Letters to Myself

My blog has moved

2010-08-16T00:43:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

Due to issues with people not being able to leave comments, issues with not being able to post pictures or working links, and other issues...I am leaving blogspot/blogger and moving to wordpress.

My new blog, Inside My Imagination, can be found at http://insidemyimagination.wordpress.com/

I hope you join me and follow my new journey.

Shell

Fiber Cult

2010-07-08T16:31:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

The title probably is making you go "What the hell! What is Fiber Cult? Is it a cult of people increasing their fiber intake? Who would join a club like that?"

You'll be glad to know, Fiber Cult is not about increasing your fiber intake. A Fiber Cult is actually more of a craft club, the actual name of it is Eye For Fiber. A group of women, including my mom and now myself, gather once a month to compare craft projects, talk about crafting, and offer suggestions if needed. Most of the crafting involves fabric and what you can put on fabric, from what I understand of it. I've only been to one meeting so far.

And the funkier and brighter, the better! Why use tan when you can use orange? Why use soft blue when you can use neon green? Why not add sparkly rings and fuzzy yarn?

A few months ago they decided to start a fabric challenge based off an idea in a magazine (I'm not sure which magazine it was though). Each person starts with a roughly 18" x 22" fabric piece of their choice. Whatever color they want. Each month, a piece of paper is pulled from a cup with a prompt on it. The prompt tells what needs to be added next to the piece of fabric. One month's prompt could be completely different from the month before, resulting in a very interesting end piece once all the prompts are done and the challenge is called to an end.

I joined the group on the meeting where they pulled the 3rd prompt for the challenge, so I've been trying to get caught up on my fabric piece so that I'm at the same point as everyone else. It's been interesting so far. I almost have the 2nd prompt done and am trying to figure out what to do for the 3rd. 'Add something unusual to add texture'. Hm, this could be...very strange!

Well I have dishes to do and dinner to plan, then a challenge prompt to finish, so I'm going to sign off for now.

Shell

p.s. Mom... look! a new blog post! :P

Dance Exercise

2010-06-02T18:04:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

Recently I picked up a dance exercise video. Hip Hop Dance Mix, in the 10-Minute Solutions family of videos. Wow... after one 10 minute session I was ready to collapse! I think my body forgot how to move for more than walking and other daily activities. Worked up a good sweat with that session as well.

Today I picked up Dancing With The Stars - Latin Dance Mix (something like that). Some of the dances on there, it was hard to get my body to move like that. The Samba wasnt too bad. I only tripped myself, oh, a few times. :)

This is the type of exercise I think I can stick with. It works out my body and teaches me something fun at the same time. Eventually, I'll be able to pick the exercise with music only option instead of instructions option (this is on the Dancing With The Stars video).

Here's to hoping I can "dance my ass off"...literally!

Shell

5 Years Ago...

2010-05-20T21:09:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

5 years ago tomorrow, May 21st, I did something very special, and in a unique way. I got married to a wonderful person, and we had the wedding ceremony on... a train! Yes that's right, J and I got married on a train. Not just any train, but the Michigan Star Clipper dinner train.

5 years. 5 years is not very long in the scheme of life overall, and it went by in a flash, but a lot happened in the last 5 years. I'll just touch on a few items here.

J had a few changes in the work end of things, finally ending up at a place where he seems to really like his job. He quickly moved up to being a team leader, proving to his team and his employer that he was highly knowledgeable in his work.

I quit working at one job to finish college, and saw my health improve drastically from what it was while I was working there. I went from having obstructions in my lungs and very poor breathing to having low-end of normal breathing with no obstructions. Finished college, with a bachelors in Management... a field I have no interest in anymore. Now I'm back working for a place that I worked at when I was 19. And I'm really liking the place. Different duties now than I had then, but it's a good job.

A year ago we lost a beloved pet. It was difficult getting to the point of being able to think about Junior without crying. Even now, I still miss him.

A few months ago, we bought our first "real" house. A 1700 sq foot ranch with a basement and garage, and 1 1/2 acres. We moved from a double-wide trailer in a park, which was a good home, but didn't fit what we really wanted. This house, while it needs work, is just what we wanted. We're learning a lot while we find things here that need to be fixed or updated, and it's been fun.

A few months ago we also acquired a new pet. A black and white kitten that we named Penelope. She's quickly become a very affectionate, very loved addition to the family. She loves to cuddle, especially with me.

What will the next 5 years bring? Hopefully a child or two. Our house becoming more of what we want with the updates. More knowledge of apple trees...(our house came with an apple orchard, we're hoping to not kill the trees off haha).

Whatever life brings, we'll face it together.

Looking forward to the next 5, 10, 50 years,
Shell

Decaying Flesh...

2010-05-15T20:48:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

No, I'm not talking about a disease. I'm talking about the color, former color that is, of the spare bedroom in our house. It was a godawful orangy-peachy-salmon-icky color that wouldn't look good on anything, especially not bedroom walls. I'm not talking about the nice salmon color you see on shirts or other fabrics. This was.. horrible.

But, it is now a soft and pretty blue called Ocean Dream. We only have the first coat done so far but it is a huge improvement on the room. One wall, an accent wall, will end up a shade or two darker tomorrow when we put the second coat on. Then once everything dries, we put the curtain rod back up, put the bed back in and together, and get the decor set up.

I thought about going with a beach theme, with stenciled seashells and such. But there will be a very special quilt on the spare bed which my grandma made for J and I as a wedding gift. It is several shades of blue and has flowers scattered through the fabric. Since the quilt is very special and I chose the blue for the room based on the quilt, I will end up stenciling in some flowers and doing the decor along those lines.

The curtains that were in the room, Mom and I are going to see if we can maybe alter them slightly to make them fit. They have burgundy on them but also have flowers embroidered into the fabric. I think if we can figure out a good way to add some blue to the curtains, then they'll fit nicely into the room and I wont have to buy new curtains.

Well it's late and I have to work tomorrow so I better get to bed so I can get a good night's sleep.

Slightly high from paint fumes...
Shell

Overtime, Crafts, Writing, and ME

2010-04-25T10:15:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

Work has been going well. Lots of overtime, but I expected that when I hired into the company. The work is easy and my team has been great. My boss was pretty cool about letting me take this weekend off to recover from exhaustion and an ear infection/sinus infection.

The downside to working all the overtime... I haven't had much ME time, for my crafts or my writing. I think I've only dedicated 2-3 hours total to writing since I started working again, and some of that was on editing not new writing (although the editing seriously needs to get done). The past two weeks I haven't done much with crocheting either. I'm still at the 2/3rds mark on the 3rd lap blanket. I tried to crochet some last night, but ended up napping instead. Really needed the nap though.

I woke up this morning with a scene for one of my novels running through my head. So far I've been awake 4-5 hours and I have three sentences of it written down. Oops.

I miss writing. I miss my writing group. I've missed all meetings since NaNo ended. Its hard to head to Flint at 6pm for a meeting on a Sunday though when I've been up since 3am and already put in 8 hours of work and have to be up at 5am the next morning. Hopefully next weekend when the next meeting is scheduled I'll be able to make it, since I had this weekend off to recover and catch up on some sleep.

Well, I'm going to try to get the rest of this scene written down while it's still running through my head.

wondering where her sanity is,
Shell

Lap Blankets for Cancer Patients

2010-03-25T18:31:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

Mom and I are crocheting lap blankets (36"x36") for one of the cancer centers that Mom's friend goes to. Karmanos Cancer Institute (Michigan). If I understand correctly, when a new patient comes into the cancer center, they are given a lap blanket that becomes their blanket to use. They take it home, bring it back for each of their appointments, etc. It's something to give them something to fuss with with their hands, something to give comfort, something for warmth. Right now, Karmanos Cancer Institute is low on lap blankets. They need more.

Wouldn't it be great if they had an excess, because they didn't have any need for them due to patients being cured? Unfortunately, that's not the case. They have more patients than they have blankets to give.

I know people out there besides Mom and I know how to do these crafts. The blankets can be crocheted, knitted, quilted. They don't need to be super fancy with all the frilly trim and delicate time-consuming stitches, but they do need to be warm. Cheerful colors are good as well, something to help brighten an otherwise dismal time.

Please, if you know how to crochet, knit, sew... please help us with making lap blankets for Karmanos, and possibly other cancer centers once Karmanos has extras saved up. The Lapeer Cancer Center is good on blankets right now, but they may run low at any time, so they will be kept on the list of potential recipients.

For those followers who know me, you can contact me through email, phone, Facebook, or a comment here, whichever is the best way, if you are able to make some blankets to help out. If you can have some made and ready by the end of each month, I can get them to Mom so we can get them delivered during the first week of the next month.

Thank you to everyone,
Shell

2010 - Busy Year Already

2010-02-25T17:10:00.003-05:00

Dear Shell,

Much has happened so far in 2010.

As you can see in the coupon savings widget on the right, I am again attempting to track all grocery savings for the year. I did pretty good in 2009. Hopefully I can improve on the savings in 2010. My goal is to save at least $700 this year with coupons and other savings.

In January, we moved into our new house. It's quickly become home to us, not just a house. We're still not fully unpacked, but some of the stuff is in the breezeway and it's freezing out there, so I told J that we'd wait til it warmed up a little before heading out there to go through the boxes. Most of it is knick-knacks and books, everything else is in the house and mostly unpacked. My office/craft room is still a mess. The shelves I planned on putting in here are still in the garage, we just haven't taken the time to clean them up and bring them in yet.

At the end of January I finally found a job (thanks to my best friend Jenn!). I'm back working for a company that I worked for back in 1995-1998. Lots has changed, and some is still the same. I'm doing a different job now though. I'm a Manufacturing Technician 1, whereas when I worked for them before I was a Machine Operator. I'm enjoying the work, it's fairly easy and I get to work with my hands. Oh yeah, I get to play with power tools! The hours are not too bad either, I'm actually getting about 6 hours of sleep each night, which is just about right (if i try to go to bed early, I still end up waking up after 6 hours anyways). I've been there a month now and I'm still liking it.

Around the same time that I started the job, we got a new kitten. My cousin Lisa rescued some kittens from behind her work, so J and I talked about it and decided to help her out by adopting one of the kittens. Penelope, or Penny, is a tuxedo cat (black and white) with very unusual copper colored eyes. J picked the name Penelope out before he even saw her, based on the description I gave him of her colors. And once we realized what color her eyes were, the nickname Penny really seemed to fit. She's a cuddler and she loves my hair. At night, at least a couple nights a week, she'll come into the bedroom and curl up around my head (back paws at my neck, body wrapped around the top of my head, and her head resting by my ear). She's only 4 pounds right now, so her weight isn't enough to affect my sleeping. Once she gets bigger though, she's not going to be able to sleep like that.

I don't remember if I mentioned it in an earlier blog post, but our house came with a small apple orchard. We were told maybe 7 apple trees. But looking at our backyard and counting all the trees that look similar (crooked trunks, short, similar branches, etc)... I think we have around 30-35 apple trees! I hope everyone at work likes apples because I'll be taking in boxes and boxes of them. As long as we don't kill the trees on accident! I've already started researching what we need to do with fertilizing, pruning, and stuff like that. Still need to figure out what we need to do for disease- and worm-prevention.

Now that I'm getting fairly adjusted to my new schedule (omg I have to get UP at 5am, not go to bed AT 5am!!), I'm finally getting back into some writing. I'm working on a short story right now to get the creative juices flowing again. Then I'll jump back into editing my first two novels, "Dragon Eye" and "Hideaway Inn".

Well I need to go take care of some household stuff!

Searching for a new red pen,
Shell

Examiner

2010-01-19T15:06:00.005-05:00

Dear Shell,

http://www.examiner.com/x-35797-Flint-Cooking-Examiner?showbio

I have recently started writing for Examiner.com. My first two articles needed to have some changes done to get them set up the way they wanted them, but now I am considered a regular Cooking Examiner! I just posted my third article today. From what I understand from the information that was sent to me and the training videos, I need to try to post at least 3-4 articles per week, the more the better. And they need to be local whenever possible.

Unfortunately, the "local" is Flint, and I do not know Flint all that well, especially when it comes to food/ingredient shopping. So I'm having to research the different grocery stores and such to try to include them into my articles as places to get ingredients. In my research though I did find a grocery store in Flint that caters mostly to Indian ingredients, so I may have an article about that store next. I did get permission to write about some of places in the towns around Flint, but they'd prefer I use Flint mostly.

Another unfortunate thing is, they frown upon first person writing, which makes it hard to write about an experience with a recipe and the results if you have to write it in third person. But I shall prevail!

Pay rate depends on page views and length of session on the page, although they are making a change next week. Starting next week, there will be a small bonus included for local articles, up to 5 local articles per week.

This won't be a high paying job, I'll be lucky to make enough for a nice dinner out each month, but every penny helps. I love writing and this lets me get some exposure as a writer, and experience doing it.

Keep those pots and pans ready!
Shell

The Green Glowing Eye

2010-01-12T12:37:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

Time for a short short. Rough draft, has not been edited.

The Green Glowing Eye

What is that? I jumped back several feet, my hand creeping up to rest at the base of my throat. Heart pounding, I took two steps down the long dark hallway. Nothing. Just my imagination working overtime again. Sighing, relaxing again, I took another step.

Wait, there it is again. Halfway down this pitch black hallway. Glowing green and suspended in the air. Oval shaped, like an eye. Not blinking, just staring at me. What is that eye attached to? Some sort of monster waiting to pounce?

I can’t move. I want to run but I can’t. The breath is caught in my chest, sweat gathering on my forehead. My hands, I can’t even move my hands to protect myself. That green eye has paralyzed me.

It moved. I swear it just moved. Closer? Please tell me it didn’t move closer. The trapped air in my chest released, followed by several rapid shallow breaths.

What is it, what is that monster? What does it want with me? What is it going to do to me?

