Friday--Busy!

I've been working so hard I forgot to blog. What a nice feeling! ;-)

What are you doing for the weekend?--

Oh--wow--a man in the coffee shop's phone rang with my cousin, Bill's ring. I looked around for Bill, but he wasn't there. Wish he had been!

Anyway--back to the weekend. Can you believe next week is Thanksgiving? I just found myself trying to slow down these flying fall days. I love this time of year, can't wait for it, and every year it seems to go faster. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it means family to me. Just family. Lovely.

We're getting ready for our celebration, planning the meal. We're having dinner with friends, but then because we truly love Thanksgiving at our house, we're going to have our own meal on the Friday as well. How else would we have the yummy leftovers? ;-) That is kind of crazy though, huh? But I can't wait!

Back to work so I can take a few hours off next week without feeling guilty!

Tagged!

Yay! Debby Giusti tagged me at the Craftie Ladies of Suspense. I never get tagged so I'm pretty excited. I hope I can be interesting! I'm supposed to offer 7 random facts about myself.

1. I was once questioned by the Icelandic Police because the beloved and I ended up locked in a church after everyone else left. This church was started, but not completed, because a volcano erupted and the money for the church was used to repair people's homes. I like that about the wise Icelandic people. Anyway, instead of completing the church, they did build an observation deck in the spire. It was lovely, but noisy in the wind, so when everyone else left and the church was locked up, we did not know we'd begun to trespass.

2. I was once almost dragged out to sea in an effort to save my little brother as he was swept away during high tide. (Fortunately, my father saved us both!)

3. In another act of pure heroism, when a guy put out his cigarette on my best friend's coat at a high school football game, I laughed hysterically (panic reaction) instead of mentioning the flames rolling up her sleeve. (I did however pound the flames out while I laughed. And no--just in case you're worried--I never sit in the exit row on an airplane.)

4. I put that same best friend's cat in my second book, The Marriage Contract. He was a battling, black tom, one ear torn off in a past fray, no one's pet--who adopted my heroine and showed her love. (Thanks, best friend, for the inspiration!)

5. My husband and I never agree on anything--politics, which furniture to buy, what to name our son. We had a name chosen the night before he was born. While I was in labor, my beloved said "I don't really like the name Jared." I won't tell you what I said because I've already confessed enough bad stuff about myself. We finally agreed on a name just before we left the hospital, three days after our boy was born. And we both love his name--he was born to be a supreme court justice. Seriously, trust me! Justice ? ? ? Adams sounds perfect. Only the boy hates his middle name and he's a musician.

6. My daughter is a nursing student, and she cleans stuff that literally makes me faint when I think about all she faces. But when she walks into a grocery store where they have chickens on the rotisserie, she gags at the aroma! (If you're not nauseous enough yet, she's the girl who sounds as if she's calling football "Huts" as she passes the chicken roasting section.)

7. When I have free time, I go to a coffee shop and watch 27-year-old episodes of my long-canceled favorite soap opera. (I'm way behind, and I have this horrible fear they'll take it off the net, too.)

I'm supposed to tag people, too, but I'm not sure I know enough people who blog. I'm gonna try to browbeat friends, but please, consider yourself tagged and leave a link in the comment section so that people can follow you to your blog!

Oh--and don't forget it's report day at Sven's.

Happy Wednesday!

Tuesday

Lots of things to love about Tuesday. For one thing, it's only 41 degrees outside, and the wind is really blowing. With a few gray clouds, it'd be a near perfect day. Also, The Mentalist is on tonight. Yay!

Here's my bad Tuesday problem. I'm lacking in writing inspiration. I've been so excited for several weeks about writing, but today I'm just tired. I want to be in the middle of a story I love, instead of wrestling conflict into proposals that are hammering me as hard as I'm banging at them. For how long?

Sometimes I feel as if I should just send them, but why put my editor through a pointless exercise? No conflict=no satisfying resolution=no story. I don't want that. I want a story I can be proud of, and this is just one of those bumps in the road every writer faces. Can't wait till the bump smooths out.

But just in case it doesn't, I'm going to take my own best writing advice. And keep writing.

MySpace, At Last

Well, sort of. I've finally started a MySpace page. Some awfully nice people helped me because I'm apparently MySpace-challenged. One friend said she finds it so much easier than Facebook. I find I'm flummoxed! But there's a page, and I've updated it a bit. And I plan to update some more when I go out to a place that has decent wifi. (Same old, same old whinging! Sorry!)

For now, it's back to proposal land where the watchword is: Conflict, and oh yeah, some more conflict, please! That's a bunch of watchwords, but I'm digging for as much as I can get right now! ;-)

Happy Monday to all!

It's Thursday!

I've got a blinding headache, but I will not be denied! (Writing-wise.) I've dosed up on the caffeine and the aceta--okay--can't spell that. But I'm expecting to be able to think without pain at any moment. ;-)

No reading last night. Started to watch a new passion--Ghost Hunters. Must thank my friend, Kim for yet another television addiction! ;-) Between that and WWII movies on Veteran's Day, the DVR is nearly full.

