Join me on the rollercoaster

Random mood swings...

UP: We did it! We gave Obama the final boost, and he really got the nomination! Woot!

DOWN: It's. Freaking. Snowing.

UP: {looks at computer, at the news reports} Woot!

DOWN: {looks out window}

UP: In 5 more posts, I will be at 500 posts! I must celebrate.

DOWN: *work program flashing at me insistently*

UP: *Life Stuff*

DOWN: *Life Stuff*

I think I need some drugs. Or some more coffee. Or some other sort of mellowing agent...like...like...like the chocolate and peanut butter Ghirardelli bar I hid in my bag this morning! YES! {rummaging}

Recommendation!

One of my guidelines for this blog, discussed here, is not to post negative reviews. The flip side of that is that I do post, volubly, when I finish a book I love.

I LOVED A Field of Darkness, by Cornelia Read.

I'm a little too wiped by work and such to come up with a coherent summary of WHY I loved it, but I can say it was the plot--and the characters, and the voice, and the writing. And the suspense.

Go read it. You will enjoy it. :)

Melody!

We had a great weekend! Mostly sunny and fun, enjoying the outdoors. Everything is finally green and blooming, and it's glorious!

Currently I am buried under my pile of work. However, I did get to spend some time during lunch starting my writing journal for the next book, working title MELODY. Oh yeah, baby. I'm hopping with all the possibilities. This looks like a fun one.

And now I'll go take my Mary Sunshine self off back to work, before anyone is suffocated by my cheerfulness.

Wow

My baby's graduating from Kindergarten today. I am already verklempt.

That is all...cramming in as much work as possible before it's time to go!

The Victor (Victorious)

is....PIPER! Congrats, Piper! You win a signed copy of Touch of Twilight. Send me an e-mail at susan dot adrian@yahoo.com, and we'll get the prize to you, with the right message and everything.

And BONUS PRIZE: Vic was kind enough to send me a copy already, but in an effort to help those critical first-week sales I'm going to buy a copy from Amazon and send it to our bonus winner: NIGHT CRITTER! Night Critter, send me an email with your snail address.

(If either of you already have a copy, you can spread the love with this one.)

The rest of you no longer have any excuse. Buy Touch of Twilight today!

VICKI PETTERSSON: Interview! Contest!!!

And here it is!! An interview with author extraordinaire Vicki Pettersson about her new book The Touch of Twilight, the zodiac series, writing stuff, and other completely random and possibly freakish questions. CONTEST DETAILS AT THE END!

Vicki and I were born in the same year, and married in the same year (not to each other). We've been friends since we both were writing historicals, since she was a showgirl and I was...oh, I was still an editor. Right. Anyway, YEARS. She's one of my writing heroes. She knows what she wants to do, and she puts her head down and gets it done. You can see her passion and her hard work in every page.

And in spite of her currently scrabbling to finish Book 4, I pinned her down long enough to answer a few questions:

Susan: Joanna, your heroine, discovers in the first book (The Scent of Shadows) that she has superpowers, among other things. It's been rumored that these books are actually a confession of your own super abilities. Can you tell us one of your own uber-mortal talents?

VICKI: I have the ability to bruise myself in my sleep. No kidding. I'll wake up in the morning with bruises and have no idea how they got there. Of course, the first fight scene in SCENT came to me in a dream, so maybe that's where I test a scene's plausibility. (My poor husband. He'd probably prefer it if I wrote romance.)

Susan: In TOT, Jo burrows even deeper into the underworld of Las Vegas. What's your favorite new thing about that universe that you discovered while writing this book?

VICKI: Oh my. Tough question, because obviously I'm only writing about things that interest me as a writer and a reader. Without giving too much away, I suppose my favorite elements were discovering about new creatures, unfolding more of the history behind the Zodiac's matriarchal lineage, and sensing a possible subculture that none of the characters in the books seem willing to acknowledge. As Jo and I share a perverse curiosity that causes us to plunge headlong in directions others would rather us not (which I like to think of as an endearing trait), I got to indulge in all of these things.

Susan: Confession time. If you had to choose, would you rather have one night with Hunter or Ben? (I know which one I'd choose…)

VICKI: One night? Dude. There are seven days in the week. If pressed, I suppose I could divvy the days up evenly and take my day of rest on the Sabbath. How does that sound? (Slutty, I know. But I won't hold it against them if you won't. {Evil grin})

Susan: How does Vegas continue to influence the books?

VICKI: Vegas is as much a player in these books as any other major character, or so that's the goal. I want things to happen in this series that could only happen or evolve in this particular place, so I choose city settings that are unique to the environment, and that speak to me as a native. I'm always amazed at how place affects mood, and I'm sure to note my emotions when I travel. Vegas speaks to me of hope, so despite the noir tone of this series, I try to convey that as well.

Susan: Where do you get your ideas? Kidding. But about your writing process: how is it different now, with several published books under your belt, than when you started?

VICKI: I know that I can write. I know that I can finish. I know what works for me and why. (Or maybe I should say I know a lot of what doesn't work for me — that's sometimes more important.) I can tell when I'm heading off track before I get too far, and I have the tools to correct such missteps quickly and easily, so that I don't waste too much time detouring down rabbit holes. The different stages of creating a novel are now familiar to me, so even if I'm in an uncomfortable place in the text, I recognize that I've been there before, and move forward with the confidence that I'll get out of it again. But I'm still basically a plough horse about it (or maybe just a mule {G}). I just put words on the page one at a time and shove them around until the day's work is done.

Susan: We know the advice for writers in the midst of books: Read, write, don't stop. What's your advice for writers with a finished book, starting the query process or in the publishing waiting game?

VICKI: Why? Do you know someone in that position? {Innocent blink}

Actually my advice is to do the same thing that you do in all other areas of your life: build on it. Do what you've been doing all along - write. It's really the only thing you can control anyway, but fortunately it's also the most important thing. And while seeing your work on the shelves is definitely a Dream Come True, the writing is still the best part of the job. Enjoy it.

And now you KNOW you need to read TOUCH OF TWILIGHT, right? To enter to win a signed copy, just post in the comments to this post, and we'll do a random drawing. Contest ends at midnight MST. Good luck!!!

Reminder: contest/interview tomorrow

We're back home, and I'm wiped out...in a happy, busy-weekend way. Seattle was sunny and perfect.

Just wanted to post a quick reminder that I'll be posting an interview with Vicki Pettersson tomorrow, and doing a giveaway of...a signed copy of TOUCH OF TWILIGHT! Stop by in the morning for details and to enter.

And I did get Ghost Girl to my beta-readers on Thursday. Yay!

Heads up!

I'm jamming through the third draft lickety split--I'm already on Chapter 9. Beta-readers heads up.

I'm leaving with the fam tomorrow for a 4-day weekend in Seattle, but wanted to remind you that:

Vicki Pettersson's Touch of Twilight is being released on Tuesday, May 27th! To celebrate, I'm going to post an exclusive interview with Vicki. Yes, I asked the questions, so it's sure to be...um...interesting.

AND I'll be hosting a contest on Tuesday, to win a very special Touch-of-Twilight-related prize. Make sure you come back then!

GG 2nd draft: check!

Just finished the 2nd draft of Ghost Girl! Yay!

