Happy New Year!

Photo by Antonio Gabola on Unsplash

Although Covid-19 is far from over, the dreaded year of 2020 is over and we start today with a new chapter.

Vaccines have been and are still being created and, despite the high toll the winter season celebrations will have on the spread of the virus in the weeks and months to come, we have every reason to look ahead with optimism. And it is exactly that, a virus. It’s not a supervillain bent on the ruination of or total domination of the world. It’s just a virus like so many others, only it’s new so we have no long-acquired immunity to it.

Hopefully our beloved local businesses will be able to open again and start picking up the pieces soon, people laid off and furloughed will be able to go back to work, and our lives will be able to return to something resembling normal.

 

I’ve never been a New Year Resolution kind of person. But, I am about promising myself new starts and doing better going forward, and that can happen randomly at any time throughout the year. Of course, we all know the saying about best laid plans.

Since March I’ve promised myself to blog more, write more, edit more, and read more. That despite being among the lucky few still able to be working the ‘pays the bills’ job full time and other commitments to family and the writing community.

 

Like so many others, I’ve been in a funk since our first shutdown in March. In roughly 2 ½ months I’ll have been working from home for a full year. It would be a dream if not for the near total isolation of seeing the world through the front window and in-person social contact being relegated only to a pair of teenagers, my partner, and two dogs. One of those dogs lives to be an asshole, but she’s still cute, cuddly, and lovable; and can cover your entire body like a blanket if she lays across you.

 

As socially distanced (aka physically apart) as we are, we are all in this trying time together. Let’s be together (apart), help each other, and most importantly be kind and forgiving towards each other.

Simplify your life by rehoming things of valuable use to others that you have no need of. Those out of work are struggling and have no means to buy these things.

Share a smile and a wave with a neighbor or a stranger from a distance.

Pay forward or commit an act of kindness to a stranger.

Be extra kind to those serving us daily in the stores, delivering our parcels and groceries, looking after our loved ones in hospitals and care homes, and all our first responders. They are going through an unbelievable amount of stress right now.

Give a little something of yourself, safely, to help others.

 

I do promise myself, again, to blog more, write, edit, and read more. And to share that to help others.

We will explore character development and story arcs, formatting and editing, platforms and self-promotion, and more. The world of writing and being a writer is as vast as the worlds we build in our stories.

 

You can sign up for my infrequent Author of Darkness newsletter or follow my fan blogs for my two pen names: L. V. Gaudet (adult fiction) and Vivian Munnoch (youth and YA fiction).

 

Let’s continue to meet (virtually) in the new year and grow together as writers, because that’s what being a writer is all about.

It’s Mother’s Day and My Kids are Wonderful!

It’s that special day of the year again, when the kids make their Mom’s breakfast, make her cards, write her poems, and give her hand-crafted gifts. All gives happily received, especially the one that don’t involve Mom spending hours cleaning up after their creation.

This year was especially nice.

The older daughter’s grade 3 class put on a formal Mothers’ Day tea, complete with white table cloths and fancy table decorations, beautiful décor, a picture together, and a cellist playing as the Mom’s trickled in.

The event held an afternoon of entertainment performed by the kids, songs and poems, and a few video clips. Each kid got up to say a little speech about their mother:

Mother’s Day Speech

Written by

Sidney Gaudet

“Good afternoon Moms and grandmas. My name is Sidney and this is the grade 3’s Mother’s day tea. I am here to talk about my mom. I am the daughter of Lori. My mom has long blonde curly hair; she has glasses and gray eyes. Now I told you what my mom looks like mom can you come up?

In my family there is my beautiful mom, my silly dad, my ANNOYING SISTER and my two smelly cats and me. My mom works in an office; she is a payroll worker for truck drivers. What she does is that she pays truck drivers for their work. At home my mom cleans the house, does the laundry and makes supper.

My mom’s favorite color is purple. My mom’s favorite actor is Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean. My mom likes to order stead at a restaurant. My mom likes hollow chocolate. She does not like when my sister and I fight. My mom does not like it when my Dad says inappropriate words.

These are the things my mom likes to do in her spare time. Well, she likes to play on the computer, read, watch TV plus go out.



Can I tell you something funny about my mom? Once my mom and I went on a tube ride and she almost fell out. I like it when me and my mom go out together, also when we play together and talk together. Mom is especially good at games, cookies, reading, making stories, and also being funny. She is so good at making stories that she was Author of the Month in January.



If I could give my mom anything in the world I would give her a big bouquet of beautiful white daisies with jewels in the middle. My mom is special because she is always herself and never anyone else. Also because she is my mom. I love you mom.”









Presents included a wonderful 8 page card and large silhouette picture on black paper.

And on Mother’s Day:

The 3rd grader gave me another card, bookmark she made herself, and “M” fridge magnet.

The younger daughter also made me a great card and gave me a wonderful fridge magnet picture of herself.

And, last but not least, I have no idea how they got there and managed it, but they also gave me Cuisinart 15-pc. Compact portable blending/chopping system that chops, grinds, crushes ice, and will make some superb smoothie drinks this summer at the camper – along with a gift card for the liquor store to buy ingredients. Summer, here I come!

March Madness – I’m Going to Finish this Damned WIP if it Bloody Well Kills Me!

March Madness – I’m Going to Finish this Damned WIP if it Bloody Well Kills Me!


By L. V. Gaudet


Written February 29, 2012





It’s only one more sleep to March, and kind of a cheat day since today isn’t really supposed to happen, at least not 4 out of 5 years it isn’t.



It’s February 29th and leap day!



It’s also been three months since the insanity of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). For those who don’t know, this is a month of madness. 30 days of writing mayhem, where writers such as myself, who are suffering from bouts of derangement try to write an entire 50,000 word novel from start to finish in only 30 days.



This year I decided to make March Special.



I am declaring March to be a new month of madness. I’ll lovingly call it “I’m Going to Finish this Damned WIP if it Bloody Well Kills Me!” month, or IGFDWBWKM month. Okay, so the anagram needs work; a lot of work. So to make it easier I’ll just refer to it as March Madness.



The idea is to take that energy you poured into November’s NaNo challenge, but with what should be a much less daunting (and less insane) task. Take that one WIP that is driving you really nuts, nagging at you, pecking at you, and just plain annoying the hell out of you because you just want to finish it already. And, finish it. Just like that. You even get an extra day because March has 31 days in it.



Finish outlining ahead if possible (I’ve been hashing out the end of the outline for mine for the last couple of weeks).



There is no word count goal because it doesn’t matter how far along you are, and every story will end up being exactly the length it needs to be.



There is only one goal – finishing that damned WIP if it bloody well kills you. You win if you can comfortably say you finished that damned WIP without your inner guilt demons laughing at you for lying. The prize is that feel good feeling of finally getting that thing off your back and being able to say, “Hey, I finally finished the bloody thing!”



With me?



Tomorrow is day one. Tomorrow I start typing and I’m Going to Finish this Damned WIP if it Bloody Well Kills Me!



It’s madness, yes, but it is March.



I may even tease with a few excerpts of this nasty novel of kidnapping, murder, and assorted mayhem.

Rambling about Job Hunting

If there is one thing that I learned about job hunting, is that you don’t realize how it can affect a person (specifically yourself) until you are doing it yourself.



Sure, I should know all this already. Right? After all, it’s not like this is the first time I’ve ever job hunted. In fact, I’ve job hunted no less than six times. Closer to ten really, since you don’t include every job you’ve ever had on your resume.



