Busy Wednesday

I'm stepping back for a day and letting my UF rest. I've made awesome progress on it, but I've been rushing this story and my brain is tired. Instead, I pulled my Nocturne Bites submission and I've been trimming and polishing that this afternoon. I finished it a while back, but with so many other projects on deadline like "Gloaming" and "Weirdly 2", I had to put my Bites story on the back burner.
I'm really glad I picked it up again. I really liked it on the read through this morning. It definitely needs polishing, and a bit of patchwork toward the end, but the story is fast paced, dangerous, and tres sexy. I really like it, I LOVE the male lead, and hope it will find a home at HQN. We will see, we will see...

Early this morning, Mini and I took time to plant some Bleeding Heart shrubs in the back yard near our little old lady dogs' graves. I cleaned the leaves away from the white rock, and took the time to spray down the side of the house for wasps. Mini had a grand time digging in the dirt, and was over the moon about the little rake that comes in the spade set. I let him fill in the holes, and we watered it all very well. I hope the plants make it. I'd love to see these things do well. I ordered them several months ago, but they only arrived recently and the roots were dried out when they got here. I've got my fingers crossed they'll survive.

After planting out back, I put Mini in the sandbox and we stayed outdoors until I started feeling crispy. :P Actually, that was about 10 minutes of sun exposure, but we sat outdoors for an hour. Mini looked a bit rosy when I brought him in and put him in the bath. I can't stand the feeling of sand on the floor, so right out the sandbox and into the tub. ^_^ He's napping right now. I wore him out with all that creative work. LOL!

Tonight I'll trim on my HQN story a bit more, and read a bit more of Moongazer. Pretty good so far. I'll write more about it when I've finished. Speaking of books, author Michele Hauf - who is celebrating the debut ebook for the Nocturne Bites line, called Racing the Moon - will be the guest for this week's Midnight Brew tomorrow. We will be giving away several copies of her new ebook, so don't miss that.

Today, I'm giving away soap petals, author bookmarks, and a fridge magnet to one lucky winner who makes a guess during our shapeshifter contest today. Drop by the Midnight Moon Cafe to play. http://midnightmooncafe.blogspot.com

That's it for me, ya'll. I need to go pick up the toys out of the den before Mini wakes up, and check on Oldest to make sure he's doing homework.

Best wishes to you all, and happy hump day!

Always Check The Archives

A late day post, but a post nonetheless. I took Mini with me to mail off a few books this morning, but aside from that, the day has been fairly uneventful. I wrote for a little while - I'm planning a loooong writing stretch tonight - and ended up poking around afterward over at amazon.com.

First things first, I did read the "flyer" they have up on the front page that the Kindle is back in stock. That is one of those gadgets I've been weighing around lately. Should I get one? I read a LOT of ebooks. I love being able to get up at midnight and grab a shorty short that I can read in a single, all night stretch. I just don't know if I can justify the cost though.

What I mainly went looking for was a specific techno album I remember from the golden rave days - am I dating myself? Anyway, I found the album and well, the cost kind of blew me away. I ended up hopping over to ebay, cringing at the cost there, then clicking back over to Amazon. Hm. What to do? After much waffling over whether to buy or not to buy, I decided to wait. I shut down my browser and decided to go search out my old Voodoo and Serano cd.

We have a huge library of DVDs and CDs. There is a 8 ft niche in the hallway that should be a closet, but the folks that built the house left it as a large open area. We put shelves in when we first moved in over a decade ago, and that's where our media goes. The shelves stretches from one end of our hall way to the other. For hubby and me, this is our money sink. We spend a lot of our "free money" on computers and stuff to either watch or listen to, so it's not uncommon to not know whether we've bought a movie already, or if we've only talked about it.

Well, I went digging for V/S and - hey, wait! Is that what I think it is? Sure enough, I found that I already had the CD I'd been debating about buying from Amazon and eBay. If I'd only checked the archives first, I'd have saved myself a lot of headache. Lesson learned. I gotta admit, it was a bit like instant gratification home shopping when I found that CD. I only wish I could get the hours back I spent looking for it online. *_*

I've started reading Marianne Mancusi's Moongazer. It's from Dorchester's Shomi line, which is a spec fiction/romance line they're gearing toward the twenty-ish/early thirties reading set. The covers are manga style, which is great if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not too crazy about manga covers, but the idea of post apocalyptic, alternate reality, and time travel romances with a high tech edge is striking. I'm thinking graphic novel storylines without the pictures, so I'm giving it a chance.

That's about it for me today. Here's hoping I get a bit more writing done tonight. I hope you all had a terrific Tuesday!

Lemon Yellow Sunshine

It's a gorgeous sunny day out today. Oldest should be home soon, and when the sun goes down a bit over the front yard, I plan to take MiniBear out to play in the sandbox.

Other than admiring the weather, I haven't accomplished much today - just too darn tired.I woke up around 3 am to see hubby off to work again. He'll be in Lake Charles until next Saturday then he'll come home and we'll do it all again. Poor guy was really tired when he got home on Saturday afternoon, and yesterday I insisted on a trip to the bookstore - which is out of town. How he puts up with me, I don't know.