And....am flipping right back to the beginning to work on the 3rd draft. I honestly can't help myself. This is my favorite draft, where I get to just concentrate on the language. And I'm getting excited about this book in spite of myself.

Can I say that I still love the last 2 chapters?

{happy sigh}

More gin over here, please

There's a party going on right here...

in honor of Miss Snark. It's been a year since her blog shut down. I used to read her every day, to absorb some of her knowledge about writing and the writing world (including the mysteries of agents and editors). I'd be much MORE of a nitwit without her.

Thanks, Miss Snark. *clink*

That meme

Carol tagged me on Friday, and I'm finally getting around to it. Because that's how I am. As usual, I reserve the right to not completely follow the rules and not tag anyone else specifically. If you're one of the two people who hasn't done this meme yet, join in and let me know.


A Meme about Various Things

• What were you doing ten years ago?
  
  Um. You know, that's a really long time ago. Let's see, I had been married for 2 years, no Child yet. I was working at Academic Press in San Diego. I think I'd just started dabbling with my first book, then called TRUST.
  

• What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
  
  
  • Fill out insurance form for next year.
  • Work on choosing websites to focus thesis on.
  • Do some planning for this weekend's trip to Seattle.
  • Review possible pictures for next year's calendar (work).
  • Edit at least one chapter of GG.
  
  

• What are some snacks you enjoy?
  
  I LOVE snacks. I'm one of those grazers. Chips & salsa, nuts, chocolate, limes or lemons with salt, popcorn.
  

• What would you do if you were a billionaire?
  
  Spend lots of money. Duh.

• What are three of your bad habits?
  
  
  • Eating too much salt (see above).
  • Not exercising at all.
  • Solitaire.
    
  
  
• What are five places where you have lived?
  
  
  • Penryn, California (teensy-tiny)
  • Long Beach, California
  • San Diego, California
  • Brighton, England
  • Butte, Montana
    
    
• What are five jobs you have had?
  
  
  • In-home pet caretaker
  • Retail goddess
  • Copyeditor
  • Desk Editor
  • Publications Editor (aka Goddess)
    
    
• What were the last five books you read?
  
  
  • A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read
  • One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
    
  • The Killing Floor by Lee Child
  • Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins
  • A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
    
    
• What are five web sites you visit daily (in no particular order)?
  
  
  • Google Reader
  • Pandora
  • Statcounter
  • Facebook
  • The Blueboard (Verla Kay)
    

Dialogue share...and a snip

Nathan Bransford, generous blogger and literary agent that he is, is doing another contest. This time he's tackling dialogue.

I was sooooo tempted to enter, just because I like to blather about dialogue, and I like to write it. Most times it comes easiest for me, and I have to fight against scenes coming out like scripts, all dialogue and nothing else. But I'm not entering, because I have a marvelous agent already.

Instead, I'm going to inflict one of my favorite GG dialogue-heavy scenes on you! It's a bit pared down to remove spoilers, but I like it. This little guy is just so real to me.

*************
From Ghost Girl, by Susan Adrian:

"You're not dead."

I jerked around. It was the old man, the winker, standing next to me. Too close. Long white hair straggled out from his navy blue "US Marines" cap, perched too high on his head. "Most these folk can't tell the difference. Me, I spot 'em easy." He tapped my shoulder, and nodded to himself. "Not dead."

"I guess not," I said back. His face was a perfect map of wrinkles. That map wasn't going anywhere I wanted to go.

"What you doing here then, missy? Spying?"

I couldn't help it; I laughed. "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm spying for the other side. All the live people are just dying to know what y'all are up to."

"Shouldn't mock. Could be." He stroked his white-whiskered chin, studying me. "Picking up secrets you oughtn't know."

The next person ordered and moved to the end of the counter. Almost my turn. The old man moved along with me. "What you here for?" he repeated.

"I'm looking for someone. My mom—she looks a lot like me."

The way his eyes traveled over my face, you'd think he was memorizing it.

"She's not dead either," I added. "Have you seen her? Her name's Molly. She'd be with another woman."

"Nooo," he said slowly, lifting his cap and scratching under it. "Ain't seen nobody looks like you. You're the only one I've seen that ain't dead, in a good fair time."

*******

How about you? Share a favorite dialogue bit here in comments, of your current book or one you're reading. Under 250 words, please!! Maybe sometime along here soon I'll look at a few and see what works. :)

News, and fun

WHAT a kick-ass fun weekend.

It was 80 or near-80 all weekend, so everyone in the whole state was in shorts, tank tops, and sandals, as far as I can tell. And we all were outside enjoying the sunshine. I swam! I went to the park with Child! I picnicked! I sat in a lawn chair and wrote! I mowed!

All good, my friends. All the trees and flowers in our yard are flipping out at going from snow to summer. It was weird to have summer weather when our tulips haven't even bloomed yet, but I'll take it.

And a new, fun development: on Friday at noon I took Child to the library to get her some chapter books--she JUST started reading them at school, and wanted to try the Magic Treehouse books. So we got the first one, a Junie B. Jones and a Nate the Great. I figured that would last a few weeks, as she tended to be a little slow working her way through them.

She finished the Magic Treehouse by 3 PM that same day.

Then she finished the Nate the Great Saturday morning, and Junie B. yesterday. It was SO cool--she was so excited about it, and proud of herself.

We went back to the library on Saturday and got 4 more books!

Edits are going really well on GG--I made some good plot changes, and am jamming along on the second draft. I might finish it this week. Then comes the fun third draft, where I really get to fine-tune the language. That's my favorite. Then: beta-readers! Woot!

Last bit of news: See the sidebar for a countdown to Vicki Pettersson's release date for her new book, Touch of Twilight. I'm going to team up with Vic for a promotion here on the blog, around release day. Watch this space!!

America's next top model in a bikini?

H'lo!

I've been here, just working at a trade show booth for the past couple of days, so no chance to blog. Fortunately lots of down time to edit GG, though...I got at least 5 chapters done. Woot! This is good, since today at lunch I desperately need to watch the finale of America's Next Top Model and find out WHO WON before someone tells me accidentally.

What?

Today I also want to point you over to a wonderful friend of mine, Linda Gerber, whose book DEATH BY BIKINI is released today. I can't wait to read it! I've known Linda forever from the Compuserve Books and Writer's Forum, and she is the real deal, so this one will be good. Go visit her blog today for fabulous fun and prizes!!

A Mother's Day Good/Bad

Good: It's Mother's Day, which just makes everybody think about and appreciate the mothers in their life even more. I love my Mom. I LOVE being a Mom.

More Good: We played this morning, which I don't ever have as much time to do as I want. We made orange rolls.

Bad: Child felt a little squicky.

Good: We went swimming, and had fun splashing in the pool.

Bad: Child felt more squicky. Still insisted she was okay, though.

Good: We went to see the Duquesne University Tamburitzans, a wonderful folk dancing/singing/music playing group we've seen before and love. My Mom came too, and we ran into one of Child's best friends, so they sat together and giggled.

Bad: Child not feeling better. I made her mac & cheese, but sadly it was rather a lost cause at that point, and stomach virus took over. Poor thing. We spent the evening in the bathroom, and then wrapped up in a big soft blanket sipping sparkling water, nibbling graham crackers, and watching a Barbie movie.

