Long time no write!

It has been a while since I've stopped by and said hello, leaving some thoughts.
These past couple of months have been hectic, and I really miss my space, reading my friend's spaces and catching up.

In the past couple of months, I've written my query letters and have sent them out to different publishing houses, thanking some of my wonderful TWF friends who helped me edit the queries to be at their best!

3 books, 4 publishing houses and 1 literary agent, for my novel.

I really am praying that they will be accepted and I can finally be able to work from home, concentrating on my writing. We are now going on 3 months since I've sent my husband's application for Canada, so I am hoping that by the time we hear from them (with a hopeful acceptance), I will hear about my queries.

It would be a wonderful blessing to be able to pack up and go back home, and plunge myself into a life of writing, in my homeland, close to my family, friends and loved ones.

I've been out of the corporate world for almost 12 years and to be quite honest, I'm a wee bit terrified to have to go back to that. Especially in Canada. I am now so used to the pleasant courteous Japanese way and to the exceptions I have here as a foreigner, I wouldn't know how to integrate myself into an environment with opinionated, tell it like it is, kind of people anymore. (Although I'm one of them!! LOL)

So now that the queries are out, I'm working madly on the final edits of my novel, which are done, except I am thinking of re-writing the ending, all of a sudden. I hadn't read it in awhile and when I went back to editing at the beginning of the month, suddenly felt the last few chapters were garbage and now want to re-work it.
Since my queries are out, I MUST finish it soon!

I am waiting on some answers to requests I sent out via email, to get some expert advice about some things that come up in the story. Haven't heard back yet. I suppose helping a writer isn't on one's priority list. :)

I also must finish writing 3 short stories to finish my compilation of short stories, which I've also sent out a query for.

Sending out the queries when things are not completely finished, is a great motivation to get my butt to the chair, hands to the keyboard and type!


The other exciting thing happened yesterday morning (Aug. 11).

We were advised we would have a typhoon, but instead Mother Nature played a cruel joke on us.

At 5:07, we were hit with a strong earthquake. I believe it measured 6 point something on the scale. Japanese scale for measuring the intensity is different than the richter.

To give you an idea, my house, nor the things in it were shaking. No, no. No shaking...they were JUMPING! My house was literally jumping and we had to hang on for dear life. After quite a few seconds and quite a few violent jumps, the shaking began.

The intense moments felt like they lasted a good 45 secs to a minute (which is a bloody long time!!) then the low, trembling of the foundation continued for awhile.

The earthquake came from about 20 kms directly beneath our area of the earth's surface and caused the city water pipelines to explode. So we had no water.

I must admit, the Japanese are used to this kind of thing, as emergency procedures were put into action immediately!

Trucks were posted all over the place with tanks of freshwater for everyone. We got our fill and they gave us an emergency pack of 6 litres, very effective, made of some incredible tough plastic with wire to carry over our shoulders, in case we need to run.

When the pipelines were eventually restored, the water was black and red, very rusty, so it was only good for flushing the toilet.

The aftershocks were felt until about 7 pm that night. And the city kept announcing different refuge sites for each neighbourhood of the city. Luckily we live directly across the street from ours.

Also, my town is approx. a km from the ocean coast, so we were put on a Tsunami alert. The webpage on the net advised no tsunami warning for the earthquake, but our city kept putting us on emergency alert, using huge sirens to announce procedures to everyone in the city.

We were shaken, especially since our Japanese is not nearly good enough to understand all the details.

At about 7:30 pm I brought some sweet breads to the old men who were distributing water to everyone, for which they were extremely grateful. I spoke with them for a few minutes, and they patiently explained in Japanese 'layman's terms' for me, what the announcements were saying. We had pretty much understood everything, but it was still nice to have it explained again, to make sure.

They gave me another 6 litre pack of emergency water and wished me care and I wished them care as well.

Needless to say, my husband and I didn't get to sleep that night, eventually dozing off at about 6 a.m. I was up by 9 a.m. LOL! :)

Today, we woke up to a beautiful day, with the sun out and clean tapwater, it appears. And everyone is out and about their business as usual.

This scare only made me pray even more fervently to God, to help my husband's acceptance into Canada.

I realize we have our own battles with nature in Canada, but take it from me: the fear you feel in a natural potential disaster is quite intense, but the intensity is escalated when you are completely alone, with no family, no friends and can't fully understand what is happening or being said around you.

My husband and I have each other, but it can still get lonely being in a country that neither of us truly belong to.

But today is a new day and we are grateful for life and grateful for each other, continuing with happy thoughts as always. We are now more than ever looking forward to coming home and will continue to take advantage of the time we have here, so we can leave here feeling completely satisfied that we enjoyed Japan.

I guess that is all for now, so I'll sign off and I promise it won't be another two months before you hear from me again! *wink

Take care my friends and happy thoughts! :)