Go Canada!

So Canada takes 14 gold medals. That just rocks! The men's hockey game today was so exciting. I love win win scenarios. Good for Canada! Nicely done.

I love this pic of Gwen, Debbie and Hannah Kearney. Now that's star quality.

March will be a very busy month for me. Very busy. Not only will I wrap up my rewrites and queries, it's time to get back into the poker groove.

There may be a three-way tie for first place if I beat Steve in racquetball this week. I also play Ron D. for our ladder. I'm on a roll now and don't see myself stopping anytime soon.

The last 10%

I heard the last 10% of a project takes 90% of the work. I'm in the last 10% phase of getting my book ready for the professionals. It's the final push to making sure the story reads well. I have 14 chapters in the book and over half have been revised. The middle section is actually pretty good. I read through chapters 8-11 last weekend through today. I'm happy with them. I skipped chapters 6-7. I'll do them later. I have to add a few pages to chapter 6. It only has three sections. It needs five. All my chapters are divided into five section. No reason for that -- it just worked out that way.

In querying agents, I'm finding myself second-guessing just about every line of my query. I'm not sure that's very productive. If they're interested, great, and if they're not, move on. Querying is a lot like online dating. It's all about letting the rejection slide off while still moving forward. This is a lot easier said than done. I've had a lot of practice in rejection. You'd think I'd get used to it. I don't know if I ever will.

I'm still reading a lot. Halfway through "Blue Angel." There's some great writing in that book.

I'm reading about 10 books right now. I can't seem to stop starting books. It's a sickness. What I'd love to catch is the illness that forces me to finish books. I'm reading Blue Angel right now. I checked it out of the library today. I've been wanting to read the novel ever since I heard the author Francine Prose interviewed on Fresh Air back in 2000. The cover is fantastic. So is the writing. I'll have this puppy finished in no time.

Chris's package arrived today. He bought me a book on internment camps ("A Tragedy of Democracy") which has totally motivated me to begin work on book 2, "Julia Milan and the House on Trestle Glen." After 15 pages, I'm loving this book. It's thorough and carefully written. Chris also included his Grand Gold award-winning handbook. It's brilliant. I'd love to create a marketing pamphlet similar to his for my book.

The days fly by, as always. There's too much to do. I joined Goodreads. I could spend days on that site. It's worse than Facebook.

I had a racquetball lesson yesterday with Angela Grisar. I was fantastic. I'm working on all sorts of ways to improve my game. I have six basic shots to practice, passing, pinch and wide-angle on both forehand and backhand. We'll see if the lesson improves my game. I think it will.

Busy Week

Kathryn and Tom visited this past weekend. They came over Sunday afternoon and stayed until yesterday morning. We ate lots of food, hung out on Lakeshore and Piedmont Aves, and veged at my place until around 10:30. It was great spending time with them. Rossana joined us Sunday and enjoyed their company.

Neal put some great pictures up on Facebook yesterday. This was after I put a few old orchestra pics up, including this one:

I'm revising chapters 4 and 5 this week, and sending out a few queries. I'd like to send ten queries out this week if that's possible. 2-3 per day. I also would like to meet with Cathryn regarding some training opportunities through CMC. Lots to do and not enough time to do it. I'm also reading several books right now.

Revisions and Cleaning

My revisions are going well, but they sure take a long time. I spent 90 minutes cleaning my room. I hadn't vacuumed in a while. I can be real lazy when it comes to chores, though I always do dishes. That's a must. With the Super Bowl last weekend and Kathryn & Tom coming over, I've been doing a lot of cleaning lately.

I'll send some queries out next week and meet with Catherine about doing some training for her. I'll enjoy that.

The Olympics are on and I haven't watched any of them. I'm just not into them this year.

Friday Already?

Kathryn's in town, so Neal B. and I will have dinner with her in the City. Should be fun. I'm gathering my agent info for new queries next week. I have a list of ten, but before I query I would like to review the work of their clients. I did that yesterday and will continue to read more through the weekend. No wonder the days fly by...there's so much to do.

I have my first racquetball lesson with Angela next Wednesday at 1. I can't wait. I played well this week and have focused on hitting the ball more accurately. It really showed today as I beat Steve B. 15-4. Nice. Keep it up. I play to challenge next week on the ladder and win, plus I have some match games to play. A busy week of racquetball. I take on Byron Tuesday night. I have three words for him: Come to papa. I love B., but I do plan to destroy him on Tuesday.

I'm revising ch. 4 of Chapel and the revisions are a great improvement I think.

An Oaklandish Place