Diana

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 01:54:08 GMT

Yay, got an acceptance today from The Kids' Ark magazine. They want to publish one of my stories in their Sept. 08 issue. :) The editor called me to tell me. My first writing-related phone call! :)

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 22:34:23 GMT

Check out my recently published content on AC:

The Nine Types of Convenience Store Customers

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:47:37 GMT

I feel like I am starting over today. My writing had become nonexistant during a relationship I had.

So...I broke it off and today is the first day and I feel rejuvenated. :D

I've started looking at my stories again, and am even considering writing about this whole experience and creating a story from it. Too bad I won't have any more new material from this guy to keep it up...but, I'm a writer, I can just make it up as I go along! :)

Thu, 24 May 2007 01:36:07 GMT

Online games for writers

http://www.writingfix.com/gamesforwriters.htm

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:10:55 GMT

Revisions, revisions, revisions.....why do I take so long getting to them?

Haven't worked on a thing in about 2 weeks, but today that changes. New goal is to submit at least one thing every week.

Sent off my first erotica story today...made up a different name for it and everything. I had been thinking a long time about a good pen name to use, and the other day my friend Tony was over looking at my bookshelf and was like 'You should use this name..' and said it, and I was like wow, that's perfect! So there, problem finally solved.

Working on revisions now for that romance story...want to have it all sent out by next Monday, a week before the deadline. I hope there aren't too many more changes after that. :X

I also went through my files and made a list of stories that I need to find homes for. Looks like I have 6 stories that are all finished and doing nothing but sitting here.

I don't know why I've become so lazy...researching markets is my favorite part!

Still recovering from an awesome St. Patty's day...I'll give myself another day. :X

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:35:57 GMT

So, Beth drops me off at home after a few hours of shopping, and I'm carrying like twenty bags when I go to pick up my mail.

I see one of my SASE's in there, and am thinking 'Oh no, I don't want a rejection today', so I throw my mail in one of the bags and head upstairs. Once inside, I drop everything on the counter and pull out the envelope to see which place rejected me now.

I open it up and inside is....

A CONTRACT FROM HIGHLIGHTS!!!!!!

They are buying the story that I sent to them a year ago! I totally thought it was a rejection....I'm so glad it wasn't. :) This is my first acceptance so far this year. :)

What a happy day, I'm going out to celebrate!

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 23:51:51 GMT

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:39:54 GMT

Haven't updated in awhile...Nothing new to report actually. Just heard an update on a submission I sent to a horror anthology...If I haven't heard back yet, that means my story is still in the running. :)

Highlights is back to considering my story again...she must have liked the changes I made to it this time.

Hmm...what else...there is so much snow here...I LOVE bad weather, but this was just scary. I finally felt good today driving to work...the other day my normal 10 minute ride to work took 40 minutes. Luckily I was one of the only people on the road at 5am (besides the snow plows).

Big scandal at work right now...wish I could talk about it...someone's going to get in big trouble though. :X

I have two writing assignments due on February 28. Why am I procrastinating again?

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 03:17:47 GMT

FINALLY finished the first draft today and emailed it to my editor. She emailed me back later on asking about a typo I had made...in the first line! :X

In my defense, it was there because I switched lines around at the last minute. :D

Hmm, what else is going on...received my soon-to-be-published story back to check over the final copies of it. How exciting. :)

Saturday is Clara's birthday so we are going downtown to the male strip club. :X Should be some fun times there. :)

That's all for now, will update when something exciting happens. :)

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:55:11 GMT

*sigh* Well, I did it.

I have a MySpace account. :X

Thanks alot, Beth! She dared me. :D

In other news, received a very nice rejection the other day, she told me what she liked and didn't like about the story. Coming from a major publishing house, I was surprised but also glad. I made some changes with her suggestions in mind, and now I've got it sent out to another place.

Getting a rental car on Tuesday because that's when mine will go into the shop. It snowed really bad last week for like one day, and a lady ended up rearending me and screwing my car up majorly. Still driveable, but broken.

I am seriously procrastinating SO bad on writing this romance story that is due Feb. 1. I've got about 10,000 more words to go and I can't seem to get motivated. Help!

