Home. Exhausted. In pain. More tomorrow.

Um, I guess maybe the title is inappropriate since nothing funny has happened that involves my foot. It has, however, impacted me more than I'd like. Right now, I'm sitting with my feet up. The ever fashionable cam boot has kept my foot protected, but it has a couple of drawbacks. First, boot malfunction. Sometimes, the velcro just goes whoosh and I have to stop and adjust. Sigh. Second, the velcro on the sides rubs against my leg and I have charming little red marks that hurt! No bandages in my travel bag, although I have almost everything else. Third, the thing is freaking HOT! Ugh! Tonight, I was at two awards things and it was hot in both rooms which made the boot feel even worse. I could hardly wait to get the thing off. And I found drawback number four. The heat made my foot and ankle swell, so I have marks from where the boot pressed against me.

Is this enough whining? I apologize, I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable right now.

Edited to add: Okay, it's about 20 minutes later and now my foot really hurts. Wah!

So let's talk about the fun stuff, yes? Last night was the literacy signing and it was a kick! I met so many wonderful people who told me they loved my books. Nice little ego boost, and it's the coolest thing in the world to know that other people not only read, but enjoyed your book. I knocked over my display easel of my Crimson Veil cover twice (I think), but other than that spared myself any embarrassing moments. At least I think I did. If I'm wrong, please don't tell me!

I sat next to Maggie Osborne at the signing and she is the nicest, most gracious woman! I'm happy to have had a chance to meet her and talk to her before her retirement ended her autographing events. I also wish her the best of luck in whatever she chooses to do next.

I only made it to one event after the literacy signing. I pooped out and was half asleep by the time I left party number one. I did look for the RBL group in the bar area since the steakhouse was closed, but couldn't spot anyone. I decided to go to bed instead of looking any farther.

Of course, by the time I washed my face and brushed my teeth, I wasn't sleepy any more. In fact, I wasn't sleepy at 1am or 2am either. I'm looking at the clock in the hotel room and thinking, gee, if I was home, I'd be getting up now to go to work. You know the insomnia is bad when I'm doing time conversion in my head. :-)

You'd think that I would sleep late after this kind of night, but nope. I was up at 7am. I had the alarm set to go off at 8:15, but reset it for 9:15. Still didn't get any more sleep in before I had to get ready to meet the Crimson City team for lunch.

This was my first time meeting Marjorie and Carolyn in person. I'd met Liz at the 2176 lunch last year in Dallas and Jade at my very first publisher dinner. It's a fun group and way cool to finally have faces to put with the people I've been emailing for months. And Carolyn was sweet enough to cart my box of books up to my room for me. We're doing a promo tomorrow morning and giving out books, only I didn't know how to get them to my room on my own. (Thanks Carolyn!)

After lunch, I met up with a friend in the bar and a couple of other Dorchester authors, then I had to run to get ready for dinner.

That's when I had boot malfunction number one. I hate being late for anything, but I was a few minutes late tonight because I had to fix the velcro. Dinner was a blast even though it was part business, and the food was good. I had my second boot malfunction when I stood up out of the low booth. Have I mentioned how tired I am of the boot?

Then it was off to the room and then the awards. I didn't win anything, but then I didn't think I would, so it was easy not to be disappointed. The rooms, though, for the two awards were really far apart and tested my limping skills to the max. This was when I noticed the chaffing from the velcro against my skin was getting really bad. (I'd jammed a tissue between the velcro strip and my leg, but it fell out of place) Still, I did my best to ignore it. And get to the second award presentation. They'd started early and I nearly missed my category. TPOT finished 3rd and I couldn't climb the stairs to the stage to thank anyone. Um, not that I like public speaking anyway.

As soon as the awards were done, I escaped to my room and all but yanked the stupid boot off my leg. Ugh! I can't imagine another 8 weeks of this blessed thing, but that's a minimum.

Anyway, fun day, but tiring. I'm still wound up from the rushing around, though, and know I won't sleep even though I have to get a VERY early start tomorrow morning. So it's back on the hotel TV internet. This means that if there are typos, I can't see them (poor screen resolution) and spell check doesn't work on this thing.

I don't know when I'll be on next, but I thought I'd do an update since I have to do something other than convert the time to Central Daylight. :-)

Reno weather report: It rained today. The hotel is still wonderfully air conditioned except in the awards rooms where I really needed it.

I'm on the hotel's TV internet and the resolution is terrible! I can hardly distinguish some of the letters on some sites. Sigh. And it's $9.99 a day so I won't be using this often--especially once the conference starts.

After all my fretting, things went well yesterday. They didn't make me take my fashionable broken foot boot off to go through security although they did have to run little round patches over it--and my hands to test for explosives. I passed, of course. So finally I'm free to hobble down to my gate: C14 I'm walking when a guy on a cart stops and asks if I want a ride. Well, I wasn't stupid enough to say no and climbed in. Um, I think I was sitting on his jacket tail, the one he was wearing. Oops! But getting on board with him turned out to be a wise decision. It was a LONG way to my gate.

Because of the type of pass I was using, I actually had a confirmed seat--in coach--and was able to fly like a real person. Coach wasn't too hideous and I didn't realize just how stressed I got flying standby until I didn't have to do it. I had no worries yesterday and it was fab! I might have to do this again when I fly to Orlando for the RT conference in Daytona next year.

Almost the entire shuttle van to the hotel was full of RWA Conference goers, so that was fun, and the hotel is very close to the airport. Fortunately, the plane noise isn't too bad, but I can hear them in my room.

Got to my room, put my foot up and called home to let everyone know I arrived safely. Found out I had a call from my agent that I needed to return. Interesting doing the time difference thing between the west and east coasts. It was only a little after 1pm here, but already after 4pm in NYC. It's really funny, but it never fails. Any time I leave for a conference, stuff starts happening and my agent needs to talk to me. Maybe I need to go to more conferences! Anyway, I can't say anything right now about what we talked about. Sorry.

Then I called up a few friends that were supposed to be in yesterday and we made plans to meet for an early dinner I had about 3 hours so I decided to nap, but couldn't. I ended up working on a synopsis for one of my ideas instead.

Today, I'm meeting up with another friend at 12:30 and we're going to register for the conference so I need to get moving. I'm still not in the shower. :-)

Reno Weather Report: It's sunny and the hotel is air conditioned.