Good: She's been asleep for a couple hours now, next to our bed. I'm so hoping she sleeps through the night and feels better in the morning. I HATE seeing my baby sick. {sigh}

We shall see about school/work in the morning, though I'm doubting it...

Like there's no tomorrow

Last night was the first performance of Child's dance recital. Of course she was utterly cute and perfect (whether she did the steps or not), and when she's on stage I can't look at anyone else but her. She glows for me.

When she's not on stage...well.

I was a ballet dancer for 8 years. I was in a professional ballet company (even though I was a teenager). I also did tap, jazz, and modern. I am cursed for the rest of my life with the dancer's eye.

This means I see how it should be, each move: arms, hands, fingers, legs. Extension. Arch. I see whether a movement is on beat or off. Whether the group is together the way they should be. Whether everyone hits their jumps at the same time, who is weak at turning left, who can dance fine on their own but doesn't do well as part of a group. It's similar to when you learn to be a writer and you have trouble reading just for pleasure anymore--you see craft, or lack of craft, everywhere.

But I realized again last night, watching girls of all ages and all different skill levels on that stage, a vital truth. It is NOT, ever, the most important thing to be technically perfect. It wasn't the technically perfect girls my eye was drawn to, that I enjoyed watching.

It's the ones who put their hearts into every move.

They were confident, not hesitant. They didn't hold their bodies back for fear of making a mistake--or even if they did make a mistake. They owned the dance. They sold it. They smiled, not the fake grit-teeth smile plastered on, but the smile that says "This is ME dancing. I am enjoying the hell out of this."

Watching someone dance like that, I forget about all the technical stuff. I nod along, and wish I was up there too--because damn, it looks like fun.

That's the kind of writer you want to be too. Confident in your words, your characters, your images, your story. Not writing for other people--that's like the fakey-fake smile. Writing for your ownself, and enjoying the heck out of it. Dropping your whole heart into every line.

And you know what I was thinking last night, as I was clapping another girl who hit the last beat, arms spread wide, grinning like she would do it again, this minute?

Maybe that's one of the secrets to life, too.

The title for this year's show: "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow." Indeed.

Woot!

Woo-hoooooooooo! I just turned in my last paper. I am officially DONE with this semester.

Tids & Bits

I'm still on a high from our amazing getaway weekend. WOW. Highlights:

--As a surprise, hubby bumped us up to first class. Picture me at 33,000 feet lounging in a plush chair, my feet dangling above the floor, sipping a gin-and-tonic at 11 AM and completely engrossed in reading about Bones (Jeaniene Frost's yummy hero--and Vic, he is so mine.). Aaaaaaah. Also, the board room at the Seattle airport is a secret haven.

--A full 4-course Thai meal with hubby. I love me some Thom kai gai soup.

--Sipping my first-ever Cosmos (pink!) with hubby in a bar in downtown San Diego, rocking out to bouncy live jazz as people streamed by outside.

--Shoe-shopping. Chocolate shopping, at the Ghirardelli store.

--The concert we actually went for, KT Tunstall, was sooooo fun. I loved it. The front row seats we bought on E-bay Actually Worked!

Unfortunately we did have to get up at 4:15 AM Sunday to catch our plane, but it was worth it.

***********

I finished the aforementioned book, One Foot in the Grave, on the plane rides. Yowza. I recommend Chapter 31. {cough} Well-written, engrossing, and I adore the characters.

***********

I turned in my final project for the multimedia class-from-hell on Friday! Hurrah. Just have to write that ethics paper today...

***********

Edits on GG are going well again, because I gave in and started editing chronologically. Apparently I just am more comfortable that way.

***********

Child has a dress rehearsal this afternoon for her dance recital, with performances tomorrow night and Thursday night. Then in two weeks we have Kindergarten graduation!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

***********

Jo has posted some amazingly excellent writing advice, which is not unusual for her. Jo's advice is clear, well-illustrated, and SMART. Listen to her.

***********

That is all for now! I've got a paper to write and some trouble to stir up!

One more sharing Friday: snippet

Quite a sharing week. I've shared a good link, music, books, and a picture of me. It's Friday, and we're back to what I share best: words.

One more snippet of Ghost Girl to whet your appetites, before I go back to GG radio silence. (and I go back to finishing my final projects! Almost...done...) Today, meet Tony.

From Ghost Girl, by Susan Adrian:

*****
Tony walked in, and my stomach flipped. I took a shot of him before he saw me, his dark blonde hair sleek from the wind, sunglasses hiding his eyes. Coatless, T-shirt and jeans filled out just right, a parade of goosebumps down his arm. Yeah, I'd save that shot for later. Maybe blow it up.

He looked around the room, acknowledged us with a chin jerk, and strode over. He didn't sit, though, just took off his sunglasses and tapped them on the table. "Hey."

"Hey," we all said, almost in chorus. My heart was drumming its own rhythm, a fast salsa beat.

"What's up?" His eyes flicked to mine, and held. His bottom lip twitched. There was just the slightest hint of stubble there, on his chin. I'd missed that bit last night when I was fantasizing.

Waiting for you, I wanted to say. Instead I said, cool, "Just got here."

"Can I talk to you for a sec?" He scanned the room again. "Outside?"

I frowned, with a quick glance at Dana. God, he wasn't a smoker, was he? I didn't think he was. But what did I know? She made a shooing motion, and I realized I hadn't answered him. "Sure," I said, as nonchalantly as I could manage.

I followed him out, zipping my coat up as we hit the frosty air outside. He headed around the corner toward the dumpsters, then stopped. He didn't whip out any cigarettes, though. Whew. He just stood shifting his feet, looking at me, eye to eye. I waited. He waited. Somebody was going to have to say something eventually.

He twisted to look behind him, then again at me. "So I heard about this ghost thing with you." His eyebrows drew together. "You're the ghost girl, right?"

Crap. "That's why you want to talk to me?"

*****

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Thursday share: me

And we have a winner! Two winners, actually.

#1 winner: Julianne! You get first dibs on the books.
#2 winner: Carmella!

Please contact me at susan dot adrian @yahoo.com with your shipping address, and I'll pop these puppies in the mail.

CONGRATULATIONS! And thanks for sharing the book love yesterday. That was fabulous.

For today's share, I'm sharing a real! live! photo! of! me!

I know, you're thrilled to pieces. But this is rather a big deal, as I've never posted a picture of me in the 3 years of having this blog. Not only that, but it's me in my true form.

Bwa-ha-ha! Now isn't that scary?

What? No, I'm a witch, get it? A scary witch? It's scary because of the witch--

Oh, never mind.

Wednesday share: books!

Today I'm sharing the book love.

Yesterday was a dual release day for two of my favorite authors (and good people), Melissa Marr (Ink Exchange) and Jeaniene Frost (One Foot in the Grave). It's the second book for each of them, and I loved both the first books. Of course I ran off to the bookstore and snatched them both off the shelves. Yay!

To celebrate, I'm sharing two other books I enjoyed with YOU.

First up, R.A. Nelson's Breathe My Name.

From the Penguin site:

I need to see you.

Please come right away.

We have to finish.

Frances Robinson is in high school now. She lives a quiet, suburban life, far from her horrifying past. When she was a child, her birthmother smothered her three sisters. Through pure luck, Frances survived. Now her mother has just been released from prison . . . and she wants to see Frances.

