New Web Design!

I loaded my new web design this morning. I know, I'm a day early, but I was dying to go live with it. :-) What can I say? Patience is not one of my strengths. If you have a chance, please head on over, cruise around, and let me know what you think. The New Patti O'Shea.com I've already updated all my links on the blog. If you run into any problems (and I hope no one does), please post a comment or email me. I tested in IE and Firefox, and on three different computers, so I hope I caught everything.

Today is the last day of 2005. Part of me is going, wow, I can't believe the year is over already. Another part of me is saying, Come on 2006! 2006 adds to 8, and in numerology, 8 is abundance. I expect this to be a totally fab year. :-)

Resolutions and goals? I don't set them on New Year's and I haven't since I was in college. I learned then that goals set at this time of the year are too easy to break or let slide. Heck, 90% of the people who set goals and make resolutions let them slide, and with that kind of company, it makes it easier to ignore your own aims.

It's funny because people talk about setting 5 year plans or 10 year plans, or even 1 year plans, and I really don't. My personal opinion is that you narrow your possibilities by setting up "plans." I want to be ready to accept whatever gifts life throws my way, not miss them because it doesn't conform with my vision of where I'm supposed to be or when I'm supposed to be there.

Yeah, I know. I've got some kind of weird split personality thing going on. :-) Half of me worries about nothing all the time, jumps the gun at times in my anxiety and trends toward tightly wound. The other part of me is this laid back, take things as they come person. Plan ahead for my life or my writing? Nah, I'll just see what happens and deal with it then.

Weird. I know. Half hot emotion and half cool intellect. It's not easy being me. :-) I will say that the emotional side tends to win out until the heat simmers down enough for the intellect to be heard. I'm working on this. Trying to learn not to immediately react, but to take a step back and think first. It's an ongoing process, but I think I'm getting a little bit better.

Anyway, I better wrap things up and do something today. I slept for 12 fabulous hours and feel great, so I better take advantage of this. :-)

Happy New Year, everyone! 2006 is going to rock, I just know it!!!

Minnesota. Argh!

I promise not to rant on and on about the weather, but I will say, ARGH! It's snowing. I believe it was supposed to rain before the snow. Totals: 4-6 inches. I loathe snow.

See? I could do it. Just a couple of lines. Good thing today isn't the day I overslept, though. The drive in should be a bear.

Yesterday was a wash as far as days went. Any day that starts out with oversleeping is never going to be a particularly good one. Luckily, it wasn't particularly bad either. I worked some more on my new website since I found a couple glitches I hadn't noticed before. I think those are fixed now. I also came up with a bio—of a sort. I think I'll need to redo it, but I really hate writing those things. I think I might have mentioned that before.

House news. None. Not really. They haven't worked all week so nothing has changed since Christmas when I took the pictures I posted in House Gallery Four. I did hear from the flooring/countertop place. The woman was talking about bathroom fixtures and I thought she meant faucets. She was talking about towel bars and such. So you can imagine our conversation was at cross purposes. The builder also wants me to pick out that stone very soon. Think I'll be going next week since it's snowing here today.

Now that the house is starting to look like a house, I'll admit to being antsy for them to get going and finish it. :-) I want to see how it looks with the floors in and the countertops and appliances. And the lights. I mostly picked out of catalogs so I only saw the bathroom fixtures and dining room light live.

Off to brave the snow and cold.

Hitting the Ground Running

Why am I blogging later than usual today? Is it because I have the day off from work? No, although I really wish I did. I overslept. Again. And not just for a little bit. I usually have time to chug down a cup of coffee, but this morning, all I had time to do was hop in the shower and run out the door. I had my coffee at work.

I might have this teensy little addiction to coffee. I need a cup--and time for it to get in the bloodstream--to feel halfway awake. Like right now. It's nearly 7am, I just finished my coffee and I still have that I'm too tired to function feeling.

Ah, well, looks like my night of insomnia caught up with me. :-/

I've been plowing through items on the big To Do List this week. I only have one thing left on there that isn't related to the new house--write a new bio for the website.

Out of everything I have to write, bios are the worst. First off, I have to make myself sound interesting, and I'm not. I write. I go to work. I sleep. Secondly, I need to sound impressive. I'm from Minnesota. Bragging does not come naturally. I'm even hideously uncomfortable with promo emails. Third, I have to write it in such a way that it's entertaining. Humor would be a good thing here. Too bad I don't write funny. Oh, there's humor now and then in my books, but that's because of the characters, not because of me. They just say stuff that can be funny sometimes.

Hmm. Maybe I should draft one of my characters to write my bio. Or maybe not. Who knows what I'd end up with?

Deke and I were having a conversation last night, and he lied to me. Totally, completely, utterly lied. And why did he do it? Just because it entertained him. Sigh. Mika lied to me too, but at least she was half demon and it's accepted in her culture. Deke has no excuse.

BTW, I guess I better explain that Deke is the hero in my next story, the one I'll start working on after the new year. His heroine is Ryne. This is the story that I sum up by saying:

When a troubleshooter for a society of magic users rescues a private detective from a dark spell, she finds more than an ally as she faces down her former mentor.

Ryne was the one who originally came in. She talked and talked and talked while I was trying to finish up The Power of Two. The thing I liked so well about Ryne was she didn't interfere with my writing at all--she talked when I was in the car or when I was in bed. And she never lied. She wouldn't tell me her name, made me spend hours looking through baby books until I finally found it, but she told me all kinds of information about her society.

Deke, it seems, is going to be another story. He showed up on Tuesday and lied to me on Wednesday. I can see this is going to be a fun partnership!

RT Reviewers' Choice Awards

Yesterday ended up being a great day. Through a Crimson Veil was nominated as Best Contemporary Paranormal Romance in the RT Reviewers' Choice Awards! Yea! That really perked me out of the I'm-back-at-the-day-job doldrums.

The thrill carried me through the day and into the evening, but when I went to bed, I had the house on my mind. I was thinking about various elements, when it dawned on me that my bisque cooktop is going to be right on top of the charcoal counter top! All I could think is that it would stand out like a neon sign in a blackout. OMG! I'm going to have the equivalent of the Vegas strip in the desert of gray. This can't be good.

What are my alternatives? Switch counter tops? I don't want to. I love the pattern even if the color is a little darker than I would have hoped for. Switch appliance colors and go with everything in black? But I don't want dark appliances, besides one of my friends assured me that black appliances are very 1990s and I hate the stainless steel look. Swear to God, that's going to end up being this decade's version of avocado green. Blech. What if I just make the cooktop black and keep the other appliances bisque? But then that would look funny.

This is the first time in a long time I've had insomnia over something besides one of my stories. Finally, sometime around midnight, and after getting out of bed to study the Formica sample and noting that there were white outlines prominent throughout the pattern, I decided that maybe the bisque cooktop would really be okay. So after hours of fretting, to use one of Wyatt's words, I decided to leave everything as is.

Now I've had somewhere around three hours of sleep--if I was lucky--and even coffee isn't going to be enough to deal with driving in freezing rain. Gah!

