Summertime

I do so love the sun and the warm breezes and the songbirds that wake me each morning. But summertime is creating some problems with blogging and writing and editing.

First - the Cleveland Indians baseball team is doing really well. I record each game and play it back (that way, a three-hour game only takes about an hour to view). There's real hope for a good season as we have the Red's old manager as our new one. Whoo hoo! He's got a great track record and we have all our fingers and toes crossed for a winning season.

Second - my little one is staying with me for the summer. We've made up her schedule so she won't 'loose' all the great things she learned in first grade. We have math and grammar five days a week, a book report due on Wednesdays, computer time for Thursday, Spanish on Friday, and music on Wednesday. That's the mornings.

The afternoons are spent in the pool. My condo has a glorious pool and we've been in it every afternoon (even if the water has only been 75 Fahrenheit and the outside temps have been in the high 60's and low 70's. Who cares?) We've been waiting to get into the water all winter! Our afternoon schedule calls for the entire time in the pool. Friends come over and we play and have a wonderful time. Sometimes we're mermaids, sometimes we're circus performers, sometimes we have pets (colored balls used to keep the ducks from doing 'their thing' in the pool.)

In the midst of it all, I'm working on 'Blue.' A friend's birthday is tomorrow, and as a gift, I wrote a story for her (really just a 100-word drabble) about one of her favorite book characters. I'm pleased to say she liked it very much. I posted it at a couple boards that friends read. One wrote back and said the description was perfect. She knew exactly where the characters were sitting and what they were seeing. She said how much she appreciated that little 'bit' in the midst of the dialogue.

I sat back, bemused, and realized that's what's lacking in 'Blue.' I've got great dialogue, a good plot, and wonderful characters, but it's those little two or three sentence descriptions that are missing. I went back to one of the scenes today, reread it, and immediately realized: it's dark and so the landscape changed. What did I do to show that? Nothing. Well, I went in and changed it. Not with a long passage of descriptive writing, but just a couple sentences. I am so happy to say it really makes a difference. And it's nothing that I can't do. And -- I'm excited about it. I feel like I found that missing link that's eluded me all these long months.

I also had a dream last night. One of those thirty-second dreams *g* I dreamt the name of a publishing house. I was so surprised, I woke up. I knew it was a publishing house. My writing buddy said I'm supposed to be listening to the Muse and she'll give me everything I need. Well, I did a Google search and found the house. Now I've got to look for their submission guidelines and then I'll send out 'Sorrysorrysorry.' Exciting times.

Hope the summer will be a splendid one for us all. With blessings and grace and an active Muse. With joy and laughter and iced tea.

Life is good.