Oh, how we love Marfa.

Barbara Kingsolver says,

"Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer."

I needed to hear that. I also needed to clean and organize our spare room so that it's a space I want to write in. So that I'm surrounded by things that inspire me, but also so that the clutter is gone. Maybe fung shui is real. Who am I to argue with the Ming dynasty? The room feels better to be in--that's all I know.

I also posted all my rejection letters from agents on one wall. I could only find eleven of them, and I know I should have at least twenty, but it's a good start. And in my defense, a couple of them aren't rejection letters--they are requests for partials or my entire ms, even though in the end they were rejections. But I digress.

I walk into the room now and I want to do just what Barbara Kingsolver says. Close the door. Write...

The Kardashians have moved into our laundry room.

No, not THOSE Kardashians. I'm talking about my new family of red wigglers, the tiny worms that are hard at work in my new vermicomposting bin.


Now, we'll be able to recycle all of our fruit and veggie scraps, as well as tea and coffee grounds, eggshells, egg cartons, stale bread, old copies of the Chronicle, tons of stuff. The Kardashians will change it from trash into the best plant food that you can find anywhere.
I learned all about vermicomposting, and lots of other cool stuff at a training I went to this week through the
Sustainable Food Center of Austin. We spent time helping at a local farm, built and planted some additional raised beds at our school garden, and learned about local programs that educate teachers, students, and parents to make the planet a nicer place.
And right now, our home is a nicer place thanks to the Kardashians!

C'mon, the only other families I could think of were the Rockefellers, the Clown-Arounds, the Munsters and the Jacksons.

In case you haven't heard Nathan and me talking like little kids on Christmas lately, we finally got a Wii.

We've also gotten, shall I say, a tad carried away with creating Miis, which are the animated characters you can create, name and play with on all the games.
Then, last night we had the best time making our little Miis play baseball with each other.
Here is the breakout of teams:

Team Rosie:
Rosie (pitcher)
Amy
Tori
Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Bjork
Kurt Cobain
Pootie (who is one fierce trollop)
John Goodman
Mia Michaels

Team Jesus:
Jesus (pitcher)
Nathan
Ellen
Mary Murphy
Nigel
Barbara
Joy
Whoopi
Elizabeth

It was hysterical watching Tori catch fly-balls from Ellen, Jesus pitch to John Goodman, and Whoopie hit foul balls into the crowd.
Just picture it for a minute. So, so awesomely great.

Also, as soon as we get another nunchuk, we'll be able to box with two people, and then we can have a celebrity deathmatch between Rosie and Elizabeth. Stay tuned...
I'm putting my money on Rosie.

Is there really anything to complain about when you lose weight?

Yes, actually.
I'm now too thin for my fat pants, but too big for my skinny pants.
What in the blazes did I wear when I was in the middle last time?

Summer is here again.

For most people who live in Texas, that's not such a great thing.
For teachers who live in Texas (or anywhere else for that matter), it's a glorious thing.

This year's annual summer playlist is already concocted and ready to be shared. Let me know if you'd like a copy. Making summer mixtapes is one of my rituals, and I sort of wish it was a ritual for everyone, because how great would that be? And you guys all know that when I say mixtape, I really mean mixCD, right? It's just so much cooler and nostalgic to say mixtape. I think I still have some of favorite old mixtapes in a dusty box in the top of my closet. The one from my best friend, Amber, in 7th grade that was full of Suzanne Vega, Morrisey, and was my first introduction to Tori. The one from one of my high school boyfriends, Zach, that showcased early Oasis, Pavement, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and the first song on both sides was our song, Hold My Hand, by Hootie and the Blowfish. Which one of the mixtapes would you say was cooler? To find the answer, stay tuned until the end of this post.

I also have lost a total of 5 pounds on our new Abs-Diet-workout-5-days-a-week-alternating-cardio-and-weights-Diet/Intervention Plan. I pulled out three of my favorite old skirts that I can no longer wear appropriately in public as motivation. My goal is to be able to wear them on our trip to Marfa for our anniversary.

In other news, we start our ballroom dancing class on Thursday. I absolutely can't wait. We may get there and find the only other people in the class are our friends who we convinced to sign up, but that would still be great.

The answer is A, the coolest mixtape was the one from my best friend in 7th grade, Amber. Because even though it did have Primus, it also had the live version of Somebody by Depeche Mode, and that makes it infinitely cooler.

I should probably blog.

It's been a while.
But all I'm doing at the moment is working six days a week,
trying to say "yes" to weight training and cardio and "no" to junk food,
going to bed before 10 on a regular basis because of allergies or exhaustion,
and trying to bring myself to face rewriting the end of my book.
Again.
So when you put all that together, it's not so much fun.
And not so much the stuff of great blogs.
I'm sure you understand.

