Year: 2008

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

In the beginning, it sounded like such a good idea. White walls + empty house = fresh canvas. Get the new house painted before we moved in, because I know us. Once we’re there and we have to move furniture or plan around life, it won’t happen.

The first sign that perhaps this wasn’t such a great idea actually happened a week ago when we were struggling to match the paint for touchups at this house. I had a previously opened quart of paint in the van, and the bottom was crunched because That Man dropped it at Lowe’s as we were checking out. So it wouldn’t sit upright. Our plan was to grab dinner at Hinode, our local Japanese Steakhouse, and then run by Lowe’s for a different finish. We pulled into Hinode and I opened the door, looked down, and the paint can had opened in the floorboard between my feet. Paint EVERYWHERE.

I scooped paint out of the car with my bare hands and used every napkin and cloth available in the car trying to get the paint up before it dried. As with previous catastrophes, the Law of Catastrophes says that the number of napkins/wipes available to clean up any mess is inversely proportional to the size of said mess. I ended up walking into a nice restaurant with paint up to both elbows, on my pants, and unfortunately left some on their parking lot.

Another Law of Catastrophes (waiting to happen) involves painter’s tape. Again, it seemed like such a good idea: painter’s tape pre-loaded with plastic sheeting. Since we plan to use a paint sprayer on the new house, we need to cover the ceiling at least a couple of feet back to protect its whiteness from our neutral paint color. This new contraption seemed like the perfect answer.

In reality, it’s rather like an octopus trying to use Saran Wrap. It sticks to itself better than the ceiling or floorboard. It also sticks really well to my fingers (so that I yank off a good six inches or more off the ceiling when I need to move to the next section) and even my hair, thank you very much. The dispenser is heavy enough that if it hangs free, it twists. Bad idea when there’s TAPE on one side. And of course, since there is tape involved, it doesn’t just roll out freely. Some pressure is required to get it off the roll. While you’re holding the taped end up on a ladder with plastic dangling in your face…

Sitting here this morning stiff, sore, with a constant headache for the second day in a row, I have to ask myself. How big of a paintastrophe are we going to have with that sprayer….?

*dies*

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Forgive me, I haven’t been writing much at all. At least nothing to brag about.

I have a pretty decent query for NSR. I’ve got 60 pages shuffled, filled, and smoothed — only to realize I need to reorder the beginning scenes again and worsen the office breakin. Since I was a bit stalled on this project, I switched to Letters. Yeah, I know. I didn’t think I was going to work on that story, but in many ways, I need to. I wrote up a query for it and continued smoothing and shuffling Conn’s POV back into the story, up to 51.5K. See how close to finished this rewrite is? Although these next sections will definitely be harder, because it’s a brand new subplot. Good stuff though.

Meanwhile, I’ve ordered blackout thermal curtains for 3 windows and some new bedding for the new house. Yesterday we got the keys and walked through it empty. Oh dear. Saw a few things that made me dislike the house even more, like phone line in the basement that the previous tenant had run herself. Wires just coming out of holes in the wall and ceiling are never good. That Man wounded his hand on nails in the fence (that she put up herself)–so much for trusting the monsters to play at will outside, until we do some repairs, that is. And the kitchen…is so small…I’ll be cooking out of boxes until we can find some decent and cheap storage options.

Oh, but the kids love the basement. Littlest Monster only fell down the stairs once yesterday. (Just a few, enough to scare her.)

We began prepping the walls for paint yesterday–they’re currently white and pretty scuffed and dinged. After living here with a nice neutral on all the walls, I can’t bear to live in a white house again. So for the next couple of nights, we’ll be taping and painting. Now That Man begins to understand why the bulk of the house is already packed except for living necessities….I won’t have time to pack much more this week and move day is Friday.

I’m holding on to my sanity for August 15th. We’ll be moved, unpacked (at least what I have room for), and the kids will go back to school. Then watch out. I’ll have some serious writing goals to hit this fall. I’ll keep grinding away bit by bit on what I can now, but I’ve accepted that I’ll be scattered and disorganized until then.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Jenny gave a terrific review (A+!) of Beautiful Death:

As a reader, two key factors that influence my enjoyment of a book are the author’s voice and imagery. It’s easy to say that Beautiful Death excels in both but the total is much more than the sum of its individual merits. This novel is so good that I’m not sure I can do justice to it in my review.

Miss Burkhart’s confident and bold execution of the story is something I come to appreciate. No chunky paragraphs to introduce the characters or backstory for this author. The plot plays out like a rapidly shuffled deck of cards, with information revealed at exactly the right time. Emotionally rich and action-packed, Beautiful Death holds intriguing surprises at every turn, right up to its explosive climax.

You can read the entire review here. Thank you so much, Jenny!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Calling all Western fans…

Please name your favorite Western with two archetypical characters: the whore with the heart of gold, and the scarred gun-slinger. Naturally they fall in love at the end and redeem each other. Any recommendations?

I have this CRAZY idea that came to me sometime last night while I was trying to sleep. (Yeah, still struggling with the sleep issues, grrr) I just want to get a feel for this kind of story and see if it strikes a chord. Or if I’m just whacked out by a to-do list ten miles long and uneasy interrupted sleep…

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Here’s a question for you:

Is a “high concept” (oh, how I loathe thee) idea still considered high concept if a similar–but still different–idea has been recently released? Of course, in my writer’s arrogance, I believe my idea is way cooler than this other and couldn’t even get 50 pages into it, but part of my mind says, “don’t even bother now.” I know there are no new ideas, but there are fresh takes on ideas, and my fresh take has wilted a little beneath the harsh reality of this other release.

