Make Mine Supers! (3)

Oh goody, I get to be the first to post on the new thread?!  Yay!

Kay, Kim and Rae, hugs on the recent fractures and possible fractures.  Are we noticing a trend here?  They are all children of the male gender.  Back to that theory about boys being all impulse before they think!

Kay, I had to laugh at your story about the inciting prank resulting in the broken digit.  When DS #1 was in kindergarten, I had to talk to the teacher because he wouldn't go out on the playground since one child kept choking him at recess.  The teacher handled the problem and everything was fine.  Until years later, when DS fessed up that he had been mercilessly throwing sand in the other child's face.  Now, I obviously don't condone the choking.  But DS #1 is great about poking the sleeping bear.  Is that the right saying?  Anyway, I can totally relate to a lot you're going through, Kay.  And yes, there were times I was tempted to choke the child!  I attribute a lot of my gray hair to that kid.

Susan, I'm so glad you remembered the show!  I was having a senior, um middle age, um forgetful moment and couldn't for the life of me remember his name.  I could see his face plain as day, mutton chop sideburns and all, but all I could come up with was Captain...Captain...Captain Crunch, no that's not it.  Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green jeans. 

I'm procrastinating and I better get back to writing if I ever intend to get that partial off to Toronto.  I've got Spring Fever something fierce.  And Holly, I'm in Arizona, hence the 80 degrees.  The Desert Dreams Conference will be here in a couple weeks... Hint, hint.

Carrie

Geesh - you guys are hilarious!  I'm laughing uncontrollably over the stripper names.  Especially the Whimple and Dusty Monastery comment. 

Anyway, last time a new thread posted I didn't know it, so this time around I noticed and I get to be, um, number 2. 

I've thoroughly enjoyed the stripper names. (Jeannie, a sister act, really? Heh Heh. )

I spent the evening sprucing up my "online presence." Since I spend my days sprucing up the online presence of our IT department, I'm feeling a little burned out on the whole online sprucing thing. So many little details. (If anyone wants to take a poll about tiaras, I added a "Fun" page to my web site. This is how I spend my time...a little pathetic. )

My critique group is meeting this week. Since I haven't had a definitive answer on my proposals yet I'm pulling out a book I haven't looked at in a while. It's one of those "Did I really write that?" situations. Fun and kind of alarming.

I also finished piecing together the back of my son's quilt. I thought I'd have this thing done for him when he was 3. (He's 8 now.) Life. We had fun last night though. I pulled out my fabric scraps and he picked pieces of things he loves or that we've made for other people--curtains, a baby quilt, my quilt, his brother's quilt. It's a mishmash but full of good memories. Now just the basting and quilting and it's done. Maybe when he's 12!

Hope you're all well!

Writer Ellen

New digs...very cool!   

Chelle, er, Babe, er Possum, I love them!

Oh, gee, Kim, I'm sorry about your son's collarbone!

Rae, Hugs!!

Same, The time change is killing me as well.  I haven't needed an alarm clock in years, but for a couple weeks after time changes, my internal clock's way off!

Ami, I like Morgan!

Amy, Punkin 33??  LOL  I loved American Idol last night.  Chakizi (sp. wrong, I'm sure) really surprised me!  And I'll confess, I've loved just about everything Brook's done.  Last night, no exception.

Kay, Hugs.  I'm so sorry he overheard you.  Wish I was closer, though.  I'd take you out for that drink.  Hugs.

Carrie, I'd love to be in Arizona.  I've heard good things about Desert Dreams, btw!  Alas, I'm in NYC in two weeks with Susan.  Uh, do you think the town's ready for both of us at once??!!  LOL  Of course, if you all hear about aliens landing in NY, you'll know Susan's sacrificing me up to them!

Ellen, That's a lot of sprucing...LOL  And congrats on finishing the quilt.  That's so cool.

Annie, Congrats on plotting out the next ms!  Moving forward is always the best direction!

Morning, Christyne, Marcie and Tasha!

More snow this morning, but just a bit.  Mainly I plan to just sit here and keep going on this story! 

Holly

Ellen—The bear afghan I started for my son when he was 4 is still only 3/4s done and he will be 22 in November.  Now, I think if you try, you might be able to get done faster than I have.  I still have all the pieces and the directions and someday…the thing is, my kid will love it.  He’s just that goofy.  

Carrie—I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed Mr. Green Jeans Fiesta.  Mr. Green Jeans was one of my early heroes, along with Mr. Moose.  I found Bunny Rabbit very annoying and wanted him to leave Mr. Moose alone.  And the Captain…how can you not love a guy in bangs? 

