Let the Happy New Year Begin!

(I see they have changed the way they do images on here, and it is messing me up! But I'll soldier on.) Christmas was warm and my roses were blooming their little hearts out. It is cold now, supposed to be between 30something and 50something all week. They said we haven't had 12 consecutive days below 70 degrees since 1935, but we might break the record over the next two weeks.

My head cold is nearly gone, for which I am grateful. I didn't get bronchitis this time, but I couldn't sing Christmas carols without coughing. My husband sings so beautifully, though, that I just enjoyed listening to him instead. (See my Schnozz, up above? Isn't he a hoot? He was a gift, and I love him to pieces.)

Christmas was lovely. I still have the poinsettias across my table, but I am trying to decide whether or not to plant them. I keep hoping I can keep one growing long term. I have a new location in the yard to try out. As for the previous post, all the things say Merry Christmas, obviously, in the following languages: Spanish; German; English; French; Hebrew; Swahili; Russian; Thai; Slovak; Bulgarian; Greek; Italian; Estonian; Portuguese. No, to my regret I don't speak all those languages. Only English, and a smattering of Spanish. I borrowed these from my youngest son's Facebook page. He's a missionary. No, he doesn't speak all these either, although he knows some German, and has been to Greece and Bulgaria.

Christmas was lovely and full of family, beauty and good food. And good news! Thanks to our oldest son and his lovely wife, I am going to be (or rather, as my husband pointed out, I already am!) a GRANDMA!!! The baby is due in late June. And we are EXCITED!!! I've been practicing on all the babies at church.

Our middle son sent us to see Avatar at the movies as one of our gifts; we saw it in 3D, naturally. Although I did not care for some of the language, other than that I loved the movie! It was beautiful, actually stunning, to watch, and an entertaining story as well. Pure escapism with a visual element that was amazing!

Well, for some reason I always do spring cleaning right after the new year, so I gotta get busy. Also, I didn't make resolutions this year as I have not yet gotten the good out of last years' so I will be Gardening, Exercising and Writing. Oh, one more thing. My hubby set up a google reader for me, so I can read all your blog posts in one central location a lot sooner. The only down side is that I can't comment there. I am reading your things, and as soon as I can, I will swing by and say hello. May God Bless us this year and I ask that He give me an even deeper love of and obedience to His Word.

Happy New Year!

Like most of you, I am having fun playing with my new Christmas gifts. Hubby got me this lovely set of Jane Austen books, they are really beautifully done. I'm learning to use my new GPS which is an absolute life-saver since I could get lost in my bathtub! So far I have only used it to go places I already know how to get to, and it is so much fun to 'mess with it's head' and deliberately turn the wrong way, etc. to see what it will do. It always recovers and redirects admirably, so it is going to be great when I really need it. Especially to get back home again! I seem to be able to find my way places, only to be unable to find my way back home again, which can be most distressing. I got one of those really cool Kitchen Aid immersion blenders, too, and I can't wait to use it. Smoothies and soup, for sure, with recipes out of my brand new "Cook's Country" cookbook!

We have had an extremely good year in 2008, so this is a fond farewell to the year. We aren't going to have a New Year's Eve party, opting for a New Year's Day party instead. I don't always do New Year's resolutions, although I did when I was young, and my mom kept some of the more hilarious ones to blackmail me with! But this year I have several that I am extremely resolved about. I haven't really written them down, and don't intend to share them in any great detail, at least not in advance - that is such a jinx! But I have considered making a needlepoint that says "Write - Exercise - Garden" as a reminder. Of course, I don't do needlepoint and learning is not on my resolution list, so I will have to just do these things regularly until they become indispensable habits. I have enjoyed the modest publishing success I've achieved so far, and I'm hungry for more! So writing, and submitting, needs to become more of a priority. I want to be healthy, and exercise gets me there, so that's non-negotiable. And I would like to have my whole yard transformed, slowly and steadily, into a garden with paths and resting spots, and that will take a lot of hard work. So I am actually looking forward to this new year, full of promise and potential accomplishments. One last party, and then I will get back in to a routine, including a blogging routine. I have awards to accept, and loose ends to tie up, and I'm sure I'll have new experiences to share; not to mention reading all of your blogs! Happy 2009 to all of you friends I've made in this past year!

