For those of you who know me personally, you probably know I am incredibly impatient. Yesterday I went on a beautiful horseride with two of my bestest girlfriends at Belair. The day was a beautiful one, the scenery was awesome but the whole time I was on the back of a very temperamental, and I think drunk, horse, I kept checking my watch to see how long we`d been out and how long we had left. Not because I wanted it to end but because I can`t settle down and be patient and enjoy it for what it was.

I know, I know. Some of you are asking yourself a question. Yes, my butt is waaaaay too bony to be in a saddle for an hour. I felt like my ass was going to be digging into the horse through the leather and since it was my first time riding, I don`t mind admitting that when the beast first began to move, I was holding on for my very life! I freaked out but after about 10 minutes (before he started to feel like he was going to drop dead under me) I started to relax and released my death-grip on the monkey strap (I know, lame huh?)

Anyway back to being impatient. I took my nearly four year old daughter to Disney on Ice today at the Entertainment Centre and they had all of those stands that they sell overpriced cheapo merchandise and icy crushes that come in a cup for a whopping $14 each. Behind every one of these 12 foot long stands was 1 attendant. Yep. Just one person serving 40 or 50 crazy mothers and their icy-ed up little angels. I got really pissed off waiting for my turn! Surely the amount of money we were paying for their plastic dolls ($19) and their stuffed Flounders ($40) they could have popped another 14 year old behind the table to take my hard-earned money.

After the fun of the Princess ice show, it was after one so I took Caitlin to Kentucky Fried Chicken for some lunch before we drove the 30 mins home. What a mistake. Behind the counter were two trainees with very questionable english speaking skills and a manager who looked like she`d rather be in hell dancing with the devil than at her job where she earns a semi-decent wage. Needless to say it took over 15 minutes to be served and there was only four people ahead of me. Adding to my rage!

I get home after being away for most of the weekend and the dishwasher hasn`t been set so we have no clean dinner plates for dinner. Now I`m impatient because it is still another hour till it will be finished and we can eat something (I`m flying by the seat of my pants for that one). Of course I could have washed two plates for the man and me but noooo, that would have taken too much time and I hate doing dishes.

I look out the window and the lawnmowing that the man started two weeks ago still isn`t finished, my stupid computer keeps giving me this fast find option every time I want to use an apostrophe because obviously normal people don`t need to worry about grammar when they write an e-mail. My gorgeous new kittens (yes plural) keep weeing in my ironing basket and pooing behind it. GOT STRESS?

Then I started thinking that my blog is late this week and that I would have loved to have some good news to report but I am waiting (impatiently) for the results of two contests and the e-pitch. I was `Twitching` with the Bookends editors on twitter but I was ready to pull my hair out waiting for the `start twitching` command. In the end I managed to pitch two novels in less than 140 characters and after waiting and waiting and waiting, I wasn`t chosen anyway.

The 50k`s in 30 days died at the end of last week with my count at just a bit over 25k`s because of the birthdays and the big week at work and, well, life really but at least I am 25,000 words further along than I would have been if I didn`t take part in the challenge.

I finished Jenna Peterson`s, Her Notorious Viscount, and next on my TBR pile is Jane Austens Guide to Good Manners. I watched the Underworld prelude, Rise of the Lycans and absolutely LOVED it! I also watched Constantine for the second time and loved it just as much as the first except that it was 3 in the morning...

How do you deal with stress and impatience? Do you drink, smoke, yell heaps, go shopping or eat loads of chocolate? I have to say the only time I`m not stressing about something is when I`m in the bath, trying to relax and ignore the sounds of the kids banging on the door or screaming at each other. We have a lock that you can open from the other side if you put a knife or a screwdriver in and turn it. Caitlin (the nearly four year old) one day grabbed my car keys and opened the door to come in to do a wee. I was blown away by her initiative and then I realised that someone had to have taught her how to do it. Thank. You. Very. Much!

My absolute favourite time of the day (sad to admit) is when I am sleeping. From the moment I wake up in the morning and then through the long, long days, all I can think of is how long it will be till I can get back in? Especially in winter in a house with no heating. I have a very good electric blanket that has a voice and it sounds like heaven calling to me from the bedroom where Molly and Matilda are curled up - hopefully not weeing- right now.

Anyway, that`s about it for my ramble today. I don`t feel any better for writing this because every time I go to hit the apostrophe automatically, I get thrown from the page!

Long day, way too much caffeine and nowhere near enough sleep... I can hear my blanket calling now... Or is that one of the kids, or the washing, or the cleaning, or the man, or my characters, or the kittens...

No, I don't have any exciting news to report.

