I”m back, but I’ll most definitely be hit and miss on the blog.

So the best laid plans…Wizard and I spent four weeks preparing for Christmas. The boys were all coming home (including Bailey Dog of course). Christmas Eve they all got there, and we all cooked dinner together and just had a blast. It was a great night…

Until it turned into a nightmare.

Two of my sons were playing around on a motorized scooter in front of the house. One of them fell directly in front of the house.  Long story short, he couldn’t get up and we had to call the paramedics.  He has suffered a very serious break in his leg. He had surgery Monday morning to stabilize the leg. Wednesday we had him moved home by ambulance.

It’s going to be a fairly long road to recovery and right now, he needs a lot of care.

I’ve got to tell you guys, this is a traumatically painful injury and this young man has been unimaginably tough. A true hero. I don’t know how he’s endured it. Even though Wizard and I are exhausted, stressed, worried and sore, he inspires us to keep going.

Now Bailey Dog Bailey was here when we brought my son home.  It was utterly amazing. We put Bailey on the hospital bed (carefully) and he went nuts kissing and rubbing our injured boy. We let him stay there for a bit then put him down.

Bailey refused that and kept finding a way back on the bed. Bailey didn’t understand what was wrong, but he knew something was. He kept trying so hard to burrow close to our injured son and be super still so no one would move him. It killed us to take him off the bed after that but we just couldn’t chance him accidentally hitting the leg.

But Bailey is coming back this weekend (Injured son is desperate to see him) and we’ll rig up something to allow Bailey to spend more time with him.

Anyway that’s the story. For the first couple weeks, I won’t be able to write much. Then I hope to get back into a routine as I care for injured son.

Thank you all for your patience with me, and for all your kind thoughts!

Hi Everyone,

I’m dealing with a family emergency. Things are already looking up, and it looks like it will be okay with time. But I’m not online much right now. As soon as I can, I’ll be back with you all, and catch you all up.

Thanks!

Jen

I cleaned out my pantry.  Am I motivated, or what? Well…according to Wizard, I had a little help in the motivation department.

This is Wizard’s new joke:

“The ants come once a year to help Witch clean.”

Haha, Wizard, see how I’m laughing? Last Thursday I was doing some baking. I opened the pantry and saw a line of ants.  So in addition to the baking, I took everything out of my huge pantry and killed the ants. I had stuff everywhere on all my counters while I scrubbed the pantry twice (because I’m weird). Fortunately, I’d caught the ants when they were just getting started. They had found an old, opened, honey container on the top shelf, shoved way in the back, that I had totally forgotten about.

We have a big ant problem in the neighborhood I live in, so this is an ongoing battle. Wizard says they force me to clean out the pantry once a year.

Okay, yeah, maybe I had a little help from the ants in the motivation department…

But I still cleaned the pantry.

And I’m still ignoring the refrigerator but I might do a half-hearted job on that once I get home from grocery shopping tomorrow. Maybe.

This weekend we went to the holiday party for Wizard’s side of the family.  We had a great time, even though I had to endure some teasing over being “famous.”  Of course, I’m not even remotely famous, but using that work makes me squirm and then they all grin like lunatics.

Gotta love family.  Wizard’s family has all known me since I was eighteen and long before I considered writing professionally. But family keeps us humble, yes?

Aside from the teasing, it was so much fun and great food! Including my lemon tarts,  which is my new thing this year.  So I might not be famous, but I can make mini lemon tarts

Yesterday afternoon was the first time in forever that I sat down for a couple hours and read.  I could get used to being lazy like that!

So how was your weekend?

Saturday was great! I went to my local RWA meeting where agent Helen Breitwieser from the Cornerstone Literary Agency was our speaker.  She came across as a very forward thinking agent. I chatted with her for a bit and liked her.

I also hung out with friends! We don’t get to do that often enough.

Then that night Wizard and I went to a party and had a blast.  This was our conversation the night before the party:

Wizard, “You’ll have fun. You’ll go around and chat with everyone like you always do, and I’ll stand in the corner checking my watch.”

Me, “We’re talking about me right? Not your girlfriend?”

Wizard, “You are my girlfriend, Witch.”

“But I’m a hermit!I like staying home.”

Wizard. “Suck it up. Girlfriends go to parties with their men.”

“Damn it.” I mean seriously, how do you argue with that?

I’ll have you know I put on high heels and went to the party. Am I the best girlfriend ever, or what?

How was your weekend?

**My blog didn’t post as scheduled.  The server seems to be having issues. Pretty much how my entire professional life is going right now…**

I just read a damn good self published book.

SPACE IN HIS HEART by Roxanne St. Claire. I think it’s worth checking out if you enjoy contemporary romance. She had the book professionally edited, and it shows. Plus Rocki is a good writer Rocki’s story of how this book came about is over on Murder She Writes if you’re interested.

I just have to say that the choices that are happening now in publishing are fantastic. I love it both as a reader and a writer.  But it’s also true that while there are some self published gems like Rocki’s book, there’s also more garbage out there too.  But more choices makes wading through a bit of garbage worth it, I think.

Okay, next I’m going to reread an older book, Jim Butcher’s STORM FRONT just to see how he developed the story.

What are you guys reading? Any thoughts on self published books?

We decorated our house for Christmas this weekend, including getting a live tree. I need a spell to keep that tree green and vibrant through the Christmas! But we had to do it this weekend as the next weekends are booked.

Wizard actually likes the blue and silver ornaments.  I think we were just ready for a change, plus we have a lot of “other” stuff around the house that’s much more traditional.

I even started shopping, just a little. It went pretty well until I get into the store that I specifically went to that city for.  AND I BLANKED. For the life of me, I could not remember the one detail I needed to guy the gift.  I had a note on it…SITTING RIGHT ON MY DESK AT HOME. Which did me no good. So I shall be making a return trip to that store.

But overall my weekend was great. And Friday,  I sent my new proposal to my agent.  I’m not going to jinx it by saying anything more.

So how was your weekend?