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I watched several movies this weekend.

I saw Waitress, which I'd heard was so good. Keri Russell was great, and I love Nathan Fillion, but the relationship between them bothered me. I knew she was married, and unhappily, when I rented the movie, but I didn't know he was married. And that bothered me. I did like the other relationships in the movie, but it was a little depressing.

I saw Nanny Diaries, which I liked better, but also a little depressing. I loved how the story was presented as an anthropological study, complete with displays at the Museum of Natural History.

We watched the first Kill Bill movie, since it was on Spike. It was very odd, but clever, I thought. The second one was on last night and we watched the first two hours. Not as good - pacing was awful.

We're looking forward to seeing I Am Legend next week, then the following week is PS I Love You.

What movies have you seen? Anything good? What are you looking forward to?

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I love Christmas songs. One of my favorite Christmas albums is this one:



Another is this one. For years, it was the only Christmas album we listened to.



This is one of my favorite songs. I LOVE the harmony, and I actually remember seeing it on TV when it first aired.



When I was music teacher, I always had my kids do "Do You Hear What I Hear?" I love how that song builds.

When I was in choir, I loved "Carol of the Bells" and the Hallelujah Chorus. For years I remembered my parts.

I love "O, Holy Night," too.

My students loved "Nuttin' for Christmas."

I adore Madonna's "Santa Baby."

What Christmas songs do you love? Which ones drive you screaming crazy? ("Christmas Shoes," anyone???)

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1) finish Ghost Hunter revisions
2) work on small town story
3) email Susan Litman about judging Merritt
4) Golden Palms announces – my second to last entered contest
5) Start revisions on Eden’s Promise for SHOMI contest
6) 2 gigs - ds’s AND dh’s (next week, each one has 2 gigs!)
7) 2 Christmas parties – school AND SARA
8) Website committee meeting at school
9) Secret Santa starting
10) Grades in gradebook so progress reports can go out next week
11) Keep up house
12) grocery store
13) get uncle's bday gift

Go buy it! This is her American Title finalist - you KNOW it's good!

Tracy is having a contest – enter to win $25 from BN.com!!!

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I freaked out a little this week (I know - shocking).

I was thinking that my stories are all too different.

I have my suspense - Second Chances and Vanished.

I have my adventure - Breaking Daylight, DLB, Spy Girl

I have my paranormal - Ghost and Vamp Hunters, though I have an idea how to turn Surface into one

I have my futuristic - Eden's Promise

I have my contemp romance - Something to Talk About

All my other ideas trend toward adventure or suspense, though I am LOVING my contemp romance. As in, want to run away and only spend time with it forever and ever (just kidding, but not much.)

The concern is if Susan ends up liking DLB, what else do I have to offer her?

And what do I send to Samhain next?

And WRP?

And should I bother entering Eden in the Shomi contest if I only have the one book for the line?

What about you? Do you write one thing, or are you all over the board like me?

I blogged at Wet Noodle Posse today about my GH call.

I posted the other trailer, but this is the official one. CAN'T WAIT!



Yesterday I wanted to go to Beall's real quick to get a Christmas shirt like one of our teachers had, and to Hobby Lobby for some sequins and sparklies for ornaments.

Ended up at Borders for probably an HOUR. The boy has rediscovered books. You should hear his wish list - Ayn Rand, Victor Hugo, George Orwell. And he wants PRETTY books. You should have seen him with this $75 edition of Lord of the Rings. He lamented the fact that Ron Paul's book wasn't available, and that Borders is the last place people think to shop for gifts. Still, we walked out without buying anything.

I am up early to edit, even though all I want to do is work on my CA story.

And then last night I had this dream....a whole NEW idea!

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The dh loaded Leopard on my desktop last night and almost killed the dang thing. At one point, he told me he probably lost everything on my user. I hadn't backed up my Nano book or the changes on Ghost Hunters, and I was MAD. But he was able to recover everything of mine, though I went to bed before I saw if he recovered the boy's stuff and his. I lost all my bookmarks, and my cache, so now have to reenter passwords, etc. Now my laser printer is being a jerk and keeps printing empty papers that aren't programmed to print. I don't know if it's out of ink or WHAT. And my inkjet is awful. I think I'm going to go order a new one RIGHT now.