Published!

Saturday I got some very exciting news! I'm being published in Reader's Digest again. This is the third anecdote of mine that they have accepted, and since they say they get a quarter of a million submissions a year and only accept a few hundred, I'm pretty happy. Not to mention that they pay incredibly well, too! I'm not a Stephen King fan, but I do like his take on being a professional writer. He says that if you write something and get a check in the mail for it, that you can drive to the bank, deposit, and pay your rent with, then you are a professional writer. I don't really feel like a professional yet, but this along with some other successes I've had gives me hope that I could be someday. Thanks for letting me share my good news!

NEO Writing!

My husband bought me a NEO and for a writer, there's nothing better! It's my version of a laptop, only it is lighter, sturdier, less expensive and doesn't need any attachments. It is actually made for school children to do their writing assignments on, and it is basically a word processor program. It has a full keyboard and a small screen, along with very basic word processing capabilities. There are 8 separate files accessible by F keys, so you can work on lots of different projects, and when you are done typing, it automatically saves. You just hook it to your computer with a USB cable and it prints everything off where your curser is. Then you can edit, print or save to the computer. It runs on 8 AA batteries, and that gets you 720 hours, without the heat you get from a large battery. It rests easily on the lap and only weighs about 2 lbs. I have dropped it and had all the batteries come flying out, but I just popped them back in and everything was fine. I can take it anywhere, and since I can't get distracted by email, websites and the like, I can actually get some writing done! It costs about $220, and as you can tell, I can't recommend it highly enough. You can only get it through the Alpha Smart website, as far as I know. Then you'll have no more excuses not to get writing!

Rejection

Today I got a rejection email for one of the articles I submitted. Getting rejected by email was a novelty, which held off the sting for a moment. Besides, as the old adage goes, if you don't have enough rejection letters to paper your walls, you just aren't trying. Not that you can paper your walls with emails, but you know what I mean. I read the rejection letter again, admiring the fact that it was from a real person, it wasn't just a form rejection. Every writer knows that rejection letters come in levels, and this one rated fairly high. Signed by someone, for one thing, who took the time to write a personal note. And the note was encouraging too, telling me that my story was "nicely written." Maybe that's not a rousing endorsement, but of course it is not going to be too rousing or she'd of accepted it. She also wished me success on finding a more suitable market to place my story with. So, all in all, one of the better rejection letters in my collection.

There's only so much you can pretty it up, though, because the truth is, rejection hurts. Writing is a creative process, and any time you put yourself out there, you secretly long to hear that the recipient is absolutely blown away by it, loves it, and intends to pay you piles of money and publish it immediately. But once you let people other than your mother read your work, that's not very realistic. So, the temptation is to quit writing, or at least quit submitting for publication. In writing, like in anything else, quitting will not get you where you want to be, though. As my teenage son told me, if you don't send out your work, it's an automatic "No." This is the same son who played Chess for years with his older brothers, his dad and me, knowing he couldn't win. He played anyway, focusing on learning from the different styles of each opponent, and now he's a formidable chess player, able to excel at defense and offense in the same game, and winning routinely. Besides, I've been writing since I could hold a pencil and I don't think quitting is even possible. As for submitting, that's the only way I'll ever get any better. I could write for myself forever but I am not a good judge of the merits of my work. I am apt to despair and think it's all junk, or fall in love with my words and refuse to see the flaws. I need unbiased opinions, what used to be called "Gentle Readers" to sharpen my skills. The discipline of submitting, of waiting for a verdict and not letting it destroy my confidence, of sending out the article to the next market on my list, will be, I'm convinced, the method by which I will become a professional writer and not just a scribbler. This is a business and if I want to make any money at it, I have to toughen up. I don't know if it's really possible not to take rejection personally, but I believe it is possible to put it in perspective and work harder and smarter to make the sale.

I know it can be done, because I've done it. I know it wasn't luck, because it has happened several times. I know I am a writer, I think in stories. I tried to do something more with it when the boys were little and the time just wasn't right. My husband assured me my time would come, reminding that to everything there is a season. I believe that season has come, and so I accept the rejections as part of the process of becoming an established author.