As the year draws to a close, I find myself looking back at 2004. It's been an interesting year and one that's flown by for me. I started January mailing in the manuscript for The Power of Two. I was exhausted and had spent 4 months getting by on 4-5 hours of sleep a night in order to meet the deadline. I was burnt out totally not only physically, but mentally and emotionally too. I needed a break.

But I'd had a character come in about three weeks earlier and Ryne kept talking and talking and talking. I spent one day hurrying up to get those pages down before I made myself stop. I had to have time off to refresh my brain.

This was my start to 2004 and I'm afraid much of the year is a blur of writing and revision. I wish I could remember more of what actually happened. I can go through the year story by story, proposal by revision, but actual events in the world are pretty vague to me.

2004 is closing with an unspeakable tragedy. I've been watching hours and hours of tsunami coverage every day and am completely staggered by the loss and devastation.

It might have been yesterday while I was watching the news from Asia that the station segued into Iraq and what's going on there. It was incomprehensible to me that there was fighting going on there. My first thought was how can we (humans) still be fighting each other when we all need to work together to help those who've been so affected by this disaster.

Then I realized that I was the one whose thinking had shifted. That my expectations of a world united to aid those who were in desperate need was an ideal, not reality. This leaves me sad. So much seems trivial when faced with the absolute devastation around the Indian Ocean.

I do understand life goes on, that we can't stop living because of this. But can't we become better people? Can't we grow past petty differences and squabbles? Not necessarily the war, but at least in our own lives. I have little patience right now for people caught up in their minor snags and problems. I keep thinking of how lucky they are and wondering why they can't figure it out. All they have to do is turn on the TV to see that their issues are meaningless.

Edited to add: I do understand that getting caught up in our own stuff is a human thing. I also know that it's a matter of time (maybe only mere hours) before I get obsessed with my own petty little things. I'm certainly no Mother Teresa. I'm still concerned with getting to work on time and I still curse at other drivers and call them idiots. :-) But for right now, overall, I'm humming John Lennon's "Imagine" and wishing we could "be as one." At least for a little while.

Sometimes I think early morning is a good time for contemplation because it's so quiet. But enough philosophy. I don't want to preach, I just wanted to put down some of my thoughts. This really was a stream of consciousness kind of ramble this morning. Maybe it's because I haven't had enough sleep and I'm going to be sitting at work today by myself, but these kinds of thoughts really do roll through my head.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2005. And that this is the year that more people see all humans as family.

MN Weather Report: 29 degrees. Wind chill of 15.

I was writing yesterday and Mika's cousin needed a name. She tells me it's "Kimi" and that's the spelling. In fact, Mika is adament that's the spelling. Well, Kimi is all human and is Japanese American and I thought her name would be Japanese. I went on a website that gives the origin and meaning of names, but a search produces no Kimi. But they suggest close names, like "Kimmy."

I keep searching, looking up all the feminine names that start "Kim" and what do you think I find? Kimiko. It's a Japanese woman's name.

Is anyone else hearing Twilight Zone music yet?

The same kind of thing happened to me with Mika. I was working on another story, and got up from my computer. As I'm walking, I see an Asian woman and all she says is "Mika."

Then there's Cai from The Power of Two. She did the same thing to me, only she did it while I was at work. She told me her name was Cai and gave me the sense she was part Asian. It's later that I found out Cai was a Vietnamese name.

As often as this seems to happen, you think I'd be used to it by now, wouldn't you? It still gets a little scary when I think about it. I know there are people who'll claim I heard the name sometime in my life and my subconscious just stored it away. I don't think that's true, but hey, whatever floats your boat. I prefer to think of it as a close connection with my characters. :-)

MN Weather Report: 28 degrees and hazy. Wind chill is 18 degrees. 50% chance of freezing rain this morning, so I've got to leave the house early. Just in case. :-(

This is going to be a public service announcement kind of post.

I've been watching CNN and have been absolutely stunned by the number of deaths and the amount of damage the tsunami left in Asia. Somehow posting about it in a blog didn't seem right.

But today as I watched the news coverage, CNN's online poll showed that only 15% of the respondents had donated to help the victims of the tsunami. That figure drove two things home for me. First, I hadn't donated yet and I meant to. Second, I have a kind of forum to encourage others to help.

I visited http://redcross.org and made a donation to the International Response Fund just minutes ago. On the news yesterday, there was a report that the Red Cross had been given an A+ by a group that rated charities. That's why I picked them over the other possibilities.

