Sherri Cornelius

I know I’ve been a little scarce around here, but the good news is that very few people are coming on purpose to look for new content. Whew. The bad news is that I’ve been oh so lazy in showing my gratitude for good things which have come my way in the past little while. I have the best budz on the webz, and I think I’m a little spoiled because not everybody could possibly be this lucky.

Case in point:

Yellowcat sent me this t-shirt as a prize for her little movie-lines contest. Now I have the only t-shirt from Bubba’s in Oklahoma, it’s safe to assume, and I wear it with pride. (Yes, I know it’s backwards. Too lazy to flip it.) Thanks, Holly!

And another confirmation my blog friends are indeed flesh-and-bone people:

I helped Ian on three of these books. I was a beta on Mustang Sally and Troubleshooters (my fave) and helped him in the Amazon book contest process on Deep Six, and though I didn’t work on The Archmage, he knew I’d like to have a complete set. He threw The Archmage in for kicks. These will be worth something someday, guaranteed. They’re signed and everything. A very sweet thing to do. Thanks, Ian!

And these aren’t the only things I’ve received from you guys. I’ve gotten snail mail from several of you, and books, and cds, and I just love getting these little pieces of my Internet friends. So now I’m thinking maybe I should have a contest and give something from my world as the prize. I’m going to really have to think about what it could be.I write, of course, and I can sketch, sort of. I don’t work, so no t-shirts. I have a daughter who makes her own greeting cards and a son who draws the coolest action scenes ever. I have several writing books I could pass along. Have I mentioned anything on the blog that made you say, “If only I had one of those”?

And what could the contest be? Oh dear.

I’ll begin with a call to prayer. My regular readers are familiar with the Darcs, a husband and wife team who have been tireless supporters of me, my blog, and my writing for a couple of years now. Darcknyt and Darc’sFalcon have brought me many blessings, and I’ll always be grateful for their friendship. I won’t go into detail, but recession-related unemployment has made things hard on them. They still have a home for now. I wish there were something I could do, but of course I don’t have any jobs to offer. All I can do is send a message to the universe that these people need help and trust that work will come in time. I’d appreciate your taking a moment to do the same.

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After finishing the first draft of my WIP, I took a couple of days off to allow a migraine to run its course, as well as to fulfill a critique commitment. Ian’s got a unique spin on the vampire novel and a good story to go along with it. His writing seems so effortless it makes me jealous, but I can’t wait until he snags a publishing contract. This may be the right book at the right time to do just that.

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So now that I’m feeling healthy and free, I’ll start edits on my WIP. I have been using yWriter on this last push to the end, which is based on individual scenes–great for moving big chunks around during organization stages, and then for crafting the scenes themselves. I’ve had trouble with this program in the past because of this chunky quality, but for some reason it was just what I needed for this book.

However, now that I’m finished with the scenes I need to read the book as a whole, and for that I’ve imported it to MS Word, my standard and the industry standard, though that is relaxing. I’ll make a single-shot pass, making notes and correcting typos, re-writing easy stuff as I go through and detailing the hard stuff for the next pass. My biggest trap is indecisiveness, so I’ve vowed to go with my gut on the hard decisions and not over-analyze. Another vow I’ve made is to look at the whole process through a fun lens, rather than fulfilling a duty. Duty crushes my creativity.

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

It’s a beautiful morning, though a cold front will be coming in this afternoon, plunging us back below freezing after a day’s reprieve during which the kids played barefoot in the dirt. So let’s see…what else is going on in Blossomland…

