What the-? How lucky am I?

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

You might have noticed that after a flurry of posts (nearly daily!), that I took a short break over the last few days.  This is because the following bits of Mother Nature got all up in my grill:

That's my gas grill. It's a pancake grill now.

Wouldn't this have been stellar in 3-D?

I call this piece "Orphaned Grill Wheel"

The foundation of the problem.

The Ents were very angry with me. I swear I haven't seen the Entwives!

So...That happened.  As you can imagine, I'm making and fielding quite a few phone calls.  The great news is: it's all just "things". No one was injured, it didn't leave us without power, we are insured on all fronts, the tree removal company was there and removed all the Ent-pieces in 24 hrs (like MAGIC), and the husband and I are currently driving some spanking new rental vehicles until they can determine the extent of the damage to our current rides.  We have great and kind friends and family who have been helping us out and offering wonderful support.  We're very lucky in our disaster.  

Back to why you haven't seen me here.  Also, there's a lot of THIS  going on:

I am a part of an online critique group right now called The Caffeine Fueled Page (woot!woot!), and I was reading and commenting on their work and reading their critiques of my first 25 pages. Side note, the three ladies who've hooked up in this crit group are AWESOME-TASTIC, and I'm really lucky to have them looking at my writing for me and sharing their mad skillz with me.

What you're seeing in the photo above is my manuscript for Secret Order of Extraordinary Outcastz.  I'm still working on the continuity revisions throughout the book for the plot changes I instituted (added more about the other Order members earlier, changed how Joey referred to some of the other characters, added higher stakes and a few events that explain some later payoff).  This is, of course, a long process, but WORTH it.  I'm coming out with a much better, tighter story.  The only revision problem I see at the end of this is that now my manuscript may be "too long" according to existing word count guidelines for Middle Grade literature (although, this MG leans toward tweens, rather than youngers - so it may be fine).  I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.  I've set myself a deadline of next weekend to get done with this set of revisions.  Which means I'll be strapped to a chair in front of my laptop as much as humanly possible this next week.  I'm lucky it's turning out so well, and that this manuscript is still so exciting to me.

Okay, I've got to hit the library with Captain Obvious, Major Destruction, and General Sarcasm (my two nephews and my niece!) and then a quick trip to school to pick up some reading material and games. Then, back to the Grind.  

I have to get back to being lucky now. 

ChooseKind,

Jess