A new boy at school called Nix charms Frances. Together, Nix and Frances embark on a clandestine journey to visit Frances’ mother: to confront the monster in its lair. This trip will help Frances at last find peace—or die trying. But no matter what, Frances will discover just what it means to finish.

-----

Here's what I said about it on the blog when I read it: I highly recommend it. The writing is tense and vivid, with a strong, unique voice. There were times I had to put it down because the subject matter was so difficult, but I always went back to it, and I'm glad I did.

This book really draws you into a unique world, and a strong character.

Next up:

Gods Behaving Badly, by Marie Phillips

How could you not love THAT cover?

From Publishers Weekly:

British blogger Phillips's delightful debut finds the Greek gods and goddesses living in a tumbledown house in modern-day London and facing a very serious problem: their powers are waning, and immortality does not seem guaranteed. In between looking for work and keeping house, the ancient family is still up to its oldest pursuit: crossing and double-crossing each other. Apollo, who has been cosmically bored for centuries, has been appearing as a television psychic in a bid for stardom. His aunt Aphrodite, a phone-sex worker, sabotages him by having her son Eros shoot him with an arrow of love, making him fall for a very ordinary mortal-a cleaning woman named Alice, who happens to be in love with Neil, another nice, retiring mortal. When Artemis-the goddess of the moon, chastity and the hunt, who has been working as a dog walker-hires Alice to tidy up, the household is set to combust, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Fanciful, humorous and charming, this satire is as sweet as nectar.

-----

This one was an impulse buy, because the premise made me laugh...and it lived up to the premise AND the cover. The writing reminded me of Douglas Adams, one of my favorite authors of all time. It was just pure fun.

So, would you like one of these bad boys?

To enter: Leave a comment to this post and share the book love. Tell me about a recent book you enjoyed that you'd recommend to others. Entries close at midnight MST tonight.

I'll do a random drawing tomorrow morning, and pick two winners. First chosen gets first pick. No international entries, please! (I can't afford the postage!)

Tuesday share: music

Today I'm going to share one of my favorite songs.

When I was in the early stages of writing JENNA, I was hunting around for some new music. A good friend ({cough} Kreek {cough}) recommended KT Tunstall, a Scottish singer/songwriter I'd never heard of. I LOVED her stuff, from the first song that first day.

KT's albums became my writing soundtrack. I listened to her every day I wrote JENNA. It became my pattern: open up a game of Spider Solitaire (what?), start playing KT's music, start writing. I think I was telling my subconscious it was time to get busy. When I listen to her music anywhere, now, I automatically start thinking of story ideas.

When JENNA was done I figured it was time for a new soundtrack, for the new book. But then KT came out with a new album...so it continued. I listened to a mix of all her stuff, still, for most of the time of writing GHOST GIRL.

And I'm thrilled to say that hubby and I are going to see KT perform live, this Saturday in San Diego. Front row!! Woohoo!!

Anyway, today I'm sharing a particularly important song for me. Astute listeners may guess, correctly, that I was indeed listening to this song when I was plotting GG...

http://www.last.fm/music/KT+Tunstall/_/Girl+and+the+Ghost

Monday share: another blog

Thanks for participating in Sharing Friday, everyone! That was fun. I think I might have to do it again sometime.

This week I'm going to have to skimp on the blogging, as I'm pushing hard on:

1. GG revisions
2. my multimedia final project
3. my ethics paper
4. work
   

Not necessarily in that order on any particular day. To keep things interesting, though, I'm going to share SOMEthing every day. Today I'm sharing my favorite blog post of the day, from my kick-ass superstar agent Janet, talking about an Idol panel at a conference:

I'm in Awe of You

I first connected with Janet at just such a panel--they're powerful. You can get real, honest feedback, right there. Whether it's something like that or sending out queries: Be brave. Trust in your writing and keep going no matter what. If you've got something good and you KEEP TRYING, it will happen eventually.

Sharing Friday!!

Today feels like a good day, and I'm in a sharing/reading mood. Let's share!

Guidelines:
1. Pull a short bit (less than 200 words) that you like from the chapter you're working on. If you're editing like me, stick a finger or a cursor randomly somewhere, and find something you like around there.
2. Post your bit here.
3. Comment on other people's bits, if you like. This is for fun, not critique, so please only positive things. (If you don't have anything nice to say...)

From Chapter 8 of Ghost Girl:
*****

It was cold outside, but I couldn't really feel it, not in my bones. It was like the memory of cold instead of the real thing. I let out a puff of breath, looking to left and right. There she was, huddling against a skinny tree at the edge of the parking lot. Just past her everything got foggy, like we were on the edge of a storm. Or that was how far this place had been imagined, and no farther.

I got to her as quick as I could, before she could disappear beyond that barrier, into the clouds.

"Hey. You okay?"

She twitched like a scared animal, big-eyed. She reminded me of Megan, actually. Not in looks—she had short, pixie-cut black hair—but in expression.

"Why am I here?" she asked, soft.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "Did you used to come to Starbucks a lot when you were alive?"

Her mouth opened and closed, exactly like a fish. "Alive?"

Crap. Oh, don't tell me she doesn't know she's dead. Don't tell me I have to tell her that.

No, you idiot, you just did.

*****

Join in!!

What I'm looking at

Janet Reid asked what you're lookin' at. Since writers also seem to have a fascination with each other's spaces, I thought I'd share a couple of pics today. First, the view out my itty-bitty office window (This building was built in 1896. I have a HUGE office, but apparently they did not believe 3rd-floor people should have big windows in 1896!):

Yes, that's fresh snow on the trees.

But this is what I really look at, all day and when I'm writing:

That's all Child's artwork and pictures of her. I ran out of room a while back, and have started to rotate...but I think I need a ladder so I can go higher too. Looking at this wall, at her artwork and drawings at different ages and "I love you Mommy" notes in WAY different levels of writing...this is what I write for. No, this is what I do everything for.

Toolbox: Chapter Chart

Still crunching around here. Two weeks left in the semester, so that means final projects are almost due (60% of my grade! Yikes!). Budget dealings. New projects, which always come in only when there are already piles. BUT I finally managed to finish my read-through of GG, and am at last on to my first major revision step: the Chapter Chart.



The Chapter Chart is my own version of Diana Peterfreund's Plot Board. I'm very visual AND analytical (after the fact), so I was drawn to her method immediately...I just didn't have that much room. So instead of a big board I use a tabloid sheet of paper, and instead of post-its I use a big pile o' highlighters. Other than that, it works pretty much the same.

My method:

1. AFTER the first draft is written, I do a read-through. Then I identify major plotlines/threads that I want to track, and assign each one a color. For instance, this book has 7 threads I want to look at (at least at this stage--I could get more into detail, but I think this will work for now). For GG, most of these threads are the relationship with a particular person (Mom, DR, Tony), but not all.

2. I divide my paper up into columns, one for each chapter, and label the columns "Ch 1" etc. This book, first draft, has 21 chapters.

3. In each column I write the basic action that happens in each scene. Under each scene description I mark the colors of the threads involved/progressed in that scene. For this book I also write how many pages each chapter was.

What does this do for me? It gives me a visual look, in one swoop, at how the threads are carried through the book. I can see easily if I dropped a relationship or thread for too long, or introduced something too late. It helps me organize all the threads in my head, and intertwine them better. It helps me judge the balance, the pacing, and where I just dropped the ball (cut!). Most important of all, it gives me, at the start of revisions, a good sense of the whole book and how it works together.