I am happy that I only have about 30,000 words to go to finish my historical. I've uploaded the first chapter and the temporary cover I'm using to my Works in Progress tab. Go and check it out. I'm also now on the Authonomy site (Harpercollins). The book is called Falling and is receiving some excellent comments in the week its been up!

Unfortunately the 50k's in 30 days is not going quite so well. I have done 23,000 words but we are nearly at the end of the third week and I still need another 27,000 to make the quota. I'm pretty sure that isn't going to happen... Next week is already tight time-wise and finding the brain capacity to write will be very hard. I'm going to be working Monday and Tuesday night until 2am, and then get up with the kids about 8am. Not a great start to my writing week.

I would like to say Happy Birthday to Doug for the 11th of June (I love you!) and also to my baby Jessica for the 21st and my brother, Matt, for the 23rd (it's my birthday on that day too!!)
So... Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you!!

I do keep forgetting where Friday falls in the week so I apologise for not preparing something witty and entertaining. I will have to put some thought in next week so you keep coming back :)

The update on Molly, and now Matilda as well, is that they should be coming home on Monday! I'm excited but I'm also desperately praying they will be ringworm free. Yuk. I'll try to post a pic. They are very cute now that their hair/fur is growing back.

I'm going to spend the rest of the night relaxing with a good book now. Jenna Peterson's Her Notorious Viscount.
Check out Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, by Beth Fantasky and if you want a hot read, click on J Hali Steele's website link then navigate to the Coming Soon page. There you can purchase a copy of Hard Case. Warning*** erotic content that is guaranteed to boil your blood!!

Have a great weekend!

Well, it's a new week with new possibilities. My fingers are so frozen, this post is going to take a while to type but I'm happy because my pitch to Harlequin has gone! I was stuck between two stories, both of which I love, so I was cheeky and added a paragraph or two about the other one on the last page. Just to show that I have something else waiting to be looked at :)

My historical is plowing along, I've just jumped the 50,000 word hurdle. Not so great, is the 50ks in 30 days. Although I have written more in the last two weeks than I probably would have normally, I'm still very much behind. I'm at 12,267 words and nearly at the end of the second week. I've averaged a thousand words a day which for me isn't very good when I know I can do a thousand words an hour. The next two days are complete write-offs since I'm going to a party tonight, I'll be hungover tomorrow and playing with my girls on Sunday. Hopefully next week, I can catch up. I really need to do about twenty thousand words but it's doable. I think...

Anyway, I won't hear back about the Molly until July and the Claddagh probably getting into August so no news to report on that front. For anyone interested, Molly and Matilda still aren't home. They have really aggressive ringworm and I just can't risk it with the babies so it's a few more days to a week before the house is filled with meows and 'ow's (from us being scratched and bitten and loved).

Happy writing!
 

Okay, so I'm a day late not that anyone noticed ;)

This last week I've had a horribly dusgusting cold that turned into an even more disgusting sinus infection so I didn't do much and I've made a slow start to the 50k's in 30 days.

Good news! I have been chosen to pitch a contemporary novel direct to Harlequin, Mills and Boon. It is the most exciting thing to happen this year and puts me a little baby step closer to my dream. Or at least it would if I could decide which story to pitch. I have one that's finished but the pitch isn't as good as the one that isn't finished. I wish I was pitching a historical. That I would have had nailed by now. So I've had to stop writing my 50,000 words and work on the pitches. Now I'm going to sleep on it and decide which one to e-mail in the morning. So it's back to the 50k's and catch up, easier said than done when your head feels like it's going to explode out of my cheek. Nice thought huh?

It's great that I'm stuck between great stories (if I do say so myself). At least I'm not left without a story to pitch or a leg to stand on. I want to say goodluck to the other RWA'ers pitching and may the best writers be offered great contracts!

I'm also doing some judging for an American contest so when I'm too tired to write my own stuff, I do the judging that is due by the end of the month. It's a learning experience but I'm really enjoying it.

I have three entries in the Molly (1) and The Golden Claddagh (2) but I won't find out about them for a few months yet. Just have to keep those fingers crossed.

Molly (the kitty with the ringworm) still isn't ready to come home and is right now busy getting re-attached to her litter mate so by the end of next week, we'll probably have two new members in our family. Then Doug will be outnumbered, 2 males (one is a turtle) to five females. He, he, can't seem to find any sympathy.

My father-in-law thinks I've forgotten about the rum so if you're somewhere cold or just need a stiff drink, have a Bundy on me! (Well you'll have to buy it but you can think of me :))

*seeya* next week. Have a great long weekend if you're celebrating the Queen' un-birthday.