Annie—Big hugs.  Pour your soul into your writing and know that we are all here thinking of you and hoping for good things!  Oh, and I didn’t name my Jack Russells Jack—probably because my dad is named Jack. 

Kay—I found as a parent that I was able to preserve a lot of my child’s childhood by being a stricter parent than I wanted to be—but not so strict that they rebelled.  Fine and painful line at times.  Just be prepared for your kids to be mad at you.  In the end they appreciate it.  A strict parent is a great excuse for kids, as in, (with macho swagger) “Yeah, I’d like to do that but my parents will kick my *** if I do…”  Just prepare your kids for what they need to do when a peer calls them chicken.  Also, tell the kids exactly what you expect and start early.  Don’t say “I expect you to make good choices.”  Tell them the choice you expect them to make and why.  With smoking and such, I told my kids that a person has two choices when they start—continue to smoke or dope and spend a lot of $$$$, or quit, which is way hard.  Somehow kids understand $$$ more than future consequences, like cancer, since next week is so far away to them.  And then I flat out told them I expected them not to smoke.  I started this when they were in the fourth grade.  I did get my kids through high school without them drinking or smoking and they made friends with the other three kids who weren’t drinking, smoking or doping.  (Just kidding...kind of.) 

Kim—A broken collarbone?  Hokey smokes—what is it with the juvenile male of the species.  And that hurts, too. 

Ronda—Good luck getting the writing projects done.   We’re having achievement tests this week.  You know how that is.  Everything under lock and key, lots of paranoia.  Kids making designs with the bubbles instead of figuring out the answers.  Oy.

Waving to Holly and Susan and everyone else.  I know you're out there.

Jeannie

And I didn't get an official stripper name! Waaaah!!! LOL

Thanks for the hugs, and the near drink, Holly. I'll take them all in the wonderful friendship in which they were offered. You guys are awesome. We've got quite a community thread here, no?

 Vieve, very good advice. My parents were *very* strict, having not been strict enough with my older brother and sister. There were times when I thought I hated them, times when I used them as an excuse to do something I knew good and well would be a disaster like you said, and now that I'm older, thank God for them.

Carrie, lol on the sand. Yeah, let sleeping dogs lie. DS learned that one the hard way. He wants to fit in so badly and as one of the smaller built kids (not the smallest by a long shot, though he doesn't seem to appreciate that fact) he's taken a lot of teasing. It's just his luck that now that he's giving some of it back he gets slammed. Not that I condone that, either, but I think you know what I mean.

Okay, ladies... I'm blogging all over the place today and have a chat tonight. Please stop by. I don't think I can list the chat site since it's not Harlequin but for a list go to my website's Appearances page. I'd very much love to have the company. :)

 Kay

Annie, I hope your writing proves to be a sanctuary from some of the stressful stuff!  There are times when I'm relieved to lose myself in the fictional world I'm creating.  At least there I have the illusion of control.

Jeannie, yes Captain Kangaroo was IT!  Way better than most of the children's shows they have today....

Tasha, the roof-hopping would have given me gray hair.  But I can totally see my sons doing the same thing at that age!

Holly, too bad you'll be going to NYC instead of sunny Arizona.  But I can see you and Susan taking the town by storm.  And I've heard wonderful things about the NINC conferences.

Ellen, what great memories you're creating in simply selecting the quilt fabrics with your son and reminiscing!  The completed quilt (whenever that happens to be) will be all the more precious!  I loved your stripping nuns comment, btw.  You crack me up.

Ronda, hopefully we're not scaring you with visions of male pranks to come.  I've found that two boys together often multiply the mischief exponentially.  They feed off of each other....

Well, gotta go write.  This week is full of doctor check ups and all the other healthy stuff I've put off.  Better now than when I add a day job to my schedule.

Carrie

Ellen Too, Awww how cool that you're thinking of reading mine first! With such a talented pool of writers and a great line up, that's a huge compliment. I hope you like AKTR. (I confess, Nora is my favorite character thus far...)

Kim 

Why is the time wrong on my post?  It's an hour behind.  Is it because of daylight savings?

Marcie--How cool that you're reading the Emmett's Mill series in order. You're right, you don't have to but it does give you a better feel for the town and its people. By the time you get to Nora (AKTR) you'll really understand her better. She's a bit abrasive if you're just meeting her but it's a funny book. At least I think it is. LOL...it could be that I have an odd sense of humor.