I know this post isn't smooth or pretty, but it is heartfelt. I want to encourage anyone who can help in some way to do so. It's crises like this that remind us how small the world is. We're all in this together on planet Earth.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Tomorrow morning I'll be back to my rambling.

We're required to punch in before our shift starts or we're considered tardy. For me, that means I must clock in by 5:59 every day. I'm not a fast mover in the mornings. On the weekends, it can take me an hour to drink my coffee. That's the speed I like to move at. However, I also like to sleep! So every morning, I play beat the clock.

Just to make the game more interesting, there are a few obstacles in my path. First, the freeway I take has horrible traffic congestion problems. It is literally bumper to bumper at 5:30 most mornings. Second, two thirds of my commute is under construction. Third, a shift of mechanics and ramp guys starts at the same time so we create our own traffic jam the last few miles into work. And fourth, the stupid light rail train (carrying all of TWO people at that time of the morning) goes through the middle of the road I exit onto from the freeway. I have to cross the tracks twice to get into work and if there is a train coming, those lights are red for a very long time. :-(

Yesterday, there was a fifth obstacle. My badge wouldn't open the front door to the building I work in, so I had to go around to the other entrance. I punched in right at 5:59. Whew!

What I find somewhat entertaining (okay, I'm easily amused) is that there are three of us who zoom in at the same time every morning. It's me and two aircraft mechanics. Not only do we usually enter through a gate marked "exit only," we also park next to each other. Almost every day. Our three vehicles are usually lined up one, two, three. :-) The clock in my SUV doesn't always work, so if I see both of those guys are there, I hustle it across the parking lot. (It's a long walk for us contract employees. Management is apparently too delicate to handle first come, first served parking and all the good spots are reserved for them. Wimps!)

No MN weather forecast this morning. The Weather Channel isn't giving me the temperature or the wind chill. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's cold.

Apparently, I'm still freaked out over seeing that box elder bug on my bed Christmas Day because I found myself waking up and jumping out of bed again last night. This is the third night in a row I've had trouble because of that bug, and even though he paid with his life, it somehow doesn't seem to be enough right now. :-)

I'm so tired this morning, I literally didn't know what day it was for a while. I finally figured out that it must be Tuesday, but gee, you think one of the TV stations could give the day as well as the date and the time. Good thing my job is pretty mindless. Can you imagine if I were a neurosurgeon? Now that's scary!

I just hope I have a nice, quiet day at work.

MN Weather report: 21 degrees. Wind chill 15 degrees. Forecast is for partly cloudy skies and a high of 31.

It's been an incredible month for spam. I've lost track of how many times I've been offered a "Rolex" watch or drugs. Of course, the spam email offers Viagra, Valium, Cealis (spelling?) and things of this nature. I'm thinking these people are idiots. Why don't they offer the good drugs? I'm talking about ANTIBIOTICS!

The doctors here in my area have gone insane about not writing prescriptions for antibiotics. I understand that there is a problem with antibiotics losing their effectiveness because of over-prescription, however, I've got a 13 year history of bacterial bronchitis and the last two times I've gone in, I've had to argue with the doctor to get the Z-Pack. I didn't even dare bring up the cough medicine with codeine in it. (The only thing that will touch a bronchitis hack.)

Of course, maybe the situation wouldn't be so bad if I could ever get in to see my doctor. Every time I'm sick, I have to get through the receptionists first and there is never, ever an opening with my doctor for the entire week (or sometimes two) when I'm sick. They'll offer the first open appointment with ANY doctor at the clinic--usually 10 days out--and then are surprised when I say that's not soon enough. Believe me, you hack for four hours straight without really stopping and 10 more days of it is NOT an option. SO then I end up seeing some strange doctor at some clinic I've never been to before. Sigh.

But back to spam. :-) I'm so tired of it and of the way they misspell words to try to fool spam blocking software out there (which is why I'm not sure if I'm spelling some of the drugs right). Then there is the spam that just has a number in the subject heading and the subject heading that uses my name in an ambiguous enough way that I have to check it out to make sure it isn't legitimate mail. I'm not even going to mention the porn email. What is with that? Gah!

My original topic for the morning was going to be about writing, but you can probably guess I checked email before coming over to the blog and you can guess that I had a heavy spam morning. I filter all my email, but I still have to process this stuff to get it off my server and I'm plain tired of dealing with it.

MN Weather report: 19 degrees; wind chill is 10. Flurries in the forecast which means we'll either get nothing or we'll get three inches. The weather people are never right.

