Nikki Loftin

Archive for the ‘Family News’ Category

This Is Why I Distrust Facebook

Urg.

So, last night, I invited some close friends/neighbors over for a lovely dinner party. I made a new recipe my brother taught me in Ohio last week — “white sangria.” This consists of 1 bottle of riesling, 2 cans mango and/or peach nectar, some cut up mangoes and strawberries, and an undetermined amount of both peach schnapps and triple sec. Suffice to say, it is a dangerous drink.

Dangerous enough that I felt brave enough to do my very first Facebook post…. before I went to bed.

So this morning, you know who had commented on my Facebook post, right? Yeah, it would have to be my pastor. Why, oh why, did I ever agree to “friend” him? I should have known something like this would happen. Off to church now, where I am relatively certain the pastor will be preaching on the dangers of strong drink.

He should just preach on the dangers of Facebook.

On the writing front, I sent off three new essays yesterday to some different markets. I have decided to spend this summer revising Perfect Mischief… and I’ve even found an ultra-cheap camp to send my kids to for a week so I can actually write!

Now, I’m off to convince my 6 year old that he cannot simultaneously brush his teeth and wear his Optimus Prime Voice-changing Helmet.

Road Trippin’

Adios, Amigos/Amigas!

I’m off on a road trip tomorrow! For those of you who are feeling jealous, let me clarify: A 23-hour road trip to Ohio, with my two sons, my mother, and my mother’s aptly-named chihuahua, Booger.

Not so jealous now, are you? Ha! It will be fun, I just know it. I’ve packed Tylenol, carrot sticks AND chocolate, and enough DVDs to turn my kids’ brains to mush by Cincinnati. Of course, Mom loves Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, and John Denver to the extent that it might be MY brain in jeopardy by then.

I have so much going on with my writing, it’s crazytime. But as this site is being checked out by the darling agents who have my full manuscript out, I must refrain from emoting here. (Yes, I see your furtive little nighttime visits, you sneaky varmints! It’s all there, on my blog stats page. I love you like family, each and every one of you. But would it KILL you to call me once in a while?)

I DID erase the sample chapter of Soccer Failure, since it was a very early draft I had posted for family/friends to read, and (gulp) I noticed it was being read by others. So, just comment if you want to read something. I’ll send.

I wrote drafts of 2 new picture books this week, and sent an essay off to a national mag that looks VERY promising… more when and if it gets picked up.

Oh, yeah… the new essay? Here’s a quote from my beta reader/sister. “It’s hilarious! It’s so good… wait, has Mom read this yet? She’s going to KILL you!”

Bah! It’s so much easier to ask forgiveness than permission, right? Who knows? I’ll probably have more to write about the woman when we get back.

Happy Summer!

Howdy from the Center of the Sun

Hot… hot…hot… even for this native Texas girl. Record-breaking days, one after another. We’re melting…..

And you know what makes it hotter? Trying to do final revisions of a manuscript while your kids are hanging off your legs, whining about wanting to go to the swimming pool.Revisions, you ask? Surely not! Wasn’t that the (ahem) prize-winning manuscript from last post? Well, er, yes. But when I looked back through it, I saw a few things that just needed tweaking… then a couple more… then a little problem with continuity… Agh! I MUST send it off to the agents who wanted it, or no more snow cones for me! Bad writer! Bad! Bad!

So tomorrow, I am splurging. I will spend every dollar I made today as a Zumba instructor on a twelve-year old neighbor girl who will keep the kids OFF MY LEGS so I can finish revisions, an essay and/or a picture book draft that has been pestering me.

Oh, yes, I did teach my very first Zumba class today, at the local YMCA. It was fun, although I think I may have been a little too energetic for a couple of the members. Maybe not, we’ll have to see what their EKGs look like. (Kidding! I think.) If you haven’t tried Zumba, and you love to dance, you should get to a gym soon. It’s super fun!

I’m off to Ohio in a few days, where very little writing will happen, but lots of driving (yep, that would be a 23-hour road trip each way with my kids. Pray for us all.), lots of visiting newborn relatives, and (I hope) a lot of reading!