I went back to bed after hubby left, and I was sooo out of it. Mini and I didn't roll out of bed until 8, but when we did, I'd been up for two minutes when my cell phone rang. The number read "restricted" and I got a bit pissed at first because I was sure it was another telemarketer. I grabbed my phone with the intent to rawr and hiss at some poor soul because, indeed, I was very pre-coffee and because my mama taught me you just shouldn't approach someone to buy some junky shit they don't want before they've managed to get their eyes open.

It wasn't a telemarketer though, it was a friend in Ohio whom I haven't talked to since before Nadia went missing. It was soooo good to hear her voice, and to know they were all doing OK. It seems most of us have been walking around with the blues since the bad news hit us, and their family was no different. Getting to talk to her, however, lifted my mood right away. We chatted for over two hours, until finally she had to go. If more mornings started like that, I wouldn't mind it one bit.

After the friend call, I made a run to town earlier with Mini to buy milk and ended up with all this junk I didn't really need. Arg!! Or maybe I do need it, I just haven't found out for what yet. :P I bought two pairs of boots that were on sale (But, honey, they were on SALE!!), and a few grocery items, plus paper stuff - tp and paper towels. Yeah, gotta have that stuff too. We made it back home around one, and by that time Mini was yowling for a nap-nap.

Tonight I'll sit up and work on the UF wip for a while. My heroine is in more trouble than she thinks she can handle. Right now she's a bit roughed up, tired, overwrought, and a bit scared to boot, but I tell her I think she can make it one more round. *evil hand wringing* We will see, we will see...

On another note, I have been tagged by the lovely Michelle Lauren

The rules:
a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Okays, then. I think I can do this.

Six Random Things:
1.) I like big boots and I cannot lie. I do have this slight addiction to boots. The clunkier the better. Which is kind of strange when I think about it, because if I'm not wearing boots, I prefer to go barefoot.
2.) I'm in serious need of a dye job. My roots are showing. 'Nuff said.
3.) I'm contemplating having a tattoo removed. What they say about youth and impulsiveness is oh so true...
4.)I would like to have a full length book written and polished by the end of the year. 90-100k words overall. I have no idea if this is doable. It's been ages since I wrote anything full length. I'm wondering if I'm going to have to send all my friends a set of cat o' nine tails to keep me on track.
5.)I can hardly wait until May.Hubby, the kids and I will be going on a trip about mid-month. I'm planning to go to the original BLGH in Cleveland, GA before they open the new facility elsewhere.
6.)I'm a bit of a rule breaker... so I'm not actually going to tag anyone to do this meme, despite the rules above. If you feel so inclined, give it a shot.

That's it for me today! I should get up and do something productive before Oldest arrives. His bus should be here any minute. Happy Monday, everyone!

Weekends and Books

So I thought hubby would be in last night, but instead he has to work today. He's hoping for a rain out so he can make it in a little early. Mini is looking for him. Oldest doesn't come out of the fungus cave long enough to do anything but raid the fridge, so it's hard to tell. I'm sure he misses his dad around too.

I took a few pics of some "cabbages" this morning and added them to my doll group. Spring Event is going on at Babyland General Hospital, and sadly I can't go. ~_~* We plan to make a trip there sometime in May, but that will take careful scheduling. There are 3 family birthdays in May, we're supposed to handle a survey for my parents, and Oldest will be getting out of school for the summer. Oy vey. Makes me tired just thinking of it.

Sometime thereabouts, during all that chaos, we're going to BLGH. They are building a new facility that should be up and running sometime around Christmas this year, and I want to see the old one before they shut it down. It's an actual old hospital, complete with husband's waiting room - back in the dark ages there was a time when men weren't allowed into the delivery rooms with their wives. Giving birth, it was indecent, ya know.

So I'm on a new chapter with my urban fantasy. My heroine is in a very tight situation that could end up with her being monster chow, if she can't figure out how to get out of it. I am not telling her anything. She's going to have to tough it out the best she can, and if she ends up bloodied and bruised, well...what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. ^_^

Yesterday I finally broke down and refiled my phone numbers on the national Do Not Call List. We were registered before, but of course, after so long the numbers expire. Well, I went back last October to renew it, but it said my #'s were already registered and I couldn't do anything about it until it expired. After four telemarketer calls yesterday, I went and checked on my phone status. Thankfully it let me relist all my numbers. I gotta tell ya. I realize telemarketers are trying to make a living, but if one of them were to wake Mini up right after I'd put him down for a nap. Hm. I'm afraid they might've gotten a taste of my snarly side. So far so good. It's almost noon and I haven't received a single call. I was under the impression it takes a month or two for the numbers to make the list, but I'm certainly not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Want to try your hand at winning a free book? I'm doing a weekend book giveaway over at the Midnight Moon Cafe. All you have to do is post in the comments of the appropriate thread and you're entered! If you have time and you're so inclined, drop by and take a peek.

That's about it for me today. I'm going to write a bit more before Mini's nap time. I hope you all have a relaxing Saturday!

Smile, it's Friday!

Smile, everyone! It's Friday!

I've already gone about my errands today and I'm getting the house ready for hubby to come home tonight. He's driving in from Lake Charles for the weekend.

I hope to have him to myself for a few hours if for nothing else but to relax and talk for a while (conversation that doesn't involve Go, Diege, Go - imagine that!) but if I'm going to have any grown up time, I have to have the house in order.

Truth be told, this is the messiest my house has been in ages, but for the past few days I've been busy writing and doing constructive things - like cleaning out the closets whenever I'm stuck for a scene.

