The Good, the Bad, and the Technology, Part II

I finally got my clickers working (yay!) - some glitch in the new software or something like that. But when I polled my students about creating a Facebook or Twitter account for the class, they voted it right down. I guess I don't blame them as it would have given them one more thing to do. So there goes my technology in the classroom goal ... for now. Maybe my Fall class will feel differently.

The good news is... no rejection letters this week. The bad news is that's because I haven't sent any queries out in a couple of weeks. I am still perfectly my query for Porcelain Goddess on AQ (love that site: http://agentqueryconnect.com/index.php?/forum/2-query-critiques/). When it's ready, I'm going to send it out to the agent who gave me such great feedback on my Rule #17 query. I also added a prologue to Rule #17 to better explain why my main character is such a bitch. Hopefully that will help it sell...

My marathon training plan (week 4):
M - 3 mi E w/ 4*20 sec @ T pace
Tu - walked 2.5 mi (really tired)
W - 3 mi E w/ 4*40 sec hill repeats
Th - bike - Tempo - 30 min (knee hurt all day after that)
F - 3 mi E
Sa - 6 mi @ HMP

Infertility in Idaho

In the past week, I found out that 3 people I know are pregnant (the last one being yesterday). While I am super excited for them, I couldn't help but ponder the irony this morning that while everyone I know (yes, this is an exaggeration) seems to be pregnant, I spent most of the past week on the couch with heat on my belly to alleviate the worst cramps I've had in years. I know I shouldn't be bummed and I realize that you can't train for a marathon while trying to get pregnant, but you can still be sad about it when you're not. So today is my pity party day. I'll get over it and I'll keep on running and writing (when I'm not doubled over in pain), but for now I'm gonna shed a few tears.

The Good, the Bad, and the Technology

This has not been my week, technology speaking. Not only have I still not gotten Twitter to work in the classroom, but my clickers didn't work all week either. For those of you who have no idea what a clicker is, it's a little remote control-like device that students can use to 'click' in their responses to questions I post on Powerpoint. It's great for large classes because everyone can have a voice. That is, when they work. Turning Point, who makes the clicker software, just came out with a new version and we think that's the problem. So I'm going to take my laptop (which has an older version) to class next week to see if I can get something technologywise to work in my classroom!

I also managed to rack up three more rejections on Rule #17 and 1 more on TTBI. The good news is that I also received valuable feedback on both. Apparently, my main character in Rule #17 is not compassionate enough (which makes since given she could vie for the Olympic bitch of the year award were their one). I'm not about to make her less bitchy as that is just her character (and the inner bitch in all of us), but it looks like I at least to explain why she's the way she is. So I'm going to add a prologue to fix that. The other piece of good advice I received this week was about the title of TTBI. Apparently, having the word 'toilet' in my book title is a big turnoff. It was suggested by some of my fabulous critiquers on AQ (see previous blog) that I change the title to Porcelain Goddess. I love it! So I am now reworking my query to that end.

The really good news is that I just found an author I love who self-publishes on Amazon: H.P. Mallory (hpmallory.com). I bought her first book because it sounded like it might be interesting and to just see what  self-published book was like. They really did a nice job over at Amazon. You could tell it wasn't done by a big publisher (glue obvious on the binding, type a little offset), but it wasn't just some pages in a binder, which is what I expected. Anyway, if I can't get an agent interested in any of my stuff soon, I may try that route. H.P. Mallory is a real talent and if it's good enough for her...

Marathon Training Plan, Week 4:
Monday - 3 mi E w/ 4*20sec Tempo pace
Tuesday - bike 30 min
Wednesday - 3 mi E w/ 3*30-60sec hill repeats
Thursday - 20 min bike
Friday - 3 mi E
Saturday - 6 mi

Sometimes You're the Stoop, Sometimes You're the Pigeon

Okay, so I haven't done quite as well this week with my goals. I got my running goals met for the week (yay!), but that's about it.

I did manage to get 7 rejections from literary agents this week: 5 on Rule #17 and 2 on TTBI, which is apparently not uncommon (and you get toilet paper made out of your rejection letters if you want, which would be appropriate given my first romance is called the toilet bowl incidents: http://www.lulu.com/static/pr/9_26_05.php).  I'm going to send out more today - more fodder for toilet paper if nothing else. :)

I only got my 15 minutes of morning meditation in 4 days this week (including today) and my 5 afternoon minutes twice (but hey, the day's not over yet).

Finally, I tried and failed to get Twitter working in my classroom. Technology loves me! (Sarcasm duly noted.)

Here's to a better week next week!

My marathon training plan, week 2:
Monday - run - 1 mi E, 2 * 20 sec intervals @ half marathon pace(HMP)  in 1 mi (slick so couldn't go faster), 1 mi E
Tuesday -  bike - 35 min Tempo
Wednesday - 3 mi E with 2*45sec hill repeats
Thursday - 45 min walk (yeah, I was really tired and lazy that day)
Friday - 3 mi E
Saturday - 6 mi @ HMP

6 down, 20 more to go

Some days 6 miles feels incredibly short and easy; some days it seems insurmountable. Today was one of those insurmountable days. But running is like life...there are ups and downs, good days and not so good ones, good runs and days like today.

The most important thing is that I achieved my goal and am still making progress toward my New Year's Goals.

1) My Marathon Training plan, Week 1
Monday - 1 mi Easy, 4* 20sec intervals, 1.2 mi Easy
Tuesday - tempo bike - 35 min
Wednesday - 3.1 miles easy
Thursday - tempo bike - 35 min
Friday - 3.33 miles easy
Saturday - 6 miles @ half marathon race pace

2) I successfully meditated every day this week - 15 min am, 5 pm - Yay me!

3) I submitted the latest version of my query letter to 6 new agents for my first romance - the Toilet Bowl Incidents and submitted my second romance (Rule #17) to 7 agents (first time submitting this one). Wish me luck! I also want to give a shout out to AgentQuery connect for helping me solidify/improve my query letters and to webook for making the whole submission process a lot easier. If you ever decided to publish a novel  or anything for that matter, check these sites out:

http://www.webook.com/literary-agents/agentInboxHome.aspx
http://agentqueryconnect.com/

4) Hey - I'm still blogging. :)

Thanks for following and keep on running and writing!

First Race of the Year

There's nothing better (from a runner's perspective) than kicking off the new year with a race. So I took advantage of our local New Year's 5K. I was 30 sec slower than last year's time, but considering the banner year I had last year (note the sarcasm), I was very happy with my time. I even came in 4 minutes faster than I predicted. Can't beat that!

On the plus side, I ran 956.4 miles last year, which beat 2009's total of 914.5 miles. So I may be slower, but I can go longer. Endurance is more important to me as I age anyway.

Next up: Dry Creek Half Marathon. This will be the 4th time I've run it (I think - I'm starting to lose track) and it should be a good training race on my way to the the big 26.2.