Weekly Wrap-Up

This week has been one of the busiest so far this year. Between Girl Scouts, FCAT, cookie booths, a broken car and hours in a walk-in clinic on Saturday, I've barely had time to breathe, let alone post anything. That being said, I did manage to capture a photo that sums up the week nicely. I call it: Girl with Puke Bowl.

Cheers,

Heather

First Ever Weekly Wrap-Up

I wanted to do a “photo-finish Friday” bit where I wrap up my week; but quite honestly, that is being too ambitious even for me…so instead, I’ll try a Sunday Photo Wrap-Up.

Enjoy.

Florida panthers, catnapping in the sunshine...

...What I wanted to be doing all week--especially with the chilly temperatures!

Cheers,

Heather

Open Letter to My BFFs (who like ninjas)

Dear BFFs,

How are you? I hope that everything is going well for you.

Pleasantries aside, I have a very important message and request for you.

Please reproduce. Please!

You are denying the world of your DNA. More importantly, I thought up an awesome idea for a baby gift while I was in the shower the other day. It is a brilliant idea. I could potentially make millions (well, at least hundreds). But in order for my idea to be realized, someone needs to have a baby.

It's a contest. The first BFF to reproduce gets the results of my brilliant idea. Not only will you love it, but your baby will have the coolest baby gift on the face of the planet.

Let me repeat that: THE COOLEST!!!

Your baby will be the envy of all other babies. The parents of those other babies will be all like, “OMG! Where did you get that? It is the coolest ever!” (Note that all those other parents are silly nitwits who insist on twirling their hair and naming their children things like Bitsy and Milford while you, my awesome BFFs, will name your kids things like Bloodaxe and Artemis.)

So, my dear BFFs, I implore you to not wait another year. I have already started making the gift. So act now! Don't wait another day! Reproduce! First baby out wins big!!

Cheers,
Heather

A Sign of Spring

In my backyard — I mean on my patio — I have a small patch of dirt. Every spring Ashleigh and my mom attempt to get something to grow there. Key word here: attempt. Nothing ever grows! The soil is poor and the area is flooded almost daily with a sprinkler that has a mind of its own. So imagine my surprise, when I went out to fill the bird feeder today, at what I found:

My little bit of earth. Notice anything interesting?

A grape hyicinth. (I had to look up what it was--I didn't even know those got planted!)

Almost ready to bloom.

A new bud.

Good growing little flowers! I hope that I don't inadvertently kill you all by acknowledging your existence.

More Wonderous Discoveries

Slowly, notebook by notebook, file by file, I am re-exploring the world Sara and I created, and I have stumbled upon a vast treasure trove of notes and information I had completely forgotten. It is a bit like going to your hometown: nothing has changed, yet everything is different. Is it me? Have I changed? I’m sure I have and now my older eyes are looking upon our creation with an appraiser’s eye, questioning every letter, doodle and rushed memo.

Take a look for example at the storyboard brainstorm for one of our stories. Sara and I got distracted at one point by a side story and we pondered and discussed how to get a character out of a certain situation. Sara, from what I recall, stared at me blankly while I explained my idea, a complicated and detailed shenanigan where the princess’s bodyguard rescues her and there were horses and a carriage (it made sense back then!) …when I realized she looked confused, I took the time to sketch out what I was talking about.



Clearly, this solved everything.

Some of the notes make no sense although at the time of writing, I’m sure that they made perfect sense. When Sara and I first started this project we were single-mindedly devoted to the world, the characters and the creation. Now, time and distance has tempered my enthusiasm. No, that’s not right; I am full of enthusiasm (although I am not sure where to start). Maybe I am more realistic? More reflective?

In any case, I have a lot of material to work with and I am ready to dive in! I am ready to focus on one storyline at a time and let the other stories Sara and I brainstormed bubble in the crock pot while I work with the Quads.

And trust me, Sara and I have more than enough material to fill up a couple of shelves at Barnes and Noble and Borders!