Yes, believe it or not, I'm leaving for the RWA Conference without life support (AKA the laptop). I don't know how I'm going to function without internet or email for a week, but maybe I can find some place with cheap access. Needless to say, there will be no blog posts until I get back home. Well, unless I find the cheap internet access--if I do, I'll post.

Yesterday, I again did my pack at the last minute thing. Why don't I learn? I started laundry early enough that I had hope that this would be the trip that I overcame my packing procrastination. But alas, that was not to be. I started getting clothes together around 6pm. Began printing out stuff I needed to bring with me to Reno around 7pm. Finished up around 8:30. Began packing around, oh, 10:15. Which put me into bed sometime after 11pm--and here I am, up at 4am. Okay, up at 4:30am. I laid in bed, hitting the snooze for a while.

On the plus side, the suitcase is less full than it was last year. On the minus side, I'm sure that means I forgot something. I mean, just being short a shoe or two shouldn't make that much of a difference. I'm certain that I'm forgetting something.

Keep your fingers crossed, though, that the suitcase makes it to Reno--preferably without being searched by the TSA. I don't want them messing up my clothes, but I travel with my toiletries in something called an Everything Bag and I don't think their X-Ray equipment can see through the way everything is rolled in on each other. Add an immersion heater this year because the hotel doesn't have coffee makers, a display easel with my great Crimson Veil cover (keep the fingers on both hands crossed that this survives the trip unscathed), and copies of Power of Two that I'm carting along for some reason I can't recall, and it all increases my odds of being searched.

Anyway, I am so NOT looking forward to 3 1/2 hours in coach. Gah! Do you know that I haven't flown in the back of the plane since 1993??? Yes, I know I'm spoiled, but I pay for the privilege in other ways. Trust me.

MN Weather Report: 74 degrees. Off to Reno where it's been in the 100's. GAH!

One of my projects for Saturday was to get a display easel made up with the cover for Through a Crimson Veil on it. I wanted to put it up at the literacy signing--if there's enough room on the table--and at another event. As you can guess from the fact that I was just getting around to doing this now and I'm leaving on Monday morning, I'd procrastinated just a tad. Um, I also kind of pulled into Kinko's at about 3:45. But someone I know referred to them as "the procrastinator's best friend" so I was hopeful I'd still get a display easel.

I talked to the guy who does the signs and he said he needed about an hour. Wow! They are the procrastinator's best friend. :-) It seemed silly to go home, then have to turn around and head right back to Kinko's, but the mall is right near there--complete with Waldenbooks!

Honestly, the last thing I wanted to do was shop with a broken foot, but I figured it might be good practice for National. I could test how much I'd be able to handle--right? I managed to snag a spot right next to the door, or darn near, and hobble my way inside. It was hot and humid here yesterday--although luckily not as hot as they were predicting because the storms that rolled through left it cloudy most of the day. But the mall was almost too warm. Just standing, looking at books had a film of sweat forming on me and that's ridiculous.

So I'm browsing the books in the doorway to the store and the security thing starts beeping. I didn't even pay attention to it since I was intent on books--I hadn't been to the store in about forever--and it finally went off on it's own. I guess I moved far enough away from the door. Then I went around to the other side of the plastic bookshelves in the middle of the entry and spotted Liz Maverick's Crimson City--on the bottom shelf. Hmm. Well, there was a slot open on the top shelf and that would put the book right at eye level. Much better placement. I began to switch the books--and was caught red-handed because my cell phone set off the security system in the front of the store again. Oops.

I managed to kill about half an hour in the store, then I took my purchases (no, I can't walk into a bookstore without buying something) and sat on a bench outside, paging through one of the books. Finally, it was late enough that I could return to Kinko's. Hurrah!

I was left standing for about 10 minutes, but the display easel turned out beautiful! I may be giving Kinko's more of my business in the future. They were fast and they did a fabulous job, which is a huge improvement over my problems with Copy Max.

To get to the part about my cane, it was amazing. People held doors for me! Usually, most people let the door slam in your face, but every time someone was near a door at the same time I was, they held it for me. Wow! Amazing what a cane can do. Maybe it's not a cane, but a magic wand. :-) Yes, I'm certain that's it.

And how did I do walking and standing yesterday? Not too bad, although it's easier for me to walk than stand believe it or not. Let's hope I have as easy a time around the conference hotel.

MN Weather Report: 81 degrees. Heat Index: 85 degrees. Miserably humid.

Storms have moved through and it's stopped thundering and lightning. I've kind of lost the momentum I had going on the previous blog about advertising, but I just wanted to post the link to one article about advertising. This is from The New Yorker. It talks about what advertising was and what it's future might be. Not that a lot of people care who aren't interested in the field. What can I say? I liked it enough to get a degree in it.

Still have a gazillion things to do before leaving for the conference and no interest in doing any of them. I'm going to force myself though. Soon.

MN Weather Report: 72 degrees. Humid.

For those who don't know this, I was an advertising copywriting major in college. I never worked in the field, but I love good advertising and have happily paid to watch the Clio Award reel. (The Clio Award is for the best of the best in advertising.) Advertising has drastically changed over the past decade or so, and I hate to say this, but IMO, not for the better.

My personal pet peeve is radio advertising. In the last five years, I can only remember one set of radio ads that impressed me. The Bud Light series that honored the Real American hero, for example: "This is for you Mr. Pickled Pigs Foot Eater because it takes guts to eat those feet." These ads were fabulous and I used to listen for them. You can find a list of downloadable Bud Light radio ads HERE, if you want to hear what clever radio ads sound like. :-)

Most radio advertising, however, leaves me gnashing my teeth and vowing to redo my portfolio to get into the business. Maybe I couldn't do any better, (although I think the course work I had to turn in for college was better than 90% of the radio ads I hear in the Twin Cities), but I'd sure like to try. There is no entertainment in most of the spots. None. And I find most of them to be embarrassingly bad. Of course, with radio, many ads are only played locally or regionally, so it could easily vary drastically from one area of the country to another.

Television advertising, however, is much more national. I'm generally just as unimpressed with this venue, although I rarely gnash my teeth--yet. Right now, I just mutter something along the lines of, "Oh, my God" and quickly change the station. ;-)

Television has always had a mix of ads, some hard sell, some slice of life, some humorous, some celebrity pitch stuff, etc, but the entertainment quotient seemed to be higher. I used to anticipate the Super Bowl every year for the cool ads. The last two years, I've been hugely disappointed. Instead of cleverness, the idea behind the vast amount of the "humorous" ads is to have someone acting stupidly, or worse yet, boorishly. And we're supposed to find this funny? I think I hate these ads more than the ones that are just plain boring.

