Wednesday night I went to take my bath and the water was icy. Turns out something was wrong with the (less than 8 year old) water heater. The dh and ds fixed it Thursday. Thursday night, the dh heard the AC unit outside make a POP sound. So we shut the AC off, which isn't as bad now as it could be, since a cool front blew in last night. (I have the windows open and it's 58 - hoping the house can retain that cool air later today.) BUT my AC guy is my brother, he of the cracked vertebrae. I can't call him and ask him to come look! And if it's the compresser - there goes my roofing money.

So from no hot water to no cool air.....

I'm also running hot and cold on my writing. I'm working on Breaking Daylight, right, because it finalled in Fire and Ice and it's not finished. And I don't know how it's going to come together. I have the next five or so scenes worked out, but haven't been able to get them from head to Alphasmart. Hopefully today, even though I wanted to finish painting.

But Chris told me a dream she had about me, and I said, "That is so a story," and she said, "Have at it," and the day before yesterday when I was trying to go back to sleep, I figured out the perfect opening scene - a love scene with a lot of characterization. So I'm writing it down.

And thinking about Spy Girl.

And my vamp book.

I have a schedule of what I'm working on when, and I'm only scheduled to work on BD right now, till school is out. Where has my discipline gone?

I still don't have my JC TV Guide - hopefully today!

We had so much fun! We started off the day with breakfast at The Guenther House, where the biscuit are easily two inches tall, and tender as cake - and they give you two of them! I've taken Trish there, too, and now she and Chris are both spoiled for biscuits!

Then Chris and I did a quick tour of the house itself - we ate on the patio - then drove over to La Villita.

I go to La Villita once a year, for the Starving Artist Show, and I park in one place. Only I tried 3 different lots before I ended up in that one very excellent lot, which meant a lot of driving in circles.

Then we did a lot of walking in circles. La Villita has little arts and crafts shops, and tourists shops, but only about 8. So we went in each, couldn't decide, and moved on to the next one.

Then we went into the church. We heard singing, but surely on a Thursday morning....but alas, there was a service, and after thoroughly embarrassing myself trying to shut the door once we'd gone in, we realized it was a service and not choir practice. The church is TINY, so it was very obvious when we got up to leave. But Chris pointed out we were probably not the first to do so.

We went into an art gallery and both went goofy for this bookshelf. It was painted in these muted colors, carved into scenes, and into the front of each shelf were carved words, like, "Believe," "Dream," "Tell Your Story." We went nuts, and the proprietor asked if we were librarians or something. It was GORGEOUS. And only $1375 (ONLY!! Come on, you see the bargain!) The artist had several other pieces there, all gorgeous, but the bookshelf.....

And what was cool is that Chris and I have such similar taste.

After we left there, we made our decisions, she on her tote bag and me on JoAnn's birthday present, then we headed to the Botanical Gardens.



Y'all, this place is like 15 minutes from home, and I haven't been in years. Am I kicking myself! We walked around the scented garden, the Japanese garden, the cactus, the orchid, the palm, the rose, the Texas....it was awesome.











Poor Chris, when we were done we were going to meet her family at the zoo. Only when we were done, they hadn't even gotten to the zoo yet! So Chris had to walk MORE! I told her we could go to my house, but she didn't think her husband could find it. We should have gone to the bookstore - he could have found that.

I came home and crashed, then got my first birthday present - a Supernatural messenger bag and mug and a Ghost Hunter sticker from Trish!!! And one of my books, The Ghosts, came! And JDM was on Grey's.

Didn't get my TV Guide, though. Will have to try again today.

Last night I was very excited. I found two books that I’ve been looking for since I was a girl, thanks to Stump the Bookseller! I’d read the books over and over again, but didn’t remember the titles. Then on Lit Soup, Jenny Rappaport blogged about missing books, someone told her about Stump the Bookseller, and I found my books!

The first is a ghost story called The Ghosts. Duh – how could I not remember that title?



