Got Sleep?

Well, last night I had a sleep study and I didn't sleep much at all. Of course the technician who had wired me up and all couldn't divulge in the specifics of what the test showed, but this is what I told him when he came to get me up at something like 10 'til 6 this morning.

(I should explain I was forced to go "lights out" at by 11:30 p.m. - nowhere near my normal bedtime of 2 a.m. and then was awakened once to adjust some wires (would have probably been the time to put the CPAP on me but they didn't do that last night and then tried to sleep and had my room entered again by one of the other technicians to readjust my nose wire.)

When I was being de-wired, I told the tech, it took me about 2 hours to fall alseep (after being told that for the CPAP to be placed, if in the first 2 hours after lights out you have 80 episodes) and that I probably slept about 3-4 hours total. He proceeded to tell me he couldn't go over the specifics but that I'd have to discuss the findings of the study with the doctor on my followup visit. Of course, getting wired up wasn't fun and the de-wiring was just gross - lumps of conductor glob in my hair and on my face and all - yuck.

After I finally got dressed, called the kids to make sure they were up and then went to help Judy install her new print center (one of those all in one things) and then came home and was going to hop in the shower and take a nap. I had to check my emails and post a few things here before I could do that. Finally, I'm to a point I can stop and take a shower and a nap - only being home an hour - so see ya'll in the postings - E :)

"The Best Writers Conference of 2007"

Yep, I'm a bit biased but this is going to be the best one that I'll attend this year. Maybe it is because I know the folks who are coordinating and pulling everything together, maybe it's because I'm more involved in the group this year, but definitely check it out. It's at the beach, and who doesn't like the beach - see ya'll in the postings - E :)

Self-Promotion workshop today

I should have posted this earlier but it was posted on the Echelon Authors page and I mentioned it at writing group Thursday evening but didn't even think about it until this morning when I was checking my Yahoo groups to see where new messages have been added.

I'm funny about posting message from email so I usually do all my replies directly in the forum groups but this morning apparently there was a glip in my posting - my first post went to the owner of the group when it was a direct reply to someone else's post.

If you are an author, this workshop seems to be a great idea - (although the forum says it is an erotic group of sorts, this particular workshop is geared towards all authors and publishers - it isn't just pertaining to erotic material being published) - so if you are looking for some new ideas to promote yourself and your books - join the forum and the discussion and see what you can get out of it (again the link is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/literature-league/)

See you all in the postings - E :)

Write Here ... Right Now

This link is the new forum called Write Here...Right Now - it is pretty cool - and apparently I have already referred some people there so thought I'd send it out to the rest of the world (those who read my blog) - come on over and see what it's all about - E :)


(link is in the title - but if it doesn't work - here it is again http://cher2.proboards43.com/index.cgi)

Interesting things happened last night

Our writing group can get pretty rowdy in that we have a good time. You can't miss Kevin's laugh - he doesn't mean to be loud but he's very loud when he laughs. He's a jovial person to say the least. So we were sitting there critiquing a story and having a good time and the author who was at the bookstore doing a book signing comes in to join us for the last 45 minutes of the session. She was very nice and even did a couple of critiques on a few of the readings - which was pretty cool in itself - seems her book signing was kind of fizzled out by this time.

Susan hasn't read in a while but she's busy coordinating the writer's conference to be held in October at Myrtle Beach and being on the board of directors for the group of which we are one chapter. I miss her blogs about jazzercise and the Queen of Pain and alien instructors as well as her reading in group.

Aimee (don't you just love the spelling of her name - French) - started something different and now we are going to be exposed to something new with her writing. She usually does articles or essay type things, but last night, hum, she brought a screenplay to group (okay the first five pages). Said she had wanted to do a screenplay, so bought a book about writing one and then started doing one - she's hoping it will be a movie. Someone said that screenplays had to be under 155 pages (120 more like it for a 2 hour movie) - so now she has to cram all these thoughts into a 120 pages - talk about tight writing. The few persons who knew a little bit about screenplays said that she would basically need to have a minute's worth of "air time" per page (that means every scene, every action, every conversation that can be captured in 1 minute has to be on the page) - needless to say there will be more than fits the "usual minute per page" because she is experimenting and this is something new for us too. So my question is this - how does one critique screenplays, especially not having been exposed to screenplays before? You can't really critique the writing because you aren't familiar with the specifics of what is required for screenplay writing, so what do you critique? I guess I need to do some research now on critiquing screenplays - hummmm - not like I don't have a ton of stuff to do already.

The last young lady who read last night - well I must say she really has a good reading voice - her story is about an autistic girl who lives in a group home and runs away, hops a train and ends up in Texas with her uncle. And the author was really impressed with her story as well, made some very nice comments. As we were leaving, she (the young lady who read and I'm sorry I've forgotten her name) asked me to give her some zingers that kids nowadays toss out - remember when we were kids and we would get snidy or something would ensue and you'd quip out - "Yo'r mama" or things like that - so that's what she's looking for. So if you have any phrases that kids toss around today - drop me a line (I'm going to ask my younguns but they probably don't know any zingers, we'll see).

