We all deal with loss in different ways. HockeyBoy retreats to his room alone. GiftedBoy gets angry and takes it out on everyone around him – he’s a lot like his mother. Mr. Yankee gets either quiet or giggly, depending on the level of loss. I obsess about the loss in my thoughts and try to ignore the loss in my acts.

This holiday season marks the first without my grandma. She died last December 9th, and although we had Christmas without her, I think the family was still in shock from her death. Now, it’s not like she died unexpectantly – Lord, she was a month shy of her 99th birthday. But the loss of her life, her personality, just her was still too fresh. I didn’t send out Christmas cards last year, and I didn’t decorate the house at all. Sure we had a tree, but it was up and down very quickly.

Halloween marks the beginning of the holiday season for me, and for most of us. I am so not into Halloween this year. Again, we haven’t decorated – and not from the lack of both boys asking to do so. We just figured out costumes for the boys, I just bought the candy, and we just carved the pumpkins last night.

I don’t want to begin the holiday season.

I received a letter a week or so ago letting me know that my grandmother will be remembered at a special mass on Sunday, All Soul’s Day. I opened the letter, read it quickly, and then tossed it in the trash. I don’t need something special to remember my grandmother – I do it every day.

Then my dad sent out an email to the family about the letter. Drat. I was hoping I’d been the only one who received it. No I’m not that dumb; of course my father received it – the church knows about his connection too to her.

Will I go to this mass? I don’t know. If I do, though, I’ll have to make sure I wear my waterproof mascara.

Peace,

Kris

PS. Happy Halloween!

Tomorrow morning we drive about 140 miles to play a league game. Ugh….that’s about 2 1/2 hours away. I can’t believe we have a LEAGUE game with a team that is 2 1/2 hours away. That is insane.

We were supposed to have this game on November 22 – which is a Saturday – at 2pm. But for some reason, we had to switch it. In a perfect world, we would’ve driven to GR tonight so that we didn’t have to drive tomorrow before the 11am game. But we had to do a fundraiser at the Plymouth Whaler’s game tonight, so there was no way we were going to drive up tonight. Oh well. I guess I should be happy it’s not a 9am ice time.

Tomorrow HockeyBoy will finally play. The last time he was in a game was Tuesday, October 7th. He participated in two practices and has been feeling great. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that he continues on this path.

I didn’t hear back from my agent about where she subb’ed the manuscript. I’m sure she’s busy, and I’m not worried. I trust her implicitly. Once I hear anything, I’ll update you all.

Hope your Sunday is peaceful.

Kris

Well, last night we at Nelson Publishing & Marketing had our first writing workshop. A few people were late due to a venue change, so in order to get through everything we planned to cover, we zipped through things quickly. Hopefully not too quickly that the participants were lost. I couldn’t stick around after it finished because I had to get to the boy’s school for the PTO meeting – I’m the Secretary, so I have to be there.

Next week we’ll get into the meat of writing – hooks, pov, characters, dialogue. Should be interesting.

I’m sure I’ll get feedback from my boss and possibly some from a few teacher’s from the kids’ school. I hope it is all good. And if it’s not, we’ll have a basis to go from. Granted, this was the first workshop that I’ve done with NP&M.

Peace,

Kris

Thanks to my good ol’ critique partner, my blog now has a similar look as my website.

I’m so excited!!

I want to fool around with it some more, but no time right now. I’m happy with it.

Hockeyboy has been cleared to go to practice on Thursday. Sigh. His team has a game tonight and one tomorrow, and I’ve already had a discussion with him this morning about him not playing until after he’s at a practice. He just wants to get back on the ice and into a game. Poor kid. Hopefully this time he won’t have any problems.

On to writing news….what are the two words a writer wants to hear from her agent other than, “You’ve sold!”? For me, at least, it’s “submission time!” That’s right; the wonderful Christine Witthohn told me yesterday that she’ll be sending out my manuscript, A Life Unraveled, to several editors by the end of the week. I know that this is just one more step, and I’m trying to not be too excited, but it is a lot of fun. I’ll keep you posted on how that whole thing works out.

Tonight is Nelson Publishing & Marketing’s first workshop in our five-week long workshop series, “Writing Children’s Fiction.” It should prove to be very interesting with two of the attendees being staff from my kid’s elementary school. Almost all of the attendees are either teachers or staff of schools. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m not all that nervous – I’ll be running it along with Marian Nelson. In a former life, I was a Corporate Trainer – so talking about stuff I know about is a no-brainer for me. We’ll see how I do tonight!

Peace,

K

What do you think of this?

I wasnt’ happy with the previous look.

I’d like to figure out a way to use the banner from my new website here on the blog, but I have a feeling that by doing that, I’ll have to “customize” the template which means money to WordPress. I could be wrong, but for now this will do.

This look reminds me of that old saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side.” Right now, the other side is the hockey ice, and we’re still looking at it from across the glass. HockeyBoy is still benched. We’ll find out tomorrow am what his doctor wants us to do. I had to take him to the ER again last week because of a severe headache. My head hurts from all of this, and I’d swear that I was the one with the concussion.

Keep your fingers crossed, say a prayer, light a candle, send good vibes/positive thoughts – whatever you can spare – to the Yankee household today and tomorrow so that we hear he can return to the ice soon.

