Jane Genre

I have to admit, I'm falling more and more under the spell of the exploding genre of Jane Austen spin-off novels. It's a little like being in a secret club with loads of other people who love the original stories just as much as you. And the covers are just fabulous...

Just this afternoon I finished Austenland by Shannon Hale. I really enjoyed it. It was short but unique, and the writing style was quirky enough to appeal but not enough to distract. I currently have Me and Mr. Darcy (a Target Booksense Pick) on reserve at the library, and A Family Fortune in my TBR stack. I'm putting off Book 7 for this! But so far, so good.

Gilmore Girls

A few weeks ago I did a Thursday 13 on Places I'd Love to Visit, and the books I blame for it. Well...if we count TV shows, I can now happily add Stars Hollow, Connecticut, quirky hometown of the Gilmore Girls. My husband and I marathoned our way through Season 2 (which was already overdue at the library) this weekend, and even got our two sons watching a couple of episodes. My older son (seven) thinks Rory is 'cool'. And now I officially want to visit. I want to sit in the gazebo, stay at the inn, have burgers at Luke's, and be there for a festival or two.

I've now seen the 'jam hands' episode Virginia mentioned, but I'm not yet to the Mary Poppins/bungee-jumping scene I saw mentioned on another blog. I'm starting to feel a little 'in the loop', and my husband is still just as hooked. He regularly looks away from the television at me, grinning, and says, 'That's a good line.' Now Season 3 is on reserve at the library.

I need to figure out what else Jess has been in though...it's really been bugging me. A-ha! Checked IMDB--he's Peter Petrelli! From Heroes. AT LAST! Now I know.

Resolution Update

Since half the year is already over (more than, actually), I thought maybe I should check my resolution progress. I didn't really want to look, remembering that I'd said that this book--the one I've been working on FOR-EVER--will be done this year. But I did, and here's the status...

2007 New Year's Resolutions
1. Write six days a week. And on the seventh day, strive to keep my WIP fresh in my mind. I was doing this--100 words in 100 days, right??? But I derailed a bit on my vacation and haven't started up again yet. I'm catching up with my critiquing and my laundry.

2. Resolve all those open questions surrounding my manuscript. So not accomplished. If anything, now there are more questions now that I have a critique partner.

3. Finish it, revisions and all. Yikes! I better get busy! One more month of summer vacation and both boys are in school--I might manage it yet...

4. Pitch to an agent in person. Did it.

5. Query 10-15 agents via email or snail mail. Didn't do it...yet.

6. Refuse to get discouraged if I only get rejections. I was actually a little psyched by my last rejection--it was positive and encouraging.

7. Make the decision whether to pursue additional agents and traditional publishing or try going it alone again (via self-publishing). Still considering both options.

8. Read for pleasure--even a little bit--every day. Way, way, way behind. So many good books on my nightstand...

9. Tell myself everyday that my WIP is shaping up, getting better, and will eventually become a published book. Kinda-sorta.

10. Start on my next book. I have a new idea for a historical...I'm actually excited about it.

11. Blog five days a week on topics that will lure some more regulars. I'm still blogging about four days a week, but I have some new, fun readers.

And, taking a bit of advice from Jenny Crusie, I'm listing a few indulgences for 2007 too...

2007 New Year's Indulgences

1. Take (note that's not 'make') a little bit of time to write everyday. If I don't take it, it's lost to other things. Yes, yes, yes!

2. Read everyday...articles, novels, craft books, anything good. No, no, no.

3. Redesign and revamp my website and my blog--totally new look. More polished, more professional, more personality. At this point, I'm gathering ideas, thinking I'll work on it this fall when I need a break from writing.

4. Organize my office...which basically means buy all those cute and useful little office products to cheer me up and make me more efficient. Then use them. Kinda, sorta. Progress has been made.

5. Reward myself for each 2007 Resolution accomplished. This probably means in books, but a luxurious vacation would be nice too. Oh, I've been suitably compensated with books. No luxurious vacation on the horizon though...
All right! So not too shabby. I'm actually encouraged. Now if I could just get this book finished...