I write by the seat of my pants, with no idea where I'm going. But once I'm there, it's time for active craft to take over. :)

Icicles!

In case you thought I was kidding about the winter weather...

These are icicles outside my window. We are very very careful walking around these buildings right about now...

More meme

It's Meme Season, apparently. Or maybe I'm just feeling meme-y. I borrowed this one from Melissa Marr.

You're feeling: headachy, because I messed up my coffee schedule this morning

On your mind: Work work. I have to figure out my 2009 budget by tomorrow. Which is why I'm doing this instead.

On your desk: Piles of paper, aforementioned budget, big jug o' water, a Baked Apple Pie-scented candle, and my Ghost Girl mascot

Last meal: donuts (what? I bought 'em to thank my staff. So I got to have some too...)

You dread: being stuck in a small confined space

You crave: coffee

A smell that cheers you up: the smell of pavement after a good rain

A food that you despise: curry (bleah)

How long since you last shaved: this morning

Current state of your hair: messy. My hair looks just like my avatar's at the moment.

First stop in a bookstore: kid's books. Child and I always read together in bookstores.

Free afternoon activity choice: writing! Or reading...

Something that freaks you out : waiting endlessly

Something that makes you sigh: Child, and how short her childhood is

You have never: gone sky-diving

Would you: hmm...don't think so. Every once in a while I think so, then reality kicks in.

You never want to try: sushi (same as Melissa)

You want to but haven't: gone to Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Place you want to go for the first time: New York City

Place you want to go back to: Hawaii

Your favorite day of the week: Saturday

THE TASK:
Add a question in this sort of random way to the list here in the comments AND answer it and the rest on your blog.

Adventure! Danger! Snow.

The fun, adventurous part of living in Montana?

You'd think it would be some sort of outdoor sport, wouldn't you? Skiing, or mountain biking. Nope. It's the weather.

Last weekend, 70 degrees and balmy. This weekend, 7 inches of snow, record-low temperatures (7 degrees!), and ice. We're thrust back into ice-on-the-car, snow boots, and sliding around corners. I like snow and all, and it's very pretty out, in a Christmas card sort of way. But you know? I'm kinda ready for consistent Spring, and no more piles of white stuff.

This is just a warning to those of you who really want to tell me how beautiful it is in your part of the world right now, with all those flowers and blooming trees and grass. Yeah. Don't do that.

Now, I've been tagged by Heather. As with all tags, I reserve the right to change it completely. So here are the rules I'm following:

The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.

The nearest book, I'm happy to say, is Lee Child's KILLING FLOOR. I just started it, but I'm in love with it so far. The voice is amazing.

Page 123, fifth sentence etc.:

It was clear Charlie didn't know anything. She thought her husband had been arrested because of some kind of mistake. Not because he was grabbed up in some kind of trouble which had just got two people murdered.

Whew, not a spoiler.

Now the rest of the rules were about tagging five other people, but I don't like to do that. So if you're reading this and you have a blog, consider yourself invited to play. If you want. :)

Yay

Ahhhh, I'm happy today.

For me, because it's the weekend, my class is over, and it's sunny outside (even though we have 2-8 inches of snow predicted this weekend...). I'm listening to good music and rocking out. We're going out to Mexican food tonight, and I am darn well having a margarita.

For my friend, because she took the second step towards publication today (the first step was finishing a good book!) and I am SO DARN PROUD OF HER. Linda, a bow to you.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Concerts as inspiration

This will be brief, as I've got a pile of work still to do and a meeting in an hour. I kept waiting for "time to blog" today, but it looks like a block of time just isn't gonna happen.

But I did want to mention that we saw a kick-ASS concert last night, Empire Brass. It's a quintet with 2 trumpets, a trombone, a french horn, and a tuba. Man, they were sooooo good, perfectly crisp and clear. They played everything from classical to Gershwin and Copland, and we all loved it.

We go to a lot of shows around here. We buy season tickets for most of the series, so that's 5 symphony performances, 4 or 5 community concert series shows, 3 or 4 theater series shows, the kid's theater, and sometimes community concerts, ballet performances, or shows in neighboring towns. It's especially cool now that Child is 6, and actually pays attention and enjoys going. (Aside: the only year we did NOT bring her to shows was when she was 3--she was too wiggly. Before that she slept, and since then she sits nicely. Of course she taps her feet, conducts, or plays violin on my arm sometimes, but that's all good.)

Anyway, my point is that I love going to concerts, but I only pay attention to the music ones about half the time. The other half I spend pondering my characters in my head, or daydreaming new plot twists. There's something about sitting still, letting music pour over me, that induces book-thoughts. I get some of my best ideas in concerts.

Actually there are 3 places I get my best ideas (outside of sitting at my desk and writing):

1. The shower
2. Movie theatres, sitting there waiting for the previews (I'm often early)
3. Concerts

Apparently I need to force myself to be still to have the opportunity to ramble-think. How about you? What are your best places for inspiration, other than your writing place?

Finally a taste of spring

This weekend was absolutely glorious: sunny and almost 70 degrees both days, which is when Montana is at its most beautiful. I'm happy to say that we took full advantage of it. In no particular order, we:

• flew a kite
• played on the playground, all of us together (twice). Swings are still fun.
• went for a walk at the creek, and tried to feed the ducks. Where are all the ducks?
  
• went swimming at the hot springs, in the outside pool
• had a roaring game of soccer in our snow-free yard
• set chairs up outside and read together, in the sun (I was reading and marking GG)
• made cookies (okay, that one was indoors)

Unfortunately, I'm back at my desk in my office today, and feeling slightly down. Let-down, maybe? We're supposed to have one more day like this and then another storm/cold front moves in tomorrow.

Here's another of my favorite photos. And nope, that's definitely not Child. In fact, that's one of Child's "boyfriends". :)

Sad Songs

I love this song. It comes to me at odd moments, all on its own.

Mood: Relaxed

Yesterday turned out to be a lovely chat-with-friends day. Is Tigger chatty? I'm not sure, but it was nice, no matter how you label it.

News: My most excellent friend Vicki Pettersson has a new message board! Check it out. She plans to hang out there often and be available for questions. How rocking is that?

I'm diving into revisions for GG today. I've got it all printed out, pencil in hand. First up: plot revision, wherein I fix all the stuff that changed over the course of the book, check character consistency, check the overall pacing and story. I read it through once, make notes and some initial changes, and then chart it out. This is the analytical stage, from the bird's eye point of view. I have to keep reminding myself--and I make big written notes to remind myself, because I need that--that this is NOT the language draft, and I am not to worry about language yet.

I still tweak it a little. But honestly I try to stay out of that part on this go-round.

Is anyone else working on revisions right now? Are ya with me? (hmmm, maybe I could write a post or two about revision process as I go through it this time.)

And now another photo for you, because I like sharing photos.

Tigger

We were discussing on one of my writer's boards yesterday how all of us were in a gloomy, down-and-depressed mood, at the same time. Like this:



Yesterday, for whatever reason, was an Eeyore day. (I admit, my thankful list was an attempt to cheer myself up!)

Fortunately, Jodi had the idea of declaring today a TIGGER DAY!