I have to be strong. I took a deep shuddering breath, closed my eyes to break the monster’s paralyzing stare. One step forward. Then another. I opened my eyes again and jumped forward, fingers curled like claws ready to gouge that glowing green eye out of the monster’s head. My fingers wrapped around the eye, ripped it out of its socket.

I held that eye in my hand, no longer glowing, no longer staring at me. With my other hand, I reached out and turned on the light. Looking down, I could only shake my head at the nightlight resting in my hand.

Hope you enjoyed it.
Shell

2009 Recap

2010-01-01T14:56:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

2009 was a fairly good year. I got a lot of writing done, but I know I could have done more. I learned new crochet patterns and actually branched out into playing with crochet cotton and making doilies. I participated in NaNoWriMo again and won for a second year in a row. And I'm really liking the novel I wrote for NaNo this time. Not that I hate the first one I wrote, but I didn't make as many mistakes this time around.

The end of 2009 saw us buying a new home and starting to move stuff in. Stress, panic, joy, fear, happiness... we saw all the emotions flying in the last month of 2009. I have a lot of the smaller stuff moved in, but wow do we still have a lot of stuff to move! I think we have the guys lined up for the 9th to get the furniture moved in, so i have a few more days left to get the rest of the small stuff moved before hand (need to reuse some boxes so i need to move what i can now so we can use the same boxes for more stuff).

In 2009 I also started using coupons more for grocery shopping, and tracking how much I saved, which helped keep me going with it. From March to December, I saved us $528.96, which was 23% savings. So we went from an average of $232 per month grocery bill to $178.50 average bill. This is not counting the occasional trips up to the local meat market to pick up meat, which this year I plan on tracking better (no savings there, but need to track how much is spent). Since we're moving though and wont be practically next door to the meat market, I don't think we'll be having as much spent there now. I'll have to either get a meat bundle from them, or buy more meat from the grocery store. We're thinking of eventually getting a deep freezer for the basement or garage and then we can buy a half a cow or pig or something and stock up that way.

Well I should get back to packing,
Shell

New Beginning - Hideaway Inn

2009-12-14T18:57:00.003-05:00

Dear Shell,

I'm working on the revision/rewrite/editing on Hideaway Inn, as I think I've mentioned in a post before this. I'm looking at changing the beginning of the story. This is the possible beginning:

Long white candles burned, the flames flickering eerily against the shadows of the room. The lone occupant of the room crossed over to a small ornate wooden chest on the fireplace mantle. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out golden key. With a sigh, she glanced over her shoulder at the circle of clear crystals on the hardwood floor before turning back to the chest. The key slid easily into the lock, turned smoothly. She paused again before lifting the lid.

“I hope this is worth it.” She muttered in a low voice.

A soft glow came from within the chest. Her hand dipped into the chest and pulled out a fist-sized, smooth onyx crystal. The crystal felt warm in her hand, the warmth seeming to pulse with her heartbeat.

That is what I have so far, I'm looking at how to incorporate it into the current beginning.

Shell

Packing and all that Jazz

2009-12-04T17:34:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

I have too much stuff. Plain and simple. Too. Much. Stuff. Yet, I cant seem to make myself get rid of it. Well, I did throw out a couple things today while packing stuff up. But only a couple. I need to throw out more, but it's so hard!

I have four or five boxes of books packed up so far, one is a huge box. They contain about four authors worth of books. That's it. FOUR authors. I made a good dent in the bookshelf, but I think it would take a good ten or more boxes, more like twenty, to pack up all the books. I'm going to take some to Goodwill, once I sort through what's left and decide which books I know I would enjoy reading again.

The majority of the breakable items, such as figurines, collectible plates, carousel horses, and such have been packed. Some of the glasses and plates packed. Pictures taken off the walls and packed.

Yet the house still looks the same! Well not completely, the walls are bare of pictures now, but it really does not look like I've made a dent in anything!

The hard part is deciding what can be packed now, and what needs to wait til the last minute. And convincing my brain of it. My brain keeps arguing that You might need that in the next two weeks" while the rest of me is saying "OMG I ONLY HAVE TWO WEEKS TO PACK!"

Less than two weeks for some of it if I want. The current owners are moving out immediately (the moving truck is coming the same day we close on the house). So the next day, we can start moving our stuff in. I'll probably take loads, and loads, and loads of boxes over as soon as possible. We are going to try to get carpet cleaners in to clean the carpets before we move in, but there are places where i can stack up boxes without worrying about the cleaners.

Well, I should get back to packing. I'm running low on boxes again already, and I just picked up a few more today! (some were pretty small though).

Packing my life in boxes,
Shell

NaNoWriMo is almost over

2009-11-29T16:06:00.003-05:00

Dear Shell,

NaNoWriMo is almost over. It has been a pretty good month. I have about 52,000 done in Hide Me - Hideaway Inn. And another 15,000 in Just Five More. I am still loving Hideaway Inn. I am still working on adding scenes in where they are needed, and trying to add in the descriptions that I'm missing.

Just Five More has become something different than what I was planning on. It was going to be a chick lit story, but it has become more of a self-exploration journal instead. I might be able to get a few good short stories or essays out of it to try to get published in some magazines.

Tomorrow at midnight is the official end of NaNoWriMo. I am actually at a write-in right now, but we are talking so much that I'm having trouble concentrating on writing. haha. The only writing I'm getting done so far is during our word sprints (15 minutes, write as much as possible non-stop). The sprints are nice because it forces you to just write.

I should get back to writing. I need to figure out where these scenes fit.

Forcing myself to concentrate,
Shell

First Draft - Hideaway Inn

2009-11-20T13:47:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

The first draft of Hideaway Inn is technically finished, although I don't consider it officially finished since I know I have a few scenes I need to add still. It has a beginning, middle, and end. I wrote the final chapter and epilogue last night/this morning. So that is why I say it's technically finished.

Today, between job searches, I have been slowly going through the manuscript, double-checking my timelines, looking for missing scenes, and adding in some much needed descriptions. I have noticed I tend not to describe certain things since well, I see them in my head so I already know what it looks like.

I think what I plan to do is, once I have gone through the first draft and figured out the scenes I need to add, I'll add those in, then print the whole thing out. That'll make it easier to edit. For me anyway.

I have a scene I may end up cutting out near the end of the story. It leads up to the third book of the series (yes, I'm going to try to turn this into a trilogy or maybe a 4 book series), but it's a rather touchy subject/scene so may have to change it around at a minimum.

I'm getting requests from a couple people now to hurry up so they can read it. So I guess i better get back to it. I wanted to post quick here though since it has been a little bit since my last letter.

Lost in a world of witches, warlocks and vampires,
Shell

Hide Me (Hideaway Inn) Excerpt

2009-11-04T14:13:00.004-05:00

Dear Shell,

Time for another excerpt, even though it's only been a couple days. At my region's kick-off party last Friday, we all walked around with papers on our back for others to write plot ideas on to help each writer out when they hit a snag. I decided that the one idea just couldn't wait until i hit a snag, i needed to use it and work it in earlier.

Excerpt from "Hide Me (Hideaway Inn)":

Back to being her usual whirlwind of energy, Marie burst through the office door already talking up a storm without knowing for sure if Amanda was in yet or not. Several of her words penetrated the sleep fog that Amanda was in. Words like: Slime, creepy, strange, snails, unnatural.

Amanda sat up, rubbing her eyes. She said groggily, “Slow down. What or who is arriving? And what are they bringing?”

Marie took a deep breath then quickly repeated what she had been saying when she had come in to the office, “The were- snails are coming. They commissioned a miniature replica of the inn, identical to the Hideaway, down to the furniture. Although, I do not know if they know about the piano. Hm. I wonder if they will add that. Anyway, they said the Hunters or something like that are after them. They want to come to the Hideaway for sanctuary.”

“The Hunters respect our laws at the Hideaway. They hate it, but they respect it. They know we have the blessing of the Gods, and that all the magical community comes here to be safe.” Amanda was starting to realize just how serious things were getting outside of the safety of the inn. She wondered if maybe the notes were warnings from a Hunter, maybe it really did go back to Arabelle.

“What is with the miniature version of the inn though? That is just creepy.”

Amanda shook her head, trying to hold back the laughter. “They are were- snails. That means they are small creatures. I suspect the miniature version of the inn will be where they will spend most of their time, so they avoid being stepped on by other guests. I will need to find a safe spot for them to put the miniature where it will not disturb the other guests, and the were- snails will not be disturbed either.”

“I still say it is unnatural, Amanda. Were- snails? That is just, odd.” Marie said.

“You have been a part of the magical community for how long, and you still find things unnatural?” Amanda gave in to the laughter.

“I do not find most things unnatural. I take it all in stride. But seriously, snails?” Marie shuddered.

Amanda crossed over to her closet to see if she had any spare clothes stored there. Her voice was slightly muffled as she spoke from inside the closet, “You would be surprised just how much magic those little creatures contain. It is good that they are not our size, they would be too powerful, unstoppable.”

Marie moved to the office door and called back into the room, “Still. It is snails.” She shut the door behind her as she left.

Cleaning up the slime trails from the lobby floor,
Shell

NaNo Time Again

2009-11-03T02:38:00.004-05:00

Dear Shell,

It's that time again. November has shown up on the calendar again and writers around the world are slaving away over their keyboards, fighting the clock to hit 50,000 words or more by midnight on November 30th.

Like I did last year, I plan on sharing excerpts from the novel I am working on this year.

Hide Me (Hideaway Inn)

Three beautiful women stood in the extravagant foyer of the Hideaway Inn. Amanda Cameron, owner and manager of the inn, stood with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. “I measured. I swear I measured it. The piano should have fit between the fireplace and the dining room entrance.”

“Did you measure before or after you upgraded from the vertical piano to the baby grand?” Brynn, the middle sister, tapped the measuring tape against her arm.

“I –oh shut up.” Amanda stalked away from her sisters, cut around the corner of the oak front desk and slammed into her office. The sound of the door hitting the door jamb resonated through the lobby.

Brynn and Diana looked at each other and grinned identical grins. “She's so easy to rile up.” Diana waved her hand in the direction of the baby grand piano and they watched the piano shrink back down to the correct size.

“You know she's going to blame me for this.” Brynn mentioned to her baby sister. She glanced toward the office door and laughed. “Not like I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't beaten me to it.”

Hiding out at the laptop for the next 27 days,
Shell

Missed Contest Entry

2009-10-17T13:17:00.004-04:00

Dear Shell,

Well, I had planned on entering a writing contest this month. I read the prompt, thought to myself, this one looks fun, and I sat down and wrote. I was getting ready to submit my work when I received the call to set up a job interview. Wham, the contest flew right out of my head as I started preparing myself for the interview.

Since I missed the deadline for the contest, I am now free to post it here on my blog for all of you to read. It might be good, it might be bad, but it's written!

They'll Never Find It

Monday March 2^nd

“Don’t worry, they’ll never find the body.”

“I don’t know John, it seems risky.” I bit my lip as I studied John’s hand-drawn map.

“You want to be free don’t you? Michael doesn’t treat you right. You thought he had only a few years left to live when you married him. It’s been almost fifteen years! I’m tired of waiting, tired of hiding.” John paced the room.

I looked away from his gorgeous blue eyes. It was true, when I married Michael, I thought he had only a few more years to live. The cancer had eaten away at his body leaving him near death many times. Thanks to an experimental treatment, my ailing husband had been cured. John, my love since high school, had been waiting patiently on the side, waiting for Michael to die and leave me rich and free to marry him.

“What if something goes wrong?”

“It won’t. Look, it can’t be simpler. You’ll convince Michael to take a boat tour around the islands. You’ll make the arrangements, hire me and my crew. When we get to the south end of Anita Island, the boys and I will take care of Michael. The logs will show you came alone.” John paused and tapped the table. “When you get home, wait until late at night and call the cops, report him missing, he never came home, no evidence he had been home at all while you were on vacation, etcetera. Enough time passes, they declare him dead, you get the money.”

It sounded simple. But there’s always a catch, something that could go wrong. “How do you know the crew won’t talk?” I had to ask.

“I pay them well. And I have blackmail against all of them. They won’t cross me.”

“Okay. Okay, let’s do it.”

Thursday March 5^th

It was difficult, but I think I hid my nervousness well over the next few days. It helped that Michael was away on business so I didn’t have to face him. He was home now.

“Ready for our trip?” Michael wrapped his frail arms around me.

“Packed and set to head out. Did you tell anyone about our trip?” I had asked him to keep it a secret, stating that I didn’t want any interruptions from his employees, associates, or family while we snuck away for our romantic getaway.

“No one knows. I told my associates that I’d be working from home and not to worry if they didn’t hear from me for a few days.” A wicked grin crossed his face.

“Perfect.” I pulled away from Michael, walked over to the pile of designer luggage. Making sure my face was turned away from him; I closed my eyes and prayed for strength. Strength to deceive him, strength to commit, or at least aid in, murder.

Friday March 6^th

“Welcome! We’ll be leaving on our tour once we get your belongings stowed below. My name is John and I’ll be your tour guide today.” John kept his gaze on Michael as he explained the various highlights of the tour. At the end of the speech, the boat left the dock to start the tour of the islands.

Several hours later we reached the southernmost island.

“This is Anita Island, named after Anita Fay Dell, a young woman who stood daily on the cliff you see there, waiting to see her love come home from the sea. On the day she received the news of his death, she leapt from the cliff into the sea. If you look over the side right here, you can see a glimpse of something white, that some say is the dress she wore on that day.” John motioned for Michael to come closer to peer over the side of the boat. When Michael looked over the edge, John gestured to his crew.

I turned away. Even knowing what would happen, knowing that I was part of this plan, I couldn’t watch the murder happen. The sounds of struggling seemed to last forever before I finally heard the splash of his body hit the water. I knew his body would be weighted down to help it sink to the ocean floor.

“Ready?”

I turned and looked into those familiar blue eyes. “Ready.” I slipped my arm around his waist.

“Don’t worry, they’ll never find the body.”

I hugged him close. “I know, Michael. I know.” I sighed and kissed my husband of fifteen years.

