PUBLISHED!...at last.

Song of the day:…who gives a bloody heck? I’m getting PUBLISHED!!!!

Yes, people, it has finally happened, a brilliant editor at a genuine publisher has recognized the awesomeness of Saving Nina! Yay!!!! Do you sense a certain elation here, some enthusiasm? As in Sammi bouncing through the old drafty farm, ploinking from one wall to the next like some loony toon…not far off, it was pretty much that from the moment I woke up and saw the light on my phone blink that there was a message on my mail. Bleary-eyed, still pondering whether I was going to turn over and catch another 30 mins of zzzzzzs, or haul my tired butt from bed. I mean, seriously, no work to go to, and what with long evenings behind the computer it is not as if I am on any regular schedule other than get up at the crack of dawn, prep breakfast for big brother (that way he can also get an extra half hour of sleep on work days) and then going back to bed until I’ve reached my daily hour quota.

Anywayssssss…the light was blinking and I saw that it was about Saving Nina, and spent another minute or two if I could handle another disappointment this morning, and finally decided to open it quickly and then slip it into the rejection file asap. Now imagine me, eyes puffy with sleep, squinting at the screen in the gray morning light, going back half a dozen times to look at these two sentences: “I really liked this story, and would love to work with you.” And “I just wanted to make sure it's still available?” That’s about when my heart rate went up and I started bouncing out my room, down the way-to-steep stairs as I read it again and then texted big brother with: “Dude! Dude! DUDE! You there? Come on! Answer! Dude! They want Nina! An editor wants to work on SAVING NINA!” Did some more bouncing around, giving little scary giggles and the occasional, “Yes! Yes! Heck yes!” frustrated as heck that I was home alone with no-one to tell it to. Grrrrrr. That is so friggin’ frustrating! Anyway, it took big brother about and hour to answer and guess what it was: “Cool! A bit busy now.” Aaaaaaaargh. Seriously? Cool? Regardless, I spent the majority in a buzz…after sending a semi-calm message back that the story is still available and that working with said editor would be lovely. *sigh*

So, of course, this message was before Christmas, so we had to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait some more, for the final okay of the publisher which didn’t come until my B-day. I mean, seriously, isn’t that the best friggin’ b-day present ever? To get the news that someone has seriously agreed to publish a book that you started the concept of in 1998 and worked on numerous times through a series of mind numbing edits that go up to a whopping dozen, or more? Well, it is stupendous, I assure you. All that work, old those hours, the wooden butt sensations, the varicose veins surgery, the endless arguments about word choice, grammar, punctuation, shlogging my way through the Chicago manual of style, eats shoots and leaves, and popular (not my style) commercial fiction just to see if a particular sentence I wanted to use but that we couldn’t stop arguing about, became worth it because of this totally awesome b-day present. *double blissful sigh*

So I didn’t write about this stupendous news before, because, basically I didn’t want to jinx it, and waited until the contract arrived, which brings us to now, naturally. Contract here. Yay. Am totally psyched about going through the next step of this thing, to learn, to see what is required, to see how the story will turn out after it gets nipped and tucked, made up and perfumed, so to speak. It will be incredibly fascinating, of that I have no doubt, so I’m going to hold onto that, and hope that I can when the frustration of cutting into my baby seems to become too much to handle. Keep yer fingers crossed, my friends.

What else? Well, life is going on as usual. Nothing quite lives up to the above-mentioned, I know, but what can I do. Need to stay grounded a bit, don’t I?

Finally found a proper kickboxing bag. Yes I did. It’s going to have a spot of honor in the living room where I do most of my daily exercises now. Was psyched when big brother pointed it out at the gift store this very morning. I can get back to my boxing, Yay!!! I’ve been missing it somewhat fierce lately, partly because we haven’t been able to go to the gym much lately due to a persisting flu. Grrrr. No matter, though, I can get back to the fitness I love the most: Kicking the carp out of a heavy bag! Hah.

Did some food experiments lately, too. Some different type of dishes, but also all-time favorites, of which one or two are definitely going to end up on the cooking blog one of these days…I know, I should be posting more there, too, but what can I say, I can get distracted a lot, especially at the moment.

Been working on the Banshee story quite a bit lately. Almost halfway into the story, meaning that the sequel to ATOL is almost there…in my mind anyway. Hah. I wonder how much actual writing I can get done once the actual editing with the publishing company starts, but whenever I get a free minute, I’m definitely going to try. Brendan and the Banshee need telling that much is a fact in this convoluted brain of mine.

