I blogged over at Magical Musings today. Head on over if you're interested in reading about writing a kick-ass heroine.

When did appliances get so demanding? Since I've moved into my house, I've had both my microwave and my dryer impatiently beeping and buzzing at me. Like last night. I was doing laundry and the dryer finished. It buzzed. Loudly. And scared the crap out of me. I think that buzzer could be heard at least 6 miles away. I was in the middle of something, though, so I didn't jump right up and run for the thing even though it immediately shut off.

Then I hear it start up again, which surprised me because it was so unexpected. (I normally do head right for the dryer the instant it stops because I don't want my clothes to get wrinkled.) But I thought, oh, good, it'll run again for a little while and I can finish what I'm doing. Nope. In less than 30 seconds, it buzzed again and shut itself off.

This time I did head right for the utility room because I didn't want to listen to this over and over. My old dryer used to buzz and keep running for a while, then buzz again. (And the funny thing is that I used to believe that buzzer was obnoxious, but that's nothing compared to this one.) The old dryer gave me time between buzzes and it kept running to keep the clothes from settling. I think I miss my old one. :-(

Then there's the microwave. Sigh. It beeps three times to tell me something's ready, which is normal and fine. But if I don't open the door in the time it decides I should take, it beeps at me twice more and I swear these beeps are more demanding and shriller. Come on! Sometimes the instructions say to let the food sit for X number of minutes before taking it out. My new microwave doesn't give me that option. Then, when I do open the door, a message scrolls across the clock/time area: "Enjoy your meal."

Maybe it's just me, maybe most people like being told to enjoy their meal, but it makes me think of that Pam Tillis song, Don't Tell Me What To Do. Okay, I'm contrary, but seriously, I don't need or want my appliances to "talk" to me.

Whew!

Okay, blinds are in and they're fabulous! I love having privacy in my bedroom and the room-darkening feature works great. I was able to sleep in for a while longer than I would have if the windows were still bare. I did have to get up and shut my bathroom door since it was really bright in there, but that's okay. I have the kind where the top goes down, which is especially great for the computer room since it's on the front of the house and facing the street. Now all I need is my curtain hardware installed and all my curtains up and that will be another item I can tick off my list. Yea!

I haven't turned the heat on in the house yet. I am cold, I even switched to long sleeved shirts and started wearing socks now, but when I check the thermostat, it says it's 65 degrees in here. Since that's about what I would set the heat at in September anyway, I haven't given in to temptation yet, but this morning, despite being snuggled under the blankets, I was still cold. I'm not ready for winter! Wah!

Although, maybe I should start a pool to see if the phone company will ever switch my service over to the buried cable and get rid of the one lying in my yard. As long as that thing has been sitting there, I'm wondering if they'll manage to get around to it before it snows. The biggest problem is my internet speeds are all over the map and I'm sure it's because I'm on a temporary cable.

I didn't get much done yesterday on my proposal. I'll blame it on how tired I was, but part of it had to do with goofing around on My Space. Can anyone explain how to use this thing? And what's with the friends deal? Do you just click and you're someone's friend and appear on their page? Do they reciprocate generally? I suppose I could read the FAQ, but I operate on the theory: If all else fails, read the instructions. :-) BTW, you can find me at: Patti's My Space Page. If you're over there already, add yourself to my friends because I look pathetic with only "Tom" on there. :-(

I got a call yesterday. They're going to install my blinds today! Yea!!! Probably, they're going to have to come back to install the hardware for the curtains, but I don't care. It's creeped me out to have a bare bedroom window. I'm still traumatized from a peeping tom incident when I was 7. I found out the next day it was the neighbor boys going around looking in everyone's window, but at the time, I looked up at the window, saw this face mashed against it and totally freaked out. I'm sure that's why I'm having such a huge problem with this naked window now even though I know it's really difficult for anyone to see in.

Anyway, I have to put things away that I'd normally leave out--like my laptop--so I really need to move this morning. So what do I do? Oversleep. Sigh.

While I'm talking about my house, I just want to say that asking the electrician to install a light above the shower was brilliant. Maybe one of the smartest decisions I made. If I hadn't, it would be pretty dim in there because of the position of the light fixture and the shower.

I hung my curtains that came in from Penney's and they're about an inch shorter than the ones I already have up. (I bought the extra panels because I liked the fuller look.) Sigh. How can two sets of 63" panels be two different lengths? This just boggles my mind. It's not like they have to guess how long to make the panels. I left them up for now, but I'll no doubt have to return those.

So tomorrow I have a book signing. I'll be at the Mall of America, Bloomington, MN at 7pm. Sears Court on the first level. Question and answer session (gulp), followed by the actual signing. Along with me will be Jennifer Crusie, Bob Mayer, Barbara Samuel, Kathleen Eagle, Michele Hauf, Judy Baer, and so many other authors my brain can't remember all their names. Especially at 4:53 in the morning. :-) But there will be a lot of Minnesota authors there so come on out if you're in the area.

In honor of the book signing, the MN Dept of Transportation has decided to close the freeway that I need to take to the mall. I'm trying to figure out an alternate route.

Today should be a truly fabulous day! I hope I'm right and I hope everyone else has a day as good as the one I plan on having! :-)

Ravyn's Flight is currently available new at BN.com. How long this will last is anyone's guess since they've periodically had the book available, sold out of it, and have gone back to no copies. So if you want it, I wouldn't wait. I want to hope that this time they'll keep it in stock, but who knows?

That's your most recent RF report. ;-)

Before I get started, a couple asides from last night that I forgot to mention. As they're talking about my dad and all the wonderful things he's done, one of the themes that came up over and over was that if they need something done, they call him and it's taken care of right away. I'm sitting there thinking, my God, I have two bar stools at my counter that still rock and have rocked since March. I've got a magnifying mirror that needs to be installed in my bathroom and has been collecting dust since like July 2nd, then there's the shower rod for the guest bathroom and the paintings sitting behind a chair in my great room and-- Well, you get the idea.

The other thing I found funny last night was these old men were making jokes with the young princesses running around serving dinner. What was so hilarious was that these girls would give this obviously fake laugh and I would bet anything that they wanted to roll their eyes. So I was sitting there, laughing at these girls' reactions and everyone thought I found the jokes funny. Not. Sometimes these girls didn't even get the joke, like the guy who asked for Irish coffee. From the blank look on this kid's face, I'm pretty sure she had no clue what Irish coffee is.

I'm posting to you from an internet connect of a blazing 26.6. Sigh. Dial up isn't usually this bad, but apparently all that phone cable lying on my lawn is temporary. My permanent cable was buried on Tuesday, but I haven't been cut over yet, so I'm still running on the temp stuff. I'm hopeful that the permanent connection will speed up my internet connections because I'm going to lose my mind. The phone company, I've learned, moves at it's own speed and it's about as slow as my internet connection this morning.

I do plan to get cable internet. Eventually. Before I do that, I want to network my house because I like to move around with the laptop. Before I can network, I need to get the computer room unpacked and things put away. I can't move some of the furniture until the blinds are installed or they'll never reach the window and I still haven't heard from the store this week.

