I'm baaa-aack!!!

con⋅di⋅tion /kənˈdɪʃən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kuhn-dish-uhn]

Origin:
1275–1325; ME condicioun < AF; OF < L condiciōn- (s. of condiciō) agreement, equiv. to con- con- + dic- say (see dictate ) + -iōn- -ion; sp. with t by influence of LL or ML forms; cf. F condition

Related forms:

con⋅di⋅tion⋅a⋅ble, adjective

Synonyms:
1. See state. 8. requirement, proviso.
(from dictionary.com)

What does "condition" mean for me? It means I passed 4 of 5 sections on my board exam, and I have to return next year to take the fifth again. Which is actually a good thing, considering these exams only have a 50% first-time pass rate, and had I missed more than one section, I would have to redo the ENTIRE THING.

It also means that the burden of studying and stressing about the exams has been lifted for an entire year, and I have the summer yawning wide open and full of possibilities ahead of me. Oh, there is work to do. And stuff around the house that I've been neglecting in favor of studying.

But Alec and Elspeth are getting impatient with me, and I've brought them this far so I'm not going to leave them hanging. Time to get back on this train, finish up another (hopefully short) round of revisions, and get this MS out there to agents and editors.

Side note: in an amusing (and exciting) proof that my internet presence/marketing is working, a girl I went to high school with and knew (but not well) but haven't really had much contact with in 10 years messaged me through Facebook asking how to make a kilt for her friend. Srsly. *g*

Please don't give up on me!

I still exist. I haven't given up on Alec, Elspeth, or OHN. But I'm one month out from my oral board exams (American Board of Radiology; I'm going for certification in Therapeutic Radiologic Physics) and that is All. I. Can. Think. About.

Work, work-related projects, and study...that's all I do. Very little internet, practically no fiction reading, and not much TV. If I can get past this hurdle, it not only means a not-insignificant raise, but the summer is wide open and ready for me to get back to business on the book.

In the back of my head some revisions are simmering, for the first and final four chapters, mainly. I'll get to those and start querying, plus submit the full to the publisher who requested(!) it.

Stay tuned.

DABWAHA Final Four: Jo needs YOU!!!

VOTE NOW for Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady to proceed to the final round of the DABWAHA tournament.  It's nail-bitingly close (3 votes, last I checked!) and voting ends at midnight tonight.  Jo needs YOU!!!

http://dabwaha.com/blog/

FULL REQUEST!!!

Today I attended my local RWA chapter's "Spring Into Writing" workshop, and was talked into pitching to an editor who attended.  SHE REQUESTED THE FULL!

I told her I have some changes to make and she said send it when I was ready.  AND her husband is a radiation oncologist so she actually knew what a medical physicist was.

All in all, a good meeting.  *g*

3...2...1...

I have come to the conclusion that I cannot be productive on the book in late winter (Jan-March or so) but that is the topic for another post.  (Coming soon, I swear!)

I am typing this on my new, super-cute little netbook...yet another post waiting to be written.

But of most pressing and immediate relevance is that fact that I am in Florida, after a 15 hour drive (including stops - not bad with a 3-year-old in tow) to see the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-119 tomorrow.  If writing a novel was one of my goals in life, seeing a shuttle launch was another.  I was so ridiculously geeked out by seeing the shuttle on our way to the hotel (a spotlighted pinprick in the distance, but still) and Little Boy is as much - if not more so - into space as I ever was.  This is going to be fun.

To see updates on the shuttle and watch live feed of the launch, go here:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

To get live updates and pics of what we're doing, follow @stclark81 on Twitter (www.twitter.com/stclark81).  DH has the iPhone, so he gets to live Tweet. *g*

This is also Carol's neck of the woods, so I'm hoping I can meet up with her in person before the week is out (we're heading back on Saturday).  I have a copy of Cost of Freedom I need signed...

Breaking the Silence

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I actually got my computer back a week or two ago, but life since then has kept me from blogging.  That, and the massive backlog I had going after a month without regular internet access.

