Our Journey with Leukemia

I did a guest blog for Brian Hayden today and you can find it here  http://brha99.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/you-never-know-what-tomorrow-might-bring/

And after writing it, I thought I should try and add to it with a little more of the personal side of having a child diagnosed with leukemia.
I tend to "Just stick to the facts Ma'am"
 I'm not saying it's hard to talk about it, but it's hard to talk about it.
Does that make sense? :-)
Talking about it brings back memories, thoughts and feelings,
 that I haven't had in quite some time. But here goes.

   It was a Monday when I first took Bobby to see his pediatrician.
 He hadn't been feeling well, off and on for a few weeks.
He would run a temperature and feel achy for a day or two,
 be fine for a week and then start the process all over again.
That day was one of his "fine" days, but that night he spiked a fever.
Back to the doctors the next day
 for a more extensive exam and blood tests
and then you wait.
Thursday brought a call from the doctor to come back in.
More tests, more blood being drawn, and then after an exhausting day, some results.
"I believe he has some type of malignancy and I'm having him admitted to the hospital for further tests."
Now my first thought was bone cancer, simply because, it was Bobby's legs that were affected.
That's where his pains were and by the end of that day, his legs were so weak, he could barely walk.

    After a week of blood draws, lumbar punctures, bone scans, x-rays,
 and bone marrow aspirations, the diagnosis was in.
Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia the doctor told us.
Why you wonder. When they are born the nurse shows you how perfect they are.
 Counting all their fingers and toes.
He had a healthy childhood.
 Of course he had the occasional cold or ear infection, but nothing dramatic.
At that point, life as we knew it, was turned upside down.
Now instead of school, bike rides, playing outside,
there was chemo, blood tests, radiation treatments,
 spinal taps, steroids, and side effects.
Oh and a Central Venous Catheter. (Which my son Adam told me, at the precious age of five,
 that never wanted to turn 10,
 because then you get one of those tubes put in your chest)

As for side effects, Bobby only got sick to his stomach once and that's because I asked the nurse to speed up his  8 hour cytoxin drip. He threw up in the car all the way home.
I never asked for her to do that again! Lesson learned :-)
He lost his hair twice. He had just been allowed to go back to school after 10 months of staying home and driving me crazy. (Hey! Cancer or not, he was still an 11 year old kid!) His hair wasn't quite in yet and he was allowed to wear a hat in class. The teacher was great. He explained everything to his students and let me tell you, 6 grade students are Awesome!
One day they had a substitute teacher and it was music day in the cafeteria.
 The sub left the class there and went and took his break. The music teacher not knowing, told Bobby to remove his hat, Bobby just stared at her. She threatened him with being sent to the office and of course worried that he would get in trouble, he removed his hat, even though his classmates told him he didn't have too.
What a shock it was the next day, When I got called into the principal's office!
That childhood feeling comes back real quick, "Am I in trouble?"
Half of Bobby's classmates went home and told their parents what had happened and those parents all called and wanted the music teacher dismissed, they were so upset that my child had to go through that!
And the principal wanted to know how I wanted it handled.
    "This is one of those times when your heart swells and the tears roll down your cheeks."
After talking to Bobby about it, we decided to just let it slide. His hair was starting to come back in, so he wasn't completely bald, but I do have to Thank all those kids and parents. They are wonderful people!

There are other side effects and other good and bad stories to go with our five year journey, but I think I've talked your ear off enough already. One day, maybe I'll sit down and write a book about it. I even thought maybe I'd use it for my NaNoWriMo, but no, I'm a romance writer. But then again,  I could put some romance in it, throw in a few doctors and nurses, Nah!
Thanks for listening and if you would like to know more about Leukemia you can find info here,
http://www.medicinenet.com/leukemia/article.htm
And there's a blog here

http://thecancerhealingguide.blogspot.com/2011/06/most-common-types-of-cancer-leukemia.html?showComment=1320002797609#c2498993197744633757

And don't forget to check out Brian's Blog for more on our journey.
Have a great day everyone!

