DVDs, 2008

I love Netflix. I believe I've mentioned that a time or two. I love that I can get TV shows on channels I don't get without commercials. It's fabulous. I love getting the movies, too, but as you'll see, movies weren't so high on the list this year.

Here's the stats for the DVDs we've rented this year:

Total rented: 147
Rentals by percentages:
-Television shows: 58%
-Movies: 35%
-Comedy: 5%
-Educational: 2%
Individual TV shows: 13
Cody's favorite TV show: Wonderfalls (Technically, we borrowed this from a friend, but I'll still count it under the "rentals.")
My favorite TV show: Coupling (a British comedy that ran for four season, all of which we watched within a month, I think. Of course, I had a really hard time selecting this show above, say, Battlestar Galactica or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I just got into this year. There was also Dr. Who and Torchwood contending for the favorite slot, along with Psych and Lost. Still, Coupling had the most draw for being the shortest show.)
Cody's favorite movie: Tango and Cash
My favorite movie: LA Story (As you can see, we didn't go with any new movies. Looking back through the list, there's not a single movie I would rewatch from what we rented. Most were good on the first watch, but not worth a second. The few that we saw this year that might be worth a repeat viewing we saw in the theaters, so they didn't make this list. Oddly, I didn't keep track of movies we saw in the theater...maybe I should. Which reminds me: We saw Iron Man in the theater and then again on video at a friends house--again not a rental so didn't make the list--and that was worth the second viewing.)
Educational fact: We only watched 3 education DVDs this year: An Inconvenient Truth (it took me a while to be ready to see that one), Ancient Mysteries: Canals of Venice (oddly fascinating), and National Geographic: Inside Special Forces (which was nothing like I'd thought it'd be, but was interesting nevertheless. I got to see the inside of one of Hussein's palaces, which he built atop a mountain of dirt he had carted in so his palace would be the tallest in the land--crazy!). In 2007, we watched 4 educational films, and in 2006, we watched 13! The numbers are declining rapidly. I'm hoping that the number of nonfiction books I've been reading mildly redeems me. Or maybe I should simply think of it as I'm embracing creativity in all types of fiction better and better each year and not being bogged down by so many facts.
TV shows watched but not rented (me only): Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, New Adventures of Old Christine, and ANTM (I thought I was done with ANTM--America's Next Top Model for those of you not addicted--but it sucked me back in for the fall cycle, so I don't think I've weened myself yet. I need an ANTM patch. And that stupid Stylista show they advertised after it was not going to do it for me!)

Tomorrow (and Final Year-end Tally): Firsts, 2008!

Reading, 2008

As everyone knows, I love to read. I had the brilliant idea last year of keeping track of everything I read in 2007 to see if I read as many books as I thought I did. Plus, there's something supremely gratifying about finishing a book and getting to add it to my spreadsheet. Last year I read 52. A book for every week is pretty good.

Here are this year's reading figures:

Books read: 49
Percentages by genre:
-Paranormal Romance: 29%
-Romance: 24%
-Fantasy: 20%
-Nonfiction: 16%
-Fiction: 4%
-Young Adult and Other: 6%
New authors read: 22!
Most read in a month: 6 (in April, October, and November)
Most read by a single author: 7 (Cody gifted me with a Katie MacAlister novel in February for Valentine's Day and I promptly bought my favorite used bookstore's entire stock of her novels.)
Multiple books read by the same author: 4 (Katie MacAlister, Jacqueline Carey, Jayne Ann Krentz, and P.C. Cast--all of which I recommend)
Repeat authors from 2007: 10 (Carrie Vaughn, Charlaine Harris, Christine Feehan, Janet Evanovich, Karen Marie Moning, Laurell K. Hamilton, Lora Leigh, P.C. Cast, Rebecca Chastain--yes, I count when I've read through my own books; I was hoping to add Madison 2 to the read in 2008 list, but it'll have to be on the 2009 list--and Vicki Thompson)
Recommended new authors: Colby Hodge and Anjali Banerjee (I thought I'd have more new authors to recommend, but aside from Katie MacAlister who was a new author this year for me, these are the only two new authors who I believe will be repeat authors. However, I highly recommend all the repeat authors from 2007.)

Tomorrow: DVDs of 2008!

Events, 2008

There are a plethora of events to be celebrated every year, some traditional, some not so much. Like I want to start a National Nondominant Hand Day on which people would use their nondominant hand to do everything realistic (nothing dangerous--using a knife--and nothing particularly pointless--writing or mousing with the opposite hand all day). Good examples include: brushing teeth, eating, unlocking doors, etc. I think that it would be 1) amusing, and 2) help bring people's awareness to the moment. I'm thinking this holiday should happen early in January. What do you think?

Anyway, back to the events of 2008:

Weddings: 2 (Same as the last two years. I think I'm running out of single friends.)
Baby showers: 1 (I expect this number to increase soon.)
Birthday parties: 11!
Parties: 4 (One of which was my last-day-at-my-much-hated-work party. Hooray!)
Babysitting: 4 (This includes kids and cats. Most of these were overnighters.)
Art shows: 1 (For Suzanne Goodwin. I love her work!)
Wine tastings: 3
Vacations: 1 (To Oklahoma for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary.)

Other:

New computers: 2 (One for me, one for Cody.)
New monitor: 1 (Just for me.)

Tomorrow: Books read and authors to recommend!

Writing, 2008

The year-end quantitative look back at 2008 has begun! We're kicking it off with all things writing related (in honor of the spirit of the blog), but first a little back story.

I've long loved the recap Christmas letters, most likely because my mom used to send them out when I was little. She would write down a little "here's what happened in the Chastain family" paragraph at the end of each month, and by the end of the year, she'd have a one- to two-page letter to send out with the holiday cards. At least I think that's how she did it. I tried it one year, and realized that I'm far too long-winded for a summary of each month. Hence, the quantitative letter was born. I think that a lot can be gleaned about a person's life and previous year by a few statistical facts. It helps immensely that I like to keep track of things (I have a spreadsheet for all the books I've read, another, compiled at the end of the year, of all the DVDs I've rented...you get the picture).

Here is everything about my writing in 2008:

Novels written: 1 (almost--check the tracker at the top of the page; I'm this close to finishing it)
Pages written: 302 and counting (see the tracker for the number of words; in 2007, I only wrote 277 pages, and that included part of a previous book; in 2006, I wrote 356 pages--yeah, that first book is really long)
Most pages written in a day: 15
Most consecutive days of writing: 12 (I wasn't as good this year as last year, when I think I only took one day off in November. Of course, I also finished last year's book in November and it was only 72,000 words or so...)
Times I've whined to Cody that this year's book will never end/need so many rewrites/is sucking away time from Book 1, which needs to be sold: Countless
Times I've gloated to Cody that this year's book will be my best book yet/has the best ending/has the best characters: Nearly as many
Query letters drafted: 5
Synopses drafted: 8
Titles debated (for Madison 1): 3 (The titled selected: Basic Trouble)
Hours I've worked on Basic Trouble: 85 (Time includes all rewrites, queries, synopses, and agent research. I started keeping track in July to make myself feel better about the paltry amount of time I've been able to put toward finalizing this book, but I don't know that I'd say this number could be doubled to get an estimate for the year. It really doesn't look like much here, but on top of work, sometimes the extra 5-7 hours a week was a lot. Seriously, though, I see a new goal for 2009.)
Author signings attended: 1 (by accident, but I bought his book anyway)
Published authors who've commented on my blog: 2
Published authors who've sent my blog post to their editor: 1 (thank you!)
RWA chapter meetings attended: 1 (it was so inspirational to be surrounded by fellow authors in every stage of the process!)

Tomorrow: Entertainment of 2008!

Holiday Hiatus

I'm back, a day later than I expected. I spent a good deal of yesterday feeling very sorry for myself--the excesses of the holidays caught up with me, laying me low for the day. I even missed a holiday party! Bummer! However, today I was able to get out of the house long enough to swing by Borders. The whole world is a better place when I have books.

I picked up Kim Harrison's latest (in paperback), Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (a new author for me, so I'll let you know what I think when I read it), and Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose (another new author for me). I picked up Prose's book partially because it was on super-duper sale, but mostly because its enormously long subtitle made the book sound like it was written just for me. (I've just looked at Prose's picture on the back of the book. She looks like she's auditioning for a depression ad. You can bet your (fill in the blank) that I'll be smiling, if not grinning, in my author photo! Her picture on the link attached to her name above is a little better.) I'll let you know how this book turns out, too.

The last five posts of the year will be the promised year-end tallies. Tomorrow: writing-specific tallies. Like I said, I'm rather excited about these. I hope they give you a little insight into my life that you might otherwise not receive from these posts.

Merry Christmas!

I'm taking the holiday off, but never fear: I'll be back on Friday with brand-new posts, including year-end tallies, which I'm very excited about.

I hope you get everything you want for Christmas or Hanukkah, and have a happy Kwanzaa!

Happy Hanukkah!

Cody and I just returned from some last-minute Christmas shopping. It is crazy out there! The insanity was confined mainly to the roads, where apparently the general traffic laws, especially red lights, no longer apply to the rushed and harried. We called it a night before we finished just to come home and avoid the crazies. We'll be back out tomorrow morning, when most of these people will hopefully be traveling, working, or done with their shopping.