The bare window in my bedroom is starting to bother me more and more. I know it would be really difficult for anyone to see in because of the height of my house and the position of the windows and the fact that I don't have a neighbor behind me, but I feel exposed. Plus there's all that glare on the laptop screen. :-)

My other annoyance is all the cardboard my dad put down on the floor. For people who don't know the story, I have fake wood floors and to protect them, he put down cardboard last week. The builder was coming in and doing some touch-ups on things I'd found, the blind store called and they were supposed to come out this week and he didn't want my floor to get scuffed. But I'm damn tired of cardboard. It makes my house look messy and it makes it feel cold or temporary or something. I don't know how to describe it. So I don't want to take the laptop into the great room because I don't want to look at cardboard, but writing in my bedroom is a challenge because of the window and the glare on the computer screen.

To close out this morning's post on a positive note, Penney's called and the curtains I ordered are in! Hurrah! My mom and dad are going to pick them up today while I'm at work and by this afternoon, I'll have them up. Once the blinds and the rest of the curtains are up, I'll probably take pictures and post them. If I can find my digital camera and get it charged up again. You see, I packed it in this box....

So you're all riveted to your seats, waiting for the next installment of the Ravyn's Flight distribution saga, right? ;-) Good news on that front. Ingram has copies on order. It's a little late and I'm sure I lost a bunch of potential sales, but when that gets into stock, bookstores will be able to order RF again and readers will be able to get it. Yea!

So at about 5pm last night, I went oops, guess I better get ready for my dad's party or ceremony or whatever they call it. Okay, so social hour stared at 5pm--I didn't know anyone there to be social with--and I made it a little after 5:30 which ended up being plenty early enough.

I guess I should say that my dad was hugely excited by this whole thing and I guess it's a huge honor and all, but I have a problem with this whole lodge concept and I have since I was a teenager. But then my dad doesn't understand some of the things I enjoy, so when he starts talking lodge, I basically tune it out and go into uh-huh mode. Last night, though, I was up close and personal with something I find to be, well, amusing and a bit surreal.

Dinner was served by a group of teenage girls and their mothers. They're daughters of members from another lodge. Some of them were wearing tiaras. I kid you not. I'm looking at this, and if there weren't a bunch a people within earshot, I would have asked my mom what was with the crown deal. Later on, when it was clear, I did ask and apparently they're like princesses within the org or something. O-kay. I can't see wearing a tiara to serve food, but hey, they're kids. Whatever.

Speaking of wearing something inappropriate to wait tables, one of these girls (who looked like she was around 13 or 14) was wearing leather (or faux leather) pants. Fairly tight. And heels higher than anything I've worn in years. Heck, maybe since I was in my teens. Once I hit college, comfort became more important than wearing shoes with 4 inch heels. Towards the end, she was getting a little snippy and you couldn't help but wonder if it was because her feet hurt. :-)

Just before dinner was served, this dude with a ponytail that went to the small of his back sat down at our table. I was like whoa. A lodge guy with a ponytail? He was probably in his 40s and had so much lodge logo jewelry on he looked kind of like a used car salesman. I was never introduced to him, but apparently he's some big shot in the main lodge. He didn't talk to anyone at our end of the table (it was a short table), just ate and then bolted from the table, then he showed up in the meeting room upstairs right before the ceremony began.

The only comment I'll make on the food is that the salad was like coated in dressing. Heavily coated. Every single piece. I haven't seen that much dressing on lettuce since I was a kid. Holy crap! And it wasn't like you could ask for plain salad with the dressing on the side.

So we go upstairs to the meeting room area and the presentation started--fifteen minutes late. Gah! We all have to stand to say the pledge of allegiance. I honest-to-God wasn't sure I'd remember the words since I haven't recited that since grade school. Then the grand poobah of my dad's lodge introduces every other grand poobah there from every lodge and there were like a gazillion of them from all around the Twin Cities. I was like, okay, everyone here is a grand poobah, can we move on? Nope. And they were calling them like "worshipful master." Um, yeah. O0000-kay.

Next, they had people stand up and tell nice things about my dad. Which was great, except this went on and on too. Someone told me they hadn't had this big a turn out at the lodge in 30 years.

While this whole presentation thing was gruesomely long, I also found it hilarious at points. There were a couple of times I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud and I know I was the only one who found this thing funny. Although I can say, the grand poobah of my dad's lodge is hilarious. Whether it was intentional or if he's always that way, I don't know, but it was like watching Walter Mattheau in Grumpy Old Men.

Anyway, I have to wrap this up since I've got to get ready for the EDJ (Evil Day Job (thank you Joely!)). I don't think I can recount much more anyway, since I was like hurry up and let's get out of here mode. It dragged on and on and then my dad got to speak. I love my dad, but God can that man talk. And talk. And talk.

Finally, finally I was able to make my escape and go home. My social obligation is fulfilled, and since this is a once in a lifetime award, I should never have to do this again.

The Twins clinched a playoff spot behind Boof Bonser. See Boof Bonser Is My Hero for why I'm posting this. From Sportsline:

Joe Mauer, Jason Tyner and Nick Punto hit RBI singles in support of Bonser, who is 4-0 with a 2.20 ERA in his last five starts -- probably cementing his spot in the playoff rotation.

"Hopefully this is just the start of what we can do," said Bonser, who gave up a just-barely homer to Angel Berroa over the left-field wall in the sixth and a leadoff double to Emil Brown in the fifth, striking out five and walking two over 6 2/3 innings.

Bonser left to a loud serenade, "Booooof!" as Dennys Reyes took over for the last out of the seventh.

"Everything is finally coming through," Bonser said. "I can't say it's just me, because it's the guys behind me. They're hitting the ball and playing defense. That's it right there. It's all about the Twins. It's not just one guy. It's everybody."

Just when I thought things couldn't get any busier, galleys for "Dark Awakening" arrived yesterday. At least it's a novella, so I don't have to comb through an entire book for mistakes, but I couldn't stop myself from reading through it once real quickly last night. I found a few things already that need to be fixed, but overall, it didn't look too bad. I hope that first impression is right.

And tonight, I have a social obligation. My dad's lodge is giving him an award. I'm happy for him since he's all excited about this, but not happy for me because I'm obligated to attend this event. I seriously do not have time to do this, but of course, I have to go. The thing starts at 5pm. FIVE! Gah! So I'll lose the entire day of writing because as soon as I get home from work, I'll have to start getting ready and by the time I get home, I'll be ready for bed. That means the only work I'll get done today is what I manage on my lunch time. Living out of state is looking pretty good right now. :-(

The timing on this party could only be worse if it were the final month of a book deadline, so this is pretty damn inconvenient. The thing is that there really is no convenient time for anything any longer. I'm busy almost all the time. The only stretch where I have some spare time is right after I turn a book in. Of course, then I'm in recovery from the push I had to make to meet my deadline.

Guess I should stop complaining about how much I have to do. Sometimes, though, when I think about it too much, I just get overwhelmed. And when I feel like I'm drowning, I tend to go into avoidance, which means I fall farther behind because I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Like yesterday. Instead of reading the galley, I should have been writing. I'd had a really productive lunch hour and things were going well. I should have picked right up where I left off. Of course, by the time I finished the galley, I didn't want to do any work at all.