It's the End!

Did I get your attention???
 Well it's not really the end, but this R.E.M. song
 "It's the End of the World As we Know it"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY
 really does fit today!
 Especially if you are going to be participating in NaNoWriMo!
So do you have everything done?
In Place? Coffee, tea, or your choice of beverage stocked up and ready?
 Pens, pencils, paper, or the computer battery all charged up?
Have you done your stretching and finger exercises! Oh boy now I need a nap.....
Happy
          NaNoWriMo! 

What do you Neglect?

You write. I write. Some of us make to do lists, while others make schedules.

There is always something that needs to be done.
Housework
eat
feed the dogs, cats, goldfish, etc
shopping
Oh and laundry, nah that can wait a day or two more, right?
I've only worn these jeans two days now and I'm not going anywhere.

The thing is, there's always something that needs to be done, which actually is a good thing,
because sitting at this computer 24/7 is really not very good.

Well, I have a confession to make.....
   "I neglect my car"
Yep you heard me right, I confess, I neglect me car.
I mean, it's been a month, no wait, maybe two, since I vacuumed and cleaned it out.
Good thing I'm usually the only one in it!
But then it's been a good month since I washed it too.
That's okay, I don't usually go anywhere.
But I can tell you when I get to the grocery store
 and pull up into that parking place and step on the brake......
        "POOF" There's a big cloud of dust!
You'd think that Pigpen from Charlie Brown, finally grew up and learned to drive.

Okay I admit it, it needs to be loved and pampered every once in a while.
So I'm thinking this weekend, since NaNoWriMo starts on Tuesday,
I really should clean my car,
even though I'm not going anywhere,
my neighbors will love and appreciate me again.

So What do you neglect??? Hmm....Curious minds want to know......

Choices

Good morning and Happy Friday everyone!
I'm going to go off topic this morning and just do some reminiscing.
I posted a Neil Diamond video on FB this morning, "Forever in Blue Jeans"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQLWF_ItzYs

And it started a conversation with a friend about how we only wear blue jeans and that we better be buried in them. No dresses, please! Anyway it brought to mind a friend I had as a teenager. His name was JoJo and he was 2 years older then me. He was a good kid. He went to church on Sundays with his parents, was kind, friendly and helpful. You could always find him out working on his car that he loved and You never seen JoJo in anything but jeans and a white t-shirt. JoJo was the first guy that I ever knew that had both ears pierced and his choice of earrings was a little gold cross.

      When JoJo was 18 he went to the big rock concert at the Ontario Motor Speedway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4REs5xs4l1Y

 I didn't know until the next day that JoJo OD'd at this concert. In fact, I was at the hospital with my sister when they brought him in on the gurney and did not know it was him at the time, because of the oxygen mask and tubes, etc.

JoJo was only 18. No one forced him to take the drugs that day, it was a choice he made. A sad one, but still his choice.

   When we went to the viewing, us, his friends, were upset that his mom choose to put him in a suit and tie, that just wasn't JoJo. We did finally convince her to at least put his earrings in.

   I think we should be able to make our own choices and hopefully we make the right ones.
 Sometimes the choices we make reflect back on everything we do and who we become.
And there are times when other's choices for us affect how we turn out.
Then there's other people's choices that show us paths that we don't want to go down.

I wasn't really going to ask a question with this post, but if I did, it would be,

"What choices have you made that have molded the way you write and think?"

I

Guest Bloggers

Good morning everyone! Well it was until the dog decided to take over my writing chair! This is Duggy everyone. See what happens when you get up to get a cup of coffee!

I just want to write a quick blog this morning letting everyone know that I will be a guest blogger for Brian on Halloween! You can find it here
http://brha99.wordpress.com/

Also, Brian is looking for other guest bloggers that would like to share health/medical stories.
So if you are interested stop by and check out his blog!

