After reading Betting Hearts by Dee Tenorio, I was anxious to read her new book, Midnight Sonata. Unfortunately, it came out during a busy month for me, but I was able to escape with it for a few minutes a day.

Midnight Sonata has characters you want to spend time with, characters you miss when you’re away, from hero Sky (yum!) and heroine Evie, to Evie’s son AJ, her mother in law Lily and Lily’s younger suitor, Mickey.

Evie is a young widow living with her eleven year old son and her mother in law in tract houses that are VERY close together. Which is why she wakes up one morning to see a perfect stranger (and I mean perfect – did I mention YUM?) showering right outside her window.

He’s in his own shower, of course, but his bathroom window lines up with her bedroom window, and she can see him from her bed. I loved when Evie thought that his modesty was protected only by her own windowsill.

He doesn’t see her, so she treats herself every morning – until he catches her.

After he confronts her, she now wakes to a fully clothed Sky sitting outside her window, eating an apple, and wanting to talk. I really loved the development of the relationship from this point, the gentle gaining of trust. Evie has scars – she was a concert pianist driven by her Type A parents to be the best before her young husband Andrew rescued her from the life she hated before getting killed. Her life has ground to a stop. Sky, a Type A executive, is taking a break because he has a heart condition that is threatening his life. He feels he has nothing to offer her, He also has a big secret, that when it was revealed, I cried.

Watching the two of them deal with their problems in a mature and logical way, watching them heal each other, was very satisfying, and the secondary characters were terrific, especially the secondary romance.

Midnight Sonata is from Samhain Publishing (and she has another one Midnight Temptationout soon, too!)

Yesterday I was researching hauntings online. I was surprised to find so many legitimate paranormal societies! The website I really liked was hauntednc.com - had a lot of stories. Did you know you can also buy real EMF detectors? Seriously! Then I came home and watched the first three episodes of The Ghost Hunters, that reality show on Sci Fi. I'm not terribly impressed or inspired by it, though.

My son is now hooked on Supernatural. We watch an episode a night. We watched Something Wicked last night and decided it was another one, like the Linda Blair episode, where the boys jumped to conclusions too fast. And what a nasty part Papa Winchester had in his hair! EWW. This WAS the 80s, people, not the 70s! (Though I've read fan fic with Papa as a Vietnam Vet. Too young!!)

December 7 will be a new Supernatural, called Croatoan, and according to Tivo, Papa will be on ;)

The plan I have is that my hero is leading this ghost tour as a scam while he's actually investigating a real haunting. They will spend the night at 4 houses. The first two will be scams, which the heroine will see through, being the skeptic she is, but the third will have a real ghost, a seductive one, who teases my hero, who thinks the heroine is doing the teasing. The fourth house will have a malevolent spirit, and the "symptoms" of the haunting will reflect the symptoms in the first two houses, so no one will believe it at first.

I don't know if that's too many houses or what. I guess I'll have to wait and see how it plays out.

Cindi had a girl about 12 hours ago, mother and baby Sophie are doing fine. I can't wait to meet her!

Had a big bad fight with my son before bed (after HOURS on the phone) because he had ALL LAST WEEK to work on a paper for school, and he was up past ten last night working on it. Does he not learn???

I buy charms for my charm bracelet for each story I finish. I have a firefighter charm, a scuba diver charm, an Africa charm, a police shield, along with my Duel on the Delta pistols and three hearts for each of my GH finals, and a computer. I have a book waiting to go on, as well.

After this last book, I couldn’t decide what charm I need. They travel everywhere, so I thought a jet. The weapon is a computer, so I thought maybe a laptop. But most of the story takes place in Seattle, so I think I’ll get the Space Needle.



But while I was looking, I found two I want for my ghost hunter story. Since he is based on Dean, I thought this car…



But since it’s a ghost hunter story, I LOVE this one (only it’s in England.)



I might get this one instead.



This is more fun than writing ;)

It's 1:15, I have to be at school in 6 1/2 hours and my mind won't shut off. Neither, unfortunately, will my nose. I'm not SICK, but I'm not WELL. My best friend Cindi is going in to have her baby this evening (remember when you had to wait for the baby to come?) and I can't stop thinking about it. What do you get a third baby as a gift, anyway? If it's a girl, I'm all over it (she has 2 boys) but if it's a boy, I'm stumped.