I’m sure that at my age and experience employers won’t care to read through the details of the one day I worked at the indoor miniature golf place when I was sixteen and got fired the same day for having an accident with the drink machine. You know the kind, those purple, red, and orange fluids forever turning in a machine that looks like they should be slushies but are really just a poor imitation of flat soda pops.



It’s your first day of your first job ever as an inexperienced and very nervous (and outrageously shy) sixteen year old kid. And yes, the simplest of tasks, working a lever to drain liquid into a cup has suddenly become as difficult to your terror stricken mind as rocket science would be to a sea slug. A fumble and to your abject horror you are sprayed and your white blouse that you had to buy just for this job is now soaking wet with sticky purple juice. You want to crawl under that drink machine and hide forever. Instead, you put on your bravest face, clean up the mess (and yourself as best you can), face the manager’s wrath, and finish out your shift trying to act like nothing happened while the customers snicker and make comments about your wet and sticky purple condition. When your shift is finally done, you hold onto that sigh of relief that you can finally skulk off home to shower and hide under the blankets in miserable embarrassment, wondering how you are possibly going to face your boss and co-workers again – only to be told on the way out the door not to bother coming back. You slink home in a ruined shirt that cost more than you made and thinking that this is the end of your chances of ever having a job.



Is it one of life’s most embarrassing moments? Absolutely. In the long term do employers really care or need to read about that job in your resume? Only if you are going back to that same employer in the following weeks to ask for another job.



Ok, so enough reminiscing about ‘the good old days’ and flash back to today.



There are two type of job hunting really. Most of the times I job hunted it was of the more passive job hunting. You look at the job ads once or twice a week, maybe less, and you send out resumes. If someone bites then great, but if they don’t then it’s no biggie. You’re not in any hurry anyway.



But this times it’s pulling out all stops, full-time aggressively job hunting. This time the clock is ticking, the calendar is turning, and the daycare is devouring the savings like a Least Shrew the size of the empire state building (a tiny animal that has to eat non-stop). And let us not forget those gas prices that make you cringe every time you start your car these days.



Job hunting has proven to be a bit of a roller coaster. One day you are sending out resumes to every employment agency you can find that deals in full time placements, finding all kinds of job ads in the paper and online to apply for, and you are thinking, “Wow! This is going great!” Flash forward a few days and the jobs seem to have completely dried up and you are wondering where all the jobs have gone.



Sure, there’s still plenty of jobs in the paper, but let’s face it, I really don’t know anything about operating a drill press, installing paving stones, or building windows. I probably wouldn’t be the best professional driver (just ask my seven year old about my parking skills), and I’m really not interested in becoming an apartment caretaker or professional pooper scooper. And let’s be honest with ourselves, those lowest paying entry level jobs are exactly that. It seems that all the jobs listed are either completely out of my comfort zone or well above or well below my experience and skills. So yeah, I won’t be applying for that job as a mechanic either. I’d be looking for something akin to a sink plug to change the oil. And I don’t think anyone would want to see me trying to park a forklift.



In the past, every time I job hunted, the paper seemed to be filled with ads for office work and accounting clerks of all levels. In fact, I’m pretty sure I remember the entire jobs section being much bigger, sometimes with pages of ads just for one section alone. Now, the entire jobs section seems to have shrunk drastically, fitting in less space than the ‘General Help’ used to. Of course, a lot of employers have moved into the technological age with online listings instead of the old tried and true dead-tree listings, but searches for those are coming up with pretty small lists too, and most of those aren’t even in the region I list in the search criteria.



At this point you’re thinking to yourself, “How am I ever going to get a job if there aren’t any jobs to get?”



And then the phone calls start. The employment agencies you sent resumes to are calling to interview you and they all seem to already have the perfect opportunity lined up for you. You do the meet and greets, do their tests, and some of them even call you back about that perfect opportunity. You even get some interest from the other job ads you applied for.



You go for interviews, you keep scouring the paper and internet for those elusive job opportunities, and you sit by the phone waiting for it to ring. Ok, I did the interview and thought it went all right, now will he call me back? It’s worse than waiting for that call after a first date.



Things are happening, people are showing interest, and you are hopping! This is going better than you ever imagined it would after staying home raising your kids for six years!



And then the phone calls stop. You’ve had interviews, you’re waiting to hear about possible interviews for those perfect opportunities from the agencies, and you’ve spent hours searching for every possible position you can send a resume for. It may have only been days, but in your mind it feels like weeks.



Now you’re wondering, “Where’d everybody go?”



When you do get those calls (or emails) it’s to give you the old “It’s not you, it’s me.” In job hunting it sounds a little more like this- “We decided to go with someone who was a better fit for the organization.” In other words, you’re nice and all, but the chemistry just wasn’t there.



Now you’re thinking, “I must be nuts. Who’s going to hire me after I’ve been unemployed this long?”



You know you can do the job, but how can you hope to convince someone else to at least read past the unemployed for six years bit, and actually look at the resume based on just your short impersonal cover letter?



Of course, taking upgrading courses would have helped, but it’s not easy to find free childcare and large sums of extra disposable money. Heck, if I had that I might almost be a CGA (Certified General Accountant), minus the required work experience while learning.



And just when your hopes are starting to slip, the phone rings again. The opportunities trickle in, interest in what you have to offer trickles in even more slowly, and sooner or later all of it ends in rejection because that’s just the way the it goes.



So you sit by the phone waiting for that call while scouring the ads, Googling random companies for addresses, and wondering just where all those pages of job ads from years ago have gone.



Sooner or later that right chemistry will happen.

Cuban Adventures – 5 days, 7 nights in Cuba Part One: Heading for Cuba.

The clock did not yet read two A.M., the alarm had not yet rang, but still it was time to get up. You might as well when you have been lying more awake than asleep in fitful bouts of dozing all night long and the alarm will sound in less than ten minutes.



The house was still a shambles, having exhaustedly run out of time trying to clean it the night before and gone off to bed.



The state of the house is only one of the casualties of trying to be Supermom and returning to full time work after six years exclusively as a stay at home mom.



Seriously sleep deprived, we were up, showered, and stumbling about to frantically get the last things packed, the car loaded, kids up and dressed, and out the door by three-thirty A.M. We really should have been hitting the road before two-thirty to get to the airport when they recommend – three hours before our six A.M. overseas flight.



And then came the hours of waiting. Waiting in line while the four of us felt we certainly couldn’t possibly stand another minute. Then more waiting, waiting in chairs and again in another line. At last we made it to the security line. We scrambled to put everything in those little plastic trays, jackets etc off, and sliding things though the x-ray machine one at a time. Finally we were ready to go through the metal detector. Steve went first and was immediately swarmed by three stern looking airport security guards waving menacing looking wands over him. It was kind of funny, all the fuss over a little blue jeans button. But the kids were a bit scared watching these stern guards waving their metal detecting weapons all around their daddy. It was their first experience going on and airplane, and my first since very many years before all the need for high security on airlines and at the airports. We scrambled to collect our things and make room for the people behind us, rushing off … to spend what felt like many more hours waiting to actually board the plane. Naturally, the plane was delayed by an hour and a half.



After a great deal of waiting the kids learned that wonderful magical plane ride they had been so eagerly waiting for weeks for wasn’t so wonderful and magical after all. At roughly five minutes and thirty-six seconds into the flight they were completely bored with a four hour flight to go.



The plane ride was pretty much as expected. The kids couldn’t really see the little television that folded down from the ceiling some rows of seats ahead, the picture and sound were choppy and cutting out through much of the movie, and the seats were cramped. The kids had no interest in the movie anyway. It was more of an adult movie. Seven year old Sidney’s distaste for the choices for the limited airline menu was just a taste of what was to come.