And for all those of you who celebrate Hanukkah, here's a little holiday cheer:

Guilt: Surprisingly Motivating

So I sat down to write a blog about how guilty I was starting to feel because I hadn't written at all this weekend, and then I decided to do something about it. An hour later, I have another 1,948 words and I've almost reached 90,000 words total. Nice.

I've had a really nice weekend that involved so many of my favorite things: seeing a friend from LA, going to my favorite nursery/cafe (and eating some chocolate-beet cake), tasting at my favorite winery (and buying a bottle), browsing through my favorite used bookstore (and buying a handful of books for me--after being on somewhat of a book hiatus, I'm thrilled to have new fantasy novels!), seeing my family, watching a little Buffy, and, finally, writing. It's been a full, fun weekend. I'm feeling really blessed and loving it. Here's to hoping you had a similarly kick-ass weekend.

Violence and Romance

I recently finished a romance with the central conflict revolving around a progressively more violent antagonist bent on destroying the heroine's life. It left a foul aftertaste. The romance was nearly overshadowed by the beatings and blood and random killings, and I felt like the few scenes with just the main couple were a reprieve from the otherwise very unromancelike action. Perhaps I wouldn't have thought so much about it if the book were billed as a murder/mystery or a suspense, but it was sold as a romance. The successively worse violence felt like a gimmick to add easy "depth" to the plot. Rather than devise a creative way to delve into the characters' psyches, the author threw in a body, and everyone simply had to react. It felt cheap.

When did death and blood become a common subplot for romances? Has it always been, and I've just been oblivious? I scanned through the romance section at my favorite used book store today and had a hard time finding an action-packed romance that didn't involve a PI, FBI agent, Navy Seal, police officer, or someone on the run from a killer. (Okay, maybe it was a case of finding what you're expecting to, but still!) Is this where the violence in America is coming from--from too many people reading about casual death scenes and five pages later immersed in a steamy sex scene with the people who found the body? Maybe TV's been given a bad wrap. Maybe we should be blaming publishing houses.

It reminded me of a romantic movie or a TV show I saw once (and this would be so much better if I could remember the name of said movie or TV show). There was this very beautiful, high color, sunny and soft erotic scene between two people in the midst of a passionate embrace up against a wall. It started with kissing and the lover's hands roaming over each other's clothed bodies. Then, with the same sensual camera view, the scene switched to somewhere else to pan across a bloody beating in progress. Then back to the couple, some clothing removed, the energy between them more intense, the scene, by itself, more beautiful. Then back to the beating. Then back to the now sex scene. It turned my stomach.

I don't like my sex combined with violence. Not at all. It cheapened the sex scene--took it from something beautiful, and warped it merely by contrasting it with such brutality. One scene was motivated by love; the other by hatred. I believe the author/director/producer were trying to portray the connection and the juxtaposition of the extremes of lust and passion displayed in both scenes. Whatever. I get it. I don't need it shoved in my face. Not in video form, not in book form. Especially not in "romance" form. If I want violence, I'll pick that genre, thank you very much. I'm perfectly okay with violence in my literature. In fact, Basic Trouble and Book 2 have their fair share of violence. They're also not romances.

Needless to say, that author won't be a repeat read.

Garfield Minus Garfield

When I originally heard of the idea of the Garfield without Garfield website, I thought it was stupid. I mean, wouldn't that be like The Cosby Show without Bill Cosby? (Which brings up a point I think America as a whole needs to address: Why is it called The Cosby Show when no one in the show is named "Cosby"? Why not call it The Huxtables and have a little "staring Bill Cosby" notation?) Or (back on point) wouldn't that be like The Drew Carey Show without Drew Carey? Or Calvin and Hobbes without Calvin?

And then I read a few of the Garfield strips without Garfield and realized I'd never appreciated how funny Jon is. My favorite strip was two empty panels and then the last with Jon in it, saying, "I think my toes are jealous of my fingers because they get to point at things." It makes me giggle every time I read it!

Yesterday, while at Borders, I ran across the Garfield Minus Garfield book that actually got printed. The Garfield-free strips are hilarious at times, strangely thought-provoking at others, and altogether just plain amusing. I wanted to stay and read the whole book in the store, but Cody pointed out that we had other shopping to do. Still, the book--and the idea--were an amusing surprise.

It's the Pot

For a while now I've been on a hunt for the thing in my kitchen that randomly smells bad. I've hunted for hidden dirty dishes, taken out the trash, sprayed lemon and placed orange peels in the garbage disposal, and sniffed around all my food cupboards and the refrigerator for what could possibly be causing the bad odor. The random smell is something akin to a strong, used green tea bag but more pungent, sickly sweet and at the same time, carrying the upper notes of skunk. Frustratingly, I've not been able to find the source. I've looked for a pattern--after I used the toaster or when I eat spaghetti or something like that--but have found none.

It was Cody who finally figured it out. Our kitchen butts up against the neighbor's kitchen wall. Both walls have a vent above the stove, a vent that, apparently, is not very tightly sealed. Thus, whenever my neighbors light up their bongs, the smell drifts into my kitchen!

At first, I didn't believe Cody when he offered this theory, but a few times of stepping out on our shared front stoop and smelling the much less diluted odor of pot wafting from their apartment, I've conceded that he is right. F-ing potheads! It's bad enough to be woken up by the sounds of my neighbors having sex, but now I've got neighbor's pot smells in my kitchen! I can't wait to have a house with some space and privacy around it!

(On a happier note, despite the fact that I took yesterday off, I more than made up for it today: 3,617 words! Hooray!)

The Ending, 2.0

Hallelujah! I have an ending. A perfect ending. An ending a thousand times better than the ending I'd originally planned. It still has the same core elements, but it's enhanced. It's the luxury suite, concierge service, chocolates on the pillows, bubble bath in the Jacuzzi tub, private balcony on the top floor upgraded ending from the budget motel twin bed by the train tracks ending. I couldn't be more in love with it (if you couldn't tell).

Thankfully, some friends called just as I was finishing my earlier bemoaning post about my doubts and fears (which was being followed up by a buildup to a good pity-party, which Cody was the unlucky witness of) and instead of wallowing in my doubt, I went out for a cup of tea and some good conversation.

I don't know if it was the tea, the conversation, the fact that I was up past my bedtime on a work night, or the two krumkakes drizzled in chocolate that I ate right before bed, but I couldn't sleep. Tossing and turning, I tried to get my mind to a happy, sleepy place, and the next thing I knew, I was wide awake in the middle of Book 2's final battle. It all came together almost while I wasn't paying attention.

Now, four pages of notes later, I think I can sleep. (And I think 90,000 words was a bit conservative.)

Length and Fears

It's official: I've written over 80,000 words! My tracker bar thing wouldn't show an over-the-goal amount, so I had to up the total of words. I think 90,000 is a good estimate. I hope it is. Today was another writing day where 1,700 plus words was merely a bridge between two scenes, so it was not officially on my storyboard or planned for. I'm not complaining. In fact, I'm trying to stay very positive, because I've reached the point in the story where every doubt about the plot and characters are coming up, making me think there's going to be major revisions in my future. I must. Not. Think. About that. I also am maintaining that the fact that I already have seven different revision notes that require scenes to be reworked, written, or removed is a good thing. It must mean the story is flowing well in my head and I'm seeing it more clearly the more time I spend with it. It must mean that.

Outraged at Torchwood

So with Cody done with school and actually home before ten at night, we've had some time to catch up on some much-missed TV. We don't have cable or a DVR, which is why I'm in love with Netflix. It also means that I'm perpetually a season behind on most shows (and since I tend to bury my head in the sand when it comes to the majority of what's happening in the entertainment world, I'm able to miss out on most spoilers).

We just finished season 2 of Torchwood. I'm guessing that all of you have already seen it and know what happens, and the rest of you don't care. I care. I care very much, and I'm very upset! I was all set for a cliffhanger. I was even more set for excitement. I was not prepared whatsoever for two main characters to be killed off! I'm outraged! I should not cry at a season finale! Combine my disappointment/sadness with the last episode with nightmares about never dying and being the last person left in the world umpteen-thousand years from now (which is what I get for thinking about Captain Jack's fate right before falling to sleep), I'm a bit miffed at Torchwood.

And this season was so intense and dark! I became a Torchwood fan because of Dr. Who, which started out pleasantly campy, though it, too, got darker in the last season (I'm referring to season 3 with Martha Jones--it just occurred to me that I haven't seen season 4 and it's out! Yay! I just added it to my Netflix queue!). I hope that they lighten things up in the new season (though don't tell me anything that could spoil it for me!)

We followed up the season finale of Torchwood with the first two episodes of Lost season 4--another show that's getting darker and darker (though I absolutely loved the "Lost in 8:15" recap; I thought it was quite funny). Fortunately, we've got a little Buffy to watch (season 3). I need more lighthearted shows! If you've got any good suggestions, let me know!

Oh, and as far as writing goes, I finally finished the one scene today. 4,887 words for one scene. Yikes! I'm getting close to the end, though! So close, I can taste it. (Too far to write it all in a day, though.)

Krumkake Extravaganza

I took today off, celebrating Cody's last day of school for the year (he had a crazy-busy semester which involved two 14 hour days and three normal days of schooling a week--translation: I didn't get to see him as much as I wanted and am super excited that he's done) and to go to Cody's sister's house to partake in (watch) the annual krumkake-making marathon.

