Once again, I haven’t written as often as I’d like because the husband has been working very long days. The kids have been busy getting ear infections and cutting teeth. I’ve gotten a lot of things done around the house as well. Today is my first day a maid will be coming to the house to clean. I just can’t seem to find the time to do all the things one does to keep a house clean. The kitchen, always, things are always picked up and put away around the house, it’s never messy except when the kids play, but things like toilets and dusting, mopping and vacuuming upstairs, shower scrubbing, all of those things aren’t done as often as I’d like. So a maid once a month should help me with that.
In writing news, yesterday I received notice that Chimera, my new short horror script with a psychological twist, has placed in the semi-finals of the Hyperwave short competition. I am so stoked. Not just for the placement but for the fact that a second script placed. This means I’m not a one hit wonder screenwriter. I was afraid Summons was all I would ever write that was good. And now I know that’s not true. We all have to wait a few more days before Finalists are announced, so until then I will be checking my email a million times. The new feature that started as a short is turning out very well. I am in the last few scenes, including the climax and I’m very excited about it. Once it’s done I will have written a total of 5 scripts. Then I can get back to writing the 3rd book, editing my YA and fantasy feature. I think I have my work cut out for me for this year. Phew!
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I had plans to write this weekend. Big plans. Like finish the script plans. But it didn’t happen. Not one single page got written today. I ended up clearing a good patch of the garden area for new seeds and vegetable plants. A lot of weed pulling, dead heading and raking. I barely had energy to stay up past the kids going to bed each night. I’m glad it happened. I was able to see what plants have already grown out there from previous owners of the house and plan out the chicken coop.
Right now we have asparagus, a lot of onions, tons of strawberries, a whole patch of spearmint, sugarcane and red raspberries. I’m stoked for the berries. I’ve always wanted a raspberry “bush.” Next up is getting the tall grass around it trimmed for the chicken coop to go down. I have a sunburn because I hate putting sunblock on. It will go away by tomorrow but my stubbornness is biting me in the ass today. 🙄 Now to get back to work today. Speech therapy with my son, school bus for my big kid, maid estimate, get milk for the man’s morning cereal and make a doctor appt for my son’s mysterious mouth pain. 😞 Everyone have a good Monday. Smile, even when you’re grumpy, I hear it helps. I’m going to test it out myself. I did it. I hired a professional nanny to sit my kids while I organize the house. She doesn’t nanny for me, but we are working on it. My point this blog is that I needed just an hour and a half of someone else entertaining the kids while I switched out laundry, cleaned the kitchen, took care of preschool paperwork (including all the copies of tax forms, shot records, birth certificate, my second born) and filing papers that have sat in a pile in the office for months. I got so much done. I have her for the next two Thursdays and Fridays and I’m excited at what I will get done. If not writing, then maybe cleaning up more of the office or guest room.
I would love to get this stuff done this summer. I hate going into the rooms and finding chaos. Keeping the doors closed (have to anyways for the kids) has helped my stress level, after all out of sight out of mind. But I would love to have workable spaces in my new house. 😞 With the husband home this weekend after a long as work week for him, I hope he can find ways to work and play with the kids. We got a new “roller coaster” toy for them for the back porch. It needs setting up and I think he and the kids can manage that perfectly together during the baby’s morning nap. I already took care of a ton of laundry yesterday but still have two more loads. It seems like it’s never ending, it probably IS never ending. But that’s ok. The times I get to write are a blessing and I love it. Sitting here with my son beside me sharing his excitement over a Minecraft zombie show on YouTube is a nice start to the weekend. He gets so animated. And has no filter. 🤣 I know this doesn’t seem like a writing blog entry but that’s okay. It’s been a less than exciting time in the writing department of life recently. Not in a bad way, just nothing new. The “short” is working out great. It’s going to be, or close to it, a feature now and I’m loving the story. My book is still with the editor, it takes time to read multiple books at a time. The third book in my series is still on back burner until I finish this script. I don’t want to write something that my heart and brain aren’t into right now. It will be, don’t get me wrong. it’s just right now I’m more excited about the script. I want to write the book when I’m excited about it. I hope that makes sense. If my heart isn’t into it, I’m afraid it won’t be good. Now if it’s a script, that is so much easier. The less descriptive writing, where my heart usually cares, the better. 