Unexpected Delights

Okay, okay...I'll give a thumbs-shot some thought. I have to consider whether I'd want them to show up all over the web as the target for all genetically engineered thumbs of the future. Hee-hee.

Anyway, today I want to post about yesterday. (On Thursday I just leave the whole day wide open for Thursday 13 stragglers--I figure it's a blog freebie day). Yesterday we were busy, and by the time we found our way back home at 3-ish, I had sort of a headache and knew I wouldn't have much time to write because my son had a game at 6:00. So I blog-bounced for a little with a Dr. Pepper for company and gradually started feeling a little more up to the task of writing. (I did have to get my 100 words in afterall). So I started and it was going fine: my heroine was doing an Internet search, so I did the search to see what I came up with and make it sorta legit. Anyway...long story for another time...I found that her search is now foreshadowing for the climax scene of the book. How cool is that?! In a rather unbelievable coincidence, several of the details in the book are now all linked up. I'm so psyched! I had to explain the whole thing to my husband last night even though he doesn't really know what's going on the book, just because I was so excited. He was very impressed. So yesterday was a good writing day after all.

And check this out...on Wednesday, we were lucky enough to be invited to go 'Behind the Scenes' at the Houston Downtown Aquarium. This is Nero...
He was right there!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Summer Sensations* We've Managed to Fit In So Far... * my husband's word

1. Swimming! Lessons and general playtime.

2. Squirt guns (mostly 'in your face') and water balloons.

3. Watermelons--I think we've had three now.

4. Summer Reading Lists. My older son has earned two free books so far, and my little one has earned one.

5. Snowcones. We've only been once so far. The flavors picked were birthday cake and pineapple.

6. Coach Pitch Softball. Today is practice number three, and tomorrow is game number 2.

7. Summer movies. They've seen Surf's Up and Pirates of the Caribbean, and are waiting patiently for Ratatouille.

8. Sunburn. Too long at the pool one particularly sunny day.

9. Mosquito bites. Just a few so far...crossing my fingers...

10. Wild summer storms. I just don't want the hurricanes!

11. Sailing

12. Vacation Bible School

13. Slip n' Slide. Not me personally...

I'm hoping for the barbeque and fireworks this coming week. And my vacation won't come till later in the summer.


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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by a new blogging buddy Ava Rose Johnson. (And I haven't done a meme in for-ever.)

Here are the rules:

A. Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.
B. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. I have a compulsion to end a meal with something sweet. And a sub-par meal can be redeemed with an awesome dessert.

2. I'm a very squeamish and nervous person.

3. I love to swim and play in the water, but no squirt guns.

4. I think I'm more stressed now as a stay-at-home mom than when I worked ten hour days as an engineer.

5. I am a proud self-published author. And I may decide to go the same route with book number 2, having learned so much from the first go-round.

6. I sleep on my side, with the pillow tucked between my cheek and shoulder.

7. I wish I was more outgoing and less self-conscious.

8. My thumbs are not average thumbs. My brother used to call them martian thumbs, but my husband just tells me they're 'highly developed'.

Wow, really? Eight people? Okay, probably lots of you have already done this meme but I tag Stephanie, Stacy, Lara, Vicki, Beck, Christine, Sara, and Trish.

Butt Why?

Yesterday afternoon, after a frenzy of phone calls to friends to see if anyone would go sailing with him, my husband had me drop the kids off with my in-laws and go with him myself. I don't do this too often, 1) because the kids don't much like to sail--the speed and splashed-up water freaks them out a little (and I can't leave them on the beach alone), and 2) I'm not all that helpful with the rigging, being sort of petite. But yesterday we went, and other than feeling slightly nervous (I don't much like it when the boat starts tipping) and slightly nauseous, we had a good time. We missed out on the dolphins my husband usually sees jumping right alongside him, so that was a disappointment, but it was still a very nice afternoon.

