#writemotivation Week 2 Update

*hangs head in shame*

I’ve been a bad little writer this week.  I haven’t touched my goals though the few things I have done are working toward two of the goals.  Honest!

Last week was also filled with appointments along with the normal Thursday fun-filled therapy sessions.  Between those and the heat, I felt wiped and not very inspired.

Colin had a visit with the surgeon who stitched up his foot.  There is a lot of what she calls isotropic growth, which means the scars building too much tissue and the oil rubbing isn’t helping as much as it should.  He has been prescribed a compression sock and massage therapy to help break up that excess tissue before it becomes permanent and affects the development of his foot and his walking/running later on.

Dave also had his doctor appointment the same day, after we sat at the place to get Colin fitted for the sock.  His went well.  He has maintained weight since the last visit which is good.  But, he has to talk to his other doctor to get the ball rolling for his gastric surgery and the options he has.

That was Monday.  On Tuesday, I went into the office and filled out the paperwork to get me listed on their payroll and went through a sample presentation.  There is a script I need to learn.  Only three paragraphs, to be honest, and the rest we can adjust to our own wording.  Also went over the rules and fun stuff.  All of that was being done while my laptop downloaded and installed the app which I’ll be using in the field and can customize to the people I’ll be talking with.

Wednesday, Colin has his first massage therapy session and we went over everything.  I was given instructions on how to use the stuff they gave us to work on his scars.  It’s barely been a week and we can see improvement already.

Thursday was normal, out all day with the normal therapy.  Friday, I was back at the office, Colin came with me because we had another appointment for him.  I didn’t get the script to go over on Tuesday and I forgot Wednesday until it was too late to catch anyone in the office.  Allison, one of the other agents, helped me out and gave a rough idea of what I’ll be doing over the next two weeks.

Everyone there is so nice and friendly.  They want to help all the newbies so they can succeed.  That vibe is just so strong there, I can’t help but to feel more confident in myself.

Anyway, on to what this post is about.  :D

Header image and thumbnail photograph by Hugh Lee and licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.http://www.flickr.com/photos/sahlgoode/

1) Focus on Black Friday 2. Get at least two chapters written.

Nothing new written, yet.  I’ve backtracked some to gather pertinent information about who the named characters are and when they entered the story.  I’m also making sure I know what the general make up of the current group is so I can keep things balanced when I bring in the next group.  There will be many more, enough to make the resort into a small community with others coming and going, possibly taking some of the group with them.

Where they are now and the need to keep warm will cause some problems eventually.  Fires cause smoke and someone is bound to notice a thin plume of smoke rising, or several plumes, before the weather turns warm.

2) Pass the second half of the State Exam.

Done, done, doooonnnne!

3)  Get at least 10K on a submission for the Dark Crystal prequel for a contest for Dark Crystal.

I haven’t written a single word on this, yet.  *sigh*  I know what I want to write but I just cannot come up with a way to start the stinkin’ story.

4) Exercise twice a week. (I mean it this time!)

So far, yes, this one has been achieved.

5) Work on revising and editing Black Friday, the original book. 

This one is occupying my time.  I am, more or less, rereading the story to make notes of not just the characters and who has a name and who doesn’t, but events that happen.  Some of the timing is off, in my opinion, and needs to be adjusted to feel more realistic.  I also want to make certain scene less obvious since, as they sit now, they aren’t really needed in the story, but other spots could use more attention; such as when the main characters are under attack early on, the first hunt and a bit more life event happening while Karina is raising Nick and the rest of her young.  There’s also other things which need some explaining and making the ‘other side’ have more of a presence instead of the few times they are given.  Really, the bad guys actively try to go after Karina’s people, which is another reason why they are dying out.

Really, if anyone has read the book, the final fight scene is just pure drivel.  It needs to be redone in a huge way.  I’ll excerpt that chapter out to anyone who wants to give it a look and offer advice.

In the work I have done, I can see some of the influences from my favorite and most read authors,  I spotted some Piers Anthony and Jean M. Auel, and even a flicker of Anne McCaffrey.