Back to the Day Job

I finished everything on my slightly ambitious weekend To Do List, so I'm feeling pretty satisfied right now. I realized, though, last night that I hadn't read a book the entire 2 weeks I've taken off from writing. Maybe I should have put this on my list. Now I won't have time to read. I received a packet of Golden Heart entries to judge and I'll be reading those until I get back to my own writing.

It's funny. I haven't been able to get Kendall and Wyatt out of my head yet. Usually by now, the characters are pulling back and the new characters are coming in. I'll confuse names and things like that as I think about one story or another. Usually, but not this time. My thoughts are still lost in Eternal Nights, although it's not as total as it was while I was working on the book.

It's nice to relax and not have to do anything right now. I forgot what that was like. Yesterday, I downloaded Bud Light radio ads. I might have mentioned this before, but these are the most clever radio commercials I've heard in years. I majored in ad copywriting in college, so I appreciate good work. Now I just need to transfer the ads to my MP3 player. And find the ones I'm apparently missing. I have a spreadsheet. :-)

Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa

Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa to those who celebrate!

Christmas went pretty well. My mom only teared up a couple of times. We went over to the new house and I took a lot of pictures. I also put up House Gallery Four for those who are interested. I know, I'm taking way too many pictures when I go over there, but since I go so seldom, I figure it's okay. :-) It's more interesting to me now, though, because I can see the house taking shape.

For a color report, the teal in the computer room looks cool! It looks darker in the pictures and from the hallway than it really is. When I was actually inside the room, it had this lovely, I'm-in-the-Caribbean feel to it. I think it will be great to write there. If I can only get a new desktop computer and a new desk chair. :-( My desktop is barely running and the chair (which I bought for $5 at a garage sale) isn't adjustable. If I sit there for too long, I can hardly walk when I stand up. But the room color is totally fab and one of my favorites.

The blue in the great room is slightly less intense than in the pictures, but still very blue. I don't know how long that will last before I repaint it something more subdued. The colors in my bedroom and bathroom are almost perfect, just slightly darker than I'd like, but I can live with them. The spare bedroom is a fabulous yellowy color. It's not too bright, but not too pale either. Kind of like the color of a rich stick of margarine. :-) I like it. The color in the main bath is also fabulous. This is more of a butter yellow. So, with the exception of the great room blue, I'm thrilled with my color choices. It's hard to pick out colors from those small cards.

I received a sample of the countertop I picked. Love the pattern, am totally iffy on the color. My mom thinks it will be fine, that everything else in the kitchen/great room is light so that the darker countertops will kind of be a balance. I wish I could go with the aqua color, but if I get sick of it, then what? So my mom and I decided the charcoal boomerang pattern would be fine. I wish Formica, though, had offered a light, neutral color choice.

We found a few problems while we were at the house. A couple of the cabinet doors are out of alignment, the linen closet door in my bedroom is too big and doesn't slide smoothly, and there's a paint splotch on my pretty white ceiling. Other than that, things are looking pretty good.

The rest of Christmas was pretty uneventful. My parents got me a 1GB jump drive since I'd filled the one I got last year for Christmas. :-) I love this thing and cart it with me to work when I'm writing. Now with 2, I can keep my books on one and back up other files on the second one.

To my great embarrassment, I hadn't done Christmas shopping yet, so I didn't have anything for my parents. Huge blush. I have no excuse. Even the years I was on deadline over Xmas, I managed to get them something. The only thing I can think of for my lackadaisical attitude was all the choices I had to make in December for the house. I loathe shopping and in a week, I did lighting, flooring and countertops. Anyway, once the after holiday sales crowds dissipate, I'll have to get shopping. Like I said, this is embarrassing.

I'm working on the last item on my weekend To Do List this morning, and then I'll be done with that. Yea! I've also been putting some final touches to the new website. As soon as I write a new bio, that will be good to go on Jan 1. I've tested it out in IE and Firefox and everything is looking good.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Christmas Day

My parents and I went over to the new house today before Christmas Day dinner and I took a ton more pictures. If you want to see them, check out House Gallery Four.

I've kind of got the after holiday dinner lethargy going on here, but I've been doing well on my weekend To Do List. I just have one item left. Hurrah!

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate.

Edited to update link.

Merry Christmas

For those who celebrate the holiday, I hope you have a wonderful and joyous Christmas!

Finally Stirring

Slept in fabulously late this morning. As soon as the coffee kicks in, I have some things to do. Including look at the new wood samples the builder brought over. I'm hoping to have a productive day despite my late start, and have a mildly ambitious To Do List for this weekend.

They let us leave work about 45 minutes early yesterday, which was cool. In past years, we were able to leave 2 hours early. Of course, if I started later than 6am, I would have gotten more time off since we all bailed at the same time, even the people who didn't roll in till 7 or 8 am. :-) In any case, it was nice to get home a little early.

I put the time to use working on the redesign of my website, and I kept going until about 10pm last night. I think I have all but one page ready to load on January 1st. The About Patti page. Sigh. I hate writing bios. That's one of my least favorite things to do. I want something different than the Q and A that I have up on the current website, but I don't want to use what I have up on the blog. Once I write this, I can put the page together, test the new site, and be good to go if everything works.

I went for a very uncluttered look on this version of my site so all my award gifs are gone. So are the logos from the 2176 series and Crimson City. (although I'm using the CC logo as a place holder until I can get my hands on a copy of Liz's cover for Crimson Rogue.) My biggest concern right now is readability. I'm going with a deep blue background, kind of like here, with white text. Mostly. I'm using pink text and lime green as headlines/titles. That's what I'm worried about, if people with vision problems can read it.

One last thing before I close. I want to thank everyone who offered their support--both on the blog and privately--about my aunt. My mom's sister passed away on Wednesday night, so Christmas is going to be a quiet one for our family this year.

More House Pictures

My dad went over to the house with my digital camera and I have pictures of paint on the walls and cabinets that have been installed. :-)


Here are the kitchen cabinets and the center island. Those frames in the area where the kitchen sink will be are for the windows. I really, really like this paint color. Very good choice on my part, if I do say so myself.


Here's a view of the shaker front design on the center island.


This is the built-in china cabinet. Until now, it's been just this indentation in the wall. Pretty cool and one of my favorite things in the room right now.


These are the two walls where the entertainment center will go. It's a little bluer than I thought it would be, but I think once I have the furniture in and my pictures hanging, it won't seem so overwhelming. And if it does, I can always repaint, right?


While we're talking paint, my dad got a close up of the walls in the computer room. Why is the song "Somewhere Beneath the Sea" rolling through my head? =8-O


This is the master bedroom. I think I really like this pink, although I'll miss the magic rollers and what the did to my current bedroom walls.


This is the master bathroom. Again, the color looks like what I wanted. You can also see part of the vanity.


This is the spare bedroom. Looking at the picture, I can't even tell what color the walls are. I know I picked something bright and warm, not brown, so I'm guessing the position of the sun is making it difficult to tell the shade.