Despite the utter exhaustion of only half a night’s sleep at best, none of us slept on the plane ride.

Some Worthy Tweeters

I haven't had time these last months for anything writing - blogging, schmoozing, writing - with the whole family adjusting to my return to the working life after six years as a stay at home mom.




I haven't had the time for things like Twitter's #FF (Follow Friday)



Making up for lost time, here is a list of worthy tweeters that I follow on Twitter. (Now let's see if I can manage to write that 1st ever book review I've been meaning to write.)



You follow 115 people - @ Apr 8/11

Note:  All tweeter descriptions are quoted directly from their twitter pages (except techdirt).


Groups & Communities:



Gather_Inc Gather_Inc

Maker of new friends.Sharer of content.Photography lover.Foodie.News & gossip junkie.Ga-ga for giveaways.Parenting guru.Haver of hobbies.Social Networking fan.



goodreads goodreads

The largest community of readers in the world. Find new books, recommend books, track your reading, join book clubs, win book giveaways, and much more!



Horror_World Horror World

Communicate with dark fiction's best known authors Read reviews of the latest horror book releases Original Fiction by some of the Genre's biggest names



HorrorWriters Horror Writers Assoc

The HWA exists to promote and protect the careers of professional horror writers and those seeking to enter their ranks



IndieHorror IndieHorror.org

Join the leading horror author community to workshop your fiction in our forum, learn the craft from our blog and meet people just as messed up as you are.



mbwriters MB Writers' Guild

The Manitoba Writers' Guild



NextBigAuthor Leading Publishers

In May 2011, the publishers of Dan Brown, J.K. Rowling, & Stephen King join to support TheNextBigAuthor.com. Simply write some opening chapters in May to join.



publishingtalk Publishing Talk

The online community for authors and publishers interested in social media, digital, and the future of the publishing industry. Run by @jonreed.



redroomdotcom Red Room

Redroom.com is an exciting online community for authors, book-lovers, and people who love great writing. Become a fan on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/yhrlkrc



webook Brian

A leading online writing community that helps writers achieve their goal of publication. Home of PageToFame and AgentInbox.



Writers_Cafe Writers Cafe

A place where all writers can congregate to share, learn and network. Not related to WritersCafe.org.







NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) & Scriptfrenzy:



NaNoWordSprints NaNoWordSprints

The official home for Twitter-based NaNoWriMo word sprints!



NaNoWriMo NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. The goal: write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.



NaNoWriMoYWP NaNoWriMo's YWP

The youth program for @NaNoWriMo's novel-in-a-month challenge. Tweets for young writers, parents, and educators.



scriptfrenzy Script Frenzy

The challenge: Write a script in April. Are you in?







Publishers:



AccentPress Hazel Cushion

Accent Press is a feisty independent publishing company based in the UK



AlgonquinBooks AlgonquinBooks

Founded in 1983, independent publisher of literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. Opinions our own, not representative of the company.



americaspress America's Press

America's Press is a Book Printing company that specializes in short run books for publishing companies and self published authors.



ApexBookCompany Apex Publications

Painting the landscape of dark fiction.



CarinaPress Carina Press

Harlequin's digital-first press publishing all genres/subgenres of fiction. Where no great story goes untold.



ChronicleBooks Chronicle Books

An independent publisher of distinctive books and gifts. Community Manager @zenguin on deck.



GraywolfPress Graywolf Press

Founded in 1974, Graywolf Press is an independent, nonprofit publisher of literary fiction, nonfiction, & poetry. Tweets by Erin Kottke (@eekottke).



HarperCollinsCa HarperCollinsCa

News, views and a bit of attitude about HarperCollins Canada books, our authors and the world wide web.



HarperPerennial Harper Perennial

We're one of the paperback imprints of HarperCollins. We like you.



harperteen HarperTeen

Teen division of HarperCollins, publishing quality young adult books. Frequent contests, giveaways, and the latest news for YA readers!



littlebrown Little, Brown and Co

One of the U.S.'s oldest and most distinguished publishing houses, Little, Brown publishes James Patterson,David Sedaris,Anita Shreve,Malcom Gladwell &more



MacKidsBooks Macmillan Kids

Macmillan Children’s is home to some of the most highly acclaimed and noteworthy children’s imprints in the publishing industry.



Patchworkinfo Doug Burchill

The Patchwork Project is an effort to increase the awareness of domestic abuse through the horror genre.

http://www.patchworkproject.com



PenguinCanadaYR Penguin Canada YR

Publisher of quality children's and young adult books. The Canadian affiliate of the internationally renowned Penguin Group.



penguinusa Penguin Group (USA)

Penguin Group (USA) is the U.S. affiliate of the internationally renowned Penguin Group, one of the largest English-language trade book publishers in the world.



PitchDarkBooks Pitch Dark Books

Your source for paranormal & supernatural YA reads.



randomhouse randomhouse

Random House book and author news



Scholastic Scholastic

The official Scholastic Twitter account. Tweets by book lovers and education enthusiasts from around the company.



scholasticCDA Scholastic Canada

Scholastic Canada, the country's largest children's book publisher and distributor, tweets about our books, authors, and children's book news



ShadowCastAudio Jason Warden-Editor

Author. http://JasonWarden.com Podcaster, Always looking for new Dark fiction stories, art, and music for the podcast.



simonschuster Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster is one of the largest English language publishers in the world. Follow us for book, author & industry news and free book giveaways!



StoryCasting Jeff Reid

Creator of StoryCasting, the premier fantasy-casting website. Cast your favorite books with current stars.



torbooks Tor Books

Publisher of SF, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal Romance, Mystery, Thriller and Suspense, and other speculative fiction (Tweets by Jen & Laura)

Followed by you!



unbridledbooks Unbridled Books

Promising that rarest of pleasures, a good read.







Industry News and Such:



ABooksBlog A Books Blog

A books blog is the place for blog content about books.



bookbench The Book Bench

We're the literary blog of The New Yorker. Who's tweeting? Macy Halford



DigiBookWorld Digital Book World

Digital Book World focuses on publishing strategies, not tools; solutions, not theories; practicality, not punditry. Tweets by @muttinmall



eBookNewser ebookNewser

The First Word on Digital Publishing



GuardianBooks Guardian Books

News, reviews and author interviews plus tweets from the desk: Sarah Crown, Michelle Pauli, Richard Lea and Lindesay Irvine



googlebooks Google Books

Popular passages, quotes, quirky images, and occasional product updates from Google Books.



LATimesbooks LA Times Books

Literary news + reviews from Los Angeles Times Jacket Copy blog + Books section. See latimes.com/twitter for more streams. See you at the #LATfob in April.



LibraryJournal Library Journal

Library views, news, and book reviews from LJ staffers



NewYorker The New Yorker

The New Yorker is a weekly magazine with a mix of reporting of politics and culture, humor and cartoons, fiction and poetry, and reviews and criticism.



nytimesbooks nytimesbooks

Recent Critics' Picks, News and Author Interviews by the Writers and Bloggers of NYTimes.com/Books



PenguinTeen PenguinTeen

The latest info on today's hottest writers for teens: John Green, Richelle Mead, Laurie Halse Anderson, Sarah Dessen, Jay Asher...



paperbackhorror Paperback Horror

Reviewer for Paperbackhorror.com and KinderScares.com
Dangerous Arts n' Crafts type of guy.



PublishersLunch PublishersLunch

Publishing news tweets from the trade's biggest newsletter/website



PublishersWkly Publishers Weekly

The international magazine of bookselling and publishing



pubperspectives PubPerspectives

international publishing news and opinion served daily!