While we were there, a lady was packing up her kids to leave the beach, and while getting them into their car seats, found she wasn't nearly as dextrous with a cigarette in her hand. So she threw the longish butt out onto the beach. This bothers me on a variety of levels, but I'll try to rein myself in to one single rant. My question--and it's one I've puzzled over for some time now--is how can a person who clearly enjoys nature and outdoor pursuits just toss still-burning trash right into the middle of it all? Did she not realize that she was littering? Because cigarette butts are trash, no question. Did she somehow think that one little butt wouldn't make a difference? Even if that were the case, she probably smoked several cigarettes while at the beach herself, and I'm sure she tossed out all the butts. Does she like going to the beach, driving up to see empty bottles, wrappers, and....CIGARETTE BUTTS?? Not really my idea of a lovely day-at-the beach.

But this happens everywhere. We'll be hiking in the mountains and see people do the same thing. I don't get it--it's counter to common sense. Of course, so is smoking, but that's another post altogether. In the last house I lived in, my neighbor's father was a smoker. He used to wander around outside smoking and then toss all the butts into my yard. (Likely his daughter had told him not to drop them in hers). So, I'd find them, and rather than throw them away, I'd toss them right back. Let her find them and chew her dad out for littering. In my opinion, butt-tossers should be fined as litterers, and much more heavily fined for littering in recreational spaces. But I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon. Can you tell this just totally bugs me??
---Rant now over---

Cover Art

Is it just me, or does Jenny Crusie just get the best covers??

I'd never heard of her when I was browsing through the paperbacks at Target years ago and saw that glossy red apple on the cover of Welcome to Temptation. That cover lured me in. I kept smoothing my hand over it, excited to get started reading. Well the stories hooked me, but each cover wows me as much or more than the last. Beautiful, classy matte covers with just a tease of the book inside.
And just look at the ones coming this summer...


Another gorgeous cover...

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Places I'd Like to Visit (and the books I blame for it)

1. Corfu, courtesy of Mary Stewart's This Rough Magic

2. Delphi, Greece, courtesy of Mary Stewart's My Brother Michael
(I love, love, love Mary Stewart)

3. Prince Edward Island, courtesy of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series

4. Birmingham, Alabama, courtesy of Anne George's Southern Sisters mysteries

5. San Celina, California, courtesy of Earlene Fowler's Benni Harper mystery series

6. Temptation, Ohio, courtesy of Jenny Crusie's Welcome to Temptation

7. Ireland, courtesy of Nora Roberts' two Irish-set trilogies

8. Provence, France, courtesy of Marne Davis Kellogg's Kick Keswick adventure series.

9. Northern Italy, courtesy of Adriana Trigiani's Big Stone Gap trilogy

10. London and the English countryside, courtesy of years and years reading Regency and Victorian set romance novels by a good variety of authors

11. Hogwarts, courtesy of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

12. Scotland and the Isle of Skye, courtesy of many Scottish-set novels, one among them Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart

13. Rivendell, courtesy of J.R.R.Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

(Side note: I do realize that some of these places are imaginary)



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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Total Burn

So I'm trying to ease myself back into yoga/pilates yesterday after a very busy week prevented me from finding the time--I try to take an hour after my husband comes home so he can spend time with the boys before they have to go to bed--but last week we had Coach Pitch and Zoobilee and scads of other things too, so I missed. Any-way, I told my older son I'd play one game of Battleship (he's still learning not to cheat, and it's a slow process--he asked me yesterday halfway into the game if he could move his ships) and that I'd then be going to do my yoga.

He follows me in there and says he'll be doing it with me. So we start with the deep breathing, and he's pestering me about when we're gonna get to the good stuff, then we move on to some leg lifts and 'balancing on the sacrum', which he only attempts half-heartedly. Then on to the stretching, deep breathing, and relaxation. After all this, he's pumped for the pilates. Makes one of us...

So we start the pilates workout (every bit of which is still relatively difficult for me), and while I'm tense, strained, and in pain, he's flopping around with bent knees, only doing half the sets, only paying the slightest bit of attention. So about five minutes into the grueling thirty minute workout, he stands up and says the following.