I was able to get all my online shopping done, though, and I BELIEVE I just need Healing Brother (who got good news from his dr last week - he's back to 100%) and his wife, Baby Brother, Mom and stepdad and MIL. I need to check my spreadsheet. Oh, and my Secret Santa at work.

I wrote a lot on my California story, though. I love those magical gel pens!

The dh's gig tomorrow is cancelled (am I wrong to be glad?) and I have a faculty meeting today :(

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I'm doing this blog on the dh's new laptop because he installed the Leopard OS on the desktop and so it keeps telling me to restart, which I have done. I'm glad I didn't wake up early to write! The bad is I can't recharge my iPod. I'm in the middle of listening to The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo because my ds LOVES that book. So far I find it weird.

I've seen other bloggers do this, so I thought I'd put in my two cents:

Dear Santa,

Yes, I know I've had a VERY good year, this fall especially, so I won't make my list very long.

This year, I would like a FANTASTIC cover for Hot Shot. I know, I was lucky with Smoke because I know the artist, but she still nailed it with the first shot.

I would like some movie money, with all the good movies coming out - PS I LOVE YOU, the new Will Smith, the new JDM in February.

I'd like the Writer's Strike to end so we can look forward to more quality TV when Christmas is over.

I would like more patience. I know you've heard that before, but I hate always looking toward the end goal. I'd like to enjoy my path a little more.

Keep feeding my muse. I love my new book and want to continue doing well with it. But 2008 will be the Year of Revisions and I want to do well on those, too.

I would like more time. I was able to find balance earlier this year, and I've lost it the past few months. I wish I wasn't in a hurry all the time! And all these books - I want to read them!!

I would like more time with my family, too. My son is growing so fast and he'll be gone before I know it. Even now nights with the whole family together are fewer and I hate that. As much as I want him to be independent and his own person, I know our time together is short and I want to enjoy him more.

Not too much to ask, is it, Santa?

(Oh, and if you can find that Supernatural watch I saw online a couple of months ago, that would be great, too!)

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I got SO MUCH done yesterday. I typed in 5 pages of my small town story, which I'm calling Something to Talk About (StTA), I typed in 20 pages of edits on Ghost Hunters, planted 3 poinsettias, cleaned 2 bathrooms, decorated the Christmas tree, put out the rest of my decorations, watched 3 episodes of The Unit, did more edits on Smoke and then wrote at least 3 more pages of StTA, including a major turning point.

Then the dh went to his gig and I couldn't sleep. Okay, I slept about 3 hours, woke at 2. He'd just gotten home. I couldn't go back to sleep for TWO HOURS. When I did, I had a good dream about the guy from Burn Notice, but it was mostly REALLY weird, and I snoozed the alarm twice. Thank goodness I got my pants from the dry cleaners - no ironing!

Really, he's SO not my type.

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I got my kids' presents yesterday, ordered Dad's and cousin's. Also got my production copy for Smoke, went through, found some mistakes. Went to bed at almost midnight with hurting eyes. Typed in 15 pages of my small town story (already written longhand) and cleaned my bedroom pretty good. Oh, and read the RWR.

This week I need to:

1) ease back into small town story
2) get Samhain paperwork taken care of
3) finish revising Ghost Hunters
4) don’t stress about Superromance contest announcement
5) buy long distance gifts and dh’s gift
6) faculty meeting
7) dh’s band playing 2 gigs and practicing one night
8) keep up house
9) keep up at school

Hey…I could live with this!

This is my new favorite band, The Arcade Fire.

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My dh got a new MacBook last night, and while I'm glad he'll be off the desktop, I'm also a TEENY bit jealous. I kind of liked having a laptop last week. So maybe after we get some other stuff paid off, get the car fixed, get some home improvements done....

Today I want to rearrange my books. Not that they're badly arranged, just that they're kind of messy right now. See, I have them organized, to an extent. I have three bookshelves that are separate pieces of furniture, one that's built in, and one that's part of the dh's dresser.

The big book shelf has all my keepers and older TBR books. I weed through every once in awhile. All I want to do in that one today is get out the Santa Baby book.

The built in bookshelf has my writing books and my hardcover TBR as well as my Trixie Belden books. I don't think I'll mess with that one, except maybe to dust it.

Th bookshelf in the middle room has three shelves. One is books I've read, waiting for someone to request them from Paperback Swap. Another is books by New To Me Authors and the other is books by friends. THAT one is overflowing.