PWreviews PW Reviews

PW is the industry's leading news & reviews magazine & covers 7,000 books a year. Who's tweeting? Reviews editors Parul Sehgal, Jonny Segura, Mike Harvkey.



randomhousekids Random House Kids

Random House Children's Books news and updates #books #kidlit



RoomtoRead Room to Read

World Change Starts with Educated Children



sljournal SchoolLibraryJournal

School Library Journal is the world's largest reviewer of children's & young adult material, from books to digital content. Serving up tweets: @kishizuka



VirtualWriters Virtual Writers Inc.

The one-stop web resource for all Virtual Writers.



womenonwriting WOW! WomenOnWriting

WOW! Women On Writing promotes the communication between women writers, authors, editors, agents, publishers and readers. Tweets by Margo, Angela, Jodi, Marcia.



WriterResource The Ivory Tower

We are a FREE market listing site for authors and artists! The site is totally ad/donation supported so there is no cost involved. Over 1100 markets to date.



WritersDigest Writer's Digest

Helping writers since 1920. Publisher of Writer's Market series.



YABookShelf Melissa Montovani

Want an honest review of the next YA book you'd like to read? Come on by and stay awhile.











Agents & Other Insiders:



BostonBookGirl Lauren E. MacLeod

A literary agent @strothmanagency with an emphasis in YA and MG fiction and nonfiction. Opinions are my own.



chavelaque Cheryl Klein

I'm an editor at Scholastic, a blogger at home, & a reader & writer everywhere. All opinions expressed here are solely my own, not my company's.



ColleenLindsay Colleen Lindsay

Publishing browncoat. Cat herder. Queer human. Professional nerd. TARDIS fan. Athlete's foot survivor. Part of Penguin Group (USA) Business Development team.



DeidreKnight DeidreKnight

Literary Agent and New York Times bestselling author of romance/women's fiction who loves to travel to far away places, mentally and geographically.



BukowskiD Denise Bukowski

literary agent



EvilWylie Evil Wylie

Evil publishing industry insider. Curator of EVILREADS.COM. Follower of the dark lord @EmperorFranzen.



GalleyCat GalleyCat

The First Word on the Book Publishing Industry



Ginger_Clark Ginger Clark

I am a literary agent. I work at Curtis Brown. I respond only to queries I'm interested in. This twitter account will be boring.



indiepridejenna Jenna

Chief Book Editor. We have gathered a team of editors to facilitate you in putting your best foot forward with your books.



Kid_Lit Mary Kole

Kidlit enthusiast and associate agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency!



literaticat jennifer laughran

literary agent at andrea brown lit, children's bookseller, reader, raconteur, eccentric multi-millionaire and patron of the arts... and some of those are lies



LucienneDiver Lucienne Diver

Agent, author, blogger. www.knightagency.net www.luciennediver.com



MichaelBourret Michael Bourret

Literary Agent, bran muffin enthusiast and nerdy cat person



moonrat moonrat

book editor. rabid reader. love to eat. yumm.



NathanBransford Nathan Bransford (agent)

Author of JACOB WONDERBAR AND THE COSMIC SPACE KAPOW (coming in May)



RachelleGardner Rachelle Gardner

Literary agent, firefighter's wife, mom of two awesome girls, Starbucks freak.







Authors, Writers, That Sort of Thing:



BDCWB Best Damn

The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog---Getting Your Literary Life.



bonnietoews Bonnie Toews

novelist of intrigue and suspense and advocate for Canadian Vets and Parkinson's Caregivers



cafeofdreams April

I am a proud mom of 2 as well as a happily book obsessed reader, reviewer, blogger, freelance writer and author/book promoter.



candiwall Candi Wall

Aspiring author - a.w.a K.R. Lawson, I'm an Animal Control, mother of four, and always working on a new WIP while editing others for submission.



chavelaque Cheryl Klein

I'm an editor at Scholastic, a writer at home, & a reader everywhere. My book SECOND SIGHT is out now! All opinions here are solely my own, not my company's.



ccmalandrinos ccmalandrinos

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. She is a tour coordinator for Pump Up Your Book. Little Shepherd is her first book.



djledford Deborah J Ledford

Author of The Hillerman Sky Award nominated SNARE (Second Wind Publishing). Three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, book lover, Native American.



Donna_Carrick Donna Carrick

Author of The First Excellence, The Noon God & Gold & Fishes Amazon.com



hollyhardin Holly Hardin

I am a children's author. My first book Aurora of the Northern Lights is a Yuletide tale with a message for tolerance.



jakonrath JA Konrath

I write thrillers.



JeffStrand JeffStrand

Author of PRESSURE, GRAVEROBBERS WANTED (NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY) and a bunch of other stuff.



JeremyCShipp Jeremy C. Shipp

Bram Stoker nominated author of CURSED and VACATION, repped by Mark McVeigh. Live in a semi-haunted farmhouse. Yard gnomes like me. Attic clowns--not so much.



KreelanWarrior Michael R. Hicks

Author of the acclaimed IN HER NAME novels, Amazon Kindle owner and publisher, BEACHBODY (P90X) fitness fan, and servant to two Siberian cats... ;-)



LindaThieman Linda Thieman

Author of the Mom's Choice Awards(R)-winning chapter book series, Katie and Kimble: A Ghost Story, for ages 7-10.



MargaretAtwood Margaret E. Atwood

Author



mcbourque Marie-Claude Bourque

Author of gothic paranormal romance (Dorchester) & steampunk fantasy. French Canadian. Physicist. Oceanographer. Fitness pro, Mum. Future Sciences teacher.



Nicole_Odell Nicole O'Dell

Author, Scenarios Interactive Series @scenarios4girls, Speaker, WAHM of 6 w/2yr triplets! Host of #TeenTalkRadio http://www.choicesradio.com Thurs, 10pm EST.



PatBertram Pat Bertram

Author of Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire, available from Second Wind Publishing. Look for Light Bringer in March, 2011!



ScottWesterfeld Scott Westerfeld

I write novels for money and fame.



sherikayehoff Sheri Kaye Hoff

Inspiring living in Success and joy everyday, Life Coach, Author- Keys to Living Joyfully, Professor, Spirituality, Wine Lover, Mom of 3, Married to Randy



10MinuteWriter K Grubb

Mommy, homeschooler, novelist, comedian wanna be, who writes in very small increments.



thebookmaven Bethanne Patrick

Blogger, book reviewer, author interviewer, author --but above all, a reader.



toricarrington toricarrington

Dynamic duo of Lori Schlachter Karayianni & Tony Karayianni with 50 titles incl Sofie Metropolis, PI series. Have baklava, will travel!



UWannabeawriter Jane WJ

From @JaneWenhamJones, author of Wannabe a Writer? Hot tips for would-be authors, struggling scribes and all those who twitter instead of getting on with it...



victoriastrauss Victoria Strauss

Novelist (7 books), book reviewer, co-founder of Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group. I don't autofollow, but I do check & answer @ replies



WebbWeavers WebbWeaver

Co-authors of 2 books in the 'INNOCENTS' series. We review books & interview authors for you!



writers2follow Follow That Writer

I'm Ann Douglas, a writer who follows and recommends a lot of other writers on Twitter.



WritingSpirit Julie Isaac, Author

Award winning author & content creation coach. Creator of #WriteChat 12-3pm PT Sundays & the #SHINEonline Blogging Challenge that starts on 1-11-11 for 111 days











And Some Other Twitter Peeps:

allgreatquotes Tom

Your Daily Inspiration pill! Take one quote three times a day.



