It’s finally official. Our deeds arrived yesterday. We are Scottish landowners. We bought two small plots of land in the Laird’s Wood in Lochaber.  And now that we are landowners, we will be henceforth known as Laird Donald and Lady Melanie…

Sure by Tummel and Loch Rannoch and Lochaber I will go…

I can’t say I’ve ever had this happen before but it has now. I’ve had my feet propositioned!

I’d bought a new outfit to wear to a birthday party on the weekend. I was wearing chunky turquoise jewellery – necklace, bracelet, ring. Later in the supermarket, I came across a bottle of nail varnish that would be the perfect match for my accessories. So, I painted my toenails to match. Little did I know what was to happen later in the afternoon.

So, only having worn the sandals for a short time to get used to them and with having to climb steps, I decided going barefoot was the way to go. After all, I didn’t want to “fall off my shoes”.

One of the guests, looked down at my toe nails and that’s when the fun began! He started by saying that they looked absolutely delicious! I think he said, he could eat them up, too, but that he didn’t have a fetish. And in the next breath, he said he was salivating! The more he tried to get his foot out of his mouth, the deeper it went in and the other one joined it soon afterwards.

I looked at one of the other guests – my bikerhen friend – and we got into the laughing. We laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. Even he who propositioned my feet had a good laugh.

When the party started to break up, I put my shoes back on and went in search of “he who propositoned my bare feet”. If he thought they looked good out of the shoes, what did he think in them?

Here is a picture of the shoes… what do you think?

I’ve come to the conclusion is very much like the road to hell… paved with good intentions. But, I’ve gone further than many people along that road. I’ve had a number of non-fiction articles published, and two complete novel manuscripts. And I have sent out queries, pitched to editors, unfortunately, all with the same results.

However, since joining RWA and the Ottawa Romance Writers Association (chapter of RWA), my writing has improved ten-fold, if not more. Workshops, support and mentoring have gone a long way to aid my quest in becoming a published author in novel-length fiction.

I thought listening to my Ontario morning on CBC radio by live streaming via the Internet would be the easy thing to do. For a while it worked wonders… then the problems started happening there, too. But not the radio changing channels on its own… this time it was a bug with Windows Media Player.

A simple fix… uninstall and reinstall the newest version and all is well. I’m happily listening to the radio on the Internet every morning until I have to leave for work.

He’s ba-ack!!! Sounds like something out of Poltergeist, doesn’t it? It all started again this past Monday morning. The radio automatically changing frequencies from its usual and customary 107.5 (my CBC channel) to 87.5 (nothing but static).  It does it three or four times between 6:00 and when I leave the house about 7:30. Hmm…

Again, I will outsmart the wee blighter. It just might take me some time.

As if I don’t have enough on my plate right now, I signed up for a 2 year novel course which started in January. It’s all done online and best of all–it’s FREE!!!

So far there have been three assignments posted. Have I completed all three? No. But I’m not terribly far behind, either. I’ve got the first two done and posted. I decided this would be a good place for my foray into the world of crime writing. Will I be successful? Who knows but it should be great fun along the way.

I can’t believe the last time I wrote anything was in October! My, my, my time sure flies. So what have I been up to since then?

I’ll start with my current project(s). I’m working on the second edit of my “The Anniversary” manuscript. When I finished the first draft, I was at a whopping 122,011 words! The publisher I’m sending it to, wants 100,000 maximum. After getting through the first 36 chapters, I’m happy to report that I’m down to 105,958 words–a reduction of 16,053 words!

While I work away at this, I keep sending Sarah’s Gift out to various publishers–all without success. Last night, as per the agency’s guidelines, I e-mailed the first three pages off to them. If they like that much, they’ll ask for more. So, fingers crossed. I should say that this agency is looking for young adult material which where I believe Sarah will fit in perfectly.