Feb 13, 2008
Save your submission as a separate attachment. A Word .doc is good. So is an .rtf file.
Most email programs will not let you send a 20,000-word submission as an email. It’ll get cut off and then your editor can’t read it. And you don’t want that…
Leave a Comment • Posted in Editing, How to make your editor happy
Feb 12, 2008
Leave her off your send-this-chain-letter-to-everyone-in-your-address-book list.
Especially if the only correspondence you’ve had with your editor is a form rejection letter.
Really. Do you know how long I spent training my mom out of including me on these kinds of emails? And she gets special privileges ‘cuz of the whole giving birth to me thing. So, thank you, but Bill Gates isn’t sending me money, I’m not going to let some guy dressed up as an old lady into my backseat, and I always check under my car at the gas station for knife-wielding robbers. So, I’m all good on that respect.
3 Comments • Posted in Editing, How to make your editor happy
Feb 05, 2008
So, you know when you do something with all the best of intentions, and then realize way too late that it totally isn’t going to work?
That’s what I did. Late one night, about a week and a half ago, a friend and I were IM-ing and we got to discussing my writing or lack thereof. And she double-dog-dared me to finish the very short WIP that’s been haunting me for way too long. (And there’s nothing stronger than a double-dog-dare, so I had to do it.)
So, absolutely convinced that I could totally bang out a first draft with the threat of a deadline and a reward, I promised that she’d have a first draft delivered or she’d be allowed to do something really embarrassing.
The deadline? Tomorrow.
The first draft? Not even a third of the way done.
And we’re going to a taping of the Steven and Chris show tomorrow morning.
I’m in so much trouble.
So, uh, if you get CBC, and you tune into Steven and Chris, you’ll likely see a very embarrassed Grammar Geek. I heard rumours involving spray cheese.
4 Comments • Posted in Geekery, Writing
Jan 18, 2008
Dear JJ.
I love loved your shit. Lost, Alias, MI3, I would have followed you anywhere. Except, apparently, Cloverfield.
I’m not sure what the hell that was… but it wasn’t even the tiniest bit close to the JJ Abrams mind-fuck I was expecting or craving..
Man vs. Monster? Could have been a totally kick-ass movie.
A mind-fuck WTF ending after being entertained for 93 minutes? I’d have bought it.
Unsympathetic characters, a completely absent frame of reference, and random violence without understanding the impact on the world, the characters or why or where they came from? You Lost me.
I’m so over you.
Laurie.
4 Comments • Posted in Stuff
Jan 11, 2008
I promised yesterday that I’d have a new feature today.
I did a little rearranging of my blog. I took out the what I’m reading page, because I never remember to update it and I never seem to be near the computer when I finish a book. But to give you an idea, I have a bunch of the books on the go right now. I’m re-reading Bridget Jones’s Diary, because the CBC ran the movie and the sequel like a million times last week, and I’m part of the way through: Eve Kenin’s Driven, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, and something else I can’t seem to remember. (Tho, I have Megan Hart’s Broken, which I’m dying to start, but am holding off ’til I finish one or more of the other books I’m in the middle of.) And I just finished Rachel Caine’s Stray, and Jacqueline deMontravel’s Escape from Bridezilla.
And I added a new page. I know I’d initially intended for Fridays to be Ask the Grammar Geek day, but people stopped sending me questions. But what’s funny is that where so many people get random sex-related search words that bring people to their blogs, almost all of my search terms are grammar-related.
So I created a new page… Ask the Grammar Geek. That page is going to be a giant Q&A free-for-all. Post a question in the comments and I’ll answer it. (well, within reason. I obviously won’t answer questions about a specific submission or manuscript. And I may be secretive about personal questions. *grin*) But grammar? publishing? editing? writing? even web design… hit me with your best shot.
1 Comment • Posted in Ask the Grammar Geek, Editing, Grammar, News
Jan 10, 2008
Even though I’m notoriously bad at blogging, I’m still seeing a bunch of repeat visitors. So I’m jumping on the bandwagon and playing along with Delurker Day, which I discovered thanks to Kalisah over at I Am Not My Hair.