I am a fiction writer and tend to have a hard time writing non-fiction.
My blog post on Brian's blog is about my oldest son and his leukemia.
My problem with writing non-fiction is....

• I tend to stick to facts and statistics
• I don't seem to put in enough of the personal side
• And I get wordy :-)

I remember writing a paper on alcoholism nine years ago in college
and even though I received a good grade on it,
the professor wrote the comment that I needed to show more of the personal side.

So what I'm hoping to do on Monday is write on my blog,
 a more personal side in contrast to my guest blog post on Brian's.

So I hope everyone has a chance to stop by both blogs and let me know what you think.

Wishing you all a great day today!

Karen

Query, Synopsis, Cover letter? EEK!

Okay, I know how to write the query.
I've figured out how to write the synopsis.
But what the heck do I put in a cover letter?

Yes, I know that should be the easiest out of the three, but.........

It's like my poor son, filling out job applications and he has no job history to report
 because he's never had a job!

Well that's me. I have written my first novel and yet have no history.
Nothing ever published, no awards....

So what do you put on that cover letter?
Do you list the blogs you write?
Your three facebook pages you have?
Your twitter account?
The guest blog you wrote for someone else's blog?

Twitter, Spam, Passwords

This is a subject that many people don't like to take about. It's like telling people you are depressed or have cancer. It's a stigma, something that many people are embarrassed about when it's really not their fault.

And that subject is, Having your accounts "Hacked into"

I like to help people. I share their links, their blogs, tweet about them and retweet. Well the Day before yesterday, I was helping someone get their blog noticed. I shared their blog on my blog, I tweeted about them and then when I went to share on my one FB pages,(After already sharing on my other fb page)  I had a warning notice pop up saying that this was either a spam or that there was something bad with this link. Thanks, now you tell me after I shared it everywhere


Now, I think my twitter account got hacked into. Sorry....

And the thing with getting your twitter account hacked into is then your followers start getting those messages, you know the ones that say, I found a funny picture of you. Or, Someone has said something bad about you on their blog. I've gotten those messages from other followers when their accounts have been hacked into.And because I have not been able to contact them other than a tweet, or twitter message, they have no idea they have been hacked. Then the only thing you can do is unfollow them and then block them from following you.

It is so sad that people do this kind of thing.
But, just to let you know, I have gone in, changed my twitter name and changed my password.
Also, I don't not send twitter messages, never have and never will, I will respond or reply to ones that have been sent to me, but I never initiate one. So that said, if you ever get one of those messages from me, please let me know via facebook or my email kkrafts58@yahoo.com.

The reason I am talking about this, is that I lost 17 followers within a few hours after sharing that one blog, which by the way has now been deleted off of all my pages.

So remember to change your passwords often and watch what you share with others
And now with that said and my mind finally uncluttered, I can get down to the task of writing!


Happy Monday Everyone!

.

Clutter!

I hate clutter! OMG I think I have an OCD! Well, maybe not that bad, but I do hate clutter.
I believe everything has a place, and everything should be in it's place. If it's not used, get rid of it!
 I do tend to get all jittery and irritated when there are things out of place, or that need to be done.
Take my house. Well not literally, but as an example. When I had some remodeling done, for months every time my niece would come over, she'd tell me that my house always looked like nobody ever lived there. Nothing was ever out of place. No dirty socks, newspapers, etc. And when I posted a pic of my remodeled bathroom, someone commented, "How pristine"

My biggest problem is the people I live with.
Two are pack rats, or hoarders, or whatever you want to call them.
One is the classic, The one with the most toys win, or I might need it someday, or the best one, it might be worth something. Yeah, but only if you sell it :-)
Then there is the collector slob. Who collects everything and is too lazy to take his dishes in the kitchen or throw out his trash. (We keep his door closed, so I don't have a meltdown)

Then there is the one who actually likes his room cleaned. Strips his bed every week, does his laundry, and runs the vacuum in there. Hey I like him!