This week, I have a few posts to make; one book review and two more interviews.  I enjoyed the interview with Hanna Gray Gordon from the NaNo group and it took a while to come up with the questions.  I just may do others.  There’s four different blogs these posts go to, so there’s plenty of people to see them.

I hope your week has gone well!

Happy Father's Day and Stuff

As the title says, I give a warm and hearty Happy Father’s Day there to all the dads and the moms who are doing double duty because the dad isn’t there for some reason.  Alive or not, our dads deserve a little recognition for what they gave us, even if the most they didwas help give us life.

My father was a good father.  Sure, he was flawed in more ways than I care to admit, but he was there.  That’s the most I can say, too.  He was there during my youth; the big male presence to make my family look ‘normal’.  It wasn’t until later, when I became more independent, that he started having more of a presence in my life.

Dave, the father of my little boy, Colin, is the kind of father I wished I had.  He’s more than just there for our son.  He’s involved in his life, teaching him things that I just don’t have the knowledge.  Colin is almost permanently attached to Dave’s hip; wanting to cuddle with him, or lay on him when he’s tired or not feeling well.  He wants to do the things his daddy can do.

My oldest son, Adam, enjoys his father’s presence.  Though I think it’s his grandfather that has been more of a father to him.  Adam lives with his grandparents in Arkansas; doing what they want him to do.  I just hope he doesn’t become too dependent on them like his father is or things will be bad for him in the future.  But, he’s a strong young man with a mind of his own and a desire to keep conflict down to a minimum in his life.  Good thing he inherited my intellect and attitude (minus the sarcasm).

These three dads deserve a day of their own.  One of them gets to enjoy my cooking, no matter how strange some of it gets.  ;)

As for the Stuff part… I’m giving my week two update for #writemotivation today.  Just to keep things short and to the point, nothing has changed.

I spent last week studying for my state licensing exam for selling life and health insurance.  The good news is I did a lot better than the last time.  The bad news… well… I failed.  This time by a few questions.  For Licensing and state rules, regs, and statutes, I got a 68%, literally one question shy of a passing grade.  For the big test which covers underwriting, life and health products, provisions, riders and exclusions, Medicare and Long Term Care, I made a 61.4%.

So very close!!!  AAAUUUGH!!! /Charlie Brown  I sat and did the math and all I needed was five questions total to make a passing grade.  I need a 70% to pass on both.  This means that I will be rescheduling tomorrow during business hours for another exam.  I’m aiming for this coming Friday and I’ll be studying as hard as I can.  I NEED to pass this exam so I can start working again.  It seems all I can get into is insurance of some kind.

In the past two weeks I’ve had Heritage, Aflac, Farmers and others sending me emails (They’ve found my resume online from Monster) wanting to schedule interviews even though I don’t have anything related to insurance on my resume except for customer service expertise and some sales.  What management experience I have is over 5 years old now.  Ah well, at least they’ll be jobs.  Something I am in need of right now.

I love my family but I need to get out of the house before I go nuts.  >.<

Frantic Friday!

Instead of a Black Friday post, which, in another meaning of the phrase, this is definitely a Frantic Friday.  Well, I can honestly say, by the time of this post, this post can be classified as a Saturday post.  It has been one of those days all around and it started much the same as any other day.  Then... suddenly... BOOM!  Not in the good way, either.

What I'll be writing is more to keep things straight in my mind for future reference should I need to go to court over what has happened.  I'm sure I will, but knowing my son, he is as much at fault here, too.  He doesn't seem to understand that what his father and I tell him is good advice.

The day started normal with the usual yelling match to get him to get ready for school.  He's still grounded from watching his shows so he was upset, but he was still happy and willing to get off to school.  The day is good.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  No phone calls from the school.  ect, ect, ect... Ad nauseum.

I note the time at 2:23PM that we should expect him to come through the door from school and be ready to go play with his friends.  I was planning to have him help me clean out the car so we can get his grandmother too and from the place she's getting an oil change, new tires, wipers, and a few other things to prepare for our big trip to Arkansas for Adam's graduation. (He has grown up way to fast.)