I'm catching up on the cleaning today, but I'm certainly not sorry for putting it off earlier in the week.

I stayed up very late working on my urban fantasy last night. The story is moving along at a nice clip and I'm not going to knock it. I haven't gone back and reread anything. I haven't backtracked to edit. This book is all action, action, action. The heroine digs herself out of one mess only to find herself planted firmly in another. She's not some kick ass chick, you see. She's just a normal girl who manages to get herself into a sticky situation and is trying to get out of it alive. I hope to carry this one out to a full 90k+ words because I gotta say, I have never loved a heroine as much as this one.

Speaking of kick ass heroines... I managed to land another of Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson novels. I'd have to go get it off the nightstand to check the title - and I'm a bit too lazy to do that right now, but let me say I did a "hoot" in the grocery store when I saw it because day-amn but they are slow to put out books here.

I'm still reading Claimed by Shadow. I planned to just sit down and read it through, but my characters have been talking too loudly lately. I always end up writing instead of reading. I need to sit down and give the book the attention it deserves, because the first line grabbed me right away. Anything about demons and a casino designed to look like hell - well, you had me at hello.

Tomorrow I'm making a run with hubby to Office Depot. I have a few things to pick up there. I also plan to finish up the painting of the bathroom. I need someone to kind of keep Mini out from underfoot while I'm trying to paint the high places.

When I was painting around the top of the shower stall - which is paneled - a few days ago I had to stand on the edges of the tub - one foot on each side of the rim. Mini kept coming over to see what I was painting and kept knocking his Backyardigans Pirate boat into the tub, and it would scatter pieces everywhere. I was afraid that painting session was destined for disaster, so I gave it up until hubby comes home.

Well, Mini is saying it's naptime, and I'm not going to argue. ^_^ I will write while he rests. Whatever you're doing, I hope you all have a happy weekend!

Getting Over The Hump

I managed to get a good bit of writing done today. I added in a critical scene, filled in some backstory, and overall wrote about 2k words. I made great progress, but with the changes I've made, the book is now cross genre and with every page I write it seems to dip more and more into urban fantasy territory.

I'd planned to send this book to a particular place once finished, but now I'm thinking it would do better elsewhere. I have an idea where to send it when I'm finished, but I'll have to see how the story developes before I know for sure. I know people say you shouldn't explore the market for a book you haven't completed, but I will admit I do it anyway. I feel more confident about charging forward if I know what I'm going to do with a project once it's finished.

On to other things... I'm currently reading Karen Chance's Claimed by Shadow. Earlier today I cleaned out my bookshelves, and boxed up some old books that didn't reach re-read status with me. They'll have to find a new place to collect dust. I sealed them up and had Oldest take them out to the storage shed. When I can come up with about three or four more boxes, I plan to cull the rest. Once I get my current TBR stack read down a bit, I'll begin giving them away on the blog - if ya'll don't mind winning previously read books?

Anyway, I cleaned out the main two shelves, put away all the old faves I haven't reread in a year or more. At the back of everything, I'm not sure how this happened, but I found an entire stack of romances that I'd picked up and never read. I moved them to the front, and took down the book on top to read. Claimed by Shadow it is...

Touch the Dark took me a while to get into, but once I did, it turned out to be a worthy read. According to the back blurb, Claimed by Shadow centers around a master vampire putting a geis on Cassandra Palmer - the Pythia, aka the world's chief clairvoyant - to put off any would-be suitors. This one sounds like it will be a bit romancier, and I'm hoping it will be. I lurves romance with my urban fantasy.

That's it for me now. Mini is whining, so we're going out to the sandbox for a while. Hope you all have a pleasant hump day!

Have a Cupcake

This morning I got up, pulled on my "hippie shirt" and jean shorts, and fired up the coffee pot. Hot damn, but I had one of Isabelle's famous epiphanies.

I got up this morning raring to write, my head full of ideas. I don't know where it all came from. I went to bed exhausted last night, thinking about things troubling me that I can't mend, and I had this dream of sorts where I was sitting and my desk and this "information flood" to do with my characters raced through my mind. Weird as it may sound, it was like working while asleep. *_*

While the coffee brewed, I stood at the bar with my notebook and jotted down as much of it as I could remember, as fast as I could. Ideas run pretty fast through my mind, and if I don't get them down on paper quickly, I'll lose half of the idea before I can get it written out.

I managed to get the whole thing down, and when I read back throught I couldn't help wondering "why hadn't I thought of this before?" I'd had everything right there in front of me all along, all the elements waiting for my brain to absorb them. Typical. I'm so slow sometimes. If this thing had been a snake, it would've bit me!

With my first cup of coffee in hand, I sat down and wrote 2 entire chapters. I didn't stop until Mini came to hover near my knee, "But Mimi, where's my beckfast?!"

Oops! Sorry, Snicklebeast. Mimi will get right on that!

After I nuked some sausage patties and made toast for Mini, I wrote out a short to-do list and ran around the house to get it done. I mopped last night, so that was one down, and the dishes were already out of the way. I thought I had a ton of laundry to do, but it was actually a short stack. We toss all our dirty clothes in one of those rope handled plastic toy buckets, and when I'm at the bottom of the bucket, sometimes I take an empty laundry basket and toss in there to get it out of the way. I've been missing both baskets for a few days, and half wondered if hubby had used them for something. Nope! They were both in the bottom of the laundry bucket, which made it only look like there were more clothes in there. *chicken dance*

Here it is 2:30, the house is finished, it's quiet (Mini is napping), and I have new ideas swirling around. I better get on it while I have the chance!