I caught up on my Tivo this weekend, and several of last week’s episodes were noteworthy, so…

Monday – Prison Break. Michael saw his dad, hated his dad, 30 minutes later, dad was in the ground and Michael loved him. Wha-huh? And he thought his dad made him this detail guy? Sara escaped Kellerman-with-a-conscience and now Kellerman is persona non grata in the administration. Do they not worry he’ll blow the whistle? Also, what happened to Sucre? The fighter jet was going after him. What about Maricruz? Is he just going to leave her with Doctor Boy on The Nine?

Heroes – they saved the cheerleader. Now what?

Tuesday – I skipped those shows.

Wednesday – Bones – LOVED it, loved the Hodgins/Angela bit, loved the Hodgins/Bones bit, loved the way Booth RAN into the pit, frantic to get to Bones. GREAT episode.

And the Spurs won against the NBA champions ;)

Thursday – Grey’s Anatomy. Okay, first things first – what was up with that look between Alex and Addison? PLEASE don’t go there! And was Burke blaming McDreamy for his hand?? HE was the big fat liar. How much of a jerk was George? What will happen to Cristina and Burke? I mean, look how many lives they endangered!



Also watched An Inconvenient Truth and Ice Age 2, back to back, ironically. An Inconvenient Truth was really good, Ice Age not as good as the first, but my kitten loved it. Cracked me up. He started out on the couch next to The Boy, then moved to the ottoman, then the end of the ottoman, just staring at the TV. I wish I knew what got his attention.

In the recent RWR, Hilary Sares said people don’t buy books based on settings. As much as I hate to disagree with a publishing professional, I have to disagree. The very first romance I bought as an adult, Dark of the Moon, I bought because it was set in Ireland. Come to think of it, the ones I bought as a teen, I bought because they were set all over the country, in different states. After Dark of the Moon, I bought any book I could find set in Ireland.

For awhile, it was New Orleans. Then Egypt.

More recently, exotic settings, especially if they have jungles.

I would read other books, too, of course, but I would pick up the one with the interesting setting first.

The reason I bring this up is that I’m waffling a bit on my setting for my new book, my ghost hunter. My brother thinks it should be in New Orleans. My cps (with whom I’m writing the series) think the Northeast U.S., like Salem area. I definitely want a U.S. setting. How important is setting to you when reading a book?

And I know I’m done with Spy Girl (for the time being – will revise after Christmas) but I just have to post one last JD picture.

Can you believe I finished the story, short 250 words, so I had to go back through for an hour adding details. But I'm DONE. I'm going to miss this story as I set it aside to work on my ghost hunter one (if I didn't have people waiting on it, I'd keep going on this one.) But man, I finished a book in 25 days!

A plot would have been useful. I’m 5000 words from my Nano goal and I don’t know how it’s going to end.

It’s time to redeem my villain. I wasn’t going to. I was going to let him make the choice that would prove he was the bad guy, but along the way he found he wanted to change, wanted to be whatever my heroine needed him to be.

They’ve had the big I’m-a-bad-guy-you’re-a-spy-this-would-never-work conversation, and they’re separated again. Even if he changes now, he has a past that at the very least should land him in prison. NOT conducive to honeymooning, ya know?

I was really inspired by the movie Lord of War, which…

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

After all the work the good guys do to bring in the bad guy, he walks because he works for the government, doing the kinds of things the government would never admit to doing.

END OF SPOILERS END OF SPOILERS END OF SPOILERS

But I wonder if that kind of dilute the conflict.

Any thoughts?

So yesterday I forgot to make the green bean casserole. I got the fixings, set them out Wednesday night so I wouldn’t forget. Dinner was at 3. At 2, I got up to get dressed. At 2:30, my MIL came by so she could go with us. At 2:40, Dad went to get the wine out of the fridge, and I saw the cans of stuff on the counter.

You can imagine my reaction.

I mixed the stuff together really fast, put them in the dish, and decided to just cook them at Mom’s. Things would be delayed a bit, but it worked.

Still.

Today, the family leaves. It’s my traditional day to get out my Christmas decorations, but I think I’m going to only get out what’s in the house (dishes and such.) I’m feeling a bit hermit-ish after yesterday (25 people), so am going to hunker down, watch some Tivo, watch some of the rented movies, work on my book, just be Hermit Mary the rest of the weekend.

