Soundtrack...

Probably because I'm a huge dork, or because I love listening to music while I write, I actually have put together my own "soundtrack" for my book. I'm not the only one who does this, I'm sure. In fact if I remember "She-who-must-not-be-named" aka "Author of crappy vampire book" did the same. Not that I stole my idea from her or anything. I think I've been doing this for a while now, at least since my first writing attempt. In fact, that whole book was based off of a single song. Crazy right? Err... back to dorky, huh?

Admittedly I don't really have a cool or unique taste in music. I just kind of like what I like. Sometimes I randomly hear a song on the radio and it just sort of clicks with me or a certain scene from my book.

When I first started writing my book I just gotten the new Lifehouse album "Smoke and Mirrors". I'm a huge Lifehouse fan and always have been. So right away several of the songs went onto my book soundtrack playlist. They are...

"All In" - How could I not include this, one of my all time favorite songs? I even named a chapter after it. And the lyrics are awesome too, "All night, staring at the ceiling, counting the minutes I'm feeling this way, so far away and so alone. But you know it's alright, I came to my senses, let go of my defenses. There's no way I'm giving up this time." I know only like five of you have actually read my book, but this song totally fits.

Also from Lifehouse I have "From Where You Are", "All That I'm Asking For" and of course, "Hanging By a Moment", old-schoolish, but I love it anyway.

One random song that I heard on the radio and it completely clicked with me, especially for the last chapter of my book, is Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain"....AMAZING! Went straight to iTunes, bought it, added it to my soundtrack.

Another random one, "Secrets" by OneRepublic. Because it's all about the secrets, and giving them all away, right? You don't have any clue what I'm talking about do you? I'm basically talking to myself, I know.

Besides Lifehouse, my other all-time favorite band is...brace yourself...Linkin Park! Now, I love their rowdy old stuff, but their newest album "A Thousand Suns" is...amazeballs. Can I say that here? Whatever... Tons of those songs went straight to the soundtrack.

Specifically...

"When They Come For Me" - "Oh when they come for me, come for me, I'll be gone..." Love it. Add it to the car chase chapter!

Also, "Burning in the Skies" - Although this one feels more like book two to me...hmmm.

"Iridescent" - Another one of my all-time favorite songs, period!

"Leave Out All the Rest" - not from A Thousand Suns, but it just fits. Yes I know what soundtrack it's really from don't remind me!

Finally, "Waiting For the End to Come" - This one was just made for me, I swear. "Waiting for the end to come, wishing I had strength to stand. This is not what I had planned, it's out of my control. Flying at the speed of light, thoughts were spinning in my head. So many things were left unsaid, it's hard to let you go. I know what it takes to move on. I know how it feels to lie. All I wanna do is trade this life for something new, holding on to what I haven't got." Okay, sounds a little depressing, but it's awesome song. And it just complete fits with the last two chapters of my book.

So there you have it. Exciting no? No? I guess you'll understand when you read the book. I know once it gets published then subsequently made into a movie there will have to be an orchestral accompaniment as well, but I still have a while to work on that....



Yes, that last part was a JOKE!

This is how I roll..

We got home late yesterday after being gone almost all day. Basically I put the kids straight to bed and then went and made a cup of coffee. Yes, I drank a full-caf cup of coffee at eight thirty at night.

And guess what? I still completely passed out right around ten. Awesome huh?

It was a long day, what can I say. Either that or I've finally managed to make myself completely immune to the effects of caffeine. I'm already a two cup a day girl. Is it time to move up to three?

Maxed out...

No I'm not talking about my credit cards, I'm talking about me!

Shhhh, it's one of my favorite times of day around here. Sophia went down from her nap early, and even though this means she'll be cranky tonight, I don't really care. Eljiah is doing his scheduled "30 minutes of quiet reading" woo hoo! Can I just say, his reading has totally changed my life. If not for him being able to read to himself, school would be so much harder. Especially on a day like today where I'm just completely bombarded with things to do! (Yeah the laundry's going now so I have about five minutes to write this post and clear my head.)

So what's going on around here? How about everything! Have a mentioned how crazy Matthew's schedule is this semester? I can't remember. Well, he's taking three classes instead of the usual two. Now that doesn't sound so bad, but keep in mind he also works twenty hours a week. He can't do homework doing work, of course. And this is Yale, which means his homework assignments are insane. Plus, he's taking yet another new language. Of course, this is difficult for me for several reasons. One of them being when he's home, he's still not really home. I can't just say, "Oh I've been watching the kids alone for eight hours, now it's your turn!". Granted he helps out as much as he possibly can, but basically I'm still on duty even when he's here. It's kind of crazy. On the other hand, what bothers me the most about him working so bloody hard is the fact that I can feel his stress. And he gets really stressed when he feels overwhelmed. Somehow I can pick up on it, whether he tells me or not, and I get stressed out too! Ugh. Fun stuff.

