I just had to share this hilarious email I got back in September to an email account I don’t use very often but it cracked me up and wanted to share:

from: Anne Peterson
to: *******@gmail.com
date: Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 2:18 PM
subject: saying
mailed-by gmail.com

Hi Nicole,

I am the author of one of the sayings you have on your site. It is part of a copyrighted poem.

The saying is, “When they placed you in my arms you slipped into my heart.”

My name is Anne Peterson.

I’ve read your site and wondered if you could tell me where you found that saying.

I really would rather you didn’t offer it to others.

Thank you,

Anne Peterson

As a freelance writer, I completely empathize with other writer’s however, you cannot copyright a quote like that. Here is my reply to her:

from: Nicole < ******@gmail.com>
to Anne Peterson
date: Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 11:45 AM
subject Re: saying
mailed-by gmail.com

Anne,

Sorry, I don’t check this email address too often and actually forgot about it for awhile. I just noticed this email you sent. Anyway, in reply to your questions, the following places have this quote that are NOT attached to a poem (your poem) in any way.

http://www.pattisprimitives.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=784

http://www.renewexpressions.com/WHEN-THEY-PLACED-YOU-IN-MY-ARMS-YOU-SLIPPED-INTO-MY-HEART_p_20-97.html
(a friend of mine has something similar on her son’s bedroom wall from a different company - she custom ordered it)

http://www.target.com/When-Placed-4-Photo-Collage-Frame/dp/B001G0QUAW

Are you going to contact Target??

http://www.geocities.com/heartland/lane/2470/babies.htm

http://www.wowletters.com/kids_quotes.html

I am a freelance writer, and just for the record, my lawyer explained that you cannot copyright a quote like that. It’s been around a LONG time. I’m not sure you realize how easy it is to create a quote that is similar to something someone else wrote. I write poetry as well, and you’d be amazed at how often I see my own words.

Just do a google search for that direct quote and you should have hours of entertainment tracking down the source. Good luck!
Nicole

Well, I don’t know what else to add, except that it is quite difficult to copyright a quote such as that one where it seems as if I’ve seen it before. My son is 14 years old, and I vaguely remember seeing it back that far ago. So I’m not removing it from the site in question, as it seems to be all over the Internet - what do you guys think? I would give her credit except nobody else does, so who’s to say she wrote it?

I certainly did not mean to disappear. It’s like I won NaNo and fell off the planet. Actually I didn’t. I just threw myself actively into writing again and had less time to spend blogging for fun, but if ever I am missing for any length of time, feel free to visit my other blog.

I promise to get better again and help my fellow writers out. What have all of you been up to?

I cannot believe I did it. I got up this morning and just threw together some chapters that would fit somewhere in my book. I kept writing and writing and wound up with over my word count for the day AND the novel.(50268) and that’s all while still battling this head cold thing. Ugh!

I’m done, I’m finished and I won this year too. Except my novel seriously sucks and bounces ALL over the place, but I got what I wanted out, I thought of more while I was writing this morning and I finished two days early. Yay!!

Don’t give up if you’re almost there. Keep trucking on.

Well, I was doing better. I was on a roll and I thought I might kick the rest of the novel out over the last few days, because I was doing so well. Yeah. Then I got sick.

Seven people in my family and mom gets sick. Let me just say how much fun that has been. I feel like I got hit with a truck. I’m still trying to write when I can, but I am not getting as much done as I had hoped. This morning I don’t necessarily feel ‘better’ but I guess I do from yesterday, so maybe after a nap this afternoon I will churn out some more words.

I have to get prepared for Thanksgiving today, so it isn’t real feasable that I will be doing much, but I’m going to try.

How is everyone else doing? Anyone else battling sickness during this NaNo thing? I have never been sick during NaNo - so this is honestly a first in five years. *sigh*

It doesn’t really matter if it is for writing, or if it was for reading or scrapbooking or cooking and baking or hanging out with friends, or whatever it is I wish to do - there is simply just never enough time for anything.

I’m struggling to finish my NaNo novel, and that is hard all in itself. The following couple of weeks are just crazy busy which began today. Today is our middle child’s 12th birthday (Happy Birthday Melissa, I love you!) which means I get less time than I usually do on a Saturday in November to write.

Tomorrow I do get a few hours to write, but we have to pick up my brother’s wedding gift and we have other stuff going on in the late afternoon, so that is limited.

Monday, my daughter Brie goes in for her flower girl dress fitting so they can do the alterations - well Monday or Tuesday that is because the dress still isn’t there. (The Wedding is Saturday and I seriously feel like i’m going to get sick everytime I think about this dress - it’s taking forever.)

Tuesday is the kids last day of school for the week, we will be running errands in the afternoon with possible riding lessons in the evenings - though probably not.

