Can I hear a big, “Yeehah?!”
BY THE NUMBERS
9: The number of named storms this year
17: The number of named storms predicted May 31 by a team at Colorado State University led by Professor William Gray
45 mph: The wind speed when Tropical Storm Alberto hit the Florida Panhandle near Adams Beach on June 13, the strongest winds over Florida all season
0: The number of storms that formed in October, the first time since 2002 that no storms formed that month. Also, no Category 4 or 5 storms formed this year for the first time since 1997.
We are officially one day away from the end of hurricane season, so I think it’s safe for me to breathe a big sigh of relief that the state of Florida, particularly the Tampa Bay area, has again gotten through June through November without a major storm. YEEHAH!!!
I have to confess, though…I still have all my important papers in a water-tight file box right here next to my desk. The hurricane season of 2004 is still pretty fresh in the collective minds of all Floridians…including both Leslie and I, who rode out Charley together. She moved. Now she has snow. (Well, not at this very moment, but soon…very soon.) I, however, am enjoying the months that explain why people move to Florida.
But we have enough people living here already, so I’m not going to brag about our sixty-two degree Christmases. I just want to celebrate that I can now start donating the can goods from my hurricane preparedness kit to charity…just in time for the holidays!
And talk about my deadline. That does seem to be the theme for the week, doesn’t it?
I had every intention, by the way, of being finished with this book back in October, two whole months before it was due. But you know, life happens…or in my case, career happens. When my editor from Pocket left her job to edit gardening books back in June, my career was turned upside down. I took two months off to work on a proposal for a new series that I had not planned on writing…but it was a pre-emptive strike in case Pocket dropped Marisela. Which is what happened. And because I’d taken those two months off, I was prepared to move to Signet/NAL.
So it wasn’t like I was wasting time and not writing. I just wasn’t working on the book that was due the soonest. The actual deadline isn’t until the 15th, but my very wise Harlequin editor knows me well enough to fudge a little when she tells me when books are due. That way, when I run late (which I seem to do a lot lately) we have time to work and not TECHNICALLY be late.
I’m still planning on finishing by a week from Friday. Because, there’s this little detail of a novella I have due before Christmas. Where does the time go?
Well, I can tell you where it went yesterday. Monday night, my daughter was outside rollerblading with her friends. By about 5, they switched to hide and seek. By 5:30, they were on the trampoline in my neighbors back yard. Those of you who winced at the mention of a trampoline are justified. Apparently, sometime between 5:30 and 5:45 when I went to retrieve her for soccer practice, several of the kids ended up on top of my daughter’s arm. It was swollen. It hurt. She hadn’t gotten around to coming home and telling me yet (because, really, if she did that, she’d miss the fun, right?)
Now, I will readily admit that I did freak out a bit. First, because I’m not good in this type of crisis and second, because the last time she came home with a swollen hand and everyone insisted she’d just sprained it, I listened and took three days to get the kid to an orthopedist who set her BROKEN finger and put her in a cast for six weeks.
Fool me once…this time, I iced and decided ON MY OWN to forgo the emergency room. She wasn’t crying (like the first time) and while she complained about the pain, she wasn’t whiny. We slept in (yeah!) and then called the pediatrician and he worked us in right away. Well, right away is relatively speaking. Our pediatrician is 45 minutes away. Then we went to get X-rays. Then back to the pediatrician. Then home. We left at 9am and were back by 2pm. And you wonder where my day went?
But family first. I did carry the laptop with me and did manage to get two pages done. While this is a far cry from the 14.5 pages a day I must do in order to complete the book on time, something’s better than nothing. Before I took a break to write this blog, I’d completed another 4 pages. That’s 8.5 to go before the end of the night. It’s going to be a late one.
I was struggling with this book, but since yesterday, things are starting to flow. I just chatted with my editor and I know I’m on the right track. It’s all about trusting my instincts now and clearing out all other concerns so that I can concentrate on the book. And you all know that this is harder than it sounds.
But when stress is at an all-time high, I like to distract myself with good things. Like 62 degree weather. And the end of hurricane season. And the Christmas party for my writer’s group on Saturday at the Yacht Club where they mix a damned good margarita. And Diana is flying down from DC to attend! It’s my carrot. Not that I’ll stay home if I don’t finish my pages, but it’s nice to have incentive.