Oh, btw, this coming Thursday, April 24th, fellow Cobblestone Press author Gabriella Hewitt will be talking about and (giving away a copy of) her new book Heart of the Nile at the Midnight Moon Cafe!

About the book:

Kat, Stealer of Memories, brings the wrath of Ra down upon her. She risks her status among the pride by freeing her mortal enemy, an Anubian dog named Nikos, Keeper of Secrets.

Passionate memories of a past she'd long forgotten come back to haunt Kat as she works to find the Heart of the Nile. Will Nikos be a man she can count on?

http://www.cobblestone-press.com/catalog/books/heartnile.htm#

That's it for me today folks. I'm going to break out the writing stuff whilst the Mini beast naps. Hope you're all having a good Tuesday!

Eight of Cups

What a weekend! I'm sorry I'm behind on blog rounds. I think it must be something in the air. Seriously. I promise to make up for my absense this afternoon. At any rate, it was such a rollercoaster of a weekend, I feel like I need a few days to recover from it.

Hubby came home for the weekend, and Mini clung to him like a sticky vine. Daddy wasn't getting too far from his view. We spent the time at home, just hanging out and watching movies. Oldest had a friend over, and PawPaw (my dad) came to visit. He played out on the patio with Mini and a bucket of sidewalk chalk.

While the guys are out in the yard visiting and enjoying the sunshine, I came in to fire off an email and got a message from a dear friend who informed me that Nadia Kajouji has been found. She'd been missing since March 9th, when she was last seen by roommates at their university residence in Ottawa. Well, they discovered her body in the river near the university early Sunday morning. I read what they were telling me and I just sat there in shock. I think some part of me expected to hear that kind of news, but there was still the hope that she was just run off somewhere but doing ok.

http://www.ctvottawa.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080420/OTT_body_rideau_080420/20080420/?hub=OttawaHome

Right after that bit of news, we learned hubby's friend had been hit by a car while walking along the road side near his home. His leg is broken in 3 places and his ankle is crushed. They are keeping him in the hospital for a week, but hubby had to leave out this morning for Lake Charles, so he couldn't even get up to Shreveport to visit him.

I've vowed today to take a "stress day". I plan to write this afternoon, but in a few minutes I'm going to load up Mini in the jeep and we're going to visit at Grammy's house.

Once we get back, first things first, I'm digging the sand out of the turtle sandbox and moving it closer to the front door. We'd put it off to the side of the house where we usually park our Jeeps, but there are too many ant beds there. I'm worried Mini will step in one. So with hubby out of town, I'm going to rearrange things. Typical woman behavior, right? LOL!

Happy Monday, everyone.

A Friday Night Post

It's been a good day, a long day, and somehow, although I intended to blog early on, it kept getting pushed back on the "to-do" list until now.

I got up this morning at 6 to take Oldest to catch his field trip bus. He and his class took a drive to a plantation in Lafayette and apparently had a grand ol' time. We're going to go through his pictures tonight and see if he got any good shots. When I got my new cam for Christmas, I gave him my old "new" one, and he's still learning to use it.

Tomorrow after work, Hubby is coming home to spend the night. I'm ready to see him, and Mini has been asking for him repeatedly. I hate these long separations, but what can you do? Everything has gone smoothly, but it is a bit lonely at times, even with Mini home with me. I love him to pieces, but I can only listen to someone chatter about monster trucks for so long before my eyes glaze over. LOL!

I'm gonna stay up tonight and work a bit on my wip. I'd like to add another 2k if I can swing it.

Anyway, that's it for me today. I'm going to go check on my Neopets then put some jambalaya on for supper. I hope you all have a terrific Friday and a fun, relaxing weekend. ^_^

Meh... With Pictures

I'm having one of those restless, what should I do? kind of days. I could be writing, but I open my wip, take one look at it and go "meh". It doesn't feel romance-y enough. I don't know what it is. I think it's probably because there's so much action going on. The characters never stay in one place long enough to "stare into each other's eyes" as it were. They gotta have some downtime or they're never going to fall in love.
I thought about all this while painting yesterday. At one point I thought Mini was deliberately trying to knock me on my arse. To paint the strip of wall around the top of the shower, I basically took the can of paint, stuck it in the shampoo niche. I stood with one foot on each side of the tub. Mini kept trying to climb in with me, and knocked it his Backyardigan pirate boat into it - right beneath my feet TWICE. Little booger! Ah well...I can't do any more work on the bathroom until I buy more paint tomorrow anyway.

I finished reading that Charlotte Lamb book, btw. Not one of her best, but good all the same. I shelved it after I read it, and now I need to dig through my TBR stack and start on a new read. I've been sort of tackling the old Harlequins Presents I've been saving because they're varied and have a shorter length. That is the only line, aside from Nocturne, that I have followed with any regularity. And I have no idea why that is.

That's about it for me. I hope you're all having a pleasant Thursday!