But really my blog today, is supposed to be  about the clutter in your head.
I can't seem to focus on my writing when my head is cluttered up with what I want to blog about.
 Or tweet about, or even what do I want to post on fb!
I will walk around with mainly a blog post in my head and cannot concentrate on my writing,
 until the blog has been written. And today I have two in my head, so that's it for this one!
And my Q4U is, what clutters up your head and gets in the way of your writing?
 And how do you get rid of all that clutter?


Love to hear your thoughts and solutions!

Saturdays Are for FUN!

 I'm going to age myself here, but....

Remember waking up on a Saturday morning, hurrying through your chores just so you could run out and play with your friends? You'd spend all day out riding your bike, jumping rope, playing tag, and hide and seek with all your friends. Remember?? Okay so maybe I personally didn't do that but....

Or maybe your time was getting up Saturday morning and heading straight for the video games, and your mom would tell you, "Quit playing those video games and go out and do something! Now when I was a kid..."
Okay mom, we've heard those stories before. Along with, "I had to walk 3 miles to school in 3 foot of snow...

BUT it's Saturday!

Get off the computer and Let your inner child out today, even if it's just for a brief time.
 Go to the park, take a walk around the block and check out everyone's Halloween decorations, Play fetch with the dog in the back yard, or if you have younger kids, go out and throw the football around.
 Or if you are feeling really brave, pump up those bicycle tires and ride around the block, up and down the street.
It'll be good for you!
 Great exercise, your body will thank you and so will your mind.
 And while you are at it think of all the different things you can add to your book!
Happy Saturday everyone!

What do you want to Achieve?

Good morning and Happy Thursday everyone! Hope your day is going well.

I was reading a blog by Lindsay Buroker  http://www.lindsayburoker.com/
And it got me to thinking what do I want to achieve with my writing....
Do I want to get rich from it?
Be able to make a living from it?
Be famous?

I think..."A"  Yes, I would like to see money come in from it. Get rich? Nah...
             "B"   Make a living from it? That would be nice.
             "C"   Be famous?   Nah, I mean if that happens, okay, but not mandatory.

I think what I would like to achieve is to write good books that people will enjoy reading.
Get Published.
And I really, really, want to do at least one book signing!
I have no idea why I find that exciting.
Considering I'm the shy, bashful type, but I do love meeting new people,
 I just get all tongue tied when trying to talk to them,
but I am an excellent listener! :-)

I mean that is why I decided to sit down and put all those words to paper and computer, right?
To get published, so others can see into my world of imagination?
 Otherwise, what is the sense of sitting here, letting my legs go numb and my eyes go all wacky!

I am loving what I'm doing, creating a whole different world for others to read, is exciting and fascinating!

What are your goals? Your hopes? Your dreams? What do you hope to achieve?
 Or what have you achieved already?

Confused yet?

Good morning and Happy Wednesday! Just wanted to clear up a few things about me.

When I tweet I'm http://twitter.com/#!/myuniquebaskets My Unique Baskets

When I write I'm http://www.facebook.com/pages/Different-Corners/282985538382248?ref=ts At Different corners or here!

And when I follow your blog I am usually kkrafts.

I have been thinking I need to get then all together and use one name, maybe "Just me!" or "Uniquely Me!" but thought it would just confuse everyone even more!

I also have two other blogs if you want to see what else I do in this very confusing world!
http://myuniquebaskets.blogspot.com/
http://kkrafts58.blogspot.com/
Have a great day everyone and Happy everything! :-)

Queries!

Aak! Eek! Ugh! Okay now that I've got that out of the way...I want to ask a question...At least I think I wanted to ask a question....Wait, let me think about this. I've got all these questions rolling around in my head.  Stop! Okay had to stop the roulette wheel and pick the one I wanted. Okay here's my question... No wait let me give you a little history first then I'll ask.

