Not much excitement around here.
Writing
Another declination for M - this time because it started too slow and wasn't commercial enough, which is pretty much the exact opposite from last week's declination. It's off to another publisher, though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I'm just about through the end of the beginning (aka Chapter 3) of Stain of Corruption and I'm pretty sure I've introduced (or at least mentioned) all of the major characters and plot threads. The best part, for me, is when Kia and Fyn are both at the same place at the same time. They're a joy to write.
My mid-week writing retreat went well. Was a lovely B&B and I came home overfed but really relaxed.
Life
Bill's still working 60 hours a week. Laura's still round. I'm still clogged and flabby, but I've been walking. There really isn't much postal news other than Bill has been officially notified that his job will officially disappear and he will be excessed. Still don't know where, when, or what job he'll actually get, but more official news it's going to happen.
House
No showings for 2 weeks now and it concerns me. There are a LOT of houses for sale in our town and the bigger nearby one most people work in. Super slumped housing market. We've talked about lowering the price, but it might suck up what little equity we have and might not make any difference. I just don't know what else to do, but Bill's still working here, so I guess it's not all bad. I'm very worried though that they'll transfer him somewhere else and we'll be stuck with the house. What do we do then??
Health
Weight went up about 5 lbs while I was on the writing retreat, but I've already lost most of it.
Everything Else
Laura and I have been going to garage sales and have found some great baby stuff cheap. Also, we have KITTENS!! Two of them, Echo and Peanut (Peanut was called Pretzel, but we kept calling her Peanut by mistake, so now she's Peanut. Weird, huh?). They're both very sweet and Super Good Writing Helpers, especially when I want a small, purring cat to walk across the keyboard or tug on the laptop power cord or bat at my fingers and generally look cute doing it.
7 comments:
I'm not sure what to say about the house. Maybe there's a good reason for it not moving right now. Maybe you are supposed to stay there for a little while longer. Really hard to let that one go, though, I know. Hugs for the rejections and the uncertainty.
"Excess" is such an ugly term. I don't think anyone ever feels good about that situation. I know I got a guy into a job I needed done who'd been "excessed" into it, and he was never happy. He had a tough time overcoming the emotional baggage that went with being "excessed" and had a hard time seeing that I needed him to do the job they'd assigned him (which wasn't a bad job). He retired less than two years later, and I think that was best for both of us. He did write a gracious email before he left, which I appreciated.
If Peanut is her name, that's her name. At least it's been revealed to you. Nothing like a good writing helper!
Tammy, I'm sure your Realtor probably knows you're willing to negotiate with a buyer -- if you are -- but you might mention it to her/him. Often this will encourage a buyer to make an offer. One thing I've learned from my Realtor is that selling a house is usually a negotiation, not a straight exchange. Your house sounds lovely, and move-in-ready houses usually sell first. Got my fingers crossed for you.
Peanut is a great name. I suspect the cat chose it. :)
Another declination of M? What is wrong with those publishers? Dolts.
Stephen, Tammy's house is gorgeous, and they've improved it since I was there last.
Yeah, dolts. :)
We sold our previous house back in spring of 2008, and, yeah, there was quite a lot of negotiation. We've already told our realtor that we have some wiggle room on the sale price. It's more an issue of *nothing* is selling here. Gobs and gobs of houses, very few qualified buyers.
Sadly, your real estate issues are the case in a lot of places these days. We have a regular customer where I work that has had his house in the market for about 6 months, and I think he's had 3 or 4 showings. If it doesn't sell in time for your move, ask your realtor if their agency has a rental department. It's not an ideal situation, but it's better than having it sit vacant. We had a house in VA when we moved to TX that didn't sell and we rented it for 3 years before somebody finally bought it. You want a rental agent who takes no crap from anyone. Ours started assessing late fees if the rent was a day late, and she assured us that after 5 days she would be on the doorstep to ask for a check. Thankfully we never had a problem. As it turned out, the interest deduction on our taxes those three years was a Godsend.
They *do* do rentals, Wendy! That's a great idea! Our big problem is that we need our equity to buy another house wherever we end up, and we won't be able to do that until we sell, but... We too could rent quite a while if we needed to. {{hugs}}
Having rental as an option might alleviate some of the pressure.
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