I'll have to make a To Do List today. That always helps me focus and I feel better when I cross items off. So that's my goal for the day. :-) And about all I have time to write.

Late post today, I know. Somehow the time got changed on my alarm clock, so even though I hit the snooze less than usual, and thought I had plenty of time, I really didn't.

Anyway, I'll be guest blogging on September 30th at Magical Musings. My topic is writing the kick-ass heroine. There's also a really nice review of Eternal Nights posted on the blog.

My theme song for the day (despite the title of this post) is Get Over It by the Eagles. It became the song of choice after I heard Mister Congeniality whining about a change that had happened at NWA five years ago. Five years. I know it's been that long since I was in New Orleans at the RWA conference when it happened and that was 2001, the last conference before I sold my first book. So of course, the lyrics started flowing through my head and I finally dragged out the MP3 player to listen to Don Henley sing it. He does a much better job than I do. :-) The added benefit is that I have noise cancelling headphones so it mostly blocked the whining.

I finally heard from the store I ordered my blinds from on Friday afternoon. They're waiting for my curtain rods to come in, but if they're not here by this week, they'll install everything else. So of course, my dad covers my floors with cardboard so that they don't get scuffed up. I have the fake wood stuff. He's so funny! Anyway, the house looks horrible with cardboard everywhere. Especially after I worked so hard and hung my new curtains and all. I figure, though, that cardboard on the floor is better than some of his other schemes. I did mention his plan to dig a trench in my backyard to improve water drainage, right?

I think that's about all I have to say. I did work on my proposal yesterday. I believe I made some progress, but I won't know for sure till I reread the pages today and decide whether or not I keep them or trash them. Again.

Before I get started, I apologize for not posting yesterday or replying to comments yet. From the time I left work on Friday afternoon until late last night, all I did was unpack boxes and try to figure out where to put things. I've been complaining for a while that I'm tired of being surrounded by boxes and I finally decided enough was enough. I wish I could say I finished, but I haven't. I did, however, make a sizeable and noticeable dent. My bedroom and the closet look fab now! I still have about 4 or 5 boxes in the walk-in that I need to go through, but at least I can get to my clothes--especially the fall/winter collection. Of course, the computer room and spare bedroom are still awful and I can't find some of the things I was searching for because I didn't label anything. I know, stupid.

Along with the major house unpacking push, I also ran around Saturday morning. I exchanged the white shower rod my parents picked up for me for one in brushed nickel, ran over to Michaels since it was in the same strip mall and picked up my two big orange flowers that I wanted for my vase. My plan was to go with brightly colored sunflowers, but all the colors for those were really muted and, well, boring. I found what I was looking for in the exotic flower aisle, but I have no clue what it is. Also, to my great disappointment, while the orange looks cool against my blue and light walls, it washes out the pink of the vase. Now I have to think up Plan B.

And the last stop on my quick excursion was Penney's. I decided I liked the curtains I bought, but that I needed a second panel on each window to make them fuller. I went with an ivory 63" length and ordered it from the catalog. Because I wanted to get everything done that I could, I thought instead of waiting for an order to come in, I'll just pop over to the store and buy it there. It was a neutral, classic style--they had to have it in stock, right? Wrong. So I had to have them order 2 more panels for me.

Speaking of windows (and yeah, I'll get to the goals part of this post in a minute), I heard from the blind store. They're still waiting for my curtain rods, but everything else is in and ready to roll. If they don't have those rods by next week, they're going to come out and install the rest of it anyway. Cool! Every window--except my bedroom--has some kind of curtain or drape over it, even if it's an ugly, temporary measure. Because of the position of the house, no one can see in my windows, but it's interesting. In a way, it reminds me of this cabin we used to go to in Wisconsin. The bedroom I slept in had windows high up in the lofted ceiling that had no covering, and in the mornings, this weak, early sun would come in. Since I loved going to this cabin and the memories are good, I semi-enjoy waking up with the weak sunshine creeping in my room. However, it's kind of a bitch too, because I like to sit in bed and surf the web in the mornings and my windows face east, so I have to move if I want to see the screen.

Geez, I didn't mean to talk so much about the house. Although, in a way, it kind of does lead into goals. My goal for Saturday (and Friday night) was to get as many boxes unpacked as possible.

I like goals. Not that I always meet them since I tend to be overly ambitious with how much I can get done in the time allotted to me, but it still gives me something to shoot for. I don't like nebulous goals, but concrete ones, although I generally leave the particulars up to the universe to take care of for me. No point in tying my angels' hands by telling them how to do their job, right? ;-) Because, at its heart, that's what I believe a goal is--I'm stating my intentions to the universe and saying "Make it so."

Here's an example of what I mean. My goal is to have enough money to quit my day job. It's a concrete goal, but there are no steps in there. Now if my goal was to win the lottery so I could have enough money to quit my day job, I'd be tying my angels' hands. What if they could get me the money by finding oil underneath my house? (I know, it isn't going to happen. :-) See? So by keeping the how to do it part unimagined, I'm open to reaching my goal however it happens.

As important as I believe goals are in the rest of my life, I believe setting goals on writing is critical. I have a variety of goals here, both big and small. I have a page goal for each day so that I can make my deadlines. Before I start a scene or chapter, I'll sit down and work out goals that will move the story forward. I don't consider this plotting, although some people do. Then you add the characters. They have goals too. I have to incorporate what they want into my scene/chapter goals too. Although what they want might change during the course of the book. Hey, torture them before they can torture me, that's the Patti O'Shea motto!

I also have career goals. At one point, that was to get published and to do it within a certain time frame. Wait, you just said no stipulations, so what's with the time frame thing? (At least I'm hoping that's your question. :-) I think it's fine to give a deadline, but it has to be a realistic one. I didn't say, I want to be published by next week. My window was close to five years.

And let me tell you, spirit worked a miracle on this one. I honestly didn't believe there was a chance that they could pull this off. I finished Ravyn's Flight in Dec 2001 and that only gave them 2 years to have the book on shelves. My target publisher was Dorchester and I'd heard stories about people who'd waited years to hear anything. Even when I had my full manuscript requested off a contest, I didn't think I'd hear quickly, let alone have the book released in time.

I was wrong. I sold RF in three weeks. (It would have been two weeks, but I was in Hawaii and the editor couldn't get a hold of me.) Eleven months later, it was released. I'd made my goal with 13 months to spare. :-)

There are some people who believe you need to write the goal down to give the request power. I don't think that, although it doesn't hurt. My belief is that if you state your goal firmly at least a few times a week, you're continually sending energy to it and reinforcing its power.

Goals alone, though, aren't enough. A person has to work to make them come true. Saying I wanted to be published within five years would have been ridiculous if I wasn't pursuing it. I was writing regularly, producing pages, entering contests, etc. In other words, I can wish all I want, but until I took action to show the universe I was serious about meeting my goal, it would have meant nothing. So if you're someone who's dreamed of being published, but you don't write regularly, don't finish stories, etc, then it's time to sit down and assess what you want. Do you really want to be published? Then work. Don't wait for inspiration to strike. If I waited for that, I'd never finish a book.

