Feverish Ramblings

Okay, so this week in the Dean house has been somewhat of a whirlwind. There were birthdays, Halloween, and a ridiculous virus called H1N1 that ran rambid. If this version of the flu had a rating system like tornadoes than it would most resemble an F5 on the scale as it had a mile wide destruction path and multiple victims. In fact the only true survivor in our home has been my husband, but did he really survive having to tend to three people hacking and running fevers over a hundred? Probably not.

Well on to more interesting things. NaNoWriMo has proven interesting with the terrorist flu striking. Right now Thomas is well ahead of me in word count which is to be expected. In the end quite honestly he will have more words anyway, he always does. My last novel finished at almost 90,000 words while he's took the cake at 108,000. Really what matters to me this month is finishing this story. Not just any story either, but one that has haunted me for the last six months. I shared with a friend this week that even in my feverish state my dreams consisted of watching my novel like it was a digital movie. I love its concept. I love its characters. Now I want it out of my head. If I don't finish it soon than I'm afraid it will haunt me longer and I will never be able to write anything else again. So this week I will work on evicting it out of my subconscious.

Thomas and I had interesting discussions about agents this week. He got another rejection letter, but we haven't submitted him for anything since May. At least they responded;it just took a while. I wonder how far down he was on the slushpile. How do you get out of the slushpile anyway? Write an amazing query letter. That takes time and practice. Good thing we are revising his, because honestly his story is great. I guess we learn a little from every rejection we get. Honestly though once he does sign with someone and really its only a matter of time, readers be warned as he's been saving all his built up agent frustration for this blog.

On to my daughter's recent news. Apparently she'll be doing some video for the new professional dance school here in Omaha. Last night she asked me if she'd get to be in front of a green screen. Seriously, this is my child. The Nutcracker rehearsals continue to monopolize our time as we get closer to show time. She also has to give a report this week on one of the presidents. She gets to use a pizza box for a prop as she "delivers" her report. How fun! The assignment should prove interesting coming from a future first lady well as long as she gets her wish to marry the future president Nick Jonas. Her latest job occupation to hit her wish list is fashion designer. At least as an actress she'll be able to accomplish this much easier as Miley Cyrus continues to take over our Wal-mart with her very interesting looking line that quite frankly Thomas would never let Cloudya wear. Today her and my son are sending birthday cards to their magician mentor, Darren Romeo. Believe it or not that is were the whole entertaining started for our fun-loving red head. She saw one of his amazing shows and slowly but surely her mind worked towards the world of entertainment. Who knows maybe this year for the school talent show she'll make an elephant appear on stage. She's cut people in half with ropes, made clothing appear out fog, and used magic to let people know she wanted to be famous. Happy Birthday Darren. Thank you for inspiring my children to entertain!

During our downtime this week an interesting question was asked, "Mommy what did you want to be when you grew up?" Wow! What a loaded question. Although my answer was simple. I wanted to be a writer. Of course I went through a barrage of other ideas like actress, oceanographer and storm chaser in the end writing was truly all I ever wanted to do. It led me to wonder not where that began, but when it turned from writing for fun to writing to be published. I'm sure when I was her age I didn't even know what the New York Times Bestseller List was, but everyday I grow jealous of the people that get on it. Maybe, that's why I haven't sent out my own query letters yet or maybe its cause honestly I'm not really ready to do so.

Last in my ramblings is the incident that occurred at Fort Hood. My condolences go out to the families of the victims. The writer in me wonders how this individual went from point A to committing such a horrible act. I'm certain that we all have something that could make us snap, but maybe not so violently. I come close every year, sometime around the holiday of Christmas, when all heck breaks loose at work and as a manager you sit back and wonder where all your perfect control went. Seriously, remember before you call your local Wal-mart to ask if we have any Zu-Zu pets in stock what the likely hood of the answer will be. Lastly, as you shop tell the associates that helped you thank you as we so often rarely hear those words.

Anyway, we're off to ballet. Sorry for the feverish ramblings, but I needed to get them off my chest. Tomorrow, we will post something entertaining about NaNoWriMo and our fun competition that has invaded our house due to it.