I’m blogging over at the Chicas today about Writing Mistakes (specifically, MY writing mistakes! LOL) Come on over.

Old Man Winter has finally arrived here in North Texas and oh my stars is it cold!

Yesterday afternoon, I left work and picked up the baby from the sitter at 5:15. It was still 78 degrees. by the time I got home – 10 minutes later – it was 40 degrees. NO LIE! The bitter cold front brought with it rain. Cold rain. It started to storm shortly after 7 and rained well into the night. By midnight, when I was talking to The Man as he left his restaurant, it was POURING down rain. And thundering and lightning. Which also meant I got a visitor in my bed.

Sweetie Boy climbed into bed with me and curled up against me. The Man said he fully expected his kids to do the same thing when he got home.

So today – it’s about 34 degrees F and dropping. The roads are wet but not iced over yet. By noon, the high is supposed to be about 29 and then by 5 pm it’ll be about 24. With freezing rain, sleet and snow possible. The “Arctic Blast” has been all over the news and is the top story.

Those of you who live up north are probably laughing that this is even newsworthy. But this is Texas, you know, and when things like this happen in Texas, it’s news. It’s also cause for concern. Businesses and schools close for the day – which hasn’t happened yet. No one knows how to drive on this stuff here today and so it causes major accidents and bad traffic.

Tomorrow morning is supposed to be bitter cold again, so we’ll see how the roads are then.

Anyhoo… I’m actually looking forward to having the baby with me, snuggling up together and staying warm this afternoon. I’m even going to make a pot of coffee. Just wish I had all the stuff to make potato soup!

Okay gotta get to work… Stay warm!

Yesterday turned into quite the busy day. The Man called me on his way to work – he just got promoted and is now an operating partner and far, far away from me. It’s terribly sad. At least, though, we talk every day at least once. Sometimes twice.

Hard to believe we’re nearing the end of the month, too. Where does the time go?

Even though I haven’t had the chance to write lately, I’ve been thinking about the stories nonstop. Those characters are always there and always in the forethought of my mind. I’m itching to get back to them but finding the time lately has been difficult lately.

I’m pretty happy I have the baby this week through Sunday while his dad is out of town. We had a nice calm evening. I had to run to the store to pick up the usual stuff – milk, bread – and in the 5 minutes we were in the car, he fell asleep. Poor thing. He couldn’t decide on what he wanted for dinner, so we ended up at McDonald’s. And then we did our usual thing – watching Justice League. Sweetie Boy was disgusted that it was another “to be continued” episode. I told him we’d have to watch it again Wednesday.

And speaking of Wednesday – the SciFi Channel is running all the episodes of Heroes tonight so I’m DVR-ing them all so I can catch up. I’ve had several folks tell me I need to see it – so I’m looking forward to spending some of the weekend watching the show.

Not much else to report. Dealing with a new situation and trying to remain calm and not lose a lot of sleep over it. I keep telling myself I have to be strong – but sometimes that strength just runs out.

Anyway – it’s Wednesday! We’re halfway to the end of the week. And now it’s time to get the baby boy to school.

I don’t have much to blog about today. Well… I DO but it’s a personal situation I can’t discuss here until it’s resolved.

So I thought I’d put up an excerpt from the latest release A Bend In Time for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

~*~*~

(more…)

Hey I’m blogging today over at ShoeIQ. Come on by! 

Wow. And it was a nice long weekend, too, wasn’t it?

Thanksgiving was good. I ate way too much, drank several glasses of wine, had too many desserts, and watched Grey’s Anatomy (great episode, by the way!).

I got home late. I think it was after 10ish. The next morning, I got up early. Not as early as some, I’m sure, and I was so not interested in going to the mall or shopping. My Christmas shopping is DONE, thankyouverymuch. Now all I have to do is decorate and wrap.

Anyway… got up early Friday and started prepping the room. Moved out the furniture, took down the curtains. As I was looking at the cheap-ass mini-blinds in the window, I noticed the previous owners had rigged one side with duct tape and two screws – no lie. I couldn’t believe it! The other side was so brittle it broke all to pieces when I took it down. It’s a wonder it was still in the window at all. So I ended up having to buy new blinds – an unexpected but necessary expense for sure.