On to patience. I’m a strong believer that when one door closes, there was a very definite reason that door closed and another open door that I’m meant to find merely waits ahead. However, I don’t always have the patience I should. Yesterday, I really had to fight back my urge to immediately shoot out some agent queries on my project that got shot down. Only one no definitely does not mean the end of the road for this project, if I can get the execution right. The only weakness flagged in the “Dear Author” letter was pacing. Pacing I can fix by shuffling some scenes around and making something even worse happen in the “duller” scene I was using to establish character.

I revamped my query. I thought it was a really strong query. I wanted to send it so bad. Just one time, to someone I know could give a response in as little as 24-48 hours (”good” responses take much longer, but that form reject flies back quickly). But remember, I told myself, there’s only one chance to make a good first impression. ONE CHANCE. If she says no, then 20% of my A-list is gone. Is that a risk I’m willing to take already?

Then I’m back to the move and how much Revision Hell I still have to get through. If a positive request came through, am I sure I could fix the pacing issue in the first three chapters? Absolutely sure? When I still have a lot of other revisions to smooth? I know I could get the whole manuscript turned around quickly — but is that in my best interest, both my sanity and the project’s? This could be a big project…if I don’t screw it up.

Yet that big ticking clock keeps hammering away in my head, especially when I think about that other similar project…

So I gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to send a query flying out. I got up early this morning for a change. And what do you know–I found a few more minor tweaks to tighten my query I thought was so fab yesterday.

So I hereby solemnly swear not to submit any queries until I get this second pass completely finished, which will give me time to tweak for a THIRD time if any requests for material come trickling in.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I really was last night.

Okay, I wasn’t fully asleep, but I was definitely in bed and I was having a hard time getting my brain to shut down. Pretty standard the last few nights–no wonder I’m so tired during the day. It’s not full blown insomnia, but I’m definitely losing sleep and going to bed early would not help.

While I was trying to relax and fall asleep, I started writing poetry in my head. Not for the first time, I wished I had a Stephen King typewriter mind-machine thing that could write down what I was thinking, because of course this morning I can’t remember more than the basic theme of the poem. Maybe I did dream about it, because it’s all rather vague, or maybe that was deliberate on my mind’s part. You see, in the poem, I was a ghost. I was there around my family, but nobody could see or hear me. I distinctly remember the impression of banging on glass with my fists, trying to get their attention, but still, nobody heard me.

*shivers* No wonder I’m tired this morning. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t remember the actual verses.

Revision Hell is put off until after the move is complete. There’s no need to rush now, as I got the ”Dear Author” letter yesterday.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Tracy was kind enough to let me write up a guest post for the Bookroom Reviews blog here.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

So we’ve been trying to match the paint color throughout this house so we could touch up all the knicks and scrapes the monsters left behind. First time, we took a small piece of wall (That Man planted the bedroom door handle into the wall, long story) to Lowes and had a quart of Valspar made. The paint lady thought the finish was flat.

When it dried, it was obviously not the right color or finish. Some walls looked okay until the light hit, with an obvious sheen difference. I went snooping out in the garage through several old cans and found what I suspected was the original 5-gal painter’s container. It was an egg shell finish, not flat. Back to Lowes, bought another quart in the same color.

This one was even worse. I didn’t need a light difference to see the obvious touchups.

The paint label was really faded, but I finally made out Sherwin Williams “Nomadic Desert.” We ran up to the closest store on Sat. and they had closed half an hour earlier. Sigh. Made another trip today but the paint guy recommended I bring in the old paint can because believe it or not…they have two kinds of egg shell paint. Sigh. Drove back home, picked up the nasty old can, and drove back.

Of course, I couldn’t just buy a quart of THIS paint — I had to get a whole gallon. *grumbles* However, it was totally worth it. I repainted all the spots tonight and I swear, I can’t tell where I touched up. The only spot I really need to work on yet is the monsters’ room. Evidently, Princess Monster likes to lay awake at night and scratch paint off the textured bumps. It might be easier to re-paint that whole wall…

I was a cleaning maniac all weekend. The master suite is almost move-out ready: cleaned, organized, kids’ toys picked up, etc. Packing up the bathroom essentials will be one of the last things we do. Both bookcases are mostly done with just a few scragglers that wouldn’t fit in the box. Today, I finished the monsters’ room. *dies* It was soooo messy. Everything is organized and for the most part, packed, except their most favorite toys.

I didn’t finish the storage unit like I hoped, but I got more cleaning/organizing done than I planned, which is good. (I didn’t have the van Sat. so I couldn’t make the large trips like I’d envisioned.) Slowly, we’re getting there. If nothing else, this move is forcing me to reorganize and declutter, which is a good thing.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Tracy at Bookroom Reviews posted a review of Beautiful Death:

Beautiful Death is a fast-paced science fiction, action, and romance book, all in one.

Joely has a gift of great imagination, including the apocalyptic future world that she created. I could even see this book as a movie.

Thank you so much, Tracy!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

The winner of Lynn Viehl’s Twilight Fall giveaway is….

BETHANIE!

Bethanie, please e-mail me your snail mail addy and I’ll send your copy!

Thanks to everyone who entered!