Where does the time go?

So much for trying to post more often. On December 6th I was so proud to announce that I was back. I'd joined many a social networking site and was ready to start developing my Cassidy Finn online presence, and now? Geez, it's December 27th already. Where did the time go? Well, two things happened to keep me from the Blog.

December 7th - my laptop died. It was a refurb oldie not worth the money to try and fix :-( Though I love my iPhone (and I mean LOVE it) I didn't think it was realistic to try and post to the Blog from it, and my world kind of turned upside down anyway...

December 8th - My mom was diagnosed with colon cancer (1 day after she turned 66). I have spent the last 19 days playing chauffer and meticulous note taker for my mom and dad as we have gone from one doctors appointment to the next. She will be having a PET scan on Tuesday the 29th to see just how far it has spread.

I hate cancer. This is the fourth time it has touched my family. Three of the four are still with us, and the one that is gone beat the cancer many years ago. Both my brother who had melanoma, and my cousin who had leukemia are doing well but they were lucky enough to have early detection and got a jump start in battling the monster. They say early early detection is key, especially with colon cancer. Sadly my mom hasn't been to a doctor in many, many, many years so early detection was not in our cards. The nasty monster is in advanced stages, already moving to her liver and lymph nodes (and who knows where else the PET scan will find it). She will be having surgery on January 4th, and start chemo on January 25th. We've been told that surgery and chemo won't cure her, but her oncologist (who is the same one that treated my brother) says that the treatment will hopefully prolong her life for several years to come. If you are reading this and you feel so inclined, please send a silent prayer, positive thought, or well wishes in her direction.

Christmas was good. Everyone babied my mom like we should have been doing all along.

Books for Christmas. I am proud to say my eleven year old daughter (also known as my mini me) asked for books and (video games) for Christmas. She received 3 video games (1 was educational) and 17 books. Yes SEVENTEEN. She is our little reading machine. I was beaming with pride when I read her wish list this year. My family was so happy to oblige her that between my mom, dad and two brothers, she received every book on her wish list. I even received a book that had been on my wish list "City of Glass" by Cassandra Clare. All in all twenty-one books were given as gifts among my family. As an aspiring writer (and avid reader) I couldn't have been happier to see all those books as they were unwrapped.

As you can see I'm posting again. My sweet hubby interpreted my subtle hints*and gave me a netbook. (*I'll admit, the hints weren't so subtle. I left numerous adds lying around and moaned and groaned about not being able to write because my laptop died, but it worked, didn't it?)

There is a surprise birthday party on January 2nd, for my dad who will be turning 75. This was planned long before mom learned of the cancer, and she's happy that she could put the surgery off until after the party. My sister was already coming home (from Denver) with her family for the party and now she will be here for the surgery too.

I'll be back later. I want to write about a great community of YA writers I have discovered via Twitter and and joined back in November.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cassidy

I'm baaaack!

Well, I have taken my sweet time posting again haven't I? The last 4+ months have been used wisely though, I promise.

After reading several Publishing Industry Blog posts and online-articles about Social Networking and on-line presence of a writer (and the importance of each), I decided that I better start now, because I am, after all, cart before the horse girl.

I scoured the Internet for anything social networky (actually I just googled social networking sites) and joined several, if for no other reason then to make sure I was the one using CassidyFinn as a userid. (Yesiree, learned my lesson with blogspot.com when I had to settle for casscrafts instead of CassidyFinn, but hey, that turned out for the better right?)

I have joined: Brightkite, Facebook, LiveJournal, Ning, Skype, SnapMyLife, Tumblr, twitter, and WordPress.

Do you want to know what the best part of this adventure was? My fab iPhone. Even though I am not currently posting on all networks I joined, I can easily jump back an forth between any of them from anywhere I want. (As long there is 3G or Wi-Fi coverage of course)

Do you want to know what the worst part of this adventure was? My fab iPhone. I find myself constantly getting caught up in the time suck of twitter while on the job. Yes, my paying job. The one I have held for over 1/2 my life. The one that is unrelated to writing. Yes, that one.

So though I love twitter, in the future I will have to make an extra effort to ignore the fabulous iPhone, and fore go learning of all the sweet tweets and links of information throughout the work day. I think that my work days are not in as much danger of interruption from the other networks I have joined, Of course there is always after work hours, so all is not lost. Oh yeah, that's when I'm supposed to be writing...

Are you making an on-line presence for yourself?

Thanks for stopping by.

Cass