This was going to just be a Facebook status but Facebook said it was too long so I’m posting it here instead.

So, I’m up for a free upgrade on my cell phone a full 2 years ago. Still haven’t been able to find a phone I like even after 2 years, they all have those stupid keyboards that make them twice as thick. Whatever, my old phone is still awesome, so it’s not a big deal, I can wait.

My phone finally breaks (volume button breaks off but the thing is 4 years old and that is the only thing wrong with it so I don’t blame it) so I concede to get a new phone. After many many hours of research, I finally find a phone I like but it’s out of stock. Come back in Feb, they say, we will have more. I look today and the phone is back in stock, alright, but now requires a freakin’ $10 a month data plan it didn’t before.

So I say, fine, I will get a different phone. Yeah, they pretty much *all* now require the stupid data plan. Including the one my husband owns and was able to get without a data plan a few weeks ago. They went in and changed the requirements on a bunch of phones pretty much overnight.

I am so furious right now.

Has anyone successfully circumvented this or been grandfathered in by calling and getting angry? I am interested in trying it.

I haven’t screamed at a customer service rep in many years. It may be time to bust that out.

OMG, you guys, I wrote a book! Remember that? It’s actually mostly terrible but parts of it are awesome and I know how to fix the terrible bits. I think.

You guys! I wrote a book that has the potential to not be terrible once I work on it a whole lot. How cool is that?

My To Do list today says, amongst other things “Frankenstein Mistress Novel.” My husband looked at it and asked what the heck that meant.

It means: Take all the random hacked up bits of Mistress Novel that are in all different documents and files and combine them into one latest and greatest draft. In other words, take some random parts and reanimate them into one glorious story.

And let me assure you *lightning crashes* It’s alive!!!!!

So I started this book before NaNoWriMo and then continued it during NaNoWriMo. So the 50K words I wrote during NaNo only counted new material which means it was the rest of Mistress Novel and then some of Mistress Novel II: Why haven’t you gone back to your original novel yet, you freakin’ hussy?* (*=not the real title)

I work on my books in sections, meaning my book is never one single document. I have hundreds of documents all over the place that are often individual chapters or scenes. I also always lose track of chapter numbers so after a while the documents are named after what happens in that scene and I end up with several chapter 10’s or something.

Also, during NaNoWriMo I got a bit off my outline in the middle there and had to literally rewrite chunks of book without going back and looking at the old. So you have things where I wrote myself a note like, “She still opens the door but now…” and then a new segment starts to replace what I originally wrote and then it reads “until he comes in, then you go back to file x until the part with the headlights when….” and another section. It was very confusing but I think I have put everything together in order now. I tried really hard not to read much of it so I don’t get obsessed with editing right now.

So for the first time in the recorded history of me, I actually put this entire book in the same document. I’m hoping this will make it less confusing. We’ll see. The elements I don’t like about it are: #1 if I lose this one document, I lose everything and #2 its so big, it is really really confusing and intimidating to work with.

Oh and remember that tightened version of the first chapter I was talking about? Just did a comparison of it and the original in Microsoft Word to make sure there wasn’t anything in the original I needed or left out plot wise. Despite the fact that the exact same things still happen in that scene, the only words in common in the entire chapter between old and new are the following words: character names, smashed, the, in, of and the last 13 words of the last sentence which stayed exactly the same.

I was very impressed with this. No one can hack up a chapter like me, apparently.

As a bonus, I also did a good ole track changes on the first 6 chapters and got some simple typos today which is more than I ever dreamed I’d get done. (Huge props go to my cousin who helped me do some of my eBay work yesterday, thereby letting me steal a little time off to work on my book!)

Major editing starts soon. Man, do I wish there was a way to pause all my normal work to be able to do the editing all at once!

Anyway, no new words added to the count since it’s been all edits and revisions this week so I cannot show the potato with any kind of update. Hope you managed to stay on track though with whatever you’re working on!

I have a lot of thoughts I want to blog about but not a huge amount of time so here are some quickies to hold you over. Here they are in gloriously illogical order.

• Really enjoying the Discworld series. Only on book 3 but I may have read them too fast as I totally dreamed about being a wizard last night. Also, I know people say they are the series that J K Rowling ripped off for Harry Potter but, so far, I don’t see any ripping off. That said, I am only 3 books in. I love them, they are hilarious. Comparing them to Douglas Adams isn’t fair because Terry Pratchett is a WAY better storytelling. I love Adams, he is hilarious, but his stories don’t really, you know, make sense. Pratchett is funny AND tells a good story. The first book took some time to get into but from that point on, they are awesome. I love The Luggage. I want to marry him and have little baby handbags.
• I am so loving all this new Muppet content. Please do not stop the glorious tide!
• My husband and I made all our food reservations for our upcoming Disney trip and I am embarrassingly excited about the food. I keep thinking about it at odd hours. 
• I am so glad that Facebook, Twitter et al didn’t exist when I was a teenage. I was able to make a perfectly good fool of myself in public when public wasn’t, you know, the whole planet Earth. 
• Husband and I totally downloaded ABBA: Number Ones last night upon learning they will be the band for the alumni ball at our college this year and listened obsessively. Husband is very excited. He wants to grow, and I quote, “a really bad mustache.”
• I’m trying to make a concerted effort to not say the phrase “I’m stressed.” I apparently say this way too often, according to those close to me. I’m hoping that if I don’t say it, I will, in turn, not actually be stressed. Stay tuned for if this works.
• Would a weekend in Kentucky be fun? The My Little Pony Convention is there this year, not sure if I want to go. Convince me.
• Facebook has made me very territorial about my friends and family. Whenever someone comments on something posted by a close friend or family remember and I don’t know who they are I feel all, “And who the hell are you???!!!” It’s like, they are my people, back off random person. If you were all that close with them, I’d have heard of you by now!
• If they release a color Kindle, I should totally do a Kindle version of The She-Ra Collector’s Inventory. Maybe I should do it now anyway in advance of the inevitable release. Hmmm.