The doorbell rang about 20 minutes ago. I'm sure it's the neighbors with a Christmas gift, but I can't answer the door. I'm still in my pajamas. Just like I was yesterday when the doorbell rang at noon. Makes me wonder if I'm the only one who likes to lounge in my PJ's on the days when I don't have to go to work.

It's not like I'm up at the crack of dawn. By the time I wake up and have coffee, read email, not that much time as passed. Besides, half the fun of being a writer is being able to work in my pajamas. But apparently my neighbors leap right out of bed, into the shower and get dressed immediately. Sigh. I feel horribly guilty now, but there is no way in hell I'm going to the door looking like this. =8-O EEK!

Besides, look how late I am posting on the blog today. I had a terrible night last night. I kept waking up over and over. Yesterday morning when I got up, there was a bug on my bed. As soon as the lights went out last night, I kept waking up and freaking out, positive there were more bugs crawling around. Hardly the kind of restful night that leads one to leap out of bed and into the shower. I'm still kind of sitting here going, "coffee, more coffee." :-)

Anyway, despite my horrible guilt pangs, I still don't feel like moving yet. I haven't opened my file to write either. I did, however, get ten pages done yesterday, so I'm feeling much happier and I didn't start writing until evening.

MN Weather update: 14 degrees with a wind chill of 3 and sunny!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

It warmed all the way up to 15 degrees here in MN! Yea!!!

My favorite Christmas movie was on last night. I missed most of it so I'm hoping they replay it tonight. Christmas in Connecticut. The original version with Barbara Stanwyck is totally wonderful! I saw it for the first time when I was a junior in college. It was before the holiday and I'd driven back to the apartment that I shared with five other girls on a Sunday evening. No one else was there and I sat in the darkened living room and watched this movie. It had romance and humor and just plain left me feeling good.

So its -8 here or something like that. It's hard to tell because even the Weather Channel isn't showing our temperature. I got this figure off my home page. This would make it the coldest night/morning yet in the Twin Cities and it's brutal. I don't care how many times someone tells me at least I'm prepared for the cold, no one is prepared for this kind of weather. Keep in mind there's a wind chill as well. It could easily be -30 out there once this is factored in.

Of course, I have to go to work today. It's really hard to come up with any enthusiasm at 4am anyway, but when it's this arctic outside, it's pure torture. I maintain that bears have the right idea; hibernate!

Anyway, it's supposed to be in the teens tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that. I don't know which is worse--this brutal cold or the damn snow that's supposed to come with the warmer weather next week. Both suck.

Guess y'all are tired of the MN weather reports, huh? Here it's considered a valid and interesting topic of conversation and is good for at least twenty minutes. :-) What can I say? The weather is so extreme, that it merits discussion. The sad thing is that this is probably the most interesting thing I have to talk about.

I don't watch a lot of television. Not unless it's baseball season, then I usually have a game on, but otherwise I don't have a lot of patience for it. Since I've been sick/recovering from being sick this last week, I've seen a little more than usual and I noticed that CBS Evening News profiles a soldier each night, someone who died in Iraq.

I needed to think about this for a while, but I decided it's a really good thing. It puts a human face on the war, makes people remember that it isn't just numbers. These are real men and women dying. Some of them are just kids.

How many of us remember to look beyond the statistics? I'm as guilty as anyone else. My life has gotten so damn busy. This was a good reminder. These are real people, people with families who love them--spouses, children, parents, siblings. The soldier they profiled last night was 19 when he died. 19.

They also did a follow-up on another soldier they'd profiled. This one had an 11-year-old son and had been working with him to restore an old car. The news talked about all the volunteers that had shown up to help finish this car for the kid like the father wanted to do. I'm glad there are people out there with these generous spirits. This boy will never have his dad back, but at least he'll know that others cared that his father died for his country.

I flip around a lot when I watch TV. CNN, I think, interviewed someone who was part of a group selling bracelets with the names of the men and women who'd died in Iraq. Some of the money from the sale of these bracelets goes to the families. The website is: http://herobracelets.org. I haven't had a chance to check it out thoroughly, but I thought this would be something small I could do. I can't rebuild a car and I hardly have time to do anything beyond working and writing, but I can buy a bracelet and wear it. If anyone does take the time to check it out, drop me an email and let me know what you find out, okay?

I finally accepted that guilt or no guilt, there was no way I was getting snail mail cards out to anyone this year. I contend that I would have gotten them done (at the last minute) if I hadn't gotten sick. But that's all conjecture. So I spent all kinds of time yesterday sending everyone ecards.

