Vacation and Revisions

I just got back from visiting my brother and sister and my grandparents in beautiful Florida! And we were there at the perfect time...it wasn't even humid! We were gone for a week and as soon as we got home my dad picked us up from the airport and we started working on the basement...again.

It's been a great learning experience but I think we'll make sure the basement in our next house is finished before we move in. We started hanging drywall today and I don't think I've ever been so excited in my life!!! I also rolled my ankle while I was trying to hook up our trailer so I could take it to Lowe's and exchange a door. Here's a tip: don't try and hook up a trailer by yourself when the trailer is sitting on a slope. I can still hobble along though, so I don't think I broke anything. I should probably go to the doctor and find out, but I have an irrational fear of hospitals and usually won't frequent them unless I think I'm dying.

Since I'm not much help in the basement with my maybe-broken ankle, I decided to read through the Branson Falls edits I got in the mail from Amazing Ashley while I was in Florida. I seriously don't know what I'd do without her. If you don't have someone in your life who will point out all the crap and inconsistencies in your manuscript, you HAVE to find that person. Amazing Ashley reads my manuscripts like an editor or agent and her help is invaluable. I've already told her I'm in debt to her for at least one Corvette, but she's worth A LOT more than that!

I haven't started revisions yet because Amazing Ashley wants to go through her comments with me page-by-page before I start rewriting. Yes, that's right, page-by-page because that's how fantastic Amazing Ashley is. Revisions always kick my butt and I know I have a lot of work still to do on Branson Falls, but for now, I'm hoping I can start to query in a month. I feel really good about the book though and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that an agent will like it as much as my beta-readers do!

Thirty!!!

First, let me say that there's no real reason for the Brandon Routh picture except that I wanted to post a little eye candy to celebrate my 30th birthday! And let's be honest, eye candy is never a bad thing. Since it's now after midnight, I'm officially 30!!! And unlike many of my 30-year-old friends, I'm so excited! I'm not sure why, but I've always felt like good things would happen the year I turned 30. And...as a testament to that, I got the best early birthday present ever a couple of days ago and I'll post more about it soon! In other news, it seems like I've been in my basement-finishing cave with my dad and husband every spare moment for the past month, but occasionally I poke my head out and work on edits for Branson Heights (which I've recently re-titled Branson Falls). Incidentally, Brandon Routh looks so much like one of the characters in Branson Falls that it makes me wonder if my subconscious had a hand in writing the character. Amazing Ashley finished editing for me a few days ago. She said she was harder on me this time...which makes me a little concerned since I told her to be brutal with Eternal Starling. But, it will just make the book better so I'm excited to get her edits back and start improving the manuscript before I give it to readers and send out queries. Since it's late, I think I'm going to end this post and continue celebrating 30 by reading a good book before I go to bed. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll post more soon!