Another rejection in the mail today. And I quote Albert Einstein,

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

In other news, I only have six more days of school until vacation, and I plan to:
1. Sleep in until a ridiculously late, ungodly hour.
2. Work on my writing at the coffee shop.
3. Watch a marathon of the latest season of Gilmore Girls on DVD. Shut up! I dare you to watch ONE episode and not be totally hooked. They're like crack. With fewer side-effects.
4. Knit a gorgeous scarf.
5. Finish reading Cold Sassy Tree.

In that order.
Well, there's a good chance that I'll knit while watching Gilmore Girls. So combine those.
Oh yeah. I'm almost thirty. How did that happen?

I have a new Getting Published Theme Song.

After yet another rejection from yet another agent, I've decided to change my Getting Published Theme Song.

Previously, my theme song was "Take a Chance on Me" by ABBA.

(shown here in its original glory)


My new Getting Published Theme Song is.....drumrolllllllll......"I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" by Diana Ross and the Supremes!
Fitting, no?

(live performance here with Ms. Ross and Stevie Wonder as a youngin.)

I don't know if any other writers have had luck with theme songs per se, but I really think having one is helpful for me. That way I can play it in my car and sing it to myself when I feel discouraged. I mean, I had a Teacher Survival Theme Song about six years ago, which was "Surviver" by Destiny's Child and it basically kept me from quitting. So, I think theme songs are important. I'd recommend getting one, if you don't already have one.

If you happen to pick the song "When I See You Smile," I'd recommend this version.


Not this one.

Writing news

So, two things are going on in my writing life.

1. I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month which has been really good. I'm only up to 8000 right now, and the big goal is 50,000 words, but I'm writing Young Adult, which is usually shorter. Also, keep in mind that my last book took three and a half years to write. When you look at it that way, I'm doing really well! This is my author's profile page if you want to take a peek at an excerpt, my other writing friends, etc.

2. Since hearing "no thank you" from the last promising agent, I revised my query letter and sent out a batch of ten cold queries. This time I targeted agents who specialize in YA. (The last batch was mainly the agents I met at the writers' conference last summer.) So far, I've heard back from five. Three said, "Not for us." One wanted the first 30 pages. And one wanted the entire ms, which is super-flattering, although at this point, it doesn't guarantee anything. I revised the whole thing (yet again) and dropped it in the mail today.

So far, my total record for ms requests is 4 for 15. Not too shabby.

I've come to a crucial decision.

When I become a best-selling author, and Nathan and I buy the house of our dreams, it's going to have a self-cleaning kitchen.

If self-cleaning kitchens aren't available and/or invented at that time, I may have to personally contact the United States Patent Office. I mean, this is a great idea. And anyway, they had one on the Jetsons.


I think if you have a really good contractor, he/she should be able to modify a kitchen such as this one into a self-cleaning kitchen, no problem. Minus the wicker chairs, obviously.

Towanda! Righter of wrongs! Queen beyond compare!

Fried Green Tomatoes was on Lifetime tonight.
Still no lit agent.
And Nathan wants to drop cable and get a mac tv.
But here's the problem. If we did that, I wouldn't know what new shows to watch.

So it's been awhile since my last post.

Sorry about that, but I have some good excuses. Well, sort of.

1. I just got a new position for the fall. I'm going to be the Language Arts Instructional Specialist at my school. Most middle schools and high schools have instructional specialists for both English and Math. In some places, they're called instructional coaches, or curriculum specialists, or maybe something else I don't know about. What it really means is that I won't have regular classes, but I'll be supporting all the other language arts teachers with their lessons and planning and so on. I'm anticipating days full of meetings and observations, but I'm excited about the challenge. It's also considered a promotion, and the recognition feels really nice.

2. I'm still waiting to hear back from the literary agent in NY. By tomorrow, they should have had my MS for five weeks, so it's getting close to the point that I'll hear back. Every day I get a rush of adrenaline as I walk to the mailbox, and every day I feel disappointed as I open it to find crappy catalogs, bills and credit card offers. Sometimes I even check the mail twice a day, just in case. I'm not so good at waiting.

3. We took a break from marathons of Meerkat Manor and went to the Alamo on Friday night to see the new Die Hard movie. I had never seen any of them (although now I have!) and it was fantastically fun. I highly recommend it. Yippie-ki-yay!

4. I'm already back to school, even though it's not August yet. Last week I had meetings and planning sessions. Starting tomorrow I'm helping with a two-week transition camp for incoming 6th graders. The kids will probably be really little and cute. I sort of wish they could stay that way....

5. I've gotten my YouTube fix lately, and in the meantime, discovered that America loves two things: Star Wars



and Legos.


And...Star Wars and Legos together.

Tennis, anyone?

Sometimes Nathan and I get these crazy ideas. Like that time we decided to buy a toy $20 cotton-candy maker from Walgreens, and it sort of worked one time, before it burned out.

