Reviewing the Zero Years

This morning I was reading Diana Peterfreund's blog and I thought her 'Decade in Review' seemed like an awesome idea (even though I agree with her that the decade isn't quite over).  So...  Here I am, reviewing the zero years...

Let's start with the night the zeroes began.  I don't know about you, but I was at home, online, chatting and waiting to see if the world was going to end because earlier programmers hadn't thought to write code to encompass the years past 1999.  Needless to say, nothing happened and we all had a good laugh about it in the chat room.

The year 2000 had its ups and downs.  Picture it: Burton, MI.  When the year started I was in a committed relationship that lasted another month.  By the end of the year, I had been through what I thought was a different committed relationship (I was monogamous.  Too bad he wasn't.) and ended the year in an online relationship that would last a couple years.  Daughter started the year in first grade, with a teacher who was determined to get her on Ridalin - because my child obviously had ADD.  Feh.  I was working in a job I loved that had significant parts I hated.  2000 also saw the last few weeks of my physical therapy from a surgery I had in October of 1999.

I spent New Year's 2001 in Tallahassee, FL, visiting my online romance and checking out the city as a potential new home.  The romance part went well, and it was nice to be somewhere on January 1st that wasn't covered in snow.  In March, my new beau came up to Michigan and it was decided.  I would leave my home of 30+ years.  I gave notice at my job - which had become more of the hated and less of the loved anyway - and I put my house on the market.  Daughter's second grade teacher sat me down to tell me that my child probably needed Ridalin, because she couldn't sit still in class.  Bah.  We moved to Florida at the end of June to start our new life.  The house hadn't sold, but I found what I thought was a wonderful person to rent it with an option to buy.  I didn't care.  I had money in my bank account and a new lease on life.  Lucky me, I found a job just before my savings ran out.  That Christmas, my beau got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife.

Another New Year's Day rolled around - one I don't much remember.  2002 was a busy year. The start of it found me working my tail off for a place called Dial America as a floor manager, living in a lovely apartment in the best school district in Tallahassee, and playing house with a man I thought would eventually be my husband.  Daughter's new FL teacher was awesome, until Daughter got bored - then I got called in to discuss... you guessed it... Ridalin.  (Only this time she supposedly had ADHD.)  P'shaw.  We decided homeschool was the only way to put a stop to it.  In May, I got promoted to shift manager and two days later my father passed away.  (Not that those are related in any way, but the schism between the two left me a wreck.  Super happy, incredibly sad.  Talk about manic-depressive.)  The summer passed in a blur until the day I got laid-off.  Not to worry, I got another job offer within a couple weeks, but then again, so did the beau.  Only his offer was in Utah.  We had two weeks to pack everything and move.  Homeschool stopped, and Daughter got her first private school experience.  It lasted about a month before they asked me to remove her before they kicked her out.  Off she went to Utah public school, and off I went to a temp job.  (Finding a job in Utah is only easy if you already Mormon.  I'm not.)

Enter 2003.  Another jam packed year.  I found an awesome permanent job in January - at a place called Orbit (they make sprinker systems) - as... get this... Executive Administrative Assistant to the Vice President of Operations.  Daughter was doing fine at her new school - making friends, finally - and her grades were back up to where a girl with a 138 IQ should be (the FL school gave her an IQ test because they thought she was learning disabled... go figger).  In April, I got a line on my dream job - working for the same private school system Daughter was unceremoniously ousted from, and come May, I got the job.  I thought everything in my life was finally working out.  Two weeks later, my beau decided he never really loved me after all and we went our separate ways.  I moved again and Daughter had another new school to deal with.  Over the summer, we got Kira - our most loveable furbaby.

If I thought 2003 was jammed, I was in for a shock in 2004.  One night in January, after watching the movie Armageddon, I was laying in bed when the idea for a novel jumped into my head.  I got up and wrote down the general premise before going back to bed.  After work the next day, I sat down at my computer and began writing what would become my first book - Spectacle.  Two weeks later (what is it about two weeks and my life?  LOL), I was feeling lonely and decided to do a hard-target search on Match.com.  I found two profiles I thought looked interesting enough to write to.  One became a friend, and the other blossomed into something more.  By April we were serious enough that he flew me to Colorado and we spent a wonderful week in each other's company.  We were married in May, but between work and housing, we still couldn't be together.  Those six weeks of married but living apart was hell, but we survived them.  Daughter and I did the 600+ mile trek with Kira from Utah to northeast Colorado.  Once we settled in, I got back to writing and just before she began her new school, I finished the first draft of my first novel.