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 04:00:21 GMT

I just spent $50 at Borders.

I need to stop doing that. :(

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 21:05:38 GMT

Last night was funny yet scary. Me, my sister, Clara and Beth all decided to go to a singles party held at a hotel near my house.

First we went to dinner at a restaurant, and ended up staying there 2 hours because the waitress was that slow.

So we finally make it to the party. We pay $40 EACH to get in. At first we are a bit scared, because we see a bunch of older people hanging out near the entrance. But we decide to go in anyways, thinking that the people our age are just hanging out on the dance floor or something.

Let me just say, it was the worst place I've ever been to in my life. Total meat market, and there were no people there under 40. Which would have been fine with me, I like the older crowds (usually more mature), but this was different. None of the men were dancing, they were just standing off to the side watching women dance with each other. Some of the women wore such skimpy outfits that I'm sure by the end of the night most of everything was revealed on them.

So after careful consideration (I wouldn't leave unless I danced off at least $5 worth of the entrance fee) we all decided to leave.

We drove around until we found a suitable bar...Clara wanted to go to one called Cronies, I said no.

We ended up at a bar around the corner and had a great FREE time there. Oh well, I guess we learned our lesson. Never go to a singles party on New Years Eve.

It was fun though, we had a lot of laughs over that one. I woke up with a sore throat...probably because I blew into a party favor that was already used. :X

Thanks to C for driving us around all night! :)

This has been my first day off in weeks. Have to work on my romance anthology story. Only 30 more days until first draft is due.

I also have to come up with a goal list for the year. I did pretty good with my list from last year.

This year I had 21 rejections and 6 acceptances.

My goal for 2007 is to get 42 rejections and 7 acceptances. :D

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 02:16:50 GMT

Oh no...why did I eat so much????? I seriously can't move right now.

I'm going to try and make it to my bed to sleep. If not, I'll just fall asleep in my chair here. :(

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 00:29:01 GMT

Worked on two stories today and are getting ready to send them both out tomorrow. One is for my ICL class and I have to include a short note updating my instructor on my progress so far. The last time I wrote her was about six months ago, and I've had a lot of news since then.

Karaoke on Saturday was so boring. Now I remember why I don't go to bars anymore. I would have rather been sleeping (like I should have!) because I had to wake up for work early the next day. I also remember why I don't drink anymore (not that I drank a lot anyways). The beer tasted like spoiled milk. Yum.

I must be getting too old because I didn't like the crowd of young kids at the bar. They were obnoxious and too loud. Makes me wonder if me and my friends used to be like that. :D

Tomorrow I'm going Christmas shopping with my mom. I think I'm pretty much finished except for Clara and a few other things for my dad. Of course I'll be spending money on myself as well, since I can't seem to stop doing that lately. But I haven't been out to the malls in forever, and there are so many cute things to buy! :)

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 21:50:51 GMT

Last night I went to Clara's Christmas work party. I didn't think I'd have a good time and didn't really want to go except to see the drama with Clara. But I DID go, because I told her I would.

I had the most fun I've had in a long time. :)

I met this really cute guy named Tony that was also dragged along by his friend. We sat and talked the whole night, and I ended up missing most of Clara's drama, but that was okay, because we drove around until 2am analyzing what had happened. So Tony and I made plans to get together sometime this week, I just have to call him when I'm free.

Tonight me and a few girls from work are off to karaoke at the local bar. We haven't been there before, because the place changes names like every other week or so. We invited a bunch of customers from work, so we're curious as to who really shows up. :)

And then tomorrow it's off to church with Beth again so that we can drop off our donations. They have a Giving Tree, and I picked up an ornament that said 'Single Mom - Gas Card' which seemed like a sign or something, so I got her a gas card from work. :)

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 02:07:10 GMT

I just received my sweet 19" Widescreen LCD monitor today. My brother came over and set it up for me. Mostly because it was my day off and it got delivered to the store and I didn't want to go pick it up.

But I just have to say...

I LOVE IT!

Everything is so much.....wider now.