I had to get up early today because of the weather--freezing rain. I'm hoping it's not too bad, but I need to make an effort to roll out of the house earlier than usual.

The holiday party at work was kind of a bust. Hardly anyone participated which was pretty disappointing. We used to fill the conference room table we had so many people take part, but this year, we just took up a small section of it with dishes.

I worked some more on my website and found instructions on how to do redirects since the extensions on everything except my home page will be changing. Yes, one of my more exciting days.

Procrastination Doesn't Just Pertain to Writing

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening working on the revamped version of my website. I forget which incarnation this will be--maybe the fifth? Total guess since early on I did a lot of learning through trial and error. This latest style is the slickest I've ever managed, and because I know just enough CSS to set basic page parameters, I've been able to put it together faster than it took me to create the current version. It really helps not to need to set every little thing on every page. Now if I could just figure out the stupid box model thingy and use fewer tables, I'd be set. Unfortunately, while I understand the box principle in the abstract, I totally don't get how to put it into practice.

Websites are a fab way to procrastinate. And what was I procrastinating from? My homework. I don't know why that word automatically makes me look for delaying tactics, but it does. I'm loving the class, I think the homework assignment is a fun one, I enjoy playing with tarot cards, and yet I couldn't make myself redo my assignment--at least not last night. Yep, redo. We weren't supposed to do it on current characters and I did, so I need to start over. I've drawn the cards, but I didn't feel like studying them. I'll do it this morning, though. Tired, but the brain is fresher.

Today is our holiday party at work. Atmosphere there has been mostly morose with the paycuts and all the people bailing. I heard of a few more people leaving NWA in the near future. Yea for them, but it's different for those of us left behind. I still miss talking to Laura, our secretary who left us for another company. I sent her an email, but didn't get an answer, so I figure she's busy or might not be allowed to email from her new company.

And in true procrastination mode, I spent yesterday morning debating the theme song for Eternal Nights. At first, I thought it was going to be a Martina McBride song, then I thought Meat Loaf, but Wednesday I started thinking Sammy Kershaw. I listened to Meant To Be twice, but decided that's not right, so I'm still trying to pick a song. Maybe I should have a poll or something.

Tarot Decks and Computer Cookies

I'm taking an online class called Tarot for Writers that was offered from an online RWA chapter called From the Heart Romance Writers. I've been enjoying the class and can't wait to do my assignment from last night. I drew my cards, but didn't look at them yet. I was just too tired to make sense of them. But since the class started Monday, I realized something. None of my Tarot decks speak to me any longer.

I have a number of decks that I acquired as I went looking for one that I'd really like. Some of them, I ended up not liking at all and I never, ever use them. Others I use occasionally. But I haven't played with my cards in a long time, and I haven't bought a new deck in even longer--maybe 5 years, but probably longer. I think I changed since I bought my last deck. I discovered this when I tried to pick a deck to use for class. The one I'm using is one that I only read with a couple of times in the past, but now I seem to like it best, although I'm not excited by it.

Clearly, this meant it was time to find a new deck. I needed one that spoke to me now. Since I wasn't going to be running around snowy Minneapolis in traffic, I commenced an online search and found a few decks that I liked. I actually ordered more than one. I tried not to, really I did, but there were three decks I really wanted to try--the Adrian Tarot, the Archeon (I think I have the name right) and the Osho Zen. I ordered all of them. Gah! I also put three other decks I found intriguing on my wish list. At least I showed some restraint.

My other big adventure last night was accidentally erasing all my cookies. I hate this update to Firefox, especially what they did to their Tools, Options feature. And of course, my cookie culler extension wasn't upgraded to work with this new version of Firefox. I had Cookie Culler set up to protect my vital cookies in case I did something stupid like click on the wrong button. So this morning, I've had to remember all kinds of passwords for a variety of different sites. Great. Morning mental tests. Gah!

Time Out For a Brief Word

This morning, I erased and rewrote my blog entry about half a dozen times. It still ended up being kind of a downer, crabby note and I thought it's time to explain what's been going on since it's been affecting what I write here.

I came off my deadline, and a few days later, my mom's sister went into the hospital. They expect her to die any day. While I'm not close to my aunt, I am very close to my mom, and it's been very difficult the last week to see my mom hurting so much. This has been taking an emotional toll on my entire family.

The bottom line is that I'm still physically and mentally exhausted from the book, and the house stuff, but the emotional exhaustion is taking the biggest toll. I'm finding myself short-tempered and with zero patience for smart aleck remarks that I'd normally take in stride. So I'll try to stay more upbeat here, and focus on the more fun things, but I hope y'all will understand that some days it's going to be very, very difficult to be up.

Thanks and happy holidays!

Foggy December Morning

I forgot to mention this when I blogged this morning. Yesterday, on the drive in, it became really foggy. Not something I expected considering how cold it was. Later in the morning, after the fog lifted, the trees in the cemetery across the street from where I work were covered in the most beautiful coat of white. As the sunlight hit the branches, it added beauty to an otherwise gray and barren winter landscape. I really wanted my camera then so I could take a few shots--it was that stunning. It was disappointing when a couple of hours later, it was gone.

And speaking of photos, the missing enlargements from House Gallery Three have been loaded. I really had a bad day with that page.

Now It's Wood

Now I have to make decisions on stain. Sigh. I picked out a picture of the stain color I like. My dad gave it to the builder. Yesterday he brought over pieces of wood. Neither piece was anywhere close to the color I circled. Hell, these pieces were so light, why bother paying to have someone stain them? I guarantee that neither piece was even close to the warm, honey color I said that I liked.

Then there was the floor. That sample was just as light as the wood pieces and without life. I circled an amber color sample. Hopefully, that isn't more expensive than the boring, flat lifeless color flooring. But after the months spent on the house, I've learned that everything I like is more expensive.

That's the most exciting thing I have to share, which tells you how pathetically boring my Monday was. That wouldn't be a bad thing if that was the only demand made on my time, but unfortunately, I think people have been lying in wait and I've got them lined up. Can I just pull the blankets over my head? Wake me up when Christmas is over and the house is finished. Gah!

Wind Chill Factor

I have the Weather Channel on and saw the wind chill factor. Um, the regular air temperature isn't too good either. I just want to crawl into bed and forget all about going outside. But of course, Minnesota does not stop for cold. It's -11 (that's MINUS) with a wind chill of -24. Why do I live here?

Yesterday, I was almost a total slug and I needed a day like that. I slept till nearly noon, and lolled around. I did manage to answer some email, rip some Christmas music from CDs to the MP3 player, and get EN bundled up to mail to my agent. Oh, and I did a load of laundry, and a little work on the website I hope to replace my current site with. But other than these few things, I didn't do much. It felt great!

Then I looked at the calendar this morning, saw how many days I have left till Christmas and kind of shrieked. I have nothing done. Nada. Gah! Looks like another hectic week ahead of me.

Seven Things Tag

Since I'm almost certain I'm the Patti Candice tagged, here is the Seven Things Meme.

