I Found Martha's Vineyard

I've heard tales of Martha's Vineyard, read books where the characters visit it or live there, seen it in movies and TV shows, but up until today, I never knew where exactly it was. I could have, at any point, gone to Google and checked, but I didn't. There wasn't a need until today when I was researching a scene. I wanted the main character to go there for a party, one that turns ugly and gets her into something far more dangerous than she can handle. The problem: it's too far away from New York city. I don't want to put my electricity-frying character in a car for that long, and I definitely don't want her on a boat. Both scenarios would cause too many problems at the wrong point in the story. She doesn't want to be in either of those situations, either.

Now I'm tasked with finding a very nice house of the rich and famous somewhere closer to New York. And it needs to be a house because it needs to have a basement. Unfortunately, none of my three maps have little labels that say "sprawling properties here." Back to the Internet I go.

New York, Everywhere

My head has been bouncing between four stories these last few days. For some reason, Areia (my ridiculously long first novel that I haven't touched for at least a year) would not be quiet. So I mapped out the rest of the story, realized that the 1,309 pages that I have would have to be squished down to 200 pages if I wanted to make the entire story one novel. Two would be better, but the only thing I can think of that was sold as a two-part series was something that Tad Williams did, and even then, I think it was his third in the series that was split into two books. So I ended up depressed with that whole scene. Yes, there's a way to make it three books rather easily, but for some reason, Areia was ready to be worked on, edited, and go, and my muse was telling me I could finish the whole book/series in a few days. Ha!

So I tried to focus on Madison again, but no, my new stories were interrupting. I've made my decision between the two plot ideas for the one I'll be writing in November (I went with the lighthearted romance/adventure instead of the apocalyptic one), so I told the apocalyptic one that I'd map it out second and set it aside. And since getting the November story mapped out is on my list of things to be done soon, I stopped fighting the desire to work on it...at some ungodly time in the night when I couldn't sleep because it wouldn't. So that's partially mapped and I'm really liking it and I went a different direction than I was thinking I would, which again turned into a blessing and got rid of a lot of pesky plot problems. The male lead is trying his hardest to not be a stand-up guy, though, and that's bothering me. I'd like my as-of-yet-unnamed main character to fall for a decent guy.

We just returned from Borders with research material: in this case, maps. For some reason, both the stories I was deciding between seemed to fit only in New York. I, however, have never been to New York, don't know anyone from New York, and in general couldn't tell you where Manhattan is in relation to New York City in relation to Martha's Vineyard. Until now.

I have three maps in my office: a state map, a close-up New York City map, and one of those artsy maps that has buildings and bridges drawn in 3D of New York City "and Region." It's New York everywhere.

In order to get them all to fit, I had to move my framed diploma to my second favorite spot in the room to use that wall for the 3D map, then tape another to the office door, and the third is across the accordion closet doors, cut along the seems and taped so the doors can still be opened. I'm rather liking that one the best right now. It seems the most creative. On top of that, I've got 3x5 cards taped all along the hall as part of my plot brainstorming (there was no wall space left in the office since Madison one [condensced version] and Madison 2 [full version] are still taking up the normal wall of choice). Cody just loves what I've done with the place (not).

Unfortunately, I've run out of tape. Which put a halt to plotting, and means I have to move on to the next thing on my list: research of the actual city of New York online. And, of course, before I go much further with this new story, I MUST finish Madison!

A Day Off

I was tempted to jump right into editing Madison again and working on the query and getting everything all polished, and then I realized that after working 14+ days straight, I simply didn't have the energy for it. So I took a day off.

Ah, bliss. I went shoe shopping. I went to one of those huge stores where they have at least 100 different styles of shoes all lined up on display, and all the boxes easy to grab from right beneath them—no waiting for salesmen to meander from the back room to the sales floor, no people trying to help you stuff your foot into a shoe.

It was interesting to watch the other women, too. They moved through the shoes the way I move through a bookstore, like it calmed them, righted their world, made their lunch hour better.

Of course, after I had that thought, I had to go to the bookstore. Gasp—shoe and book shopping in one day! I found sandals half off and a book for only $.69 after my coupons. It was amazing.

What's in a Number...

...Except, perhaps, a feeling of satisfaction. I have just completed my 55th book this year. That's a record for me, and not one I set out to break/make. In fact, I'm a little shocked to realize how many books I've fit into this year so far, especially considering everything else going on in my life.

I've looked back to months in which I knew I was terribly busy, and those are often the months when I have the most books completed. Perhaps this is a reflection on my general approach to books: a form of escape or relaxation. If I'm incredibly busy, then those are the months when I fill my breakfast time and teeth-brushing time with books, when I sneak a few pages before falling to sleep, or bring a book with me on an office visit to the chiropractor.