Thursday 13...Just happened to remember

Thirteen Foods My Husband Doesn't Care For

1. Cream cheese

2. Onions

3. Nuts (except for peanuts, cashews, and macadamia nuts)

4. Berries (except for wild blueberries)

5. Mustard

6. Cold vegetables (I can't think of a single exception)

7. Shrimp

8. Cantalope

9. Salmon

10. Tuna salad, chicken salad, pasta salad, etc.

11. Broccoli

12. Yogurt

13. Black beans



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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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Colorado

So vacation is over--it was exhilarating and exhausting, but now it's over, and I'm not sure when the next one will be... Here's a recap:

We arrived in Denver on Monday evening and had dinner with my husband's grandparents. Tuesday morning was also spent in Denver, and we had lunch with some more relatives. Midafternoon we drove up to Estes Park to stay at the YMCA of the Rockies. I must say, I was very impressed. It's a 700 acre complex surrounded on three sides by Rocky Mountain National Park. All the cabins were already reserved when we made reservations, but we got a room in one of the lodges, and it was fine. We did horseback riding (by boys' first time, my second), mini-golf on site, tried to do swimming but lightning was spotted in the area, went on a mini hike, and drove into Estes Park to eat and shop around a little. On Thursday, we left the YMCA for a hike in the Wild Basin area of RMNP.
We hiked to Ouzel Falls, which I believe was about 2.5 miles up and back down. My little one made it all on his own. My older one talked the whole time and wanted to go on (which he and my husband did). On the trip back down, he then fell and had to be carried back on my husband's shoulders almost the whole way. Thursday night we were back in Denver. Friday we braved WaterWorld, Denver's water park. Great park, but the water was freezing, and you had to hike your tubes up these steep, heart-racing hills. Dinner with family on Friday night and my husband's grandmother's 85th birthday party on Saturday, and we were on the road back to Texas. And here we are...

No writing progress was made, no reading progress was made, but we had fun.

Vacation Is Over

After one long, exhausting, fun-filled week away from home, I'm back! We went up to Colorado, to Denver and Estes Park, and really had a full week. I'll be glad to be in my own bed, in my own room, without my two sons whispering from the next bed over. I was almost completely without computer access and only checked my email once. We did use my husband's laptop to watch a few episodes of the Gilmore Girls Season 2, but otherwise, we were pretty detached. So...I need to catch up! I plan on blogging again tomorrow with pics from my trip and trying to catch up with all of you--I've missed being 'connected'.

I did take a mini-hiatus from the 100 Words in 100 Days Challenge. I figured I didn't want to knock myself out trying to keep it going on vacation. So I'll just start over. In fact, since I'm really more in editing mode, I may adjust the challenge to fit: if I work on my WIP everyday, I'll count it as a day of progress...

Weird Things...

Two such things happened to me yesterday. First, in the morning I got an email from Amazon telling me that my recent order hadn't been processed correctly because either my credit card number, expiration date, or zip code didn't match. So, I clicked the link in the email to look things over. (side note: NEVER CLICK THE LINK! and dabble with your credit card number) But then my computer died, so I had to launch everything anew and just went directly to my Amazon account. I messed with some things (including my credit card number--I'd just recently added a new card) and then logged out. After everything was fixed I started to get a little befuddled because the order it specified was from back in February, not my most recent order from a few weeks ago. I preordered Harry Potter Book 7 way back then while ordering a few other books and assumed they'd charged my credit card for the completed portion of the order--I'd need to check my Feb. bill to be sure. But here it was again. At the time, I wasn't sufficiently weirded out to worry about it.

Then last night, while at the beach, I started to wonder if I'd fallen for one of those email scams. Usually they're so obviously ridiculous. But this one looked professional and had a listing of books I'd ordered. So I worried. It relieved me slightly that I was 95% sure I hadn't followed the email link to make any credit card changes, but still. Now I've double checked, and had my husband look around too, and I think I'm good. Whew! I still don't get the whole problem with the February order though.