Seven Things to Do Before I Die:

1. Make enough money writing to quit the day job
2. Visit Ireland
3. Move to a state where an inch of snow is reason to panic
4. Return to Australia and stay for longer than 4 weeks
5. Visit New Zealand
6. Become better organized
7. See another movie in the theater

Seven Things I Cannot Do:

1. Win an Olympic medal in ice skating
2. Find enough time to do everything I need to do, let alone all the things I want to do
3. Snorkel and/or SCUBA dive
4. Play the Piano (or any other musical instrument)
5. Draw (I always wanted to be an artist, but not badly enough to work at it.)
6. Sing (but I do it anyway in the car)
7. Be socially smooth

Seven Things That Attracted Me to My Spouse/SO:

I'm not married or involved right now, so I'll make it seven things I find attractive in a man.

1. Honor
2. Honesty
3. Protectiveness
4. Sense of Humor
5. Intelligence
   
6. Emotional Strength
7. Reliability

Seven Things I Say (Or Write) Most Often:

1. Whatever
2. I just need more hours in the day
3. Cool
4. Really/Totally
5. What does your badge say?/Let me check my badge./Where do you work?
6. I just need to win the lottery.
7. Why do I live here?

Seven Books or Series That I Love:

1. Crimson City
2. 2176 (Like I wasn't going to mention these 2 series? BTW, consider one and two a tie. I'm too lazy to figure out the HTML to make them both say 1.)
   
3. Nora Roberts' In Death series
4. Shades of Twilight by Linda Howard
5. The Skypirate by Justine Davis
6. Kill and Tell by Linda Howard
7. Crystal Flame by Jayne Ann Krentz

Seven Movies I Would Watch Over and Over Again:

1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
2. Guys and Dolls
3. Speed
4. Christmas in Connecticut (The original version)
   
5. Independence Day
6. American Dreamer
7. Valley Girl

Seven People I Want to Join In (Be Tagged):

1. Jenny Low
2. Bonnie Vanak
3. Theresa (maybe this will get her to post on her blog)
   
4. Carolyn Jewel
5. Lynda
6. Marjorie Liu
7. Michele Hauf
   

Catch Up Day

Saturday was a catch up day. I had to get up early to bring the SUV in for an oil change. Then I wanted to pick out the flooring and countertops for the house. The store where I was supposed to go keeps short hours (9-5) except on Thursdays when they're open till 8pm. How is someone who works supposed to fit this in their schedule? Seems like mighty poor planning to me. They're only open on Saturdays until 1pm.

Friday night, I pulled up the store's website, got directions to St. Michael which is way out there, and noticed they had a store in Burnsville too. Burnsville is closer, but it can be a pain to get around there because of all the traffic.

So while I'm getting the SUV taken care of, I tried to get in to the store to pick out the stuff. No go. They only had ONE person working and she was busy. Well, I wanted this over with and I wasn't spending my Thursday night driving out to and from Timbuktu, especially in the dark when I'm very unfamiliar with the area. I decided I'd go to Burnsville and that store could accommodate me.

This ended up being an easy set of choices to make. To stay within the flooring budget, I had 1 choice of carpeting in only 6 colors. Even the other colors of the same carpet were more money. I picked a color called Nutshell with the standard pad behind it.

Then it was on to the vinyl flooring. I had a few more choices there, but not a huge number. I'd guess maybe 20. I did find one I liked right away and put that in the master bath. I used the same pattern in a different color for the main bathroom and picked something that looked like fake tile for the laundry room.

Countertops ended up being easy too. I had hundreds and hundreds of choices here, but none of them were as cool as my retro boomerang style (posted here yesterday morning). I just had to make a choice of countertop for the laundry room then. I went with a medium gray color with a subtle pattern in it. Probably it doesn't match the taupe flooring that well, but I decided the hell with it. There's a hint of gray in taupe, right?

Last was the tile for around the master bathroom tub. There was only a stark white, glossy tile as my choice. Since the tub and everything else is bisque, that wasn't going to work. I had to upgrade to the bisque tile.

Before I left, my mom spotted some area rugs and we went over to look at them. I told you, she totally hates the rug I like. :-) Everything was a bit too traditional for me, but as we were walking back, I saw the window treatment display. They had these really cool patterned shades and this sheer curtain that when you close it, there are vertical slats like a blind that close out the sun. Those were way cool! The saleswoman is going to price them for us and make a bid, but I'm guessing it'll be too expensive.

On the way home, I stopped by the new house and took a bunch of pictures. It's really coming along now and almost looks like a house with the sheet rock up. Then I spent forever trying to get House Gallery Three up. (See the link from yesterday). I went over my allotted space on my free Earthlink site so I had to delete House Gallery One and move all my other pages to a different email account.

I also printed out a copy of Eternal Nights to send to my agent and worked on entering some tax information into a spreadsheet. The fun just never stops!

On the plus side, I found a Doris Day Christmas CD with all the songs I wanted on it. I also found the Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme Christmas song I'd been searching for. The CD was almost $25, which I balked at, but I finally decided to buy it. I also picked up two Andy Williams CDs. My childhood Christmas music collection is nearly complete now! Hurrah!

Slept till nearly noon today, and I finally feel semi-human. Now if it weren't for this darn, pesky Christmas/holiday stuff, I'd be almost caught up.

More House Pictures

I went over to the house today and took more pictures. If you're interested in taking a look, the walls are sheet rocked, taped and mudded; the ceiling is sprayed; and the siding is up. Next week they're supposed to paint and the cabinets are supposed to arrive mid-week.

House Gallery Three.

Edited to update links.

The Lost Has Been Found

Yesterday had a period of panic. I was checking email from work when I saw a note from my editor--they can't find the manuscript for Eternal Nights, can I send her the tracking info? I whipped over to the Fed Ex site where they have a nice little feature that lets you email the page and forwarded that on. It didn't help locate the package and the name of the person listed as the receiver doesn't match anyone in the office. =8-O

Thoughts of all the time I spent printing the story off, of making sure every page was there and printed correctly on the paper, the time spent hauling it over to Fed Ex and standing in line--all this rushed through my head. My editor said I could email the story, and not to worry about the hardcopy. It would turn up.

Maybe. But by now I'm thinking Fed Ex delivered it to the wrong office and people at some law firm are reading it aloud and laughing hysterically. Writers are writers because we have active imaginations. I had all kinds of scenarios running through my head since the Fed Ex site showed EN was delivered on Dec 13th.

Fortunately, before lunch, the phone rang and it was my editor. She'd just received EN. Whew! Where the package spent the last two days is anyone's guess, but she has it now and told me she was taking it home with her. Which leads to a different anxiety, but that's another story.

Eternal Nights Cover Copy

My editor and I did some emailing yesterday about the backcover copy for Eternal Nights. This is what we came up with:

Capt. Kendall Thomas has been plagued by dreams of blood, dreams so horrifying they leave her trembling in the night. Kendall has good reason to be afraid. She's discovered thieves are stealing artifacts from the alien city on Jarved Nine, and the smugglers will do anything to protect their lucrative sideline--even commit murder.

