Do what you can with what you’ve got

They tell me that if you've got a certification to teach Science, that jobs SHOULD just fall into your lap. Uh...no, they don't. I've applied for four teaching positions in the last two months, and gotten no response. Two of the schools have removed the position from their websites, telling me they've probably filled them. The third, I called the school yesterday and found they'd filled it internally. The fourth just went up the other day, and the application deadline is July 10. So, we'll see. If you search the NJ teaching site, all the jobs are north of here, and I'm sorry, I just can't drive to Essex or Bergen county for work. Not a the price of gas these days, and not with my poor old car (which is even now getting probably $500 worth of work to keep it running.)

The thing that annoys me more than anything is that I didn't even get an interview on any of these. Not one. Yes, okay, so I'm not a traditional route teacher, but at least talk to me. Find out that I'm a hard worker, good with children, and that I have life experience, that I'm not some 20 year old kid right out of college. Find out that I'll take all the necessary classes and do a great job at them. 

But, I can't make people hire me, so I'm doing everything I can in the meantime. I've applied to sub at my local school district, which increases my chance for work if I can't find a full-time job by September. I'm taking the Phase 1A part of the Alternate Route teaching program later this month, which I can do with out a job and which will only cost $130. It's a 20 hour basic classroom survival course - writing lesson plans, grading, etc. I'm taking it so that I can have those skills under my belt should I find something after the school year begins, or if I happen upon a long-term sub job. 

It's all I can do at this point  - be prepared. Keep my eyes open and my windshield clear. Leave the rest to the universe, that the perfect job for me will come along when it's supposed to.

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Writing, Reading, Releases, and Sculpey

I've been distracted the last few days, so I haven't posted. Last week I did some gardening (GARDENING, me!). Actually it was more of an all out exhausting two days of weed pulling in the small bed at the end of my driveway. I transplanted some Hosta to fll in the bed, and hopefully the little buggers will give me low- maintenance pretty foliage. I've been working on the third Library of Athena book, and doing schoolwork, and reading. Saturday we spent the entire afternoon at an enjoyable birthday party for one of Ry's preschool friends. (The father of which happens to be a member of the BoE in the district I applied for two jobs with, which I didn't know but he was able to tell me with reasonable certainty that he didn't think the jobs had been filled, and that there weren't too many applications for them. Ry swam and played for a good five hours and was suitably wiped out afterwards.

Meanwhile, there's just ONE WEEK until the ebook edition of THE ANKH OF ISIS is released! I've been working on guest blog posts and release contests, and making some cool prizes. Eh? Yes, I've discovered Sculpey polymer clay. I LOVE THIS STUFF. Talk about fun to play with. I made some interesting bits to giveaway during the Isis release, and some cute charms, like a dolphin, a flipflop and a strawberry (which is ADORABLE). 

I ordered more. FUN PROJECT!

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Summertime is slow time

I know I haven't been keeping up with the blog as much lately, and frankly it's because not much goes on once school is out. I've been exercising as much as I can, and I feel good. The left ankle, which is the leg I broke in 2005, looks normal for once. Usually it's swollen, at least a bit, and gets really swollen when I stand all day. The walking must be pumping out the extra fluid. Thursday afternoon I took Ry to see Kung Fu Panda. It was a crap shoot, because every other attempt at the movies he wouldn't sit still. But he made it through this one with minimal fidgeting. The movie was good too, really adorable. 

Aunt B the Wonderful is home from England for the summer, and that means a trip to the bookstore! Ry got tons of books in the 'ready to read' category, to keep him busy all summer, and some writing skills books (like learning to shape his letter, not writing a story), so he can prep for Kindergarten in the fall. KINDERGARTEN! I got three books, some old, some new. Dragonhaven, by Robin McKinley, which I've been meaning to read for awhile, Bewitching Season, by Marissa Doyle, which just caught my eye, and A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. There are three books in the series and I've been meaning to read them. 

I've been putting in a few hundred words a day into the WIP, and I'm over a hurdle (almost). This book is going to be way longer than I thought though, because there's all this stuff still left to say. But I've already got places in my mind to cut, so it'll wind up being long but not as long as the first draft will be. Still writing notes on the new book, which is really going to be good as soon as I find all the parts of the story. Mostly what I've been writing is schoolwork.

I don't have to report for jury duty tomorrow, but check in on Wednesday to see if they need me the rest of the week. I need to schedule myself, or else this summer will go by and I won't get anything done.

