Carey Burns

For the last few weeks I've had a pain in my abdomen that at first I thought was my GERD acting up.  Well, this morning around 3am it woke me up, demanded my attention, and hasn't left me since.  This isn't GERD.  This is something else.  I fear it might be...gallstones!  I know WAY too many people who have had gallbladder issues and they keep saying that's what I've got.  So, do I wait until Monday to call my doctor and try to get an appointment or do I go to the ER?  Decisions, decisions...  My gut (haha) is telling me to go to the ER.  We'll see what tonight brings. In happier news, I'm perhaps nearly finished with "Forced Migration."  I can't quite tell because the caterpillars still don't know why they're headed where they're headed but they have (thankfully) arrived there.  They keep saying it is something big but in all honesty, everything is big to a caterpillar.

I had an epidural injection yesterday and am really feeling the pain today.  I'm hoping it eases up on me but I'm taking tomorrow off just to rest.  Good times! So I had sent out a query on Saturday and got a reply today...in the negative.  She was very kind and I'll keep plugging away and sending out queries and working on the novel until someone decides to snatch it up.  I think I may have to change it from a narrative to a third person.  Might have to re-do the first chapter too.  Good thing I gave myself a year! In other news, I'm going through all of my stories that got reverted back to me and trying to find fits in the current market.  I've been scanning Duotrope and lurking on small press pages but nothing is grabbing me just yet.   Something has to be out there.  Been working on a tale called "Forced Migration" that is just turning very weird.  I've got points of view of humans, wooly bear caterpillars, and ...

Days like today (everyday, really) I miss Arizona.  The grit beneath my feet...the mountains on the horizon...the veil of smog hanging over the Valley...I miss it all.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be back close to my family and old friends.  I just wish I could sprout Snowbird wings and fly away to see my friends and soak up a little warmth back in Tempe.  Just for a while.  I finished the final revisions of my novel No Small Sacrifice today and my character lived in Arizona for a while so she made me miss it, I think.  Way to go, Molly! Anywho, now I need to buck up and write an epic query letter.  Wish me luck. I'm finally getting reviews posted for Benjamin Rogers' Faith and the Undead and Tony Schaab's The G.O.R.E. Score:  A Review Guide to All Things Zombie .  With any luck I'll finish reading Patrick Rutigliano's Black Corners of a Blood-Red Room either tonight or tomorrow and get a review up over the weekend.  Oh, and...

Happy New Year!  The hubby and I decided to quit TV for the year (maybe longer?) and besides the incredible savings each month, we're getting so much done.  I'm nearly done with my amazing sticker album and I've picked up the dusty old novel and am revising it one last time before firing off a few query letters.  I've only got 20 chapters left to read so I should be done tonight.  But, a story is never really done...  I've been reading a lot of books lately and decided a good way to flex my writing muscles is to post reviews on Amazon.  I'm the WORST review writer, but I'm working on that.  Eventually I'll put the reviews up on the old blog and spruce up my Goodreads page which, sadly, has been neglected for so long it didn't recognize me anymore. Oh, we've also had the time to clean out our dryer vent.  So should you.  Seriously.  It is amazing how much lint builds up in those suckers and that is a big fire hazard.  B...

I'm counting down the hours until my holiday break begins because I have a cool idea for a project.  You see, ever since I was a little girl I've collected stickers.  Puffy, scratch-n-sniff, irridescent, laser...they all are like jewels to me and I tend to hoard them.  I still have my old sticker albums and flip through the 20+ year old pages, careful not to break the binding or lose any stickers.  Well, after covering a plastic shoe box with nearly every Hello Kitty sticker I own, it dawned on me:  I need a new sticker album.  So, once I receive my 7Gypsies Binderie Punch I will break out my chip board and create a fabulous scrapbook/sticker album.  I haven't been this excited since I purchased my first sticker album with my very own money!  You can bet I'll be posting pictures...

Yes, I took up the Slimming Baton again (no, there isn't really a baton, but I should make one) and have written down everything I've been eating.  Today as I ask the eternal question of "Do I want my anniversary meal to be a salad or spaghetti with garlic bread?" I really wish the Food Diary would mind its own business.  At least for today.  By the way, I think I'll be getting the pasta...maybe dessert too.  I have not picked up a pen other than to write out my to-do lists and Christmas cards and I'm okay with that.  Having failed at NaNo yet again, my brain is too fried to get back at the novel.  Mind you, I missed my goal by 13,000 so I did write quite a lot in November.  Next year's writing goals are set to paper and it looks like I'll be busy.  I can do it though, and if I don't, at least I tried.  Stay tuned to find out what those lofty goals are...

I checked the Cafe Doom website before work to see if they posted the winners and found out that my story won 2nd place--I'm stunned and pleased to say the least.  Next up is to query a few editors to see if they would be interested in publishing it.  All I can say is thank goodness I saw a centipede squiggling around on a coworker's back because if I hadn't, this story never would have written itself.  NaNo is going a lot better.  I broke 32000 words and would really like to finish either Sunday or Monday.  Wish me luck...