Okay, I think I'm done now. I'm not sure if I was as clear as I'd hoped to be, but it's late enough in the morning that I need to get moving. You see, my goal for the day is to write a scene, and since it's been giving me fits for more than a week now, I need all the time to work on it that I can get.

Or maybe advice isn't the right word. Maybe it's two observations? Warnings? I'm not sure what to call it, I guess, so I'll just share what I consider the two most true statements I was told by more experienced writers and let you label them yourselves. :-)

The first piece of advice (or whatever) came from an author of 60+ books after I sold my first one. She said that my writing process will change and that I shouldn't try to fight it. Forget sticking to the way you used to do things and go with the way that works now.

Since then, every single book has had a different process. Some were just a little different, some drastically different, but her advice was helpful. Instead of panicking when the way I always did something didn't work anymore, I just looked for what did work. Does the process change for a lot of writers on each book or did I just get lucky? Because in this group of writers, I'm the one who's kind of the oddball. They get to use the same process for a number of books before something changes.

The second piece of advice (or whatever) came from the same author. She told me that I'll reach a point in my career where I could be selling a lot more books if I only had time to work on proposals and write the stories, but that I wouldn't be in a financial position to quit the day job and have that time.

That's come true too. I feel like I'm in a Catch-22 situation. If I didn't have the day job, I wouldn't be struggling so hard to find time to write/revise the two proposals I'm working on. However, there's no way (especially with a new house) that I can afford to quit my job and write full time. Just the cost of health insurance alone is daunting, and after the surprise of breaking a bone in my foot last year and needing surgery, I don't take the need for health benefits lightly. :-/ As I recall, though, this author had no good advice on how to handle this situation besides riding it out. Which I've tried to do.

Time is really tight right now because I seriously need to unpack more boxes at my house. Like the boxes with my fall/winter clothes. :-) It's freezing here and I'm still wearing the summer attire because I can't get to the long-sleeved shirts.

I'd love to hear how other writers in my situation do it. Besides sacrificing more sleep that is because I've got to tell you, I can't lose anymore sleep and still be a functional human being. ;-) In fact, there's some question if I am right now.

The thing is that writing is a demanding mistress (what's the male equivalent? Gigalo? No, that's not quite the right connotation.), but I didn't realize how demanding until a few years in to being published. That's another story, though, and I have to get going. The day job beckons.

Boof Bonser is a pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. Before you go, "oh, no, she's going to talk about baseball," I promise that's not the theme. I will be talking about baseball players, but my message is about perseverance, about hanging in there despite everything. This definitely applies to writing and writers.

I'll also add a caveat here: I know nothing about this player beyond his pitching, so when I talk of him being my hero, it's only because of what I've seen from him on the field. I don't know about his life off the field at all.

So let me tell you about Boof Bonser. He's 24 years old and this is his first season in the big leagues after pitching in the minor league since 2000. The Twins called him up earlier this year, he pitched a game, didn't do real well and was sent down to the minors again. The team yo-yo'ed him back and forth like that about three or four times. And the last couple of times, he pitched well. It didn't matter, they sent him back to the triple A team anyway. He was called back up again, and with the expanded roster and the injuries to other pitchers, he's stuck around.

But a funny thing happened on this last call up from the minor leagues--Bonser's attitude seemed to change. One of the announcers even commented on it, saying something about how Bonser's decided he's not going down to Rochester again.

Since I heard that, I've been watching his face as he pitches and I can see the determination there. He's not just grateful to be there anymore, he's determined that he's staying in the big leagues.

I contrast Bonser's career with Francisco Liriano.

The Minnesota Twins have been lauding Liriano all season. He's 22 years old and was brought up at the end of last season. According to a guy I work with who remembers last year, Liriano had a shaky call up. The Twins didn't send him down to the minors.

They put Liriano into the starting rotation in June or July, I can't remember, and he did well. In fact, he sparked the team to play better. The Twins manager, coaches and front office continued to laud Liriano. He was the second coming of Johann Santana. (Johann Santana is the Twins best pitcher. He won a Cy Young Award a couple of seasons ago and the odds are he'll win it again this year. He's a wonderful pitcher.) Then the local media started lauding Liriano the same way. They talked about him and talked about him and talked about him. It didn't matter if he was pitching that day or not, Liriano was always worth bringing up. And why wouldn't they? The Twins loved their young phenom, so that must mean he's worth all the hype.

And of course, once the local media joined in the hyping of Liriano, and now there were three groups--Team, Media and Fans--lauding this young pitcher, the national media starting mentioning him. Liriano was going to be a superstar.

Don't get me wrong, Liriano is a fabulous pitcher and he deserved the coverage, but he was even eclipsing Johann Santana and every other player on the team in the media and with Twins fans.

But I noticed something interesting looking at the stats for the last 6 games Liriano pitched and the last 6 games Bonser pitched--the gap between them isn't that big. (In his last three starts (not including last night), he was 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA.)

Yes, it's true. Liriano's stats are slightly better, but not hugely better. The phenom and the player the Twins seem to feel is borderline have been doing almost equally well lately. And Liriano went on the disabled list, came back, and is now out for the season. He's still getting more coverage than Boof Bonser.

But Boof Bonser has become my hero because it would have been so easy for him to believe he was borderline when the Twins ignored him, when they kept sending him down to the minor leagues. He could have doubted himself, wondered if he had any talent, wondered if his dream of pitching in the big leagues was worth it. Maybe he did do that. Who knows what was going through his head? But in the end, his attitude changed. Again, I don't know what his thought process was or if he just had enough of being jacked around and said, "I'll show them," but the bottom line is Bonser is demonstrating to the Minnesota Twins that he deserves to have a regular spot in the rotation. (Last night he pitched 7 strong innings and got the victory. The Twins won 8-2.)

Of course, it's just the first season for Bonser, but the writer in me wants to see him have a long and successful career. I want to see him be inducted into the Hall of Fame one day, but then I always root for (and identify with) the underdog.

Bonser got off to a slow and uncertain start with his big league career, but he dug deep and he found his own inner strength. I don't think he needs the Twins front office to talk about him like he's the savior of the pitching staff because he believes in himself.

Now here I make my big turn into writing. How many of us are Francisco Liriano? How many of us are going to have huge publisher support behind our first books, behind our careers? How many of us are Boof Bonser, the one who has to persevere? The one who has to dig deep and overcome adversity? We're Boof before we sell, we're Boof after we sell. But you know what? I don't mind being Boof, not anymore.

It's really easy to go out there every fourth or fifth day when you're like Francisco Liriano and everyone thinks you're the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's not so easy to be Boof Bonser. But Boof has proven he's got that extra determination, that deep inner well that will help him no matter how difficult things become.

When I was a kid, my dad had a placard that said: Hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard.

Boof Bonser has talent and he's willing to work hard to stay in the big leagues. He's walked through fire and blossomed. Francisco Liriano has talent, he's worked hard, but for the first time, he's facing adversity with his injury. We'll find out if he has the same determination, the same inner strength.