In other news, I went to a new church with Beth last night. It was a service mostly geared towards teens. I was so surprised at the number of younger people that were there. It was really nice to see that. I'll have to keep that church in mind. We are going to try out a few different places and see which ones we like best. She would know more than I would though, I'm kind of just starting out with the whole church thing. But I had fun. :)

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 00:02:27 GMT

Okay, my new goal is to save up to that I can take this course:

http://www.asuen.com/w.ezch.html

It starts in February, so I have until then. I've always wanted to take one of her courses, but just never had the time.

Christmas party this Friday. And then it's off to a new bar on Saturday for karaoke. One of my customers sings there, so she invited us all to go. I haven't been to a bar since I stopped smoking. By the way, on Monday it will be 3 months. :) Yay!

Received my first payment in the mail the other day for that first story accepted. How exciting! We are going to frame it. :) It's just the beginning. :)

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 02:52:38 GMT

Okay, I totally have to stay out of the malls. I have spent WAY too much money these past two days, and it was all (except for 2 things) on MYSELF!

And the most important thing I wanted, I left in my friend's car. I was all excited about the cotton candy I bought, and now it is with someone else!! That's what I get for shopping too much.

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:04:58 GMT

What a busy week so far. I sent in my revisions and also got out some new submissions as well. I can finally get back to normal now that November is over. :)

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/search-intensifies-for-missing-father/20061204123509990015?ncid=NWS00010000000001

This is such a sad story. I'm praying that the father is found.

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:22:42 GMT

This has turned out to be a pretty good week. I finished my Nano novel last night around midnight. It felt so good to finish, I feel like I have all this free time now. :)

Also, my story is up at KidVisions.

And tomorrow, I get to go to Dave and Busters and party with my friends! :)

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:14:20 GMT

Heard back from an editor today and my story was accepted for Tales From the Cash Register!!! YAY! I've been waiting on this one for awhile. He said it was exactly what they were looking for, he just wants me to cut down the word count about 300 words.

Sad thing was, I have been obsessively checking my email since I sent him a status inquiry two days ago, and his email ended up in my spam folder for some strange reason.

Time to CELEBRATE! :D

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 00:33:08 GMT

4,000 more words to go! I can see the finish line from here. :)

I'm going to take a chance and go out tomorrow night for a little bit. I know I should wait until I'm closer to goal, because anything could happen. But hey, I deserve it. :D

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 00:09:17 GMT

Whew, still going strong on the novel. Although now it has turned into random scenes that I will have to piece together once I start editing. But I'm having fun with it again. Someone even gets stabbed with an ice cream cone! :D

Got about 10,000 more words to go. This week will be the toughest since I will be working more. Even better because I like challenges. :)

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:35:37 GMT

Wow, it's been a long week and it's only Wednesday. So much drama at work this week.

I can't believe that I have been working out with weights for 3 weeks now. I'm usually so lazy! It's probably because of not smoking. I definitely have more energy now. I also can't take my 3 hour naps in the middle of the day anymore, so I watch TV with the cats. I think they like the extra attention. It's been 2 months now since I've had a cigarette. I still think about it a little, but it doesn't bother me anymore. AND I lost the 15 pounds that I had gained from stopping in the first place.

I am now halfway through my Nano novel. I keep stopping in the middle of my story to write down more story ideas that come to me. It's kind of fun typing all of them out. I'll have a lot more material once this month is over. It's definitely harder this year than last.

I realized this week that a lot of my submissions were returned with rejections, and I have been letting them sit there instead of sending them out. So this weekend I will work on getting them out to places. What's the fun of waiting for the mail if nothing is supposed to come? :)

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 01:21:53 GMT

I got a Sirius radio today. And I have to say...I absolute love it! I can listen to 80's music 24/7 forever. :)

I've been writing my Nano novel and listening to it for about 4 hours now. I even set the whole thing up by myself. I feel so handy. :)

I just finished reading an excellent book. Will Write for Shoes by Cathy Yardley. Great resource for anyone wanting to write a chick lit novel.

My novel is going so-so, I still get unmotivated at times. It seems like during November is when all my friends call and want to go out. So I went out last night, got home early enough but stayed up until midnight finishing my word count for the day. Tonight is going a little faster, but not by much.

Back to writing!