Quotes4Writers Quotes4Writers

Quotes junkie. The words of the quote may belong to just one writer or author but the sentiment may be shared by more than one.



RoseCottageLisa Lisa Shipp

I am a Christian, a young wife, a mother to two darling cats, and a full-time student. Rose Cottage is my home.



susieqtpies Susie QT pies

Love doing Product reviews, family,coffee,homeschooling twin teens 1 tween, Recipes,lipstick,Games, watchin' movies, books and playing with my Android Phone!



techdirt techdirt

Diggs up the dirt on writing and a whole bunch of other stuff involving technology.









And This Miscellaneous Twitter Stuff:



addthis AddThis

Share anything to anyone, anywhere and boost traffic back to your site with the most popular sharing tool in the world.



shortyawards Shorty Awards

Hailed as the Oscars of Twitter by The NY Times, the Shorty Awards honor the best people & organizations producing short-form, real-time social media content.

Followed by you!



twitrbackground David Fairley

Twitter Backgrounds from the largest free source online. We also post about the latest Twitter Tools, Apps, News, and Twitter Opportunities.



wefollow wefollow

A user powered twitter directory located at http://wefollow.com

Week One - Returning To Working Life

Well, we all survived my first week in my new life as a working mom. Ok, more or less survived maybe is a better way of putting it. It has been a week of adjusting in a big way for all of us.




I have gone from getting up at around 6:30-7ish to 5:30 and am unbelievably and completely exhausted with my body balking at the rudeness of getting up that early. And I think I need to change that to 5am. By the time I’m driving home at the end of the work day all I want to do is crawl into bed and go to sleep. Hopefully my internal clock will have adjusted by the time this term job is over and I can sleep in until 6:30 or so again. Of course, then I’ll be waking up at five out of habit and cursing myself because I can finally sleep later again – at least for a few months or so until we (fingers crossed, and toes tied, wiggle your nose and hope hope hope) get the kids into permanent daycare and I find a permanent job.



So far it’s taking me an hour and a half each way to get to work and back home – that’s three whole hours I could have spent writing! But that’s what comes from working in the middle of a city. At the start of the day, half the city grudgingly makes their way to the heart of the city all at the same time, which of course inevitably causes traffic chaos. When the day is done and all the little ants are desperate to escape the crushing overpopulation of downtown on a work day, there is no escape. I think the city planners planned it that way, a way of trying to centralize the population and try to make everyone live and work in their little downtown cubicles.



The kids are getting up earlier, have no time to play, and are being rushed out the door an hour earlier than they’re used to. Then it’s to the babysitter where they have an hour to play before the school bus and a couple hours again after school. Of course, with mom rushing off in the morning and not coming home until supper, they don’t have that morning and afternoon mom time any more. The girls are definitely feeling that loss.



And for this first week of working, my husband has been the wife. Yep, that’s right; it has been a complete role reversal for this first week.



This week, he has had to get the kids fed, dressed, and brushed. He has had to get all their stuff together, which is typically all over the house despite your best efforts to keep it in their backpacks, and off to the babysitter. And then he’s rushing home after work to pick up the kids.



Say, did I mention that he even starts work a half hour before me and finishes a half hour later? But he doesn’t work downtown, so he doesn’t have that extra hour travelling time needed each way to ease excruciatingly slowly through the slow crawl dance of the rush hour traffic that is trying to get in and out of downtown.



Then, he has been making supper while supervising the kids activities and breaking up their fights, trying to get them into the bath on bath days, washing the dishes, and doing their reading (while I’m sitting with the engine idling and hoping to creep up another car length before the light turns red yet again).



And then I’m the one who finally straggles into the house tired and grumpy to kids who are eagerly waiting and a husband-wife who is frazzled.



And, as my day finishes off, it’s supper, kids ready for bed, and then I have time to do household chores until bed. Of course, I should also be getting all my stuff together for the morning – my housecoat ready for the shower, clothes pulled out and put where I can find them in the dark, lunch made, and shoes and whatnots packed and ready to go. Yeah, but that’s planning ahead.



And now for the part that everyone likes – the highlights!







The highlights of my first work week:



Day 1 – Let it Snow



Snow came late this year, but when it did it came with a whollop. By Thursday before the start of the new job 42.6 CM of snow had been dumped on the area (37 CM between Nov ember 18th’s first snowfall of the year and November 26th, and the rest after that). That sure beat the November average of 21 centimeters for the whole month. By my first day of work, the city crews were still cleaning up the mess.



For my first day of work it snowed again, and with the snow came very slippery roads, treacherous highways, and impassible glops of snow marking the edges of lanes that made lane changing difficult or sometimes impossible, and even slower than normal traffic and an extraordinary amount of traffic congestion.



After almost seven years as an unemployed bum (a.k.a. stay-at-home mother) I felt like I was fresh out of high school and taking my first job ever. In other words, I felt like a bumbling idiot and was sure everyone else was thinking the same thing. On the plus side, I’m neither fresh out of high school nor completely inexperienced. I had all those years of work experience, although it really doesn’t do much for you when you are learning new software and procedures because every workplace has a different way of doing things. And, with all those years of life experience behind me I was not the shy and downright terrified nineteen year old that started that very first job.



The parking I managed to find is a bit of a trek from work, and I had the fortune of passing through impassible sidewalks. I got to the end of one sidewalk to discover that I was trapped with not enough time to make the journey all the way back to the start to cross somewhere else. With a low wall on one side topped by high banks of snow, a filthy guard rail and heavy traffic on the other, and the end blocked by a dirty snow Mount Everest dumped there by the snow plows. There was nothing to be done but to hike up my skirts, hope I don’t get too dirty, and make the climb.



By the time I got to work I was tired and my legs were sore.



I left my lunch at home, sitting (I believe) conveniently beside the coffee machine and had the added pleasure of having to wear broken eyeglasses. Naturally, my glasses broke and I hadn’t gotten them replaced yet before starting a new job.



By the end of that first day I was exhausted and not looking forward to the hike over impassible and slippery sidewalks back to my car.



I had also forgotten some of the unwritten rules about getting around downtown. Specifically about which corners pedestrians do not cross in certain directions regardless of what signs the city has put up. Perhaps some city planner was snickering when they planned out the downtown intersections. Or maybe it is a means towards population control.



Regardless, without thinking I waited for the light to change and that walk sign to show it is safe to cross, waited for the cars packing the intersection to clear it on their red light, shoulder checked for turning cars, and proceeded to swiftly cross the road oblivious to the unwritten rule against crossing in this direction on this side of this particular intersection.



One woman motorist, who was turning, was kind enough to remind me of my error by trying to run me over with her car. I’m convinced it was on purpose. Either that or I grabbed the wrong coat and was wearing my cloak of invisibility. There was no possible way the woman did not at some point notice the large bulk of a heavily coated person directly in front of her car, unless of course I was invisible.



It was dark when I left home and dusk had well descended when I was heading home. I can get glimpses of daylight through the window, which looks onto another window that gives a dirty glimpse of outside. Total sunlight experienced – zero.







Day 2 – Let it Snow Some More



Despite promises of clear skies, it snowed again (or maybe it never stopped) and once again the roads were slippery and virtually un-passable in some places. The highways were icy and the winds and blowing snow left visibility even worse than the first day. It was a long slow ride both ways.



I took a different sidewalk route on my hike between work and parking, but with the drifting snow it meant plowing my way through deep snow down the entire long length of one stretch of sidewalk.



By the time I got home my legs were painful even to touch them. Man, am I out of shape!



I had learned from the blinding migraine I got home with on the first day, and had ibuprofen with me, which I popped before I started the drive home, having once again left work with a headache already building.