The last man Kendall wants to endanger is her best friend Wyatt Montgomery, but the stubborn Special Ops captain followed her when she went to gather evidence, and the smugglers trapped them both in the city's ancient pyramid. Now by day, they're chased through labyrinthine tunnels, deeper and deeper into the heart of the ancient temple. But in the cloak of darkness, they can no longer deny the powerful force drawing them together, the passionate dreams that leave them aching with need, the touch of skin on skin that makes them long for--Eternal Nights.

So what do y'all think?

I finally slept last night. Yea! Just not for long enough. I stayed up a little too late. And I have to dash out of the house early again because the radar shows a big blob of green over the Twin Cities and I heard a snow plow go by. I really hate winter.

Let There Be Light (And Color)

Well, after three nights in a row of insomnia (Am I the only writer who runs through scenes in her book over and over while in bed instead of sleeping?), I overslept this morning. I picked a really bad day to do it too since we have a pleasant little winter storm that started rolling through last night and I knew traffic was going to be ugly this morning. So I chugged down a cup coffee, jumped in the shower and hightailed it out of the house.

I was right to be concerned about the roads. My city streets weren't plowed at all, and even the highway looked pretty bad. The freeway was a little better--mostly. Actually, things weren't too bad until I reached my exit. Traffic was backed up way, way onto the freeway and I spent so much time sitting there, that I ended up late for work. I was not a happy camper since it was that darn light rail that screwed up the traffic. I really loathe that train. I haven't quite figured out either why they need to run it every 3 minutes at 6am to a mall that doesn't open for hours after that.

Anyway, now that I have that off my chest, yesterday was a long day. When I got off work, I picked up my parents and drove out to the lighting store to choose fixtures. Why is everything up north and a good 45 minutes from me? Rhetorical question. :-) I only got lost once which is something of a victory for me. Just call me wrong way O'Shea. :-/

The store largely had traditional lighting choices and a few transitional pieces, but I like ultra-contemporary with very clean lines. I didn't see anything I loved, so we started looking through books of lights. And looking, and looking. This was for the dining room area and I was more concerned about this light than the other lights in the house since it's the most visible. In the last book they had, I finally found a couple of pieces I liked. I tentatively picked one of those, chose some fixtures for the bedrooms, and headed downstairs to look at bathroom lighting. As we're waiting for the sales woman, I look up and see The Light.

I also saw the greatest pendant light right next to it. Absolutely super cool! It had like a little crystal ball with beads in it near the bulb and came in various colors. I wanted it so bad--I just don't have any place to put it since I went with so much of the "cans" for lighting everywhere.

I also had an ad from another lighting store with a picture of the outdoor light for the garage that I really liked. The price this place quoted me was $20 higher per light and I needed 2 of them, but the sales woman talked to the store's buyer and they agreed to match the price of the other store. Yea!

Then I was driving home in the dark in heavy traffic over roads I'm unfamiliar with. Always fun, but at least it hadn't started snowing yet.

The builder absolutely, positively had to have the paint colors I wanted today, so as soon as I got home, I had to go through like six gazillion paint cards that he'd given me. Some of the rooms were easy because I want what I already have--pale pink for my bedroom, pale green for the master bathroom, two walls in the great room a rich blue color and the rest of the really open living space a warm creamy color. That color would also go down the stairs and into the hallway.

It was after this I ran into trouble since I didn't know which colors I wanted the other rooms. They had a really great orange color, not too bright, but not too peach or too pale either. The only thing I thought, though, was that orange would get old pretty darn fast. That ruled it out for the main bathroom and the extra bedrooms, but it was too cool a color not to use, so I'm putting it in the laundry room. It's cheerful and I won't be spending that much time in there anyway so I'll be less likely to get sick of it.

The main bathroom was a huge dilemma though. I wanted some kind of color in there, not anything white or cream, but I didn't want it to be anything that would be hard to decorate around. I finally went with a really pale yellowy shade that should be neutral enough to use any other color I want with it.

The computer room is going to be a teal color. It's not real dark, but it's rich and solid. The last room is the spare bedroom. That's on the north side of the house so I wanted a warm color. I chose kind of a peach shade, but not quite. It's very understated. Not so pale that I lose the warmth of the color, but not so dark that it assaults the eyes.

Finally, I was done for the day. Yea! I checked email, visited a few sites and decided to get to bed early. For all the good it did me. Anyway, I can only hope I sleep well tonight. After all, how many times can I rerun the scenes from Eternal Nights in my head?

Backlog

I'm hopelessly behind on holiday stuff and on choosing stuff for the house. I put everything off until I had the book finished, and now all this stuff is demanding immediate attention. I did take care of some of the most pressing yesterday, and I'm scheduled to do more today. I was going to hit the lighting and flooring and countertop stores on Thursday, but we're scheduled to have an ugly snowstorm roll through starting tonight and not ending until Thursday morning, so I'm going to try to do all that tonight. I also have to pick out paint colors for the interior of the house before Wednesday. This is apparently critical.

So yesterday, I had next to no sleep. I have a project at work that requires attention to fine detail, which is nearly impossible when I'm that tired. I ran to Fed Ex and the credit union during my lunch hour, then called the doctor's office. My foot has been bothering me to the point that I've been wearing the fashionable cam boot all the time again. Miracle of all miracles, they had an appointment open at 2:45.

X-rays showed no new fractures and the screw is in place and looking good, so I'm back on restricted walking again. Considering how freaked out I was that the screw had broken or something else hideous was happening, I can live with the new restrictions. :-)

Insomnia, though, came last night with a vengeance. I managed to avoid it as I finished EN, which is something of a surprise since usually when I'm tight on time, I can't sleep. But I'm making up for it now. Last night, I kept running through the story, replaying parts of it and trying to think if I should have done something different or not. Does anyone else do these replay things this obsessively?

It was a nice evening, though. I felt vaguely lost, as if I should be doing something, but overall, I enjoyed myself. I played a little with a new web design. I really enjoy this kind of thing, and if I wasn't writing, I'd probably look at learning enough to do it professionally. Since I don't have time, I'll just play when I can. :-)

The one thing I find interesting is checking out other author's websites. I was kind of looking at getting my site professionally done, so I wanted to check out their web designers. I also have seen several people ask for good web designers and have others enthusiastically offer suggestions. The thing that's amazed me is that my work is better than some of these professionals. Not the top of the line designers--they're still much better--and probably my coding is ugly and not as streamlined as it should be, but when it comes to the appearance, I'm right there with these people. I did take design classes in high school, so maybe these people are great at the computer coding, but not so much on artistic layout. The best designers combine both.

All right, it's obvious I need sleep. Sorry about the ramble on websites. :-) I'm going to go get ready for work now.

Resurfacing

I feel like I'm just climbing out of some bizarre time warp. What happened to the month of November and almost half of December? The last time I looked it was October and relatively balmy outside. :-)

It's very odd to be finished with the book. I'll take this week off to recover and try to get caught up on all the stuff I didn't do while I was working on the book, then it'll be time to get my head into the next story. But if this time goes like the others, I'll feel lost this week as if I should be doing something, but just can't quite figure out what that something is.

