Catching up.

I have returned (sort of). I should be caught up with answering everyone’s comments now, although I haven’t gotten the chance to visit all my new people who stopped by last week or checked out their blogs yet. And I have to write more posts.

Busy me.

Well, in case you are curious why I went all squirrely (is that a word?) at the beginning of last week, I took a few days off so I could concentrate on my manuscript. No, not the new one I am working on. My completed one. I finally cinched my big girl panties and found a lab rat, er, a willing person who would read my manuscript and give me an honest critique. I must tell you; it feels strange (icky?) to ask people. I always get all trippy about beta readers and critique groups. I wonder if I am bugging them at the wrong time or they have better things to do than read my story or if they are swiping my ideas and selling them on Ebay before I can get bidders for my manuscript. (Hey, that is my idea! Give it back!)

Anyway, I sent my ms out at the beginning of the month. One week later, I was looking over it when I saw a major, OMG - HOW COULD I DO SUCH A THING, writing error. It does not involve the storyline (although I probably have a few problems with it and don’t even know it). It involves . . . drum roll, please!

*ba dada dada ba dada dada boom* Infinitives.

Those werd imps must have gotten into my word processor program, because I found an infestation of infinitives (to + base verb) throughout my manuscript. Instead of writing (for example), “I walked over and pushed the door,” I had written, “ I walked over to push the door.”

Ew . . . ew . . . ew! I had way too many of them in my story. So, grabbing a flyswatter and some manuscript polish, I worked on ridding myself of the little grammar bugs. I finished on Saturday.

Yes, I said Saturday. Like I already mentioned, I had a large infestation.

Oh, one other thing I need to tell you *swat* . . . what I meant to say *swat* . . . blasted infinitives! I . . . um . . . am informing (that’s a good start) my readers about something I mentioned in the comment’s section Friday. Whoo-hoo! I got through a whole sentence.

Anyway, I talked about a second post I had created that also involves the imagination. While the one on Friday had a simple scene using the fishmonger character, the second post had a storyline using the male shopper. I went through the same process of creating dialogue and then gleaning ideas from it. If you are interested in this post, you can read it on my second blog.

Hmm. There was one other thing I wanted to talk *swat* about today. *snaps fingers* I wanted to post *swat* this:

Let love be true . . . banishing these shadows of dismal gray and cold blue.
Our bodies will part ways along the sandy shore as we face a day renewed.
Let our love be true . . . as my teardrops spot the grass in dew.
One last kiss in remembrance of peaceful memories we once knew.

Well, what do you think of it? It is a song in a musical play. I am writing it for an off-off Broadway show. It has to be perfect because the producer is a big name in the industry.

*chuckles* Of course, this producer only exists in my new manuscript. Sigh, I cannot believe that not only do I have to create thespian characters for my storyline, but I have to create imaginary characters for my imaginary thespians to act out. Or even worse, I could make the play as a soap opera production with its own set of characters.

This means that I need to create soap opera characters for the imaginary show characters for my imaginary thespian characters to act out.

*swat-swat-swat-swat-swat!*