At my plotting retreat, one of the ladies brought a bottle of Vampire wine. That's the label, and it was a thick Merlot. I have looked at every HEB without luck and so last night after my birthday dinner, we dropped the boy off at a concert and went to Central Market. I bought three bottles (2 accidentally the same, bummer.) We also bought beer and margarita mix, since you can't buy alcohol in Texas before 12 noon on Sunday.



Thank you all for the birthday wishes. It was a nice day, and quiet. We cleaned up the back yard for the barbecue today, I went down to Dawn's, which is like going to a botanical garden in and of itself. She sent me home with an armful of roses. Speaking of wine, she designed the labels for this winery.



I came home, napped, went to my favorite in town restaurant and had TWO appetizers!

Now I think I'm coming down with a sore throat, and can't sleep. And company will be here in 11 hours.....and the food isn't bought!

Today JDM turns 41 - yes, he's one day younger than me. Fate, I tell you!

I am a princess this weekend. In fact, right now I'm a bit put out that I didn't get a sunrise on my birthday - it's very gloomy outside.



I had a party with the teachers in my unit yesterday, and with my kids in the afternoon. Today the dh and I have a date, since the boy is going to listen to a friend's band. Tomorrow, I'm having a barbecue. (I hope I get my Gilmore Girls t-shirt to wear.)

So what if I'm 41? I love my birthday! (And why hasn't my mom called me yet???)

My Tivo told me Supernatural would be preempted last night for a Texas Rangers baseball game. I was majorly bummed because it was a new episode. But I flipped over to the CW during The Office and saw Smallville was on! YAY! No baseball! I had a little panic about how to record, but I think I got it.

And what an episode!!! From the Gilmore Girls reference to the boys walking off into the sunset....I wanted to watch it again as soon as it was over! (Of course, went to bed instead, but testing is over - YAY!!!)

Now, to survive the day, and come home to clean house for my barbecue on Sunday. And resist the urge to go to the nursery. I got the Lowe's gardening magazine yesterday and it had a coupon for $10 off $50 worth of plants -would have come in handy LAST WEEK when I bought my grass, especially since it EXPIRED on Sunday! Sheesh.

Now, for one of my favorite Supernatural You Tubes!

Have I mentioned I hate testing?? I went to bed at EIGHT THIRTY last night and slept till 5:30!!! I did finish reading The Ghosts, though.

So. I've written 7 pages this month. Yes, that's Seven Pages in One Month.

And I have to cut them, because the good thing about not being able to do anything while the kids are testing is that you can work through stuff in your mind. What I'd written made sense plot wise but not character wise.

When did I become a dilettante, more interested in research and collages and buying charms and finding music for soundtracks and pictures for my blog than I am in writing? I used to give people a bad time for not making time for writing and now I don't. I dabble in writing, and it irritates me that I've changed and can't force myself to change back. Part of me is, "What's the point?" and another part is just too blasted exhausted.

Yet even when I was tired in November, I wrote a book, a book that I love. That still sits in rough draft form and WILL for a few more months if I don't pull it together.

Words of wisdom welcome.

Testing today. Bleah. AND I realized I need to cut all the new stuff I've written on Breaking Daylight, which isn't TERRIBLY much, but I was going in the way wrong direction.

I have started reading The Ghosts, which is one of the books from my childhood. Until last night, I wasn’t sure it was the right book – it didn’t feel familiar. I KNEW there was a romance in it, and I thought it was between the non-ghost girl and the ghost boy, but the ghost boy is really young, so that’s not it. But then last night I was reading and the ghost girl mentioned Tom, the caretaker’s son, and my heart jumped in recognition. I think that’s it! So exciting, but in a dorky way.

I am looking to enter The Molly and the Maggies this month. I’ve never been able to crack The Molly, and the Maggies are just so prestigious. Hot Shot finalled in the Maggies a couple of years ago, and that was almost as cool as the GH.

Only here’s my thing – I don’t know what to enter in which. Both require synopses, which means if I enter Breaking Daylight or Ghost Hunters, I’d have to write one. I don’t know if either is ready for big contests like that, though.

Which leaves me with Hot Shot, which I could enter in The Molly but not the Maggies, Don’t Look Back, and Beneath the Surface. I just wonder if those have been overexposed. I do think they have the best chance of finalling, but I guess I need to decide if that’s what I really want. Is it worth the time and trouble?

What would you do?

My TBR pile is exploding as my reading is slowing down. I’ve been reading library books, too, which is really slowing down my reading.

But it hasn’t stopped me from ordering books, and I have so many I’m itching to get to, including The Ghosts, High Stakes Vegas Vampires and Witchling, but I just can’t read fast enough.

I have about 4 Catherine Manns I haven’t read, and another 4 Suzanne Brockmanns, 2 Virginia Kantras, a half dozen Pamela Morsis, a half dozen Harlequin presents, maybe 20 Intrigues, a dozen Superromances, a half dozen Bombshells, 20 or so Trixie Belden books.

I have 4 bookshelves, and a stack by the bed.

I have my books organized, believe it or not. I have new-to-me authors in one place, friends’ books in another, books on someone else’s Paperback Swap wish list in another. The rest I have organized by author. I could thin, but will I?

It’s overwhelming, and yet I have almost 200 books on my wishlist at Paperback Swap, and another half dozen on my wishlist at Amazon.

How bad is your TBR? And do you have it organized?

So yesterday I went to Lowe's between the grocery store (got my TV Guide - YAY!) and waiting for the library to open.

They had carpet grass. I needed carpet grass. I called Baby Brother and his pick-up. He came over, we let the Lowe's guy load the grass while I paid (and got 3 hydrangeas for $2 each - seriously! You should have seen those people going crazy for hydrangeas.) Still, waited in line in the chilling wind for about 20 minutes. He at least had the sense to wear a jacket - I was in my Winchester t-shirt, yoga pants and flip flops. We were locking up the truck when I remembered I don't have a wheelbarrow. So I went to buy one, then gave BB a ride through the parking lot of Lowe's.

It took us half an hour to unload, and I spent the rest of the day pulling weeds and laying down grass. Okay, there were actually only 30 pieces of sod, which didn't cover much area (my MIL said, "30 pieces! That must have taken care of the whole back yard!" Uh, NO.) But we had to lay down topsoil (which came in 40 lb bags) and the grass itself wasn't light. Baby Brother had to go home to get ready for prom, and the brother formerly known as broken came to look at the AC. He diagnosed, my step dad did the work, and it only cost $40. YAY! Of course it's 47 degrees....

Baby Brother and I laughed that FOUR men were working on the AC, which was hardly physical at all (it was terminal wires or something) and the two of us were unloading the pick-up and carrying stuff to the back yard. Come ON! Though the dh pitched in for a bit after lunch, as did the boy.

Needless to say, I didn't write a word. We ate dinner at 8:30 and I crawled onto the couch to watch National Treasure, then went to bed.

Today I plan to write. If I can lift my arm.

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?