I read an article recently that talked about the death of traditional advertising. Maybe new technologies would have killed it eventually anyway, but I think advertising over the last 5-10 years has been strangling itself. Why would people want to watch these ads when most of them are stupid and/or boring? Of course, we're going to flip away or zap the ads--anything to get away from them.

But you know what? I love the AFLAC commercials with the duck. I usually watch baseball with the sound muted, but as soon as I see one of these ads, I reach for the remote and turn up the volume. It doesn't matter how many times I've seen the Yogi Berra commercial, I still enjoy it. This is how you get people to sit through the ads, you entertain them as well as pitch the product. The AFLAC ad does a great job of this. I remember the product name and I know what the product is.

Severe weather rolling through. I have to end here and get off the computer.

A Taste of Crimson by Marjorie M. Liu is shipping now from Amazon and will be shipping any day from BN.com! It's almost two weeks early, but there have even been in-store sightings. If you're following the Crimson City series, this is book 2.

Speaking of the Crimson City series, I mentioned last week that I'd heard back from the first reviewer on Through a Crimson Veil and last night, she sent me the official review. It's a cool one! I'll link to the full review when it's posted on Fresh Fiction in September, but here's a snippet or two.

I got so involved in THROUGH A CRIMSON VEIL, I could not put it down.

My favorite part, though, talks about Conor:

He has no idea how much the beautiful, vivacious and impetuous Mika will disrupt his already troubled life, or how she'll get under his skin and into his blood, tearing down his tightly controlled barriers.

I'm hoping the rest of the reviews for TACV are this good!

Last night, I managed to embarrass myself. Sigh. I keep up with blogs through Bloglines (Which has been driving me nuts lately because they are SO far behind the posts right now.) and that includes feedster so I can see if anyone is talking about the Crimson City series. And there was a bunch of people who'd mentioned it, including someone who said she'd emailed me a few days earlier about The Power of Two. I panicked because I hadn't received an email from her and I'm worrying that I'm losing notes, so I quickly sent a message apologizing for not answering her.

Then I started thinking. Eventually it dawned on me that I had received email from her, but not under her pen name. Oops. So I sent another email apologizing for being so slow to make the connection between names. I used to have a fantastic memory--I miss it. And I feel bad that I didn't immediately remember.

MN Weather Report: 73 degrees.

The yearly frenzy leading up to RWA National has begun. Part 2, I mean. Frenzy: Part 1 was clothes shopping, which I thankfully finished before I broke my foot. Except for finding new shoes, which I don't really need now since I have the fashionable cam boot attracting attention. Who's going to be looking at the shoe on my other foot? The positive point is that if I only have to pack one shoe, that gives me more room in the suitcase.

Frenzy: Part 2 is when I realize I have all these things I have to do before I leave. Like go to Target and replenish the toiletries I take with. This also includes getting promo stuff together, preparing to pack, finding and washing any clothes that need to be found and/or laundered. Then there are the tough decisions--do I bring my digital camera? If I do, I'll worry about it. How many pairs--um, half pairs--of shoes am I going to need? At least this time the decision has already been made on the laptop. It stays home.

Frenzy: Part 3 will be packing. I loathe packing. I can't even tell you how much I hate it. It's a little better coming home because I don't have to be as careful with stuff. At that point, most of it just gets tossed in, but going... Going I have to make sure everything is going to still look as nice as possible when I unpack on arrival. This particular frenzy happens the day before I leave, probably late at night, and includes a lot of moaning and groaning.

Anyway, starting now, there's nothing but stress involved in thinking about the conference. It won't subside until I'm in my hotel room and unpacked.

Speaking of stress, the mechanics at my airline have started their 30 day cooling off period before they're allowed to strike. If you don't count the pilot's strike we had a few years back, I've never been at the airline when there's been labor unrest. (And I don't count the pilot's strike. They nicely picketed in full uniform, looking snazzy and not frightening me at all.) I'm already hearing stories of managers having their cars keyed or car windows broken. I don't know if it's true or not since I haven't seen anything firsthand.

I've also heard stories of labor unrest that happened years before my tenure with the airline. They're pretty ugly and maybe being out for 4 weeks after surgery won't be a bad thing. Maybe by the time I have to come back to work, things will be settled and I won't have to cross a picket line full of angry men. (And yes, I am required to cross. It's in my union's contract that we can not honor another union's picket line. Once, a long time ago, the mechanics were in the IAM too, and the situation wouldn't have arisen, but now they're in AMFA.)

Enough of that. I usually don't talk about the day job because it's not something I like to focus a lot of energy on.

MN Weather Report: 76 degrees.

Seriously, do you think human cloning is close enough at hand that I can create three of me by next Wednesday? My schedule for the RWA conference was full to begin with--including running (or should I say limping?) between the PRISM Awards and the National Readers' Choice Awards on Thursday night, but Wednesday is proving to be the busiest night of all.

Wednesday is the literacy signing. Traditionally, I've met up with a group of online friends directly after the signing ended and we'd hang out. This is the only time in the conference that I would see some of these people because there are several who are long time authors and they're busier than I am.

This year, I have two other groups of online friends who want to meet up--after the literacy signing. I really want to get together with all three groups. So what do I do? Try to make all the gatherings? It's not possible to incorporate them into one group, and running between them would have been difficult even if I hadn't broken my foot. With my incredibly slow pace, hurrying anywhere just isn't going to happen.

Both these groups will have people who are only coming in for the literacy event--they're readers--so it's not as if I can move meeting up with them to another night. It's Wednesday or it's nothing. I thought about asking one group to meet before the signing, but that isn't going to work either. The Crimson City team is doing a promo thing then, so that's another possibility closed.

Cloning is my best option, but somehow I doubt the ethical issues are going to be resolved in one week. :-( Any suggestions on how I juggle three get togethers in one small window of time?

MN Weather Report: 75 degrees. Humidity is returning and there's a big patch of orange on the radar to our west. Should be storming like heck shortly.

Whoo Hoo! I had an email when I woke up this morning that The Power of Two is a finalist for Best Paranormal/Time Travel/Futuristic in the Aspen Gold contest! I'd be happy dog dancing around the room right now if I were capable of it. :-) Fabulous news to start off the day.