Peace,

K

HockeyBoy went to practice Thursday evening and came home early because of a headache. Sigh. I’m so tired of this, and it hasn’t even been that long. I’d like to shake the kid who hit my kid, but obviously that’s not going to happen. HB is off the ice for a week, and then we’ll start over again.

I’ve got a new author – she’s a nun. This should be interesting. I’m wondering if God is trying to tell me something?

Peace,

Kris

HockeyBoy had a game last night, and he was back to his old playing self- getting two points with a goal and an assist. This is the third win for the season. We’re so happy to be on a successful team.

We’re still going to the post-concussion clinic today just to make sure all of his brain cells are working – or at least working at the level they’re supposed to be. We’ve never had any formal testing done on him, not like GiftedBoy. It should be interesting.

We tried to watch the debate last night, but got a phone call about the team’s hockey website (which now Mr. Yankee and I are responsible for), so we paused Obama on TIVO, but never got back to him. I was too tired by the time we were done on the phone to listen to the two of them. I hope it was better than the VP debate. I could not stand listening to Sarah Palin one more minute. Thank God for TIVO because we kept pausing and speeding through everything she had to say.

An interesting tidbit came up during a meeting this past Monday. Someone mentioned that both McCain and Palin do not hold college degrees. This really bothered her. I suppose I should Google it to be sure and not spread rumors, but to be honest I don’t really care. I know I should, but I don’t. I’ve told Mr. Yankee that if that side wins, we’re moving to Canada. If McCain is truly different than the current administration, then maybe it won’t be so bad. But if he’s the same, then the country may not be able to handle it.

Did you know that McCain has pulled out of any campaigning here in Michigan? He already knows that Obama will win, so why waste the time and money. That really bothers me. Trust me, I’m not voting for him, but he’s given up so easily to win over Michigan. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

Peace.

HockeyBoy played very cautiously for the first two periods of the game on Saturday. I was a wreck, but so proud of how he skated. He was a bit slow and not at all aggressive. As the game wore on,he looked like his usual self. I’m still taking him to the post-concussion clinic at UofM on Wednesday. Should be interesting – need to make sure all of those synapses (or would that be synapsi?) are working!

My last set of edits has been turned into Christine. I swear to G.O.D. that will be THE last time I send them to her. Next time, it better be to an editor at a house.

Time to start working on my edits to Stolen Years. I still love this story. My excellent critic partner, Ms. Jenyfer Matthews, whipped out her comments on it in no time! I’m so grateful for her eye. It pays to have a great crit partner. I’m working on the other half of her wip which was requested by every agent and editor she spoke with at The Women’s Fiction Festival in Matera, Italy. Wish I could’ve gone – maybe next year.

Upcoming things at Nelson Publishing & Marketing – I’ll be doing a five-week writing workshop for Children’s book authors starting October 21. Should be interesting to say the least!

I’ve also been given two new authors. One is a children’s picture book, and the other is an adult non-fiction. Both should prove to be excellent projects. If you get a minute, check out NPM’s website – I’m the webmistress! – and see all of our wonderful books. You’ll find it here.

Peace,
Kris

HockeyBoy is feeling wonderful so we’re letting him play in his first game. We’re very excited and nervous.

Not much else I can say right now. I’ll post some photos if I get any good ones.

Peace,
Kris

All right, all of you with elementary school-aged kids raise your hands. How many of them watch Cartoon Network? Now, how many of YOU allow THEM to watch Total Drama Island? I reluctantly raise my hand, and then glance over the top of my glasses to see who is with me.

For those of you who do not have the pleasure of having to tolerate this cartoon, check here so you can catch up to speed.

My husband and I were adamant that we were not going to allow our kids to watch this show. Frankly, I didn’t know what it was about, and the commercials I’d seen for the show made me think it was for much older kids. One of the kids’ buddies watches this show and must’ve sung its’ praises all summer long. We accidentally let them watch it one time, and I have to admit that it isn’t as bad as I thought. But I still didn’t like it.

So why am I spending so much time talking about this? It’s a cartoon show of a reality show where a bunch of kids are on an island and have to do stunts in order to not be voted off. They’ve got the “diary” camera with the characters as they use marshmallows as their token that they need to receive at the end of the show.

Now, I’ve never really got into any of the Survivor shows. Incidentally, my agent’s sister was on one of them. She was voted off, I’m told. But my point is that it’s weird to me that the writer’s of cartoon shows are copping off of reality tv.

I don’t watch much reality tv. I like American Idol – well, last season not so much – So You Think You Can Dance?, Top Chef, Dog Whisperer (although I’ve only watched this a few times), and that’s about it.

I guess it doesn’t surprise me that cartoon writers are writing reality tv shows as cartoons. But where is the imagination? Thinking up gross things for the kids to do so they can stay on the island? Isn’t that just copying that really gross reality show – Fear Factor or whatever?

Why can’t there be cool shows like The Jetsons, The Flintstones, Tom and Jerry – shows like that that use the imagination to take kids to places that are out of this world – not to some Survivor-type island where kids are taught to want to win at any expense and learn that popularity makes a huge difference in getting ahead.