It's the last weekend in August, and my life... she is typically wackydoodle.

It's after 1 am Monday as I sit down to type this, and, well, it's been a summer. Hot and dry (except for the couple of rare days where we actually wore jeans and shirts with sleeves and stayed out of the rain) and Iowa has suffered through what is, supposedly, the worst drought in 50 years. I know most everyone has dealt with this year's drought, and I'm not looking for sympathy, only expressing my apprehensions.

Our entire state economy is based upon two things: Farming and Insurance. They're the money machines that everything in our state, directly or indirectly, roll around. Insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield, Coventry, Farm Bureau, Nationwide and others are based here) is taking a beating because so many people are out of work and simply can't afford to pay. Farming is in trouble because of the drought, the corn is shot, the beans not much better, and livestock farmers (cattle, hogs, and poultry) are selling their stock early and cheap because they can't afford to feed them any more. Since speculators are freezing the meat to wait for better market buyers, retail food prices will skyrocket nationwide, which means those who are working will have less money to spend, and round and round we go. Plus the posty office is still its screwed up self, so yay!! Can't you feel the excitement??

All of you are surely aware that while our nation is in the midst of one of the worst financial messes in memory, politicians are flooding our airwaves with negative ads and making proclamations, laws, and speeches that seem to do little more than aggravate already aggravated and worried people. I'm not going to blather endlessly about politics and particulars, I only want to say that 1) I am sick of the nastiness, 2) we as a people and as a nation (and our political 'leaders') should be coming together and looking for common solutions instead of tearing our country apart, and 3) I have decided to get off the two-party train and vote third party. After checking various sources, candidates, and surveys, I'm closest matched with Libertarian and I really like their guy, Gary Johnson a LOT. At least now I can vote FOR something and someone instead of holding my nose and picking something I know I don't like.

In that regard, I am putting my collective money (er, self, because we have no money, ha ha) where my mouth is. This very afternoon I'm protesting with (hopefully) a lot of other people at the Secretary of State's office because they're trying to change the rules and keep third party candidates off the ballot this year. Frankly, they're doing it all over the country, trying to hush anyone who might disagree because, you know, our choices must be limited to just the two they've already picked. Anyway, I am both scared and excited about this. I've never been a protestor before. Might get arrested (chances are slim, but you never know), will most likely get sunburned, and my feet will surely hurt. But, dammit, if I shied away from something I've talked so strongly about these past few months because I'm afraid of handcuffs, sunlight, and sore feet, then I'm a freaking coward. And I'm not a coward. So please, keep me in your kind thoughts this Monday afternoon and hope that justice prevails and third party candidates get to stay on the ballot so that voters can choose from every option, not just the two.

Enough of that crap. ;)

I'm down about 9 lbs this summer (yay) but I haven't exercised at all, other than an occasional walk, for about a month. Why? Because I'm about 3/4 of the way through SPORE. Now don't get all excited just yet. Sean is being a royal PITA and not letting me write his scenes the way they need to be written if he's going to be able to save the kids. He's basically jumping the gun, acting on repressed memories (and his apparent knowledge of the synopsis, ha ha) and not wanting to 'go there'. Tough toodles, Sean, going there is what we do in a tambobook. I don't mind characters doing their own thing, but they still need to serve the story and Sean has not been a good boy.

So, anyway, it's coming along great, but is stalled at the moment while I figure out how to make a problem work for me instead of against me.

I sewed. A little. But it's all gone and out the door (I give everything I sew away).

My charity, Project Night Night got the quarterly ebook proceeds from Amazon. Yay!

I still have not heard anything from those two agents from back in June. I sent out 12 queries a couple of weeks ago to other top-tier agencies. A couple were near instantaneous rejections but several (6) asked for partials of SPORE and/or all of MORGAN'S RUN. Two of those are still out there and four haven't responded at all, so we'll see. If I get one more rejection (putting the declines over 50%) I will send out another batch of ten or so. Bill and I have decided that aggressive querying is the best way to go, and I will continue in this manner until I have an agent, am out of agents to query, or I run out of year. We're going to reassess around Christmas and may, possibly, start sending Morgan to small press publishers. Or self publish. Or I don't know what quite yet. All of the rejections to my partials have been lovely - one exceptionally so - so I'm still hopeful that someone will love my work and pick me up. If not, I'll figure out something. There are always options.

It's now about quarter til two and I have to be 2 hours from here right after lunch. So I'd better get to bed.

Happy writing, everyone and please, this fall, please vote YOUR conscience, YOUR issues, and YOUR beliefs. Research all off the candidates (Constitution, Green, and Libertarian at least since they're actually on most ballots, as well as Democrat and Republican) and see what candidate best matches you and where you stand on the various issues. If we don't take back control of our own government, we'll be stuck with more of the same crap that got us in this mess. {{huggs}}

And I'll let you all know if I get arrested. ;)  Have a great week!