This post is chock-full of books!

March 30, 2012May 31, 201214 Comments

Things that gave me a good laugh this morning:

All I want is a library full of books and a prince telling me to pick one*…

*Book, that is. Not monks.

Also:

TC: Mommy, can we go outside to play?
Me: No, it’s all mucky and gross outside.
TP: Can we sit on the porch?
Me: No, you really don’t need to be out there.

Both give me their best pout.

Me: If you really want to go outside, one of you can get the diaper bag and the other can get my computer bag and you can take them out to the van for me.
TC & TP: Okay!

Oh, kids. 🙂

Speaking of kids, Cricket’s new favorite word is book. If all we did all day long was read Clifford’s First Halloween, I think he’d be in heaven. I, on the other hand, have grown quite tired of reading yet again about Clifford going trick-or-treating dressed as a ghost, getting a bath after eating a candy apple, and traipsing around a haunted house stuck in a glove. But this, too, shall pass, and I know from experience that once these days are gone, I’ll miss them terribly. Cricket’s a boy after my own heart. I’ve got a couple of pictures from story time a few days ago that I’ve been meaning to post on Facebook, but I haven’t done it yet. Maybe I’ll get to it over the weekend, if I’m not buried under a mountain of laundry. *sigh*

In other book news, you can now pre-order White Mountain, Book 1 of the Darkling Chronicles by Sophie E. Tallis. The book is set to come out in September from Safkhet Publishing. I predict it’ll sell faster than hot chocolate in a blizzard. 🙂

Also, I think I might have fixed a major plot problem in The Lokana Chronicles. Some more detail was needed in one place and hopefully I’ve fixed it now. I’ve tried twice already; I hope the third time’s the charm. But if it’s not, well, then I’ll just have to put my stubborn nature to good use and make it bend to my will. The Great and Powerful Seymour will yet be pleased. 🙂 I say that only because I think his crit made a lot of sense and I’m determined to tackle the problem head-on. As it says over at der Wendighaus, “Time to load the guns, brew the ink, and get to work because I am a writer and I am done fucking around.”

I think that’s about all I’ve got this gray Friday afternoon. Have a happy weekend!

The Lokana Chronicles (suddenlytheyalldied.com)
Something new! (suddenlytheyalldied.com)
Please, Mom? Just one more? (suddenlytheyalldied.com)
Newsy news (suddenlytheyalldied.com)

So, here we are again…

March 29, 201218 Comments

…Yep, that’s right, I’m back in black. Piano Black, that is. I loved the Bouquet theme I’d been using, but I didn’t love the way it made images in my sidebar so big. I spent last night playing around with themes, unable to find one that truly made me happy (Chateau? Pilcrow? Maybe Vertigo?). So now I’m back to Piano Black, but I wanted something lighter. Trouble is, without purchasing a CSS upgrade that I would be sorely confused by, there’s no way to change the font color and the background I picked for use here that actually looked really nice with the black transparent overlay was just too light for the font to be truly readable. *sigh* Back to the drawing board…

I may continue to play around with this for some time. Apologies in advance if something you liked disappears for a bit.

squee

March 24, 201210 Comments

The e-book version of Tuesday Daydreams is now available for Kindle! You can find it here or by searching for it in the Kindle store. Right now this is as far as I’ll go with the e-book version, but maybe next weekend when I will hopefully have more peace and quiet, I can get it formatted for other e-readers as well. Gretchen, any pointers would be much appreciated! Oh, yeah – I still have to read the Smashwords Style Guide I downloaded. That would probably help. 🙂

Between my excitement over having finally released a title and my fatigue from driving all over two counties today and my frustration with my oldest son, I’m a bit all over the place at the moment. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I see an adult beverage and a scotcheroo with my name on them. Happy weekend!

Someday…

March 20, 2012March 20, 2012Leave a comment

I can’t sleep and it’s driving me bonkers. Also, the pen I’ve been using doesn’t glide very well; it makes my writing look stilted and amateur. The nib keeps digging into the paper, which I find quite annoying because I don’t think I press that hard. Grip, yes. But then I always grip pens hard, so that’s nothing new.

Hmm.

Well, I guess I should try to get some sleep now as it’s after midnight and I do have to work in the morning. *sigh* If only I could pack the kids off to daycare so I could stay home and write. But then, that’s the dream.

Someday…

Save the Hobbit and other odds and ends

March 16, 20125 Comments

Once again, America’s overly-litigious nature has reared its ugly head. The target this time is a small pub in Southampton called The Hobbit.

Lawyers representing the filmmakers in charge of the movie The Hobbit are suing a pub in Southampton that has been known as The Hobbit for the last two decades. Evidently they’re concerned that said pub will infringe on their rights or something. I think it’s ridiculous that they’re trying to force the pub to change its name. For the full story, check out the pub’s Facebook page, Save the Hobbit, Southampton, and show your support of the pub by liking the page.