Off to Lowe’s I went in search of new blinds. I could have gone with the same cheap-ass plastic ones for $20 or gone a little higher and bought the metal ones. But I knew I wouldn’t be happy with that. So I bit the bullet and bought the faux wood ones for $70. They are super nice. I looked at the real wood – but they were $50 more, so I just went with faux wood.

Back home, I started back with the bedroom again. I painted the first wall my color of choice – the copper color. It took nearly the entire gallon to paint that one wall since I had to do two coats. And once I got that one wall done I decided painting it on all four walls would be too dark and would make me feel closed in.

So back to Lowe’s I go. I got the Tomato Bisque for the other three walls. Both are in a flat. It went on very smooth and easy and it looks soooo good! I love the colors! Of course, the paint fumes gave me a headache (or was that because I failed to eat anything until about 2:30?).

The rolling on paint is the easy part. The pain in the ass part is the edging. I finally finished all the painting at 7:30 that night and then had to put the room back together so I could go to sleep. But I managed. I was nearly cripple by the time I finishd.

I grabbed the phone and called my mom and we chatted. I told her about the painting and she said it sounded great. Then I told her about the blinds and since they were so heavy I didn’t think I would be able to get them up by myself.

So on Saturday I kidnapped Mom for the day and she came to help me hang the blinds (the window, you see is 58″ wide so I don’t think I could have lifted them up and got each end into the bracket without quite a bit of cussing and tearing stuff up - it was better to have Mom there…). I was even going to put up the mirror over the dresser but when I saw the brackets for it and how it had to be hung, I was so disgusted I said never mind. Mom is, however, going to fix them for me so I can hang them (they were in four pieces and it would look really cool but I just didn’t have the patience for getting them up there plus I didn’t want to put 6-8 holes in the wall hanging them…anyway…)…

That night, after getting everything done and yet another trip to Lowe’s – I needed pipe insulation, duct tape (NOT for the blinds) and some other miscellaneous stuff – I took Mom to The Man’s restaurant. He was so sweet and reserved us a table and bought us dinner.

And it was yummy dinner too. We have the BEST dessert ever – banana springrolls with this vanilla bean ice cream drizzled with caramel sauce. Oh my stars, it was grand. He sat with us for a bit and chatted. Even though he was working, it was a nice visit.

After dinner we came back to the house, watched a movie and then we both crashed. I took her home Sunday morning (Mom doesn’t drive on freeways) and then came home, did some touch-ups in the bedroom, wrapped my pipes (we’re supposed to have a lovely cold front this week), did the laundry, and just basically hung around.

It was a good weekend, but I certainly was sore after all that painting. Every muscle in my body ached. Oh, and I supposed you’ll be wanting to see some pictures eh?

Here they are. And I even did before/after pictures. The before, of course, being on the left. And that’s it for me. Hope you had a great holiday!

I haven’t felt much like blogging these last few days. Been busy around the house. I’ll do a total recap of the weekend in tomorrow’s entry (I KNOW you can’t wait for that right? haha)

Every muscle in my body aches from working on the house. I’m going to take it easy today and do a whole lot of nothing.

Have a great Sunday ya’ll.

Here in the states, it’s a national holiday – Thanksgiving! Today is the day we get to stuff ourselves silly with all kinds of good food we don’t normally get throughout the year. I made my special cappuccino cheesecake and I can’t wait to see what other desserts I can dive into.

I’m off to Brother’s house today for lots of food, wine, fun, and – of course – Grey’s Anatomy!

And it just so happens that it’s a BEAUTIFUL day here. Gorgeous, sunny, warm! What happened to Fall? I guess it’s gone for now. So much for cold weather. Ah well. I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.

By the way, I’m blogging over at the Chicas blog today too. Come on over and tell me what you’re thankful for.

Have a great Thanksgiving all!

