Ericka Scott
Best Laid Plans and All That Jazz
Monday, January 11th, 2010
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Well, this weekend certainly didn’t go as planned.

It started out on a high point. Last year, I tooled up the coast to All Writers All Weekend hosted by the Silicon Valley RWA. It was tons of fun. This year, instead of a conference, they are hosting several agents to come in for workshops, etc. In two weeks, Donald Maass is having an all-day workshop there, Fire in Fiction. Despite the cold January temps, the weather looks pretty good for a road trip and I’ve booked a seat at the workshop.

I was planning on heading to the library but my friend called and wanted to know if Drama Teen and I wanted to go shopping with her and Tall Teen. Since I now need a nice comfortable outfit for the workshop (jammies would do for me, but I’m not sure that’s the impression I want to leave with an agent), I ditched my writing plans for shopping. Tall Teen needed some black and white striped attire for a Beetlejuice-type costume for winter guard. What fun we had picking out shirts, skirts, and even some striped leg warmers! I found the perfect outfit for the conference (and even had a chance to give it a trial run for comfort at the kinderboy’s award ceremony this morning). I even got all the accoutrements to redecorate the guest bathroom. Wow, did I feel like I’d gotten a lot accomplished, except writing…but I’d do that on Sunday.

While Drama Teen cracked open her cookbook and set about making a baked potato soup, I sat on the couch and realized I was dead tired. Not just the got up early and traipsed all over creation tired, but bone tired and I was feeling “off” in the tummy area. It wasn’t until the kinderboys were in bed that I realized I felt a bit off. Understatement of the year.

By midnight, I had a raging tummy. I watched forensics shows into the wee hours, until some perky young thing wanted to sell me something to improve my abs, which were sore without exercising, thank you very much.

Sunday, I spent on the couch or in bed, unable to get up and “do” anything. Exactly 24 hours after the onset (how is it that happens?), I started to feel better and managed to eat a little of the pancakes my husband whipped up for dinner.

Today, I’m tired but feeling almost back to normal. Mr. Scott & I went to the award ceremony and cheered Kinderboy#1 when he received the Student of the Month award. Needless to say, no writing was done this weekend and if I don’t get my butt in gear today, I will be hopelessly behind. Good thing this workshop is coming up…I certainly need the kick in the butt.

Ericka

Friday Fiasco…
Friday, January 8th, 2010
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Horror, upon horror – the ice cream truck didn’t meander through our neighborhood today. I know. Most of the country is buried in snow and freezing temperatures; however, here in the high desert, it’s sunny and warm. The temperature today topped out around 60. The ice cream man came yesterday…so where, oh where is he today? The kids are driving me nuts, especially kinderboy#2, who’s got the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” syndrome. Sigh. On a bright note, looks like I might be sending daddy and the kid crew to Foster’s Freeze after dinner for ice cream.

It’s been an odd week. Kids went back to school (yay!), had a minimum day on Wednesday (boo!), had one kidlet try out playing sick on Thursday to avoid Math resource (grr~) and now the week has drawn to a close. I’m glad to get back into a routine, although I’m not sure I’m really liking those 5:30 mornings. I flirted with getting up close to six, but on two mornings, I had kidlets out of the bedrooms shortly after six. They must be drawing to a close on a sleep cycle…so, back to 5:30 and having almost an hour to myself in the mornings. I just read e-mail, make lunches, pack backpacks and start breakfast, but I NEED that time to do it ALONE.

I didn’t get much writing done. I started compiling all the information on my books that the webmistress I hired to redesign my website in WordPress needed at the end of *mumble*. What? What month? Clears throat. November. She needed it at the end of November. Bad, bad me. Good thing the holidays threw everything off and she’s of a forgiving nature. Since it seemed as if I were doing “busy work” and not writing, my muse took a few days off to chase cabana boys on her uncharted island in the Pacific. So, I only slogged through 600 words but…yes, there is a but, she arrived back this morning raring to go and left me with two or three additional scenes for my book and the idea to move the falling in love portion of the story until after the kidnapping & rescue… which will work she assures me. So, to celebrate, I finished gathering all that information from the four corners of my office (hard drive) and shipped it off to Frauke at Croco Designs. I still have a critique for a friend to finish but I can write and critique in the same work session (lucky me)… so I’m hoping to make good progress on both over the weekend.