The second weird thing regards a library hold. I'm constantly putting books on hold, checking up on them, removing the hold if I buy the book or lose interest. You could say I'm very vigilant about these things. So I put Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr on hold and was #9 in the request queue. A few weeks later, I saw that I was #10 and assumed I'd just mistaken my #9 place in the queue. But yesterday, I looked again and I was #12. How can this happen? Who is cutting in the library hold queue?!? I have no explanation for this, and it's bugging me. My husband has suggested that maybe one library's systems was offline, and that sounds logical, but for weeks???? It's definitely bugging me. But at least my credit card is not involved.

Thursday 13

Thirteen Ponderous Questions for Year 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

1. The obvious: Will Harry die?

2. The romance lover in me: Will Ron and Hermione hook-up?

3. What about Harry and Ginny?

4. Will Voldemort die? Will he be vanquished?

5. Is Snape a good guy or a bad one?

6. Will Hogwarts really close? What about Year 7?

7. Is Harry the answer to the prophesy, or is it really Neville?

8. If Hogwarts reopens, who will be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?

9. Will Harry go back to Hogwarts (assuming it opens)--will he graduate?

10. What are the 'deathly hallows'?

11. What are the Horcruxes?

12. Is Dumbledore really dead?

13. Will Rowling write any more books about Harry Potter?



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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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Welcome Lindy Hudis!

Today I'm welcoming debut novelist Lindy Hudis! She's the author of Weekends, which has gotten some awesome reviews; she's also a screenwriter and filmmaker, and working on novel number two City of Toys, which is based on her own life as an actress in Hollywood. So if have any burning questions for Lindy, like 'What's it like to offer the services of your husband for romance novel covers right on your website??' (Check it out!), then ask away!

My questions are below, with her answers.


1. What advice, as a screenwriter, can you offer a novelist?

Well, when you are writing a screenplay, you have all kinds of other factors that play in: how much will this scene cost? How long will it take to shoot? That kind of thing. With a novel, you can let your imagination run wild, so to speak. You can have your characters do just about anything, and not have to worry about going over the budget, lol. I do enjoy writing both.

2. What made you decide to branch out from screenplays to novels?

I just love to tell stories, and I do write both. However, I started out writing screenplays. I had written the screenplay to my mystery novel CRASHERS back in 1997, and I was told that if I wrote the novel version, then that may be a way to get my foot in the door. I love the freedom that comes with writing a novel. However, then somebody will want the screenplay, so you are back to square one, lol.

3. What is your writing process? Are you a plotter/pantser? Do you do outlines/index cards? Do you write sequentially or do you go where the story takes you?

My stories are very character driven, so I let them take me on the journey. I don't use outlines or index cards, bad memories of high school term papers, hehe. I try to get into the mind of my characters, just like I used to do when I was an actress. I almost use method acting when I am writing a story. I think "what would my character do now?" and I let them tell me the story. I just type it out.

4. How do you balance your writing with the rest of your life?

Well, I am the mother of a 4 1/2 year old and a 3 month old. It is hard to write and feed a baby at the same time, but I manage to do so. My husband works in the movie business (he is a stuntman) and I am running the house all by myself when he is working. I just take a deep breath and do my best. I write when my preschooler is at school and when the baby is sleeping. It is hard, but I think it is more challenging and fun than anything else. I am a Virgo after all... we love a good challenge!

Tomorrow: Lindy Hudis

Just a heads-up. Tomorrow I'm the stop on screenwriter/filmmaker/novelist Lindy Hudis' Virtual Blog Tour. She's promoting her debut novel Weekends, which has gotten rave reviews. I'll have some questions for her, and if things work right, she should be here to answer your questions as well. So stop by!

Another meme!

I was tagged by the ever-feisty Stacy

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was totally ensconced in work and married-without-kids life. I'd been working three years at that point, married the bulk of that, and my husband and I were living in Cedar Park (just outside Austin). I'm not sure why we moved there as hubby was horrendously allergic to cedars, which just happened to line the back side of our back fence--Cedar Park, go figure.