I am writing a series of 3 books. I am almost finished with the third. I just need to fill in a couple of gaps, tie it together, and make sure it's flows and keeps you reading. But the thing is I haven't written the first 2 books. They are still in my head. When I first started writing the third book I had no plans on writing the first two, because the third book has enough merit to stand on it's own, is a good read, and has the happily ever after, and yet leaves some questions unanswered, that would make the reader wanting more, which then I could write the first two books. I just feel that if any get published, I want it to be the third.

Okay so here's my question for you....

When sending out my query letter, Do I just query the one book as a stand alone? Or do I need to put in the query, that it could be a series?

Is there a difference in tactics when sending to an agent? Or a publisher?

As to that I mean... Do you tell the publisher that you are querying that it could be a series or not?

Do you tell the agent that it could be a series or not?

Illustrations

Good morning! Hope everyone's day is going great so far! I have a question, like that's anything new...

My oldest son is a natural artist and I want him to sketch some illustrations for my current novel to be used on different pages.
 Let's say your chapter title page is about phone calls or ice creams, or puppy dogs, I don't know whatever comes to mind.
 Anyway on that page I'd like to have a sketch along with the chapter name.

 I've seen it done on other books, but what I want to know is when you send your novel off to the agent or publisher should you have the illustrations on the pages that you want when sending it in.

 Or should that be something discussed when you are working on the details of the cover and publishing it?

Humanizing Your Characters

Just a quick blog post this morning. I have been thinking about this the past few days and wonder just how human are your characters.

I know we describe our characters. Fat, thin, short, tall, brown hair, etc. And we give them little traits such as nail biters, or gigglers, coffee drinkers, but where do they get that cup of coffee they are always carrying around? But the question is, Do you actually make them human, with basic day to day habits? Do they ever do the dishes, run the vacuum, strip the dirty sheets off the bed, and do a load of laundry? Or do they have a magical housecleaning fairy that comes in while they are sleeping? (I have really got to get me one of those!)

I know if the heroine is out fighting zombies, she's not going to stop and realize she forgot to shave her legs last night, and the zombies aren't going to care if she has a sink full of dishes, but not all stories are about zombies invading.

I really got to thinking about this when I updated my facebook status the other day. Telling everyone that I had to wash my hair and go to the grocery store. Yes I know I lead a boring life, but these are some of the day to day things we do without ever thinking about them.

I'm not saying throw everything in and make your story dull and boring, but certain things can be addressed that your reader can relate to. Yes we all want to live that perfect life where the kids don't come in while you are on the phone and yell at the top of their lungs, "Mom the dog just pooped all over the living room rug." But it's part of life and part of being human.

Well back to my perfectly boring life of cleaning house, doing, laundry, humanizing my characters and yes I really should shave my legs today! (Can't wait for short season to be over, jeans here I come!)

Happy Monday Everyone!

Life! Isn't it Awesome!

I was really hoping two weeks ago to say, "YAY! Finished my first novel" But sometimes life gets in the way, which is a good thing!

The weekend I was hoping to have it finished I went down and spent two days in San Diego with my son and went to the Blue Angels air show, then last weekend my son came up here. His roommates grandmother had passed away and her funeral was that Saturday. My son also had a job up here in the area, and he brought his dogs and I got to puppy sit for three days! So with his two and my two wanting to run in and out, in and out, front door and back door, well lets just say there wasn't much time to write.

Well yesterday I finished up the "With this ring, I thee wed vows, and I can't tell you how happy I am with how they turned out! Yes it's an erotic romance, but to me it is a tender sweet love story, with some hot sensual sex thrown in :-)

This morning I stood in line at Barnes and Noble waiting to get my wristband for Ozzy Osbourne's book signing! Awesome!!!!!

And then this evening, I got my book signed and got to talk to Ozzy! I know he's not your regular type of author, but he's OZZY! Yes, I was excited, Did I tell you I got to talk to Ozzy! Okay enough, I'm sorry I tend to get excited, but I am a huge fan of Ozzy.

