My Recent Comments

Looks like a lot of us have been dragged away but we can't stay away! Hi, friends!!

Chelle--snail mail! I never get snail mail anymore. Glad to see you!

Critique group was excellent last night. One of my critique partners mailed her first completed manuscript to her agent. She got feedback and we discussed how to incorporate the suggested changes. Some were complicated, but in a good way!!! She's mailing it back to the agent by Monday and then it will start the rounds to editors. I couldn't be more excited for my friend. I've watched this book grow from scribblings and it's just a thrill. I'll keep you all posted! 

My poor hockey dad book needs some loving attention. I'm off to see what I can sort out before Supernatural comes on at 9. 

Hugs to all!

Writer Ellen

Hi all,

I'm rushing through this morning, too! Early meetings at work are calling my name. 

Hugs to Rae--your son's progress seems to be moving so quickly. I admire you and him so much. Take care.

My sympathies for everyone with noisy neighbors. My children both have alarm clocks that play Top 20 music at an extremely high volume early in the morning. (Different times and different stations.) I think I may report them to the Village because I'm sure they are violating some noise ordinance or another. I hate noisy yard machines--I don't like the noise and I hate thinking about the emissions from the exhuast. Yuck.

Have a good day, everyone! I have my critique group tonight. I inflicted 50 pages of my hockey dad book on them. I wonder if I should bring a treat...

Writer Ellen

Hi Kara--I'm glad you liked my suggestion for a name. I felt a bit forward offering it since I just "met" you last week, but it's such a good name...I didn't think I should keep it to myself.

(I'm now pausing to thank my lucky stars that Kara likes a good joke. )

I wish I could see some celebrities around town. I wonder if the people of Ithaca would start to dress better if we had celebrities among us. Probably not--the hemp habit is too deeply entrenched.

Amy and Linda--hope the kiddos are feeling better. Marcie--hope you are, too. Mine is going back to school tomorrow. He wasn't there at all last week. I wonder how long it's going to take to dig out of that homework hole? Sigh. (I should learn how to sigh in German. I think I'm going to need it this week.)

Amy--so good to know your cupcake and his brother are settling in well! Good reports from school are such lovely things. My cupcake and his brother are so different, at the first parent-teacher conference we always have to have the "Yes, they're really brothers" conversation with the teacher. 

The hockey game this morning was at 8:15, not so bad, until you factor in the 2 hour drive to the rink. My hubby took pity on me and took the boy. I was sooo happy to not be getting out of bed at 4:30 am.

Marcie--the high school story was "enriched content" that came free with the eBook version of The Boyfriend's Back. I originally wrote it as an extra for my website, but then the digital people (Jayne and her crew) said it could be added to the eBook version. I'm very interested in new technologies, etc. so I thought I'd give the enriched eBook a whirl. Now I'm not sure if I'm allowed to also post it on my site. I should follow up with someone to see how the rights work. I liked these characters so much--Hailey and JT and Sarah and Charlie--that I wasn't ready to stop writing about them when I finished Plan B. The high school story came from that need to spend a little more time with them. 

Have a great night!

Writer Ellen

Marcie--hope you're feeling better soon! I think it must be serious if you don't find Oreos appealling. I made chocolate chip cookies tonight and didn't feel like eating any. I think I'm just exhausted. The cookies were for the hockey team--in the league my son is in, you have to bring a snack for your team and the other team! Jeepers, that was a lot of cookies. (I don't even know why they need a snack. They're 10, not 3.)

I did keep my Pirate Facebook page for a while, but I got tired of trying to guess what the buttons meant. I was afraid I'd click something wrong so I switched it back this morning.

Papaya--I liked writing Simon. (A lot! Wish I'd had more pages, actually.) Oddly enough my critique partner's daughter was suspended for having a knife in her lunch just last month. School can be so crazy. I thought I was writing a situation that was a bit over the top, but once I started talking to people, they all have stories like yours and hers. Kids are getting very strange messages in some cases. The high school story was only in the eBook for The Boyfriend's Back. I've been wondering if I'm allowed to post it on my website, but I don't know how the copyright works for it. I'm guessing it belongs to Harlequin so I'd have to get permission. Hmm. I don't really know for sure.

Kara--my friend is getting a "new" author name this year. We had quite a bit of fun picking out her new name. It's a very nice one--better than her original name, in my opinion. In fact, I'm a bit jealous of it. She almost picked Lulu Fernbottom, but has decided against it, so that's available if you'd like to add it to your list.

We had our parent-teacher conference today for my 5th grader. He's the one I refer to as the cupcake. (So soft and sweet.) His teacher (a man) wrote this on the report card, "He's one of the most empathetic and caring boys I've ever worked with." I told my husband that I didn't even need to go to the conference because I'd gotten everything I needed from that written note. I write beta men and I think I'm raising them, too!