I hope you enjoyed this short short story, or at least were able to struggle through to the end!

Waiting patiently for the next contest,
Shell

House Hunting

2009-10-02T14:15:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

As I said in my last letter, J and I went to look at a house. The house is in great shape, has everything we're looking for, and is in a price range we can afford. J has started the process for the VA assistance for home buying and we should know soon if we are approved by the VA and then we need to get approved for a mortgage.

We don't want to just settle on the first house that we look at, so we are looking at other homes as well. But so far, we're leaning toward the first house still. Today we went to look at another house. It's about $10,000 less than the first one, 300 less sq feet, higher taxes, and.... a lot of water damage visible in the basement, plus other visible damage from animals. So we're crossing that one off the list.

We have three more houses on our current list to look at. I drove past one of them on the way back from looking at the other house today. I have a feeling I can cross it off the list already without J even looking at it. He is dead set against living off a gravel road, and there's about a 3/4 mile of gravel road to go down to get to the subdivision where this house is. The subdivision is paved, but the paved drive stops just before the house that's for sale.

The other two on the list are about 3 miles south of where we currently live, in a decent subdivision.

So far, I'm definitely liking the first house we looked at. It's a good size, not too big, not too small. Has a partially finished basement. Just over one acre of land. Garage. Three bedroom, three bath, kitchen with breakfast nook, dining room, and a large living room. Plus a room off the back of the garage that could be used as a den, office, craft room.... something of that sort.

On the search for a new home,
Shell

Me Lately

2009-09-24T17:42:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

Yes, I know, I've been slacking yet again on my blog. Again, I'm sorry. Fifty lashes with a wet noodle! Wait... no... I'll try harder, i promise! :)

I've been pretty busy with my writing lately. I had to type up about 100 hand-written pages, plus I was changing the POV so that took some work. I'm still torn as to which POV I want, first person or third person, this particular story would work either way. But I am going to complete the first draft, read it over, and decide then. I can always change it when I'm editing/revising/rewriting for the second draft. I'll try to get an excerpt posted soon.

I'm still searching for a job. I applied a couple days ago for an Administrative Assistant job in Imlay City. The posting is scheduled to stay up until Sept 30th, but I'm not sure if they'll start interviewing before then or not. Wish me luck! I'm going to check some of the other 'cities' in the county and see if any of them are looking for employees as well. Wouldn't that be funny though, if I got a job working for/with one of the cities, I'd be the fourth generation working in the municipal field according to my mom. Must mean it's in my blood somewhere!

J and I are going to go look at a house tonight, in about 40 minutes actually. It's a nice ranch on the east side of town. I'm not sure if we can afford yet to buy a house though. If I get one of the jobs I've applied for, and we can sell this place we're in now, then we'd definitely be able to afford that house. Nothing wrong with looking at what is for sale though and seeing what we like and don't like, so when we know we can afford it, we know exactly what we're looking for.

Well I should finish getting ready so we can leave as soon as J gets home from work.

Shell

Alternate Day Diet - Part 2

2009-08-24T12:07:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

Well I started the Alternate Day Diet last week. I have to say, I don't think I like it. We don't have a lot of low-calorie foods in the house (i.e. carrots, celery, etc) to snack on, so the Down Days have been very hard. I've been lightheaded, woozy, getting headaches. And then when the Up Day hits the next day, I'm so hungry that I'm eating more than I should. My calories on the Up Days have been way too high, and I'm having trouble staying in the low calorie range for the Down Days without feeling the symptoms above. The result: Since Wednesday last week I've GAINED weight.

I need to get to the grocery store and pick up some vegetables that I can snack on during Down Days, and some of the 5 calorie Jello cups as a sweet. Plus air-popped popcorn is supposed to be filling for not a lot of calories for a Down Day, so I need to pick up some popcorn to pop.

I'm still drinking a lot of water (which reminds me, I need to make another gallon of lemonade). So that's a good thing at least.

I'm thinking just plain old counting calories is what works best for me. That's always been the only 'method' that's worked for me in the long run. But I'm going to give this Alternate Day Diet a little more time (once i get more prepared for the Down Days) before I decide if it's for me or not.

Shell

Alternate Day Dieting

2009-08-19T15:16:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

Recently I read an article in Woman's World Magazine about the Alternate Day Diet, also known as the Johnson Up Day, Down Day Diet. My friend Melissa and I have been researching the diet for the past two days (yesterday and today) and discussing trying it out ourselves. We've read articles on the pros of the diet and how to do the diet, blogs and message boards of people trying it, articles on the cons of the diet, and watched Youtube videos of shows discussing the diet. One article promoting the cons of the diet, the author decided to try the diet but she went to the extremes, rather than eat like she normally would on Up Days which is the recommended way to do it, she gorged herself to the point of being sick every Up Day, eating stuff she normally wouldnt have and overdoing it. IMO, she lost a lot of credibility doing that, because she purposely went to the extremes to try to prove it as a bad diet, instead of actually following the diet as recommended.

The basics of the diet: You only diet every other day. The days you are dieting are called Down Days. The days you are not dieting are called Up Days.

On Down Days, you keep your caloric intake low. They recommend 500 calories on Down Days, but you can go up to 40% of your normal intake and still lose weight, it'll just be at a slower rate. (for example, for my height, weight and age, my normal caloric intake should be 2042 calories (which i've been below this amount while counting calories so I'm already doing good on that). So for a down day I would need to eat 817 calories or less to stick with the program and lose weight. That may not seem like a lot, and some experts say you miss out on nutrition on those days, but... you can have a LOT of veggies on a Down Day and still stay in your calorie range. Veggies are a great source of nutrition. Add in a little protein for energy.

I've actually had a few days while counting calories that are close to Down Day calories anyway and still felt fine throughout the whole day. I just wasnt that hungry and I made good choices on what I did eat. Such as: Last night for dinner I baked up chicken breasts, then I chopped it up into small chunks (ended up being 12 ounces of chicken = 560 calories) and put it in a large skillet pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil (120 cal). Cooked rice (1 cup dry = 2 cups cooked = 400 calories) added to the pan along with 1 bag of steamed SteamFresh Broccoli and Califlower (105 calories for full bag). The total calories for the WHOLE pan was 1185 calories. I had about 1/3 of the pan, which equaled 395 calories. And I was full before finishing my bowl of food. So I could have had less for dinner, still been full, and had even less calories going to dinner. So you can easily eat healthy and low-cal at the same time. We even had leftovers!

On Up Days, you can eat whatever you want. Note: This is NOT a license to eat everything and anything in sight, gorging yourself on food to the point of making yourself sick. What it means is, I can eat like I normally would. And if I want pizza for dinner, I can have pizza for dinner. My normal amount of pizza though, not the whole large pie! If I'm craving chocolate? I can have some chocolate. This does not mean run out and eat a whole box of chocolates. But a candy bar? No problem. 10 candy bars? Get serious, don't be stupid.

By now you're probably wondering, well where's the benefit in this diet? First off, you only have to diet every other day. Second, you can still have the foods you love and crave, just have them on your Up days. Third, because you're not putting your body into starvation mode by restricting caloric intake daily, you keep your metabolism high instead of it slowing down and getting sluggish because your body is trying to store fat. Fourth, health benefits of reduced asthma, more energy, lower cholesterol, and its been linked to longer life.

So today marks day one of the diet. Today for me is an Up Day. Melissa is starting today as well but hers is a Down Day. This should help us with encouragement, if one of us is having a bad Down Day, the other can say "I made it through mine yesterday, I'm still here, you can do it!"

The reason I decided to start today with an Up Day is because I looked at the calendar and the next few weeks are rather busy with birthdays and vacations, so I tried to find the best way to have Up Days on the special occasions, that way I'm not sitting there chowing on a carrot stick while everyone around me is eating cake, etc and tempting me to attack the table of food.

We'll see how this goes. My biggest concern is my blood sugar level and the Down Days. I'm not diabetic, but I am hypoglycemic. So I will keep a good eye on how my body feels on the Down Days to make sure I'm not risking more than I'm gaining.

Looking forward to seeing results,
Shell

Description

2009-08-17T15:34:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

Time for another writing assignment. Today's assignment: Take a random word and write two pages about that word. Random Word is: Description (found through a random word generator).

The word description means painting a picture for your readers with your words. While too much description can be boring, not enough description can leave your readers wanting more. You want to include enough information for the reader to picture the object or scene but still leave room for their imagination to fill in minor details that will enhance the story for them.

When showing your reader about the house your character is entering, if you describe it as an 1880's Queen Anne Victorian complete with turrets, towers and a wrap-around porch, painted in a pale lavender with russet-colored trim, the reader's mind will most likely fill in the minor details about the design of the gingerbread trim or shape of the windows, based on what they know about Victorian period homes. Unless the gingerbread trim and windows are vital to the story and characters, you do not need to spend three, four, ten pages describing each twist and turn. Your character could idly glance at the trim, maybe have a random thought about how beautiful it is, but they don't need to expound on the details of that trim.

Knowing what to describe and what to leave to the reader's imagination is important. How you describe an object or scene can set the tone for your story as well and let the reader know more about your characters.

Example: If you describe your exercise equipment as the "torture device with cables designed to strangle the first person to come near", you give the impression of a character that hates exercise and views the exercise equipment as a death trap.

I'm personally bad about writing descriptions. I have to keep reminding myself to go back and add in descriptions that I completely skipped over or didn't think about. I know what it looks like in my mind...I just forget that my reader can't see into my mind to see the same thing!

Thinking of ways to describe items better,
Shell

My Apologies

2009-08-09T18:53:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

I must apologize for my lack of correspondence lately. I do not have any excuse other than, I let Facebook and Farmtown sway me away from my blog. A recent personal message on the Writer's Digest forums that I have a new follower has reminded me that, maybe I should get back into blogging again!

I have to admit though, Farmtown was fairly amusing for quite awhile. I started out with just a couple plots of potatoes. Now, my farm is at the max size, I have a farmhouse and a small house, a barn, silo, windmill. A river going through the farm. Flowers, lots of flowers. Also quite a few orchards, oranges, apples, coconuts, pears, mangos, etc. Currently I am a blueberry farmer, as I went through and figured out the best profit per hour for every crop that is available to me, and at level 28, blueberries have the best profit (not counting the 2-4 hour fast crops that you need to harvest every few hours in order to make money). I have enough neighbors that I qualify for hiring my neighbors or strangers to harvest crops and plow fields.

Okay, okay, now you're probably sitting there asking," well what about your writing, did you neglect that too?" Rest assured, I am still writing. Is it good writing, I hope so, or at least i hope i can make it good after revisions. I'm still working on editing Dragon Eye. Boy does it need a lot of work! It's scary how much work it needs. But when you consider I wrote the majority of that novel in a month's time, and it was my first time writing a full-length novel, it's understandable why it's not quite that great right now. Crystalvein, my second novel, is going much smoother. Although I'm still not 100% sure if I want to keep it in third person or not. I've re-written the first chapter three different ways to test out different POV (point of view) and a different storyline. I've decided to stick with the original storyline with one small change, and most likely it will stay third person limited for point of view.

Well I'm starting to hear thunder outside, and if it's anything like last night, we're in for a hell of a storm again. And I have to admit, that does worry me because we're already flooded pretty bad as it is. Every park in town is flooded, some are waist deep or deeper. A few roads are blocked off because the river is over the road now. And our backyard is a lake because the river broke over both banks. Too much more rain and I'm going to start worrying about the house floating away! Although then we wouldnt have to worry any longer about the leak in the roof that showed up pretty bad last night.

I will do my best to blog more often,
Shell

Comments are Welcome

2009-06-11T15:30:00.002-04:00

Just in case anyone was wondering, comments are welcome on the blog. They help keep me going. :)

Edit Hell

2009-06-10T01:53:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

Every so often, a writer gets the idea in their head that they really need to make a change to their current work before they get any further into the story because the story Just Isn't Working. Is this always a good idea? Well, not really. It could make the current work worse than before. It could make the writer say to themselves "what the Hell were you thinking??" But it could also take an "eh, it's okay, I'll try to finish it" story into a "Wow, I'm really enjoying writing this" story.

That's what is happening with my current novel, Crystalvein. I got to a certain point, kept crossing things out, changing things, just about pulling my hair out trying to write certain scenes. In my head, I am my main character. I'm thinking in first person, then writing it as third person. But in writing third person, I had to then change wording or thoughts. I didn't like that, it got to be confusing at times.

So, I have decided to change Crystalvein into first person instead of third person. This means doing a rewrite on what I had written already, which has meant some minor changes to most of it and a couple major changes, which have helped the story out tremendously in my opinion.

I'm still working on Dragon Eye as well, fitting in edits when I run out of steam on Crystalvein. Dragon Eye needs a major overhaul. Right now I'm working on filling in some plot holes, checking spelling and grammar. Once that is done, I'll go through again for a third draft and try to overhaul the story. Will it ever be publish-ready? Right now I'm thinking No. But I learned a lot from writing Dragon Eye. And I hope I'm not making the same mistakes again on Crystalvein that I know I made on Dragon Eye. We'll see once I get the first draft finished and start the process of editing.

Hoping to put the red pen away for awhile,
Shell

Stop Raising Prices!!

2009-06-05T16:45:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

As you can see by my coupon tracker to the right on this blog, coupon savings have been decreasing each month. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm doing bad though. The coupon tracker is only tracking what is saved with coupons, and coupons are only for brand name items. It's not showing the savings made by buying store brand instead of brand name and it doesn't show store sales (i.e. item is normally 3.19 each, on sale 2 for $4. that's a savings of $2.38 that doesn't show in the coupons).

I just got back from grocery shopping. And the bill was huge compared to the past couple months. But we were also out of just about everything. I stocked up on some items so those should be good for the next couple months. I also had to buy some high priced items that I don't normally buy every grocery shopping trip (razor blades are so expensive).

