Happy New Year!

When I was growing up, I remember there being the Sugar Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and the Rose Bowl.  I admit I don't watch much college football anymore, but the last few days I've been hearing scores announced for all these Bowls games with names I've never heard before.  Is it just me, or do all these new Bowl games diminish the importance of the original ones?

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, on to today's post.

New Years is a time to make resolutions.  I admit I am as sporadic about making them as I am keeping them.  But, I am hoping by sharing my resolutions with you, that I will do better at keeping more of them this year.  So, here goes (these are in no particular order-- just as they came to mind).

1) Return to a weekly walking schedule of 3-5 times a week on the treadmill.  (This should be easy, all I have to do is convince my body to get up in the morning!)

2) Find an agent to represent my polished Sleeping Handsome (when it is ready, of course!)


3) Finish The Ruby Dagger (my NaNo project)

4) Edit The Lost Princess to reflect the changes from Sleeping Handsome (and to reach my word count)

5) Begin drafting A Different Kind of Knight

6) Begin outlining Daphne's story (no working title yet!)

7) Spend lots of quality time with family and friends

8) Keep active with my blog post (I am still aiming for M-F, unless things become really hectic in life)

Well, I think that's a good start.  How about you?  What resolutions are you making?  Do you need help being accountable to them?  Share below!

Happy New Year everyone!

Easy Breakfast

For Christmas, we host breakfast for my husband's parents.  I usually make something I can just throw together the night before and toss in the oven the next morning (Baked French Toast, Egg casserole, etc)  So, this year I found a great recipe at AllRecipes.com and have modified it below to show you how I cheated with breakfast.

Egg, Potato and Cheese Bake
Pre heat oven to 350

1/4 cup butter, melted
1 bag shredded potatoes (I used Simply Potatoes Shredded Hash Browns, but you can grate your own if you want :) )
6 eggs
16 oz cottage cheese
1 cup shredded cheese (I didn't measure, just chopped up part of a brick and tossed it in.  You can add as little or as much of this as you want)
1 box pre-cooked sausage patties. crumbled (I put them in the fridge to thaw, then crumbled them (8 patties))
Chopped peppers and onions (I used a bag of frozen peppers and onions stir-fry mix)

Mix potatoes and butter and place in bottom of greased pan (I used an 8x12 pan).  Combine all other ingredients and pour over top.  Bake in 350 oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Enjoy!!!!

WCC Wednesday

Wow!  It's hard to believe that it's the final Wednesday of the year.  Last year at this time, I wasn't working on my MS-- it was sitting, waiting for me to decide what to do with it.  I was contemplating self publishing.  Then, in May, I started re-working it (I read through and found lots to fix) and found a critique partner on Writer's Digest.  I thought I had it all nice and polished, and in September I started querying agents.  Then, I took another look at it after one response I received from an agent.  That look, and some comments from Trisha, had me pulling back my MS and re-working it.  Now, I am anxiously awaiting Trisha and Fiona and Katie's comments on my changes.

In the meantime, I decided I should finish my NaNo project before going on the sequel to Sleeping Handsome.  I read through it last night and decided the first chapter has to go, and there are some major character choice issues to deal with (ie: That character would not do what I had them do.  I am surprised they didn't stomp their feet and walk of the stage when I wrote it in the first place!)

I jotted down some notes of things to fix, and will do that then continue on to finish the tale.

As for my partners, Trisha is working on a few things for her agent, and I am excited with what I have read.  She tells such wonderful stories.  Fiona sent me the final chapters of her time slip, and all I can say is Wow!  I really enjoyed what she did.  I made a few suggestions for some character interactions, but she has a great foundation to work with.  Her simple descriptions still amaze me.  And I confess to all of you that I have completely dropped the ball on Katie (Sorry, Katie!)  She has been very gracious about it, and with the holidays coming to an end (and construction in my home finishing up for now) I hope to get back to her work.

How are all of your projects coming?  Are you where you thought you would be at this time last year?  What are your goals for next year?  Share below.

What a Trip!

Sorry for being absent yesterday, but after getting in at 2AM, I didn't have time to get a post up before work.

Christmas here was wonderful.  We had a great time with family and friends, and everyone truly seemed to enjoy the gifts the received.  (I love the robe I got, and can't wait to play the White Knight Chronicles game hubby got me.  He also surprised me with Christian Kane's House Rules CD.  My Zune will be updated and I can listen through the sound system with my new dock. And the Colt's wear I got will be making an appearance this weekend.)

Sunday we went to Albany to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  Each year I wonder what they will do to make the show bigger and better than the year before, and each year I am amazed.  It truly is an awesome show.  (We find sitting towards the back is the best seats so you see the show and aren't in the show!-- this also allows for less expensive tickets, too!)

I really enjoyed the changes to this years show.  There were a few new songs, as one of the usual singers wasn't there.  While I enjoyed hearing the other songs, I really missed hearing him sing.

The drive home was a bit challenging.  It was snowing in sheets (yeah, I know- I never saw it do that before either).  Our usual 2 to 2 1/2 hour trip turned out to be about 3 hours (not so bad, but when you roll in at 2 AM and have to get up for work at 7...)  Normally I would have slept most of the trip home, but I wanted to be an extra set of eyes while hubby drove.

If you get a chance, check out TSO (you probably know their two most famous songs- Christmas Eve Sarajevo (the one that started it all when they were Savatage) and Wizards in Winter (the one made famous with the commercial with the house lights)).

Hope you all had a great Christmas.  I'll be posting a breakfast recipe on Thursday (I used if for Christmas)- thought you might want to try it for New Years!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of you and yours a very Merry Christmas filled with family, friends, and fun!!