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Things that are new in Christine’s world

So, after breathing a sigh of relief that I wasn't saddled with jury duty (although I probably shouldn't be this happy - shouldn't people WANT to serve? I think I'll make that part of my creative nonfiction assignment piece, which is shaping up in my head quite nicely), I've settled in to the rest of the week. Paper for Women Writers - almost done. Reading for these courses never ends, though, and as soon as I'm done it seems I have to start the next one. 

Things that are new:
Exercise - now that school is out, I actually have time for it. Been using my elliptical walker, doing some swimming, and feeling pretty good. Increasing my protein intake too, and trying to cut back on the carbs, but it's SO HARD. No matter how much protein I eat, I'm still hungry. 

Cons - as in conventions. I'm actively trying to get myself on the guest list for Balticon next year. We'll see how it goes. I'd like to go, since I usually only go to Philcon, but I want to expand my horizons and do other cons that are driveable. Looking forward to Philcon, and preparing some stuff for that, since I will be able to take some copies of The Crown of Zeus in paperback along and have a sort of mini-launch. Planning on asking the library if we can do an official launch over the winter break, when the paperback edition will be 'officially' released. Thinking about some kind of Olympics themed thing, with games and crafts and stuff. I like stuff. Suggestions?

Books- The Ankh of Isis is only a couple weeks away! I've gotten the final files and the thing is all ready for the public. I am woefully unprepared, but have some guest blogs and such lined up. Looking at the calendar, I think I have three weeks to get it together. Sigh. There will be giveaways and the like, I promise. 

Writing- Not as much as I would have liked, but things are stirring in my head, just have to find time to write them down. Running scenes through my head while exercising is being both productive and helpful. Started taking notes on a book I've had in my head for a couple of years. Definitely YA, and there's lots of worldbuilding to be done. I've had the main characters, just needed to find their story. Pirates, murder, magic, and plots to overthrow a kingdom. Good stuff.

Website- I've been quietly re-vamping my website. I just have too many books to keep all the excerpts and reviews and such on a single page. It's a huge time suck, but when it's all done I'll let you know and we'll have a grand re-opening party.

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Forced servitude begins!

And so begins my stint of forced servitude - aka Federal District Court Jury Duty. I gave them a hardship excuse the first time they summoned me, two or three months ago, but I guess that only gets you so far, as they summoned me again. Crud.

As of now, I just have to show up and sit in the room until they decide whether or not they need me, I think. I'm not on a jury as of yet, and I don't think I'm likely to be. First of all, I'm a white suburban housewife - one lawyer or the other will consider me too sympathetic, I'm sure. Second, I have a Science degree - I know more about DNA and forensic science than most people, should the case include that kind of stuff. Third, the list of people I know in Law Enforcement is quite long, and I've heard that's pretty much a first class ticket out of Dodge. Hey, my best friend works for the Sheriff's Dept., if that doesn't get me out I don't know what will. I know, it's my civic duty, but really, I have far too much to do to sit around for hours being unproductive. My summer is only so long, and Ry will have to spend the time at my father's instead of going swimming with me or to the park, or a dozen other things we could be doing together.

But for now, I must trudge to Camden (yes, that Camden) and sit in a room all day. I've got a bag full of textbooks, notebooks in which to write, my mp3 player, and a copy of my friend Danielle's novel, Yesterday's Dreams, which I've been trying to get to for over a month now. If I have to go more than a day or two, I'll take the laptop along and write or something. I have a paper due next week for one class and a creative nonfiction piece also due. And I know I owe reviews, still, on the Bookspot, for Saving Juliet and A Curse Dark as Gold. I'll get to them once I've been released from this duty.  

On the upside, they're paying me $40/day plus mileage. Which if I were home, I'd be making nothing. But with two books sitting here on the laptop, waiting to be finished, that's not much of a consolation.

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Baby, it’s hot outside

I'm a huge baby when it comes to the heat. HUGE. I melt, I whine, I get extremely grumpy. So you can imagine what happened this weekend at the Maryland Faerie Festival, when the temperature reached 105 both days. 

But...it wasn't that bad. Wait, I'll qualify. Saturday was extremely, obscenely uncomfortable. We had our tent, so we had shade, but the relative humidity was something like 95%, and it was sunny, and there was NO BREEZE. At all. I tried to do the whole costume thing, but after about an hour and a half, it had to go, and I was left with a tank top and shorts. Everything I was wearing was completely soaked through by the end of the day. Some of the vendors packed up and went home, because it promised to be hotter on Sunday. We were all just miserable to the nth degree.

