67. Ups, downs, movies and music

First for the ups. I received the first check from my columns in the mail yesterday. I wasn't expecting it to come so quickly, but it was great to receive. Nothing like getting a check in the mail, holding it in your hand, and know it came because you wrote something, and the shared it with the world. Tonight is Queer as Folk night, so my next column will be up by Tuesday, and maybe sooner. Depends on when I turn it in and when the editor sees it. I routinely google my name, and it appears my column is syndicated across a few sites, which surprised me. I know my editor mentioned they owned twelve different sites. Some of the site names amuse me, but my column is on there and people are reading.

Now onto the downs, I received a rejection last night on article I submitted a month ago to Absolute Write. The editor had responded to the query so quickly (within an hour), I thought it would be a sure thing. A few weeks passed, and I hadn't heard, so I emailed to check if the article had ever even been received. Well, it had been, and I got the R. Now I need to find another place to try and submit an article talking about Blogging and writers. Anyone know of any newsletters or writer's e-zines that might be possible submission places?

Last night, I organized my current ready to submit stories for submission or re-submission. I have ten shorts, two out currently to the contests I submitted last month. I'm still waiting to hear back on those. I downloaded this submission tracker called Sonar, a few months ago, but I never used it. Too many programs to learn, so little time! Plus, there is so many programs that say they are for writers. Programs to help you plot, create characters, write your manuscripts, etc. So many of them don't really help. They can't really. The only that can write is you, and not some program. Sure for some, some programs might make it easier. If it works for you, then that is what matters.

Back to Sonar though. It's a cool little free ware thing, and I opened it up last night wanting to organize things a little. The program was fairly easy to use, and it had sections for everything you could possibly think of needing to keep track of. I had all my current submissionable pieces inputed in about 30 minutes. I didn't see a way to export or save the information in case the computer goes insane, but that is one small thing. You can print the list out, and re-input if necessary. Unless, I'm missing something.

On that site, you can also find yWriter, a novel writing program, which I haven't used yet. Right now, I'm using Rough Draft for my rough drafts, and then using Word to grammar, spell check, and put together the finished product. Seems to be working for me. When I sat down to write in here today, I didn't plan on going on and on about writing software. Any programs you like or use? I'll look at anything at least once!

Last night, I didn't get much writing done, other than the organization I did. So the night wasn't a complete waste. I did end up watching both movies on cable last night. I watched Tom and Jamie Foxx's Collateral. Good movie. Held my attention pretty much. It is so hard for me to sit down and watch an entire movie nowadays. I wasn't feeling Tom's blonde look very much though. The man is forever in my head a brunette. Bourne Supremacy was on later, and this movie made me yawn. I just couldn't stay focused on it. I kept looking away to do stuff on the computer. Matt Damon was the only good thing in the movie. He is the geeky hot boy. He isn't hot like a model, but he has this hotness about him.

After the movies were done, and I was working on things, I noticed one of my favorite bands had announced the release of their next album. The news came out Friday for Bon Jovi's next album. I've been a fan of Jon and the boys since 1986, when I picked up a single of one of their songs. I have all their albums, been to two concerts, and some friends jokingly call me Ms. Jovi. The man is married, has a family, a band, acts, owns an arena football team, and still looks amazing for a man in his forties. I love Bon Jovi's music, and I'm really excited about their next album, and its only June! Single out next month, so I'll have to patiently wait for that and the album in September.

Hope everyone has a great Sunday!