I hope you're all doing well. I'm busy, busy at work, at home, and with the finishing touches on my hockey dad book. I'm always so happy to dive into eHQ for a bit and catch up with everyone!

Take care,

Writer Ellen

P.S. Linda--good to see you again! I hope your daughter is feeling better soon. My older son had swine flu (I think--definitely some kind of flu) this week and was out of school for 5 days. He's on the mend now, thank goodness.  

Hi,

It was my turn to blog today and the kids are home from school--my work from home day is not as peaceful as it should be!

I'm rushing through to welcome Kara and say hello to Michelle and wave to everyone else! I'll be back later tonight to spend some quality time!

Cheers,

Writer Ellen

Donya--Paper whites are flowers that look a little like daffodils. You can put a few bulbs in a dish with a little water and they'll bloom indoors. (I imagine you can do this with other bulbs--I always use paper whites.) I love them because it's so simple, but after they bloom, pretty dramatic. I use glass bowls full of glass marbles to hold the bulbs.

Best thing I saw today: Someone told me I could change the language on my Facebook page. (There's a control at the bottom.) My son and I tried German and a few others. My favorite, by far, is English (Pirate). HILARIOUS! Totally silly fun. 

Writer Ellen

I didn't do anything special for my 40th birthday either. I'm not much of a birthday gal when it comes to my birthdays. (Not much of a center of attention person--always a lurker.)

I do get to experience birthday angst almost every year. My brother who is 15 months older than me is always in a depression around his birthday. We have to discuss how old we are and how decrepit we are and how things were better back before we went bald. (Okay, he's the only bald one, but I try to empathize.) Then when I hit the same milestone 15 months later, it's no big deal. I can always comfort myself by thinking, "At least I'm not as old as Jerry."

Carrie--interesting that you weren't expecting 40 to bother you, but then 41 started your changes. I like to think about how much more flexible our lives are than our mothers' were.

Ellen Too, Disney sounds like an awesome idea! My best friend and I went for the first time when we were 26. It was a tremendous vacation!! 

Have a great evening!

Writer Ellen

P.S. Happy Almost Birthday, Kay! 

So we found out recently that Kay puts her Christmas tree up before Halloween. We also found out that she doesn't stop at just one tree. This was, for obvious reasons, alarming to many of us. Nevertheless, it's good to know. 

I mentioned my never-miss, winter season paperwhite forcing ritual. I like it because it has no defined beginning or ending date. Sometime around now I get the bulbs into dishes. They bloom (or not) when they're good and ready. Either way, having something growing in my dining room while everything else in Ithaca is frozen makes me feel happy.

Jodie, apparently, owns cornucopias (multiple!) and there are people here who want to know are they paper or real and what's in them? (Who knew cornucopias had a "u" in it? Not me.)

So what about the rest of you? What's your seasonal ritual for the winter?

Writer Ellen

P.S. Thanks for the review congrats. That review is for my book from May 08. I have my fingers crossed that Charlie from Plan B: Boyfriend will find some similar love out there among the readers! 

P.P.S. If anyone has ever considered coming to the Central NY Romance Writers regional conference (Syracuse! In March!), we're having Bob Mayer this year. He has a new workshop about Warrior Writers that sounds intriguing. 

Thanks, Rae.

My dad loves to follow my internet career. When I saw that tweet, I thought he'd get a kick out of it so I almost shot him an email. Then I started imagining explaining twitter to him. And Dear Author. And retweeting. And tiny URLs. And then I thought I'd just go to work and write about identity scanning software because it's less complicated.

I'm tickled, anyway.  

Writer Ellen

Hi!

Thanks for all the tips about out of order writing. I've never seen a book unfold like a movie in my head. Why don't I have this ability? I feel robbed.

Hi Chelle!! Waving and waving to you. Glad you stopped in!

Jodie--I don't decorate for Thanksgiving, but I did buy my paperwhite bulbs. I like to force them indoors so they're blooming in January or so. A few weeks in the fridge and then I'm getting them going. 

Marcie--more leaves were raked this weekend. Our village, yes, I officially live in a Village, comes and hoovers up the leaves if you put them by the road in a pile. This is convenient but stinks for my sense of accomplishment. Every time I get a nice pile, they sweep them away and it looks as if I've done nothing (because, of course, more leaves come down). I wish they'd plant flags when they remove a pile--one flag for every metric ton of leaves they take away. I think I'd have about 97 flags by now.

Note-->I'm not sure what a metric ton is, but it sounds big.  Where's my mathematical internet wife? She'd know.

Speaking of Holly...hello! Glad you're back. We're proving the old adage that opposites attract. You started talking at 9 months. I started after my brother went to kindergarten--somewhere late in my 4th year. No wonder I lurked here forever! I'm a lurker in real life as well!

Happy Monday.

Writer Ellen