I napped yesterday afternoon. I was so tired, that I figured I'd close my eyes for 20 minutes and wake up refreshed enough to write. Three HOURS later, I finally--groggily--forced myself to get up. Gah! This was NOT on the agenda for the afternoon. And of course, my thoughts were so sluggish for so long after that nap, that I didn't dare write anything new. I did, however, work on some revisions to my romantic suspense. That was interesting. I hadn't read the partial in, gee, more than a year, I'm guessing. I lost track of how many times I thought, "I don't remember that." :-) But I'm thinking I might work on revising the synopses for this book and the two I want to spin off from it, do a last read through of the chapters, and send it off to my agent.

So of course, since I'd slept for three hours yesterday afternoon, I couldn't sleep last night and it was after 11pm when I went to bed. I'm paying for it this morning, but coffee and the email telling me TPOT was a finalist have been going a long way to help me wake up!

MN Weather Report: 59 degrees.

My cube at work is right against the wall. A hangar wall where we keep big airplanes. The thing I find alarming is that it's making these odd creaking noises, and it's never done this before. I'm sitting here, wondering if this is something I should be worrying about.

On to more positive things. I had a To Do List of 6 items. I completed 4 of them successfully this weekend. Hurrah! Since I'd been glancing at the list for about a week, it was good to finally get something accomplished. Of the two items I have left, one is easy, and the other is my least favorite of all the tasks. :-( Wanna take bets that I don't get either one done before National?

MN Weather Report: 77 fabulous degrees!

Revision 14 celebrates its 1-year anniversary August 23 to August 28 with a BUNDLE O' BOOKS giveaway bonanza! Free books, signed by the authors, will be given away every day!

It's free and easy to enter. Just log onto Revision 14, and click on the Contest Sign-Up link under FEATURES.

And to increase your chances of winning, just post a comment to any or all of the articles featured Tuesday through Saturday of that week.

Nearly 20 signed books will be given away over 5 days.

Articles featured that week will include Bloggers from Around the World who are readers and lovers of fiction. They include Candy and Sarah of Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books from the U.S.A., Maili from Britain, and Rosario from Uruguay. Signed books will be given away on the days of their posts in honor of their blogs!

And the GRAND PRIZE, BLOW-OUT giveaways is the entire 2176 series, each book signed by its author with the final book of the series signed by ALL of the authors!

Enter, and YOU could be a lucky winner!

Since my blogging today was so pathetic, here's a quiz. :-)

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Not 100% accruate since my shyness makes it difficult for me to "converse with anyone on the fly," but some of it rings true.

I can't seem to get moving today and I know it's because it's so hot and sticky. Makes me really wish for central air. Even my brain feels sluggish. Probably that's why I can't come up with anything much to talk about today.

Tonight Shark Week starts on the Discovery Channel. I love watching shows about sharks, although I'm to the point where I know most of what they talk about already. I did a bunch of research years ago into sharks because they fascinate me. I even have a story idea with a marine biologist who studies sharks, but who knows if I'll ever write it.

The History Channel aired a couple of shows about storms/hurricanes last night that were interesting. One was about the 1900 hurricane that hit Galveston, TX and the other was about "The Perfect Storm" that formed over the North Atlantic. I find hurricanes fascinating. The size of them, their power is incredible.

See? Two career paths I could have followed if I'd been a little wiser as an 18-year-old kid. I could have been a shark biologist (even though I have a fear of the water) or I could have been a meteorologist and studied storms.

MN Weather Report: 92 degrees. Heat Index: 96 degrees. On our way to a heat index of over 100 degrees. Again.

Not risks in my writing. I write my characters and if it takes a risk to be true to them, then I take it. It's only after the fact that I start worrying about this. No, I'm talking about my pushing my own personal envelope. I'm shy. Very, very shy. I always feel awkward around people I don't know and sometimes even around people I do know. I don't do many book signings and I'd never dare to speak in front of a group. And yet I've agreed to do all this.

It started in May when a local bookstore contacted me and asked me to sign. Fortunately, it wasn't alone, but with two other authors. It was my first signing in my own home area. Before this, I'd only done the RT book fair and the RWA literacy event. This signing went pretty well. I sold a few books, a woman who was visiting from California came all the way to the bookstore just to meet me, and I don't think I embarrassed myself--at least not too much.

Because this went relatively well, I volunteered to take part in a book signing at Barnes & Noble at the Mall of America at the end of September. Through a Crimson Veil will probably be in the stores by then since it has an Oct 4th release date and I'll get to sign my new baby. At least there'll be 7 other authors there, so I won't be sitting alone looking pathetic.

This month, however, has really presented me with chances to step out of my safe little cocoon. And I keep accepting them! GAH! First, I was asked to be part of a panel at the RT Convention in Daytona next May. I wasn't even sure I was going yet, but it only took a little persuasion for me to say I'd do it. I'm sure the panic attack will set in at some point, but it hasn't yet. Again, safety in numbers. I'll be with other authors.

My next opportunity to push my boundaries came when I was asked by the vice president of my local writing chapter to do Journey of a Novel before one of our chapter meetings. This time I didn't even need to be persuaded, I just said "sure." I've already started mildly hyperventilating when I think about this. I keep telling myself, not only will this be good practice for RT in May, but it's a chance to talk about my book to people who won't run the opposite direction. :-) My poor coworkers. And since I'll be talking about TACV, I'll have my blog entries to fall back on. I posted fairly often on how the book was going. But you want to hear the really incredible part? The VP said that she'd had lots of requests for me to do Journey of a Novel. Me. That just floored me.

That's it so far, but I'm sure the universe will present more risk-taking chances for me because it seems as if this is the next part of my journey as a writer and as a human being. To stop keeping myself safe and dare to sound like an idiot in front of lots of people. The really funny thing is that years before I was published--years before I even started Ravyn's Flight--I was in my meditation group and our leader wanted us to look at our future. First, she took us five years forward, then ten years. And in the ten year one, I saw myself giving workshops on writing. I laughed about that. No way was I ever going to speak in public. Guess the laugh is on me, huh?

MN Weather Report: 81 degrees. On our way to 96 degrees with a heat index over 100.

I had an email yesterday evening from one of the reviewers who has a copy of Through a Crimson Veil. She hasn't written the review yet, but she wanted to tell me that my demons "knocked her socks off" and that while she'd only intended to glance through the first chapter and read the galley next week, she was unable to put the story down. How cool is this? I'd be happy dog dancing around the room if I hadn't broken my foot. :-)

It's a funny thing about writing. First, I worry about my writing buddies finding huge problems with what I've written. Next, I worry about my agent and editor's reactions. Are they both going to wonder what the hell were they thinking to get involved with me? Now, I'm at the stage where I worry about reviewer reactions. I mean, my editor and agent at least like my writing, but once the book goes out, who knows? And of course, after the reviewer reaction, comes worry about reader reaction. :-) Then I start the whole thing over again with the next book.

