Ready, Set, Write!! ~11~

All right folks! Here it is. A brand new slate to start tracking your goals.

Let's make 2008 the best year so far!

I had a hard time with the c&p and formatting, so I took notes and redid it all from my notes. So if I am wrong, please do let me know and I'll correct the numbers. After a while, you go dizzy trying to get everything to match. There was one night I think I might have gone cross-eyed.

Well, four sounds nice, but I believe it's really two that I made.....hoping to make the one I've got listed!

And like everything else here, it's just a matter of getting used to doing it differently. When you see the thread, it'll say X new messages. Click on that rather than the discussion title, and it'll take you directly to the new messages.

 I just learned that one today. Learning curve for everyone,but we'll get there.

HollyBelle, we're glad you joined us! What are you working on?

HollyBelle, welcome.

I'm still trying to figure out everything.

Margaret

I think there are some people still missing, I hope they find us!

 I just made a blog entry --- a first!  Kind of scary though, no one can 'find' me can they?  No strange creepy people because I posted something?  Right?

I'm good that way. :)

With the changeover and having to do double duty, I'm sure I missed a lot of updates, so just holler and we'll get you taken care of. 

I know. I haven't seen Hope yet. Hello everyone!

Hey Ila - I just realized I've been typing your name wrong.

With this new board, I can now see it's an i l and not an l l. I had to check on your profile but yup - it's Ila!

Is that your full name? I've never heard of it before.

Nope, not my name, it's the name of Adama's wife on "Battlestar Galactica" and I just thought it sounded pretty and since I didn't really want my real name where 'strange' people might be lurking and see it....ok, I'm paranoid----too much "A-Team" and "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" as a child.  Either that or too many years around lawyers and the right side of the criminal courts.  Either way, I'm too paranoid to have my actual name up there. 

But, those letters are in my first name and my middle name both! 

Welcome HollyBelle and hello to Patricia and Merrilee!! 

Thanks for the great welcome. I can't wait to get to know everyone better. My ms is coming along(slowly). Hope everything is going great with you all. (Can you tell I'm from the south?)

I'll try again.  I had had three recent goals on the old boards, but only made two of them.  That raises my count to four goals accomplished.  Thanks, Dream. 

I've had a mental goal of trying to finish Desert Dreamer by Jan. 31st, but with everything else that has been going on, I think I'd better set it officially to March 31st instead.  (February Album Writing Month is right around the corner, too.)  I hope everyone sets lots of lovely goals and makes them all! 

I'll add my "Welcome!" to the others', Hollybelle.  We're happy to have you with us! 

Where are my manners.

Welcome Hollybelle. That's a pretty name.

Thank you for the compliment. However I do have a small name problem. My hero (who is etched deeply in my mind) will not tell me his last name. Is this normal? I know everything about him. Where he went to school. What kind of kid he was. His hopes. His dreams. His secret fears. I've even met his mother. Ugh!  

What's in a name? Would a rose smell as sweet called by any other name? No, it wouldn't. If you called it a daisy, it'd smell like a daisy, because our brain would register daisy before our nose could sniff.

Help! 

The find and replace function of word is wonderful, so just pick something and when you finally find the right last name, you can switch pretty easily.

Hollybelle, that's usually not my problem, but the few times it has been I've used the phone book and looked through it, trying different last names with the first one.

Also it is easy to change the name if you start writing and find a better one. Doing a search and replace makes it fast for us thankfully. (love that feature on a computer)

Margaret

I'm supporting you in your new goal, even though you're not sure how long it will take. 

That's one great thing about hanging out here with other writers: we can often get answers to our questions, or at least some great ideas to carry us forward! 

The more the merrier!

Well, I guess it's been about three and a half years since I last posted here. I recognize a lot of the names - Does anyone still remember me?

Wouldn't blame you if you'd forgotten all about me. Probably thought I died. I nearly did. Right after the Denver writer's conference that September when I met all of you and me and Dream took you to tea at the House of Windsor, the bottom dropped out of my world. I won't go in to details, but it involved finding out that one of my children had done horribly unspeakable things to four of my other children, and it was like a plot from a bad novel, and social services and the police both became involved, and we lived in a nightmare for many, many months. And while I was still struggling to deal with that, our business began to fail and we were struggling financially and falling deeper and deeper into debt, and I really needed to let my nanny go but I really needed my nanny in the middle of everything that was going on, so we kept her but paid her with borrowed money, and you can only do that so long. And then worst of all, I suddenly, unexpectly, collapsed, suffered a grande-mal seizure, stopped breathing, and my heart stopped beating. My 19 year old son was there and had been CPR certified, and he saved my life. He performed CPR for 4 minutes until the paramedics arrived. They recuscitated me, but I was in the ICU and in a coma for 24 hours, and they did not know if I would ever come out of it or if I would come out with all my faculties. When I did come to, I had some short-term memory loss, and I had to have an artificial defibrilator installed, and I now take lots of medication and see a cardiologist regularly. I wasn't allowed to drive for 6 months because of the seizure. But other than that, I'm fine.

But needless to say, we've been through the ringers. The son in question is in the custody of the state's juvenile detention program. I rarely speak to him anymore. Eventually I will have to forgive him, but I just can't yet. We ended up having to declare bankruptsy. There was no way to dig out financially - we tried and it just got worse. We just got our discharge papers, and we've taken Dave Ramsey's financial peace seminar, so we're hoping we can avoid the same mistakes again. After a lot of counseling and trauma, the other children seem to be doing ok.

 So I'm back. The book has not been touched in three and a half years. I had sent it to my agent, and she had requested some changes, and I've not made them, nor even re-read the book. Now that my life is somewhat back from shambles, I would like to see what I can do about that. And perhaps I have some new material to work with, don't you think?

Well, if you remember me, I'd sure like to hear from you!

Julia --

I wasn't on these boards then, but welcome back. I'm hopiing your life has a season of peace for a while.

Janet

I'm so thankful to have you back here. I've been praying for you and wondering how you were. I'm so sorry you've been dealing with a rough time. If you're still in the area, let me know and we'll do tea again. The sweet little baby is now a very rotten 3 year old. But I love her.

HollyBelle, welcome to the boards! Glad you're here.

Hey Beckie...glad you finally found us. :-)

Cheryl Wyatt