Ready for Summer

The bathroom is now 90% repainted. I bought the stuff for it before hubby left for Lake Charles, but I put it off until about five o'clock yesterday. I worked on the wip for a while, cooked supper, then decided to go ahead and do a coat over everything. The walls are half fake-tile, half paneling - good grief, gotta love the 70s. I painted the paneling stark white, and bought this vinyl wall paper that you can paint to go over the lower half of the walls. I plan to paint it once I get it up on the walls, but I haven't chosen what color yet. Probably that "ghost white" color, which is a very faint powder blue. Or an antique white. The border trim I bought has a beach scene with an old saltbox style cottage and a lighthouse. Lots of pale colors in the border, light blues and mauve, etc. I typically don't go for wall border, but there is such a blatant seam on the wall where the tile and paneling meet, it needs something there.
I talked to hubby on the phone a bit this morning and he asked how much I'd written today. Well...I painted rather than wrote today. He threatened to come home and glue my rump to the desk chair. :P He's right of course. I should be writing. So, after I got off the phone with him, I left the paint to dry and did a bit of plotting. Once Mini goes for his nap, I'll write for a bit.

If you haven't checked the Midnight Moon Cafe today, I'm giving away a random book from the gift vault. All you have to do is post in the thread there to be entered to win.

That's about it for me today. Wow, such a gorgeous sunny day. I think after Mini wakes up we'll have to go play in the yard for a bit. Darn, but I wish now I'd bought that turtle sand box. *_* I would be a perfect day for building sand castles. I tell ya, I see these sunny days and I'm itching for summer to get here!

Happy hump day, everyone!

Survey Apocalypse

It was very, very hard not to knock a king sized lump on Oldest's head this morning. Then again, I hadn't yet had my first cup of coffee.

He came to me last night with a permission slip to go to the LA Tech recruitment workshop, which is going on today. I read over the form, signed everything. I mean, I would've signed it anyway - who doesn't want to get out of class, know what I mean? But I was also thinking it would be good for him to take a trip over to tech with friends so he can familiarize himself with the campus. For all the Oldest wants to go to college in Japan, he doesn't a.) have the grades to get him there, b.)have the money to get him there, and c.) he doesn't have rich sponsors who are going to send him there to chase lolita schoolgirls around the Harijuku district - which I'm pretty sure is his top motivation for wanting to go to Japan anyway.

Tech isn't a bad school. It's community, but pretty much anything Oldest wants to do, he can do there. Even if he wanted to jump into something like rainforest ecology or NASA, there are programs right there in Ruston. Of course, I'm saying all this with his financial ability and gpa in mind. If Tech isn't his choice school, I'm not about to make him shoot for that rung, but I can safely say Ivy League, Duke, etc... well, that's definitely out.

Anyway, I get up this morning and see Oldest waiting with his "rice baby" for the bus. The rice baby is part of his adult responsibility class. It's a handsew bag of rice with a baby cap, googly eyes, and a pacifier in its "mouth". He has to carry it everywhere he goes, including the grocery store. But I digress... He's waiting for the bus in what he terms his "cool clothes". Sooo, he's wearing a ratty dragon Tshirt with a hole near the collar and the material so thin you can see the color of his skin through it. Thankfully, he has an overshirt with blue flames over the top of that, but even that's not the best choice. It's almost too small for him! Along with these fine rags he's wearing black pants that only make the shirts stand out that much more. *sigh* How many hundreds of dollars have I spent at Hot Topic over the years? This kid has more clothes than I do, including "cool clothes" that look...well...like he didn't salvage them from the giveaway box at Goodwill.
I'm not a fashion police clothes nazi or anything; I have my own frumpy clothes. But, really, this is sort of like a job interview. Not only that, but Ruston is my hometown. Always around the college the fashion leans more toward clean and modern. Not preppy exactly, but what I think of as "mall casual". LOL! Poor Oldest. I let him do. I let him wear what he wanted, but I know when he gets there and sees how everyone else is dressed, he's going to wish he'd worn something else - just like last time when he went on that agricultural hike. He still groans about that incident from time to time. *shakes head*
Aside from this, my phone has been ringing steadily since 6 am. Hubby and mom together have both called me no less than nine times. (Althought it won't seem like it on the read-back, I've had this post open for over 2 hours!! :P) Hubby is tired and a bit homesick; he calls wanting to chat with me and to speak to Mini, which I totally understand. I feel the same way when I'm out of town. Mom on the other hand....
When Mom and Dad moved into the new house, hubby and I both tried to get them to survey the house while they had money in the bank. Of course, I knew they wouldn't find the drive to do it until they either had neighbor's breathing down their necks, or they ran out of money. Mom keeps calling because she's decided now that they are broke, they need the damn yard surveyed. Gee, ya think? They've been clearing out all this dry brush along the back of the property, and only now realize they could accidentally clear off someone else's property and find themselves in trouble.
I listened to her on the phone, trying to explain why this has suddenly cropped up. My mind wanders to that "happy place" where there is abundant man-titty, margueritas all around, oh yeah - and everyone is responsible for their own property....
When mom finishes, I wake up from my daydream and tell her she has nothing to worry about, that hubby and I had already discussed surveying the property. (We did. Back in January.) Yes, we'll pay to get it surveyed; however, I'm not going to do this "we'll pay you back" junk like what mom was talking about. Those arrangements are never ever ever worth the stress. I'll just try and look at it like 500 dollars spent to salve my own peace of mind. I told mom it will be a combined birthday present for both her and dad. *sigh*
I keep telling myself it's better this way. ~_~'
On a brighter note, I wrote another thousand words last night on the current wip. It's coming right along, and each night I seem to be developing the plot a little more. I like it lots when projects go like that. I'm a pantster and there are times I write myself into a corner and have to do major back tracking because I realize things are going along pointlessly.
What with the progress though, I'm thinking about adding one of those little meters. I'll have to look around for one when I get a few spare minutes. Sometime today. Or tomorrow. Oh bother.... *lol*
It's almost 10:30 and I need to make a run to the store for light bulbs. (Light glubs - as Oldest used to call them.) I better end this post for today. Mini is having bye-bye fits.
Have a pleasant Tuesday!