From then to now, it all sort of blurs together.  2005 saw me finally getting rid of that house in Michigan.  It also saw the end of Daughter's public school career.  I finished another book, and started a third.  In 2006, I began my first writing blog and my now-defunct homeschooling blog.  During those two years, I tried a couple writing forums - both of which I eventually parted company with.  I found the blog community, though, and I'm happier here with all of you than I ever was with either forum.

2007-2009 saw more of the same in both my life and my writing.  I've been cranking out books and collecting rejections, homeschooling Daughter (although she doesn't need me for much education anymore), loving my husband and keeping our house.  I've made some good friends - both online and off.  I'm settled here in Colorado - which is probably why it's a blur.  No major incidents to mark the passage of time.  Over the last couple years, my writing and/or my submission materials must've improved because I've actually gotten some requests for partials and a few for fulls.

All in all, the zero years weren't a bad decade.  Better than the '90s were for me, definitely.  In fact, now that I think about it, 2000-2009 was probably the best decade of my life.  I found true love, I discovered the wonderful person inside my troubled daughter, and I took the chance to live out my lifelong dream of writing.  Who could ask for more?

I don't know what the next ten years will bring, but if they end up with half as many good things as the preceeding ten, I'll be one lucky gal.  Here's to a wonderful time in the tens.

See you next year.  ;o)

Resolu... errr... Goals

Okay, so I skipped ahead.  I started my resolu... errr... goals a few days early.  Of course, the only one I really hammered was the goal to make a cleaning schedule and stick to it.  Monday was bathrooms and Tuesday was kitchen.  Each of those rooms is so sparkly clean that I'm freaking my family out. 

Didn't help that I rearranged the kitchen, but once I started cleaning, I realized how much better it would be if the table was over against the wall.  Then I needed to move the cookbooks, which led to moving the coffee maker, the toaster and the blender, then I needed a good place to put my new griddle.  THEN it occurred to me to shift some stuff in the cupboards. 

Whew, I'm tired just typing all that, and today is laundry day.  :collapse:

Crap.  I just remembered that Husband is off work starting tomorrow until the 4th, so my scheduled rooms for Thursday and Friday need to be done today or wait until next week.  I may have set myself up for failure this week, but I refuse to accept that.  I will have the house finished by the end of the week, if it kills me.

As for my writing goals...  Well, since my personal goals are draining the energy right out of me this week, I'm guessing I set myself up for failure there, too.  :shrug:  I'm trying not to look at my lack of writing last night as a FAIL.  I mean, it's not like I didn't think about my story while I was scrubbing the counters.  That counts - even if I didn't get any words typed last night. 

Thank goodness I made goals instead of resolutions this year.  Resolutions are so unyielding.  As if each one is like saying 'if you don't do this, you're a failure'.  Gimme Goals.  Those I can handle.  If I miss one, I can make a new one and not feel like crawling under a rock.  Life can throw little wrinkles at me, and I can go with the flow. 

How about you?  Resolutions or Goals?  Have you started working toward them yet, or are you waiting for the big day on Friday? 

Christmas Recap

First off, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday - whichever one you celebrate.  Here at the Sanderson household, we spent a relaxed day.

Up at the crack of too-damn-early, I took care of the first order of business - COFFEE.  I can't face a normal day without it, don't ask me to face a holiday sans caffeine.  Shortly after the last perk, Husband joined me.  Then came the cat, looking for her special food.  The Kid?  She wandered upstairs a few minutes later.  (And yes, the idea of her getting up last was totally alien.)