Okay, back to the witches of Chicago…
I’ve seen other people on here talk about parallel lives and I think you and I have the same type of thing. We had more damage from the Nor’ Easter that just came through here last week than we did from any tropical system this year - and it wasn’t too bad, thank goodness! We still have some minor flooding going on but nothing too unusual.
As for the broken bones….my son lived with a broken wrist for 4 days before I finally decided that it must be more serious than I thought and took him in. It never swelled, or bruised or anything (my justification for being a slack mom) so I thought it was just sprained or sore. Nope, broken. I too learned my lesson on that one.
Hope all the Plotmonkeys have successful writing days and everyone else just has a great one!
Comment by Jodie — November 29, 2006 @ 9:08 am
NO more Marisela!! I’m so sad!!
Comment by Darcey — November 29, 2006 @ 12:57 pm
Hi, all. We’ve had bandwith problems and so not all posts may show up … We hope to have it fixed soon! Bear with us …
Comment by Carly — November 29, 2006 @ 1:02 pm
Julie, you are definitely hearing a big Yeehah! from up here. Believe me, since my unsold house is still sitting in hurricane alley, you can bet I was holding my breath waiting for the end of this hurricane season!!
Also–Sorry to anyone who tried to read and/or comment this morning–we were having a problem with the site!
Comment by Leslie — November 29, 2006 @ 1:03 pm
Julie- do they mean NO more Marisela at all?? Ever again?? :cry:
Hope your daughter is feeling better. Sprains are worse than breaks and more painful, so I always played safe. I was one of those that ran to the dr or ER at the drop of a hat. With my daughter, you had to, she was such a tomboy. LOL
I am glad Hurricane season is over too. Now if we can just do something about all the flooding we have had here, I would be happier.
Comment by ev — November 29, 2006 @ 1:19 pm
In my part of Northern California there are no hurricanes just earthquakes & those don’t bother me much! The thoughts of a hurricane are frightening, way more than an earthquake!
Right now we are having a cold spell down in the low 30’s at night & only in the 50’s during the day but clear & sunny! Beautiful but brrr in our corner of the world! 
I saw on the weather the high predicited for Denver today is 15 so guess I shouldn’t complain.
Julie sorry there will be no more Marisela but I’m sure you have something interesting planned for us with your change in publishers. Good luck on your deadline may the story flow. :love2:
Comment by Donna M — November 29, 2006 @ 1:30 pm
Darned bandwidth problems! Yeah, Plotmonkeys is back in business!!!
Thanks, everyone, on the hugs and commiseration regarding Marisela. I’m a never say never kind of girl. I’m hoping (praying!) that the new series will do well enough that I can shop Marisela again and get a new home for her. She’s WAY too important to me to drop forever. So you haven’t heard the last of my fiesty Latina if I have anything to say about it!
Comment by Julie Leto — November 29, 2006 @ 1:36 pm
Sorry to hear that your Editor ditched her blue pen at Pocket for a green thumb, and that your series was dropped. :cry:
You have our support and well wished during deadline/transition hell.
Comment by Heather Harper — November 29, 2006 @ 1:50 pm
that would be well wisheS…
Comment by Heather Harper — November 29, 2006 @ 1:50 pm
Julie…sorry to hear about Marisela…..you will meet your deadlines, don’t worry….I have faith in all of you plotmonkeys! We are digging out from the snow storm in the NW. BRRRR…we all complain when it goes above 75 and below 40 LOL! Tonight, we are supposed to have a lovely ice storm and snow storm. So far, I have been right on the money when predicting if schools are open or closed (okay, I was wrong about today, but I am still 50/50, but it has only been two days)……Like Carmac, I am telling my son’s bus driver what the schedule will be for the next day.
Passing around some margaritas to everyone!:cocktail::cocktail::cocktail::cocktail::cocktail::cocktail::cocktail: P.S.I know it’s only Wednesday, but who would enjoy a lovely margarita thinking of being in sunny Mexico?
Comment by katie — November 29, 2006 @ 2:07 pm
Comment by Yolanda — November 29, 2006 @ 2:21 pm
I can’t believe they dropped Marisela!!! That is rotten…we need to start a petition. Can we do that??? Will they care??
I hope you have a blast at your party. You deserve it!
Comment by Kelly — November 29, 2006 @ 4:14 pm
Kelly, thanks so much for the righteous indignation on my behalf, but I don’t think it will help. I think if my editor would have stayed, things might have been different, but well, things happen for a reason and I’m trying to be philosopical and positive that the future will hold a place for Marisela.
