Platitudes, Schmatitudes

Unlike my darling critique partner, I don't need someone else creating annoying acronyms to keep me on track. I consider myself extremely lucky that i can announce that i just finished my WIP! Battle for Valhalla, an exciting urban fantasy about a kick-ass Valkyrie heroine, is now done. Woo hoo!

And, even better, the agent i met with in Dallas, at the RWA National Conference, emailed me and said "You have an interesting premise and some intriguing characters, and I’d love to see the complete manuscript." Pitching rocks, no matter what Sonja says.

Which means, of course, that Sonja now has to rework her priority list (I'm always throwing things out of whack) and make editing my most recent writing! And, of course, while she's doing that, I'll be relaxing in the south of France. Yep, that's right, I get to go on vacation. Lucky me!

Of course, not so lucky is the fact that as soon as I'm back, school starts. Anyone have any study tips? If you do, I'll send you a book. Yeah, that's right, I will. Not Sonja. She can't be the only one in this partnership giving away things (or paying for postage). So send me either a study tip or a horror story from school and Sonja will pick a winner and I'll send off a book. When I'm back from France, that is. :)

I'll actually have internet access in France, so you might even get a post from me. But don't hold your breath, since there is an awful lot of cheese and wine calling my name.

Should i rub it in some more? Or maybe i could create an acronym... SUCKS: Sonja Unfortunately Can't Kill Skye.

Don't worry, I'm not pregnant

Sonja announced that i have big news that i'm hiding from the world and i immediately went "What news?" but, yes, it's true, i do have news. But it's not wild and crazy, nor is it writing related, so i can counteract my tragic 12 hour rejection, but it's still fun and cool and i'm happy.

Craig and I are buying a house! Yes, that's right, we're finally growing up. :) We're trying to be all mature about it, but mostly we get all freaked out about paying that much money that we don't have, but really, the house is so fabulous, it'll be worth it. Hooray!

Here's a pretty pretty picture of the outside.



And yes, it's brand spanking new and they're finishing up the construction this week and the escrow should close at the end of August and then we'll be official adults. Homeowners, anyway.

So worry not. I'm baby free :)

A Hairy Weekend

It's my turn to post again, but I was just giving you all some time to mull over whether you want to leave a comment on Skye's post and win some stuff. So I'm giving you an extension. You have, like, another 2 days to scroll down and leave a comment on her post and win an unnamed (but totally awesome) prize. Do eet.

I have nothing exciting to share with you besides the fact that I dyed my hair. In fact, I don't even think I've told Skye about this yet. Whoops. Well, we'll call it even since she's been withholding big important pieces of news from me too. Because my hair is totally big important news.

Anyway, the change-my-hair bug bit me on Friday night. I looked through my "emergency" stash of hair dyes and found a lovely midnight black and an equally lovely platinum blonde. The platinum blonde I'd never attempted before because my hair is naturally dark and platinum blonde usually turns puke orange on my head. But, somehow, I convinced myself that this time, it would be different, and I was going to do a strip of blonde in front a la Rogue from X-Men and the rest in black. I was very professional about it. I used foil and everything.

The professionalism wore off a little when the peroxide sort of oozed into my eyeballs in the shower and I screamed, "Oh my god it burns!" I don't imagine professionals do that too often. Still, I soldiered on. By the paltry light of nighttime, it didn't look too bad.

By the illuminating light of morning, my poor retinas screamed again, this time in fear. What had I done? The funkadellic streak I'd been going for was, in fact, white at the roots and pink everywhere else. Jeez. Not only that, but I'd managed to miss large swaths of hair with the black dye, so I had a pink and white strip in front and chunks of black and chunks of faded red in the back. I cried. A lot. And then put on a hat and went to the store to buy another box of midnight black.

Saturday night, I dyed my whole head midnight black, hoping to correct the pink strips and the red chunks. It's slightly better now, but there was an unintended side effect: The blue undertones of the black hair dye show up a LOT on the parts of my roots that turned white from the platinum blonde dye. So now my hair is mostly black... with navy blue strips in front.

I give up though. Funkadellic blue strips it will be. (Thankfully, you can't see the blue too much in this picture. Hopefully that's what it really does look like and not the electric blue I imagine it to be. Although my boss said to me this morning, "Your hair is less blue today." Um. Thank you?)

Make me feel better: Tell me your worst hair disaster story and be entered in the running for The Shoe Queen by Anna Davis.

Sonja is so right...

I admit it. My plan is in fact to be published with my monster of a book and gloat about it endlessly. Failing that, I'll just cry myself to sleep every night. But such is life.

Actually, to be honest, Sonja's fabulous success has inspired me to begin working on my book again... so i've dredged up the many edits that Sonja gave me for Misdirection that i totally ignored and am currently wasting work paper to print out my novel and begin editing (again). No, really this time. :)

At any rate, this is Skye, popping in to say howdy, before I leave again. I'm back from one trip, but am leaving for another. Ah, the life of an unemployed writer is just so tough. But on this trip I will be taking along my edits and will theoretically be working on them. Just you wait, I'll be published yet. But while I will gloat about being published, I will still give all credit to Sonja for being published first. And even though she's too good to talk to me nowadays that she's published, I still love her. :)

I'm so proud!

I could just bust my buttons! I mean, my nearest and dearest buddy is doing what we writers all dream of... getting money! :) Just kidding, getting published. Which is freaking awesome.

I am, also, consumed with jealousy. So, here's to Sonja, a genius in her own right, whom I will never speak to again.

I'm going to go ahead and take a little bit of credit here too, because I was the one who told her about The Wild Rose Press, since I submitted to them many moons ago, and in fact, received a request for a full, which I never ACTUALLY sent in. So really, it's my own fault. But still, i get minor props for telling Sonja about the genius company that was smart enough to publish her.

Well, I'm still on the road, so my posts will continue to be scarce. Oh yeah, and the fact that I'm no longer talking to Sonja...

News!

In Skye's absence, I get to run around screaming, "I have news!" Only it's more like, "I have nyoooooooze!" because I'm super duper excited. Head on over to my blog and check it out! Thanks!