I was moving my laptop from the tv screen hook-up to my desk monitor hook-up. I’d just gotten home from work and hadn’t turned on the lights so it was dark. It’s something I do fairly often. My pc tower died and I haven’t replaced it. My laptop is the only computer I have right now. I have back-up files elsewhere, but having only one makes me a little nervous when I’m moving it around so often.

I discovered the Colorado Romance Writers 2014 Online Workshops webpage and signed up for an online course about craft. It’s four weeks, starting April 7th. At first I wasn’t sure if I should take a workshop right now since I’m getting ready to submit to the Emerald City Opener contest and attend their subsequent Fall conference.

I have a few people critiquing my entry before I submit. Depending on their comments I may do another round of tweaking. It will never be perfect, but I’ll be glad if they catch any eyesores I missed. It’s hard to pass up the chance to pitch at a conference, so I am transitioning between letting go of that entry and ramping up focus on filling scene gaps and polishing content for the Conference, in hopes that I’ll be ready if I’m asked for a full or partial.

The Emerald City Conference is October 17-19, 2014 and I plan to attend. I’ve set a deadline to finish the manuscript by October 15, which is six and a half months, or twenty-eight weeks. I haven’t outlined the time frame any more then that yet.

On my couch-to-5k interval run today an idea popped into my head. When I’m making plenty of money I could get a tax break by donating to charities and giving inheritance gifts to people I know. I could even start my own scholarship program. Example: Offer the first place of a Chapter contest historical genre to win paid tuition for a writing workshop, including airfare, transportation and a meal stipend. Maybe for a Margie Lawson workshop.