So far, romance is winning as far as most book's in a genre read in the year—but it's only winning by one, and only because I combined paranormal romance and regular romance into one category. Otherwise, fantasy has been the winner this year. I've been lucky to have a lot of my favorite authors release one or two books this year, which definitely helps matters. The fact that I've got a Jacqueline Carey sitting on my shelf unread, and have had it since July, says a lot—that I've been busy, that I've been blessed with a lot of good books, that I'm silly for waiting and savoring it.

Anyway, I hope you all have been equally blessed with reading this year.

Memory Lane

I've been listening to Johanna Lindsey's The Devil Who Tamed Her lately. There's a very boring saga that leads up to the reason why I selected this book from the library, but suffice to say, I'm relatively stuck with it at the moment. I'm also almost all the way done with it, so it wasn't bad enough for me to turn it off and seek other means of entertainment to relieve the tedium of my work. I never would have made it this far, however, if this was a book being read solely for pleasure.

I used to adore Lindsey. In fact, I collected everything she wrote. She was one of the first romance authors I found. I loved her characters, the era, the problems her characters faced. Listening to this one, I believe I realize why now: they dealt with issues I was facing as a teenager—fitting in, finding love—while being exotic enough in regency England to be an escape from my life. Plus, they had sex, which is always cool.

And now, I find myself laughing more often than not over the plight of the main character (she's positively too beautiful, and therefore no one gets to know the real her and all they see is her beauty). I wonder if I would have scoffed at this book even in my teen days.

This novel did take me back a bit though, to all those authors, like Lindsey, who I recently purged from my shelves. Lindsey (and Catherine Coulter and Judith McNaught) were my romance-reading foundation. I'm glad they were there for me when I was into those books, and I'm equally as glad that I've graduated into different authors now.

The Wisdom of Video Games

I had the best of intentions yesterday. I finished work, finished paying bills online, finished balancing the budget, and finished emailing people, which pretty much meant that I was finished sitting in this computer chair for a while. At least until after dinner. Then, I planned to return to write some no doubt mind-blowing, inspiring blog post that would leave you breathless.

Dinner came and went, but instead of returning to my computer, I switched on the PS3 and turned on Portal, a puzzle game that comes as part of the five-game Orange Box along with Half-Life 2 and a few other games.

Four hours later, I was stuck in the game, Cody was stuck with me, and I finally decided to turn it off. I stood up...and nearly fell back to the chair as feeling came back into my legs, my back tried to stiffen into a warped plank, and my bladder—my woefully neglected bladder, which I'd steadily been filling with glass after glass of water—reminded me of its existence. It was after midnight, so even if I had raced (okay, staggered) to the computer, I still wouldn't have gotten a post in yesterday. And despite the fun and challenge of the game, there wasn't a lot of anything left in me to write.

The experience, however, left me a little wiser:

1. Portal is dangerously addictive (though, that's okay now, because Cody and I beat the game this morning, so that addiction is out of my system).
2. Just like when sitting at the computer for long stretches of time, I do need to stand every once in a while and blink a little more often than I did.
3. Most important: We need new chairs!

The recliner that I sat in came as part of a package with Cody. It is 15 years old. The footrest has broken in the middle to a permanent dip. The arm padding is worn away enough that you can tell that the wooden boards beneath are no longer connected properly and have a tendency to give out if you attempt to use them to assist your upward momentum. But most important, any lingering traces of back support are gone.

My chair, which is now Cody's chair when we sit in the front room, is not a lot better. It's older—it was used before I got it 10 year ago. It will recline only with extreme force and a grating metallic sound that scares the cats. The handle to release the footrest broke, so Cody must reach under the chair and press a sharp lever to put his feet up. The footrest itself is crooked (I call it the Harrison Ford smile—take a look at his Indiana Jones smile, and you'll know what the front of my chair looks like when it is closed), so it doesn't like to close and must be mule-kicked into submission. And like my chair, there's only a wistful amount of support left in the back. The spring in the seat are rapidly giving up hope, too, so that it's gradually morphing into something that resembles upholstered quicksand. Not to mention that my cats thought the back of the chair made a great scratching post, so now it's shredded up both sides and a blanket is permanently tucked in around it to give it some semblance of class.

The time has come for new furniture. The surest sign (if this wasn't enough): the pieces selling for a mere $50 on Craig's List look like floor-room models compared to our furniture.

Cudos to Principals

I just finished watching a KVIE documentary on two different principals and their schools. Principals work hard! Cody, who was somewhat amused by my immediate emotional attachment to the lives of these people I don't know, asked me at the end of the show if I now wanted to be a principal. I didn't even have to think about my answer:

No way, no how.

It takes too much. Too much soul, too much heart, too much time and energy. It takes a certain kind of person to put that much of themselves into their job and come away feeling good and happy and pleased with what they do. I'm so thankful there are people out there who are replenished by being principals (and teachers and social workers).

Writing replenishes me. Getting to express my creativity is incredibly rewarding for me. By no way shape or form does it take that kind of energy from me, though. Goodness, I have so much respect for all of you who choose to go that route!