Well, maybe not ‘cold hearts,’ but I certainly find it discouraging when a story of mine is accepted for publishing–and then the project is scrapped.

“A Quarter Past Madness” is homeless…again.

This story is starting to become a monkey on my back!

So I am, again, diligently searching for a home for him. Hopefully I’ll find one soon.

And back to business.

I know I haven’t been a very good blogger. But I do have a good reason! The past few weeks I’ve been busy helping a woman from my husband’s church build the church’s website. She was having problems finding a new web hosting company who would allow her more freedom to build and she didn’t know a lot about doing that kind of stuff.

Well, neither did I. But through a lot of hard work, research, and angry emails to support people, we managed to get her domain name away from the previous registrar and set up her website with a new web hosting company who offers her the creative freedom she needs.

Of course, all of this website work has put the itch in me to finish mine and get the domain name set up. But first, I’ve been studying CSS and trying to figure out how you built your website the way you want it. It’s been fun, but this stuff gives me a headache like it’s geometry or something. (A class I hated in school.) But I think it’ll be well worth the effort.

And I’ve also been busy helping my mom. She was recently laid-off for stupid reasons and she has a severe neck injury. After a lot of cajoling, we were finally able to convince her to apply for permanent disability benefits. She’s lost most of the range of motion in her neck and can’t do anything without taking a pain pill now. Her injury is such that she’s on “pain management” now and will be for the rest of her life. So I’ve been helping her out–she can’t really drive, it hurts her neck, so I drove her around for errands and to file the application and all sorts of stuff. I helped her fill out the required paperwork and I’ve been keeping her company. It’s driving her nuts to sit at home everyday!

But finally… finally… my schedule has cleared again. My mom’s application is in and we’ll find out in a few (to several) months if she’s approved. If not, then we have to keep fighting (damn the bureaucratic system) and I’ll be busy again. The church’s website is up and running and looks great.

So now back to working for me.

This month I’m participating in the National November Writing Month, although if you saw my profile on the site you wouldn’t know it. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I think I wrote 14 yesterday. Okay, maybe 40. But considering how I’ve always done my homework last minute, I have no doubts that I’ll finish. Just in the last week. I’m an awful procrastinator.

But–today–I will get some writing done and start the new “Letter from the Veil” to send out tomorrow. I’ve got 2 movies I’ll review in it and whatever else occurs to me.

So have fun everyone, enjoy the new story in the Free Library (entitled “The Toy” it’s a twisted tale about childhood), and I’ll see you later. I’m always watching.

Yours,

Shanna Wynne