The Loot and A New Design

First, the loot (a.k.a. birthday presents).

--Money from Dad

--Clothes from Mom and brother

--The Da Vinci Code from stepson

--A Napoleon Dynamite memo pad from daughter

--A beautiful cross necklace from other stepson

--A dozen beautiful, red roses

--Band of Brothers DVD set

Yes, it was a nice birthday. :-) Thank you all so much for the good wishes. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Now, on to the new design...which is really not much more than a link to send you to my redesigned Web site. It's nothing fancy. I'm working with a very basic template offered by my ISP service. But hey, it's idiot-proof, exactly what I need. I'll graduate to a fancy Web site in the future, but for now, this will do.

Check it out: The Golden Era of Romance

This blog will be getting a face-lift soon. I plan to update it to reflect my new "retro" style and I have a graphic designer working on a new look. Can't wait to see it when it's done. The best part? It's free! We're trading "work" with each other - I helped him edit his children's story, and he's helping me with my new blog design. :-)

Tonight we're taking the kids to a hotel again to swim and relax. I'm looking forward to getting some more editing done 'cuz as we all know, this gal doesn't swim.

Have a wonderful Friday!

So I'm 31

It's my birthday. Yay.

Did you hear the excitement? No? Neither did I. *grin*

It's a fact of life that birthdays just aren't as exciting when you get older. At least that's been my experience. I woke up this morning and thought, "Oh yeah. It's my birthday. Cool." And that was about as excited as I got.

I don't have any big plans. I decided to keep it simple this year. I'm having lunch with my co-workers, will exercise after work, then go out for supper and have cake later. And really, that's about it.

And I'm ok with that.

In fact, I was a lot more excited for my daughter's birthday in May than I am for mine. :-)

The Neverending Story

I'm working on the second draft of my WWII historical novel right now and just finished with chapter one last night. I've definitely noticed a difference in the way I'm writing this novel as compared to my last one. Of course, I had worked on my last novel, Possession, for nearly five years. Yes, you heard me right. Five years. And in those five years, I learned so much on the writing craft that I had to constantly revise it to make it work. And by the time I had revised and revised, I was so deep into it that I simply couldn't put it aside and work on something else because darn it, if I had invested this much time into it, I was going to FINISH it and FINISH IT RIGHT.

Whew. End of ramble.

But now, Possession is done. Finished. And I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be working on something else.

Have you ever had a project that just wouldn't stop? Did you force yourself to finish it or just abandon it altogether?

The Dog Days of Summer

It's that time of the year, the time when I grab the grooming comb and start brushing my dog, Charlie. I'm not kidding when I say I could stuff a couple of big pillows with all the fur he's shedding. But that's summer for you.

As we all know, I'm not a summer person. But there are aspects of summer I enjoy. Listening to the locusts humming in the trees at nightfall. The cool breeze after the sun sets. The sound of children shrieking in delight. My daughter's dirty face and knees after a hard day playing. Picnics and popsicles. The excitement of the 4th of July. Fireworks. Sandles. Running in the sprinkler and water fights. Swingsets and baseball.

What's your favorite thing about summer?

Weekend Activities

It's my stepson's thirteenth birthday today - and yes, we have definitely entered the teenage zone! We had his party yesterday and even though it was only in the 70's, we had a huge water fight. My mom even got involved in the festivities and she and my husband had their own little water battle going on. I managed to stay out of it. :-)

I did manage to get some editing done on the novel, but I also relaxed on the front porch quite a bit.

My birthday is coming up on Thursday and hubby said he wants to make it very special. I'm wondering what to do...I obviously can't have what I really want: lunch in Paris! ;-)

Ah....Romance (And Fridays)

It's Friday and the best day of the week!

Tell me. Do you go through cycles with your significant other? Are there times when you're madly, deeply, completely in love and other times, well, you love him/her, but you're definitely not in love with him/her?

Last week, I fell back in love with my husband. I hadn't felt that way in a long time. What with our marriage dilemma and all...well, let's just say it felt good.

We write romance. And there's a certain bit of fantasy to it. After all, we're not in love with our significant other all the time. And if you are, then please, tell us your secret! Generally speaking, though, romances end before the hard part really starts. The happily ever after is there - but lots of novels don't tell us exactly how things go after our hero and heroine make the commitment to each other.
But that's ok. To me, reality is hard enough to deal with. I want to read about a couple who has worked through their problems and solved them. I want to read of a couple that is in such perfect harmony with each other that they see stars in each other's eyes. Then for a few minutes, I can sigh in contentment, smile, and think, "Yup, love is wonderful."

Isn't writing romances a great job?

Happy Friday!

"How to Write" Books

Dwight Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer just arrived in the mail for me yesterday. At our last chapter meeting, a gal gave a presentation on Swain's "scene and sequel." I wanted to delve into the concept more and apply it to my current manuscript because let's face it - I want to sell.

What writing book have you found the most helpful?

The Power of Fantasy

Let me tell you about my dreams last night...

For some reason, I was at a Hollywood bar. And sitting to my left was the delectable Christian Bale.

And as generally occurs in the land of fantasy, I wasn't married and neither was he. (And of course, I was skinny.)