After shopping at both Krogers and Walmart over the past few months and tracking prices, Walmart has cheaper prices on almost everything, sometimes up to a couple dollars cheaper on some items. Krogers still has cheaper store brand canned veggies and they taste better. BUT, Walmart does not double coupons and Krogers does (coupons up to .50 will be doubled). So on items that are close in price between the two stores, if I have a coupon for the item it would be better to go to Krogers. If I do not have a coupon, Walmart is the better choice.

Walmart has raised prices again since last month. Some items went up about 4 cents, some went up 40 cents. Knorr's flavored rice went from .98 to 1.38 at Walmart, but it's still 1.68 at Krogers.

Watch Those Sizes!
Watch out when you run into the store brand and brand name that are same price for what looks to be same size can. You have a coupon for brand name so you're saying to yourself 'cool, im saving money'. Look again at the sizes. The store brand can is 2.54 for 7 ounces (.36 per ounce). The brand name can is 2.54 for 5 ounces (.51 per ounce). Unless you have a coupon that can get that brand name can under 1.80 for 5 ounces (.36 per ounce), you're really not saving anything.

Watch Those Sizes Again!
Smaller is better, right? Not always. Again, look at those per ounce/per unit prices. Add up what you'd spend on the smaller size to equal the amount you'd get on the larger size. Example: All Laundry detergent. 4.97 for 50 ounces. 8.97 for 100 ounces. You have 2 coupons for .40 off one and you know this is an item you use a lot of. Do you buy 2 bottles of 50 ounce All or 1 bottle of 100 ounce All? (Remember, we're at Walmart that doesn't double the coupons).
2 bottles of 50 ounces = 9.94
2 coupons @ .40 off = .80
total price for 2 bottles = 9.14
Right away you can see that even with the coupons, you're still paying more for 2 bottles of 50 ounce each than if you were to just buy the 1 bottle of 100 ounce. And if you buy the 100 ounce... guess what you can use that coupon on it! So you're getting 100 ounce bottle for 8.57. (I know what you're saying, well just buy 1 bottle of the 50 ounce, then buy another bottle next month when you run low. Okay...you're still paying more overall in the end, and you might not have any coupons at all for that product next month!)

Cutting the coupons again,
Shell

Happy Happy

2009-05-22T13:46:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

Okay, I've been slacking bad. But I just haven't felt like blogging lately (yeah... it's been a month. I'm sorry!)

Yesterday was my 4th wedding anniversary. Can you believe it? It doesn't seem like it's been 4 years already. We didn't do a whole lot last night, just kicked back and relaxed, talked a bit, watched a movie on TV. Tonight we're going out for a nice dinner. I haven't decided if I want steak or some good bbq ribs though haha.

My new novel (Crystalvein) is coming along fairly well, I'm really enjoying the story and the idea behind it. I'm doing a lot of research for it though so it's not going fast.

I learned a lot from writing Dragon Eye and working on editing it. I see where I made major mistakes, minor mistakes, and those 'what the hell was I thinking' mistakes. So hopefully this next novel will have a better first draft. With Dragon Eye, I really enjoyed writing it, but I'm really hating editing it. The more I work on it, the more I wonder if it would ever be worth finding an agent for. It stinks lol. I have some good scenes, but then I have some 'um...huh, what?' scenes. It needs a lot of work. And I do mean, a LOT.

Speaking of which...off I go to the wonderful world called EDIT.

grabbing my red pen, again,
Shell

Just The Right Age

2009-04-28T12:49:00.003-04:00

(This letter goes to Mom instead of myself.)

Dear Mom,

Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday Dear Mom,
Happy Birthday to You!

How old are you? Well, you're just the right age! That's right, you're just the right age.

I hope that you have a wonderful birthday today. Oh, Psycho says 'mrrrroooooeeeww mrrrooooooeeewww' which I think is kitty for Happy Birthday!

Love you Mom!

Shell

Shipwrecked

2009-04-17T16:42:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

Well it's time for another prompt. I've been busy with editing, writing, reading and exercising so I haven't had much time to blog. I did work on a prompt though recently that I'll post here.

Writing Prompt: You are shipwrecked on an island with 3 items. What are those three items and what will you do with them?

The waves lapped at my feet as I sat on the beach staring out at the ocean, at the crystal-blue sparkling ocean that had so recently been a boiling, angry, almost black monster. A monster that had wrapped its watery arms around the ship, twisting the steel and pulling the ship and her frightened passengers into the depths.

All of the passengers were now held in the cradle of the ocean, rocked to an endless sleep down below the deceptively beautiful surface. All the passengers except me.

The monster had rolled me along the surface, tossing me into the air then briefly pulling me under before throwing me onto the sandy beach of this seemingly deserted island.

Several items had washed up on the shore with me. I reached down and picked up the first item, a small pocket knife. the pocket knife had several attachments on it. Tiny dull scissors, a nail file, and a small flat-head screwdriver in addition to the normal 3 blades. Knowing it could come in handy, I tucked the knife into my pocket.

I picked up the second item, a rather large umbrella. Upon opening it, I saw that what I had thought was a jumble of colors was actually a picture of a red, blue and yellow parrot sitting on a leafy green branch. I thought about the umbrella for a moment then realized I could use it as part of the shelter I would build. I closed it and set the umbrella carefully behind me where the waves couldnt reach it.

The third item lay partially buried in the damp sand. I tugged on the edge, pulling it out of the sand. It was a Frisbee. "What good is a Frisbee going to be?" I spoke out loud, even though I knew no one could hear me. I sighed, turning the black plastic disc around in my hands. My fingers traced the gold letters that ringed the outer edge.

My gaze drifted back to the sparkling blue water then I turned and looked at the trees behind me. My eyes followed the trunk of a tree up and up, til I saw the fruit hanging from the branches. I glanced at the Frisbee again. I knew now how I would use it.

Hoping there's more than just coconuts on this island,
Shell

PsychoKitty

2009-04-07T14:48:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

As you know, in February we lost Junior, our beloved companion. I still expect to see him just around the corner, or expect him to jump up and cuddle with me on the couch late at night while I write. I really miss my Junior.

Our other cat, PsychoKitty, misses him too. It took her awhile to realize that she could eat out of the food bowl without having to wait for him to finish first. She would sit at the bowl and just wait, occasionally looking around for him, before she would finally eat. Now, she's getting kind of pudgy as she's learning she can eat all she wants from the bowl.

Psycho has earned her name, many times over, through the years that I've owned her. Nine years ago, I rescued her from the animal shelter. She was six months old, beautiful long gray and white fur, pure white whiskers and golden eyes. When I first brought her home, she was scared of everything and anything. The slightest movement or noise and she would hide for the next two hours. In the past few years, she's become much more sociable and loving. Fast movements still startle her but she doesn't hide for hours now.

Since we lost Junior, Psycho has become clingy and very vocal. We use an Internet voice chat to talk with some of our friends who live in other states, and they can hear her in the background meowing. Our friend Rob says she sounds like she is trying to meow and purr at the same time. When we're on the phone, the person on the other end can hear her loud and clear. We can even hear her across the house! I think about the only time she is not meowing, is when she's sleeping. But she'll wake up out of a deep sleep meowing at times.

We've been letting her sleep in the bedroom at night with us so she wont be lonely and she's pretty good about just curling up at the foot of the bed, between J and I, and sleeping there all night. She has decided though that she is my alarm clock. When she decides it's time for me to wake up, she lets me know. It doesn't matter if i came to bed at 8am and it's now 9am, she gets in my face and starts her loud, loud meow. And she doesn't stop until I finally wake up and pet her. Which makes her meow louder for a minute or two before she calms down and curls up again.

She wants to be wherever we are at all times. If we're in the living room, she's trying to cuddle up on our lap or chest. Computer room? that's time to curl up on J's lap! Or she'll lay on top of our computer towers and just hang out. Sometimes she'll curl up on the extra computer chair and sleep. Bedroom? she's curled up in a ball on one side of the bed or the other, until both of us are in there, then she's at the foot of the bed again.

Speaking of the Psycho... she just realized I left her alone in the living room and has come running through the house meowing to find me. She is sitting next to me now, letting me know she needs more attention.

Shell

Finding Fairyland - Book Review

2009-03-23T14:53:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

This weekend I went to a book signing for a fellow Red Hot Writers member. Barry Poupard is the author of two books geared toward children. He wrote them specifically for two young girls, Julia and Laura, ages 8 and 12.

Finding Fairyland is Julia's story. In this book, Julia is a young girl who believes that fairies do exist, and that if you try hard that you can find a way to fairyland. Armed with the knowledge she gained through researching fairies and with her best friend by her side, she heads out to find the way in.

Finding Fairyland 2 is Laura's story. While she is the older sister and is a teenager in the story, she still believes in fairies as well. Normally older sisters are the ones who get to do everything first, so when Julia has her adventure in fairyland before she does, it makes Laura more determined to also experience the magic. She sets out to find her own way into fairyland.

Finding Fairyland 1 and 2 are cute stories. I was drawn into the adventure along with Julia and Laura. The stories also had messages or lessons behind them that were subtle yet stood out enough that hopefully a young child reading or listening to the stories would pick up on. Maybe the messages/lessons were not intentional, but they are there.

Messages such as:
you do not need to be just like everyone else to be liked (when Julia lost her former best friend then found a new friend),
that if you are polite and respectful to others they will usually be polite and respectful back to you (the golden rule, do unto others..),
you shouldn't treat someone different just because they look different,
its better to walk away when someone tries to hurt you instead of returning the hurt back to them.

Overall the books are a good read. I could easily imagine myself reading them out loud to a young child. I think girls as young as 4 would enjoy hearing the stories. I would recommend them to anyone with young girls between the ages of 4 and 12 (younger boys might like them but not sure about boys closer to being teenagers). They can be found on Amazon.com or from Bleau Gardens in Flushing, Michigan.

Shell

Coupons, Savings, And ...Fun?

2009-03-17T15:41:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

I've posted before in the past that I hate grocery shopping, it's so expensive. I still hate grocery shopping. But I'm getting better at it.

Last week, my friend Ceri and I were talking about grocery shopping, the high prices, and figuring out ways to bring our costs down. She linked me to a really good website/forum. (i'll see if i can get it to link). http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/index.php

Then we sat and talked about coupons and store ads for awhile. I had a rather large stack of coupon ads, so I went through and cut coupons out for items we use. Then I found an ad for Kroger's, which happens to be only a few miles away from our house.

They had a pretty good sale going on, buy any 10 items (from a list of items) and get $5 back. Plus most of those items were also already on sale. I also had coupons for most of the items on the 'buy 10' list. So I had several items from that list that I ended up paying only .25 or less for. And several items I got free. And then I got $5 back on top of it all!

Plus I found deals such as:
Quaker Oatmeal - Normal Price: $3.19 each. Sale: buy 2 for $4. Coupon: $1 off 2. Paid: $3 total for 2 boxes. Savings: 1 box free, .19 off the other.
Crest pro-health toothpaste, 4.2oz size - Normal price: $3.54 each. Sale: buy 2 for $4. Coupon: $1 off 1 (and i had 2 coupons). Paid: $2 total for 2 tubes. Savings: 1 tube of toothpaste free, $1.54 off the other.

I think I got two rolls of paper towels for .24 each.

Overall, i saved 40%. Grocery bill before sales and coupons: $183.81. Grocery bill after sales and coupons: $107.26. A savings of $76.55.

This week, Meijers has 'buy 10 items for $10, get 11th item free'. I've glanced through the ad, and there are several items on the list that I have coupons for. I need to get Krogers ad out of the mailbox still to see what their deals are. Kroger and Meijer are across the street from each other, so it won't cost more than a few cents extra in gas money to hit both grocery stores. And we have a good cooler that I can use to keep cold stuff cold while I run into the other store. Walmart is also on the way home from Kroger/Meijer, so if there's something I know is way cheaper at Walmart (that I can also combine with a coupon)... nothing stopping me from running through there as well!

We don't need a lot this week, just fill in a few items that I didnt pick up last week because they were more expensive at Kroger than Walmart so I planned to hit Walmart for those items, and then never made it there last week haha.

Well, I need to head up to the mailbox to get the store ads and toss the envelope with extra coupons in the mail to make its way to Ceri's house.

Shell

Get Out Of My Head!

2009-03-16T03:25:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

Here I am, knee-deep in revisions on Dragon Eye, and my mind keeps wandering away to another world. Or rather, it keeps wandering away from that fantasy world that I created and trying to sneak back into the world we know so well. My mind is telling me that I have another story to write, one based in this world, not in the fantasy one where my characters wait patiently for me to change their lives...again.

I think it is because I have finished the first draft of Dragon Eye that my mind feels that it is free to wander into another story. It tells me that it can revise, polish, and fine-tune Dragon Eye while still exploring and telling a different story.

Of course, my mind tried to drag me away several times during the writing of the first draft. It forced me to create seven different files with the beginnings of seven different novels, plus notes to go with them. But it was not very insistent with those stories. It was happy once the basic idea was written down and then set safely aside for another day.

And now, does it open one of those files? No, now it insists THIS story is the one that needs to be told. My mind has offered up options for the beginning, and has stated how one of the chapters near the end should be. But it has not told me what the ending should be. Maybe the ending does not exist yet.

Curious now? Maybe you're sitting there thinking I'm crazy. I wouldn't blame you. But remember this, a writer is one of the few that can claim to have voices in their head telling them what to do, without being thought insane and being locked away. Those voices are the characters that we can't resist, the characters that tug at our heart strings, that send chills down our spines, that cause gales of laughter or buckets of tears. Those are the voices we love to see in print, that we love to cuddle up with on the couch as we lose ourselves in the world that the writer created.

The stories are there, they beg to be written. We just need to be strong enough to pick up that pen and write.

Grabbing her pen,
Shell

Who Is She?

2009-03-04T12:54:00.003-05:00

Dear Shell,

Last night I was doing some research for writing tips and ideas. I came across an excerpt from one book (which I'll probably be picking up this weekend) where the author gave several sentences as ideas where you were to pick one then write for 20 minutes. The author said you could change the subject character from male to female, or vice versa, change colors, or change other minor details as long as the main point of the sentence was still there. I wrote down a few of the ideas and decided to try one last night.