Wednesday I will be prepping for Thanksgiving food wise.  I am also praying I can pick up the flower girl dress in the early afternoon, because that evening is my son’s choir concert. They are singing at City Hall for the tree lighting ceremony. Kinda cool.

Thursday of course is Thanksgiving and while I would like to say that I would lock myself in a room all day, I have six other family members that would be really disappointed if I didn’t roast a turkey, make sweet potatoe casserole with melted marshmallows on top, make green bean casseroles, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pies. So I think I might be stuck that day.

Friday morning I might get a reprieve - maybe write, maybe sleep. But then we have the wedding rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday - I watch my baby brother get married. Bittersweet, but I am so excited for him. I hope it is all he wants it to be.

Sunday - I think I’m sleeping the whole day. Not really. I’ll be frantically typing all day trying to make sure I’ve reached my 50K. If I don’t win this year it won’t be the end all, but I have worked so hard to come this far and not make it.

There are some days that the writing just seems to flow. The days where there is hardly any pause in your typing, the thoughts are often so far ahead of you, maybe it feels like you can’t catch up, but you just keep writing because you know this is good. These are the days where when you come back and re-read it, you can’t hardly believe you wrote those words.

These are also the days that just about any writer thinks “Wow, I love what I do.”

Then there are the days where you just sit there. You stare at a blinking cursor, searching your brain for even an iota of a thought, idea or inspiration. Where you feel like there isn’t a creative bone in your body, and you wonder why you are even trying. These are the days you often wish to scrap a project, start over or start a whole new project.

These are also the days that just about any writer thinks “Wow, writing is work.”

Don’t give up now. No matter what your project is, what your ideas are or where you are going with your story, just keep writing. Do your best.

I’m still behind where I’d like to be, but I’m happy that I’m where I am anyway. I’ll get there. I’m not giving up.

I am still a bit behind in my word count (a bit, she says?). I am working on that as dilegently as I can. I have had to put some time in on actual work stuff, so I’m juggling. Freelancing, while I do get to pick and choose my jobs, I have a few clients that are regulars, and one that when she says jump, I do. (she pays reaaaaaallly well) Well, she asked me to ‘jump’ the other day and I had to get that work done before I could do novel stuff. This is how my morning looks:

1. Article on Daily Dish
2. Article on Clutter Control
3. Ten articles for three clients (not 30 articles just 10)
4. Update NaNo word count from yesterday
5. Write for 1 hour (NaNo)
6. Business Calls (hopefully will only take a half hour or so)
7. Prepare order for my Close to My Heart business
8. Call my class members and let them know of month special and remind them about upcoming class
9. Call about my daughter’s flower girl dress and find out estimated date of delivery (the wedding is the Saturday after Thanksgiving - can we say “time crunch?”
10. Hopefully another hour or more of NaNo Writing

All this SHOULD be done by noon. LOL Let’s see if I can get it done. It’s 6am and I already have an article prepared for Daily Dish - just need to work on Clutter Control and then on down the list. Woohoo!

What’s on your to do list? Are you finding real life gets in the way of NaNo?

I am not much in the blogging mood tonight. Really tired and haven’t done a word count to see what I accomplished today, so no idea. But I’ll update tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s one of those silly little question things. Thought I’d post it. I happened upon it while blog hopping today.

Who’s and How’s…courtesy of Annie.

What is your husbands name?
Mike or Michael (I call him Babe)
How long have you guys been married?
Wells, ya see - we aren’t yet. I hope to be married to him forever though. We’ve been together 3 years now but we’ve known each other about 8 years.
How long did you date?
uhm…3 years.
How old is he?
45
Who is taller?
Definitely him.
Who can sing best?
Not sure actually. Maybe about the same.
Who is smarter?
I’d go with him. I really am pretty smart, but he knows all that useless trivia crap and history stuff. LOL
Who does laundry?
One of our kids. LOL They each have an assigned job. But we both help out when needed. I actually have a man that doesn’t mind doing the laundry!
Who pays the bills?
He does.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
He’s on the right.
Who mows the lawn?
A kid. Usually my son. But sometimes Mike will do it.
Who cooks dinner?
Me always Monday - Thursday nights. Sometimes even Fridays. Usually on Saturdays or Sundays he cooks something or we plan it together.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong?
Not sure about this. I almost want to say me, but then what does that say about him?
Who kissed who first?
He kissed me. It was very sweet and I still haven’t forgotten it.
Who wears the pants?
Probably me. Only because he works nights so he isn’t around as much except weekends. He’d probably like to say he does, but seriously he knows I do.

If you do this, leave me a link. I did it just for fun ’cause I was bored and tired and was sick of writing for today. hehe