Skip to main content

Nothing much

Captain's Log, Stardate 06.30.2005

Really, nothing much has been going on with me. Which is a good and a bad thing.

Good because there's no additional stresses in my life.

Bad because there's not much going on in my writing. Sigh. The novella is taking its time in "ripening." I wish it would hurry up.

I shouldn't speak about it in the third person. It's all me. The motivation isn't there. Maybe because work has been same-o-same-o--minor stresses and general tiredness. Or that could just be my excuse.

I am writing some, just not as much as I'd like, not as fast as I'd like. I need to get my butt in gear.

On another note, I've been listening to workshop CDs from the Mt. Hermon writer's conference while I drive to and from work. It's been fabulous. I've learned so much, refreshed my writing knowledge, gotten new ideas. I think I'm going to try to buy more workshop CDs. Some conferences charge a lump sum for all the CDs. Money worth spent, I'm thinking. I wish I'd gotten more CDs from Mt. Hermon.

Speaking of conferences, I'm going to the RWA national conference in Reno at the end of July. It came up rather randomly. Some friends on the Steeple Hill discussion boards were talking about it, and it made me want to go. My friend Marilyn, who lives in San Jose, had mentioned going a few weeks ago since it's so close to where we live--a drive versus a plane ticket. Marilyn found rooms available online and booked us a room, and we'll drive up. Her friend Anne is joining us. I believe Anne writes secular Asian Chicklit. It'll be fun to meet her and talk about that kind of stuff. :)

I had been apprehensive about asking for the time off from work, but my supervisor was really nice about it, even though my two other coworkers have milestones due at the end of July.

Diet: WARNING: might be TMI but I like to get my progress down in black and white:

I've been motivated by the articles I read on eDiets and eFitness. I read about the blood-type diet, which recommends that my blood type eat more vegetables. So I've been doing that lately and actually, I've felt better. I eat a lot of meat mostly because my husband likes meat, but the other day I had vegetable red curry at a Thai restaurant. Not only was it delicious, but I didn't feel as heavy as I usually do after eating Thai curry.

I also made a Hawaiian-style vegetable fried rice that I'm rather proud of. A substantial portion is only about 500 calories. Yay me!

It's nice to live here in California because there's so many fresh fruits available now. The other day I had this mango-plum. It was really good, it tasted like a perfect blend of mango and plum, with a consistency in between, also.

I'm also eating yogurt--fat-free Dannon mixed with some frozen berries and a Splenda packet. I made 100 calorie portions and it's perfect.

I've been exercising at least three times a week. So far this week, I've exercised four times, although today my legs are killing me from the squats and lunges I did yesterday. :) I started interspersing the running with Taebo to prevent the shin splints from getting worse.

Okay, enough procrastination. Back to writing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Brainstorm - character occupation

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.23.2009 Hey guys, I could use some help. In my current manuscript, The Year of the Dog , which is a humorous contemporary romance, I have a minor character, Eddie. He’s my heroine’s ex-boyfriend, and they’re on good terms with each other. He’s a bit irresponsible, but not so much so that he’s a complete loser. He’s got a very easy going attitude, he forgets to pay his bills sometimes, he’s friendly and charming. He’s adventurous and fun to be around, but he’s a little forgetful sometimes, and he tends to spend a little outside his income. I need an occupation for him. What would a charming, easy going, slightly irresponsible guy do for a living? He’s not too irresponsible, because otherwise readers will wonder what in the world my heroine saw in him to date him in the first place. She was attracted to his charm, his easy going attitude (her family’s uptight, and he was a nice contrast), and his adventurousness. But his forgetfulness and irresponsibility ...
64 comments
Read more

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...
39 comments
Read more

Window shopping

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.14.2005 Knee update: I went to the doctor today for a checkup, and saw his assistant. I’ve been concerned because there’s still inflammation in my knee joint, and it’s been almost 4 months since the surgery. She said she’d talk to the doctor about it tomorrow and call me. Sometimes he suggests laying off the PT to see if that causes the inflammation to go away, but I don’t know if that will work because lately I’ve been pretty active outside of PT. At PT today, the therapist did ultrasound and some sort of electrical current on the joint. Hopefully that will make the inflammation start to go down. I’ll know by tomorrow, probably. Writing: Mt. Hermon conference starts this Friday! On Thursday night, I’ll be at the Santana Row Borders bookstore to help out (and hopefully learn a bit, too) at a booksigning for several of the ACFW authors who are attending Mt. Hermon . That should be lots of fun. I had a good brainstorming time at ...
Post a Comment
Read more

I GOT A CONTRACT!

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.29.2006 I had a wonderfully funny blog post planned for today, but I got sidetracked by some news yesterday! Zondervan has offered me a three-book contract on my Asian chick-lit series ! I’m still stunned by everything that’s happened. The series is actually a 4-book projected Asian chick-lit series about four cousins who fall under the infamous family title "Oldest Single Female Cousin," and their ruthless, wealthy grandma applies pressure on each of them to improve their lack of love interests. I think the first book is tentatively scheduled to be released in August 2007. The blurb on the series is on my website here . Brandilyn Collins posted to the ACFW loop about my writing journey, and Tamara Cooper asked that I share it. And since you all know how much I like to talk , here it is. My writing journey: Like most writers, I have wanted to write since I was very young. (In high school, I wrote a fantasy novel that will never see the light of day ...
32 comments
Read more

Japanese language learning process in more detail

I blogged a few weeks ago that I’ve jumped back into my Japanese language learning after being lazy and letting it slide. I’ve been keeping my Japanese language study habit for about a month now, and I wanted to blog about my process in more detail. One thing I had noticed about my Japanese is that I tended not to do it if I left it to do at the end of the day. I realized that it was just like my exercise—if I didn’t do it first thing in the morning, it never got done. So I started doing my Japanese right after my exercise in the morning. I treated it like one of my “frogs,” as I read about in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time . The book is based off of a Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It suggests doing your “frogs”—your important things that you’re likely to procrastinate doing—first thing in the morning in order to get it done, and ...
2 comments
Read more