😂 I’ve entered my real short script into a few competitions and am waiting to hear back about those. I’m sure I’m optimistic but I can’t help it. I really love the story. One thing that’s been happening lately are some super duper cool people on social media have been following me. I don’t want to share because that seems tacky to me, but I’m honored and I’m trying to keep it cool. Like I would stutter if ever I met these people in a real life setting. 🙃 Whoa this YouTube Minecraft movie is 😮 Well, my baby is awake, time to be a parent for real. Have a great Saturday everyone! Yesterday was a real stereotypical parent day. Got kids on the bus, out baby down, did my writing, I think I got in 4 pages by the end of the day, got a call from my daughters school that her eczema was acting up. Loaded the baby up, took the medicated cream and other stuff to the school, slathered everything on the kiddo and then thought I could get gas and beer for the husband at Safeway before I had to be home for my son’s bus. The baby is fascinated when she sits in the cart. She is very quiet and observant and only smiles at me when I purposefully play with her to remind her it’s ok, this new experience, (I usually order my groceries). Get done and I realize I’ve wasted too much time shopping for salads and have none left to get gas. “Race” 🚗 home through lunch hour traffic and come home to the bus (early of course) waiting for me. Get the kiddo inside, toss food at him, get them ready for nap and lay them down. During ALL of this I made dozens of calls, including call backs, for different services around the house and bills to pay. Carpet cleaning, bill, furniture repair, call backs, return calls, ordering medication refills from doctor and pharmacy, another bill, oh and Filing business taxes, too.
During nap I enjoyed an episode of Legacies while I ate lunch and THEN I did more writing. I think I did an Insta Live story too. 😂 It was an okay day, definitely made better by the fact that none of the kids woke up in the night, Which is really rare. Now, I’m hoping for a day I can focus on writing and the baby while the orders are happily and healthily at school. 🙏🏻 it’s been a few days since I made an entry and I think that’s mostly due to me just taking it easy. I’ve been writing when I can but instead of taking 15-20 min to do a blog entry I’ve been using the time to write. It’s been so crazy here at home. Sick kids, husband gone. Chores and other various things to be done at home and less sleep than usual. I am literally pumping while I type this, that’s how I have to manage my time. Sorry if that’s TMI, this is my blog so I’m not going to worry. 😂
Ive been hiring a lot of people to do work for us around the house this last month. I’ve always been a “save money where we can” type of person and hiring someone to clean my house, carpets, pest control and lawn care just seemed too much, but I sat myself down and figured my husband isn’t able to enjoy his time with the kids if he has all these chores to do on the two days he’s off from work. I can’t do them AND write and I’ve writing is important. And my husband wants me to hire these services out, so decision made. We now have a landscaper, pest control company and, soon, a maid and someone to clean the carpets. Damned dog has done a number on them. She hated the cold weather and used the carpets for ger business. She’s lucky she’s cute. It was a hard decision, trust me. I don’t like not doing stuff myself but with all the travel, work and the kids, it makes sense. I’m working on securing travel plans for the festival in Austin and our family vacation in the same month. the “short” script I’m working on turned into something much longer and unexpectedly so. I added something to the story and that changed the length significantly. I don’t know if it will be feature length but it’s definitely not your typical “short film” script. I am going to write it out, finish the story and see where it lands. There’s room to add stuff later if I have to. For instance if it’s just shy of a feature length, I might as well make it into one. Thats all ive been working on during nap times, so I hope it will be done soon. Last night was the first night in a few weeks that all of my kids slept through the night. It was a glorious night of restful sleep. I hope to get a lot of writing done today. Yesterday I had to nap during the first morning nap. That sucks. I always feel cheated when I have to sleep and not write. But the night before was awful. 😞 So off I go now, to get two kids on the bus and get myself ready for the day. Hope you all have a good one! |
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