Tigger's bouncy, happy, a little wacky, and full of good news.

Happy Tigger Day everyone!

Thankful Tuesday

I'm declaring today Thankful Tuesday!!

If you want to play, reply either in the comments or on your own blog with things that YOU are thankful for today. As many as you like! As you can see from my list, they don't need to be the usual things. :)

I'm thankful for:

1. My family. (Okay, that is a usual thing. But I AM!)
2. Public radio.
3. Salt & vinegar potato chips.
4. My gargoyle mascot guy, who's sitting beside me now, eyes lit.
5. John Denver, the early songs.
6. The moment when you look at a picture you took, or a sentence you wrote, and you LOVE IT.
7. Mountains.
8. New books.
9. Hugs.
10. The voices in my head. (No, not like that. CHARACTERS.)

Anyone wanna play? It does have a cheering effect. :)

pictures

What's up today?

Nothing. Nothing, nothing, and nothing. And homework and nothing.

To distract myself and hopefully entertain y'all, here are a few photos I took last fall for my photography class. These are some of my favorites. :)

Random Friday Thoughts

*****

Child was sneaking reading this morning instead of getting ready. When I checked on her, she was still in her PJs, sitting cross-legged on her rug engrossed in a Pooh book. This meant that breakfast was rushed, she missed half her show, and she didn't have time to dress all the bears for "school" like she usually does.

I was thrilled. She's a reader!! Wahoo!

*****

I haven't written for 3 days, letting Ghost Girl "sit" until I can have enough perspective on it to do revisions. I'm supposed to be relaxing, enjoying myself, filling the well. I'll admit that I don't like it a bit. Instead of feeling free to relax I feel hollow, aimless, and unproductive. Without a story in my head I am without a secret life, my own place to escape to. I am stuck in the harsh glare of reality.

I really must start something. You see it's getting bad. :)

I was going to hold off on starting Melody until I did revisions of Ghost Girl. I'm supposed to be working on my thesis. Hmmm. I'll think of something.

*****

I have at least been doing some reading. As I mentioned, I finished Repossessed. I also finished Shannon Hale's The Princess Academy, which I enjoyed very much. Next up is Blueboarder Elizabeth Bunce's A Curse Dark as Gold. We've also been watching The Tudors (season 2 just started!) and DVDs of Dead Like Me, which I always wanted to watch when it was on but never managed.

*****

I was very surprised by the results of my poll as to what y'all would like as a contest prize. I expected the free books to win hands down. Once you take out the vote I had to make to test the thing, though {cough}, 60% wanted the crit/edit. Wow! I guess maybe I will do that one of these days.

I reserve the right to give away books or signed books too, though. :)

*****

As you can see, my brain is fairly scattered today. What are y'all up to?

Reason why I love my husband #10323

Hubby calls at leaving time, when we normally would carpool home:

Him: "I'm just calling to remind you that you drove your own car today. And that you need to pick up Child at X instead of Y, because it's Thursday."

Me (doing remarkable job of pretending that I remembered both of those things on my own, when in fact I was thinking of Something Else and probably would have forgotten both): "Yes. Thank you."

This, sadly, is not at all unusual.

Sharing

Whenever I really need to relax, I pull up this picture:



Because everybody needs a little Baby Yoga. Or Baby Buddha, depending on your mood.

My mood is quite high today, though. One of the reasons is this book:




I read it in one satisfying gulp yesterday. I meant to dip in, like I usually do, but it would not have it. I could not put the thing away. It's original, funny-as-hell, and intriguing. Go read it. Enjoy.

Contest...thoughts?

I'm pondering upcoming contests. Please answer the poll as to which prizes you like better!

Choices

Things are hopping around here.

Last night Bill Clinton was in town, giving a talk at the local high school. Seriously! Not even an April Fool's joke!

I didn't go see him, though, because I had tickets to go with a friend to Little Women: The Broadway Musical. I'll take Jo over Bill, thanks. For the record (Little Women spoilers, if for some reason you've never read it or seen the movie):

--Yes, Beth's death still made me cry, even though I knew it was coming.
--I still hate and despise Amy. (What writer could EVER forgive the manuscript-burning scene?)
--Laurie was SUCH a cutie in this show (dimples!), I wanted to yell at Jo for not marrying him.
--But then Professor Baher was cute too, so it was okay.
--I am such a sucker for (a) musicals and (b) childhood books brought to life and (c) any theater, really, if the acting is good.

In other upcoming events, I'm going to hear Patricia Briggs talk tonight at our university author reception. And this weekend both Hillary AND Obama will be in town stumping. I couldn't get tickets to that--hardly anybody could--but maybe I'll get to see them!

April Fool's!

I saw this cartoon on a comic site (original here: http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/for0456l.jpg) and adapted it. Want to know what pure evil looks like? Forget about vampires or vortexes. This, my friends, would be pure evil:

DONE

HA HA!!!! Donety-donety-done-done. DONE!

Finished the first draft of Ghost Girl at just over 52,000 words.

I've got a lot of work to do on the second draft, and the ending is too rushed I know, but that's usual. The word count will grow when I revise. But it's a complete first draft, with an ENDING and everything, and Done!

And I totally made myself blubber this morning while writing it. That's always a good sign.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.

P.S. I finished it on March 31st, not April. You know what this means? Yep, I made the first draft in 6 months, exactly, again! Woot woot!

Now what shall I do to celebrate??

I love it!

Quote from my planner today:

To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work. --Mary Lauretta

Amen, sister.

Off to class today, and to bury my head in writing GG every single second I can spare.

Wow. Um...yeah, wow.

So the text twisted under me again today, and suddenly I'm smack up against the climax, a little shell-shocked and wondering how THAT happened.

Which is fine, since that's how Nat feels too. But not quite what I expected.

I changed the goal for my first-draft wordcount to 53000, but I'm not even sure I'm going to make that. This is probably a cruel universe response to my hubris, when my husband asked me this weekend how you know a book is just going to be 60k and write to that, and I said airily, "Oh, I just aim for that and make sure all the arcs fit for that length, blah blah blah."

HA.

I think if I wrote straight through I could finish this draft by the end of March. I can't, so we'll just see how early in April I'm done.

Wow.

Otherwise known as AITC*

I found myself describing the latest plot twists and turns of GG to a trusted writer friend yesterday--she's the ONLY one who hears all this stuff but me, and only when I'm soexcitedIjustcan'thelpbutshare!--and I realized I sound absolutely insane. Maybe that's because it's so late in the book, so it's complicated, or maybe it's because it's paranormal, so what's going on is just so off-the-wall. Or maybe I'm truly insane. Hey, at least it'll be a good, crazy story. Y'all can remember this post when you're reading the almost-end bits, and nod your heads in collective agreement.

But I AM excited, because I love the difficulties poor Nat is in. Mind, I have no idea how she or anyone else is going to get out of them yet, but I have that sense of excitement that comes from *knowing* she will, that it will all come together and work out. Probably not how anyone expects, but somehow.

And to think the day I came up with this bit, Tuesday, I did not want to write. All you writers know what I mean--I was dragging. I kept doing everything else but putting down new words. I'd stare at the page with dislike, then go off and look at Facebook for a while. Then I'd come back and write 100 words, scowl, and go get myself another cup of coffee. 50 words. Solitaire. 100 words. I announced to Trusted Friend that 450 words was all I was bloody going to get today, so let's chat instead. Trusted Friend, bless 'er, said go away and write another 100. I sulked, but I did...and THEN I got the idea. And wrote another 300. If lunch wasn't up, I could've easily done more, and wanted to. I knew where I was going.