First up was the planning and orchestration of two surprises for my mom's 50th birthday.  A flamingo "flocking" - wherein my brother and I snuck to her house (2 hours away) in the middle of the night and covered her lawn with pink plastic flamingos.  It's a long story why I chose to do that, but suffice it to say we have a long-running joke.  I didn't even manage to locate enough flamingos for the flocking until about 3 hours before we left.  But she loved it.

Then I threw her (with my dad and brothers' help) a surprise birthday party.  It was a luau, complete with leis, hula music, and - you guessed it - flamingos!  It, too, was a great success.

Unfortunately, just days after the party, my Grandma (Mom's mom) passed away.  She has had problems with her heart for years now, and had been in the hospital for several weeks.  The good news is that she passed peacefully in her sleep.  And we are Christians, as was she, so that was comfort for us as well.

I've been out of town until today for the funeral.  The weather was beautiful for February.  I and Little Boy stayed an extra day at my mom's house to spend more time with her (DH had to come back for class).  But now that I'm back, I hope to get back into the online swing and slowly finish catching up.

Tomorrow I meet with some of my local crit partners, which should get me motivated again.  I'm thinking about changing the ending (last 4 chapters or so). 

And we're supposed to take LB to see a space shuttle launch this month, but NASA keeps pushing it back.  *sigh*

Long term plans: board exams in May, and a review course for same in late March.  I really need to have queries out before then, so I can get down to studying when the time comes.

Moving on, moving up...

Computerless

A belated Happy New Year/Hogmanay to all!

Since just before Christmas, my trusty laptop had been acting up, mainly due to its tiny and overfull hard drive.  My dad got me a new hard drive (160 GB!) for Christmas, and started "cloning" all my data from the old to the new on Monday, but the process was excruciatingly slow, and eventually hung up.  SO I had to send the whole thing to his house, where he is working to get it into tip-top shape.  Until then, I'm computerless; restricted to checking e-mail on my iPod and when I can steal a few moments on DH's Macbook.  I'm  catching up on quite a few projects around the house over the long weekend, and then I should be online more often again.  (Famous last words...)

In other news, after a few excruciating days and last-minute help from folks (thanks!) I wrote yet ANOTHER query letter and entered that and my first 25 pages into the Great Expectations contest.  Word on both that and the Golden Heart should come by March.

A Fun Christmas Survey

I was tagged by Carol.  I tag: anyone reading this who hasn't done it.  *g*

Insert your own answers and pass it on to whomever you feel would respond – including the person who sent it to you

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper - I consider wrapping gifts an art form, and oddly-shaped packages a special challenge.

2. Real tree or Artificial? I grew up with a real cedar tree cut from my grandparents' farm every year, but these days it's a pre-lit artificial.

3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving, but this year we were a little delayed because of the Golden Heart deadline eating up ALL my free time.

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually New Year's Day.

5. What do you do with your tree after you take it down: Back in the bag, and out to the garage until next year.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A "Pound Purry" I named Love.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My husband's step-family that I barely know.

8. Easiest person to buy for? DH and Little Boy - I always know things they will love.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?  Several.  The main one in the front hall, LB's Fisher Price version, and a few small ones scattered around.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Usually mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?  Anything that I have no use for and get no enjoyment out of.  Really, what's the point?  I'd rather get no gift at all than something completely useless to me.  Then the giver is out money, and I'm stuck forcing gratitude.  (Yes, this is directed at a particular person, who shall remain nameless.)  Here's the thing: I'm a gift person.  I take pride in picking gifts people will love.  But just in case, I always include a gift receipt so they can take it back and get something they really want if I miss the mark.  People who buy random stuff and "throw it at the wall to see if it will stick" because they don't take the time to get to know me and what I like get on my "gift person" nerves.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Siding with Carol here: It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually around November, but sometimes earlier if I find a good gift.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yeah.  (See #11 above - what else was I supposed to do?)

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Bourbon Balls (recipe coming soon!) and Father-in-Law's Crispix party mix.