Last night, my head was all wound up, so sleep didn't come easily. Of course, it was Sunday night. I'd love to stay home from work today and just sleep and loll around, but unfortunately, I don't have enough vacation to do that. So off to the day job, with a run to Fed Ex over lunch to send Eternal Nights off to my editor.

I know they started siding the house. My dad reports that they hope to finish on Tuesday. It should look more real then. I've also been told that the electricity is working now, and that the gas company installed a meter, but didn't hook the gas up to be used inside the house.

That's all I know, and considering I was in deadline mode, I'm happy I was aware of that much. :-)

Done, Done, Done!!!!

Eternal Nights is revised, printed, bundled up in a Fed Ex envelope and ready to be sent on my lunch tomorrow!

Yea!!!!!!!!

I'm Ready--Mostly

Eternal Nights is almost done. The Prologue through Chapter 19 are completely finished. I went through last night and made all the markups I did on the printout for those pages. Chapters 20-21 are nearly done, so is 23. They just need a polishing run. 22 needs a bit more work at the end of it, but I'm about ready to call this puppy done. Thank goodness! I'm really looking forward to printing this thing out, and starting before 8pm for a change. I'm looking forward to driving over to Fed Ex tomorrow and handing the package to the clerk.

Part of me will be sad to be finished. Not with the writing part, but with being able to hang out with the characters. Wyatt really grew on me. He's unlike my normal hero--he's still alpha, but much sweeter. He kind of snuck up on me too. I always liked him, but somewhere along the way, I fell in love with him. And I love watching him with Kendall. He's just so incredible with her and her fears.

Of course, I'll still have revisions from my editor to work on, so this isn't goodbye, it's just see you later. And after that will be galleys, but after today, my focus will start to shift to Deke and Ryne, and it won't be the same with Wyatt and Kendall.

At the risk of rambling, I honestly miss my characters when they're gone. Or far enough away to call them gone. After a little while, their loss isn't as immediate or as strong, and I can look back at them fondly. Right now, though, I'm kind of mourning a loss that I know is approaching. I think this is why I read my books when I get them, so I can spend more time with my characters. It's not the same as writing with them, but it's a nice visit, and a chance to simply enjoy them without all the work involved. It makes me wonder, though, do other writers miss their characters this much when they're gone? This is something I've never asked anyone.

Anyway, it's time to be done despite the sense of impending loss. My wrists and thumb hurt from typing. My head, neck, shoulders, and back hurt from being hunched over the laptop. My eyes hurt from staring intently at the computer screen for so long, and even sleep didn't restore them.

I mentioned I had to rewrite most of Chapter 22. I had a terrible time with the first scene in the chapter. And that might be understating it. It was just awful! So I did a few more searches for area rugs. I found one I liked MUCH better than the one I mentioned yesterday. I won't mention where I found it since I don't want to be accused of shilling again, but this rug is so much cooler than the other one! It's also $160 more and slightly smaller. Not much, but still.... This store has free shipping until Jan 8th, so I'm going to wait until the last minute to order it. And it even has a matching runner for the hallway! There's a cool round rug that I could put in the dining room, but it's almost as much as the rectangular rug, and I can't afford both. Actually, it hurts to even fork over the money for one. I can't believe how expensive rugs are!

I need to get to work. I still have plenty to do, but the end is in sight.

BTW, so far I've cut 21 pages. My goal was to cut 20. The work I have to do at the end of Chapter 22 might had a page, so I should hit my goal exactly. Cool!

Blurry-Eyed

The end is in sight, but I'm so tired, I'm blurry-eyed. I rewrote all of chapter 21 yesterday--I took the day off from work to do it--but I developed one of those headaches you get when you spend too much time on the computer, and the end is a little weak. I'll have to shore that up today, then rewrite chapter 22. I have to start printing tomorrow evening, and since I don't want to stay up really late doing this, sooner is better than later.

I'm so ready to get this book in the mail, I can hardly wait. Chapter 22, though, isn't going to be fun. The first scene in the chapter will be completely new stuff--there's nothing from previous versions that I can use here. The second scene is better. There's not much I can reuse, but I'm getting all kinds of information on this scene. Not so on the first one. This is one of those sit down and write and see what happens situations.

They started siding the house yesterday, and after I mail the book off, I'll have to get over there and take a look at it. And take some pictures to make another gallery. Gas company still has not shown up, which means they can't tape and mud the sheet rock inside. I have a piece of the vinyl siding, though, to use to pick out rock. Next week is going to be a busy week for me as I try to catch up on all the stuff that I've let slide.

My To Do List includes: get an appointment with the doctor because my foot hurts; pick out light fixtures for the house; pick out brick or stone for the house; pick out paint colors for the interior of the house; pick out flooring for the house; pick out countertops; do holiday cards; buy Christmas gifts; visit the credit union; get my oil changed; and I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff that will come to me later. This is bad enough.

In other house news, I found an area rug that I adore at Overstock. They have free shipping this weekend, so I'm thinking of ordering now. Of course, it would be much smarter to wait until I'm in the new house and have the 8x11 rug delivered there, but free shipping is hard to resist, then there's the fact that the size I want in this pattern is listed as "very high" risk of selling out. I'm still debating.

My Robert Goulet Christmas CD arrived, and I like most of it so I didn't pay all that money for just one song. It actually came like within 2 days of my ordering it, so I was able to listen while I was printing out chapters of Eternal Nights to read.

Now I need to get to work. Lots to do, very little time to do it in.

Book Meme

I was tagged by Bonnie Vanak to come up with 15 facts about me and my books. Since I'm hustling to get a book wrapped up and in the mail, I've been working on this in little spurts and it took me a few days to get this together. Hopefully, it's coherent since I was pretty tired at times while I was working on it.

1. I own more than 5,000 fiction books and I've read more than 4,000 of them. Yes, that means I have a huge TBR pile. It's why I no longer pick up free books at conferences unless it's a book I'd buy anyway.
   


2. I used to read a book a day everyday, and sometimes on the weekends I'd read more than one book. I haven't been able to do this since I decided to focus on my writing. During this time, my vacations were to a cabin in Wisconsin where I would spend the entire week in an orgy of reading.
   


3. If I really love a book, I'll read as fast as I can to get to the end, then immediately read it all over again. The last time I did this was in January 2002 while I was on vacation in Hawaii. (I came home from my trip and sold Ravyn's Flight, my first book.) The book I read and reread on vacation? Head Over Heels by Susan Andersen.
   


4. I can't recall the first romance I read. I used to go to the library and check out anything and everything across all genres. All the book needed was an intriguing blurb.
   


5. I took a Shakespeare class in college, and after that, read his plays for fun. My favorite is Much Ado About Nothing and I must have read it about half a dozen times.
   


6. If I read a book that has a great plot, and mediocre characters, the book isn't a keeper for me. I'll forgive an author a lot if she or he has fabulous, three-dimensional characters. (But I still don't like plot holes). I also like my characters to be likeable. I don't like shallow or TSTL heroes and heroines.
   