It's the same thing that separates writers. It's real easy when everything is going your way to put in the hours necessary to produce books. There are a lot of authors that have published a book or two and disappeared. Then there are other authors that have hung around for dozens of books, who have long careers. I plan to be in the latter group--no matter how hard it is. I'm stubborn that way. :-) My new motto is Be Like Boof. His perserverence and attitude has made him one of my heroes.

I didn't write yesterday. I'm admitting that like it's some horrible secret and I should be whispering it or skulking around. And I do have work to do, plenty of it. What I did, though, was unpack some of the boxes in my computer room and put stuff away.

I cracked. I couldn't take the stacks of boxes cluttering up my floor anymore. I just had to get rid of them. I wanted to finish everything, but I ran out of places to put things (I really need some storage!) and I ran out of energy. Tuesday was one of those days at work where I was running around from the time I arrived until lunch. I hate that, especially when it's nothing really important and someone just wants their request now.

But now the middle of my floor is box free. I still have boxes shoved under the desk and at the sides, which isn't going to be too convenient, but I can walk into the room without having to detour. Okay, boring, I know, but this was hugely exciting to me because I was darn tired of it.

I could talk about radio advertising. :-) There's a topic that should interest everyone, right? (I know, sarcasm.) But I was floored again yesterday on my commute home by how bad so many of the radio ads are now. They used to be so clever and entertaining! Oh, sure, I remember there were bad ones too--lots of them--but there were also a lot of good ones. Not now. They're all bad now with the exception of the Bud Light spots with Real American Heroes. It breaks my heart to see the current batch. Actually, I've felt this way for probably 6 or 7 years now. Sigh. Every time I get all het up about this, I think about dusting off my portfolio, but of course, I won't.

Since I'm on a roll, my MN Twins won yesterday! Yea! That should put us 1/2 game out of first place in our division. Can Detroit feel us breathing down their neck? I missed the start of the game because of all the box unpacking I did, so the team was already up 6-0 when I turned on the TV in the 4th inning. It was raining in Boston and I thought, wow, playing in the cold and the rain, but apparently it's warmer out east than it is in MN. It's darn cold here.

Okay, I'm done now. I managed to even squeeze in a reference to the weather so my job here is finished. :-) Tomorrow, I'll try to come up with an actual topic.

After days of having very little spam come in, I was bombarded this morning. Each email had a different return address and one of those ridiculous, mixed words title and every single one of them was for help with my erection problem. =8-O (No, I don't open spam. I have a program that allows me to preview mail without opening it.) Someone posted somewhere that the spammers wouldn't keep annoying us if people weren't buying their product or falling for the scams. That's pretty sad.

I started rewriting the scene with Sloan and this new version is working better. I didn't get too far, but I'm hopeful I've got it now. I just need time to work on it. Sigh. Back to my I-need-a-clone theme. :-)

And I have a time now for the book signing at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. I'll be there with Jenny Crusie, Bob Mayer, Barbara Samuel and a bunch of other authors on September 30th. We'll be in the Sears rotunda from 7:00 until 8:30 that night and there's a question and answer session. Gah!

Gotta run. The day job calls. Sigh.

BN.com is out of RF again. I knew this was going to happen. Amazon has one new copy, though. Oh, the joy of being obessive. Sigh.

Ravyn's Flight is available brand new at BN.com. I don't know how long this is going to last so if you're looking for a copy and waiting for it to show up at one of the two online bookstores, here's your opportunity.

I'm chatting tonight at Writerspace at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. This is the monthly ParaNormal Romance chat and all the authors who were interviewed for Paraphernalia have been invited. I don't know who else will show up, but I plan to be there. I hope some of you can make it too!

I worked on my new scene yesterday. I could have finished it, but I stopped after five pages because it was boring. All introspection, nothing really happening. In the first version of this story, there was more stuff before the mission started and I was hoping I could maybe use some of that, but nothing really worked with the new version. I was kind of hoping to wake up with the answer this morning, but no such luck. I'll have to do some mulling.

After working all day, I finally logged back on the internet and had three email--2 spam and 1 digest from Yahoo Groups. What? Did the world stop yesterday? No one had posted on any of the boards I visit (all 2 of them) and there was 1 blog entry on my Bloglines. Where'd everyone go? And why didn't you invite me? ;-)

So my pages suck and I decided the curtains I ordered Saturday aren't going to work for my house after all. The ones for the windows on either side of the china cabinet are too plain and boring. I should have gone with the lacey ones even though I didn't like the uneven edge at the bottom. Or at least I should have waited till I found ones I really liked. And the ones I picked out for the computer room are going to look weird because of the color. They're purple. I'll probably return them both, but at least I had free shipping.

I usually don't dither, but this curtain thing is horrible and I'm trying to do my shopping online because I'm so pressed for time. That only makes things more difficult because I can't really see the fabrics or how much pattern they have. I figured, though, that if I could get curtains up, my mom would stop trying to drag me to the mall. :-/

First of all, I have a new interview up! It's with ParaNormal Romance and it's part of their Paraphernalia ezine. These were some of the most thought-inducing questions I've ever had to answer--at least that I can remember. I'll also be chatting tomorrow at Writerspace in connection with this article. Time is 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. I'll do a formal announcement on the blog tomorrow.

Secondly, on to my day yesterday. I actually got a lot done on the proposal. There are two things left for me to do before I can return it to my agent: Fix the ending of the book. (This is going to be really, really hard, but she's right, there's a logic flaw there that's huge.) and write a new scene from Sloan's POV. I read through what I can keep and I think part of the reason it seems like so many scenes are from Tyler's POV is that his personality and voice are so strong.

It's not the Sloan isn't strong--she is--but her personality is more laid back, so even when I'm in her POV, Tyler seems to take over. She's kind of a chameleon too, changing what she presents to the world based on her audience and I think that's contributing to this issue. I'm not quite sure what to do about it because this is who they are, but I'm thinking if I can write 6 or 7 strong pages from her, it might fix it. The problem is coming up with a scene that will do this. I'm still thinking about it.

Characters are interesting. Sloan totally holds her own with Tyler, in fact, she aggravates the hell out of him and enjoys doing it. She reminds me of Mika in a way, although Sloan is a lot more cynical and not nearly as outrageous. Tyler isn't as damaged as Conor, but although he's human (this story is NOT paranormal), he's much more dangerous than Conor was.

My characters come in as fully formed people and one of the things I find so fascinating is how my hero and heroine always seem to fit together. It's not something I do and it's not like I get to pick who the characters are or what their personalities are like. I don't even get to name them. :-( Despite the fact that Sloan reminds me a little bit of Mika, Mika would never work as a heroine for Tyler, just like Sloan would never work as a heroine for Conor. Sloan couldn't reach Conor, but Mika could and did. And if for some reason, Tyler was forced to work with Mika, he'd do his job and walk away afterward without a backward glance. He won't be able to walk away from Sloan. I can already see how she's impacted his life, he just doesn't realize he's down for the count yet. :-) That's okay, it makes it more fun for me because there are more torture possibilities.

Goal for the day is to get that new scene written with Sloan, something that showcases her.

I've been struggling to revise a proposal that I'd sent to my agent. She wanted some minor changes, but among them was that I do the story more from the heroine's POV. It's Tyler's book, but I don't have a problem with telling it mostly from Sloan's POV. I did that with Through a Crimson Veil. That story was Conor's, but because of the series, I had to give the majority of viewpoint scenes to Mika and I think it worked.