What were you doing 5 years ago?

Five years ago, I was a stay-at-home mom in charge of a six-month-old and a two-and-half year old. I was very busy. During their nap times, I worked on endless edits and revisions of what came to be my self-published, first book Unladylike Pursuits.

What were you doing 1 year ago?

Last year I was dealing with a six-and-a-half-year-old and a four-and-a-half-year-old for a long, hot, rowdy summer. I prefer not to think of it. Seriously though, we had plenty of fun and kept busy. In the writing world, I was working on my current book.

I'm still (obviously) working on my current book...this marquee could be up for a while.

What are 5 snacks you enjoy?

1. Chips and salsa--I can't get enough
2. Popcorn, really any variety
3. Hot Tamales, which I'm trying to stay away from so as to avoid more dental work
4. MacIntosh Apples
5. Ice cream

What are 5 songs that you know the lyrics to by heart?

1. A ton of Shania Twain songs--my youngest loves all of them
2. Wide Open Spaces by the Dixie Chicks
3. Lost in Love by Air Supply (my sons are very fond of them now too)
4. Kokomo by the Beach Boys
5. Cupid by Sam Cooke

What are 5 things you would do if you were a millionaire?

1. Travel--particularly internationally--there are so many places I want to see.
2. I'd have a summer home to escape all this Texas heat.

Other that than, I don't think I'd change all that much. I'd like to think that I'd do something wonderful. Maybe it'll hit me when I'm actually a millionaire.

What are 5 bad habits?

1. Leaving stuff in little piles around my house that eventually must be cleaned up.
2. I hold a powerful grudge
3. Micro-managing (or so I've been told)
4. Letting exercise fall by the wayside
5. Second guessing home decor purchases--to the exasperation of my husband

What are 5 things you like doing?
1. Reading
2. Eating Out
3 Hiking/Walking
4. Shopping with mom and sister
5. Planting flowers

What are 5 things you would never wear again?

1. My husband chimed in with 'a wedding dress'.
2. A thong
3. Jelly shoes
4. A full-length nightgown
5. ??? I'm pretty conservative, so I can't claim to have ever worn many 'out-there' clothing items.

What are your 5 favorite toys?

1. Kitchen Aid mixer--I tend to bake a lot
2. AlphaSmart
3. Computer, although a laptop would be nice
4. My itty-bitty book light
5. My new camera that doesn't take five attempts to power it on. And it's light...and slim...and cute.


Who are the five people you're tagging?
I'm gonna give everyone a break and not tag anyone, since I tagged a bunch--eight!--last week. So...if this meme looks fun, go for it.

Fracas at the Lake

I'm getting so lazy about posting. Not really the regularity, just the length of the posts. Maybe it's because when I finally get a chance to sit down and work at the computer, I start thinking I should actually be writing. So...the blog suffers. But I have a good long story for you today.

There was tension at the lake. Frissions of tension between my sister-in-law and me. Usually the two of us get along pretty well. I tease alot (having grown up with it) and she doesn't get it (having grown up with nobody ever really teasing her). So she takes it wrong, I feel slightly insensitive, we both get over it.

So this time, my family (husband and boys) got to the lake Friday before her and claimed the one guest room with a queen size bed versus a bi-level day bed. She had invited a guest to the lake, who was coming a couple of days later (Monday afternoon), with whom she wanted to sleep, so the day of the trip to the airport, she hinted that she'd like me and my husband to switch rooms with her. I basically told her to forget it.

So that evening, after my boys had gone to bed, she 'suggested it' again. I should mention here that after two days at the Lake, my husband had to go back to work Monday morning, to return Tuesday night. I told her I wasn't interested in switching and these were my reasons:

1. She'd claimed dibs on the room with the double bed at Christmas, telling me it was first-come, first serve. Since I arrived first this time, I'd claimed it.