Oh, and mail my GH entry.

And call Cindi because she’s having her baby Monday.

And go to the grocery store.

And take my son to the bank.

But mostly be a hermit.

What about you? Braving the crowds? More family time? How are you recovering?

I’m not going to do the “I’m thankful for…” post, but I wanted to share something with you. There’s a checker at our grocery store who tells people, every day, to have a blessed day. And every time I hear her say that, I think of how blessed I am. Just those simple little words put my world in focus. Isn’t that cool?

Last night they showed the Brad Pitt Thanksgiving Friends episode, with my favorite Friends scene of all, Joey’s Thanksgiving pants. But it was still sad to see Brad and Jennifer together.

Yesterday, we went for a drive in the Hill Country, and then we went to Lowe’s. They had candy canes made of evergreen, so beautiful, so my dad bought me one. And I got a nap after that, so good day.

I figured out my block on Spy Girl, other than the no-time issue! It’s because my hero and heroine haven’t been together, and I love having my hero and heroine together. They have wonderful chemistry. Ironically, I have this story under Mystery and Suspense in Nano, because I didn’t think it would be much of a romance, and it has more romance than most of my other stuff!



If you’re traveling today, be careful! And have a wonderful holiday!

I only wrote 828 words yesterday!!!

Part of it is because of company. We went to breakfast, then the grocery store, then Blockbuster, then had dinner and watched RV again (It is SO much funnier after 3 beers. And with people who actually like RVs.)

But mainly I was stuck. My heroine has been kidnapped because of my villain-hero, and of course he's going to rescue her, which has changed since my original realization about the theme. Only I don't know how he's going to find her. Once he finds her, we have the big rescue scene. So I'm getting to work on that as soon as the dh goes to work. Frustrating, though. My first block in the story comes 40000 words in!

I'm blogging about Nano at Wet Noodle Posse today.

This is possibly the best rejection ever. I got it yesterday, and yet, who can be down?

"The hook and the setting are both wonderful - I love the idea of setting a
fresh contemporary romance in a physically hot and dangerous environment.
And you can really feel the sparks fly between Peyton and Gabe every step of
the way.

Even though I think this is a good read, I felt there was something missing.
I would say there needs to be a richer complexity to how the romance and
mystery unfold simultaneously. As such I am going to pass on this."

Huh? Huh?

Still, I need a nice picture to get over it ;)



I was reading EW last night, and then my son was watching Conan, so I have some more possibilities for my new heroine. Mind you, my current heroine is in desperate need of being rescued and my villain hero is leaning more toward the villain.

First, Rachel Weisz. LOVE her! These pictures are very girl-next-door.









Then Michelle Monaghan from MI3:







Next, Paget Brewster, who is new on Criminal Minds, I think.







Kate Beckinsale is gorgeous, but probably too glamorous.

My critique group and I are brainstorming a series of books, and I need to have a one page treatment of my idea before I go back in one month. My idea is about a travel reporter who is sent on a vacation involiving a haunted tour, led by a hunky charmer who is doing it to fund his real ghost hunting. He's leading the tour as a scam, but turns out it's really haunted (my first paranormal, y'all!)

So I want her to be this skeptic, a Dana Scully type, very serious, attractive but not a knockout, perhaps very educated and considering this beneath her. I don't know her name yet, but I need a model to base her on, so I don't use, well, Dana Scully.



Trish suggested Alicia Coppola from Jericho. I think the attitude would be right, but I don't think she's pretty.



I would like a dark haired heroine, for a switch. I always seem to use blondes. Any ideas?

And she has to look good with this.

It will be a theme in my personal life this week, so maybe that’s why I’ve been extra aware of it. Last night we went to a hockey game again, and again were surrounded by daddies and their little boys. In front of us were two brothers who brought their three boys. During one of the breaks, the mascot shot t-shirts into the crowd, and one of the brothers caught one. You should have seen the light in his son’s eyes. “My DADDY caught it!” The other brother raced his son to the restroom, and was so patient with him when too much caffeine set in and the boy bounced the rest of the game.

The daddy next to us had a LITTLE one with him, two, I’m thinking, and the little boy wanted the daddy’s attention and even though daddy wanted to watch the game, he gave the little boy the attention. And he sprinted to the bathroom with him when HE had too much soda.

