Unplugged

Leaving tomorrow on vacation - yahooo! E and I are going kayaking down the St Maurice river. As in: loading sleeping bags, tents, deydrated food, two rolls of toilet paper, two water purification systems, and one chick lit book :) into the kayaks and paddling our selves down the river (with the current) we'll stop, put up the tent and camp along the way. No showers - camp suds in the water, no 'facilities' - there's a shovel for covering up 'business'. I'm looking forward to total relaxation. E says our schedule is for 5 hrs of paddling per day. If you figure 8 hours on the water, that leaves 3 hours for a long lunch break and lots of little photo ops and slowdowns.

Here's my reaction to the 'you're crazy!' reactions: I think it's crazy to pack everything from your living room into your car and trailer, go park it in some ramshackle campground full of people and then 'camp' next to your car-ful of crap. To me, camping is carrying the essentials (yes - a chick lit book is essential) somewhere remote (no people around). I DO enjoy a vacation of lesiure, but that would be an all-inclusive resort.

My reaction to the 'do you know how to kayak?' reaction: not really. I guess I'm about to learn the hard way. I've been out a few times for a few hours each time. Having the boats loaded down with stuff makes them more stable, and each time we go out it gets a little easier, so I'm hoping the trip goes well. Worst case, we have a tow-rope....

: )

Feedback

I asked my readers for feedback after Labor Day. My first one just called to tell me she finished over breakfast this morning. She said she read it every chance she got and it helped her relax in the bathroom. Not sure I'll put that on the cover blurbs.

I don't want to share her feedback because I don't want to influence other readers, but I will say she found some mistakes - wrong names used, etc. and had some specific "complaints" - too slow here, too much detail there, but overall she *liked it*.

The demons are telling me that she's only saying that because she knows me and doesn't want to hurt my feelings, but my inner Buffy is saying that she could have given me much more negative feedback in a *nice way* so the book just might not be half bad...

Anxiety

Just send my 2nd draft to a group of readers. My not-so-secret fear is that they will read it and think "Oh my God, this is awful. Poor her - she'll never publish anything."

Ok, so what if it's true? What if this book stinks. bad. real bad...
The next one will be better. right?

ugh.

lots o' freelance work. office a mess. not getting enough downtime. cannot keep up with E. 2nd night in a row I insisted on Karen time. I don't even want to know what he's doing because it will go something like this:
E: "So, how was your evening? Get a lot done?"
Me: "Yes - I read a chapter of Villette, polished my toenails and updated my blog. You?"
E: "I replaced the engine in my car, re-painted a wall in the living room, fixed the loose hinge on the dishwasher, took out the garbage and ran 15K."

Grrr. freakin' e. He doesn't lord it over me or anything, but there is just no keeping up with him. grrr. I'm going to start adding "and I thought over some tricky plot points" to all my time-accounting answers. He knows it's code for did nothing, but at least it sounds good.

Help pls!

I need another name like the 'Geek Squad' - you know those guys at Best Buy who will fix your computer even if it means plugging it in or hitting the Any key.

I want to use a Geek Squad in my book but I need my own name.

All I can come up with is 'Reboot Rangers' which sux.

Pls brainstrom anything - bad ideas pave the way to good ideas (at least I hope so or my book is doomed).

Thanks in advance

And yes, this means I am making progress....

The Karen character needs to change already

She still just sits at her computer writing a little, then not writing, then scribbling on post-its, coming up with complicated plot-fixing organizational systems that just mess up her office more. I'm getting really annoyed with her. She better just fix the freaking ending of her book already and get on with it.