Wake up lil Kathryn Wake up! do do do dodo Wake up Lil Kathryn Wake up!

A covey of partridges

A muster or ostentation of peacocks

A nest, nide (nye), or bouquet of pheasants

A string of ponies

A pod of porpoises

A covey or bevy of quail

A nest of rabbits

An unkindness of ravens

A murder of crows

and they were all outside my window this morning at first light shouting at me to GET UP! *laughing* okay, maybe not all of those things...teehee.

Just thought I've give a little update on my progress. First, tomorrow I need to have another "PRESENTING!" as I was off-track due to the wedding trip, etc. And as soon as I have some wedding photos, I'll share some of them!

Remember the 30,000 words I tossed out of VK2? Well, I've replaced them with up to 20,000 words; I think. I didn't realize I'd written that many more, as some of what I've been doing is going over the first few chapters that had been written soon after Tender Graces (VK1) was completed. It didn't seem as if I was making that kind of progress in actual new words. Maybe I've miscounted. No matter - whatever the case, I now have 60,000 words and Vk's voice is coming through loud and clear.

The other day, I also read through a third novel that is "completed," but needs some tweaking. I wanted to see if Sweetie could be a possible contender for BelleBook's interest. The Affliction of Sweetie is a different voice from VK, a different kind of novel, but with the same kinds of themes: Home, Place, Belonging, Mothers, Daughters, (weak but gentle)Fathers. Sweetie is set in this area, in Western North Carolina, in a fictional town I called (so far) Big Elk Valley.

I sent out a short story the other day, as well. I've not done anything with my short stories and essays in a while, so I took one out, read it over, and then decided to send it out to a magazine. The last place this story went I never heard back - but, it was a "Big Ole Literary Magazine In The Sky" so I was shooting a bit high....why not? However, honestly, big magazine--little magazine: makes not much difference to me -- I love them all. This story, however, is a little dark, so I don't know. It's funny how different my short stories can be from my novels. "Soft White Lies" is from a male point of view, too....I've not many of those, maybe three.

I went a-visiting y'all some last night and so loved seeing your places again, even if I had to hurry by. I am not pleased with the battery in this Dell! I was happily visiting, unplugged from the electrical outlet, and before I knew it my computer blipped off: battery gone. Harumph! It wasn't long at all! All this technology and Dell can't make a battery that lasts for a decent amount of time? Ah well, other than that, I'm pleased with my 'puter.

So: 60,000 words on VK2. VK1 is out there, doing whatever it is doing and I've been pleased with the reviews and responses (more than pleased) - and I even had someone email me to say they'd called in sick from work just to finish my novel! OMG! what a compliment! I won't say more on that, since I wouldn't want to get them in trouble...but that made me smile. I have a short story out there in submits, and I think I'll send another this weekend out somewhere; I woke up thinking about Petey's story "Tastes Like Proud." I have the third novel of Sweetie in my "Is this something that is publishable?" file. I am feeling happy: I get to do the love of my life, Writing. Yay!

What are your weekend plans? Where will you go? what will you see? Or will you be home relaxing? This is Saturday - I remember Friday nights and Saturdays when I used to work in an office, how I adored Friday nights because it meant I had all day Saturday off (Sundays were a bit of a downer because I knew I had to go to work the next day *laugh*). And Glorious Saturday! No Work! Now, Saturday is much like the other days, for I work at home. I forget about the Magical Friday Night and Saturday --- is it like that for you? If you work outside the home Monday - Friday? That there is a Relaxed Feel to Friday Night and then Glorious Saturday?