Busy and Productive

I finished Rider in time to enter it in RWA's Golden Heart contest. I think she has a good chance but I've seen some of the competition (in my role as a contest coordinator) and they're aren't too shabby either :-) In fact, some of them are downright terrific so the competition is going to be really rough this year.

Hopefully not as rough as getting the manuscript ready to send to Dallas. Picture this.

On Thanksgiving Day, I'd planned to do the last polish and start printing the entry so I could mail it Friday morning (Much better than standing in line hoping to be one of the first to get the superduper sale of the century product which the store has only maybe 10 of and lined up outside are 300 people wanting to grab it). Anyway, after the company left and I could relax, I fell asleep on the sofa. For 3 1/2 hours. When I woke, I ran up to my office and started that aforementioned polishing. Finished it about 3 AM.

Okay.

My printer is good but sometimes not terribly fast so I decided to start printing the 6-55 page entries. Of course, the printer ran out of ink immediately. Not a problem. I always order a cartridge as soon as I replace one (note to self--order that darned cartridge soon!). Found the spare, replaced it, had to convince the printer that it was a fresh cartridge--it wouldn't just take my word. Finally, I started the printing. Within seconds, the printer had gulped down a fistful of pages causing a paper jam.

Ookay. Deep breath. Pull the jam out. Start printing again.

The devil printer laughed and sucked in about 20 pages. I couldn't pull them out. Everytime I tried, I'd lift the printer right off the work top. Finally, I asked my husband to pull them out while I held the printer down. This took nearly 30 minues. My husband, who really isn't into the kind of desperation a writer might feel about accomplishing these sorts of goals, asked if I was coming to bed? Well, it was nearly 4 AM by this time. I mumbled something about getting a little sleep when I finished the project. I started the print again and watched, carefully, to make sure the beast wasn't going to inhale any extra pages. Of course it did but I believe it was wise enough to know it had pushed me to my limits so it only took one or two extra pages not enough to cause a jam but enough that I had to inspect each page of each entry to make sure all the pages had printed and that there weren't any extras hiding in there.

Oookay. Printing and checking was done by 6 AM. I needed a Priority Mail envelope for the pack. Since I have been moving items around, getting ready to paint my livingroom, stairwell and hallway, things are not exactly in order in my office.