INTERNET BREAK

Though I didn’t announce it, I’ve been taking an internet break for the last week or so. Over the last couple months I volunteered to be a beta reader for 4 projects, and have been pretty lax on the commitment. Its hard to keep up a full time day job, pleasure read, blog (including visit and comment on all my followers and favorites), watch my favorite TV shows, give a quality critique, and get a few hours sleep at night.

Impressive list, don’t you think? Bet you’re as exhausted as I am, lol. Yeah, well; I never get to bed early, no matter what I’m doing in the evenings, and my youngest son hogs the big screen for his X-Box live, so I haven’t seen any of the new Saving Grace, Men Of A Certain Age, or Leverage episodes. Or Southland; I really want to get hooked on that one. Guess that’s what re-runs are for; sheer boredom moments, and thank the Universe I have few of those. Though CSI (all the versions) seem to be running the same three episodes every time I click on the satellite. Lately, I’m thinking that’s $55 a month I can cut in support of the recession.

And reading other people’s work in progress has been a pleasure - no matter what I tell my son about it being work. He’d hog the computer also to search for cheats if he thought I was just hanging out for fun. It’s cold at my computer, and I’m really wishing for a Note Book (mine died, and boy do I miss it) so I can read from my cozy recliner, snuggled in with a blanket.

Since my tax return was only enough to add an extra pay check to this month, and I spent that catching up on back bills (Yay me; I’m current to the end of the month!), a new video game for the 11 year old to continue to monopolize the TV, and a pizza night out (I think that was more than the spanky new game), I guess I have to keep the day job.

Soooo, the internet had to go. Including the awesome iPhone I went right out and bought because it’s been on my priority wish list for so long. The AT&T store was not happy to see me return it the next day. Fantastic as it was, I really couldn’t afford a phone that was basically a second internet bill; and if I spent that much time on the internet, I’d put the money into a Net Book (see Note Book link above) instead.

No more clicking on a blog, and noting some interesting new character, and clicking on Their blog, and finding an intriguing new world to lose myself in for hours, and finally back to my normal blogspace, and then ooooh, what’s that?!? And off I go again, and next thing I know it’s 2am and I’m crawling into bed and not even drunk and wondering where the evening went.
I did backslide a time or four; but only long enough read, leave a quick and unsatisfying “thanks for the post” comment and back to my forced deprivation.

The technique worked however, and I’ve sent out three of the four critiques. “Good girl, Donna, good girl,” I hear you all say. And since I’m all about BIG rewards for small goals, I’m catching up on some blogs before going much further on the last beta read. I’m about a quarter of the way through, and since this is exactly the genre I love to read in, I’m glad I saved it for last. If you didn’t get a critique back from me this last week, well, you know who I’m reading now.

A note on the reads I’ve finished: there are some awesome writers out there; full of passion, well developed skills, and an excellent story to tell. I want to tell everyone that though this has been time consuming to do it right, it has been a most excellent experience. I am, of course, too detailed in my critiques - as you may have noted in my blogs, they’re kinda long and windy - but I’m hoping they were constructive and of some benefit to the authors.

On that thought, I’ve noticed the critxchange is sadly lacking in activity. Lots of followers, though. Myself included. I found two beta readers on other blogs, and have received one excellent critique back, but I’m thinking you can never have too much feedback before submitting the final final final (ok an infinite number of “finals”) work to a potential Agent. So I may expose NOT HER MOTHER’S FATE to the general public once again. The Query Slushpile seems to be as popular as ever for queries, summaries, and first chapters however.

And because I’m Me, and can’t say enough about the value of critiquing in the writing processes, my itchy fingers did come up with a couple links for you to browse at your leisure (I'll not be back until this last beta read is complete). Scott at the Literary Lab had an awesome post about Pitch vs. Story; Mary Rhodes reminds us of a few basic beta reading and critiquing rules; and Rachelle Garner asks Should Agents Edit?

I'm sure there's lots of interesting links I've missed, so feel free to leave them in the comments. Right now, I'm working on opening the appropriate drawer on my desk to prop my stockinged feet on while snuggling deep into a blanket (I didn't get a snuggy for Christmas) to turn my computer chair into a comfy arm chair and continuing my reading committment.

Aaahhh!!!