Actually, the time was better spent online than writing because everything I wrote yesterday needs to be redone. :-( Some of it just needs to be fleshed out, some of it I have to trash entirely and start all over again. I felt a lot better yesterday, finally had some energy, but apparently my brain was still mush. Hopefully, I'll fix everything today and make some progress, but I'm not terribly optimistic. I'm going back to work today and had 4 hours of sleep last night--maybe less.

MN Weather Watch: It's zero here right now. Wind chill is -15. Yep, MINUS. Would someone please tell me why in the hell I live here?

It snowed overnight. Not a lot, but enough to cover the grass which means no green Christmas for me. I'm sure it must be some divine retribution for being so hopelessly behind on holiday stuff this year.

I did what I thought was a lot of writing yesterday. Turned out to be 6 pages. Maybe it felt like a lot because I was fighting to focus. Being sick so totally sucks. I feel a little better, I think, but Puffs Plus is still my best friend. We don't go anywhere without each other. ;-)

And I'm stuck on demon powers again. This time, though, it's the powers of the dark demons--the bad guys in my book. Usually, powers aren't a problem for me to come up with. I used them in Ravyn's Flight and I have them in my paranormal proposal and had like zero trouble. But in this story, the powers have been an issue from the beginning. I totally don't get it.

I just got the day's mail and now I'm in MAJOR guilt mode. I had a ton of Christmas cards and I haven't mailed a single one. EEK! I did some ecards, but as far as I can tell, Hallmark only sent three of them. Still, that's not the same as a real, snail mail card.

I swear I have holiday cards purchased. They were all ready to be written if I only could find the time. Now, of course, I don't know how I'm going to get them out before Christmas. Double EEK!

And while I'm confessing, I haven't even OPENED my mail in about a week. Not even the lovely holiday cards. This might be tied into my feelings of guilt and I'm in denial by not reading them. Or it might be that I've just been so damn busy this month. I really need to clone myself.

I found a great new review for The Power of Two while I was messing around this weekend. It's at the Internet Writing Journal, and if you click on the title of this blog, it should take you there to read it. The reviewer said a lot of great stuff including that TPOT is "clearly one of the best action romances written this year." How cool is that? And the reviewer totally got Cai and Jake which is extra great!

The rest of my weekend wasn't quite as fun. I felt better when I woke up Sunday, but my condition deteriorated throughout the day until The Cough arrived. I'm pretty susceptible to bronchitis so I was watching for it. I'm on antibiotics now and am hopeful I'll be feeling much better really soon. But I was already behind on Christmas stuff, and this pretty much put the final nail in the coffin for getting everything accomplished.

Whenever I get sick and become so congested, I always feel like Darth Vader with that loud breathing thing. Just to explain the reference to the title of this post.

The signing at Cub went well. The store was fairly busy for 7:30 on a Saturday morning, but I still ended up with a good parking spot. Everyone at the store was really friendly and went out of their way to make sure I was comfortable while I was signing the store stock. They gave The Power of Two GREAT placement. Everyone who walks into the store is going to see the display immediately. And the sign I made up with my cover looks good. Fingers crossed that they sell out of TPOT fast! After all it's the perfect stocking stuffer and everyone stocks up on groceries before the holidays, right?

I didn't get much else done yesterday. Did some laundry, but I was sooo tired afterward that I slept for an hour and a half. Being sick totally sucks. The cough has started now so I'm on bronchitis watch. It's not deep yet, but I'm ready to spring into action.

I'm still behind on all things Christmas. Gah! Can we postpone it?

Here I am, drinking coffee at 6:30 on a Saturday morning. Ugh! My dad made arrangements for me to go to Cub (supermarket here in MN) to autograph copies of The Power of Two at 7:30 this morning. It's just shelf stock, it's not like this is an autographing for people, which considering how lousy I feel is a very good thing. Yep, I'm sick. Luckily, though, I'm still drinking coffee. It's a neutral. I'm not liking it, but it's not disgusting me either. I'm taking this as a good sign.

I guess it's better to do this early in the morning before the store becomes packed with people. And it will. It always does on Saturdays. Plus, the temperature is supposed to be dropping throughout the day so this is as warm as it's going to be. Still windy, but since it's going to get worse, I guess this is okay.

My dad asked me to make up a sign for Cub the way I did for Ravyn's Flight when they sold it, so I did that last night when I got home from work.

I also went looking for some more pictures of the model I'm using for Mika in my Crimson City story. There's a guy at work who's drawing her and Conor for me, but he asked for more pictures. I found a lot, but they needed to be cropped since he only needs the face. I have to get that organized and printed out for him before Monday.

