when, how will I do this — can lead to overeating and general laziness (because I get depressed).

It's the same with writing a book, though.  I always get to a point when I start to doubt whether I can actually pull off another book, even though I've written more than 10 now.  I have to concentrate on the journey, one day at a time, and keep my mind in the game.  FOCUS. 

I can do this.  I can.  And I will.

Good News Monday

I'm on another 7 days of antibiotics to kick the end of pneumonia.  I am feeling better – just want to make sure I don't have a relapse.
Found out last night that Littlest Monster was starting to get pneumonia after being sick all week with the virus that did me in.  Luckily we knew exactly what to watch for and got her in immediately before she could get as sick as I did.  She's on antibiotics and will hopefully be much better in a few days.
The majority of my school shopping for the monsters is done!  I'm broke now, sigh, but we even got the clothes shopping mostly done.  I need a few more small things over the next few months as it cools down but they're in good shape.  Two more weeks!!!
That Man starts a new full time job today.  It's been a tough 9 months on the job front for him so it's a relief to get him back full time.  He's also keeping his part-time job at Sears with more reduced hours (love their employee discount).
I made good progress on Vicki revisions last week and I'm down to the last change — a new chapter with just Elias and Jesse.
Seeing another modest but decent loss on the scale so far — hoping for good news for tomorrow's Romance Biggest Winner weigh in!

What's your good news today?

July Review and August Goals

My July goals….  Not so great. 

First pass revision for The Bloodgate Warrior, with initial read thru and notes this holiday weekend.  Not even started.
Keep moving on Phantom with about 500 words a day. I'd like to finish the first draft this month but the list is long. I'll be happy with August.  Decent progress until I got sick.
Make initial edit pass for Vicki with Editor Tera's notes.  Good progress – all changes made except new chapter.  Slowly working through it but I need another day or two.
Write at least 3 more scheduled guest blog posts.  Done.
Write a short story that's percolating, tentatively "Ritual Ink". Guessing about 3K.  No further progress yet.  Need to check my deadline!
Keep planning promo for Golden and print Victor in September.  Good progress, continuing.
Walk 15 miles.  Not done – sick.
Start Tony Horton's Power 90 strength portion only, shooting for 3x a week —> 12 workouts. If I survive, I'll add the cardio portion in August!  Not done – sick.
Participate in Romance Biggest Winner.  Continuing!
Keep losing weight – but I'm not going to say a number because it's totally out of my control. That's like saying, "Get an agent this year." I can query x agents every month…but I can't make one say yes. I'll work my plan and exercise — I'll get to goal eventually. I'm averaging about 1 pound a week right now, so if I lose 4-5 pounds, I'll be happy.  Great progress – lost 7.6 pounds (sure that being sick contributed!)
Not originally listed:  update my website!  Thanks to Dawn at Book Graphics, I have a new header, which enabled me to switch to a nice new template.
I also got all the school shopping done!  Wheeeee!

 August Goals:

Finish Vicki's edits in the next few days and send to my editor.  Due by August 15th.
Finish first pass of revisions on The Bloodgate Warrior.
Write the first draft of Ritual Ink (short story).
Pick up Phantom again and get back to work, 500 words a day.
Release of Golden, August 29th.  Means lots of blog posts, etc. to write this month!
GET BETTER.  I went back to the doctor today and I'm on another round of antibiotics to make sure I get all the crackle out of my lungs.  Bad news:  now Littlest Monster has the beginnings of pneumonia on the right side.  Luckily we knew exactly what to watch for and got her on antibiotics immediately.
Since I've been sick, I'm going to slowly work back into exercising.  I'm not going to set a mileage goal, but simply stay "return to activity."
If I can lose 3 more pounds this month, I'll hit the big 5-0!
Get the kids back to school.

What are your goals this next month?

Back to School Shopping

I both look forward and loathe this time of year. 

The monsters are back to school in two weeks.  I needed to pick up three sets of different school supplies, plus restock clothes, tennis shoes, and underwear.  I can't shop at one clothing store any more, because Princess is in adult sizes (she's taller than I am and wears my size or larger shoes).

First, we hit Sears and used That Man's employee discount to save a fortune on tennis shoes and clothes for the two youngest monsters.  Then we hit Kohls where I used $12 store credit + 15% coupon + existing sales to save MORE than I spent for Princess.  She picked out some super cute shirts that I'm so envious of — I can't wait until I can wear cute clothes again.

Then, the worst stop:  Wal-Mart.  I can't believe how many supplies the kids need, everything from 4 sets of crayons to wet wipes to Expo markers to Ziplock bags.  It's crazy.  I have at least 4 bags of supplies to sort through and bag for each kid. 

I must admit that I always buy myself some supplies, like Sharpies and paper folders for story ideas.  They never last long – because the monsters always raid my hidden stash.  But I can't resist the cheap folders and cool notebooks and brand-new pens.

Even better than the scent of fresh school supplies is knowing that very soon we won't be running kids here and there to camps, Vacation Bible School, trips to grandma's (tomorrow we're taking Princess and her cousin over to the lake for the week)…but we'll be getting them up early and taking them to the bus, forgetting which kid has spelling tests on which day, and freaking out because I forgot to help Middle study or Littlest can't find her library books or…

P.S. I bought a dry-erase calendar to hopefully help keep track of all the library and PE days, events, clubs, etc. 

Let the school days begin!

RBW Week 3

Romance Biggest Winner

The scale absolutely shocked me this morning, bringing me into a new lower decade!  I don't typically lose 4+ pounds in a week — on the contrary, I'm lucky to lose 1.  But I guess being sick does have some benefits, as long as I don't end up gaining this back! 