But for now, one reviewer, at least, loved my demon children and that's exciting!

MN Weather Report: 75 degrees. Very, very, very humid.

I was an unpublished contest slut.

I entered Ravyn's Flight in probably a dozen contests before it sold. I know, of course, that there are writers who've entered many more contests than that, but I sold RF fast. From first contest with the revised version to sale was slightly over four months.

I've also judged contests, although I didn't do it until after I'd sold. It was very interesting seeing it from this side of the fence. So what did I learn? Lots. And in a random fashion (ie how it pops into my head), I'm going to share some of it here.

First and most important. SEND THANK YOU NOTES. I don't care if you think the judge is a complete idiot. SEND THANK YOU NOTES. If you can't honestly thank them for their comments--and sometimes it's hard--thank them for the time they took to read your entry.

I've heard writers complain that they don't have enough time to write thank you notes. Really? You can't take 5 minutes to write a thank you note to a judge who probably spent at least two hours reading and rereading your entry? I suggest you find the time.

There are published authors judging contests. What happens if you sell and need a quote? What happens if you contact an author you really admire and ask her to give you a quote for your first book, Jane Doe's Big Adventure? What happens if this author read your entry in a contest and didn't get a thank you? And if you think published authors don't care about receiving a thank you note, think again. This topic has come up several times and every author who I've heard voice an opinion says it definitely makes a difference to them. Five minutes for a thank you note can generate a lot of good will for you later. Trust me on this one. And yes, I sent a thank you note to every judge who ever read Ravyn's Flight. Even if I was two months late, I still sent it because they deserved that courtesy.

Tip Two. Get someone to proof your entry for you. Get several someones. Yes, some typos are going to slip through--it's inevitable. I'm still finding typos in my galleys for TACV and I went over them three times and marked over a hundred items. A few mistakes aren't that big a deal, but I've seen entries that have a had a hell of a lot of errors. Missing words, extra words, misspelled words, etc. I tend not to take points for this unless it's really bad, but going by how marked up Ravyn's Flight was when it came back, I'm a lenient judge. Why give anyone a reason to take points away? This is one of the easy things to fix.

Tip Three. Don't assume the judge a) knows more than you do or b) is a complete moron who wouldn't know talent if it bit her in the ass.

I made changes that I never liked to Ravyn's Flight based on comments from judges, but I assumed they knew more than I did. After all, they were a contest judge. (This was before the time when calls went out on loop after loop for any warm body to judge a contest.) I figured they must have all kinds of experience that I didn't have. I was wrong.

The flip side of this coin is don't assume that they know nothing. Even if you get some screwball comments in the mix, take a few days, then reread them again--and be honest. Does the judge have a point? Maybe they're wrong about what they're commenting on, but could it be there is a problem that the judge can't put their finger on? Editors don't always know what isn't working either, and it's up to the author to figure out how to fix the problem even if the editor is wrong about what's causing it.

The key here is balance and being honest with yourself. If the judge's suggestion doesn't work for you, don't take it, but at the same time, don't assume there isn't room for improvement in your story. No one has written the perfect book yet and no one ever will. Try to be objective when you read comments.

Tip Four. This is another two part tip. a) Don't assume you suck if you don't final in a contest and b) don't assume you're ready to be published if you are a finalist.

I entered the first draft of Ravyn's Flight in two contests. I didn't final in the first contest. In fact, I ended up in the middle of the pack. I was sure I sucked. No, worse than sucked, I was mediocre and that seemed somehow worse than reeking.

Then I finaled in the second contest! Hurrah! I even won the second contest. Was Ravyn's Flight publishable as it was at that point in time? No way in hell, but I had judges who liked my voice, who liked my storytelling and my characters. And the final editor judge liked mine the best of the three finalists. But she didn't ask to see more. :-) RF wasn't ready. Yet.

I judged an entry in one contest a while ago that was fabulous! It had that special spark that can't be quantified, it had an interesting plot, great characters and I gave it a nearly perfect score. I couldn't wait to see the finalists because I wanted to know who wrote this story. I think I was every bit as disappointed when the entry didn't final as the writer herself must have been. I still wanted to know who wrote it, and I waited for a thank you note--which never arrived. This woman lost a possible opportunity. I'm not Nora Roberts, but I'm still a potential connection.

I've also judged an entry (different contest than the entry above) with serious problems (we're talking more than subjective stuff here) that finaled. In the same contest I judged it in. If I'd marked it down because of something completely subjective, I would just shrug and say, okay, others didn't agree with me. But this entry had huge problems with plotting and logic. Maybe it was a first draft like RF was in its first two contests, who knows, but I couldn't believe it finaled. So, in other words, judging is totally subjective, and don't get down on yourself if you don't final or dismiss the critical judge's comments if you do final.

Tip Five. Know why you're entering a contest. Is it for feedback? Or are you entering to final?

My main goal with Ravyn's Flight was to final. (With the revised version.) Yes, I made changes based on the feedback, but that wasn't my aim. My thinking was this: Futuristic romance has very few publishers willing to look at it. Did I really want to chance submitting it to an editor who I didn't click with, and close off that publisher as a potential market, when there might be another editor in the same house who would love my story enough to buy it? My choice was to enter every contest that had an editor for one of the houses that published futuristic romance and see what happened.

Earlier, with the first draft, my goal was feedback, but I lost sight of that when I finished in the middle of the pack. Instead, I should have been thrilled with the comments I got.

Tip Six. Not every story is right for the contest circuit. Ravyn's Flight happened to have a beginning that fit the romance score sheet well. Not every story does. If your story doesn't, there really isn't much point to entering a bunch of contests if you're not going to final or get helpful feedback. In this case, you're better off going right to an agent search.

And this is all I have time for today. I think I hit the highlights anyway. This advice is offered for you to accept or reject as you see fit. It's just my observations from both sides of the score sheet.

MN Weather Report: 75 degrees on our way to 94 and humid.

I'm not crabby any more, just tired, and the foot is feeling a little better--just in case anyone cares. I was careful not to walk too much today. Surgery is scheduled for Aug 9th, BTW.

Took this quiz and had to laugh. I'm not surprised at all that I didn't score real high on the normal scale.