Cody and his sister are Norwegian (as you might be able to tell by Cody's head size in the "Real Adventure" post from August 10), and every year, his sister makes dozens and dozens of krumkake. For those of you not familiar with this delicious treat, krumkake are traditional Norwegian waffle cookies made on a special griddle that puts fancy designs on them as they bake. Cody's sister's griddle (a family heirloom) makes only one krumkake at a time. Once each waffle is cooked, it must be hand-rolled into the traditional cone shape to complete its cookie destiny.

The hand-rolling is something mere mortals cannot do--as far as I can tell, you must be Norwegian and have fingers of steel which don't burn when touching flaming-hot items. I've seen these fingers in action, pulling food or baking containers barehanded out of the oven. Were I to attempt something similar, I'd be running for the toothpaste, screaming in agony. (Yes, the toothpaste. I get a lot of weird looks when I suggest people put in on burns, but it really does work. So next time you find yourself with a first-degree burn, give it a try.)

Being of indiscriminate ancestry with a normal-size head, I made myself useful by drinking mimosas and chatting. All in all, it was a pleasant way to pass the day.

The celebration of Cody's freedom continues.

12 Days of Shopping Left

I don't know why it never occurred to me that some scenes might take longer than a day to write and longer than 1,667 words. It simply didn't. Today, I wrote 9 pages and I didn't even get from one end of the scene to the other. I blame Rose, Madison's coworker, who's back on the scene for the first time in about 150 pages. She's a talker, and she likes to tease Madison. It takes up space. Good space, I hope, but space nonetheless.

It also just occurred to me that today is already the 12th. Not only does that mean that I should be done with this book in 6 days (hahahahahah), but it also means that there's only 12 days of shopping left before Christmas! Ahhhhh! I haven't even started!

Something tells me I'm going to be getting some more "research" time in at the mall. Hopefully it'll add more humor to the busy mall scenes in Book 2 and be present-productive.

Over 80,000 Words

It's official. This book is going to be over 80,000 words. I've still got the major climax to write, and I'm at 73,000+ words with the climax two scenes away.

Only thirteen total scenes left, though, and I hope that I can fit more than one in a day (today I got three scenes into 2,500 words), otherwise my final scene will be written on Christmas day. I think I'll have to double up a few day's writing sessions to give myself the Christmas present of finishing this book prior to the big day.

Legend of the Seeker Delivers

When I was fifteen or sixteen years old I read my first Terry Goodkind book, Wizard's First Rule. As an epic fantasy adventure over 800 pages in length, it was exactly what I was into. Eight books and about the same number of years later, I stopped reading the series--not because the series had gotten too bad to read, but because my taste had changed to more modern fantasies.

The series has recently been made into a TV show: Legend of the Seeker. It took three promo commercials before my mind linked why the storyline seemed so familiar to the books. I reined in my excitement. It could go very badly. I didn't like the cast when I saw them in the commercials. I didn't know how they were going to do a book in TV-length installments. I wasn't sure I wanted to give it a chance.

I missed the first few episodes. I finally sat down to watch one. I'm hooked. And I've decided I like the cast just fine. You might, too. Check out Craig Horner who plays the main character, Richard Raul. (The one on the right cracks me up.)

Two Degrees to Bliss

This is my 100th post, and I've been wracking my brain for something worthy of a hundredth post to say. Ironically, I'm drawing a blank. After a hundred days of doing this, you'd think I'd have it down to a science. I think I'm going to have to take a lesson from my writing and not force it. When I try to force a scene, it comes off flat. I can't expect a blog would be much differently. Here's to hoping an anniversary-themed post will come to mind soon. In the meantime, back to our regularly schedule post:

It's amazing the difference two degrees can make. All day yesterday I suffered through with cold hands and so many layers on that I looked like the kid in A Christmas Story. I ended up drinking a couple of gallons of hot water (plain because of that whole teeth-staining thing, though come to think of it, I had red wine last night and never had a thought about staining my teeth). I shivered around the house and bundled the cats up in blankets where they lay (they tolerated it for longer than I thought they would). Then, finally, I thought to check the thermostat. Since it'd been kicking on the heater regularly all day, it had never occurred to me to check it before I was attempting to eat my dinner, which kept cooling off after a few bites (renuking food over and over again makes it hard to sit down and enjoy a meal).

It was set at 66 degrees in the house! I know that scientists will tell you 32 degrees is freezing, but they're wrong. Sixty-six is freezing. I cranked the heater up a whopping two degrees and like magic, the whole house was as warm as a tropical rain forest. I was even warm enough, I took off one of my sweaters!

Today the sun finally came out (it's been behind fog for the last week or so) and the house got to a crazy 70 degrees. It was like heaven. The cats and I all took turns lounging in sunbeams (me during eye breaks--them for hours at a time). Yea for heat!

Cold Writing

I'm finding it very easy to imagine Madison traipsing around in cold November weather as I write this time, mainly because I've been doing all my writing at home and for the past week, it has been cold. I've kept the heater at 68 degrees, but I have a feeling that this heater's 68 degrees is like most heater's 60 degrees. The temperature has always felt a little off mark to me.

I finished my writing this morning--I actually finished more than necessary, nearly 9 pages this morning!--wearing slippers, knee-high socks, jeans, an undershirt, a long-sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, and a beanie. Still, despite my fingers flying over the keyboard and mouse, they're still chilly. And silly me that I am, I don't want to have any warm tea because I just went to the dentist and my teeth are so pearly white, unstained yet by tea or wine.

I've only 18 scenes left. So far, it's been basically a scene a day, which means a scene lasts from 1,667 words to 2,500 words, but I hope that they'll go a little faster later on! Otherwise, this book is going to be over 80,000 words!

Goddess Wisdom

I have a set of Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards crafted by Doreen Virtue, PhD. which I enjoy using for guidance and for fun. They're beautiful cards with inspirational and fun advice. They're also strangely accurate when asked a question (I treat them much as someone might a deck of tarot cards). While I was unhappy at work, I kept getting Goddess cards that suggested I follow a new career or take a leap of faith toward my dreams. When I quit my job and started on my new adventure where I am following my dreams and writing more, I started pulling Lakshmi's card almost daily. The saying written at the bottom of the card is "Stop worrying. Everything is going to be fine." In the little booklet that comes with the cards, the explanation that goes with Lakshmi's card includes this line: "This is a kind universe, and everyone within it is working in your favor."


I was shocked the first time I read this description--for several years now, I've firmly held the belief that the Universe is working with me and helping me achieve what I want. In fact, I had the phrase "The Universe is on my side!" printed on my checks. It was like the card was speaking my own words back to me.


To remind myself of the wisdom of the goddess Lakshmi (and to show my gratitude to the Universe), I recently purchased a print of Sue Halstenberg's artwork on the card (seen here). I'm hoping to get it framed very soon, but it's hanging unframed until then in my dining room, reminding me to go for what I want without worries.

Unexpected Culture

We decided to watch Step Brothers last night rather than Torchwood. We both thought the movie was funny and worth seeing (at home). Will Ferrell is hit and miss for me, so I was happy. It might have helped that I had a brownie (okay, I had two) to go with the movie. No wine, though. I completely forgot about it by the time I left the office.

**SPOILER ALERT** If you haven't yet seen the movie and want to, pay no mind to the rest of the post and merely admire my tracking bar at the top of the blog.

I was shocked by the inclusion of the song Time to Say Goodbye, or Por ti Volare. I love the song, which I recently discovered through Pandora. My favorite version is sung by Sarah Brightman, and you can hear it here. I was shocked, however, to greatly enjoy Will Ferrell's version (despite the insertions of "boats and hoes!"--or maybe because of those insertions).

I'm happy to report I've already finished my writing for today. Yea for progress!

Day Two of No Writing

My goddess! What is this world coming to? Two days without writing! I'll tell you what: I blame the fluoride varnish the dentist put on my teeth (very distracting, very annoying). I also blame my cat, who turned into such a wild demon that we couldn't get her brother back into the same carrier yesterday for fear she'd tear him to pieces and had to leave him at my parents' house and return today to pick him up separately (they're getting along great now).

The real culprit, however, is my own laziness, but I'm entitled to a little now and again. Cody and I just got some chocolate chip brownies (and ice cream for him) and we're either going to watch some Torchwood or the movie Step Brothers. If I recall, I think there's about a glass of wine left. These are my big Friday-night plans, and they sound real nice to me.

Tomorrow, I WILL write. I must. The story is building like a pressure in my head. All that creativity is waiting for me to use it. Tonight, wine and chocolate, a relaxing chair, and two happy cats, and Cody are mine to enjoy.

Creativity Restored

Today was a nonwork/nonwrite day for me. I took the day off to have everything in my creativity section of my house fixed. (If you practice Feng Shui, the creativity section is the right-middle section of your house.) This means that the bathroom lights now work, the sink stopper doesn't fall into the sink and clog it, the toilet flushes and the handle pops back up so it doesn't continue to run, the tub is recaulked so it's not all moldy, the base along the bottom of the tub is fixed, the heater works (the main heater vent intake is in my creativity section), and the one thing in my skills and knowledge section (front-left section of house) that was broken--a window blind--was replaced. Whew! That was a lot of stuff. And it's all fixed! Hooray! I predict that tomorrow will be a highly creative day!