Anyway, it was a bit of a crazy weekend. We didn't have a whole lot on the schedule, but still. Sophia is going through a super clingy phase which is making my life harder. On Sunday I was supposed to teach children's chapel, but I seriously couldn't leave her for half a second so the other children's chapel teacher subbed in for me. I don't know what I'm going to do next week!

Oy, Elijah's done reading so I'm going to have to cut this short. I had a lot more to complain about, I'm sure.

On the upside, we're having lots of company in October. Starting with Matthew's parents and sister on the seventh. Which means I will have a lot of cleaning to do week after next, which also means I won't be cleaning very much this week. Ha!

Well, this should be fun...

Look who's back, it's me! You know I only come on here to blog if I have something to complain about right? Well, not really. But that's why I'm here today.

Did I mention in my last post that Elijah was sick? Yes or no? Ah, yes. So of course I knew this was probably going to make the rounds like most colds do. Monday night Sophia didn't sleep well. I think I got up and went in her room about ten times to give her her paci and lay her back down. When we woke up in the morning I realize that was why she hadn't slept well. Paci babies and congestion just don't mix. *Note to self, may be time to wean off the paci! Anyway, so she was moderately miserable Monday, and Elijah was still sick too. We did a shortened school day, just the most important stuff. Yesterday everyone was feeling a teeny bit better. Until last night. I realized that I was getting the dreaded scratchy throat/congested nose combo that we all know and fear. So I went to bed early...errr, at eleven. And I slept pretty good considering. I woke up with no sore throat, which is usually a good sign. But then I tried to get out of bed. Uhhhhh. SICK!

Lovely right? Both the kids are feeling mostly okay. Which is kind of a bummer for me. Since I'm totally lacking the energy to keep up with them. Want to know how I know I'm sick? I sat down at the kitchen table and drank my coffee this morning. I never sit down to drink my coffee. I always drink it on the run while I'm putting away dishes, starting the laundry or making the beds. Aaaaand I'm still in my bathrobe. Oops!

After this I am going to get dressed, I swear. And then I'll attempt to teach some school. I foresee a nap in the near future though. Also, this isn't a good time to be sick. Elijah has football practice tomorrow, and I will most likely have to take him because Matthew is bombarded with homework. Friday Elijah and I are supposed to go see the Yale Philharmonic Orchestra. They are doing Beethoven's Ninth and Elijah and I have been learning all about this stuff in music class. Of course, Sophia can't go, it's past her bedtime anyway. So Matthew thought Elijah and I should go together. It should be fun. If we can both stop blowing our noses long enough to listen!

Speaking of Matthew, he is the who can absolutely not get sick right now! He's already stretched to the max, and then some, so it would be terrible if he were to get sick too.

So, in summary, everyone is sick. Yay!

This weekend...

can be summed up in one word. Cold! (And kinda sucky!) Wait, that's four words. I embleleshed a little more than I originally intended.

Anyway, I last blogged on Thursday when I was complaining about having to take Elijah to football practice. Well, the rain was the least of my worries. Holy moly it was cold, and windy oh and wet too. Thankfully his coaches didn't see much point in practicing too long, because they sent everyone home after 45 minutes.

Friday we unexpectedly ended up dropping Matthew off at school. Since we rarely have the car on a weekday I took the opportunity to go run a bunch of errands. So Friday was crazy. This is why I actually prefer to stay home and never leave the house. It's too exhausting! One of my errands was to go buy Sophia a coat, because it was getting so cold out. It was a good thing I did too. Saturday morning we got up way too early for Elijah eight a.m. game and it was 46 degrees out! FORTY SIX DEGREES! So we bundled up and headed out. We even took a blanket, which was a really good call since the bleachers were freezing.

Ah, so it was a fun Saturday. NOT! The game went well though. As much of it I could see from under my hood and scarf. Oh and guess who got sick after all this? Elijah. He's usually the last one in the house to get sick. But by Saturday afternoon he was complaining of a sore throat.

Fun stuff. Have I mentioned how much I'm not looking forward to Winter? Fall, yes. But Winter? No thanks. Not after last Winter.

So today I'm busy pulling up all our winter clothes from the basement. Unfortunately they all smell like they've been in the basement (Ewww) so I have a lot of laundry to do. And a sick kid. But at least I only have one sick kid. So far. Fingers crossed that it stays that way!

Zero...