I’ll speed up my post here as it’s about time for me to throw the pizzas in the oven. We were going to have lamb chops (yum!)…but no one but Mr. Scott & I would eat them. So, we’re going to combine those succulent cuts of meat with the baked potato soup Drama Teen is going to whip up tomorrow night. Being as that left me with a blank spot in the week’s menu – I did what I do best. Shop. Good thing the pizzas were on sale.

Speaking of sales, Pens.com had a fantastic deal on pens a few weeks ago. Being as I was down to having only 5 left of the 300 I’d ordered last year, I splurged a royalty check and placed an order. They came today and are GORGEOUS! If you’d like to take a look at them, leave me a comment with your e-mail address. I’ll gather names and addresses offline and ship out 1 *or 5* to your address (1 for you and 4 to share with your friends/neighbors/strangers on the street). Unfortunately, I have to limit this offer to US residents, sorry!

So, comment away and have a fantabulous weekend! I know I will…I have a date with a library carroll and my Alphasmart tomorrow and a belly dance baby shower on Sunday. I’ll be back on Monday with more zany news from the writing front ~

Ericka

Too True Tuesday
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
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Just to shake things up in 2010, I’m gonna post some true fact about our weird and crazy family on Tuesdays.

So, here goes the first:

We eat off paper plate every single night of the week (well, except when we eat out).

Sorry Mom!

Confessions of a blended family…
Monday, January 4th, 2010
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I know…today is supposed to be my writing update…but I’m making an exception because today is our family day. Living in a blended family brings with it lots of stresses that bio-families don’t deal with. But it also brings joys that greatly outweigh those problems.

Five years ago on a cold day in early January, we traveled to Guatemala to pick up two little boys. Our life has not been the same since! For the baby (kinderboy#2), the transition has been easy. Partly that’s because he really is just a laid-back, easy going guy. For the toddler, (Kinderboy#1) the transition wasn’t an easy one. The first 18 months were hell for me and for him. He’d been abducted by aliens that didn’t speak his language and expected to him live by all these “rules”. It also didn’t help that in his 17 short months prior to coming with us, he’d had three disruptions (birth mother, foster family #1, foster family #2). We were his fourth family and there wasn’t much trust on his part that we were “it”. We’re seeing that even five years later… So, we’ve signed up for counseling to help him deal with some of his issues and help bond him to us. But, for the most part, he’s now a happy little guy who loves school and just doing boy things (riding his bike, playing in the dirt, video games, etc.)

But adopting the boys isn’t the ONLY reason today is Family Day.

Two years ago, Drama Teen got her nickname simply by all the drama she induced in the family. Part of it was teenage angst, part was caused by her brain aneurysm being located in one of the emotion regions of her brain, and a large part of it was having to come face to face with her own mortality. Needless to say, we had a couple of rough, rough months. Like most children with an absent bio parent, she nursed fantasies about how wonderful it would be to live with her bio-father and the step-mother she adored. When her behavior escalated into some unsafe and illegal acts, I punished her. She called and complained to him. Granted, he and his wife are practically strangers to her…he’s a Disneyland dad and although his wife has kids, it’s “different” when it’s a teenager you barely know. Drama Teen considered step-mom more of a friend than a mother. Bio-father had NEVER had to deal with day-to-day parenting– he left when Drama Teen was a toddler and married his new wife after her kids were raised and gone. Over the phone, he undermined my authority, downplayed the seriousness of everything, told her I was over-reacting, and then played the “come live with me and step-mom and life with be rosy” card. So, she went for two weeks at Christmas on a trial basis. If she decided to live with him, I told her I wouldn’t object (it would have broken my heart, but in all fairness, I knew I had to let go if that’s what she wanted.) My biggest fear when she left was that she wouldn’t want to go back. I, the worst case scenerio aficionado, had never envisioned/planned for what really happened.

One week into the visit, I’d had three panicked phone calls from her and a request to come home early, which bio-father nixed (although up until then, he’d told her she could come home whenever she wanted to). All was not rosy… There had been no honeymoon period. She’d stepped off the plane and into the embrace of a man determined to “set her straight” and undo all the “bad parenting” I had inflicted upon my daughter. Well, needless to say, fantasy and reality collided when she continued to act out there the way she had been at home. Bio-father and step-mom came down much harder and with much less understanding than they’d led her to believe they would. In fact, the entire visit became abusive…with bio-father hiding the abuse from the step-mom who wouldn’t have believed my daughter anyway. It was a nightmare and all I could do was count the minutes until the visit ended. In retrospect, CPS should have been called and she should have been removed from the home. We were concerned that removing her to a foster/group home we knew nothing about and probably filled with juvenile delinquints until we could get across the country to pick her up would do more harm than good. We figured it would be three days to get flights and all the details worked out (babysitting for the boys, etc) and she would be home in four. Next time, we’ll call CPS first and think later.