I’m looking forward to reading Savvy, The Gollywhopper Games, and finishing Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go. Yeah, yeah. Mock my list, but a certain agent mentioned that an aspiring witer should have read around 300 books in her field printed in the last 5 years… and I’m a hundred or so short right now.

Happy Summer!

As We Say in Texas –Yeehaw! I won!

Howdy, y’all!

It’s been an amazing month. First, a trip to Scotland, England, and Canada (check out the photos on Dave’s photoblog as he posts them). In Toronto, we climbed the CN Tower, the world’s tallest… and then I came home to even dizzier heights.
Fame, glory, prestige… well, okay. Maybe not so much of that. I did win the Writer’s League of Texas Manuscript Contest with my Middle Grade (that means older elementary level) manuscript, Raymond Mahaney, Soccer Failure.

Very exciting, heady stuff. I got to wear a little “Winner” name tag, receive a certificate where (strangely) they spelled my name right, but Raymond’s name wrong, and –best of all — I met with a whole BUNCH of agents who asked for my full manuscript.

Wicked cool, eh? (Sorry, I loved Canada.) I also got another nibble from an editor on a new picture book manuscript. (I’ll let you know!) Plus, I met an amazing number of soon-to-be-famous authors, and a few already-famous ones, and got their cards. If you’re reading this, you know who you are… and I can’t wait to buy your books! (Be prepared to blurb mine;-)

The one thing about all of these writers that was utterly consistent was their phenomenal supportiveness of other writers. It was a total lovefest.

Other great news: My friend Shelli Cornelison has a humorous article coming out in July’s ParentWise:Austin. Check it out and be ready to laugh! Will our kids ever forgive us for exposing their childhood traumas so publicly? Do we care?

Also, my sugar daddy has a photography exhibition coming up, hosted by Alpha and Omega Fine Arts Photography Gallery, beginning July 2. Yay, Dave!

I have to go polish up my query letters and make sure my manuscript has the right sized margins. Never mind the piles of dog hair in the living room that now resemble small floor pillows. I mean, the housework can wait! I’ve got fun work to do!

Father’s Day Essay Online!

Okay, I know a bunch of you have been checking back in to see when the aforementioned essay about my sweet husband would be available. (Yes, the essay he hasn’t even seen yet. The perils of marrying a writer!)

Well, it’s available online today! Just click here to read all about my fabulous, fashion-challenged husband in the June edition.

I love you, Dave!

Rejection Roses

Don’t you all wish you had husbands who, when they hear you had a rejection that day, come home with roses? And not just any roses –yellow ones? Already arranged, in a vase?

That editorial board may not appreciate my picture book, but I know my husband appreciates me! (sounds of Nikki pinning her remaining hopes on her novels…there!)

My roses are beautiful, and they even smell good. Of course, that’s probably some floral perfume they spray on, but anything lovely is welcome today.

FYI, Comportment Camp is over 25,000 words… only about 6K more to go, and you’ll all be reading my rough drafts again… I know, I know, you’re very excited.  Hey! Where are you going? Don’t run away. I’m going to need you to line edit for me in a few days… Get back here!

One bit of Proud Mama news: Cameron won the grade-level AR medal (engraved w/ his name, no less!) today at the school assembly. He rocks, the little reading freak. (For those in the know, he had over 300 points. Yeah. Freakish.)

My Favorite Children

My kids are ecstatic — counting the days, the hours, the minutes, until school is out.

They only have four more days of school.

I only have four more days of uninterrupted writing.

I am a terrible mother. I know this, because a good mother wouldn’t be fantasizing about skipping her child’s end-of-year assembly or teacher conference to get a few more chapters written. Would she?

No, she wouldn’t.  I am so selfish. I have two novels (count ‘em, two!) in the works, one about 20,000 words in, the other around 4,000 words, and a new PB (the sequel to Best Grandmother, BTW) almost finished.And they are my favorite babies right now! Okay, don’t call CPS, I’m just kidding. Sort of.