About the time I was getting ready to gather things to clean the car, we get a phone call.  Someone named Mary Love.  I don't know who, but it could be about a job and it is local.  Instead, the call is about my son.  He was bitten by a dog and was bleeding badly.  She had already called 911 for an ambulance.  The fire truck arrived first for in case the dog was loose and trying to attack again.  I arrive on the scene when the fire truck was pulling in.  From there, it becomes chaos.

Colin is screaming, his foot hurt really bad.  While I tried to calm him down so the first responders can assess the damage and prepare for the ambulance, I learn who saved him.  A sweet older woman who lives in the duplexes near by and she happened to be close enough to yank him out of the dog's mouth before the animal could pull him through the hole in the fence.  Another of the dog's neighbors witnessed the saving, but didn't see what caused it to attack a child going by.

Let me state right here that my son is insanely curious and a lover of all animals.  He has been raised around cats and ferrets and has been around dogs under controlled circumstances.  He knows any of them could hurt him if he wasn't careful.  Considering we do have two cats, the dog could have smelled them on him.  Or, another child could have aggravated the dog and Colin was the one it saw.  Or, and I wouldn't put it pass him, Colin might have accidentally put the dog on guard and it attacked because of something he did.  All three fit the scenario.  But the kids who were gathered are all within the same grade level (3rd grade) and live either in our apartment complex or in the houses nearby.

Colin is ADHD and is impulsive as well as problems with defiance which is being treated through his therapy and the medication he's taking.  Who knows what is going through his mind at any particular moment unless he's sleeping or playing a game on the computer or his tablet.  The last he wanted to do was to make any animal mad enough to attack.

Until today, I had no idea this dog was there.  All I could see of it through the fence was a decent sized dog.  When it poked its head through the hole it tried to drag my son through, I could see that it had to be a Shephard mix.  The muzzle and shape of the face was that of a German Shepard.  Beautiful creature.  Still, it tasted blood and it could be even more dangerous now as a result.

Back to the subject:

When I saw his foot, there was a large section of skin pulled back on the top of his foot.  You could see the tendons clearly, ligaments, and muscle.  Of course, lots of blood, but not as much as I first feared.  He is very lucky that the major artery that runs across the top of the foot wasn't cut or nicked by those sharp teeth.  There are other lacerations across the top where his shoe gave way to the jaws but they weren't near as bad.  What I could see, there was still good color in his toes so no huge blood loss.  The rest we wouldn't know until later.  At the hospital. /cringe and shudder

No one can say Colin was difficult.  He knew what the medics were doing.  He answered their questions between shouts of pain.  He hurt very bad but kept his wits about him, even when they asked him about his favorite games and other questions to help distract him.  He is a little trooper and handled himself better than most adults in similar situations.

He made me very proud of him for his behavior and willingness to let strangers take care of his big owie.  :D  Even better, he gave Miss Love our number so we'd know what had happened.  We would have noticed within a few minutes regardless because he is very punctual coming home from school.

At the hospital, we learn the extent and it is decided quickly to operate.  Not just to sew up the skin, but to piece together the torn ligaments and tendons they could see.  That's when we learned how close the dog's teeth came to slicing open a major artery.  Hearing that didn't help me much at all.  I was shaking already.  That news made it worse.

Thankfully Dave and mom were there.  Robin had just gotten off her shift and was heading home when the news got to her.  She got me home through the rush hour traffic to get Dave so Colin had both of us there.  He had his three most important people on hand when he went into surgery and I was there when he came out in recovery.  As soon as they could, they got mom and Dave up to his room to help him settle in and talk to the doctor.  He was so happy his daddy brought his tablet to help distract him from the pain in his foot.

I'll be camping out in his room until he's released.  May be Monday from what the nurses said.  The doctor who did the surgery wants to let the swelling go down some more so they can see if any further damage was done.  The pediatric surgeons will decide if more is needed and how we'll progress from there for his healing.  The way it sounds right now, he'll make a full recovery and be able to become a marathon runner when he's older.