With coffee in hand, we settled into the living room and the festivities began.  Much paper tearing and a thoroughly cluttered floor later, and we sat amidst our prizes.  Daughter made out this year - like most every year since the lean times.  She got a couple of computer games, a few books, clothes, jewelry, movies, CDs...  You know, teen stuff.  Ever heard of a band called Owl City?  I hadn't until she put it on her Christmas list.  I guess I'm not as hip as I thought I was. 

Husband got mostly clothes - because that's all he wanted.  Jeans, shirts, socks... You should see him in his new pullover shirt.  Rawr.  I knew that cut and color was perfect.  Heh, what a hottie with a naughty body. :smirk:  Daughter got him a Yankees keychain and a box of chocolate turtles - which I'm helping him eat.

I got most of the things I asked for - like socks and a griddle and a Christmas cactus that I named George.  I also got a brand new set of plates and my wonderful husband gave me a couple 5-subject notebooks for my writing.  =o)


The cat, of course, got all the wrapping paper her little heart desired.

My favorite gift this year was the griddle (although George comes in a close second).  I'm having so much fun making things on it, and it reminds me of my childhood.  Mom had a griddle and with five kids to feed, she would make mounds of pancakes or piles of grilled cheese. Nothing like recreating some memories (albeit on a much smaller scale).

How was your holiday?  If you celebrate Christmas, did Santa bring you everything you wanted?  What was your favorite gift this year?

Stalking the New Year

...or maybe it's stalking me.  I can never tell with these things.

Anyway, the beginning of a brand new year is only a few days off and I've been thinking about the shift from '09 to '10.  First off, it's going to be a lot shorter to say - oh-nine vs. ten - but that's neither here nor there.

No, I've been thinking about making a few changes in how I approach my life.  (Because, let's face it - some of this life ain't working too great, if you catch my drift.)  As my husband is fond of quoting - and I'm sorry I don't remember who he's quoting - "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results."

Which is why I decided to write in a totally different genre a few months back.  I'm still keeping the general gist of the story pretty close to the vest, but this book is about genies.  Yes, I did what I thought I wouldn't do and wrote a paranormal.  (Or maybe it's urban fantasy... :shrug:)  I took what I knew about the supernatural creatures, and I warped it all into a mythos of my own making.  So far, I think I have a pretty believable world and I really like the people populating it.  We'll see what the industry thinks once I finish it.

I also changed my approach to writing - at least with this story.  So far I've only written in third POV, and I'm in the process of converting my 3rd POV book into 1st.  It's coming out well.  I like the MC, and looking at the world through her eyes makes this book even better.

What's left to change?  Well, on a personal level, I'm making a commitment to do a better job of keeping the house clean.  Let's face it, folks, Mary Poppins I am not.  Oh, my home isn't a disaster area, but the dust bunnies are threatening to take over, the cat hair is making our carpets a darker shade of pale, and if I didn't know what color my tables were, I wouldn't be able to tell.  Hell, I haven't seen the top of my computer in months.

I'm also committing to getting healthier.  This year is going to see my 40th birthday, and I am not getting any younger.  Of course, at the moment, I'm up to my eyeballs in chocolates and other Christmas goodies, but I swear that once all this yumminess is eaten, I'm not buying any more.  (I told my husband that, and he laughed at me, but I'm serious.)

On the writing front, I'm going to make myself get back into some kind of schedule.  I've got work to do that just isn't getting done - as you may have noticed from looking at my unmoving word meter over the past week.  Not only do I have this manuscript that I'm shifting POVs with, but a couple other of my previously written manuscripts would benefit from some added attention.  So, I'm planning on revisiting everything to see what I can make work.

Now, every year since I started writing, I've said that 'this year is going to be my year'.  I'm not saying that this year.  Nope.  This year is I'm going to do the best I can and let the chips fall where they may.  I may get an agent this year.  I might even get a publishing contract.  Only time will tell.  The point is, I'm not setting myself up for failure by promising myself something that is, ultimately, outside my control.  I'm just going to write the best books I know how, and I'm going to put together the best query materials I know how.  If doing those gets my foot in the door, great.  If not, I'll content myself with seeing you back here this time 2010 and knowing I did everything I could for my career.

Have you been thinking about the new year?  What are your plans for 2010?