I managed to write about a hundred and some words on my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) novel for the last day of NaNo month.







Day 3 – Now That’s a Bad Santa Suit



The day started just like day 2, I got up and showered, and cursed myself for forgetting to put out clothes the night before. I’m not good at stumbling around in the dark looking for clothes, so I had to wait for the hubby to get up before I could get dressed again.



The roads were still slippery but not as bad and traffic moved a little better. My legs cried and threatened to run away from home when I told them they had to make the hike between parking and work again. They hurt, but I convinced them to make the walk anyway.



I felt a little less useless at work and got through the day.



I was surprised it took until day 3 to see my first panhandler. I don’t know how I missed him, but I didn’t see him until it was too late.



I crossed the street only feet away, hoping to not be seen. Luckily he was focused on the cars and left me alone. I had spent my sidewalk toll money on lunch that first day and wasn’t about to hand over twenties out of the grocery money I had on me.



The man wore a rather bad version of a Santa suit, minus the beard. He had a sad little half tree strapped to his back as part of the costume, its ornaments waving cheerily as he moved. I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the other half. Did he buy it that way? Or was another bad Santa suit guy harassing motorists somewhere else and wearing it as part of his costume too? I didn’t catch what words were crudely drawn in dark marker on the cardboard sign he waved around. Bad Santa suit guy was going from car to car, gesturing and waving his sign, and going right up to the drivers windows in an aggressive in-your-face attitude.



Those ones are the worst, the aggressive in-your-face ones. Those are the ones that seem to think you owe it to give them your money simply by right of who they are. Those are the bullies. They are the ones you see robbing people of their bus fare or lunch money, or even of their lunch. These are the ones that you see threatening or assault people with no provocation, if you aren`t the victim yourself. Not all of them do of course, but it’s almost always one of these ones.



We needed groceries in a bad way, so I made the first of three stops for groceries – getting everything I can at the cheapest place to get it. I got home in time to tuck the kids into bed and eat a late supper alone.



The laundry and house cleaning is piling up.







Day 4 – Happy Birthday to Me!



Yeah, it’s my birthday.



My body is in revolt and refusing to get used to the new routine of getting up at 5:30. I am more exhausted than I have ever been in my whole life.



Things were improving but at the same time it would be a day of big guilt.



The pain in the legs is lessening, and I now feel like any other schmuck starting a new job and learning the ropes, rules, new computer program, and procedures of the new place. It’s not feeling so much like I’ve been out of work for almost seven long years.



I spent the day feeling guilty because the kids were trying so hard to get attention from me in the morning. It’s clear they’re badly missing their mom time, but there just isn’t any time in the mornings.



On the slow drive home it occurred to me just how much my body is rebelling at the stress of that first week back to work after so long. It seems to have shut down certain bodily functions. I haven’t even felt the need to have a bowel movement since before I started the new job.



I came home to the seven year old crying in her bedroom and refusing to come out. Apparently she was practicing a special birthday dance as a special surprise for me and it was ruined by daddy and her sister. Daddy could only take so much of her angrily whining “Robyn, stop it” at her sister, and only so much of the younger one trying to torment her sister and put them for a time out. Daddy put them both for a time out after about a dozen warnings and she couldn’t finish practicing. And about three minutes later I came staggering through the door wanting nothing but to put on my pajamas and go to bed.



My husband was scrambling to make a special dinner for me. The kids had set the table with a birthday balloon in a vase, candles, and the going-on six year olds special folded napkins.



The seven year old finally came out of her room after refusing to come out for supper and cried through dinner, too upset to calm down. My husband ate hurriedly, produced a small and wonderfully delicious chocolate caramel cake, a quick rendition of happy birthday by him and the girls, and he was rushing off out the door to play hockey. I managed to get the kids to eat a reasonable amount of supper while they kept begging off dinner to eat cake and finally gave up on trying to eat my own. They both loved the cake, even though it was more of an adult type of cake. The seven year old even had a piece of leftover birthday cake from her sister’s birthday too.



And then the crying started. My younger daughter came to me, crying her heart out, for a cuddle. She tearfully begged and begged me to quit my job and stay at home to be with them. She told me how she misses her mom time and even forgot what the cat looks like. Almost in tears, the seven year old came and said the same thing while I was consoling her sister. I felt like crying myself seeing how upset they were.



I finally got the kids to bed and the phone started ringing. I missed most of my Thursday night writers chat and got absolutely no household chores done. I was still getting off the phone when my husband returned from hockey at 11:30.



The chores are going to need an intervention soon.







Day 5 – Friday! At Last!



Driving has gotten better. I’m getting used to it again after years of only having to drive a few times a month, in daylight, no rush hour traffic, and having the option to stay home if the roads are bad. Everyone else seems to be starting to get used to snow driving too.



The pain in the legs is still improving.



I barely feel like I was out of work at all and am getting my work confidence back.



But the body will find new ways to revolt to change. Beginning at about 3:00am and roughly every fifteen to thirty minutes after that, my body woke me up to tell me the alarm was about to go off. I’d look at the clock and swear. Then it was trying to get back to sleep only to repeat it all over again.



Now I really was more exhausted than I have ever been in my life, even when I was up feeding babies every four hours twenty-four hours a day. I was burned out before noon.



Leaving work, there was Trapping People Trying To Cross The Street guy, and of course he was of the in-your-face aggressively panhandling group. I managed to avoid Bad Santa Suit guy. I had the rest of the grocery money on me and managed to avoid having to give away any of the bills on the way to my car.



I made the slow drive home, making three of four needed stops for gas, groceries, and stuff, getting home in time for the kids to put on their pajamas and get ready for bed.



I hauled in loads of groceries to the seven year old bragging about her sister being bad and a stressed out husband telling her to mind her own business.



Uh oh.



Long talk with the almost-six year old about what bad thing she did at the babysitter’s house, kids finally pj-ed and off to bed (late), and a phone call to the babysitter later and it was too late to bother with supper. But that’s all right, I wasn’t hungry anyway.



But hey, it’s payday! I came in halfway through the pay period and got paid for my first week. After filling the tank with gas, paying the pre-paid parking for the month, the babysitter for the week, and putting aside gas money for next Friday, I’m left with roughly a hundred dollars to put in the joint account for household expenses. Yep, all this and I earned roughly a hundred dollars for that first week. This is why we all love working so much.







At last, my first week is done. I’m exhausted and the house needs disaster relief with the laundry and chores piling up. The kids are moody with adjusting to the new routine and losing those hours of time normally spent with me. I want nothing more than to spend the weekend relaxing and recuperating, but need to play catch-up on all the household chores. And the kids need their mom time too.



I have to try to find time to start decorating and buying present for Christmas. I have doubts that I’ll manage any Christmas baking this year.



I have had zero sunlight exposure this week, sucked enough gas fumes in traffic to kill a roost of chickens, and lost fifteen hours to commuting – ten of those just because traffic doesn’t move at rush hour.



My kids miss me, my cat misses me, and my husband seems like he might not survive another day rushing the kids, dinner, and dishes.



We have a Saturday night Christmas party for my husband’s work to go to that I feel too tired to go to, and really should stay home to get that laundry and those chores done.



I have managed to write a measly hundred and a bit words one the one evening I managed a small bit of time, but was too tired for writing.



I also lost about five pounds after five days of no time for breakfast, hiking impassible sidewalks, and little interest in supper.



Monday is a new week, and I expect nothing but improvement while we get into the groove of the routine of our new lives.

The New Job

I am going back to work soon after being an unemployed bum (a.k.a. stay at home mom) for close to seven years, that’s since December 1, 2004.