The shelf on the dh's dresser is books on someone else's list on Paperback Swap. They've been the same books since summer, so I need to fix that one.

The other bookshelf, which I bought for school two years ago and ended up using when I brought it home in the summer, also has 3 shelves, one for New To Me Authors (these are more recent releases) and another shelf for friends (also overflowing - it's good to have friends, right?) and the third shelf are the Jim Butcher books Stacy loaned me. On TOP of the shelf are more hardcovers.

Okay, other than just having way too many books, I really need to reorganize. But I also need to clean my house. And get my tree decorated. And get back to revising Ghost Hunters. And writing my small town book.

And I need to get to the library and the dollar store....and maybe Michael's.

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Yesterday Trish and I did something we have never done – we finished writing a book on the same day. Cool, huh?
Of course, my last two pages, the ds was standing over me waiting to type up his newspaper story. Then when I finished and said I won, the dh said, "It's like winning golf - you're competing against yourself." Then the ds said, "Yeah, take THAT, past you!" referring to the FRIENDS episode where Monica tried to outdo herself for Thanksgiving dinner.



I was thinking about this Nano vs. last Nano. I looked for my Excel chart for last year but couldn’t find it. That would have been interesting. And since I didn't use all my good pictures, I will sprinkle more through today's post in celebration.

Last Nano, I changed heroes midstream.

Last Nano, I woke up early almost every day to write before I went to work.
This Nano, I only did that the last week.



Last Nano, I had out of town company, and so did the bulk of the story at the beginning of the month.
This Nano, I had edits and revisions at the beginning of the month, so did the bulk of the book at the end of the month.

Last Nano, I had green on my chart almost every day.
This Nano, I have more red than green. I really doubted if I should try to finish, just before Thanksgiving. I knew if I didn’t catch up that week, I never would.



Last Nano I wished that I had a plot about 2/3 of the way through.
This Nano, I wished that I had a plot about 90% through.

Last Nano, I couldn’t keep my hero and heroine’s hands off each other.
This Nano, the sensuality felt a little more forced. And only one love scene.



Last Nano I finished on November 27.
This Nano, I finished on November 29.

I got an email from my Samhain editor that Hot Shot may be out in ebook in April. Happy birthday to ME! I wonder when I'll get my cover....

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Wrote the world's worst love scene white the ds listened to the Republican debate. Kept getting distracted despite my headphones and blasting Evanescence. Then he needed the computer, and I fell asleep holding a book in bed! Glad it wasn't hardcover.

One big scene left. And I've been saving the best pictures for last!

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I wrote 12 pages in just over 3 hours last night. That leaves me with just over 6000 words to go. Tonight I'm not cooking, and the dh is practicing with his band, so I should get pretty well into it. I have 3 big scenes remaining.

Monday when I went to Target, I saw some pjs I liked, but that Target didn't have them in my size, so my mom went to a different Target last night and found them and brought them to me (how's THAT for service??) I haven't tried them on yet, but they're very pretty, red with white reindeer. My other flannel pjs are getting kinda old, but I love them. They've got pictures of Coke and popcorn all over ;)

I had a nightmare last night that all the Tivoed stuff got erased. Considering I only haven't watched TV LAST night, that was silly, but in my dream, I was missing a lot of stuff, including Bones. Nooooo!!!!!

Yesterday I was listening to a Supernatural podcast, and the girl who played the crossroads demon that Sam killed was Jared's real girlfriend - did you know that?

I was teasing my cousin because she hangs around these 20-something hockey players all the time and my dh said, "Hello, whose picture do you have on your phone?" And my blog, and my desktop at school, and my water mug at school....

Off to get some words in before school!

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Nano, I mean. Four more days. 9200 more words. I'm actually at the climax of my story, so I'm wondering how much farther I can go.

Did finish Christmas shopping for Cindi's family yesterday while waiting to pick up the boy from school. Also wrote the Christmas letter and stuffed it in cards, just waiting for the boy's school picture to come in. Seriously, we took them in AUGUST.

Cindi's baby is one year old today. Today was also the day I finished Nano last year.

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I have often wondered if I didn't nap on my days off if I would get more writing done. That didn't happen yesterday. The ds's girlfriend came over, so I didn't nap, and only wrote 6 pages all day.

