Hi everybody; I hope you're having a good weekend. My wrist has been hurting a bit from typing a lot at work last week, so this entry will just be a rundown of "what's going on" in my corner of the world.

I got my first newsletter for the Mystery Readers and Working Writer's Newsletter turned in, and that's supposed to be out on the 26th. I'm looking forward to it. I've always wanted to have a regular piece somewhere so this is a dream come true for me. I've also been invited to contribute a story toward an anthology that's being proposed for publication, and I have some fiction story ideas buzzing around in the old grey matter. We'll see what develops. Lots of potential and I'm trying to pull the pieces together to turn some of it into reality.

I finally got back into reading and resumed Inheritance, by Christopher Paolini. I'm about halfway through it and I tell you, it's a great book. I start reading and have to tear myself away to stop! I love it and it's interesting to see how this series ends. Only thing is, I believe it's a bit too violent to be classified as "Young Adult." (I thought the same about Brisinger.) But a good book is a good book. I suspect that this may be the last hardback that I read for a while. I've been reading more e-books lately and now that I have an iPhone I suspect that my e-shelf will continue to expand. Especially since I have the phone with me all the time and it will just be easier to have my library on that device.

I've recovered from my illness a couple of weeks ago and Rick is also recovering. He still has down spells - of course, he got a lot sicker than I did - but we are recovering. That's good news.

The SC Republican Primary is today and we did get out and vote, despite the rain. We believe it's important to vote. It's a privledge of democracy that we intend to use! It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

That's all for this time. Not much, but that's ok. Sometimes plugging along is just fine and dandy. Today it is for me, at least.

Take care. More later.

Bye!

Well, as irony would have it; it seems Rick's illness had a viral component that brought it out and I caught it yesterday. After a weekend with both of us sick, I realized that there are two rules for dealing with someone who's sick:

1. Never try to force feed them, especially if it has a gastrointestinal base. Believe me, whatever you fear might happen from not eating will be nothing compared to what will happen if you force them to eat; and

2. Don't pepper them with a million questions. People in general are too addicted to asking questions. Please please please - limit the questions as much as possible. You'd be surprised at how much you can discover for yourself if you put your brain on things for 5 minutes. In fact, this is a good overall rule even when everybody is perfectly healthy.

That being said, I will warn you that there is a virus going around and it's absolutely VICIOUS. Neither of us has been this sick in a very long time. We're healing, albeit slowly. This is definitely one that we (and our septic system) will remember for a long time.

Take care all, and take precautions. I know it's winter and illness is lurking but the proper precautions can save your grief. Wash hands, clean up, flu shots, and etc.

More later. Bye!

Have you ever had one of those days when you're trying so hard to keep it together, but everything seems to keep chipping away at you? Today's been that day for me. Woke up early this morning to find Rick desperately ill. Long story short, we were at doctor's offices from 8:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. having tests run to find he has diverticulitis. They put him on medication, but he feels terrible and is very weak. If it's anything like that stomach infection I had 5 years ago, I completely understand. That was the most pain I'd ever been in, and it seemed to go on forever. It was really 2 months, but that's a long convalence. And believe me, to this day I thank God for every meal I eat pain free, without getting sick immediately after. My gratitude over the ability to eat without hurting will never end.

I got back from the doctor to find a letter from the lady that's been doing my hair since I was 16 saying she's retiring at the end of March. I suspected this was coming, but I didn't feel it would be right to leave someone that's done my hair for half my life over a gut feeling that she was going to be gone one day. So I decided that I'd deal with it when the time came. Well, it's here. I was thinking about growing my hair out a little anyway, and I think this is a sign that it's time to do it. We have a Cost Cutters nearby that I can go to once I'm ready to say it's long enough and start maintaining it again.

So my nerves were frayed when I went out a little while ago to get Rick's medication and the food the doctor recommended for him over the weekend. The pharmacy was very nice and understanding, but the grocery store was another issue. A woman accosted me to take a free newspaper the  minute I walked in the door. I mean, she latched on and wouldn't shut up! I finally told her I had no need for a paper and walked off. It was really hard to tell her it's only good for bird poop around my house and I'd be glad to demonstrate by shoving that paper she kept waving in my face someplace to demonstrate how newspapers are used in my home. But I remembered that you really need to be nice, and times when you're frayed are especially important. Annoying as she was, it wouldn't have been right to take my hell of a day out on her. But gosh, she sure made herself a prime target!