Weather... Frightful... Nuff said

It's been an interesting few days here at the Sanderson household (at least weather-wise - the rest has been pretty blah).  Thursday gave us hoar frost:

Yes, that's my car antenna with about an inch of icy spikes.  Don't worry - they weren't as sharp as they look.  Yesterday's Quickie Pic was a result of that frost.  (And no, the picture wasn't touched, edited, or tweaked in any way.  It came out of my camera exactly like that.  Heh.  I forgot to turn the flash off, and I thought that pic was going to come out gross.)  Here's what the same tree looked like without the flash:

Not quite as striking, eh?

Anyway, Wednesday and Thursday were supposed to be days of great snow dumpage.  We got the frost and a dusting.  Go figger.

Christmas was supposed to be a quiet weather day.  Instead, we got another dusting of snow and a windstorm which gave us more than a dusting of dust.  All the pretty frost and snow ended up covered in a layer of brown.  It almost looked like the world was covered in cinnamon and sugar.  Really made me long for a donut, ya know.  (This is today's pile, but if you look close, you can see the dirt in striations at the bottom.)

And then came yesterday.  We woke up to what was probably about 3 inches, but with the wind blowing like it was, it left drifts of 2-3 feet in some places.  Every time I tried to make any headway shoveling, it blew all my work to hell.  Once Husband got home from work, I gave up.


This morning, the wind is gone.  The early morning sky is filled with stars instead of clouds.  I've been shoveling since I got up an hour ago.  (I shovel in ten minute bursts, so it takes me a while to get it all done.)  Husband is off with the road crews making the world safe for anyone who's stupid enough to drive right now.*

Me?  I'm off to shovel some more and then maybe... just maybe... I'll get some writing done.  What's on schedule for you today?



*Next time you wake up to a snow-covered landscape and yearn to drive out in it, send a silent thanks to the men and women who keep your streets clean.  Our guys have been at it since 3:30am.  It's a thankless job, but at least our guys have donuts to keep them going.

Quickie Pic

This is from a couple of days ago, when we got hoar frost (or freezing fog).  Pretty snazzy photo, if I do say so myself, so I had to share it with all of you.

Right now, I'm dealing with the effects of a snowstorm, so I'll be back later.  If I remember, I'll get some pics and post them.

Christmas Through the Years

Happy Christmas Eve - even though it isn't evening.  This morning I'd like to share a few pictures from Christmas Past.

Ten years ago, Daughter and I were still in Michigan, living in the house I owned (well, me and the bank).  We didn't have a lot, but we had each other.  The tree, the table, the chair... those all belonged to my parents.  It was the year I splurged and bought a beautiful expensive coat for Daughter Dear - and got the reindeer seen here.  (JC Penney was having a thing where you purchase anything and the reindeer was $15.  His name is Apple, btw, and he's still with us.) 


By Christmas the next year we were living in Florida.  Believe it or not, the warmest place I ever lived was the only place that ever had a fireplace where we could hang our stockings.   Same tree, same ornaments, different stockings.


For Christmas 2002, we were living in Sandy, UT.  New tree here - because the other tree didn't make the trip from FL to UT.  But, if you look, you can see we still have the red bow/pine cone tree topper we use - under the star.

Now I have to flash forward a bit, because I lost most of the pictures from before the great computer crash of 2006.  Five years since the last picture, we moved from the first apartment in Utah to another - this time in South Jordan - to Colorado and then from house to house to house in this place.  What you see here is probably my favorite house architecturally - where we held Christmas 2007. 

And thus, we come around to this year and this house - pictured yesterday.  Since I first began taking digital photos of my Christmases, a lot has changed - the scenery being the least of it all.  I am married to a wonderful man, I have an intelligent and fun daughter, and we have the best cat ever.  I now write novels instead of just dreaming about it. 

And through it all, the pine cone with its red bow has graced the top of our tree.  Thinking about it now, I guess that little tree-topper is a symbol of constancy amid change.  And maybe it's also a symbol that no matter what life throws at us, we can still have presents under the tree and joy in our hearts.  May the pine cone remain there for many years to come.

Merry Christmas, Everyone.  I hope the season brings you all the joys you hope for.  May the next twelve months bring more delights than any found beneath our trees.