The proposal is a prologue and four chapters--they're short ones. Mostly. Prologue was Sloan's POV and the first chapter is split--first scene from Tyler and the second from Sloan. The fourth chapter is in Sloan's POV too, so that left chapters 2 and 3. (Three is from the bad guy's POV.) So I've been fighting with chapter 2, trying to take it out of Tyler's head and tell it from Sloan's perspective, but no matter where I started it, the change just didn't work. I thought it was because I hadn't written new stuff for so long in this story (and maybe that's still part of it), but last night I had a light bulb moment. Chapter two flat out has to be in Tyler's POV. It's too boring otherwise because Sloan is doing a lot of little things. Plus, switching to her POV will give too much away too early in the scene. It's stronger in Tyler's head.

Since the third chapter is entirely from the bad guy's POV, I've decided to dump that and replace it with a scene in Sloan's head. That will swing the majority of the proposal chapters into her viewpoint. Right now, I'm thinking I won't do any villain POV in this book after all. One of the things I want to do is have the hero come to like the villain and struggling with that because he knows this guy is bad. As I thought about it last night (before I fell asleep), I realized that if we only see the villain from Sloan and Tyler's perspective, it'll be easier to make him ambivalent to a degree. There does have to be a reason why Tyler could grow to like him and if I'm in the bad guy's head, it might be harder to make this understandable to the reader because they'll know this man is a bastard.

So now I have a plan of attack for the day. I'm keeping chapter 2 and rewriting chapter 3. There's definitely room to add a new scene/chapter because the book takes a time hop in there. I did that to get to the action faster, but now I'll just fill in the gap.

The other thing I found interesting is what my agent wanted me to spell out in the synopsis. This was all stuff I'd cut to shorten it up. :-) Guess I cut a little too much. This should be easy to fix, though. I think.

In other news, my mom is trying to drive me nuts. She wants me to go to Penney's because they have a curtain sale going on right now. Which is great, except I don't have time. I have to finish this proposal. Have to. Because I really, really, really need to start my next book. Her response when I told her how busy I am? Well, let's just take a drive out there. Sigh. That would take up several hours of writing time and she doesn't seem to understand how important every minute is.

All authors are neurotic, it's solely a matter of degree. Sometimes I wonder if it's part of the creative mindset. Let's face it, we all have fabulous imaginations and we're able to dream up all kinds of scenarios which tend to make us worry about things normal people wouldn't.

One of my issues is email. I absolutely hate it when people don't reply, not even a one liner, because then I sit there and worry like mad that it was lost. Email does go astray, get stuck in spam filters, and things like that so it's a legitimate concern. It would go a long way to alleviate my mind if I would just get a note that said, "Got your email, thanks." See? Four words, ten seconds to type and I can relax. :-)

I sent an email with my dedication for "Dark Awakening" last week, but received no indication that it arrived. And yesterday I sent a one-page article to someone in my local writing chapter for a handout they're doing. I didn't exactly stick to the topic--craft--and I have dual worries here: did the email make it? And is what I did choose to write about okay? Because I can't really talk about craft. My best answer to craft questions is something like: I don't know; I just sit down and write.

I absolutely hate having to email people to ask if they received my email. I'm not sure why I feel this way, but I do feel like I'm bothering them because if they got the email and decided it didn't need a response, then I feel kind of stupid.

And right now, I have another email I'm worrying about. My editor sent me a note about a month ago, telling me she was working on my revision letter, but I never received anything. So is she still working on my revisions? Or did her email to me get lost? Maybe it's floating in the black hole that lurks in cyberland and all this time she's been thinking I'm working on the book when I'm not because I never received anything. Maybe I'm going to get a note from her asking where the revisions are. Maybe I'm going to work myself into a state before the weekend.

It's not easy being neurotic. Ask any author. We all know.

I added code to bring in my most recently saved Del.icio.us sites at the bottom of the right hand column. I tried to do this once before, but it didn't work right and I had to scrap it, but this time it did. Del.icio.us is a social bookmark site where you tag web pages. That means your bookmarks are available online, which is handy when you're away from your computer, but need one. And it also gives you the option to search through other people's tags. I found some cool sites that way. My 15 most recent are largely reference sites right now.

It's kind of funny how many people are obsessed with the Minnesota Twins right now. (Baseball) That includes me, of course. One of my tech writers stopped by my cube to drop something off and shared a website that had updated game info on it. So I pulled it up after he left, checked what was going on and headed down to 3rd floor to drop something off. That guy had the game summary up on his computer, so I was able to check in before I went upstairs to 5th floor to drop off more stuff. And was updated on the game there too. :-) Unfortunately, the Twins lost 1-0 and our fab rookie pitcher is out for the season. :-(

I seriously need to clone myself. Sigh. I have too much writing to do to waste time at the day job. Three clones, is that too much to ask? One can go to NWA, the second can work on the futuristic proposal and the third can work on the RS proposal while I write the next book. Oh, wait, maybe I need four clones. One to handle email and other personal assistant chores. I always seem to get backed up on email.

I did start the next book I have due yesterday. It was more of an exploratory foray than a commitment to this particular scene as the opening, but I learn so much by writing--both about my characters and about their story--that it's always a worth the time spent. It proved to be interesting yesterday too because I learned some stuff about Creed and his situation that I hadn't known before. And it got my brain thinking, working, wondering. Always a good thing.

But now I'm torn. I seriously need to finish two proposals before I immerse myself in Creed's book, but on the other hand, I really don't have time to work on both of them, let alone finish them. I won't even mention all the things I need to take care of outside of writing. Yep, all I need are five clones. ;-)

My parents drove with me down to Chicago. They're usually not too bad to travel with, although they have one habit that makes me absolutely insane. When they give me directions.

It's pretty easy getting down to Chicago, but once we reach the outskirts of the city, I need someone to tell me where to go to reach my aunt's house. On one of our previous trips, I'm tootling down the express way, we see a sign that says Golf Road 1 Mile and they proceed to argue with each other as to whether or not that's the exit I should take to get to the hotel. I'm like, uh, guys, make a decision. Then, at the very last second, they say exit. Argh! I get angry because I'm stressed and traffic is heavy. I need advance warning. They get angry because they haven't lived down there for a while so how are they supposed to know which exit to take? Hey, I'm driving, I'm not the one holding the map. Gah!

So anyway, knowing my parents have done this last minute instructions thing to me a few too many times, I asked them when we were about midway through Wisconsin if they knew how I needed to take it to get to my aunt's house. Oh, yes, I'm assured, they know exactly which way to go.

I believed them. I shouldn't have.

As I'm going down I-90 in Chicago, we come to a split where I-290 breaks off. They start arguing with each other about whether I should get off there or keep going straight. If I wasn't enmeshed in heavy traffic and going about 65 mph, I would have banged my head against the steering wheel. My dad told me to keep going straight.

And a few minutes later we pass over Mannheim, but there's no way to exit onto it. That, of course, was our road. Gee, he says, maybe we should have taken 290.