The second is a story about 2 girls writing a romance, called Two Are Better Than One.



I bought both from Amazon. One was a little more pricey than the other ;) But years, folks. YEARS. (When I went back to find the image, I found about a dozen books TEN DOLLARS cheaper – GAH!)

The dh called me into the living room last night. He was watching The Rookie, and one of the kids on the team is Ash from Supernatural. I thought it was cool that he said, “It’s the smart guy from The Roadhouse, the one with the mullet.” See, he likes the show, though he gives me a bad time.

Today I’m off with Chris – Queen-a Athena. She’s in town for her spring break. We’re heading to breakfast, then to La Villita and the botanical gardens. At least we FINALLY have the weather for it!

Maybe we’ll stop by and get the new TV Guide with Justin Chambers on the cover! (And did you see Denny on Rachel Ray yesterday???)

Yes, I'm still mad about Izzy and George on Grey's Anatomy. Seriously. Izzy has made me cringe before, especially when she cut Denny's LVAD, but you could almost make sense of that. Sleeping with George and then falling for him when he's married - MAJOR Ewww.

It happens on Gilmore Girls, too, mostly Rory. She slept with a married man, though she loved him, but it was totally out of character for both of them. She's Miss Think-It-Through, and till that episode, he always showed her the utmost respect.

Then she convinced Logan to take a boat for a joyride and ended up getting arrested, which led to her dropping out of Yale. You can understand Lorelei's frustration at her throwing everything away.

Lorelei's not immune, either. She went to Rory's dad Christopher's house but kept it a secret from Luke, and when he found out, he was Not Happy.

What do some of your favorite characters do that make you cringe?

A certain former celebrity crush lost his home in a fire this weekend. Sad, yes, but sadder was that he and his wife, with whom he had 3 kids, have split and now he has 2 kids with another woman. He always seemed like such a good husband and father, really down to earth, and he really seemed to love his wife. I'm sure he loves this woman, too, but knowing it all went wrong makes me sad.

I wrote 4 books with this guy as the hero, and no, I'm not telling ;)

Yesterday I made a glaring faux pas at my brother's house. His SIL's fiancee is named Adolfo. I know this. The guy has been around for about 5 years. I've been to karaoke with the guy, many parties, and yet I keep thinking his name is Xavier.

I have no idea who Xavier is.

I called him Xavier yesterday. SO embarrassing. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I can't stop thinking of what an idiot I am.

See, the thing is, I'm GOOD with names. When I taught music, I knew the name of every kid in school (over 500 of them!) I know the names of characters on shows and in movies. WHY am I getting this guy's name wrong????

So, apart from the talent to sink into the ground, here are talents I wish I had:

1) I wish I could sing. Like, really sing. Yes, I was music teacher, and I do karaoke, but I'm not GOOD. My SIL is GOOD - if they had American Idol for 30-40 year olds, she'd definitely go to Hollywood. I wish I could really sing.

2) I wish I could draw. The shading, the detail, heck, I'd settle for the shape being mostly right. I model art projects for my kids, they lament that they couldn't do what I did. The thing is, they do it BETTER.

3) I wish I could do html. Every summer I say I'm going to learn. Every summer speeds by.

What do you wish you could do?

Breaking Daylight is turning out to be a LOT sexier than I thought. Scary, really.

HAPPY EASTER!!! We didn't go to the Starving Artist Show yesterday - it was MISERABLE, raining and the temp kept dropping lower into the 30s. I don't know if we're still going to try to go today. My brother is having Easter at his house at 2:30, and everyone's still asleep here. At least it's stopped raining.

I got down an Easter basket I'd forgotten I had --- yes, my son's 15, yes, I still make him an Easter basket. It was in the very top of the hall cabinet, and I guess it hasn't been used since maybe our 2nd year here, which was about 6 years ago. Well, one of the plastic eggs felt a little heavy, so I opened it. SOMETHING was inside - I think it used to be chocolate. BOY did it smell. So I threw all the plastic eggs away. BLECH!