• Maggie gets her cast off Wednesday. I imagine they’ll x-ray her first, but I don’t see any reason they’d leave it on. She’s felt no pain for a week, at least. She will have to wear the cast for her school Christmas program tomorrow. I’ll probably buy a red sock to cover the bright pink, or else I’ll buy her a pink Christmas dress to match.
• I finished up my final project for Eternal Press last night and sent it off to my managing editor. I’m absolutely certain the decision to leave is the right one for me at this time. I’ll let you know when this vampire erotic fantasy is released in February.
• That post I did about being blocked by a  friend? Well just a day or two after, one of my best friends from college reconnected with me on Facebook and salved my soul. He’s a world traveler and drifts in and out of my life every few years. I’m pretty easy to find, as I have never lived outside of Central Oklahoma.
• Can’t wait to see Avatar! But how come aliens are always shaped like us? Even down to the women having breasts? I’m sure it’s a choice between realistic speculative world-building and concessions to characters a human can identify with. You know, because if a creature has boobs our brains supply woman seamlessly, and then they can focus on other aspects of a story. But still, it bugs me.
• So far I haven’t had anybody tell me I should be linking to them, so maybe those people don’t read me anymore. Thanks to those of you who checked your links.
• I will be making bourbon balls this year, and some other goodies for our Christmas night gathering, only I’ll have white, milk AND dark chocolate coating on the bourbon balls, and maybe even actual bourbon if I can talk the hubs into going to the liquor store. Maybe he could also buy a bottle of wine

I feel like there’s so much more I could be talking about, but I’m scattered. Anything you’d like to hear more about? Wanna tell me what you’ve got going on?

Having a hard time getting started this morning, due to a bit of a fragrance hangover from my outing yesterday. I went to OKC to see The Time Traveler’s Wife with a friend, and while I was there I did a tarot reading for her. The movie was good, the reading I’m not sure about. I’m very rusty doing readings in front of a live querant, because I haven’t had a real-life hang-out buddy in a long time. Years, even. It’s kind of weird, hanging out with somebody just for the fun of it, with no obligation attached. I guess that may make me seem like a real loser, but I’m sure we’ve all gone through periods of time where we put ourselves last, and that’s just what happened with me. I’ve never been one to collect friends like knick-knacks, and when you add in family obligations, moving around a lot and fatigue from health problems, it’s easy to lose touch with people. I’m happy I have the energy now to direct toward new friendships.

I finished my long synopsis for reals on Friday and sent it off to my agent. Thanks to all my beta readers, I’m extremely happy with how it turned out, which in case you didn’t know is pretty rare for me. I think the synopsis is tight and readable and, most importantly, informative–I just can’t imagine how it might have turned out better.

So now I’ll switch over to another project on the merry-go-round, which is editing these short stories from Eternal Press. One is almost finished, so my mini-goal for the next few days is to finish that one and get a good start on the next one. Then I plan to get the notes for my novel in order and work on that till I get stuck, and after that devote a day or two to a friend’s critique, then finish the second Eternal Press story. This merry-go-round method is really working for me. Instead of thinking about how many things I have to get done and becoming overwhelmed (and possibly frozen), I can focus on one thing at a time. Although I have the same amount of work to do, it’s more maneagable in smaller chunks. Duh.

Happy Monday, people!

I’m so tired, but in a good way. I visited an old college friend last night. Maybe it’s just a quirk of mine, but I always expect people to look completely different if I haven’t seen them in a while, and I also expect them not to recognize me. As you might expect, she recognized me just fine, and she is still every bit as beautiful and gracious as she was in college.

It surprised me how much we had to talk about. We probably have more in common now than we did back in the day. We picked up some Starbucks and pizza to take back to her apartment and got a little silly as girls can do. Of course the evening wouldn’t be complete without one of my trademark inappropriate remarks, but it made my friend laugh hysterically, so I guess it may have been worth it. I don’t know why I do that. I don’t have the balls to pull them off. Those remarks are why I have a love affair with my delete key. Wish I had one for my mouth.

But the night was great. Jen has a strength she may not recognize but which is quite obvious to me. She projects femininity and beauty in a way I wish I could. Her apartment smelled divinely neutral and so did she, and I hope to have many more evenings just like it. (Minus the trademark inappropriate remark).

You want a post every day? Then you get poorly thought out, ranty-type posts like yesterdays, which wasn’t actually about personal frustration, but more of a “Why are we this way?” As far as the line about my life being devoid of romance, there wasn’t anything wrong. I’ve just been contemplating love in general, watching things unravel for some folks around me, and gave myself a dose of reality, something I think a lot more people should do. I’ve been married for a long time and plan to keep it that way. No marriage is perfect, and I’ve expected mine to be for far too long.