Right now, he's in a pain-free sleep.  So angelic looking and peaceful.  David, mom, and I didn't leave until he fell asleep due to the lortab elixir he was given to help the pain.  By then, the adrenaline I was running on was dissipating and my stomach was realizing I hadn't eaten since around noon.  Dinner was close to midnight and I was feeling the effects of blood sugar getting too low.

The last of the tension has run its course now.  I'm tired, but mom-mode never stops until the child is safe and feeling better.  I may get some sleep here in the room.  Who knows.  Just keep my boy in your thoughts for a speedy recovery.

Monday Post #writemotivation

Uhg!  When did the past week end?  Last I knew, it was Wednesday and I was trying to write my post for the week.  Either way, it got away from me.  You can guess the reasons; kid, work, life, you know what I mean.

I’m back to a more normal work shift which has Colin very happy.  I’m home for dinner, we get to have some play time together, and time to dance together for our exercise.  After a few weeks of coming home with barely enough time to eat before he’s in bed, I needed the catch up time with him.

As far as my writing goes, I’ve barely touched anything, but I do have a firm visual in mind for the cover of Black Friday 2 and a couple of name ideas for it, too.  Imagine a pair of eyes staring back at you with the outline of a human, or feline, face set against a very shadowy background.  Reflected in the eyes, or as a part of the background, two wolves, a fox, and a large cat are staring out toward a street, forest, or maybe some mountains they have to travel through.  I can see the eyes so clearly in my mind, it’s driving me nuts, but the background is still too vague to really start a sketch.

That cover idea does give me some ideas on what to do next in the story as they settle into their new winter home.  It is something, though not the progress I’m wanting.  No actual writing has been done, yet, on the book.

Speaking of writing, I have done more than just open the file onSONL during this last week.  I’ve reread the chapter and figured out what is going to be internalized and what will be spoken.  I’ve also jotted down an idea or two on what Jason’s reaction will be.  He’ll definitely have a few choice words to say once she fesses up.  Well, not completely, the need to keep secrets is strong in this one.

There’s also plenty of places that will need some more work, too, to see more of her thought process.  Even Mindy will get a bit more camera time with her reactions to Jason’s resentment toward her for her part in capturing him.  He is being an ass (pardon the language), so she needs to be more than a sweet and gentle lady with the training and background she has.  Things might get a bit rough to help him fall back to sleep after taking his medicine.  *cue evil grin*

Writemotivation Goal Check!

1) Finally do the edits and revisions to chapters 8 through 15 onSoNL.

No writing yet, but now I have a better idea on how to organize the thoughts in chapter 8 and noted down some ideas for previous chapters.

2) Try to come up with a good name for the book itself while I edit.

A good name is still elusive for SONL.  No progress here, yet.

3) Try to write at least one more chapter to Black Friday 2.

No writing here, either, but I have a better idea on what is going to happen during the winter besides Karina’s parents arriving with more therians.  I’ve got my main foci selected, but a couple of secondary foci may pop up in the ones yet to come.  How much time they’ll have at this old resort remains to be seen.  I need figure out what Karina needs to do other than gain the knowledge she needs then start plotting a way to First Home.  A new path will have to be made before anyone can get to or come from their sacred birth place.

4) Brain willing, come up with names for Black Friday 2.

A couple of ideas have come to mind.  I’ll post them ones I can refine them a bit further.

5) Revise the beginning to Test of Ascension

This one is a true maybe.  The others need to be accomplished before I can do this one.

6) Schedule posts for the A to Z Blog tour (last minute addition after the originals were added)

Progress here!  Until today, all I had was B wrote down.  I now have up to letter I as well as a few others such as L, M, R, and Z.  This one is tip, top, secret, but I can assure you, you’ll love it.  It is definitely all one theme, too.

Thursday is for Therapy

Not for me, oddly enough, but for my son.  He’s not your normal ADHD kid with enough energy to run a small city if he were running on a treadmill hooked to a generator.  No, he has some other issues knocking about in that blond head of his to keep things interesting.