Who is She?

She was sitting there at my kitchen table when I came in, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She had long black hair that was braided and fell in a straight line just past her waist. Her dress was a pale blue with a white ribbon along the empire waist and white lace at the edge of her high collar, at the end of each wrist-length sleeve, and most likely along the hem of the dress as well but that part of her was hidden by the table.

She also had the saddest eyes I've ever seen; light green with a hint of tears glistening in them.

I sat across from her, across from this unknown female sitting in my kitchen. She didn't speak to me, she just continued looking at me with those sad, sad eyes while eating her sandwich. I didn't speak to her either, although by now most people would have demanded to know who she was, how she had gotten in, what she was doing there. They may even have called the police to come and take her away. Maybe some would ask why she had made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when there was a perfectly good ribeye steak in the refrigerator waiting to be grilled. Others might even be curious enough to ask her why she was so sad.

I didn't ask any questions though. I simply waited for her to finish eating her sandwich.

She smiled at me after she finished her meal, then stood up and walked out of the kitchen. I could see now that yes, there was white lace at the bottom of her pale blue dress as well. I didn't hear the front door open yet I knew that she had left.

I tried to think of how I would explain my unexpected visitor to others. I guess I would start with, "Well, the ghost was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

Shell

Sad News

2009-02-27T13:55:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

Last night around 6:40pm, my buddy, my companion, my little furry-footed friend Junior passed away. He was almost 14 years old. He had short gray fur and yellow eyes. And the sweetest, most loving personality. He loved to curl up on my lap when I'd sit on the couch and write. Or he'd jump up and sleep on my computer tower if i was on the computer. Most of the time, he had to be in whatever room we were in.

When J got home from work, Junior would meet him at the door to greet him. He'd curl up on J's chest or next to him on the couch when we'd watch TV. And he loved to sit on J's lap while J was doing stuff on the computer. He'd just stretch out and close his eyes and purr, or he'd watch the monitor to see what was going on.

When I got Junior, he was a handful. Literally. He was 5 weeks old, just this little tiny kitten with fuzzy gray fur that would fit in one hand. He popped up through the floor, through a dryer vent hole, in an old mobile home I was living in right after high school with some friends. I quickly grabbed him, and he proceeded to try to rip my skin apart with his tiny little claws (which by the way, even on a 5 week old kitten...are sharp!!). It took 2 days, and then I could reach into the box where I kept him and he would purr and cuddle with me.

He comforted me through many of life's trials: My parents divorce, losing my best friend from high school (she went mentally nuts and we couldnt keep the friendship going), he was there when I went through an abusive relationship (emotionally not physically). Junior suffered through many moves until I finally bought the house we're in now.

He had a paw in things on getting me and J together. J and I are both cat lovers, and Junior was such a lovable cat that he drew J in and hooked him. :)

Last night, I was sad, then angry, then felt guilty. I know we did everything we could for him, but there's always the 'what if' in the very back of our minds when something sad happens. And the anger, i dont know who I'm angry at, I just felt so much anger. I wanted to throw something or break something.

J is taking it hard too. Junior was his buddy.

Junior, I love you baby. We are going to miss you, but we are glad you are no longer in pain. We will try to comfort ourselves and each other with the thought of you playing and having fun, without any pain, while you wait for us at the Rainbow Bridge.

Missing her Junior,
Shell

The First Draft

2009-02-09T23:40:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

Well it is official. My first draft of Dragon Eye is done. It's very rough and needs a lot of work. I have a couple of plot holes that need to be filled (they were from the Nano days where we were supposed to just write and write and write without worrying about editing). I also have a small problem with mixing up past and present tense in certain areas. But nothing should be too hard to fix.

So my next step is to let it sit a few days. Just walk away from it and work on something else. Then I'll go back, with a notebook beside me, and I'll read the whole novel from start to finish. Then I'll take my comments/suggestions that I wrote in my notebook as I read through, and start to fix the problem areas.

I think the storyline is pretty good. But it could be much better.

After I get the second, or maybe third draft finished, then I'll print out a copy to share with someone to read in its entirety. See if the story catches and holds their attention, see if something needs work.

After it's finished? Then I'll start working on my queries and synopsis, and start looking for an agent. And... work on the next novel in progress!

Shell

Red Hot Writers

2009-02-02T00:38:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

Tonight was the first meeting of the Flint Red Hot Writers. We gathered at a bookstore that appears to be a central location for most of the members of the group. We set up in the cafe of the bookstore, which unfortunately serves Starbucks coffee, but they have other drinks as well so I will most likely stick with those in the future.

Our first meeting went well. We had four of the members show up. We got the introductions out of the way, discussed how we felt the meeting should go, then got right into critiques for two of the members. Both stories were well written and captured our attention.

I did not have anything to share for our first meeting. Well, technically I could have shared. I had one copy of the first 12 pages of my novel. But due to printer issues at home and printer ink issues at my mom's, I was unable to make enough copies to share with the whole group. I will have copies for our next meeting though.

It felt great to get out and meet new people who have a common interest. I came home and felt very upbeat and ready to jump into writing more on my novel tonight.

Get the red pen ready,
Shell

Time For Another Excerpt - Dragon Eye

2009-01-15T14:51:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

This excerpt is near the end of the book, at the start of the final battle.

“So we meet again.” her voice was musical, almost mesmerizing. She crossed over to the doorway leading to the parlor. “Come, relax.” She beckoned them to follow her.

Nyissa glanced at Airisti, then Dakther, before turning to follow the sorceress into the parlor.

“Sit.” The command came from the shadows near the hearth.

Nyissa crossed the parlor and sat carefully on the edge of a chair. Dakther and Airisti stood to each side of the chair, their gazes fixed on Bessiyra.

“I have been struggling with the decision of how to deal with the three of you. I cannot let my brother get his hands on you. That is his wish, you know, to have control of you and the dragon.” her eyes skimmed over Nyissa’s face, flitted to Airisti then back. “Only he is under the impression that Airisti is the dragon.”

Airisti sighed, “All of this is fascinating, really it is, but all the same we are tired of dealing with your childish games, Bess.”

Bessiyra’s gray eyes grew stormy, “My name is Bessiyra, not Bess. Not that you’ll need to remember it. I have decided your fate. You die tonight.”

“I don’t think so, Bess.” Airisti sneered. “It is the three of us against you. Nyissa has accepted the dragon, she is stronger than you could even imagine.”

A slight smile appeared on Bessiyra’s face as she rose from her seat. “Three against one? Yes, that would be disturbing odds for me. But lucky for me, I am not alone.” She waved her hand, the enchantment and the fortress faded away.

Nyissa felt the chair beneath her moving and shifting, it became a cold, hard boulder beneath her. The rasp of swords being drawn from their scabbards could be heard all around them.

I hope you enjoyed it,
Shell

It's Time to Party like it's 2009

2009-01-05T14:54:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

The calendar officially flipped over to 2009 a few days ago. In the moments before the calendar flipped over, many promises were made across the nation. People promising to change, to do better, to be a better person in the new year. Diets were outlined or refined with the promise of 'this year I'll stick with it'. Goals were set, some almost impossible but still set down on paper or in thoughts filled with hope.

It is January 5th now, and I know, without knowing all those people, that most of those goals have already been set aside as impossible "what was i thinking", diets have already been blown "its still the holidays... i can have that", and people haven't really changed much in 5 days.

The past year though, 2008, was a year of many changes. Some good, some bad. A lot of bad actually.

There were many celebrity deaths: some were self-inflicted, some were accidents, some were unexpected, and some were just plain old age. We lost Heath Ledger, George Carlin, Bernie Mac, Beverly Garland, and many others.

The economy kept getting worse and worse. Companies cut down on the number of employees, creating a smaller and smaller workforce. Other companies just completely shut their doors and said "sorry, we don't exist anymore". Unemployment rates continue rising, foreclosures continue rising. The last time I checked, Michigan still had the highest unemployment rate in the nation, over 9%. That's what we get for being a mostly automotive-based state in a time where people don't have jobs to afford the cars that are built here.

2009 brings in a new president as well: President Barack Obama. In the future, when our kids and grandkids are learning history and about their past presidents, one of the things that'll stand out about Obama is that he's our nation's first black president. Honestly, I don't care what color he is, I care about what he can do for our nation. I hope when my kids or grandkids are learning about him, they learn about more than just the color of his skin. I hope that they learn about the good that we all hope he'll do for our nation. I hope that he can help our nation turn around, get back on it's feet, get our people back to work. That's what I'd like to see him known as in the future, the President who cared and helped our nation back on its feet.

Well this post went in a different direction than I had planned, so I will leave it here for now and will post what I had intended to post at a later date.

Shell

Dear Santa,

2008-12-24T17:21:00.003-05:00

(sorry Shell, this letter goes to Santa this time...)

Dear Santa,

I have been a very good girl this year. I even have a list of why I was a good girl this year, just in case you lost your list. I know how busy you can be around this time of year.

*I didn't surrender to road rage more than 3 times this year. Of course part of that could be because I'm rarely on the roads...but we'll just ignore that part of the equation.

*I didn't cuss (too loudly) when I had to park at the far reaches of a parking lot when I had to go shopping. I politely told myself that it was good exercise and that by parking further out, someone else would have a chance at parking closer. Even on those days when it was cold, windy, rainy, snowy, or otherwise miserable.

*I limited the swearing in my novels that I am writing. I think I have a total of 3 swear words out of 4 novels (one novel almost completed, one half done, two others started to get the ideas down). I may have a bit of swearing in the one novel...but that one shouldn't count until next year's good/naughty list since I won't start serious work on that novel until my current one is done with the first draft.

*I didn't eat all the Christmas cookies this year. Of course, I haven't made any this year, but it still counts...right? I do have some cookies I could bake, but I'm not sure they would last until you get here. (we have a cookie monster in the house!).

There is more, honest, I've been a really good girl. Can I please receive something other than Coal this year?

Thanks!
Shell

Christmas Is Just Around The Corner

2008-12-18T15:29:00.004-05:00

Dear Shell,

How did it get to be almost Christmas already? I swear it seems like we just had people over for Thanksgiving last week. Next thing you know, it will be 2009. We don't even have our tree up yet, although we really don't have room for it anymore. The only place would be near the furnace and I really don't feel comfortable with it being that close.

I have not started Christmas shopping yet, except for a small item I found a couple weeks ago that I thought my mom would like. I at least need to get two $10 gifts before Saturday, since we have a family party on Saturday where we do a gift exchange game (its the only gifts we exchange at that party). Maybe J and I will go shopping for gifts for everyone else after the party. I should check with Jenn to see if her and I are exchanging gifts this year or not.

J and I decided that for each other, rather than get gifts, we'll set money aside so we can take a nice week-long trip somewhere in the spring or maybe summer. We're not sure where we will go just yet, but it'll be somewhere where we can just relax, enjoy the scenery, and have fun. I couldn't think of anything I wanted or needed when he asked, so this sounded like a really good idea for us.

There's only one thing that I could think of that I'd like to get, and it's not an item I would ask for for Christmas since it is pretty expensive.

Well I need to get back to writing on my novel instead of my blog. My main characters have just neared the fortress where the evil sorceress is waiting for them. They have an ally on the inside...or do they?

Shell

Where Do All The Socks Go?

2008-12-12T15:27:00.001-05:00

Dear Shell,

Time for another writing assignment! This is actually a writing prompt/assignment that I got over a year ago from Writer's Digest, but never worked on it. I found it again yesterday and thought, hm, this one looks fun!

Lost Socks Assignment:

3 weeks ago, a sock was lost in the laundry. 1 week ago, another sock is lost. You hide a micro-camera in a sock then start a load of laundry. Describe what is happening to your socks in 500 words or less.

“Mommy, where do all the lost socks go?” my three-year old asked as he tried to peer into the washer. He stood on the tips of his toes and could barely see inside.

Looking down at his curious face, I decided we would solve this mystery together. “I don’t know sweetie, but you and I are going to figure this out.” Grinning at each other, we snuck into the garage and over to the workbench.

“Daddy’s been working on a new project.” I picked up a small object from the bench. “It’s a very tiny camera, and it’s safe to go in the water. Let’s tie it to a sock and see what happens.”

We carefully attached the tiny camera to the ‘spy sock’ and tossed it into the washer. My son and I settled down to wait, our eyes glued to the monitor that the camera was broadcasting to. Clothes spun around in the swishing water, flashes of blue, green, and purple.

“What is that?” I leaned closer to the monitor to get a better look at the brown lump that swirled past the camera’s view.

“That’s Teddy, Mommy! He wanted to help.” My young son proudly told me.

“You put your teddy bear in the…” my voice trailed off on a sigh. I looked down into his grinning face. “Well, let’s hope that Teddy can help us.”

Thirty minutes passed without anything else unusual happening.

“It looks like the socks are safe in the washer. Shall we try the dryer now?”

“Yes!” he jumped up and down enthusiastically, clapping his tiny hands together.

I quickly transferred the wet clothes, and Teddy, into the dryer and turned it on. We settled in to watch the monitor again.

Ten minutes passed and nothing happened.

Then fifteen minutes passed with nothing.

After twenty minutes I was beginning to suspect that nothing was going to happen, that the disappearing socks would continue to be an unsolved mystery.

“Mommy! Mommy!” my son tugged my hand. “Look!”

Amazed, we watched in complete silence. The back of the washer fell away, opening up onto a miniature world. Two small creatures reached into the tumbling mass of clothes and pulled out a sock. We could see their little mouths chattering excitedly as they held up the blue sock, part of my favorite pair. The back of the washer closed, blocking our view of the little creatures and their miniature world.

My son and I exchanged a long look. “Um, I think maybe, this should be our secret.” I told him.

