Heather Foeh

I learned a new word this week: Omnitasking.

…omnitasking is a higher state of multitasking enabled by today’s many technology tools. Talking on a bluetooth-enabled smart phone while sending out an email from your laptop and sipping a latte at the corner coffee shop - that’s omnitasking

Are you afraid? I am. I don’t want to be an omnitasker. I want to sit on my porch, sip an adult beverage, snack on some mixed nuts and chat with my husband. I don’t want to always be connected, always be productive, always be ON. Just thinking about it exhausts me.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, my friend Michelle sent me a new link this week - a blog called The Growing Life (”Alternative Productivity, Anti-Hacks for Living”) that’s all about living an intentional life. The author has a great post about the Attentional Feng Shui of a Room. If you don’t have time to read it all at least skip to the end and read the four concrete steps you can perform. I’m jazzed and ready to transform my home office and then tackle the rest of my house…the bookshelves in my room, my stash of yarn for knitting, my stack of paid but not filed bills, you get the idea. I’ll let you know how it goes.

My friend Maureen sent me a link to view the SEO Rapper and I think I just proved what an incredibly geeky geek I am by laughing out loud at the video. I’m linking to the video, rather than embedding it here because the site it’s on (ran by iJustine….hmmm…should I become iHeather? nah) has the lyrics posted in addition to the video. Nice bonus.

Today is the day that all Golden Heart finalists will be notified via telephone and I must say that I’m a nervous wreck. It’s not even so much that I want to final (which I do) but the NOT KNOWING is killing me right now. When the day ends if I haven’t gotten a call I’ll be disappointed, but at least I’ll have closure.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s the scoop: the Golden Heart is an international contest sponsored by the Romance Writers of America to recognize outstanding unpublished manuscripts. There are 10 categories and each will have approximately 10 finalists. The winners are then announced at the RWA National Conference at a ceremony on the final night (this year, August 2 in San Francisco). I entered into the “Contemporary Series Romance” category - just in case you were wondering.

So, here I am, trying to work while sneaking longing glances at the phone… Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Well, it’s now 9:20 PM Central time so I guess we can safely assume I will not be getting a phone call. Oh well…maybe next year!

I had a wonderful week visiting Paris! I was able to do some sight-seeing on Sunday afternoon and Monday and in those two days I covered a lot of ground. I found a yarn store, I visited two beautiful churches, I walked through the grounds of the Louvre, I visited the Musée de l’Orangerie where I was able to see Les Nymphéas (which were beautifully presented), I drank chocolat chaud (twice - it was cold!), I shopped, I visited the street where our apartment is located for our June family vacation, and on and on and on.

I think the highlight of my trip was getting to hear so much French spoken around me. The class I was teaching included people from Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the UK. We conducted all of our training in English, however each night at dinner the conversation slipped into French. I could understand 95% of what was being said and that thrilled me. I answered mostly in English with a bit of French. I probably would have been more willing to try French had the group been smaller, but being surrounded by six French speakers was a bit overwhelming.

My fellow Austin chapter mate in the Romance Writers of America, Sherry Thomas, has her debut novel out on March 25: PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS. She has received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, among other illustrious quotes and reviews.

This week she created a lovely and clever book trailer all by herself and I wanted to share it here. Enjoy!

Now, go buy the book!

I’m a big fan of organization and I love to find new and geeky ways to get even more organized. Recently I discovered Remember the Milk - it’s an online application that allows you to create task lists, prioritize them, share them, integrate with your online calendars, etc. There’s even a nice little Gmail add-on if you use Firefox. Plus, you’ve gotta love the name. Oh, and did I mention that it’s free?

So, if you read the Smart Bitches blog (or if you keep up with world events better than I do) then you probably already know about the latest writing scandal: Margaret B. Jones published a “memoir” about her gang and drug-infested childhood called Love and Consequences. Unfortunately, it turns out that Ms. Jones is really Ms. Seltzer and none of it is true. What on earth are people thinking?? It’s not like this hasn’t happened before. Hello…remember “A Million Little Pieces”, the Oprah pick? Oops. So what makes someone believe they’ll get away with it.