Something Different for Today!

I have a blog post that I have been wanting to type up, but I thought.... eh! Happy Friday everyone!

I am thinking this will be great on a spice cake or cupcakes
Pumpkin Buttercream Icing

Gluten-Free and Vegan

Makes 12

Ingredients

1 cup Earth Balance Vegan Butter Sticks
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 1/2 cups powder sugar
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/3 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp. gluten-free almond extract
1 Tbsp. almond milk

Directions

In a large bowl, whip butter until fluffy using an electric mixer. Slowly, add remaining ingredients for 2-3 minutes on medium-high speed.
Serve atop gluten-free pound cake, freshly sliced fruit such as baked apples and as a dip for gluten-free sugar cookies.
Enjoy!

To Self Publish or Not

I have thought about Self Publishing, but to me it seems a little scary! I think for my first book, I want the help of an agent, then maybe on future work, if I have learned anything.... I was reading a friend's post on FB the other day and she has an agent, but her current book she has self published because she wants to enjoy the rewards now, and she's saving for a family vacation. Here's a blog I was reading this morning about another's viewpoint on self publishing. Check it out and let me know what you think.
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/10/theres-something-odd-about-self-publishing-books/

Q4U... Have you self published or thought about it? What would be the scary part for you to do that?

Prioritizing My Priorities!

EEK! I make To Do Lists just to help keep me on track. I take a sheet of paper and list everything I want to accomplish that day and love the feeling of crossing things off my list.
Yesterday's list included, but was not limited to:
House cleaning, laundry,workout,sort through paper work and balance checkbook and update facebook, drag out Halloween decorations and while I was doing that, I found my computer speakers that I have been searching months for! Not to mention, Write, Write, Write!

But the hardest part of To Do lists and accomplishing everything is I get my priorities all jumbled up and end up not accomplishing everything I've set out to do, or not getting to the most important ones that really should be a priority!

When it comes to my writing...I am this close to having my novel finished and yet instead of writing yesterday, I started reading back through and did some editing and revising! I also start stressing on how to write a query or a synopsis and who am I going to send them to. Trying to find either a publisher or agent can be time consuming. And yet most authors, agents, writers, etc. tell me just get it written and then worry about the rest. :-) But I am happy to say that this morning I think I found the agent I will send my query to, because she is currently taking queries in my genre! So I am excited and now know what my priority is for the next couple of days! Write, write, write!

Here's wishing everyone a great day and happy writing.

Oh and if you get a chance you can see all the to do things I have been catching up with...
http://www.facebook.com/pages/You-Are-Awesome/233192996701952?ref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Different-Corners/282985538382248
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1161983753
And don't forget to tweet me!
And I did get out my Halloween Decorations and have started to decorate!

And now I have updated my writer's blog! Woohoo, I'm on a roll!
Now to hook up my speakers and crank up one of my favorite YouTube playlists and WRITE!
http://www.youtube.com/user/myuniquebaskets?feature=mhee

Does this freak you out?

I wanted to quote Erin this morning, because I too have had this happen since our discussion! And it does tend to freak you out!

Erin Quinn "Not so much a style influence, but I've had issues where my ideas brush against someone else's --and that freaks me out."


You can check out our conversation here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Different-Corners/282985538382248?sk=wall

A friend commented on another friend's post on fb a comment that I had already written in the 2nd chapter of my book. And just yesterday I was reading an article on Yahoo about how people meet and I thought, NO WAY! because one of the couples met basically the same way my hero and heroine met! Now that's freaky!
http://yahoo.match.com/y/article.aspx?articleid=12353&TrackingID=526103&BannerID=860522
Have you ever encountered this with your writing?

What Influences You?

Good morning and Happy Sunday everyone! Today I'd like to find out, "Not so much of what influences you or not, but more so the creation of the emotions and feelings of your characters....I think!"