Surprised by Traveling Pants

I love Netflix. It's one of the best things I subscribe to, and I'm pretty selective with what I subscribe to. I love that I can have a whole list of movies saved up, and as I send each one back, they send me another without me having to think about it. We're set up with a three-movie deal, which pretty much means we always have something to watch. It's great, and it's WAY cheaper than Blockbuster with a MUCH better selection.

There is one downside to it: Occasionally I put movies in my queue that I only sort of want, with the intention that I'll save them for when we run out of things we really want to watch. And occasionally those movies get sent to us before I'm ready when I forget to reorganize my queue. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 was one such movie.

I added it to my queue with the intention of watching it when Cody was gone or busy, but I wasn't really all that excited about seeing it. Then it shipped. Then I lost it. I knew I had received it, but I couldn't find it anywhere, and then began wondering if I'd only convinced myself I'd received it because I was unhappy to be getting it in the first place. I finally told Netflix that I had never received it. They took it off my queue and sent me another movie.

A few days later, I found it under my car seat. It was a sign, I decided. My earlier intention had been to ship it back unseen, but I decided to watch it. (I waited for a night when Cody was busy to spare him.)

Shockingly, I really enjoyed it. I liked the realistic interactions between the women. I liked seeing them growing and trying new opportunities. I liked all the different settings (whoever got to be set designer looked like they had a ball creating the girl's personalities in their surroundings). I liked the ending, as sentimental as it was.

So if you're in the mood for a good girl movie, I suggest this one. It's not a romance, it's not a drama, it's not a comedy, at least not in my opinion. It's just a story, a good fiction, a story of friendship and women and growing and finding yourself. Really, I'm still surprised at how much I liked it.

Unexpected Connections

I've been avoiding writing this scene all day. It didn't occur to me until after I finished writing it that Madison wanted to avoid this scene too. Apparently, just imagining her not wanting to do it made me not want to write it. I think this is a good thing: I've been in the story long enough to feel Madison in my head, not just imagine her there. Or so I'm telling myself.

On top of wanting to avoid this whole scene, Dr. Love, Madison's main love interest, is on stage, and there were all sorts of possibilities for things to go dreadfully wrong. They're relationship is so new, practically unformed, and neither knows the other's body language. Even words can so easily be misunderstood when everyone's hormones are so volatile. I think that people in a long-term relationship forget about all the uncertainties that govern a relationship when you're first starting out. When you're in a long-term relationship, you can have a huge misunderstanding, fix it, and move on. When you're still new to each other, that misunderstanding can be the death of a relationship.

I was afraid, when I realized I'd been writing for nearly two hours and my normal word count usually takes me only a little over an hour, that I'd been struggling with the scene more than I realized as I typed. It seemed to be flowing, but like the relationship, maybe I was misreading the signs.

Nope. It was just a slightly longer scene than I expected. 2,733 words. I thought it'd be about 1,200 words. And as happy as I am with how well it turned out and how well Madison and I navigated the dangerous waters of that scene, ending with everything where it needs to be and with Madison quite happy, we're both even happier to be beyond that scene. As wonderful as it is to have the handsome Dr. Love on stage, sometimes it's easier when he's only there in Madison's fantasies.

Tomorrow it's action time. Secretive, dangerous action. Just the kind of thing to take both our minds off Dr. Love and get our heads back in the crime-fighting game.

New Authors

As you may have noticed, I've added The First Book to my list of favorite writing blogs. Every Monday, they post an interview with a new author who's recently gotten their first book published. I find it very inspiring to read everyone's stories of how they got published.

The recent interview with Joshua Corin for his book Nuclear Winter was like reading a fairytale. He wrote an award-winning screenplay that a Hollywood producer found on a website and contacted him to see if he had anything new. Just a few days later, he'd sold a book! The book sounds pretty interesting, too. Check for Nuclear Winter to be coming to bookshelves and movie theaters soon.

I was intrigued by Devon Monk's interview about his book Magic to the Bone simply because it sounds like a good novel in a genre I like to read. (And his first book was auctioned! I dream of these things!)

Check out this great blog--it's the first blog I've found all by myself that I now regularly check, and I'm oddly proud of that fact.

A New Record

I don't know if it was the movie You Don't Mess with the Zohan or reading Laurell K. Hamilton's blog, but I was suddenly inspired to sit back down to write. My earlier session was plenty for the day (1,885 words) and more than enough to get me to the Nano goal. I didn't need to write any more. Maybe that was it. I realized that now that Nano is over, it's just up to me to finish this book when I do, and the sooner I finish it, the sooner I can take a day off.

I just wrote another 1,973 words! My total for today (3,858 words) surpasses my previous single day's word count high by 500+ words! What a great way to celebrate the last day of Nano!

The End Is Near!

Look at that tracking bar! I made the Nano goal--I'm over 50,000 words at the end of the November month. Whew! What a roller coaster. Of course, my coaster has a few extra feet added on at the end, so there's a few more loops left.

Everything's progressing nicely. I'm thinking now that I should have aimed for a 70,000-word book since mine always run long, but oh well. It'll be the length it needs to be. Right now, it's 166 pages long. I expect 250 by the end. That's a nice solid number. Then I'll hack and slash the beginning.

Congratulations to all who successfully completed Nano! And congratulations to any and all that participated!

Old School Romance

I just finished Jayne Ann Krentz's Night of the Magician. The book was originally published in 1984. All the clothing descriptions are hilarious. Also, the main character lives in an apartment with peach carpet that "offset the white furniture perfectly." It cracked me up.

Reading this short romance, it made me realize how much romance itself has changed in the last twenty years. The main characters (women) want more from life than to be swept off their feet in today's books--in fact, most of the time they're doing an equal amount of sweeping. They're stronger, too. This main character was so constitutionally fragile she was frightened by a magic show. She also was overwhelmed with lust for a man fifteen years her senior. I don't find that often in the romance I read these days. Maybe I'm just not reading those books, but now the main characters typically seem to be within five years of each other's age. Just the whole dynamic between the characters made me marvel at how romance writers have had to adapt their stories and characters to changing cultural desires. Or maybe the authors changed right along with the rest of culture and never really thought about it. Now I need a romance author to interview.

The one thing that absolutely drove me nuts about this book hearkens back to a similar thing that drove me nuts about Nina Harper's Succubus in the City in my "The Importance of an Editor" post. Editors, or in this case, proofreaders, are very important!

This version of Night of the Magician was reprinted, and as we all know from personal experiences with computers, fonts don't always translate well from computer to computer. It's why experts tell you to put your resume in certain fonts--so that all computers read them correctly. Since this book was relaid out, this is where a proofreader would come into the picture, doing one final pass over the new layout to make sure it all looks good. This step either wasn't taken for this reprint, or something went wrong after the proofreader. Every instance of seance, which should have an accent over the first e, was printed as "s;aaeance." There were a lot of seances in the book, too!

It's little things like that--misspellings, typos, lack of quotes at the end of certain character's dialog on the first five pages--that takes a person out of the story and reminds them that they're reading, which is not often a good thing. Perhaps I should have titled this post "The Importance of Proofreaders" because proofreaders are very important, too! Go hug your nearest proofreader!

Bits and Pieces

Look at how close I am to the traditional Nano goal! Last year on November 29 I was at 64,000+ words, but I also only took one day off the entire month. This time, I'm treating it more like a real job, and I know the novel writing will take longer than 30 days, so being 1,500+ words ahead of my goal is really good. Today I wrote a fun scene that I think is pretty amusing. We'll see when I reread it in December.

Speaking of books read, for all those of you who have been losing sleep over the fact that I'm behind my book-reading count goal for the year, you can rest a little easier. I've finally caught up to last year's number of books ready by November. However, I thought I was actually now two books ahead, so I felt quite relaxed in starting a nonfiction book, since nonfiction typically takes me longer. Now I'm not so sure I'll meet my 52 books read in a year. Of course, miracles do happen around Christmas...

I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgiving vacations--I know I did. I overate on great food, saw my family, hung out with friends (and will be doing a little more of that soon), slept in, and didn't worry about word-count goals. Does Thanksgiving get any better?

A New Method

I'm trying something new for this book. I've noticed on the previous two books I've written that when I'm drafting the storyboard of a book, I get a lot of specific ideas for each scene--ideas that don't often fit onto the note cards I use. Previously, I've trusted my memory to remind me of these tidbits when I get to the scene. I've experienced pretty good success with that method, though often I remember something I wanted to include in a scene once I'm past it, and then I have to go back in the editing phase to add it in.

This time, as I wrote out the storyboard, I titled each scene and created a corresponding section in my notebook for that card. In my notebook, I've written down all the ideas that came to me about the scene that wouldn't fit on the card. This includes everything from short thoughts like "Madison should have a bruise, which Rose should make fun of" to extensive conversations and descriptions.

Then, before I write the scene, I go back to those notes, look them over, and add anything new that comes to mind. I also think about the goal of the scene at this time. If I don't have a goal in mind, I find that my writing tends to meander. I ask myself a series of questions: What's the importance of the scene? What are the main emotions of the characters? What are their motives? Is there anything to be foreshadowed or anything that needs to be carried over from a previous scene? Once I have all that jotted down (this can take only a few lines or a whole page), then I begin to write.