Our new thing is tennis. Yes, tennis. (This may have come from Nathan watching some Wimbledon while we were at my parents' house over the fourth, but I'm not sure.) Also, the pool at our apartments is closed for renovations, so we can't work out by swimming. Great timing, guys! But I digress.

So we talked about it, got all excited, bought racquets and balls at Target, and then went with Jenny and Stace to play doubles. Apparently there are tennis courts at this park right behind our apartment. Who knew?

I am happy to report that even though I'm currently one step above sucking, I really, really like tennis. I like a sport! With the exemption of skiing, I've never been very athletic, but I am super competitive, as many of you know. So that's working in my favor as I try to improve. Today Stacy and I went in the late morning to play, and she helped me correct the way I swing my racquet. The other great thing is that even if you have to chase a tennis ball around, you're STILL buring calories. Nice!

Right now someone in New York is reading my manuscript.

Okay, maybe not right at this very second.

But there's a good chance.

And all this excitment and nervousness is giving me acid reflux in the meantime.

Big News for Violet

I've been waiting patiently (okay, not so patiently) for a response from a New York literary agency. I won't say the name of the agency, because I don't want to jinx myself. If you're curious enough, you can look at previous posts and follow the clues. Which could be a really fun game if you don't have anything better to do. Anyway, they asked for the first twenty pages after I sent them a cold query a while back.

So....I just got their response, and as I pulled the envelope out of our mailbox, it was exactly like a movie, with that whole shaft of light shining down from heaven thing, along with the angelic voices raised together, just like in the Disney cartoon of the Sword and the Stone, or in Ghost, when Patrick Swayze decides to stay on Earth to be with Demi even though their chances for sexy pottery scenes are slim to none at that point. Him being a ghost and all.

Fast forward to the important bits: "If you have not already secured representation, we would be pleased to consider your entire manuscript. Please mail it to the address above and again, please mark the envelope 'Requested Materials.' We look forward to receiving your entire manuscript."

Yay! Double yay! I'm sending it by Monday at the latest, after I take another look at the whole thing. Keep your fingers crossed for Violet! And for me.

Memorial Day Movie Marathon

To celebrate the holiday and the new DVD player, we had a movie marathon today. We only had one criteria for film selections: Must be a movie that either Nathan or I, or both haven't already seen.

The movies we've seen so far today:
1. Shaun of the Dead (selection inspired by Hot Fuzz)
2. My Super Ex-Girlfriend (last minute selection inspired by rent-one, get-one-free night)
3. The Queen (we already had this little gem from netflix)
4. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (Hello! I knew only a fraction of this story, and it's craaaaazzzzy.)
5. Curse of the Golden Flower (Chinese fighting movie, which inspired our Chinese food delivery)
6. Steel Magnolias (inspired by the fact that NO, I've never seen it. I HAVE seen the play at a dinner theater, and the whole thing takes place in a beauty shop, but unfortunately the one I saw didn't feature Dolly Parton and Darryl Hannah.)
Hopefully we will have time for:
7. Bobby
And to watch this week while Nathan is at work:
8. Gilmore Girls Season 3

Summer is here! Well, basically here.

I have five days of school left, and after reading Erika's list of all the stuff she's looking forward to this summer, I had to post my list too.

1. I'm excited about working on my second book, and hearing back from agents on my first.

2. I'm excited about sleeping in. Ahhhh.

3. I'm excited about working on sewing with Jenny. I've always wanted to learn to sew, and Jenny was kind enough to offer to help me.

4. I'm excited about using the gazelle to workout while watching marathons of my favorite shows.

5. I'm excited about meeting Stacy at Epoch or Thunderbird Cafe during the day, and playing this awesome word game called Syzygy. Yes, it's a word game, and if I explain it to you, it won't sound fun. Stacy already agreed to play it with me, and I predict she kicks my you-know-what.

6. I'm excited about going to visit my parents for the 4th of July and the two things on the agenda: laying in the hammock and playing bocce ball.

7. I'm excited about swimming at our apartment pool, and even better--breaking out our pool toys from last year.

I had a relapse.

That's right. Tonight, I fell off the wagon and watched the final four perform on American Idol.
I broke up with Idol months ago, but tonight I was weak. I felt myself giving in, and I couldn't say no.

That, and the only other things on are Dateline, George Lopez, U.S. Poker, Tori and Dean: Inn Love, Cops, and Flavor of Love. I know what you're thinking. Why am I not watching Tori and Dean? Because that's hard-hitting, quality reality television. I know, I know. But it's a rerun and I've already seen it.

What to do if you still haven't heard back about a job you really, really want.

1. Unwrap four Dove dark chocolate pieces. Put in a ramekin.

2. Add a couple of spoonfuls of your favorite peanut butter.

3. Heat in fifteen-second intervals at 50% power in microwave. Stir between each fifteen-second interval.

4. When thoroughly melted, drizzle over a gigantic single scoop of Dreyer's Slow Churned Vanilla ice cream.

5. Ahhhhh. Job? What job?