I am a complete mess, as I am expecting some sort of news (good? bad? indifferent? who knows?) on Best Grandmother soon from Publisher X, the publisher I am completely convinced is the right one, or at least the one I would like above all others,  for this manuscript. (And the sequel, of course. Never forget the sequel…;-) )

Of course, I have rooms to clean, conferences to attend, and chapters to write, so I’m spending my waiting time wisely/productively, at least.

And then off to Scotland in two weeks! Did you know, when I took this year off to write, I fully intended to finish a paranormal romance set in Scotland? And now, I have a stack of children’s manuscripts on my hard drive, and a head full of ideas for more. Isn’t it wonderful, and crazy, how the Spirit moves? Have any of you ever thought you knew the direction you were going, only to have the Spirit hijack your route? If so, how did that work out for you? I’m just curious, since I haven’t gotten wherever I’m going on this one, and I’m sure as shootin’ not behind the wheel.

Writing About Your Husband

Dave knew I was a writer when we got married, so he has no one but himself to blame for what’s about to go down.

I keep telling myself that.

No, I haven’t written a tell-all novel about his obsession with Twitter or giant lenses, or that show Top Gear.

I did write a short, funny, little-bitty essay about his fashion sense for a parenting magazine that got (gulp) accepted today… and will appear with all the incriminating details next month on all the local newsstands.

Dave, of course, has not read it yet.Um… honey? If you’re reading this, I REALLY love you, and I promise it’s not that bad.

I’m thinking he can read it when it comes out, not before. I’ll link to it here when the new ParentWise:Austin comes out.

So, have any of you other writer-types done anything like this? If so, are you still happily married, or do your children still talk to you?

What Happens in Las Vegas…

When I was a little girl, whenever anyone mentioned the words “Las Vegas” around my grandma, she would practically spit out the words, “Trashy town! Trashy people!”
I asked her when she had been to Vegas. She acted like I had asked when she had been a hooker.
“Las Vegas?! I would NEVER go to Las Vegas. Trashy town!” Yadayada.

So when I took Grandma to lunch yesterday for an early Mother’s Day, I didn’t bother to tell her I was going to Vegas on Monday.
Wouldn’t want her to die of shame, right? I mean , she’s 89. The shock could kill her.

And no, I’m not going to gamble. I “lose” enough just submitting my work! So, I’ll be back in a while, ready to post about the den of vice and depravity that will be my home for the next few days….

Hey! One piece of news! I was invited to write a “Kids Cooking”-type column for a new e-zine. I’ll link to the first issue when it happens, which should be in August. Of course, I wrote it with my own special brand of humor….

Good Friends

I’m having a friend over today. I would like to say I entertain often because I’m social, and I enjoy my friends’ company, but the truth is I would just as soon meet them for a cup of coffee at Thyme and Dough.

The truth? I invite people over when my house is getting so messy I can’t find things, and the dog hair is piled up in clumps like snowdrifts.

Of course, cleaning takes away from my writing time (grrrr), but when I can’t see the monitor for the dust, it’s probably a good call. Ack! What’s this? Crumbs in my keyboard, rotten little kids…. oh, wait. I think I did that, too.

I think there’s an essay in here somewhere, about generational sloppiness. Given that I once invited my brother over to my house to help boil my dishes clean, I think I have adequate “platform” for this!

I have been very sad today. I found out that a close friend of mine — we met when we were 11, and stayed friends through graduate school! — died in late February. I didn’t know until last night. Her name was Melanie Wilkinson, and she had a voice like cream, a laugh louder than thunder, and was one of the kindest souls we had here. She never made fun of anyone, and she had this way of seeing the good in everything that made you want to try that, too. I sang with her through high school, but I missed her Master’s recital at Texas State University. I was out of town. My brother went, and said it was exquisite. I am sure it was.

I wish I could hear Melanie sing again, and then make her laugh just for the fun of seeing her happy.One of her co-workers said it was like a light went out when she was gone. I wish they could know that she was always like that, from the time she was a little girl. She was always a light to everyone around her.

Let Your Light Shine, Melanie!