So I've been doing research on vampires because after I finish Alex, I'm going on to a vampire hunter story. Only everything I'm learning about vampires makes them kind of wimpy. I mean, they can't cross running water, you can stake them, set them on fire, behead them, lure them into the sunlight, heck, you can steal their sock and throw seeds down for them to count. That just makes them a little less scary to me.

Stacy B said she's reading Dresden Files and Dresden has come across different TYPES of vampires. This helps because I can have my hunters encounter a type they've not seen before. I had another idea this morning before I got up and of course have since forgotten it.

So how do you go about world building, to make your characters different from what's out there?

I went to Walgreens last night for Easter candy. Their Loreal nail polish was on sale, 2 for $5. I picked up some bright colored ones, but ended up buying a rose and a lilac. Now I wish I’d bought the brighter color ones. I never can remember what colors I already have, though.

We did pictures yesterday, since GH pictures are due to RWA on Monday and my picture last year was so PALE. The third picture I took I liked pretty well, and I didn’t even have to touch up much, but the dh said I need a new image. He thinks authors shouldn’t look like regular people, and he thinks I’m wrong for taking pictures in the back yard. (Never mind we had a 2 week turnaround this year, and I’ve become Queen Procrastinator.) He said that considering the books I write, I need to tailor my persona, both visually and online, as someone who writes action adventure instead of being a Regular Person.

Here’s the deal – I can’t be someone I’m not. Even in pictures.

So I went to look at different author pictures. Nora has two different pictures for her pen names, which is cool, and fitting.



Colleen Gleason looks like the books she writes.



So does Joanna Moore.




Sherrilyn Kenyon is probably the best example.



So is Laurel K. Hamilton.



And Allison Brennan.



And Lori Handeland.



And Joanne Rock.



J.R. Ward looks like a regular person (my dh’s words – not that she looks boring, or that the others don’t look normal or anything – she just doesn’t look like she writes dark paranormal.)



So does Susan Wiggs (I really like both these pictures.)



But the women who write what I write look like regular folks.

Cindy Gerard



Cherry Adair



Catherine Mann



Virginia Kantra



Diana Duncan



Suzanne Brockmann



So here are the two pictures I came up with for my picture. Last year’s picture was so washed out.

Which do you like?

So last month my brother (not Baby Brother) fell out of a tree. He was trimming a big oak and one of the branches was resting on the roof and he was trying to get rid of it. My SIL was getting a manicure, but the guy next door was working in the yard and they were talking over the fence and then my brother fell off the 12-ft. ladder. He fell on his butt and his left wrist, breaking his arm so badly that he said it was like the scene in Harry Potter where Harry's bone disappears. The neighbor called my SIL, who raced home, took my brother to the ER. They set his arm poorly (turns out part of the bone was CRUSHED) and blew off his concerns about his back. Wouldn't x-ray it or anything. He went to a specialist the following Monday, then went in for hand surgery on Wednesday, but was throwing up so they couldn't do the surgery. He went for a CAT scan on Thursday, where he sat miserably and was appalled by the lack of concern any of the staff showed him when he told them he just couldn't sit up anymore. Finally he had the tests done, but didn't hear the results till the following week. He had the hand surgery that week, but still couldn't get anyone to listen to him about his back. He can't stand up more than 15 minutes without excruciating pain.

Last week my son went to work for him (my brother has his own AC business and when he doesn't work, he doesn't make money. He just started in October and doesn't have employees) and told me they couldn't finish the job because my brother was hurting so bad.

This week he went for a second opinion, and indeed he has two broken vertebrae and 3 bulging discs. The CAT scan results had been filed with the insurance, but not looked at, apparently, and my brother has been trying to tough it out. After his hand surgery, once he was out of pain pills, they wouldn't give him anymore, thinking he wouldn't need them for his hand, and he didn't, but did for his back. So he's been a week with a broken back and no pain pills!