I'm finding that I really like this method. It's like a warm up before a workout. By the time I place my fingers over the keyboard, I'm primed to begin and ideas are already swimming through my head. It beats staring at the screen or restarting the same scene over and over again.

The only unfortunate thing about this new method is that I started it about 75 pages into the book. Those first 75 pages are going to need a lot more edits than the rest of the book. However, it was a good lesson learned, and I'll be able to see if all this preplanning really does help on the first round of edits.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope you've all stuffed yourself on the very best foods and are enjoying the wonderful company of those you love.

As befitting of the holiday, I thought I'd share a blog-theme-specific "Things I'm Thankful For" list, specifically, authors I'm thankful for (in no particular order):

• Jacqueline Carey (for great characters)
• Jayne Ann Krentz, Laurell K. Hamilton (for ongoing inspiration of success)
• Dr. Christiane Northrup (for breaking free of the male-oriented approach to women's health and then sharing it with the world)
• Anjali Banerjee (for reading my blog post on her book Invisible Lives and taking time to chat with me via email a few times)
• Regina Thomashauer (for making things fun)
• Dr. Mona Lisa Schultz (for her insightful works, and for the advice she gave me--advice that led me to the happy place I'm at in my life right now)
• Diana Gabaldon and J. K. Rowling (for breaking the norms in the publishing industry and proving that it's a good thing to think outside the traditional scope of genres)
• to the plethora of authors whose books have given me inspiration, pleasure, and a delightful escape into a different world over the years (to see a full list, visit my website)

I Love Action Scenes

Huzzah! I got to the first action scene with the main enemy! I love writing action scenes--they write themselves most of the time. Everything's happening so fast, I just need to make sure my fingers keep up. Today, I wrote two day's worth of words! Which means I'm now only 1,814 words away from the traditional Nano goal and even closer to my final goal!

It's time for some food--some real food. The chocolate chip cookies on the microwave have been calling to me every time I've gone out to heat up more tea. (I've successfully resisted, but they're getting more crafty each time.) I think a burrito is just the thing I need.

And then some cookies.

In Honor of the Holiday

In the true spirit of Thanksgiving, I've been thinking of all the things I have in my life for which I'm grateful. The list is extensive (another thing I'm grateful for!), but here's a few I can share with you:

• Cody
• my family (two- and four-legged)
• my friends
• fun times with all of the above
• Basic Trouble and Book 2, which includes the time to write and work on selling them
• all the people that come to my blog everyday to read my ramblings
• being self-employed
• two cars
• my wonderful apartment with its great view
• my stocked pantry (even if half the cans are beans--or maybe especially because half the cans are beans and I can have my daily burritos)
• avocados
• good health (mine, my family's, my friends')
• the privileges of being an American
• dark chocolate

What are you thankful for?

Tag

I've been at this computer for nearly 12 hours today. Ug! I made a lot of progress, but not on Madison 1 or 2. I did write 1,149 words today and I'm happy with that even if it is under word count.

I have discovered a great way to relieve chair-butt: Cat vs. Human tag. Zenzo, my little girl cat, loves to race up and down the hallway. If I run into a room at the opposite end of the hallway, she'll come running after me, tail up, and waiting to be petted when she "catches" me. It's adorable. If I am in the front room, she'll zip between the chairs and do a sideways arch at me. Again, so cute!

I'm off for a little late-night tag before the apartment's mandated quiet hours.

Christmas Music Comes Early

In an effort to continue to get into the right mood/setting for Christmastime at the mall, I've been listening to Christmas music while I work on Madison. I suppose it's not that early to be listening to it. One of the local radio stations is already playing all Christmas music, all the time. People are going to be going out this week to get their trees. A little Christmas music in November isn't going to hurt me. Especially since I didn't have my usual Christmas music in July craving this year.

I've been using Pandora for the music, but I've found that unless I know specific artists and songs, it starts to play a lot of non-Christmas music in the mix. It also lets you reject only so many in an hour, so let me know if you have any good suggestions that I can add to the Christmas station I've created. All holiday songs are welcome.

I finally got to my first clue of the big enemy in this book today. Okay, technically I wrote myself a note for the scene where I'll get to it tomorrow, but I'm pleased. The fact that I'm over halfway through the book and just touching on this reminds me that I'll have a bit (read a lot) of editing to do at the beginning of the story, but that's the way these things go. The more novels I write, the better I'll get at beginnings, I'm sure.

The Outside World

Lo and behold, I left the house today! I've been a bit of a hermit lately between work, Basic Trouble edits and synopsis and query creations, and Nano. Getting out of the house was fast becoming mandatory, if only so that I would have something to chat about on the blog other than my dry eyeballs and cat poo. (I'm just thinking of you guys. Aren't I sweet?)

Cody and I went to the mall. The trip was not completely for pleasure. In fact, it was mainly for research. Madison 2 involves a lot of scenes at the mall after Thanksgiving (in none of which does Madison actually get to shop), and I wanted a chance to capture the flavor of the mall without having to actually be out in the crowds on Black Friday.

The trip was made even more delightful by the mall's recent expansion. It was like touring a brand-new mall, with an entire new wing and stores, only this wing is a nice, big, curving loop, and I do like curves in my architecture. (That sounded weirder onscreen than it did in my head.) Things of note from today:

• There's a gelato store in the mall. The bins of various gelato flavors were larger than some turkeys. I will definitely be going back.
• There's a popcorn store in the mall. They sell fresh popcorn with your choice of toppings, including white and dark chocolate! Another place to go back to.
• I held my first Louis Vuitton shoe today. It was this cute, understated little gray pump with an open toe and a small silver flower on the fabric that arches across the top of the foot. The heel was too high and thin for my taste, but for the right price, I could have worn it on special occasions. I flipped the shoe over and actually dropped it, without meaning to, when I read the price tag: $853.00! I should have guessed, since the men's much more comfortable-looking shoes were in the high $500s. It was a cute shoe, but not that cute!
• Strollers, especially ones with infants and toddlers still in them, are not battering rams, folks! I don't want to hurt your child, but if you shove your stroller into my shins, it might happen by accident. Think of your child, people. Please!

We managed to escape without purchasing anything, which was the goal, and had a lovely lunch at a local cafe rather than at the mall (though there were some vendors at the mall that looked as if they might actually have had some quality foods). All in all, it was a highly successful outing--I got over a page of notes and some fresh air. Hooray for the contemporary, convenient settings of Madison! Hopefully later in the series Madison will need to go to Europe, and I'll be forced to go on a research trip there, too.

Denial Lends Strength

For a few short days, we were a one-car family. Cody's Volvo died mysteriously on his way home. The mechanic later diagnosed it as a broken timing belt. What could have been a very costly engine repair job ended up being feasible due to some amazing good luck, and the 17-year-old car is running again. We've been celebrating.

It was, oddly, like a miniature psychological experiment for me, though. In those few days when Cody was using my car to get back and forth to school and work, and I was working from home without a means of transportation, I thought of all kinds of things that I wanted to go do and appointments to make. Suddenly, I needed a car. And just as I expected, today when I had my car back, I didn't think about leaving the house once. Once the option was available to me, all the urgency went out of me. The brain is such a strange thing.

Tapped Dry

And by that, I mean mostly my eyeballs.

Check out the slightly modified tracker. The site I was using to create the old one no longer works, so I found this one that's virtually the same. I'm so close to halfway done with the word count. I am not close to halfway through my scenes. We'll see how this one goes. Maybe some of those scenes will be super short. (I already know scenes at the beginning that I'll be shortening and tightening down.)

I'm off to do nothing and keep my eyes closed. Today has been a long day in front of the computer.

Copycat Massacre

You all might remember the Lamp Massacre of '08 when my apartment started killing off lamps in record numbers. Well, it's at it again, only this time, it's taken out a light switch.

To be specific, the apartment/copycat has had it out for the light switch in the front bathroom for over a week now. It finally stopped toying with its prey and snapped its neck two days ago. The fan works fine, which is of little help, unless you like peeing in the dark with a fan on. We do have another bathroom--we have sort of a his and hers bathroom set up. Mine is the master bath, Cody's is the front, fritzing bathroom. (And just in case you think that Cody's getting the raw end of the deal here, both bathrooms are the same size.) To make this massacre worse, we use only the front bathroom for showers. The other one would simply never dry out. (I could write a whole separate entry on the idiocy of building apartments that don't have outdoor ventilation to the bathrooms, but I'll spare you.)

We will, of course, be getting the lighting fixed, but in the meantime, I've had to plan my shower times with military precision. There's a certain time in the morning when the sunlight slants across the office floor in a long, bright beam of light that illuminates the hallway. Then, by angling the white door of the office just so, I can reflect that light into the bathroom, brightening things enough to make it feel like I'm showering in a foreign country (again, another entry entirely). Not for the first time, I'm very glad for my nearly see-through curtain which allows the maximum amount of light through.

I suppose I could bring a lamp into the bathroom, but where's the fun in that. This way, I'm being environmentally conscious (or I can pretend that I am choosing to be and not being forced to be) and I'm not concerned about electrical fires in the walls (remember, this is the same apartment that melted my blow dryer plug into the socket). All in all, it makes for an eventful morning.