The point? Two, actually.

1) The words, the solutions, and the revelations don't come if you don't make yourself sit down and squeeze out words, even past the draggy parts. Even when you don't want to. You have to go through the slog to get to the fun stuff.

2) Get yourself some kick-ass Trusted Friends.

*Ass In The Chair

Dreaming of books...

This is a tumultuous couple of weeks for me. I don't know if that means that I'll be here less or more as I try to distract myself from various things--I guess we shall see!

Today I'm thinking of all the books I get to read soon (the ones I already bought) and all the books that are coming out soon that I'm looking forward to! Let's see, we have:

--Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr, coming out April 29th. It's Melissa's second book, and I loved Wicked Lovely so much it turned me into a fan girl. I can't wait! Plus she's such a nice person!
--One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost, also April 29th (hmm--I see my book budget spiking). Yummy, more Bones!
--The Touch of Twilight by Vicki Pettersson, the 3rd in the zodiac series, coming out May 27. Check out that gorgeous cover, and see if you don't squee. (Okay, if you're the squeeing type. Clearly I am.)
--My Lord and Spymaster by Joanna Bourne, coming out July 1. The sequel to The Spymaster's Lady! Woo-hoo!

I know there are more. What am I forgetting?

Facebook

Thinking ahead (with optimism blazing), I created a new Facebook profile for just my author life. If I haven't already tagged you and you have a Facebook profile, friend me here:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1150315609

MySpace coming eventually. Right after the website. :)

The Bunny Saves the Day

I almost didn't buy Child an Easter basket.

Mostly it's just that I kind of forgot. I do that with holidays, sometimes--I'm so busy with everything else that they sneak up on me, and I think "Oh, is it Easter tomorrow? What should we do about that?" on Saturday night. Besides, though we always color eggs and do the Easter egg hunt, we've never made a big deal about the Easter Bunny. Unlike Santa, I have a little trouble trying to pretend that the people in the obvious bunny suits at the mall are real manifestations of an actual creature. I really didn't think she believed in him at all. However, on Saturday night after Child was in bed I was feeling a bit bad, wishing I'd put together a surprise for her. So Wise Hubby said, "go to the store and DO it already."

I did. I trekked to WalMart. I bought a pink-and-purple velvet basket labeled "Princess" in big loopy letters. I stuffed it with pink plastic grass, a new Barbie video, a "surprise inside" Backyardigans egg, stickers of butterflies and flowers, a deliciously soft brown velveteen bunny, and a chocolate Peter Rabbit bunny. I set it out on the rug, where she'd see it in the morning. I had no idea what she'd think, but I figured she'd like it.

I was surprised in the morning that she didn't come in and wake us up, like usual. So around 8 o'clock I headed to her room, figuring I'd tell her there was something out there for her.

She greeted me with a big smile. "Mommy," she said, in all six-year-old seriousness, "Come with me. I have to show you something." She took my hand and led me back out to the basket. "Look!" Her voice shook now, a little, with excitement, as she pointed. "There's a basket, with a chocolate bunny in it! Do you know what this means?"

I shook my head, wondering what it DID mean to her.

"The Easter Bunny must have come! He left me a basket! The chocolate bunny is proof. The Easter Bunny always leaves chocolate bunnies."

I beamed. Good choice, Mom, I thought to myself. Followed shortly by You just passed that test by the skin of your teeth.

A little while later, after opening everything on our bed so Daddy could see, she looked at me thoughtfully. "The Easter Bunny must have peeked in my room," she said. "How else would he have known that I am a Princess?"

Hope you all had as happy of an Easter as I did. It'd be hard to top that, though.

The quote from my planner today: "I dream, therefore I become." -- Cheryl Renee Grossman

Contentment

It's awfully quiet out there today...both at the office (I think there are 3 of us here) and in blogland. It's Friday, it's the first day of Spring (pauses to look out window at blowing snow), and it's Good Friday.

As a consequence of all this annoying quiet, I'm being very productive. Work is flowing under my fingertips, and I made it over my weekly writing goal, and am sitting at 75%! (and psst! I think it's going to come in at a first draft final count of 55000 instead of 60, so that's 81%! I know, I am SUCH a statistics nerd for an English major.) I am definitely planning to finish this puppy next month.

Pandora's cranked up to the "My alternative" station, I've got a mocha in hand, and I've got fun work to do for the afternoon. Happy moments. Gotta appreciate them when they flash by!

Happy Easter to those who celebrate! We've got a date with a carton of eggs and a PAAS kit...

YouTube - Music and Life - Alan Watts

YouTube - Music and Life - Alan Watts

More inspiration! I guess I'm just a sponge today. :)

Link Frenzy!

I'm finding so much stuff out there that's inspirational, interesting, and/or enlightening today that I'm going to share!

• First, if you haven't seen or read Barack Obama's "race speech", you can here. WOW. I fully supported him before, but now...maybe I'll join his campaign. :)
• Check out a touching, inspirational story from my wonderful friend A Novel Woman
• Janet Reid is talking about Nicholas Pekearo's book, released posthumously in May. I already pre-ordered my copy.
• Melissa Marr has a great post about why she writes
• Colleen Lindsay talks about the YA plots she sees too much of. Okay, that one could be depressing if you're working on one of those plots. But since I'm not... :)

Enjoy! I'm keeping my head down, as I seem to be on the downward race to the end with GG. At least I hope so!

111 Shirtless Men

I was feeling a little down this morning--hopefully not coming down with the scourge that hubby's had for 3 days now--so I found this to cheer myself up. Consider me cheered. :)

Hob-nobbing

Squee!

I just had lunch with #1 NY Times Bestselling Author Patricia Briggs, who happens to live in my town. Da-yam, she is fun. She's very kindly agreed to speak at my university's annual Author's Reception, so I had the treat of a pre-lunch with Patricia and the library director. Most of the lunch was spent chatting nonstop about writing, books, and movies.

And she loves two of my girl's books, Vicki and Jo Bourne, so how could I not like her?

Ahhhh. {happy author state}

Dreaming of electric sleep

I'm so tired my head feels spinny. Do you ever get like that?

See, the problem is that Child has had insomnia, for the past few nights. She goes to sleep fine, then wakes up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep...so she comes in our room to tell us she can't sleep. We tell her what to try, she does...then she comes back in half an hour later to tell us it didn't work. For hours.

It's got to the point now where she's so worried about not being able to go back to sleep that she can't go back to sleep! I relate, since I go through periods of this myself every once in a while. But at 6, it's freaking her out. And we're ALL starting to get seriously sleep-deprived.

I've given her the following "tools" to try:

-go back to bed, relax, close your eyes.
-turn on your music again, close your eyes and listen
-make up a story in your head (this is what I do after all!)
-if all else fails, turn on the light and read.

She swears every night that she's going to do these things and handle it herself, and then she starts the routine of coming in. Again.

{YAWN}

Anyone have any other ideas?

Removing the negativity

A couple of not-original, but very true thoughts:

--Mean people suck.

--Negativity drags everyone down.