Ironically, I had hoped to potentially dig for some short story ideas today but that's not gonna happen. I did a few promotional things, though. For example, I need to verify this blog with Technorati, and to do that I need to put a validation code in this post. So here it is for them: MRV3RHK2K9GC . Here's hoping this works and helps!

Well, I finished another blog series. I've been thinking about what to do next here. I don't want to do another series; not now anyway. I think I'd like to keep it free and kind of random for now. That's ok. Flexibility is good, and I think readers want to be surprised by what they'll find every now and then.

That's all for today. Here's hoping things improve. Take care and I'll see you later.

Bye!

Hi folks; I hope you're doing well and having a great weekend. It's been ok. Rick and I have had colds this past week, and it seemed to be at it's worst for me Friday and yesterday. Thankfully, I am feeling better today. Mom will be relieved. The big Holiday Craft Show that we go to every year is Friday (November 4th) and she was afraid I would be sick. But no worries because I seem to be getting better.

The short story project is going well. Wow, I didn't realize how far off I was on that one! I was treating short stories basically as one act novels, but they really are their own unique creation. I think I better understand the basic elements and the importance of capturing emotion in that format now. Basically, I was simplifying it way too much. Just because they're shorter and simpler than novels doesn't mean they require less work. The work may take less time, but they need the same type of planning, investment and respect as novels do. Eventually I do plan to bring  back the "Short Story" tab to this website, but obviously I want to work on this more to make sure I bring you quality content.

I did have a bit of success today. My paragraph was featured at Paragraph Planet today! You can check it out at www.paragraphplanet.com ! (You'll have to check the archive to see it after today).

In other news, Mt. Tabor had their big Reformation Sunday/125 year celebration service today. Reformation Sunday is a big deal in the Lutheran Church. It's the celebration of when Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the doors of the church at Wittenburg (it was actually October 31, but we celebrate on the closest Sunday). And a little thing called the printing press gave it to the masses. We should hope that e-publishing has an equally significant impact on society. I'm all about power to the people, and I hope e-books bring independent authors to the forefront of the writing business and allow readers to see that they DO have other choices besides what the bookstores and bigwig publishers force feed them.

Wow, I got a wee bit off topic there. Well, consider it my "I hope e-publishing allows independent authors to take over the publishing industry" speech for the day.

But anyway ... our church also celebrated 125 years in the community. My great great grandfather was the
first pastor. If he could see it now - well, he'd meet me and say it's probably a good thing they invented better over the counter headache medication. And wonder if they'd ever find a name for whatever's up with me. Not yet, so far.

I had to winterize my roses yesterday. Yep, we had our first frost last night, so I had to go out there and trim off all the growth - so the 2011 growing season is officially over. It's always kind of sad to do that. I have the last bloom of the season in a bud vase on my computer counter in the kitchen. It's a red rose - my favorite. They did really well this summer (despite the searing heat), and I pray they make it through the winter to have  another great growing season in 2012.

So the end of growing season means more time for indoor activities. Tonight, we're going to watch Captain America - The First Avenger. We never made it to the theater to see this one. In fact, we haven't been to the movies since we saw Harry Potter in August. Oh well. Netflix sent Captain America yesterday so we're going to watch it tonight. Then - I don't know. There are short stories, of course, and reading, and  I do have a couple of small
cross stitch kits in my bag. We'll see. No NaNoWriMo for me this year (National Novel Writing Month). I enjoyed it last year and am kind of bummed, but frankly I've got nothing in the way of ideas for novels now. Well, the focus is on short stories now anyway so it's ok. I would like to participate again sometime, though, but it won't be this year.

I can't believe Halloween is tomorrow, but alas, it is! We don't get trick-or-treaters out here in the woods, so I guess it will be watching Halloween again. I like the original with Jamie Lee Curtis better than the remake. Not that there's anything wrong with the remake. I just prefer the original.