First, I don't read other's romance novels while I'm writing my novel. Mainly because, I don't want their words or emotions influencing my own work.

Our characters live in our heads from start to finish of our book and if we are writing a series they live there a long time.

I have been worn out the last couple of weeks and have had a touch of the flu and find myself projecting how I'm feeling onto my characters. I have been saying my heroine is exhausted and yet there really is no reason for her to be.

Do you find yourself doing this?

Let's say you've had a bad day and are in a cranky, snappy, mood, do you find yourself making your characters mood match your own?

How about sympathizing with your characters moods, feelings and emotions?
When your characters are stressing, irritated, nervous, or sad, etc.  do you find yourself feeling and expressing their emotions?

There is a part in my novel where my heroine is experiencing morning sickness, now I'm wondering if I actually had the flu or was just sympathizing with her, remembering all those mornings when I was pregnant with my sons!

I'd like to hear your take on this! It would be interesting to know that I'm not the only one experiencing these feelings.

Have a great day everyone!

Time and Descriptions

Good morning from my Different Corners! Which feel very busy and confused this morning.

I was going to do my blog post on "Descriptions" this morning, But then I also wanted to do one on "How do you manage your time?" So I thought I'd combine the two.

A little history to help you along.

I have an 87 year old dad and an 88 year old step mom. Whom I love dearly. Dad is hard of hearing, even though he has hearing aides, he has a hard time understanding people on the phone otherwise he's in excellent health and full of energy. My step mom has had a few strokes which have affected her speech and some of her motor skills.So my dad has taken over all the basic household chores. They can afford to have someone come in a few days a week, but dad is frugal and stubborn. They live 35 miles from me, which isn't bad, but you have to take two major freeways to get there. Anyway my dad loves his computer. He can check emails, his stocks, and now bank accounts, but if he enters a wrong password and gets kicked out of accounts, he calls me. There are weeks where I am on the phone with dad, his stockbroker, banks, customer service reps, 3 way calling, trying to explain to everyone, who I am, and what my dad needs and then trying to take care of my own priorities.

I went down to San Diego over the weekend to visit my son and to catch the "Blue Angels" air show and there was an accident on the freeway on the way down which put me behind schedule an hour. While sitting in this massive parking lot that we call a CA freeway, my dad calls me and starts rattling off a phone # to one of his banks and because I am not at home, he gets mad at me and hangs up. (I'm used to that)
                                               And this is what the freeway looked like :-(

 I only took my writing laptop and not my internet laptop, (Yes, I use separate ones to keep me from getting distracted) hoping to finish up my novel so I can get it out to my proofreader. (and I hardly got any writing done.)
So for the first part, how do you organize your time? Do you set aside a certain amount of time for writing, cleaning, promoting (FB, twitter, blogs, etc), I see people tweeting, writing blogs, facebooking, and can't help but wonder, "When do they have time to write a novel, much less accomplish anything else."
         
            So my  first question for you is...Do you write a list or make yourself a schedule? 


Okay as for Descriptions... I was in a motel in San Diego over the weekend and sitting there at the desk trying to get some writing done, when I start looking around the room thinking, "How would I describe the room?" Just working on my description skills, something everyone should do, right? In my novel they are currently staying in a motel at the Grand Canyon. But I am not focusing on what the room looks like. I am putting the detail into their thoughts, feelings, emotions, and conversations. The most I've said about their room is, it has two beds, a sliding glass door that leads out to the pool area, and a single knob in the shower confusing a five year old, who is used to the customary 3 knobs. Oh and there must be a TV in there, because I did mention they were watching TV. To me, unless you are going to use the description later in the story, I really don't feel it's important, but is the reader going to want that bird's eye view of every detail?

This is where I'm confused. Every reader, just like every person on this earth has their own tastes as to writing, reading, even eating. We are all unique.  


And here's my second question for you......

How do you come up with a happy medium on details and descriptions?
Are you giving all those little details just to have filler or are they vital to your story line?