Oh, and for those of you who know about Feng Shui, the bathroom is in my creativity section. Yes, the light went out in my creativity section in the middle of Nano. I'm not worried about any hidden messages, though--look how creative it's made me already. Though, now that I think about it, this is the same bathroom that the toilet flush handle gets stuck on, that needs to have the tub recaulked, and the stopper in the sink drain gets stuck shut, so we currently have it laying on the bathroom counter. Okay, that's it. We need maintenance in here immediately!

What You Don't See in Movies

I think a lot of what is so glamorous and attractive about movies is the things in life that they don't include. This is, of course, overlooking the escapism enjoyment of movies, the attractive people/setting/clothing/cars/homes, and the visual adventures that most of us will never experience. More specifically, I'm talking about cat poo.

I've seen many cats in movies, I've even seen a cat poop on a toilet in a movie, but I've never seen a litter box in a movie. Where do these attractive people with their long-haired, fluffy, overgroomed cats keep their litter boxes? Where is the ideal place to put one? The answer: nowhere.

In a two bedroom apartment, there aren't many options. It couldn't be put the front room, definitely not in the dining room or kitchen (ew!), and most assuredly not in the bedroom. The bathrooms are off limits--have you ever had a cat trail litter into a bathtub? The little kernels swell to puffy gray goo the moment they land in a drop of water which, and I guess this could go without saying, but I'll say it: it's disgusting. That leaves one place: the office.

Occasionally, as I'm working away on a story or a query letter, or in this case, a blog, my cat comes in and...to save you from the graphic details, let's just say, I'm overwhelmed, unable to concentrate, and the result, in this case, has been this delightful blog. I promise, tomorrow I'll talk about something pleasant. Right now, I'm going to flee the room!

New Energy

I had one of those great moments in writing today: I looked back over my previous text to make sure I started with the right tone and at the right spot in the conversation and I realized that what I'd written yesterday--what I'd pulled painfully from the depths of a dry well of inspiration--was good. It was funny, even!

It made today's writing that much easier, and it made the scene better for my renewed confidence. Hooray for good surprises!

Not Quite Halfway

November is officially half over, but since I'm shooting for 80,000 words and not 50,000 words, I'm not quite halfway done. I feel like a runner that has reached a plateau. Every day, I can churn out the word count, but not much more. I read a book several years ago about a couple who decided to hike from the Mexico/California border to the top of California (or maybe it was to Canada). I wish I could remember the name of the book now. They journaled about their experience, which is what eventually became the book. Every day for the first weeks, they could only get maybe ten or fifteen miles a day in. Then they made 20 one day, a record that they thought would break them. However, after that day, they began to consistently hike more than 20 miles a day. It was like they had to break past some invisible barrier in their bodies first, and then the impossible was suddenly easy to repeat. I'm waiting for that to happen in my writing. I thought it already would have.

Maybe things will get better when I really do reach halfway and it's all downhill. Or maybe after I finish this scene things will be better. This is the last scene where I'm introducing new people and exploring the nature and reactions of two other subcharacters. I know the action that is to come, and I'm looking forward to that. I just need to get through this scene.

Chef Ramsay's Hypnosis Powers

The other night as I was diligently working on storyboarding the entire Madison 2 novel out, Cody was in the front room playing a video game. After a while, I realized that I was no longer hearing the cheerful sounds of machine guns and death cries. Instead, I was hearing a lot of bleeped out words. Naturally, I assumed he was watching Cops (one of my least favorite shows of all time).

I put the final touches on the storyboard, taped the whole thing up on the wall above my computer, and fled my office for the evening. I fully intending on commandeering the TV, for Cops and I do not coexist peacefully in the same room. I was quite surprised to see that all the bleeping was coming from a regular TV show, Kitchen Nightmares. In less than two minutes, I was sucked in by Chef Ramsay's dramatic flare—and the horror of the restaurant which he was trying to revamp. Bugs, slimy meat, expired foods, dirty plates. Ew!

The show, however, had two unanticipated side effects.

1. It made me hungry. Isn't that odd? I mean, I'm watching a show about a disgusting kitchen, but all my stomach sees is food. So I made us a snack while we finished watching the second show in the back-to-back Ramsay lineup.

2. It made me want to open a restaurant. I'm not a chef. I've never owned my own business. I know the astronomical failure rate of restaurants. I don't even know what type of restaurant I'd want. But watching the people on the show who've made every bad decision they could and seeing that they're still in business made me think, I can do this better.

Fortunately, Ramsay's hypnotic sway over me didn't last until the next morning. My ambition is still pure and true: I want to be a full-time, New York Times bestselling author.

A Title at Last!

Thanks to the wonderful input of friends and family, Madison 1 now has a title:

Basic Trouble

I love it! It's a play on words, which I'll need to bring into the tag line so everyone gets it right away. I haven't done that yet, but here's the latest teaser for Basic Trouble:

Beneath commonplace suburbia lurk rather adorable evil creatures who feed off the good life force of average, oblivious people. Now it's up to Madison Fox to decimate these cute creatures (and a great many others who are uglier and fiercer) before her region is overrun with evil. Her grasp of the skills she'll need for her job are rudimentary at best…but that's never stopped her before.

Clearly, this isn't the final tag line, but it's closer to what I need.

Hand Cramps

I was feeling inspired today after I finished writing a synopsis for Madison 1, so I sat down to storyboard out Madison 2. Two hours and a massive finger/hand/arm cramp later, I know the whole story! I have to go back in and make a few tweaks, but for the most part, it's done! That means that when I sit down tomorrow to work on Nano, I'll know what scene I'm writing next, and the one after that, and it'll eliminate a lot of guessing. It also means I get to look forward to certain scenes now that I know they're coming. It's like looking forward to the good parts of your favorite movie, but seeing them for the first time (if that makes any sense).

I am, however, not Nanoing today. For two reasons. The second is that I'm almost two days ahead of my required word count, so taking a day off is technically okay (meaning I won't be having a guilty fit about it tomorrow). The first reason is because that hand/arm cramp is no laughing matter. Pushing my tendons beyond their stress points will only lead to prolonged pain. I know this from too much experience. So they get get tonight off.

Neil Gaiman Awaits Me

It occurred to me last night that I have very particular rules about what I read when I'm writing a novel. I can't read anyone who will influence me, so no Laurell K. Hamilton or Jacqueline Carey. I can't read any books that are too close in nature to mine, because I don't want those story ideas creeping into mine, so no Charlaine Harris, Karen Chance, Kim Harrison--okay, basically, no fantasy. Not even any paranormal romance. That leaves me with two options:

1. Non-fiction. I shamelessly admit that I read Oprah's magazine. The short articles are often just what I need as a break in between work and writing. They're also good for over breakfast. A book might cause me to linger too long and waste writing/working time; the articles cut themselves into nice time chunks. There are also non-fiction books. As I said in the Falling Behind post in October, non-fiction books are in the number 2 most-read genre for me this year. I've found that the raw truth is often very inspiring of the fantastical.

2. Romance. There's nothing quite like a well-crafted romance into which to make the perfect escape. My story may have romantic elements in it, but it's not the pivotal plot point. There's no danger of unconsciously drafting part of a romance into my novel.

Last Nano, I read three romances and one non-fiction during the month. I ended the month by reading Laurell K. Hamilton's Mistral's Kiss. That was brave of me. This year, I'm sticking to the romances and non-fiction. Which means that the Neil Gaiman book that I purchased almost a month ago is going to have to sit on my shelf a little bit longer.

A Half-Eaten Author

No, I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about Jayne Ann Krentz. Whenever I think about her books, I think about how I tend to gobble them up. I only discovered her within the last three years, and there are over 45 of her books on my shelves. I think I might have discovered her historical romance pseudonym, Amanda Quick, when I was younger, but it was the Krentz and Jayne Castle books that I purchased in armloads and frenzies. Just ask Cody. We couldn't go to the used bookstore for several months without me coming out with stacks.

I'm currently reading White Lies. This book impresses me on two levels. One, Krentz has become so popular that she doesn't have to use her pseudonym, Jayne Castle, to include paranormal elements to her romance--they sell just fine under her most popular name because everyone loves her books. The second reason it that it's so well written. I've been hunting as I read for the exact reason why I think it's well done, and I'm finding it rather hard to pinpoint. The characters are good, but let's face it, they're a bit similar to several other characters that she's written. The dialog is good, too. Maybe it's the pacing. Maybe it's the plot. Maybe it's the very familiarity of the characters. Is it the depth of the characters that's shown, not told? Is it the way she mixes information with action? Or is it the tension between the lead characters? Yes to all of the above. Now how do I do that, too?

Doesn't Everyone Nano?

(Melodramatic disclaimer for yesterday: Okay, so I was rather dramatic yesterday. In that time which I said that I spent working only on characters and Nano I also went shopping and had lunch. It wasn't all work. It just felt that way.)

I woke today with tired eyes and seriously considered not Nanoing. I'm over two days ahead, so a break wouldn't hurt me. However, by 4:00 this afternoon, Madison was calling. As her willing slave, I capitulated and sat my butt down in front of the computer, managing to get over 300 words above my minimum.

However, I did a Nano no-no today: I went back into text I'd already written. I justify this by saying that I hardly deleted any previous text, I just added more. I realized yesterday (after finishing writing and laying around with my eyes closed and moaning pathetically) that the scene I'd written lacked purpose. Today I went back in and added purpose and plot advancement. I'm very pleased with the results even though I'm technically at the same story point where I ended yesterday. Those extra bits of information and conversation that I added today give real depth to the story and characters. Victory is mine!