Back to work today. It's COLD - 35 - and I have NO idea what I'm teaching this week. Time to be boring, I guess, and get out the text books.

1) Figure out what I'm teaching this week
2) Finish Nano
3) Hot Shot ending and send back to my editor
4) thank you notes to Gateway
5) get ready for critique on Saturday
6) get Christmas tree
7) do Christmas letter and get Christmas cards ready
8) get Sophia (Cindi's baby) a gift - any ideas? I haven't had to buy for a girl in a LONG time!
9) keep up house
10) keep up at school

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I JUST got my 10 pages in, at 1:20. Yeesh. How come my vacation is almost over and NOW I can stay up till 1:30? I was gone 2 hours this AM, getting new tires, groceries and running to Bath and Body Works for soap. Then an hour and a half round trip to take my son to a birthday party (and get a gift on the way.) Came home, ate lunch at 2 (!!) then took a short nap. Woke up in time to go pick up my son (2 1/2 hours this time, because we stopped and had dinner). Got home at 7, showered, started writing at about a quarter till 8, my cousin called at 9:40, and I got off the phone with her at 11:30.

I found out there are a lot of things you can do one-handed while on the phone.

You can unload the dishwasher.

You can sort clothes, and fumble them into the washer and/or dryer.

You can change your purse.

You can put your return address on bills.

You can address Christmas cards and sort them by who needs a letter and a picture of the boy and who doesn't.

You can look for more pictures of Jared ;)

Are you a phone person or do you dread it?

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I reached my ten pages early, but kept my borrowed laptop fired up and ended up with four more after watching Blood Ties, using the tricks I talked about yesterday.

I like using the laptop (though I thought I wouldn't) because the battery lasts about 2 hours. Then, while it recharges, I do other things, like get out my Christmas dishes or clean the kitchen or sweep the front porch or start laundry or run errands. Then, when it's charged, I write like crazy again. Works well. I'm actually thinking about getting a cheap Windows (GASP!) laptop just as a word processor.

It's chilly here, so last night we ate leftovers on Christmas plates, drank hot chocolate from Christmas mugs and had popcorn out of a Christmas bowl. Oh, and my Christmas chocolate chip cookies are on a Christmas platter.

I forgot to put my jeans in the dryer, so I need to put on some old ones and get to the store. Le Sigh.

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I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, and if you got up early to shop, you found what you were looking for!

I ended up with 10 pages yesterday because I've made it a game. See, I have this Excel spreadsheet that keeps track of my progress. The first column tells me how many words I've written, the second (the only cell I can manipulate) is the total number of pages in the document, and the last column gives me my daily word count goal. okay, let's see if I can explain what I do.

I try to make the first column end as close to a 250 as possible, because 250 words equals a page, right? So if I've written 1,780 words, I push till I have 2,000. If I've written 2,175 words, I push till I have 250. Increments of 250, see?

But if the total number of words, the cell I can manipulate, ends up just short of 500, I push till I get there. So if the total word count is 16,430 after I do the 250 trick, I push 'til I get to 16,500. Or if I'm at 16,830, I push till I get to 17,000.

There's another thing I do, too, but it might be MORE confusing to explain. See, the last column tells me how many words I should have written to meet my daily goal. So if I've met my daily goal, I look at the next day's daily goal and try to reduce it to 2,000 words. So, say, tomorrow my daily goal is 32,591. That's where I should be at the end of the day. So today, I made sure I wrote till I got to 30,591, so I only HAVE to write 2,000 words tomorrow.

Now, when I did that, that messed up the 250 rule, so I kept going. But that's the game I've been playing.

My characters are in New Orleans now. I didn't see that coming at all. Maybe eventually I'll have some romance in my romance novel.

I'm thankful for the week off!

I'm thankful I don't have to cook or clean! (though my house is presentable)

I'm thankful for the cold front that lets me wear my fuzzy socks!

I'm also thankful the past two days were beautiful and springlike so I could sit outside and write.

I'm thankful my dh and ds are happy and healthy.

I'm thankful I have two books contracted.

I'm thankful for the internet, and the friends I've found here!

I'm thankful for the internet which means I don't have to go shopping ;)

I'm thankful I've found my groove for Nano, and that there might actually be romance in this romance novel, after all!

I'm thankful for restaurants which help me avoid cooking ;)

What are you thankful for?