So anyway, that topic is closed. Whatev.

Watched Sweeney Todd last night with the hubs. It’s a musical, you know, so I expected him to call it gay and leave the room halfway through. But Tim Burton’s darkness combined with Stephen Sondheim’s strong, interesting rhythms made it okay for a strong, silent type like the DH. Oh, and don’t forget all the spurting throat-blood and heaving bosoms. Made for machismo.

Back in the day when I was a misguided musical theater major, the songs of Sweeney Todd were a popular addition to the student body repertoire. I was surprised I didn’t feel more nostalgia while watching the movie, and thought maybe I was well and truly over that time in my life. It has haunted me.

Then we watched the “making of” part, and that’s when it hit me. There’s no feeling like being backstage. I’ve always enjoyed being in plays and musicals and operas much more than watching them, and when watching, I get the most enjoyment from putting myself in their place. I’ve never been in a movie so I don’t feel that tug with those, but anytime I see behind the scenes activity, costume changes or taking direction or vocal practice with the pianist, a stone settles in my sternum and an actual wave of nostalgia surges through me.

And yet I know it was not for me. I find now that I have little in common with very many of the people I knew back then, so reconnections with acquaintances, and some old friends, fall flat. It’s a bit disappointing, but it’s also a relief, in a way. It means I have grown up (sorta).

And now we are at the end of another poorly thought out, ranty-type post. You get what you pay for.

That’s my new superhero alter-ego. Super-Chipper Girl blinds the bad guys with her dazzling smile, and giggles them into submission. Her weaknesses are rainy days and reality checks.  However, her super-chipper energy shield is self-healing, so chinks don’t stay long.

This whole thing started as my self-deprecating joke on Twitter and somehow…evolved. Darcknyt got an idea for a Super-Chipper Girl header, Falcon joined in, and the final result is what you see above. Then I bragged about my new header to Ian, who became inspired and promptly whipped me up a lady to go with the theme.

Pretty cool, huh? I’m keeping the new header for a while. It’s fun.

The kids are back in school, hubby is back at work, and I’m where I always was. The temp will climb to the mid-fifties today, so my guess is that most of the ice/snow will be melted by this evening. The rest will melt tomorrow when it gets in the mid-sixties.

Good thing we took advantage of the sunshiney weather yesterday to play in the snow. Neighbor Lady saw us playing outside and brought her grandkids over to play with us. Since we ere outside the fragrance wasn’t too much of an issue. Whenever I caught a whiff I just moved further up-wind. I’m a be-near person, not a stay-away person, so it was weird trying to keep my distance from them.

This is the same neighbor whose daughter has been fighting cancer, don’t know if you remember, and I was watching the granddaughter from time to time before I realized the smell her shampoo was a trigger for my migraines. I wish I could do more for Neighbor Lady, because she’s the only one who can take up the slack with her grandchildren while their mother is ill. I appreciate Neighbor Lady’s understanding. If you have a moment to spare, could you say a short prayer for the family’s healing?

In other “news”, I had planned to call my agent today. I’m at a crossroads, as one book is losing momentum and the new one is just starting its submission life. I emailed my list of questions to Sara almost two weeks ago, and as it became clear my email got lost somewhere, I figured she’d probably rather have a phone conversation.

Only here’s what happened: I sat down to make that call at 9 a.m. my time, which would mean it was 10 a.m. her time. Got ready to dial, and the phone rang in my hand. It was my brother, checking to see if I had done a bit of business we’d talked about, which I hadn’t. Time was of the essence, so I called the business, hung up, called my brother again, hung up, business was done in a half hour. Prepared to dial Sara, again the phone rang. This time it was a wrong number. Hung up. Checked email while I waited to see how it played out, if the phone would ring again. After 5-10 minutes it hadn’t, so I thought about calling again, and just then my mother called. By the end of  that conversation an hour had elapsed.

Mind you, I’d not had one call before I tried to call Sara, nor one since I decided not to. I’ve had enough experience with signs to know it’s best to heed them. The call can wait till another day.