Back to the Story

Way back in 2004, before we left Flagler, Sara and I came up with an awesome idea: a story that spanned an arc of at least five books. While I claim credit for the initial concept of a set of quadruplets (another brilliant shower idea), Sara and I were equal partners in the development of everything else. We spent a good year working solidly upon it. We made maps, religions, creatures and a royal genealogy spanning centuries. We (and by “we” I mean me) even created a song about the main character!

As time went on, we developed side stories to our main arc. We fell in love with some of the minor characters and ideas. We developed ideas for other books and story arcs. We talked, emailed and took notes but we never actually got around to writing anything solid.

We had cultures, back stories, political intrigue and wars, but no story.

Time passed. Our notes and ideas were filed away as we moved on with other projects. Four Nanos ago, I decided to try my hand at starting our story with Sara’s full support. I didn’t get very far and got frustrated that one character, the villain, began taking over the story and took me away from my main character. I put it away.

When Sara left for Japan, she gave me all of her story notes and files. I dutifully put them with mine and they have been floating around my house ever since, taking up space but not being used.

Last year when the computer incident occurred (Scott crashing my system and me not having anything backed up*) I thought I had lost everything that I wrote for the story I finally started. I was devastated. All the time spent, all those hours of typing…not just the story but all the notes that were saved on the computer – gone! I was thankful I had hard copies of some of the material, but at the time, I didn’t even look at the hard copies. Knowing I had something of the world Sara and I created was enough for right then.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the story, the characters, and the world. I've had some more of my brilliant shower ideas: snippets of conversations, scenes and plot ideas. For the past three weeks or so, I’ve come home glanced at the files and thought to myself, “You’ve got to do something with those!” This world that we created, I thought, deserves to be more than just a bunch of notes. Sara and I invested so much into it, to have it all just sit and wait seems such a let down. Not just for me or Sara but for our characters that we poured so much of ourselves into.

But between work, the girls, and everything, I never picked them up…

…Until today.

Waiting for my gaming group to arrive, I took out my file folder of story notes and began to thumb through them. I couldn’t have been more surprised! Apparently, a while back, during a time I don’t remember at all, I printed out what I wrote for the Nano novel! I had tucked it away in the file and left it there, forgotten and alone!

After the gamers left, I sat at the dining room table and thumbed through all the files. What I thought I lost – the genealogies, the country backgrounds, character notes, one of us (probably Sara) had the foresight to make hard copies. While I am missing some of the original email discussion we had, I have so much material that I don’t know where to start!

So, what to do…

Well, with Sara’s blessing (which I have no doubt she’ll give) I am going to revisit our world. I am going to give voices to our heroes, to our villains and our world!

* I haven't figured out how to imbed a link to previous posts, but for the computer incident check out Silent Fury from Feb. 13, 2009 and Live and Learn from Feb. 14, 2009.

Attack of the Socks

Without a doubt, as much as I love doing laundry, I hate folding socks. I hate it so much that 90% of the time socks sit around in baskets like this:

(Yes that is an entire basket of unmatched, unfolded, unloved socks.)

Putting the size of the basket in perspective... Cyra standing by the basket looking all punky.

They lurk in the basket, multiplying, just waiting for someone to come and pull a pair out. Most of the time, they are unmatched, but who cares? I say, if they are on your feet and in shoes, it doesn’t matter whether they match or not, right? Besides, genetics being what they are, the best you can hope for is a similar color.

I’d just as soon buy more socks then spend time folding them, but there comes a time when the socks must be put back in their place. So today, my super awesome last day of freedom until spring break, I spent doing laundry and sorting socks.

All matched, folded and ready to be put away. Left to right: Mine, Cyra's, Scott's and Ashleigh's socks!

The last few unmatched socks that I wanted to keep (I know they have mates somewhere!).

What a day. What a pile of socks to get rid of!

At least Junie enjoyed the Great Sock Disposal - she'll get new sock toys!