There’s something about fathers and sons that fascinates me, seeing a strong man vulnerable to a small child, seeing the child adoring his daddy, and how that reflects on the rest of his life. My friend Cindi thinks it’s because dads in our generation didn’t have much to do with the kids, let the mothers take most of the responsibility. So maybe women who are younger than us don’t get the same thrill seeing a man holding a baby, or buying his kid an ice cream, or just walking down the street with him, hanging out with him, showing him he matters.

I wrote a scene yesterday with Corbett (the villain/hero) and his son, and it broke my heart. Corbett sent the boy to boarding school under another name to keep him safe from his enemies after his wife was killed. Now he doesn’t know how to connect with the boy. He’s in love with my heroine and has the desire for a family, but it may be too late to win his son back.

Part of my fascination with Supernatural is the father/son relationship. (You knew I’d bring it up, right? If I can work that into a conversation these days, I will, too. Can you believe my cps have NEVER SEEN SUPERNATURAL? That’s just wrong.)



Their relationships are so complex. Dean is the daddy-pleaser, Sam the rebel. Both know their father loved them, but did he love them more than he needed to find the demon that killed their mother? It’s still so twisted in both boys.




My dh never knew his dad, so he didn’t have a pattern to follow when he became a father. Maybe he had expectations of what a father should be, and that’s why he’s such a great one. I hope my son someday knows how lucky he is.

I hope y'all know Spy Girl is a working title. I am bad at titles, but not that bad ;)

Spy Girl started as a dream, a Sydney Bristow type who retired from the field because she has a five year old she can't leave at the drop of a hat, her child with a Vaughn type character who left her (or she left him because of the whole he-could-leave-at-the-drop-of-a-hat-and-she-couldn't thing.) She's pulled back into the business when an old enemy resurfaces, someone she and her ex hunted and never caught. In my dream she fell in love with another undercover agent also trying to nail this guy, found out she was pregnant by her ex and had to stay on the job because, well, she was undercover. In my dream, she found sympathy for the villain, who treated her kindly when he learned about her pregnancy.

Over the summer, I saw Lord of War and thought he would be a great villain. So I started working up a scenario around that.

Fast forward to November, me writing the story. The changes - the ex, James, was undercover working for the bad guy. He's disappeared and now Emily (my heroine) has to go undercover looking for him, leaving her 5 year old with her grouchy parents. The other undercover guy is there, only he's James's old partner, and he doesn't want Emily on the job. He thinks she's too invested, and that her five years off (though she trained new police officers at the local academy) made her soft. The bad guy, Corbett, pulls her in as his travel secretary, and they fly off to countries, working closely together, forming a rapport that shocks and thrills her. How can she be charmed by her old enemy? Instead of falling in love with the other undercover agent, she falls in love with Corbett. I have to make him redeemable.

Today, James returns.



How much I love writing this book:

I would rather write this book than clean house or cook (DUH!)

I would rather write this book than blog hop.

I would rather write this book than read email.

I would rather write this book than read another book.

I would rather write this book than watch most TV (including Grey's Anatomy, which I haven't seen yet this week.) NOT including Supernatural, though.

I would rather write this book than EAT. Mostly. Like, now, I want a soda but I don't want to get up and get it.

I can direct any conversation to talking about this book. I'm going to test it at critique group today. I was able to manage it last night at dinner before Baby Brother's play (which was Noel Coward and THREE HOURS despite the actresses talking so fast you couldn't understand them. Baby Brother was awesome, though.)

I don't want to think about other books (like the sucknopsis I need to write for the GH).

It hasn't stopped me from watching clips of JD on YouTube, though!

It was actually cold enough for me to wear my new coat yesterday, a beautiful leather jacket I got a deal on at Chadwicks. I rode with my mom, we stopped at Starbucks, I walked up and down the hall at school, showing off my first new coat since the boy was in 1st grade.

I was opening the door to my classroom and my Ashley said, "Mrs. Fechter, you have a tag just there."

Sure enough, the tags I'd checked for (albeit in the dark) were hanging from my armpit. Being who I am, I had to go down and show Cindi, who almost went into labor, she was laughing so hard. Apparently I am great comic relief.

