My Recent Comments

We are free in that we are no longer an extension of Britian but we still keep close ties. At the head (in a kind of representative, can't faciliate change but guides the governing party) we have the Governor General, the Queen's representative (currently a woman...and ethnic to boot). This is the person who declares an election if there is a vote of non-confidence or if the Prime Minister asks for one (usually when they believe they will win another term). There has to be an election every 5 years if one is not called before then. We have had elections as close as 18 months before which is very annoying. It's not set every four yrs like in the States.

We are part of the commonwealth but we are independent, so is Austrailia. This happened shortly after WW1.  We never had to fight for our independence by way of revolution so it took a longer time (from 1867 to shortly after ww1). in 1867 we were declared the dominion of Canada and so when Britain joined the first war we were automatically involved too. We have our own Charter of Rights and Freedoms (similar to the Us Constitution) etc,  which makes us our own country. 

And as a little side note Newfoundland did not join Canada until 1949, and remained an offshoot of Britain so technically my grandmother was born a British citizen.  

 All in all it can be very confusing but I also find the US system and British system confusing as well. 

...because I am a stickler for things like this.  In Canada it's Canada Day not Independence Day. It's not actually an independence day for us, we are still considered part of the commonwealth and was only declared the Dominion of Canada, and have never sought independence.

 My dh was in the military and was sworn in to serve the Queen... and when he left he was asked to hand back in his uniform we joked that he had to give The Queen back her clothes!

I hope everyone has fun at BBQs, visits or just a quiet evening at home.

 I got the scare of my life yesterday. My dh is retiring from the military and we currently live on base. Yesterday in the mail we got a notice which said we must vacate our house by Sept...but they had verbally told us we could stay until my dh finished his college course in Aug 2009. I was so scared as vacancies around here are few and far between we'd never be able to find a family friendly place in time. Anyway, turns out to be a 'paperwork' error. Thanks goodness!

And I made a scrumptious batch of strawberry jam this morning...my first time! I'm so proud of myself.

Hope everyone else has nice sunny weather like us! Once again Happy 4th ofJuly!

I'm Canadian!  I'm pretty impressed that people outside of Canada know it's Canada Day. That's pretty cool. I've always lived close to the New York State border so it always seems to be about July 4th. July 1st kind of gets lost.

 Well I just realized I am passed the two month mark for waiting on my partial sub. It's nail-biting really.  This is awful. I don't know how anyone can stand it. 

Good luck everyone!  Sorry about the R's, that's just awful but the good news is everyone is so upbeat and ready to try again. I know that persevering in half the battle.  

Well now I have to respectfully disagree about Canucks not knowing how to party. I'm not sure what part of Canada you are from but most of my extended family is from the Maritimes and man do they know how to have a good time...not matter if it's a stat holiday or all of a sudden in someone's kitchen.

 And of course our thanksgiving needs to be so much earlier...if we waited any longer our harvest would be frozen into the ground and we'd have to wait until spring. (lol)

Happy Canada Day! 

In case anyone was not aware...Romy is an excellent critique partner!  But you can't have her, she's mine! LOL

I agree on what has been said about sacrifices. I too had a home day care until I closed in March due to burn out. Since then I have stepped up my writing, demanded more time to do my craft and have made allowances for the house to be messy while I write. 

Instead of sacrificing my writing for everything else, I am sacrificing everything else for my writing. I also have to get passed this mommy guilt I have about leaving my kids to their own devices. They're 8 and 5 and should be able to play nicely amongst themselves for an hour or two in the afternoon while mommy is working, right? I think it's a balance thing.  

I have a very similar story to yours...mom to two by 23, had discouragements etc. But the only difference is I never gave up writing completely. I kind of waffled about without any idea of what I was doing, where I was going etc. I wrote infrequently for 7 years and hardly read anything at all.

 It was only reccently that I decided to write a romance (I don't know what I was writing before...drivel perhaps). My suggestions would be write from your heart, read what you like and carefully sort out critism. Not everyone in writing groups are experts in the field (I found that out myself too) and if a group is not working for you...ie encouraging you and offer 'constructive' critism then you need to move on. It's a shame that you were discouraged. If you love historicals then write historicals (I do too!) and yes sometimes I get bogged down with the details. My best advice for that is to write a synopsis before you start any chapters. Think over your story to see if there are any major inconsistencies with the period you are writing about and change if necessary. From that just write, write, write. Write your heart out baby. You can do a bit of research as you go and keep your eye out for interesting bits of info as you read other authors of historicals. When it's all done then you can often recruit someone to help you with all the finite historical details.

 Anyway... my point is if you have a desire to write you should not matter what setbacks you have had in your writing journey.  

My question is for anyone who may know.  If I had a partial in with a publisher, can I still query for agents though I haven't heard back yet?

 I'm not sure what to do at this point. I am almost certain I will be rejected anyway (I don't think I fit with Harlequin like I once thought I did). Should I wait it out or start seeking an agent?

I read the Constant Princess first (about Katherine of Aragon) and was completely hooked. Over the winter I read every book by PG I could get my hands on at the library. I had every one on my hold list and they were coming in faster then I could read them! But I did it. What a way to spend those cold Canadian Winter days huh? I still haven't seen the movie...even though my dh promised to take me on opening weekend .Next time I might just go by myself!

 Anyone ever get stuck? Like you know where you want to end up and you have a general idea how to get there but just can't play it out scene by scene? I keep on plugging away at my latest but I get this nagging feeling in the back of my mind saying I'll end up changing most of it later anyway, but that line of thinking only drags me down even more. Ack! "It's okay Tracy, calm down. Your self imposed deadline is many weeks away. Just breathe..." Okay I'm done talking to myself now. 

Congrats on getting an agent ladies. What a huge step. 

 I'm flipping back and forth on that one. I have a ms submitted and I'm not sure if it would look bad if I go agent shopping now. KWIM?