Kim 

I've been reading about all the damage your assorted kids have done to themselves (broken bones, etc.) and thinking I was really a lucky girl.  I was a tomboy and never played with dolls if I could be outside playing football, baseball, etc. with the boys and all I got out of it was a dislocated knee.  Of course that still hurts at times even tho it didn't bother me at the time.

 I met Kim last night at a chat, and she suggested I pop my head in.    Hi Kim <jodie waving wildly>!

I'm working on a manuscript that I've targeted to Supers, although I'm in word count jail right now.  I need to cut an obscene amout because it was completed with the higher word count, so what I thought was done isn't done.  I'll get it squared away, though!

 Are there any Supers chats?

Carrie...LOL...curiously enough, I have two sons...OMG...if DH had his way, I'd have three sons, but I can only imagine the mischief three boys could create!! 

How goes the job search?

Kim...homework sounds suspiciously like housework to my grown up ears...and you know how I feel about housework...

Good Luck with your synop/proposal!!

Sam...you've been so breif in your flybys, I'm going into Sam withdrawl...is there a 12 step program?  "Hello, My name is Ronda, and I'm addicted to the witty, often insightful, things my friend Sam has to say."  

 Have a great trip...promise to regale us when you return!!

Amy...thanks for the heads up!

Jodi...welcome!  Fasten your seatbelt...things move pretty fast around here!

Vieve...now you know why I'm stalling on the bunkbeds at our house!  I can already see DS#1 dragging DS#2 up the ladder...and dropping him off the bed...HORRORS!  DS#1 has been known to fall out of the bed in his sleep as it is...thank you, I'll pass for now!

Ellen, TOO...20 books in one week?!?!  OMG  You are my hero!  If I could get a month like that, I could clear off my TBR mountain!

Marcie...Love the green overalls!  I watched Electric Company, too!!  How fun are childhood memories!!  You have a great sense of self to ignore the teasing of others and march to the beat of your own drum!!  Or conga line...

 I'm off to first grade to help them finish their classroom books!!  Today we draw our pictures!!

BBL!

Ronda--You'll appreciate this.  We're having achievement tests this week (so you know how it is) and as I'm reading the instructions the guidance counselor gave us, the very last one tells us what to do if we have to evacuate the school.  So I think to myself, "what at the chances?"  Pretty good apparently.  I spent over an hour standing on the football field with a bunch of crazed 7th and 8th graders, my laptop slung over my shoulder.  Someone hit a gas line across the street.  It happened mid-test.  I think yesterday was possibly one of the longest teaching days of my life.   Sure hope today's tests go better....

Jeannie

20 books read is what happens when you go a week without access to a computer.

Jeannie-- sympathy on having to stand outside the school with squirming kids -- been there, done that on many occasions only usually with 9th graders.

Hi, Jodie! Glad you found this site.

About "that"--Cherry Adair said in a lecture I attended that she once used the search and replace function to cut every "that" in a manuscript just before sending it to her agent. The agent got back to her immediately and said, "Ummm, Cherry? You want to take another look?"

Sorry not to have responded to the thousands of many messages recently. (Your poor boys!!! Why do they seem to have it so much harder than girls? Please don't be too hard on them!) Everything's going crazy here--I'm about to start editing our annual supplement in addition to my regular work, dh was just elected to the local volunteer fire dept. board (we're not quite sure which board), we're spending this whole weekend learning folk dancing (just when I could use the time, jeez), I'm helping a friend revise her history book, I just took on a new financial obligation so I have to completely redo my budget (meaning no book purchases for a while ), we're about to have five houseguests for one or two weeks and, crikey, I am determined to finish this revision. It's a third of the way done and I only need a few more days, almost no time at all compared to the amount that's already been spent on the book. I desperately have to move on to the next story.

There, now, I feel much better after all that complaining.

On the bright side, my 18-year-old Volvo is getting almost 30 miles per gallon. And we're delighted to have moved to Texas--nobody ever told us it would be so lively here.  

Cheery-bye,

Sally

Jodie, welcome! I started off here on this board as unpubbed, too. We're a friendly bunch, so don't think twice about it. :)

Ellen, too--I'm so envious of your reading time right now.

Sally, 30 miles to a gallon is great! Envious of that, too. ;) Glad you're liking Texas.

Kay - beginning to find the flow in my wip--Yippee!

Hey girl! So glad you found your way to the Super thread! As I told you we are a lively bunch and we LOVE to chatter. So, yes, pull up a chair, grab a cup of cyber coffee (or tea if you're like me and hate coffee) and enjoy the chaos. Good luck with your word cutting.