"Since I've already mastered this one, can we get the next DVD in the series and I'll do that one while you still do this one?" Talk about harsh! And after listening to all that, I STILL had to work my way through twenty-five minutes of pilates. When I finally do master this video, my family will be able to use my stomach as a step stool for getting things off the high shelves. It's good to have a purpose.

I can only strive to have abs like my little potbellied seven-year-old.

Please Enlighten Me!

Sometimes, I admit, I can be a little dense. So I'm hoping someone can help me, at least in this specific instance. Last night, right before I turned off the computer, I swung by Diana Peterfreund's thought-provoking blog, saw her last entry was over at Romancing the Blog (which I consistently forget to visit), and swung over there.

I read her post, which I thought was clever, funny, all that...but I didn't get the last line. Then I read a few of the comments, and everybody loved the last line. So now I've gotta know...what am I missing???

A Little Funny

Today I have a little boy story for you...

This morning the boys were having trouble getting along and then finally teamed up to start up a diary. The general gist of this idea was that they'd record all the bugs they found in the house and what they were doing.

First entry: "I saw a daddy long legs. I found him behind the door. He doesn't have a web. Now he is poopin on the wall, now it's dead. One spider put more blood in him." (Translation: he lives!) Side note: there are no, repeat no, daddy long-legs in our house.

Shortly after they begin this project, we have to go and run some errands. I'm off getting ready and arrive at the front door to hear this conversation:

Little One (5yr.): "....I'm gonna but that in my diarrhea."
Big One (7yr.): "No, no, a diarrhea is a bunch of fruits."

I couldn't help but burst out laughing. I told them both that that's not what diarrhea is. But Big One assures me he's heard someone say that before.

Any--way, I should be in for some doozies next week as I'm the 'Leader' for the 1st graders in our church's Vacation Bible School. Basically I'm in charge of keeping them in line, literally and figuratively. I'll need the weekend to rest up.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Great Characters

1. Indiana Jones

2. George and Ron Weasley of Harry Potter fame (and possibly Severus Snape)

3. Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's Belgian detective

4. The Bridgertons, the alphabetized family created by Julia Quinn

5. Elizabeth Bennet, show-stealer from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

6. Anne of Green Gables--such spunk!

7. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli from The Lord of the Rings

8. Francis the Badger, one of my childhood favorites

9. Emily Bromley, scandalous widow and amateur sleuth, created by Tasha Alexander

10. Melissa Romney-Jones (a.k.a Honey), proprietor of The Little Lady Agency

11. The Goodnights, one of many wacky and endearing families from the oh-so-clever mind of Jenny Crusie...from Faking It.

12. Patricia Anne and Mary Alice of the Southern Sisters Mystery Series

13. Bennie Harper, Earlene Fowler's quirky cowgirl sleuth.



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Recap

Good meeting! I didn't get too, too much out of the humor workshop, but it was definitely interesting. She had a few good tips, including a suggestion to plan a rewrite for your characters to 'flush them out with humor'. Julia London herself does three passes. Once for the hero/heroine. Once for the secondary characters. And a third time for the romance plot. She then gave us a handout with a basic paragraph. We were supposed to rewrite it and add wit (finding the humor in people), then repeat and add satire (finding humor in life or the world), and once again to add humor (poking fun at yourself). I didn't catch whose definitions those were. Some interesting results.

Disclaimer: Julia London was speaking very quickly for the duration of the second workshop, and I did my best to capture the info as accurately as possible. If something here is incorrect, it was unintentional.

The second workshop was really sort of fascinating, if inconclusive. She had polled eleven best-selling romance authors (all but one NY Times) as to what sort of promotion techniques they had used and what they'd found to be successful. She covered printed materials, the Internet, public events, publicists, PA's, etc.