You Are 35% Normal (Occasionally Normal)

You sure do march to your own beat... But you're so weird, people wonder if it's a beat at all. You think on a totally different wavelength and it's often a chore to get people to understand you

How Normal Are You?

MN Weather Report: 93 degrees. Humid.

I'm crabby this morning. I don't have air conditioning and it's been miserably hot and humid here for close to a week. And it promises to remain in the 90's with high humidity at least into next week. My foot really hurts today. Actually, it really was hurting last night, and the pain hasn't gone away. (I must be paying for that comment I made over the weekend about how it didn't hurt.) And I am tired! I was ready to go to bed last night at 7:45, but I couldn't because I was waiting for a call from my cousin-in-law, the podiatrist.

So what did he have to say about the Jones Fracture? That he would have put up on crutches immediately to give the bone a chance to mesh and that walking on it--even in the boot thing--doesn't do this. He also was a little surprised that the doctor I saw didn't have a problem with my going to Reno for the RWA conference. He also added a piece of information that I hadn't found online or heard from the orthopedist--if I went the non-surgical route and it didn't heal, they'd have to do a bone graft at that point. EEK! Surgery is definitely a must-do. And it sounds like the sooner, the better.

What this means for me is that while I'm at the conference, I will be doing next to nothing that I don't have to do. Actually, if I hadn't paid for everything already, I'd seriously consider canceling, but I have paid for everything and can't afford to lose money on the deal.

I also asked my dad to dig out the old crutches and I'm going to try to be good and use them. I despise crutches, but starting this afternoon, I'll force myself to use them as much as possible. I want my foot to heal without a bone graft. Shudder.

On the plus side, my cousin said the surgery is generally quick--no more than an hour--and that pain is usually less than the patient expects. But I will be given a prescription for pain killers. I'm such a baby that I'll probably need them.

MN Weather Report: 74 humid degrees.

You Are A Romantic Realist

You are more romantic than 30% of the population. You tend to be grounded when it comes to romance. Sure, you can fall hard... but only for someone you've gotten to know. And once you're in love, you can be a total romantic goofball... But you'd never admit it to your friends!

Are You Romantic or Realistic?

I'm starting out with Trains and Automobiles. I don't know what I'm going to say about planes, but I wanted to use the title, so I'll come up with something. ;-)

Light rail runs down the middle of the street in front of the building where I work. It's relatively new, less than a year, and we've been saying even before the section of track opened, that someone was going to get hit by the train because there were no crossing arms that came down to prevent people from crossing the tracks.

Yesterday, it happened.

Traffic was backed up onto the airline property, and I thought that was really odd. I could see a police officer directing traffic, but I figured that had to do with a funeral since the cemetery across the street is always burying someone and there are frequently police escorts of the funeral processions. It wasn't until I actually made it up to the street and turned right, that I realized something was going on. With my uncanny instincts, all it took was the ambulance pulling away, the 20 sets of flashing lights and the train stopped on the tracks to give it away. :-) As I made it farther down the road, I could see the smooshed car where the train had pushed it.

The only snippet of coverage I saw last night said the driver was only slightly injured (Thank goodness!) and that he'd been trying to turn around. Which totally does not make sense. Why would you try to turn around on a train track with the train coming?

Oh! I just figured how to tie airplanes into this topic. How about this? I can be fairly confident that this wasn't one of my fellow airline employees since the accident took place in front of the cemetery and the clinic, not my building. (Yeah, kind of a loose tie in, but I don't feel like talking about work and that's the only other way I could think to bring planes into the conversation.)

I went to chat last night since Crimson City is out this month, but only one Dorchester author with a book out this month showed up. She lives in Germany and the chat started at 3am her time. Gah! But she was there and sounded wide awake. :-) Probably more awake than I was. Anyway, with so few authors in attendance (the third one who showed up timed out early on), I was asked questions about Crimson City--both the series and the book out this month--and it was so cool to see how interested people were! Hopefully, this interest will hold into October when Crimson Veil comes out.

I also ordered some more stationery yesterday. I was planning on it anyway because I need note paper desperately. I've been using free stuff I'd gotten years ago since I didn't have anything else, but even that is running out. But I wouldn't have ordered so quickly if I didn't get 10% off from the company who printed my notecards. So I found some cute little paper with pink lettering. :-) What can I say? Fuchsia is my favorite color. I also picked up some address labels (why don't the half a gazillion charities who inundate me with labels send me some with my PO box on it?) and these adorable note cards with my name embossed on it. I would have ordered more, except I saw the total in my shopping cart and reluctantly stopped buying.

And somehow between arriving home late from the train incident, ordering stationery, working on my bio for the RT Convention, and going to chat, I managed to write nothing yesterday. Oh, I did do a little clean up job on the chapter I finished, but I'm feeling very frustrated. If I could bring my laptop into work, I could accomplish so much more. But my damn foot means I carry the minimum. Grrr.

MN Weather Report: 73 degrees. Still humid.

I finished the chapter I was working on in the WIP on Sunday. Hurrah! I finally was able to write without my demon children interfering. It's been a long time since I've been able to say that! I feel like it was a huge breakthrough, and hopefully, I'll get a lot written now even if I can't lug the laptop into work.

I still have a backlog of things to take care of, stuff I let slide with this foot thing happening, but I thought nothing was more important than writing. And considering how good I feel right now, I made the correct decision.

I've been thinking a little about my romantic suspense story this week. It's kind of a cross between "Mission: Impossible" and "It Takes a Thief" and I love the characters. They're both wounded and cynical, but they also are so good for each other. Even if they drive each other crazy. :-)

Anyway, I've mentioned before that I'm pretty happy with the beginning, it's chapters 2 and 3 I need to work on. And the synopsis for the third book in the series. But I wonder if it's worth taking time right now to work on? I mean, I had to turn down an offer because I was already tied up with the WIP and couldn't meet both deadlines--not while working full time. What happens if someone wants this story while I'm tied up with another book? Should I wait until my schedule is cleared a bit more before getting it ready to submit? It's tough being new. There's always so much to learn.

I've also been thinking about my paranormal story (not my demon children, the other one). I bought a domain name for this series, but I'm not sure what kind of info/pages I want on the site. I know, it's a bit premature, but despite the fact that the uniqueness has been an issue, I have a lot of confidence in these books. I'm thinking that this site, though, would be a good chance to practice CSS since it's a clean slate. And as I consider what kind of info to put on there, I can't help but think about the story. Fortunately, however, this h/h have stayed safely in the background, the way my characters usually do when it's not their turn. Usually. Sigh. There are times...