Keep the pencil sharpened,
Shell

Mother Nature's Cold Creation

2008-12-02T14:42:00.005-05:00

Dear Shell,

Snow is a funny creation of Mother Nature. Snow is cold and wet, it soaks through your clothes and into your skin, until your very bones are chilled. Your nose turns red, your fingers turn white with cold. Uncontrollable shivers take over your body. You crawl under a mound of covers and lay there cursing the snow that covers your world outside the front door.

Snow can be very dangerous, especially when it turns into ice. It makes the roads so slick that people cannot keep their cars on the road. They slide into the ditches, or worse into other cars. It can take hours to travel a distance that normally takes a short time. People slip and fall going from their house to their car or vice versa. Snow and ice can be brutal, unforgiving killers.

Then there is the other aspect of this deadly creation. Snow is beautiful. It is absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful. The world outside the front door is covered in a blanket of sparkling white. The trees are no longer bursting with green life, instead they stand tall and proud in their winter slumber, stark limbs dusted with white. The snow brings a clean smell to the brisk air.

Monday morning, I was out at 4am, shoveling the snow off our driveway. It is not a chore I enjoy, and normally J is the one who handles it. But Monday morning, at 4am, there I was with shovel in hand, pushing the snow off the driveway and into large piles along the side. The air was crisp and clean. The snow reflected the light from the street lamps and seemed to glow around me. It was quiet in the neighborhood; everyone was asleep.

I stopped at one point and just stood in the driveway and looked around at what seemed to me at that one moment in time, to be a magical world covered in sparkling winter fairy dust.

Shell

I Can't Believe it...

2008-11-30T23:46:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

I can't believe it. I actually finished the challenge. Final word count verification was 50,238 words. the last 5-8,000 words are very rough. I am going to set the novel aside for a couple weeks then I will bring it back out and start the first edit. I need to add more description, fix the battle scenes, and definitely fix the last 5-8,000 words. As someone said on the Nanowrimo forums...sometimes you need to have word vomit to just get the words spilled onto the page. Then you can go back at a later date and clean up the mess and make it pretty.

Now is the time to celebrate!

Shell

Happy Turkey Day!

2008-11-27T14:03:00.003-05:00

Dear Shell,

Happy Thanksgiving! The turkey is in the oven, the pies are in the fridge, the potatoes are waiting to be peeled, cooked and mashed.

Bring on the calories... err, food!

Shell

Well...

2008-11-26T03:50:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

I don't know if I'll make it in time. The nanowrimo challenge deadline is November 30th, only a few short days away. I have 5 days left (4.5 if you count time away from writing to prepare and eat a good Thanksgiving dinner), and I am at 37,103 words and counting. That leaves me with 12,897 words left to write between now and sunday night. I would need to write close to 3,000 words per day every day. I have had some days where the words just flow and I get 3,000 per day. And I have days where it's a struggle to get even 500 words out.

I did learn something interesting tonight though. I'm currently using Times New Roman 12-point font to type up my book, with 1.25" left and right margins. This is basically the default settings on Microsoft Word 2003. 37,103 words puts me around 120 pages total.

What I learned was, most publishers want a manuscript submitted using Courier 12 point font with 1" margins all around. So I saved my book under a new file and changed the settings to fit the publisher standards. My book ended up being 156 pages typed so far. I think I like Courier 12 point... it looks like i've written more!

Well it is after 4am, and I still have some writing to do, so I better get back to my writing.

Shell

Short Scene from Dragon Eye

2008-11-18T12:33:00.003-05:00

Dear Shell,

Here is another short scene from my nanowrimo novel.

He watched her from atop a small rise in the clearing above the lake, thinking she looked like a golden goddess offering herself to the moon. Unable to resist, his feet drew him down the rise toward the lake, toward the goddess he saw before him.

She sensed his presence before she saw him. Turning slightly, she watched as the tall handsome man gracefully made his way across the clearing to come stand next to her. He raised his hand, hesitating briefly before gently touching her face. His fingers traced along her eyebrows, her temples, before resting lightly upon her cheek. His thumb brushed carefully across her full lips. Her eyes flickered shut. She slowly opened her eyes to look into his dark gaze. His hand fell away from her face to reach down and grasp her hand. A question formed in his eyes, she looked away then back into his eyes again.

He led her away from the lake, following the short river to the vision pool beneath the waterfall. They didn’t speak as he led her behind the waterfall to the small inlet that lay behind the curtain of water. He stopped and turned her to face him, reaching his hand up to cup her cheek again. He leaned toward her, his face slowly coming closer to hers, his lips stopping within an inch of her lips. He stared into her green and gold eyes, searching for acceptance. She tried to tell him not to stop, that she was not afraid, but the words would not form. He smiled and moved closer to her. Her eyes slowly closed, waiting for his kiss.

“He will betray you.” The voice slid through her mind, the same voice she had heard in one of her dreams that night. She pulled back and stared at him, her eyes wide open and frightened. She shook her head and pulled her hand free from his.

“No, I cannot.” Ny’eass turned and ran from him, out from behind the curtain of water, across the clearing to her camp.

----

I hope you enjoyed it,

Shell

First Goal Met

2008-11-12T14:13:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

Today I met the first small goal that I had set for myself, in my journey to write a Nanowrimo novel. I hit just over 15,000 words this afternoon, and still have more writing to do today. I am behind on where I should be for word count, technically I should have a minimum of 20,000 words by the end of today in order to stay on schedule, but I have to say, I am very happy to hit 15,000 finally. And the more I can get written today, the less I'll need to catch up later.

Most of what I have written in my life has been poetry and short stories, and some aborted attempts to write a novel. This current novel is the longest story I have ever written, and I'm not done yet! I still have plenty more to write about before I reach the end of the story.

Will it fill 50,000 words? I don't know. I may have to go back and do some editing to add more in to the earlier story, if I hit the end of the story before 50,000 words.

Will it be good? Well...no, it's a first draft. It's not supposed to be perfect on the first draft. That's why it's called (drum roll please) a first draft! But I think it has potential. I hope it has potential. I'm enjoying the story, even when I'm sitting here staring at the screen yelling 'do something' to my characters. And of course, they decide to do something finally, and it's not always following the outline I had set out.

Outlines can change though; I've altered, changed, and re-written my outline a few times so far. I know how I want the story to end, but my characters are deciding how they will get there.

Shell

Unknown Texter

2008-11-07T02:45:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

It's that time again, time for another writing assignment. This one I thought would be fun, but it ended up feeling more like work instead.

Writing Prompt #6. You're sitting at work one day and receive a text message from an unrecognized number. The text says, "I have the money and hid the body." You think this is a practical joke from a friend, so you play along at first. But the more texts you receive, the more you realize that it isn't a joke. Write the text conversation you have with this unknown texter.

I glanced down at the display on my phone; I had an incoming text message from a number I didn’t recognize. Knowing how often my friend Mary changed her cell phone number, I hit accept.

“I have the money and hid the body.”

“Hey Janice, come check this out. Mary is sending me cryptic messages from a different cell phone number.” I called one of my co-workers over. She looked over my shoulder and laughed.

“Hm, how’s this for a reply.” I quickly typed out the words “Was the money where I told you?” and hit send.

“Yes. You were right; the old lady didn’t trust banks.” was the reply.

“Old ladies never do.” I replied in text.

“It was too easy.”

“Did she put up a fight?” I hit send again.

“No, I went in as you suggested, pretending to be a friend of her daughter.”

“I told you that would work.”

“Like I said, it was too easy.” The reply from the unknown number sent shivers down my spine.

“How long did it take?” I paused before hitting send.

“Not long. They shouldn’t find her body for a long time.”

I started to feel uneasy. “Janice, I don’t think this is Mary. She wouldn’t go this far for a joke.”

Janice and I looked at each other. “I’ll call the police. See if you can find out any more information. A meeting place or something.” She wrote down the cell number of the incoming texts and ran back to her desk to call the cops.

“Where are you?” I sent another text, my stomach churning at the thought of some poor old woman being killed.

“At home. Don’t forget, you’re meeting me here at 4 to get your half.”

“Janice! The killer says I’m meeting him at his place at 4. See if the cops can trace the text messages.” I yelled across the office.

“They got it! I gave them your cell number and the number that the text came from. They said they know where to find the killer at.” She ran back over to my desk.

Later that night, watching television, I saw a news clip where the police were dragging two men out of a home. The newscaster mentioned how an anonymous tip told them where to find the two men responsible for a series of murders across town. Their latest victim was a rich old lady from the better part of town.

As of 10pm that night, they still hadn’t found her body.

Shell

3,621 and counting

2008-11-04T12:25:00.002-05:00

Dear Shell,

I'm behind schedule on writing for the challenge. I hit 3,621 words last night, and I should have been closer to 5,000 words. But that's okay because I have plenty of time still to get caught up and on schedule. The story is going fairly well so far. The hardest part is stopping myself from going back and editing as a) the story progresses and things change or b) when I read back over what I wrote to make sure I'm on the 'write' path and realize I made a mistake.

Here is an excerpt from my story:

The other man stared at the wizard, a curious look in his dark brown eyes. “Do you know who she is, or how will I be able to tell it is her?”

Jolenek spun around again. “She has the dragon’s eyes. She alone has the dragon’s eyes. Blonde. My seer tells me she is blonde, and tall for a female. He could not see her face.” He glared at his seer. “Namak! Why can’t you ever see what I want you to see.” Disgusted, he stalked to the table, picked up a goblet and drained the contents.

“So, I am to search all the tall, blonde females I find then, to see if they carry the dragon’s eyes?” the man said sarcastically before folding his arms across his chest and leaning back against the table. “While it would be fun, that could take forever. There’s something else you’re not telling me.”

Jolenek threw the goblet against the wall, shattering the cup, red liquid droplets splattered across the grey wall. “You don’t need to know any more. Just find her and bring her to me!”

J said he would help out with any battle scenes, which of course there will have to be since the book involves elves, dragons, assassins, evil wizards, and more.

Well I need to go pick up some veggies to toss in the chicken soup, then get back to writing. I hope you enjoyed the little peek into my novel.

Shell

Nanowrimo Challenge

2008-10-28T14:26:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

Well I did it. I signed up for the Nanowrimo Challenge. What is the Nanowrimo Challenge you ask? Well, it's a commitment to write a novel in one month. 50,000 words minimum. The challenge starts on November 1st, and participates cannot start writing on the novel until that day. We can figure out characters, plot, outline, but cannot actually start writing the novel until Nov 1st.

Participates have until November 30th at midnight to hit 50,000 words. If I understood it correctly, winners receive a logo they can use on their stationary/etc from Dec 1st until Oct 31st the next year.

No editing is to be done through the month of November, just write, write, write. Editing comes after the November 30th deadline when the challenge is done.

I have a storyline figured out I think. I have character names and some descriptions started, the plot mostly figured out and a synopsis done. It's in the fantasy genre, and we'll see how it goes. J said that he would help with figuring out any battle scenes that I decide to put in (ideas, etc).

Wish me luck!

Shell

How Much Do You Tip?

2008-10-22T12:46:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

I just read an article and it's accompanying comments, about waitstaff at a restaurant and tips left by customers. It seems the standard acceptable tip for decent service is now 20%. It used to be 15-18% was for decent service and 20%+ was for exceptional.

I normally leave a 15-18% tip for 'regular' service. They seat you, give you a menu, give you time to look at said menu, take your order, and bring it out the way you ordered it. No excessive chit-chat or hovering, maybe i need to flag him/her down for something but for the most part, it's a 'order food, bring food, bring bill' type deal.

10% or less is reserved for those that just really tick me off with their service. Have I been sitting there for 20 minutes, with a folded up menu still sitting on the end of my table as I wait (now impatiently) for my waiter/waitress? Did I have to request, 3 times or more, for something and STILL didn't get it? Was my food wrong, even after the third time of sending it back?

It's very, very rare that I've had what I would consider bad service. Sometimes the service is slow, but if you study your waitperson, you may see they are rushing around trying to take care of half the tables in the restaurant. A quick question of "Did someone not come in to work today?" can usually help you find out that yes, 2 waiters didn't show up and now the people who are there are working their asses off trying to cover. Or, is your waitperson new? Maybe they have only been working a week or two and are still learning the ropes. Don't jump to assumptions that they suck or are treating you bad, they might be overworked or still learning.

BUT, if you are one of the only customers there, and it's still taking forever to get service, and your order is wrong repeatedly... then yes, the tip gets smaller and smaller as the night goes on.

So then the question becomes, what is exceptional service? What do I consider to be worthy of 20% or more? Exceptional service is where your waitperson is there when you need him/her, takes the time to answer your questions, brings your food out in a timely manner so it's not cold, offers take-out containers if you are finished and still have food left, is polite and friendly but not hovering over you, and seems to care about you as a person and customer.

I've had what i would consider truly exceptional service once. Service where, if I had been footing the bill, she would have received close to 25% as a tip. J and I were with a friend going to a restaurant about 45 min from us. The waitress we had was friendly and polite, answered our questions and offered suggestions. When I mentioned a couple food allergies that I had (one of which is life-threatening), she was very helpful in going through the menu. She also notified the kitchen so they could make sure the food was kept separate. The biggest thing though, was almost 2 hours later, when we were done with appetizers, dinner, drinks and chatting. She asked if we would like dessert, we said yes so she brought over the dessert tray. Now mind you, this is almost 2 hours after I had mentioned my allergies, and it was a very busy night at the restaurant. She still remembered my allergy and pointed out which desserts to avoid and which one was safe if i requested the second item to be left off the dish.

A waitress that is polite, friendly, does her job, AND remembers her customers after several hours of being busy? That's truly exceptional.

Shell

The Cabin

2008-10-17T16:35:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

The cars straggled in one by one, pulling up to the side of the 3 story cabin. Road-weary bodies tumbled out of the cars, stretching sore muscles and staring in disdain at the torture devices they had been trapped in for hours. They gazed up at the wood-sided Tennessee cabin where they would rest their tired bodies for the next four days. Grabbing their bags and various other items, they struggled up the stairs to the main entrance of the building.