Stephanie blogged about dealing with the green-eyed monster, which is interesting because I was thinking about blogging on the same subject. I found myself feeling it this week, even though I've kind of removed myself from the pressure of publishing. The reason? This writer not only has lucrative publishing contracts, and was finalling in contests with me not too long ago.

But she quit a cool job to do it.

Okay, I know, a job is a job is a job. I mean, you like it or love it. But I've always been envious of people who are brave enough/smart enough to go out and get these cool jobs. Seriously, I love my job now, but how cool is being a teacher? And to be honest, I got the degree so I could get the heck out of college and start making more money than I was making at Eckerd. But I see these women who did things that, while I probably never would have thought of doing them when I was going to college, they just seem over the top cool to me now. I wish I would have been courageous enough to pursue something like that, something I really could have loved the past 15 years.

While I was waiting for the dh to get home last night, and since I'd already reached my goal for the day, I did some shopping at Cafe Press. I wanted



but the print is too small, and I'm not comfortable with anyone looking at my chest so long.

I also liked this one.



I bought these.





Okay, last video, I promise. God loves a dog man. And he does his own grocery shopping.

I like kissing. I’m all for the kissing. More kissing, I say. I love just kissing, and I’ve built up a pretty good tension between my characters with the kissing.

Only, writing good kisses are hard. How many ways can you describe it? How many ways can you describe how it makes the characters feel? Why can’t I get the words right on the paper?

What are some of the best kiss scenes – books or movies, for inspiration?

WARNING: LANGUAGE



Not finished with the love scene, BTW. And I reached my goal and beyond yesterday.

The program went GREAT, and a huge weight has been lifted off me. It's been replaced by exhaustion and why-isn't-it-Friday-yet, but I'm very proud of how well the kids did. And my narrator showed up.

I was wondering yesterday, what if I'd chosen another book to write for Nano? Would I be as excited about it? Would I be as eager to keep up the pace? When I chose this book, I didn't know anything about it except the characters, and even one of those was hazy. Yet every day I can't get to the book fast enough. While some days those 2000 words are hard to find, mostly they aren't. And while I had a few scenes sketched out beforehand, I have even more now. (And I didn't use a lot of those original scenes.) The book will need a lot of work when it's done, but I love it, and I didn't think I would.

How sad is it, though, that I'm disappointed in myself for having red on my graph for yesterday, even though I'm still ahead of the game and I worked for 12 hours??

Now, can I write the love scene before school? Should I even try?

Yesterday, while I was debating the whole "to redeem or not to redeem," I played on You Tube. And on JDMorgan.net. Watched a LOT of JD. I don't know how to do the You Tube thing in my blog - do you?



I stopped writing last night at 10, knowing I needed a good night's sleep (which I didn't get, because I popped awake at 1:30 thikning that our narrator for tonight's program didn't come to school yesterday and what am I going to do if he doesn't show today, though his mom PROMISED even though they're moving). Anyway, I stopped at a REALLY good part. And I don't know if I'll get to write today at all!

I hate November. Even when I was music teacher, it was beyond stressful.

Today, thankfully, I have nothing scheduled because they rescheduled a meeting I was supposed to have. I do, however, have to stop by the grocery store on the way to work because I forgot to pick up lunches for me for the week.

Tomorrow. Gosh, I don't even want to wake up tomorrow. Tomorrow is tutoring, Science Night and PTA, all back to back. I'll get to school at 7 and be lucky to leave at 7.

Wednesday is SARA. I will most likely skip.

Thursday (actually, all week, but Thursday is the only day we can go) is this arts and crafts show down at a historic home. It's really beautiful, they serve spiced tea and punch and homemade cookies. And I have to leave by 5:30 to take my son the Battle of the Bands, which will be 6:30 to 9 ish. I better eat a lot of cookies because I don't think I'll have time to eat anything else.

Friday my youngest brother is in a play. (He's in a play Thursday and Saturday, too, but this is the only night we can go.)

Saturday is critique group and a hockey game.

My folks are coming Monday.



And I have a big decision about whether or not to redeem my villain and make him the True Hero. I really don't think I can.

2,116 words yesterday - 5,527 for the weekend.

I had the best dream during my nap (only the dh woke me when he came in to get something out of the closet). I dreamed that it was Halloween and the Winchester boys (alas, sans daddy John) were making money leading haunted tours. We were just about to depart (and I was going to get to ride with Dean!) when I was so rudely awakened.