4 more pounds will bring me to my lowest weight in 6-10 years — a weight I only achieved after surviving on the Rice Diet for 4-5 months (absolutely no salt, grains + fruit for nearly every meal, very little protein except beans) or the Atkins Diet a couple of years earlier (no carbs, high fat and high protein).  Gee, I wonder why my metabolism is so screwed up.

This time around, I'm much more balanced and healthy! (Thank you Weight Watchers)

After being sick last week, I am eating more normally but have not increased my activity yet.  I'm still coughing and have some pain/bubbling in my chest when I lay down.  Until that's gone, I'm not going to be working out beyond climbing the stairs to work each day.

My total lost for this challenge:  1.8%

Total weight lost since Jan 5, 2011:  47 lbs

The new recipe I tried this week was Weight Watchers' Dijon Pork.  I mixed together a couple of tablespoons of dijon mustard, sugar, apple cider vinegar, and red pepper flakes (light for the kids) for a marinade.  Since I was almost out of dijon, I added a little water to the bottle and shook out the last of the mustard, so it was a little thinner than normal.  I smeared the pork chops with the mixture and let them sit in the fridge for an hour or so, then cooked them in my iron skillet.  After searing on one side for about 4 mins, I turned them over and added just a little water to the pan so all that cooked-on goodness bubbled up and flavored the pork.

The monsters don't like mustard or spice but they ate this no problem.  I had one leftover pork chop that I diced up and added to some zucchini and tomatoes sauteed in a little olive oil (with more red pepper flakes!) yesterday for lunch.  Yummo!

Good News Monday

The best news of all:  I'm not sick any more!!!

Well, I do still have a chunky cough (especially when I lay on my left side) but it's not nearly as bad as it was.  Whew, I've never missed so many days of work before.  I'd much rather take a week off for vacation than sick leave, but at least I have the vacation/personal time to cover it!

Other good news:

Since Phantom drafting flow has been interrupted, I'm switching gears to revisions.  (I'll pick Phantom back up in August)  That means…
Revisions for Vicki (YOURS TO TAKE) per my editor's notes.  Due back mid-August (but I'll do them sooner than later).  If I can finish them this week, I'll be very happy.
First-pass revisions to THE BLOODGATE WARRIOR.  Might need more than one pass (it got pretty rough at the end) but the major work will be handled.
Vicki's release date is tentatively 5/8/2012.
Used the sick time last week to begin building a new series for 2012-2013, tentatively Carnivale.  Yes, I know there was a television series with the same name, so I might end up calling it Carnivale of [Something].  I already have the premise for the first three books identified, but it needs some detailed worldbuilding before I can get into the specific characters. 

 

Now that I'm feeling better, I need to manage the exploration/building time for the new idea better — I love world and story building, which can interfere with drafting and revising those other "boring" ideas I've already tackled.  New!  Shiny!  So don't expect a lot of updates on this series until I get Phantom finished.

What good news can you share this week?

RBW: Lies My Scale Told Me

I'm over at the Romance Biggest Winner blog today talking about Lies My Scale Told Me:

"Aw, you worked so hard this week.  You even exercised!  Yet you're up .x pounds.  It's sad to be sooooo good and not be rewarded.  Maybe you should have some chocolate."

Wrong! Stop over and let me know how you deal with that kind of self-sabotage!

Writing When You Can't Write

Since last Friday, I've had very little brain power.  The doctors said my O2 levels were decreased but good — otherwise they would have definitely hospitalized me this week.  I don't know if it was simply the fever burning out my brain cells or if my body instinctively knew it needed to conserve itself, but I just haven't been able to THINK.

No Big Fish Games.  No reading and very little hand crafts because my eyes hurt too much from the fever.  I tried to make some crocheted slippers for my SIL's sister, and I'm ashamed to say how many pairs I had to make before I finally got a set that I thought would fit her.  (The fourth pair fit.)

I didn't even try to open my laptop for days.  I knew it was useless.

So how does one occupy the mind of a writer for an entire week when actual WRITING is out of the question?

When I was sick, I obviously didn't even try.  But as I started to recover these past two days, I've felt the beginning of the desire to work again.  It's still too early — just as it's too early for my stomach to handle coffee again (I've tried twice but it just hasn't tasted right yet).  I wanted to come up with another series to begin building after the current slate of work is done.  This kind of work is fun and engrossing, a danger when I'm trying to draft new words (because it's distracting), but ideal for when I don't feel like I can string words together in a coherent manner.

I pulled out a brand new colorful notebook that made me feel good and just started writing down words I like.  Just a word association game.  In the back of my mind, I knew the basic genre I wanted to shoot for.  My goal is to write something that further cements my ongoing brand that I'm working harder to build.

That led me to some interesting elements I hadn't thought of yet.  While I was pulling together information for my website header — mostly links to images that inspired me in some way — I found that I really enjoy Venetian carnival masks.  Hmmm.  How can I use them?  What would that mean?

I'm finally able to do a little online reading without my eyes complaining too much, so I allowed just a bit of research.  Mostly, though, I just jotted loose ideas on paper.  I don't have much of anything but the itch in the back of my brain that swears the idea is just beneath the surface, almost ready for me to chisel out into an intriguing book.

I hope. 

Soon I ought to be able to string words together again, but in the meantime, this has been a fun exercise I usually don't allow myself to dwell on too long because I'm too busy.

What do you do when you can't write?

Guest at ParaYourNormal

Today, I'm talking about the "Terrible Twos" at ParaYourNormal here.  Stop by and tell me how you keep going through the sagging middle blues!