Went to visit a friend from our last job last week, which was really nice. She is seriously pregnant now, and ecstatic about it. Hah. Nice round belly, which she calls being fat, when it is clearly only in her belly and nowhere else. She’s still tiny, but looks like she swallowed a soccer ball, poor girl. The presents I’d found for the baby were their theme was animals so a fish shaped mirror with a blue and white frame went really well with everything, and the ceramic nightlight, too.

Been working on “breeding” some more plants out of the ones that I already have, partly because I lost a house plant to lice, and because the fern Cousin Ed and tenant gave us when we moved to the Netherlands is now really giving the spirit. Poor plantsies.

Which reminds me, tenant and Cousin Ed came for a visit one afternoon last week, which was nice for tenant. She had been so curious about our new place, and so we finally set a date where she was brought by special taxi company for disabled people. She really liked visiting, especially looking through pictures and such, but she tired quickly and was seriously pooped when it was time to go home. Poor girl.

And that is about the end of my update today. I told you the last time that I might have good news (was hoping, but had to be sure,  you see) and here we are. Another step further in the life of an author, shall we say, eh?

Have a good one, y’all and I’ll be back soon.

Happy 2017

Hi all. I know, just a few days after the last blog, so mean of me, you weren't expecting that, righ?
Well, anyway, I wanted to say

Happy New Year!!!!

I hope that 2017 will be splendid, prosperous, adventurous, healthy and amazing for each and every one of you!
xxx
Sam

Quick like

Song of the day: “What do you mean” by Justin Bieber, naturally. I know, embarrassing, right? Still a cute song.

This will just be a quicky post, more to let y’all know that, yes, I’m still alive. I’ve got good news, but I don’t want to jinx it with a massive post, so you’re going to have to be a little patient for my next blog to discover what it is…I hope. Could all turn out to be a bust, so I might end up depressed and never post again. Hah. Just kidding, of course I’ll post again. Y’all know better than anyone that I always come back, no matter how bad things are. I mean seriously, after all the shaite you guys lived through with me here, we all know that only death would stop me…maybe. *wink*

But anyway, other than the potential of good news in the near future, things are going steadily. Big brother is working full time now, which is heavy on him, poor thing. In-between writing, editing, keeping the house tidy, cooking meals, and doing the groceries, I am applying for work. Not having much luck so far, but luckily I can keep myself busy.

Have been picking up my fitness again. Don’t like the lack of activity, so doing more fitness is definitely a must. Also, that stupid leg of mine where I had my operation is bugging me again. The one vein they missed is playing up, so I might need to get back to the doctor for that in the near future. Darn. I hate that.

Had a nice visit with our former colleague last week, and with his wife and newborn son. Cute little fella, and only six weeks old.  Got to hold the kid, too, which was a little scary, considering how small he was. Also got to play with their labradoodle a bit and that was cool too. Fun dog.

Spent the second day of Christmas with family down south. The trip took 2.5 hours, but it was very pretty down there. Flowing green hills (despite winter) sunshine for the day, and a wonderful house belonging to our aunt…well, sort of our aunt, more by law, I think you’d call it. Gorgeous massive kitchen that made me so jealous. Seriously, I want a kitchen like that, some day. Littlest brother was there, stepmom, our father, stepmom’s  mother, sister and brother, so we had a nice full table. Was a very nice afternoon, with five or six courses spread out over five hours. By the time we got home, a nother 2.5 hours trip, we were starving again.

Did a full-blown cleaning session of the house the other day, which took a couple of hours, but the result was splendid. Much, much better. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t been vacuuming, dusting and cleaning horizontal surfaces, it is just that if you go at it with the full focus that I used to apply at work, you really notice the difference. Hah

Been working on the books a lot. Edits, some writing, and synopsis, and whatnot, prepping several stories at the moment. Want to have some stuff ready before spring to start sending out again.

But that’s it for today, just a quicky update, I fear. Be patient with me please.

Thoughts, dreams and reality. :-)

Song of the day: “Hallelujah” originally by Leonard Cohen, but I’ve been having covers in my head ever since I got curious and found a whole batch of them on Youtube. Seriously, there have been oodles of people who did the song…and in many beautiful ways, I might add. Worth a spin, if you like the song!

So, yeah. Had a bit of relapse with my cold. It was gone, which had me getting back to my workout routine all excitedly for over a week of daily workouts of over 45 mins a pop, only to end up with my cough coming back full force and a fierce pain in my throat that took me three days to get rid of again. Grrrr. No worries, though. At the moment, considering I don’t have a job or anything (well, I am doing some serious writing at the moment, so that is debatable) I’m not doing my workout in one allotted time (seeing as it is a known fact that for a little while after your workout your immune system has a serious drop) but am stretching it out through the course of the day with five to ten minute exercising sessions. Annoying, for sure, but doable for the moment. Hah.

