Just to Say Hi!

It’s Monday! And I haven’t written on my blog for an entire week, which is unusual for me. So I thought I’d start by saying ‘hi!’ 🙂 and catching you up on my news.

WRITING: For the contest I entered, called Pitch Madness, where you submit a 35-word pitch, along with the first 250 words  of your manuscript, I didn’t make the first cut. They chose 68 people out of 915. After reading the winners, I am not surprised. Most of them were Middle Grade or Young Adult, and nearly all were fantasy or some such thing. Mine is a romance! How can I compete with people who start their books with things like “I never knew being dead would be an improvement.” (paraphrased)? Mine is a happily-ever-after!

So! I’m on to the second part of the contest where I am allowed to tweet 24 pitches of my book on March 11 to a specific hashtag and the agents will scour twitter to see if there are any manuscripts they would like to see. Who knows? There are definitely agents looking for the Romance genre, and it might be mine.

I had to start over with recording my memoir. I could have hired a company to do it for me and split the royalties with them, which would have been WAY easier. But I figured that most people will want to hear my voice telling my own story. Anyway, you could hear me turning the pages in the first recording, so I have to start from scratch reading from my Kindle. (duh). But it’s not such a bad thing because I’m starting to get the hang of it and to sound more normal.

BLOGGING: Alright so my manuscript didn’t get chosen, but I did make the final rounds for the Bloggies. It’s a web award for bloggers that has been around almost since the beginning of blogging – one that I think no one really knows about except bloggers (and not even all of them).

Anyway, I’m in the finals for the Best European blog for 2015 and could really use your votes if you don’t mind. (My dear friend Alison at Writing, Wishing is up for the best Asian blog, and Casey at Life With Roozle is up for the best LGBT blog. Those are my only friends on the list, and so therefore the only recommendations I can make, but if you could vote for us HERE that would be fabulous!)

Otherwise, in blogging news, I started a Christian Women Blogging Group on Facebook for people who blog at least some of the time about faith. I run that along with two friends – Andrea and Christine – and if that fits your bill, sent a request to join!

This week I plan to post a recipe for gluten-free madeleines (which are really yummy) and show off a gorgeous Jord wood watch that I received.

CHURCH STUFF: The comic skit we’re working on for Women’s Day here in Paris (that I blogged about last week) is coming along. There were lots of giggles from those of us participating when we rehearsed on Sunday. It’s fun when grown women can be silly.

Otherwise, the stress of writing deadlines, organising this skit, hosting my nephews, preparing for my French citizenship … (I have to take a 2 hour written French test, which I’m probably going to have to study for!) and the just all-around life craziness has sort of set me over the edge. I wasn’t listening to the communion message on Sunday because I was thinking bitterly about how a certain person wasn’t doing a certain thing and if only they were more responsible like MEEEEEEE … (what. am I the only one who thinks like this?).

Anyway, I finally snapped to attention and realised that the communion scripture was about the Pharisee and the tax collector (the first one says, thank God I’m not like these other people. I pray, I fast 2x a week, I give 10% to the poor, etc. and then the other doesn’t even dare to lift his eyes to God but says have mercy on me a sinner). I was like … oh. I sound a lot like that first guy.

Oops.

Ahem.

So the fine-tune workings of my heart are a work-in-progress.

FAMILY STUFF: I rarely post things about my kids, but I thought I would tell you something I love about each one.

Juliet. She will be 11 soon.

I once told her that when I ask her to do something she should simply say, “Yes mom” instead of grumbling and protesting and complaining. And after one reminder, that is exactly what she does each and every time. I told her how much that melts my heart when she dos that. I know she’s going to be a teenager soon, but if we can keep our peaceful relationship as long as possible, I will be thrilled. She’s beautiful, and she has a soft heart, and she’s so funny. Her facial expressions and the way her mind works makes me laugh.

Gabriel. He recently turned 9.

I often marvel at my son because he is so assiduous. Every project he does, he throws his whole heart into it, whether it’s schoolwork or putting on a play with his sister. And he’s really good at his studies and at trumpet. He’s whipping through the material in his 2nd year trumpet book and I had to buy the 3d year book in advance so he can start that. He was also made 1st trumpet in the brass ensemble when it’s only his second year. But I think it’s his heart to do everything well that I love and admire – he’s so different than me (well, at least as far as schoolwork and cleaning is concerned). He wants to be a philanthropist when he grows up.

William. He’s 6.

I was worried for William to start elementary school because he was born in November so is almost a full year younger than many of his classmates. And then, of course, since he’s the youngest, he gets lots of cuddles and could very easily remain in his role of the baby of the family. That’s why I was so surprised at how diligent he is in learning to read. He loves to impress me by reminding me he has homework, pulling out his reader, and then rolling those Rs. And this kid is funny too. When he’s not coming for a cuddle, he’s cracking a joke. Life with him is never dull.

 So that’s kind of it as far as news goes. Just wanted to say hi, you know? What’s going on with you?

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