Saddling the dragon

Hubby left this morning at 3 am to go work on a project in Lake Charles. He'll be coming home for Sundays over the next few weeks. Until then, it's just me and the kidlets.

We're getting close to end of the school year, and with the painting and things I want to do, I imagine I'll be stuck here at home unless I absolutely rebel against the things I know that need to be done. I could easily picture myself procrastinating and taking Mini over to his grandma's for cookies or something when I know I should be working...or something.

I wrote close to the 3k words yesterday, which is amazing since I haven't done anything productive since I finished the Weirdly 2 edits. It's definitely time to get back on the wagon.

I'm once again working on the story I pitched at the NOLA Conference. I went back and read through some of my material, which wasn't terribly bad, then sat down with a blank document and pushed the story forward from the point where I'd rounded off the end to suit the partial.

I noticed when writing last night that there are quite a few plot holes I need to work out. Rats! Typically I'll abandon a project if the plot seems to have too many elements missing, but I like the idea behind this story too much to ditch it. Although I'm probably setting myself up for a major headache in the long run, I'm going to stick through this one; I'm just going to write it and see what developes. I tell myself (as an inner pep talk kind of thing) that if nothing else, fixing the plot holes will help bolster my word count, which is nothing to shake a stick at. My goal is between 75-90k words.

I've picked up another book. I'm currently reading An Excellent Wife? by Charlotte Lamb. I read everything by her that I can get my hands on. She passed away several years ago, and I miss her unique writer's voice. I truly feel like a light went out in the romance writing world when she passed away.

The thing I like best about her books is that the men in her books act like men I know. Some of them are harsh, some a bit smug, some talk a line of shit a mile long, and others can't seem to buy a clue when it comes to women. If anything can be said, Charlotte Lamb's heroes are definitely different. A few of them have been jerks to the extent I've wanted to bonk on the head with a blunt instrument. Then again, I kind of feel that if you're a smarmy, goody two shoes heroine who marries the hero out of convenience to say, help some idiot out of a troubled business deal because you don't want some British banker to learn he's your baby daddy, I think you kind of get what you get. But I'm just sayin'....

Yikes! It's almost noon! I guess I better get off the net and do something productive. Like the dishes. Oy, Mondays... Have a good day, everyone!

Weekend Madness

I totally missed blogging yesterday. Hubby took Mini Bear out for a drive while I did a bit of cleaning. I washed rugs and changed sheets, and stuff like that. I also finished a crochet project I started months ago. It's a heart shaped table topper. I'll have to take some pictures of it to share.

I also finished reading The Empath by Bonnie Vanak. This is probably the most original werewolf/shifter story I've read in a while. I've never read one where they incorporated werewolf diseases, etc. into the book, but in this one the heroine is a veterinarian who has no idea she is a Draicon shifter. An evil werewolf has infected her beloved dog and she's trying to save her; meanwhile her mate must protect her from the infected werewolves who want to kill her, because she's supposed to be prophesied to destroy the evil werewolf leader. My description of the book is pre-coffee; it's really far better than I described it. If you're a shifter lover, this one is worth a look.

Speaking of books, today In The Gloaming is the TRS Book of the Day Giveaway book. So if you wanted to try and win a copy, hop over there and put in your entry.

Hubby is leaving for Lake Charles tomorrow. I don't know how long he'll be gone on this next job, but it's close enough that he'll be able to drive home on the weekends. While he's away, I plan to remodel the bathroom. I already have new wallpaper and paint ready to go. Oh yeah, and sometime during all that I plan to get something written. I just haven't decided what yet. ^_^

That's it for me. I need to get working on a potato salad. We're having a BBQ over at my parent's house today.

Whatever your plans, I hope you have a relaxing Saturday.

Bring on the Books

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I've been goofing off most of the day. Hubby took Mini out early so he could try and get his cell phone checked, and ended up having to take the phone to Ruston to be replaced. So for all that time, I was on my own here at the house. I wrote for a while, watched about five minutes of Headline News, but got bored with that and slipped on some flip-flops and to the store.

I bought a new lamp for the den, a new kitchen rug, and junk food that I really shouldn't have even been looking at. The new lamp replaced our old "dungeon lamp", and althought the improvement is at least +100, I kind of miss the old one - I guess just for novelty, sentimental value. Heck, I don't know because the thing was freaking hideous. LOL! The dungeon lamp is one of those 1970 specials with the orange-red colored glass base and these iron curls running all over it with chains strung up between the curls.