Okay, Dad, that's good, but you want to tell me what the heck I should be doing NOW?

So I ask at the next toll booth. BTW, Illinois has raised their tolls considerably for cars not using I-Pass. Instead of 5 tolls at 40 cents each, there are now 4 tolls at various prices ranging from 80 cents to $1.60. Yikes! First toll was $1. So of course, we're digging for more money at the toll because we weren't prepared at all. I hate tollways. Grrr.

The guy said get off at the next exit and do this, that and the other thing to get to Mannheim. So two more lanes of traffic come in after the toll booth and I have to try to cut across these darn things in the rain in heavy, bumper to bumper traffic while my parents are arguing over the toll guy's instructions. They stop discussing it just long enough for my mom to tell me that I need to get over. You think, Mom? Another bang-the-head-against-the-steering-wheel moment because I was trying to get over.

Once we got onto Cumberland, though, they remembered enough to get me to my aunt's house without too much more discussion. Until I parked the car, then I was told I had to make sure I was close to the curb. Do you think two inches qualifies as close? I do and that's about how far out I was, but to make them happy, I repositioned the car until the wheels were practically scraping the concrete curb.

Let's just say I was really happy to be able to turn off the engine and call it good.

Title is a quote from Howard Carter as he talked about the discovery of King Tut's tomb.

I'm back from Chicago and my visit to the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. I don't know where to start when it comes to recounting my trip, but maybe I'll just focus on the exhibit itself for right now.

I went with my dad and one of my cousins. Cathy drove--thank God!--and we arrived at the museum about an hour before it opened. We had tickets for the first time slot. I just about died when I saw it was $15 to park at a museum! I don't remember it being that high when we went to see Cleopatra about five years ago or so. Since it would involve a train, two buses and a walk of several blocks to take public transportation to the museum, you'd think they'd have inexpensive parking to encourage visitors to come down.

Since we beat many of the employees to the museum, we were the first ones in line for the exhibit. People started showing up about 20 minutes later and we all stood around until 9am. Then we went up a flight of steps, rented the audio tour and the adventure began.

Most of the items in the first half of the exhibit were from tombs other than Tutankhamun's, and while they were interesting, they could have been from any exhibit of Ancient Egypt. I did learn that the experts are uncertain if the previous pharaoh--the heretic king--was Tut's father or half-brother.

The second half of the exhibit contained actual items from Tutankhamun. This was more interesting to me, although I'm not sure why. Maybe because from the time I was a small child, wonder always surrounded King Tut in a way that it never touched other pharaohs or important persons.

Most of the items from Tut were small things. One of the most fascinating pieces IMO, was a diadem that he'd worn when he was alive--or so they believe. It features a cobra and a falcon(?) in front. The images are all copyrighted or I'd post a few here, but if you're interested, the official King Tut website has a gallery of images including the diadem.

The other thing I found very interesting was the room where they had the floor marked out, showing the different layers over the coffin. There were like three nested sarcophagi and then five or six other boxes around it. National Geographic did an animation showing the different layers that had to be removed to reach the actual mummy.

They also showed the results of a CT scan done in 2005 and disproved a lot of theories. It seems a lot of the breaks to the bones were done after death, most likely by the archeological team in the 1920s. They also showed that the so-called spine abnormality wasn't something Tut lived with, that curvature was a result of the way the mummifiers had positioned him. That blows a theory I saw on Discovery Channel or History Channel or somewhere that his death came because of this genetic flaw. The current theory is that a severe break to the femur had become infected and killed him. The scan showed that Tut was largely healthy and well-nourished.

The exhibit ended in the gift shop--of course--and while I tried to be good, I ended up buying the official exhibit book (complete with a CD of the audio tour). That was $50! Gulp! I also picked up a DVD of the exhibit for my mom to watch and some postcards. They had gorgeous hand-blown Egyptian glass perfume bottles and I debated buying one of those for the longest time, but decided I'd spent enough. When I checked out, I discovered right I was.

The gift shop was amazing--and not in a positive way. There were King Tut kleenex boxes where the tissue came out of his nose. There were key chains, shot glasses, men's ties, pens, pencils, head dresses, cards, etc. The list of items goes on and on and on. I honestly stood in that store with Steve Martin's King Tut song going through my head, particularly the phrases: "He gave his life for tourism" and "they're selling you." There were a number of items like the tissue box that made me wonder "what were they thinking?" It was simply TTFW--Too Tacky For Words.

My overall impression of the exhibit was that it was interesting, but that it fell far short of the exhibit that toured the US in the 1970s. Okay, so I was really, really young when I saw that, but I remember it being very impressive and so did my cousin who went with me. It wasn't only that the large funerary mask was not there (it won't be allowed out of Egypt any longer), it was that a lot of the impressive pieces were missing and the presentation was mundane. In the 70s, they replicated a pyramid to house the exhibit and that made it like extra cool. I'm not sure this current exhibit was worth the drive to and from Chicago--especially since we did it in 2 days.

My overall rating is go if this is something you're absolutely fascinated by, but don't expect the magic of the 1970s tour of artifacts.

This is the same time I'm up on weekdays, yet it somehow seems worse--much worse--on a Sunday. I keep trying to remind myself that I'm doing this to see King Tut, but all I really want to do is crawl back into bed for another 3 or 4 hours.

The book signing was a little slow, but the store was tucked away in a corner of the mall with a children's play area almost right there, so there wasn't much casual traffic walking by. The assistant manager of the bookstore was hugely nice to us and I enjoyed talking with my co-signers, Michele Hauf and Lois Greiman.

I got home from the book signing as little after 2:30. The plan was to write, but at some point I turned on the TV and got hooked on a History Channel show about a 1938 hurricane that hit the Northeast United States. The people had no warning because the National Weather Service just assumed it would turn and go out to sea like they always did that far north. No radar then. A young weather guy tried to tell the old guard that he thought the hurricane was going to slam into Long Island, but they pooh poohed him and told him they had more experience than he did. Turns out the younger man was right.

I did get work done yesterday on the J9 proposal. Not as much as I would have liked and I won't get anything done today or tomorrow, I know that already. No laptop since it's such a quick trip and because I don't think my aunt would appreciate me taking over her phone line. :-/ If I can find a notepad, I'll take that with me and work on writing down some info on one story or another.

And in case you're wondering about the title to this post, it's a line from a Steve Martin song, King Tut. It seemed appropriate.

If you're in the Twin Cities area, you're cordially invited to a book signing today:

When: Saturday, September 9th
Time: 12:30 to 2:00
Where: Waldenbooks
Ridgedale Center
12401 Wayzata Blvd
Minnetonka, MN

I'll be signing with Lois Greiman and Michele Hauf, please stop in and say hey.

I still get nervous before book signings. It's something I don't do very often and I'm really glad to have two other authors with me. I'm hoping today goes well.

I'm also heading down to Chicago to go see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. I bought my tickets months ago and tried to pick a date and time where the place would be less crowded. Of course, it's probably all sold out so there won't be a less crowded time, but at least I made a stab at it. Kids are in school, and hopefully, it's too soon in the year for field trips and I chose the first time available in the morning on a weekday. Fingers crossed that it's not too bad. Of course, I didn't factor in a few things. Like Chicago traffic since it is a work day.