Drama Teen came “home” after that visit, crying and sobbing her heart out. When she turned to my husband, the man who has been in her life since she was seven, who’s loved and supported her, who has been her “daddy” in every way except DNA, and called him “Dad” and meant it, that sealed Family Day on the calendar forever.

Happy New Year!
Friday, January 1st, 2010
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glitter-graphics.com

Some of the blogs I’ve read lately have given a glimpse of their year in review. I’m not gonna bore you with a blow by blow. All I can say is lots of stuff happened, some of it good, some of it not so good. Drama Teen has had a remarkable change in attitude. Was it the brain surgery or just a sprinkle of maturity? I don’t know, but this glimpse of the young woman she’s becoming makes me proud. Kinderboy#1 is continuing to take slow steady progress toward attaching to our family. It’s s-l-o-w process, not gonna happen overnight, but for once in a long time I have hope that it will happen. Kinderboy#2 is a constant source of endless snuggles which I’m indulging in for as long as I can. In other words, life happened, is continuing to happen, and that’s a marvelous thing in and of itself.

I saw this quote the other day:

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin–real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.– Alfred D. Souza

The words resonated deep and reminded me of the challenges I face as both a person and an author. Currently, I am on the great agent search of 2010. I’ve sent out agent queries twice before (coincidently in 2008 & 2009 — hmmm). I don’t know if this time I will be successful, what I do know is that just the act of writing stories and submitting them for consideration/publication is an authors “life”…and I’m gonna stop worrying so much about the destination and start enjoying the journey.

Thanks for “reading” along. I wish all of you blessings for 2010!

Ericka

Goals? I don’t need no stinkin’ goals!
Monday, December 28th, 2009
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‘Cept, I do.

I know there are plotters and pantsers, list makers, and wing-its. I’m a plotter and a lister. I need my goals clearly stated and listed out or else I forget. Heck, I often say I’d forget my head on the kitchen table if it wasn’t securely attached to my torso.

So, without further ado…

Writing goals:

1. Find a home for Wild Ghost Chase – I’ve had nibbles in the agent and publisher department, so I’m hoping it’s just a matter of time…
2. Finish zombie historical – I have such high, high hopes for this piece. So, why I am so afraid to just put my butt in a chair and write? I know the historical aspects and the tight timeline of one of the “real” characters have me a little spooked, but I’m trying to “just write” the first draft…if only I could find the time. Next week, when the kiddos go back to school, it becomes my first priority!
3. Write another Eclipse novella for Phaze
4. Write sequel to The Lady is a Vamp for Total E-bound
5. Write something, anything, for Cobblestone Press
6. Ditto for Lyrical Press
7. Rinse and repeat steps 3-6 until the end of the year.

I write novella-length fiction fairly quickly and have been known to kick one out in a month. What I have to learn to do is to let the story sit and stew. Wild Ghost Chase has ended up being a much better book for sitting until I could emotionally (i.e., ruthlessly) edit it (now, lets just hope a publisher agrees with me!)

It will probably be 2010 by the time I post again, so HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Ericka

Happy Boxing Day!
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
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Well, despite my worries and fears, Santa stopped by our home and dropped off many, many gifts for the kinderboys and Drama Teen. The tree was ransacked by 7:30 am and then breakfast of french toast made with eggnog was consumed (yum). Company arrived at 11 am and my uber-wonderful hubby took all the kids to a faraway park so that I could clean up the first round of Christmas debris and gird my loins for the cookie and pizza frenzy that was to ensue in the afternoon. Have I told you how much I truly love that man?

The kids arrived back at the house not long after I had an emergency run to the store for more pizza fixings (a surprise guest and long-time friend of the family is Jewish and needed veggies instead of the pork that sustains the pizza industry (ham, pepperoni, and sausage). Albertsons was closed but luckily Rite-Aid was open. They must have known I was coming for a few cans of diced tomatoes, sliced pineapple, and mushrooms were kicking back on a dusty shelf in their convenience food aisle. I’m also glad to know that I wasn’t the only person with a Christmas emergency…there were lots of folks clogging the beer aisle.

