Tire Slashing Night

Okay...I didn't make it to the OA meeting. It turned out I had my local romance authors meeting and it was an awesome workshop and exactly the kind of inspiration I needed to fix the end of my book, which I also did. Anyway, I will try again Tuesday.

Also, thanks to Dorothy and "anonymous" for submitting their "She was naked and he was dead" paragraphs. Funny and creative!

One final thing I want to talk about before I start the finishing touches on CurvyKathy31: Somebody slashed the tires on the cars parked on our street and the next street over. Now we live in middle class suburbia, U.S.A. We don't have gang graffiti on building walls and there aren't any crack whores on the corners. My question is...why would people do this? The way I see it, the only one who benefitted from this are the tire companies. Is this what kids do at slumber parties in place of the toilet papering of the seventies? Is this an act of anger? And who are they angry at? Middle aged women who have to spend their Sunday afternoons at the tire store? (By the way, I have a complaint. Why is Discount Tire closed on Sundays? Don't they know the major tire slashing night is Saturday night?) Anyway, I tend to be a glass half full girl, so all I can feel is thankful that they only slashed one tire, that my son's car wasn't out there, and a lot of other stuff that I won't go into.

She was naked and he was dead...

This is a "thinking outside the box" exercise our critique group did this week and I thought it would be fun to see what other people come up with. Please finish this opening line:

She was naked and he was dead.


I'll put mine in as a comment. Can't wait to see the results!

My Give A Damn's Busted

That's not really the title of this, I just have that song running in my head. Not sure of the singer...one of those "i'm gonna get drunk so you'll have to throw me out of the bar" tough female country singers. I usually hate those kinds of songs--make women seem bitchy and icky--but this one has really cute lyrics.

Actually, I really do give a damn...it's Friday!!! I plan on editing CurvyKathy so I can send it to my agent next week so he can start trying to find it a loving home again. I think I've figured out how to fix the ending and shorten it by 40 pages. I'm also planning on reading and doing some laundry, oh and eating out and napping, if anyone gives a damn...lol

Lips are Cocked!!!

I'm so excited. It's time for the official launch of the website and I want to thank everyone involved. This truly was a colaborative effort with Jeremy, Karissa, Cindy, Scott and DallasDigitalStudios.com Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Good Rejection

What an oxymoron! But this latest rejection letter really is a good one. Or maybe I have a pain fettish I wasn't aware of. Maybe I fall under the category of "any attention is better than none." But I digress.

This is from a big time publisher written by a big time editor (forwarded to me by my agent) and she actually read the entire manuscript. I do believe this is a first for me in my young authoring life. And she said some very encouraging things about my "voice" which seems to be what they look for in chick lit. Words like: engaging, authentic and natural voice. And she hopes my agent can find the right editor to get me started on my way. Yes!!! I'm ready to get started on my way...lol.

Anyway, all I know is, encouragement like this helps me believe it's not "if" but "when"... and makes me want to write like the wind!

Here's a Pic of my Blog

Pool at Night with Green Light

As Political As I Get

Someone wise once said freedom isn't usually taken away by force all at once...it is given freely, one tiny piece at a time. (Okay, I paraphrase, but it was something like that.) Anyway, I've decided that if the Patriot Act is going to take some of my freedom away (ie: full cavity search at the airport) then the American people should be compensated by getting rid of some other annoyance...uh...like, how about making it punishable by death for telemarketers to call...ever. Our house phone has now become our computer phone since we all have cells, but we still have call notes to pick up messages. I pick them up about every 30 days. 9 out of 10 calls are from telemarketers which I delete after 2 words. A lot of time and energy wasted on trying to get in touch with an imac.

So, I have a question for you. Does anyone like to get calls from telemarketers and have you bought anything from one in the past year?

Pic of the Pool

Carbs vs. Nicotine (or why life isn't fair)

After a discussion on the pros and cons of an early death (and saving our children on nursing home care) vs. sticking it out to the bitter end, my husband and I chose long life. So we agreed last week that he would quit smoking and I would quit carbs. After convincing him that a "weigh in" wasn't necessary (because then I would have to kill him) we began our quests.

Now I realize that nicotine is more addictive than a Playstation addict on crack, but come on. How great would it be if I could just give up ONE thing? It's a no-brainer. Everytime you have it in your hand you'd think "ooops, I'm not supposed to have that."

Instead I have to give up an entire food group. And it's a pretty big one too! Those sneaky little carbs are EVERYWHERE!!! I've been reduced to the most basic ingredients and lots of things that I've been told were good for me all my life are now no-nos. Let's take that innocent bowl of cereal my mom insisted I eat all those early years. (I would kill for a Cheerio...) And something as simple as a sandwich is obsolete, which tends to make lunch something more like a dinner.

Now that my husband's appetite isn't stamped out by nicotine anymore, all he wants to do is snack on Little Debbies and Cheetos (another thing I would kill for--I love their cab-yellow, crunchy goodness!) However, I can't exactly take up his smoking to replace my carb habit, now can I?

Did I mention we're both really bitchy now?

Anyway, I just wanted to discuss how unfair it is. Do they have a 2 week course for being overweight (with a couple of 2-day follow ups.) No. Did they quit advertising carbs on TV? No. Do they have a carb patch? No. Or how about french fry gum?

Wonder if Sonic is still open. Back later.

I'm a Writer

I can say "I'm a writer" with confidence (even though I haven't published a novel) because writing and editing are also what I do in my day job. So probably for me the word "writer" has lost some of its mystique.

What I really want to be able to say is "I'm an author." I want to be published in fiction. I want to have a book cover designed for me. I want to see my name in large letters on the front. Now I realize of course that wanting it doesn't make it so. But I've written some novels. I've received some rejection letters (both bad and good.) I've even received a couple of "calls". Now I have an agent and on any given day I could receive yet another rejection--or sell a book. Heady stuff to run home to.

Of course as a seasoned published author wannabe I found out writing one novel is not enough. The minute you've sold your first novel the publisher wants to know "what else ya got?" Jeez! Do you KNOW how hard it is to write 400 pages of double-spaced Courier type that has a plot and believable, memorable and larger than life characters, all wrapped up into a marketable genre? It's extremely hard! And it can all be for NOTHING!!!! Let's face it, the chances of hitting the big-time are only slightly less than hitting the lottery.

Oh, just effing forget it.

I'll be back. Gone to buy some lottery tickets.