Catching up

It's been a whirlwind the last two and a half months. Since May ....

• College Girl graduated from college.
• DS applied for and has been accepted at college (he starts locally next week).
• I planned not one, but TWO, surprise birthday parties for my brother; one in Las Vegas, one at his home. This absorbed a lot of my life in May & June, but we pulled it off and everyone had a GREAT time.
  
• DH & I took the fam on a "graduation celebration" cruise with friends and family in the Western Caribbean. This involved driving down to Galveston, jumping on the ship for a week and driving back.
• I stopped in Fort Worth on the return trip to spend a few days with my 93 year old grandmother who had broken her shoulder right before we left on the cruise. I ended up staying about 10 days. It's true what they say about people of that age, do not let them break a bone. They stuck this very active woman into bed which caused complications and infections and eventually pneumonia. Sadly, we lost her on August 3rd. Gratefully, though, she passed away peacefully. It's been difficult as she was such an active and vibrant woman and this was unexpected, even for someone 93 years old. As she told all of us, though, she'd been ready to go for two years but none of us would let her. We had many, many years with her, but I'm selfish, I would have liked a few more.
• School is already back in session, I'm already teaching again and trying not to panic that (no longer) College Girl is planning to move to New York in November. She also has an audition for a cruise ship the first week of September (which would be great), so please think good thoughts.
• Oh, in writing, regarding that Vampire story contest I mentioned in my last entry, I took second place. One of my prizes, the fiercely sought after Devil Duck, went on the cruise with us and had many great adventures. I will probably put together a journal for him just for the fun of it!
  

What's coming up ....

• Colorado Gold Conference, which is a writers' conference sponsored by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers (of which I'm a member and the newsletter editor). I have a pitch appointment with Raelene Gorlinsky of Ellora's Cave .... I'm excited and terrified. I will be pitching the mainstream rewrite of "Baby, oh Baby" (which I haven't settled on a final name for, since Baby is no longer the protagonist). It would be interesting if this turned out to be my first published work, as I only wrote it because I was so annoyed with bad paranormal pregnancy fics. *LOL* That appeals to my sense of the ironic. Wish me luck!
• The disappointment ... I didn't make the finals of the Colorado Gold new writers competition. It was a mainstream piece that really wasn't finished anyway, but still, it was disappointing. I'm waiting for the detailed critique, which I'm looking forward to. I know a lot of contests are subjective, and I'm sure this one is no different, but I just keep remembering I didn't get a role from every audition I've ever done either. My average was about 1 in 5. So, if that holds true, I'm just about due. :)
• I'm getting ready to set up lunch with a lot of local friends I haven't seen all summer, particularly my friend Jeanne Stein (whose second book, Blood Drive, second in her Anna Strong series, was a rousing success and the third in the series, The Watcher, will be coming out in November) who went to Comic-Con where she met her IDOL, Joss Whedon and was on a paranormal panel with Laurell K Hamilton and Majorie Liu. Very cool. I can't wait to hear all about it!

As for now, I have suitcases to take to the basement and a vegetable garden to look at before I settle in for some writing this afternoon. I looked at the calendar and realized in 6 weeks during summer (late June to the second week of August) I had been home a total of 9 days. ARGH! No wonder I feel like I'm behind in my life!