I ran into an old coworker today who knew me when I was still working on my first novel, Areia. He asked how the writing was going. I asked him if he'd heard of the National Novel Writing Month in November. He hadn't. I said, "It's been keeping me busy." He still didn't get what it was. I wanted to ask him how he could not know about NaNo WriMo! Isn't it the central focus of everyone's lives? How is it not being reported on the news every night, broadcasted across the sky in those fancy plane writings, advertised ad nauseam on the radio? It feels that central to my life. But seeing his blank expression when I said "NaNo WriMo" brought me back to reality. I had to explain, "It's a challenge to write a book in a month, so I've been pounding out 50,000 words this month." He was suitably impressed.

Then he asked how I could do it. To which, I wanted to respond, "How can I not? How can you not? It's the chance to write a novel in month. It comes with a built-in support group. It's the opportunity to become a published author by getting another novel into text. How incredible is that! Grab a pen! Get busy." Instead, I only shrugged.

I think you either get it or you don't; you either have that drive or you don't. The authors out there understand. The rest of you, well, I don't understand you, either, but I'm glad you like to read!

Delusions of Time

I sat down at 11:00 today to write my Nano quota. I reminded myself of the wisdom of knowing more than I plan to write--of knowing the motives behind character's actions and knowing their pasts, even if their pasts are never, ever going to make it onto the page. Having fuller characters makes every story better. So I decided to write new character profiles today. I had three to do, with thoughts of flushing out Mr. Dark and Deadly from book one. Character profiles, for those of you out there without privileged, insider information into my computer, are three-page forms in which I fill out everything from the character's name, age, height, and birth date to their strengths and weaknesses, their friends and enemies, their hobbies and motives, and their philosophies and family. In essence, I try to capture everything about a character that makes them a person, well-rounded and believable.

It ended up taking nearly an hour per character. It was fun, but damn! That was time-consuming!

So even though I started over six hours ago, I've just finished with Nano. My eyes are beat. My thoughts are sluggish. But the good news: I'm over two days ahead of my Nano schedule!

Whole Foods and New Characters

A new Whole Foods opened up near us today. From how excited I've been about it, you would think they were going to hand out free books and have agents hoping to meet me in attendance. Okay, maybe I wasn't that excited. The store is huge (I think all Whole Foods are) and carries more varieties of organic and specialized foods and household products than I knew existed. For instance, did you know there's such a thing as goat ice cream? Fresh spices sold by the ounce? Frozen cheeseless pizzas? Hemp oatmeal? More than the one kind of environmentally friendly dish soap that my local, national-chain grocery would like me to believe is all that's out there? I tried my first persimmon today, and liked it. I was hoping to sample some wine, but that was a no-go. I was also hoping for more samples in general, but with how packed the store was, I don't think they would have fit.

We came away with just a few items, and only the wine was an impulse buy. It's an Argentinian Malbec. If it's good, I'll let you know. I could have spent my entire savings there today, and most of it in the sweet-filled deli. I was strong. I remembered that there are only two of us, and our pantry space is limited. It was tough, though, when everything looked so good.

The rest of today has been odds and ends, and Nanoing. I barely made it above my word count today by a hundred or so words. I felt like I'd written double my word count. I'm bringing new characters into the book, some of who will be sticking around through this book and several in the future, and that took a lot of energy. Suddenly I'm back to building entire people, with personality quirks, fashion tastes, and agendas that sometimes have nothing to do with Madison and sometimes have everything to do with her. It took more energy than I thought it did, and made the six pages I wrote feel like ten or twelve. Tomorrow will be more character development. Maybe I'll work on it before I write so that the characters come through stronger, faster. We'll see. That was the plan today, and when I sat down to write character bios, the story was there, at my fingertips, so I went with it instead.

The Strength of Perception

*Warning: This post is oddly deep and philosophical for me. Look for a more light-hearted post tomorrow, and if you're not up for philosophical, please simply take the pole to the right.*

Perception is the most undervalued strength of humanity. I've been thinking a lot about it lately. I read a wonderful book, Apocalypse 2012 by Lawrence E. Joseph, in which he details all the horrible things that could happen to Earth to bring about the prophesied apocalypse of world-altering change of 2012. The list includes a slew of natural phenomenon that could have horrific results on the human species: earthquakes and flooding, super volcanoes like the one in Yellowstone erupting, solar flares, weakening magnetic poles that normally protect the planet from radiation, asteroids...and the holy war in the Middle East. After all those horrific and uncontrollable possibilities, to the last, Joseph devotes a very lengthy part of his book, because the holy war is the most predictable and the most imminent.

Which is where we come to my boiled-down assessment of an extremely touchy subject: this impending holy war over Temple Mount is a war like all holy wars before it, built upon the perceptions of each individual--the perception of right and wrong, the perception of what is holy and what is impure, the perception of what happened and what didn't depending on each person's interpretation of words written thousands of years ago, the perception of who is right and who is going to burn in places potentially only perceived in the human mind. All this strife and conflict and hatred and importance has all been build upon a thought, a perception. It boggles my mind.

More recently, with the election and all the talk of change and hope, I've found myself thinking about the power of perception all over again. President Elect Barack Obama's speech on Tuesday night talked of the hope of America, that guiding beacon that has led our nation from a group of people who knew and believed that our country could be more than a colony of Britain to where we are today, where the young can feel entitled to job satisfaction, where all people can feel entitled to the very best opportunities, where all people believe that tomorrow will always be better than yesterday and that progress will always be made in a positive direction. We're a nation built upon a perceived ideas--of freedom, of hope, of rights and equality, of possibility and opportunity--and we've remained strong because of those perception.

I think a lot of people credit fear as the greatest motivator. Romantics say love is. I say that the greatest motivation is hope. But underneath and behind all those emotions is the powerful, guiding force of our own perception. Perhaps fear, love, and hope are all equal; it is only the strength of our perception that makes one stronger than the other.

New Poll: Are We Entitled to Happiness

I read in an article recently that (I'm paraphrasing) "the younger generation feels a sense of entitlement to job satisfaction." It was stated as if to say, "these young people have never had to work for anything and they still think they deserve to always be happy." I found it a bit offensive and a bit amusing. Aren't we all entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Doesn't that include happiness at our jobs?

Please take the poll on the right and let me know what you think.

Underage Fang

I think that I fell into the vampire boat with the same wave that was carrying the rest of the nation. There's been such an upsurge of interest in vampires in the last four of five years (at least for me--maybe longer for other people). It's everywhere I look now: in romance, in fantasy, in horror, in comic books, on TV, in movies. (And does anyone else think Evanescence is trying to look a little vampire/werewolfy in her videos? Check out her home page, or even her site gallery, and tell me if I'm wrong.)

There was a point in time when I resisted vampires, too. My downfall was Laurell K. Hamilton. Really, I guess I could blame Borders for placing the horror section at the end of the fantasy section so that they bled into each other, but I think blaming Hamilton is more accurate. I never would have been attracted to her book if they hadn't been so large. (I know, I'm so shallow!) For months, maybe a year or longer, I would see her series lined up, then already nine deep, each one larger than the last. I would read the titles or casually pick one up, read a line or two on the back, and set it back down. It was probably Cody who finally convinced me to get the first one--not because he has ever read one or even heard of Hamilton before I became her fan, but because he also saw the length of the series and each book's increasing girth and knew I'd be a happy girl for a long time if I liked the first book. One book in, I was hooked.

Since then, I now own and actively seek out five authors' ongoing vampire/wereanimal series, including Charlaine Harris (she's got a new TV show out, True Blood based on her series), Kelly Armstrong, Kim Harrison, Carrie Vaughn, and most recently the thoroughly unpredictable and unprecedented vampires of Robin McKinley's Sunshine. I've even added Buffy the Vampire Slayer to my list of favorite TV shows, and I only started watching the seasons this year. (Is anyone else disappointed that the vampires in the show are so ugly? I get that they're animals hunting humans, but I thought part of their predatory skill set was the ability to mesmerise people with their irresistible sex appeal. There's nothing sexy about those Cro-Magnon brows.) I never did read VC Andrews or Anne Rice, though. I completely missed them in my teenage years and have no desire to go back to them now.

However, there are some places I don't like vampires. Romance is one of them. I've tried several paranormal romances with vampires in them, and haven't really cared for them all. There's just nothing about blood sucking that does it for me. The only vampire romance that I've thought decent was by Katie MacAlister, but I've loved her other books, so saying I liked this one is kind of an insult.

And the whole reason why I started thinking about this topic in general is because I now know that I don't like vampires in young adult books, either. I think it might be more safe to say that I don't like young adult books in general, and not even a vampire element can improve them. In particular, I just finished Rachel Caine's Glass Houses. I really like Caine's adult fantasy series, and she's what lured me to the teen side of the bookstore in the first place. The story was well crafted, the characters completely believable, but the story was rather blah for me. As in, I was ready to be done with the book halfway through and then it was just a matter of making myself finish it so I could know how it ended. Maybe I would have liked it more if I were fifteen years younger, but even then, I think I was reading fantasy novels that were more risque (therefore, more exciting) than Caine's vampire novel.

