Category: Archive

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

Back in the good old days, a family trip to Branson meant single-lane highway up and down the “Ozark Mountains.” Even back then, Branson was a touristy area, and I remember miles of traffic stacked up behind a lone rickety RV. With the hills, we could never pass. If you got behind someone slow, you were stuck until they pulled off the road at their destination.

Years later they made some improvements to the road by adding a second lane–but only in certain areas to allow faster vehicles to pass the slower ones. It seemed like a good idea, right? Until a semi truck pulled over in the faster lane going uphill — to pass an ancient RV in the other lane. Then it was like a race between a turtle and molasses in winter.

That’s exactly how it feels right now with respect to my high-speed internet. DSL is “on its way.” They assured me my line could handle the high speed. They assued I’d have the modem “by” Friday–but surely sooner. No modem. Even when I get the modem, I’m not sure where I’ll put it to enable my network because…get this…there’s no phone outlet in my office. This house is set up so stupidly it makes me want to scream. I’ll either need to put the modem (and the router) in the kitchen–where I’ve been working all week–or in our bedroom. That’s it. I can’t put it downstairs because…yeah…no phone outlets down there at all.

Meanwhile, the third party did make it out to bury the cable in our back yard. Tuesday a guy showed up to mark placement. The next another came out to do the work. I thought SCORE! I’ll be up Thursday!! However, no cable guy showed up. Last night, That Man called them and they said, “Oh, we’ll get that order placed right away.” ^#@*&@#$?? What, I was supposed to call them? We begged the installer to let us call them last week when it was apparent we had a problem, but he said there was no need. He’d already talked to the dispatcher and the order was made.

Now the cable guy is supposed to come out on Sat. No time frame. So I’ll just sit here and twiddle my thumbs all day and hope he does show up. Probably about the time the DSL modem arrives by pony express…

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

Today was a little better. We scoured several flea markets all over town looking for kitchen storage, but I hadn’t found *the* right pieces yet and was getting discouraged.

I bought out Target getting curtain rods, new shower curtains, etc. and since Home Depot is right across the street, we ran inside to see if they had any cabinets we could use to expand the tiny kitchen. They had some nice finished pantries that were more than I wanted to spend and I was ready to call defeat, when I found a smaller white pantry already put together (* special story below) for only $99.

That was the turning point. Once I had a color and pantry, we returned to a flea market where I’d seen a white granite-topped kitchen island and a microwave cart with additional storage. Getting it all home was a bit of a joke and required several trips, but I was *finally* able to unpack some boxes! I’m still running out of space, but it’s a start.

No news on the internet situation. I’ll be calling on DSL Monday. I hate going from 54 Mbps to 6 Mbps but that’s much better than dial-up at 49.2 Kbps. I haven’t heard a word from the cable company on when they can get out here to bury that cable. Even the fastest DSL is half the price I’ve been paying for cable. If we can get it hooked up soon, I’ll at least try it.

* we had to get something already put together because That Man is really cripping around today. He has a hip that bothers him, just had hernia surgery about two weeks ago, and then to compound everything, in the dark last night he tripped over the banana lounge chair in the garage and slammed into the van, wrenching his “good” knee. He’s barely moving today.

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

We’re in. I have no cable internet and may not for days…weeks…God only knows. No cable runs to the house (they were supposed to check all this BEFORE today) so we have to wait for a company to come out and bury a new cable. Of course, I need internet for my Evil Day Job (desperately!) and dial up sucks.

We’re exhausted. I can’t unpack the kitchen yet because I only have 3 full-sized cabinets and 2 drawers.

As for the Paintastrophe…painting itself was a chore, a nightmare, but in the end, nothing major happened other than a few boo-boos (which would have happened anyway). The color itself…leaves much to be desired. It is waaaaay too dark (I wish people would listen to me) and rather resembles bracken swamp water. Or dark greenish baby poop. Take your pick.

My apologies — I won’t be making blog rounds until my cable is back and e-mail response will be slow. If it takes more than a few days, I may have to go with DSL instead. My job depends on it.

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

A few weeks ago, I caught a bit of a new show called Peter Perfect. I don’t know that it would have caught my eye any other day…but he was making over a coffee shop. Hey, that’s right up my alley! So as I was packing and cleaning, I kept half an ear on the show. The coffee shop was Rocky Roaster, and by the end of the show, I was a Peter Perfect fan and extremely curious about Rocky’s coffee.

I checked out the website. Despite a few cart issues, I was astonished to find: Atitlan Organic. Atitlan, as in Lake Atitlan, the main setting for my ficticious Mayan ruin in Night Sun Rising. Of course, I *had* to try it!!

The description on the bag itself is inspiring:

In the town of Santiago near the lake of Atitlan, on the side of the San Pedro Volcano, there is a rainforest canopy protecting this flavorful organic coffee. It is medium bodied, highly acidic, and has a complex flavor. A great example of what organic coffee should be.

This is like reading a travel brochure for my setting! So cool!

As for the coffee…*takes another sip*…it’s not my favorite, but it’s really pretty darned good.

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.