Puppies vs. Dogs

Here are some reasons why dogs are far superior to puppies:

1) Dogs understand the benefits and joys of sleeping all night and well into the morning. Puppies will hear a newspaper being delivered nine blocks away and decide that is their alarm clock. Puppies hear you scratch your elbow, from three rooms away, through closed doors.
2) Dogs do not chew newspaper bags, coasters, quarters, empty water bottles, their leashes, binder clips, or each other. Puppies? Not so much.
3) Dogs have figured out there are some things better done outdoors. Puppies are more arbitrary about such activities and where they are completed.
4) Dogs cry and squeal about 10% as much, and only when there's really a reason for it. Puppies will squeal like their lives are in danger if they just need something to do.
5) Dogs are okay about sitting beside you or on your lap, and don't feel compelled to lick your face. Puppies will lick shamelessly, and always seem to try particularly hard after they've eaten their own poop.
6) Dogs know the world is not their chew toy. I know, kind or redundant in light of #2 on the list, but it bears repeating. Treadmills. Rock Band drum kits. Decorative indoor trees. Rocks. Anything made out of plastic. Pencils. Paper clips. Anything on the kitchen counter they can jump high enough to reach that is not at least seven inches from the edge.
7) Dogs understand you may not be enthusiastic about sharing your meals. Puppies, while very protective of their own puppy food, are more than willing to give you several opportunities to share.
8) Dogs know if they are going to throw up, they should run into the bathroom and do it on the floor that's easier to clean up, and an overwhelming percentage of the time they make it. At least my dog knows this, and trust me, I am eternally grateful for his developing that awareness. We didn't have any puppy vomit this past week, but I thought I'd just take advantage of this opportunity to point out how awesome my dog is.
9) Dogs know that just because you are up and out of bed doesn't mean it's play time. They appreciate a gradual beginning to the day. Puppies go from 0 to 60 in the time it takes to walk through their crate doorway.
10) Dogs know that when they go outside, there is business to take care of and they get right to it. Puppies are very interested in exploring all new environments, and do not feel the pressures of any schedule prompting them to hurry it up.

People occasionally encourage me to buy a 2nd dog so Spencer has someone to keep him company while I'm at school. Right now he is snoozing in the same blanket nest he's had to compete for over the past week, and he hasn't moved from it since the puppies returned to my sister's. Trust me - the two of us are getting by JUST FINE.

All Writing, All The Time

The nightmare is almost over. I've been living inside of a perfect storm this week, one that has two nights of parent-teacher conferences, has seen my sitting for the infamous puppies yet again, and has me shaking off the very last bits of what wasn't really a cold but more of a consistent bout with bronchitis. Nightmare might be exaggerating, and of course there have been many other moments along the way that have been successful and positive or hard to deal with, but Spencer and I are sitting here on the verge of things going back to normal, and I think we both appreciate that.

Things have generally worked out okay; I survived conferences and had young Mr. Bomani stopping over to let the puppies out, and I'll be taking said puppies back to their other home away from home at my sister's tomorrow morning, and at this point the antibiotics seem to have taken care of as much of the illness as they are going to. These days I'm just washing my hands compulsively and changing up my diet to get more of the healthy keep-you-from-getting-sick kinds of foods into my system.

But now that February is over, I'll be in a better position to write again. The girls who challenged me to go Personal Nanowrimo all over February wound up disappointed; if I had known the kind of month I'd been facing at the beginning, I wouldn't have taken on the project. But with life back to being as normal as it ever gets, I'll be able to dive back into completing their book with as much enthusiasm as I can put together for a book that feels more like a homework assignment than one I'm really excited about... at least at this point, and hopefully that will change as I get more into it.

I finish that, and I've got my to-do list pretty full through the summer. My huge family has one of our own in Afghanistan right now, where he will be for at least another year. Obviously we're concerned and praying for him to arrive home safely at the end of his tour. I'll be supporting him in the best way I know how - writing. I'll be starting a novel for him to read while he's there and sending it a chapter or so at a time to give him something that will hopefully offer occasional breaks in the monotony of whatever chunk of desert he'll be living and working in. Since his two favorite genres are fantasy and non-fiction regarding ancient history, I'll be taking a shot at fantasy; well out of my comfort zone, but all it has to do is give him something else to think about from time to time so I'm just focusing on making sure it doesn't suck.

Then, once the fortune cookie book (the one I'm doing for my personal nan0wrimo) is done, I'll be breaking back into a book I wrote about ten years ago called Grandpa, which I only ever gave a half-hearted attempt at getting published even though after recently revisiting it there's some pretty good stuff in it. I think the added experience of the past 10 years will give me a chance at revising it up into a much better manuscript. At that point I'm thinking (hoping) it will be about summer break, and I'll have three completed manuscripts out there and enough time to write the query letters that will (hopefully) get some agents interested in seeing them. Also by summer, I hope to have started my next real novel, which, given the ideas I have for it right now, could wind up as the biggest project I've taken on since writing my memoir four years ago.

I keep saying some derivation of "hope" while discussing all of this, because let's face it: The writing doesn't always get done. There's always a lot of other stuff that gets in the way during that time. After all, life happens the way it does.

Great. Three dogs just came walking into my office, and two of them are looking up at me with palpable guilt in their eyes. What did they chew up this time....

Some Business

Open Message to Chuck at "Guide to Literary Agents":
Hey there, Chuck. If you're reading this, you followed the link, saw that I included you on my blog roll off to the right, and now see I'm mentioning the contest here on the blog. Don't worry about the small number of followers listed -- a surprising number of people tell me they read this. I imagine you're now pretty captivated by my blog writing and you'll want to work through reading many other of my entries, but I'll ask you to hold back. I have submitted two entries to the "first 150-200 words of your novel for kids" contest, and I'd really like for you to find them and read them so you can decide I'm awesome and you'll grant me the honor of winning.

Please?

Okay, non-Chucks, from that you likely can surmise that I'm entering a contest. And yeah, one of the qualifications was to mention the contest online while including a link to the site on my blog roll. Since I didn't have a blog roll until a few days ago, it seemed like a good reason to begin one. And I don't mind linking to that site - for someone like me who's trying to learn what I can about the business-end of writing (i.e. the non-creative parts of it that are less fun because they are hard to do and hard to understand and more frustrating), this site is very helpful.

Anyway. Vancouver Opening Ceremonies are about to begin. I've had a pain-in-the-rear cold all week, and I'm looking forward to falling asleep on my couch in front of the TV while I watch it....