Here’s my favorite part of the New York Times article:

“Ms. Seltzer’s story started unraveling last Thursday after she was profiled in the House & Home section of The New York Times. The article appeared alongside a photograph of Ms. Seltzer and her 8-year-old daughter, Rya. Ms. Seltzer’s older sister, Cyndi Hoffman, saw the article and called Riverhead to tell editors that Ms. Seltzer’s story was untrue.”

My first thought is that the sister was rather jerky, but then I thought about what I’d do if my own sister was getting famous off of falsehoods — I’d have to speak up (hopefully first to my sister before the publisher…). My second thought was, Ms. Seltzer is even more idiotic than I originally thought! She has a whole family who could at any minute unmask her. Did she not take that into consideration? Did she not think, “Hey, maybe I should give them a heads-up”? Apparently not.

I’ve done some dumb things in my life, but sometimes it’s nice to read about other people’s complete idiocy — it makes my stupidity just a little less stupid.

During the month of February I traveled to Madison, WI and Cincinnati, OH for work. Now in March I have the opportunity to travel somewhere a bit more exotic: Paris, France. I’ll be teaching two days of Eloqua 101 training for a client, but before that starts I’ll have a day and a half of sightseeing! I just went to Amazon.com and bought something that’s been on my Wish List for a while: “Paris: 50 Adventures on Foot“. It’s a little card deck that features different guided walks around the city. I like the idea that I can just put a few cards in my bag and head out for hours without needing to lug along a guide book.

Now for the extra exciting news: We’re taking a family trip to Paris this summer! We just settled all of our details this week, including the complicated airline tickets for our kids (who will be visiting my parents in Kuwait and then meeting us in Paris). We’ve found a wonderful 2-bedroom apartment to rent (only a block from Notre-Dame) which will be our home for the week.

So, it’s definitely my lucky year — two trips to Paris within a few months of each other! I’ve been listening to French podcasts today to brush up on my language skills, as well as doing some vocabulary and grammar exercises in my French review book. Yes, I’m a nerd.

Watch this space for pictures beginning on March 16th…

Sheesh - I’ve been absent for ages! What has kept me away? Hmmm….let’s see….

Knitting: I’ve learned to knit in the round and am now in the process of making my 3rd stocking hat. A whole new world has opened up to me! Yay!

Reading: A bit of retro Nora Roberts, the new Sarah Mayberry (Burning Up), Persuasion by Jane Austen, and No Apologies by my fellow ARWA member Tracy Wolff.

Listening: I was having a blast-from-the-past moment and downloaded DC Talk’s greatest hits album to my iPod. It’s fun to be able to sing along with songs I haven’t heard in ages. I also downloaded an audiobook to my iPod and listened to that on some recent business travels.

Traveling:  I’ve made several trips to Austin to meet with clients and teach an Eloqua 101 class. Next week I’m headed to Madison, WI and the week after that I’ll be in Cincinnati, OH. Brrrrr.

Writing: I’ve submitted my first manuscript to two new agents. One has already rejected my query (drat!) and I’m waiting to hear back from the other one. Unfortunately, I haven’t worked very steadily on my current manuscript. However, I just started a daily writing challenge with my fellow Austin RWA chaptermates and am getting on the bandwagon again. My goal is to be finished with my second manuscript by my birthday at the end of April. I think my problem is that I’m in revisions and that’s not nearly as fun as fresh writing.

A few months ago my friend Michelle and I submitted a proposal to speak at the Romance Writers of America National Conference which will be held July 30-August 2 in San Francisco. Well, I’m happy to announce that we just found out today that we were accepted! We’ll be presenting a class called “Creating a Web Presence” which we debuted in September at our local Austin RWA chapter. We then presented again in November at a Writers League of Texas class that our fellow ARWA member Kit Frazier was teaching (thanks, Kit!).

We’re excited and thrilled and “over the moon” may not be overstating it. Yippee!