I don't know how many pages I did yesterday, but I wrote a lot. Or at least it sure seemed like a lot. I'm nearly done with the first scene in this chapter and I know what I want to do in the second scene. I'm still behind schedule, but I'm hoping to make up some ground this weekend. This being sick thing is a pain.

Still tired.
Still sick.
Still popping Vitamin C and Echinacea.
Still haven't done Christmas cards.
Still haven't done Christmas shopping.

Gah! I haven't been feeling too energetic all week, and have been just a little bit foggy since about Saturday. Figured out why when my throat started feeling sore last night. Popped a few Vitamin C and some Echinacea and went right to bed. I don't feel any better this morning, but I don't feel any worse either.

The big test, however, is whether or not I want coffee. :-) When I get sick, the thought of drinking the stuff turns my stomach. I'm finishing coffee now. It's not tasting particularly good (and usually I love it), but I am able to drink it. I popped more C and Echinacea too and I'll either nap when I get home from work or I'll get to bed early. Somehow. I've got to stave this thing off. I don't have time to be sick!

I sold another book on Monday, so I'll have a project lined up to work on after I finish my demons. This story is a spin off from my first book. It's set on the same alien planet, but the hero and heroine were never in Ravyn's Flight. However, because of all the emails I received asking for Alex's story, I'm going to finish his and Stacey's romance in this still-to-be-written book. They'll be the secondary couple again.

I'm trying to figure out where my morning went. I barely finished my coffee and it's already time to get off line and get ready for work. =8-O

Cable is out so I have no clue what the temperature is like outside. Since it's MN, COLD is probably a good guess. I could look online, but I'm too lazy.

We did our conference call yesterday for the series and I finally have the answers I need for my story. Of course, a few of those answers are going to require I do some revising since I guessed wrong as I wrote, but I'm leaving that until I have the first draft done.

Have half a gazillion email to answer today and no time to get to them! I really need to clone myself.

I think that's the title of some really old song. If I remember correctly, it was used in a television commercial for soup or something a while back, but it seemed terribly appropriate for the day. It's 2 degrees with the wind chill here this morning. This is like a 1 day drop in temps and it'll be warm again tomorrrow, but today is windy and miserable.

I did manage to get my questions together for the conference call we're having today. I've decided to leave work early and do it from home. It'll just work out better. Plus, if we end up going long, then I won't be stuck at work past my time to go home.

Writing, well, Sunday wasn't a stellar day for me. :-( I was easily distracted and spent way too much time screwing around. I did, however, find a skin for Blogger that I really like. Of course, it isn't exactly how I want things to look. What I need to do (and I know I don't have the time for this) is to combine the current, boring template with the skin and get what I like about both of them going. The part about this that is rather daunting is that Blogger doesn't use straight HTML. In fact, their template has very little HTML while this skin has a huge amount of this particular code. I'm sure I could figure out how to mix them, but I'd have to do a lot of thinking.

I think I mentioned yesterday that I was bringing the SUV in for an oil change, maybe get some new wiper blades, no big deal, right? Sigh. Six hours and $950 later, I pulled the truck into the garage.

The big expense was the brakes and rotors. Do you know how pricey those rotor things are??? Holy moley! But when I factor in that I've never put brakes on the SUV in the six years I've been driving it, I suppose the cost isn't horrible. And considering the kind of driving I do, (snow, ice, endless road construction, idiots cutting in front of me) it's not like I could wait to get them anyway.

I didn't sit at the car place for all those 6 hours, only 2. I had a loaner car and went home. I worked on getting my packages ready to go--for 3 hours. That's another holy moley moment for me. How the hell can it take 3 hours to get a half dozen or so boxes ready to go in the mail?

I worked on that from like 11 until 2. Logged on to check email, and had just opened my file to write when the phone rang. The truck was ready to be picked up. So back to the car place. After all that, did I write? Nope, I took a 2 hour nap. I'm so bad.

So now I'm 10 pages behind schedule and I have to get organized for the conference call we're doing tomorrow for Crimson City. Get my questions together so that I can get some answers. This should be enormously time consuming because I have so many questions.

Goals for the day: Get as much written as possible! Get organized for the conference call. Don't nap. :-)

It didn't snow here yesterday! Hurrah! We've never had a Christmas without some snow on the ground, but there is nothing right now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is the year.

I managed to kill that horrible box elder bug before I went to bed, so I was able to sleep last night. Definitely a good thing.

And yesterday, during lunch at work, I finished Chapter 8, did about a page in Chapter 9, and then went back and finished--more or less--the fight scene in Chapter 6 that had been giving me fits. Of course, that meant my writing buddies got three chapters emailed to them at once.