Opening the front door, they stared at the huge open room before them. To the left was a long dining room table that could seat 10 of them, with another smaller table nearby for another 4 people. To the right of the door, in front of the tall windows, was a small living area with two soft couches and a fireplace. The back of the main room held a kitchen with counters that made the women dream of everything they could create upon them.

Two bedrooms were off the sides of the main room, with king sized beds and jacuzzi bathrooms. Stairs leading upstairs took the visitors to three more bedrooms, one of which was open to look down upon the main room below. Another set of stairs led them downstairs, to a couple more bedrooms and a large game room complete with pool table and air hockey table, plus a couple arcade machines.

The first day was mostly spent figuring out who would sleep where, what food still needed to be purchased, and setting up the various laptops that had been brought, because this crew, a crew of people who are called 'Gamers', could not travel anywhere without their electronics. Late that night, they gathered together on the the covered upper deck to exchange stories and tales of adventures they have had together within their online gaming community. They teased each other about things that had happened the previous year when they had gathered in Orlando, Florida.

This crew of people, these gamers, these individuals from all over the United States, came together within their online game to accomplish various quests and objectives. This teamwork led to in-game friendship, then has since led to a friendship that has extended beyond the boundaries of the game. We are no longer just gamers. We are friends, we are family.

Shell

Chemo sucks

2008-10-13T00:10:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

As I mentioned earlier, my Grandma started Chemo again. They ended up putting in a port to make it easier to do the Chemo, since they were having issues with sticking needles in her veins. I talked to mom tonight, and she said that Grandma is getting real sick again from the Chemo. The first time she was on Chemo, she ended up in the hospital because she was so sick from it. She couldn't eat anything and her mouth was raw. I'm scared she's going to end up in the hospital again.

I went to see her when she was in the hospital the first time, and at my first glance, it looked like an empty bed, then I saw her face nestled into the curve of the pillow. Even as sick as she was, she knew who I was right away and even managed to do a small wave with her hand. I visited her again about a week later when she was starting to feel better and her skin was healthier looking. Still very pale, but she didn't look like a ghost anymore.

I haven't visited her since she's been home from the hospital. With her being so sick and going through the chemo, she can't have any germs brought around her if at all possible. And since I'm sick a lot myself, I haven't wanted to risk bringing germs over to her home and making her worse. It's driving me crazy not being able to go see her, but I don't want to put her life at more risk by stopping by.

She's a very strong woman. She was diagnosed with Kidney cancer back in the spring, and she is still fighting. She's not giving up like so many other people do. Her and Grandpa even have plans for going back to Florida once this latest round of Chemo is done. I don't know if she'll put herself through more Chemo after this round, it depends on how successful it is at beating back the cancer. But she's definitely someone to admire, for her strength and her courage in this battle.

I know she doesn't read this, but I'll say it here anyway. I love you and admire you Grandma.

Shell

2nd Letter of the day

2008-10-07T13:11:00.004-04:00

Dear Shell,
You're lucky today, you get two letters! Writers Digest had a new writing prompt today, and I couldn't resist it. This is another of the 500 words or less challenges.

After 42 years with your company, the day has finally arrived: your last day of work. Your coworkers throw you a lunch retirement party. After cake, one coworker asks you to reflect on your years with the company. So you do—and you hold nothing back.

“Lunchtime!” Mary called out as she glanced into our department. “Joanna, make sure you’re at the lunchroom on time today!” she took off running down to the next department.

I closed the program I was working on, grabbed my purse and headed toward the lunchroom. My co-workers thought they were surprising me with a party, but none of them was capable of keeping a secret, unlike me. Oh well, I’ll pretend to be surprised to make them happy.

I turned the corner and opened the door to the lunchroom. “SURPRISE!” I jumped back, put my hand to my heart and opened my eyes wide. “Are you trying to give an old woman a heart attack?”

“Old woman, my ass,” Jack grinned at me as he handed me a plate. They had gone all out on this luncheon; they ordered sandwiches and salads from the deli across the street, and someone baked a cake.

I finished my sandwich and headed straight for that cake. Cutting a generous slice, I stood next to the table and slowly ate the delicious treat.

“So Joanna, you were here for a very long time. Can you tell us about how the company’s changed over the years, or things you really liked?” Connie asked.

I thought for a few moments, after all, 42 years is a long time. “I hired in at age 18 and I was just an office drone at first. I filed papers, I made phone calls. And I worked my way up through the offices to my current position. I helped push to get a 401K program for the employees, and was on the campaign for better health care. Actually, I’m surprised they didn’t fire me a few times for all the fuss I raised.” I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts.

“The 401K program has only been active in the company for the last 10 years. That’s not a lot of time to build up a retirement fund. Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Connie looked at me, worry crossing her face.

“Yes I’ll be fine, I knew long before we got that program that I needed to save what I could. I’ve been saving for a long time.” I answered her question. I continued reflecting on my years at the company “This is a very good company to work for. They’ve always treated their employees fairly, and they are not constantly looking over people’s shoulders to see what they are doing. People are able to just do their work and go home, without feeling like they are watched all the time.”

Connie still didn’t look convinced. “Joanna, I’m just worried about you. Our economy is so bad right now, what little you would have had in your 401K is even smaller now. And savings accounts never make much in interest.”

I just smiled at her, because I knew how much I had saved. I’m an accountant. I was very, very good at my job.

(498 words)

Thanks,

Shell

Vacation

2008-10-07T12:23:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

J and I are getting ready to go on vacation soon. We are meeting up with about 15 of our friends in Tennessee for a 3 night, 4 day vacation. We rented a 7 bedroom cabin that is halfway up a mountain, without any other cabins nearby from the looks of it. Looking at the pictures, the view is amazing. It looks out over a large valley over to another mountain. You can also look out a side window to see the forest, or another side window to see an old logging road winding its way up the mountain.

The cabin has 7 bedrooms as I mentioned, plus a game room with a pool table and air hockey table. It has several living room type areas, a large kitchen and dining area, and a 2 story deck. The upper deck has a charcoal grill plus picnic tables so we can sit out at night and grill hot dogs and hamburgers. The lower deck has chairs and a swing, for just relaxing. I'm going to take my notebooks with me and take some time to sit on the lower deck, relax, and see what comes to mind.

Most of the people who are coming are people we've known at least 5 years, although J has known some of them almost 10 years now. We met them through an online game called Everquest. About 2 years ago, we all decided to try a new game and moved over to World of Warcraft. Last year, we decided, "Hey, we've known each other through the game for this long, we talk daily through internet voice chat, we know each other's lives... lets meet!" So last October, we all met down in Florida in Orlando for a week. One of our friends has a Time Share down there and they were able to get 2 extra condo units for the week. We all had a blast meeting each other, and it's really strengthened our in-game friendships as well.

So here it is, almost time for another 'meet'. In a little over a week, we will all be together again having fun. We have bedrooms assigned, meals are mostly planned, and some touristy ideas are on the table but we don't know who plans on actually going out and being a tourist and who plans on just chilling at the cabin.

I most likely will not 'send' any letters while we are on vacation, although we are taking the laptop with us. I plan on just relaxing and having fun.

But do expect a letter or two afterwards, describing the cabin and the view, and talking about the fun we all had.

Well it's time to go do the dreaded chore called grocery shopping. /sigh.

Shell

Writers Digest

2008-10-03T14:19:00.005-04:00

Dear Shell,

I recently started visiting the Writer's Digest forums again. I had forgotten how much information, and advice, could be found on the forums. Writers can share what they've written, for others to critique, plus you can critique what they have written. There is also information on getting published, dealing with rejection letters, and more.

Writer's Digest also has something called Writing Prompts, which is similar to the 'Write two pages on..' assignments I've been doing. The difference is that they give you a scenario, and you have to write about what happens, in 500 words or less.

I decided to try one last night.

Scenario: "After years of leading a normal life, you discover you have a special ability. Afraid to share this information with anyone, you confide only in your closest friend. To your surprise, your friend shares some information with you - he also has a super power."

I don’t think anyone forgets the day they realize they are different. For me, the moment seems frozen in time. Probably because the moment that I discovered I was different, time really was frozen. It was one of those stressful, chaotic, pull-your-hair-out days. I finally got so fed up, I threw my hands up in the air and yelled for everyone to just stop for a moment. And they did. At first, I thought everyone was joking around, until I realized the cup of coffee that Joe knocked over just as I yelled was just hanging in the air. Time stood still for only a few moments then the chaos continued without anyone seeming to realize that something strange had happened.

I went back to my office, almost closing the door in Joe’s face but he stuck his coffee-soaked shoe into the gap before I managed to close it. He just sat down and looked at me, not saying a word. I looked back him, debating whether or not I should tell him what happened. He was my best friend after all and hopefully would understand.

I looked down at my hands then back up at him. “Joe, something very strange happened out there. I’m not sure how to explain it though.” I paused, looking away. Before I could continue, he spoke up.

“Freezing time would be hard to explain,” he said. I quickly looked back at him and he shrugged, “I can see the future. I do wish you had thought to grab the coffee though before time started back up. Do you know how uncomfortable it’s going to be walking around in coffee-soaked shoes?”

“What is going on? I know I’ve never done that before.” At least, as far as I knew I hadn’t stopped time before. Maybe some of those times that it seemed like I was waiting in like forever were times I had unknowingly stopped time. Nah, customer service is just really slow.

“There are a select few of us that have been given special abilities,” he started to explain.

“Given?” not in the mood to be polite, I interrupted him. “What do you mean given? Are we some kind of government experiment? How did they give me this ability? And who are they who did this to me?” I hate to admit, my voice was getting shrill at the end.

“You don’t need to know who they are. Just know it's because you’re a good person and they know you’ll do good things.”

“Just, just stop,” I flung my hands out in front of me as I said it. Joe froze in place, a rather comical expression on his face.

I got up and went to the window and contemplated throwing him out it. We’re on the ground floor so it’s not like it would actually hurt him.

(474 words)

-----------------------
This was fun. I can even see something like this turning into an actual story at some point. Character finds out she has a power, and she's not alone. has to learn to control it, then use it against.. something, or someone. Maybe against those who gave her the power? Hm.

I've hit a bit of a block on my book. My chapters are fairly short, but I plan on this being more of a novella/short story than a novel. I'm on chapter 10 right now, I'm staring down at the water, and my character won't tell me what's next.

I actually think I have a way to do a 4-in-1 book with this story and 3 others that go with it. But i need to finish the main story first. And my character isn't talking to me right now.

Well, my stomach is telling me that it's way past lunchtime, so I better go get something to eat.

Take care,
Shell

Interesting Writing Assignment

2008-09-29T13:51:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

My good friend Ceri gave me a few writing assignments to add to my ever-growing list. I ended up choosing one of them for my next assignment, although it did end up being over two pages long, probably because I babbled on with some philosophical nonsense at the beginning. But hey, that's my prerogative as a writer!

Assignment #4: Write Two Pages about How The Choices You Have Made Changed The Path of Your Life.

Every time we make a choice, it changes the path of our lives. Some decisions are minor enough that it barely puts a curve in our life path. The path we choose and the path we could have chosen run side-by-side, occasionally crossing again at a time where another minor choice needs to be made. Again, the choice we make still keeps us heading in the same direction as the alternate path.

Then there are the choices that, when we make our decision the paths veer away from each other, going in vastly different directions, leading to a completely different life than the other path would have led to. Which path we follow depends on that critical moment, when you are standing there at the fork in the road looking at the decisions before you, and then choose the path that you hope is correct.

Some people only see one critical fork in the road on their life path, or they may never have those critical moments in life. They have nice smooth paths, never a curve or a rock to slow their journey.

The rocks are those things that happen that you can’t control, that happen without you choosing for it to happen. Some people trip on the rocks and fall and cannot seem to get themselves back up. Others come to the fork in the road and stand there, unable to choose a path out of fear that they will choose the wrong path.

I’ve tripped over several rocks on my life path. Many times I wanted to just sit there, nursing the hurts that the fall caused, not wanting to look past that rock to what was beyond. Somehow, I always got back up and moved forward. Sometimes I had a helping hand life me up, brush off the dirt, and face me forward again. Sometimes I struggled to my feet alone, not because no one was there, but because I had to do it alone to get past that rock.

I’ve had several critical forks in my life path so far, and I’m only 32. Decisions that have drastically changed what my life could have been, and some that were big changes but not quite as drastic of a change.

One of what I would consider to be a very critical fork in the road that I stood at for a few moments in time was at the age of 17, my senior year of high school. I had the chance to join the Military. I took the tests they wanted me to take and scored very high on them. Then the recruiter mentioned sending me into the Nuclear field of study. The thought of being around something that could potentially kill thousands of people from one little mistake, combined with the fact that I could hardly walk 10 steps without hurting myself, bumping into something or dropping something, made me turn away from that path to head down the one I hoped would be less dangerous.

Where would I be now, if I had chosen the other route, if I had joined the military? Would I still be a proud member, serving my country? Would I have gone to war several times already? Would I be back in Michigan, living near my hometown? Would I be rich, still working in the Nuclear field?

Would I have met my husband, the man that I plan to share the rest of my life with? He is former military, but from the Army branch whereas I was looking at the Navy. He might not have been on that other path. Or...we may still have met but under different circumstances.

You may never know what that other critical path would have led you to, even though you may sit and wonder about it, questioning yourself if you made the right decision. But once you turn away and head down another way, that alternate path is gone. You may have another opportunity someday to head in that direction again, but everything in-between cannot be changed, that option is gone. The path we choose is the path we must live by. You cannot go back and erase the steps you’ve already made to choose another path.

A more recent critical fork in my life path happened a little over a year ago. Through much careful consideration and discussions with my husband, I took the fork in the road that meant quitting my job and finishing my college degree.

Where as that path taken me so far? Well so far, I have graduated college with a bachelor’s in Management. I am still unemployed; our country is in a recession and Michigan is coming close to a 10% unemployment rate. I may not be able to find a good job for awhile. But there are positives on this path besides finishing my degree. I have finally started writing again, working on a book that I hope is good enough to get published. My health has improved greatly, my breathing is still not 100% and might never be again, but it’s not as hard to breathe anymore.