Don't you think that would make a great episode, though? Only it turns out the tour really IS haunted?

Did I mention I loaned my mom the first series and I'm having separation anxiety?

3411 words in Nano yesterday.

I feel weird about posting these boys' pictures. They're so YOUNG.

Nano kicked my butt today. It should have been a good day, an easy day to get into writing because I had an inservice, and I only watched Grey's, but the scenes I had to write were - not transitional, because three of them relayed crucial information, but I needed them to get me from point A to the action filled point B I'll be writing tomorrow. I finished my 2000 words just before midnight.

Tomorrow is an arts and crafts show at Jared Padalecki's alma mater. I will be walking the same halls the Supernatural star once walked. Jealous, Natalie and Trish? ;)

I just found out for certain last night that my dad and stepmother are coming Thanksgiving week. As you know, I've kind of negelcted the house for Nano. (I cleaned pretty good right before, though.) And next week is shaping up as the week from hell. So short of begging you to come help me (though my mother in law offered) I need advice on what works for you.

My main problem is the bathroom. I have an automatic shower cleaner, but my shower door is still lime-streaked and it doesn't get to all areas of the shower. I have one of those Mr. Clean scrubbers, but that leaves streaks behind, too.

My toilet is another problem. I clean at least once a week with those disposable brushes, but there's deposits around the rim. I have the Clorox you drop in the tank, but it's not helping. I tried this



but it doesn't reach high enough to help.

Has anyone tried this? It's $10, so I want feedback before I try it.



What do you use to mop your floors? I have stuff for my wood floors but not my tile.

And lastly, and most importantly, pet hair! My stepmother is allergic and I have 4 cats. I have this glove I bought at Bed Bath and Beyond that pulls up hair, but it gets clogged pretty quick.

Also, if anyone could add more hours to the day, that would be GREAT! (Of course, I'd use them to sleep.)

Now, to take away the pain of talking housecleaning....

I didn't like Supernatural last night. I thought it was very weak. I missed the first half of Grey's and all of Office because I was on the phone (Tivoed that, though, and Grey's is on again tonight.) I really like Addison.

That's all I'm saying.



The dh and I played with the Tivo. We have season passes for:

Prison Break
Heroes
House
Bones
Lost
The Nine (I don't know why - because we can, I guess)
Earl
The Office
Supernatural
Grey's Anatomy
Battlestar Galactica

Remember BEFORE VCRs when you actually had to be HOME to watch TV? My dh tells the story of missing The Little Drummer Boy and being so upset. I remember setting up a CASSETTE recorder in front of the TV at night to record the movie Champions: A Love Story. It's really hard to LISTEN to a movie about ice skating, but it was showing at 1 AM. And I did listen to it. Several times.

Nano ROCKED for me yesterday - 3126 words. And I know what I'm writing today - always good.

I got up this morning at 4 and started writing at 4:30. When I stopped at 6:20 to get dressed for work, I had 2200 words. And they were getting hot and heavy, too! I'd like to do 500 more words, to catch up with what I didn't finish yesterday, then kick back for TV night.

We got a Tivo yesterday! We also have 3 movies sitting here. Gah!

Wow, how scrambled can you get?

I saw MI3 this weekend and actually really liked it. I know it was Tom Cruise, but it was good! I also saw An American Haunting and it mostly left me with questions. I googled to see what other people thought, and clearly they were more confused than I was! Anyone want to tell me what happened?

Blockbuster is The Devil. They have this new deal if you bring your movies into the store instead of mailing them, you can pick up free movies from the store, and still get the next movies from your queue! So double the movies (which is good, since I have over 300 movies in my queue, but most are series anyway...) I'm going to be a slug! I rented Over the Hedge and Underworld. What a combo, huh?

I managed my 2000 words yesterday even though I was exhausted to the point of sobbing when the dh came home. I went to bed at 9 and slept till the alarm.

BUT I learned my theme, and I know how it's going to end. My theme is choices. All three men in the story were soldiers in the Iraq war. One became disillusioned and bitter, ready to make the government pay. The other two chose to make sure future generations would not have to fight, so they work for the good guys. I know what the end will be, too, and I'm excited about it, though I'm not sure what's going to happen in between!