I'm working from home today and of all days...the high school has a bomb threat!!! Geesh. I am the cop and fire reporter for crying out loud and I'm stuck at home today. Oh well. If I hear a big kaboom I'll know pretty quick that it was NOT a false alarm. Chances are though that this is a silly prank. Kids. *sigh* What happened to the ol' pull the fire alarm trick???

 Oh, and I received a nasty lovely email this morning to kick off my day from a woman who threw away my book (RTEM) after 59 pages because I had used the Lord's name in vain. Hmm, did she think that Supers were the Inspirational line??? Kinda irritated me but oh well. So she wasn't the right reader for my book. She'd hate my next book. Nora is a mouthy one. LOL!

Kim 

I "listen" to you all talk about school and kids and think been there, done that and sympathize.  I always "loved" it when someone decided to call in a bomb threat or pulled the fire alarm and we got to walk across a busy street to take the kids to the football field to corral them there while we waited for someone to clear the school.  If I had ever caught a prankster I'd have been in jail for child abuse.  I remember the day when a male student came running into my class room (which was across from the boys bathroom) yelling there was a fire in the trash can.  Now the question was pull the fire alarm or take the fire extinguisher that was in my room and try to put it out.  I chose the fire extinguisher method and had it out in a minute.  I much prefered that to standing outside with the kids.  Fortunately the principal agreed.

I've been gone forever-- buried in deadline hell-- but just wanted to stop buy now that my manuscript is in and say Carrie and Kay-- I just finished your March releases.  They were wonderful.  Really. 

and I'm an unpublished super-author" Lol (love 'super author") Welcome Jodie! Good to see you around here!
I had green courdoray (how do you spell that?) overalls that I wore after I had the girls (for that extra tummy comfort, lol) I could wear them to my job (they weren't THAT bad really, nervous giggle) but then people started humming the tune to 'green acres' and I stopped and got rid of them.

It's hard enough with my tomboy, I shudder to think if she had been a boy, she is like a replica of my DH in so many ways, (the notorious bad boy of school) that I can't imagine!

Maureen

Hi Jodie - This is a great bunch of ladies.  I lurk here most days and post occasionally.  Lots of fun talk and I learn a lot.

Holly, take your laptop to the hairdresser :)

Welcome, Jodie!

Ronda, don’t be so sure. DS took up sky diving in his twenties!

Jeannie, pretty awful having to evacuate the school. Did you organize a fun football game? That would keep those juniors busy. When DH was still teaching high school and they evacuated without coats, he organized a running game... it was -10 F.

Kay, what’s wrong with the system is that it tries to squash all the kids in the same mold, and beware the one who doesn’t fit. Between home schooling and private schools, my kids finally found relief when they got to the university collegiate for 11th and 12th grades.

Today I went dancing, so I couldn’t post my ms to Toronto - awful liar! I procrastinate. I get cold feet. I look at it once more. Can I take another rejection? I know what you’ll all say. "Get that baby to the P.O." Okay, Monday I promise.

Vieve

Kim--I got the same letter on one of my books and I wrote back, explaining to her the difference between characters' actions and real people's actions.  I never heard back, but I bet she doesn't bother to write to me again.  If she does, I will send her another lesson.

Good luck eating that whale.

Vieve--I love the idea of a running game at -10. 

Jeannie

Every time I have critique this happens--I get home, the house is silent, and I'm wired. We had the nicest discussion about writing, not our writing, just writing. Love those ladies....

Tasha--April 3rd. Mark it on your calendar. I'm almost positive that's the day the Winchesters will be back. I do love hearing Sammy roll off those Latin verses--Father McGrath never looked that hot when we were declining our verbs.

Kay--I hope things shape up soon. Sigh. And hugs.

Vieve--I think one last weekend with the manuscript is a lovely idea. But I expect to hear about a post office visit on Monday. If not, I'm sending Jeannie or one of these other teacher people to frown at you. Maybe Ellen Too--she's a take charge person. Be strong!

Amy--the alternative school is a second public school option we're lucky to have in our community. It's "alternative" in lots of ways--longer periods for more in-depth study, options for how kids "show mastery" of subjects, democratic decision-making that includes the students, exemption from standardized testing, no letter grades, etc. It's an attractive option but my son would give up some social network stuff if he goes. No guarantee he'll get in anyway--they take 36 kids out of about 200 that apply.

Ithaca is (in my opinion) a cool place because the private school choices are very limited. That means almost everyone is in the public schools together. I think that strengthens the district, but if you want a choice, you're in a bit of a bind.

Happy Friday!

Writer Ellen