Now he can't be evaluated till April 16 (ANOTHER week) and then they decide what to do. Meanwhile, he's not working and has no income. (My SIL is a vice principal and she has the insurance, so they have SOME money, but she doesn't make more than me and we have the same house payment, which takes nearly one of my checks.) How scary is that??

So my brother is thinking about calling a lawyer. Do you think he has a case?

HATED Jericho last night. HATED, to the point of may never watch again. I wonder if Pamela Reed ever gets tired of saying, "We have to do something." Bones was kinda lame, too, and I fell asleep before LOST.

I am obsessed with The Gilmore Girls right now, and I think we're at the beginning of Season Six, where Lorelei proposed to Luke. What got me, especially in Season Five, (and it's completely in character for Lorelei) but she wouldn't share much with Luke. I mean, she and Rory were estranged, but she didn't tell Luke. I get that she's been on her own for so long, has difficulty trusting, and that Rory is her daughter and her responsibility, but there were so many times I wanted to yell, "TALK TO LUKE!"

It's not just The Gilmore Girls that gives me this reaction (how's THAT for a passive sentence?) I've had the same reactions to books and movies, because keeping it in is never good (unless it's a plot device, but even then...) I feel a little anti-feminist wanting the heroine to go to the hero for help, but as long as it's well informed and well intentioned, I think it's the basis of a successful relationship. Heroines who think they can do it all on their own....well, many can, but if they want to open themselves to a relationship, should they?

I know, I'm working on Alex (finally ready after a 4 day break), but it IS Supernatural Thursday. And frankly, not a lot of pictures of Alex!

Even with a Tylenol PM, I didn't sleep well....woke about 4, and when I fell back asleep, I dreamed about getting to Nationals. I dreamed we decided to fly, but it wasn't in Dallas. Still, we only paid $48 each, but our flight wasn't till 10:19, and I forgot to pack. We missed the flight because I couldn't convince the dh what time the flight was at, and as I was running around trying to figure out what to do, I realized I'd miss the GH certificate ceremony and I hadn't packed anything to wear for that OR the awards night!

It's a bad thing to wake up stressed.

But I did see Jude Law at the airport and he was charming. I know, totally random. I remember thinking, "I can't wait to tell Janice Lynn!"

I've been reading SO SLOW lately. Part of it is that I'm tired - I read only ten minutes last night before my eyes started drooping. But another part of it is that my reading is kind of fractured lately.

I'm reading this during silent reading at school, which is 25 minutes a day, but we've been skipping it lately because I haven't been able to get the kids to get their work done. Plus we're doing long division - takes FOREVER!



Then I'm listening to this to and from school. I've had it three weeks and just started disc 8 yesterday. It might be better just to read it, then I can skip over Every Medical Procedure. Good Lord.



At home I'm reading these.





I'm almost done with Angel, which is a good book. Dime Store Magic is good, too, but long and tiny font.

Then I walk by all my OTHER books that I don't have time to read and feel guilty. Does it stop me from getting more? Noooo, I got about 6 more this week!

I did read Entertainment Weekly cover to cover yesterday, though.

I know, everyone works towards them, but for the rest of the school year, I only have ONE weekend to myself!

This weekend: Starving Artist and Easter

Next weekend: MINE!!

Weekend after that: My birthday (okay, maybe technically mine, but there will be a party, and cleaning involved)

Weekend after that: Fiesta/critique

First weekend in May: SIL's bday

Second weekend in May: Mom's bday and Mother's Day (more party and cleaning)

Third weekend in May: Baby Brother's graduation

Last weekend in May: Nephew's confirmation

First weekend in June: Broken Brother's birthday

Then finally another free weekend!

Finished Ghost Hunters tonight. Was determined, so skimped a bit on the last 3 scenes. That's what revisions are for, right? Now I'm going back to Breaking Daylight. Will let Ghost Hunters sit for a bit before I start revisions.

So last Dean picture for a bit. We're going back to Justin.