I am optimistically terrified. That’s another way of saying I am positively positive that I am scared to death. It’s a big change after all; a life-altering change. Seriously, I haven’t worked in seven years. What if I suck? What if I have no idea what to do? What if I come across as a bumbling stumbling fool?


The number crunching alone to figure out what it will cost to work and how much money I’ll need to earn to almost make going to work worthwhile was worse than doing taxes. Ok, so I never had a nervous problem with doing taxes, but if I did this would have still been worse. Seriously, I needed one heck of a raise over what I left my job at seven years ago just to break even on the costs to work with two kids needing child care.


One thing in my favor is the simple fact that the minimum wage employers have to pay has also increased drastically in the past seven years. A salary that was higher than the minimum seven years ago is now just barely scraping over the new minimum wage.


Going back to work is a big upheaval of course, not just for me but for my entire family. The search for before and after school child care was ridiculously difficult. In fact, further up heaving the kids’ lives by pulling them out of their school and away from their friends to put them in a new school just to find child care still isn’t out of the question. If you think it’s hard to find child care in the city, you should try doing it in a rural area. I’d be tempted to move if it wasn’t such a nice little town and such great neighbors.


Our whole schedule has to change. The main focus our lives will now revolve around getting the kids to and from daycare. Everything else is secondary. But that’s nothing new to the seasoned daycare parents. As newbies, it’s a bit of an adjustment for us.


Mornings are expected at first to be a frantic frazzled stress-filled scramble to get the kids up and ready (and ourselves ready too) to leave an hour earlier than they had to be out the door before. No more throwing sweats on and a jacket to hide my pajama top to walk the kids to the bus, and no more leisurely picking away at eating their breakfasts for the kids.


And only time will tell how our evening schedule will change with getting supper done, homework and reading, baths, and kids to bed.


I’m almost afraid to see what the house will look like. On the one hand, the kids will have a lot less time at home to spend trashing the place. But on the other hand, all those household chores, laundry and cleaning and grocery shopping and stuff, will all have to get crammed into a few too short evening hours and the weekends now. Yikes.


The one thing I do regret is that the kids will never be able to enjoy those lazy day school breaks I had as a kid. You know the kind, the ones kind of like a weekend day where you have nothing planned, nowhere to rush off to, and kids actually have to think for themselves and use their imaginations to entertain themselves – an amazing thing happens when not every moment is pre-planned for them, their imaginations come alive.


My second regret isn’t really a regret at this point, but more of an unknown. Will I be able to find the time for writing? I’m keeping my toes crossed – I’m using my toes to keep those fingers free for typing, after all I do have writing to do.

Remembering to Remember (Remembrance Day)

Remembering to Remember (Remembrance Day)



Yesterday, November 11th, was Remembrance Day in Canada, the day we are supposed to take a moment to think about and remember our veterans of war. They even give us a full day off from school and selected jobs (if it falls on a week day) just so we can take a brief moment out of our day to do this.

Many take this as just another woohoo day, as in “Woohoo, I don’t have to go to work (or school)!”

The drive to remember and think about the veterans and why they suffered to protect others seems to have been pushed further and further to the back of the closet over the years – at least as far as what I remember there used to be for advertising, teaching, and word of mouth. And that comes from before the current age of over-communication and everyone having their own technological grip on the whole world in their pants pocket.

The honored veterans seem to get older and older, fewer and fewer, as they age and die off.

Does that mean the end is coming soon for the last of our veterans and for Veterans Day? (Read on before you make judgments)

Like many others, I have a Grandfather who was a veteran. He still is a veteran; he just isn’t with us anymore. I never knew him, or had a chance to meet him, and I know very little about him. He passed away as a young man while my own father was still a boy. The war didn’t kill him, but it certainly did change him.

When we see pictures and advertising for Remembrance Day, we always see the famous red poppy and a picture of an elderly man in an old uniform from decades ago.

By the visions of what we see today as being our honored veterans, my grandfather probably would have passed by many people in those last years of his life without ever being considered or recognized as a veteran. After all, he didn’t die while fighting and he never grew old. He never made appearances at events to honor veterans, wearing the usual outdated looking uniform, his hands twisted, face lined, and hair whitened by age. He was just like the veterans coming home today.

No, he was a young man with a young family. A young man who somewhat fell apart because of the great trauma he survived fighting to save others. And when his term serving in World War II was done he likely didn’t know how to come back to the life and family he left behind. He re-enlisted to go back to what was likely the only life he now knew how to live.

My grandfather earned a few low level medals. And although he may not have ceremoniously been given any of what was considered the big important medals, he earned the most important honor of all – the respect due every man, woman, and child like him from those he fought with, against, and for. And that includes all those who continue to come after the people of that day, those fighting the wars that still rage around our globe.

On Remembrance Day we should remember to think about not just the soldiers who died, suffered, and those who came back irrevocably changed. We should also remember to think about the innocent lives, the victims of war who had no choice and were never soldiers. We should also remember to think about ourselves and how our world and our lives would be different if these men and women never went to fight for anyone.

And we should remember that new veterans of war are being made every single day.

I am not proud to say I have a Grandfather who was a war veteran. There is no pride to be found in the horror and atrocities of war. But I do honor and respect him for all that he sacrificed, as all veterans should be honored and respected, no matter what war they fought in or how old or youthful their faces may be.

 

The Woods - Random Ramblings

When I look out my back window and stare at those beautifully twisted, scraggly, and wretchedly ugly knobby old oak trees - I pretend they just go on and on forever. Then I consider what kinds of wonderfully sinister things those old trees might be up to out there, deep in the woods where brave souls dare not tread.



And that, my friends, is where some of my story ideas come from.


If I can see houses past the trees, what's left of them after they're done tearing my beautifully wicked looking old oaks out, that will all be ruined for me. I'll have to find a new muse.

Anniversaries, Children, and the Death of the Date Night - Random Ramblings

Anniversaries, Children, and the Death of the Date Night
By L. V. Gaudet
©  October 18, 2010



This past weekend was an anniversary of sorts for us. It’s not the traditional wedding type of anniversary, or moving in together, or engagement anniversary. No, it’s one of those girlie things some of us girls do that men tend to shake their heads at and say “That’s not a real anniversary.”



Saturday was the anniversary of when we met. It was celebrated in what is probably a common theme after eleven years, married for four of those, and two kids together. It was completely and utterly ignored. He went out and played ball hockey, while I stayed home with the kids, one of them complaining incessantly about a sore throat that only seemed to hurt to moment you asked her to do something or said “No” to something she wanted. And our wedding anniversary seems to be headed on the same route.



As most other parents of young children have also quickly learned, finding reliable and trustworthy babysitters can be hard. This is especially so if you fall into the paranoid over-protective mom category like I do. The kids who are eager to babysit are too young for me, and the ones that are old enough would rather be out with boys and their friends than spending a Saturday night with a couple of little kids.



So far, with the exception of one evening out in seven years as parents, we have relied only on the kids grandparents for babysitting services. While that may work at first, before long you find yourselves going out less and less.



The very act of going out becomes a chore.



Before you realize what happened, anniversaries and date nights become once or twice a year events. Soon they move into the land of “special dinner at home”, which is never as special as one you don’t have to cook yourself.



This is a far too populated place where couples try to recreate the date experience from the comfort of home after giving up on the whole business of finding neighbourhood kids to babysit. You put in a grand effort to cook something special, the kids whine and groan about what you cooked, one says it’s gross, and the other shoots food across the table from a wildly waving fork.