Back at home, cookie decorating was a multicolored sugar delight (I’m sure I’ll still find sprinkles in my drawers and on the floor for months to come) and although the pizzas came out of the oven staggered and everyone ate at different times, I think it will always be remembered as the “Pizza Christmas”.

My husband joked this morning that he’s glad I had my nervous breakdown on Christmas Eve and not Christmas Day. I can finally laugh about it to.

And maybe I wasn’t so naughty after all…I got a request for a partial from one of my dream publishers! I’m off to ship them five chapters and then chew my nails into the new year.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, or if you don’t celebrate, have a fantabulous weekend!

Ho, ho, ho!

Ericka

Christmas Eve Update
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
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Well, there are three naughty children under this roof tonight and major doubt as to whether there will be gifts under the tree in the morning.

The well-oiled workings of the past week lulled me into a false sense of security. I really thought that, just perhaps, we could pull this holiday off without a hitch. HA!

The fighting and bickering started as soon as Drama Teen got out of bed this morning. She and kinderboy#1 aren’t good together under most circumstances, add the stress of Christmas, and it’s like lighting an incendiary device and throwing it into the living room. Luckily, I’d gotten the dishes and one load of laundry done before WWIII broke out and the crying ensued. The roast resided in a toasty warm oven and noon (when Mr. Scott was supposed to arrive) came and went. I slapped some lunch together and fed my whining brood. I thought pulling up NORAD tracking Santa would provide a bit of distraction. Nope. Or maybe it did…maybe they all decided just to see how naughty they could be before Santa called it quits.

At 1:10 pm I got a text from Mr. Scott that he was leaving work right then. He was moments too late to save me from melting down. Kinderboy#2, usually the reliable, good-natured, never gets into trouble kid, had stuffed 50-100 kandoo wipes down the toilet and flushed. When it clogged (chorus of DUHs here), he wiggled the handle until the chain got lodged under the flapper, so the water continued to fill the bowl. And fill, and fill, then overflow… Only when the water was several inches deep on the floor did he come to tell me there was trouble in paradise. The ding of Mr. Scott’s text only fueled my irritation. By the time he got home, crying boys were ensconced in beds and even Drama Teen was sniffling in the living room. I was seething and instead of taking it out on everyone, I went to bed.

Now, cookies were supposed to have been cooked sometime in the middle of the afternoon. However, no one wanted to disturb furious mother bear from her deep dark pity cave, so when it was determined that the oven was too cool for the cookies to bake, they were cut out and stored. When I finally emerged, still irked and swearing off ever celebrating a major holiday again, to cook supper, I realized the cookies hadn’t been cooked and thus, the roast wasn’t done, as I’d allowed for that higher oven temperature in the cooking time. Curse words were flung, silently for the most part, and it’s been determined that only Mr. Scott deserves to be visited by the jolly old elf tonight.

Well, these winter days may be short in reality, but it’s been hours too long for my patience. It’s 7:15…we did finally eat dinner and are now trying to convince boys that the quickest way to Christmas morning is to get bathed, pajama’d, and tucked in by 8. Ha! Good thing I napped, for Santa may not be visiting the Scott household until the wee sma’ hours.

And yes, dear readers, Santa does deliver coal to those who are naughty. I guess I did my part in making the season a little less bright, for I got a nice big R in my inbox.

Next year…I’m canceling Christmas.

One week almost down…
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
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I’m convinced that no one should ever tell children that they don’t have school or that Christmas is coming in X amount of days. Kinderboy#2 (aka enthusiastic morning kid) was up before 6 am almost every day this week (except yesterday). My Christmas wish (2 weeks of sleeping in) won’t be granted this year. Gee, thanks Santa.

And do young children really need to know Christmas is tomorrow? Why can’t we just spring it on them? All I’ve heard this morning is “Is Santa Coming tonight or tomorrow?” followed by “What are we doing today?” Well, I had planned a “relaxing” day of laundry, cleaning, cooking, completing a few wrapping projects, and upteen other activities. Isn’t it enough that we’ve “done” stuff all week (i.e., Build A Bear, appointments & the movies???) Luckily, Mr. Scott is getting off around noon today to come home and we’ll bake that last set of Christmas cookies to decorate tomorrow. I’m still trying to figure out how to get the roast cooked in time for Christmas Eve dinner…Usually I cook it all day long in the oven (on around 250 degrees), but in the middle of that, I’m gonna have cookies heating up the oven to 350 degrees. So, should I put the roast in later to allow for that or remove it to a crockpot while the cookies bake? But the crockpot will take up precious counter space needed for cooling the cookies. Decisions, decisions.