It wasn't worse on Sunday. After the rainstorm Saturday night,(which I slept through, in the comfort of my air conditioned hotel room) the humidity went down, and the breeze stayed all day. The temperature might have been a bit higher, but it didn't feel nearly so bad. I didn't bother with the costume, and I also made a Target run for a cooler and some gatorade. The ice-water towels, ice for the bottled water, spray bottle in the cooler and gatorade also made life more bearable. And we actually signed some books on Sunday, much more than Saturday, so it was totally worth staying.And I'm pretty proud of myself for suviving the weekend without whining. Yeah, it was hot. But I just stayed still in the tent and drank plenty of water and lived to fight another day. I couldn't have done it if I were in the sun all day.

Next year I think I'm going to Balticon instead. Though, since they moved the Festival back to May next year, it might not be too bad to go and stay on site in the bunkhouse and do the 'adults-only' festival. Am I glad I didnt' do that this year? Hell, yeah! But mid-May usually isn't too bad...

My hubby's going to kill me. LOL

He and Ry had a good time, though, watching movies on the laptop and swimming in the hotel pool and just generally being somewhere else for the weekend. The brand-new Caddy we rented helped too :).  Hey, it was our only vacation until September, why not live a bit, right? 


**
The author visit with the fourth graders on Friday was a big success, apparently. The kids really enjoyed it, and so did the teachers. I think I need to try and book more of those next year. Even if I have to do more for free, if they sell books, it'll work out all right. 

**
Things to think about: what do I want to do at Philcon this year to celebrate the paperback release of The Crown of Zeus? Special raffle prize? Launch party type thing? Costumes? Thinking...also need to get some promo stuff ready for the AoI release, just a couple of weeks away! Ack! I have at least two guest blogs to write up, already scheduled. And I have some cool magnets coming that will go into prize packs. I needs me a new contest!

I need to gather some excerpts from AoI for the Samhain website and to go in the back of other people's books.

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Why are there never enough hours in the day?

Much to my surprise, I got called in to work today and for tomorrow. I have never been called this late in the school year, but heck, I need the money. I hadn't planned on working, so I'm scrambling a little bit. See, I have an author visit with the local fourth grade on Friday morning, just before the fam and I scoot on down to Maryland for the Maryland Faerie Festival. We needed to rent a car, which we'll pick up tomorrow, and do laundry, and make sure the cat's litter box is clean and he has food and such. My dad will check in on him, but fortunately cats are pretty self-reliant. 

Fortunately I did quite a lot of preparation on Monday, so I cut all my bookmarks and signed the ones for the author visit (lesson learned after last year, signing 80 bookmarks on the spot isn't fun), polished my powerpoint slides, and gathered all the stuff I need for the festival, like Faire Wear and books and such. And downloaded directions to the hotel and from the hotel to the fairgrounds. I just need to get directions from the hotel to Annapolis, which Hubby and Ry want to go and see while I'm off signing. 

So all I have to do is pack and pick up the car and stuff like that. I even managed to get most of my schoolwork done, so I won't have to worry about it over the weekend. Go me!

Yesterday Ry had his pre-school graduation. It was SO cute, and I am so proud of him. They gave each child an award, based on something special about the child. Ry got the Friendly Award. It was perfect for him, because he really IS the friendliest child ever - always says hi, and makes everyone feel welcome and doesn't let anyone leave without a hearty goodbye. I took pictures, but I just don't have time to get them off the camera right now. But rest assured it was suitably adorable.

I really need to squeeze a couple more hours out of the day, and I'll be all right.

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Pre-order time!

Thanks for all your condolences about Othello. We're adjusting, but I still expect to see him when I open the front door, and I keep trying to step over him when I get out of bed. in time, all that will fade, I suppose. We've decided eventually we'll get another dog, but not for awhile. I've not been without a dog for over 20 years, so it's strange. The house feels like it's missing something. 

Anyway, I get my Google alerts every day, and the other day I saw that Target.com had The Crown of Zeus for pre-order.  So I poked around the internet, and Amazon's got it as well. I think Target gets its stuff from Amazon.

The trade paperback edition doesn't officially come out until the end of December. But if you'd like, you can reserve your copy NOW.(How Harry Potter is that? A six-month pre-order time!) and be one of the first to get it in your hot little hands! Well, besides me. I MIGHT be able to get some copies for Philcon...

11:30 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Long, long week...

