I hate to cook, but love to eat

Normally when I post, I try updating my facebook friends of my continuing search for an agent, but this week, I needed to vent about cooking. While food shopping early this morning, I spent the hour at the market dodging the bottled water marathon( because of upcoming storm), and running to the safety of the makeup section, happy not to be trampled on, as carts zoomed past me at break neck speeds, heading for the bread section. Apparently, looking good while surviving a hurricane, wasn't on the top of most shopper's lists, and I took advantage of this little known fact to hide among the Cover Girl and Maybelline products.

Now shopping is not one of my favorite things to do. Hitting two markets, spending an hour in each until all items are found and purchased, and unloading the groceries after I reach home, is to me equivilante to getting your teeth cleaned at the dentist, necessary but dreaded, but as much as I hate to shop for food, I hate to cook even more. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some dishes, which I still take pleasure in preparing, but unfortunately, my husband balks at eating the same think every night.

I wasn't always this way. As a young bride, I looked forward to preparing the evening meal, grateful, when compliments flowed my way, but I'm almost Medicare age( another painful subject, which I'll go into with another post) and by my estimations, I've done forty years of cooking. That is a lot of pasta, soup, pot roasts, and chicken cutlets.

I know what you're about to ask, "Does your husband like to cook?"

My reply, "Hell, no."

Which leaves me with a few solutions until we have food replicators, like the ones used on Star Trek. You know what I mean, Captain Kirk or Spock ordering their food already prepared, the way they like it, no one slaving over a hot stove, no dishes to wash, my type of cooking.

My number one solution is to eat out, but this can be expensive, so I found a second solution which is these prepacked frozen meals for two in the freezer section of the market. They're actually good, and they can be cooked in one pan, but my dream is to get my husband interested in cooking. Right now he has no interest in boiling water, but I'm planning on using subliminal messaging to trick him into trying. I'll let you know how this goes.

The Hellfire Herald: Fall is on the way.

The Hellfire Herald: Fall is on the way.


I so enjoy reading the blogs

Some hints for new writers like myself

 I had mentioned in my last post, how much I enjoyed attending the Philadelphia Writer's conference. The instructors were amazing and gave some great advice. One of the instructors, K. Simmons, gave the workshop on Novel plotting. Here are some suggestions that helped me and hopefully will help you.
1. Give the reader a character, they will enjoy, even if they don't like that character.
2. Take the character on a journey.
3. Give the character something they want.

K. Simmons gave us a guide to help with our novels. She called it "Sailing the 7 C's of Story Plot"
1.Combustion-creating a premise of interesting characters, and high stakes at the beginning will create a natural flowering of your story.
2.Coordination--getting the action, voice, and premise to go together.
3.Conflict--creating conflicts between characters to fuel the plot.
4.Characters--make your characters believable. Character has to grab the reader's attention from the beginning.
5.Conclusion--wrapping up the plot in a satisfying way.
6.Complettion--Too many plot points? Know when the plot is done.
7.Commitment--Where is the story coming from and are you being true to the story.

Does your story have tension? check conflict and combustion.
Premise:
1. Where are we?
2. Who is the lead character?
3. Who tells the story best?
4. What do they want?
5. What needs to be said first?
6. Why should we care?
7..Where are we going?

I'll have more on my next blog.

The benefits of attending a Writer's Conference

     I had the opportunity and pleasure of attending the Philadelphia Writer's Conference on 6/3-6/4-6/5. It was the best move I have made since I decided to seriously begin writing my novel a year ago. I've completed the first book of the trilogy, and right now I'm in the process of editing. I've also started to outline the second book of the series.
     The amazing instructors that spoke at the workshops encouraged, gave insight, common sense solutions, and much more to all that attended, and I will attending this conference again next year.
     The series that I'm working on right now is a supernatural romance and deals with the biblical and off world battle between good and evil.
     I'll be keeping all my followers updated on my ongoing adventures to get published.

Read before taking

Well, I'm finally feeling somewhat human after the last few months of pain. I came down with shingles which situated itself with a vengeance to my sciatic nerve. Hit with severe spasms, I was given all sorts of medications to ease the inflammation and pain. "NOTHING" worked. The pain was such, that I had started to take an extra dose of the strong narcotic that was priscribed, just to breathe without the spasms beginning a new attack. Never using any thing stronger than aspirin, I hadn't noticed how disconnected from reality, I had become. I continued to edit my book and send out a few query letters. Once the pain had reached a point where I no longer needed the narcotics, I reread my work, and almost needed another Doctor visit. Here is some good advice. They tell you not to drive or use heavy machinery when using certain medications, but that also goes for sending out your work to agents. God help me!!! I had a good laugh, rewrote and revamped and I'm back in player's mode.

Eileen's Travel Blog: Shells

Eileen's Travel Blog: Shells: "This morning started off with a thunderstorm announcing a cold front that stretched from southern Florida to Maine. It was somehow com..." I love the shells!! Save your posts because you could probably write a little travel guide.

Enjoying the answer "no"

Okay, I've sent in several query letters, and have just received two replies. Although, both replies were a positive "no", I felt encouraged to plug on in finding an Agent. The Writer's group that I belong to, have a great outlook on receiving rejections on your written material. Your sending your work out to be seen and that is the first step. "Onward and Outward will be my new mantra.