So delurk, leave me a comment and tell me who you are. If ya do… I have some news. I’m introducing a new feature of this blog tomorrow… but you’ll have to come back and see what it is. 
I know I’m a huge lurker, especially since I read all my blogs on my Google Reader. I love that everything comes right to me and I don’t have to try to remember all the URLs and I’ve discovered a pile more by clicking on links, but I’ve realized that I’m missing out on seeing everyone’s cool designs and their blogrolls, which I used to haunt. I guess this means instead of just working on blogging more, I also need to work on commenting more. Hee.
So, go on. Comment. You know you wanna….
4 Comments • Posted in Stuff
Jan 01, 2008
I know last year I had this big plan for SMART goals and all that stuff for my resolutions. I kept, uh, none of them. Actually, since I never specifically set any, I didn’t actually fail. Or, at least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 
The fact of the matter is if you had told me last January where I’d be today, I never would have believed you. For me, 2007 was the year of much change in my life. After being laid off my FT job in March, I went looking for a class at the local college just for fun. I was thinking something along the lines of making your own jewellery. Instead, on a whim, I ended up doing a certificate program as a webmaster.
Turns out, it was a really smart decision. I found a new passion. I graduated with high honours (yay, me! 
) And, right after graduation, I joined the teaching staff of that very same program as a TA. And, if that wasn’t enough, I opened a web design company.
Editing-wise, I also accomplished a lot. I edited and released 20 books. I read 120 submissions and bought 10 books. And I created over 1000 news packages for the RY! site. I also judged three contests and was asked to be the final judge for a fourth.
But I think the biggest thing I realized this past year is that I’ve been working myself way too hard.
So, 2008 is the year I take care of me.
It means instead of getting on the laptop as soon as I get up and staying on it until bedtime, I work in some exercise… I’m thinking yoga and tai chi, which will help me relax as well as get in better shape.
It means eating better. I love to cook, but rarely do it when it’s just me, which has seen entirely too many of my meals come out of a drive-thru window. I’m worth spending the time to cook for.
It means making time for friends, family, and the bf… I “found” so many former classmates on Facebook this year, instead of keeping them virtual, I’d like to do a real-life get together or two. And that goes the same for the friends I seem to only email even though we live less than a half-hour apart.
It means going farther away than a cross-border trip to Buffalo. Not that I don’t love a good shopping trip, but I want to get out and see more of the world. I already have plans for San Fran in late July for RWA Nationals, but I’d like to do some kind of non-working trip too.
It means finally making a go of the writing thing that I’ve only been talking about doing for too long. This year, not only am I going to actually finish something, I’m going to have it ready to send out. (And, you know, actually send it out. )
And, sure there’s the whole lose weight, get my house organized, blah, blah, blah, and those’d be nice, but I don’t need a date on the calendar to get started. I just need a few days off.
So, what does 2008 mean for you?
2 Comments • Posted in Stuff
Dec 22, 2007
The universe? When it has a message for you, it’s not subtle. Not even the tiniest bit.
I know I’ve been working a little harder than I should in the past little while, but I have a good four weeks off over the holidays. But, to make sure I actually took time off, the universe gave me the flu. Then, it killed my modem, so I couldn’t get online to sign on to any of my jobs…and took longer to get me a replacement modem than it should have. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, it pooped snow all over Southern Ontario, so even if I wanted to leave the house, I couldn’t.
Ok, message received. Time to take a break.
I spent the past week sleeping and watching cheesy Christmas movies. And more sleeping. I guess I needed it.
But the new modem has arrived and seems to be working (most of the time, anyway. *sigh*), the snow is melting, and I’m still sick. (Seriously? How long is this flu supposed to last? It’s been eight days already.)
And I’m probably going to take a bit of a break from the blogs for the holidays. (What’s that? Someone who rarely remembers to blog taking time off? There’s a shock. ) But I’ll be back in the new year with new releases, new goals (including one to blog more often.), and new news. (Tho, if you’ve been paying attention to my sidebar, that bit of new has been sitting there for a coupla days).
