My book online

The first 2 chapters of my book are posted at http://www.worthyofpublishing.com/search.asp?search=strings%20attached in order to hopefully generate some interest from the literary agent/publishing arena. This is probably all I will ever post online, solely for this purpose.

I wrote some descriptions/synopses to start submitting to agents. Friday, I'm going to dig into that.

I'm 102 pages into the second book. Some interesting things are unfolding and I like it, but I need to interview some legal professionals about one situation that occurs.

Anyway, enjoy the first 2 chapters, feel free to question, comment, complain or joke at your leisure about it!

Now what?

While I was in London, I vowed I didn't think I could live there. Now that I'm back, settled into my old routine, I miss it desperately! I want to go back! I hope I will go there often! And next time for a longer visit!

The first week back went very quickly. I got home Sunday night, went straight into teaching on Monday afternoon, and Mom was here until Saturday. I met her new boyfriend, Barth, who is very nice, adores Mom and is quite funny!  He is a health nut, rides the train everywhere, lives in Long Beach, and he and Mom are pretty close. It's really cute to see my mom in love after so long! They met on her last ship - he was a dance host and dance hosts are not allowed to have relationships, so they had to keep their romance a secret! Now, they are having a ball together and are very happy to be free. He is going to visit her in MN and meet the family (that will be interesting!) He has a pretty thick accent and Mom and I understand him well, but I don't think most of our family will understand him. I think the idea of a foreigner in the family will be weird for them. Here is a pic of the 2 of them: 

I've been working on the 2nd book and am about to page 80. I think this one will turn out longer than the first one, which I think will be fine. I'm procrastinating about the agent submissions. It's going to be a lot of work. Mom is reading through the first book and I might wait until I get her feedback.

London seems to have given me a bit more confidence about doing something with my life. I'm not afraid to try to get my book published now. I am trying not to fall into habits I had before I took that trip. I was getting lazy, and I'm trying to stay motivated.

This thought occurred to me: skinny people, do you have any sense of gratitude about your looks?  Do you see someone like me and think, "Thank god I don't look like her!" Are you relieved you aren't ugly or fat?  Or do you falsify reasons to hate your body for reasons of modesty, humility, or a warped sense fo self?  How long did it take you for that falsification to become true? 

I have noticed in my aerobics classes that I seem to be fitter than a lot of the people there. I have more stamina and strength than most of them do - even the younger ones, but none of that really matters because I'm still this size. I swear, if the weight ever does come off (even though I lost 14 lbs in London, I haven't dropped a dime since I returned), I will be very grateful for it!

There is this weird competitive stigma between fat women. Sometimes I get a look from another fat chick and I know she is thinking, "Well, I'm fat too, but I'm prettier than she is" or "I'm not as fat as she is". It's weird. I get that a lot and I hope I'm not doing that to other people.

The London is over blog #8

Monday, May 3, 2010
1:12pm

I got home last night around 9pm. My mom picked me up at LAX - it took a while because there were 3 full flights ahead of ours at customs.  I met her new boyfriend, Barth, but only very briefly. My first impression is that he is very funny and adores my mom, so needless to say I like him very much! He's coming here for dinner tomorrow night (he lives in Long Beach).  I went to bed around 10 and was up from 2am-4am with jet lag. Then I went back to sleep and slept until 8 this morning. Mom and I just got back from swimming at the Y. I weighed myself right before I left (I don't have a scale) for London, and just now. I lost 14 lbs. last week.

I have to say that in England, I find the men better looking and much more gentlemanly! I could get used to that! But I don't know if I could ever live there. I like having space - London is so crowded! I think I would feel a bit stifled there (I would in NYC too). But I will go back. Often, hopefully. It's all very fascinating to me, and now that I'm home, the whole trip feels a bit surreal. If I get published and start rolling in dough, I'd love to have a flat there!

Part of me feels a bit silly that I went and met Matthew Macfadyen at the stage door.  I didn't do it so I could say I met him, I wanted to see him in person and up close and not even to have any sort of interaction with him. He would never remember me, recognize me again, doesn't know me from Adam. I don't really care that he does. He has brought a lot of enjoyment to my life and I love the work that he does - it's at a level I identify with and want to strive for. I gave him the CD and the note (which he may never listen to or read) because if there's a possibility I can return that enjoyment even a little bit, I wanted to try. Professionally, I would love to work with him, but I know I'll probably never get a chance to do that because even though we are in the same lines of work, we run in different circles. I will say though that I have ideas for a screenplay for which he'd be perfect. And I could make it something we could collaborate on, but it's all a pipe-dream.

