Playing Catch Up

Nov. 28, 2006: I finished my first manuscript. Yeah me! :-D

Nov. 30. 2006: Rushed to get my first Golden Heart entry into the mail. Fought my way through a snowy/iced road to the post office at Headrick.

Dec. 8, 2006: Sent my first query to an agent via email with nine pages of the manuscript attached.

I changed the working title of 'SPLICED' to ONLY IN MY DREAMS or TO LIVE A DREAM. I haven't decided yet.

Di

Wrote into the early hours last night

The picture below is of the Grand Tetons National Park. I've researched the Snake River Valley there as the basis for a setting in my book. Took several hours to figure out what a certain land feature was. . . prominent lateral moraines from past glaciers.

Di

Countdown to GH deadline

Today I managed to write 7 pages.

That makes 163 pages.

Today's Word Count

Countdown to the GH deadline:

11-26 36,192 words 156 pages (6 pgs. today)

Daily writing progress

Here's the up-to-date report of my daily writing progress toward a finished manuscript.

11-10 15.500 words 6 pgs.
11-11 16,988 5 pgs.
11-13 18,314 6 pgs.
11-14 19.277 1 pg.
11-15 20,015 3 pgs.
11-18 28,536 [123 pgs. total so far]
11-20 30,160 7 pgs.
11-21 31,088 4 pgs.
11-22 34,104 13 pgs
11-23 34,800 3 pgs.

Yeah me. :-D

My internet connection is fixed...finally

My internet has been mostly down over a week. Seems like longer.

The OKRWA annual Sept. retreat at Quartz Mountain Lodge with Mel Odom was great. It was such a blast to have so many friends there. And Mel is a heck of a speaker and teacher. The atmosphere of the area was perfect for writers. So nice. I really enjoyed myself. :-D

Di

Working Cattle Wears Me Out

We reworked two pens of the heifers today. 90 in one pen and 140 in the other. Gave them their booster vacine for blackleg. We've finally had enough rain lately to turn the grass green. Nice to see everything green again.

Worked hard today. Finally finished around 4:30 this afternoon. Did I mention I begin by 7:00 am every morning? Headed for bed, the DH calls.

Di

Yesterday was my Dad's birtheday

My Dad's birthday was yesterday. I thought about him, missed him and grieved some. Times are hard right now. Two friends are battling cancer. I hurt for them.
Di

Lots of free blog templates

Check out a great place to find all kinds of easy to view and free blog templates at http://themes.wordpress.net/. I never could figure out how to use one of them after I downloaded the file though.

Finally found my new look 0on the blogger.com website. I think I'll like it. It reminds me of forests and lush growing things. Ahh, it relaxes me just to think about the forest. Did I ever mention to you I just love trees. :-D

Here's a pic of the Amazon Rain Forest along the Amazon River in Brazil.

Di

Diane L. Dishman's Blog . . .

It's been awhile since I updated this blog. I'll try to be more faithful to do that now.

Wed. I'll begin riding cattle pens over every morning for nine weeks. The cattle get sick when they've been through the stress of being shipped a long way on trucks all cooped up in close quarters with strange cattle. Kinda like kids tend to get sick more often when they first begin to get around lots of other kids. It's my job to spot the calf as soon after he begins to feel bad as possible. Unlike people, when a calf gets sick he can die with pnemonia in just days and he can't tell you when he feels bad. You have to really pay attention and know what signs to look for.

Our hired hand, Mike R. will help me pin the calves I decide to doctor that day. We have a veternarian that oversees the medicating plans. Then we'll get the calves up into the lot and into the chute so that we can give them a bolus (pill) or injection as needed. We always keep a medicine card on each sick calf, and use several colors of colored chalk to mark them in such a way that we can tell what day of the week the calf was doctored on and how many times he's been in the sick pen. Each calf stays in the sick pen three days and is medicated twice while there if needed before being turned back out into the waiting trap (pen) with the rest of the cattle.

yesterday, Mon. May 1

Mon., May 1
My step-mom called us at 4:00 this morning. My dad is not doing very well at all. I was over there most of the day, will be returning early in the morning. My stepbrother is over there this evening and tonight.He's a bed patient as a result of an accumulated amount of poisonous gases from his civil service welding job. The metal poisons caused his nerves to die all over his body, then the muscle mass deteriorated. All his teeth have broken off at gum level, but it doesn't hurt because the nerves are dead in the teeth.It's heartbreaking to watch him go downhill the way he's doing, but there's nothing anyone can do. His doctor is a doll and keeps him out of pain for which we are immensely grateful. Gotta get to bed in order to get back over there early.