7. I have a lot of books that friends of mine have written that I haven't had time to read yet. Some for 4 years or more. I feel guilty every time I see the titles, especially if they're people I know have read one or more of my books, but I have so little time to read now.
   


8. I don't read historical romance with a few rare exceptions. I used to read historicals all the time when I first started reading romance, but after a while, I found myself buying, but not picking up those books even though I'd finished all my contemporary and paranormal romances. I love paranormal romance, but if it's historically set, I don't buy it because I know I won't read it. See the size of my TBR pile in item #1.
   


9. If I read a book without a strong romance in it, I'll create one in my head as I go along. I've done this as long as I can remember. Probably how I ended up a romance writer. But I prefer to read romances, so I don't have to do this much any more.
   


10. The last time I read a book was on the plane trip home from Reno and the RWA conference in July 2005. We landed before I finished it, and it's still sitting on my shelf, 2/3rds done.
    


11. With only a few exceptions, I don't like books written in first person. I've even driven back to the bookstore to return a book because, when I got home, I discovered it wasn't in third person. I have more tolerance for first person in mysteries, and less for first person in romance. I like multiple third person point of view. I definitely want to see what both the h/h are thinking.
    


12. My favorite author is Linda Howard. I have almost all her books on my keeper shelf, but the titles of hers that I continually reread were all originally paperback releases. The only hardcover original release I've reread is Open Season.
    


13. Like Bonnie, I've been tracking down books I've read as a kid. For me, I'm interested in the titles from junior high school. I picked up Why Not Join the Giraffes by Hope Campbell and Time at the Top by Edward Ormondroyd. There's one book left that I really, really, really want to find, but I can't remember the title of it or the author. I posted what I remembered on a couple of books boards, but no one knew the name or author.
    


14. After I read a beat up copy All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein when I was in junior high, I dreamed of becoming an investigative reporter and ferreting out illegal activities by those in power. I even went to journalism school, but changed my major to advertising copywriting since it was more fun for me.
    


15. The most money I ever paid for a book was $40 for a used paperback copy of Anne Stuart's Seen and Not Heard. It was the last book I needed to have her entire backlist and I hadn't been able to find it in about five years worth of searching. I've never read it, but the collection is complete. My friends call the need to have complete collections--either from an author or a series--Patti-itis.

There! Done! This was hard. I started running out of steam at number nine and had to start working to come up with stuff. I know I'm supposed to tag people to pick up the game, but I'll post who later. I need to finish my coffee and get to work.

Punchy

Totally overslept this morning. I barely have enough time to scarf down a cup of coffee and do a quick, drive-by post here. I think I vaguely remember hearing the alarm, but I'm not sure if I hit the snooze or if I just thought about hitting the snooze. Yes, I am very tired.

Blame it on the book. Sigh. I have two chapters that need major work, I mean deconstruction and rewriting. Gah! Another chapter that has a fair amount of work--some cutting in the first scene and redoing half of the second scene. I think I'm going to have to take tomorrow off from work if I have a hope of getting all this work done. I was going to hold off to see how I did at lunch today, but if I'm oversleeping, something tells me that I'm not going to be staying up late tonight to work on this. At least not so I produce anything usable.

My browser wouldn't open this morning no matter how many different ways I tried to open it, which is really irritating. I can get IE open, though, so I'm using that this morning. I don't like IE, not after getting used to Firefox. I'm sure rebooting will do the trick, but I hardly had time to logon to begin with, certainly there's not time to reboot.

And speaking of time, I've got to run.

Bad Sex in Fiction Awards

Bad Sex in Fiction Awards. I don't think I need to say more.

Revision is My Life

The prologue though chapter 19 are basically done. I'm hoping chapter 20 is done too, although one of my writing buddies mentioned a small tweak I need to do to how Stacey talks to Cam. I'm hoping to get the thumbs up from my other writing buddy, so I can put this chapter to bed. I have some cutting and tightening up to do to chapters 21 and 22, and I'm still waiting to hear on the very end of the book, but since that's relationship stuff, I'm hoping that's okay too. With a little luck, I'll get through the cutting in 21 today, and work on prettying it up. I really need to move fast on this book so I can get it mailed out on Monday.

I've finally conceded I'm going to have to see the doctor about my foot. It hasn't gotten any better since I was allowed to walk without the boot. In fact, right now it really hurts. I've been wearing the boot at work and walking around home without it, but I'm going to have to go back to wearing it all the time. Big sigh here. Of course, this has to wait until after the book is mailed.

I'm hoping to postpone the trip to pick out carpeting, countertops and lights till next week. I didn't hear a no on this, so I'm assuming it's all right. They still haven't done any work on the new house, not since the day after Thanksgiving, but until this book is done, I don't care.

See why I titled this post the way I did? Everything circles back to my revisions. :-) Oh, speaking of that, page cut through chapter 19 is 17 pages. Yea!

Blogger Problems

Apparently, I can post to my blog, but I can't see the page. I keep getting a 404 error. Of course, that's not stopping me from making my early morning ramble. I'll just have to hope that Blogger straightens itself out at some point.

I have to laugh. Some author sites give writing tips. Others discuss issues of interest to readers and/or writers. Visit my blog, and what do you get? Links to an eBay auction for an adult movie company and a drunk Santa game. :-)

Very cold here. -7 with a wind chill of -17. I got gas yesterday and just about froze cleaning off my windows. Makes me glad I won't have to worry about doing this for another week.

I don't have too much interesting to say. I made the decision to headhop at the end of chapter 5. I hate doing it, but I think I had to. I lose way too much suspense by not switching back to Wyatt's point of view (POV). The thing about headhopping is that it can be really jarring. There are some authors that do it seamlessly (Nora), but there are a lot of authors who don't. I was reading a book a while back that had such a horrible POV switch, that it jerked me right out of the story. If an author has me analyzing why she did something and how it could have been handled to bring a better reading experience, that's not a good thing. It means I'm disengaged as a reader and wearing my writer's hat. The authors and books I like are the ones that pull me so deeply into the story, that all I can do is enjoy it.

I have a lot of work to do on the end of EN. :-( I just want to finish this thing. Sigh.

Santa Game (not for the kids)

This game is called Sober Santa 2. The idea is to use the arrow keys on your computer to direct Santa to the drinks. The drunker he gets, the more difficult it is. I didn't do too well.

Adult Entertainment Company For Sale

WARNING: YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO CLICK ON THIS LINK IF YOU'RE AT WORK!

There's nothing on the page that is worse than maybe PG-13, but some companies monitor computer usage so closely, there's no point in taking any chances.

Here's a job opportunity that doesn't come along every day. eBay has an adult entertainment company up for auction. I have to admit this is something for the curiosity file.

I have only one comment to make: eBay banned some romantica books as being too sexually explicit to sell on their site, but apparently selling an inventory of porn movies is completely different. Okay, whatever.