I am now going into "getting published" mode. My experiences in London gave me a lot of food for thought and I have things I could add to the book, based on my experiences, but the book is already too long and I think adding much would detract from the story that is already there. I think, however, that I can use my experiences to really enhance book 2, because the main couple will spend about 6 weeks there. In the meantime, in regards book 1, I have confirmed my locations and enhanced things a bit.  It also made the trip tax-deductible!

So, back to real life. Summer scheduling for lessons. Prospective student to call back who called me in London. Gotta get this damn broken tooth fixed and some new contact lenses (exciting, eh?)  Hang out with Mom for a bit. And get my book published!

Thanks everybody for reading this blog lately and for all of your generous comments, clicking the little boxes (cool, interesting, whatever, which I think are kinda stupid, but they did get used, didn't they?) both here and on Facebook! It felt like I had fans rooting for me on my trip! LOL

The London Blog #7

Mom complained that I don't have any pictures of me in London, so I took one right after I got out of bed yesterday morning. This is for you, Mom: 

Sunday, May 2, 2010
11:30am
I am sitting in the lobby of the Shaftesbury Hotel in Paddington, stalling before I head for Heathrow. I have checked out of my tiny hotel room (with the smallest shower in the world that I had to literally wedge myself into!) I'm doing some writing.

Yesterday morning, I took the overground train out to Richmond and Twickenham (there was a rugby match in Twickenham and the train was packed). Someone had suggested this was a nice area and I make mention of Cecilia living there at one point during Jack's life in the book. I decided on Richmond, near the Thames. It was nice to ride on an overground train and actually see things.  I took pictures of some trains at Waterloo for my nephew Rhett, who is almost 4 and loves trains. I tried to get a model of a tube train for him, but couldn't find one.

Went back to the hotel for a bit to change up for the show last night. Then, I went on the London Eye and took a lot of pictures. It was good to see the city in overview like that. My nephew Zack, who is 11, loved ferris wheels when he was little - I think he would really like to ride the Eye someday.

In the short amount of time it took to get from Waterloo to Covent Garden, it started pouring rain and continued the rest of the night. I had a scarf over my head, but I still got drenched! I finally bought an umbrella for 5 pounds. Then I went to the Vaudeville to meet up with Spyridoula (Spy) from Ottawa to have dinner before the play. She was great! I like her very much. We also found some other people from online and we all had dinner at a bar across from the stage door. It was fun to talk with other Matthew fans about him for a bit and to meet all these Britons! After being alone all week and not having anybody to hang out with, this was good for me.  Here's a pic: 

It was closing night for Private Lives at the Vaudeville. There is talk about bringing it to Toronto (where Kim Cattrall grew up) and New York next year, which would be great, but it's not set in stone yet. They closed this run because Kim has to go and promote SATC2 and Matthew is promoting Robin Hood (he's the sheriff), filming Any Human Heart and possibly The Promised Land (with Colin Firth, the other Darcy haha).

The show last night was magnificent. The chemistry between Matthew and Kim, especially at the end of the first act, was on fire! And Matthew had a freedom about his performance I hadn't really seen during the other two shows, that I know from experience can only come from it being closing night. The most performances I have ever done of a show is about 20 and they did hundreds. I have to imagine it's hard to keep things fresh after that amount of time, but that very last show will lend itself to some very creative outcomes.

After the performance, more than 50 people were gathered at the stage door in pouring (and very cold) rain for about 90 minutes. At one point, we were told that the stars were cleaning out their dressing rooms, and little by little some people gave up and left. I stood talking to Spy about lots of things - life, Matthew, etc. I like her very much! After about 90 minutes, we were all told that Matthew and Kim went out the front door of the theatre and nobody got anything. I imagine some people were quite upset, and I was disappointed for them! I wanted to try to get a picture of myself with Matthew, because I was "cut out" of the one on Thursday that Waltraud took, and as a joke, to have him now sign "Felix Carbury" on my program and tease him about channeling him at the stage door Tuesday night, but didn't get my chance. (Felix is his caddish character in "The Way We Live Now", and he's drunk pretty much through the series.) Spy and I shared a cab (she to Earl's Court, me to Paddington), and we vowed to keep up with each other on Facebook and the forum. She was off to Prague for vacation today and had only been in London to see PL and meet Matthew, which she didn't get to do. I felt bad for her, but she seemed to have a good time! She will come back through London next weekend.

I have lots of thoughts about the trip, aside from the sightseeing, so I will extemporate on those when I get home. Not looking forward to the flight (but will again try to get 1st class for my 2 seats), but I'm very much looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight!