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This week will be a bit more active. We're officially in the second half of summer vacation.

1) Work on BD to p. 210
2) critique
3) lunch with Stacy
4) change insurance
5) day with Mom
6) keep up house
7) walk (yes, halfway through the summer and I finally decided to do this!)
8) SARA
9) go to bank
10) go to library
11) call insurance

Heyyy, not as bad as I thought!

I wish I had some baby pictures scanned! But yes, 17 years since my son was born and changed my life. I wish some things had been different - I wish I hadn't always been worried about money, or time, or all those things that weren't important. I wish I'd managed my nerves and temper better and hadn't let him see them. I wish I'd savored every moment.

I hope I've given him dreams. I know I've given him freedom to be his own person, because that he is :) I know he knows I love him, because I drive him crazy with it. I know he knows I'm proud.


Happy birthday, to the boy!

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What do you do when this whole writing business leaves you feeling battered? 10 rejections in 2 weeks is hitting me hard right now and I just want to curl up....not read, not watch TV, not go shopping....no idea what will pull me out of this slump. Even writing is hard because....well, why bother?

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I woke up at 8 this morning. I woke at 1:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I finished reading Lifelines. REALLY REALLY good. I couldn't have put it back down at that point if I'd wanted to. Not spineless ninnies.



I worked till after ten on my first book and I think I need to put it aside till I can give it more attention - at least while my attention isn't split with another book. See, it's not a badly written book, but it's an ensemble (three heroines) and two of them are spineless ninnies.

Heroine 1: Fish out of water heroine, moves to the small town after being jilted, wants to fix up her grandmother's old house and spring her gma from the nursing home to live with her there. (Yes, Mary Sue-ish, I know. First book, remember?) She falls for the carpenter who helps her. He has the responsibilities of his family farm as well as the carpentry business. NO CONFLICT. They are the most. Boring. Couple. EVER. No sparks. None. I thought about maybe rewriting her altogether, maybe she was a social climber who got put in her place when her rich fiance dumped her, but I don't know how I could turn her around to being the generous granddaughter so quickly. Or if I want to.

Heroine 2: Grew up in the small town, left, returned home pregnant and unwed because she didn't have another choice. Has a very controlling family. Spineless ninny.

Heroine 3: She's lived her forever, restless, married to the best looking man who doesn't have time for her, engages in heavy flirtation with a divorced dad visiting his father.

I'm debating sending this to critique for help, or the beginning of Surface.....

Saw Stop Loss last night. Pretty raw and thought-provoking.

Have NO idea what to get the boy for his bday, in 2 days....

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I love this saying. I have a better picture of it at school, though, a kitty tangled in mini-blinds.

There is a plot device that always bothers me - lost time. When I read Dragonfly in Amber, I was so upset that so much time had passed before Clair and Jamie were reunited....all that time lost. It made sense, with all Jamie had to endure in the meantime, but still....

The same thing happened in the first romance I read, Dark of the Moon by Karen Robards. The amount of time wasn't as long, but I was just sad for the characters.

Same in movies. ConAir - he'd just come home, was reunited with his wife one night, then separated from her for 7 years. Even Sex and the City, the separations felt too long.

Lost time is something that can never be recovered, and especially in ConAir and the Outlander books, the fathers missed the growth of their child. That's something that can never be made up, and it breaks my heart.

What plot device bothers you?

Famous People Meme — Which famous person in each of the following categories would you like to meet?

Author — Nora Roberts

Movie Actor — George Clooney

TV Actor — Jeffrey Dean Morgan ;)

Musician/Singer — Bono

Historical Figure — Laura Ingalls or Elizabeth Blackwell

Fictional Book Character — Virginia Kantra's McNeills, or Nora's Quinns, or Gage from The Pagan Stone

Fictional Movie or TV Character — The Winchesters....or Veronica Mars and gang...or the Gilmores

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I'm also blogging at Wet Noodle Posse about conference as a Golden Heart Finalist. And don't forget to check out my feature on The Romance Studio

I was watching an old Sex and the City, after Big left Carrie and decided to marry....I can't remember her name. Carrie called her the Soulless Stick. Carrie laments the fact that he'll marry the soulless stick but not Carrie. She decides that she's complicated and the Soulless Stick is simple. The women then talk about the movie The Way We Were (which I don't remember but I saw the DVD at the library and will get it on my next trip) and how Hubble breaks up with Katie because she's complicated, then he ends up marrying a simple girl.

Later at dinner, the subject came up again, this time from my brother (or my son, I can't remember. I just thought it was weird that it would come up again so soon.) I think we were talking about my son's complicated lovelife. ANYWAY, I asked my son why he didn't choose better situations, and he said simple girls were boring.

He then confirmed my suspicion that I'm a simple girl. I don't think I want to be complicated, but that hurt my feelings, just a little.

So what about you? Simple or complicated?

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Yes, my baby will be 17 this week - WAH!!!!

We saw Vantage Point last night - REALLY good. Lots of action, lots of surprises. Short - only 85 minutes.

Check it out! I'm a Featured Author at The Romance Studio. It only took me 6 days to find it.

1) work on Surface
2) plan party/get gift
3) work on Simple Life
4) judge PYHIAB contest entries
5) day with Mom
6) get to library and Blockbuster
7) call insurance so the boy can start driving
8) keep up house
9) sew something

I think that's it. Oh, and I got another rejection yesterday, this one from a long time ago. 5 Rs in 3 days. I need to talk to the mailman.

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I was sooooo tired last night! My folks came to get the ds and me around 4. We headed out to their place in the country, which they share with my aunt and uncle, who have a house out there. This used to be my grandparents' place, where we spent a lot of our time growing up.

We visited with my aunt and uncle and 2 cousins. My cousin Jennifer had her 2 babies, one not quite 2 and the other 2 1/2 months. The baby weighed 15 pounds at his 2 month check-up! My back is feeling it now, because I held him a LONG time.






So we were chatting, and it was really hot and sunny. Mom went back over to start the grill and we looked toward the hills and saw rain. It obscured the hills behind as it moved toward us, so I handed off the baby, Jennifer got her kids inside and just as Mom put everything on the grill, the rain came down. So we sat inside their place and watched family movies, running out occasionally to check on the grill. The rain ended pretty quickly and cooled things down - it was very pleasant.






We managed to eat around 7 ;), then went for a walk. While we were gone, we started hearing gunshots, and got a little nervous, then realized it was my uncle and younger cousin (he's 21) skeet shooting. After we walked a way down to see this lady who has two lions (yes, lions, but they weren't out yesterday), we headed back, thinking we needed to get into town if we were going to see the fireworks.

We decided to stop and try some shooting. I was hoping for a handgun, but it was a 12 gauge and she had some KICK. Dang. Even my mom shot, though my stepdad was the only one who hit the skeet. My uncle was IMPRESSED.







By the time we got in the car to head to town, it was already dark. Mom was all nervous that we wouldn't make it, but along the drive, we saw a number of displays. Once we got to Seguin, the fireworks had already started, so we pulled into a parking lot behind a bank and watched from there. It was music-free, but really nice.

Got home at 10:30 and were POOPED. I barely made it to bed! But it made me want to dig out my very first book to see how much work it would take to fix it....it was set in that small town.

How was your Fourth? Hold any babies? See any lions? Shoot any shotguns? :) When Baby Brother sends pics, I'll add them.

Today: 10 pages on Surface and judge at least one PYHIAB contest entry.

You know, I don't know why I sign up for BIAW. I write LESS those weeks than I do any other!

I watched His Girl Friday last night, another reunion story. The similarities to Surface are fun to watch - he was a workaholic, she wanted a home, they worked together and he's drawing her back into the career she thinks she can walk away from. She's engaged to someone else, someone the opposite of her husband. Of course, the movie is a comedy, but it's good to see I hit all the pertinent points.

So I'm trying to decide on a symbol that illustrates what I write - mostly romantic adventure. I'm having trouble coming up with something, other than an Indiana Jones hat. Any thoughts?

Good thing there's no mail today, got another rejection yesterday. Of course, I also got my Veronica Mars CD, so it almost balanced ;)

Enjoy your holiday!!!