The alternative option, feeding and putting the kids to bed before your special meal, is destined to flop before it starts too. They know you are trying to do something that doesn’t include them and they won’t stand for it. Ultimately they will find all kinds of reasons why they can’t sleep.



Kids have a unique ability to sense when something is up. Sometimes they can even tell days in advance that something special is in the works. They will fight more, be needier, misbehave more, and demand more attention. This is, of course, because they don’t want anyone doing anything they’re not. Their ultimate goal is to make you cancel your plans to be with them instead, or at least to make your plans center entirely on them. After all, kids are the center of their universe and so rightly think they should be the center of yours too. By the time your babysitter arrives, or it’s time to sit down to your special dinner at home, you are tired, frazzled, and feeling completely un-special and wonder why you bothered.



So, you give up on the nights out, special at home dinners become ordinary dinners, and date night has had a timely death. You tell yourself it’s ok because – between the increasing costs for groceries and all the money you have to put out for school snacks, fundraisers, and activities for the kids – you really can’t afford a night out anymore anyway. And it really is ok because it’s all part of being a parent and making sacrifices as a parent.



What makes it even more ok is remembering to remind yourself and each other often of that insanity that brought you there in the first place – love.

Life Changes - Random Ramblings

Life Changes

By L. V. Gaudet

© October 2010




Life always seems to have a way of throwing changes at us. Birth, death, marriage, divorce.



I weathered two big life changes with a mixture of fear, dread, wonder, and eagerness. First, becoming a mother, and second, becoming a stay at home parent. Both added a new dimension to my world, a whole new life full of trials both expected and unexpected.



The next life change had a much smaller impact on my world. What is supposed to be perhaps the biggest day of a girl’s life wasn’t that big life changing day a girl dreams of. But then, it was more of a public sharing of what we already knew – that we were already married in our hearts and home. The party was done, the guests gone home, and bills waited to be paid. There were no eye openers as everyone behaved pretty much as expected. As with any wedding there will always be both regrets and good things.



Now life brings me to the next big change. The girls are both in school full time and it’s time to consider the next phase of my life, the return to work. It may not be the biggest change my life has had, but at the moment it feels like the biggest.



As I sit here contemplating that next move – getting a job, I have to admit that I am a bit scared. It kind of feels like getting your very first job as a young adult.



Let’s face it, after six years as an unemployed stay-at-home parent preceded by almost seven years working with the same company, I haven’t have to job search in roughly thirteen years. And, six years of unemployment will hardly help my employability, regardless of its reason.



I need four basic items before I can even start. The first two are easy enough. My iron is older than my house, and they both certainly have seen better days. And my ironing board, well I have my suspicions that it may pre-date womens’ right to vote in our fair country. It’s well past time to retire it.



The most challenging problem, of course, will be finding suitable childcare. Any childcare I find would have to be able to either get the kids to and from school directly, to and from their designated bus stop for our house, or to and from another existing bus route and just hope to heck there is room on that bus every year for them because the school board won’t make room on a bus route that doesn’t deliver them to their residence. And, of course, there is always the possibility of having to change schools and send the kids to another town – assuming the school has room and is willing to take them, and there is some means of getting them to school from the childcare provider. I desperately hope to keep them in their home town school where they can grow up knowing and becoming friends with the kids in their own neighborhood.



Of course none of this is new and I certainly am not the first parent to face this dilemma. It’s all part of being a working parent and dealing with a desperate shortage of childcare spaces and lack of school transportation for daycare kids.



Going into the world of parenthood, I thought full time childcare spaces would be hard to find. They are, but they’re not as scarce as that elusive animal – the before and after school care. There has been a big push lately for creating daycare spaces and the drive to get every child below school age into some form of preschool program. But when it comes to the need for spaces and transportation for kids after they hit kindergarten, the ball has not only been dropped, it’s been lost down the sewer grate.



The last thing I need is in a bit of a catch-22 situation. Looking at my wardrobe it’s very clear that, after two kids and so many years without replacing the items in my wardrobe, I’m going to need a job to buy the clothes I need to get a job.



So, while I ponder the how-to’s of returning to work, continue my snipe-hunt for the ever elusive before and after school childcare that will actually allow the kids to get to school, and steel myself for the coming tide of rejections; I will try to not think about how returning to work will change the dynamics of our family life, or how I’ll juggle cramming everything I do now into a few very short evening hours like all the other working moms do. That is as thought for another day.

Summer Resolutions

Summer is here again, and with it comes all the bugs, sunshine, and heat you can handle. The kids are off school and driving their summer caregivers to distraction as they adjust to their new schedules or lack of schedules. And for those of us who are stay at home parents, those pesky chores like grocery shopping turn into epic journeys as we load the entire troupe into the car to brave the aisles filled with pitfalls and traps like inconveniently placed toys and treats which, naturally, did not make that very exclusive grocery list. The grocery bill balloons as by the second aisle, and 557th request to buy some trinket or junk food item you would normally never buy, you find yourself exhaustedly saying “yes” just to appease the locals and hopefully gain a few seconds of peace to think and peruse the grocery shelves.



With the change in season comes the inevitable change in lifestyle. All of your usual television shows have been replaced by repeats or pathetic attempts at summertime programming. Perhaps the lack of effort lays with the simple fact that more people are outside doing stuff than cooped up inside glued to the boob tube. Quite frankly, the only thing playing anywhere right now that I would want to watch is True Blood.



No longer am I juggling a kindergartener in half time school who needs my 150% undivided attention when she is home because she misses her sister with household chores, grocery shopping, volunteering at school, and trying to find time and energy left over to find the incentive to write. Now with both girls home all the time, it is a brave new day, a day that is a bunch of days all melded into one never ending day of doing the same things every day.



With the new season, new lifestyle, and new daily schedule also comes the other inevitable, the need to make new resolutions. You know; those promises of self fulfillment, self improvement, and sometimes self sacrifice that are so well meant but futile, fruitless, and generally abandoned after a few well intentioned weeks. I don’t know about you, but with each change of season and lifestyle, I always feel that need to try to change things up, to improve and enrich our lives with self improvements, home improvements, and family improvements.



This summer season my resolutions are much the same as they have been each changing season. They are also just as well intentioned, well meant, and probably will be just as quickly lost and abandoned to the reality that there just isn’t enough time in the day or energy after a long day of kids, messes, and childhood mayhem.



With the grade oner at home to hopefully provide distraction for the kindergartener, distraction that so far consists of “Mo-om, so and so is doing this!” Mo-om, so and so is doing that!” I hope to:



- Be more active with my writing blog and writing networking groups

- Get one of those novels in process ready for publishing

- Finish some short stories and perhaps a novella

- Write down my campfire stories into children’s books and possibly try to get them published

* All of these writing activities may just be my last kick at the can to have time for them with the inevitable return to the lifestyle of the working Mom soon to come.



- Keep the house tidier and try to have everyone in happier moods so my husband has a much more pleasant home to come home to after a hard day’s work. What better way is there to thank him and show our appreciation for his hard work in supporting us? And, because naturally every action also has a touch of selfish motive … to make him more forgiving of the time it may take for me to find gainful employment this fall after more than seven long years unemployed. And, the possibility of my easing into the work force part time or casually in an attempt to break into the world of the Educational Assistant or other positions with one of our local area schools.

- Return to my efforts to purge the house of all unnecessary clutter.

- Renew my efforts to get into shape and return to fitting into my pre-baby outdated and worn out clothes.

- Work with the girls on their summer reading and learning so they are ready for school in the fall.



And with all this now on my plate, it is time to turn away from the keyboard and see who is doing what to make who mad this time.