I can't believe this! It's 7:15 in the morning--on a Saturday yet--and the road construction crews have started up their "guillotine." For those of you who aren't as well-versed in road construction as I've become over the past couple of years, a guillotine is what they use to pound concrete and break it up. It's extremely LOUD and the vibration it sends through the earth is horrible.

The state of MN is expanding a freeway here from 2 lanes each direction, to 3 lanes. (They should have done this TWENTY years ago, but they didn't.) Unfortunately for me, I live near the freeway and work right off of it. So for the two years or so that this project has been going on, my commute to and from work has been hell on Earth. Now the state has decided to make it miserable to be home too. Why would you start pounding concrete at 7AM????

Goals for the day: Get the SUV serviced. Get packages ready to be mailed. Get Christmas gifts ordered online. Oh, yeah. Squeeze in some writing time.

That would be MN, of course. Who wouldn't want to be here in winter???

In case you haven't guessed, that would be ME! I loathe snow. And cold, but snow more. We're supposed to have up to 2 inches today. It was warm enough to rain overnight, but as the temperatures drop, it'll be the S word. You can probably guess this means a super duper commute in to work this morning. As if the 10+ miles of road construction isn't bad enough....

Writing went exceptionally well yesterday as far as page production goes. I nearly finished chapter 8, but became tired and needed to go to the chat scheduled for the 2176 series last night anyway. Of course, everything I wrote may suck and then I'm in trouble, but I picked up a page and a half, so for right now, I'm happy.

I ended up with nowhere near enough sleep. I didn't get out of chat last night until after 9:30 and then, as I was getting ready for bed, there was an icky bug in my bedroom. On my bed. On the sheets! =8-O But it got away and I couldn't find it again, so every time my hair tickled my face, I basically freaked out. Not exactly conducive to falling asleep.

The bug made a reappearance this morning while I was drinking coffee, but disappeared again before it could die. I just hope I find it before bedtime tonight.

Goal for the day: figure out what the hell I'm going to do in chapter 9.

All the authors in the 2176 series--Susan Grant, Kathleen Nance, Liz Maverick and Me--are doing a chat tonight at 9pm Eastern time. I put the link up in the title, so if anyone wants to come, they can find us. I just have to hope I can remember my sign in for this board because I haven't been there since we did our last chat for them back in May or June. I also have a link on the home page of my website. http://www.pattioshea.com

These chats are usually a lot of fun, but they run late for me! I'm also still using the backup Windows ME laptop. I can only hope the computer doesn't have a meltdown during the chat. It's done it before. I'll have to reboot before the chat and not login to anything except the chat. No multi-tasking. Maybe then the computer will stay up and running.

The morning writing report: Had a fab day yesterday and produced lots of pages. It really, really helped that the conference room at work was empty and I was able to have some quiet! It amazes me how inconsiderate people can be and on such a constant basis. Of course, if I say anything, then I'm the one with the problem. It's never him. Sigh. Sometimes I wish I had something like in that old TV show, Get Smart. The Cone of Silence. How cool would that be?

I'm hoping to get a lot done on lunch today too. With the chat cutting into some of my writing time, I'll really need it. I'm still not sure how to end this scene I'm working on in chapter 8, but at least I finally have an idea what to do with the second scene. I just have to get there.

I was amusing myself last night by planning what to bring with me on Saturday. Unfortunately, I need to get the SUV serviced and they always take forever even with an appointment. So I started thinking, gee, what if I brought in some of my reference books on demons to read? :-) I bet that would prompt them to move a bit faster and do a good job, don't you think?

Yesterday, I decided I was going to finish the fight scene in chapter 6. For sure. Since I'm working in chapter 8 and am more than half done, I figured I'd better flesh it out beyond "Fight stuff happens here." :-) I've been having the worst time with that scene and skipped ahead because of it. Normally, I can work my way through those scenes even though they're not easy, but this time it was no dice. I don't know why I had such trouble!

So I bought some episodes of the TV show, "Angel" and decided to watch some vampire/demon fights for inspiration and to see how they choreographed them. It kind of worked. Well, sort of. I did get like 4 short paragraphs written. Um, but I also became really interested in the episodes and wasted a lot of time watching season one. The episode when Cordy moved into the haunted apartment was particularly entertaining. :-)

I didn't finish the fight scene last night. :-( Although I figure I only have about another half a page to write there. I didn't get much written during lunch on chapter 8 because my cube neighbor was yammering away to everyone who came near our row. sigh. I normally lock myself in the conference room because of this, but someone had the nerve to actually schedule a meeting in there! Can you imagine? Using a conference room for work?