If I had stayed on the other path, continuing to work where I was? Well…who knows what would be going on now. That path is gone, in the past.

Time to keep looking forward. Time to see where this path leads me.

Shell

Busy lately

2008-09-24T14:39:00.002-04:00

Dear Shell,

Sorry I haven't written in the past few days. Between fall cleaning (same as spring cleaning, but done in the fall.. the deep down, crawling in the corners, standing on counters to reach the ceiling, etc type cleaning), working on my book, and a stupid migraine, I haven't had time to write a letter.

It's weird, the migraine I had a couple days ago. It hit in the late morning/early afternoon. Normally I wake up with them if I'm going to have one. But I laid down around 7pm until 8pm in our dark bedroom, to see if I could get any relief from it.

Then I talked to mom the next day and... she had a migraine, at the same time. And she laid down at about 7pm until 8pm to try to get relief from it...

Talk about weird! and this isn't the first time it's happened either. I'd say at least 3-4 times in the past 6 months, Mom and I have had migraines on the exact same days. It's not like we saw each other that day or the day before each time and had the same triggers hit us. It could be weather related I suppose, we live only about 15 minutes apart so we'd be experiencing the same weather conditions daily. But there has to be something in common that's triggering migraines in both of us the same days.

Could be stress, God knows there's plenty of stress in the family right now.

Grandma started Chemo, the type where they inject it into your blood. I guess they had some trouble with her veins rolling so they couldn't get the needle in. She may or may not go for another treatment tomorrow, Mom said they were looking at doing a port to make it easier, but I'm not sure if they decided yet or not. Mom said that Grandma wasn't feeling too well this week, I think the Chemo is already making her sick. At least this time, she's seeing a doctor every week, so she hopefully wont get as sick from the Chemo this time around. Before she was on the pill form of it I think, and got very sick from it. That's when she ended up in the hospital.

Well I need to go work on my book, plus I need some lunch. And, I need to do another writing assignment soon. So I better get busy!

Thanks,
Shell

Difficult Assignment

2008-09-19T12:30:00.004-04:00

Dear Shell,

My husband J helped pick out this assignment. I have a list of 28 possible topics (which has since grown to 37) and I asked him to pick a number between 1 and 28. He chose number 16, then asked "did I win something?" hehe

Number 16 ended up being one of the assignments from the article, but this one has a little twist to it to make it interesting. Every sentence can only be three words long. Not two, not five, only three words per sentence. Lets see how I do with that. (it's not all necessarily in chronological order, some of it would make no sense at all if i put it where it 'should' be in the list, since I'm limited to such short sentences).

Assignment #3 - Write 2 pages about any 10 years of your life: I chose Age 22 to 32

Laughed a lot. Cried a lot. I made mistakes. I repeated mistakes. I made friends. Lost some friends. Occasionally got drunk. Normally designated driver. Danced on bars. Fell in love. Got heart broken.

Went to parties. Tried being wild. I wasn't wild. I learned drums. Wasn't too bad. Met someone new. Heart broken again. I left him. Learned from mistakes.

Cousin Jason died. Injuries from fire. Memories still hurt. He was twelve.

Worked afternoon shift. Transferred to midnights. Started college classes. Went part time. Found someone else. Moved in together. He got mean. Feared for life. got myself out.

Bought new house. Tried online dating. Met new people. Met future husband. Had first date. Lasted six hours. Dated three years. Finally got married. Travel every year.

Transferred new department. Transferred to days. Had health problems. Health got worse. Transferred midnights again. Quit my job. College full time. Classes got canceled. College part time. Celebrated third anniversary. Went on vacation.

I finished college. Graduated highest honors. Can't find job. Economy in recession. Presidential election soon. Obama versus McCain. Don't like McCain. Unsure about Obama. Gas prices high. Oil prices high. Grocery prices high.

Great-grandma died. 98 years old. Was old age. Had six sisters. One still alive. Rest died old.

Grandma has cancer. Tumor around kidney. Got real sick. Was in hospital. Back home now. Chemo every week. third generation cancer. Family high risk. Scared for mom.

Have new ideas. Writing a book. Actually writing two. May write more.
**********

This assignment was difficult. It did end up being barely 2 pages handwritten (double spaced..haha). I know more happened in the last 10 years, but some of it I don't remember. Some of it, there was just no way to fit it into only three words and have it somewhat make sense. Some other parts, i can make it fit into three words per sentence, but the emotion is missing. It feels kind of clinical in a way, "don't express emotions, just give it to them straight". It really made me think though, what I have accomplished in the past 10 years, what have I learned, what can I change now, what can I do differently?

Shell

Shopping

2008-09-18T16:02:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

More and more I'm realizing, I really hate shopping. Clothes shopping is the worst but grocery shopping is starting to climb up the list rather rapidly. Prices have gone up, doubled coupons are a thing of the past, and product sizes have gone down.

One grocery shopping trip worth of food usually lasts roughly 2 weeks. So I go grocery shopping twice a month, picking up the staples (pasta, sauce, rice, cheese, meats...etc). then usually once a week I go to the corner store and pick up milk and bread, since we go through those fairly regularly. I usually get our ground hamburger/sirloin from the corner store as well, the quality of the meat is worth the 10 cents more a pound over Wal-Mart's price (when I cook the Wal-Mart meat and have to drain over 1 cup of grease out of a 1 lb package of hamburger at a 90/10 mix...but with the corner store I don't have to drain ANY grease...the quality is much better at the corner store).

The past three years, I've had our monthly grocery budget set at $250 a month, and for the two of us this was plenty. but in the past six months, I'm seeing our grocery bills climb, and climb, and climb. This month alone... $195 two weeks ago, $169 today. And that's WITH coupons. I saved over $40 with coupons this month. So for September, we've already hit $364 just counting the two grocery trips. And we're buying the same damn things we always buy, but it doesn't seem to last as long as it used to (and this is even with me cutting down how much I cook for dinner, watching portions, etc).

We're cutting down on our miscellaneous/fun spending, to help funnel some of that budgeted money toward groceries, so we haven't had a huge impact overall on a monthly basis.

I need to finish my book, get it published, have it hit best seller lists... and get rich! yeah, that's it! :)

Shell

Another Assignment

2008-09-17T12:18:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

Writing Assignment #2 - write two "pages" on where you would fly if you could.

When I first saw this assignment in the article that Mom gave me, I thought to myself, "well you can fly just about anywhere nowadays, just get tickets and go on an airplane." But then I thought further about it. Where would I fly, if i could FLY! Like Superman, or like a bird. High in the sky, above the trees, above the clouds, above the world.

There are times I wish I could fly. I'm sure everyone has those days occasionally. When everything just feels like it is weighing down so heavy on your shoulders that you walk around stooped over, your eyes dimmed, a non-smile on your face. I say a non-smile, because not smiling doesn't necessarily mean you're automatically frowning. You could be just ... not smiling.

It's the days like that, that I wish I could fly. I would fly above the pain, above the stress, fly above the dark cloud that was weighing me down. I would fly up and up, until I reached the beautiful cottony clouds in a light blue sky. I would curl up on one of those soft clouds and let the rest of the stress drain away, imagining it falling back to the earth like huge drops of rain. I would stay on my own personal cloud until the pain and stress finished falling away, then I would slowly float back to Earth, relaxed and free enough to battle the daily grind of life again until the day came, that I needed to just fly away for a little while again.

There are other times I wish I could fly as well. Happy, carefree days. The days that I have a permanent smile on my face, a bounce in my step, a ready laugh. Those are the days I like to spin around in pure happiness, then if I could, I would fly straight up in the air and come spiraling back down to land gently on my feet. The sky is a brilliant blue, with light wisps of pure white scattered about. The air is crisp and clean. Flying around feels so free, so happy.

There are places in the world I could fly to, I would love to visit Ireland again. Someday I'd like to see Texas, Montana, maybe even California (if it doesn't fall into the ocean... ). But overall, just the sheer joy of being able to visit the clouds and lay on their soft cottony surface, to spin around happily in the sky, that would be enough.

That is where I would fly, if I could fly.

Shell

Quick Update

2008-09-15T18:31:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

I had planned on doing another writing assignment today. But then I got started working on my book, and here it is several hours later, and I'm still going strong on it. It's amazing what can happen when you find the way around the big brick writers block/wall... at 4am in the morning, and finally realize how you want a particular story to go.

The book I'm working on, most likely wont be a very long book. And I might gear it more toward the teenage crowd when I get ready to send it off. Of course I need to finish it first!

So with that said, I better get back to writing. I may be back later tonight to add to this or to write another letter.

Take care!
Shell

Personal Writing Assignment

2008-09-09T14:29:00.003-04:00

Dear Shell,

A couple months ago, my mom gave me an article from a magazine. This article was about writing, and had several writing assignments in it. Most of it is 'write 2 pages on ________' and will have a specific thing you need to write about. Such as write two pages in which something is too small, or write two pages about a jinx. It's more to get you to think and to just write, than to write a story for each. Even random ramblings are acceptable as long as it pertains to the subject. I've come up with a few of my own assignments but will also work on ones from the article as well.

In a blog, you can't really define where one page starts and another ends, since it's one long post until you end it and start a new post. But you can do two long paragraphs, or use a symbol to designate where one 'page' ends and another starts.

Assignment #1: Write two "pages" about nature.

I've always loved nature, the trees, the animals. The peace and quiet you find only when you're deep within the woods. You can't hear vehicles or people shouting, you don't smell fumes from the factories. All around you is the bright, vibrant colors of the season. In the spring, the leaves on the trees are a greenish-yellow color. Flowers are starting to open and face the sun with their colorful faces. In the woods you might find little purple violets covering the ground, smiling up at you in joy. The petals are a dark royal purple while the center is a bright yellow. No human has planted them, they were placed there by Mother Nature's own hands.

You may also find a wild flower that stand a couple feet tall on a long narrow stalk. The flower itself appears to be a large white flower from a distance, but when you come closer, you see that it is actually tons, maybe hundreds of very tiny white flowers clustered together. It is commonly known as Queen Anne's Lace, but is also known as a wild carrot.

In the summertime, the leaves on the trees appear to be a deeper green, filtering the sunlight so that only the rare sunbeam makes it through, like a spotlight onto the mossy ground. Under the canopy of leaves, the air is cooler, somewhat moist even. The scent of damp earth mixes with the fragrance of the flowers and trees.

With the fall, many more colors enter the portrait of nature. In enters the rusty brown, the burnt orange, the russet red. The leaves on the trees lose their brilliant green as they accept the change that comes every year. The trees explode with color. You'll see a tree with bright yellow leaves next to a tree with leaves so brightly red. If you catch the woods at the right time during the fall, it appears the whole forest is on fire with a riot of colors.

Wintertime could look bleak, if you look only at the trees missing their canopy of leaves. Stark, bare limbs stretched out. But winter brings it's own beauty to the woods. The snow is a pristine white, undamaged by the touch of humans. Ice glistens on the limbs of the trees, sparkling like diamonds in the air. The air is cold and crisp.

As a child, I loved to roam the woods around our house and the neighboring homes, during any of the seasons. I had several places where I would go to, to just sit and listen to nature, to enjoy the colors, sounds and smells of the beautiful portrait that Mother Nature painted that day. Some days that place might be up in a tree, watching the animals scurry beneath my hiding place, as they hunt for food. Other days that place could be a small clearing in the center of the woods, where the ground is soft and mossy, and I could lay on my back and stare up, looking at the trees, the sky. Watching the birds fly between the branches of the trees, or even higher up in the sky. Or, I could lay on my stomach and watch the smallest creatures as they moved among the rocks and moss. I could create a world for them in my mind, deciding where they are heading, what they are thinking or doing at that moment.

Regardless of where I will go in life, where I will end up, I will always hold dear to me, my love of nature. Mother Nature is a true artist who does not get the credit she deserves, for this masterpiece she creates every day of our lives.

Shell

Introductory Letter

2008-09-08T03:54:00.001-04:00

Dear Shell,

I just turned 32 about a week ago. I don't know why so many women dread hitting their 30's. It's a great age for women. We're no longer teenagers, we're no longer struggling through our 20's trying to figure out just who we are. We're in our 30's. We're mature, we're adults, and we have it good. Women in their 30's receive more respect in the working world than they do in their 20's.

Of course, there's also the fact that my husband J won't let me 'stay forever 29'. If I even try to say I'm 29, he's quick to tell what my real age is, and tells me to embrace my age. I could be mad at him for telling the world my real age, but why? He wants me to feel secure and comfortable with myself. He's proud of me.

I look back at what I accomplished in my teens. I babysat, I worked 2 jobs while in my senior year of high school, and I know I did things I should have gotten in trouble for... if i had been caught (sorry mom!). I made friends that today, I don't remember their names or why they were considered friends in the first place.

My early- to mid-20's: those were rough years. I'll probably write letters at a later date explaining things more, but we'll leave it now as they were really rough years.

Then came the end of age 25. A couple months before I turned 26, when I was trying my hardest to be 'wild' but still couldn't quite break completely through that responsible shell that wrapped around me, I met J. It wasn't love at first sight, but we really hit it off right from the first date.

Three years later, we married. We had a very nice, private ceremony with around 20 of our closest friends and family. I still receive compliments today from those who celebrated that special day with us.

We just celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary a few months ago. Yes, we've had a few rough times. Who hasn't? But we communicate and work things out. After all...who else would put up with us!

Since hitting my 30's, after many years of hard work and dedication, I have graduated from college with my Bachelors in Business Management. (one month before my 32nd birthday to be exact).

Well looking at the clock, it is after 4am and J is due to wake up for work in less than 2 hours. I should try to get some sleep, as I have work to do tomorrow as well. I need to re-write chapter 2 in my novel (I didn't care for how it was flowing), and try to get another couple chapters written. Plus research... that's the worst part about writing, the research. Wish me luck in getting the novel finished and published!

Talk to you soon,
Shell