Comment by Julie Leto — November 29, 2006 @ 4:51 pm
I loved Marisela—makes me sad!
Comment by Estella — November 29, 2006 @ 6:08 pm
Comment by Kelly — November 29, 2006 @ 7:05 pm
YAY no more hurricane season!
Stay safe and stay warm! And happy writing!
Comment by Dylan — November 29, 2006 @ 9:56 pm
Is it me or is the weather just weird this year? Katie is digging out in the NW from a snowstorm and here is Upstate NY, I spent the day outside, in a t-shirt. It was in the 60’s!! It’s the end of November for god’s sake!! I am having a problem getting in the Christmas spirit here.
Comment by ev — November 29, 2006 @ 10:26 pm
Glad that the bandwith problem is fixed…….
Also glad that the hurricane season is just about offically over. We actually warmed up here today, it has been unbearably cold here ( minus 26C with winds to make it minus 40C ) this past week. Man it looks like it is going to be a long winter here because we have more snow already than we had all winter last year………. 
Sorry that you have such deadlines looming, and that they cancelled your series………
Comment by Cryna — November 29, 2006 @ 10:59 pm
Y’know what’s funny? I just wrote about this in my monthly newsletter. I was prepared to tackle the second book in YA series in the form on NaNoWriMo. And then I was let go from my job the day before Halloween. It was midway thru Chapter Two and the whole situation got to me so badly, my creative mojo hit a brick wall.
My first two books are self-published, but with the series I’m creating, I want to try the traditional route. Next year, I’m going to start the query process. I had wanted to try NaNo just to see if I could keep to a regular writing schedule…and to see how I did with deadlines. My thoughts were “Well, most likely they’ll want to see a book every year, especially in a series. So if I can crank one out in a month, I’ll have a few months to flesh it out, edit, blah, blah, blah.”
14.5 pages a day? The most I was doing was 2.5–and that’s because I have a day job and had an hr for lunch. You’re like the 3rd or 4th author I’ve read that’s talked about deadlines. Are these imposed by you, the editor, the publisher or all three? If you could email me and explain the process, I’d greatly appreciate it. I’d like to know what I’m getting into, cuz I’m not a fast writer.
Comment by Celise — November 30, 2006 @ 5:11 am
Celise, I wrote my second book while working a day job and only writing at lunchtime. I managed about 4-5 pages a day in that hour, using a technique I call Layering that you can read about at my website. In the evenings, I managed to flush those out into about six pages, which is a manageable number of pages a day. 14.5 pages is not ordinary output for me, though it is for lots of other writers.
Every writer is different and deadlines, while mostly set by the publisher, are negotiable. Deadlines must be met because production schedules are built around them. For example, I know right now that my paranormal romances for NAL/Signet will be released in April and October of 2008. They are in the production schedule, though it is tentative because of how far away that date is. My deadline is based on those dates. I won’t even start writing until January (which my editor knows) but the cogs in the wheel are already churning.
I had plenty of time to write this book that I’m now struggling to finish so quickly. But life happened and career happened and all my good intentions flew out the window. However, the production schedule didn’t change as my book is the second of a three book, multi-author series (with Tori Carrington and our own Leslie Kelly) and it’s connected to another book I have that’s coming out the next month, which is also paired with two other authors. My books being late (they won’t be!) would upset the careers of four other people.
Writing in the traditional publishing world means commitment. The publisher has invested money in you and you have to keep up your end of the bargain. However, every writer can control how often they have books out. You might not make a living having only one book out a year, but everyone has different goals. I know a VERY popular writer who has a full time career that she loves and the writing is on the side. She puts out a book a year, readers love her and she’s very happy. I, on the other hand, am trying to build a career writing full time, so three books a year is my goal.
Hope that helps.
Comment by Julie Leto — November 30, 2006 @ 9:43 am
Mainly ’cause I have wondered about it for awhile so I’m gonna ask.
Here goes: How does a female author really know how a male thinks and feels? Do you ever ask a male if in this situation or that he would think it like you write it?
Comment by jeannie — November 30, 2006 @ 3:30 pm
Oooh! Jeannie, this is a perfect question for our Saturday Chit-chat. I’m going to put it in the hopper right now…look for it to come up in a few weeks.
Comment by Julie Leto — November 30, 2006 @ 3:52 pm
Thanks Julie
Comment by jeannie — December 8, 2006 @ 4:33 pm