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.  >.<

May Wrap-up + June Goals #writwemotivation+ State License Exam

Well, things are finally starting to take a turn for the better.  Technically, I have a job now, but there will be no pay until after the training period is done and I pass the State License Exam for Health and Life insurance.  This is not an easy thing to do.  My first try, with studying at night before bed, I failed it.  A 47 on one partand a 53 on the other.  I need a 70 minimum to pass.  Yeah, I did not do good at all. /le sigh

Do not fear!  The company I will be working with is coaching me and allowing me a quiet place to study and take notes until I re-take the exam next Friday.  I intend on passing this time and with any luck, a minimum of an 80 instead of a 70.

If the quiz I just took on the most important of it all, the statues, rules and regulations of insurance in OK, is any indication, I’ll do fine.  I missed three out of 15 questions.  One of them was a stupid on my part.  The amount of time the State Ins. Commissioner keeps advertisements on file is 4 years, not 3.  I got the time period mixed up with another one that is very similar.  Easily done, but I should have gotten it since I had just finished going through that section and took many notes about the marketing and sales section.

This also means I will be learning more about sales and marketing, too.  I should be able to apply what I learn from insurance to build sales on my book (soon to be books).

May’s Goals:

1) Get a job or at the very least attend five interviews for a job.

Three face-to-face interviews and one phone interview done.  One was for the agency I am studying for.  I consider this one done.

2) Edit/revise five chapters of Society of Night and Lies.

It wasn’t quite five chapters before I decided to stop and send off the first half of SoNL to the beta readers.  Still, it is done.

3) Write two chapters of Black Friday 2.

I never did get around to writing anything for this one.  Total Fail.  :(

4) Exercise twice a week.

Kind of did, but not each week.  I did manage one day per week.  I call it a good start.

All in all, I did accomplish a lot in May.  A portion was dedicated to studying for the failed exam which did hinder things a bit.  Thankfully, I did manage to find some kind of work.  Just have to jump through the hoops before I can start earning again.

June Goals:

1) Set SoNL aside until feedback from critiques and betas are in on the first half of the novel

Done, and well, done.  I already have some feedback in.  There’s going to be some revisions on the opening and what is going on so you see my MC as more than some depressed alcoholic daydreaming when she’s not.

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

I won’t start on this until AFTER my exam date.  My primary focus needs to be on getting some income to support my writing.  I’ve a few ideas already on how to move the story along.

3) Keep up the job search. Four interviews minimum for the month of June

I think I can call this one complete.  I am feeling good about the exam and how well I’m handling the practice quizzes.  B’s are better than F’s any day of the week.  This one will be modified to pass the exam.

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

With warm weather here, this one will be easy.  There’s going to be a lot of swimming and nature walks for me and Colin.

I’ve collected the writing prompts from the Writemotivation G+ community.  I’ll be posting them sometime this weekend here and in the group.  I am curious what you all thought of the prompts from last week.  My favorite was the prompt “Hush, little one, it’s going to be fine…”  It came out so sad.  Did you feel the emotion in that one?

Pray for me as I study my tail off this week.  I need all the help I can to pass this exam.

Midweek Thoughts and #writemotivation Goals

It has been a while since I did a midweek post.  All sorts of things, including my mental well-being, got in the way of making my appointed posts.  Facebook is one of those things which got in the way with its shiny time consuming games.  I really should trim those back again.  A few more appeared out of the aether again to tempt me into spending more time away from writing and studying again.

You heard correctly, I said studying.  The studying I was supposed to do to earn my insurance license.  That exam was for today.  No, I did not pass.  I failed miserably, but they did do a break down so I know where to focus my studying for the next exam.  Underwriting got me the most and the rest was how they worded the questions and the lists answers.  I know the material, but sadly, my normal study habits were lacking a couple of things which help a lot.  The good news is I can keep trying until I pass and I WILL pass.  Eventually.

Once I pass the exam, I'll have a job.  So, tomorrow is a brain break to get myself back into the groove for the exam again.  Also, tomorrow is therapy day for my son so there's not a lot of time to give the attention to the eight chapters on Underwriting, life insurance, medical insurance, and the state regulations and such.  I will be bringing one of the chapters with me to read just to help pass the time instead of playing games on my smart phone.

I don't know if anyone else has seen the news release that Amazon is setting up a fanfic section of their Kindle release books.  When I first heard it, I thought... Why?  Why would someone want to make it possible for an unknown who loves to write fanfic (there are precious few who can actually write well enough to be worth publishing.  One of the girls in my NanO group is proof of that).  Then, I got a peek at the rules Amazon wants the would-be authors to follow. 

Now, anyone with a lick of sense will know that this is a bad idea if a big corporation is involved.  Amazon wants people to write in the worlds they have licenced.  To make matters worse, in the terms of use, they will screw over the person who has written the fanfic by taking ownership of the copyright, whether the characters are their own within that world or not.  Now, the would-be author would get royalties, but the original author gets a tidy percentage of that.

My thoughts on that?  A big resounding NO!  Capitol N Capitol O.  NO.  If that isn't screwing someone over just to get more stuff written in a particular world, I don't know what is.  The co-ml for my city's Nano group put it best in her post The Future of Fanfiction.  Rebekah couldn't have put it better.  Me?  I sound like I'm on a rant.