I meant to post days ago, but, as so often happens, life took me away. Othello is gone, and honestly he was ready to go. Monday he couldn't walk, and we made the tough decision to take him to the vet on Tuesday afternoon. Monday night we sat with him, and played with him a little. He was still so alert, chewing his bone and talking to us, that I wondered if we weren't making the wrong call. We left him in the living room Monday night. He usually sleeps in our room, right beside my side of the bed, but we figured he would be more comfortable stretched out on the living room floor. 

He hadn't been able to get up from the floor without help for days, but about an hour after we went to bed, he came walking in the bedroom. I have no idea how he got up, but this amazing dog found some last bit of strength to spend his last night with us, surrounded by his family. I couldn't believe it, but there he was. Tuesday morning Hubby and I helped him outside - Hubby had to carry him up and down the stairs - and we settled him back in the living room. As much as I wanted to spend his last day with him, I couldn't afford to pass up two days of work so late in the school year (which turned in to four), so Ry and I said goodbye and left for the day. He was still awake and alert when we left, still not eating but drinking. His alertness still made me feel terrible about the decision to put him to sleep, and I bothered me all day.

But it seems he was just waiting for us to leave, so we wouldn't have to watch him go. Hubby came home at noon, and he was still alert, drinking some water, but when he came in from work at 3, Othello was almost gone. He didn't lift his head, and he didn't respond to anyone's voice. Ry didn't want us to take him, but I didn't think he needed to watch his dog die, so we packed our good dog into the car and Hubby took him to the vet. 

We're doing all right. Tuesday night we took out some pictures and remembered all the good times with Othello, which made things a little better. Ry finally cried on Wednesday night, really cried, and he misses him, as we all do. Tuesday night, Cedric wandered the house all night long. He's a cat that usually curls up with someone and sleeps at night, but he was missing his buddy. We all are. He was a good, faithful and loving dog, and there wasn't another one like him.

4:43 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Updates

Dog update: not so good. He's hanging in there, but he's having trouble getting around. He sleeps most of the time (not really that unusual, come to think of it). He's not eating well, and refuses dog food of any kind. At this point we're giving him whatever he'll take-chicken nuggets, pieces of cheese, hot dogs. He's still drinking plenty of water, but I don't expect him to be around much longer. Maybe the end of the week. We've finally explained to Ry, and he cried a bit, but I think now it'll have a chance to sink in and he knows it's coming soon, he'll be able to say a proper goodbye. I think it's pretty much sunk in with all of us.

Book update: Just got my Final Line Edits for Ankh. They're not too bad, but man am I glad for those FLE's. This copyeditor's got eyes like a hawk. 

Baking update: Huh? Baking? Yes, see, I've decided that since so much food is so expensive now, I'm going to make things at home this summer. This past week I baked two loaves of bread, some oatmeal cookies, and chocolate chip scones. I have a ten pound bag of flour, five pounds of sugar, three pounds of butter and three dozen eggs, so expect much more baking. Mostly bread and bread products. Like pizza crust. We're also going back to making our own iced tea instead of Crystal light. Way cheaper. I got some granulated Splenda at the store, so we're all set. 

School update: work school is almost over, at least for me. I don't expect too many more calls before summer. College summer term starts tomorrow. There is A LOT of work for these classes - reading and writing. Well, one IS a writing course. But none of it looks too terribly hard, just time consuming. Glad I took these classes over the summer instead of during the school year. Not looking forward to having to write poetry. I like reading it, terrified to write it. I suck at sonnets.

Writing Update: Finally got to actually work on Mirror. I had pages and pages of handwritten stuff in my notebook from the last few weeks. IU wasn't crazy about any of it. When I sat down to write yesterday, I didn't use any of it. I had a better idea, and about 1,300 words later, I'm happy with the direction of the story again. I've gone back and left comments for myself to change things in the next draft, which I don't ever remember doing before, and I wonder why I never did, because it makes so much sense to use that tool so I won't forget stuff. 

I've also been playing around with a new book in my head, doing some worldbuilding. I don't know when I'll get to that, because I still have to fix up Sorcerer. Once I get some time...which should be in a couple more weeks. Hopefully. Once we get back from the Maryland Faerie Festival, I have to do a two week stint at US Federal District Court as a Juror. I was called a few months ago, but sent in an excuse letter. They let me out, but now they're calling again. I might as well get it over with or they'll just keep bugging me. I don't know that I'll HAVE to go, but I HAVE to call and see for two weeks. Ick. Hey, I can take the laptop and schoolbooks with me. Dad will have to watch the Ry...OR...MAYBE...Aunt Beth the Wonderful could hang out here with Ry on some of the days I have to go, if I do...If she can, yanno. Ry would love it...

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