Four Days!

Is Christmas really only four days away? Wow. I honestly wonder where 2007 went.

I finished up some shopping last night, but I have just a few more items to get tonight with hubby, then we'll be done. I'm also buying groceries tonight since we have a nice winter storm warning for the weekend. No need to be stranded in my house without Diet Pepsi or chocolate!

I have a four-day weekend ahead of me and I plan to make the most of it. This will include:

1) Rearranging the Christmas tree that the kitties have mercilessly destroyed

2) Making homemade cherry cheesecake for Christmas dinner

3) Curling up on the couch with a cup of hot cocoa and watching an old movie or reading a book

4) Researching the novel and writing down ideas

6) Wrapping presents!

7) Keeping my daughter from finding the presents before I wrap them!

8) Relaxing and enjoying the Christmas spirit!

Ah yes. It's amazing what cute little kitties can do when left unattended. In this case, they literally dismantled the wire shelf in the bathroom, strewing washcloths all over the place. I don't quite know how they did it exactly, but the picture is proof that they did!

And of course, all that running around and creating mayhem and mischief all day tires a gal out.

On Writing...

I've been struggling with the plotting process of my Italian Duet series. Why? Because it's different than anything I've written before. This is not going to be a genre book - it's going to be mainstream. And there's a difference. While there is a love story involved, it is not at the center of the book. Thus, it's not a romance. But to tell you the truth, that is pretty much all I know how to plot is a romance.

While every fiction novel follows a basic pattern, there are subtle differences between genres. In a romance, the characters' relationship is at the center of the novel and the conflict directly involves that relationship. Not so with the book I'm writing. It's almost like I have to go back to the basics. Does that make any sense? It sure made sense a little while ago, but I'm tired and could be hallucinating...

At any rate, the other evening the lightning bolt struck again and I had to grope for pen and paper on the nightstand to write it down. Thankfully, I had a working pen this time!

In the next few days or so, I plan to break down the whole plot process, not only to give myself a refresher course (because let's face it - we all need that every now and then), but to also get some discussion going on the differences between genre, mainstream, and literary.

Happy Wednesday!