In other news, my good friend Lisa Wiedmeier wrote a guest post over at Aaron Patterson’s blog about the recent Amazon success of her novel, Cheyenne. It’s a great article and one I highly recommend checking out if you’re interested in self-publishing. Her next book, Promises, is due out in May and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

And finally, if you’re looking for a bit of fun on this lovely Friday afternoon, head on over to Rachelle Gardner’s blog and check out her St. Patrick’s Day haiku contest. You can find my entry in her comments section.

That’s all for me today! Time to call it quits and enjoy the afternoon. 🙂

Church protests not free speech issue

March 12, 2011March 8, 2012Leave a comment

I read this in the paper and felt compelled to post it. It’s another of Chuck Humeston’s columns from the Iowa Falls paper and I found it quite thought-provoking. Maybe when I’m not dying, I can even offer some of my own thoughts. We’ll see how that goes – I’ve been on antibiotics for three days now and I feel worse than I did the day I went to the doctor. Rotten death-plague. More on Westburro here!

Brrr, it’s cold in here…

February 8, 2011March 8, 20122 Comments

I got this email from my hubby last night. He got it from someone and made me read it, so I made him forward it to me and then I sent it to all my friends because it’s funny. It’s also true.

Cold is a relative thing. At 65° above zero, people in Florida turn on the heat. People in Iowa plant gardens.

At 60° above zero, people in California shiver uncontrollably. People in Iowa sunbathe.

At 50° above zero, Italian and English cars won’t start. People in Iowa drive with the windows down.

At 40° above zero, people in Georgia don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, and wool hats. People in Iowa throw on a flannel shirt.

At 35° above zero, New York landlords finally turn up the heat. People in Iowa have the last cookout before it gets cold.

At 20° above zero, people in Miami all die. People in Iowa close the windows.

At 0°, people in Arizona fly away to Mexico. People in Iowa get out their winter coats.

At 10° below zero, Hollywood disintegrates. Girl Scouts in Iowa are selling cookies door to door.

At 20° below zero, Washington, D.C. runs out of hot air. People in Iowa let the dogs sleep indoors.

At 30° below zero, Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Iowans get upset because they can’t start the snowmobile.

At 40° below zero, Hell freezes over. Iowa public schools will be open two hours late.

I’ve seen something similar regarding Minnesota, but this is funnier because I live in Iowa, not Minnesota. This morning it was -9° when I left for work. By the time I got to work, the temperature had dropped to -12°. I found this little gem especially appropriate this morning.

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It finally happened…

July 28, 2009March 8, 20125 Comments

…I finally found a book that, upon rereading, disappointed me. I just finished Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn, which I probably read sometime in late elementary school or early middle school (I don’t remember exactly, because it was a long time ago, so give me a break). At any rate, I think I must have read it when I was at an age to identify with some of the characters. There’s Molly, who is 12; her younger brother, Michael, who is 10; her mother, Jean; her stepfather, Dave; and her step-sister, Heather, who is 7. They move from Baltimore to this little country church, complete with graveyard, where Heather happens to befriend the ghost of a little girl who was just her age and even had the same initials. Both their mothers had died in fires and they became fast friends. Heather was not overly accepting of her father moving on with another woman, let alone of the woman herself (or Michael or Molly). Half the book involved Molly, Michael, and Heather fighting and then their parents ended up fighting. Molly felt like no one believed her because Dave and Jean (especially Dave) always took Heather’s side and after a while, this kind of got on my nerves, but not nearly as much as Dave himself did. He was always making excuses for Heather’s bad behavior, saying things like, “Well, she’s just an unusually sensitive little girl,” or, “She’s suffered a loss and just needs love and understanding.” Well, yes, but that only takes you so far in life. I guess that’s the part that bothered me: no matter what she did that was wrong (and plenty of it was horrible), he was always making excuses for her and he seemed completely blind to the fact that he was being played, that she wasn’t nearly as innocent as he thought. Now yes, she is just a little girl and yes, this is just a story, but it reminded me of one too many people I know in real life who have that same attitude of, “Well, I’ve suffered a loss, so you all should feel sorry for me and let me have my way” and blah blah blah…Apparently I couldn’t identify with anyone in the story this time around and I actually found myself growing mildly offended. Isn’t it funny how our perceptions of things change over time?

In other news, we’re off to the courthouse this afternoon to get our marriage license. Yay! My aunt is going to meet us there and be our witness and then we’re all going out for supper afterwards. Her mother-in-law is in town visiting and I’m really looking forward to having supper with her. She and her husband were like second grandparents to me growing up and I haven’t seen her in a long time, so I hope we’ll have a good visit. Evidently she was under the mistaken impression, though, that supper tonight was supposed to be in celebration of my engagement and she didn’t want to intrude, so my aunt had to convince her that she was invited and that she wasn’t intruding on anything. Besides, anything to celebrate our engagement would have been done a long time ago, like right after we got engaged. I don’t want her to feel like she’s not welcome because she was the reason I suggested going out for supper in the first place, so I hope she’ll have fun.

Oh, I need some more medicine! I woke up with a killer headache this morning and it just won’t go away. I need a pop. For the headache. Yes, that’s it, for the headache…

Sixty days till September 26…

I’ve got sunshine…

May 14, 2009March 8, 2012Leave a comment

…because it’s not cloudy for once. Woo!