I've always had a fascination with things from ancient Egypt and it's always cool to be able to see them in person. A few years back I went to the Cleopatra exhibit at the Field Museum and the main reason I wanted to be an archeologist when I was in 4th grade was my interest in the pyramids, so I'm really looking forward to this exhibit. Too bad, though, that it's not in Minneapolis.

Yesterday, I worked on the J9 proposal. I should have been revising the proposal my agent wanted some changes on, and I did try, but I'm so disconnected from those characters right now. I spun my wheels for a while, then decided to see if I was stuck or if it was just the story. Since I was able to get a few pages of stuff for Flare and Sasha, I decided I'm okay, it's the distance from that story. The thing is, I know the only way to close that gap is to keep fighting to write those characters, but it seems like such wasted time and I'm so short of that right now. Did I mention I seriously need a clone?

My novella is now titled! Yea! My editor liked "Dark Awakening" the most out of the suggestions I sent him. Thank you, Joely! And now with revisions officially over, I'm finished with this project until galleys arrive.

I also uploaded my Shards of Crimson pages on my website last night, including an excerpt. I'd been planning to wait until October 1st, but I decided I don't know if I'm going to have time then to mess with the site. I've still got revisions for In the Midnight Hour coming and I have a book due in less than 4 months. Since it seemed like a better idea to get the Shards Pages up now, I went ahead and did that.

The revised and final cover is up on my website too. I emailed to ask for that and got it promptly, but I was at work and I wanted to see it. It wouldn't open on my computer and I'm guessing it's because of the file size. I tried downloading it, got an error message. I tried emailing to my work address, it wouldn't open. I tried emailing it to my gmail account and I was able to see a miniature of the cover--in blue. I was like, huh? Did they change the color of the cover? It seemed odd. I spent a lot of time goofing around with this, but nothing worked. I finally emailed it to my POS laptop email. (Yes, each computer has a its own email address.) It took forever to download on that slow connection, but I finally saw the cover and it was still red--just like I figured. :-)

I have to keep this note short this morning. I hit the snooze on the alarm and then slept really, really hard until 4:20 which not only left me cotton-headed, but really cuts into my morning time as well.

I'm awful at titling my stories, so when I wrote the anthology and had the novel due at the end of the same month, I never gave it a name. I turned it in as "Crimson City Anthology." :-) Hey, I had to save those brain cells.

Yesterday, though, the time had come where the story needed a title. I didn't have a clue. I figured, okay, the whole thing (with the exception of the epilogue) took place in one night, so how about something with Night in the title? I proposed:

Out of the Night
Another Friday Night
Dead of Night
All Through the Night
When Night Falls
A Night in the City

My editor didn't like any of them. Hey, I told you I was bad at titles!

He countered with some ideas involving the words strength and/or power because those were the themes of the book. I wasn't too excited about any of those especially since one of them was very close to a previous title I've had.

I started thinking and I was like, in a way, Kimi is born into her power, but born wasn't the word I wanted. I checked out Thesaurus.com. Awakening. Yeah, that's the word I meant. So I counter-suggested "The Awakening." My editor's enthusiastic response? Well, I guess that's not too terrible.

I know, I suck at titles. Sigh. And honestly, I don't love Awakening either, but it's better than "Crimson City Anthology." Right?

I spent last night trying to think up something better. I put it out on one of the boards I visit. I woke up thinking about it this morning. I searched online using combinations of the various key words. I searched IMDB. I have nothing I'm in love with.

So here's the setup. Kimi is a human kijo (Japanese word for witch) and she has a Bak-Faru demon after her to steal her power. She doesn't know how to use her powers yet, but by some fluke, she manages to hurt him badly enough to get away and summon another demon (the hero, Nic) to help her. Nic has been avoiding Kimi because he shares the vishtau bond with her, and for various reasons, he doesn't want it to strengthen yet. Now, though, all bets are off, but Kimi thinks she'll lose her powers and she's the one trying to keep Nic at arms' length now.

If anyone has a brilliant title suggestion, please send it. I'm desperate!

I worked on revising my proposal yesterday. I didn't get very far, but then I'm rewriting an entire scene with characters I haven't worked with in at least a year. It might possibly be longer than that. This is the story that every single time I tried to work on it, I received revisions or galleys or something else that took precedence. Since I write by listening to the characters and since Sloan and Tyler are pretty far away right now, it was a struggle. Part of it is what I was seeing was boring and I had to skip ahead to when something happened. But. But that left me trying to ground the reader in time and place. Hmm. Maybe I will back it up. A couple of paragraphs might go a long way toward making the rest of the story write easier.

On one of the few boards I visit (This one is mostly writers), the question was raised if you knew you could only write three more books in your lifetime, which stories would they be. This proposal that I'm working on is definitely one of them. I've wanted to write Sloan and Tyler since I first had them come in and start talking to me--over fifteen years ago. Of course, I wasn't a good enough writer then to do them justice and I was smart enough to know it. I wrote a few pages, but quickly put the story aside and said I'd pick it up when I thought I could handle it. Considering how many times I've rewritten and revised this proposal, I might have been overly optimistic about being ready now, but I want to write this story so much.

I see it as the first book in a series, one with an infinite number of stories, and I have a clear vision of what I want this series to be. And yet I can't seem to get the story right on paper. It's very frustrating to me.

And while I'm trying to work on this, I can hear this clock ticking away in my head. I have to get this proposal done ASAP because I can't afford to sacrifice too much more time. I have a book due in less than 4 months that I haven't started yet. I've got a ton of ideas flowing in for this one right now and that's part of what's interfering with hearing Sloan and Tyler, but I don't want to stem the flood because I need to hear Creed and Maia.

Like I said, I need to clone myself. So many ideas, too little time.

Well, guess what? Ravyn's Flight is no longer purchasable at either BN.com or Amazon. The book was available for the grand total of about 8 hours or so.

Once again, if you're looking for the book or know someone who is, it can be bought through the publisher--Dorchesterpub.com There's also an 800 number listed on the site if you're not comfortable ordering online.

I'm at work, but I had to give a quick update. Ravyn's Flight is available online once more at Barnes & Noble.com and at Amazon.com! Yea! Now if Ingram will carry it, all will be right in the world. :-)

This weekend, particularly yesterday, was devoted to house stuff. Monday in particular, I did a lot of running around with boxes. I got some unpacked, but the thing that floors me is all this stuff. When did it accumulate? Gah!

While I was going through some of this crap, I watched Design Star on HGTV. Now, I normally do not like reality television. I am not a fan of Survivor or American Idol or any of those other shows like that. Somehow, though, I got hooked in about 10 minutes on Design Star. :-( See, the thing is that I was flipping around, looking for something to entertain myself with while I ran around the house doing box stuff and they were doing the before and after shots at the end of the show. I always like looking at these, so I paused and watched and discovered it was a DS marathon and this was the end of episode 1.

The first designer eliminated seemed like she had to go. I didn't see the episode, but she was responsible for some hideous art choices--including a vacuum cleaner painted white with the word "Design" written vertically--and when the judges pointed out