I knew I had to be the type of gal that wouldn't fall all over him if I was to get his attention. So I did what I do best - I listened. I listened to him talk about Hollywood, about the angst he was going through, etc., etc. And at one point, he came over to me, put his arm around me, and said, "What are you doing Tuesday night?"

"Nothing," I replied.

"Have dinner with me."

"Okay."

The rest of the dream got a little weird as it wasn't me who was having dinner with him, but someone else. But that's ok - the important part is that Christian Bale asked me on a date.

I remember waking up (or maybe I was still in dreamland) and thinking, "Wait a minute. Christian Bale is married! He has kids! But oh...maybe I can dream about Matthew...he's free now!" (Yes - he and Penelope Cruz are no longer a couple. Ladies, we can dream again!)

And I promptly did just that.

I was Matthew McConaughey's personal assistant. Have you seen the movie Sahara? Well, Matthew was wearing that white suit with his shirt open to reveal that very sexy chest of his and his hair was long. I was the one who had to keep the foolish, drooling girls away from him (and believe me, there were plenty). And he loved me for it. But it was a tough job - after all, being in love with your employer isn't easy!

When I woke up this morning to the harsh light of reality *grin*, I smiled. There is something about indulging in our fantasies that just leaves you with a good feeling during the day. The chances of me even meeting Christian Bale or Matthew are slim to absolute none. And that's ok. They're fantasy men - and that's where they belong. I'm sure in reality, I'd probably be a bit disappointed. (Ok, maybe not.)

That's the power of fiction - and romance novels, in particular. We can indulge in these fantasies for awhile and really, that's ok. Reality can be a bit too harsh sometimes and we need that mental break. Romances fills that need, but also servesas a wonderful reminder of the love and affection that exists in real life.

Busy Weekend

It was a busy, but nice weekend. My stepson is visiting from Kentucky, so we took the kids to the town where hubby works (since he had to work Saturday morning) and spent the night at the hotel so the kids could go swimming. They love to do things like that and it's a nice break for us to get away from home for awhile. (Oh yeah - hubby and I are getting along better now - always a good thing! The jury is still out on whether or not we'll survive this little setback, but for now, we're just working on the whole forgiveness thing).

We were fortunate enough (well, if you're into that thing) to see the Raminator crush three cars on Saturday at a car show. My daughter thought it was awesome. :-)

Sunday we went to the WWII museum. This WWII veteran started collecting WWII memorabilia in 1945 and this museum is jammed with stuff. He has an extensive collection of books, uniforms, weapons, magazines, flags, medals, and just about everything else you can think of. Unfortunately, it's definitely a mom and pop museum (this elderly couple has been doing it for quite a long time) and it's in need of a good reorganization. I don't think he has his extensive library catalogued, which would be a job in itself. I'm thinking of offering to volunteer maybe once or twice a month to help him get things in a better semblance of order.

On the writing front, I did manage to get a bit of editing done while I sat around the pool watching the kids (no swimming for this gal!).

Hope you had a great weekend!

It's Friday

Yup, my favorite day of the week. I'm not sure what my weekend plans will be, but they definitely involve writing.

I'm thinking of heading off to a local World War II museum that I've wanted to visit for quite a long time now. Might give me additional motivation to work on my WWII novel.

Other than that, I plan on relaxing. I like to do that on the weekends. I'm on the go too much during the week.

But what I'd really like to do is go home for about a week. Ah, yes. Sitting on my Dad's front porch, looking out over the pasture, watching the cows graze, basking in the cool air of a western Nebraska summer night...that sounds pretty good about now. Unfortunately, I've got to save my vacation hours for Atlanta. And Atlanta can't come soon enough! I'm so excited to go and meet everyone and just enjoy the entire experience.

If you could go anywhere on vacation right now, where would it be?

The Dentist Appointment from Hell

I'm getting used to going to the dentist. I'm trying to get my teeth all fixed before I have any more major problems (like root canals) to deal with. I don't even get nervous anymore while I sit in the waiting room.

That may change now.

I had to have one tooth done yesterday. The cavity turned out to be pretty deep, so it was a good thing that I had it fixed. But after the first two shots of novacaine failed to produce the desired numbing effect, they had to dig a little deeper with the needle. I don't know if they hit a nerve that automatically triggered the desire to promptly close my eyes and fall asleep or what, but by the time they started drilling, I was fighting to keep my eyes open.

And the drilling just didn't stop! When he was finally finished, the whole right side of my face was numb - including my ear! I was shaky and dizzy when I stood up and to tell you the truth, I really just wanted to curl up in a corner and take a nap.

The drive home was, let's just say, interesting. I literally fought to keep my eyes open on the way home. Returning to work was out of the question. When I got home, I fell on my bed, closed my eye - make that my left eye - and tried to go to sleep. My right eye refused to close, so I had to actually take my fingers and pull the eyelid down! I fell asleep and woke up an hour and a half later, ate some lunch, then went back to sleep and slept until 4:30 p.m.

I don't think I've ever had such a weird reaction to novacaine before. And unfortunately, I've got another dentist appointment the first week of July. Maybe I will have forgotten this experience by then.

But I doubt it.