the news

Good news!  This morning I woke up and thought BRRR!  Yippee!  

More good news!  It is supposed to only get to 92 today.  Ten degrees cooler than it has been lately.

Better news!  It is only supposed to reach 82 tomorrow!

Bad news.  I got my first writing rejection the other day. 

Great news!  I got my first writing acceptance a couple of day after that!  I am going to be published!  I am going to have a short story in the May 2009 issue of Christian Fiction Online Magazine.

The rejection and acceptance came from the same person.  Let me tell you the story.

I have been very discouraged about writing.  I have been for about a month, I guess.  Then on the writing e-mail loop that I'm on someone sent out a creativity challenge.  We were to write an opening hook for a story that had to include:

grass clippings

a hamster

an odd odor

a fire

breaking glass

Well, this e-mail loop has all kinds of well-known authors and agents and editors as well as newbies and wannabes and the whole gamut.  We're talking thousands of people.

The idea of posting a snippet of writing on there was absolutely terrifying.  So I knew I had to do it.  

This is what I posted:

I gather grass clippings into a little pile by my knee.  My son rests his head in my lap as his sobs subside into hiccups.  The sound of shattering glass makes me jump.  My eyes blur as I stare at the lawn.  I really don't want to see what's going on.

What is that smell?  I thought smoke was smoke, but apparently not.  This smells like flowers burning.  There is a pungent sweetness to it.

My eyes move to my son's head, tousled and sweaty.  Then his arms, charred with black.  His hands in which he holds his new hamster, Pete.  

Pete is dead.  

Without thinking I look up and am mesmerized by the flames eating my house.  Eating my life.  

And we just got here.

Then the editor of this magazine said she really liked it and that I should consider submitting a short story for her magazine.  So I finished the little part I wrote, turning it into a story that I really like.  But she said it was too much of a bummer for what the magazine wanted.  Bummer.  It is a little heavy, but I like it.  It is about hope and healing and God meeting us in our need.

Anyway, she asked if I had anything lighter, so I wrote something and submitted that and she liked it.  And there we go! Yay for me!

pay no attention to me, its the heat

Hot.  It's hot.  I'm hot.  There is too much heat - everywhere.  You have to understand that I consider anything above 75 hot.  And it has been triple digits around here.  We don't have AC.  I am barely functioning.  I can't go on much longer....  I only have the energy to complain because it is morning and it is only 67 right now.  Thank God for cool nights.  And I'm pleading with him for rain.  Rain cools the air 20 degrees or more, plus, we are just going to shrivel up and blow away if we don't get some.

Ok, enough of that.

There are some movies that people rave about and I just don't get...

Some examples:

Bridget Jones Diary.  I hated that movie.  First of all, why not just cast a British actress?  Why use a girl who has a terrible phony accent?  I want to watch Miss Potter, but I don't think I will be able to stand it!  Second, what was so funny about it?  Maybe I just missed the humor because I was too busy gritting my teeth.

Jerry Maguire.   I just don't get what was good about that movie.  In fact, I don't even remember what it was about.  Some greedy guy?  "You had me at hello"?  Which was just sooo corny to me.

Pretty Woman.  I guess there is the knight on a white horse part.  And every girl dreams of being rescued by a rich, handsome man.  But still... I just don't think the movie is "all that".

Dirty Dancing.  The only good part in the whole movie is when whats-his-face says "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."  And then they dance.  The rest?  Gag.  A bratty girl defying her parents and sleeping with a gigalo who is on a mission to help his friend get an abortion?  Whatever.

Wow.  This post seems kinda snarky.  Sorry about that.  It's hot.

weather report

Ok, I know some of you are sweltering.  But here, now, at 3:50 PM, it is 68 degrees.  And thats only because it warmed up!  Earlier today it was just downright cold.  I keep opening the windows when I get up and then our furnace turns on.  Every day except yesterday.  For some reason yesterday was 93 degrees.  But the day before it was 70-ish, and the day before that.  And so on.  It looks like it will be in the 80's Friday through Monday, but who knows.  

weather report

Is the first day of March all that counts toward the "In like a lamb" thing? Because it was totally lambish yesterday. In the 60's, no wind, gorgeous, gorgeous day. But today is definitely lionish.
This is the Colorado I love. Flip flops one day, snow boots the next!

melt down

Yesterday morning I awoke to a sky aflurry and aflutter with snow. The flakes were not so much coming down as they were coming straight at us. The north side of my house and the north facing stoplights, were covered with snow. The stoplights made for some interesting driving.
We had perhaps four or five inches. It's hard to tell when it is drifted so much. The kids had a grand time in it yesterday and are out there as I type in fact. The dog didn't so much like the windy, cloudy coldness of yesterday, but had a grand time in the snow today in the sunshine. I had numb toes and nose, but she rolled around in it like it was the best thing ever.
I do love me some snow. I love me lots of snow. So I am happy, but I am happiest inside looking outside at it.
(PS that is a stock photo, not mine)