Day: May 30, 2007

I sold a story!

By / May 30, 2007 / 22 Comments

Julie Czerneda accepted my story “Immigrant” for her Ages of Wonder anthology that is due out this fall. I’m so happy that I want to dance around the room. I have in fact danced around the room. Twice. I also startled both Howard and Kiki by running up to them, flapping my hands wildly with joy, to announce the news. Yes folks, this is how we calm, professional, writer people act when we make our first sale.

I really didn’t know whether to expect it or not. The optimistic part of me was sure my story would be picked. The pessimistic part of me already had a half composed response which included “Please consider me for your next anthology.” The pessimistic part was, appropriately, disappointed. The half composed response will not get used. I’ll have to file it away for a probable future rejection.

It would be nice to say that I’ve been calmly waiting for news about this anthology. It would be a lie. I have been quietly lurking on the Czerneda news forum for the last week to catch any snips of information that might be dropped. This is why I knew when the notices had been sent out. The notifications had been sent out and I hadn’t received one. I was terrified that my story had been lost somehow and never been read. But I remembered that the same thing happened to the invitation to submit. It disappeared into some electronic black hole between Julie’s computer and mine. I used the same solution this time as last time. I emailed Julie. She kindly replied that she would resend the notification. The reply arrived, but the notification did not. I’m pretty sure there is an electronic gremlin lurking inside my cable modem eating the emails. But it only eats emails from Julie Czerneda. I guess they’re yummier or something. Fortunately Julie was kind enough to cut and paste the information into yet another reply. Have I mentioned how nice Julie is? She is very nice.

The inclusion of my story in Ages of Wonder means that I will have two works of mine published before the end of this year. Ages of Wonder is due in the fall and my children’s book, Hold On To Your Horses, will be out in July. I’m happy. I’m so happy that none of my icons were happy enough. I had to make a new one using some of the artwork from Hold On To Your Horses. Consider it a sneak preview.

Excuse me. I need to go dance a little more.

Hi. I’m Sandra and I’m a frugality slacker

By / May 30, 2007

Our family has been very busy lately. All the kids have activities, Howard is trying to put out his next book, and I’m trying to put out a book as well. We all spend a lot of time running here, there, and everywhere trying to get it all done. But recently I’ve had this feeling that I’ve been slacking. Specifically I’ve been slacking on doing the activities that help us live within our still slim budget. I’ve been buying time for my projects. I mean that literally. If I spend time formatting pages for my book instead of planning ahead for meals I inevitably end up choosing a pricier dinner option. So spending time on my projects costs our family money. I don’t intend to give up on my projects, but I should be making space for more frugal activities. With that in mind, I’m writing a list to remind myself what they are.

Frugal Activities I should be doing more often:

Gardening– specifically vegetable gardening. Right now we have no veggies planted. I need to get on this very soon or I need to accept that we’ll have no garden this year.

Garage Sales — This is where christmas came from two years in a row. Last Christmas we spent money, but I should probably still create a “looking for” list and hit some sales.

Menu planning — meals are more likely to be inexpensive if I plan them more than 10 minutes before I have to serve them.

Reading grocery store sales fliers — If I don’t read them I don’t know when the foods we eat are for sale at cheap prices. I should be buying in bulk when the prices are cheap.

Tracking food inventory — If I don’t keep track of what we have, then we run out of things. Then we run to the store and buy replacements despite the premium costs and the extra gas used. If I know I’m running low, then I can watch for sales and buy in bulk.

Repairing things when they first show signs of wear– If I repair frayed clothing then I never have ripped clothing and it lasts longer. Minor repairs can sometimes prevent major replacement costs.

Walking instead of driving — I can’t do this for all the places I go, but there are many places that I can. When I can, I should.