Anyway, before I forget again, I got my really cool notecards from American Stationery. They turned out fabulous and I'm thrilled with the job this company did. Thrilled enough to eye their catalog for real stationery and paper. :-) Which I'm in desperate need of.

MN Weather Report: 75 degrees. Humid.

You're Fiji!

As calm, relaxed, and removed from life as they come, you're just so chilled out, it hurts people to see you. Everyone aspires to be where you are, but most of them just can't put their stress away. Little do they know that even you sometimes have inner turmoil and struggles! For the most part, though, it's sun and fun for you, and that's the way you like it. It's just sort of hard to get things done with all that partying.

Takethe Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

Believe it or not, I sometimes forget my foot is broken. Okay, it only happens when I'm sitting, because when I stand or walk, the pain makes itself known, but when I'm sitting with my feet up, there isn't even a dull ache--usually. I think this is a good thing, but man, I wish I could walk faster. I'm becoming more and more frustrated with the slow pace that I have to move at. Gah!

I had a decent writing day yesterday. I didn't accomplish that much, but I did get my head successfully back into the WIP. I think. :-) It's really hard for me to switch mentally from story to story--that's one of the hardest things for me about being published because I didn't have to do this before I sold--but first I had revisions for TACV and then galleys. This last week, has been medical week, which didn't help the writing at all.

I have a friend and an acquaintance in Alabama that I'm worrying over with this hurricane. The acquaintance lives in Mobile and I'm sure she's evacuated since she did last year for whatever hurricane that was that hit the area (with all the action last year, I've forgotten which one went where.) It's my friend in MGM that I'm worrying about now. (And if you have electricity and are reading this, I expect you to check in!)

MN Weather Report: 84 degrees. Heat Index: 87 degrees. Humid!

For a one click test, this thing was amazingly accurate.

You are dignified, spiritual, and wise. Always unsatisfied, you constantly try to better yourself. You are also a seeker of knowledge and often buried in books. You tend to be philosophical, looking for the big picture in life. You dream of inner peace for yourself, your friends, and the world. A good friend, you always give of yourself first.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

I meant to go to my chapter meeting today--broken foot and all--but I'm just having one of those lazy Saturdays. I was up at 7am, so I had plenty of time. I just couldn't move. Of course, some of my dawdling can be attributed to my lack of desire to don the boot. This knee-high plastic monstrosity is actually really good at protecting my foot, but it's heavy and hot. I also wasn't much looking forward to the walk across the parking lot at the community center where we meet.

So instead, I started playing with some CSS navigation for my website. It actually worked really well, and I started redoing all my pages that have vertical navigation. I think it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. Time really flew, though! I can't believe it's nearly 11am since it felt like maybe half an hour of goofing around with the website.

As I worked, I realized just how much extra crap FrontPage throws on a page as far as coding goes. It's quite irritating, however, I'm way too lazy to code the whole page by hand even though I do have the knowledge necessary to do it.

My new plan for the day since I didn't make my chapter meeting, is to get some writing done on the WIP. I still don't know what I want to do, but maybe if I start writing, something will occur to me. I also owe like 6 gazillion email. I should probably make an effort to answer some of those.

MN Weather Report: 82 degrees. Heat Index: 86 degrees. Very Humid!

Yesterday was not a good day for the world. The bombings in London, the hurricane in the Caribbean. Mother Nature is understandable, there have always been forces of nature at work, but man's inhumanity to man isn't comprehensible to me. How can anyone participate in such destruction? Such slaughter? Why can't people respect each other? We don't have to agree, we just have to say that it's okay not to think alike.

I could go on about this at some length, but I won't because there are no answers. I'll just offer my prayers to the people of London and those who are dealing with the hurricane.

The best part of my day yesterday was the magazines in the doctor's office. That tells you what a bad day it was. I started out with some entertainment magazine. I'm thinking it was Entertainment Weekly, but the full name of the magazine wasn't on the cover. Just "Entertainment ly." The highlight? It was talking about the Grammy awards. Hmm. I looked at the date. Feb 2005. Okay. A little old.

The next magazine on the stack was Vanity Fair with Ben Affleck on the cover. The headline was something about his romance with Gwenyth Paltrow. Another hmm. Granted, I don't follow celebrities much, but I thought he'd married someone else recently and I know she had a baby with someone else. I looked at the date on this magazine. 1999.

I decided to go with the February 2005 entertainment magazine, but it was thin and there wasn't much that interested me there. And it was a long wait.

I also ended up with a big boot for my foot instead of the shoe. The doctor said it would protect my foot better. So far, it's only made my foot hurt worse. :-( It's also going to be hotter and humid as hell here starting today. Sigh. I'm still bummed about needing surgery. Do y'all think that other doctor lied to me when I asked her about surgery? Or do you think she misunderstood the orthopedist when they talked on the phone? I was pretty much counting on her answer. :-(

MN Weather Report: 70 degrees. Starting to get humid.

Today was my appointment with the orthopedist. His recommendation for my broken foot? Surgery. :-(

It seems that I have what's known as a Jones Fracture and that area of the foot does not receive a strong blood supply. It is possible to treat it without surgery, but it takes 6 weeks in a cast and crutches (no weight on the foot), then another 6 weeks or so with a walking cast. Even after all this, there's no guarantee that the bone will heal, and I still might end up needing surgery. There's also an incidence of refracture with this method.

Surgery, however, means 3 weeks without putting weight on it, then, if the healing is going well, time in a walking cast until the healing is complete. I will then have a screw in my foot. Sigh.

I've been researching on the net and it looks as if surgery is definitely the best option, but it totally sucks. I don't want surgery. But I don't want to waste 3 months trying to heal without it and then finding out I needed it anyway.

I'm still going to the RWA conference in Reno, and if I do the surgery, I'll have it after that, but I will be hobbling around the hotel in a boot and using a cane. Gah! Then there's flying. Going through the metal detectors at the airport, getting on the plane, flying 3 1/2 hours, dealing with luggage, getting to the hotel. GAH! Well, I for sure won't be bringing the laptop with me now. No way can I handle that with the foot thing going on. How will I survive without the internet and email for a week??? =8-O

I can tell y'all unequivocally that I'm damn sick of this broken foot already. I have to move so slowly! My mind is already six blocks ahead and around the corner, while the rest of me is hobbling behind. Grrr. Today is the appointment with the orthopedist. Until he says no surgery needed, I'm going to be worrying about that.