Last night, Sweetie Boy helped me make my cappuccino cheesecake. It’s one of my specialties. I got all the ingredients together while he stood there and helped me count the measurements. To make the cappuccino flavor for the cheesecake, it’s a combination of instant coffee and Kahlua – 2 tablespoons of instant coffee and 3 tablespoons of Kahlua. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t had any of the Kahlua to drink (Kahlua and milk – yum). Anyway…

The only thing I did different this time was I used my large mixing bowl (with the rubber bottom to keep from slipping) and my very cool new Sunbeam hand mixer. This is the best hand mixer I’ve EVER had. It’s awesome.

But first things first. To make the crust, I used graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar. The baby was very interested in how the crust was made. He even helped me press the crumbs up the sides and in the bottom of the springform pan. He was so darn cute – seeing those little hands press those crumbs together. Then I popped it in the oven for about 8 minutes to brown it.

I got the ingredients together for the cheesecake (including 4 bars of cream cheese) and he helped me crack the eggs. He helped me pour in the instant coffee/Kahlua mix. I poured it into the crust and baked it for 55 minutes.

In the past, I’ve had difficulty with the cheesecakes cracking. But this one… this one came out perfect and beautiful. No cracks! So I don’t know if the difference was I didn’t use my expensive KitchenAide mixer, or if it was the oven, or what. But this one was just perfect. I’m so pleased with it!

While the cheesecake was in the oven, we watched Justice League and I’m still convinced that Batman and Wonder Woman have a thing. Who could resist Batman, though? A big strong man with a cape… nice.

Anyway – totally looking forward to sleeping in a little tomorrow before heading to Brother’s. And REALLY looking forward to Grey’s Anatomy! And oh yeah, Thanksgiving dinner.

Hey I’m blogging over at ShoeIQ so please check it out if you have a chance.

I’m still plugging away on the new Magic book. Late last night I managed to finish the draft of chapter two and start on three. I’m not entirely sure where this story is going other than the big picture, but I’m just pantsing it right now. Which seems to work for me.

I was talking to a writing friend last night and told her I really do need to learn to plot. The thing is – it just doesn’t work for me. I’ve tried and tired and every time I plot I end up getting stuck. And I don’t exactly know why that is. I suppose because I tend to box myself in and then I can’t go any further. It’s a mind thing. But when I just write “by the seat of my pants” – I tend to do much better. When I lamented to my friend I didn’t know where the story was, she simply said, “You’ll figure it out. You always do.”

So I’ll just keep writing. And I think I’ll set a word count goal. That will give me something to shoot for.

I still can’t believe it’s two days until Thanksgiving. The holidays are upon us!

Tonight I have to get to Office Depot and get ink for my color printer. I’m in dire need. I’ll have the Sweetie Boy with me tonight so I guess we’ll run that errand and I’ll get my free paper by turning in my ink cartridges.

Not much else to blog about other than I stayed up too late writing and then talking to the boyfriend. He closed last night so it was super late by the time he was on his way home. I seriously did not want to climb out of my nice warm bed this morning.

I need :coffee:

We had another successful trip to Ikea. I know – I need to stop. But that was the last one for a while. I got the matching nightstand for my furniture. I *had* to have it. And some other miscellaneous things – a clock for the office; metal dancer statutes for the self around the top of the office; an end table; a mirror for over the dresser in the bedroom (I know it’s bad chi to have one in the bedroom but I can’t not have one – it’s driving me crazy); and a really cool lamp.

It’s one of those very contemporary floor lamps with the paper shade. I’d post a picture but the Ikea website is not working. Anyway, I had intended to put it in the living room, but when Sweetie Boy saw it, he looked up at me with a big hopeful grin on his face and asked if it was for his room. I couldn’t say no. He picked blue bulbs. Guess I’ll have to get one for the living room later.

We had a good weekend. Friday we washed the car and went to Lowe’s to pick out paint colors. He picked dark blue for his room. I picked the copper for mine. I’m going to paint the ceiling too – it’s called New Peach – and a very pretty subdued color.

Saturday we ran errands and went to the movies to see Flushed Away. I loved that movie! It was very cute and I actually laughed out loud in several places. Sweetie Boy seemed to really like it too, though he complained about the kid that talked through the entire thing who was sitting two seats down (he this kid did too…it was annoying as hell). You know, you pay $12 for a movie, you’d like to at least be able to HEAR it and not some tiny voice of a child that doesn’t belong to you.