Keep your fingers crossed for me that the room is open today otherwise I may find myself in jail for homicide. Justifiable, but, well, you know.... ;-)

I've no idea how many pages I wrote yesterday. I'm guessing in the 2+ range. I fleshed out some of the skeletal part of the scene and wrote some new stuff on lunch. I just didn't write anything when I got home. What I did do was go to bed early and I feel better this morning. I'd still like a couple of more hours, though.

It plain ended up being one of those days yesterday. Life seemed to conspire to keep me from writing. Oh, nothing major or important happened, just time-consuming annoyances. By the time I finally was able to just sit down and write, it was 7pm--almost 12 hours after I woke up! Does that suck or what? In light of this, I find it amazing I wrote close to 5 pages before I went to bed. It's particularly amazing when you factor in that I was watching a movie on TV last night. It's funny. I never watch movies and yet I see two in two days.

This one was a Hallmark presentation, something like, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It isn't something I'll want to see again, and it didn't make me want to pick up the book, but I'm glad I saw it once. It had a wonderful message, about how things we don't even realize we'd done impact others' lives. The hero thought that he'd done nothing with his life, that he'd just stagnated and yet he finds out why he spent his life working where he worked. Anyway, if they repeat it or it plays on cable, it's definitely worth watching.

But becoming so involved in this movie meant I was basically writing during the commercials. I guess it's a miracle I wrote as much as I did. Of course, I haven't reread it yet. Maybe it's crap. I do know there's a lot of dialogue and I'm going to need to flesh it out a little. I stayed up way too late and it's way too early this morning and I don't feel like moving. On a positive note, before life's annoyances started interfering, I reread chapter 7 and I think it's okay. Of course, I'm worrying again about there being too much sexual play between Mika and Conor and not enough action stuff. I know that's going to change in a chapter or two, but I'm concerned that it isn't soon enough. :-(

I have to get going. It's freezing drizzle here today. I hate MN winters.

Updated to add: I tried to upload this to the blog from home, but the site was having an issue, so I'm at work and really early. Roads were more wet than slippery. Actually, it was a good commute in. Because I'd left so early and the roads were so good, I had a fairly relaxing commute in. I didn't have to curse out anyone! I need to leave early more often. ;-)

Also, reread the pages I wrote last night and I definitely need to flesh them out. They're downright skeletal in places.

I saw Lara Croft: Tomb Raider for the first time yesterday. Well, okay, I saw part of it. It was on one of the cable stations and I loved it! Wonderful action and a heroine who really kicks butt! I'm watching this action sequence where she's hooked on these bungee cords flipping around in this enormous room when these mercenaries show up and I was like, "I have to buy this DVD!" I wish someone had told me sooner how cool this movie was!

Of course, I'm really, really bad about watching movies. The last movie I saw in the theater was Titanic which should give you an idea just how bad. :-) I never rent DVD's or video tapes and don't subscribe to HBO or any of the other movie channels, so I pretty much only see what's on television. And even then, I'm likely to wander away or get interested in something else. I have to confess, I was kind of sporadic watching Tomb Raider too. I have a short attention span for most anything that doesn't involve writing.

Speaking of writing, I had a pretty good day yesterday. I only finished 6 pages, which still leaves me 2 pages behind schedule, but it was hard writing for me. Most of it was sex type stuff and that always takes me forever to do. Today, I get to focus on relationship/emotional stuff, so I'm hoping it will go faster. If I do another 6 pages, I'll be back on schedule, but I want to do more. That's why I set the alarm to get up early today. I want extra writing time. :-)

I slept and slept last night. Didn't wake up until after 9:30 which is really late for me, even on the weekend. Had the jumbo cup of coffee and did an update to my firewall. That's one of the best parts about the weekend, the huge cup of coffee and time to drink it really slowly. :-)

Weird dreams last night, lots of them. The one I remember is evacuating Earth with the cast of "Friends." :-) Phoebe had become the bearded woman because of some wish she'd made or something and was trying to unwish it. Everyone was strapped into the space ship in pairs. It was really an interesting dream. Maybe there's a story here. :-) Of course, I'm lousy at dream interpretation, so I have no clue what the symbolism is. I just know I was entertained.

Writing went really well yesterday! It helps so much when I know what I want to do in a scene. I'm still 4 pages behind schedule, but I plan to make that up today. I was going to push ahead yesterday, but I was pretty tired when I reached the point where Mika starts playing with Conor again and I knew I needed to be clearheaded when I wrote that.

