Weekend Road Trip!

One of Laura's really good friends is getting shipped out to Kuwait in April. He's currently stationed in Oklahoma and they haven't seen each other in months. She wanted to be able to tell him goodbye and, with Bill and I being how we are, decided to make a family road trip out of it.

We left bright and early this past Friday morning and spent some time with the kids late that evening (was about a 13 hour drive). Saturday, Laura left with her friend to hang out on base and play video games, so Bill drove me around southern Oklahoma and northern Texas to lots of quilt shops. Saturday afternoon/evening we met up with my friend Moosey at Olive Garden, ate too much pasta, and talked and laughed and talked shop until the waiter started giving us dirty looks for hogging his table. It was a totally awesome day!

Sunday, we were out the door at 7:30am to head back home, making a pit-stop in Topeka to eat barbeque with Monica. Monica is amazing, just totally funny and cool, especially when the topic turned to corn and french fries. I don't think that Bill will ever look at food the same way again. lol ;). We could have stayed there all day if it wasn't for having to get back home sometime this century, so we piled back in the car for the remainder of the trip north, finally arriving home about 10pm. And the dogs were missing. They had, again, broken out of Fort Stewie, but Janna (our neighbor who'd been watching them) said they were there just a few hours before so we didn't worry. Much. Gozer and Stewie wandered back home not long afterward, and it was off to bed for the travel-fatigued Jones's.

It was a fantastic if exhausting weekend. I'd been wanting to meet Moosey and Monica for what seems like forever and both are great writers, great women, and just awesome friends. I got some really cool quilt fabric and templates for a Dresden plate block. Bill was sweet and charming all weekend - even when stuck listening to boring writer talk, Laura was her usual chipper self, and even I maintained a great mood after three days in the car. AND we stayed within sight of our budget!

It's good to be home though. Too bad I have to drive to Des Moines tomorrow! ;)

Pretty peachy

All in all, things here are pretty dang good. We've received - and approved - bids for painting the house, moving the breaker box, and getting some trees trimmed. I'm sewing up a pile of baby quilts - seems like most every gal I know who's in the 18-35 year range is pregnant. That's a *bit* of an exaggeration, but not much because I've added two new mommies to the baby quilt list in the past week or so.  This coming weekend is both the Northern Iowa and Central Iowa shop hops, and I haven't yet decided which hop I'm gonna do. Probably the Northern one so I won't have to drive so far, but there's a particular batik I want that's in the Ankeny shop... I guess I could call Jenny and have her just mail it to me. lol

Laura almost certainly has a full time job with bennies lined up - just has to pass the background check which should be totally effortless, so we're all excited about that. Way to go Laura!!

I've written a smidge more on Stain (link to an opening snippet for those who missed it last week) and am currently polishing up the second installment on The Ringer.

Exercising with the Wii is going well and Bill and I have added 'walking the boys' to the mix, which the dogs LOVE. They get very excited when we grab their leashes.

That's about all that's happening here. What's up with you?

Scar's writing challenge - The Ringer

I've written my first entry. It, and all following parts, can be seen at http://theringerchallenge.blogspot.com/.

A scene from Stain's opening

It's actually scene two. The book opens with a big event that's roughly mid-book then backtracks to the beginning because I really wanted to set Lars's desperation up front (but I'm not willing to give that particular secret away in a public venue). Anyway, the second scene is below the cut. It's horrid and brutal, so you've been forewarned. It's also unedited so there may be typos and content is subject to change.

Stain of Corruption

This past week or so, I've received several communications from folks asking about the state of Stain of Corruption. I have one version - since scrapped - that's finished first draft, other than the final chapter or so where the loose ends get tied up, and another - still active - that's about, oh, a third to a half done. I haven't been working on it much lately, but maybe I should get back on it. Does anyone have an opinion on me posting snips or talking about the process of the book?

No guarantees, I'm just curious.

I really need to figure out Blogger

I spent a good portion of tonight going through some essays I'd written on my awful-angsty problems with writing (same shit, different day in Tam's poor, broken brain) including a few I'd written specifically for this blog.

And what did I find? People have commented weeks, even months after I'd written and posted them. And that's saying a lot since this blog is only a couple of months old. My old blog kept all the comments in one place - which I made my home page - so even if I didn't have a good response, I at least knew what people had to say. Here, I have to notice a new comment has been added and I'm just not good at going through the posts and keeping track of such things.

I apologize for my lack of followup on some of the older posts and I've now set the blog to email me comments. For future reference (and since my site will be going down in three months) I have an email set up at tambowrites AT gmail DOT com.

Mid-March Madness - A Writing Contest

My very artistic friend Scarlett is offering a free custom blog design. The catch? You just need to write 500-700 words every other day. Details are http://bajettodesign.com/blog/.