Anyway… We cooked dinner together on Saturday and then we watched new Justice League on Boomerang (I’m totally convinced Batman and Wonder Woman have a thing going). Sunday we slept in a little and then it was off to Ikea. That kid loves that store. We had a good time shopping together but it was a three hour ordeal. There’s only one Ikea in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and it happens to be 45 minutes from my house. And that’s on a good day when there’s not a lot of traffic and the freeway isn’t under construction. By the time we got home, we were starving for lunch, he did his homework, and then we put his lamp together. Then he decided he was tired and went and laid down and took a nap. I was shocked! I finally woke him up, we had a snack, we watched cartoons, and then it was time to go home.

I got his school pictures and they are so great. I’m so happy with them. He’s actually smiling and the background matches his pretty blue shirt and eyes. The photography company even airbrushed out the bifocal line on his glasses.

After dropping the baby at his dad’s, I went to Lowe’s and bought all my paint supplies. I’m going to paint after Thanksgiving and get my bedroom in shape. I just wish I had the money to replace the ceiling fan and light. I hate that one – you can just tell it’s a cheapie one they stuck up there because it was a rent house. Oh well. All in time. I’m just looking forward to having the bedroom painting that lovely copper color.

And now it’s Monday again. And I have a cheesecake to bake this week. Going to Brother’s for Turkey Day.

Still thinking about the Magic book that was rejected. I think I might have an idea for a new, revised, better beginning. I don’t know yet. Still thinking.

Gotta get to work. Happy Monday.

Well I’ve done it. I’ve finally succumbed to MySpace, mostly against my will. I have to thank my good friend/writing pal, Leigh, for her help. Now I’m Internet savvy and computer savvy. I know my way around HTML and some PHP. But I could NOT for the life of me figure out MySpace. Mostly because I didn’t have the hours upon hours to devote to trying to figure it out. Anyway, thanks to Leigh for helping me out there. It saved me a lot of aggravation and headache. So my page is up and running and you can see it here. And if you have a MySpace, add me to your friends list. Please?

We slept in this morning… well, as “in” as that is. The sun beaming through my bedroom window :censored: woke me up early. As in 7 am early. I put my sleep mask on and went back to sleep for another hour and a half. The baby boy didn’t get up until 9.

The Man called me at 9:15 this morning – unusually early for him – and we ended up chatting for nearly 45 minutes.

I had to go grocery shopping and it wasn’t too crowded. But the folks that were in there were rude and obnoxious. I was so glad to get out of there.

I promised the boy we’d go to the movies this afternoon and he’s been asking me what time it is every 10 minutes.

:wall:

I assured him we won’t miss it. We’re going to see Flushed Away. The review sounds really good so I’m looking forward to it.

And I’m close to picking colors for the bedroom. Which one do you think?

(more…)

Not much to blog about today except for the fact that I’m glad it’s Friday. This week has been a total pain in my ass. And for no real reason. It’s just been one of those weeks I guess.

I got home a little late last night and as I was out picking up the trash can and the mail, I met my neighbors. Really sweet little old ladies. They said if I ever needed anything, to please not hesitate to come over. I thought that was so nice. So I feel much better now that I know my neighbors. I think I’ll bake a little something and take it to them when it gets closer to Christmas.

It was a hard decision for me, but I decided this year I just can’t do anything for co-workers. Every year I try to get little somethings for the ladies I work with but this year since money is tight, I’ve decided to forego that. I think I’ll bake a cheesecake instead. They’ll like that even more than if I got them something. I got a house for Christmas, so I can’t complain too much about not getting any gifts.

Anyway, my Christmas shopping is practically done. I have one or two more items to buy for the Sweetie Boy and that’s it. I want him to have a good Christmas with me. And I’m trying hard to resist the urge to buy decorations for the house. Oh I want to so bad!

Woke up this morning at 4:30 with horrible stomach cramps. And then of course by the time I went back to sleep it was time for the alarm to go off. I have a ton of errands to get done today. Bank, post office, mall to pick up something for someone special. I’d like to get it done today so I don’t have to draft the baby along with me tomorrow because I have other plans for the weekend – movies, Lowe’s, Ikea.