Some of the info came as no surprise. Pretty much everyone felt that websites were the best tool an author can have, and that they should be updated regularly with new, fresh content. Ooops. It's just that I don't have much going on as an 'author'. That's why I have my blog.

Bookmarks and postcards were sort of a mixed bag as were newsletters. Pretty much it was personal preference. Some authors did each and felt strongly about it. Julia London did a virtual blogging tour and felt that it was a tremendous promotional opportunity but too exhausting to repeat regularly. She had also recently done a book trailer relatively inexpensively and had found that her site hits doubled in a month long (or some such) period. Plus, both her publisher and Waldenbooks posted the trailer. Booksignings were essentially billed as a necessary evil, paid ads were encouraged, particularly in Romantic Times Bookclub if you or your publisher can afford it, and if not, Romance Sells was touted as a very reasonable alternative.

Mollie Smith, who is Jenny Crusie's 'Girl Friday', suggested a 'cross-contest', whereby you find someone who is writing on your level, in the same genre, and host a contest with each other's book as the giveaway. This builds your mailing list and potentially builds readership by luring in targeted readers. Also suggested was that you ask your publisher what they can do for you, because whatever you do is a drop in the bucket compared with what they can do if they're really behind your book.

Hope that helps! Thank you Julia London (and all you best-selling authors that participated in the survey)!

Ahhhh....

I have just discovered the theraputic powers of Dove ice cream bars. I was first introduced to them in Welcome to Temptation by Jenny Crusie--they were the solution to many a problem in that book--and I don't know why I didn't trust such sound wisdom. (Probably because Dove bars are expensive, and I am cheap.) But today, a hellacious day, I found the little ones on sale at the grocery store and splurged. And just now, I had one each of the Cherry Royale and the Double Chocolate. Unbelievably yummy, and I feel better now, calmer, and ready to face an afternoon of editing. This just reaffirms my belief that I have so much to learn from Jenny Crusie.

In other news, I'm trekking across town tomorrow for an RWA meeting. The speaker will be best-selling author Julia London, and she plans to speak on both 'The Art of Writing with Humor' and 'The Seven Hightly Effective Promotional Habits of Bestselling Authors'. Should be great. I'll report back.

On to the editing....and perhaps one more Dove indulgence.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Favorite Chain Restaurants That Make My Life a Little Easier

1. Wendy's--definitely not my number one, but totally my sons'. Personally I don't understand why they keep discontinuing all the good stuff. Way back, they had the absolute best hot dogs, then they had a chicken caesar pita that I LOVED, and then I was very fond of the Greek salad, but they got rid of it.

2. Chick-fil-A--I almost always order the Chickin Strips Salad, but I like the nuggets, fries, and coleslaw on occasion as well. Their kid-meal prizes are great too.

3. Schlotzsky's--For a long time I only ordered the Original, but now I get the Veggie, and with the spicy ranch the put on it, it's awesome. Plus their carrot cake (a recent discovery) is amazingly yummy.

4. Pizza Hut--while I may get my fix from the Target Food Avenue, I still think this pizza is the best of any chain I've had.

5. Chipotle--I always, always get the barbacoa, either in crispy tacos or a salad--their honey-lime chipotle dressing is awesome.

6. Pei-Wei--I've loved everything, but the Pei Wei Spicy Chicken with noodles instead of rice is my (and my husband's) absolute favorite).

7. Sonic--How can you not love a place that will make you a pineapple Dr. Pepper, a vanilla Coke (fountain), or a foot long chili cheese dog with tater tots and onion rings?

8. Boston Market--mostly in the winter. I love their chicken tortilla soup--they serve it with corn chips and cheese (they used to give you green onions but don't anymore) and a square of yummy-sweet cornbread.

9. Arby's--I've always liked their roast beef sandwiches and their special 'Arby's Sauce' barbeque sauce, but now I get their Market Fresh roast beef, loaded with toppings.

10. Taco Bell--They make a pretty good bean and cheese burrito for $0.59. I also get the Taco Supreme, but nothing else. What can I say, I'm a purest.