And I got to attend the socialization time after group again - what a month - I've had two good meetings, been able to attend social time and have had a fairly productive month work wise so far (about to make the rest pretty productive too since I was assigned over 260 minutes' worth of dictation yesterday) -- hope to see you all in the postings - E :)

(I found out her name - Marjorie - and she is very sweet - so ya'll come up with some PC little quips or zingers that the kids yell at each other please - E :) )

ebook site

Just in case anyone has problems accessing stories on the Echelon Press site, which you never know, my stories are currently available on FictionWise as well. http://www.fictionwise.com/ - you can purchase the stories through them as well.

Echelon is still experiencing some hiccups on the webstore page (after logging in and no one seems to know what is going on with it) - so if you have an account on Echelon (the only reasons one would need to actually log in would be to make a purchase and to post a review), we are asking everyone who logs in to please make sure you click the log out button before leaving the website. This is your best bet; that way whoever comes to the website after you won't be logged in as you and have access to your account info. Just remember to log out to be on the safe side; not discouraging anyone from perusing the site or purchasing, just want everyone to be safe. E :)

free online workshops link correction

I received an email from a member on another group who said the links weren't working correctly so here is the main page link - hope it works - see you all there - E :)
http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/

Free online workshop - only passing on the information

Lea Schizas from Muse it Up and the Magazine of Unbelievable Stories posted this on our editor's forum and said I could post to other forums and on my blog - Christina and Cheryl are editors also for the MUS. I'm not sure if I will be a presenter or not - but we will see - hope to see you all there - E :)

Our workshops are slowly coming in and placed in the WORKSHOP webpage. Take a look at what we have so far and many more to come. CherylWright, and Christina Barber will be Presenters in this year'sconference once again.
http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/2007workshops.htm

Hop on over to our PRESENTERS webpages and take a look also at ourline up for 2007:
http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/presenters.htm

This is a FREE conference to take place October 8 - 14, 2007. Sevendays of FREE workshops, FREE handouts, FREE chats and all week longquestion and answer periods with our Presenters, plus prizes to be wonevery day and a FREE eBook of all the Presenters and their offerings. Deadline for registration is August 1st, 2007 but don't wait untilthen because you may forget and there will be no acceptions past thisdate.Register for FREE now at:
http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/registration.htm

Last year we had close to 1300 attend from all over the world and wehad a blast. Many attendees also had an opportunity to meet some ofthe publishers and get contracts. So hurry now while it's fresh onyour mind and register. Tell your writing friends and readers all about us.

Lea Schizas

Clarification on kids getting picked up by police

It seems from the comments on that posting that there is a misunderstanding or something going on -

My brother and his family moved from North Carolina about a month ago (maybe a little longer - 6 weeks maybe). They moved to a small town right outside of Clemson (which is nothing but a college town - so you have lots of teenagers running around that area and it can be crazy with college students out and about all the time). About four or so days after moving, my brother and my nephew were having an argument; my brother hollered at Brandon, "Well, if you hate it so much, why don't you go ahead and go back to North Carolina." So Brandon walked out of the house and proceeded to walk in a direction that he hoped would lead him back towards an area that would allow him to hitch a ride out of the town. After about 3 hours of him being gone (it had definitely gotten dark by this time), they called the police and had him searched for. He finally called from a grocery story only 6 miles from their house saying he was hungry and wanted to come home. It took him 4 hours to walk the 6 miles (he should have been able to walk it quicker than that because he is in JRROTC and involved in other things that keep you active). So he's a marked person already having encountered the police due to an argument with my brother and "running away" from home.

So the fact that it is spring break week, the kids were walking on a busy road where they didn't have any business being in the first place, and the fact that my nephew has had a first encounter with the police in Seneca, made the being "picked up by the police for walking" a comical situation.

My son said he has something to tell his friends at school because the highlight of his spring break was being picked up by the police for walking and riding in the back of the police car. He said he thought the plexiglass plates between the front and back were just things that happened on TV, but he confirmed that they were real and that the doors only opened from the outside - lol - he was totally fascinated by the ride in the police car.

So that is my clarification for ya'll and hope to see you on the postings - E :)

spring break stories and writing group stuff

This afternoon I picked up my son, who has been spending the week more or less with my brother and his family. I was late but no big deal - I got there. We met in the parking lot at Wal-Mart and then went to Ryan's for lunch. My nephew was talking about the "po-po" and God I hate my brother for allowing him to be so disrespectful to others (po-po = police) - and the story is that the kids were bored yesterday, so Sharon tells them to go out for a walk. They live in a small town about an hour from the small town I live in, so all the roads are considered highways, byways, et cetera - they are all interchangeable in South Carolina small towns. Apparently the kids (ages 16, 12, and 6) had walked up to one of the major roads in the town and had even crossed the street (story is nephew was going to find a way to his girlfriend's house to ask her out on a date - hahaha - they've only been in the town for about a month and yes same boy who was smitten with daughter's friend on first meeting - that lasted about 2 weeks - so goes life). They were sitting off the road about 10 feet resting when a cop drove by them once, going the opposite direction they were. The cop comes back up the road, turns around and pulls over and asks them if they have a phone number. My nephew wasn't thinking and blurted out the number. So my brother who is home on his lunch break gets the call wanting to know if they have kids (Sharon actually took the number) and then the cop wants to know if she knows where the kids are. Not being able to answer, she finds out that the cop had the kids - Paul goes to get them - and so the big joke is that they got pulled for walking - (My son says his highlight was getting to ride in the back of a police car - lol) -

Writing group was interesting tonight. Of the ten stories read, three of them were actually set in the same area and it was funny to hear all three of them mention places and names similar (street names, places) and what's cool is I knew most of the places they referrenced because they all talked about Charleston, which is where my oldest is and my husband's mother lives in that area too.