Full weekend! And I’m really REALLY looking forward to having those four days off next week.

Hey hop on over to the Southern Fried Chicas blog and read my rejection mini-rant today.

Yes, I got rejected and that’s about all I’m going to say about that.

I’m foul today. All I wanted to do last night was lay my ass on the couch and watch Day Break (I wish to kiss whoever invented the DVR, btw). My child, however, had other ideas.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my son to pieces. But he was absolutely making me insane last night. He was whiny and cranky and we had to go to the damn store before I could even get dinner on the table so it was 7 before we got home to eat. And I was a tired mom last night so I gave him frozen pizza. And of course he whined about wanting to watch cartoons, but they were banned in the house last night because I wanted to see Dancing With The Stars and Day Break. So he pitched a fit and I banished him from the living room. And then he whined about playing on the computer so in order to give myself some peace, I let him play his Thomas Train game for 30 minutes. By then it was 8 and time for his bath, so I paused my DVR to get that done. I got him all ready for bed and tucked in by 8:30 and I was all happy to snuggled down on the couch with the cat and the remote to watch Taye Diggs (seriously, is he hot or what?) and Day Break.

But did I get to do that? NO. You know why? Because my son decided he needed a drink of water every 5 minutes. And then it was a game to get up and try to scare Mom. And then by the time I got him quiet and actually watched the entire show, I shut everything down just after 10, looking forward to getting into bed because I’m absolutely exhausted, when he decides he’s hungry!

AHHH!!

I give him some cheese, tell him to eat it and then get in bed. And he does. And finally there is peace and he’s in bed and asleep. And just as I’m about to doze off… my cell phone beeps and it’s The Man with the message to call him. So, naturally, I do. And end up chatting with him until well after 11.

So today I’m tired and cranky and just plain foul. And the new shoes I bought yesterday (Yes, I bought shoes yesterday) slip off my heel and it’s pissing me off. And it’s not that they’re too small either. They’re not. A half size smaller would be way too small. But I don’t like they slip off the heel and it’s really on the left one that does it.

*sigh* Well. At least the shoes are fabulous looking and I can sit at my desk all day. Right?

I think I’m going to eat my entire bag of Dove chocolate when I get home. Then I should feel all better.

…when you go to the doctor, you feel uncomfortable talking about your sex life, yet you can’t wait to tell your girlfriends about your latest rendezvous with your man?

…you get naked and have to put on this paper drape thing, get felt up, and then don’t even get so much as dinner or a kiss goodnight? And the kicker is, you actually PAY to do this…

…you find yourself breaking into a sweat at the mere THOUGHT of getting naked and putting on the paper drape thing and as you’re looking at it, you wonder if you have it on backwards?

I hate going to the doctor, but there was this one great thing about it yesterday. I arrived 20 minutes early for my appointment. Figuring I’d wait for a while in the waiting room, I took my friend’s ms. with me to read. I sat down, pulled out my green pen and the nurse called my name. I was in and out before my actual appointment time! It was so freaky. That has NEVER happened to me before. I got home before 5 and had dinner and dishes done by 6.

The Sweetie Boy, though, was a bit of a bear last night. I could tell he was tired and hungry by the way he was acting. He was a little better after dinner. I let him help me bake a cheesecake for the office Thanksgiving party on Thursday. I got everything in the bowl and was about to start mixing when my hand mixer crapped out. I had to make a run for a new one. And OH did I get the COOLEST one ever! It’s a Sunbeam but it’s stainless and it totally rocks. It came with it’s own stand and everything.

Got baby in the tub and then in bed and he was out seconds later. Which left me with the rest of the evening, a glass of wine, and … my MAGIC book.

I’ve totally reworked the beginning. My crit partners told me they thought I started in the wrong place and it would be better starting with the tavern scene, so that’s what I did. And it’s much better. Then onward to the fight scene. I lamented to Best Good Friend that I suck at writing fight scenes and she assured me I didn’t. She did say that I tend to write “poetic” and “romantic” and that just doesn’t work when the hero is killing the bad guys.