That's it for now. Mindless rambling and dribble. I hope you've had a great weekend and that your week starts off well tomorrow. Take care and I'll see you later.

Bye! 

Rick and I visited a friend from church yesterday that's in a nursing home. She has cancer. It's spread from her lungs to her brain, and the prognosis isn't good - in fact, her life expectancy is in terms of weeks. This is the third person I've known to have cancer in the past couple of years, and honestly I hope it's the last. It's so hard to get inside peoples' suffering like that - not only theirs, but their families and friends as well. It's tough on everybody.

If there's one thing that I've learned through seeing three people fight this battle, it's that you have to enjoy life. It's not just the big things, like health, family, home and relationships either. It's also the small things. Like weekends, good books, free time, going to the movies, a good song on the radio, purple nail polish, and red roses. Very often, it's the small things that really bring joy. You have to learn to find that joy and to embrace it.

It just makes me sick to see so many people walking around, taking things for granted. If they saw what we saw last night, and considered that this could be the fate of so many of us, I'd think they would slow down long enough to quit griping about all that's wrong and appreciating all that's right. This world is screwed up, but  God's still in it, and there's plenty of blessings to enjoy.

I often lament my busy lifestyle, but I'm wise enough to see that it's the result of great blessings, and they are blessings that I am thankful for all the time.

Yes, there are plenty of problems. Life isn't always sunshine and rainbows. Turning on the TV or logging on the Internet can tell you that. So many people have that 20/20 vision for problems, but they don't have that kind of clarity to see what's right. And that's why there's so much depression and violence in our society. We're too fixated on what's wrong. We need to change that focus and see what's right. There are so many blessings right under our noses.

If you got up this morning and felt good enough to get out of bed and do 1 thing, you're blessed. If you had breaksfast, that's 2 blessings. Start counting your blessings there.

Maybe if we switched our focus from the bad to the good, we'd find a new perspective. Maybe we'd find solutions to some of these problems. Maybe we'd find that some things we see as problems aren't really problems at all. I would love to challenge people to trade in their griping for gratitude for just an hour.

It's something to think about. And with that, I will be off. I hope the rest of your weekend goes well.

Bye!

I thought I was having a great week until I got knocked flat on my rear with a sinus infection today. I guess that cold really didn't go away, eh? Back on antibiotics. Ugh. At least I should get better now. I think I caught this one early.

I got my first round edits on Blurry yesterday and started going through them today. It wasn't the nightmare I anticipated, but I felt sheepish nonetheless. Man, my grammar is terrible. I really thought I went through that manuscript with a fine tooth comb before I sent it off, but egads. I have comma and capitalization issues, as in I don't use enough commas and I capitalize too much. I am learning. But really, I am glad for the feedback. It is making the manuscript better. I bristled a bit at the use of the word "whom" in a young adult novel, but I don't think I'm going to the mat for that one. It's not that big a deal and it only popped up twice so far.

A strange thing is happening these days. People from my past are popping back up. Not that it's a bad thing or that anybody I didn't want came wandering by, but it just seems odd that it should happen so often in such a short period of time. Last week, I ran into somebody I went to high school with, and Rick ran into somebody I went to college with. This week my cousin and an old friend from high school band found me on Facebook, and Rick saw my old boss. It's good to see and hear from them. It's just odd that it's all happening around the same time. Eh, who knows. Life is strange, right? It's all good. I'll keep rollin and they'll see that I'm still weird. Yea, they might find a name for what's wrong with me yet!

I'm trying to build up things over at Twitter. It's moving at about the same pace that building myself up on Facebook did, so that's ok. By the way, let me know if you're on Twitter and I'll be glad to follow you. I'm on there as SherritheWriter. I think I must have the worst online alias ever. But it's honest and simple. I'm Sherri, and I'm a writer. Makes sense, even if it isn't flashy or snappy.

Wow, the birds in a mood. I think my sick day threw them off. I spent some time explaining to Zack and Chloe that biting human fingers isn't considered a delicacy in any country on earth, and Ollie got fussy this afternoon. They rarely get like this. I must have really busted up some big birdy plans today. Sorry guys!

That's all for now. I hope you're having a good week. Happy Friday tomorrow and I'll see you later.

Bye!