On a very bright note, I decided to ship my revised ghost story out to a few agents from my wish list who didn’t get it the first time around (since you aren’t supposed to send them revised manuscripts unless they’ve requested them, I’ve been holding a couple of agents in reserve). I’ve gotten two requests for partials and one request for a full. So, Santa, if you’re listening, I know what I’d like in my stocking on Christmas morning!

Well, I’d better get back to dishes, laundry, and finding something to keep the kids busy for an hour or ten.

Merry Christmas!

Ericka

So starts two weeks of….
Monday, December 21st, 2009
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I’m writing this Monday post on Sunday evening…okay, not evening, but late at night. I’m trying to stay positive about the next two weeks. It’s difficult, but I’m determined not to ruin the Christmas season wondering how I’m going to keep my kids from driving me insane. I’ve planned out some activities (why does that always equal expenses?).

My mom sent our Christmas money early. So, I’ll be using some of it to fund these adventures. The first is tomorrow. We’re going to fabricate inanimate bruins (Build-A-Bear). Believe me, it’s not as if we don’t have enough stuffed animals already, but both boys had asked for Christmas bears on their lists…so we’re off to stuff ’em. We’ll grab lunch at the mall and pick up a few last minute Christmas items. Drama Teen has been angry with her bio dad for what seems like forever. The moment they manage to hit an even patch, he’ll stop calling…then, she thinks he’s mad at her and the next thing you know, she won’t take his calls. I’m counting the days until she’s 18. However, prior to today, she was determined not to buy him a gift, now she’s changed her mind. So, this foray out will give her a chance to pick something up for him…assuming she doesn’t change her mind between now and tomorrow afternoon. Sigh.

Tuesday is tied up in appointments. We’ll be at the dentist first thing in the morning for my daughter to get a couple of cavities filled. Then, in the afternoon, Kinderboy#1 and I have our first counseling session. After reading our questionnaire answers, the psychologist came to the same conclusion we’ve suspected for a while…Reactive Attachment Disorder. For instance, this evening, we all gathered together on the couch to watch The Grinch who stole Christmas (the 1/2 hour cartoon). Kinderboy#1 would have none of sitting on the couch with us to snuggle. Instead, he stood behind the couch, or beside the couch. It breaks my heart that he won’t allow himself to be part of the family, even when it’s obvious that he so wants and needs to be included. Now, after The Grinch, when the “pressure” seemed to be off, he did crawl up on the couch and snuggle with Mr. Scott and Kinderboy#2. I’m hoping that he’s receptive to the therapy and that we come away with some interventions that work for him.

Wednesday, I think we’ll hit the dollar movies and on Thursday, we need to bake another batch of Christmas cookies (a small one this time) for all the kids to decorate on Christmas day. Oh, did I tell you, my brother-in-law and his three kidlets are coming to spend the afternoon. We’ll decorate cookies and do a “make your own pizza” for lunch. I’m looking forward to trying out yet another recipe for stuffed pizza a la Garcia’s Pizza in a Pan. I found a recipe that looks close… Last year’s attempt was tasty but just not quite…so I’ll have to let you know if it works this year. If so, I won’t miss heading to C-U for the holidays quite so much. Yes, I do only go home for the pizza.

I’ve been working on my zombie historical. It’s coming along slowly but surely. In between writing, I’ve been working on the snowflake plotting software. What I’ve come to realize is that I’ve got a fairly strict timeline (my one real historical characters is only in a certain place at a certain time for only so many days)…so as I’m plotting, I’m playing with time. It’s driving me a bit nuts, so I’m trying to not worry about the when, just the what. It doesn’t help that I have a domestic scene to write. It furthers the plot in both characterization and motivation, but I’m having trouble getting into my hero’s head.

Well, it’s closing on midnight, so I’ll wish you all a Merry Christmas! I received a new phone from Santa and if I can figure out how to work the camera in it, you might even get pictures in my Friday post!

Ericka