2. I'd been living in the room for two and a half days now, with my stuff scattered everywhere. Plus, we'd each slept on our respective sheets and used the towels in the adjacent bathroom. Switching at this point would mean a ton of laundry.

3. I had at least as much right to sleep on in the queen bed with my husband of eleven and a half years as she had to sleep on said bed with someone she'd been dating for two years, tops.

She dismissed all my reasons as ridiculous, told me she had much better reasons, and then refused to outline them. Told me she didn't have to 'stoop to my level'. As you can imagine, that got me all in a tizzy, and I started in with my 'you're a lunatic' voice. She then informed me that she couldn't respond to my comments because 'we don't talk to each other like that in my family'. To which I responded, 'because your family kowtows to your every whim!' She countered with the accusation that they actually kowtow to mine, and we were at an impasse. We didn't speak until the next afternoon. She did, however, tell my mother-in-law that since she wasn't getting the room, they'd just go to a motel.
Side note here: she did not have a vehicle to get to a motel.

At this point, my mother-in-law, trying to keep the peace, offered her room, with a king bed upstairs. My SIL said that it was 'not an option', that she wouldn't 'put her out'. Obviously she had no trouble putting me and my husband out. My MIL then changed the sheets in all the bedrooms, asked very graciously for hubby and I to move, and offered my SIL any room in the house. (This after my MIL admitted to me that she knew her daughter was having a tantrum, but she just wanted family accord.)

The following afternoon, I walked into the house to be confronted by my SIL. She said to me, "I want you do know that we're going to stay in this room (bi-level bed room) because I don't want to hurt my mom's feelings" (I'm paraphrasing here) "But let me tell you what I expect next time I come: I expect to be able to sleep with my guest...something something something" I said, "You are doing that." She said, "On a bed that's all the same level" Of course this ultimatum irritated me anew, and I set off on my tirade, and she once again dismissed all my arguments.

She and her guest left today after spending virtually the entire visit by themselves. She and I are still only speaking as necessary. We will see where things go from here...

Thursday 13

Thirteen 4th of July Mainstays

1. $5 t-shirts from Old Navy--we get them every year.

2. Flags, and personally I like the bunting

3. Fireworks, of course

4. Sparklers (my sister-in-law insists)

5. Hamburgers, hot dogs, or barbeque

6. Red, white, and blue everything

7. Late, loud nights.

8. Ice cream

9. Strawberries and blueberries--very patriotic

10. Swimsuits

11. The Lake--we meet up here every year.

12. Melting heat (although so far this year we have drizzle and cooler temps)

13. Family

Hope you all have a Happy 4th!


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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Funny Story

I'm at my in-laws' lakehouse for an extended holiday weekend, and I'm not getting much time on the computer. I have to sneak up while my boys (and their father) are doing other things besides computer games. But I'm doing my 100 words on my AlphaSmart, and it's going pretty well.

My mother-in-law, as I've mentioned before, is my biggest fan (as an author). She raves about my book, buys it for all her friends, encourages complete strangers to buy it, and demands that they remember my name when my next release finally makes an appearance. So...as you can imagine, I occasionally hear a few stories.

Many have wondered if it was based on my life (i.e. the sex scene specifically), and whether my husband truly is 'that good'. But I haven't heard anything like the one she told me Friday night over dinner. Evidently she encouraged a woman to read my book, and the lady loved it. LOVED it. Right up until page three hundred eighty-something. When she discovered the aforementioned sex scene. Then she was shocked and slightly disturbed. Not by any questionable content in the scene, but the scene itself.

She somehow got it into her head that she was reading a Christian/inspiration romance. How on earth she did, I have no idea. The front cover doesn't hint at that; neither does the back blurb. And I assure you my mother-in-law would NEVER have given her that idea. But that's what she thought.

When she mentioned her mistaking it for a Christian romance, my MIL said, "Christians have sex." and the lady said, "Of course. You need to to have babies." Hmmm...maybe the romance genre is not so much for her...