Yes. It came from the factory like that. *_*

We've had the thing for years. Some church friend gave it to my mother who took one look at it and passed it on to me. She loves me, what can I say? Me, being the sentimental fool that I am, kept the ugly thing because really other than being ugly, it works just fine. It even has a matching, little sibling lamp (orange glass minus the iron curls and chains) that's still in use in our bedroom.

So, with the dungeon lamp gone, our living room kind of feels like a new place. Unless something should happen to the new addition, the DL has been banished to the storage shed. Eh. I'll break it out and give it to one of the boys when they move out or go to college or something. *snicker, snicker*

Aside from this, nothing significant has happened these past 24, I've merely been reading this and that, and at times hitting the notepad and jotting down potential story ideas. So far nothing much has fired my imagination.

Tomorrow I'm going to hang out with the kids and the hubster, and probably read a book. I considered painting something, heaven knows I haven't done that in ages, but I checked my supplies and realized I'm out of canvases. :P My TBR stack needs me anyway. No kidding when I say it's toppling over. I have books on my shelf that I bought months ago and still haven't picked them up. Shame on me!

Happy Thursday, everyone. And hang in there! Tomorrow's Friday!

Mother Nature

Hubby is home from Mississippi. He'll be here for the weekend then he's off to work somewhere around Lake Charles. To celebrate his homecoming, we're having gumbo tonight and plan to rot our brains with movies. Sounds like a good plan to me.

It's been an adventurous week, to say the least. I got my test results back from my biopsy, and I am in the clear - yay! And then I discovered one of my ebooks was being pirated over at a forum with many, many other ebooks listed. I've since had mine taken down, and have contacted as many people as I know and recognize so they can hopefully get their works taken down. The administrators of that forum know those books are illegal, yet they are willfully allowing it to go on. Karma, folks. That's all I'm going to say on that front.

I started tinkering around with another story idea late last night. I did a fifteen minutes" on it then tucked it away. That idea is lingering with me though. Maybe that one will be my new project. We will see.

That's about it for me today, folks. I think I'm gonna going hop around on Neopets for a while.

Happy Hump Day!

Tempting the muse

Since I finished the Weirdly 2 edits, I'm in one of those spots where I really don't know what to do next. I have a tryst length story I could polish and submit, but I'm just not feeling that right now. I read through part of it and - bleh. It's not a bad story, I just can't seem to rally the brain cells necessary to do anything with it at the moment.

There is also the pitch story I should work on, although at this point I'm thinking it's going to be an R from that agent, because it's been two months give or take since I've heard anything from her. I have no doubt I can sell the story, but to do that, I've definitely got to finish it first and - bleh x 2. This is why I rarely, rarely dovetail stories. I put down writing on one and I completely lose momentum. I'm going to have to read this whole thing over again just to build up steam.

I'm itching to try my hand at a sexy urban fantasy, one more romance based. But gosh, I'm afraid if I start something fresh right now, I may get pulled from it and have to work on one of my older things and - BAM - I'm right back in the same situation with the pitch story. I'd have to pick it up after I've lost that flow.

So I'm stuck. I'm not sure which direction to go. Suggestions? Questions? Comments? What do the rest of you do to tempt the muse? I sat down and wrote my "fifteen minutes of fame" for the urban fantasy - that's where I sit for fifteen minutes and write everything that comes to mind for a new story idea then I stick it on the shelf and try to forget about it. It keeps me from taking on too many stories at once. After that, though, I'm at a loss. I've been reading lately, so it's not like I'm not getting that "refresher" in. I guess I could step away from everything and do a movie binge...

That's pretty much where I am right now. I started to write this morning and ended up contact papering the shelves in my bathroom linen closet. Yes. Really. *_* It hasn't been a bad day, just not terribly productive. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Weekend with the Heathens

I did it. I survived the weekend. Oldest and Mini only got into how many fights over the TV? That was easy enough to resolve though - I put it on a channel of my choosing. Something like Lifetime. I never watch Lifetime, but boy it can vacate a living room of children pretty fast.

Overall the kids did very well, and only drove me mildly insane in those moments when I was trying to talk on the phone with hubby and they decided that particular moment was for wrestling on the couch. Out, heathens! Begone! *_*

This morning the house is quiet again. Mini just checked his bubba's room and said to me "Bubba at skoo?" Yep. And there are only 30 some odd days before summer vacation starts. This year should be interesting because Mini has really begun to pay attention to what the other members of the household do. Oldest can look forward to two and a half months of his little brother trying to invade his room. Better not shelve my mediator hat just yet, eh?

I finished my edits for Weirdly 2 this weekend - woohoo! The release date is loosely set for June. I need to tweak my blog a bit now because the stories I wrote for this project aren't romance, but horror/paranormal type things. Hm. *thinking*

It's only about 9 am here, and I haven't had nearly enough coffee yet to get motivated. There are clothes to put in the dryer, I need to make the beds, and afterward, I plan to break out the manuscript I pitched back in March and see if I can do something with it. I'm sorely tempted to put it aside and try my hand at an urban fantasy. We will see....

Fiddle De De

The lights are on! *dance, dance* We've been without power here since about 9:30 this morning. I got up to do the bills and zip - out go the lights.
I went to the door to see if the lights on in the neighbor's window, and the minute I open it, the wind just about jerks it out of my hand. A storm has blown in, and I'm talking violent, gusting winds out there. As I'm standing there looking across the yard, dark clouds continue to roll in and the wind is kicking up all kinds of stuff - dust and pollen pods. It's so strong the fallen petals from the neighbor's dogwood tree spiral off the ground like dust devils. I stand there watching them a minute and thinking "mini tornados", when all the sudden the tin roof of the neighbor's car shed rips off. *_* Uh, yeah, time to come back inside and shut the door.