He has behavioral issues which drive poor unsuspecting teachers mad.  These same issues make for tense parents and grandmother.  My mom, Dave, and I cringe when the phone rings during school hours.  We just know he has done something that requires them to call us to come get him.  This was very true in kindergarten, first grade, and part of second grade.  He spent time on suspension until we started poking the school faculty into following our request.

Jackson Elementary was not the school for Colin.  They were extremely slow in doing their own testing after we filled out the paperwork.  While they wandered around figuring things out, he was ostracized by not just the students in his class, but by his teacher as well.  This happened in Kindergarten.  No wonder he needs therapy now.  I mean, what teacher, in their right mind, ostracizes a child, knowing he cannot help what he is doing, and encourages the other kids to do the same.  If another kid started something, naturally Colin would react, but he would get all the blame.  The other kid is given a pat on the head and left to do what they wanted.

Colin was labeled a bad kid because the school took so long trying to get things set up.  We, his parents, had no idea who to talk to or where to go to have him tested.  The counselors could not, or would not, tell us anything.  He may not have been the best student, but he aced his academic testing at the end of the year and they gave him nothing but grief.  Jackson is a school which should be closed down and the teachers sent back to school.

My mom and I decided to put him in another school.  Skelly, his current school, is just across the street from us; a five minute walk.  First grade was rough, but the school started pointing us in the right direction once they saw what he was like.  Other circumstances also had us seeing the proper doctors and putting him on medication.

Now, almost three years later, Colin has blossomed in so many ways.  His speech is clear, he can form complete thoughts and articulate as if he had never had problems before.  His handwriting is what is difficult for him now.  We could see the changes within the first few months of speech therapy.  Each of the therapists he’s had have done a wonderful job and he enjoys these sessions.

Occupational therapy took a bit longer to get started.  The first assessment he had shown problems, but it took a bit more paperwork from not just us, his family, but observations from his teachers, too.  His OT sessions have him working on gross and fine motor skills, things we never really saw until they were pointed out.  Thanks to his first OT therapist, we were able to get him over that final hurdle of potty training.  Those last steps were the hardest and he’d use bathroom accidents as a way to go home early.

His second grade teacher, wonderful woman who did everything she could to help, would not allow him that luxury.  Unless it was a bad accident, he put on a change of clothes we kept handy and stayed the whole day.  Also, during second grade, he had a change of medication which turned out to be the right mix and dosage, which made things much easier on all of us.

Looking at him today, I can see he isn’t the child who skipped ahead of me when I’d walk him home from school back in Jackson.  He is a special little boy.  He’s made so many breakthroughs in this year alone; the one I am most proud of being the three friends that he has come looking for him almost every day.  As much as I love my boy, he needed kids his age to interact with instead of a video game or the television.

Now, we’ve added in Behavioral therapy.  This is making for a long day for me.  Long enough that I must have the day off.  It just wouldn’t be worth the effort to go in for a few hours leave for four or five hours then come back for one hour and go home.  Wouldn’t be fair to anyone.  Due to circumstances at work that have temporarily taken me out of the pharmacy, I have requested Thursdays off for therapy and doctor visits.  As much as I hate to split my days off, I need to for my little boy.

Seeing him improve, I wonder if I should seek psychological help for my own mental problems.  I’m not bipolar, or something like that, but thanks to the torture I endured in school and what my ex put me through for years, I’m not exactly the most stable person.  Working on the registers on the front end is a nightmare; one I care not to repeat for the safety of the customers.  Claustrophobia, agoraphobia, probably a few others, maybe even a dash of ADD, needs to be addressed.  With all these characters talking in my head, some more demanding than others, multiple personality disorder isn’t something I need be concerned about until they decide to take over all at once.  (Just kidding)

Where, or when, I should work those sessions in is beyond me unless they can do after hours or Sunday visits.  Somehow, both seem very unlikely.  Good thing I do have my writing to keep things straight in my head.  One day, I’ll write a story all about Colin.  Who knows, that could launch things into a whole new life for me.

Yes, therapy is good.  Very good.