Because of the surfeit of negativity and people dealing meanly with each other, I've had to leave one of my previously favorite online communities. This makes me sad, but it's been getting more and more negative there for a couple of years, so I guess it's not going to change real soon. I just don't need that kind of thing pulling me down.

I shall strive to keep those places I have a responsibility for positive and supportive. Sarcastic and silly, you bet! Mean, no.

Top o' the week to ya

There! I added a drop of "the green" to the blog because I am so...um, not Irish.

Oh well. Green is also a color of Spring, and here in Montana it's--

Gah. White and muddy.

Okay, I added it because I like green.

My books are scheduled to come today, but right now it doesn't matter, because I was able to pick up my friend Linda's mss again. Woo-hoo! Vikings and man-thongs. You're so gonna want this book.

Yay yay, and a ghost

Hooray!!

I met my word count goal for the week (+3200 words), turned in my crazy-making midterm project, and now it's Spring Break!

I celebrated with an Amaretto latte. And now, as promised, a ghost story.

The poll showed a pretty even split, didn't it? 5 people had encountered a ghost, 6 hadn't, and 6 weren't sure. And I LOVED hearing your own ghost stories!! Thank you! I think a lot of people would like to run across a ghost, as long as it wasn't threatening...hence the fascination with ghost stories. I've always loved them. But then, ghosts were a part of my life before I was even born.

My paternal aunt, Susan, died of ovarian cancer in the 50s, when she was 19, before her life had even properly begun. Before she died, she promised my father--then a teenager--that she would contact him from the other side, if she could. She never did, as far as he knows.

But she did contact my mother.

When my mother was pregnant with me, she had a vivid dream. My aunt came to visit her in the dream, and gave her a clear message: "name her Susan, after me."

Of course they did. I even looked like my aunt when I was little. And she's shown up in my life several times since then, in other ways. But more on THAT another time...

Random note, to people who are in Intercultural Communication and/or film classes:

Look, I know you're studying the film CRASH for class. It's clear from your IPs. Yes, you at Northeastern and Connecticut State and NYU. I know you've probably been assigned a paper or something. But just because I wrote one post on CRASH when I was studying it in 2006? Does not make me an authority. Seriously. Just be careful using random blog posts as research, k?

(Note triggered by the fact that more than 30% of my hits in the last two weeks are results from searching for "movie crash analysis" or somesuch combination. Oddly, if you search on Google, that post is the 3rd result. Search engines are weird.)

More later. In the meantime, does anybody else listen to Matt Nathanson? Poppy, I know, but I love some of his songs. Downloaded one of his older ones, Beneath These Fireworks, from ITunes yesterday...

Watch this!

Thanks for answering the poll, and sharing your stories!! I'll discuss the results and share one of my own when I'm less hammered. :)

In the meantime, watch this. I stole it from La Gringa, and like her, I challenge you not to smile if you watch it all the way through!

Spookiness?

I added a Ghost Girl-related poll, above. Please answer, and give me your story in the comments section here!!

Maybe not today--because I'm absolutely crushed for time--but in the next couple of weeks, I'll share some ghost stories of my own. I have some good ones. :)

Busy little beav...uh, bees.

Thanks SO much for a wonderful discussion on Friday. I meant to come back and comment individually on your responses, but instead I just went with the flow and lived my busy weekend Life. {s} This weekend that included: stuffing plastic eggs at Child's school for next week's Egg Hunt (I must've done at least 300), attending the local kid's theater production of The Sound of Music (they did great!), escorting Child to a bowling birthday party, yelling my lungs out at a local pro basketball game, stripping our bathroom and cleaning the walls (!) in prep for painting, and mounds of laundry.

I love weekends, but sometimes weekdays are more relaxing! Though today, being Monday, maybe not....

Must go continue on the layout and editing of a report on water supplies, and finish that chapter on organizational ethics. Oh, and more coffee.

Onward!

Edited to add: I meant to say that I haven't come to a "final" decision either on whether or not posting negative reviews is a good idea. For me personally, I still think positivity might be best. But y'all had some excellent points...

Discussion Friday

Yesterday I followed Vicki's dubious lead and lost a writing session's worth of work when a catastrophic failure fried my thumb drive before I'd saved it off elsewhere. Darn PCs. Grrr. Fortunately it was a short session yesterday, and I think I can recreate it fairly well. I also lost an hour's worth of work on a Photoshop file for class, though. {sigh}

I burned off the last of that frustration last night finishing BREATHE MY NAME by R.A. Nelson. I highly recommend it. The writing is tense and vivid, with a strong, unique voice. There were times I had to put it down because the subject matter was so difficult, but I always went back to it, and I'm glad I did. Check it out.

My "review" brings us to our topic for Discussion Friday.

I liked the book very much, and so I recommended it here. But what if I hadn't liked it?

--Many, many (many) authors post reviews of books on their blogs, good and bad reviews. Writers are often readers, and one hopes they have a critical eye. So these reviews could be valuable to other readers. But...

--I've gotten some advice that says as an aspiring writer, I should never post bad reviews on my blog, and "trash" other writers. This writing/publishing business is a very small, closely knit community, and negative words get around. By saying critical or harsh things about another writer's work, you could (a) hurt or upset the writer herself (I know for a fact writers do google themselves and their books) or (b) even damage your own career and potential networks.

I dunno. I'm fairly cautious about what I say online, so I lean toward the second view. My mother's words still echo in my brain ("If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all"). But I can see how peer reviews are important as well.

What do you think?

Yay, books!

Oooh!!! YAY!

I found another way to while away winter. I went shopping with my Amazon gift card from my birthday. I bought:

Repossessed [Hardcover]
By: A. M. Jenkins (Author), Amanda Jenkins (Author)

A Field of Darkness [Paperback]
By: Cornelia Read (Author)

Princess Academy [Paperback]
By: Shannon Hale (Author)

A Curse Dark as Gold [Hardcover]
By: Elizabeth C. Bunce (Author)

Killing Floor [Mass Market Paperback]
By: Lee Child (Author)

No, I have never read a Jack Reacher novel before. I hear I'm in for a good ride. As to the others, Elizabeth Bunce is a fellow BlueBoarder, and this book sounds amazing. Princess Academy, though a middle-grade book, has passed the bookstore test: twice I've picked it up and been entirely sucked in. Must keep reading. The other two are recommendations by a certain agent I know. Yes, I'm eclectic, and I love it!

Brr

Okay, it's 16 degrees right now, and I'm tired of cold. Who's with me?

Child, sniffling from Yet Another Cold, came up to me yesterday with her serious face on. "You know what, Mommy?"

"What?"

"I've been thinking. I don't think this is a cold. I think I'm allergic to winter."

Amen, Child, amen.

On the bright side, I have coffee, chocolate, and macadamia nut supplies near to hand. I can outlast it, and dream about June...

Goals

Thanks for the lively discussion on Friday, guys!

I was away for the weekend, enjoying a much-needed break. Am back, but I'm going to try to lay low for a while, internet-wise, and focus on Other Stuff.

However, I do want to publicly post a couple of goals:

• Write 11,000 new words on Ghost Girl in March. This will allow me to (hopefully)
• Finish the first draft of GG by the end of April.

Then I can let Melody come play in my head for a while. She's still persistent. :)

Hope everyone is well. Have an excellent week!