BIAM: Days 6-9

Well, I had company over the Easter weekend and didn't get any writing done.

Then had to make a trip accross the state with my DH to help pick up a tractor he'd bought. It was a very slow, rough riding trip hauling the too heavy tractor on I 40 across Oklahoma. Got home late yesterday evening. Whew!

Will resume BIAM in the morning.

Diane
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http://www.dianedishman.com/

BIAM: Day 5 report

Supposed to have been posted 4-14-06 on Friday.

Words today: 1130 Pages today: 5

Total Words: 8000 Total Pages: 32

I've slept in the last two mornings catching up on sleep from insomniac nights.

The pantzer writing method is working great. I don't think about the story until I sit down to write.

For the first time, I printed out the pages I have and intend to read them this evening. Just feel the need to see the story as a whole as it is so far.

Diane
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www.dianedishman.com

BIAM: Day 4 report

Today's word count: 2370 Today's Page Count: 9.5 3 hours

Total word count: 6870 Total Page Count: 27.5

Hey, I think I like this pantzer method. It is working great so far. :-D

I keep having to remind myself not to think about the story when I'm not writing.

I think one of my problems has been over-analyzing my stories, and then not wanting to write what I've mentally dissected to death.This is a process of discovery for me. I'm learning lots.

One thing that is becoming really obvious is that your subconscious mind is a very complicated thing. I can't wait to discover more. :-D

Just for the record, I'm 48 not the 12 I sound like above. **LOL** But allowing the 'artist child to take over and play' is something I've not been able to do before. I thought I had, but I was carrying around so much uptight baggage that my own mind defeated me in my efforts to write. Does this make sense?

Discover your writing process. I never knew it could be such a fun trip. :-D

Diane
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www.dianedishman.com

BIAM: Day 3

Book In A Month: Day 3


Hey, today was much better. :-D

Today's word count: 2,750 Today's Page Count: 11

Total word count: 4,500 Total Page Count: 18


The pantzer method is working like a charm. I love discovering the story as I write. I'm having a blast with it. Today an unexpected sex scene came up that had me ready to run for a cold shower. :-D


Diane

BIAM - Day 2

BIAM - Day 2

Today's word count: 250 Todays Pages: 1

Total words: 1750 Total Pages: 7


Just got 2 hrs. sleep last night, and ended up writing 1 page today in 45 minutes. Whew! Tough going.

I did discover something really cool yesterday during my writing period. At the end of the day, I finally let myself run the spell check and I spent five minutes correcting spelling. Unbelievable what writing totally in the Artist side of the brain will do, huh? LOL

Diane's Blog . . .

Today I began the first day of a BIAM (Book-In-A-Month).

Got up at eight o'clock this morning ready to write after I finished a coke and granola bar. I woke up in my fav chair at 12:00. The morning gone. So, after a hurried shower, I wrote this afternoon.

In three and a quarter hours, I wrote 1500 words, or 6 manuscript pages.

Enjoyed fish & fries at LJS with Julia and her Jim. Reported to her my BIAM progess for the day.

Two-yr.-old Tiny

My sister, Donna, and her family were here over a week at Christmas. Tiny became so spoiled I thought she might not be able to walk when they left.! Between Donna and Holly, my 13-yr. old niece, Tiny's little feet rarely hit the ground during their visit. *LOL*

HUNK-O-RAMA II

Hunk-O-Rama II II

For all the eye candy you can stand, hit the Hunk link. :-D

Eric Meisel's Blog

Eric Meisel's Blog

http://ericmaisel.blogspot.com/

Lightbulb moment for me

Discovered this today after a friend told me about Eric's blog.

Lightbulb moment for me.

Check out the story on the writer that wanted discipline.

"Jump off the ball." Priceless and to the point.

Di

The house is finished!

I'm so glad that the eight months of construction are over. :-D Here are a few pics of house under construction. . .

Diane

This is the view from my patio. 

Hello Blog *hehe*

I brought along my little shadow, 'Tiny.' She's my most devoted fan and I'm her's. Here Tiny is on Mar. 10, 04 at 8 wks. old. She weighed in at a hefty one and a half pounds.

She's giving me the look clearly says, "C'mon, hurry up! I'm sweepy. " I'm a sap for that cute little face.

Gotta go to bed . . .the boss speaks! *hehe*
Good night all.
Di