16. Lights on the tree? Lots of colored lights.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells.  My favorite version is Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?  Travel 2 hours to the in-laws' on Christmas Eve, at home Christmas morning, and to my extended family's get-together Christmas afternoon.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?  You mean you can't?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?  Right now an angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve: new pajamas.  Christmas morning: everything else.  (We do gift exchange with the in-laws before this, however, so we've been opening something.)

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?  That the stores put Christmas stuff out in freaking October.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?  I guess cats/kittens, by default.  (I'm kind of a "cat lady"...)  For many years now, my yearly ornament has been a cat.  I'll have enough to do an entire tree soon.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?  We don't really do Christmas dinner, but we have a big Christmas breakfast with cinnamon rolls and sausage and biscuits and gravy and eggs and toast and all that stuff.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? So far I've gotten 2 purses (I ordered them, so I knew in advance) and Trans-Siberian Orchestra tickets (saw them Friday: AWESOME concert) and I'd like some cologne and maybe some cash.  I wrote a list, but I forget what's on it!

Bookwormed!

I've been bookwormed!  By a few people by now, I think.  *g*  Anyway, I'm supposed to find the nearest book, open it to bage 56, and copy down the 5^th sentence and the following 2-5 sentences.

Nearest book to my computer was When the Duke Returns by Eloisa James, which I finished a few days ago.  (Highly recommended!  It's moved from my TBRead pile to my TBReviewed.  Someday…)

Anyway, beginning with the 5^th sentence on page 56:

He arrived in London the night before, woke up at dawn, and waited for the appropriate hour to pay a call on his wife.  It was all easy.

And nothing was easy.

For one thing he had to tell his wife, who already thought he was cracked, that their wedding had to be delayed.  Again.

That ended up a nice little teaser snippet.

Because this is fun, here's the book I'm actually reading right now – The Bride by Julie Garwood:

"Oh, all right.  I'll take him."  Turning back to Jamie, she muttered, "There, sister, are you happy now?  You've forced me to lie to a man of the cloth."

"I forced you?"

The gasp in Jamie's voice wasn't due entirely to her sister's outrageous comment.  Alec's hand had curved around the base of her neck.  His fingers were stroking her sensitive skin.

Another Alec!  And he's up to something, apparently…

Speaking of men named Alec, here's page 56 from my MS, One Highland Night by Rebecca Clarke.  (Yes!  You read it here first!):

"So you believe me now?"

"Aye.  I dinna want to, not really.  But I do." He crossed the narrow space and pulled a stool up next to the cot, laid the bag beside her with shaking hands.

She knew the contents, what he must have seen: the guidebook.  No wonder he was unnerved.  How would she feel if she read a book saying that within a hundred years from her present, the United States would be torn by war and its people conquered, their way of life changed forever?  To see pictures of places she knew in ruins?

Lesse…I think most everyone's been tagged by now, but if you're reading this and haven't been, consider yourself "it"!  *g*

*FANFARE*

Reporter: So, Jenny - you just finished a massive overhaul of your MS by deadline!  What are you gonna do now...?!?

Me:  Forget Disneyworld, I'm going to....SLEEP!!!

Actually, not yet.  I did just finish revisions, but I still have to get everything together to actually submit for the contest.  That means formatting the MS into a singular document (LSB keeps chapters in separate files) and burning it to a CD, pulling and printing 6 copies of my first 50 pages, and revising my working synopsis into something suitable to show people.  That, too, needs 6 printed copies.  Then it's off to the Post Office in the morning on my way to work.  Express Mail delivery is guaranteed by noon on Tuesday (deadline is 5 pm CST).

Then I have a full day of work, and my Scottish Country Dance class.  THEN I'll sleep.  *g*

In a bizarre twist, I guesstimated my wordcount at 95K on the Golden Heart entry form almost 3 months ago, before really starting revisions.  I would have been happy with anything between 95-99K, and made no specific attempt to cut it down to a certain length. 

Final wordcount?  95,098.