We had a young lady who attends the Fine Arts Center (part of the art program in some of the local high schools) and wants to be a writer - so not sure she'll come because she was a bit young and we probably all seemed like a bunch of fuddy-duddies to her. Only time will tell.

After group - I actually got to enjoy the social time at one of the local restaurants which I don't get to do very often because either I have to get home because I have the kids with me or husband had to go to work. This week being spring break and husband not working his normal shifts (that crazy work 2 days, off 2 days, work 3 days, off 2 days, work 2 days, off 3 days - 12-hour shifts) was the perfect time for me to enjoy the social hour afterwards. Although I was informed by Susan, who is in charge of the conference and is really doing a great job of getting things together, that no matter what, every person has to be there - lol - but that conference is during band season and from my calendar of events plotted through the end of the year that is State competition and the husband's weekend to work. So the dilemma is this - miss a band competition (if they make it to State, which they should - they have the last two years) and figure out what to do with my kids for the weekend and go to Myrtle Beach to attend a conference OR miss the conference, hope they go to state and watch my kids participate. And we are talking something six months down the road and a lot can happen during those six months. (I can hope the kids don't make it to state and then take them with me but then what to do with them while I volunteer and work the conference in order to get my registration for free would be yet another dilemma - decisions, decisions, decisions) - I guess I'll have to keep you all posted on this situation as things come up -

see you all in the postings - E :)

Spring break week

Peace and quiet for me in the household this week. Daughter went to Myrtle Beach with church group and won't be home until Thursday evening - so it would have been quiet with just her gone, but then last night son was bugging me while I was working and chatting with sister-in-law online and so I made arrangements to meet them in town (sort of a halfway point for both of us) to take him to her so he could spend the week with his cousins - and best of all, bear (sorry that's my husband, although we are legally (paper) married, we haven't been together in almost four years and he lives on the second floor, I make my living in the basement (first floor of this house) and so I don't really consider him my husband much - and he growls like a bear - not that he's cuddly like a teddy bear - he's more like a grizzly - so thereby, I refer to him as "bear") is working first shift this week, so no him over my head walking around or coming down to bug me for snacks or anything like that for this week at least. Most days when he is working his modified 2nd/3rd 12 hour shifts he sleeps during the day, while the kids are in school but with him working weird training hours of late, he's been sleeping at night more or less.

Started Curves today and it felt good - only did two of the three circuits (8 machines, 3 times around and stretches = 30 minutes which is the recommended time of exercise) - but still felt good - so hopefully it will work out for my health -

So yes, April is definitely coming in like a lamb.

After taking Benjamin to town and running to Wal-Mart (needed a few things or wanted a few things, but I did really good - came out only spending $87 when I thought I had spent over $100 - so felt good about that) and returning home, the craziest thing happened to me. I pulled in my driveway and came down the little hill to the curve (driveway goes all the way around the house and stretched across the area I needed to go was a snake - a big black with white rings (looked like to me) snake - had to be about 3 inches or bigger around - monster thing - wouldn't move so I ran over it - and I know it was as long as my car is wide because both tires went over him (so he was probably a bit longer - I drive a Ford Focus - not like it is a very wide car) - and then when I parked and was getting out of the car, the stupid thing slithered off towards the creek/woods on the other side of our property - not our property but right on the boundary - --- Did I tell ya'll I hate snakes - and this freaked me out - I almost didn't want to pull into my parking spot, but he wouldn't move and I had frozen foods in the car and I needed to go to the bathroom - so I just ran over him and then he crawled away - oy ---- hope he stays out of my house (I've already encountered two smaller snakes in the house since moving here - and I hate them ) - snakes and spiders - oh yes, April is coming in like a lamb - lol - see you all in the postings - E :)

Fast fiction contest on Echelon

Okay, so today is April Fool's day - and this is not a joke - Echelon Press has posted the next fast fiction contest and the theme - Fast and Foolish - Jane and I had a thought this would be the theme - so write on - it is very fast. You have to submit by April 12, with winner announced on April 14, and story published on April 19; the foolish catalyst has to be a lie or joke (in honor of April Fool's days jokes abounding today).

Short stories are fun and can lead to publication (is how I got my second story submitted to publication - Karen was impressed enough to offer me a contract on the story) - Anyone interested, just check out www.echelonpress.com - scroll down to the bottom of the home page (second block of news) - and you will find all the guidelines needed for the story. Good luck to you all - see you in the postings - E :)