11. Taco Cabana--This might be a Texas-only chain, and it's billed as Patio Tex-Mex. Most everything I've had is yummy, but my standby's are the bean and cheese taco and bean and cheese chalupa and cheese enchilada plate.

12. Berryhill--A relatively recent discovery. They have awesome fish tacos. For Trish: they have fried/tempura style with cabbage slaw and some sort of dressing in a corn tortilla, or they have grilled with Romaine letter, pico de gallo and a different sort of spicy dressing.

13. Jack-in-the-Box--who can resist those two tacos for 99 cents that are just a big greasy crescent of questionable meat product with a slice of cheese, a handful of iceberg lettuce, and a squirt of salsa?? Not me!




Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Dual marathon

My husband and I are a little past the halfway mark on a Gilmore Girls First Season marathon. (If you can really call a couple of shows a night a marathon). The DVD's are due back to the library on Wednesday--I can't renew, already checked--so we're trying to power through them. And despite the complaints early on, my husband is sooo totally hooked. He actually cues it up now and insists we watch 'just one more', even though that means he's going to bed at midnight (which he NEVER does). Last night I teased him for literally 'giggling like a school girl'. He's a total convert and a closet romantic--I think his favorites are the shows where either Lorelai or Rory has a date. I'm going to have to pace him through the summer as we try to work through the remaining seasons. Then he'll probably be crushed the show's be cancelled.

The second marathon I have going on is more personal one. I'm reading Stephenie Meyer's New Moon and am HOOKED! I've had this book since before Christmas, having read and loved Twilight last year. But I didn't want to pull it out because I knew I'd be obsessed. As I've mentioned on this blog before, I'm not one of those people who can't put a good book--even a great book--down. No problem with that. But not these. There's just something hypnotic almost about these books. I don't like scary books, but these books are thrilling, spine-tingling, enthralling. They're also 500+ pages long! So you can't just whip through one--well I can't. You really have to dedicate some time. Let me just say that I was on page 13 on Friday night, and I'm on 450 now. And while I could be reading now, I have to get some things done sometime! I'm hooked, I've gotten my niece and sister hooked, and even my brother couldn't put the book down over the Christmas holidays. Literally--he wouldn't socialize with any of us, just sat reading. If you're not aware of these books--get them, read them, be amazed. Book #3, Eclipse (the third in a series of five) comes out in August. I'm psyched.

One down...

First of all, I can't believe I missed the fact that it was Thursday! No Thursday 13, no visits from Thursday 13'ers. No racking my brain to come up with a topic and then further racking it for an itemized list of 13. Darn it. Next week is gonna be my week. This week, I think, threw me because I was just back from NY and Monday was a holiday. Excuses, excuses.

In other news, nothing of any interest is going on here. The first week of summer is over, and we've all survived. There's been a lot of selective hearing, a lot of rowdiness, an excited beginning to the summer reading programs, and mish-mash of other activities. My little one keeps finding reasons to say 'refreshment' and is giddy at the possibility of any kind of snack, and my older one just wants video game time all the time and breakfast the minute he wakes up. Next week we start swimming lessons, so we've got to get an early start. This was a week of late starts.

I checked the first season of Gilmore Girls out of the library and have persuaded my husband to watch the first CD with me so far. Each night after sitting through a couple of episodes, he moans and informs me he thinks he's overdosed on estrogen. He wants a man in the show, offsetting all that femininity. But I liked it--it's fast paced and funny. Sarcastic and smart-alecky--I can relate.

In reading news, I finished A Dangerous Dress on the flight to NY--very interesting and different, and I bought Suspense and Sensibility for the flight home--I'm three-quarters through. Virtually no reading has occurred since I got back home, but otherwise, I've been very efficient. The boys are sort of doing their own thing with occasional refereeing from me, so I'm plugging away with laundry, dishes, cleaning, writing, and general odd jobs. Bravo!

No plans yet for the weekend, so we shall see...