I have broadened my job search from night reception work at hotels, courier and facility management to--sit down, don’t get caught unawares—work as a jack of all trades in greenhouses. Saw an application for that recently, and thought, what the heck. I’d get to work with plants, be inside a relatively warm place most of the down, and get, according to statistics, decent pay. Now, I’m pretty sure that my resume (and lack of official qualifications) isn’t going to look very impressive to these people, but still, it’s worth a shot.

Been doing a lot of reading online lately, including on American politics. I have friends on either side of the fence, so it can’t really be helped, and considering that this is not a political blog, I am definitely not picking sides, but it is a big event in history, so it’s gotta be mentioned. Admittedly it is a fascinating thing to watch, really, hearing both sides hammering away at each other, guessing what is going to happen based on he said-she said kind of stuff. I can only think back of this blog back when the last president was picked. Basically everyone thought that finally all their troubles were going to be over and he was basically going to achieve world peace. Back then, I said it was going to be pretty tough for the guy to live up to that, and it was. With this future president, I can only say, he’s probably going to surprise people. Right now, there is such a low opinion of him that even if he manages to do one thing right, he’ll astound people, let alone if he does a couple of things moderately well.  Puts the last president at a bit of a disadvantage, but from what I understand of him, he rather likes martyrdom, so basically he got what he wanted.

As with all things, we’re going to have to wait and see what happens in the future.

The other thing I’ve been reading up on is 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd wave feminism (I know, how controversial am I today, right? I swear, I’ll keep it mild, and won’t do this a lot) and have come to the  conclusion that I am more of a 2^nd wave feminist. Serious, the 3^rd wavers are completely bonkers! The hate that is coming from them, the convoluted logic and full blown hatred toward men in general, it’s astounding…especially since these women, well, girls really are either my age, or younger than me, and have not faced the problems that 1^st and 2^nd wave feminists faced. In fact, the majority of these girls seem to have been coddled, helped at every turn, and now think that it is time to get back at the “oppressors” for the evil deeds perpetrated towards the generations preceding them.

Now, if these girls were living in Middle Eastern countries, Asia, Afrika or whatnot, I would understand, seriously, there is some evil shaite going on around the globe, but they’re not. These are girls and women in Western countries where they are protected, supported and helped by not only the law, but by the general public too. They have healthcare, the opportunity to educate themselves, work whichever job they wish to pursue, and basically live their lives the way they want, and yet they figure they have to fight the opposite sex and the establishment for rights that they already have. And all this while there are women in this world who are really bad of. I have to say that the stuff that I have seen online about these so-called feminists is nothing short of embarrassing (for me anyway), if not downright insulting toward women with real problems. Feminism has definitely gotten a bad name because of these entitled girls trying recapture the “magic” of brah-burning for a plain and simple game of “getting back at” and what can only be called an underhanded attempt at gaining power in the world over the back of men, but most especially other women.

Okay, enough silly things that thankfully don’t much affect my world at this juncture in my life, it might, at some point, but not yet. I’ve been having some seriously weird dreams lately. Several have been downright icky, in fact. Like the other day I was dreaming of this evil serial killer who used a metal garrote to literally saw the hands of a woman. He was starting on the second hand, lots of gore, lots of screaming going on, when I finally managed to wake up. I was seriously freaked out from that one, but will admit that this particular dream is going to do really well in a book at some point.

Luckily I had some nice dreams, too. One of them included grandpa still being around, which was rather nice.

So, there was a rather big storm in Spain, which had us worried about family, friends and pets for a while. Seriously, there was a red alert and everything. There were floods that caused two deaths, lots of properties destroyed, animals in distress, a tornado over sea, even, and gawd knows what else. Reassurances were a long time coming, but in the end everyone I knew reported back with an “okay” so that was a big relief. Jeez. The only plus that comes from this that the water reservoirs that have been close to empty for the past decade or so, have filled up to almost 40 percent for the first time in 20 years!

Writing wise I’ve been doing relatively well at the moment. I am doing an average of 2K-3K words a day, at least, so the book is steadily progressing. Yay! At the very least I am completely back IN the story, which certainly helps. Yay

On the cooking front I’ve been doing some experimenting lately. Made a rather interesting pumpkin pie the other day, also a lentil/beet salad that went well with the folks I made it for, but didn’t resonate well with yours truly. Hah.

Littlest brother’s visit has been rescheduled to this weekend. Something came up the last time, so that was a no-go. Considering big brother and I were still battling our colds back then, neither of us minded all that much.

So that about sums up this blog. I’m sure I’m forgetting important stuff, but that can’t be helped. I’ll be back.