Progress...

I have been working pretty hard on HIGHBORN for the past month. Most of that has not been on new writing, but on completing the outline. This was needed both for me-- I knew where I wanted the novel to go but I needed a sense of how it was going to get there-- and for an agent I'm hoping will take me on. So over last weekend, I finished the detailed outline, polished the first 60 pages of HIGHBORN to the highest shine I could, and finalized two one-page pitches for what could be books 2 and 3 if this was to be considered for a series. It all went out on Monday, said agent received it on Wednesday, and now we wait. My fingers are so tightly crossed they look like pretzels. I've brought the goal number down to something a little more realistic; anything above 100,000 is cream. Here's the progress meter:



On the not-good-news side, cancer has poked its despicable head out again. A couple of years ago a former coworker got married, had a baby and moved to the east coast. Yesterday I found out that the two-year-old baby, Jaina, was diagnosed with a Wilms tumor on her kidney. The tumor (a 2-pounder) has been removed and was a stage I malignancy; Jaina now faces 19 weeks of chemotherapy. She's in her first week, so even though you may not know this little girl, please keep her in your thoughts. By the way, it's not too late to add to the donation pool on my ACS page, which still exists here: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/yvonnenavarro.

Here's wishing everyone a great weekend and a fabulous Memorial Day. RIP to all the great men and women of the U.S. who have fought and died so that we can have the liberties and life we have today. We salute you, honor you, thank you, and remember you.

Middle of the Night Walk Report

So it was actually kind of fun, although I was rather taken aback by the poop-out-ness of my team mates. MK, who talked me into this to begin with, got up out of his lawn chair and walked with me for about 20 minutes, then bombed out and went home. EE walked with me for about a half hour after that, then collapsed with her husband and twins in an RV. Incredibly, I was actually kind of energized, so I walked the rest of it by myself, be-booping around the track and singing along with the music coming out of the Kareoke (I have no idea how to spell that) machine on the stage... and doing a better job matching the words than the teenagers there, if I do say so myself. I said I'd do two hours, and by gawds, that's what I did. I took a 5 minute break to eat potato chips (for some reason I got ravenously hungry at about 4:10 a.m.) and let myself go home when I saw the sun come up at 5 a.m.

I managed to raise $370.00 for the American Cancer Society. Thank you to all my wonderful contributors-- you know who you are. Also thank you to all the wonderful people who donated on your own, bought luminaries, or donate a few dollars throughout the year. It all counts, and you all rock.

:-)

Last Chance !!!

Yes, I am repeating myself: In only a few hours, I will get my sorry buns up in the middle of the night (2:30 ayam, to be exact) and go walk around Veterans' Memorial Park for two hours as part of the American Cancer Society Relay. If you can spare even a dollar or two, please sponsor me on my ACS Relay Page. Every dollar helps to fund research to conquer the cancer demon that wants to be in all of us. Thanks!

A Very important Thing: Cancer

In a bit under a week, on May 9th (technically May 10th, but let's not get lost in the details), I'm going to get up at 2:30 in the morning, go to the center of my little town, and walk with a bunch of other people as part of the American Cancer Society Relay.  I can't think of anyone who hasn't been touched by cancer, either by personal experience with the disease or by losing someone who has.  Over the course of my life, cancer has taken my Uncle Garlon, my LJ friend Richard, acquaintances Al and Cookie VanderSluis (husband and wife, who died from different types of cancer only a few years apart), and my very good friend from Rudnick & Wolfe, Dorothy Harrington.  My grandmother fought off cervical cancer before chemo was ever invented, and here and there in my family tree the disease pops its despicable head up before being, thankfully, beat down.  My beloved Chanci, a Great Dane/Lab mix I had for 10 years, succumbed in 1991, after being whittled down in a single month to little more than a bag of bones that I had to carry up and down the stairs.

That's the bad news.  The good news is that we are constantly searching for and finding ways to combat all the forms of this horrible disease, and we will not stop.  Not now.  Not tomorrow.  Not ever.  So if you can spare a few dollars-- literally, ANY amount-- please sponsor me on my ACS Relay Page here:

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/yvonnenavarro

Thank you... and thank you, again, to the people who have already been so generous!

"The Fifth Season"

Walk with me a little while.

We will walk together in Spring, with new life bursting around us.

Summertime, side by side we will lie in the sun together, our hearts warm with the good company of best friends.

We will traverse fields in Autumn, with golden leaves soft under our feet, brisk wind at our backs.

Winter brings us to the cozy hearth, dozing by the fire, flickers of embers reflected in our eyes.

There is a fifth season, unnamed, unfathomable, when the leash must be hung on the wall, no longer making the visible connection we have to one another.

Yet the invisible one remains.

Always I will be a part of you as you are of me.

My friend, my heart, my Great Dane.

Author Unknown*

*If you know, tell me
so I can credit.

Lily
January 14, 2003 - May 1, 2006



Sleep well, my sweet Lily.
We still miss you so.