You know what's funny? I wrote 2 pages during lunch at work and just breezed through them. Then I got home, reread them and went, "EW!" The paragraphs didn't even make a lot of sense. It must have taken me an hour, or maybe longer, to rework what I'd spent 45 minutes writing! But I only had to cut one sentence. Everything else was keepable once it was reworked and the logical progression of thought put into place. :-)

I've got a lot to do and sleeping so late really messed up my schedule. Well, my intended schedule. I want to finish this chapter today and catch up on the four pages. Should be doable. I hope.

At last, I had a really good writing day yesterday. Hurrah! Of course, I have no clue if the scene works, but what the hell, it's pages. ;-) I hope today goes just as well. I'm optimistic since I went to bed earlier last night and I know what I want to do with this next scene. Okay, I know a little bit of what I want to do with this next scene. I'm still not sure how to end it because I hate to keep doing the unfulfilled sex thing.

These two, though. Sigh. They'd be happy to tease each other all day. Well, Mika would be happy to tease Conor (who is still resisting) all day. Although, Conor is resisting less and less, letting things go a little farther each time. A couple of more chapters, I think, and they'll hit the sheets. Of course, the bottom will shortly fall out of their relationship, but then I'm a firm believer in torturing characters. ;-) After all, they torture me all the time.

Apparently, my brain works best late. After struggling all afternoon and evening, trying to write and not succeeding, at about 8:15 it started coming in. I probably wrote more in 45 minutes than I had in the preceding 3 hours. Of course, the question then becomes was it something I did? Like, oh maybe, start concentrating? =8-O

Of course, it wasn't exactly one of those days where I could be real focused immediately. Since it was the first of the month, that meant website updates had to go up. Switching from the "things" page to the blog has saved me time. I know, you're thinking how could a monthly rant about something be shorter than daily postings? Okay, if you add it up, it's not. But let's face it. It's not even 4:30 in the morning here. Ten minutes, maybe fifteen, at this time of the morning is easier for me to find than a half hour when I'm already updating half a dozen other pages. Plus, I don't have to stay on topic here, I can just wander around till I'm done or till it's time to leave for work. ;-)

While I was writing last night, I was watching "Animal Faceoff" from the Discovery channel. I have to confess to being hooked on that show. I find it hilarious to watch these animal behaviorialists trying to talk trash to each other like boxers do before a big match. Last night, however, it was a huge mismatch; the lion versus the Nile crocodile. I didn't have to see the end to know who was going to win that one, and sure enough, I was right.

I'm catching a ton of wrong words and repeated words, etc so obviously I'm too tired to be writing this morning. I'm going to reread before I post, but can't promise to fix everything. Wish I had the day off from work. :-(

In my demon world, there are different branches, some more malevolent than others. I named my hero's group and my heroine's. I had to toss a name in there for 2 of the assassins hunting Conor, but I hate having to come up with these names. There are demons from another group in my book, the most dangerous of them all, demons who strike fear into the hearts of other demons, but I was hoping to sneak by without giving them an exact name. I thought I'd just call them the "dark demons" and leave it at that. Well, now that isn't going to work. I need to come up with some kind of name for them. I'll have to play around with that.

Oh! I almost forgot! The newspaper article that I was interviewed about for the Chicago Sun-Times is out! http://www.suntimes.com/output/lifestyles/cst-ftr-bomb30.html I'm only quoted a tiny bit at the very end. I'm sure I said much more interesting stuff than that! I must have. Also, a small correction, I don't work for an aeronautical engineering firm, I work for a major US airline in engineering. But my cousin called from Chicago and the cover of The Power of Two is in the paper, so that's cool! And I had a lot of traffic on my website.

Which is how I discovered the article was in the newspaper. I'd forgotten to check yesterday because it had been a week since I'd done the interview. But I started getting all these entries in my contest yesterday. Tons of them. Whenever that happened before, it meant someone had posted the answer to my contest question on one of the sweepstakes websites. sigh. So on lunch, I immediately popped over to the site that's the worst offender, but the answer wasn't there. Okay, I thought, someone else, somewhere, must be cheating. I google searched with all kinds of different search terms, but couldn't find anything. Finally, with one minute left in lunch, it dawned on me to check the Sun-Times and there it was! Hurrah!

I have to confess I am totally glad this stupid contest I was running is over. I can't even believe I'm going to have to add a rule about cheating the next time I run a contest--which will NOT be any time soon. I never, ever believed that so many adults could be so dishonest. And I bet none of them see it that way. I think it's pathetic beyond belief.