My Novel is Finished

I've been working on writing a novel for the past year and a half. I finished writing the story a few months ago and I've spent the last couple months re-reading it, fixing inconsistencies and re-writing awkwardly written parts. The name of the novel will be "Little Boy Lost". It's about an up-and-coming young executive and his wife who are traveling cross-country due to his transfer from the east coast to the west coast. They are driving in two cars, taking turns with their two year old son. At a rest stop two hours from their new home, they inadvertently leave their son, each parent thinking the other one has him. A young, poor local woman finds him and decides to keep him. Now that I have it done, I have to decide what to do with it. The advice I've been given is to find an agent. Naturally, I have no idea how to do that. Someone told me to go to Barnes and Noble and get a book called, "Writer's Market" which will give me all kinds of information about how to get a book published as well as the names and addresses of agents. When I looked online I found a website named "Writer's Market" and it seems to be the same thing. You have to pay to join, but it seems like it will be worth it since it's interactive and updated daily. Does anyone know anything about publishing a book? Anyone have any experience? I'd love to get into a dialogue with anyone who can help me.

New Cross stitch

Time for me to start a new cross-stitch. I really should have started one in January, but I'd just finished a new baby cross-stitch for my grand-daughter that took me about a year.

So I decided I wanted to do a "Family Tree", since I was remarried in June 2006 and I now have a new family. I was really looking for a pattern that looked like an actual tree, and I found a couple but they weren't very attractive and were limited in the number of names I could put on. I wanted a pattern where I could take the cross-stitch down and add names of grandchildren as they came along. So I found this pattern, which is very pretty and will give me the flexibility I want.

The center reads "Our family quilt grows more precious with every union, every birth and every special occasion." The squares and diamonds all have flowers in them, and the edges are where you can add the names and dates. I'm looking forward to working on this cross-stitch. I'm sure it'll be a year before I get it done. Just for fun, I'm going to keep track of how many hours I spend on it.

Planning Montreal

My daughter plays Women's Football. www.manchesterfreedom.com This is her fourth year, and every year Hubby and I have really enjoyed going to watch her games. They usually range from New England to New York and during the playoffs they might go further than that. This year they're going to Montreal and hubby and I have decided to go there to watch her. Okay.....it's a really good excuse to do some traveling. Usually we "go away" twice a year....once in June for my birthday and once in October for Hubby's. It started out with him planning my birthday adventure and me planning his. Now that we're married, I tend to plan them both....not because I'm the wife and he's the husband but because I love to plan things and he really doesn't. As a matter of fact, I get almost as much enjoyment out of planning it as I do out of the actual trip. Between now and then, I'll spend hours online looking up Bed and Breakfasts, Restaurants and Attractions. We do like staying in a Bed and Breakfast as opposed to a hotel/motel. We just find it so much cozier and we love the interaction with other guests and the hospitality of the owners. Not all the places we've stayed have turned out to be gems, but most of the time we're quite delighted with our choice. I've already found the place we're going to stay in Montreal. http://www.bbassin.com/index.htm It wasn't easy despite the fact that there are many, many B and B's in that city. I have two top criteria for a place....one being a private bathroom and the other being a full gourmet breakfast. It seemed like lots of the places in Montreal had shared bathrooms, and the ones that didn't had bathrooms 'ensuite'. I had to look up what that meant. Turns out it means the toilet and tub are IN the room...not adjoining, but IN. I didn't like the idea of that either. But this place we're staying has a private bathroom and a full breakfast. None of this namby pamby 'Continental Breakfast' crap for us. I'm pretty excited about going. I've never been there, never been out of the country even! I know I'm going to love it. But there's more planning to do between now and mid-April.

Easter

My Mom and Dad really enjoyed the time they spent with their Great-Granddaughter this Easter. She's 7 months old and such a delight! Great-Grandpa danced with her, and Great-Grandma rocked her to sleep when she was all tuckered out!

Easter at my Mom and Dad's was a wonderful time. It's so much fun to be together with all the family. We had a yummy dinner and spent the afternoon visiting.

Hoppy Easter

Hoppy Easter Everyone!

Pre-Easter Prep

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. When I was a kid our family were practicing Catholics so Easter was a very special time for us. On Good Friday there was no school (we went to Catholic School) but according to our tradition, in the afternoon from noon to 3pm we had to be silent, since that was the time when Jesus was on the cross. I'm not sure if it wasn't an idea my mother came up with to have some peace and quiet for three hours! We did everything we could to communicate without making a sound - wrote each other notes or tried to lip read - so we kind of had some fun with it, which I'm sure was not the point! Back then, Easter Sunday was the day for getting dressed up in brand new spring clothes - dresses with little taffeta skirts, sometimes homemade by my mother or grandmother, spring coats, little white gloves, patent leather shoes, new tights and perhaps a little patent leather purse to match the shoes. And of course, the new "Easter bonnet". We had a big Easter Dinner and would then visit with the grandmothers where all our aunts and uncles and cousins also congregated. After we'd been there long enough to show off our new duds, we had to go change into "play clothes" so as not to ruin our new "church clothes". Things have changed of course - haven't they changed with everything? Our focus isn't on church anymore and some of us have shed the "church clothes" personna, but our family still celebrates with a big meal. (of course...we're French....food factors into every occasion!) This year we're having two dinners. Tonight Tag's kids are coming over and I'm serving the tradition dinner: Ham, mashed potatoes with raisin sauce, pineapple and vegetables. Then tomorrow we're going to my Mom and Dad's where we'll have basically the same dinner. All my brothers and sisters will be there as well as nieces and nephews, all my kids and my grand-daughter. Not everyone will be dressed, but I'll wear my Spring skirt (even though it's not a brand new outfit). The weather here hasn't been "Easterish" - cold with very high winds - but once inside my parent's snug little house we'll feel the joy and contentment of being in the bosom of the family. That's what the holidays are all about.

Camp is Coming!

My Art Room...notice the nifty gimp rack hubby made me on the far left on top picture
One of the kids having a good time making a mess on bottom picture.

I've said before how much I love my summer camp job. For the past 2 years, I've avoided getting a full-year job so I dont' have to give up my camp job! Realistically, the only job I could get would be in a school system, and I'm working on that. So tomorrow is the first day of spring, although you wouldn't know it by looking out at the weather (cold and snowy/rainy) and that can only mean one thing.....only three more months until camp starts! Hurray! I got an email yesterday from my camp director asking me to sit in on interviews for new camp staff. The director and his assistant have been working on camp stuff all winter....brochures, programs, materials, new workshops, etc. It's unbelievable how much work goes into making camp run smoothly. Soon I'll be making my list of materials I need to order. I'm the Arts and Crafts director and I'm always looking for new and intersesting things for the kids to do, so if you have any great ideas, let me know!

Top Ten Most Favorite Art Activities at Camp:

1. Gimp

2. Making bracelets from embroidery floss

3. Craft sticks

4. Beads you iron to make shapes

5. Spin Art

6. Clay

7. Model wooden cars (which we then race)

8. Model Rockets (which we then launch)
9. Making Potholders

10. Painting