Mom had just left my house to go pay bills on her end of town, but two seconds later she pulls back into the driveway. Trees have fallen and blocked off the northern end of our road. It's pouring rain by this point, so she comes back in and we sit in the dark, waiting out the brunt of it.

When the rain settles some, Mini and I decide to ride with my mom to town rather than go it on our own. The lights are still out when we leave the house, so it's definitely no hard going there. We go all the rounds: bank, post office, etc., and top it all off with a trip to Panda's for a bite to eat. I hit the shrimp and mushrooms, and Mini scarfs down peeled pears, fried potatoes, broccoli, and teriyaki noodles. All this while Mom sits there with her humble egg roll. LOL!

We had a good time, but I'll admit it's great to be home - with lights! Oldest will be here in an hour, and I'm preparing myself for Poutfest 2008. Poor guy. We told him for weeks to get his act together at school, and even knowing there was a big event he wanted to go to coming up very soon, he floundered around and played. Even hid his report card from us, and ended up in the principals office 3 times for various reasons: smarting off, no homework turned in, and once for playing online games on the student computers in the library. *gray hair*

So now he's banned from going to the Yu-gi-Oh! regional tournament in Lafayette this weekend. We did everything we could to get him to get his act together early on, but he just wouldn't do. Now his daddy is firm. No work; no play. Oldest is heartbroken, and last night tried to argue me down about it. If only he'd put for half the effort over the past few weeks that he has in the last two days... *shakes head* Of course, as parents we're the enemy trying to hold him down from what he wants to do. But as evil as we may be, he's just going to have to get over it because what daddy says goes.

On the otherhand, I'm planning some fun stuff for the weekend, and over the next week. Just mama and kids type stuff: movies, popcorn, homemade pizza, scrabble, etc. Hubby will be leaving to do a some electrical work at a compressor station in Mississippi starting Saturday, so I'll have to keep the boys busy on my own. Oh yeah, sometime during all this I also plan to finish my 2nd round of edits and get them in. They arrived this morning and are sitting on my desktop, giving me the evil eye. *open us, you know you want to...* :P

Gosh! I almost forgot! Another review in for In The Gloaming has come in. This one is from Dark Diva Reviews:

Each story takes place in a different realm and time period and have equally sexually charged, action packed, engaging plots....In the Gloaming was a quick and enjoyable read, I would recommend this anthology for faerie and non-faerie lovers alike! 5 Delightful Divas.



Woot! ::confetti:: ::confetti:: ::confetti::
All in all it should be an interesting weekend. That's it for me, I need to get all hubby's jeans washed for his travels. Happy Friday, everyone!

Thursday Cheese

Say cheese!

I'm gonna finish up this round of edits today if it kills me. :P All I managed to do yesterday was stare helplessly at projects, my eyes glazing over because I couldn't seem to gather enough brain cells to focus on any one thing for longer than two minutes. Mini finally came up and tapped me on the leg while I was trying to read something onscreen and said, "Mimi, let's play it the pets game." Hm. Good idea! ^_^

I do feel more refreshed today, so it's time to call the break over and get back to work. There is also a book I need to finish reading before it goes back to the library tomorrow. It's a YA called The Hunter's Moon, by O.R. Melling. It's part of The Chronicles of Faerie, and from the first page it's pretty interesting.

I should get to work now. I could probably be finished in about two hours if I'd just stick to it. :P Off to go work on edits. I'll be around to visit you all in a bit.

Oh! And if you just so happen to like urban fantasy, drop by the Midnight Moon Cafe today. Author Rachel Vincent has an interview up for the Midnight Brew. Her new book Rogue is out now, and is the sequel to her awesome first book, Stray. Be sure to check it out; you may end up winning a copy of her latest book!

Take care everyone! And if today doesn't quite go right, just remember - tomorrow is Friday! *dance, dance* ^_^

UPDATE: 1st round edits are done!!

Edits, lolz, and new books

Ni! Ni! Ni!


So after my visit to the doctor on Monday, I've been trying to watch my blood sugar a bit better than I have been in the past...oh, close to 3 years. *blush* I'm back to low carbing and oy, do I feel drained. I have the edits for one Weirdly 2 story completed, but I couldn't finish the second one yesterday. I worked on it a bit this morning, but I have one of those nagging sugar headaches. :P I tried to concentrate on a book, but that only made it worse, so I went and tinkered around on Neopets for a while.

In an hour or so I'm off to Ruston to pick up one of hubby's prescriptions. His face is chapped, so this stuff the dr. prescribed should help. *thumbs up* When we're back home, I'll probably sit down with the edits again, give it another shot. I'd love it if I could get at least two rounds of this puppy finished before the weekend. Wishful thinking?

Speaking of words and books and all that jazz... I visited one of my fave bookstores before going to the dr. on Monday and picked up some yummilicious titles. I'm currently reading Touch The Dark by Karen Chance. It's vampire/psychic fantasy rather than romance, but I'm digging it. Hopefully a bit of reading will help me give me a bit of a refresher before I start on another project. I need to get my writing groove back.