Okay, okay, I hear you all clamoring that I haven't given YA books a fair shot, and you're right; I've only read one YA vampire book. I've completely missed the Stephanie Myer train that blazed across this country from New York to Hollywood. I haven't even read one of the book jackets for her books. But if it involves characters who are awkward around boys because they've never kissed them, have problems with parents that won't let them stay out too late, have to fit their adventure in around school or extracurricular activities, or are picked on by mean high school girls or boys, it doesn't interest me. I like blood and sex and carnage and adventure in my vampire novels. I want characters who're old enough to have figured out what they want and have the independence to go for it. I want the romantic climax of the story to have one, not just end in a kiss.

Unless a YA novel can offer any of that, I'm not going to be straying far from my fantasy/horror sections again anytime soon.

Election Snacks

I had a much longer blog planned, but I've reached the end of my stamina for today. I blame the UPS lady who tried to make a package I was shipping look like it had been put together by a three-year-old who had gotten a hand on one of those tape guns. Which isn't at all fair, but it did waste my time today and screw with my perfect plan, which included me already eating by now. The longer blog will have to wait until tomorrow. Right now, I'm all for making some appetizers and watching the news coverage on the election (interspersed with something completely mindless).

Postmarathon Warm Up

I started NaNo with a bang, on a weekend, with lots of free time to write. I was motivated to power through 2,667 words (8 pages) a day to reach my 80,000-words-in-a-month goal. I was excited to be writing again. I could do this!

Then I wrote, and was reminded that sustained creativity takes a lot of energy. Like taking the SATs, somehow creativity can drain physical energy. In essence, I was trying to run a marathon without training or warming up.

Even over the weekend, where I had no other taxing demands on my time, I was 167 words short of the 2,667 words on the first day, and 677 words short on the second day. I'm keeping track on a lovely Excel sheet (complete with inspiring colors), and I would look at the totals for the day, see how far ahead I was of my 50,000-words-in-a-month goal (833 words ahead on Saturday, 1,323 on Sunday) and be elated. Then I'd look at my 80,000-words-in-a-month-goal column and see how far behind I was, and suddenly I'm thinking how much I suck. This is simply not a good roller coaster to be on at the end of a session of writing.

So I'm removing the column that makes me feel like I'm failing even when I'm doing exceptionally well, and I'm going to take a more realistic approach to this challenge. My daily word count goal is back to 1,667 words a day, and anything above and beyond that is a plus.

Lactose Dreams

I've recently been testing a theory that I might be lactose intolerant (though I desperately hope not). Thus, for nearly a month now, I've cut all dairy out of my diet. Unless you count the milk that's in dark chocolate, which I don't, and fortunately, it doesn't look like my body does either. However, one month without ice cream, frozen yogurt, and cheese does things to a girl's head. Like make her dream about eating--specifically, eating dairy.

I never dream about eating. I dream about everything from the mundane to the excitingly adventurous, but not eating. And yet, Friday night I dreamed that I ate a dish of pasta, only to discover when I was done that the noodles had been filled with cheese. I was very upset in the dream, afraid of the consequences, and disappointed that my experiment to see if I am lactose intolerant was compromised. Last night I gleefully ate an entire tub of soft serve ice cream with M&Ms in it, realized when I finished that I shouldn't have eaten it, and didn't feel bad about it at all.

I can't decide if these dreams are a good thing or not. Clearly I'm craving all the foods I've cut out, which I suppose is bad. But in my dreams, I'm getting to enjoy them without any negative side effects. I think the this-is-a-good-thing side wins this time, but only by a slim margin.

It's NaNo WriMo Time!

I woke up this morning long enough to snooze the alarm and roll over. I was almost back asleep and then it hit me with the same feeling that I got as a little kid on Christmas: today was NaNo WriMo day! I was out of bed in a flash of energy and enthusiasm.

It's now much later in the day and I've finished my writing goal (with a long break in the middle to dart up to my mom's house), and my earlier enthusiasm is still in my thoughts, but my energy is drained. I wrote 2,500 words today (nearly 8 full pages), and I've reached the end of today's stamina.

I am not strictly following the NaNo WriMo goals, so I won't be registering on their site this year. For starters, I'm not working on a completely new, original idea. I'm writing a sequel, which they frown upon, saying that they don't think precrafted or partially completed work allows a person to be as creative (or willing to be as awful as might be necessary) to complete the word count in a day. Also, the NaNo WriMo goal is to complete a 50,000-word novel. A 50,000-word novel is about 30,000 too short for my needs, but even though my goal is 80,000 words, but I'm not forcing myself to write more than the 1,667 words a day that will get me to 50,000 words by the end of the month; I'll just extend my personal due date to November 18, if necessary.

With that said, check back for updates to the tracking meter to watch my progress, and feel free to cheer me on with wonderful comments, as you have been. I very much appreciate the support!

Right now, I'm going to go enjoy a much-deserved glass (or two) of a delightful wine I just discovered yesterday (by one of my favorite wineries): Rosenblum Celler's Chateau La Paws Cote Du Bone Roan. I picked it up because of its name; I bought it because the label on the back says that the money from my purchase of this bottle supports animal charities. It's the best of two worlds.

And I have one final thing to share for the day. Zenzo, my little girl cat, has been greatly enjoying the cold, rainy weather in her favorite (adorable) way...

...bundled up like a burrito.

Characters Coming Out of the Woodwork

With NaNo WriMo bearing down on me, I've been a little concerned about book 2. I've known the plot of it nearly since I finished book 1, but knowing the main events doesn't make a story. I needed to know the characters. At least four new main subcharacters are going to be introduced in book 2, and if they don't work, the book won't work. Until yesterday, they were vague, disembodied ideas.

I didn't plan yesterday to flush out the characters--it just happened. I was on the treadmill (which is a great place to do some thinking) and I was going over changes that I need to make to book 1 in my head. I came up with some brilliant connector bits that I hadn't realized until that moment were needed to fill weaknesses in my story. Once those were in place, it was like the characters for book 2 came out of nowhere, complete with names, ages, appearances, regions, and personalities. They were talking, practically on top of each other, to each other, to me, to themselves. It was fabulous.

I darted back up to my apartment (on rather wobbly legs), practically shushed Cody when he tried to talk to me, and spent the next twenty minutes writing down notes of everything they'd said to me.

I'm officially ready. Bring it on, NaNo. I'm not scared.

Falling Behind

I am behind--three books behind, to be specific. Not on my own writing, though honestly I'd love to have three books published by now. If you'd asked me when I was 18 years old how many books I'd have published by now, I'm sure I would have said five. So technically I'm behind in that too, but I'm not going to think about that right now--too depressing.

I'm concerned because I'm behind in the number of books that I've read this year.

Don't you keep a list of the books you read in a year? Doesn't everyone? I started last year, and by this time in 2007, I'd read 44 books. This year, I'm only on book 42. I'm sure there are people out there that are scoffing at that number because, a) they read that many books in the first three months of the year and they think I'm a total slacker, or b) they haven't read that many books in the last three years and they think I'm crazy for feeling like I'm behind and I have way too much time on my hands. There's a potential for a third category of people who are thinking that I'm silly for even making a list in the first place. To them, I ask: If I hadn't kept track of the books I'd read last year, how would I know that:

• 28% of the books I read last year were fantasy, 24% were romance, and 10% were paranormal romance (I only just discovered the paranormal romance genre at the end of 2006, and the blend of my two favorite genres was a miracle to behold--as my 2008 numbers show).
• I read 52 books last year, though not one book a week.
• I read the most books in May (7).
• The author I read the most was Janet Evanovich, but there were only five other authors that I read more than one of their books (P.C. Cast, Laurell K. Hamilton, Jude Deveraux, Karen Marie Moning, and Lora Leigh).

I haven't run all the numbers for this year since it's still not over, but paranormal romances have definitely jumped to the most-read slot with 14 of the 41 books I've read this year falling in that genre. Fantasy's a close second, followed by non-fiction (I'm as surprised as you), and finally romance. This year I decided to keep track of which authors I was reading for the first time--so far, 18! That's far more than I thought. I think this proves I'm past my lack-of-new-author rut*.

(*When I was around 18 or 20 or so, my taste in books changed. Before I'd been reading a lot of epic fantasy and historical romances. By something about all the changes in my life changed what I wanted to read, and by the time I graduated college, the authors of my teen years no longer appealed to me. It took me a while to find new sub-genres in the fantasy world to like (like contemporary fantasy, urban fantasy, certain horror that's character driven and not a celebration of gore). And, of course, I recently discovered paranormal romance, the blend of fantasy and romance in sometimes contemporary but always interesting worlds.)

So now I have lots of authors I know and love, and I know where to go when I run out of unread books on my shelf (if you knew me and my book-buying obsession, you'd be laughing right now), but I'm still behind.

It's not my fault though. It's not even events in my life that are to blame. No, I blame Jacqueline Carey. In July I read Kushiel's Justice, the fifth book in the Kushiel series. It utterly captivated me. I walked through life in a daze, my mind still exploring her world even when I wasn't reading. When I finished the book, nothing else sounded good. For a few days, then for a few weeks. This is unheard of for me. If I don't have a book to read, Cody goes into hiding. I become a bit crazed. I need my reading fix. But not this time. I was sustained on the story I'd just finished reading. Now that's a good story. One day, I hope Areia can do the same for other epic fantasy lovers out there.

Until then, I've got some serious reading to catch up on.