Still feeling rather blah today. My head finally stopped hurting, thank God, but I’ve been so tired all day that I nearly dropped off at work this morning. I’ve spent the day gettin’ jacked up on caffeine, so I hope I can sleep tonight. I can’t wait to watch Bones later, so I don’t know which will keep me awake longer, the caffeine or the lovely t.v. that I’ve been anxiously awaiting ever since I saw the preview last week. I don’t remember the last time I got this excited over a t.v. show. Oh, wait, yes I do. It was back when Voyager was still on. That’s right. 🙂

Speaking of Star Trek, I was rather disappointed with the new movie. I loved Chris Pine; I thought he was an excellent Captain Kirk. And when I finally figured out that it was Jennifer Morrison who played his mom (and not just some unknown Kirsten Dunst lookalike-wannabe), then I was tickled pink. I kind of found myself wishing she’d been in it more because I really like her. However, I was more than a little disturbed when they blew up Vulcan and after that, I just couldn’t get into it. I kept waiting for a Year of Hell-type fix at the end where the timeline was restored and everything goes back to normal – I could have lived with that, even though it would be a cheap fix to a bad plotline – but it never came, and that was incredibly irksome. Yes, irksome. Because I can’t think of an adequate swear word. Also because I apparently write in sentence fragments now. And the whole thing where they completely rewrote how Captain Pike ended up in the wheelchair and lost command of the Enterprise? No. Just no. I’ll take The Cage any day, thank you.

And honestly, the Romulans? I was disappointed. They looked nothing like the Romulans I’ve seen. Okay, so I haven’t seen all of the original series or even most of The Next Generation (that I remember), but even in Deep Space Nine and Voyager, the Romulans looked a lot more Vulcan than they did in this movie. These new future-y Romulans looked like normal guys with tattoos on their faces. I found it very distracting.

All that said, though, the movie had its moments. Karl Urban was great as Dr. McCoy. One of my favorite parts was where he kept giving Jim shots and Jim finally had enough and started yelling at him to stop it. That was great. I also enjoyed the part with the Spock, Leonard Nimoy, although I must admit that I had flashbacks of Futurama and the episode they did where Melllvar held them hostage on a forbidden planet and held a Star Trek convention. That was a funny episode.

Okay, so actual work interrupted the posting of this post. Perhaps that’s a little redundant, but I just finished watching that episode of Bones that I had so been looking forward to. And now I’m pissed. I avoided spoilers like the plague for the last six months because after I looked at the story that was in TV Guide – and I shouldn’t have – I wanted to save myself for the episode so that I could fully enjoy it. Boy, did I not enjoy it. I mean, I liked – okay, loved – the whole Booth and Brennan together thing. I loved Caroline being in it because she’s awesome. The woman can deliver a line like nobody’s business. And Sweets was pretty good with his little band; the tie-in to Gormogon was kinda funny. It was obvious that the whole thing was some sort of dream sequence, but when he said, “Who are you?” Oh, man, if looks could kill, my t.v. would no longer be working. I think I even startled Greg a bit because he paused the show just before the dreaded words and he said he thought I was going to give birth for a minute. I didn’t say a thing, but the look on my face was all, “Don’t do that!!!” And then Booth spoke and I decided I had some writers to kill. Well, first I need to find out whose idea it was to blow up Vulcan and hurt them and then I need to find out whose idea it was to give Booth amnesia and hurt them. You can’t fuck with Booth and Brennan, people, it’s sacrilege! This is even worse than blowing up Vulcan!

*hiss*

I have a feeling I’ll be ranting about this for a good long time. Like, all summer until the new season starts. And by God, they’d better fix it. Or else. Grrrr…

Mid-week blahs

May 13, 2009March 8, 2012Leave a comment

Am feeling rather blah today. I think it started yesterday, actually. Or maybe it was Monday night. I got this really bad headache, you see, and it’s never really gone away, but what is has done is left me feeling tired and rather blah. That might explain the suspicious lack of blogging all week.

That, and the workload at work. Yep, you guessed it, I’ve had actual work to keep me busy! It’s wonderful! Monday I was on my own and the work got stacked up clear up to my ears. Yesterday was catch-up day. And today I’m catching up from catching up, but it’s not quite so busy as the last couple of days have been. Perhaps I’ll actually be able to look up those lower-body strength-training exercises I’ve been meaning to look up ever since I bought a pair of dumb bells Sunday night.

Ha.

Anyway, it’s misty and gloomy outside today. The trees have turned a lovely shade of mint-frosted chocolate and there are remnants of pink snow blanketing the sidewalks all around the square. The one walk was pink sandwiched between layers of green and it looked really pretty. Till I walked right down the middle of it, crushing the wilted blooms into the concrete as I pretended I was walking down the aisle, that is. The air out there is so thick I bet you could cut it; it’s super humid today with all the rain around.

Hmmm. My tummy seems to be not very happy with me. My head feels that way, too, but it’s been acting up all week. Methinks going home and lying down on the couch for the rest of the night sounds like a good idea. Now if only it would hurry up and be five o’clock so I could do just that…

Perhaps I will write more when I feel better.