So--I can't start clearing off DVR'd programs until I get a good word count. So--heeding the siren call of one and one-half unwatched episodes of Ghost Hunters, I must away to the appropriate files!

Check in Day at Sven's

I have been sweating, though not yet today. I had some errands to run that included buying a new red phone. Okay. It didn't have to be red, but I sort of coveted a red phone. A red, sturdy phone. Yay--not only is it lovely, but I can finish a whole conversation without dropping the call, and I can hear the person I'm talking to. Isn't it wonderful when things work the way they're supposed to?

Gotta go crank up Gosford Park (although nerdsnark, I'll be asking the girl to bring her copy of Back to the Future home so I can see how that works) and get to sweating!

Check out everyone's reports at Sven's place. You'll be inspired if you're having a hard time getting into your own work.

Listening to a movie while I write

Don't you do that? It has to be one I've seen a billion times so that I don't pay attention other than taking comfort in the sounds. Conversation, rain, footsteps on wooden floors, spoons and glasses clinking. Singing.

That's what I'm hearing today because I'm listening to Gosford Park. I love cozy, period mysteries from the so-called Golden Age. So-called--it was the golden age for me--Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie (whom I didn't always love), Leslie Ford. Anyway, as I love them so much, I was disappointed in Gosford Park when I first saw it. The plot was not a puzzle. But I watched it again because it looked so beautiful. And then I watched it again because it looked--and sounded--so beautiful. And then--again--because I looked forward to certain moments when certain characters offered glimpses of who they were. Before I knew it, I loved it.

The moment when "Ivor Novello" sings to another character whom everyone else dismisses touches me every time.

And it's excellent writing background. I managed 1,491 words yesterday in my first Sven day.

Time to Sweat

With Sven again, which is why I'm blogging so late! For some reason, I thought Sven began his regimen tomorrow. I've set myself a goal of 1 k a day, but for today, I have about 1.6 so far, and I'm still moving.

Happy sweating! Even if you aren't joining in, it's fun to do a blog tour and see how others are doing. You might find some of your favorite writers.

Blogging in Other Places

If you're a writer or a reader of romance, you probably already know and cherish the Pink Heart Society blog. I'm hanging out there today.

Drop by, particularly if you have some tips about finding words when you feel as if they've deserted you!

Time Management

I'm cackling even as I write those two words because I clearly don't use them together! Before I quit the day job, I managed to raise two children, still in school, deal with a husband who traveled most of the time, work a demanding day job as a tech writer for a software company (read demanding deadlines/long hours) and produce books. I never understood writers who said they couldn't find time when they had the lovely comfort of all day to write with no one demanding anything of them.

Guess who I am now. Part of it is the inability to say no to folks who think my time is so much my own I can rearrange my schedule. The thing is, I want to rearrange because I like to spend time with the people who need me to do that. But I also have to manage my own work time when I'm using it to have fun or do errands that need to get done.

I saw an ad yesterday for a class on time management for writers, and I thought--oohhhh! But hard on "oohhhh's" heels, "I don't have time for that!"

Where did Tuesday's post go?

I thought I'd saved it in a draft, but apparently not. It must have been vital. I don't even remember what I was saying.

I didn't write as much as I'd planned yesterday because I went to a girly lunch (you know, much more ladylike than I'm accustomed to) and an IMAX movie with a friend. Ya gotta fill the well. That's all I can say. I know I filled the well for a week--last week--but this friend rarely gets a day off work. We had to strike while the free day was available!

I thought I'd post another photo of last week's well-filling site. Again, you gotta fill the well, and you can't get too much beach. That's a philosophy to live by.

I love this photo. I forgot to take a camera with me, but one day, while toiling at the words, I glimpsed the camera built in to my laptop. Now, if you're looking to procrastinate, you can hardly beat setting up your laptop all over a house to take pictures!

Week before last, I mentioned I was suddenly enamored of cozy mysteries? Not so much right now. I think I want everything to measure up to The Diva Runs Out of Thyme. Since they don't, I'm reading Some Like It Wicked by Teresa Medeiros. It starts at a roaring pace and continues at same. I'm really enjoying it.

But I need to put down excellent books and blog posts and write some words of my own!

Monday, Monday

This is where I was last week, writing and writing and writing. I needed that week away. I've been fighting my own doubts for too long, and finally, hanging out with two of my writing friends, working till whenever, I began to remember how to write. I mean, the instincts that have carried me this far somehow deserted me in the past year, but I feel as if they're easing back in. Maybe I just needed to be head down in writing mode for seven days. Couple that with restarting my critique relationship with the world's best critique partner, and I feel as if I'm starting over. I'm excited!

So--to share my excitement :-) I'm doing eHarlequin.com's version of NaNoWriMo (I think that's the way they shorten it). Come, look in on everyone's progress!

And then, November 10, Sven starts sweating again. It's not too late to submit to Sven!

Since I have some word count to make today, I'd better doctor up my far too vibrant coffee (I like a little coffee with my milk and cream) and get back to work!