That's the amount of time I've spent today writing. Zero minutes. And that's not likely to change anytime soon seeing as how I've got to go feed the kids and head off for football practice. I've had a rough couple of weeks the past two weeks. With teaching school and adjusting to Sophia's always-changing napping/crabby moment schedule. So Matthew has been taking Elijah to his practices. Or, like last week, he takes Elijah while I run errands with Sophia then swing back to pick them up. But tonight I'm taking the practice shift. Matthew has so much homework this semester since he's taking an extra class, so he could really use the time in the empty house tonight.

I'm totally not looking forward to it though. It's an hour and half long, it's been raining this afternoon and it's supposed to rain more. Oh and did I mention I get to take Sophia along? Yeah, I said he needs the house quiet, didn't I? Not going to happen with her around.

Normally I don't mind taking her either, but did I mention the rain? Muddy field plus fifteen month old toddler/baby who loves to run around, not pleasant.

But whose complaining? Oh wait, I am!

How did this happen?

I have about twenty-eight word documents in my book file. I seem to have not one, not two, but three chapter fourteens. One is titled "Chapter Fourteen", the other "Chapter Fourteen-Actual" and last but not least, "14".

Will the real chapter fourteen please stand up?

Reason number 1,081 why I hate editing.

Also, I have about fifteen legal pads containing my hand-written chapters. Mixed in those notepads I also have all my notes for books two and three. Additions I want to make to book one. Time lines for books one and two. Outlines for books one and two. And random scenes for all three. All completely mixed and jumbled. I seriously need organization help.

Now what to do with the document labeled "fragment". Fragment of what?

I also have documents confusingly labeled "Chapter 12.5 and Chapter 14.5". I'm assuming they go in between certain chapters.

Writing a book is hard. Now whose idea was it to make this a trilogy. Oh wait, that would be me!

Let's be honest...

If Sophia manages to take at least one nap, and not run a fever of 102 (like she did this weekend). ..If I manage to not flood the kitchen... If Elijah and I can complete all our schoolwork without driving each other nuts...it will be a decent Monday.

If I can manage to actually do anything else, like work out or write a little, it will be a great Monday.

If I can convince my hypochondriac self that I'm not coming down with whatever Sophia had this weekend, it will be a miracle Monday.

Wish me luck.

Booyah!

So, despite suffering a major, major setback yesterday afternoon. This morning I actually finished my outline for my second book! That's crazy right? Yes it is!

Back to the setback. Well, somehow as I was typing and not saving my work as I went (stupid stupid I know! But I was in the zone!). I manged to hit some random button with my pinkie and the whole word document closed! When I brought it back up it was giving my my previously saved, from the night before, document. I lost all my work for the day. Total loss, three pages. Now, normally this isn't such a big deal. When I type, I'm usually working off my hard copy. Good old paper and pen. But this time, outlining, I was mostly going off memory. See I had written out an outline about a month ago. But lately I've been going over the plot points again and again in my head until I have them just right. I was having a really good moment yesterday where I was totally focused and everything was coming into place. So I was basically outline the culmination of book two. Then zap. GONE! Gone, gone. Completely gone. Yes I tried everything to bring it back. If you ever lose a word document, I am your girl. I know every trick in the book to try and recover it. Nothing helped.

Apparently I'm running some stone-age version of word. 2003 to be exact. Seriously, it's not that old is it? My car is a '98! Oh and my operating system? Hold onto your hats...WINDOWS XP!!! Seriously, if I ever make a dime off writing the firs thing I'm getting is a new laptop with Windows....whatever is the current operating system. I suppose by then it will be Windows 2020. And a new car...and new socks, mine are quite holey...

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah my book outline. So by the time I had recovered from losing my life's work, well, a day's work, I sat down about three hours later when I finally had a free minute and tried to remember everything I had written. Of course, I mostly could. But I couldn't help but feel like I was still missing something. Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't. I'll never know.

This morning I managed to finish up the rest and I'm very happy with the end result. Of course I still have a ton of work ahead of me. Book one still needs to be finished, though I'm seriously working on editing the final chapters now. Also, though I'm happy to be finished with the outline, that's seriously like 5% of the work done. BUT, I've learned that the outline is the most important part of writing a book. It's like my map, telling me where to go and helping me stay on the path. Which is why I'm printing it...and laminating it. Just kidding, but hey that's not a bad idea! I'm also big into my timeline. I like to get my days and dates just perfect. I'm weird like that.

So what I have I learned now that I've officially plotted my second novel (yes it is a sequel!). Well, the amazon rainforest is a wicked exciting setting, almost as good as the streets of London. Also, explosions might just be more awesome than car chases. It remains to be seen. Finally, I think just maybe, I was cut out to write this stuff. Who knew? I love me some good clean action/adventure lets see how much trouble they can get into this time, type of stories. I love, love, LOVE my characters, I think they're amazing. AND I can't even explain to you just how much I love writing and just how badly I want to see my words in print.