:hehe:

I did manage to get the fight scene and escape scene done. And now I’m moving on. I’m really falling in love with this story and the characters really seem to fit each other.

I took a look at my bills last night and it was completely depressing. I got a royalty check and I’m disappointed to have to spend it on bills, but nonetheless I think that’s the right thing to do. And I was going to buy myself a sweater on sale at Victor’s Secret. Oh well. I really need to work on paying off bills anyway. My spending has been quite out of control these last few months and now it’s time to buckle down and get serious about paying them off.

The house isn’t going anywhere and I have all the time in the world to fix it up. But I’m such a hurry-up-and-do-it kind of girl. I want everything done yesterday. So I tend to overspend and over-extend myself to get stuff done. I want a new light fixture for the dining room, new wall scones for the entry and hallway, a ceiling fan in the office, new ones for the baby’s room, my room, and the living room. There are outlets that don’t work that need to be fixed, and the exposed pipe in the back of the house that needs to be fixed and wrapped… the list is ENDLESS. But that’s part of buying a house. And I need to pace myself and not go overboard with spending and getting stuff done RIGHT NOW. I mean, it doesn’t have to be RIGHT NOW, does it? After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Right?

Anyway, perhaps I need to make a list of all the things I want/need to do and then prioritize. I also need to put myself on a budget and STICK TO IT. Hopefully some of these start-up costs (phone and DSL, for instance – sheesh – they are KILLING me) will go down next month. And I refuse to run the heat until absolutely necessary.

All right enough rambling. It’s time for :coffee:

Do you ever have a moment of brilliance when you’re writing? I actually did for the first time in a while last night while working on the new fantasy story. I’m enjoying writing Kincaid’s POV lately (seems all I can write on this story…he’s taken over!). However, my heroine seems to have a mind of her own lately too. I thought I’d share a little snippet that made me chuckle.

“Keep your voice down, please,” he said. “I don’t wish to have unnecessary attention attracted to us.”

He glanced around at the faces of the crowd, trying to make out the ones he knew were following her. He hadn’t caught sight of them since entering Rangshar. He was relieved he had gotten to her first.

She jerked her arm free of his iron-like grasp. “Keep your hands off of me,” she snapped. “And I’ll say what I like and however loud I wish.”

“Lirron, please, I beg you.” He saw the three men then in the black-hooded robes weave their way through the crowd and head their direction. They must have been lurking near the tavern and saw her bolt. It would only be a matter of time before they caught up to them. He needed to get her out of there now. “Come with me now. Your life is in danger.”

“Your life will be in danger if you don’t stop following me. Be gone!”

“Lirron, get behind me.” He drew his sword and faced the three men walking across town square.

“I will not,” she said and folded her arms across her chest.

Bloody wench, he thought and wished she would do as he asked. Lirron, though, was stubborn and reminded him much of Eirhan. “Lirron, now.”

“No, Kincaid, I will not allow you to—”

Her words were suddenly cut off by a strangled gasp. Kincaid spun to see a robbed man grab her from behind, a knife at her throat and dragging her away. The other three crossing town square had been a distraction and were now charging him.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered under his breath.

Things were about to get a little more interesting.

Super happy with this part and Lirron’s snappy dialogue. She’s proving to be quite the brat which tests Kincaid’s patience and resolve. I haven’t exactly figured out where I’m going yet on this story, but I’m going to try to start writing a little bit every night before bed.

When I wrote the serials for KeepItComing, I would start writing at 9 and write for about an hour before going to bed. Sometimes longer, depending how well the issue was going. My new idea (ha!) is to try and write a little bit every night before bed. At least 1000 words. Maybe write and entire scene. I’m going to get that laptop out tonight, charge up the battery, and start tonight!

I slept like the dead last night and it was so great. I actually feel rested today. Going in for a check-up this afternoon and I’m ready to get it done and over with. I hate check-ups, but YES, I am going! I’ve had several friends bugging me since it’s been more than a year since my last one.

Off to work. I’m hungry for my maple and brown sugar oatmeal and a cup of coffee.