Wait, what do you mean Christmas is in three days?
Oh crap.
Well… I wish you all have a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Festive Festivus, a Rockin’ Ramadan and a Kick-ass Kwanzaa!
2 Comments • Posted in Stuff
Dec 05, 2007
I came across this on Pop Candy:
It’s a poster featuring most of the geeks… tho, I notice the grammar geek didn’t make it. :pout:
I think I’d fall pretty happily under the book geek and the TV geek, tho.
So, which geek are you?
5 Comments • Posted in Stuff
Nov 28, 2007
Oh, dear. I’m really dating myself with that song quote. (And bonus points if you a) remember the song and b) can name the artist. *grin*).
Things around my house (er, the Rauch Motel, as I like to call it *wink*) have gotten very animal-focused lately. I’ve never been much of an animal person. I’m highly allergic to cats, and we just didn’t have a dog when I was growing up. So, my exposure was pretty limited.
When I first moved in to my house, I thought about getting a dog, but I was commuting, and out for long hours every day, and I didn’t think it was fair.
And then, I was lying in bed one night and a bat flew into my room. Freaked me right the heck out.
I thought I’d locked it in a room with an open window and it had flown out, but in fact it actually hid in my house for three days before it surfaced again…in the middle of the night. Frantic phone calls didn’t turn up anyone willing to drive all the way to my house at 2 a.m. to help me get rid of it. I ended up calling an exterminator who, upon hearing my frantic plea, offered to come and remove mr. bat without charing me their exorbitant middle of the night fee. I think he thought he might have gotten lucky. Instead he got me. heh.
But my house has been animal free ever since… until a few weeks ago, I had to leave at a disgustingly early hour (I’m a night owl. 6 a.m. just doesn’t exist in my world) and I stumbled down to the front door, half asleep, kicked a few pairs of shoes out of the way until I found the ones I was looking for and as I’m stepping into one of them, a mouse appears from behind me, runs across my foot and ambles across the hallway… I started screaming. A lot. I scared the absolute crap out of T, who *was* sleeping. He comes running downstairs, thinking someone was trying to kill me or something, and when he found out what happened, laughed like a fool. And hasn’t stopped.
What he has started is a campaign for a dog. He’s already picked one out at the pet store across the street.
I’m not sure. In theory, it’s probably not a bad thing. I mean, companionship, something to love, something to keep away mice who like high-heeled platform shoes, and squirrels with a Nanaimo bar addiction. (oh, yes, that’s another story… this past weekend I had family over for dinner and my mom brought desserts. We had extra Nanaimo bars that wouldn’t fit in the fridge, so we thought we’d cover them up and put them on the balcony. Hey, it’s -1 out, it’s not like they wouldn’t be kept cold. But, Spanky (*sigh* yes, T has named the squirrels who hang out on my balcony) decided he wanted to get inside. He got inside the freezer wrap and managed to eat a good chunk of one before we caught him. We re-wrapped the tray up in a couple of bags and put it back outside. (you’d think we’d learn…) Well, Spanky was almost all the way through all those bags before we dug up a plastic container that would fit the tray. When *that* finally came inside, Spanky had tried to nibble through both handles. )
But despite all that, I’m still resistant to getting a dog. First, I like being able to be on my way home and randomly detour for a couple of hours on a whim. Or getting up one morning and deciding to drive across the border. And if we’ve got a dog waiting at home, that’s gonna mean an unhappy dog. Or, er, a relieved dog, but an unhappy carpet.
And second, I’m not used to having an animal in the house. I’m a control freak. And dogs, not really an animal you can use logic on… or reason with.
But on the other hand… there’s the unconditional love and the licks and the snuggles and the company when I’m home alone. Not to mention a built-in get me away from the computer and take a darn break already.
I dunno… so I’m open to suggestions. Do you have pets? Should we get a dog? Why or why not?
10 Comments • Posted in Stuff
Greetings and Salutations. I am Laurie M. Rauch, Owner and Chief Code Nerd of Elle Media and WordPress Divas.
Talking about web design, pop culture, books, decorating my new house, and my addiction to good grammar.