The other thing that's so damn frustrating is how tired this has left me. It surprised me, that's for sure, but I guess it makes sense. My body is dealing with the pain and with healing itself and it's taking energy I normally use for other things. :-( When I arrived home yesterday from work, I read email and just crashed. Napped for almost 3 hours, woke up and answered more email, and then went back to bed. I still feel exhausted this morning and I'm wondering if I should just take half a day of vacation for my doctor's appt, then come home and sleep.

Of course, appearing at work yesterday with the attractive shoe the doctor's office provided and the cane that my dad gave me brought questions from my coworkers. The story I decided to go with was that I had an engineer that needed a good swift kick and that they're really hardheaded. :-) Fortunately, my guys have a sense of humor and fortunately I have a sense of humor because I've been getting all kinds of crap about how I broke the bone.

Do I need to mention that not much writing is getting done? I did revise a chapter in the WIP night before last to reflect this new thread I want to add to the story, but last night I just slept.

Anyway, since it takes me so long to do normal, everyday stuff, I have to get going.

MN Weather Report: 67 degrees.

My guest blogger is Alesia Holliday.

Alesia's first novel, AMERICAN IDLE, launched Dorchester Publishing's new trade paperback line, Making It, in August, 2004, and is a double finalist in the prestigious RITA awards for women’s fiction. Publishers Weekly spotlighted AMERICAN IDLE as auspicious first fiction. She now writes funny novels sometimes called chick lit for Berkley Trade.

Alesia also wrote the critically-acclaimed E-MAIL TO THE FRONT, which shared the real story of the lives of military families when one spouse goes to war.

Now, without further ado, here is Alesia Holliday!!!

NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST

So one day I was thinking about today's woman, as I often do, considering that I write funny books about the everyday (and not so everyday!) things we all go through, and I was wondering about that perpetual dilemma -- the Myth of the Nice Girl.

Somehow, through a peculiar evolution of the professional environment, women today are finally recognized (mostly) as equally competent, ambitious, and dedicated as men in the workforce. (We'll leave the "we have to work smarter and harder" argument aside for now.) But yet, we have an added burden: we have to be NICE.

Now, this isn't really tough for most women, most of the time. We were raised to be nice. That's what little girls do, right? "Play nice!" "Be nice!" Except, well, there are times when you can't be all that nice . . . Boyfriend cheating? Kick him to the curb! Um, in a nice way? Opposing counsel trying underhanded tactics? Notify the judge and get him sanctioned! Er, nicely?

The idea of a character who is very ambitious and a great person, but a little bit of a tough chick on the surface, really intrigued me. And I had the perfect character in Kirby Green, newly-hired exec at the Whips and Lace Co. She'd pretty much stolen every scene she was in in AMERICAN IDLE (Double RITA finalist, how cool is that??). Then I wanted to compare and contrast Kirby with a character who was so nice that she was in danger of becoming a doormat. Brianna sprang to life. My good friend who is an opera singer (no, really!) provided some great background for her. Then I set the two of them loose to play on the pages -- each helping the other learn something about life, and about herself. That's how NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST was born.

Can we be successful as women today and still retain some of that niceness that was so valued in earlier years? I think so. But nice doesn't mean dumb, and today's nice girls DO finish first. They might just have to kick a little ass along the way.

Nicely.

Thanks for helping me celebrate the release of my second novel!! -- Alesia Holliday (p.s. This nice girl is frantically polishing some pages due to Hollywood interest -- you can see the details at Alesia's Blog.)

Edited to fix the weird symbols.

On Wednesday, I'm going to give the stage to a special guest. I'm keeping her name a secret--you'll have to stop by tomorrow and see for yourself--but this author is a double RITA finalist (the highest honor RWA bestows on novels) and has a new book out today.

Come meet my mystery blogger on Wednesday, July 6th!

In fact, I won't be kicking much of anything for a while. This morning, I broke my foot. After spending an hour and a half at the doctor this afternoon getting X-rays taken, the prognosis was in. But I had a feeling anyway. As soon as I arrived at work this morning, I googled for info about breaking a foot. I have an appointment with an orthopedist on Thursday, but they don't think I'll need surgery. Which is a very good thing since the RWA National Conference is in only 3 weeks! I'll take all the positive energy/healing thoughts anyone is willing to send my way. This hurts worse than when I broke my little toe, when I broke my ankle or when I broke my tibia bone. :-(

How did I do this, you ask? Would you believe I was saving a little old lady from purse snatchers, and as I delivered my karate kick I felt the bone go? Would you believe I was skiing a black diamond run in the Alps and wiped out? Would you believe I was battling top secret agents to protect government secrets? No?

I didn't think so. Sigh.

The truth is, I was hopping around, putting on my shoe when I heard a pop. Yes, that's right, I broke my foot while putting on my shoes. Talk about pathetic. But if anyone asks, I'm going with one of the stories I listed above. With this kind of pain, I deserve to have an exciting adventure to share.

I've been fighting to focus on the WIP since the end of April. That's when I started to anticipate revisions for TACV and my thoughts were filled with my demon children. They remained even when revisions were done, but last night, Kendall and Wyatt (the h/h from the WIP) started talking again. Hurrah! Whether what I started getting will make the story, who knows? But just the fact that they're drowning out Mika and Conor gives me hope. Plus, I know exactly how to fix a spot in a chapter I need to revise. Double Hurrah!

Now the debate begins. Should I bring the laptop to work today and write on lunch or should I spend my break working on another project I need to finish? I'm leaning toward the latter just because I don't feel like hauling this thing in. I really need to get my smaller (and lighter) laptop fixed. :-(

MN Weather Report: 63 degrees.

Galley is packed up and ready to mail, complete with color-coded spreadsheet, and there's nothing else pressing for the day, so what better time to explore the internet? Here are a few of the more interesting sites that I've found.

Group Hug. Read anonymous confessions or make an anonymous confession. Unlike that site that does the postcards, this is all online.

Space Shuttle Press Kit. Online and in pdf format, you can get information about various space shuttle missions.

AFI's Top 100 Movie Quotes. Fun site! I missed the TV show, and I'm enjoying going through the list and seeing the top quotes. There are also links to other top 100 lists from the American Film Institute.

Online Rhyming Dictionary. Are you a poet? A songwriter? Just need to rhyme a word? Check out this site.

Acronyms. Maybe you need to look up an acronym. This site boasts the largest online database.

Cliches. Or look up a cliche. Always fun for writers. :-)