It's a good thing and it's a bad thing.  Either way, I am taking no part of it.  What fanfiction I write will either remain on my hard drive or published with proper credit on my forums, OR, if I am lucky enough to get permission to use their world and characters, I'll publish it on SmashWords or someplace similar.  I will not go for shady shenanigans like Amazon is trying to pull.

Enough of the semi-rant, on to the goals!

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

1) Get a job or at the very least attend five interviews for a job.

Only three interviews this month, but, there's still a week to get the other two in.  But, I do have a job, sort of.  I say sort of because I need to pass the state exam for Life and Health insurance.  I'll keep retaking until I pass.

2) Edit/revise five chapters of Society of Night and Lies.

There weren't quite five chapters left before I sent the fir 11 chapters out to the beta readers.  I'm still kind of toying with chapter 11 now because a great idea has popped into my brain on how to put more tension into the plot.

3) Write two chapters of Black Friday 2.

I haven't touched this one, yet.  Too many other things took precedence.  I'll be working on this one shortly.  Might get one chapter done before the 31st.

4) Exercise twice a week.

Ummmm... not quite there, but I am working on it.  Got one day down for this week.  The rest will come soon enough.

How has your week been?

Don't forget to donate to your favorite disaster relief fund!  People in Moore, OK, and elsewhere need your help.

Weekly Update #writemotivation

I forget if this is week two or week three for the #writemotivation checks.  Which ever it may be, I am finally making.  Better late than never.  Right?

This has been one of those weeks that seemed busier than what it really was.  I had an interview Monday and got this moving to start selling insurance.  I don't plan on sticking with insurance sales.  It's something to bring money in while I look for something more stable and less stressful on my car.  There will be a lot of driving with this company.  No sitting behind a desk and making phone calls.  At least this company, American Income and Life, is legit and no pyramid scheme from what I can tell.  It also isn't like trying sell a Hyla (a vacuum system thingy) either which is a life saver.

Most I'll have to do is get a new laptop because the one I have now is getting old and I don't think anyone was to run my power cord to an outlet.  Not to mention, I'll have to clean it up and get rid of my pretty stickers and shinies on the lid.  Also, there are a few keys missing thanks to my tom cat.  Silly thing that he is.

Well, on to the checks:

1) Get a job or at the very least attend five interviews for a job.

Well, this one is coming along.  Two interviews down.  Technically, I have a job now, I'm studying for my health and life insurance license.  Not very fun.  :P

2) Edit/revise five chapters of Society of Night and Lies.

I've paused at chapter 11 to send out the willing vic... err beta readers.  Their input will help continue on with the rest and, of course, I those first pages need to be good enough to start querying.  I have done two chapters before sending out this part, so three more to go.

3) Write two chapters of Black Friday 2.

Haven't touched this one, yet.  Don't worry, I will.

4) Exercise twice a week.

Um... I have exercised once this week.  In all honesty, it was walking around three different grocery stores in one day.  It was something!

March #writemotivation Roundup

Well, the month ended quietly with a beautiful day and a well cooked meal in my house.  My son was well behaved and ate everything we put on his plate.  On top of that, he loved his Easter gifts and new clothes.  That was all that went well during the month.

It had been a hectic month with long hours and tough days at work which took away a lot of my writing and revising time. Most nights I was too tired to even focus on my emails and other messages let alone try to figure out how to revise one chapter without losing too much of the content.  I did, however, manage to get some done.  Not a lot, but some.

Just a few days before Easter, I lost my job at Wal-Mart.  Which meant I needed to get a few things done before I could focus on anything.  But, I used the extra spare time working on SoNL.  I also spent some extra time with my son, too.  Something he really enjoyed.

So, for now, I am searching for a new job and getting things set up with unemployment and food stamps.  My big priority for now is figuring out what to do with my 401K money.  Other than using some to get this month's bills took care of, I need to invest the rest.  Thankfully, I do have a few good places to talk that over until I make a decision.

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

I got to chapter 11 before the month ended.  Saturday saw nothing done due to a lot of shopping both for me, my boyfriend, and my son.  Sunday was spent paying attention to family and food instead of writing.  Family IS more important than any craft.  They are our first inspirations for doing what we do.  At least work was done on it.  Amazingly, I kept almost half of the content of the original chapter.  Chapter ten was so long, I decided to split it up into two chapters, so technically, I did get to chapter 11.

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

Sorry, no decent names have popped into my head, yet.  Past Through Shadows as the book name remains and still sounds lame and clunky.

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

I didn't write a thing on this one.  I probably would have gotten some done over the weekend if I wasn't shopping.

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

I have a tentative idea for a name, but nothing I'm willing to note, yet.  So, no, incomplete again.  :(

5) Revise the beginning to Test of Ascension

Didn't even touch it.  >.<

6) Pre-write the ABC challenge posts.

I got to the letter M and I am so happy!  Half the alphabet to buffer.  I'll knock out the rest during this week between applications.  So... I guess I can cross this one off.  I got farther than I expected.