West Helly-Aa and more...

We had some fun down on the beach last night. More on that below.

During the day I worked some more on plotting/character for When the Heart Believes. There are niggling little things I'm having trouble resolving, so I spent a lot of time free-writing about characters, plot ideas etc. Especially the beginning. I've had two beginnings now and scrapped them both. I THINK I might have one now that will work, though there are still some plot points that need to be finalized. And I have to hope I'm not stretching the bounds of believability with the circumstances leading up to the opening. Rene made a good point about Beginnings the other day, so I had that in mind yesterday as I worked.

Yesterday evening, however, Sean and I went down to the beach to take part in the third annual West Helly-Aa - a variation on the Shetland tradition of Up Helly-Aa
- a rite during which the old year is sent packing and the light is welcomed by burning a replica Viking longship.

Here's the boat, before the ceremony started:



Sean and me with the boat - not the most attractive photo of us, but y'all can see our costumes. I'm technically out of period, but considering the temp down on the beach was about 5º C, I figured velvet was warmer than linen and sacrificed authenticity for warmth *g*:



Circle of lit torches - I took this from down on the beach:



The procession of torches:



ends at the boat:



where it's lit on fire:
















We left reasonably early on as Sean had to get back here to go to bed for his early shift. Still, it was great fun and we look forward to participating again next year :-)

Teresa

Currently Reading: Dark Angels by Karleen Koen
Also Currently Reading: The Adventurous Bride by Miranda Jarrett
Link of the Day: Interview with Claire Delacroix/Claire Cross

Monday catch-up...

We had a busy weekend, with a visit from family and me knitting like a fiend. See the knitting result below:





Yep, it's my first mitten!!! Kit - thanks so much for mentioning the pattern :-)

Last week I queried three agents - we'll see what happens with that. I'll maybe submit to a couple of others this week.

Re: Writers Project Organizer - yeah, I know I can download freeware, but this has other good features and I like to support indie software engineers. The programme is at a really decent price right now PLUS when I ran into problems, the developer worked with me to get it right and even updated the programme as a final fix. This kind of service we never see from major software companies.

Also up this week is definitely getting back into When the Heart Believes. I'm been putting that off too long and MUST start working on it again.

And now, kitty pics (click on the thumbnails to see them full-sized):












Teresa

Currently Reading: Dark Angels by Karleen Koen
Link of the Day: Craft and Nothing But Craft at Romantic Inks

Addicted to knitting...

Had I known just HOW addictive knitting can be, I'd never have started again! I have to keep away from the knit store, or I'm tempted to buy more needles and yarn. Succumbed yesterday after Kit told me about a cool pattern for mittens. Now I've started them too. And I found a book with a cool pattern for a Beginner Sweater made with Paton's Divine (I'm going to go with Regal Red). Though I bought the book, I resisted the urge to buy the yarn for now. Must finish other projects first. Really. I HAVE to.

On the writing front, I submitted my partial to another agency yesterday. And am trying out a cool programme for tracking my mss and their submissions. It's different than either WWP or PFN in that you log info about your mss AND add in info about Agents/Publishers. It's totally cool. Plus it has a 30 Day Demo - no restrictions! And right now, the price is right.

Ok, goal for today is to submit again. And go through my notebook for WTHB to get back into it. I woke very early after a nightmare. This on top of an already broken night of sleep, so we'll see how well I do. At least the sun is shining today, which does help :-)

Happy weekend, everyone!

Teresa

Just About Finished Reading: The Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe by Annette Blair
Link of the Day: Watch the trailer for Night of the Huntress by Kathryn Smith