Through 17

Progress report on revisions to Eternal Nights. After going back to three points in chapters 1-17 to add/clarify things that apparently weren't clear, I printed out these chapters and the prologue. That means these pages are more or less done and I'm ready to look at them on hardcopy for the errors that seem to elude me on screen. I also managed to cut 15 pages out of these chapters. Yea!!!

The news is not so good for chapters 18 on. Apparently, there are some chapters here that need more work than I expected. I'm mulling over how to work several issues, but I have an inkling of how I'll handle them. It's a matter of whether or not it works. And here I thought I'd have a reasonable pace this week to go carefully over my pages. Instead, I'm going to be busting my butt to get this finished and mailed on the 12th as I promised. This day job is really interfering with my writing. :-/

In other news, my dad reports that the siding for the house has been delivered. It'll be cool to drive by and see it looking more real. I still have to pick out the brick for the front--one more thing on my To Do List--but one that can hopefully wait until next week.

While I was working on cutting all those pages, I downloaded Open Office. I probably won't use the word processing program since I already use WordPerfect and have Word, but I was tired of only having the Works spreadsheet program on the laptop (I have the full Microsoft Office suite on my desktop). It took a long time to download since I have dial up, but the spreadsheet program looks good and it also has a database program, a presentation program similar to Powerpoint, and some others that I don't have time to look at. The best part was the cost was free. I like that.

Someday, I should put together a list of my favorite free software. Maybe in my free time. Insert semi-hysterical laughter here.

More Time in the Revision Zone

I finished almost all the revisions I wanted to make now. There's one more chapter I need to look at, but yesterday was not the day to touch it, so I started reading through from the beginning looking for things to tweak--and things to cut. I made it through the first 11 chapters and managed to cut 6 pages, which isn't too bad. My goal is to mail Eternal Nights in as close to 460 pages as I can, which would put it at about the same length as The Power of Two and Through a Crimson Veil.

My plan today is to work on that one last chapter, and finish this round of revisions! Yea! Then finish my read through, and print out on hardcopy to look for more stuff. I see more when I read on paper than when I read on the screen. A week from today, I'll do the final printing. Wow. Seems like just yesterday when I started this book.

A visit over to Amazon showed that 9 people are trying to get $34.94 and HIGHER for Ravyn's Flight! I feel like I should post a disclaimer: Warning: Book will be reprinted in August. Do not pay these outrageous prices. Of course, I can't, so I guess I'll have to settle for mentioning it periodically here, and hoping people who are looking for a copy visit the blog or my website and see the news.

I think that's it. All I've been doing is working on the book, sleeping or going to the day job. They haven't even done any work on the house this week, so I have nothing to report there. Next week, though, I'll be heading out to the lighting and flooring/countertop stores to pick out stuff. Probably on Thursday when they're open late, so I will be able to give a report then. :-)

Covers and Characters

My editor sent me another author's cover because the model used on it is the same one she's hoping we get for Eternal Nights. The model is cute, in a boyish kind of way, but he's not Wyatt. My Wyatt might be young and handsome, but he also has an edge to him that this model doesn't have. Of course, none of the guys on any of my covers has been edgy-looking enough for my alpha heroes.

I like to look at pictures as I write, and I'll search online until I find the right people, the people that make me say, "that's my hero/heroine!" These are the models I'm using for Kendall and Wyatt:

Anyhow, while this guy I'm looking at appears young, he also has a certain edginess to him that makes him Wyatt. And Kendall has the girl-next-door appearance that she laments during the course of the book.

My heroine isn't going to be on the cover, just the hero, and that should be cool. Some day I seriously need to get out there and get a cover flat for each book framed. I also have a poster of Through a Crimson Veil that I'd like to put up. That's my all time favorite cover. Not only did I love the colors, but the models actually resembled my characters, and the setting was right! Yea!

I'm very curious to see the EN cover now.

Speaking of EN, I powered through more revisions yesterday. I have two chapters my writing buddies mentioned to work on today, and then some very minor changes that I'd like to make, then I can do a full read-through. Very much looking forward to finishing this book. I've decided I like it, but I'm ready to send it out the door. :-)

Moving Right Along

Revisions are going well, and I'm almost through the list I made of things I wanted to do. So far, things haven't been too bad--nothing major, which is a huge help.

Things are hectic at work, which doesn't give me any place to just be calm. Yesterday, they were lined up outside my cube wanting me to work on projects for them. I even had one of my former Maintenance Specialists come down to see if I could work on something for him. He's an engineer now, but not one of my engineers. The two specialists who showed up after him, were like, oh, no, he's not Maintenance Programs anymore. He wanted to be an engineer, let him be an engineer. It was kind of funny how both of them reacted identically, and almost word for word yet!

The new cube hasn't been too bad. Mr. Congeniality still pops over occasionally, but not like he used to, and it's totally eliminated his talking to me through the wall. Yea! Of course, it really, really helps that Loud Vendor Guy hasn't been in for most of the week. Oh, if they would only move him to another floor.

Still no work done on the house. They did more the day after Thanksgiving than they did all this week. I still have my assignments to complete (Flooring, Countertops, Lighting, etc.), but those will have to wait a little while.

Brain Melt

I've been so focused on Eternal Nights this week, and working on revisions, that I've entered The Twilight Zone--a place where the brain only functions on one level. The WIP.

Yesterday, I had two things that showed me clearly how out of it I am. First, I posted a note on one of the loops I'm on that contained some of the most incoherent writing possible. I was giving some instructions on how to post pictures into Blogger, and I swear, I said "Blogger" three times in three short sentences. Each sentence had the grammatical complexity of a third-grader's writing. That was a bit embarrassing to read.

The second thing that had me realizing just how out of touch I am involved a chat. It was with an editor I worked with, so I wanted to attend despite the early hour that it was scheduled at--5pm CST. So I popped in just before 5 and no one was there. Everyone must be running late today, I think. I'll just leave and come back later. So a couple of minutes after 5, I enter the room again, and still no one is there. I decide to double check my email about the chat, thinking maybe I'd gotten the time wrong. Nope, the time was right. What I was wrong about was the DAY! Sigh. Time has no meaning in The Revision Zone.

On the positive side, though, revisions are flying along! I'm almost done with everything one of my writing buddies marked for me, and my own notes. I'm really looking forward to this first round of revisions ending. Then I'll do a read through looking for stuff to smooth out, print EN, and read through on hardcopy looking for more stuff to fix. And stuff to cut. I'm so excited to be so close to finished. Yea!

Once again, no work done on the house, and while I'm okay with that because of my schedule, it's getting kind of weird. Everything went so fast at first, now nothing is moving. I did pick out my handles for the cabinets. They had to know by today. I'm going with the expensive pewter ones that I really, really liked for the kitchen and the china cabinet, and a much cheaper curved one for the bathrooms and laundry room.

Yesterday, I also sent a note to Blogger asking about the date/time adjustment thing that used to be at the bottom of the Create a Post window. This morning I had an automated response to check the knowledge database, known issues and one other thing that eludes my revision-deadened mind. All places I'd checked BEFORE sending the email! Grrr.